Prayer Request

I wanted to ask you all to please say a prayer for my hubby. This morning he will be going in for a diagnostic procedure. Please pray that everything will be normal, and that he is safe under the general anesthesia. Thank you!!

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thine intercession was left unaided.

Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me.

Amen.

Our Lady of Fatima ~ Pray for us!

It's been one year...

Exactly one year ago today I started blogging. So, I guess in the blogosphere, today would be referred to as my "Blogoversary!"

A year ago, I knew absolutely nothing at all about "html code" and very little about "blogs" in general! I had been enjoying reading a friends blog, so I decided I would give it a try. I was very shy at first, and didn't tell a single soul about my new blog... In fact, I only posted twice last May, and both posts were quizzes! June was even worse with only one quiz. In July, with the arrival of the Moto Proprio, I branched out a little and posted one quiz and two videos! However, August arrived, and since hubby was off on fires, I rearranged my school room (imagine that!), posted about it, and finally told someone about my blog since she wanted to see pictures... She even left me a few comments! I was hooked!

Yes, a year ago, I didn't know how much I would grow to love blogging!

• I didn’t know how easy it would be to share ideas, post pictures, videos (other than my own!), and prayer requests!
  


• I didn’t know that it would enable me to get to know some of my real life friends even better, and stay in closer contact with my twin sisters and a few of my cousins.


• I didn't know that I would get to stay in closer contact with one of my best real life friends through her own blog.


• I didn’t know I would find so many new friends and acquaintances for whom I truly care about, and to whom I feel deeply connected, just not geographically! Real friends that I would love to meet any day if I could. (Or that I would even get to meet two of those new friends!)
  


• I didn't know I would find, through reading blogs, so much inspiration, motivation, and thought-provoking topics, challenging me to become a better Catholic, Wife and Mother... As well as an endless amount of craft ideas for my children--and myself!!
  


• I didn’t know I would be blessed with giveaways like this.


• I didn't know how generous people, including total strangers, could be. Thank you all once again, you are AMAZING!!!!
  


• I didn’t know how much of an addiction it would become, causing me to prioritize and re-prioritize my time. However, in all my re-prioritizing, I never omit blogging completely.


• I didn’t know how strange it sounds to non-bloggers: this thing called blogging, and how difficult it is to explain.


• I didn’t know how much I would come to hate the word “blog.” (Especially when my little brother Scott says the word!!) It is so ugly-sounding for some reason!


• I didn’t know I would spend so much time thinking about this blog wondering what to write next and how to word or arrange it, and enjoying almost every minute of it.


• I didn’t know how much enjoyment I would receive from other people’s comments. Family, friends, and yes, even strangers!
  

So, thank you to everyone that has made this blogging thing so fun, rewarding, inspiring, encouraging, and thought-provoking. Thank you to those of you who comment, to those of you that send me private emails, and to those of you who just lurk. Thank you to all of you who have given me advice, support, and friendship over the past year, you have been such a blessing!

I'm so happy to have made your acquaintance!

Pentecost Sunday & Mother's Day!

I hope all you mother's had a wonderful Mother's Day! Mine was! This morning I woke up to lovely cards made by all my children and a Belgian Waffle Maker from my hubby! I have always wanted one of those!!!

I didn't take very many pictures, it's just not the same without my Canon Rebel, but I did get one of most of the children blowing out the candles on our Pentecost Cake with a "mighty wind!"

Believe it or not, I didn't have even one taste of that cake. I got my Food Sensitivity results back on Thursday, and that cake is totally out of the question. Not even one little lick of frosting! I did enjoy looking at it all day though! :)

With the list of Food Sensitivities/Intolerances that I have, it's no wonder I have had low energy and a hard time losing weight! I hope to post about it soon, in the hopes that some of you out there may have some suggestions for me, but right now I need to get to sleep!


**OH! I just noticed that my sister posted a darling picture of my mom! You'd never know that she has 12 children and 7 grandchildren by looking at her, would you?!?! Love you Mom!

Thank you Mom!

