Yesterday was a wonderful day.

First we got up and actually made it to Mass! We went this time to our parish mass at 9:15. Father Pat was the celebrant and he was wonderful. Every Friday the school children attend the 9:15 Mass and it is the most heartening and touching thing! All the children were so reverent. The children's choir sang wonderfully. The children lectors were excellent. Father Pat is so good with kids. He taught so many little things in short time he had. First of all he said: Good morning, children! How are you? To which they all recited in reply: Fine, thank you, Father. How are you? So there is definitely an emphasis on teaching good manners! Then he made them all speak up when they said the responses to the Mass. We were all responding and singing in our loudest clearest voices. He told them: say Amen like you mean it!

Then in his homily he taught about how we should be the wheat and let Jesus be the leavening. He taught about St. Ignatius of Antioch and he tied in the importance of respecting life and well, he was just wonderful.

I am going to write him a note to thank him for being such a wonderful priest. A couple years ago I did that and when he saw me next he came right up to me with a smile and said thanks so sincerely for writing to him. The funny thing is for a guy who has to live such a public life, he really is at heart kind of shy.

After Mass, we went over to the activities center because we'd been invited to join with the rest of the school to see Jim Weiss. Well, we were the first ones there and Mr. Weiss shook hands with all of us and made up sit in the very front row. He said homeschoolers were such great supporters of what his storytelling that they had a very special place in his life. He chatted with us for a while. He was so gentlemanly and friendly. All the kids in their little uniforms shuffled in. The principal of the school got up there and did a fun intro and lead them in prayer. What a lovely woman! I had heard good things about her but had never actually seen her. I was really impressed.

Then Mr. Weiss got up there and was phenomenal! He told the story of the Tortoise and the Hare and The Elves and the Shoemaker. He was so dynamic in real life. He is much more sedate sounding in his recordings. He made all kinds of jokes and had the kids roaring with laughing. He had them participating in the storytelling in the cleverest of ways, for example, he the elves trying to read a thank you note written by the shoemaker and his wife. He said the elves were just learning to read so they had to sound out the note and then he did the most wonderful silly imitation of sounding out words. All the children were hooting with laughter. And at the same time he was teaching them such wonderful values. He said that the elves didn't want the shoemakers to know that they were helping them, because, he said, sometimes the best way to help someone is to not let them know. Then they don't feel like they owe you a favor and that is the most generous thing of all. Little things like that.

So it was a very warm and fuzzy morning. We were hungry so we went to Chick fil a for lunch (I really have to get back to fasting from meat on Fridays!). Then we went to tennis. The weather was gorgeous. At first it was warm and sunny, but in the two hours we were there the temperature dropped about 10 degrees and had a nice crisp chill in it. We came home and everybody vegged. I read more in my book An Infamous Army. Georgette Heyer is my new favorite author.

Thursday, Hannah wound up praying in front of an abortion clinic for nearly 4 hours. Our parish is pariticipating in the 40 Days for Life campaign. There was an 1.5 hour gap mid-afternoon, so she filled that in. Then later she prayed with Will. The person who was supposed to show up at 7 didn't so she wound up staying later with Will. I was very proud of William, by the way. His new girlfriend is not Catholic and both her parents volunteer for the Obama campaign. I asked Will what they talk about and he said that they debate constantly. I said, so how come you are going out? And he said, Mom, we never fight, we just discuss! I was really getting worried about him because I feel like there is all this negative influence in his life lately what with being so into rock n roll and hanging out with public school kids and now dating this young girl. But now I see that he is like a lamp shining forth. He had been meeting his girlfriend after their guitar lessons on Thursday but he broke the date to go pray in front of the aboriton clinic. And he did this on his own. I was really proud of him.