Random Art, Forgetfulness, Overnights, and Speechifying

You know how, as a parent, you have a kind of sixth sense for when your offspring are “up to something?”

Well, I can tell you that I know for a fact that a lot more art is going on in this house than I am allowed to view.  My artists are like all artists – cagey and secretive and terribly persnickety about letting anyone see their work.  Some time last week, however, I caught a pic of a Benedict-in-progress lying on the table, before he was snatched away.

Looking forward to seeing Megan’s finished product!

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Saturday we cleaned and tidied and prepped for some fun.  We’d heard that there was an ice cream social going on on Saturday evening, and Megan invited a church/homeschool group/MoezArt friend to come home with us from there, stay overnight and go with us to church in the morning.  What a perfect plan!  We’d gotten the details from a Jezek girl, who told Geneva, who relayed the message to the rest of us, and after all that, we were quite certain that we were correct about the fact that the party was going to be at the Jezek residence.  We were quite certain, that is, until we drove 13.5 miles, arrived at their doorstep (late, I might add, since we also had to make a stop at a pharmacy on the way – and without my camera to boot), only to find the place completely  vacant of any signs of life.  At that point, a meek voice from the back seat suggested that “perhaps” the ice cream social that had been discussed was actually the birthday party for Father Matt Henry, which was being held even at that very moment, in Smith Hall at the church.

With not a few groans and shakings of the head, we headed off to church (thankfully it was a shorter drive via highway than the route I’d driven to get us to their house) and we were there in two shakes of a rattler’s tail.  We arrived at the very full, brightly decorated and balloon-festooned auditorium just as Fr. Lankeit was finishing an appreciative speech about Fr. Matt and his many gifts to the church and his bright future as he heads off to study at one of the Pontifical Universities in Rome at the end of this month.  Then there was cake and ice cream and lots of exuberant girl type chatter as friends found each other and ran around in the ecstasies of sugar overload for a while while Paul and I chatted with a few adults.

Finally we rounded up all our strays and climbed back into our tiny van with the seven of us (plenty of room with Jacob sitting in the “way-back” as we call the cargo area behind the third seat) and made for home.

The rest of the evening was movies and popcorn and much laughter.  Friends are such a gift!

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Today was the first of several Sundays during which our entire family will be able to sit together for worship.  While our music director is out of town this summer, the choir is on vacation (though the Schola Cantorum does not have such leisure and will continue to bless us with the ethereal strains of chant and polyphony, under the direction of our very fine organist, Dr. Kurt).  We took up the whole third row, and only after we’d settled into place did I realize with chagrin that we were sitting in “The Groft Pew” — where Jenni and six or seven of her children usually sit, right in front of the choir where the kids can always see and hear their Daddy (who is one of our cantors).  I didn’t see them arrive, however, so I’m hopeful we didn’t displace them and they were simply attending a different mass this week.

We hadn’t been seated long when Geneva nudged me and, nodding toward the altar, whispered, “We have the bishop today!”  Sure enough, there was the seventh candle on the altar, indicating a pontifical high mass.  (Here’s a photo of Pope Benedict XVI celebrating the mass at St. Peter’s in Rome…)

Always makes me very happy to see that my kids are paying attention. It was so lovely to be able to worship and pray and really place myself in the flow of the liturgy.  Bishop Olmsted’s homily can be heard here.

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Our afternoon was unusual, having no Gonzales kids at all today.  We spent a good portion of the afternoon assisting Laurent in preparing and recording her first speech for her public speaking class – one of the requirements for her AA degree that she is finishing up this summer via online courses.  I couldn’t understand how they expected her to do a public speaking class online until she explained that they are to video tape themselves speaking to an audience and upload it to the rest of the class.  Technology is the bomb, isn’t it!

She is very very blessed to have Paul as her dad in so many ways, not the least of which is that he was able to do a fantastic job of coaching her on this, her first foray into speaking for an audience.  He’s such a good teacher!!  By the time he was done with this very reserved student who much prefers writing to speaking, she did a really good job on her Introductory speech.  She’s going to have this down cold by the time she finishes the class.