Prayer to the Mother of the Lord for all mothers

Mary, on this day when we honor all mothers, we turn to you. We thank the Lord whom you serve for the great gift of motherhood. Never has it been known that anyone who sought your intercession was left unaided by grace. Dear Mother, thank you for your “Yes” to the invitation of the angel which brought heaven to earth and changed human history. You opened yourself to God’s word and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

Dear mother, intercede for all of our mothers. Ask your Divine Son to give them the grace of surrendered love so that they could join with you in giving their own “Fiat.” May they find daily strength to say yes to the call to the sacrificial love- the very heart of the vocation of motherhood. May their love and witness be a source of great inspiration for all of us called to follow your Son.

On this Mothers day, Mother of the Word Incarnate, pray for us who have recourse to you…

In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

A very Happy Mother's Day to my own Mother and Mother-in-Law, as well to all mothers reading this today!

"May Mary stand beside you and may God Bless you all for the endless hours of love you've shown in so many ways!"

Speaking of Setting Goals...

...of rather, unrealistic ones...

I did it AGAIN!!

Last month ;) my hubby and I purchased some furniture from my parents neighbors who are moving. Well, the rest of it arrived Thursday night! I was very excited, but not quite ready.

You should have seen the look on hubby's face when my dad arrived with that trailer full of furniture! Where was it--3 more sections of bookshelves, a new table for the kitchen(we have outgrown ours), 6 chairs, a matching hutch, and a corner hutch--all going to go???

The kitchen was fairly easy... It is actually too much furniture for the size of our kitchen, but we hope to add on that dining room someday... Maybe this will be more incentive! :)

Before Pictures:

After Pictures:

So, what do you think?? Someday we hope to have the same flooring in both the kitchen and living room... But for now, we need to put something under one end of the hutch to level it out. I am excited that I will have more cabinet space now!!! It does make for a rather cramped kitchen though, and we don't even have the extra leaves in the table!

Anyways, that was the easy part... The hard part was fitting the new book cases into our, already overfull, school room. It was going to be necessary to move, or remove, the wood bookshelves--that I recently convinced hubby to bring in from the garage just before Easter. He was not really willing, to say the least.

So -- we added the bookshelves along the far wall where you see those desks, along with the computer desk (which you can see here) that had already taken those desks place. The room was packed to say the least.

Well, Friday I ended up staying home with the girls and Snuggles (since he has been sick) while hubby took the boys to Mass and to work with him for a few hours. I thought "I can surprise hubby and do it myself before he gets home!!!!!" ummm... yeah right!!!! That was a totally unrealistic goal!

I began by taking everything off the bookshelves and placing it all on the table in the middle of the room, as well as on the boys new desks. Then I thought -- it sure would be nice to keep these book shelves in this room... I wonder if they would fit in the closet??? I measured them, and sure enough, they would just clear the ceiling. So, I then took everything out of the closet and added it to the middle of the room. At this point, the room was filled with stuff!

OK. At this point I had about 3 hours till hubby was due to arrive home. :)

I then called my dad, and he walked me through how to operate a power drill so I could unscrew the bookshelves from the wall. Yes, I am pathetic when it comes to tools. I actually used a fire poke thingamajig to pry the closet shelf loose. It worked!!

I inched the huge, heavy, solid wood, bookshelf towards the closet, and tipped it to try and get it in:

Here is where I got stuck:

Argh! I couldn't for the life of me get it to stand up. It was too darn heavy! And time was ticking!!! I had a total panic attack! was starting to get stressed!

Well, one of the benefits of coming from a large family, is that there is usually someone that you can call if you are really in a bind! My dear sweet brother Scott came to my rescue! THANK YOU SCOTTIE!!! Not only did he help me move all the bookshelves, he helped me move all the old furniture into the garage, took pictures of it all for craigslist, and organized it too! All before my hubby got home. Hubby had to agree that it looked much better, even though everything in the middle of the room needed to be put away!!!

Well, that was yesterday... Here are some pictures from today:


The School Room Closet:

With the extra shelves, I was able to add almost all the board games from the hall closet!! This will make them so much easier to get to!

Our School Room:

These were both taken from the doorway - New Table, Chairs and Desk.

The far wall. I'm thinking of hanging my world map there, but I'm not sure. Eventually I would like to get a white computer desk/armoire to finish off the room.

Here you can see the new bookcases. I LOVE THEM!!! Does any one have a good suggestion for making the most use out of a corner bookshelf, to where it still looks nice/organized?


And, here is a closer view of the boys new desks.

