Our homeschool group graduation is fast approaching and this year I will have two graduates - Ms 14 yo from 8th grade and Ms 17 yo from high school.
I was talking with a friend of mine at a party this past weekend and she made the comment that she wants to wear a cap and gown to the graduation, too, because her last child is graduating high school.
She told me that someone asked her if she was going to go out and get a job, now that she's done. Her response was much more charitable than mine, I'm sure. As she put it, when she thinks about all of the things around her house and in her life that she has put off for the past 14 years because she's been homeschooling, she has more than enough to keep her busy!
Now, mind you, this is something I will
not be encountering for another 10 years (ugh) but it got me thinking
what a huge milestone this is in a homeschooling mom's life. In fact, this year we will have THREE moms who are ending their homeschooling career! I really believe that we need to acknowledge this event in the lives of these outstanding women, so I'm coming up with a plan to do just that at our annual homeschool gradation Mass.
I'm open to suggestions, since I don't seem to be overly creative, so if there is a way that you can think of that would honor these moms, please feel free to share it with me. I want to make this a special night for these moms and their families, so get your thinking caps on and then let me know what you come up with!
God Bless!
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Theme Thursday - Animals
Here are a bunch of animal pictures from our trip to the zoo a few weeks ago. No matter how many times I go to the zoo, I always take pictures of the animals, don't you? I probably have a gazillion pictures of the same animals. Oh well, it's fun. The above pic is from Stingray Bay, where you got to pay money to stick you hand in a pool and touch a stingray. It was cool :)
The above picture is of some lazy snow leopards. The funny thing about this picture is that a few days later, I saw a friend of mine on facebook had the same picture. Seems these babies don't move around too much!
Sorry, just had to revisit this python and his lunch :)
Love the look on that giraffe! That's how I would look if people were staring at me all day.
Can't remember is this was an alligator or a crocodile. Can anyone tell?
Here's my favorite T-Rex. Don't worry, he wasn't real. The zoo has this very well marketed Dinosaur Extravaganza that, quite frankly, wasn't worth the extra money. Oh well, you never know when you might need a creepy picture of a dinosaur head.
Wish I had pictures of our own cute and cuddly little animals, but I don't because we don't have any. Unless you count the spider that my daughters killed and then named Ernesto.
Join the fun over at Clan Donaldson!
God Bless!
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Holy Heroes - Inside the Sacraments
I had the wonderful privilege of reviewing a copy of the first DVD in the new series called "Inside the Sacraments" by the gang at Holy Heroes. About half way through, Mr 8 yo asked if we will be able to get thesecond DVD, too!
This first installment is about the Holy Eucharist and is a very thorough, yet easy to understand, dissertation on the Eucharist. I know dissertation might sound boring, but believe me this was far from boring. The entire 45 minute story is told by kids and is full of a lot of great information and a lot of humor. We laughed out loud a number of times and, as Ms 9 yo said, "Lily and Caroline are SOO cute!"
I always love when people tie the Old Testament and the New Testament together for me, and this was done throughout the video, especially when they explained how God prefigured the Eucharist with the manna in the dessert. The entire section on Moses was very well done.
During this video, they covered everything from Moses, to Jesus and the Last Supper (my younger kids' favorite part) to Eucharistic miracles, how to receive worthily and spiritual communions.
There were many questions presented, some covering complex topics, that were all explained in ways that even the younger viewers could understand. This video is recommended for ages 5 through 12, but even those of us older than 12 enjoyed it and learned from it.
There are bonus selections, too, including an informative section on adoration, exposition and benediction, as well as bloopers and an online quiz that you can have your kids take to see how much they learned.
This DVD would make an excellent accompaniment to your religious education curriculum, whether you homeschool, teach RE or send your kids to a Catholic school. Even though I received my copy free in order to review it, in no way does that skew my recommendation that this DVD belongs in every Catholic home, and it would make a great gift to give, especially to someone who doesn't quite believe in the Eucharist.
We can't wait for the second DVD to come out!
God Bless!
This first installment is about the Holy Eucharist and is a very thorough, yet easy to understand, dissertation on the Eucharist. I know dissertation might sound boring, but believe me this was far from boring. The entire 45 minute story is told by kids and is full of a lot of great information and a lot of humor. We laughed out loud a number of times and, as Ms 9 yo said, "Lily and Caroline are SOO cute!"
I always love when people tie the Old Testament and the New Testament together for me, and this was done throughout the video, especially when they explained how God prefigured the Eucharist with the manna in the dessert. The entire section on Moses was very well done.
