A review of "Rome, Sweet Home"

Scott Hahn, Kimberly Hahn, and their road to Catholicism turned out to be much more problematic than I had anticipated. I've heard of this couple so long that I assumed, wrongly, that their conversion was easy. It was anything but easy. "Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism" is their story, told by both alternately, of a difficult conversion.

Kimberly came from a family of Presbyterian ministers and herself planned to be a pastor. After meeting Scott, dating for a while, separating to settle as friends, then finally deciding to marry, at that point, Kimberly wanted more than anything to be a pastor's wife. That was the major discrepancy in their story, but in following the biblical command of submitting to the husband's leadership, they had no choice. A woman cannot lead a church.

I recently joined a Catholic book club with this book as our first reading. As a former Protestant myself, I waded through the vitriolic anti-Catholic words that Scott and Kimberly spewed prior to acknowledging the rightness of Catholic beliefs. One club member grew angry in reading the section, but having heard those accusations against Catholics all my life, I knew exactly that mindset (not a pretty sight, mind you).

Scott had the distinct advantage of having time to study every night, earning degrees, having detailed debates with other students, professors, and great scholarly minds all over the country. Each time he tried to disprove a Catholic belief, he found each to be true. First Luther fell, then other Protestant leaders, until Scott was faced with his conscience: convert or live a lie. Kimberly could not join him. Not yet.

I felt sorry for Kimberly, raising children, leading study groups, crusades, but not going where Scott was headed. They wavered in their marital connection. As one member of our group pointed out, she was not sure just exactly when Kimberly was convicted. Nor is it clear.

If anyone asked what was the most benefit I gained from this read, I would say: The book made me want to locate my old study books on the early church and reconnect with the Word of God. That's more than worthy of any book. The rest is lagniappe.

My Bucket List

It's final! I am retired! However, to maintain my current level of living, I must find another job. OK, that figures. I worked so very hard as a teacher. That was a hard, hard job, a hard life. There, got that off my chest, so to speak! Now, for the fun part. Let's make a list--you, too--of all the things we want to see and do before, you know, the bucket gets kicked, the Rapture comes, or the Aztecs are right.

In no particular order (but as they come into my head), items for my bucket list:

1. I would love to go to Iceland and take an auto trip around the island. I want to see glaciers and puffins (are they in Iceland?) and museums. I want to drink tons of coffee like the characters do in the Nobel winning novel by

2. I want to join the local quilter's club. That's been my plan for two years now and I still have not joined. I want to go to Dallas on a quilt-shop-hopping trip to buy a few pieces.

3. Related to #2 is making one example of all the items I've marked in all my magazines. What fun!

4. I want to have an adventure with my former Pretend Children.

5. I want to go to Nova Scotia with my sister.

6. I want to have enough money to repair all the broken things on my house, especially, no, not especially, because all these items have equal intention in them. I want my swimming pool in working order so my family can come over for a pool party with a cookout and all!

7. I want my house put back into order.

8. I want a fun job without the stress of being responsible for children's behavior.

Coming soon: Life after retirement!

It's time for goodbye....

I've packed all my things and took with me all things indicative of my personality. The library no longer reflects me...well, the bright paint on the desk and file cabinet I could not remove, the two trashcans I painted. One of my favorite teacher friends from years ago repeatedly said, "I'm going home soon." She finally did. And now I've gone home. I retired from teaching and school libraries and rooms full of children and noise. I was tired and easily annoyed. That's how I knew it was time. So I said goodbye.

(Next post: the joy of teaching)

An excellent travel tool for the kiddies and useful for parents, too!

This review is about: National Geographic Kids Ultimate U.S. Road Trip Atlas: Maps, Games, Activities, and More for Hours of Backseat Fun (Paperback)

Of all the books at my recent book fair, "National Geographic Kids Ultimate U.S. Road Trip Atlas" was my favorite. I'm the librarian/chair of the book fair, thus I familiarize myself (more or less) with every book on the case shelves. As a cartophile (map lover), I immediately grabbed this book and Aha! thrilled to its pages!

