A sort of busy couple of weeks. With more to come. I just realized I never did a 7 QT last week…so..
I did manage a “Learning Notes” which included information about the homeschool rock-climbing and Asian art workshop in which we participated. You can read about it here.
I just love the colors of these mushrooms. And the little cap they’ve broken through visible on the ground.
On Sunday, we took a drive a little west and south – between here and Tuscaloosa – to a place called Perry Lakes Park. It’s on the Cahaba River (which is long and winding – look it up!), has nature trails, a former fire tower transformed into a bird-watching tower, and a little bit of a beach.
Our opportunities for travel – even locally – are pretty limited these days, so I am determined to squeeze what I can out of every nice day and free afternoon. As we walked out the door, some water issues related to the basement bathroom were pointed out to me. I teetered for a moment, cursed the fates, decided it would (obviously) still be there in four hours…and moved out and onward….
— 4 —
A couple of interesting local Catholic-y things.
First, a tiny, historic parish not far from where we live has strong ministries for the local neighborhood, especially for children. We are going to be involved in this fabulous after school reading room – you can read about it on the pastor’s blog here, and if you are able, to help out a bit with the final expenses? Maybe?
This same outcome is what we want for the youth who live near my smaller parish, Holy Rosary. They live in one of the most afflicted neighborhoods of Birmingham, Alabama. The public schools in the area have not always had the highest ratings. We have encountered children who – even in third or fourth grade, and receiving decent grades on their report cards – had extremely low or nearly non-existent levels of literacy. These children often come from irregular family situations and poverty. Some have never really been read to. And in the face of this, our local situation, we want to make a difference.
Thus, thanks to the inspiration of a certain special lady and the great help of many parishioners, friends, and other members of our community, we have started a new apostolate, the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Learning Center – named for the first canonized American-born saint and founder of Catholic schools in our country, who also had a religious order that served the poor. The Center just opened this past week. It consists of two rooms and a bathroom in an existing building on our campus, which we renovated so that the youth will have a good place to do homework and read. And there are no concrete block walls or harvest gold drapes. Much to the contrary. Take a look:
Birmingham is a diocesan see, and JUST LIKE St. Patrick’s in NYC, our cathedral has undergone an important and beautiful restoration over the past years. In the process, some of the crosses on the roof were removed or replaced. A local photographer got the idea for a project using those crosses:
Having overlooked the city of Birmingham, AL for the past 120 years, the crosses that once adorned The Cathedral of St. Paul have hit the streets to view firsthand the city that they have watched change over the past century.
aCROSS BIRMINGHAM is a book of photographs of the crosses around their city.
All proceeds support The Cathedral of St. Paul.
You can see some of the photos here.
Courtesy aCross Birmingham Facebook page.
They are set up at the big downtown art festival this weekend, and do you know what that is?
(Okay, besides a fundraiser)
Evangelization.
Later in the week, some rock scrambling. Here.
We’re still at the very beginnings of the biology study, so after mold comes algae and lichen…so that all was found and discussed….
Last weekend, we watched The Lavender Hill Mob. The boys enjoyed it. Pro tip for getting a kid to watch an older film, if he or she is not so inclined. Tell them Obi-Wan Kenobi is in it. They’re all in at that point.
Speaking of which – this was depressing. To me.
An entire Star Wars section? Really? I guess so. One more reason to go to Target by myself…..
For more Quick Takes, visit This Ain’t the Lyceum!
Charlotte was Both 