35 Weeks...

... and so thankful to have made it this far without complications!

We are all getting very excited to meet our newest little girl...

It won't be too much longer!

Photo Credit: Captain

Oh, and inspired by Josette to wear something green for a change,

even if it isn't in my "color palette."

Holy Heroes Advent Adventure

Have you signed up yet for this year's Advent Adventure at Holy Heroes?

It is offered for free and nearly every day, 22 times during Advent, they will send you an email with a link to that day's activities including: Short videos and audio selections, coloring pages, word searches, crossword puzzles and more!

This year it is going to be based on the Jesse Tree, one of our favorite Advent traditions!

OH! And after signing up, you'll even recieve a coupon code (good through Epiphany) for 20% savings on nearly all of the products offered on their site!

Small Successes :: November 19, 2009

"It’s important for moms to recognize that all the small successes in our days can add up to one big triumph. So on Thursday of each week, we do exactly that."

~ 1 ~

I already mentioned it in this week's daybook, but I am so pleased that I finally stain treated (thanks for the tip on Bio Kleen!), washed, and put away all the 0-3 month baby girl clothing! Now I am starting to feel a little more prepared for our little one to arrive.

~ 2 ~

Our refrigerator/freezer stopped working Monday. It isn't that old! At least I didn't think it was... I was thinking it had to be around 3 years old, hubby thought it hadn't even been that long. Turns out we bought it in January of 2004, nearly 6 years ago... Wow!

Anyhow, it forced gave me the perfect opportunity to deep clean it... After two long afternoons of sorting through thawed food, cooking way too much (including a delicious blackberry-raspberry cobbler using this recipe), throwing out what couldn't be salvaged, and then scrubbing for hours after the repair man was able to fix the problem, it almost looks new again! Now, if only I had the energy to go grocery shopping...

~ 3 ~

I assembled one of Twinkle Toes Christmas gifts all by myself! (Usually I ask hubby to do these sorts of things, but he has been working really long days...) Oh, it is SO cute!!!

What are your Small Successes this week?

Stop by Faith and Family Live to read more of this week's Small Successes.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Timeline Entries

by Rascal (age 7)

My Daybook ~ November 17th

Outside my window... 100% chance of rain.

I am thinking... of our friends, Dan and Stacey, and their family. Yesterday I tried posting a few different times, to ask you all to keep them in your prayers, and I just couldn't complete the post... My heart is just aching for them, as it has for so many other friends this past year. Sunday afternoon, one of Dan's sisters let us know that late Saturday night Dan and Stacey lost one of their nine young children, their adorable 2 1/2 year old daughter Rachel, unexpectedly to meningitis. It all happened so quickly and within just a couple hours of showing symptoms, Rachel went to Heaven. Could you all please remember their family, and their extended family, in your prayers?

I am thankful for... the reassurance given to us, though our Faith and infant baptism, that little Rachel is now perfectly happy in Heaven, even if it is so very hard for those still here, especially the families of these little ones. St. Rachel, pray for us!

I am wearing... a long-sleeved lavender maternity shirt, black fleece maternity sweat pants, and warm fuzzy socks. It is really cold this morning.

I am going... to miss Rachel's funeral... I wanted so badly to go. But, with all the contractions I've been having, as well as the 4 hour drive each way, my midwife doesn't think I should be making the trip. :'(

I am reading... A Life of Our Lord for Children aloud to all my children for history. We are really enjoying it, but it is taking me forever. I can't seem to even get through a whole chapter without having to give my lungs a break! I think, at least for the next month or so, that the boys are going to have to take my place reading if we ever hope to finish this book before Christmas!

I am hoping... to have a little time this afternoon to check over my St. Nicholas, "O" Antiphon, and Christmas Lists to make sure I've ordered all the little gifts and supplies I had planned on ordering.

On my mind... Father's sermon from Sunday morning Mass. He was reminding us that we never know when our life is going to end and that each and every second here is a gift from God.

From the learning rooms... as I mentioned in my "K" week post, we are continuing "L" week for a few days this week as the girls finish up a Ladybug Lapbook/Unit Study. Now that a few other things have come up as well, it looks like we won't even begin "M" until next week. As for the boys, they are working on finishing up a few of their projects before our Christmas break.

