We managed to squeeze in some more rowing time this week, with 9.87 miles to our credit. That brings the grand total so far up to 18.54 miles.
According to our fictional atlas, we’re still traveling on the Great East Road. No wonder Bilbo wrote a song about how that road goes on and on….
Thursday again already? At the start of the week it felt that today would never get here. Haus Meister has been working overtime the past two weeks preparing for a project demonstration that occurred on Tuesday as well as today, so it has been a crazy week for schedules. Fortunately, school is nearly out for the summer and we’ve had several sunny days to enjoy.
And not a few smiles along the way…
Pretty
Posey Pie at 2 months!
(Ignore corgi photo-bomb moment)
Happy
This is George the Dolphin that Rascal and I designed and created last week. Contrary to the picture, George does not have a broken tail. I’m aware of the lack of flippers as well, but I had less than 10 minutes to draw, cut, and sew–so that’s my excuse. 
I’m also not the best draw-er of dolphins, I know this, but Rascal and company were pleased anyway.
Kind of dark, I know, but on the day she wore this old “Play in the Mud” John Deere shirt I realized that Hester Prynne-like I had her in a shirt that publicly confessed her sin. Our Sunshine is a Mud Magnet. Not only does she see it as her personal God-given outdoor entertainment, but she frequently tries to convince me that it has beauty benefits to her hair and skin.
On a day too beautiful to stay indoors, I had Rascal bring the old activity table out of the boys’ room so the kids could color on the upper deck. Miss M stayed longest at the table, scribbling in a little calendar book someone had picked up at the Farmers’ Market.
Funny
These fellows showed up in my kitchen one afternoon.
I think they had come to hijack my cookies.
REAL FUNNY
My Picture of the Month!
One evening, I had to help Sunshine sweep one of her messes up in the kitchen and so had laid the sleeping Posey Pie in the nearest safe spot, which happened to be her carseat. Miss M wandered in during clean-up and seeing Baby at her level, proceeded to give her kisses. Miss M is very good with her baby sister and likes to sit and chat with her during these occasions. Sunshine ditched me in the middle of clean-up, not being patient enough to see me through sweeping up her attempt to sweep up a few cups of all-purpose flour, so by the time I turned back to Baby, I realized Miss M was still there. Miss M hadn’t napped yet that day, and I guess seeing her sister sleeping was too much for her. Posey, however, was not amused.
…even when the tide seems against him.
Coming home from our trip to St. Louis, I’ve been slowly going through the mail and came across the May/June issue of Scouting, the magazine for scout leaders. There was an article inside that looked interesting and on my way to finding it I came across the editor’s Trailhead column entitled “A Family Discussion.” It pertained to the proposed policy change in the Boy Scouts of America that has been on our minds ever since the media bomb dropped in February. The article described how the three main executives of Scouting were trying hard to listen to all sides, understand all views, and “not [push] Scouters to take one side or the other.” This policy change discussion apparently came about because “many unit-level volunteers weren’t aware of the policy barring openly gay Scouters and Scouts.” I’m a little surprised at this because the Boy Scouts have had the same standards for about a hundred years, more or less, and the membership policy is pretty easy to find.
I waded through the plan of action proposed in the article, still wryly bemused by all the “family” jargon, feeling uncomfortable with all the platitudes assuring us that “nothing has been decided,” yet at the same time, we can basically agree to disagree, and “we owe it to [the boys and girls involved in Scouts and Venture] to lay aside our preconceived notions and come to the table with one ultimate goal–doing what is best for the youth we serve.” We’re reminded, and rightly, that a Scout is respectful and courteous.
However, a Scout is also honest. Despite all the reassurances of “A Family Discussion,” our leaders in and of our district found out about the proposed policy change in February the same way we did–on the daily news headlines. If this is really a family discussion, it would have been better to discuss it with the family before enlisting the media. According to the media, the discussion is over, and it’s plain to see which side it is that the media is pushing Scouters and Scouts to take.
Also the editor fails to bring up another rather important aspect of this discussion that we learned through the media: the fact that big sponsors and donors of the BSA have vowed to cut funding if the BSA maintains its current policy. That should enter into this family discussion, shouldn’t it? Because I would like to know what was more of a catalyst in this sudden backpedal of last year’s policy reaffirmation–the volunteers’ complaints or the cold hard cash flow? Or are we just afraid of being called names? Afraid of the ‘bigot’ label?
