My Daybook :: February 29, 2012 {Leap Day!}

Outside my window... 

It wasn't the predicted 6+ inches, but we did wake up to more snow this morning and is sure looked beautiful!

I am thankful... 
for such wonderful holy brother-in-laws, and that got to talk my husband's youngest brother (Father D.) for a few minutes today, for the last time before he enters a cloistered Benedictine Monastery tomorrow, March 1st.  I wasn't able to talk very long, since tears were streaming down my face and I didn't want him to hear me start sobbing.   He will be missed dearly!

I am thinking... 
about raising our children.   Father told me yesterday that not only must I raise good and holy children and adults, I must raise them to be good and holy mothers and fathers!  I hadn't thought about it that way before.  Thankfully he will be praying for us al!

Learning all the time... 
and today we learned all ABOUT time!    Beginning with Charlotte's links, we did a little research on leap day/leap year and the Gregorian Calendar.   Did you know that we are also going to have a "leap second" this year too?

Living the Liturgical Year at Home... 
It is definitely Lent!  We will be making a few plans for some of the March feasts days as well, specifically the feasts of St. Patrick and St. Joseph.  You can find some of our past posts in the Links for March, which I just updated.  Additional ideas can be found over at Catholic Cuisine.

From the kitchen... 
fun Fruity Frogs for our afternoon snack on Leap Day!

I am creating... 
Leap Day Time Capsules with my kiddos.  We ran across these free printables and have been having so much fun!   We still need to add a photograph to each, as well as a piece of string measuring their height, and then we will put them in an envelope to open on Feb. 29, 2016.   I loved seeing how my children choose to answer the questions... Here is a sneak peek at Chiquita's:

I am working on... 
Shaking off the Bonds of Stuff with my children.  Someone must have told the mailman that we had just thrown out the old catalogs since he has delivered 12 more that very afternoon...  What a waster of paper and postage!

I am going... 
to read In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb to my children tomorrow.   I happened to run across it at the library the other day and think it is one that I'd like to add to our own collection.  So sweet!  I think we will read it again at the end of the month as well.

I am hoping... 
that someday we will get to travel to Oklahoma.  Perhaps for Father's final vows in 5 years?

I am reading... 
a couple books from the library, The Doctor's Lady and The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity.  They had been on my "wish list" for awhile, and I finally decided to just put in a request for my library to purchase them.  I was excited at how easy it was to do, and sure enough they purchased the books and held them for me once they arrived!   I need to do that more often.

I am praying... 
for Amy's little boy, who has RSV at just 4 weeks old. Please keep him in your prayers!

Pondering these words...
from St. John Climacus:

"Angels are a light for monks and the monastic life is a light for all men."

I am listening...  
to Johnny Tremain again, as we study the American Revolution. This is one of my boys' favorite audio books.

Around the house... 
I have been enjoying those St. Valentine flowers as long as possible.  I still have a few left, sitting in our little Babushkups on the kitchen windowsill.

One of my favorite things...  
 Making Bud smile, and seeing the adorable little dimples around his mouth.

A few plans for the rest of the week...
We only have a few more weeks of hockey left, and the older boys really want me to come and watch a few of their last games.  We'll see.  Since Bud was born, and since he really hates the car, I usually just stay home and snuggle with him on Saturday mornings.

A little peek at my day...

*I fell asleep last night before having a chance to upload pictures to this post, so I am adding it now.  :)

Colonial Life Unit Study and Lap Book

This year we are making Lap Books to go along with each of our six Unit Studies for American History. Our second Unit was based on Colonial Life. While the girls were working on their Felicity Lap Books, the boys were busy making their own Lap Books with printable mini books from the Colonial Life (Time Travelers History Study Series) CD.

