Thanks for the Prayers

Oob is back and everything went well!!

He has to lay low for a few days, which we have interpreted as "watch movies and play computer games," much to Oob's satisfaction.

Thanks again!

Prayers Please!

Oob is having surgery tomorrow (Friday) to repair an inguinal hernia.  It should be a relatively minor, standard procedure, starting at 2:30 eastern time, and we should all be home by evening.

I'm asking for prayers that it works out as a minor, standard procedure! 

I'm not expecting any complications aside from not allowing Oob to eat for the whole day...

Oob Says

Oob (hopping around while the Emperor and I talk): Ooooh! Ooooooooooh! Pick me! Pick me!

Me: Yes, Oob?

Oob (long pause): Oh, maaaaan.  I lost my mind.

Poem of the Week

The Lamb

By William Blake

Little Lamb who made thee

         Dost thou know who made thee

Gave thee life and bid thee feed. 

By the stream and o'er the mead;

Gave thee clothing of delight,

Softest clothing wooly bright;

Gave thee such a tender voice,

Making all the vales rejoice! 

         Little Lamb who made thee 

         Dost thou know who made thee 

         Little Lamb I'll tell thee,

         Little Lamb I'll tell thee!

He is called by thy name,

For he calls himself a Lamb: 

He is meek and he is mild, 

He became a little child: 

I a child and thou a lamb, 

We are called by his name.

         Little Lamb God bless thee. 

         Little Lamb God bless thee.

HT: Poetry Foundation 

This poem is a favorite because it sustained me after Oob was born.  The doctor didn't sufficiently suction his mouth, so Oob aspirated some mucus.  It went into his lungs and it took him 5 days in the NICU to get it out.

I was so tired I could barely think, but I would sit, rocking Oob in the hospital while telling him this poem, and it would soothe both my baby and my spirit.

Fun at the Skate Park

Anatomy and Physiology

It's been a crazy few weeks: last week Klenda started Spanish, Mxyl's Japanese class started up again, and we started Anatomy and Physiology!

This was my favorite class in high school, and it is what I consider the second most important class you ever take. 

The Emperor argues that English is the second most important, since you will always need to communicate, but I disagree.  You can move some where where no one speaks English, but wherever you go, you'll take your body with you.

The most important, of course, would be theology, since you'll need that even when you've moved where you don't take your body with you!

At any rate, I have 8 teens and we are having a great time learning about the human body.  We meet twice a week: once for lecture, once for lab.  We should finish up the A & P around Thanksgiving, and then we will add on a 5 class Bioethics course in December.


We are doing an amazing 13 dissections!  What you are seeing on that middle shelf is each kids dissection kit and specimen bag. 

The aprons and gloves go with the lab stuff.  I've found that lab coats are expensive, but aprons do a fine job fairly cheaply.  Plus they are easy to customize with permanent markers!

Fun and Games

 The other day I (literally) stumbled upon Zorg and Leena playing a game in the front hall.

It turned out they had created a game using little drawings.

They drew various characters, situations and sayings, cut them all out and then used them on a another piece of paper.

The game is more like a story: the first person lays out a scenario and explains what is happening.

Then the next player added and removed items using their store of drawings, to tell what happened next.

Whenever they get stuck in the story, they can always draw more pieces.

Simple, fun, and completely limitless - very Zoomlian!

Poem of the Week

The Tyger

By William Blake

TYGER, tyger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

HT: Day Poems

Things the Kids Have Asked Me to Put on the Blog

 Oob, playing with jewels and making pictures!


Choclo, building Angry Birds Star Wars structures with giant red bricks!

Klenda, having sculpted (in whipped cream) a picture of the Assumption on the cake she made for the Assumption!



Oob, looking like this!






Mxyl and Oob, looking like this!






Three friends who didn't actually ask to be put on the blog, but I love this picture!

It makes me think "A three stranded cord is not easily broken." (Eccl 4:12)

Being a reverse paparazzi is fun!

Feasts

We've celebrated a few feast days in August.

St. Dominic was August 8th, and we made white cupcakes with chocolate "cappas"  in honor of the Dominican habit. 

Although, admittedly, I've never seen a friar with sprinkles!

 August 15th was the Assumption.  I wore my Assumption shawl to Mass!

It was a gift from beloved friends who visited us from Spain when Mxyl was a baby.  The shawl is embroidered silk with elegant long tassels and is really a beautiful work of art!

Every Feast of the Assumption I wear it to Mass and pray for my friends, Tia and Tio.



Also for this feast, Klenda made an angel food cake and I made blue, raspberry flavored whipped cream.

We garnished it with fresh raspberries - yum!!