A Life With Karol/Swiadectwo

Karol Wojtyla - John Paul II is one of the most influential, beloved and treasured people - saints in my life. I felt his presence when I studied philosophy at the Catholic University of Lublin, Poland where he had taught it several years before. I had a privilege to study under one of Karol Wojtyla's great friends who had become the chairman of the Ethics Department after Karol Wojtyla became Pope John Paul II. I have seen him a number of times in Poland during his papal visits. We have named our son Karol Cyprian after Karol Wojtyla and his (mine too) beloved poet Cyprian Kamil Norwid. Even though John Paul II never held my hand I feel his prsence deeply now. I know that he is with me as my spiritual father now and he often holds my hand. Yesterday I watched a new DVD that my mom sent me for Christmas. It is called SWIADECTWO and it is mostly in Polish. There is some narration by a popular actor Michael York and it is in English. The film features Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz. He talks about his almost 40 years spent with Karol Wojtyla. It expends on the book written by the Cardinal A Life With Karol. It is an amazing, inspiring and thought provoking film. Watching it was a very emotional experience for me. Every time I read or watch anything about Karol Wojtyla I feel inspired to live as a saint. I recommend you get a copy of the book and see for yourself.

Swiadectwo...Karol Wojtyla... dla nas Polakow jest to ktos o kim nigdy nie zapomnimy. Moja glebsza przygoda z Janem Pawlem II rozpoczela sie na Katolickim Uniwersytecie Lubelskim, kiedy to moglam brac udzial w zajeciach z etyki prowadzonych przez Ks. Profesora Stycznia, ktory byl wielkim przyjacielem Karola Wojtyly Jana Pawla IIi to po nim objal Katedre Etyki. Wszyscy moi profesorowie wspominali wyklady Karola Wojtyly. Widzialam Jana Pawla II przy okazji jego wizyt papieskich w Polsce. I mimo iz migdy z nim nie rozmawialam osobiscie to wiem, ze on sie mna opiekuje z nieba jak dobry ojciec. Czesto mnie trzyma za reke i dopomaga mi. Modle sie czesto do niego za nasze dzieci, szczegolnie naszego Karola Cypriana, ktory nosi imiona Karola Wojtyly i jego (mojego tez) ulubionego polskiego poety Cypriana Kamila Norwida.
Wczoraj obejrzalam Swiadectwo na DVD - prezent Bozonarodzeniowy od mojej Mamy. Moje podziekowania plyna do calej ekipy, ktora zrealizowala ten film, szczegolnie do Kardynala Stanislawa Dziwisza. Ten piekny, emocjonalny i napelniony glebokimi refleksjami film jest dla mnie inspiracja, aby kazdego dnia zyc jak swieta. Niech nasz wspanialy Karol Wojtyla wyprasza dla nas potrzebne laski!

Dreams/Marzenia - Sny

We are so close to Christmas now and I'm thinking about dreams - the dreams that Mary had ... the dreams of Joseph ... the dreams of the shepherds ... the dreams of the Three Wise Kings and the dreams of the Little Baby Jesus. I think that we are in God's dreams, the dreams of love and peace for all of us. I want to share this fun song about dreams too. Enjoy and open your heart to big and beautiful dreams in Jesus.

Swieta Bozego Narodzenia juz tak bliziutko i ja mysle o snach i marzeniach Maryji ... Jozefa... pasterzy... Trzech Madrych Kroli i Malenkiego Jezusa. Mysle, ze my jestesmy obecni w "marzeniach" Boga pelnych milosci i pokoju dla nas. Chcialam tez podzielic sie ta piekna piosenka. Zycze wszystkim otwarcia serc na wielkie i wspaniale marzenia w Jezusie.

Discoveries On Our Journey To Bethlehem - Chapter 2/Odkrycia na naszej drodze do Betlejem - Rozdzial 2

On St. Nicholas I and my three children presented a Nativity Story in Polish for the Polished Community gathered for the Holy Mass in Polish and Traditional Polish Wigilia. We had so much fun preparing and performing it and even my two year old participated. We based it on a wonderful Christmas carol Oj Maluski, Maluski. I wrote the poetry and directed it. I dedicated it to Mieczyslaw Albert Krapiec and all my philosophy professors from the Catholic University of Lublin. Father Krapiec was a great Polish philosopher, who died this year and who used to be one of my professor in my master's in philosophy program at the Catholic Univeristy of Lublin. Everyone really liked our play.

