TUAR Reflections

 

 The photo is of the road back home from mass at the abbey -- and the sunrise.  

I'm still reading through our TUAR archives, and thinking.  

What do homeschooling moms write about when their homeschooling days are over?    

One solution is to keep talking about homeschooling, but from a mentoring perspective.    This seems like a good way to keep giving to the community and making it easier for newer homeschoolers.    You can provide resources, advice, wisdom, comfort, etc.

Another possibility is to carry forward what endured through the homeschooling years and beyond.   Indeed, the two options are not binary -- you can do either or both.

We are currently doing more of the second thing, though we don't exclude the first possibility.  

Chari said something in her introductory post about how she homeschooled herself in her childhood years.    I could say that too.    Probably most homeschooling moms did to some extent.

When I look back at the active years of TUAR, there are some very strong patterns.   Most of our posts focused on:  

• Books
• Nature  
• Family (and friends)
• Last but certainly not least.......  our Faith.  

Oh, and another thing that brings them all together:

Conversation! 

These themes, or pursuits,  are lifelong. .... they came before our active years of homeschooling and have carried on beyond them.

I suppose if I had one bit of advice for newer homeschoolers it would be along the lines of:

Emphasize the things that will be worthwhile when the academic years have gone by.

That's probably what this blog is doing -- carrying on with the things that we have been interested in since our earliest years and are still interested in.

And eventually, I will stop meta-blogging.....  

Annual Winter Rosary Novena 2025 - a bit late

 I have a few quick things to say today.

------------------------

First and most important:

Chari last posted her yearly 54-day Rosary Novena reminder a bit over 5 years ago, before this blog took a long nap.   I just noticed today that the winter one would have started January 24th, which is 10 plus days ago.   She usually leads a winter and summer one.

I'm reviving the tradition a bit late, but I think the timing is right!   When Chari and I travelled to the Oregon coast a couple of years ago, in February actually, we said so many Rosaries together as we drove!  

I did the math, and it looks like if you started today, as I will be doing you would end on March 31st, which is still in the month dedicated to St Joseph.     I have a few matters that could use some focused prayer, so I am going to try to do it as I can .

Here is a list of prayer intentions for husbands and marriages covering every month of the year, put together by Chari.

-------------------------------

Secondly, I'm going to quickly link to some of the posts that started this blog:

• Welcome to TUAR
• Our Plans for TUAR
• Our Patron Saints
• Chari's Introduction
• Willa's Introduction

Probably anyone reading knows us already!  But just in case.   

-----------------

The picture is of a relief-carving (there may be a better word) of the Holy Family that our small local church (a mission in the mountains) gave to me when I retired from playing the piano/ planning the music there.   

The wall behind it was painted by my husband a couple of years ago when we bought this Oklahoma fixer-upper.    How adventurous life is -- 12 or 13 years ago when this blog was at its most active time, I never could have pictured either being a quasi-music-director, or living in the center of the US in a tornado zone.  Or a pandemic and shutdown, or a historic California wildfire coming very close to our house.     Well, maybe I could have predicted the fire somewhat.   

Become like fire, indeed!  

Praying for all your intentions!

Candlemas

 THE Angel-lights of Christmas morn,

    Which shot across the sky,

Away they pass at Candlemas,

    They sparkle and they die.

Cardinal John Henry Newman, Candlemas 

I didn't get around to posting yesterday, on Candlemas, as I meant to.     But the sunset is from last evening -- it was beautiful and unseasonably warm in this part of the country!  

 I read recently that Candlemas can be thought of (unofficially) in the liturgical year as the heart of a Triduum of Fire, going from St Brigid's feastday on February 1 to St Blaise's memorial today on February 3rd.   More details at the link, and also here.    The unifying theme is light and particularly candlelight.    So in that sense it's not over yet.  

There are a lot of references to fire in the Divine Office, reflecting Scripture, where fire is used at times to represent vice and anger in their effects, or as a symbol for destruction, but also can represent the enlivening fire of the Holy Ghost.   Jesus said:  

“I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!"

And you may have heard the story of Abba Joseph 

Abba Lot visited Abba Joseph and said to him: “Abba, to the best of my ability I do my little synaxis, my little fasting; praying, meditating, and maintaining hesychia; and I purge my logismoi to the best of my ability. What else then can I do?”

The elder stood up and stretched out his hands to heaven; his fingers became like ten lamps of fire.

He said to him: “If you are willing, become altogether like fire.”

There are some Candlemas resources listed and linked at Amy Welborn's site.  

You notice that a lot of my photos are of the sky.   Our house here in Oklahoma is surrounded by pasture, fairly featureless except for several cows who haven't yet agreed to be photographed.   But the sky is beautiful, especially at sunrise and sunset.    I like the crescent moon through the trees.   

Thankfulness Times Ten in 2025

  The random post for today is Thankfulness Times Ten, the January 2012 edition.    For this one, since at the time TUAR had just started, we took turns listing things we were thankful.    Thankfulness Times Ten was something Chari has been practicing at least since 2008.  She writes:

"Recently, I read about research showing that folks who use journaling to write what they are thankful for...instead of just a place to vent, find their lives are more happy, more satisfying. It got me thinking......yeah, I know, scary thought.......well, it got me thinking, it might be kind of nice to just find ten things I am thankful for, in the moment. I have no rules...I may go over ten, if I cannot help myself......I may repeat myself.....and, I will write in no particular order of importance. If you feel inspired to do the same....do link yourself here in the comment section"

So here goes, for me.   It will just be a list, today; I am keeping this whole revival thing as simple as possible!    

