WooHoo: Elizabeth's Foreword

Here's a link to a beautiful foreword from a beautiful friend ... thanks Elizabeth!

WooHoo: it's out!

Please celebrate with me .... Margot, my publisher at Hillside Education, just posted that my book, In His Image: Nurturing Creativity in the Heart of Your Home is available for pre-order (with a shipping date of June 15th). If you get a chance to read a copy, please let me know what you think. And my good friend over at 4real, Elizabeth Foss, kindly wrote the foreword for me!

Enjoy!

Creativity Book ...

is a book that, God willing, will be published this Spring!

In His Name: Nurturing Creativity in the Home will come out this Spring ... but needs a cover. Rather than using Michelangelo's original "Creation of Man" from the Sistine Chapel, we are calling for all those under the age of 18 to submit their interpretation as the potential cover.

Margot Davidson at Hillside Education has consented to publish this book I've written.

We'd like to use Michelangelo's Creation of Man image as the cover, but not the original. Would you ask your children under the age of 18, to do a sketch, drawing or painting of the Creation of Man? Ted Schluenderfritz, who will do the layout of the cover, will choose the winner for the cover of the book. The winner will receive a free copy of the book and credit for being the artist.

We'd like the submissions by February 15th.

Here are the guidelines:

• anyone under the age of 18 can compete -- public, private, parochial or home-educated


• only hand-done work will be reviewed (no computer graphics allowed)


• the image should be scanned in at high res and sent to Margot at Hillside -- or you can send the original to Margot (Hillside Education, 475 Bidwell Hill Road, Lake Ariel, PA 18436) for her to scan


• the artist can draw all of the picture, or only God and Adam, or just the fingers touching ... whatever they'd like as long as it is clearly a representation of Michelangelo's original


• any 2-d media may be used for this project -- collage, paint, pen-and-ink, colored pencil, whatever.

Any questions .... please email me or Margot!

Thanks so much and please keep this project in your prayers as I really think it is important to encourage creativity but only the good, the true and the beautiful -- there is plenty of bad, false and ugly out there already!

Feast Day: Our Lady of Guadalupe

Thanks to Charlotte at Waltzing Matilda, we were able to add this beautiful Marian image to our "shrinky dink" Marian plaque collection. Didn't she come out lovely?

We love the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe -- but not half as much as our chaplain here at St. Athanasius. Fr. Z. -- who BamBam "hired" as our official chaplain -- is very devoted to this Marian image, both for her pro-life, protector of the unborn status and her "Mother of the Americas" appellation. Our Lady of Guadalupe is an amazing story of evangelizing the Aztecs through this lovely apparition in Mexico back in the late 1500s and the ensuing miracle through St. Juan Diego where not only did he bring roses to the Bishop in December, he had this beautiful image of Mary engraved in his tilma! What a wondrous thing that must have been. I've never seen the original; our chaplain has been to Mexico City many times and participated in concelebrating Mass with Pope John Paul the Great in the Basilica dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe!

And Our Lady of Guadalupe continues to respond to our prayers to her. I've just sent a book off to a publisher which I had put under her patronage -- and sent off to said publisher this morning! What better way to celebrate her feast? Please keep the book in your prayers as we move toward a Spring publication date.

With all this, I figured I owed Our Lady a great dinner so I tried to pull out the stops a bit: tonight we had bean/cheese burritos, cheese quesadillas, rice and for dessert: flan! A great meal to finish off our day of learning and loving and living the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe!

Our Lady of Guadalupe, mystical rose, intercede for the Church, protect the Holy Father, help all who invoke you in their necessities. Since you are the ever Virgin Mary and Mother of the true God, obtain for us from your most holy Son the Grace of a firm faith and sure hope amid the bitterness of life, as well as an ardent love and the precious gift of final perseverance. Amen.

Collect for Today:
O God of power and mercy, You blessed the Americas at Tepeyac with the presence of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe. May her prayers help all men and women to accept each other as brothers and sisters. Through Your justice present in our hearts, may Your peace reign in the world. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever. +Amen.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!

Prayer: for all homeschool moms!

Dear Lord,
Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother, I ask you to assist me in my vocation as a home-educating wife and mother. Let me be a light to my children, teaching them to grow ever closer to You through work, play, prayer and study. Show me how to be a blessing and comfort to my husband, uniting us in one mind and heart and helping us remember to choose Your holy will in all things. Bless our family with faithfulness, peace, joy, love and understanding, so that we may one day remain forever with you in Heaven.

AMEN!

[from Haystack Full of Needles: A Catholic Home Educator’s Guide to Socialization by Alice Gunther – pg 126-127]

Review: Haystack Full of Needles

About five years ago, I met an amazing woman: a woman with now 6 girls and one boy, a home school mom steeped in the Catholic faith, a charitable and crafty woman. I “knew” this woman only through the Internet, and yet a real friendship grew and flourished.

That woman, Alice Gunther, just wrote a book as full of the Catholic faith, charity and craftiness as all her online writings…. a book that is imbued with the Holy Spirit and love of the Blessed Mother…. a book that shares so willingly with others her own journey of family-based learning. Haystack Full of Needles is subtitled “A Catholic Home Educator’s Guide to Socialization”, but it is so much more than just about socializing.

It’s an adventure story.

Gunther takes the reader on her own adventure: an adventure from only child to raising six girls and one boy …. an adventure where the heroine starts out as the self-professed greatest critic of the homeschool lifestyle and emerges as the queen of homeschool advocates … an adventure with the Catholic faith at the center and all the wonders of the world emanating from that core. This is an adventure with happily-ever-afters scattered abundantly throughout.

A fairy tale? A useless venture like looking for a needle in a haystack? Not at all.

Gunther shows how through prayer, friends and love for her own children she is able to give her family a full and rich education without the brick-and-mortar so often touted as the only answer. But more than that, Gunther shows that the children involved (and she uses more examples than her own beautiful children) not only thrive in this setting but desire to continue even through the “terrible teens”. And they survive as healthy, knowledgeable, faith-filled, loving young adults who socialize with one and all.

An interesting side theme in Gunter’s book: the need for socialization for the homeschool mother. This mom-time is as critical as the children’s socialization and education, but often gets overlooked in discussions of the “s” issue. Gunther credits a handful of close friends who not only helped her embrace the home educator’s vocation but also help her continue to plan activities and clubs for the dozens of families in their groups. These close associates help through the good times and the bad.

Gunther credits too, the loving support and guidance of her husband – spousal involvement and support are key ingredients for success in any home education adventure.

Most importantly, a strong and active faith life for all in the family (but especially for the home-educator) – socializing with God and His saints – reaps untold rewards and assistance along this path that is still considered “alternative”.

The book is full of practical tips and suggestions for creating your own home education adventure with other families. And, as Gunther repeatedly points out, this can be one family or 20 families – the important point is to find things that you and your family love and create clubs or field trips, inviting others as desired.

For Gunther and her family, looking for other like-minded families is no longer like looking for a needle in a haystack – the haystack is full of needles!

[A personal note: my eight-year-old daughter immediately recognized the cover-art as Monet’s Haystack at Giverny – how many other eight-year-olds in “real school” even know the name “Claude Monet” let alone titles of his work? ]