W Swieto Swietego Mikolaja moje dzieci i ja przedstawilismy Jaselka dla Polakow zgromadzonych na Mszy Swietej w jezyku polskim i corocznej tradycyjnej Wigilii. Nasze przedstawienie bylo zrealizowane na bazie koledy Oj Maluski, Maluski. Poezja i rezyseria byla moja. Przedstawienie to zadedykowalam s.p. O. Mieczyslawowi Albertowi Krapcowi i moim profesorom z Wydzialu Filozofii Teoretycznej Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego. O. Krapiec byl wielkim polskim filozofem i jednym z moich profesorow podczs moich studiow magisterskich na Wydziale Filozofii Teoretycznej. Zmarl on w tym roku i to Jemu chcialam zadedykowac to przedstawienie pamietam bowiem jak Ks. Profesor Tadeusz Styczen probowal Go namowic, aby zaspiewal te kolede na jednym z wydzialowych oplatkow.
Przedstawienie bardzo sie wszystkim podobalo.

St. Nicholas/ Swiety Mikolaj

At this time of the year many people ask: "How do you handle Santa?" For us it's an easy answer. My husband and I agreed that we would celebrate the feast of St. Nicholas. My husband dresses up as St. Nicholas - the bishop and we tell our children that we give, parents them gifts because we want to remember the goodness and spirit of St. Nicholas and imitate him. We celebrate many feast days in our homeschool so our children are used to commemorating the lives of the saints. This year we experienced something really funny. On the feast of St. Nicholas we were at a party and there was a man who dressed as "Santa". Only for some reason his mustache ended up on his nose rather than under it. When we came back home our four year old daughter said: "I knew it wasn't the real Saint Nicholas because he had this thing on his nose." We all laughted and then our seven year old daughter said: "I knew it was not real Saint Nicholas because his body is buried in the ground and his soul is in heaven with God." I couldn't be prouder of both of them.

W czasie Adwentu wiele osob pyta: "Co wy mowicie Waszym dzieciom o Swietym Mikolaju?" Odpowiedz na to pytanie jest dla nas bardzo latwa. Moj maz i ja postanowilismy swietowac ten piekny dzien Sw. Mikolaja mowiac naszym dzieciom, ze tatus przebiera sie za Swietego Mikolaja Biskupa i przynosi im prezenty od mamy i taty. W naszej domowej edukacji wspominamy wiele Swietych, wiec nie jest to dla naszych dzieci nic obcego czy niezwyklego. W tym roku przydarzyla sie nam bardzo smieszna historia. W Swieto Swietego Mikolaja uczestniczylismy w polskiej Wigilii. Pan, ktory przebral sie za Mikolaja zakladajac brode polozyl wasy na swoim nosie zamiast pod nosem. Kiedy bylismy juz w domu nasz czteroletnia coreczka powiedziala: "Ja wiedzialam, ze to nie byl prawdziwy Swiety Mikolaj, bo on mial to cos nas nosie". Bardzo sie wszyscy z tego powiedzenia siemlismy. Nasza siedmioletnia corka dodala: "Ja wiem, ze to nie byl prawdziwy Swiety Mikolaj, bo jego cialo jest pogrzebane, a jego dusz jest w niebie z Bogiem". Bylam z nich bardzo dumna.

Discoveries On Our Journey To Bethlehem... Chapter 1/ Odkrycia w drodze do Betlejem ... Rozdzial 1

It's hard to belive that we only have a few more Advent days left during this Liturgical Year. We have been very busy and ... peaceful. In addition to our regular schoolwork we have been focusing on peace education, which turned out to be one of the greatest treasures this season.

I challenged myself to do all the Christmas presents shopping before the beginning of Advent so that I could spend more time at home rather than beating the crowds at different stores. And what a blessing it turned out to be. It freed my evenings to do a lot of beautiful peace education works. I introduced the PEACE CANDLE. We light it every time we do a work in our peace corner. My two year old son often asks: "Mama, peace candle" and she really enjoys singing This Little Light Of Mine when we light the candle. I also intoduce the PEACE TREE. It is a Norfolk Pine. We decorated it with flowers circles, which I made on the computer, printed them out and threaded some strings in them. They were blank on one side and each family member wrote some of his/her hope on the blank side. We hung them on the PEACE TREE. It turned out to be a wonderful work for us. We have been doing many works. One of my most favorite ones is our PEACE FLAGS. Each one of us got a piece of felt and decorated it so that it reflected the idea of PEACE. We hang them up in our living room so that we can see them everyday.