During this video, they covered everything from Moses, to Jesus and the Last Supper (my younger kids' favorite part) to Eucharistic miracles, how to receive worthily and spiritual communions.
There were many questions presented, some covering complex topics, that were all explained in ways that even the younger viewers could understand. This video is recommended for ages 5 through 12, but even those of us older than 12 enjoyed it and learned from it.
There are bonus selections, too, including an informative section on adoration, exposition and benediction, as well as bloopers and an online quiz that you can have your kids take to see how much they learned.
This DVD would make an excellent accompaniment to your religious education curriculum, whether you homeschool, teach RE or send your kids to a Catholic school. Even though I received my copy free in order to review it, in no way does that skew my recommendation that this DVD belongs in every Catholic home, and it would make a great gift to give, especially to someone who doesn't quite believe in the Eucharist.
We can't wait for the second DVD to come out!
God Bless!
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
What is Polyphony?
Well, I'm not going to attempt to answer that question, but I'll let my friend Simonetta do that for you here.
In case you missed this in my Quick Takes post this past Friday, Simonetta and her four daughters are trying to raise money for their new musical endeavor. She has recorded several CDs already by herself, and this time she's taking advantage of the talent in her family to bring us the beautiful sounds of sacred music. You can find Simonetta's other music via The Saint Philomena Foundation.
If you would like to check out their Kickstarter campaign and consider supporting this wonderful Catholic group, you can do that here.
Before this I hadn't heard of Kickstarter, but now it seems to be popping up all over my radar. It really is a great way to raise funds for a worthy (or sometimes not so worthy) project! Thanks for allowing me this PSA. I think you'll really appreciate the fruits of their labor.
God Bless!
In case you missed this in my Quick Takes post this past Friday, Simonetta and her four daughters are trying to raise money for their new musical endeavor. She has recorded several CDs already by herself, and this time she's taking advantage of the talent in her family to bring us the beautiful sounds of sacred music. You can find Simonetta's other music via The Saint Philomena Foundation.
If you would like to check out their Kickstarter campaign and consider supporting this wonderful Catholic group, you can do that here.
Before this I hadn't heard of Kickstarter, but now it seems to be popping up all over my radar. It really is a great way to raise funds for a worthy (or sometimes not so worthy) project! Thanks for allowing me this PSA. I think you'll really appreciate the fruits of their labor.
God Bless!
Monday, May 13, 2013
A Grand Day for A Mother or My Life as a Reality TV Show
A happy belated Mother's Day to all the moms out there. I hope that you each had a very blessed day. I am, however, still searching for the answer to the question: Why is the weather never nice on Mother's Day? It was sunny here, I'll give you that much, but the wind and temperature made it rather uncomfortable to be outside. Oh well, we all look forward to Father's Day when the weather around here is usually wonderful!
We went to Mass yesterday and our little Communicant got to dress in all his finery again for two reasons:
1. The priest asked him to - in order to help with the May crowning, of course
2. Because last Sunday I forgot to get a nice picture of him by the altar for our mantle, where we have first Communion pictures of all of the other kids. Yeah, bad mom. No one will ever know that this picture was taken the following week. Unless that big statue of Mary with the crown of flowers on her head gives it away.
After Mass we came home and chilled out (not really, but it sounds more Mother's Day like, doesn't it?) and then went to dinner by my mom's house. On the way over there we realized that we would be in a house with TV reception at the same time that the season finale of "Once Upon A Time" was going to be on. Major Score!
While we were waiting to watch OUAT, we realized that "Duck Dynasty" was on...all 47 hours of it, it seems. Having never seen it but having heard a lot of people talking about it, we decided to give it a try.
So, really?? People watch this? To its credit, my dh said that the second hour was much more entertaining than the first episode we watched together. I have to admit that Si was the highlight of the show.
This got me to thinking that we could make a pretty good reality TV show. Have you ever done that? Think about your life as it is happening as a reality TV show? On the way home I was mentioning this to the family. They weren't exactly going for it. I mean really, we have a philosophizing 12 year old and an 8 year old who comes out with some pretty amazing statements. And who doesn't want to watch four teenage and older girls bickering? The topper would be watching me strategize every week about how to get the lowest gas prices. I mean, really, who couldn't relate to that.
After awhile of fantasizing about it, eldest daughter pointed out that we would probably get a lot of hate mail. I guess you're right. I suppose a pro-life, Catholic homeschooling family just isn't what main-stream America wants to watch every week. I think we need something more unique than that :)
God Bless!