1.    God's patience.   I am increasingly aware of this these days -- He has been so good to me for so many years.

2.    Sunrises -- see above.  

3.    Leftover Christmas chocolate.

4.  Books -- and since we don't have many books here in Oklahoma yet, I'm grateful for libraries and e-readers.  

5.  Friends!

6.   The fact that my second-oldest son is visiting here right now, so there are 4 sons and 1 daughter and son-in-law nearby, and 2 granddaughters.

7.   Benedictines!   Especially right now the Solesmes Congregation.  

8.   Central heating -- though wood stoves are nicer, we don't have one here, and the cold air outside makes me very thankful for the warm air inside.

9.   Board games -- a good way to bring introverts together!

10.    In Oklahoma, everyone seems to say "have a blessed day!"   It still surprises me, but I am thankful for it.  

Family, Friends and Phone Time

 I spent most of the morning trying to track down why my disabled son's medical insurance went inactive after only 3 months in our new location in Oklahoma.   Progress was made, and everyone I talked to was courteous and helpful, but the in-between times dragged -- several 30 minute phone holds before I could talk to a person, who then had to transfer me to another person, and so on until someone could actually help.

It was not as much fun as talking to Chari on the phone, which was the plan for the week that didn't work out!  

At least I had time to knit a doll sweater and beanie for my granddaughters.

And it was also comforting that a couple of memory-posts came up on the randomizer.  I'm linking to these two posts from 2012 together because they are both (1) written by Chari (2) episodes in our lives where the Bryans and Ryans were together.  

Here is one where my 4th son, then a teenager,  was visiting Our Hearts' Haven while looking at his college options:

 Pizza Night Courtesy of Boys.

 Here is one that is even more like time travelling -- posted on June 2nd, 2012,which was my 6th son's 13th birthday, but happened the previous September, when Chari and I took our little boys to the Sundial Bridge in Redding:

  Our Littles.   

Sometimes I look at the blogs of old friends who are no longer updating their blogs but have kept them online, like we have with this one.   A lot of them posted that they loved blogging especially because of the memories but didn't feel like there was the energy anymore to write out posts.    That was what happened to us, too --  we got busy, and went to other things.   But even if this Take Up and Read revival doesn't work out, it is quite nice to revisit some of these memories and see the names of old friends who commented.  

Praying especially for those who are experiencing extreme weather, and those who are travelling, and those who read this!  

Also, this is St Francis de Sales' feast day, and Suzie Andres, who started blogging in 2017 and is still active, wrote a post full of quotes from this saint, who is the patron of writers and journalists:

 Reassurance from St Francis de Sales.  

Silence of Older Mothers in 2012 and 2025

 

 (The picture is of the conifers at the National Park near our house in Oklahoma - they remind me of the trees at the California mountain home where we passed most of our homeschooling years)

So, the post that came up in the randomizer this time was The Silence of Older Homeschooling Moms.    A perennial topic, no doubt, and Melissa Wiley's post starting the reflection is still there.  

The TL:DR version of my post:

------------

1.   Older moms go silent because they are transitioning into a different role -- less director, more witness and support.

2. There are ways you can continue the conversation even as an older mom.

------------

The post is from June 2012, which was before social media had really exploded.   And it seems to me that venues like Facebook became very useful to older moms because they could gather in groups where they could share difficulties with other veterans without scaring the new moms, and also, the format lends itself more to the present moment and less to permanence.   And that can work when you don't want to crystallize a passing thought or mood or season for all time.  

So it seems to me that Facebook became the way to continue the conversation.    

----------

Another thought, going in a completely different direction:

Silence is not a mere negative.   For instance --   very little is said about the life of the Holy Family in Scripture.    This time of year, when we have just celebrated the Nativity, the Epiphany and then the Baptism of our Lord and His first miracle at Cana, we can't help being deeply aware of a kind of vigorous, deeply important silence and hiddenness.   So little is said about that thirty years of the Incarnation -- almost 90% of the whole -- and yet, how much is in that silence!   

Mary treasured these things and pondered them in her heart, and that takes silence.   If we modelled nothing else as older moms it would be worthwhile to practice this treasuring in the heart, this attention to eternal things.   Not just as an example, but also as a way of deepening the significance of ordinary life, of being there for the younger moms in the middle of everything.   

I think about how much my mother was part of my life and still is even though she is no longer living on earth.    She didn't have to say much.   She was and is a witness in both senses -- attentive to our lives, and a heritage and continuing legacy as well.   The homeschooling moms that preceded me smoothed my path even by  their mistakes and oversights, but especially by their courage and creativity.     And that continued even when they weren't talking much publicly.   

-------------------------

That's about all the meta I can do right now, though if you read this and have related thoughts, or want to say hello, please do comment!  And Chari and I are still working out the practical implications, especially as it relates to blogging.   Any thoughts on that are welcome too.   

January in 2012 and 2025

  First snow of the year at Heart's Haven

Thirteen years ago tomorrow, that is! 

