What's wrong with this?

So, I just learned something that I think is rather strange.
You can't slander a person after he/she is dead.
It's legal to say anything you want about anybody, but they have to be dead.

I was going on about how I had heard someone making extremely disparaging comments about an author that I happen to like. I was saying that if I was his family...
Well, it turns out that his family doesn't have a thing to say about anything that anyone wants to say about him. He's dead. Reputation be hanged.

Wow. I can't believe with all the litigation out there, that defamation of character can't be posthumously litigated. True, the guy can't be put on the stand. But it seems like there should be some burden of proof on people who want to trash other's reputations publicly.

Of course, there is always the possibility that everything they said was absolutely true.
In which case I have to say that the guy would totally lose MY respect! ICK!

So why go on about this? I just think it's strange. That's all.

Happy Birthday dear Laura...

My oldest child is 24!

Thank you Lord for such a sweet, loving child.
First-borns have to take the brunt of all our parenting foibles.
Being born to a 19 year-old mom and a 20 year-old dad, has it's own set of challenges.

Laura has overcome all the stuff that life has thrown at her very admirably.
I am so proud of the road she is travelling.
Today I am thanking God for all the gifts of parenthood.
I have been so blessed by all my children, and Laura was the first little gift!

Now I have the added Blessing of Andrew and Lucy.
I feel like I'm the one getting all the gifts!

God Bless you today and always Laura!

Gone Fishin'....

Our book club is turning into quite an adventurous little group. Especially the parents!
The boys read a great book for May called "The Sign of the Beaver".
It was about two boys, one an Iroquois, and one a young English boy, who become friends.
Matt has to learn all about how to survive in the wilderness and his new-found friend Attean, helps him learn the Indian ways so that he can find food and protect himself.
The two boys spend a lot of time fishing in the book, so the mom who was organizing this particular month chose a fishing trip to a little stocked pond at a park. A pizza dinner(delivered to the park), a discussion about the book, and making Indian Fry Bread over a fire completed the evening. The boys had a great time!














John has a fishing pole that he got with his allowance and he has been dying to use it.
Brendan and Paul, not having their own poles, borrowed a couple from our friends, The Beyers.
Ryan Beyer was along as the official "Dad who knows about fishing".

Now this pond is very interesting. It's really not a place you would want to fall into, but the fish are VERY happy there. They swim happily amidst the green slime, sharing the water with turtles, ducks and the occasional goose. It has been stocked with baby trout and they are very enthusiastic, but most of them are so small that they can't get the hook into their mouths. One boy, who was not in our group, caught a very respectable Catfish and a lot of the kids were catching the bigger trout. It's all "catch and release", unless you are a Heron, then it's "catch and digest".
Brendan caught the first of the fish in the Merkel family. The little thing was jumping all over and Ryan had to get ahold of it and take it off the hook. NOT my job! Brendan just can't abide the killing of any live creature and he wanted to make sure that this fish got back home safely. He got the hang of casting really quickly and didn't even lose any tackle!

Paul is a pretty scary guy when you give him a pole and a hook. I don't think he quite gets the whole concept of the hook being a sharp object. The first thing HE caught was Brendan's finger.
He just flung out that line and that's where it ended up. Brendan was surprised.
So we sent Paul over to the other side of the pond, where he could cast with abandon, and he was just as happy as could be. And he caught a little fish! He was quite surprised. Just after he caught it, Tim arrived and we wanted to show it to daddy, so we had to let it hang around a bit while I took pictures and Tim came to the side that Paul was on. They did get it off the hook though and it swam away, probably promising itself never to be tempted by anything that doesn't look natural.

It was so interesting how the evening turned out. I had been to this park with the boys when Paul was about two. It was horrible! I hated that pond because it was just waiting to swallow my boys into it's green, slimy depths. Last night it was the most fun they have had in awhile! I enjoyed it too and I didn't have to worry about them the way I had before.
They really have the "fishing bug" now. John and Tim went to a favorite spot of Nina and Johnny's and might have caught something if they hadn't gotten rained out. I had tried to take the boys to the pool earlier and we had to leave due to thunder and rain as well.
We got a couple more poles and now Paul and Brendan have something to take when we have a chance to fish. I may have to learn how to take the poor things off the hooks. We are a "catch and release" family. I can tell you I'm not going to eat anything that comes out of either the Bay or the River.

Tim is now hard at work on the wainscoting. I may have a picture or two of the room before the weekend is out. The floor looks so nice and I drove to the ends of the earth this morning to get a nice big overstuffed chair from one lady, and a nice recliner from another. Craig's List been very,very good to me! Still on the lookout for a china hutch (cheap) and a couple of small tables.

Well I have to go check and see how the oven is doing. I put it on self clean and it is so hot that it's scary! I only do this once in awhile because it really sucks the juice but our rates are going to skyrocket next month so I thought I'd better do it now!

Knights and Peonies...

Well, as I promised I have pictures of Paul in his new "chain mail".
He was very excited when he got up this morning and found that it was finished.
He immediately started vanquishing his brother.

I was very pleased to see that the Peonies and Irises have bloomed along the side of the house.
I have been waiting rather impatiently. They are so pretty!
The Irises are new this year and they have really outdone themselves.

I can't wait to see what the new plants look like as they bloom. This summer won't be very exciting but next year they will be very well established.
It is so much fun working in the yard and getting it the way we want.

Tim will be working on the floor in the new room and hopefully we will get it down this weekend. I am working hard to find furniture that will go well in there. I am going to look at some chairs this weekend and I want to get some big pillows to kneel on at the coffee table when we play games.

