Further adventures in making shortbread

The other day I posted on making shortbread for the first time, having found a ceramic stoneware pan with a recipe on a garage sale for $3.

Well, it was a hit. Let's say the fam asked for more, and yesterday, as we were all working and reading in the rainy afternoon and wanting a good cup of coffee, into the kitchen I went. In preparing a double recipe this time around, I remembered a set of ceramic molds given to us for our wedding by long time friend Wendy Tribulski. OK, I had never, not once, used them, although we loved them through the years and always had them hanging on a kitchen wall until we moved here, where for lack of wall space in the kitchen (read onion and garlic braids) they went into my "nice things and glass platters" glass door cabinet.

So today I am contacting Wendy, I think it has been a dozen years since we have seen her! When we lived in NJ she hosted us in her beautiful home in sunny Avalon, on the Atlantic shore. I am saying thank you all over again for a fabulous wedding gift, used for the first time 25 years after the fact. Husband and I are charmed by her landscape paintings and we are already choosing one to purchase for our home!

Summer Picture Books!

Here are a few new picture books we picked up from the library this late summer season and that were chosen family favorites:

A Butterfly is Patient by Diana Aston

Hardcover, 40 pages, Chronicle books, May 2011

I have been waiting for the next installment of this lovely series and this one doesn't disappoint! The pictures alone are just wonderful! We love butterflies and acreage living has only made us appreciate these creatures all

the more. A gorgeous boo with plenty of interesting, curious and scientific information for kids of all ages!

Energy Island by Allan Drummond

Hardcover, 40 pages, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, March 2011

Environmental complexities aside, I have loved Alan Drummond's books and found this one very interesting. We can all be more responsible about using natural resources and the true story of Energy Island is inspiring! (Watch here Number Three reading aloud Alan Drummond's adaptation of Moby Dick in speech class).

The Bravest Woman in America by Marissa Moss

Tricycle Press, July 2011

Number Six chose this title among some other biographical accounts we have at home, as she, like me, loves true stories of courage and inspiration. I asked her about the book and she said, "This girl worked in a lighthouse and saved people's lives!". So there.

Statue of Liberty by Elizabeth Mann

Mikaya Press, April 2011

OK, so there are lots of books for kids about the Statue of Liberty, but this one, as with the rest of the books in the new series, is especially informative and interesting. The whole process is well documented and written in engaging language. As it is, we found many new facts we did not know before--such as the fundraiser tours and dinners offered inside different parts of the statue in Paris during its construction! Check it out!

Brother Sun, Sister Moon by Catherine Paterson and illustrated by Pamela Dalton

Chronicle Books, June 2011

This is one beautifully illustrated book! The text is from Saint Francis' Canticle of Creation, and the illustrations are done by paper cutting using an old German tradition. Do visit the look-inside feature on its Amazon page it is worth it! I have also pre-ordered the illustrator's next publication to my amazon cart! I am thinking this will be a marvelous Christmas gift for a young godchild!

Annual Homeschool Picnic

It was a golden, beautiful evening, we had a great turnout and friendly fellowship! The kids played for hours, we had good food, and gathered for a living Rosary.

May God bless our school year that begins!

Saint Margaret of Scotland, pray for us!

Happy feast Day, Number Three!

Today it is the feast of the great Saint Augustine. We are thinking of Number Three who is back at UD and missing him! Husband named Number Three after the great saint after he joined the Church, having chosen Augustine as his confirmation name. Husband read the writings of Saint Augustine in college and credits much of his early interest in the Church to that reading.

Great Saint Augustine, keep our son in your guidance and help him continue his academic studies with renewed effort and perseverance!

We love you, son!

A good find!

...during rummaging with Jannell yesterday. Made it for dessert and do not have a crumb left to photograph. I have loved shortbred for so many years, but have never made it before. Yum! (All of $3 purchase, making it even better).

New school year!

Number Four is taking German 2 online and two classes at our diocesan Catholic school: Physics and College Algebra. Number Five is going to that school full time and enjoying it.

Number Six is taking Latin 1 at the Catholic School as well, and is deciding between online Greek or History, or both, from the Rolling Acres School. She is also doing Wordly Wise, Faith and Life, CHC Language Level G, Faith and Life 7, World History/Geography. She is trying to decide between IEW or Lightning Lit both offered at our Tutoring Center. She is also taking a Speech Class and Middle School Chemistry at our Tutoring Center! To complete her studies she has art and choir at co-op, organ and piano lessons, and weekly ballet.

