What A Wonderful Blessing!!!!!

No, thank you. ;) I am sure that there are cases (perhaps a lot) of people being kept alive through expensive, artificial means. I just wanted to point out, since you mentioned feeding tubes, that IMO feeding tubes are not extraordinary care. They are necessary and humane.

A feeding tube is not extraordinary care. And I doubt it costs $20,000 either.

My new definition of middle class is not qualifying for any government programs.

I never heard of seasonal hearing loss! What causes that? Allergies?

I don't know, but I would like to be it! :D

OH NO!! :tongue_smilie: Don't think I can provide that very well! She does have trouble concentrating with the noise, and we usually go into another room by ourselves to do schoolwork. Thanks for the suggestions! I am going to research this a bit more and then have a talk with her about it. I think she will be relieved to understand why she has such problems!

Enrique Iglesias football (especially the Carolina Panthers- see my avatar!) books brownies (that's why I named my blog "Books and Brownies"!)

Soapdish Oscar (dh, oldest ds, and I love this but have never found anyone else who does!) The Ref Ace Ventura, Pet Detective I used to really like Ferris Bueller but dh and I watched it again a couple years ago and ... nothing. However, 16 Candles is still funny! Love Pinky and the Brain!! But the funniest cartoon EVER is The Tick!!!

Oh, but then they send me letters reminding me to take my dc for their well-child visits! And they sure waste a lot of paper, mailing me new cards for everyone covered every month!!

Our former mailman was the spitting image of Toby Keith! :D

Ava, she has every symptom on the inattentive list! And in fact, several years back, I had the pediatrician check her hearing because she didn't seem to hear me even when it was something she wanted. Her hearing was fine though. So what do you do with your dd to help her with these issues in regards to homeschool, chores, etc?

I think my 9 yo might have it and she is getting quite frustrated with herself.

Yeah, I always hear that people didn't understand Latin. But how can you go to Mass every week and hear the same Latin and not understand it? I don't get it! I like Latin Mass, but I don't need it. I would be happy with a Novus Ordo Mass done right, which doesn't exist where I live unfortunately.

I found this thread very disturbing! I am sorry that so many of you have been subjected to judgmental attitudes by fellow Catholic homeschoolers! Is it possible that even though they do certain things, they don't expect others to do them? I know that for me, I had to go through a long period of explaining to myself why daily Mass was not possible. I wanted to go so much, and every Seton publication says you need to go/ should go to daily Mass. I always wondered if I was just making excuses to myself. But I finally settled it in my mind and realized that for us, daily Mass is just not possible. However, I do need to do what is possible (and also what is required. Daily Mass is not required!)

I told my dh about this thread and he said, "Exactly what I thought when I first saw it!"

None of the priests I know have studied Latin. I think moving to Mass in the vernacular was extremely short-sighted, especially in the US. First of all, if Mass were still mostly in Latin, immigrants could attend and be able to understand a lot of it. Parishes would not be split into English communities and Spanish communities like mine is. Priests would have a head start on learning Spanish, as they would already know Latin, which would help them minister to Hispanics. Different orders of priests, nuns and lay people have different charisms within the Church. Some focus more on one aspect of Catholicism. But they should all have the same beliefs.

I think this says more about Catholic school than Catholic homeschooling! CCD was worthless. I grew up in a primarily Jewish town and I was jealous of my Jewish friends because of Hebrew school. They actually had to work and learn Hebrew. I attended four or five Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, and was so impressed with my friends being able to chant in Hebrew. Can you imagine if Catholic kids had to go to Latin school and learn Latin and the faith in order to be confirmed?! I read through the Baltimore Catechism for the first time with my oldest son when he was in ninth grade. I guess I learned it because I just did an online quiz about how well you know the BC and I got a 100. But growing up Catholic, I had no idea why any of the teachings of the Church were what they were, and that is not for a lack of attendance. I went to Mass every Sunday and CCD all the way through. I remember writing that I wanted to be confirmed because my mother wanted me to be. That's all it meant to me. I did not even understand the teaching of the Real Presence! My dh and I both grew up Catholic. When our oldest was school-age we didn't want him to go to public school, so we tried to enroll him in our parish's school. That was a horrible experience - just trying to enroll! - and we decided we couldn't let him go there. Suffice to say that the school was more interested in money than in educating Catholic dc. He went to public school for 2 years and then we decided to homeschool. I could recommend several interesting books. Catholic Homeschooling by Dr. Mary Kay Clark (of Seton) gives a fascinating historical perspective about why the public schools were considered dangerous to Catholic students, hence the development of the alternative parochial schools. Now, of course, the parochial schools can be just as bad. I cannot understand why people would pay all that tuition to send their dc to a Catholic school and then have a teacher who is not even Catholic. And then people say to me, "Well, it's always a Catholic teacher who teaches religion!" Catholic schools in many cases do not use Catholic textbooks, do not have Catholic teachers or have Catholic teachers who do not follow the teachings of the Church, etc. In fact, Dr. Clark spent years trying to have parent-run schools and ended up turning to homeschooling because they were too difficult. We used to be the only Catholic homeschoolers in our church, until Drama Queen converted! :lol: However, there is a very active Catholic homeschool group about an hour from me, and it is filled with families who probably do read the Bible and try to live the way the Church teaches. Our bishop gives a Mass for homeschoolers once a year, and last year he stayed at the lunch afterwards for hours talking to the children and meeting people. Ya think he knows where future vocations are coming from???? :D Another issue with Catholic school is its total unaffordability (is that a word?). We have 7 dc. We couldn't even afford to send ONE dc to Catholic school! I heard a lady saying one time that they paid more for the Catholic high school her dd went to than for the college she went to!! Even if you enroll all your dc in Seton, it's only a fraction of the price of Catholic school! Catholic homeschooling is definitely the way to go! Oh, another book I have is called "A Catholic Homeschool Treasury" and it has various essays from different families about how they homeschool.

