Gloria in Excelsis Deo: {SQT} Let Us Remember Those Suffering

1. Alfie Evans on my Mind

This week I found myself checking the news multiple times a day to watch little Alfie Evans' life hang in the balance in England. This little 23-month-old boy in England has a seizure disorder of some sort and the hospital has been refusing treatment, refusing food and water, refusing to let him go home to die in peace, and refusing to let him fly by air ambulance to Italy, which granted him citizenship to bring him over for treatment.

Little Alfie looks so remarkably like my two-year-old Thomas that when Thomas saw Alfie's picture on Facebook, he kept pointing and saying gleefully, "Tom-Tom! Tom-Tom!"

My baby David is about the same age as was healthy Alfie when he began having seizures, and his health began mysteriously deteriorating. Who is to say that such a fate doesn't await any one of us parents with a baby? Only God knows.

It hits close to home.

When I read this mocking article at Babylon Bee, at first glance I thought it was real because it states the truth, and the truth is chilling.

Prime Minister Issues Friendly Reminder To UK Parents That The State Owns Their Children

. . . [click here for article] . . .

The Prime Minister further reminded Britons that they gave up their right to make major decisions for their household when they decided to hand over control of healthcare, social security, education, guns, and free speech to the government.

Our 11- and 9-year-olds are aware of the situation and this has provided much opportunity for conversations about a book we recently read from the Uncle Eric series: "Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?" by Richard Maybury. I can't recommend this book (and series) highly enough and, while it is aimed at high-schoolers, my 11-year-old read it independently and can talk at length about economics now. (I'm currently reading "Whatever Happened to Justice?")

So, as we tearfully watch as good parents are stripped of their rights to make any health care decisions for their son, we converse about how There Ain't No Such Thing as a Free Lunch, the lure of the political LIE of free health care or free anything, about the differences between socialism and communism but the evil of both, and about how a government can disguise itself as a democracy or republic but still be socialistic in nature.

Thus, this week, I tried extra hard to view my difficulties, struggles, and tears through a positive lens--which is so hard for my temperament. I know that the entire world is full of horrifying, terrifying struggles among the masses every moment, but most of the time I walk around forgetful of that . . . but well-focused on my difficulties. This week, I tried my best to put Alfie's face before me . . . maybe I was getting only five hours of sleep, woken hourly, each night, maybe kids were sick, maybe there were numerous stresses, but my child wasn't being held hostage and starved of food and water so that he would die, as disabled children who grow up only to take taxes instead of pay taxes are expensive to the government.

2. Hair Salon

On Saturday, the girls and I got our hair trimmed at a real hair salon. I hadn't treated myself to a hair cut (anywhere) in 12 months, so it was a lovely outing to get us freshened up for Margaret's upcoming First Holy Communion. (I brought along John to help hold the baby while us three ladies were being trimmed by three hairdressers simultaneously.)

3. Power Outage

On Tuesday morning, I was already awake with two little fellas when the power went out at 5:56 a.m. to 310 homes in our neighborhood. This added opportunities for me to think outside the box and figure out some new wrinkles in our day.

Joseph, David, and I ate cereal by candlelight while waiting for the sun to rise and siblings to wake up.

I knew we had annual standardized testing later that day, so I wanted the children to have a hearty breakfast, not just cold cereal, so we gathered up to eat out at a nearby diner. (Plus we usually eat out dinner at testing to celebrate a year well done, and I knew I wouldn't be able to, so this was an early celebration.)

One other factor to my decision was, admittedly, that I had no access to coffee because the pouring rain for days had on Monday driven a bunch of black ants into my kitchen where they had taken up residence inside the water tank and inside the body of my Keurig coffee maker!

Source

I had drank two cups of Ant Coffee the day prior before making this discovery.

The horror, people, the horror!

With a husband out of town, sick kids, little sleep, a power outage, and now ants, I was going to go to great lengths to obtain ant-free coffee.

