Want Your Children to Be Geniuses? Take the Challenge!

I recently read an important article that I recommend to every parent who reads my blog. 

Charlotte Mason and John Senior Agree: Great Books Are Not Enough

Reading Fiction Broadens Our Experience of Life!

I have a friend who says she never reads fiction. She considers it a waste of time. That's unfathomable to me! My response is to recall a fictional conversation between Anne Shirley and Marilla in the novel Anne of Green Gables beautifully depicted in the movie where Anne is played by Megan Follows and Marilla by Colleen Dewhurst. Anne asks Marilla if she can call her Aunt Marilla. Marilla says no, just call her Marilla since she doesn't believe in people using names that are not their own. "You could imagine you're my aunt," Ann suggests. Marilla replies, "No I could not." "Don't you ever imagine things differently from what they are?" Ann asks. "No!" is Marilla's short reply. With a sigh and a little headshake Ann takes Marilla's hand lamenting, "Oh Marilla, how much you miss." 

Leading a Honeybee Life!

I think of myself as a honeybee. I flit from project to project, from book to book, from household task to household task like a little bee collecting nectar. Sometimes I start cleaning intending to do an entire floor and switch to something new after finishing one room. Often a distraction becomes the next project. Hey, that door is absolutely grimy; get out the soap and water and give it a good cleaning. And then there are the minor disasters like opening the refrigerator and having a jar of soup water fall out and shatter like last night while I was fixing dinner. (I don't waste anything including the water left from steaming vegetables or cooking potatoes. They make great soup stock.) Clean that up and move on to something else or just pick up the glass, cover the mess with towels and clean it up after dinner which is what I did.

Are you a Bibliophile?

A small portion of my library of religious reading

I certainly am and fit the definition to a T. (Now where does that expression come from? I looked it up and the origin is murky. Now isn't life often like that?) At any rate here's the definition:

bibliophile /bĭb′lē-ə-fīl″/ noun
A lover of books.
A collector of books. 

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition 

In view of my pleasure in reading, I enjoy participating in the project of a fellow bibliophile (one of my granddaughters) who offers an annual "Book Bingo" which is great fun. Last year I read 18 of the books by category and left only six blanks. I hope to fill in all the squares this year, although I'll have to be creative to make sure I'm only reading things I really want to read.

Random thoughts as the new year approaches.

• I pray a lot of novenas, sometimes for the needs of specific people and sometimes for specific intentions. Reflecting on this, I realized that I've never prayed a novena for myself. So two days ago I started a novena to my patron saint, Mary's mother Ann, for myself. It's not very specific -- I just want to be conformed to the will of God. If you've never prayed a novena for yourself why not make one. After all, we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves. Do we love ourselves enough to pray for ourselves. We certainly need it!

What Are You Reading?

Have you ever heard the expression, "You are what you eat?" That may be true physically, but there's a more important reality about man than his physical body -- his soul. And I think a more real expression is, "You are what you read."