Mary Therese Hodge Lackie, 1927-2010

Early this morning my Mom died. She was, and remains in our hearts, an amazing woman whose life and love had a positive impact on untold numbers of people. She taught people (including me) to read, to think and express those thoughts clearly, to cook and bake; she entertained and informed through her writing and acting and storytelling; she preserved history with her photography and collecting. She created beautiful and interesting homes over the years and welcomed friends, family, friends of family, students, seminarians, neighbors, colleagues -- all -- to feel at home with her there. She threw herself into raising her family... she gave us so much... and we are all grateful for her presence in this world and in our lives.

Mom, I already miss you so, so much.

Note:  go to the blog we set up for Mary at http://maryhodgelackie.blogspot.com/

Women writing, effecting change in themselves and in the world

This weekend is not going as planned, due to snow canceling Emily's plans to visit for the long weekend. But I've had 24 hours to get used to the idea, and have decided to take the "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!" approach. So I'm enjoying a slowed-down world of snow and ice and bright sunlight outside, quiet music playing inside... a day of open time for reading, cooking, writing, and maybe a walk in the snowy cold after while. (I'm trying not to think the T word, but reality will sink in and I'll probably get started on that project this afternoon!)

An e-mail popped up a few minutes ago with links to four articles by and about women writers and women writing. On a quick glance, they look to be really good, full of hope and ideas! I share them here in hopes that my readers will find these articles thought-provoking also. (If you are not Catholic, please don't be put off by the fact that the articles were published in a Catholic newspaper -- they are not, for the most part, about issues only of interest to Catholics.)

Women Writing for (a) Change
Heidi Schlumpf looks at Mary Pierce Brosmer, who run a school called Women Writing for (a) Change, which teaches collaborative writing as a creative, therapeutic and spiritual practice.


Contours of the daily and domestic
Melissa Musick Nussbaum says that she is drawn to writers -- they are women -- who observe the contours and appreciate the significance of the daily and the domestic.

Ethnic bias is no longer an option
Diane Scharper recommends five women writers who, she says, "can provide us with salutary insights into ourselves as we live in a world full of international tensions."

How the remotely possible could become real
Maureen E. Daly reviews a book titled Ordained and in it finds a plan on how to pressure a pope into calling a worldwide council and revising the rules of ordination.

Snow Cream -- Charlotte in the news!

There's no danger of my making any -- most of what we got here is sleet, ice, and frozen rain. I won't be going anywhere today :-)

A segment on today's Weekend Edition Saturday was from WFAE! (I was going to post a link to it, but couldn't find it on the NPR or the WFAE site.) Basically it was a reporter trying to find out why Charlotteans go to the store and empty the shelves of milk, bread, and eggs when any amount of snow is predicted. (This really happens, and then some: I went to the bakery on my way home from Charlotte yesterday afternoon and the bread shelves there were completely empty. They even were down to only four loaves of bread in their freezer!) The conclusion was that the milk, and perhaps the eggs, depending on one's recipe, are needed to make "Snow Cream". (Or "Snow Creme" if you prefer.)

Snow Creme Recipe
1-3 Cups of Snow (make sure it's clean!)
1/2 Cup Whipping Cream or other cream of choice
1 T. Sugar
2-3 drops Vanilla flavoring
In a separate bowl, mix cream, sugar and vanilla. Slowly add snow to desired consistency. Eat and enjoy!
All ingredients can be adjusted to suit your particular preferences. You might want to try some other flavorings: cinnamon, butterscotch, almond, or eggnog mix.

(Recipe published and e-mailed by the Upper Palmetto YMCA this morning in their "we're closed today on account of snow" message.)

Calling all Locavores!!!

Excellent program here (aired this morning) about eating local during the holidays, and in general...

Vatican II -- a blog post of interest

For those of you who are interested in such things, here's a post that is intriguing.

Does children's free play matter?

Why is this even a controversial issue? Here's a link to an article on the topic that should be read by every parent, every grandparent, every educator, everyone who loves children....

I just returned from a four-day visit with a family which includes a twenty-month-old child. Even at that early age, it is so clear that free play and unrestricted (i.e., unprogrammed) access to interaction with the people around him is all-important (not to mention delightful to observe or be a part of.) The learning in such play is not something easily measured, especially at that age, but it is so absorbing and satisfying to the child that we must not discount its value! Later on, this toddler version of free play will expand to include the imaginative play described in the article linked above.

accomplishments:

Math Final for my class half made up ...check

Water siphoned out of broken dishwasher ...check

Evil (and dirty) filter removed from heat pump intake ...check

Mushy avocado finished off ...check

Car cleaned out ...check

Clothes washed ...check

Futon taken off bed and put in spare room ...check

Airbed installed in bedroom ...check

Ice packs ready for tonight ...check

Recycling removed from porch ....hmm....