Living the Liturgical Year at Home... I had wanted to make St. Elizabeth's Crown for her feast day today. Doesn't it look both beautiful and delicious!?! However, with the state of my kitchen right now, it is not looking like it is going to happen... Perhaps I can make it on Thursday, which is her traditional feast day. She is one of the two patrons I choose at my Confirmation!

Noticing that... the days are quickly ticking by and Christmas will be here very, very soon... Only 37 days to go! I've been quite nervous about labor and delivery this pregnancy, and trying not to think about it too much...

Pondering these words... "It is so consoling to think that Jesus, the strong God, experienced all our weaknesses, that He trembled at the sight of the bitter chalice - the cup that He had longed for so ardently." ~ St. Therese of Lisieux

From the kitchen... Do you really want to know? Yesterday, after lunch, I noticed (or rather Snuggles pointed out) that the floor in front of the fridge was covered in water. At first I had the boys just dry it up for me, thinking that Snuggles had pushed on the water dispenser... Then, a few minutes later, it was wet again. I opened the freezer to find that all the ice had melted and everything had defrosted. Needless to say I spent the rest of the day sorting through thawed food, baking a Berry Cobbler with 2 1/2 pounds of thawed berries, making Chicken in the Crock pot for dinner, and juice popsicles with all the juice concentrates which were on the verge of falling apart. What a day! Thankfully a couple of my sisters stopped by on their way home from school and took a couple bags of food/condiments home with them, since my mom has an extra fridge... The rest is on our front porch in a cooler. The appliance repair man will be out in a couple hours.

Around the house... So much to do, and so little energy with which to do it... It's amazing how quickly it can totally fall apart when something breaks!

One of my favorite things... the looks on my kids faces when they notice or feel the baby rolling around inside my tummy! She has been quite active lately.

A few plans for the rest of the week:

• Wednesday ~ Blue Knights Meeting for the Boys
• Thursday ~ Evening Open House/Party at at Friends
• Saturday ~ A Baby Shower for our little "Rose!" I have been so blessed with such kind and generous friends!

A Picture thought I am sharing:

All of the 0-3 month baby girl clothes, wash and folded!

To see more daybooks visit The Simple Woman's Daybook.

Highlights from "K" Week

Learning Along the Alphabet Path

I wasn't kidding when I said we kept "K" week simple. It was such a busy week with celebrating the Feast of St. Martin, planning a Baby Shower, and trying to keep up with the core subjects.

We didn't get to the Picture Book Science or the Picture Study... In fact, Rascal said he "wouldn't do anything that had had to do with Kiiissssessss... Ewwww!" Well, that changed pretty quickly when I said, "oh... that's too bad, I thought you might like to help the girls make some Hershey Kiss Kritters!" ;) lol!

Here are a few of the things we did do during "K" week, in addition to reading Elizabeth's lovely story about Michael and the Kingcup Fairy, creating Modelling Wax letter K's, and practicing forming the letter K with Handwriting Without Tears Hands-On Materials and Kimberlee's Grey Block Paper.

~ Kingcup Fairy Coloring Pages ~

From this Coloring Book
(While looking at the Flower Fairies Alphabet book and listening to the CD!)

~ K is for Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha ~

Our Painted Blessed Kateri,
for with An Alphabet of Catholic Saints

Blessed Kateri Coloring Pages from Our Saints Alphabet on CD and the Faith Keepers Collection.
(link removed - Catholic Artworks has a history of not shipping orders)
Copywork from An Alphabet of Catholic Saints. (You can print the one I made here.)

We also listened listened to I want to be a Christian! The Story of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha,

and read Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha by Father Lovasik.

~ Crafts ~

Hershey Kisses Kritters

Supplies:

Hershey Kisses, Craft Foam, Feathers, Pipe Cleaners, Googly Eyes, and Glue Dots

From left to right:

Red Ant Kisses, Kiss Ostrich, Butterfly Kiss, Ladybug Kisses, and a Kiss Katerpillar

You can print some instructions here.