Resources and Books for Unit Two: 
(you can print our Unit Two Plans/Booklist here)

Core Text 

• From Sea to Shining Sea (Chapters 4-5)
• From Sea to Shining Sea Worksheets

Additional Books read by the Boys:

• Jamestown, New World Adventure
• James Towne: Struggle for Survival
• The Pilgrims of Plimoth
• Three Ships Come Sailing
• A Lion to Guard Us
• Who's That Stepping on Plymouth Rock?
• . . . If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620
• Pocahontas
• The Thanksgiving Story
• Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims
• "I Want to be a Christian!" Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha (Glory Stories)
• Kateri Tekakwitha: Mohawk Maiden (Vision Books)
• If You Lived In Colonial Times
• Saint Isaac Jogues: With Burning Heart
• St. Francis Solano
• Benjamin Franklin
• What's The Big Idea, Ben Franklin?
• Ben and Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin by His Good Mouse Amos
• Ben Franklin of Old Philadelphia (Landmark Books)
• Benjamin Franklin: Young Printer (Childhood of Famous Americans)
• The Courage of Sarah Noble
• Madeleine Takes Command (Living History Library)
• The Padre on Horseback: A Sketch of Eusebio Francisco Kino, S.J. Apostle to the Pimas (The American West)

Coloring Books and Activities:

• Colonial Days: Discover the Past with Fun Projects, Games, Activities, and Recipes (American Kids in History Series)
• Life in Colonial America
• Indian Tribes of North America Coloring Book

Timeline Entries:

• 1607 Jamestown Established
• 1549-1610 St. Francis Solano
• c. 1595-1617 Pocahontas
• 1580-1681 – John Smith
• 1620 Mayflower - Pilgrims land at Plymouth
• 1621 The First Thanksgiving
• died 1622 Squanto
• 1607-1646 St. Isaac Jogues
• 1645-1711 Fr. Eusebio Kino
• 1656-1680 Blessed Kateri
• 1706-1790 Benjamin Franklin
• 1713-1783 Bl. Junipero Serra
• 1773-1838 Nathaniel Bowditch

I asked the boys to choose 5-10 from the list above to add to their History Through the Ages Record of Time timeline book during this unit.  The listings in bold are the ones that they choose to include this year.  Here are a few pictures:

Additional Activities:

• Make a Hornbook to include in Lap Book
• Build a Diorama of a House
• Create a Jamestown Replica
• Go on a Field Trip to a Water-Powered Grist Mill
• Assemble a Colonial Life Lap Book

 ~ COLONIAL LIFE LAP BOOK  ~ 

~ THE FRONT COVER ~

~ INSIDE VIEW #1 ~

The dark yellow center page/flap addition contains the following three mini books: 

Plantation Crops Layer Book

Rice, Cotton, Indigo, Sugar, and Tobacco

Flax to Linen

 Round Book of “Bees”

On the Left Flap: 

The Pharmacopoeia

What would you find on a Colonial farm?

On the Right Flap:

Inspirational Catholics of Colonial Times

Illustrated by Rascal

Illustrated by Captain

Instead of using the suggested "The Great Wakening: Men of Faith" we created our own mini-book with 4 inspiring Catholics that traveled to America and lived during Colonial Times:  St. Francis Solano, St. Isaac Jogues, Fr. Eusebio Kino, and St. Kateri. 

Hornbook Craft and Pocket

~ INSIDE VIEW #2 ~

Houses of the Early Settlers

Make a Dye Chart

The Center of Actual Lap Book Folder contains a pocket titled Clothing of the Colonist. 

The boys created overlays using transparency paper, and gluing on the different layers of clothing worn by Colonial Men, Women, Boys and Girls.   

This Colonial Woman has four different overlays, each one adding another layer to her outfit! 

The boys were especially intrigued by the "pudding" worn by colonial toddlers!  "While learning to walk, toddlers wore a "pudding," a soft pillow around their waist to protect from falls."

The boys finished this unit in January and have since moved on to Unit Three.  They have been studying the American Revolution - one of their favorite time periods!    I know I haven't answered all the questions I was asked after my last Lap Book post... I'll be back sometime this week with a few answers.

{Precious Moments} "All Ready" to Play Outside

When she opened the front door I overheard one of the big kids yell from outside, "No, {Rose}! You need to get a sweat...MOOOMMMM!!!!" It must have taken them a second to see her whole outfit, including her big sister's mittens, hat, scarf, SLIPPERS and all! :)

Shaking off the Bonds of Stuff :: A 40-Day Plan for Lent

This is the first time in a few years that we are not doing a 40 bags in 40 days challenge during Lent.  Our home is slowly becoming more and more organized, and I have gotten so much better about getting rid of all the extra stuff year round. So, this year, my (lenten cleaning) plan was to just focus on the couple challenging areas that I have left and then some spring cleaning just before Easter. However, when I saw this post about Shaking off the Bonds of Stuff I thought this might be the perfect Lenten project... to assign to my older children! ;)

We breezed right through the first week.  We are, or rather I am, not going to make any impulse purchases until after Easter, the boys did an amazing job cleaning out the car, all the unpaired socks have been rounded up and put into a plastic bag for later, and we threw out the newspapers.