All of these works provided a lot of descoveries for all of us - discoveries of our feelings, thoughts, experiences, likes and dislikes.

Nasz Adwent okazal sie wspanialym czasem pokoju. Ja zdecydowalam skompletowac wszystkie prezenty Bozonarodzeniowe przed rozpoczeciem Adwentu - Nowego Roku Liturgicznego, abym nie spedzac mojego cennego czasu w kilometrowych kolejkach i tlumach. Tak bardzo sie ciesze z tego osiagniecia, mialam bowiem wiele czasu na edukacje pokojowa w duchu montessori. Jak zawsze zrobilismy wiele projektow. Przedstawilam SWIECZKE POKOJU, ktora bardzo polubil szczegolnie moj dwulatek i prosil mnie, abym ja zapalila i abysmy spiewali This Little Light Of Mine (To Male Moje Swiatelko).

Przedstawilam tez nasze DRZEWKO POKOJU. Udekorowalismy je kwiatkami z brystolu, na ktorych napisalismy nasze nadzieje.

Moja najulubiensza praca tego Adwentu byly FLAGI POKOJOWE. Nauczyly nas wiele o nas samych i naszym pojeciu pokoju. Zawiesilismy je w naszym "salonie". Bardzo lubie na nie patrzec, bo pokazuja mi wiele, o tych z ktorymi mieszkam - moim mezu i dzieciach.

The Coming * Nadejscie

I really like Advent and so do my children. Why? Because we are awaiting ... Whom? What? We are awaiting the Little Baby - Tiny Love who has the power to heal and bring peace. In our family we put up our bare evergreen tree on the first Sunday of Advent. It reminds us that we are awaiting. There are hidden treasures burried in awaiting - the most important one is JOY. It builds up. On the third Sunday of Advent we know that we have come a long way with awaiting and getting ready so we put our lights up on the Tree because we are rejoicing. We decorate our Christmas Tree on Christmas Eve - a tradition brought over from Poland where I grew up. So this year we are awaiting the Prince of Peace and our homeschool focus is put on peace education.
We hope your Advent is joyful as you discover the hidden treasures in awaiting.

Adwent ma dla mnie wielkie znaczenie, poniewaz pomaga mi on oczekiwac. Oczekiwac na Kogo? na co? Oczekiwac na Malenkie Dzieciatko - Malenka Milosc, ktora ma sile uzdrowic i przyniesc pokoj. W pierwsza Niedziele Adwentu my w mojej rodzinie ustawiamy nieudekorowana choinke, ktora jest dla nas symbolem oczekiwania. W trzecia Niedziele Adwentu zawieszamy na choince swiatelka, bo jest to niedziela radosci - juz tak niedaleko do Bozego Narodzenia. Choinke tradycyjnie dokorujemy w Wigile przed kolacja wigilijna. W tym roku w czasie Adwentu koncentrujemy nasza edukacje domowa na oczekiwaniu na przybycie Ksiecia pokoju, totez robimy duzo prac Montessori dotyczacych edukacji pokojowej.
Mamy nadzieje, ze Wasz Adwent wypelniony bedzie odkrywaniem skarbow ukrytych w oczekiwaniu.

Thanksgiving Letter 2008 From Scott & Kasia Wright Family:

From 2008 edited

Dear Family and Friends,
“To Live Is To Thank” (T. Styczen)

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! As we reflect on another year of living we thank God for so many blessings He bestowed on us in 2008.

As a family this year of homeschooling and Catechesis of the Good Shepherd we have been receiving graces flowing from the Sacraments of Penance and Eucharist since we had a first Communicant in our family (more about that later). We decided to go on our own family retreat designed by Kasia. At the end of the three days Elizabeth said: “Mommy, three days are not enough for me”. Kasia’s mom, Lucyna was there with us and she really liked it too. We all came back from it refreshed and a bit more peaceful.

We have been working on our homeschool together and decided to make the theme of this year “Being A Disciple” honoring the Year of St. Paul the Apostle.

We have been doing a lot of geography using our beautiful Montessori wooden puzzle maps of the world and continents.

Our Atrium has been a great joy. We have made many works since last year. We introduce new works and always try to make our Atrium a more beautiful and peaceful place. It is one of the most enjoyable times of the week.

We and especially the girls have been learning all about money- allowance and all. They wait for that time of the week to get and separate their money into four different categories: one for charity, one for long-term savings, one for other and one for self. They also enjoy making decisions of how to spend their money.