That certainly adds a sour note to the discussion.
The BSA is being bullied right now, quite frankly. If the answer is to give into the bully, then the executives are not sending the right message to the boys under their leadership. That’s no way to teach our sons to be men.
A Scout is Brave.
All statements in quotation marks are directly from the May/June issue of Scouting.
Catching up a bit… and not sure where the Lady of Shalott figures into all this, except that I thought this post needed a picture… and she has a boat… and seems to be traveling at my pace this week….
Last Friday I mentioned another mile was added to our roster but I was mobile blogging and so hadn’t figured out exactly where that put us on our fictional map–except .75 miles from the door of the Green Dragon Inn, Bywater.
Weeks 2&3: This week we add 3.17 miles to that .75 to come up with 3.92 miles since our last real check-in. Total miles traveled: 8.67
Roughly, according to the atlas, that means we’ve reached the Great East Road and are approaching the Three-Farthing Stone, the significance of which escapes me at the moment. So much for my boasted Tolkien geekery.
Midwest Edition!
Last week we drove up to Indiana and dropped four of the kids off at my parents’ house for extended family time while Haus Meister and I along with Miss M and Posey Pie took Trooper to St. Louis. There he received a much anticipated evaluation at the Cerebral Palsy Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. I think it is safe to say that it was one of the most pivotal appointments he’s ever had. If ever there was a place where he was understood completely, it seems like it was this office (and at his neurologist and his speech therapist, too, don’t get me wrong, but the doctor in St. Louis caught things and watched things and explained things that the local neurologist and gastroenterologist didn’t believe or totally ignored when we told them. Local neurologist is not the one he’s currently seeing, by the way. Long story. Suffice to say we believe in taking Trooper to see doctors who treat him as a person. The local guy wasn’t one of these.). We came to St. Louis knowing we’d be seeing a barrage of therapists and the head doctor with Trooper. We didn’t know what to expect. We feared all sorts of things. Instead we left with the first official diagnosis since he left early intervention (there his diagnosis appeared to be simply ‘developmental delays.’ Now we can say with full assurance that he has diplegic Cerebral Palsy and autism), a game plan for the next four months, and clarity of vision. Having all of these gives us such peace of mind and firmness of purpose which, when raising a Trooper, is such a relief. Because we want to give him every opportunity that he could have, every chance to live his own dreams like his brothers and sisters have, and now I think we’ve found the perfect group to add to our “team” to help us achieve this.
On a side note, it was the current neurologist that recommended the Cerebral Palsy Center to us, and in fact, is the one who got us on the list to be seen there. He brought this up to us on our first visit to him, and as I told the doctor in St. Louis, that neurologist was the first person to mention CP to us since Trooper was six months old. I hadn’t heard it from anyone else. “Of course,” she laughed. “I trained [the neurologist].” Case closed. We have an awesome lineup helping this kid.
Who is every bit worth it.
Before the evaluation we stopped in the Old Cathedral just beside the Arch (Pretty). We loved that it is an active church, not just a sightseeing stop. We all prayed for a good evaluation and thanked God for the chance to be here. Then we looked around and recalling my brother-in-law and sister’s recounting of the beautiful mosaics inside the basilica, wondered just where these mosaics could be. The Old Cathedral is also called the Basilica of St. Louis, you see. As we left I commented on the beauty of this church, then mentioned that I thought it was rather small for a basilica. Turns out that my sister and I saw two totally different basilicas on our totally different trips to St. Louis. Oh well! We definitely recommend a visit to the Old Cathedral anyway.
Happy & Pretty
We went to the Arch but didn’t have time to go up inside of it (it’s on our list of things to do when we go back later this summer). The weather totally cooperated for us that morning and we had a splendid walk in the park. And no, Posey isn’t being smothered by that blanket.
Funny/Real or Real Funny?
My sister had a brilliant idea that we all pitch in on a family membership for the Indianapolis Zoo, giving us another place to visit besides the Children’s Museum when we go north (as well as numerous trips for her family as well). So we did, and before heading South we all went to the zoo together. What fun!