Today's assignment took us to the Laundry Room!

Day 5 (Monday Feb. 27): Empty your laundry room completely. Wash, fold, mend, iron, and return every item to its proper place or give it to your parish St. Vincent de Paul Society or Goodwill.

I know I've posted pictures in the past of our old laundry room, before we remodeled it, but I don't think I have ever shown you a picture of it completed!  (Not that you are even interested, but I took some pictures to post anyways!)   To be able to make our kitchen a little wider, we had to make the old laundry room/bathroom longer and narrower, and so we ended up separating the bathroom from the laundry room with a pocket door.  This bathroom is the one that my boys use, as well as any guests. What was I thinking having our boys bathroom for guests as well?!  Thankfully they are pretty good about keeping it clean.

The first picture is from the hallway looking into the bathroom and laundry, and the second two are from the laundry room looking back into the bathroom.

Here are a few pictures of the laundry room:

We stacked our washer and dryer to have more room for the fridge and freezer.  I have some of the cushions from our outdoor furniture sitting on top of the refrigerator, along with our roaster.   Now that we have an extension ladder to reach our storage above the addition I might move the cushions up there next winter, but Spring is right around the corner and we'll be using them soon, right?! 

The cabinets and sink that we had hoped to install in the laundry room were cut from the plans due to our limited remodel budget, but it still is so much nicer than what we had before.  Not only am I still able to fit the washer/dryer and the freezer, we were also able to add our old refrigerator as well.

Thankfully I somehow managed to catch up our laundry(!!!) this past weekend, and with the three additional loads we did this morning, we are still caught up!   Captain took the old rugs that had been rolled up in the laundry room for months to the car to drop off at St. Vincent's, took the paint buckets to the garage, and steam mopped the floor.  In the meantime Chiquita helped hang up the last load of laundry to dry and then organized the caddy that slides next to the freezer, holding our laundry supplies.   We got rid of a few items off of it, but looking at the picture I see a couple more that can go.

I'd like to get one more laundry sorter, but it won't be until after Lent.   I have my eyes on this one, which has a hanging bar attached to it as well (I like to hang dry quite a bit of laundry), but until then, I have still managed to find a way to dry clothes inside using an old shower curtain tension rod hung between the wall and the refrigerator.  :)

While we are in the laundry room, I think it might be the perfect day for a little Dryer Fire Safety project.  The vent outside (covered in lint) is making me just a little bit nervous at the moment!

Believe it or not, my children are really enjoying the extra projects each day, and having one more way to make little sacrifices and to count down the days until Easter!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A single photo, capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. To see more visit Soule Mama. 

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life. ~

{pretty}

Photo Credit:  Marc

I just love these pictures, which were taken at a baptism we attended for Amy's newest baby this past Sunday afternoon.  Our oldest two boys had the honor of serving!

Photo Credit: Lily Caroline

{happy}

Photo Credit: Lily Caroline

Our little Bud has just the cutest smiles, but I just haven't been able to capture one of them with my camera.   I was so excited that a couple friends caught him smiling at me with their cameras!

{funny}

I handed our baby to his daddy and pulled my camera out to take a few pictures...  However, the sounds from all the other cameras clicking away (in the tiny little historical church) made me laugh and I put my camera back in it's case.   Still, I just couldn't resist pulling it back out when I noticed the little gap between the mother and godfather, allowing me to see the sweet little guy being baptized when Father was pouring the baptismal waters over his cute little head.  

{real}

Photo Credit:  Marc

Umm... Yeah... I just had to go and have a small, small piece of the baptism cake and a half a cup of coffee with cream at the reception.  I've been paying for it ever since, which explains my lack of blogging this week.  I just can't believe how very sensitive this little one is to any dairy and caffeine.   My husband has been out of town the last couple days as well, which has made for a challenging start to Lent.   I think God might be telling me that He wants me to keep it extra simple this year... 

Visit Like Mother, Like Daughter for more pictures of contentment