My Son the Writer and Eucharistic Adoration

Teen son wants to be a professional writer (remind me to tell you the story someday of how he HATED writing). He is currently writing a fantasy trilogy. Yep, three novels. He's not ambitious or anything.

But fantasy isn't all he writes. He helped me with a teen book that is soon (prayerfully) to be published and he is the student columnist in the current Heart and Mind issue (spring). Look for him, his pen name is Christian Ohnimus (rhymes with anonymous.)

Here is something that he wrote for the newsletter of the Holy Adoration Eucharistic Chapel:

After a fast-paced week full of school, work and extra-curricular activities, the quiet peace-time of holy adoration early Saturday mornings has been a wonderful way to tone it all down for me, and has been for years. With the constant hustle and bustle of everyday life, and the constant contact with sounds and noises that go along with it, there really is no better way to relax than to spend time with God, and chapel is the perfect place to do that. With the soft glow of lights, flickering candles, and most importantly, the very presence of God in the Eucharist looking down on the bowed heads of those at prayer, a quiet atmosphere ensues the moment one enters the chapel.

But holy adoration is more than a way to relax, it is a special time set aside to commune with God in ways that really are not the same when at prayer even in the comfort of one’s own home. One seems to discover a content and quiet peace of mind the moment the door closes behind them, shutting out the busy world outside for a time; for chapel really is its own little world, detached from the material things just outside its doors, in the world, but not of the world.

Time should be set aside in prayer every day, of course, but attending chapel once a week gives one the chance to incorporate prayer into our lives in a way that really keeps us focused on prayer, placing God at the top of the list and just letting the rest of our lives fall into place around Him. Time spent talking to God through prayer, reading scripture and in meditation becomes even more potent when directly in the presence of the Eucharist and our awareness of the presence of God and the impact he has on our lives is enhanced beyond previous degrees to new levels that help to develop our spiritual lives so that we may come ever closer to our Lord, Jesus Christ.

This article brought me to tears.
Hope you don't mind a little mom bragging.

Review of the Companion

Karen Edmisten wrote such a lovely review of The Catholic Homeschool Companion Wednesday that I am still blushing. It's a very detailed review if you're wondering whether or not the Companion is worth a purchase. I'd like to share the part of Karen's review about the Dad chapter:

The entire chapter on dads, for dads and by dads (with essays by Steve Wood, Frederick Cabell, Jr., Ed Rivet and Dan McGuire) is terrific. I almost called this chapter "dessert" but on reflection, it's more like having strawberries after a meal: absolutely delicious, and most certainly a treat, but as healthy and nutritionally necessary as the rest of the meal ... because a healthy homeschool is one that not only acknowledges dad, but also relies on him, recognizing his place as the spiritual head of the family and thus of the homeschool. I'm reminded of the old saying, "The father is the head of the household, and the mother is the heart." Or, of another observation made by a priest friend: "The father is the head, and the mother is the neck that turns the head." The team effort that's necessary shouldn't be a sweet extra.

Thank you Karen!

Get the Companion 30% Off

If you're dying to own The Catholic Homeschool Companion, but almost passed out when you saw the sticker price (24.95), it's available for a limited time at All Catholic Books for 30% off. They have lots of other great books too at a very nice discount.

I'm So Excited, I Just Can't Hide It

I just got an email from my public library and they're ordering the complete Alton Brown's Food Network Show video series. Ask and you shall receive!

I've got them on hold already. To tide me over until they're delivered, I checked out Alton Brown's Gear for Your Kitchen.

Ummm, I wonder if they have I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking or any of his other titles. I'm off to check my library's website!

What Type of Writer Should You Be?

I got this Blogthing from St. Athanasius Academy who got it from Cay's Cajun Cottage. Try it for fun. Ida never thunk me to be a joke writer.

You Should Be a Joke Writer

You're totally hilarious, and you can find the humor in any situation. Whether you're spouting off zingers, comebacks, or jokes about life... You usually can keep a crowd laughing, and you have plenty of material. You have the makings of a great comedian - or comedic writer.

What Type of Writer Should You Be?

Addendum: This is a grownup site. Several of the quizzes are definitely NOT for kids. Anyone know of a kid-safe version?

Prayers Please

Please pray for my brother-in-law Tom who is having cataract surgery today. He'll be having a second surgery later. He is only in his 40's. So make sure that y'all are getting your own eyes checked regularly!

