Diamantes

Cathy and I just received our Lit assignment, requesting us each to write a Diamante. As you probably know, this is a diamond-shaped poem about a pair of opposites. We chose to do them about us and our sisters.

Cathy
sarcastic, operatic
singing, doodling, laughing
joy, melodrama, vivacity, extroversion
intoxicating, bubbling, bouncing
optimistic, voluble
Mari

gilbertgirl
contrary, abstracted
ditzing, imagining, reading
melodrama, verbosity, contemplation, precision
contradicting, observing, studying
calm, quiet
Margaret

Our friends from Love2learn know this portrays us perfectly!

YIPPEE!!!!!!!

I got to sing with the Sollerod Girls' Choir from Denmark!!!!! Thanks to our choir director, who was their contact here in the US, my homeschooled youth choir got a chance to perform several songs with them during their tour through this part of America. In addition, we went to the mall with them today!!!!! It was amazing to hear how well they harmonize and how closely they listen to each other. I had a blast singing with them. I also enjoyed trading fashion ideas!!!!!

AT LAST book meme

1. One book that changed your life.

The Shadow of the Bear, by Regina Doman. This was the book that introduced me to Chesterton.

2. One book that you've read more than once.

The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster

3. One book you'd want on a desert island.

The Everlasting Man, by G. K. Chesterton

4. One book that made you laugh.

The Midshipman Quinn Collection, by Showell Styles

5. One book that made you cry.

Great Expectaions, by Charles Dickens

6. One book that you wish had been written.

The blacks, whites, and grays of Theology, by G. K. Chesterton, in so many words.

7. One book that you wish had never been written.

That's a very strong statement! I don't think I've read any myself.

8. One book you're currently reading.

Chaucer, by G. K. C.

9. One book you've been meaning to read.

The Divine Comedy, by Dante

since it is the beginning of the school year, I will just tag anyone who wants to.

I have finally decided

...why I named this blog Catastrophic Pontifications. The reason is very simple: it's catastrophic because I don't pontificate.

Family Vacation(s)

Where I've been, and what I've been doing all summer; or to put it more simply, my excuse for not posting.

We took a lllllloooooonnnnngggg family vacation to Virginia's Eastern Shore, and stayed in a yurt. For those of you, who don't know, that's a small wigwam like structure with a wood frame, insulated canvas covering and air conditioning. No, you're not out-of-the-loop because you don't know what a yurt is. None of us did, until we slept in one. To give you an idea of the mishaps necessary to make a vacation for us, I'll chronicle the first few days.


FRIDAY, JULY 28
Margaret and I spent at least half of our packing time this morning fishing coins out of the tape player in our minivan, placed there by astonishingly deft two-year-old fingers. We embarked at 10:43 AM, listening to Around the World in Eighty Days. An early-afternoon frosty cured the temporary car sickness, that is the most common by-product of Chicago. We made it as far as Toledo that night.


SATURDAY, JULY 29
We visited Franciscan University as we passed. At about five o'clock we looked about us for a Church, and even asked directions to one. We then commenced what we called our 'steeplechase,' literally looking for steeples, and chasing them. We didn't find any that had Saturday Masses, so we kept on until we reached Front Royal.


SUNDAY, JULY 30
Went to Mass at St. John the Baptist and loved it. Visited Christendom College briefly, then spent the rest of the afternoon on Skyline Drive. I was in charge of the camera, much to my delight, and took about 80 pictures just that day. Now, looking back at them, I have dozens of lovely pictures of glorious panoramas, but can't tell them apart, or remember which of the scores of outlooks from which they were taken. Ah well.


At 10:00, a sleepy, whiny, slightly grumpy carful of kids with two tired parents pulled up to a narrow boardwalk extending off the road, out of the glare of the headlights, toward an ominous black hulk faintly illuminated between the trees against a moonlit background of glittering sea and sky. The YURT. What was it??? Did it have a fridge? A kitchenette? Is it clean??, wondered Mom. PLEASE let there be SEPARATE bedrooms!!! prayed the teenage girls, who hated the hotel rooms they had to share with their little brothers. "I just wanna go to bed!!!" wailed the two-year-old. After a long confusion about procuring the key, we unloaded the car, hobbled up the boardwalk burdened with suitcases, pillows, coolers...opened the door, turned on the light.... It was perfect!!!!! It had enough beds even for our family. It was cozily furnished, with tables, chairs, couches and a fridge, and had a lovely view of the beach.

THE END

We also went to Illinois for a week, visited an English tea room, went canoeing and spelunking in Iowa, and on Friday we're headed to Minnesota to spend some time with Grandparents in a cabin. On top of this, Mom & I have been devising ways to deal with the surfeit of tomatoes on our back porch. Luckily, I'm not yet sick of canning, chopping, seeding, and eating.

I hope this explains why I haven't been on the internet a whole lot in the past three months, but I'm trying to make up for it now. Speaking of which, I was tagged by love2learnmom for the book meme, and I need to attend to that directly.

Prayers Needed!!

Please pray for Regina and Andrew Doman and their son Joshua Michael who passed away on July 8th.

Dickens quote

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of dispair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way..."

~Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

How many times in history has that been false???

Post-retreat Exhilaration

You know how, after a retreat, you spend your first 24 hours back home in a happy world of your own, the music still resounding through your mind, not letting anything break your happy, serene little bubble, and casually chatting with God; little prayers, observations, and just generally trying to keep in touch???? That's me right now.

Hello to all my Discipleship Week friends!!!!!

Please read

Dr. Thursday's Campus post.

Cogitating...

My list of Comfirmation names...I still have a couple years to choose one...

St. Martina
St. Prisca
St. Daria
St. Eleutherius (no, I can't pronounce it)
St. Philomena
Philip Neri (patron saint of teens)
St. Maria Goretti
St. Dominic Savio
St. Bernadette
St Gemma Galgani
St. Penelope
St. Agustine
St. Benedict
St. Rose of Lima
St. Jane
St. Thomas Aquinas
St. Vitus
St. Cecilia
St. Lucy
St.Julia

Welcome, welcome!!!!!

Welcome to my humble corner of cyberspace. As a prepratory warning, this blog was not meant to be particularly informing, as the title might suggest. However, you may pick up a few laughs at my unique trains of thought, or learn a little Latin willy-nilly.

I'm thrilled to be officially opening this lovely new blog with the first post, And I apologize ahead of time if my writing style proves illegible.