Goodbye, Mr. dePaola

I am absolutely heartbroken by the news that Tomie dePaola has passed away. He was among my favorite illustrators during my childhood and once I became a mother myself I began stacking my home library with his books or ones he had illustrated. Just yesterday morning I started our school day by reading The Holy Twins which he illustrated because we have dedicated our homeschool to St. Benedict.

I put in a big order at Powell's for hardcover copies of his books including the new one Quiet. I also saw a link shared about an interview with him. What a wonderful person he was! I will definitely need to visit these two churches in New England where he has paintings.

Rest In Peace, sir; we will surely be having a tea party in your honor.

Daisy Space Science Explorer Badge

I had signed Little Miss up for a workshop in May to earn this badge, but now everything in our council has been cancelled through mid May. Fortunately in this time of quarantine lots of older scouts and adults are putting together virtual lessons. Yesterday she did all three of those video lessons which included making a Mars rover.




When I looked at the actual badge requirements I felt like the videos didn’t quite cover it all so I went into our home library to fill the gaps on the sun and moon.  A Child’s Introduction to the Night Sky by Michael Driscoll was the main source I used, but I filled in with This is the Way to the Moon by M. Sasek and Little Kids First Big Book of Space by Catherine D. Hughes.

To cover the women in space bios I used the cut sheet designed to go with the badge which features Mae Jemison and Huy Tran and our council’s spring program guide which had a blurb on Sally Ride. I also read her the page on Sally Ride in our copy of She Persisted by Chelsea Clinton.

Hōkū The Stargazer by Ellie Crowe is a fun glow in the dark book about using the stars as navigation that we will probably read tonight when it is dark enough to see the glow.

I have a feeling I’m going to be ordering a lot of badges for independent work during the quarantine.

In the Garden for the Annunciation

We weren't able to cancel our spring break cabin at Black Butte so we transferred our quarantine to achieve cabin fever in the mountains. When we returned home the first thing I did was walk the children through our yard to check out what had popped up while we were away for 5 days. (Also I really didn't want them going from a few hours in the car straight to play video games.)

The Mount Hood daffodils in the Marian Garden are up and looking very happy. I think I need to move the statue of St. Mary to be in front of the white fuchsia (or I ought to have cut it back in the fall.) The Marian name for daffodils is Mary's Star.

Also some of the petite peachy daffodils are up although they are not as robustly growing as the Mt. Hoods.  One of my purple pink Lenten roses in the background.

Under the fig tree is an eruption of violets or Our Lady's Modesty. It is associated with the Annunciation because of St. Mary's humility when the angel Gabriel told her she would be the Mother of God. I just love how these Marian flowers tie in the season of the bloom with the holy day or feast day. I think the little grassy spikes are camas flowers which have self seeded (exciting!!) or maybe native blue eyed grass? I will have to keep an eye out on what develops here.

And look at this happy patch of native wild ginger! Look at that bloom! I don't think I have ever noticed them blooming before, but it is such a subtle color and it is such a humble, modest plant itself. I'm thrilled at how things are establishing themselves in the native hedgerow bed.

Lastly I read a page on the Annunciation from Tomie de Paola's Mary The Mother of Jesus book.

Social Distancing Stations of the Cross

I wanted to share an idea for how to be able to celebrate the season of Lent during these crazy days of COVID-19. Masses and most places are cancelled or closed and it makes everything challenging. I normally like to visit a different parish every Friday during Lent to celebrate the Stations. For me it is a little bit like being a pilgrim in my own city. I had already planned out my whole Lent with which parishes we would visit on which Fridays and where we go out to eat afterward, whether that be a soup supper or fish fry at that church or fish house. My parish was even going to host their first fish fry this year. It has been disappointing to delete the might-have-been-plans each week from my calendar.

But we can still go outside for walks right? I know of at least two outdoor Stations in my area. Last year on a half day of school I met my mom and sister at a tulip farm with my children. Then, since it was a Friday, I was able to talk them into walking the Stations at Mt. Angel Abbey. I had discovered these outdoor Stations two years ago when I attended a women's retreat there. It is so lovely and peaceful, walking up the hill to the abbey through a woodland area; each Station has a little shed with the statues inside and the title of the Station written in German above with Gothic lettering. My German side of the family is from Mt. Angel so I like to imagine that maybe my great grandmother or great-great grandmother walked these stations before me.

Also, outdoor Stations are SO kid friendly! You have little toddlers that can't stay still? No problem, they can run around or run between the Stations. Your children never seem to be able to use an inside voice at church? No worries, you are outside and they can use that outside voice without embarrassing you. Cranky child who doesn't want to participate? No big deal, that child can get all kind the personal space they need either walking ahead, behind or sitting in one spot refusing to move. I feel like all of the stir craziness resulting from the pandemic leads to outdoor Stations being a totally appropriate solution for families right now.

Look, by the end I had lost all but one kid. Actually Deuce and Little Miss were pretty good about the whole adventure. They asked or answered good questions about which Station was which and what their little thoughts were about them. Those two can be quite pious if you get them in the right mood.

We also enjoyed how so many of the little sheds had been decorated for Lent.

Lent in the garden

I have been quite remiss about pruning and dead heading this winter. In spite of all that though the garden is looking quite cheery right now. The Lenten roses are coming up as are the crocus. Since my favorite color is purple, and it is also the color associated with Lent, I have quite a lot of purple varieties. They are a tricky cut flower; they tend to drop quickly.

One of the white varieties in the Marian Garden. (Evidence of me not deadheading the hydrangea or cutting back the fuchsia.)

I had planted a bunch of white crocus in the Marian Garden, but they didn’t have a good showing yet.  Or maybe there just isn’t enough sunlight in that part of the yard this early in the year. This little cluster in the front perennial bed was very happy this year. The yellow crocus are for St. Valentine, but they hadn’t bloomed yet on his day. 

And because it is Lent I had the opportunity to try one of the seafood recipes I have collected for the season. This is a crab fettuccini.