I was anxious about taking six children out to eat by myself--What would I do if people needed to go to the bathroom? Who would I leave at the table? Who would I take?--but it turned out to be a blessing. I gave our normal talk before entering the restaurant: this is our family's opportunity to be pro-life by giving a beautiful example of being a large family. Do we want the fellow patrons to come away glad they have no or few children, or to be inspired and think that large-family life can be wonderful?

As I was leaving, an elderly lady who had been seated at the adjacent table approached me to say, "You deserve Mother of the Year, your children were so good!"

And when I paid our ticket, the manager said, "I just want you to know that you have the most polite and well-behaved children I've seen come through here in a long time. Whatever you're doing is working."

Since I readily share criticism we receive occasionally--and since we daily deserve criticism for our imperfections!--I thought it important I share these beautiful compliments publicly as well.

We came home to the power still out on a very overcast day, which causes our home to be too dark to read, so I took us outdoors for some school time.

Reading aloud G.A. Henty's "The Young Carthaginian" while the kids drew sidewalk chalk gave me an opportunity for Outdoor School, which we used to do often but is a rarity today. Being outdoors gave me the opportunity to provide companionship to my neighbor, who wanted to talk over the fence at some length.

Then it started pouring rain again, so we packed up to head indoors and wonder what to do in the dimness.

4. Annual Standardized Testing

As our year wraps up, the first, third, and fifth graders took the Woodcock-Johnson IV test again. In short, homeschooling is a grand success academically and we continue for another year!

When I got home to Thomas and Joseph with the babysitter, I discovered Thomas had what turned out to be a 24-hour fever and vomiting illness, which added to the complexity of a household in which several children already had colds, making them sleep with fatigue during the day and be awake at night with coughing.

The experience of more sickness while my husband was out of town let me be an example to my children of patience in adversity--so much laundry!--and gave my children themselves a chance to learn care giving. To my great pleasure, Mary (9) asked if she could please stay with me and help take care of her beloved Thomas (they have such a special relationship), even though I had put on an emergency cartoon to keep the other kids out of my way while I was up to my elbows in vomit. Mary pulled up a stool to sit by Thomas, stroke his hair and speak soothingly, and she ran downstairs repeatedly to get me things like a vomit bowl and Pedialyte drink. Without this illness, our family wouldn't have had the chance to love each other more!

5. Reorganizing Kitchen Homeschool Area

I'm up to my eyeballs in charts, time analysis, and curriculum choices as I prepare for next fall. This week, I also tried a little re-org of the kitchen counterspace I devote to homeschooling. Here I keep the kids' lists (using Seton planners) and a few books we access daily. I bought plastic file folder organizers in the kids' colors (yes, they have color-coded things: John blue, Mary purple, Margaret red, Joseph green).

I also found a wonderful, big, deep white carousel to hold all manner of pens, pencils, and office supplies! What a blessing to our homeschool!

I'm really thinking about the big picture. What do Chris and I want for our homeschool, which is really just a small version of our whole life? Homeschooling is a lifestyle and isn't some cordoned-off part of our children's lives: it is our life!

DRAFT vision for our home, life, and homeschool

6. Miscellaneous

John got his first orthodontia on Monday, so he has had several days of opportunities to offer up his sore mouth for prayer intentions.

Its that fun time of year when many crunchy nut things fall on our driveway, just ready to be smashed with a rubber mallet.

When Thomas (2-3/4) really likes a food, he closes his eyes and waves his head back and forth like Stevie Wonder . . . and then he hums Ode to Joy if it is the best food ever!

This week, David (8 months) learned how to climb up onto the little trampoline, stand up on it, and bounce!

Margaret has been allowed to join in for a few dances of Scottish Country Dance for the last several weeks and she is over the moon with excitement. She talks often about joining the class formally next fall! And now her muscles are sore from so much dancing, which gives her the ability to grow in long-suffering.

7. Reed Gold Mine

I organized a field trip of about 50 homeschoolers to the Reed Gold Mine, which we attended this Friday. It was a sweet afternoon and ridiculously inexpensive for a large family (only $2.14 for each child gold panning--that's it!)