PopeStNick: De-Coding Mary Magdalene

With the upcoming Da Vinci Code movie, this is an important title to get into public libraries.

Check to see if this title is already in your library's catalog. If it is, put a hold on it and check it out. If not, fill out a patron request form right away. This can usually be done online at your library's website.

Title: De-coding Mary Magdalene: Truth, Legend, And Lies
Author: Amy Welborn
Publisher: Our Sunday Visitor, Indiana
Date Published: March 2006
ISBN: 1592762093
Price: 9.95 Softcover
Comments: Go beyond the Da Vinci Code and learn the real story behind St. Mary Magdalene.


From the publisher:
Recent bestsellers and upcoming movies have popularized a historically and spiritually false view of Mary Magdalene. In this new book, learn the truth about the extraordinary woman who was one of the earliest disciples of Jesus and a powerful witness to his death and resurrection. Be the first to inform your friends and family about the TRUTH behind the fiction!

Teen Driver

Yesterday I drove teen son to the Secretary of State to get his driving permit. Then he drove me home. Up until then, only Rob and the driving instructor had driven with him. He did a great job. I didn't do too bad myself either. I only screamed, "Watch out!" once, though my foot was tired when we got home from pressing on the imaginary brake pedal.

Homeschooling Is Cool

A to Z: Home's Cool Homeschooling Website is featuring The Catholic Homeschool Companion on its homepage. This website has helped me a ton in the past. Lots of great homeschooling articles and links. Check it out!

PopeStNick: Heavenly City

I like to occasionally recommend books of different genres: biographies, crafts, art, music, historical fiction, etc. Let's get good Catholic books not only onto our library's Religion shelf, but other shelves as well. It is good to make purchasing requests for books that find themselves into other categories of the Dewey Decimal System. Today's recommendation is an architecture book.

Check to see if this title is already in your library's catalog. If it is, put a hold on it and check it out. If not, fill out a patron request form right away. This can usually be done online at your library's website.

Title: Heavenly City: The Architectural Tradition of Catholic Chicago
Author: Denis R. McNamara
Publisher: Liturgy Training Publications
Date Published: October 2005
ISBN: 1568545037
Price: Hardcover 59.95
Comments: A well researched book that is also eye catching. Full-color photographs and architectural descriptions of Chicago's most beautiful churches and chapels.

Pope St. Nicholas V

A while back, I started a Yahoo group called Pope St. Nicholas V: Catholic Book Lovers Influencing Library Purchasing Decisions. Nancy Brown wrote an article about it in This Rock Magazine: Evangelizing Your Library.

What I do is send out an email, about once a week, that features a Catholic book to suggest to your public library. I plan to also post the featured books here on the blog from now on.

I have a 75-90% success rate with my library. Additionally, I'm requesting books for my homeschool.

If you'd like to give this a try go to your library's website and see if you can make purchasing suggestions online. If so, make a suggestion! If not, next time you visit the library ask for a patron request form and then fill it out. Get your library, and your tax dollars, working for you!

Nancy Brown has a similar Yahoo list for homeschoolers: Homeschool Library Connection.

Cancelled the Cable

Speaking of the degradation of television, Rob and I cancelled our cable television. I've cancelled the cable 6 or 7 times over the years, only to reinstate it at the beginning of hockey season. But this time it's for good. Gosh, hockey season is still going strong and Rob was the one to suggest pulling the plug.

I thought that I would go into Food Network withdrawal, but I'm holding up pretty good. I just need to convince my library to buy all of Alton Brown's Good Eats episodes on DVD!!!

Degradation of Television

Teen son is working on an essay for his Regina Coeli class and is having trouble with his research. I'm hoping that one of you can help. He is writing about the decline of television since it's inception. In searching the Internet, he's found commentaries on the phenom, but he's looking for research. Something that he can cite as a resource that lays out the shift from wholesome family fare to low-life scum fare. (Am I showing my prejudice against TV?) Perhaps a study or two not only on the shift but its affect on our culture.

More on Unity of Truth

The Unity of Truth blog continues to pick up steam. Alicia has given it a new look and is very busy adding lots of very neat math and science links. We can all use a little help in teaching math and science. Tell all your friends about Unity of Truth!

Steve Ray and The Footprints of God

I first heard Steve Ray speak at the Michigan Catholic Home Educators conference a few years ago. He graciously stepped forward when our previously scheduled speaker, Fr. Groeschel, was hospitalized after being hit by a car.

