Braces!

Before and After...

She is doing very well, watching a movie and enjoying a milkshake!

Nina's Newly Adopted Dog!

The name is Lottie, for Charlotte... she just sent us the photo! She says the dog was misplaced on the occasion of the mudslides back when I was there in January... looks like it is a happy match!

Teens play Frisbee...

... while mom enjoys editing photos. Back to work for me. Planted 100 sweet potatoes, and peas!

Busy...

...and not only in the garden! I am preparing for the MN Catholic Homeschooling conference next weekend, where I am again leading a Bloggers' session! This year I am planning to lead a discussion on the recent Catholic Bloggers' meeting in the Vatican, as applied to us homeschool parents.



On another note, I have been asked to write the next workbook volume for the Catholic Textbook Project, Light of the Nations Part II. I have already started this week and as usual am loving it!

Blessed Sister Dulce!

We have a new Blessed in Brazil! Sister Dulce is the Brazilian Mother Teresa... Dear Blessed Sister Dulce, pray for all of us Brazilians!

70,000 witness Sister

Dulce, Brazil's Mother Teresa, beatified

SALVADOR, Brazil (CNS) -- Despite intermittent rain, 70,000 people gathered in a park for the the beatification of the nun sometimes called Brazil's Mother Teresa.

Born as Maria Rita de Souza Brito

Lopes Pontes in 1914, she was known to Brazilian Catholics as simply Sister Dulce, the mother of the poor.

Cardinal Geraldo Majella Agnelo of Salvador celebrated the beatification Mass with more than 500 archbishops, bishops and priests in attendance.

Claudia Cristiane Santos Araujo, the woman whose miracle cure was attributed to Sister Dulce's intercession, also attended. Araujo prayed to Sister Dulce while suffering from a massive hemorrhage minutes after giving birth.

At an early age, Pontes would open her family's modest house in Salvador to those in need of food and shelter. In 1933, she entered the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God and received the name of Sister Dulce, in honor of her mother.

In 1936, Sister Dulce founded the first Catholic workers' organization in the state of Bahia and started a health clinic for poor workers. She opened a school for workers and their children in 1939.

That same year, Sister Dulce, with nowhere to turn, invaded five abandoned houses on Rat's Isla

nd in Salvador Bay to house the sick and homeless. After getting evicted, she searched for a haven for the poor until 1949, when she settled in an old chicken coop structure beside the convent. That

old chicken coop, said her followers, became the largest hospital in the area.

For her work with the poor and sick, in 1988 Sister Dulce was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by then-President Jose Sarney. The nomination received the support of Queen Silvia of Sweden.

Garden Update

We have baby plants... from the top right: arugula, onion, Brussels Sprouts, Green beans, eggplant and broccoli in the new beds, and of course horseradish.

We have also planted the tomatoes and peppers, and all of the squash. Cucumber, Swish Chard and beets also went in. The sweet corn is our next project. Husband brought Rutabaga seeds home... I am considering it.

Congratulations Mom and Tom!

It is hard to believe it has been five years... congratulations! Your life together is an inspiration to all! Thank you for being part of our lives in so many meaningful ways!

Happy 24th Birthday Number One!

We love you and we miss you!

Funglish

We have been enjoying a new game Husband picked out for his birthday when we were in TX... Funglish! Number Six loves the game and says it is similar to charades as one person is proving clues, but harder because the clues are limited to a few categories and modifiers. Try it!

Art project in progress

Number Five and I are working on a delightful art project for Mary Daly... it is for a poster she wants to accompany her book Universe in My Hands, for which I illustrated the cover a while back. Will report final results!

Lilacs!

Love this picture of Number Seven, taken yesterday as she stepped in the mudroom with her usual daily bouquet... Number Two, look at the egg on the piano waiting for your arrival.

Spring weather

It has been a season of rain storms, muddy and messy roads, and much growth!

