The Scoop on Granny

Name:
Cathi

Status:
Dreaming of the mountains...


Who is Granny?

I'm the incredibly blessed mother of 9, "Granny" to 16, and wife of "The Papa," the knight-in-shining-armor whose loving support has made it possible for me to stay home and give my life to mothering, homemaking, and 26 years of homeschooling. Life at Granny's House is full of laughter, friendship, books, music, lively debate, writing, and good things to eat. My days are made even more meaningful by coming alongside other moms, giving them the support and encouragement that I lacked as a young mother and helping them to network with each other in ways that strengthen homes and families. A few times a year I board a plane to visit my "away" kids, to attend the birth of a grandchild, or to enjoy some lazy days with my best friend, but I always love coming back to...Granny's House.

My Complete Profile

On Granny's Calendar
  • August 15 - SAC Day begins
  • August 16 - Sam is 7!
  • August 20 - Kristen's birthday
  • August 30 - THE WELTYS ARRIVE!
  • Sept 3 - FAMILY PICTURES
  • Sept 3 - Chris' birthday
  • Sept 5 - Henry is 9!
  • Sept 7 - Isaac is 10!
  • Sept 17 - The Papa's birthday
  • Sept 23-30 - Granny and Papa go to Hawaii
  • Sept 26 - PawPop is 88!
  • Sept 29 - Tim is 15!
  • Oct 2 - Cheyenne's birthday
  • Oct 4 - Liam is 5!
  • Oct 7 - John Caleb is 17!
  • Oct 18 - Tony's birthday



  • Email Granny!


    Get your own calendar



    Granny Cares
  • Care Calendar
  • Agape Pregnancy Help Center San Antonio
  • World Vision

  • Granny Cooks (and Eats)!

  • The Pioneer Woman Cooks
  • Once a Month Mom
  • $5 Dinners
  • Full Bellies, Happy Kids
  • A Year of Crockpotting


  • Granny's House (and yours!)

  • Simple Mom
  • The Nesting Place
  • Between Naps on the Porch
  • The Inspired Room



  • Granny gets around...
  • A Holy Experience
  • MommyLife
  • Confessions of a Pioneer Woman
  • Preschoolers and Peace
  • Breathing Grace
  • theMangoTimes



  • Granny stays informed...
  • Real Clear Politics
  • Fox News
  • Drudge Report

  • Granny Thinks...
  • Al Mohler
  • Between Two Worlds
  • Blog and Mablog
  • First Importance
  • Equipping the Saints
  • Desiring God

  • Granny says you may go to...
  • PowerLine Blog
  • Michelle Malkin
  • SteynOnline
  • WSJ Opinion Journal Best of the Web
  • GetHuman
  • Home School Legal Defense Association

  • Granny goes to the movies...
  • Netflix
  • Rotten Tomatoes
  • ScreenIt.com

  • Granny is watching!
  • Blue Pencil Editing
  • SPOGG
  • Mighty Red Pen
  • Conjugate Visits

  • Granny smiles at...
  • Purgatorio
  • ScrappleFace
  • LarkNews
  • Sacred Sandwich


  • Friday, September 22, 2006
    Gasp, gasp...catching my breath!

    The past month has nearly been a blur. All components of our school year are now in place: our new history/literature/writing curriculum, other academic subjects, online classes, and extracurricular activities. I'm enjoying it all and feel we've put together a good mix for the year, but it's been draining and frustrating at times. As I told someone yesterday, I expected we'd have a steep learning curve with the online classes, but I didn't expect the curve to be a vertical line! The demands, the new procedures, the deadlines, the rigidity are things we're not used to around here, and though I believe we'll find them valuable and ultimately "do-able," the attempts to get it all under control with the Papa gone have been painful at times. He's been away for two weeks, returning tomorrow, and then leaving again Tuesday for another few days. He's been helping out by phone and email and that's a real blessing...I'd have nuked out way before now without his input!

    I'll be leaving a week from today (or perhaps earlier if needed) to attend the birth of our twelfth grandchild in Virginia. So I'll spend this weekend making sure that plans are in place for my absence for two, possibly three weeks. This is when you see how good your systems really are: can they run without you? Again, my being in touch by phone and email will help, but I can't make sure everyone is out of bed and studying by 8, so I'll count on the self-discipline we've been working on to stand in for my mild coercion :-)

    Thursdays have been a lot of fun so far this year. Three of the kids are involved in the Crystal Sea Drama Company again this year, and this takes pretty much all day. The big production this year is a Broadway musical revue, a huge undertaking since many of the kids don't read music and have never sung in a group before. I am having a great time helping them learn parts and learn to sing, using experience that has lain dormant for way too long! I also spend part of the day just generally helping supervise the throngs of kids who are moving from one class to another, trying not to be too disruptive of the Mother's Day Out program which is also housed in the large church where we meet.

    At other times in the same day, one of the children and three of my grandsons are taking a Tae Kwon Do class and another of the kids is taking piano, all at the same facility. It's been a great way to give the kids some non-academic classes without being in the car and on the road half a dozen times each week. Oh, we come home on Thursdays dead tired and the kids are asleep in the van before we pull in the driveway, but so far we wouldn't trade it. I've adjusted Friday mornings a bit to help us recover, which of course is one of the lovely privileges of home schooling!