Number Seven is in soccer and loving it! Her continuing love for all pets keeps her very busy as we seem to have a new batch of kittens every week these days. She is doing CHC Language D and Speller E, Faith and Life 5, All Ye Lands World History and Teaching Textbooks Math 5. At Tutoring Center she is in Chemistry, Latin (Memoria Press' First Form Latin) and Kolbe Elementary Lit which I am excited to be leading this year! She is also dancing this year, and continuing her piano lessons as well as art and choir at co-op.

Enjoy the kittens video!

Faith & Reason

I was pleasantly surprised this morning with a newly found book! I was looking for items to compile a list in response to my brother's post in the Braga email list concerning the harmony between Faith & Reason, and I found a book by Kevin Vost on the life of Saint Albert the Great! We chose this great saint of the "greatest of all centuries" for Number Four's middle name because he is the patron saint of scientists! Our dear friend Dom Marcos Barbosa OSB, who baptized me and most of my siblings, also baptized Number Four. At the baptism in Rio more than 17 years ago, he gave a wonderful homily on the two saints in our son's name, Thomas and Albert, the master and the pupil, both doctors of the Church. I love this Amazon review on the book:

"When my 8th grade son asked for a patron saint for his Science Fair project, I immediately thought of St. Albert since I had just finished reading this fascinating book. Dr. Vost makes good use of his signature conversational style to weave a captivating portrayal that is certain to rescue St. Albert the Great from the depths of obscurity. Not only was St. Albert an inquisitive and thoughtful scientist, he was also a philosopher, master of memorization and a superb teacher. In fact, St. Albert taught St. Thomas Aquinas! Dr. Vost adds inspiring quotes, engaging anecdotes and a helpful series of "Great Ideas," making this more than just another saint biography. (BTW, my son won the regional science fair and is advancing to the state competition, so you can add "powerful intercessor" to the list of St. Albert's accomplishments.)

And also Kevin Vost's conversion story, with Faith & Reason in the title...

Saints!

With the beginning of the school year this week, Numbers Six and Seven have been talking about saints. They are looking into potential confirmation saints and Number Seven made a list of heavenly friends! As I have been meaning to post some new suggestions at PopeStNickV yahoo group, I went on Amazon and searched for recently published books on saints and found some gems! Keep in mind all of these are pre-publications, but it is worth getting those requests to your library right away!

An illustrated Dictionary of Saints, History of Catholicism and Saints, God will Provide, and Francis Woke Up Early, a new book by Josephine Nobisso!

Comments Blues, encore

Yesterday my friend Jannell mentioned a comment she had sent and never saw... sure enough I found lots of your comments in my spam box. I am so sorry about that and hopefully I rescued everyone of them.

Looking forward to heaven, where every spam issue will stay at the gate.

Number Three goes back to college

We already miss him.... and yet it is so wonderful that he loves his college and that he is growing, learning, maturing. What a pleasant, loving and fun presence he was for us all summer! Here's to a wonderful year at UD, son!

Back from Ethiopia!

Husband arrived today from a grueling field work trip to Ethiopia, the third time he goes with this team as they work on an early warning system for malaria prevention. This was their rainy season as the photos show, they looked for mosquito breeding ground in Abyssinia and saw the Blue Nile Falls.

A new piano!

A handsome, bigger new piano has arrived at our house yesterday, a gift from our friend Mrs. C. T. who is moving and wanted Number Five to have it. It needs to be tuned but the girls have been playing it already. Number Five is so pleased to have much better action for her long pieces. Her Liszt piece is almost ready and I can't wait to post a you-tube of it! A warm, sincere Thank You to Mrs. T.!

Hydrangeas

Husband planted these a few years back and this summer it finally grew and bloomed beautifully!

Mater & Magistra Summer Issue

As it is usual with Mater & Magistra, this is one excellent issue!

The cover piece by Joseph Pearce is timely and fascinating, revealing the catholicity of Schumacher, the great environmental author of the seventies. In my comment to his similar article in the NCRegister I added that I like the idea of pro-life ad locally-grown-foods bumper stickers side-by-side--an apparent paradox that should go hand in hand.

Read on for ideas on homeschooling on a small budget, with lots of free resources lists, and also for a piece on the Ignatius Press excellent Critical Editions. And more... an Andrew Pudewa article, Unit Study on the Civil War, etc!