We have also done a “Democracy and US Presidents Unit Study” as we prepared for the 2008 presidential election. It was fun. We have learnt that Abe Lincoln was the tallest president of the United States. He also took a little boy and put his dirty feet on top of the ceiling and made foot prints after his step mother had joked with him about not making the ceiling dirty with his hair (he was so tall). When his stepmother saw the footprints on the ceiling she laughed and told Abe to clean them off. They had a good laugh and Abe cleaned the mess. Our kids really liked the story.

From 2008 edited

We have been into getting to know Helen Keller for a long time. We have finished reading the story of her life with enjoyment. We have also been watching our all time favorite series Signing Time (ASL) and each one of us have learnt quite a few signs.

In April we took a week of vacation and while we stayed around the house spending time with Kasia’s mom who was about to go back to Poland, we pretended we were in France: talked about a different French saint everyday, we traveled to the National Shrine of the Little Flower & the Shrine of Blessed Solanus Casey, we ate French food, had Fr. John over for lunch and learnt some French prayers.

From 2007 edited photos

Blue Lake Fine Arts Family Suzuki Violin Camp near Muskegon, Michigan was a really fun and educational experience. We played a lot of violin, attended a lot of concerts put together by a lot of children including ours.

We walked a lot and ate ice-cream. Violin lessons are going well. Even Karol asks Mommy to help him play his box violin. He hums many advanced songs to which he has been introduced through live playing and CDs. We had an all girls night on which we left the boys to explore trucks (Karol’s hobby) and we went to Hill Auditorium to see and hear a world-renown violinist in live concert. It was a wonderful experience for all three of us. We saw her signing CDs after the concert.

We spent a weekend in Cleveland with our friends from PA ... and went bowling and to the botanical gardens. It’s always good to spend time with like-minded people.

We are also grateful for our family vacation in Alpena. Boat rides, playing at the beach, visiting with new friends, swinging, playing games and visiting the under water museum in Alpena are just the highlights. On the way back home we stopped in Frankenmuth and had a lot of fun.

We went to a Cinderella play put on by the local Catholic high school this summer. Wow! What a beautiful experience! We saw “A Honey Pot of Pooh” stories at the Wild Swan Theatre on Karol’s Birthday.

The girls and Mommy put together a Christmas play in Polish and presented it to the Polish community before Christmas 2007. We plan to do another one this year too.

Every year we have a lot of fun dressing up as saints and participating in All Saints Eve Party at our parish. We like playing games and collecting holy cards and sweet treats. This year was a special year for our family. Read more and you will find out why.

We have made a few trips to visit Scott’s parents. All Scott’s siblings and their families were able to get together for a bonfire in October. What fun. We roasted potatoes, sausage and marshmallows. We took rides on grandpa’s wagon and had lots of fun.

We have celebrated birthdays, namedays and baptism anniversaries. Any reason to celebrate is welcomed here at this house.

Karol Cyprian (2years old) is a delightful little boy. He likes to talk and speaks in sentences in both Polish and English. His most recent ones are “Unkind Mama” (he likes to say it when Mommy does anything he doesn’t like) ... and the sign of the Cross in Polish. He repeats everything the girls say and makes up his own rhymes, like “Bye-bye windy wind”.

It’s delightful to see our “Little Prince” grow. He really likes trucks and gets exited to stand by the window on Wednesdays (our garbage day). He is really funny and likes to joke. When Mommy says: ”Let Daddy change your diaper”. He responds: ”No way” and runs away laughing.
For his piece of art, which he entitled “Bear In the Garden” he won a 1st Place ribbon in a Popsicle Stick Art Contest at St. Patrick Parish in Ann Arbor and got tickets for our family to go to a performance by the Wild Swan Theatre.

Julia Hanna (4 yrs and 9 months) is a precious little girl who likes to joke and make Karol laugh. She is very well coordinated and likes to do gymnastics. She really enjoys reading and is passed Dick and Jane and into real books. She enjoys Signing Time and the Peter Rabbit series.

She continues to play her violin. Ms. Karen Roth (her violin teacher at the summer violin camp) was a real hit for her. She still talks about her.

She likes to imitate voices and is really good at it. Her acting skills are very good. She loves to talk about saints and how she will hug them when she goes to heaven. Our parish organizes All Saints Eve Party on Halloween Night. Julia wanted to be St. Lucy this year. She won a prize for her costume. She was very happy about it.

