2009: Resolutions for the New Year Ahead!

It’s that time of year again. Just as the year begins to wind down toward it’s end, thoughts turn to resolutions for next year – how can we improve … do better … weigh less … etc.

When I was little, resolutions were like the “what did you do this summer” – resolutions became a 500 word essay we had to write every year just after getting back from Christmas break. The resolutions were written either to look good in front of the teacher or to be sassy (think Lenten sacrifices for kids that include giving up spinach, avoiding reading books, etc).

As I matured (that is, as I got into high school and undergrad), resolutions began taking on meaning but they were all “me” focused – looking better by losing weight, getting more sleep, eating right or just generally externals that would make me superficially better. Why look deeper – wasn’t it all about me anyway and how people saw me?

Now that I have children – especially since we started home-educating – my resolutions have gotten more focused and have more meaning. I try and think how we can improve our family internally and spiritually. I really try and devise ways of making ME better internally and spiritually. I take much more time on formulating these resolutions – even started thinking about resolutions back in November this year. I like to post them on this blog, not as the 500-word essay I have to still do but so I can try to keep us more accountable for what we say we’re going to do and what we actually do. [Here is a great reason for blogging – when I write something on here, I feel accountable and responsible for making things happen, for doing what I said I would do, for making things work.]

I also try to synthesize our resolutions down to a word or two.

This year – our family resolution will be PEACE; peace that can only be acquired by re-ordering our priorities and thus our lives and home.

This year St. Athanasius Academy will focus on setting our priorities to be: God, family, school and all else.

In other words, we’ll try to focus our family on going to daily Mass as often as practicable, living the liturgical year (with all Her feasts, fasts and festivities), and generally serving God first and foremost.

Than the next priority would be peace in the family – joy and love with a true reduction in bickering and sarcastic comments. We’ll work more toward focusing on our family – more family game nights, reading together, movies, etc. We’ll go on weekly outings. During the day, we’ll focus on helping each other – with the older ones helping the younger ones with school work, with playing games, with being a family. We’ll work on getting outside every day to enjoy God’s creation, regardless of the weather – something I am not good about but really want to change.

Our next priority than becomes our school-time. We need to refocus our time and energy so our days are more organized for doing the school work we need to get done. Reading, writing and math will be the focus … but with all the other subjects included. Focus will be not only on attaining the proper skills and subject mastery but also in fluency and ability to tell and live the story of our Faith, our History, our world.

Our special prayer, that we will add to our evening meal prayer, will be:

Prayer to Our Lady, Queen of Peace
Glorious Queen of Peace
grant us peace in our hearts,
harmony in our families
and concord throughout the world.

Immaculate Mother,
as patroness of our beloved country,
watch over us and protect us with your motherly love.

Our Lady, Queen of Peace, pray for us.

A book that will help us – especially me – in finding and maintaining peace is, oddly enough, titled Searching for and Maintaining Peace: A Small Treatise on Peace of Heart by Fr. Jacques Phillipe. This is one of those tiny volumes (only a slim paperback) that packs a punch in every paragraph. Fr. Phillipe gently and lovingly explains why many of us are restless and not at peace; how to re-order our lives to ensure that we obtain peace, and finally, how to retain the peace we find, primarily through living the lives God wants us to live.

+=+=+

My personal resolution this year is Humility:

• Humility instead of tearing down others through gossip or conjecture.
• Humility by striving to put others first.
• Humility to joyfully accept God’s will for me and mine.
• Humility to put my own wants and desires after all else.

Here is the prayer I’ll be praying at least once per day:

Litany of Humility
by Cardinal Merry del Val
(1865-1930; Cardinal Secretary of State under St. Pius X).

O Jesus meek and humble of heart, Hear me.

From the desire of being esteemed,

From the desire of being loved,

From the desire of being extolled,

From the desire of being honored,

From the desire of being praised,

From the desire of being preferred to others,

From the desire of being consulted,

From the desire of being approved,

Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being humiliated,

From the fear of being despised,

From the fear of suffering rebukes,

From the fear of being calumniated,

From the fear of being forgotten,

From the fear of being ridiculed,

From the fear of being wronged,

From the fear of being suspected,

Deliver me, Jesus.

That others may be loved more than I,

That others may be esteemed more than I,

That in the opinion of the world, others may increase, and I may decrease,

That others may be chosen and I set aside,

That others may be praised and I unnoticed,

That others may be preferred to me in everything,

That others may become holier than I, provided that I become as holy as I should,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. Amen.

In addition, I’ll be praying this short prayer throughout my day:

Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner
Lord, Jesus Christ, help me to joyfully embrace the Will of the Father
Lord, Jesus Christ, help me be a living example of faith, hope and love

In today’s Magnificat, there is a reflection from Pope Benedict XVI, that sums up my need to do resolutions and try to keep them:

A new beginning is something precious; it brings hope and possibilities as yet undisclosed…. we can use the time of reflection in order to stand aside and widen our vision, thus gaining inner freedom and a patient readiness to move on again.