 This January, looks like Chari's area is getting the same extremely cold weather we are getting here in Oklahoma.      That arctic front is hitting across the country.   Praying that everyone stays safe and warm.   

I have been mulling whether to wake up this blog, off and on, for months -- and I've talked to Chari-- and she agrees with me that TUAR's days are not over completely, though it is hard for her to blog nowadays since she works full time still.

But how to do it?   What to say?  

There is a post randomizer on the sidebar, if you go to the desktop version of the blog.   So every couple of days I click it and see what comes up.   So many memories!  

I thought perhaps if nothing else I can link to old posts and ... well... go from there.   

The last posts on here were 6.5 years ago, which is almost exactly half the lifetime of the blog.   We first posted on All Saints' Vigil, October 31, 2011.   That makes the blog a new teenager, now : ).  

View from the window from last week's snowstorm.

 In 2025, that is!

A 2018 Mother's Day Surprise!.....Belated Post

Looks like I wrote this post below months ago, almost completed, but never published.  Better late then never.  Not going to waste my words or work!

*******⧪⧪⧪⧪⧪⧪⧪⧪⧪⧪⧪******

On this past Mother's Day, I had decided to work for my other coworkers so they could spend time with their families since we don't really do anything  traditional on that day in my family. 

It was a fairly busy day at work, for my twelve-hour shift. I got out on time…….and headed home. 

I remembered that my house was pretty thrashed with the boys’ stuff, clean laundry and dirty dishes when I had left at 0645 in the morning. I decided that I would have to jump on the mess on my return…..so that my Monday wouldn't be so painful. 

I could tell as I pulled into the driveway that no one was at home. 

I opened the front door……..and I was pleasantly surprised and excited by what I saw. The three boys (two youngest and our nephew) had cleaned the house spotless!!  What a relief!  What an incredible gift for Mother’s Day!

But that was only the beginning………

I realized there was a little display on the counter. 

The boys spoiled me with several gifts! There was a large candle, a sculpture of a crane (they all know that I am partial to sandhill cranes), Bluetooth earbuds (I guess they knew that was on my wish list!), a lovely potted flowering plant and a matching card and bookmark. Those boys totally have me figured out! Every gift was perfect!

I wondered if my husband had encouraged them to do something for Mother's Day…..but when I asked the boys if Papa knew about it, they said that he didn't. 

I am so touched that they figured it out on their own. They are 16, 16, 18 and 21. There are four ages listed because the best friend of my youngest was there for the shopping. They drive me crazy sometimes, of course…...but this will definitely endear them to me forever. 

My love language is Words of Affirmation…...so when I read that card, I had to ask the boys:  so does this card have sentiments that you are in agreement with????

They were unanimous in shouting aloud to me:  yes!!!

They said they picked up one card and thought:  this is the one. Then they found a second one and decided it was the one. On the third card they selected, they said they knew it was the exact one they needed…...and ceased to look for a better one. 

I love that card. And what they wrote for me in their own words is so sweet. I realized the bookmark matched the card and they said the bookmark was the clincher. 

And they didn't buy a potted plant…..they picked out a pot that “just said mama” to them and then bought a flowering plant and planted it themselves. 

This was so, so very thoughtful. I am so impressed with these four boys (Malachy’s best friend Mawolin helped them to shop, though he wasn't there when I arrived home.).

And I told them: if you had only cleaned the house, only got the card or just one of the presents, I would have been happy and proud…..they totally rocked it this Mother's Day!  I told them that they had to keep up the tradition now…..and especially to teach it to their children one day for their wives.  

God bless the boys!

Belated Mother's Day Blessings to all of you,

Chari

 

Gifts

Another angle of the gifts

Loooove my card!

Sweet words form their hearts

A coworker made this for me at work and left it on my computer in my office.......celebrating us as mothers.....who had to work on Mother's Day!

The boys were just beaming with my happiness.....

Very Late Mother's Day Blessings to you,

                                                                                    Chari

Our Annual Summer Rosary Novena, 2018

Our Annual Summer Rosary Novena 

We have been doing this for so long......I have no idea how many years it has been.....at least over 10 years!!  In the last few years: crazy and awesome unexpected results from these persevering years of prayers......please join us!

Every year, on the email list Happy is the Husband, a private email list for Catholic wives, we lead two Rosary Novenas for our husbands and any other prayer intentions that we have.......

The first Rosary Novena of the year begins in late January, purposely ending on the vigil of St. Joseph's feast Day. 

The second Rosary Novena of the year, begins this coming week, on August 14th.  The intentional starting date leads us to the end of the novena just in time for the feast of the Holy Rosary in October.

The intentions are always for our husbands first....and any other special intentions.

    Please leave your intentions.....listed or private.....or annonymous.......through
me........even if you cannot pray the novena.......we can pray for you!