    So, how is YOUR year going so far?

    has spoken at 10:07 AM
    4 Backtalks to Granny



    Wednesday, September 06, 2006
    U N D E R. . . R E N O V A T I O N
    My blog is about to undergo some renovation...a whole new look and feel. I am going to merge my two blogs since I'm not doing justice to either one, let alone two. I am going to have a theme that will encompass a lot of what I've already written but also move in some new directions.

    So...I've been busy gathering graphics and ideas for the renovation and haven't taken much time to post. I'll be back, but you might not recognize me!

    has spoken at 4:51 PM
    0 Backtalks to Granny



    Saturday, September 02, 2006

    It's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon...

    Oh, wait.

    It's been a BUSY week at Granny's House. It was our first week of school, other than a few early math lessons before vacation. Our online classes don't start until after Labor Day, and drama doesn't start until next week, so I can't say we're going full throttle...but we got enough going to get a feel for what our year might be like. We are doing a new curriculum this year (Tapestry of Grace) with all four of our remaining students and the rhythms will be different than what we're used to. But I've found over the past 21 years of home schooling that every year is different, even if the academic components remain the same.

    One year there's a nursing baby, next year there's a long illness, the year after that one leaves for college and so we're reduced by one driver, the following year we make a major move and leave our co-op.

    Some years we have a brand new student that requires a lot of one-on-one time...other years we have two students who would rather eat Brussels sprouts than find a common denominator.

    One year the Papa is teaching at Notre Dame and has more time off than he's ever had...the next year he's whisked away to the Gulf War and we're on our own.

    It's not all a function of which history program we choose or which math levels we're doing. There will be dozens of variables every year, and as I've said many times, life is a series of trading one set of problems (and joys) for another. So it is with homeschooling....and ever will be. When the last set of challenges disappears, it will be because I look up and see that last cap and gown.

    Of course, as I was sitting tonight hunting for maps on the internet and making up vocabulary quizzes, I admitted to myself that I'll probably come home from that commencement ceremony and call one of you up and ask, "What maps do you still need to find for next year? Need any help?"

    Once a homeschool junkie, always addicted.

    So...we're off and running in year 22 here at Granny's House.

    Where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children (and grandchildren) are above average...

    has spoken at 8:36 PM
    0 Backtalks to Granny



    Granny's Mission Statement
    "...Tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done....that the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children."
    ~Psalm 78:4-6

    My Focal Passage for 2011...
    Philippians 2:5-11

    5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,

    6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,

    7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

    8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

    9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,

    10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

    11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

    ~Philippians 2:5-11 (ESV)


    Oxymoronica...

    "The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it."

    ~Samuel Johnson


    [Oxymoronica, n., A compilation of self-contradictory terms, phrases, or quotations; examples of oxymoronica appear illogical or nonsensical at first, but upon reflection, make a good deal of sense and are often profoundly true.]


    Books on the iPhone, the Kindle, or on the nightstand...


  • The Good Husband of Zebra Drive, Alexander Mccall Smith
  • The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions, Arthur G. Bennett, editor



  • Books finished in 2011...

  • Oxymoronica, Mardy Grothe
  • Some Sing, Some Cry, Ntozake Shange, Ifa Bayeza
  • English Society in the Eighteenth Century, Roy Porter
  • One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are, Ann Voskamp
  • His Word in My Heart, Janet Pope
  • The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot
  • Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
  • Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi
  • Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God, John Piper
  • Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, Joshua Foer
  • Blue Shoes and Happiness, Alexander McCall Smith
  • The Red Queen, Philippa Gregory
  • Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, Eric Metaxas
  • The Confessions of Saint Augustine, St. Augustine
  • Complete Poems and Selected Letters of John Keats, John Keats
  • Unfamiliar Fishes, Sarah Vowell
  • Words That Work, Frank Luntz
  • NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman
  • Poke the Box, Seth Godin
  • Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It, Gary Taubes
  • A Patriot's History of the United States, Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen
  • Song of Saigon: One Woman's Journey to Freedom, Anh Vu Sawyer
  • The Artistic Mother: A Practical Guide for Fitting Creativity into Your Life, Shona Cole
  • The Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature, Elizabeth Kantor
  • The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, David McCullough


  • Oh, the thinks you
    can think...
  • Tapestry of Grace
  • Anatomical Charts
  • America's Library
  • George Washington's Mount Vernon - Virtual Mansion Tour
  • Thomas Jefferson's Monticello - Virtual Mansion Tour
  • Hurricane Demo

  • Oh, the places we'll go...
  • The Alamo
  • Majestic Theater
  • The MAiZE
  • Magik Theatre
  • Sheldon Vexler Children's Theatre

  • Granny always says...
    Saying goodbye...
    Sunday snippets...
    Summer.
    Sunday snippets...
    Coming soon to a country near you...
    Making (a) room...
    Just in case this might make an impact on your spe...
    Midweek snippets...
    What's up?
    She said YES!

    Granny used to say...
    October 2005
    November 2005
    December 2005
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    Grace Notes

    "Were the whole realm of nature mine
    That were a present far too small...
    Love so amazing, so divine
    Demands my soul, my life,
    my all!"