The boys are getting very good at Chess and they have been pulling out the board regularly. I think I am going to have to get a good book so that I don't embarrass myself.
I play very defensively! Paul really wants to play, he's going to drive John nuts asking. I think I may try to put together a club within TORCH.

So much going on. More pics this weekend!

Darling Lucy...

I am just head over heels in love with darling Lucy!
I can't wait to see her again! And of course Laura and Andrew.
Boy, they are just great parents.

It is so much fun to see the girls blossoming into motherhood and to get to be so close to it again.
I can't wait to meet Lilly, Nina and Johnny's little one.
I love my boys like crazy but I can't wait to have Grandma Days with little girls.
Baking, watching the birds, sewing.
The boys just don't get into that stuff in the same way.
They love eating what I bake, and they are great at "birding" and yes, I did just finish Paul's "Armor" (pictures to follow tomorrow), but they are little men. They are moving in an outward direction. It's the way of men.
Girls are much more domestic by nature.
Sorry Hillary.
I've just seen too many little boys and little girls. Facts are facts. The village is full of homes and the girls are running them.
So I will enjoy passing on tidbits of domesticity to my granddaughters. Their moms will do a fine job, as they are both very able managers of their homes, so I get to do the warm fuzzy stuff!
Life is so full of Blessings!
Tomorrow is going to be here soon though so I'd better head for bed.

Almost Summer...

So we are winding down the school year...
I am so excited to be seeing the back covers of our books getting closer!
John has a couple more Math lessons and a test and then he will be finished with Saxon 54!
He is finishing with a very good grasp of the concepts. His comprehension amazes me, but there is always the bugaboo of computation. Those darn little mistakes. I keep telling him that an Engineer can't afford those little mistakes. Bridges and dams have collapsed because somebody added wrong!
We are getting through the end of the book and it's really not giving him any trouble.
We are on the last lesson in Spelling 4. Woohoo!
Next week we are going to work on a Geography report and finish up History. I think I will have him read a bunch of historical fiction on the Revolution this summer. John loves to read and we just finished the French and Indian War. I want to do some reading about George Washington and some of the other major figures of that time period.

We are all very happy to feel the sun and think about all the fun things we can do this summer.
We have to get Paul off the training wheels and onto the road so that we can do some trail rides.
We would like to camp with the bikes if we can get everyone riding well enough.
I will be so happy when we have the freedom to just jump in the car and go to Frostburg for the day! Or a couple of days.

I think I my business may be starting to fledge, just a little. I have bought an ebook on the subject of becoming a professional organizer. There are people all over the country that are doing this and I just love the idea of helping people through the process of organization. I love it myself!
I want to gear my business toward homeschoolers and newlyweds. I know there must be a lot of young women out there who are setting up homes and would like to get a jump on systems that make running a household easier and more efficient. Why learn all that stuff by trial and error? I can share all my trials and errors and then they won't make the same mistakes!
Now I just need a name...

All the loose ends...

Well, today and yesterday have been days of picking up loose ends around here. So many things that we have been meaning to do!
Yesterday Tim took the day off. We worked on paperwork and getting some financial details in order. Phone work. We had to set up an auto-deposit for the car payment in order to keep the low interest on the loan. So we decided that they will take it out twice a month. Since the car payment will only come out once a month, I'll be saving the equivalent of another car payment. I think this was actually a very good idea. I'll have to do some belt tightening to leave it alone, but it will be a very good thing.
Then we went to Lowes and bought the flooring for the new room. It's a Pergo floor like in the kitchen, but darker. We were hoping to get it down this weekend but it has to acclimate in the room for 48 hours. Oh well. Next weekend. It's just really nice to have it bought and paid for. I love knowing that everything in that room is paid for.
I will be keeping an eye on Craig's List for furniture. I want to furnish with chairs, bookshelves and a large, squarish coffee table for games, puzzles and such. I think I may also try to find a chess table for the corner. I need to find rugs too. I can't see buying any of the stuff new when there are all kinds of people with beautiful things and they are practically giving them away.
I went grocery shopping last night and picked up a few more planters for the front. I planted all my flowers and then yesterday my friend Paula brought me her plants to care for for awhile. The front is just a blaze of color right now!
I am so excited about the side bed. My peonies are going to bloom and there are a whole bunch of buds on every plant in that bed. If they all bloom together it is going to be really pretty. The back beds are all planted with my baby plants (the ones we grew in the peat-pots). This year they probably won't do much, but next year should be really nice.
We have lots of birds visiting us now that the trees have all leafed out. The Goldfinches are everywhere. We have two feeders just for them.

Today Tim fixed the window on the side of the house. It is all sealed up and waterproofed now.
I mowed and trimmed the lawn and pulled weeds. I can't believe how things grow here!

We went to Mass tonight. Fr Mark was there again and gave a really nice homily. I just love his Polish accent. He is a very special priest.

I talked to Laura and it sounds like Lucy is actually going to get to continue nursing. She is a great nurser. Very serious. A little too serious! She knows what she wants.
I can't wait to see them again. It seems like weeks since I was up there and it isn't even a week!

I think we are going to take the boys to see Spiderman 3 tomorrow. They have been saving their allowance. They are all very excited. They have to get to bed now though and we still have to do prayers. Tim and I may watch some Monty Python tonight. I can't help it, it's just too funny. I suppose it's not the kind of thing most people enjoy, but there's just something about it...

I'll have to post again after I have some pictures.