++++++++++

     More information about the Rosary Novena:

The "54-day Rosary Novena" is an uninterrupted series of Rosaries in honor of
Our Lady, revealed to the incurably sick Fortuna Agrelli by Our Lady of Pompeii
at Naples in 1884. For thirteen months Fortuna Agrelli had endured dreadful
sufferings and torturous cramps; she had been given up by the most celebrated
physicians. On February 16, 1884, the afflicted girl and her relatives commenced
a novena of Rosaries. The Queen of the Holy Rosary favoured her with an
apparition on March 3rd. Mary, sitting upon a high throne, surrounded by
luminous figures, held the divine Child on her lap, and in her hand a Rosary.
The Virgin Mother and the holy Infant were clad in gold-embroidered garments.
They were accompanied by St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena. The throne was
profusely decorated with flowers; the beauty of Our Lady was marvellous. Blessed
Virgin said: "Child, thou has invoked me by various titles and hast always
obtained favours from me. Now, since thou hast called me by that title so
pleasing to me, 'Queen of the Holy Rosary,' I can no longer refuse the favour
thou dost petition; for this name is most precious and dear to me. Make three
novenas, and thou shalt obtain all."

Once more the Queen of the Holy Rosary appeared to her and said, " Whoever
desires to obtain favours from me should make three novenas of the prayers of
the Rosary, and three novenas in thanksgiving."

The Novena consists of five decades of the Rosary each day for twenty-seven days
in petition; then immediately five decades each day for twenty-seven days in
thanksgiving, whether or not the request has been granted. The meditations vary
from day to day. On the first day meditate on the Joyful Mysteries; on the
second day the Sorrowful Mysteries; on the third day the Glorious Mysteries; on
the fourth day meditate again on the Joyful Mysteries; and so on throughout the
fifty-four days.

This is an old website, add the Luminous if you wish.

If you put "54 day rosary novena" into Google.........you will find some great
info

For those of you in unhappy marriages, or feeling desperate.......perhaps
for a conversion of a dh....or for a wayward child........this is a VERY efficacious prayer................the graces just abound! Many times in ways you might least expect it. Keep in mind that many people I know sometimes feel like things get worse when they start the Rosary novena....before they get better......we think it must be the Devil wanting to interfere with our prayers!

PLEASE consider joining us if you are feeling low.

We will offer it up for all of those on the happyisthehusband list, those reading this blog and others we know, for our vocations, our husbands and our marriages...............and our offspring!!

I know that many often feel bad if they forget to pray their rosary once starting the novena................here are my thoughts:

Just ask for the graces to remember to pray it every day...................the grace to pick yourself up and just join in when you DO remember. I ask my guardian angel to pray it with me, to remind
me........and, to pray it for me, if I should forget. And, if you do forget, those of us who do remember, have you covered......just jump back in! If I only forget one day, I sometimes try to make it up over the next day or so.

There are graces available to you from every rosary you DO say.....is so worth it.

     You can use an audio version of the rosary to help keep you focused. I have downloaded these from The Rosary Army to listen to on my iPhone. You can listen on your computer, your iPod or save to a CD. I use it when I work or drive if it looks like I will have trouble finding a time to stop and pray at home.

     Looking forward to praying with you and for you!  Please, please, please do leave your intentions with us.  Please share this link on your blogs, by email or facebook......or whatever.  Let's make this a big praying time.

It is also a good way to begin the new school season.....here in the US.  Or the Spring, there in Australia.  ;)

Blessings,

Chari & Willa

Willa Cather.......Finally

After all of these years, I have finally started reading a book authored by Willa Cather.

Buuuuuuut fiiiiiiirst:

Yaaaaaawwwwnnnnnn. 

😴😴😴😴😴

 Streeeeeeeetch.

🙋🙋🙋🙋🙋

Okay, that was the sound of this blog waking up.

**********************************************

As I was saying........

I am reading MY ANTONIA.  I already had it on my shelf and a handful of my friends also have it at hand.......so we are reading this one.  Or, rereading in one case.

Supposedly Willa Cather referred to My Antonia as "the best thing I've ever done."

That has me a little worried.......If I read her best work now, will I not enjoy her other works as much?  What's your favorite title?

I am also confused why it's her book. She says that her friend brought his notes to her and she created the book, without changing much. And he even titled it.

I have been distracted by so many other books........that's why I am late to this party.  I am really looking forward to reading it.  I like it so far.......about 14 pages in.

I looooove this quote:

Jim was a 10 year old, visiting his grandmother's garden for the first time, at the end of Chapter I, Part II:

I kept as still as I could.  Nothing happened.  I did not expect anything to happen.  I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more.  I was entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like this when we die and become part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge.  At any rate, that is happiness: to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep.

 This resonates so much with me.......I KNOW this.  I FEEL this. So frequently.

It's a special gift that God has deigned to give me.  Its one reason why I love the sun and summer and warmth so much.  Pure happiness drug.

**********************************

On the subject of this blog:

Willa and I both want to write here.....and we make plans every year to do so......but it keeps not happening.  I write blog posts in my head daily, still.  

I love writing. I want to write daily, several times. But with my grown kids (minus one....still 16), and life being so short and all, I have been focusing on my relationships with my people.

Well, I am actually home all alone today.......and I have a lot of stuff to do......so I will close this short post.



I am excited that I finally sat still long enough to write and publish.  Please, if you see this post, please say hello!!

Want to read My Antonia with us?

Blessings on a beautiful spring day,

                                                          Chari

P.S.  This is officially our 526th blog post!!!  I guess there was a time that we were more prolific!  Now I have to figure out how to get photos from my phone onto here.....things are more complicated than before.....

Annual 54-Day Rosary Novena

It begins tomorrow!!  

Offering it specifically, with Saint Joseoh's intercession, for husbands, marriages and the family. Please join us!!! 