Blessings and prayers for

a healthy, holy and happy 2009!

Kids: Amazing what they absorb!

The idea that children are always aware and learning and soaking up really came home to me today with my youngest.

We've been spending lots of time over at dh's new high school, talking about dh's new school and basically revolving our lives around their schedule. We have gone to as many home-games of the various teams as possible; we've been to the dedication and weekly school Masses; we've immersed ourselves in helping to build the culture of life within the new school that opened in August 2008.

Well, seems Bam-Bam (six years old in November) has picked up quite a bit of this and he spent much of today (with us roped right in) deciding the following for our homeschool, St. Athanasius Academy:

1. Mascot: knight eagles – a mascot LegoManiac will draw
2. School colors: black and gold
3. Motto: semper pugna pro iustum (“always fight for what is right” -- we translated it into latin using InterTran so it might not be EXACTLY right, but it looks right!)
4. Prayer for when we win: 3 Our Fathers & 3 Hail Marys
5. Fight song: I couldn't get all the words but I know it ends with “win for Jesus”
6. Administrative staff:
□ Headmaster: dad
□ Lead teacher: mom
□ Athletic Director: Bam-bam
(he’s the head, but he’s made me the “neck” – I can turn the head anyway I want!, and Dad is the heart; String Bean and Lego Maniac are the toes … well, actually the "toes in training" – wait, late breaking news: String Bean has been moved up to “stomach” of the Athletic Dept, while LegoManiac is still “toes in training”... then when Lego Maniac complained, he was promoted to the "shoulders", which is "really close to the head")
Coaching Staff:
□ Football – Mom
□ Soccer – LegoManiac
□ Cheerleading – String Bean
□ Baseball – String Bean
□ Swimming – Kotch
□ Tennis – Kotch
□ Lacrosse – BamBam, Dad - assistant
□ Hockey – BamBam, Dad – assistant
□ Gymnastics – Dad, LegoManiac - assistant
□ Golf – Mom

Bam-Bam is quite proud that he is the AD for the SAA Knight Eagles ... he even dressed up for a "press conference" and kept the attire on for dinner with our newly named chaplain, Fr. Z. (who is also the chaplain at dh's school, so that makes it easy!).

Bam-bam is taking his job a bit seriously: firing the "coaches" who don't do what he wants, creating contracts for them to sign (altho he's signing the contracts for them as many have mutinied), deciding who will play on which teams and when we'll play (don't tell him we only have a total of six people in the house -- he sees us fielding a "real" team). He even made a sign today that "the new teams will be introduced on Friday, Oct 31st at 10:00pm on FOX sports" (he was quite proud he didn't need help spelling FOX!).

I'm thinking this youngest is going to go pretty far in the world of management! As the Young Marines put it, he just "adapts, improvises, overcomes" EVERY obstacle to his imagination and plans.

[BTW, the scratch-looking mark below his lip is from playing "football" with his brother yesterday afternoon and almost biting all the way through to give himself a nice fat lip/bruise and generally look really bad!]

So, we'll probably have a new banner for this blog soon -- once LegoManiac designs the "Knight Eagle" and we get it scanned in!

Wish I'd seen this yesterday morning...

... that is, before I went to talk to dh's senior theology students about my vocation as a SAHM, wife and home-educator. The 17/18 year olds were interested in why we choose to homeschool ... and now Michele Q posts this quote from Fr. George Rutler:

I’d encourage your youngest one to abandon kindergarten altogether. Almost everything I learned was learned outside the classroom, and school itself interrupted my education. Moreover, school locks you in with your peers. That is a mistake. One’s social circle should never include one’s equals. From my earliest years I found children uninteresting and always preferred the company of adults. This was an advantage, because I got to know lots of folks who are dead now whom I never would have known if I had waited until I was an adult. - So I have a collective memory - and oral tradition - that goes back to the
eighteenth century, having spoken with people who knew people who knew people who knew people who lived then. - The only real university is the universe and a
city its microcosm. That is why an expression like “New York University” is
foolish. New York City is the university….Instead of school, children should
spend some hours each day in hotel lobbies talking to the guests. They should
spend time in restaurant kitchens and shops and garages of all kinds, learning
from people who actually make the world work….One day spent roaming through a real classical church building would be the equivalent of one academic term in
any of our schools, and a little time spent inconspicuously in a police station
would be more informative than all the hours wasted on bogus social sciences.
Formal lessons would only be required for accuracy in spelling and proficiency
in public speaking, for which the public speakers in our culture are not models,
and in exchange for performing some menial services a child could learn the
violin, harp, and piano from musicians in one of the better cocktail lounges, or
from performers in the public subways….So I urge you to keep your child out of
kindergarten, because kindergarten will only lead to first grade and then the
grim sequence of grade after grade begins and takes its inexorable toll on the
mind born fertile but gradually numbed by the pedants who impose on the captive
child the flotsam of their own infecundity. (as quoted by Peter Robinson on the National Review Online)

Now, THAT would have been a great answer for Rick's senior students!

Little Boys Working Hard