The Stuffed Otcopus

The story is, we looked for a stuffed octopus for years as it is the one animal Number Seven still didn't own in a stuffed format... So Number Seven drew the pattern and knew exactly who would be able to stitch it... and it was done, with great love! Read about the making of it in Jannell's blog!

Baby Arugula, garden update

This picture is over a week old now. It is one of the first things to appear in the garden every year... so little, so frail, but holding delicious promises of salads, sandwiches, and content Henebry men. The beginning of the gardening season is full of hope and excitement.

This is a rainy weekend so I am inside taking a break from the exhausting physical work. I have some art projects waiting for me, including our annual batch of homemade graduation cards. God is smart to send rainy days!

We finished mulching onions and potatoes and planting all of the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and broccoli this week. I purchased little plants at the wonderful Oakridge Nursery this year. We have a few things left to plant now, among them winter squash and corn, and a few projects to accomplish such as weeding the garlic that Husband planted last fall.

Toward the Gleam Book Trailer

Just posted this as a book purchase suggestion on Pope St Nick yahoo Group... enjoy the trailer!

The Secret Cave: Discovering Lascaux

The Secret Cave, Discovering Lascaux, by Emily Arnold McCully, 2010 Farrar Straus Giroux, NY.

Emily Arnold McCully's books, both written and illustrated by her, tell fascinating true stories that are appealing to readers of any age. This one tells the story of the boys who found the famous cave paintings at Lascaux, France.

Our Trip to TX: final

A collage of mix-and-matches: Husband's birthday gift from his sister Aunt Sue, Number Seven and her god sister, the tower at UD and a son rescued from its campus for the summer... the door handle was from a rest stop in Kansas, Number Three's and Five's birth state, and the theme of the first Latin lesson for all of our children--see James Leek's Our Roman Roots.

Finally! The Tintin Movie!

Tintin is my "friend" on Facebook and yesterday the trailer for the new Spielberg film was posted! Yeah! See it here.

Our trip to TX, 4

This is the neighborhood park near grandma's house, and the weather couldn't be more propitious for our short walks... my sister came to visit us for the day and we enjoyed her company!

Just ordered these!

As we work though the library's audio holdings, it becomes more and more difficult to find good books on tape to listen to in the car. I am glad Bethlehem Books is having an audio books sale!

Our Trip to TX, 3: At the Zoo

Aunt Sue, or Aunt Zoo, is the director of the Gainesville Zoo, and took the girls on a tour. The Giraffe exhibit was the one they were fascinated with, what with the prehensile tongue and all. At the gift shop, Number Seven contemplated becoming a giraffe herself...

Vote for our own Uncle Dave!

My next post was going to be about wonderful Uncle Dave anyway, and we just got an appeal to vote for him as Best in Dallas! We are voting! I made the collage from pictures the girls took as they attended one of his Animal Edutainment shows, to a group of home schoolers in North Dallas.

To Vote, Please go to: http://www.dmagazine.com/bestofbigd2011 You can skip to page 6 and vote for Critterman in the entertainer category.

Our trip to TX, 2

We were able to be with our goddaughter Maria for just one evening, and then took her to the airport the next day. She is doing well at UD majoring in Theology and Music and we were sorry we were unable to listen to her piano playing. It was brought to my attention again that whenever I need to know anything about college life I should contact her instead of Number Three. Noted.

Our trip to TX, 1

We left last Tuesday, Number Five's bday, for Dallas to pick up Number Three and visit Grandma, and we got home last night at 1 AM. Aunt Sue posted these pics on Facebok of Husband's Bday dinner Friday night. I will download and post pics from the camera during the next few days. It is so good to be home and is it ever so green here now! The peonies are a foot tall and there is green growth on the rose bushes!

Happy 16th Birthday to Number Five!

She mowed a heart on the lawn last night... I wonder if she is trying to contact aliens... or just impress satellite photographers. In any event it is a big heart, the size our love for her!

Happy 22nd Birthday, Number Two!

We miss you and we are counting the weeks to see you in August! We hope you are having a nice celebration!

(Number Two is picture here with her fiance' during a recent weekend trip to the mountains.)