A white bouquet and a note of thanks

This is what you'd do if you have a daughter who is sick while studying overseas.... and her host mom is a wonderful person who cares for her like a true mother while you are helpless here worrying... By driving her to the doctor, to the pharmacy, and making her hot soups...

You'd use the Internet to have flowers delivered--and a personal note, which was duly copied by hand by the florists' staff. (I was going to do it in French, using some help of course, but I remembered Number Two's host mother is learning English!)

Reports arrived saying it was a hit there! Number Two just sent the photos.

A great show!

Best family show in a looong time! We love it--our entire family, teens, kids, adults! So much fun and such depth of the human spirit--and although not strictly accurate, it does justice to Alexander McCall Smith's beautiful and honorable creative mind!

Do not miss it!

Socrates comes to visit

Number Three received our stuffed Socrates as a prize when he came in first in an oral competition at the UD Summer Program Arete. This week Socrates came to visit the third graders as we read a chapter about him!

Christmas Wish List

A latest issue of the Ignatius Press catalog alongside a morning coffee cup is a dangerous thing... for one, I had to remove the Diamond Edition of Scrabble from the top spot of my wish list to make room for this beautiful book!

Update: Posted it on Pope St Nicholas V Yahoo group.

Girls' Art

Number Five worked on her own artistic Thank You note to her piano teacher--she photographed the piano keys and did a watercolor based on the photo--and her younger art students also had some nice results!

Our boys with Deacon Burke-Sivers

Thanks for sending the picture, Mark! This was taken a couple of weeks ago when Deacon was in this area. In between our boys are their good friends Matt and Brian.

I've mention Deacon Burke-Sivers here before--a phenomenal Catholic speaker! May God bless his work. Numbers Three and Four love him!

A most unusual biography...

...and also a most wonderful one. Only Fr. George Rutler could get away with such a unique, historically-enriched way to tell the story of the life of a saint! It reminds me so much of his old monthly column in Crisis magazine, "Coincidentally". And in this case, the story of a very unusual saint--but then again, all saints are unusual, aren't they? I requested it via inter-library loan and am taking notes in preparation for writing a one-act play about the patron saint of priests in this Year of the Priest!