I evaluate such a book of the 50 states by what is written about my home state, Louisiana. I begin there/here. Each state is allotted two pages. The state map fills one page and information and state symbols the other. The little roads are missing--after all, it takes a big fold-out to include those--but all the state and federal roads are intact. How do I know? A rather narrow state road, 28, runs between Federal Highway 171 and Interstate 49. So what? My grandparents lived in a small community, Simpson, along 28. No, Simpson didn't make the map, but 28 is there.

What is included for each state are these items:
1. 5 Cool things to do here (In Louisiana you can visit the Rose Garden in Shreveport, take a Bayou Boat Tour, visit the Aquarium of the Americas, go through Cajun Country, and tour the French Quarter of New Orleans. A green line exactly locates each place.)
2. A summary paragraph about the state
3. Roadside attractions, like Mardi Gras World, a museum showing how a float is made
4. Odd information: Did you know that alligators must stay at least 200 yards away from the Mardi Gras parade route (Are you chuckling?).

Each state is set up similarly. Imagine how children can have fun with this--and learn during the summer on those ghastly road trips. The U. S. Road Atlas is most beneficial.

I just flipped open to a particular state. Question: Which state is divided into two parts by the Chesapeake Bay? Yes, if you live near this region, you can answer that. I could not have answered the question. Or this one: In which state is the Wild Horses Assateague State Park? Answer to both questions is Maryland. OK, one more about Maryland: Which state gave up some of its land to form Washington, D.C.?

At an incredibly low price, you can have this book for your children, your students, or, ahem, for yourself. I bought (with library funds) 10 copies for a project I plan to do soon with my middle elementary students.

I gave my sister, a frequent driving traveler, a copy for her long two-day trip back and forth from Virginia to Louisiana. She has already found some things to do in a couple of states through which she drives.

The back of the book contains a number of activities for the kiddies.

Education by hands-on

A couple of weeks ago I said goodbye here. That's no good. Instead, I'm continuing, but perhaps in new directions. My blurb at top indicates this shift. I've decided I don't need a new blog--this is mine and I can blog here all I want. Amazing, the things technology allows. So onward---

Let's study animals, now just any animals, but ones exotic to us. My sister and I recently experienced animals of the wild up close and personal. We drove down to Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch: African Safari Texas Style between Austin and San Antonio and were simply awed by the way the animals ran free (except for a few). I learned about God's profundity with the free range animals.

Here are some of my favorite photographs (note: one can take awesome ones up close and personal). That's my sister hand-feeding a nilgai, a sort of antelope found in India. (No, hand feeding is warned against...)

My feeding experience came with this beauty, a gemsbok, an African native and member of the oryx family. According to the Wildlife Ranch booklet, the gemsbok was kept in Ancient Egypt for sacrificial purposes. I think they are much happier on this ranch! He certainly had fun poking his head into the car, sniffing out the sack of food we were given to feed the animals out side the car!

This is the scimitar horned oryx, also native to Africa, standing with a huddle of babies. Such a fine pair of horns! The male is able to make a deep croaking sound like a bullfrog. I thought they were beautiful!

If you look closely, you will see the giraffe's tongue extended. We don't know why he was putting his tongue out and in over and over, almost as if he were exercising it. Hmmm, we don't know, but it was interesting!

The mighty ostrich preens. She pulls feathers through her beak, one by one, to transfer oils along each one. The ostrich is the largest bird in the world and originates in Africa. All are born with gray feathers. While females remain gray, males turn black by adulthood. An ostrich weighs 200-300 pounds.

My sister remembers learning from some animal program that zebras are, well, rather temperamental. Perhaps looking at stripes all day on self and fellows makes them that way. Up close, that mohawk-mane adds to the rep. But, what gorgeous, unique creatures! I'm so glad we found two zebras this day on the drive through Wildlife Ranch. Although neither was interested in our little bags of food, we still were this close to them.

Although Wildlife Ranch is dedicated to the preservation and even the improvement of life for these wild animals, there is one black mark, as I saw it. These beautiful micaws live in a barren bird house with no vegetation whatsoever. You can see the orange one clinging to the cage. Further back on a ledge is a brilliant blue one. They were screaming. Not a bird, I really didn't understand them, but my imagination was horrified. Beautiful birds like these should not live like this just for humans to gawk at them.