More Q & A

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I've gotten innumerable variations of this question:  Before Christmas, I downloaded the pdf file of the Along the Alphabet Path stories a through e.Have the stories since “e” been put into a pdf file that I could download? 

All the stories have been re-written since Christmas to include the new saints book. And all the lesson plans have been re-written as well to include extensive reading lists in the "Faith" section. It took me several weeks to do the re-writes. When I was finished, all the way up through letter "L," Maria made brand-new PDFs for each story. And then, Cindy uploaded them all to the individual letter posts and to this post, where you can find every story PDF from A-L.

Would you share where you got the font for your Susan Branch books?

My home companion books have Susan Branch theme. Kim found the font, called Age Old Love, at Two Peas in a Bucket.

I printed your watercolors lessons and now that I am ready to use them... can't find them.
I can't find them on your blog either... are they still available?

I think we've determined that these weren't my watercolor lessons. I'm honored to have been confused with Alice Cantrell, who has watercolor lessons on her beautiful blog. There was also a link on Serendipity to "Watercoloring the Psalms." That link is dead now.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading over your lessons at Serendipity. I read the Mrs. Applebee story to my children(ages 10, 9, 7, 4 and 16 months) and they loved it and clamored for more. My question for you is: which books do you think would be essential to purchase? I am on a very limited budget but am never opposed to buying books! I can take advantage of ILL for the weekly books -- but I wanted to know which books were the ones you would think were the most important to purchase?

The only books which I think are "must-haves" are the ones we use every week: The Flower Fairy Alphabet and An Alphabet of Catholic Saints. If you can purchase The Loyola Kids Book of Saints and The Loyola Kids Book of Heroes, you will also have a fair number of saints and heroes stories for almost every letter.

 Doesn't it make more sense to study saints in the context of the liturgical year and not alphabetically?
I don't see it as an either-or proposition.My children are so excited when it's "their" letter week--the week of their first initial. And when we study saints whose first initials are also that week, connections are made. But just because we do something special for a child during her letter week, doesn't mean we skip her birthday or her name days:-). So it is with the saints: we learn about them on their letter week and visit with a familiar friend to celebrate their feasts.

Are you buying all the geography books through a special deal or program?  Have you had much luck at the library?

I wish I had a special deal! We've been doing Monday Night Geography for three seasons now. I've been collecting the books slowly. I bought several, mostly because I wanted to be sure we had the "right" book on the right week throughout football season. Most library systems carry some or all of the books and this publisher seems to be a favorite of librarians so I have heard that libraries are amenable to ordering the books. With the new list, there are several choices for each letter and some wiggle room for availability. I'm collecting all the narrations alphabetically in a notebook to give us some order as we go.

When is there going to be a Real Learning book for high school?

When my big kids are grown and graduated and my little kids are much, much bigger, if there is a need for a high school book like Real Learning, I'll write one. My hunch is that by the time we get there, someone else will have filled the need quite well. God gives me twenty-four hours every day and right now, none of them are book writing hours. Writing books and living the lifestyle of our particular family just don't mesh right now. On the other hand, He graciously grants me snatches of time to share little bits here with you.

Are you planning to publish Serendipity plans in a book form? I have friends who don't use the computer but would love these plans.

There are no plans to ever publish Serendipity as a book or books. There are several reasons for this. The first is that Serendipity is not static. In the past month, we've revised tremendously and I anticipate constantly going back and tweaking and updating. That can't be done when something is bound and printed. Another reason is that it's web-based. I can't imagine how we'd publish in book form with links constantly changing and I think it would be tedious to have all those links in a book. But the most important reason is that Serendipity was born of the desire of two women to freely share from the abundance of their own blessings. And it continues through the generosity of several more women who have joined. We like the fact that it's free. To me, blogging is the best way I can share with other families how truly beautiful I think a faith-filled homeschooling lifestyle can be. The point is to further faith-filled education at home; if it's free, hopefully it's accessible to everyone. Perhaps you could consider printing posts for your friend so she can follow along. The flower fairy poems are copyrighted, but if she buys the book, she'll have those. I'm happy for you to pass along my work and there's no need to worry that you're infringing upon copyright. I wrote it to share it and I'm very happy to have you help me share it.

You mentioned a carnival or fair of all the Serendipity posts of other people who are using the program. Are you still planning to do that?

We are! It's in the draft folder now. Re-writing the stories took precedence but now we're ready to go forward!

Oh, is that all?

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A  hermit  had a gift from God to cast out evil spirits.
One time he asked to learn what they feared most and what compelled them to flee.

“Perhaps it is fasting?” he asked one of them.
“We,” the evil spirit replied, “neither ever eat nor ever drink.”

“Sleepless vigils, then?”
“We do not sleep at all.”

“Flight from the world?”
“Supposedly an important thing. But we spend the greater part of our time wandering around the deserts.”

“I implore you to confess what it is that can subdue you,” insisted the elder.
The evil spirit, compelled by a supernatural force, was pressed to answer: “Humility—which we can never overcome.”

— The Ancient Fathers of the Desert: Section 1
V. Rev. Chrysostomos, trans.

 

The Litany of Humility
O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
          From the desire of being esteemed,
          Deliver me, Jesus.          

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 ...
          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 ...

         

That others may be loved more than I,
          Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

            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 may become as holy as I should…            

The Litany of Humility at EWTN

Humility does not disturb or disquiet or agitate, however great it may be; it comes with peace, delight, and calm. . . . The pain of genuine humility doesn’t agitate or afflict the soul; rather, this humility expands it and enables it to serve God more.

—Saint Teresa of Avila, The Way of Perfection, 39:1-2

To the Nice Fellow at the McDonald's Drive-Through

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Yes, that was the same lady in the big van three different times on Saturday. I was sick. My kitchen sink wasn't working. The dollar menu was my friend.

And to someone who might benefit from the large sum of money I just spent to get a plumbing education: Don't put eggshells down the garbage disposal. Apparently, "It's like pouring gravel down there."

And now we all know.