Lesson plan for class tomorrow ready ...sort of

Dining room table piled high with STUFF ...check

Oh, well.

Fight Hunger, at every opportunity!

The Eastern York County CROP Walk is this afternoon! Join me, in person or in spirit!

Meta-Dodecahedron!

Today's topic at the Math Club meeting was "Building with Zome Tools", an idea of Dr. Harold Reiter, our illustrious founder. I have to admit I was a little skeptical of how this would work out, but it was wild and crazy and noisy and lots of fun for the students! Here's a photo* of the final product, a dodecahedron using "meta-balls" for the vertices:


It's interesting how there are such clear curves here -- there are NO curved pieces used in the construction! Even the connectors, little white "balls", have no curved edges.

Here's another view:



Minutes after these photos were taken, the dismantling of a couple hours' work began to be dismantled.

The students, making this creation, were as focused as I've ever seen them. It took the 32 or so students about 1.5-2 hours to make 16 of the meta-balls, and connect them together to make the dodecahedron. Teamwork, curiosity, determination, and playfulness were all plentiful! And they had energy enough left after the dismantling process to focus on another activity, a math relay from a past year's Duke Math Meet. Amazing.

The other really great thing that happened at this meeting was that the parents pitched in to help like more than I've ever seen them do. All in all, it was an inspiring morning, and gave me renewed enthusiasm for the Club.

*The photos are from my cell phone... Unfortunately, the battery for my real camera was at home, still in its charger. Clearly, I need to take pictures more often!

Fighting Hunger and Poverty!

On Sunday, October 25, I will be walking in the Eastern York County Crop Hunger Walk. I support the Crop Walk particularly because 25% of the funds collected locally stay in the local community. In Rock Hill, clients of Pilgrim's Inn and other local agencies benefit from Crop Walk funds. Pilgrim's Inn is a local, grassroots organization that has developed programs to help women in crisis, assisting them in getting their lives on track as well as helping them through the crisis at hand with food, housing, counseling, and job training. Pilgrim's Inn is in the process of implementing the Rapid Rehousing program in Rock Hill, which is an innovative new program to help women to get into apartments and jobs without a lengthy stay in the emergency shelter.

Another portion of the funds are used worldwide in refugee resettlement and other programs working to alleviate hunger and poverty. One of the more attractive things about this organization is that they are a coalition of people of various faiths working together, regardless of differences in theology and so forth.

Please consider helping out financially, but if that is not something you are able to do at this time, please pray for the success of this year's Walk.

reviews of various things....

Just a quick list of reviews, w/ links:

Capitalism, A Love Story -- I saw this last Friday night with a good friend, and we both thought it was great! I highly recommend it. It made me think about things differently... plus parts of it were highly amusing. I came home and put some of Michael Moore's other flicks on my Netflix list. My friend recommends especially his non-documentary, Canadian Bacon.

This video, which James D. shared today on FB, is short but very cute -- and reminds us to take the stairs...

Still reading Double Crossed: Uncovering the Catholic Church's Betrayal of American Nuns, by Kenneth Briggs, which I highly recommend to anyone who is interested in recent Church history, social justice (inside the Catholic Church as well as in the wider American culture), women's issues, etc....

While searching for articles about Double Crossed, I found this article by Luke Timothy Johnson, whom I heard at the Kennedy Lecture at Charlotte's St. Peter's Catholic Church a few years ago. I haven't read the article yet but hope to go back to it soon and read the whole thing.

Books are our Friends!

The public library is one of my favorite places to be. I have often thought, Maybe they would let me just move a cot in here and spend the night once in awhile... A happy thought... I suppose it comes from my early training with books -- I can still hear my mother saying, "Be good to your books -- books are our friends!"

At least twice and sometimes three times a week, I find myself in a library, due to my work, and sometimes I have an extra few minutes. As I browse the library shelves, the books seem to jump into my hands and shout, "Read me! Read me!" I have little resistance to such demands, regardless of how limited my reading time will be and how slowly I read. So I end up with a smorgasbord of books and books on CD (now that there's a CD player in my car!) and music CD's, and sometimes a movie or two as well. Even magazines once in awhile!

