Corn Time

If you've never been to Indiana and Ohio, let me save you a trip: it looks like corn. Lots and lots and lots of corn.

We pulled off the highway looking for gas somewhere along Rte 90 and it looked like this.  Our GPS took us to the middle of a cornfield and then said "Now turn right and go off road". We opted not to do this.

But corn is good and corn is plentiful. Every year I attempt to plant 4 rows of it in my garden. This year was no exception. Only 2 1/2 rows came up properly, but I planted late and had general problems with the Nodlings knocking my seedlings off the deck before I could transfer them. Even with all that travail, I still got corn and it still tastes every bit as sweet as the stuff at the grocery store.

Since I don't use chemicals, I have to compete with corn earworms, but that's what knives were invented for - I just lop off the tips if the caterpillars got there first. Don't you wish every problem could be solved so easily?

Vacations Are Not Relaxing

We slave away at our jobs, scrimp and save all year to go on that one or sometimes two week vacation. This is our chance to "get away from it all", to relax, travel, visit relatives, or just sit on the beach.

A lot of the time, we return more tired than when we left. Many times I've heard people say they need a vacation to recover from their vacation, or how glad they were to be back at work so they could get some rest. What happened to our relaxing vacation?

Travel. Travel is by far the biggest fatigue inducer. Whether you go by plane, train, or automobile, it generally involves sitting in a cramped position for a number of hours. Anyone who has ever thrown out his back will tell you that sitting is far more difficult than standing or lying down, since it puts all the weight on your tailbone. To combat this, break up your trip into manageable pieces that allow you to walk, stretch, or take a break from concentrating. Add a day on the end of your trip to rest at home and get back into your normal routine.

Sleep. Generally, on vacation you don't sleep well. Whether it is due to being in a strange bed that is harder or softer than your own, staying up later to visit with friends or relatives, or dealing with a new environment, sleep is one of the main casualties on vacation. Bringing your own pillows on vacation can help, as can that extra day at home on the end to sleep in your own bed.

Fun. Let's face it, we go on vacation to have fun. But fun has its price, and many of us overdo it in order to maximize our time away from home and work. Children are especially prone to overdosing on fun and excitement, because they don't know when to stop. They go full tilt until they drop from exhaustion. It's a good idea to schedule in some quiet or unstructured time during your vacation to spread out the fun. Having activity after activity is fun, but also taxing on mind and body.

Prayer. Did you take a vacation from God? Strangely, many of us forget to pray when we go away. The change in schedule has a lot to do with it, since we are taken out of our normal daily patterns. It takes a bit more effort to ensure God is included in our fun and vacations, but it should be normal and natural - and refreshing. We always pray for a safe journey before we leave the house, make sure there is a Church with Mass times where we are going, pray at all meals, and attempt morning and evening prayer from the Divine Office. The Nodlings like to take turns reading paragraphs from the Psalms when I can get them to sit still long enough.

Children. Kids are full tilt on vacation, which means that you as a parent on still "on". There is no vacation from kids, just parenting in a different location. If you have small children this can be a little stressful as you figure out how to keep them safe from hazards in this new location. I am forever counting heads as we go from place to place to make sure no one got accidentally left behind. Roping in aunts, uncles, and grandparents helps out here since they can "spell" you or at least help even out the adult/child ratio around things like boats, parking lots, cliffs, and Aunt Mabel's china dishes.

Don't get me wrong, I think vacations are wonderful. They provide a needed break from our work-a-day lives. They are opportunities for new and great experiences, time with our relatives, and a host of other things. But they are also there for contrast: after an exciting week of food, fun, and travel, it is a physical and psychological relief to come back to the familiar Home Sweet Home.

Pope Gets Around

The Pope's travel schedule for the next five months was published recently. I like to see it in pictures. The guy gets around.

Vatican City, Apr 17, 2010 / 10:33 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As the Pope was preparing to leave for Malta Saturday afternoon, an outline of his schedule for the coming five months was released by the Vatican. Peppered among the four trips the Holy Father is scheduled to make by the end of September are a number of other events in Rome and the surrounding area.