I went to his talk on Church history thinking that I had already heard it all and I didn't expect to really learn anything new. Boy, was I wrong! (God has a way of humbling me over and over again.) Steve had a whole new way of looking at the history of the Church. He brought it alive for his audience through the geography of the Holy Land. Yes, geography. He had been to the very places where the Prophets, Jesus, and the Apostles had walked and Ray enthusiastically shared his experiences with us. Enthusiasm: that's what makes a great speaker. If you're enthusiastic about your subject matter, so will your audience. And that day, everyone in the audience was enthused about Bible history!

More recently, this last weekend to be exact, Steve came to the Lansing area with his friends Mark Shea, Roy Schoemann, Gary Michuta, and Rod Bennett for an apologetics conference. I missed it because I was 400 miles away at a homeschooling conference in Pittsburgh. All my friends tell me that I really missed out. (800 people showed up; twice as many as were expected!) Fortunately for me Chuck, the sound guy, is a dear family friend and he dropped off CD's of all the talks for me this morning.

If you would like to hear Steve's talk, Chuck uploaded it to: http://www.glorybe.cc/CA/SteveRay.mp3. It's large (68.3 meg) but well worth the band-width!

On a similar note, we absolutely love Steve's video series The Footprints of God! We're collecting them one by one and can't wait until more are released! Rob uses them in his CCD class (confirmation students) and we've used them in our homeschool. I encourage to not only check this series out yourself, but get your public and church libraries to buy the series. This is something that should be shared with the masses!

To learn more about Steve Ray's ministries visit his website, discussion group, or blog.

Or see his books:
Crossing the Tiber (I have an autographed copy!)
Upon This Rock
St. John's Gospel (No, of course, he didn't write the gospel. He wrote a commentary.)
The Papacy Learning Guide

And to check out tapes of his talks: Defenders of the Catholic Church

But more than anything, I recommend the videos/DVD's The Footprints of God.

Literary Mystery

Go to Cay's blog to guess the Mystery Literary Location. Hope she makes this an ongoing game!

Unity of Truth

The Unity of Truth blog has been picking up steam. There's a very cool post by Hedgemaker on infinity numbers and God.

I recommend sharing this blog with your teens. The archives are rich in information.

If you do pay a visit, please leave a comment. It encourages the bloggers, gets the conversation going, and lets us know what you like to read about.

Kids and Lenten Regulations

In going through my saved email folder, I found an exchange of emails from Lent 2005 between myself and canon lawyer Pete Vere:


Pete,

I made veggie soup for the kids Friday and they accused me of being a heretic for using chicken broth (they're soooo holier-than-thou ;-)). I explained that broth is made from bone marrow and not meat and that surely God will not send me to h-e-double hockey sticks for using meat broth instead of vegetable broth on a Lenten Friday.

A discussion then ensued on why the meat of a fish is not really meat. I again assured them that we will not face eternal damnation because we enjoyed a little cod on Friday. (Where in the world did these kids come from?) That then lead to a bizarre discussion on exotic meats. If say we lived in Arizona, could we eat snake or lizard on Friday? What about snails? (Really, these aren't my kids . . . they were mixed up with someone else's kids at the hospital!)

Finally, I was quizzed on whether or not Sunday is really part of Lent. After all, our wonderfully holy friends, a family in our homeschool group who wear only dresses, and wear lace head coverings to Mass, feast on Sunday. (I should clarify, the dad and sons don't wear dresses or head coverings.) Surely, our friends know better than me, who dared once to wear blue jeans to weekday Mass! It was even debated as to when Sunday started. Surely, could we have chocolate ice cream after dinner on Saturday since the Sunday vigil Mass starts at 4pm on Saturday?

Life is so interesting at the Wittmann house! Just wait until you have teenagers !

Maureen :)


> then lead to a bizarre discussion on exotic meats. If say we lived in Arizona,
> could we eat snake or lizard on Friday?

Yes. Interestingly enough, this issue came up on radio with Karl Keating and Jerry Usher the last time I happened to be visiting Catholic Answers. As I explained to the caller, abstinence applies to flesh (mammals) and fowl, but not to fish, amphibians, reptiles, insects, or other invertebrates.

> What about snails?

Insects.

> Finally, I was quizzed on whether or not Sunday is really part of Lent.

No. This is easy to prove. Count from Ash Wednesday to Easter using the full week, then do it again excluding Sundays.

> It was even debated as to when Sunday started. Surely, could we
> have chocolate ice cream after dinner on Saturday since the Sunday vigil Mass
> starts at 4pm on Saturday?