So... life is really full right now, and I'm working on facing up to the fact that I won't get to read all these library books before they are due, even with many renewals. So a pile is going back today, but first I wanted to list them here to share and perhaps stimulate some discussion... What are you reading? What are you having to take back unread? What happens when you go to the library?

Well, in case anyone's interested, here is the stack --

Books:

• The Power of Less, by Leo Barbauta. Full of good ideas on how to de-clutter one's work-life and life in general. I browsed through it a couple times but don't have time/energy right now to work my way through it. (Flipping through the book as I write this, I find I am currently working against his rule about single-tasking: When you work on a task, don't switch to other tasks. I was writing a Module test for my Math 150 class before I started this blog post.)
• Archimedes' Bathtub/The Art and Logic of Breakthrough Thinking, by David Perkins. Fascinating. I got part way through it, and will put it on my short list of books to get again. It's one of those books that draws from all over history and other disciplines, which is particularly interesting to me.
• Euclid in the Rainforest/Discovering Universal Truth in Logic and Math, by Joseph Mazur. It's the story of the author's travels (through the rainforest and perhaps other travels, I don't know yet) intertwined with math and logic problems he encountered along the way. I'm part way into this, and finding it pretty interesting. But it's also frustrating as there are math errors peppered through it (I think not on purpose.)
• The Myth of Ability/Nurturing Mathematical Talent in Every Child, by John Mighton. I have read this before, and picked it up again to get ideas for teaching my Math 150 course. (Didn't have time to do much with it, and we've moved beyond the scope of the book now.) It is a great book, though -- I highly recommend it. It tells the story of the JUMP math program, which would be a wonderful tutoring program to implement in every school system throughout the country.
• Childhood Unbound/Saving Our Kids' Best Selves -- Confident Parenting in a World of Change, by Ron Taffel, Ph.D. So far enlightening, but it may go back soon due only to lack of reading time...) I'm continuing the effort to understand the challenges faced by parents today that are different from the ones my generation of parents faced. Also, trying to see if there are any sane voices out there writing for today's parents. So far, I think so. One of his ideas that stands out in my mind:

  Almost the same way one would think about sexuality and substance use, delaying kids' absolute access to screen time is essential. (author's emphasis.)

• Tear Down This Myth, by Will Bunch. A book about politics. Picked it up recently and haven't started it yet, so will keep it for a little while.
• Double Crossed/Uncovering the Catholic Church's Betrayal of American Nuns, by Kenneth Briggs. This one I am going to try to finish, as it is fascinating and instructive in many ways beyond the topic at hand. I was taught by nuns for my first nine years of school, and have had lots of other contact with them through the years. Almost all of that was a positive experience. When I was a child, I thought (like many Catholic girls of the time) that I might be a nun when I grew up. Sometimes I still think about it, so reading this book is helping me to think more realistically about it.
  
• The Creative Family : how to encourage imagination and nurture family connections, by Amanda Blake Soule. I picked this up to share with a babysitting client, who is delighted with it. It has a wide range of projects, crafts, and other activities for families to do together, presented in a very do-able way.

Books on CD --

• Every mother is a daughter/the neverending quest for success, inner peace, and a really clean kitchen (recipes and knitting patterns included), by Perri Klass. I might finish this one, but listening to recipes on CD is not cool. (I can't imagine listening to knitting instructions - haven't gotten to those yet!) On the other hand, fast-forwarding through the recipes is helping me get through it faster. Hmmm... why am I continuing to listen to a book when "getting through it faster" is looking attractive? It's going back.
• Mrs. Pollifax, innocent tourist, by Dorothy Gilman. Never read it, love to listen to these books... it's a keeper for awhile.
• Holiday on Ice, by David Sedaris. Haven't been able to make myself listen to this -- I have an aversion to doing anything Christmas other than in December and January, so it's going back. (I didn't know it was Christmas stuff when I picked it up - was in a hurry.)

Music CD's:

• Several by George Winston and other Windham Hill artists -- wonderful music anytime (except in the car.)
• John Fahey, Peter Lang, Leo Kottke. Guitar music; I’ve had it before and loved it…and still love it.
• Linus & Lucy, Music of Vince Guaraldi. Happy happy music!!
• Tales from the acoustic planet, by Bela Fleck Haven't listened to it yet, but I like acoustic music...we'll see!
• Saturday's rhapsody, by Jim Chappell. Good listening while making up math tests and lesson plans.
• Music for airports, by Brian Eno. Interesting. Comforting, somehow.
• Also CD’s of Gordon Lightfoot, Norah Jones, and Gershwin.

