Happy Zombie Day!

As I'm sure you've noticed, the Monday after the time change that robs helpfully removes an hour of sleep is Zombie Day!

And how are we feeling this morning?

The usual celebration of Zombie Day involves walking around in a cranky stupor. Fortunately, there are three additional ways to enjoy this day, which comes but once a year!

First, watch this:



Second, watch this:



Or play it here.

Lastly, remember to cut your fellow zombies some slack.  If you should happen to meet anyone shambling around in a cranky stupor, resist the urge to eat their brains bite their head off. Get to bed early tonight, and tomorrow won't be quite as bad... Hopefully!

Guest blog by Mxyl: Happy Confirmation, Klenda!

 The day before yesterday, Klenda just underwent an extraordinarily successful confirmation!  We are currently preparing for a confirmation party with family and friends!

 I often tend to think of confirmation as the beginning of your adulthood in the church, so congratulations Klenda!  You are now a full Catholic and are able to experience God's love much more completely!

 I thank the readers of this blog very much for their prayers!  Did you notice that every one of these sentences ends with an exclamation point?!


Honorable mentions include Fr. George, Klenda's sponsor; Bishop Gonzales, who confirmed her; and the Prime Minister, who was the sponsor of one of Klenda's friends.

The following picture is of Klenda next to Bishop Gonzales, who is next to Fr. George, and I have no idea whatsoever who the other guy is.







As a footnote, I would find it completely illogical to write a matter of this level of importance subjecting around another person without him/her having a saying within it; therefore it would highly please me if the primary subject of the post would speak in her own words (and yes, I really do talk like this some of the time):

Klenda: (if this is the beginning of my talk, why is it below the foot note?  Anyway...)

 I can only think of one thing to describe Confirmation: indescribably AWESOME!!!  I mean, having a relationship at all with Jesus is one thing; but being Confirmed and welcomed as a full adult member of the Catholic Church is totally different! (Okay, not totally different, but you get the idea.) Thanks so much for your prayers!

Happy Birthday, Leena: Round 2 & 3!

 Happy double digits, Leena!

For her actual birthday, she had a blue jello butterfly "cake."

Later on in the week, we had an extended family celebration and she had a confetti cake with very pink frosting!

10 things about Leena:

10 . She can do long division!
9. She's Queen of the Snow, although she didn't wear that crown very often this year.
8.  She looooves jello!
7. She's a manga drawing maniac!
6. She loves to tell jokes: Two men walk into a bar, the third one ducked.
5. She loves cute little animals!
4. She can do her own magic show with lots of neat tricks!

3. She likes to make little books and comic books!
2.. She's Queen of the Squirrels! Chicka-chicka-chik!
1. She's the sweetest, neatest 10 year old sunshine girl ever!

Measuring Up

Every March and September, I measure the Zoomlians, take pictures, and write down their thoughts about everything.

This time, I was startled by several things.

First, we have 28 feet and 4 inches of Zoomlians!

Second, Mxyl has reached my exact height!

Third, Leena had grown another foot!

Bio Catch up

With the start of Lent, I've been (sadly) neglecting the Biology posts, but science marches on!

My last post was about viruses.  We went on to bacteria,  protists (the junk drawer of the classification of life), fungus,plants and, finally animals.


This morning, in a mad rush to completion, we finished the complex animals from crustaceans to mammals and everything in between.

It was a wild two hour ride! 

One of the great things about high school Biology is that it's a really a survey course, a peak between the covers of the big book of life.

It's fun to skim the surface sometimes - delving deeper her and there just enough to show how vastly more there is.  It's the pull of the crazy-wonderful complexity of life.  Every time you think you have it firmly grasped, up pops a little "but then again..." 

It's a course that should hand kids the scientist's most powerful weapon: curiosity!

Return of the Gospel Desserts: Week 2

 Yesterday's Gospel was the Transfiguration.

Our dessert was a banana cream pie with a glorious mountain of whipped cream on the top!

We actually made two, which ended up being a little too much of a good thing, since we can't save the leftovers, but it worked out fine.

The Emperor and I weren't actually present for this.

We were off at the BSO watching The Passion of Joan of Arc, a special treat, in fact, a Christmas present to the Emperor and two close friends!

We had all watched the movie together ten years ago when we first started watching the Vatican Film List. It's a French silent film from 1928.

The first time I watched it, I thought, "This crosses the line: black and white, silent, and in a foreign language! I have become a movie snob.  Or I would be if I understood it."

I must say, either I have a better understanding of film than I did then, or it takes me ten years to figure things out! 