 

 

Every year, on the email list Happy is the Husband, a private email list for Catholic wives, we lead two Rosary Novenas for our husbands and any other prayer intentions that we have.......

The first Rosary Novena of the year purposely ends on the vigil of St. Joseph's Feast Day.  

 

The second Rosary Novena of the year always begins on August 14th.  The intentional starting date leads us to the end of the novena just in time for the feast of the Holy Rosary in October.

The intentions are always for our husbands first....and any other special intentions.

     There are automatic daily reminders on Happy is the Husband email list.  It would be too much to place those reminders on the blog. Join the list now to get those reminders.  

    Please leave your intentions.....listed or  private.....or annonymous.......through

me........even if you cannot pray the novena.......we can pray for you!

++++++++++

     I always like to include more information about the Rosary Novena:

The "54-day Rosary Novena" is an uninterrupted series of Rosaries in honor of
Our Lady, revealed to the incurably sick Fortuna Agrelli by Our Lady of Pompeii
at Naples in 1884. For thirteen months Fortuna Agrelli had endured dreadful
sufferings and torturous cramps; she had been given up by the most celebrated
physicians. On February 16, 1884, the afflicted girl and her relatives commenced
a novena of Rosaries. The Queen of the Holy Rosary favoured her with an
apparition on March 3rd. Mary, sitting upon a high throne, surrounded by
luminous figures, held the divine Child on her lap, and in her hand a Rosary.
The Virgin Mother and the holy Infant were clad in gold-embroidered garments.
They were accompanied by St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena. The throne was
profusely decorated with flowers; the beauty of Our Lady was marvellous. Blessed
Virgin said: "Child, thou has invoked me by various titles and hast always
obtained favours from me. Now, since thou hast called me by that title so
pleasing to me, 'Queen of the Holy Rosary,' I can no longer refuse the favour
thou dost petition; for this name is most precious and dear to me. Make three
novenas, and thou shalt obtain all." 

Once more the Queen of the Holy Rosary appeared to her and said, " Whoever
desires to obtain favours from me should make three novenas of the prayers of
the Rosary, and three novenas in thanksgiving." 

The Novena consists of five decades of the Rosary each day for twenty-seven days
in petition; then immediately five decades each day for twenty-seven days in
thanksgiving, whether or not the request has been granted. The meditations vary
from day to day. On the first day meditate on the Joyful Mysteries; on the
second day the Sorrowful Mysteries; on the third day the Glorious Mysteries; on
the fourth day meditate again on the Joyful Mysteries; and so on throughout the
fifty-four days.

This is an old website, add the Luminous if you wish.

If you put "54 day rosary novena" into Google.........you will find some great
info

For those of you in unhappy marriages, or feeling desperate.......perhaps
for a conversion of a spouse....or for a wayward child........this is a VERY efficacious prayer................the graces just abound! Many times in ways you might least expect it. Keep in mind that many people I know sometimes feel like things get worse when they start the Rosary novena....before they get better......we think it must be the Devil wanting to interfere with our prayers!

PLEASE consider joining us if you are feeling low.

We will offer it up for all of those on the happyisthehusband list, those reading this blog and others we know, for our vocations, our husbands and our marriages...............and our offspring!!

I know that many often feel bad if they forget to pray their rosary once starting the novena................here are my thoughts:

Just ask for the graces to remember to pray it every day.........the grace to pick yourself up and just join in when you DO remember. I ask my guardian angel to pray it with me, to remind
me........and, to pray it for me, if I should forget. And, if you do forget, those of us who do remember, have you covered......just jump back in! If I only forget one day, I sometimes try to make it up over the next day or so.

There are graces available to you from every rosary you DO say.....it is so worth it.

     You can use an audio version of the rosary to help keep you focused. I have downloaded these from The Rosary Army to listen to on my iPhone. You can listen on your computer, your iPod or save to a CD. I use it when I work or drive if it looks like I will have trouble finding a time to stop and pray at home.

     Looking forward to praying with you and for you!  Please, please, please do leave your intentions with us.  Please share this link on your blogs, by email or facebook......or whatever.  Let's make this a big praying time.

It is also a good way to begin the new school semester.........

I have a handful of special intentions this year.......three mothers fighting cancer as well as a grandfather......and special requests for a few marriages. 

What are your intentions this year?  You can leave them here with us. We will pray for you. 

 Blessings,

          Chari & Willa

PS  If you read this blog post.....and you have a blog, would you mind directing others over to this post from your blog.......thanks!

My Newest Friend: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Originally written last December......completed today......

"As she read, at peace with the world and happy as only a little girl could be with a fine book and a little bowl of candy, and all alone in the house, the leaf shadows shifted and the afternoon passed."

It was time to figure out what to read next........age-old bibliophilic problem.


My dilemma was quickly and easily solved!


Earlier this year, a young friend of my son's was visiting our home.  I asked the usual question when getting to know someone......."What is your favorite book?".........(who else does this???)


She responded with:  A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN


      I replied:  I always wanted to read that....but I never got around to it........


I was very pleased to receive a copy in the mail last week from her. And I immediately set aside a little reading time to get started........and it was these passages below.......that got me. 

I love this story already.  I love Francie already.

Let me share my favorite passages from the first few chapters........I want to put them here so that later, when I want to relive my "falling-in-love" with this story, it will be easy access to the memories.....