Of course. And due to special indult, 3pm in the Diocese of Venice!

> Life is so interesting at the Wittmann house! Just wait until you have
> teenagers .

LOL!

Pax,
PJV


Pete,
Okay, one more . . . I forgot this one -- If Lenten abstinence begins Saturday at 4, does it end at 4 on Sunday. Therefore, shouldn't we have our dessert before dinner on Sunday in order to save our souls from tarnishment? There's gotta be a way to squeeze cake and ice cream in twice! Kids are soooo legalistic!
Maureen :)


> Okay, one more . . . I forgot this one -- If Lenten abstinence begins
> Saturday at 4, does it end at 4 on Sunday.

No. It's called canonical magic. It begins Saturday at 4pm and ends Sunday at midnight.

Pax,
PJV

While I'm Away . . .

. . . why not check out some of the blogs to the left of your screen. Pick one that you haven't visited before and click on it. You just may find a gem!

Pittsburgh Here I Come

I'm walking out the door in just a few seconds to drive to Pittsburgh. I heard that they filled the building capacity with pre-registration, so if you're planning on going to the conference without a reservation, it's too late.

I'm taking the laptop with me, but blogging will be light to non-existant until Monday.

Praise for CHC from Homeschool Veteran

Sonya Romens, of RC History, wrote recently in an email to The History Place:

I received my copy of the book in the mail two days ago and I'm so pleased with it. After 15+ years of home educating, reading book after book on home educating, and going to countless talks at conferences all over the country I had little desire to read another book on "how to homeschool". But this isn't. It truly is a companion. The articles are diverse, intelligent, and cover an excellent range of topics (definitely something for everyone!). The articles I've read so far each had at least one nugget of information that I has inspired me at a time in my life when I've been feeling very ho-hum about homeschooling. Thank you, Maureen and Rachel, you've done a beautiful job!!!!

Thank you Sonya! To order an autographed copy of The Catholic Homeschool Companion ay 20% off, go to my website.

Cheesy Potato Soup

This is a favorite at my house, even though I never quite make it the same
way twice. The key, in my opinion, to making good potato soup is to boil the
potatoes in broth instead of water.

potatoes
celery, chopped
onion, chopped
red bell pepper, chopped
chicken or vegetable broth
Milk
salt and pepper to taste
Velveeta

Scrub potatoes well (I personally don't peel them) and dice. Put potatoes, celery, onion, red bell pepper into soup pot and just cover with broth. Salt and pepper to taste. Boil until potatoes are tender. Add milk and simmer, partially covered, for 30 minutes. Dice Velveeta, put into soup, stir well. Serve once cheese is melted.

Variations: Great with breakfast's leftover bacon or pork sausage added right at the end. Also good with chives sprinkled on top. If you like spicy, add a little crushed red pepper or Tabasco. I sometimes add finely chopped carrots at the beginning with the other vegetables.

Meat on St. Pat's Day

Here in Lansing, our bishop has given us special permission to have meat on this Friday even though we are smack dab in the middle of Lent. The reason? So that we Irish folk, and those who are Irish one day a year, can celebrate St. Patrick's Day properly. Of course, we are to pick another day during the week to make our Lenten sacrifice.

An interesting aside, I will be travelling to Pittsburgh on Friday so I wrote to Pete Vere, canon lawyer, with the following question:
St. Patrick's feast day falls on a Friday in Lent this year. Our bishop here in Lansing lifted the no meat restriction for St. Pat's Day. But I'm going to be in Pittsburgh. If the Pittsburgh bishop hasn't lifted the restriction, can this Irish lass still have corned beef?

And Pete's response:
Yes. But your friends in Pittsburgh can't. On the other hand, if your friends
in Pittsburgh were visiting you in Lansing, they could! Basically, as a traveller from another diocese, you come under whatever law is less restrictive.

It's nice having a canon lawyer for a friend. Thanks Pete!!!

St. Patricks Day Menu

If you haven't yet planned your meal for St. Patrick's Day on Friday, I have a few suggestions.

First you just got to have corned beef. When you pick it up at the store, the cooking directions should be right on the package. If not, ask the butcher. Just make sure to plan ahead and read the directions that morning or before as it has to boil for several hours.

For your side dish: colcannon. Yum, one of my favorite dishes! Just click to this previous post for the recipe.