I had been very moved the first time I saw it, but this time I felt like I understood it much more and it was wrenching to watch.  I'm sure having a world class symphony and chorus performing live helped!  But I was also less confused by the imagery. 

So have I achieved movie snobdom?  I was worried about that, so I also watched Godzilla Raids Again, this weekend.   One viewing was enough to balance a silent foreign film at the symphony.

Happy Birthday, Leena: Round 1!

Today was Leena's 10th birthday party!

The actual day falls later next week, but we had the party a little early.

Leena asked for a "rain forest party."

Klenda painted the windows with appropriate flora and fauna.


Mxyl hung vines across the ceiling and I put a waterfall (silvery streamers) across a doorway.




I  gathered all the jungle animals I could find and put them around the room, but Curious George's predicament is from the Emperor.

Not that the monkey seemed to mind!

 We made an ice-cream-cheese-cake.  This was super easy and yummy!

Each "cake" is a (store bought, in my case) graham cracker pie shell. The filling (for each) is 2 8oz packages of cream cheese, 2/3 cup of sugar, some vanilla, and 1/2 cup whipping cream, whipped together until light and silky.





I then tinted some of the filling to make the "10," added some sprinkles and froze the whole thing.


It tasted like cheesecake flavored ice cream mousse!

Yum!  Yum!  It was delicious even after it thawed and returned to a mousse consistency!

The kids played a bunch of rain forest themed games that Leena had found or made up.  The only one I was involved with was "Pin the Banana on the Monkey."

You can see the monkey face behind Choclo in the picture.  I drew the face, Zorg made the bananas, and I handed out the Mardi Gras beads (the ones I couldn't find on Mardi Gras) as prizes.

I like everyone to get a prize, and I like to have a winner, so they got to pick their beads in the order of "closest banana!"

Oh Say Can You See..

 Us, at Ft. McHenry, raising a Star Spangled banner on the very site of the original Star Spangled Banner?

In the 200th anniversary year of the War of 1812???

Seriously, field trips do not get any better than this!

Here we have the three older Zoomlians helping take down the night flag, while Leena looks on, holding the day flag.

 We were using a "small" flag because the day was too windy for the full size replica.

"Small," as it turns out, is relative! It was only 12 feet or so...

We all got to help raise it, and the kind ranger took a picture of us.

Then I locked the kids a handy cell, and spent a relaxing hour touring the fort on my own.

Well....maybe not! 

Actually, we all did a scavenger hunt to qualify as "Junior Rangers."  And we wandered in and out of all the buildings and underground bunkers.

Then we walked the battlements and played with looked at all the cannons!

This is even cooler than it sounds!  Ft. Mc Henry is star shaped, and the fort itself is within concentric star shaped earthwork fortifications.  As if that wasn't enough, each level is loaded with cannons from every era the fort was used in!

Which means the War of 1812, the Civil War (used as a military prison - ironically, one confederate prisoner was the direct descendant of Francis Scott Key and was not amused at being locked up there on the 50th anniversary of the song), and World War I (used as a military hospital).

It was a cool windy day and we had the fort almost entirely to ourselves.

 We were very good about not climbing on the earthworks, and following all the signs, but we could not resist, near the end of our visit, rolling down the outer fortifications.

And I will not mention which child cheerily told the ranger in charge that that was her favorite part of the visit.

All the Zoomlians got Junior Ranger badges!

But what will stay with us the most, I think, is leaving the park, looking back and seeing the Stars and Stripes which we raised "o'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave."

If you are visiting us from another country, the American national anthem is "the Star Spangled Banner."  You've probably heard it at the Olympics. It was written (by Francis Scott Key) during the War of 1812 about the (very large) flag flown at Fort McHenry.

After an all night shelling from the British Navy, Key (an American )goes up on the deck of the British ship (on which he has been detained) to see if the American defenders survived the night.  Which flag is flying over the fort?

The Star Spangled Banner!

Confirmation

Klenda will be confirmed on March 9th (She's taking the Confirmation name of Regina Marie)! We are going to do this novena to the Holy Spirit for her starting today, and we'd like to invite you to join us in prayer.

You don't have to say the whole novena, of course, any prayers would be appreciated!

We are saying the following prayer each day:

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.

O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

Court of Honor

The scouts held a "Coat and Tie" Court of Honor at a fancy restaurant.  Courts of Honor are the events at which scouts are promoted and merit badges officially distributed.

I'm not sure who got what this time because they much more interested in telling me about the squid at the Japanese buffet, than they were about anything else!




I stayed home with the youngest three, the Emperor took the scouts plus Klenda.


I was quite dazzled by how nice everyone looked in fancy dress!