We went to Mass yesterday and our little Communicant got to dress in all his finery again for two reasons:
1. The priest asked him to - in order to help with the May crowning, of course
2. Because last Sunday I forgot to get a nice picture of him by the altar for our mantle, where we have first Communion pictures of all of the other kids. Yeah, bad mom. No one will ever know that this picture was taken the following week. Unless that big statue of Mary with the crown of flowers on her head gives it away.
After Mass we came home and chilled out (not really, but it sounds more Mother's Day like, doesn't it?) and then went to dinner by my mom's house. On the way over there we realized that we would be in a house with TV reception at the same time that the season finale of "Once Upon A Time" was going to be on. Major Score!
While we were waiting to watch OUAT, we realized that "Duck Dynasty" was on...all 47 hours of it, it seems. Having never seen it but having heard a lot of people talking about it, we decided to give it a try.
So, really?? People watch this? To its credit, my dh said that the second hour was much more entertaining than the first episode we watched together. I have to admit that Si was the highlight of the show.
This got me to thinking that we could make a pretty good reality TV show. Have you ever done that? Think about your life as it is happening as a reality TV show? On the way home I was mentioning this to the family. They weren't exactly going for it. I mean really, we have a philosophizing 12 year old and an 8 year old who comes out with some pretty amazing statements. And who doesn't want to watch four teenage and older girls bickering? The topper would be watching me strategize every week about how to get the lowest gas prices. I mean, really, who couldn't relate to that.
After awhile of fantasizing about it, eldest daughter pointed out that we would probably get a lot of hate mail. I guess you're right. I suppose a pro-life, Catholic homeschooling family just isn't what main-stream America wants to watch every week. I think we need something more unique than that :)
God Bless!
Friday, May 10, 2013
7 Quick Takes May 10 2013
It has been a busy week and I will attempt to catch up in these quick takes, and with a bunch of photos. First, here's Mr 8 yo. This was last weekend right before he received his First Holy Communion.
Quite a strapping young man, isn't he? He is our LAST First Holy Communion. While it is exciting to all be "Communicating" together, there is something sad about it being the last one.
This is me and my good friend, Simonetta.
Simonetta is an incredibly talented Catholic singer and songwriter, as well as a playwrite and director extraordinaire, and a lovely person, too...but I digress. Anyhow, she and her four equally talented daughters are going to be recording an album of sacred music - you know, the beautiful church music that you don't hear too often anymore. They're in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for this endeavor and I'd love it if you would check it out and consider donating to this wonderful cause. Thanks!
DH and I also celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary last weekend. It was a big party and we had a great time with friends and family. Here is the awesome cake that my sister-in-law made for us
and here we are eating it :)
On our actual anniversary, we packed up the crew and headed to our local zoo. It was a beautiful, sunny day. We took this picture at the time we would have been saying our vows exactly 25 years earlier.
Coincidentally, this was picture number 777 on my camera. I'm taking that as a good sign :)
We saw some interesting sites at the zoo this time. We hung around this guy for awhile hoping to get to see him actually consume his lunch, but he was taking his sweet time at it, so we had to move on.
We did get to watch him drag the already dead rabbit across his enclosure, smash it around a number of times and then eventually settle down on top of it. He looked too comfy to be ingesting it any time soon.
The zoo also opened up a new bear exhibit and it is quite cool (literally :). There is this underwater viewing area where you can watch them play in the water. What we thought was funny was the view from various angles that showed the refraction of the water on the bear. Here he is in his "split" view.
All in all we had a beautiful, fun and tiring day. Here's one of my favorite photos from our adventure.
Hope you all have a blessed Mother's Day and a peaceful and restful weekend.
God Bless!
For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Theme Thursday - Mom
Very conveniently, I spent a lot of time with my mother this past week so I was able to take a nice photo with her. Here we are at our parish in the prayer garden with in front of a statue of Our Mother (at least I think that is who the statue is depicting). The occasion was dh's and my 25th anniversary. We went to Mass and got a blessing and my parents were there with us.
I must say that I am incredibly blessed to have the mother I have. She has always been there for me and I am so lucky to have her as a sounding board for everything. Thanks, Mom, for all you've done for me and for being my friend as well as my mother!
Go over and check out all the other Mom photos at Clan Donaldson!
God Bless!
I must say that I am incredibly blessed to have the mother I have. She has always been there for me and I am so lucky to have her as a sounding board for everything. Thanks, Mom, for all you've done for me and for being my friend as well as my mother!
Go over and check out all the other Mom photos at Clan Donaldson!
God Bless!
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