Mrs. Moore *was* interesting, but then she disappears from the novel and dies at sea. I was like, huh? Yeah, great move, get rid of the one character I like!

My dh went to a bad high school and he always said the same thing - there's nowhere in the "real world" where I have to put up with drugs being dealt over my math desk and fights every day in the cafeteria. If there were a problem like that at my job, I could quit and get another job.

To clarify my position: I wish the Olympics weren't in China, but then I haven't really liked any decision the Olympic committee has made in the last 10-20 years or so. But I have no problem with Bush attending the Olympics in China.

Just found this list: More than 80 state leaders and royals are expected to attend the opening of the Aug. 8-24 Games. Attendance and non-attendance is a closely watched issue, as rights groups have urged leaders to boycott the Games to protest against China's crackdown on May unrest in Tibet and its ties with the government in Sudan. Here is a preliminary list of world leaders who have said they will attend the opening ceremony: AFGHANISTAN - President Hamid Karzai ALGERIA - President Abdelaziz Bouteflika AUSTRALIA - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd BRAZIL - President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva CAMBODIA - King Norodom Sihamoni COOK ISLANDS - Head of State Frederick Goodwin CROATIA - President Stjepan Mesic CYPRUS - President Demetris Christofias FIJI - Interim Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama FINLAND - Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen FRANCE - President Nicolas Sarkozy ISRAEL - President Shimon Peres JAPAN - Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda LATVIA - President Valdis Zatlers LAOS - President Choummaly Sayasone MADAGASCAR - President Marc Ravalomanana MAURITIUS - President Sir Anerood Jugnauth. MALAYSIA - King Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin and Queen Tuanku Nur Zahirah MICRONESIA - President Emanuel Mori MONACO - Head of State Prince Albert II NETHERLANDS - Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenend NORWAY - King Harald V and Queen Sonja Haraldsen PHILIPPINES - President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ROMANIA - President Traian Basescu RUSSIA - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin SAMOA - Head of State Tuiatua Tupua Tamasese Efi SINGAPORE - President S. R. Nathan and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew SLOVAKIA - President Ivan Gasparovic SOUTH KOREA - President Lee Myung-bak SRI LANKA - President Mahinda Rajapakse SWITZERLAND - President Pascal Couchepin THAILAND - Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej and Crown Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn UNITED STATES - President George W. Bush. A seven-member delegaton led by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will attend the closing ceremony. VANUATU - President Kalkot Mataskelekele VIETNAM - President Nguyen Minh Triet -- WILL NOT ATTEND: BELGIUM - Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme. He will attend the closing ceremony. BRITAIN - Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He will attend closing ceremony. CANADA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper CZECH REPUBLIC - Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek will miss the opening ceremony, but attend the Games later. ESTONIA - President Toomas Hendrik Ilves GERMANY - Chancellor Angela Merkel INDIA - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Sports Minister S. Gill will attend. India's ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi has been invited to the opening ceremony, according to local media reports. ITALY - Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi LITHUANIA - President Valdas Adamkus NEW ZEALAND - Prime Minister Helen Clark. Governor-General Anand Satyanand will attend. NORTH KOREA - President Kim Jong Il. Second in command, Kim Yong Nam, will attend. PAKISTAN - President Pervez Musharraf POLAND - Prime Minister Donald Tusk SOUTH AFRICA - President Thabo Mbeki. His wife Zanele Mbeki will attend the Games. TAIWAN - President Ma Ying-jeou. Thomas Tsai, president of the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee, will attend. UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Yesterday on Fox News Sunday they were going on and on about how Pres. Bush should not have attended the Games. Apparently no sitting President has ever gone to the Games outside of the US. But I remember hearing during the Opening Ceremonies that over 80 heads of state were there. Doesn't it seem elitist for the US President to never attend outside of his own country? Personally, I think he is the President and if he wanted to go, he should have. What do you think?

I am up nursing the baby and watching.

my son found it on youtube