For your bread, there is no other choice than soda bread. Very easy to make as there is no yeast involved. It's the baking soda (hence the name) that gives it its rise. Or add a few extra ingredients for sweet soda bread.

For a shepherd pie recipe and craft ideas, check out Menus4Mom.

And for lots more authentic Irish dishes, and online instructional videos, see Food Network.

Online Rosary

Got this cool link from Lisa of catholicmom.com:

Here is a online rosary we are using for Lent, your kids might like it's pictures from Africa. They go pretty fast . . . I can't quite keep up!
http://www.missiondoctors.org/rosary/intro.html

A Catholic Homeschool Treasury

A Catholic Homeschool Treasury (Ignatius Press) has been out of print for a few months now and I occasionally get emails from people looking for a copy. I just discovered that you can still get it from St. John Fisher Catholic Bookstore and Stella Maris Catholic Books if anyone is interested. I've seen used copies for sale for as much as $40, so it may be an investment to buy one or two. Or maybe not.

Clearance Sale!

There is a clearance sale over at RC History. Make sure to check it out!

Steve Wood Interview Postponed

Due to an unforeseen scheduling conflict, my appearance on Steve Wood's radio show Faith and Family Live has been postponed. I'll let you all know when a new date is set.

Prayers, Friends, and Stem Cells

I'd like to ask you all to pray for two friends of mine, Ed and Ann, who will be testifying on March 21st before the Michigan House Health Policy Committee. The testimony is on H.B. 4900, a bill to repeal Michigan's prolife ban on human cloning and fetal stem cell research. This bill is being pushed hard by our governor.

Ed will be testifying as the representative of Right to Life of Michigan and Ann as an MS patient who rejects the idea of destroying human life to cure her disease. Both Ed and Ann are wonderfully articulate and know their stuff, but they still need our prayers. Prayers that they will not be intimidated and prayers that the representatives will be moved enough by Ed and Ann's testimony to have a change of heart

If you live in Michigan, sign an online petition here. Please take the time to forward this petition to Michigan friends and family. Cures can be found without treating human life as if it were a mere commodity to be created and destroyed at any researcher's whim. To support the life-affirming work of Right to Life of Michigan, click here.

Perfection Parenting

As I was sitting in the doctor's waiting room today, I was enjoying the stockpile of Reader's Digests. One declared, right on the front cover, that a perfect childhood is bad for children.

Whew! That's a load off my shoulders.

The Real Da Vinci Story

Check out Da Vinci Outreach for all kinds of great free resources. The website is a frame, so make sure to look for the scroll bar in the center of the page to view all of the free downloads: Parish Action Plan, Homily Helps, Parish Discussion Guides, Youth Group Guide, posters, flyers, and bulletin announcements.

The Da Vinci Deception can be bought in bulk at Da Vinci Outreach at a deep discount. If you're just going to buy one, get it straight from the author.

More CHC Buzz in the Blogosphere

Melissa Willey wrote a lovely review of The Catholic Homeschool Companion at her blog: Here in the Bonny Glen. Give Melissa a visit, especially if you're a Charlotte Mason fan, and leave her a comment.

Melissa writes those lovely Little House prequels. You'll also see her in the spring 06 issue of Heart and Mind.

ALL's 4th Annual National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day

I received the following email from American Life League yesterday. My kids love the ALL apparel. They own several of the hoodies, T-shirts, and hats. In fact, the girls recently bought a bunch of the patches and sewed them to their blue jeans. Check out their online catalog. You can't beat a their prices . . .


American Life League's fourth annual National Pro-life T-shirt Day

Every year in America, the plague of abortion takes the lives of more than 1,200,000 human beings. On April 25, warn the world. Wear a shirt with a pro-life message. And join thousands of kids, teens and adults in the fight to cure abortion!

Official shirt of National Pro-life T-shirt Day
April 25, 2006
$5 each / plus shipping and handling

Adult shirts (military green) available in S / M / L / XL / XXL
Youth shirts (sand) available in YS / YM / YL
Order online or call toll-free — 866-LET-LIVE
Last day to order is April 17!

For specials offers at clearance prices, see our CLOSEOUT page!

Comments? Suggestions? Please let us hear from you!

God bless you and your efforts on behalf of God's innocent preborn babies.
Ed Carroll
ALL Resource Manager

©2006 American Life League, Inc.
This is the ALLResources list from http://www.prolifegear.com,a division of American Life League.
To subscribe: ALLResources-subscribe@lists.all.org

Please Don't Drink the Holy Water

Please Don't Drink the Holy Water: Homeschool Days, Rosary Nights and Other Near Occasions of Sin (Sophia Institute Press) by Susie Lloyd.

I love this book. It is not a how-to book or a book about homeschooling philosophies, it's just pure fun. And you don't even have to be a homeschooling mom to get it. Anyone with kids will totally crack up reading Please Don't Drink the Holy Water.

I have to admit that this book sat on my shelf for a few months without being read. Then Drama Diva picked it up and started reading it. She told me, "Mom, this lady sounds just like you. You've got to read this!" Maybe that's why I love this book, I can so relate to Susie's funny stories.

Susie also has a column in Latin Mass if you'd like the opportunity to read her work elsewhere. In fact, here is an online article: The Successful Homeschool: Some Key Ingredients.

Riddle Me This

Q: How many radical feminists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: That's not funny.

Anti-choice activists on ABC News: Mommy Wars: To Work or Stay at Home?

It's okay to choose death for your unborn child, but if you choose life you best not choose to stay home with said child. That's BAD.

And, btw, if I was as sensitive as my radical feminist friends, I would be extremely insulted by ABC's headline. Believe it or not, SAHM's do work. You wouldn't believe the calories I burn getting my bon bons out of the fridge and turning on the tube to watch Oprah and Dr. Phil.

A Townhall.com column in response to the ABC piece: A Duel in the Mommy Wars.

Hat tip to Kevin Miller.

CHC Authors on the Web

There are a whopping 43 contributing authors to The Catholic Homeschool Companion. If you would like to find any of them on the Internet, I've put up links on left. You'll also find several CHC Authors in the Blog Roll.

The Da Vinci Deception

Hot off the presses is Mark Shea's The Da Vinci Deception: 100 Questions About the Facts and Fiction of The Da Vinci Code. Go to Mark's website to get an autographed copy. You can't beat the price and it's so cool to have autographed books on your shelf. (Make sure to tell Mark who to inscribe it to.) This is important reading, especially with Ron Howard's movie version about to be released.

Also email your library and ask them to buy it. (See PopeStNickV to become a library evangelist)

Other titles on this topic:
De-Coding Da Vinci: The Facts Behind the Fiction of The Da Vinci Code by Amy Welborn
The Da Vinci Hoax: Exposing the Errors in The Da Vinci Code by Carl E. Olson and Sandra Miesel

Update: If you would like to discuss The Da Vinci Code, visit Da Vinci Outreach.

Prayers Please

This week a beautiful soul was taken from us here on earth. Missey Gray, wife and homeschool mom of five, died about an hour after giving birth to a beautiful baby girl. The baby, Melissa Kate, is 5 lbs. 1 oz. and healthy.

Some of you may know Missey through Ambleside Online, or her blog Heartschooling, or the Yahoo group Basically Beechik.

When Missey went in for a stress test it showed that she was loosing amniotic fluid at an alarming rate. They decided to go ahead and take the baby. After the the baby was lifted from her body, some of the amniotic fluid got into her blood stream and caused a blood clot. This in turn caused her death. She never came out of surgery. Apparently this can happen once in 200,000 births.

If you would like to help Missey's family with a financial gift, click here.

Please keep Missey and her family close in prayer.

Update: The Gray family asks that you also keep the doctors and nurses who assisted Missey in your prayers.
Update: There is a memorial at Homeschool Blogger.

Fortune Cookie Wisdom

Found in my fortune cookie tonight: Fail to plan is to plan to fail.

How did the guy at the Chinese restaurant know that I'm behind in my lesson planning?

Faith and Family Live

I'm going to be interviewed by Steve Wood on his EWTN radio show Faith and Family Live about The Catholic Homeschool Companion, Thursday, March 16, 2:00 to 3:00 Eastern. It's an hour long show. The first half hour will be discussion about the book. Steve will pick a chapter or two and we'll chat. The second half of the show is listener call in.

I have two favors to ask of you all. First, please pray for me. It's been a few years since I've done a radio interview and I've only done one live. Pray that I don't get too nervous or say anything too incredibly stupid. The second favor is to call and toss me a softball question. It would be lovely to hear a friendly voice on the other end of the phone line.

Phone number for calling is 1-800-994-2050 (U.S. & Canada). International callers: 011-941-743-0767. Or you can email a question to be read over the air at: Ask the Host.

Go to EWTN and click on Radio to find a local station or to stream online.