My Aunt Roxanne, who is also my godmother, gave me some of her art while I was visiting!! The boys wanted theirs above their desks, rather than in their room, so I hung the "Train" above Rascal's desk and the "Boat" near the door. She is mailing me the "Airplane" for above Capitan's desk! Aren't they cute?!?!?!

(She also gave me this one for the girls room, and the Monkey, Giraffe, and Lion for Snuggles room. I love them all! Thank you Aunt Roxanne!)

Well, the school room has sure come a long way this past year. Once again, I am glad that tomorrow is Sunday. I better hurry up and get the groceries put away, make a cake, and then get some sleep. I'm exhausted!

I hope you all have a very Blessed and relaxing Pentecost Sunday!!

Making Music

Even though we haven't been putting enough focus on music... Classical music to be exact... It doesn't mean that my children don't love music!! In fact, who needs instruments when you have: 3 stick horses, 1 stuffed football, 2 rolling pins and your big brothers belt.

Here they are:

(To turn music on, click audio button which is next to the play button.)

And since they insisted:

(I'm still having trouble uploading videos... I can't figure it out!! Sorry for the low quality! I also couldn't figure out how to prevent them from playing automatically... :S)

On Setting Goals

As I mentioned earlier, the hour consultation I had with Laura Berquist was one of the highlights of my trip to the Northwest Catholic Family Education Conference.

A few months ago, I was ready to put all my kids in school. I felt like such a failure as a mother and a home educator. No matter which program I used, I could not teach Captain to read... No matter how many hours we spent each day on "school work," we could not get to it all... And no matter how hard I tried I could not achieve my goals.

My hubby began to get really worried that I was serious about putting the kids in school decided I needed a break, and agreed that I should attend the conference. I was reluctant to add on the optional consultation with Laura, since I only used her program, Mother of Divine Grace, for one year, a few years back... However, I figured that she might have some good pointers for me on scheduling... And boy did she!

As I sat there telling her how unorganized I am, while showing her my binder containing my schedules and curriculum lists, pointing out what we have done in the past, the goals I had set for this year, and how little of those goals were achieved, she listened, and then responded by saying:

You ARE organized. You ARE teaching your children. And, you are SETTING GOALS that you CAN'T POSSIBLY ACHIEVE!!!

She went on to say that, if I continue at this rate I will burn out last year long before High School, when it will be more important to set these high goals and expectations, and that my children will burn out as well.

What we did achieve this year, was more than enough, especially given the circumstances, namely dealing with an Auditory Processing Challenge, and when I look at the overall year, even though we didn't finish everything I set out to achieve, my children have been learning and they have made wonderful progress! I should be a happy with our accomplishments!!

Laura told me that in the future, I need to set realistic goals, so that I can feel good about our progress, especially when we are able to go above and beyond those goals. Imagine that!!!

The problem is, that I want to do it all!! I want to design my own curriculum, and pick my favorite courses from each provider, and then add to that all the fun crafts that we do as we celebrate the liturgical year, and so on... But, I am finding that there are reasons that this program has extensive history, or that program has more science... It's because you CAN'T specialize in it ALL, every day.

Laura and I also talked about the various curricula. She basically told me that at this stage (K-3rd) the important thing, is that we are focusing on three things:

• Memorizing
• Sequencing
• Observation

At this age, what they are memorizing is not so important as the fact that they ARE DOING IT!! Work on memorizing whatever: Baltimore Catechism, Popes, Presidents, States & Capitals... whatever you'd like!! It is also very important to train children in observation!

If we are doing these three things every day, it won't matter so much which program, or mix thereof, that we are using -- since the content is great in all the Catholic Curriculum's. (Content will matter more in later years.)

As far as scheduling goes, she suggested that I start our day with my youngest children. This will help these children to not feel neglected, as well as get them started on something to keep them busy while I am working with the older children. She suggested spending 15 minutes working of some sort of memorization work: memorizing a poem or working on art appreciation., and then getting them started on a workbook, coloring, or learning game. She also recommended having certain toys available to them only during "school" time -- which I do already.

The one thing that our current curriculum is lacking in is music. She told me that I need to work on making music a priority. I am not a big fan of Classical Music... I know, I should be!!! Laura actually game me a summer assignment. I am to start listening to Classical Music on a regular basic so that eventually I will be able to complete the chart of page 177 of her book. (Determine whether certain pieces are Baroque, Classical, Romantic or Modern? Can you tell who the composer probably is?) This should be interesting! She said that unless I can develop a love of Classical Music, it will be very hard to pass one on to my children... That makes sense. Luckily, my hubby loves Classical!