Francie is a 12-year-old girl in the early 1900's Brooklyn.........from a poor Irish family.....


"Francie loved the smell of coffee and the way it was hot. As she ate her bread and meat, she kept one hand curved about the cup enjoying its warmth. From time to time, she'd smell the bitter sweetness of it. That was better than drinking it. At the end of the meal, it went down the sink.

 Mama had two sisters, Sissy and Evy, who came to the flat often. Every time they saw the coffee thrown away, they gave mama a lecture about wasting things.

Mama explained: "Francie is entitled to one cup each meal like the rest. If it makes her feel better to throw it way rather than to drink it, all right. I think it's good that people like us can waste something once in a while and get the feeling of how it would be to have lots of money and not have to worry about scrounging."

This queer point of view satisfied mama and pleased Francie. It was one of the links between the ground-down poor and the wasteful rich. The girl felt that even if she had less than anybody in Williamsburg, somehow she had more. She was richer because she had something to waste. She ate her sugar bun slowly, reluctant to have done with its sweet taste, while the coffee got ice-cold. Regally, she poured it down the sink drain feeling casually extravagant."

Francie's mother sent her to buy stale bread.....while she wited for the bread truck to dump its load......

"Francie stared at the oldest man. She played her favorite game, figuring out about people. His thin tangled hair was the same dirty gray as the stubble standing on his sunken cheeks. Dried spittle caked the corners of his mouth. He yawned. He had no teeth. She watched, fascinated and revolted, as he closed his mouth, drew his lips inward until there was no mouth, and made his chin come up to almost meet his nose. She studied his old coat with the padding hanging out of the torn sleeve seam. His legs were sprawled wide in helpless relaxation and one of the buttons was missing from his grease-caked pants opening. She saw that his shoes were battered and broken open at the toes. One shoe was laced with a much-knotted shoe string, and the other with a bit of dirty twine. She saw two thick dirty toes with creased gray toenails. Her thoughts ran. ...

"He is old. He must be past seventy. He was born about the time Abraham Lincoln was living and getting himself ready to be president. Williamsburg must have been a little country place then and maybe Indians were still living in Flatbush. That was so long ago." She kept staring at his feet. "He was a baby once. He must have been sweet and clean and his mother kissed his little pink toes. Maybe when it thundered at night she came to his crib and fixed his blanket better and whispered that he mustn't be afraid, that mother was there. Then she picked him up and put her cheek on his head and said that he was her own sweet baby. He might have been a boy like my brother, running in and out of the house and slamming the door. And while his mother scolded him she was thinking that maybe he'll be president some day. Then he was a young man, strong and happy. When he walked down the street, the girls smiled and turned to watch him. He smiled back and maybe he winked at the prettiest one. I guess he must have married and had children and they thought he was the most wonderful papa in the world the way he worked hard and bought them toys for Christmas. Now his children are getting old too, like him, and they have children and nobody wants the old man any more and they are waiting for him to die. But he don't want to die. He wants to keep on living even though he's so old and there's nothing to be happy about anymore."

And, just because my beloved Dodgers are mentioned:


"They played furiously, cursing, sweating and punching each other. Every time a stumble bum passed and loitered for a moment, they clowned and showed off. There was a rumor that the Brooklyn's had a hundred scouts roaming the streets of a Saturday afternoon watching lot games and spotting promising players. And there wasn't a Brooklyn boy who wouldn't rather play on the Brooklyn's team than be president of the United States."


And I loved this scene in the library........so glad that the librarians who befriended my young self were not as this one.....


"After awhile, Francie got tired of watching them. She knew that they would play and fight and show off until it was time to drift home for supper. It was two o'clock. The librarian should be back from lunch by now. With pleasant anticipation, Francie walked back towards the library.  
 

"The library was a little old shabby place. Francie thought it was beautiful. The feeling she had about it was as good as the feeling she had about church. She pushed open the door and went in. She liked the combined smell of worn leather bindings, library paste and freshly-inked stamping pads better than she liked the smell of burning incense at high mass.

"Francie thought that all the books in the world were in that library and she had a plan about reading all the books in the world. She was reading a book a day in alphabetical order and not skipping the dry ones. She remembered that the first author had been Abbott. She had been reading a book a day for a long time now and she was still in the B's. Already she had read about bees and buffaloes, Bermuda vacations and Byzantine architecture. For all of her enthusiasm, she had to admit that some of the B's had been hard going. But Francie was a reader. She read everything she could find: trash, classics, time tables and the grocer's price list. Some of the reading had been wonderful; the Louisa Alcott books for example. She planned to read all the books over again when she had finished with the Z's.

Saturdays were different. She treated herself by reading a book not in the alphabetical sequence. On that day she asked the librarian to recommend a book.

After Francie had come in and closed the door quietly behind her-the way you were supposed to do in the library-she looked quickly at the little golden-brown pottery jug which stood at the end of the librarian's desk. It was a season indicator. In the fall it held a few sprigs of bittersweet and at Christmas time it held holly. She knew spring was coming, even if there was snow on the ground, when she saw pussy willow in the bowl. And today, on this summer Saturday of 1912, what was the bowl holding? She moved her eyes slowly up the jug past the thin green stems and little round leaves and saw ... nasturtiums! Red, yellow, gold and ivory-white. A head pain caught her between the eyes at the taking in of such a wonderful sight. It was something to be remembered all her life.
"When I get big," she thought, "I will have such a brown bowl and in hot August there will be nasturtiums in it."