The month of May will see the Holy Father in Turin to meet with the faithful and to venerate the Shroud (May 2) which is on temporary exposition. A pastoral visit will be made to Portugal from May 11-14, during which time he will be in Lisbon, Oporto and Fatima. Planned festivities include celebrations to mark the 10th anniversary of the beatification of Jacinta and Francisco Marto. Later in the month, on May 23, he will preside over Mass at St. Peter's Basilica on Pentecost Sunday.

In June, in addition to his trip to Cyprus (June 4-6) to present the Instrumentum Laboris for the October's Special Synod for the Middle East, the Pope will preside over six other celebrations, according to the official agenda. Among the most notable of these are a prayer vigil and Mass with priests taking part in the International Theological Convention for the conclusion of the Year for Priests (June 9-11) and a Mass for priestly and deaconate ordinations for the Diocese of Rome (June 20).

July and August have only one announced event each. On Sunday, July 4 the Holy Father will make a Pastoral Visit to Sulmona, Italy, in the Abruzzo region, to celebrate the 800th year since the birth of Pope St. Peter Celestine V. The local parish of St. Thomas of Villanova will host Pope Benedict on August 15, where he will preside over Mass.

During the month of September, he is planning one local and one international visit. On Sept. 5, Benedict XVI will go to Carpineto Romano, about 60 miles southeast of Rome, in observation of the 200th year since the birth of Pope Leo XIII. Later, from the 16-19 of the same month, he will travel to Great Britain to beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman, spending time in England and Scotland, where he will meet with Queen Elizabeth II.

No Respect For Big Families

Thought I might take a train trip up north and decided to check the fares. Putting in 2 adults and 5 Nodlings brought up this error from their Web site: Problem with too many children.


I find that kind of rude. I understand the need for a business to make a buck, and children's fares are discounted from adult fares, but still! Boo on Amtrak!

"Please correct the error(s) shown"? How would they like me to do that -- "selective reduction"? It's not like I'm trying to take the entire fifth grade to Concord.

It kind of illustrates a problem that our entire society has with "too many children". Five children isn't large. The Duggar Family, now that's large. Five kids just fills a minivan; I don't need special transportation to get them to and from places.

How can there be too many children? That is like saying there are too many flowers. --Mother Teresa

It used to be that people respected the family; a man with many children had his "quiver full". Justice demands that a man be paid a living wage.

[Wikipedia] The living wage is a concept central to the Catholic social teaching tradition beginning with the foundational document, Rerum Novarum, a papal encyclical by Pope Leo XIII, issued in 1891 to combat the excesses of both laissez-faire capitalism on the one hand and communism on the other. In this letter, Pope Leo affirms the right to private property while insisting on the role of the state to require a living wage. The means of production were considered by the pope to be both private property requiring state protection and a dimension of the common good requiring state regulation.

Pope Leo first described a living wage in such terms as could be generalized for application in nations throughout the world. Rerum Novarum touched off legislative reform movements throughout the world eliminating child labor, reducing the work week, and establishing minimum wages.

• "If a worker receives a wage sufficiently large to enable him to provide comfortably for himself, his wife and his children, he will, if prudent, gladly strive to practice thrift; and the result will be, as nature itself seems to counsel, that after expenditures are deducted there will remain something over and above through which he can come into the possession of a little wealth. We have seen, in fact, that the whole question under consideration cannot be settled effectually unless it is assumed and established as a principle, that the right of private property must be regarded as sacred. Wherefore, the law ought to favor this right and, so far as it can, see that the largest possible number among the masses of the population prefer to own property." (#65)

It may not be fashionable to have large families, but let me just quote Paul's Law: If you want your values to survive into the future, there is no substitute for fertility.

Things That Go Bump In The Night

Yeah, but it's not what you think.

It was my plane flight. Thunderstorms. Strong turbulence -- bad enough that the flight attendants had to strap in. We had to circle Denver for an extra 40 minutes, descended, ascended, re-descended, and then had to sit on the tarmac.

I'm not particularly prone to motion sickness, but it was dicey enough that the people to my right and left looked positively green. I almost lost my lunch; the lady across the aisle actually did.

Unsavory.

By comparison, today was great (nothing special happened - yay!)