And one movie:

• Neverwas. Watched it last night; it had it's shining moments. Ian McKellan was great, and the sets & props were wonderful, magical. Despite what you might read about it, however, it isn't a movie for children.
  

xkcd rocks!

After a several-week drought from reading xkcd, I find that some of the recent comics have been very relevant to my life -- that is, I have found some of these things happening to me at times... notably:

I've been doing this with various TV series (I'm gradually Netflixing some of the better ones from a long time ago...)

I have had this sort of thing happen when in a group...

Plus, I saw this gem last time I checked in. (It hasn't happened to me but I just like it.)

getting rid of STUFF

I spent a lot of time yesterday sorting through books (and other things, but mostly books) trying to make myself unload a lot of them. I'd hoped to be able to post a list of the books here in case any of my readers want any of them, but so far that hasn't come together. It probably won't, I guess, since the boxes of books are out in the car already... but I am not getting rid of any family heirlooms or anything irreplaceable. Don't worry.

If there is anything in particular that you are looking for, ask me. I'm in a giving-stuff-away mood! Remember that any urgent requests need to be phoned in -- I still don't have internet at home so access is sporadic! (Like, tomorrow [Tuesday] I don't think I will be able to get online at all. Wednesday afternoon, maybe.) But, good news: Friday I am getting internet at home again!

June in review

So, it's been awhile since I posted... a lot has been going on. There was

• a graduation in Virginia (fun!)
  
• a car wreck (not so fun) (don't worry, I'm okay, it was just the car that was totalled)
  
• a trip to Chicago (mostly happy and very busy)
• first and second Rock Hill students (both at Winthrop, about .5 mi. from my condo)
• and a new [to me] car at the tail end of the month (sigh of relief, mostly).

And in between, babysitting, tutoring, and once again stretching myself a little *thin. (*Figuratively speaking only...)

People ask me how the sitting is going. Here is my take on it: they are a lot easier to manage when they are someone else's kids. Also, this: raising/caring for children is just like doing math...it takes a lot of persistence, creativity and patience; there are a lot of things you have to do over and over again; people don't understand why you like to keep doing it so long; and it helps if you get a good night's sleep once in awhile.

Thank you to all of you who gave me the support I needed in so many ways to get through June, as well as the prior year. I couldn't have made it without you.

English Dogwood and paperback swapping...

Judy tells me it's an English Dogwood.

I spotted this last night on her street, here in Rock Hill. I was astonished to see what was apparently a dogwood in bloom here in June!

On Facebook this afternoon I spotted a link that might interest the book readers among you who are trying not to accumulate piles of books. It comes highly recommended. Paperback swap....

Weather: the drought-reducing type...

Click on the title above for the current 10-day forecast in Rock Hill, and note that the next day we are predicted to have less than a 50% chance of rain is Friday, May 29! We have already been having rain since at least Saturday and it may have started on Friday -- I can't remember now... Our default weather mode these days seems to be rain. NOT that I'm complaining!! It is so green and lush here now! I was going to post a photo of how green it is here, but didn't get one taken yet. Maybe tomorrow or whenever I get online next....

In the meantime, here is some photos of another lush place I have been to lately: Houston's bay area.

Guest blogging by willowlaughter

Hi all! I'm doing a small guest-blogging spot for my mom, lidarose. As I'm not much for writing, I'll be showing two photos from last Christmas in California with lidarose, my husband J, my sister samadhiseeker, my brother, my sister-in-law, my grandmother, and various other sundry relatives. In any case, here are the photos:

Our family tradition of tossing the gift bows/ribbon onto the Christmas tree continues...

On the road to Loma Linda - look! There's snow in Southern California!!!

spending time in the library

It has been pointed out to me that I have been absent from the blog-world for awhile. I'm here, just not getting online much, and when I do I have work to do, and am not taking time to play. Mostly I'm at the library, but sometimes at Earthfare or Panera Bread or some other free WiFi place. Work is still slow -- one or two students every day, sometimes more or fewer, and a couple of child-sitting jobs every week. No temp work yet, but I never give up hope. Work on the garden at Pilgrims Inn in Rock Hill is progressing very slowly.... Visits to Houston and CA (weekend before last) were both very good, and last weekend's Math Club picnic passed wetly (the third thunderstorm of the morning flooded the picnic shelter but it was time for the picnic to be over anyway at that point) but I think all-in-all, a success.

I'll have photos of all the above available online when I remember to connect my camera with the laptop!

spring!!

I just uploaded some photos of spring at the Oratory to my Google photos...


Here's a link!

Let me know if it doesn't work, please!