She put her hand on the edge of the polished desk liking the way it felt. She looked at the neat row of freshly-sharpened pencils, the clean green square of blotter, the fat white jar of creamy paste, the precise stack of cards and the returned books waiting to be put back on the shelves. The remarkable pencil with the date slug above its point was by itself near the blotter's edge.

"Yes, when I get big and have my own home, no plush chairs and lace curtains for me. And no rubber plants. I'll have a desk like this in my parlor and white walls and a clean green blotter every Saturday night and a row of shining yellow pencils always sharpened for writing and a golden-brown bowl with a flower or some leaves or berries always in it and books ... books ... books. ...

She chose her book for Sunday; something by an author named Brown. Francie figured she had been reading on the Brown's for months. When she thought she was nearly finished, she noticed that the next shelf started up again with Browne. After that came Browning. She groaned, anxious to get into the C's where there was a book by Marie Corelli that she had peeped into and found thrilling. Would she ever get to that? Maybe she ought to read two books a day. Maybe. ...

She stood at the desk a long time before the librarian deigned to attend to her. "Yes?" inquired that lady pettishly.

"This book. I want it:" Francie pushed the book forward opened at the back with the little card pushed out of the envelope. The librarians had trained the children to present the books that way. It saved them the trouble of opening several hundred books a day and pulling several hundred cards from as many envelopes.

She took the card, stamped it, pushed it down a slot in the desk. She stamped Francie's card and pushed it at her. Francie picked it up but she did not go away.

"Yes?" The librarian did not bother to look up. "Could you recommend a good book for a girl?" "How old?"

"She is eleven."

Each week Francie made the same request and each week the librarian asked the same question. A name on a card meant nothing to her and since she never looked up into a child's face, she never did get to know the little girl who took a book out every day and two on Saturday. A smile would have meant a lot to Francie and a friendly comment would have made her so happy. She loved the library and was anxious to worship the lady in charge. But the librarian had other things on her mind. She hated children anyhow.

Francie trembled in anticipation as the woman reached under the desk. She saw the title as the book came up: If I Were King by McCarthy. Wonderful! Last week it had been Beverly of Graustark and the same two weeks before that. She had had the McCarthy book only twice. The librarian recommended these two books over and over again. Maybe they were the only ones she herself had read; maybe they were on a recommended list; maybe she had discovered that they were sure fire as far as eleven-year-old girls were concerned.

Francie held the books close and hurried home, resisting the temptation to sit on the first stoop she came to, to start reading.

Home at last and now it was the time she had been looking forward to all week: fire-escape-sitting time. She put a small rug on the fire-escape and got the pillow from her bed and propped it against the bars. Luckily there was ice in the icebox. She chipped off a small piece and put it in a glass of water. The pink-and-white peppermint wafers bought that morning were arrange in a little bowl, cracked, but of a pretty blue color. She arranged glass, bowl and book on the window sill and climbed out on the fire-escape. Once out there, she was living in a tree. No one upstairs, downstairs or across the way could see her. But she could look out through the leaves and see everything.
 

It was a sunny afternoon. A lazy warm wind carried a warm sea smell. The leaves of the tree made fugitive patterns on the white pillow-case. Nobody was in the yard and that was nice. Usually it was pre-empted by the boy whose father rented the store on the ground floor. The boy played an interminable game of graveyard. He dug miniature graves, put live captured caterpillars into little match boxes, buried them with informal ceremony and erected little pebble headstones over the tiny earth mounds. The whole game was accompanied by fake sobbings and heavings of his chest. But today the dismal boy was away visiting an aunt in Bensonhurst. To know that he was away was almost as good as getting a birthday present.
 

Francie breathed the warm air, watched the dancing leaf shadows, ate the candy and took sips of the cooled water in-between reading the book.

 

If I were King, Love, Ah, if I were King. ...

 

The story of François Villon was more wonderful each time she read it. Sometimes she worried for fear the book would be lost in the library and she'd never be able to read it again. She had once started copying the book in a two-cent notebook. She wanted to own a book so badly and she had thought the copying would do it. But the penciled sheets did not seem like nor smell like the library book so she had given it up, consoling herself with the vow that when she grew up, she would work hard, save money and buy every single book that she liked.

 

As she read, at peace with the world and happy as only a little girl could be with a fine book and a little bowl of candy, and all alone in the house, the leaf shadows shifted and the afternoon passed. 

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Even a few months later, the wonderful afterthoughts of this little gem of a book still linger.  I am so happy to have my own copy.......because I am sure that I will be rereading this book again within the next decade.

 

Thank you so very much for this beautiful and thoughtful gift, Julia!

 

 

Spring & Reading Blessings to all!

 

 

   God bless,

 

                 Chari

 

 

 

PS.......Interestingly enough, after reading this book above, the next book that I picked up was very similar in so many ways.......but instead of taking place in the early 1900's........it takes place in the 1950's and is an actual biography:  The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.  It was an excellent follow-up book immediately after reading A Tree Grow in Brooklyn. Funny thing:  The Glass Castle "found me".........a few months before, I had been taking my daily walk for exercise from home, and strangely, laying there on a country road, was this book.  It insisted that I pick it up and take it home to read. When I finished reading the book, I slipped it to Julia so she could follow-up her reading with the book.......and it turns out it was on her MUST READ list.  I love when books talk to us........



