My wife's birthday

Yes, my wife's birthday is about a week after mine. Happy birthday, Sweetheart. We got a line on good Chinese restaurant, Gingers, and boy was it good! We all enjoyed it immensely.

I talked with my good friend Jeff Culbreath who blogs at Stony Creek Digest. He's a good blogger, very up to date, great commentary. We talked about the home schooling decision in Southern California and the responses from people around the state. It seems that people overwhelmingly support home schooling. Jeff gives a couple of reasons why he believes this is so.

Not surprisingly, public education officials support the court's decision. Chuck Norris gives his reason why they don't.

I'm on vacation now for the next week and the day after Easter. I'm looking forward to this Holy Week, making the most of it in reparation for my sins.

After Mass today, Jeff, my wife, and I talked about the fact that our home schooled children are exposed to the kinds of things that we all wished we had been. Good literature, poetry, music, and an overall appreciation of beauty. But we had to admit that it could have been worse: we could have been raised today -- with the internet and all the sin to be had at the click of a mouse.

That's an interesting point. Kids today get into so much trouble -- skewed world views, "cutting" and other anti-social behaviors, disdain for the very mention of God -- because they are exposed to these ideas largely through the internet or friends who learn of them through the internet. They can quickly find a community of like-minded non-thinkers who buttress and encourage them. I can only thank our dear God that the internet was not around when I was growing up. I also thank Him for leading me so that I do allow my children exposure to the internet.