(Twinkle Toes creatively came up with the Red Ant and Ladybug on her own.)

We also sent a couple custom Kiss cards!

~ Serendipi-Tea time ~

I knew I wasn't going to have much time this week, so when we made cupcakes on the Feast of St. Martin, I kept half aside for the girls to decorate for K week!

K is for Kittens, King's Crowns, and Kites

 

    

Well, we are now at the end of "L" week, though it Looks Like I've been Lazy we will be spending a few more days finishing up this coming week, since we still have a few unfinished projects, including the girls Ladybug Lapbooks, since it was such a busy week including our Last Little Flowers meeting for the year, as well as WeLL child check-ups for ALL our Little ones.

My plan, right now, is to finish L, M & N and then we will be Off until next year.

Colors of the Rainbow

Thanks to Rachel and My Favorite Things...

... Snuggles knows the colors of our rainbow too!

Little Flowers Girls' Club ~ Prudence

Well, today was our last Little Flowers Girls' Club meeting until March, since I prudently decided to give myself a baby break from Dec-Feb!

I can't believe we have already had FIVE meetings this year. Wow!! I am very thankful for the break, but I will miss our meetings and all the girls. My girls will too!! They have LOVED having so many of their little friends over every couple weeks.

Here are a few highlights from today's meeting:

~ Coloring Pages ~

Saint Angela Merici Coloring Page

~ Meeting ~

I hadn't had much time prior to the meeting to think about ways to explain prudence to the girls, so before the meeting I did a quick search on the Little Flower Leaders Yahoo Group and ran across the suggestion to use the story of the Three Little Pigs. It was so easy, not to mention they loved it and it really helped them understand what being prudent means.

We then went on to discuss other ways in which we can be prudent, including practicing the Spiritual Works of Mercy. While we talked about the Spiritual Works of Mercy, the girls colored some pictures of the Spiritual Works of Mercy, which I had printed onto card stock and, once they were done, we cut into Flash Cards for them to take home. (This was from Catholic Artworks Teachers Helper Edition #17.)

~ Notebook Pages ~

I included the memory verse for Prudence, an image of St. Angela Merici, The Spiritual Works of Mercy, an image of a violet, and the prayer to St. Angela Merici from the Little Flowers Virtues CD.

(If you would like to download the document I created for this notebook page, you can do so here. Also, you can find links to all of my notebook page documents in this post.)

(The sample page I had prepared for the meeting.)

And here are the girls finished pages:

~ Craft ~

Our craft this month was decorating Flower Recipe Card Holders. I prepped the craft, by hot glueing the pieces in each kit together, which didn't take too long. I had initially planned to have the girls paint them, but opted to have them just use markers instead, which was so much easier and cleaner!

~ Snack Time ~

~ Group Photo ~

Saint Angela, pray for us!

Please help us to exercise prudence

in everything we do!

Saint Therese, the Little Flower, pray for us!

Small Successes :: November 12, 2009

"It’s important for moms to recognize that all the small successes in our days can add up to one big triumph. So on Thursday of each week, we do exactly that."

~ 1 ~

Tuesday night was Bunco.  It was nice to have an evening out!  We usually stop playing after 3 rounds, but this month we had extra time and played a 4th... At the end of round 3 I was in the lead with "Most Buncos," but then two of my friends caught up and we had a three way tie for first place.  I lost in the roll off.  Oh well... I still came home with the 2nd place prize for "Most Wins!"

~ 2 ~

I charged the battery on our video camera (it has been dead forever!) and finally captured a bit of Snuggles adorable personality last night on video.  It was so much fun and he kept the whole family laughing all evening!

~ 3 ~

We celebrated the feast of St. Martin of Tours, also known as Martinmas Day, last night.   Here is a picture of the Lanterns the children made.  "L" is for Lantern you know, and it is L week around here! ;)

Despite these few small successes, I still have a TON to do to get ready for the 12 girls coming over this afternoon for Little Flowers, which means I better get busy!   I hope you all have a great day!! 

What are your Small Successes this week?

Stop by Faith and Family Live to read more of this week's Small Successes.