Journaling! My New Hobby!

Good day, my friends!

I am so excited!  (Forgive me.....I am so easily pleased.) I think I am going to take up journaling as a new hobby. Not the blog-posting kind that I have done in the recent past (not too recent obviously) ......but real journaling with pen and notebooks.

Writing itself, is a longtime hobby.......but journaling, specifically, is my new concentration.

This is the inspiration for my new project:

Going through my mom's genealogy stuff, that she passed specifically to me before she passed away in December of 2014, gave me an inkling of what I am finding enjoyable to discover.....the handwritten letters from my grandparents, mother and great-aunt. All of those dates and names of people are only so interesting. The stories and handwritten accounts are much more meaningful.   It is one of my motivators for blogging......though it hasn't been enough of a motivator lately. Obviously. I think I am just not in the mood for sitting in front of a computer anymore......

I always feel like writing.....but now the desire is overwhelming. I don't mean to be full of myself, like what I have to say is important.....but I wish my relatives had left more writing behind for me. So I intend to leave some writing behind for my progeny. I am a storyteller. Not one of fiction, but of family stories and memories. With almost all of my kids grown-up (5 of 6 are 19 years and up!), I definitely should have more time to fit some writing in.....I think it will naturally improve my blogging as well......as is already evident in my two posts in one week. And as I reread this post for editing,  am reminded that my scrapbooking does the same......so I need to get all of this decluttering done at home so that I may get back to the scrapbooking. 

 

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I am all set to go!  I have purchased two books to use as a guide....and have picked up an old journal that I have used an average of once a year for about fourteen years. 

Last week, I got stuck with seven days off from work and nowhere to go. So, I took myself on an overnight solo shopping spree up to Medford, Oregon, a three-hour roundtrip. I made a list of stops and items needed;  I did so well!  I got almost everything I needed.....and most of it with good discounts. 

I spent my evening visiting Barnes & Nobles to see if they had any Five-Year Journals I could touch and possibly purchase. I liked the inside of a few, but not the outside. I had hoped to find the Book of Kells one offered on their webpage. But alas, no. 

There was one with awesome quotes inside.....but not a comforting cover. So I decided to just buy the one on Amazon that I had already picked as a back-up plan.   

And Hannah, my Maddelyn's college roommate, inspired me to put my own quotes in my Five Year Journal......

I think that is a great idea and I have already downloaded the Brainy Quote app to use. 

In the meantime, I was so awed with the amazing selection of journals in just one place!!  So many lovely choices!!  I wanted them all!  

I actually took photos to show my sister......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So beautiful, right??!!  And so many choices and styles to choose from!!! Extensive!

In the end, I resisted the temptation of purchasing a new journal......knowing that I had a few nice choices at home still. I soooo know where I am going to get the next journal that I need to purchase!!

I did allow myself to chose this specialized journal: LIST YOURSELF:  Listmaking as the Way to Self-discovery.....A Provocative, Probing, and Personal Expedition into Yoir Mind, Heart, and Soul by Iline Segalove and Paul Bob Velick

 

I don't feel I need much self-discovery through this book.... 

I just thought it would be a fun thing to leave behind so my grandkids and great-grandkids would know what I was thinking "back in the day". It would have been fun to have done this at age twenty and again now at age 52 (later this month). I think it will be good for those days when a prompt will be useful. Here are sample pages from this book, including the "how to use this book"............
 

  

      

 

 

  

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

     

 

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Now about this Five Year Journal.......

My daughter Maddelyn and her roommate Hannah were home for Spring break a few weeks ago. They are sophomores at the University of San Francisco. I saw them writing in their journals and was intrigued by the titles. Maddelyn let me read some of her entries..... She was 18 months into writing in hers. She started with her first week at college. This will be such a gift to herself and her progeny....to see what the young college student was thinking and doing. Even looking back just one year ago was fun.  It was sweet to see where I showed up in her story......  :)

I was about to say:  I wish that I had journaled more at that age......but I did!  Inadvertently!! Apparently I wrote a lot of handwritten letters to friends.....and one of them just sent me all of my letters. It is truly a treasure of my thoughts at that age.....and as a newly married girl. ❤️❤️❤️❤️
 

Anyway......as soon as I saw those books, I knew I wanted one of those journals!!  I could commit to a few lines a day. For five years. 😊

So, you write a few lines on each date of the year, for five years......so you will come back around to each page four more times after the first round through......clever.
 

Maddelyn received hers as a gift from her BFF from birth.....a beautiful Jane Austen book. I wanted it......but I will wait for next time. Here is the one that I picked up......a thought a day via Amazon

 

and the inside:

 

I have started on April 1st.......the month of my birth.......52 years on the 25th!
 

So I challenge all of you......encourage you..... to at least get one of those Five Year Journals. They look like fun!  And your kids will love them later. And maybe their kids' kids.

Let me know if you do!!

And finally, here is the regular journal, purchased and started when my 14 year old was an infant, 14 years ago......

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring & journaling blessings to all!

 

 

 

 

God bless,

 

                Chari