Graduation Mass

The Catholic homeschoolers had a mass for graduating seniors!

Summer Essentials

We bought Dorito some extra swim trunks for his lifeguarding job.

And we ordered new gloves for the twins. Winger and Polar Bear were known for their red gloves on the Russell Stover team (but those leather palms are worn to shreds now). Look at the fancy TPH gloves that say "Thunder" on the bands.

Math Placement

Dorito finally completed all the math placement tests for K-State. The Calculus exam froze in the middle and by the time the college called him back, it was timed out. So he had to start over with a new set of problems. It was like taking 1.5 Calc placement tests. He got more than half correct! Plus he had to take their College Algebra placement test. He answered nearly all those questions correctly. The advisor called and said he could be in Math 220: Calc I for the fall semester! Hooray!!

Tooth Aches

Poor Meggar has had some headaches ever since her root canal was done in October during fall break. I took her back over Thanksgiving break, Christmas break, spring break, and no one could find the trouble. Sometimes it was hot and cold sensitive and sometimes it was bite sensitive, but rather hit-and-miss on the symptoms on different days of the week. She was in the most pain ever over the Memorial Day weekend. An emergency x-ray showed infection in the root canal and possibility of needing another root canal! Not easy to deal with when our dental insurance covers the western side of the state, and she is living on the eastern side of the state. More antibiotics until she is back home in a couple of weeks for repair work.

Book Club and Conversion

Conversion is at the center of the story of Saint Augustine's Confessions. So I am nervous that my book club will be discussing it tomorrow--particularly since half of the women are not Catholic. Yet it was chosen because it's regarded as a classic pillar of Western Civilization. I love the straight-forward nature of the book, and I have read it multiple times with my high school juniors. It starts with a great message for them about peer pressure (in the pear tree theft). And St. Augustine talks about friendship, death, fidelity, and honoring his mother. For his time, he was brilliantly educated, well connected at Court, and becomes humble. He was a sinner, like St. Paul, who resisted the true God for years. He was so restless for answers, but thought he was better than the "average Joe." Not until he heard the preaching of St. Ambrose did he start to see the light. Another reason we need good preachers in our post-modern age of skepticism and secularism.
"Thou hast formed us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee."

Family Ties

Captain didn't realize his great grandparents were also buried at St. Joseph of the Valley cemetery. We visited their grave, too, near the front by the very first cross.

Anna and Eugene Chmidling were not immigrants, but lived all their lives in Leavenworth County.  Gr. Don also told us how to find their house (which we drove by on the way home). We learned that Anna was a twin, but no one remembers about her sister. Their son Leo changed the spelling to Schmidling, but Don said he was not allowed to ask his father why he made that decision. Interesting family secrets legends. Perhaps his sister Wilma will have more information (she is the historian in the family). That's my summer goal.

Wedding Bells

We played another outdoor wedding complete with Pachabel's Canon in D and Bouree by Bach for the daughter of our banker.

Then we played more classical music for the outdoor cocktail hour. My sons looked so formal, and they did really well with the wind and the sunset in their faces.