An Amazon Review

5.0 out of 5 stars Unforgettable!, August 17, 2011

By

Ana Braga-Henebry (Rural South Dakota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: A Memory for Wonders: A True Story (Paperback)

I just finished this book, having savored it slowly for a month and not wanting it to end. I want to re read it now! From the preface, or foreword by the wonderful author Mother Mary Frances PCC of Roswell NM explaining how this story came to be written, to the very last page, the book is an unforgettable read. The two last pages brought tears to my eyes which is so rare.
I have a daughter living in Morocco and a friend recommended this to me, a recommendation for which I am very thankful. The autobiography begins in France and ends in Algiers but the bulk of her life was in the well-known North African country. I feel as if I have now a much better sense of where my daughter is living as the author described much of the climate, geography and history as she tells of her growing up years.
And yet those are side stories as the drama revolves in her soul from an early age, longing and wanting to know about God under radically atheistic parents and resolving to find Him. An unforgettable read.

Two new books by Thomas Craughwell

I was so pleased to find these two new volumes among my holds at the library! I had requested them a while back, posting their titles at PopeStNick5, but I never know they are being purchased until I get them in my hands!

This author has written has many good, interesting, fun books!

Number Four's sky photos

The other day on the way home the sky was spectacular... postcards from God as Jannell calls them. Number Four used my Blackberry and took these.

The kids and I have always called the sunrays-behind-clouds-light-effects "powers of God"... Photos are never the same as the real thing, but you get the picture.

An email conversation

I got a graph out of the blue from Number One's iPhone and emailed back asking for an explanation.

I got it, and responded. Gotta love life.

A beautiful photograph

... of my dear brother Eduardo and his wife. They live in Rio but as she is spending some time in TX on an extended business trip, I hope I will see her soon!

Update, correction: my sister Tereza sent me a more accurate description of my sister-in-law's visit. She is in an extended teachers' training program at the National Language Defense Institute at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, TX.

Her name is Maristela, she is a beautiful, wonderful person, and has recently finished her Doctorate in Linguistics at the Pontifical Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro.

Alli's album

Alli shared this album of the anniversary celebration.... enjoy!

Favorite Photo

I just love this photo! Somehow it reflects the joy and work Grandpa Tom and I enjoyed together, also the happiness I had having so much family over and providing meals from the garden!

Bye Bye, Number Two

She left early this morning after a good visit and a lot of time together with her sisters--who will miss her! May God bless, guide and protect you, dear daughter. The photos above are at a picnic Sunday night with her friend from homeschool high school Alli!

Anniversary Message

I confess to have broken down in painful tears of saudades during the surprise reading of this message during our anniversary dinner. A Thank you for the beautiful words goes to my sister Nina, and to Number Two who read it in Portuguese and Number Five who read the translation.

Anniversary Gifts

When we cut the cake, the kids presented us with speeches both serious and fun (watch for You-Tube links), and Number One gave us a framed Pontifical Anniversary Blessing. My parents had one framed in our family home and I have wanted one for years. I was actually the one who found a way to procure one in a very round-about way, but Number One was responsible for transportation and framing. Isn't it just beautiful?

Then at home, in the evening, the kids gave us a very fancy coffee maker (since we break a coffee maker every 6 months or so) and then Number Two gave us a super special present she brought in her suitcase from Casablanca:

a traditional Moroccan Tea Set, complete with silver tray, silver teapot, glass cups and tea! A gorgeous gift, both from her and her fiance's parents. Thank You!

Anniversary Mass, II

Per popular request, here is a picture of the cake. The dinner was delicious and elegant, simple and homemade, all at the same time. A huge thank you to friends Sandy, Caitilin, Sarah and my wonderful mother-in-law for the kitchen help!

At the table with Husband and me are my mother-in-law and her husband "grandpa Tom", Schola directors Mr. and Mrs. Knutson, Mr. Pepino and Fr. B. A.!

Anniversary Mass

Dearest friend Fr. B. A. came to say a mass for us in the extraordinary form. Numbers Three and Four served, along with friends Austin (MC) and younger servers T.B. and R. P.

Number Seven distributed the mass booklets and programs with her friend H. S. and Numbers Five and Six played piano and organ respectively. Friends Mr. and Mrs. Knutson were schola directors. We are so thankful to all who participated!

It was a beautiful, meaningful, holy and wonderful Holy Mass. May God be praised.

More family pictures

These are some of my favorites from the youngest four kids. Number Four posed for formal senior pictures, but this one was too fun not to post.