She likes playing with dolls and pretends they are her children. Julia’s best friend and companion is her sister …

From 2008 edited

Elizabeth Thérèse (7 yrs. old) is a wonderful little girl who made her First Penance in January 2008 and First Communion this year on Easter Sunday 2008. What a wonderful celebration it was. She was very reflective and excited. She sang in the King’s Choir a song of Thanksgiving right after receiving her First Communion. We have a wonderful picture of Elizabeth kissing the Body of Christ before receiving Him. Many people from our parish commented on how touched they were by that. Many people cried as they witnessed it.

She still dreams of becoming a mom when she grows up. As for right now she lives out her motherhood in a very caring way with her brother and sister and with all her dolls.

Elizabeth is an artist. She continues to make many arts and crafts. She also loves to play the violin. She enjoyed the violin summer camp. She enjoys writing stories and prayers. She is really good at math and enjoys doing it.

She also reads and writes chapter books (which she likes to illustrate).

Elizabeth and Julia performed at their 2nd violin concert in March. Elizabeth played Allegro by Dr. Sinichi Suzuki and Julia played Twinkle Theme. They both did a wonderful job on stage.

Elizabeth, Julia and Karol participated and completed our Ypsilanti Library summer reading program and won prizes: including ice-cream, swimming pass, free meals at local restaurant and a grand prize a new book that they could choose.

Kasia has been doing one on one dates, or as we call them rendezvous, with the girls. They really look forward to that. Kasia continues homeschooling our children. She enjoys it very much. She went to a Montessori enrichment workshop at the Weber Center in Adrian. She is very grateful for establishing the Montessori School in our house. She is also grateful for gleaning wisdom from Dr. Sinichi Suzuki. She organized and hosted a Montessori Tea Party at our house with a wonderful friend and speaker – a long time Montessorian Patti Yonka.

She is especially thankful for having such a wonderful woodworker & husband, Scott, who helps build many beautiful works. Working together as a husband-wife team is really fun and helps us work out our differences, especially those connected with the metric system.

She was the main speaker at a women’s retreat this year. Everyone really enjoyed it, including Kasia’s mom. She also led a 5-day retreat for 10 girls from the Little Flowers Girls’ Club. We all had a lot of fun and enjoyed learning much about St. Therese and virtues. Elizabeth and Julia enjoyed being at a beautiful retreat house and spending time with their friends.

Scott is a very lucky man with a wonderful, spirit-filled wife and 3 beautiful children, a humble, cozy abode where we love to entertain and pray with visitors and truly make a difference in people's lives.

Scott wrote an Icon of St. Michael the Archangel this summer at a class sponsored by the Diocese of Lansing. Scott is learning how to play the violin and all about Montessori / Atrium works right along with the kids. He really appreciates being able to support our school with his woodworking talents. He also helped us have a magnificent garden. Our Sunflowers were 14 feet tall in the front yard, where the kids could fit inside like a little house because they were planted in the shape of a triangle with one wider opening. Scott bakes all the bread, muffins & cookies our family can eat. Who could ask for anything more?

Scott took Elizabeth and Julia to A Father Daughter Dance at our parish and they had a lot of fun with English Square Dancing, dinner and visiting with other dads and their daughters. Scott is grateful each day for his growing professional relationships and parish social service ministries, which he coordinates in Ann Arbor.

As a family we have made some remarkable discoveries this year, especially .... books ... series and books. We also enjoyed many wonderful trips to the Petting Farm with hayrides and seeing a cow-calf being born. Kasia and the kids went to the 4-H Fair while Scott was at his icon -writing workshop.

The Movie "Whip It " about roller derby by Drew Berrymore was filmed in our neighborhood this summer, which provided lots of entertainment, and especially big trucks from Hollywood. Really!

As parents we celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary this year. And we enjoy many blessings and challenges that raising a young family brings with itself.

We had Kasia’s mom, Lucyna with us for three months January - April 2008. Kasia especially enjoyed having her mom present at her birthday (the last time they were together for that occasion was 18 years ago). Celebrating Easter together was a highlight too (1st time since 1995). We did not make it to Poland in 2008 as we had hoped, but we are thankful about the possibility of being reunited next year in Poland.

We were overjoyed with the news of our friends who gave birth to their healthy and beautiful babies and we can’t wait to see the ones that are still in their mommy’s wombs, especially Tomek and Sarah’s (Scott’s sister and brother-in-law) twins.

We wish you abundant gratitude this Thanksgiving.
Love and Prayers, The Wrights