One of the biggest changes I plan on making this coming year will be cutting back on the quantity of subjects we are studying daily. I have decided that each morning we will focus on our core subjects, and then each afternoon we will work on "One Thing." I haven't planned it out yet, but I am thinking along the lines of History on Monday, Science on Tuesday, Art on Wednesday, etc... That way, we can delve into that one subject, and study it well for the week, rather than working on multiple subjects quickly and poorly.

Anyhow, this post is getting long, but I had told you all that I would share a bit about the conference... I will try and share a bit more later, but this is all I have time for now. I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic!

God Bless!

A First Holy Communion Fair

We have decided to start a series of Fairs over at Catholic Cuisine titled From Thy Bounty. The theme for our very first fair will be First Holy Communions. It will be taking place on May 15th. We would like to invite everyone participate. So, if you have something to share in regards to First Communion Foods, Feasts and Celebrations, please click here for more details!

Speaking of First Communions, Captain will be receiving his on May 31st, at his Uncle/Godfather's First Mass! (Hubby's brother will be ordained on May 30th.) We are all very excited, and finalizing preparations.

This past Sunday our local Pastor tested Captain, since he has learned his catechism at home and has not attended our parish's classes. As a mother, I was so nervous for him. He tends to be very shy, and I was unsure of just what Father would ask him. Well, he passed with flying colors!!! I am so proud of him.

Father started the test by asking him: What is a Sacrament? Captain responded by saying, "A Sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace." Good job Captain! Gotta love the Baltimore Catechism!

On Modesty

I just read a wonderful article written by Mary Ellen on modesty:

"Spring is such a wonderful time of year. May is the month of Mary, mothers and lately, I’ve noticed, immodesty.

A few weeks ago at church I found myself sitting behind a beautiful young lady who was dressed in pajama pants and a spaghetti strapped top that did not meet the top of her pants. She spent the entire Mass slouched in the pew picking her fingernails. Her long, fake fingernails. In spite of how annoying this was, I wasn’t really upset with the girl. It was her mother I had the issue with."

Read the rest here. Well said, Mary Ellen!! Thank you!

Trip Pictures!!

One of the things that I love about Digital Cameras, is how convenient it is to share photos! Even though my camera(s) were stolen, I still have a few pictures to share with you thanks to Christine and my Aunt Bridget! Thank you to both of you!!

This first picture was taken by Christine. It is of (from left to right) Me, Trina and Christy! Trina and I have been friends since I was about 14. I was devastated when she met her hubby and moved 11 hours away!! It was such a treat to be able to see her at the conference! Christy and Trina have been friends forever too. I have gotten to meet her online, but it was so nice to finally meet her in person. It is so funny how you picture people different when you haven't actually met... I was picture a tall long haired blond for some reason? :0 I just love her short hair cut though -- it is darling!!!

The next few pictures were taken by my Aunt. This one is of Snuggles playing, at my cousin Heathers home, with her little boy. Her 2 children were both born within weeks of my last 2 children! Actually her son, and Chiquita were due within days of each other, but I delivered early, and she delivered late! :) (Snuggles has been loving playing with his socks lately.)

Saturday night my Aunt Roxanne and my cousins threw a surprise "Mexican Fiesta" birthday party for Heather, since she is turning 30 tomorrow! Heather & I are the oldest grandchildren on my dads side. She was born just 4 months after I was born!

Happy Birthday Heather!! I can't believe we are THIRTY now!!

Don't you just love what they made her wear! You should have seen my cousins Ryan and Luke with there pretend mustaches! It was hilarious! I just added a flower to my hair, and left it at that! :) It was so fun! And I loved being able to see all of my Washington cousins!

Here is a picture of my Aunt Bridget and I. She traveled with me and helped with Snuggles during part of the conference, which was great. She also took care of getting my car window fixed so I wouldn't need to miss my consultation with Laura Berquist! Thanks Auntie B!

I hope that I will have a chance soon to share a bit about the conference, specifically my conversation with Laura, but for now, I have lots to do and need to get off the computer!! :)

Have a great day!