Princess and her cousin hamming it up next to a butterfly that they think landed on a bench to talk to them. I’m not sure that the person before us in the exhibit hadn’t accidentally killed it.
Dino shows off
Miss M, who thinks she’s 6, decided to leave Grandpa with the stroller and set off like the big kids.
The Budgie, parakeet, and lorikeet exhibit was a hit. Haus Meister tried to get one to come closer, as some were doing, but Miss M had been there first and pretty much traumatized the birdies.
I realize I have few pictures of any large animals. Some were asleep (thanks a lot, tigers, lions, and brown bears). And with some we were too busy enjoying them to take pictures. Trooper loved the sea lions and we all enjoyed watching the baby walrus we’d read about on zooborns. The dolphins were also very big with the kids. When we got home, Rascal informed me that a stuffed dolphin toy would be essential in his room, and last night he directed me in sewing one out of fabric. It was nice to have a quick project to do together. I drew a basic dolphinesque shape onto some dark gray scrap fabric and Rascal added the stuffing. Maybe I’ll get a picture of it, we’ll see.
Two weeks back I wrote about starting the Raindrop Cardigan. Unfortunately I had to frog all my work and restart because I thought I had cast on the correct number of stitches that late night I began and didn’t recount. It ended up I was making a cardigan two sizes too large with a pattern allowing 2-4″ positive ease.
As my three year old says: “Whoopsie.”
So as we hit the road to St. Louis I recast the sweater. I wanted to write about it as we drove, since we traveled on a Yarn Along link-up day, but all you would have seen was this:
While in St. Louis, Haus Meister let me pick out a Mother’s Day gift here:
Of course I can’t help myself in these places. I left with a Mother’s Day gift and an Anniversary gift and something rather frivolous.
I don’t know what this will be yet, but it sparkles. I have at least two girls who will love it.
Meanwhile, I actually haven’t touched my knitting since we arrived home late Sunday, but I unpacked it this morning to help incentivize me. I want to have this finished by next week! (Cue maniacal laughter)
Reading-wise, I’m perusing curriculum ideas for next year, because somehow it seems the thing to do as this school year scrambles to a finish. I’m highly interested in this social studies course since one of the kids will be studying American history next year. I think the Little House class will make a great supplement.
Happy knitting!
This wasn’t the post I intended to write tonight, but here you go. Tonight’s post is brought to you by Natural Family Planning.
Yes, that.
Now there’s a topic I don’t write about much here. In fact, only a couple of weeks ago I mentioned to Haus Meister that I do seem to be mum on the subject in my blog and in conversations with others. It wasn’t until NFP came up in a discussion with a friend from Church that I found myself admitting out loud that we do in fact practice Natural Family Planning. She had asked me what method we used, since she had just started Creighton. I actually stuttered as I managed to say “Marquette.”
I was afraid, you see. Afraid of admitting we do this because we have had eight children. Afraid that someone wavering in their decision to follow the Church’s teaching would run screaming back to the condoms and contraception once they knew that “the stair-step family,” “that one with all the kids,” does in fact keep a chart. I could never see myself presenting at an NFP talk because of that same fear (and the fact that I don’t like public speaking, but back to topic now). They–that nebulous “they,” the ones we fear out of human respect–will think it doesn’t “work.” “I’m endangering the mission; I should never have come.” (movie quote alert, sorry)
Well, no more. I agree with the writer of this post, who puts things so well, it’s time we stopped being ashamed. Dwija says in “NFP doesn’t work. You have so many kids!“:
You guys, we have fallen into a hole. We’ve fallen into the hole of defining life the way corporations want us to define it. ”Family planning” has come to mean “child prevention” and we simply accept that, “natural” has come to mean “non-chemical” and we simply accept that and I, for one, am tired. I’m tired of feeling obligated to feel embarrassed that our family contains children. I’m tired of my friends having to tell the world that they “suck” at NFP because their families contain children. I’m tired of everyone I know who knows about NFP having to constantly justify marriages resulting in children.
Please read the rest here.
Oh, and for the record, although NFP is much more than “non-chemical birth control,” my snarky mischievous side would dearly love to pull into the beastly tiny Whole Foods parking lot in my town with THIS slogan plastered on the back of my van:
