The Neighbor Project

Right before the New Year I read this book, in which the author tries to get to know his neighbors in an upscale suburb by going on sleepovers to their homes. It made me think that, even after living in the same house for almost 6 years (and in the same neighborhood for 10), we don't really know our neighbors.

So I'm making a real effort to get to know the people who live near us. (We're not going to do sleepovers!) Most of our neighbors seem to work rather long or irregular hours, plus the weather hasn't exactly been conducive to either being outdoors in the yard or walking around the area, so we've gotten a bit of a slow start.  I have hopes, though, that as the weather improves and folks start mowing grass, sitting out on their porches and taking walks, that we'll be able to actually meet the people who live near us and put names to most of the faces.

We do have new neighbors across the street from the back of our house, and I took them a loaf of homemade bread a couple of weeks ago.  I got to see inside their house, which has beautiful (original) narrow pine tongue-and-groove flooring, a rather outdated kitchen, and a gas-fired steam heating system with real radiators.  They're doing a bit of remodeling in the (outdated) kitchen, installing new light fixtures to replace the ugly utilitarian ones in the dining room and living room, and the husband tells me that the big project for this summer is to replace the hideous stoop in the front with a real, usable, as-near-to-original-as-possible front porch. The family is pretty nice - parents and two young-adult kids (upper high school age).  They were enthusiastic about the prospect of buying eggs from us when we have them, and seem to be making great progress on the house.  I'm thankful that the house wasn't bought by a landlord, chopped up into apartments and rented out to college kids.

We're going to start with the houses we can see from our house, then branch out from there.  Homemade bread, fresh eggs and maybe some goodies from our (hopefully soon to be started) garden will make good icebreakers, I think.

I've been thinking of what to call these neighbors when I post about them; I think I'll call the husband Handy Man (he seems to be pretty competent at a lot of home improvement tasks).  Then I guess logically there would be Mrs. Handy, Son of Handy and......what to call the daughter?  Suggestions welcome!

Do you know the people in your neighborhood?  Do you live somewhere that it's hard to get to know the people near you, and how do you deal with that?

Life at Aquinas Academy, Where Learning Happens Even if You're Shooting Nerf Darts at the TV

I remembered a couple of days ago that I haven't posted anything about what we've been doing in the way of school lately.  So:  Velvet finished her 'catch-up' math workbook and has moved into Saxon 6/5.  She's doing rather well; I think she just needed a bit of extra practice and a slight change of pace.  Birdman finished up with Algebra 1 and chose to do Geometry, followed by Algebra 2 (the same way I did in high school oh-so-many-years-ago). Fortunately there is a tutoring CD-ROM for the Geometry so I don't have to work so hard to dredge up my high school geometry!  He's also taking the Apologia Biology.  Lightning McQueen has moved up to Saxon 7/6 (!).  Velvet and he are working on their 4-H project books:  horses and cats for Velvet, and chickens and dogs for Lightning McQueen.  I recently posted about our two new chicks, which are growing and soon will be at the stage where they are no longer very cute, but still not useful as egg-layers. (We had to put a screen lid on the box because they figured out how to get out of the box a couple of days ago).

Each of them has a reading list on which they record the books they read, and we do mental math at the grocery store.  Civics and social studies is taken care of by following the local elections, going to political campaign events, and getting to know our neighbors (which reminds me that we have an interesting project going this year but I'll post about that later). I've also started little geography quizzes where I ask them to tell me how to go to some place.

We got the registration forms in the mail for 4-H camp, which I am going to try very hard to send them to this year.  Birdman of course will be going to CAP Encampment (he was recently promoted to Cadet Tech Sergeant, by the way), and may be going back to Cincinnati to visit his friend, who moved there a couple of years ago.

I still have plans for a trip to Johnstown, PA at some point; there are several museums there we'd like to see - both the Johnstown Flood and the Immigrants' Museum.  And Gettysburg, PA (I'm trying to figure out if we can do both of those on one very long day).  We also hope to go back to Indianapolis in May......there's an awesome variety of stuff to see there, not all of it connected with the race.

I'm happy to report that Birdman's penmanship is improving.

The spring peepers are peeping now, and it's very tempting to go get a dishpan full of tadpoles and puddle water to watch them grow.  We'll probably be over on that side of town sometime this weekend so I might just do that.

I still need to do a post about our "neighbor project" and another Price Check post.  I hope to get to those in the next couple of days.  I'm waiting to hear back from Knit Picks about my socks too!

In No Particular Order,

here are ten random facts about me, because I just read a post like it over on Fear Not, Little Flock.

1. I pray that someday I will find someone with whom I can spend time without having to pretend I'm someone I'm not.
2. We have two laying hens and two new chicks, and I don't eat eggs except in recipes.
3. I dream of living off-grid on a farm out in the boonies somewhere, and having a horse and buggy (or mule and wagon) instead of a car.
4. I pray over all the clothing I take in for tailoring, but especially for the wedding gowns, and extra prayers for the brides who are not getting married in a church.
5. Another thing I pray for is that my kids will someday find where they fit in.  It hurts a great deal to see that they don't, now.
6. I have no desire to learn to make meatballs.  Why should I, when delicious ones can be bought at the store?
7. I like looking at places I've lived or visited on Google Earth.
8. It bugs me that my house is always messy, but not enough to spend 2-3 hours a day cleaning.  It's a big house, and my kids don't pick up after themselves at all.
9. I like ethnic food but I'm way too lazy to cook it myself.
10. I wish more people would comment on my blog.

Why I Am a Lackluster Housekeeper

Why bother to try, when it's just going to get messed up again 30 seconds later?

And the sock behind the television? Been there, done that, didn't even get a t-shirt.

Our Family is Growing!

Meet Oregano and Barbecue, our new hen chicks!

Oregano is in the front and is a little lighter in color than Barbecue, who's in the back.  We fixed them a little pen made out of a grocery store box with newspaper and pine bedding, a plastic lid for a food dish (I just couldn't justify the expense of a chick feeder for only two chicks) and a waterer that screws onto the neck of a quart Mason jar.  And a heat lamp, of course.  If it's nice weather they will go outdoors to play for a little while tomorrow; once they've feathered out we can start acclimating them to being outdoors all the time, as well as introducing them (gradually) to Crockpot and Drumstick.

I think the size of our yard will comfortably support six hens, so next year I'm going to splurge and get two Dominique hens - they are very pretty spangled black and white, and lay large white eggs.

I'm not sure whether these are brown-egg or white-egg layers; all that matters is that they lay dependably.  I will be glad when we no longer have to maintain a waiting list for eggs, and can sell them as they come along!

Mini-Vacation! (kind of)

This past weekend I was at the Gilmary Retreat Center in Coraopolis, PA for an annual gathering of the Life Pledged members of the Confraternity of Penitents - we have an annual retreat in July for all members, inquirers and guests but this one is much smaller (and in many ways more fun, although the July event is fun too).

Anyway, we kind of rotate the responsibility for hosting and choosing the location, and this year was my turn to be hostess and organizer, so of course I picked a place "right in my own backyard", less than two hours from home.  Birdman and Lightning McQueen had been to Gilmary a couple of years ago for an Altar Boy retreat and spoke highly of it.  They were right; it's a great place.  Very comfortable, friendly and helpful staff, good food!

The only thing Gilmary doesn't have is clergy staff, so I had to figure out other arrangements for that.

Keep in mind that (a) I'm Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic; (b) I'm the only non-Roman Catholic in the Confraternity; (c) probably the majority of Catholics know little to nothing about the other Particular Churches in union with the Holy See; (d) there is some seriously hinky stuff going on at a fairly decent number of Roman Catholic parishes; (e) our Confraternity is very much the opposite of hinky.

I discovered that there is a Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic parish, St. George, less than 15 minutes away from Gilmary, AND remembered that the pastor there is my former pastor and my Godson's Godfather.  So, I arranged for us to go to Friday evening's Liturgy of the Pre-Sanctified Gifts and also to Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning.  On Saturday we had a very reverent Communion Service, celebrated by a great transitional Deacon from the Archdiocese of Baltimore (who incidentally is a convert from Episcopalianism, having been a  priest chaplain of a convent of Episcopalian nuns who also converted en masse) who will be ordained to the Holy Priesthood on June 24, 2011.  At this Communion Service one of our retreatants made a Life Pledge and private vow to live the Rule and Constitutions of our Confraternity.

Before this, the most common thing I'd heard from Roman Catholics about the Byzantine Liturgy is "are you sure it's really Catholic?".  Never mind that we pray for the Pope by name a minimum of four times at every Divine Liturgy, some people get hung up on the filioque (really the fact that we don't add it when we say the Creed) or our use of leavened bread.

None - not one - of my Confraternity brothers and sisters expressed anything but appreciation.  Some of them have assisted at a Divine Liturgy before, but most had not.  But they weren't put off, they were excited!  And they loved it! (I'm sure it helped that the building itself is very beautiful, and Father has a great voice....)

All in all this was one of the best retreats I've had.  I won't even complain about having to scrape ice off my car on Sunday morning, because the rest of the weekend was just so full of awesome.

Oh,  almost forgot:  if anyone ever needs a bakery cake and the Moon Township Giant Eagle is within reasonable distance, definitely get your cake from there.  Try the white almond cake with buttercream frosting.  Paradise in a box, no kidding.

Just a Passing Thought......

Phone just rang, and on the other end was a person whose voice, once she asked her question (related to pricing of certain alterations on a bridesmaid dress), sounded a little familiar.  I gave her the same ballpark figures I give everyone (I can't quote over the phone, because obviously I can't see you in the garment from here).  After she hung up I checked the call log on my phone and yes, it was the same person.

Why am I mentioning this?  Because the first time she called, she scheduled a fitting appointment.

(The reason she called a second time is that my business had another name a few years ago, and depending on where you look for my number, you can come up with either name - but the phone number has been the same for 10 years.)

So, here's a tip:  if you need to check prices, call everyone you intend to ask for an estimate before you book an appointment. And be prepared to be told that the actual estimate, once you keep the appointment, is higher than what you were told over the phone; you may think one thing is the problem but the issue might really be something entirely different, and I charge according to what I have to do, not what the client tells me is needed.