tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62171133823240608762024-02-19T23:44:37.180-06:00Homeschooling With JoyBuilding up our domestic churchLaurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05869227734763516464noreply@blogger.comBlogger1302125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217113382324060876.post-83484254386143002542016-09-13T12:33:00.002-05:002016-09-13T12:34:21.152-05:00Knowing When to Make A Change<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This year with my two youngest children we are doing year three of Catholic Schoolhouse which covers the Renaissance time period through modern history. We are doing it all at home without belonging to a co-op; mainly because there isn't a co-op around to belong to.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">CSH breaks all of the information up into 24 weeks - four periods of six weeks each. In my original planning I broke it down into four periods with seven weeks each, allowing for that extra week to catch up each quarter.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Well, we're in our third week now and I already know that this schedule is just not going to work. Instead of just plowing ahead and forcing the issue, which is something that is my first inclination, I've decided to make a change. This is a hard thing for me to do, but I realize, finally...after 18 years...that it just doesn't make sense to force something that isn't working. Trust me, I know what I am talking about. No one comes out ahead by this method.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">You see, our life is such that we really need to be done with school, or at least the parts that heavily involve me, by lunchtime. There is just too much that goes on around here in the afternoon for me to be still working with people. That's not to say that the kids aren't doing things on their own, mind you.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What happened in the first two weeks was that I felt like we were just cramming way too much into our time slots and just flying through it so that we could be done on time. This.is.very.stressful.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">After two weeks, I was dreading school. I was hating the pace and hating the fact that our focus was more on the checking off than it was on delving into one of my favorite time periods. We're studying St. Ignatius, for gosh sakes, and I felt like we weren't even doing him justice.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So over the weekend I decided to take each week of CSH and make it into two. My kids, of course, were wondering what happened to their schedule, and believe it or not there was some questioning and huffing and puffing, but I explained that I just wanted us not to be rushed and that maybe we would actually retain something if we slowed down.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is revolutionary for me, and I'm sure I'm not alone here. I've always wanted to do this, but just never have. I'm such a list-checking person that slowing it down and spending more time on something just doesn't come easy to me. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This week is our first week at the slower pace and I already like it more. We did an art project today (another thing I'm not good at!) and it was nice and relaxed because we had the time to do it. We went to the library yesterday to look for books on the Renaissance and I wasn't trying to rush them out the door.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Sometimes you just have to look at yourself and what you've set up and ask yourself if it is really working for everyone and then if it isn't, here's the important part, MAKE A CHANGE so that it does work. That is the beauty of homeschooling. Just because the curriculum is laid out one way, if it doesn't work for you, change it so it does. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At this new pace, we just might not make it up to modern times and finish the curriculum, but I'm okay with that now. Here's to slowing it down and having fun learning what needs to be learned!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">God Bless! </span></span>Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05869227734763516464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217113382324060876.post-49321494675536755692016-08-29T16:07:00.002-05:002016-08-29T16:07:49.373-05:00Nineteen and Counting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Today began our 19th year of homeschooling...at least to the best of my calculations. It gets hard to remember how long ago we actually started. Also to the best of my calculations, we have six more to go till the youngest graduates high school; but who's counting?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Am I tired? You bet I am. But as I lie in bed this morning reflecting on the past 18 years of starting school, I realized that, as tired as I am, I wouldn't have done it any other way. Homeschooling is hard, yes, but the rewards are immense. Have I ever dreamt of putting them in school? In 18 years, you bet I have, but then I realize that God has called me to homeschool His children and I know that that is what I have to do. It is what makes me plug along through the difficult times. Well, that and my innate stubbornness. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I got up this morning to start the day I always do...a shower, a cup of coffee and some time in prayer (that is THE most important part, by the way. Not the coffee!). However, after having made my coffee (which is the part I look forward to - drinking it, not making it) I realized that my filter flopped over.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Not exactly the way you want to start day one of year 19. I was hoping it wasn't an omen of things to come today.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It wasn't, so that was good. We made it to Mass, we got through our subjects and here are the smiling faces of me and some of my children while we indulge in burgers at our traditional First Day of School Lunch Outing. It makes it worth the struggle!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I hope the beginning of your new year is off to a great start, too!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">God Bless,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Laura</span></span><br />
Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05869227734763516464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217113382324060876.post-16920737293923191072016-02-24T14:51:00.003-06:002016-02-24T14:52:46.657-06:00One Month Ago...<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We brought my son into the hospital, only to come home with a new way of life. In some ways it is hard to believe that it has been one month. In other ways it feels like years! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">People keep encouraging us that it will get easier and in some ways it has. Things are becoming more routine and we pretty much have just figured out that you can never really figure out Diabetes. One day his body will react this way, the next day it will react another way. All we can do is go with the flow and deal with the moment. Isn't that how we're supposed to live anyhow? In the moment? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In the day to day managing of his diabetes, I don't get very emotional. We just go through the calculations and the processes just like we're supposed to. Every once in awhile, however, it hits me. Like the other day when I was at the pharmacy with all of the other chronic prescription picker-uppers. The lady in front of me was chatting away about her medications with the pharmacist and they were on a first name basis. I figure that will be me someday very soon. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And when they ask you, as you are about to pay for the prescription, "Did they tell you how much this is going to cost?" I don't know why, but it gets me every time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Or last night, at 12:30 when we were sitting in my bed waiting for our 15 minutes to pass after drinking his juice so that I could see if his blood glucose levels came up sufficiently, and he nodded off to sleep next to me. That's when it hits me what he's going through and what he has to look forward to for the rest of his life. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But then we both get up the next morning and face the day with a good attitude, and for that I'm grateful.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Another thing that I'm very grateful for is that I have, in a way, been prepared for this over the past 10 years. When we were in the hospital and the nurses told us about how he would have to eat on a regular schedule, how we would have to count carbs and eat healthy I was so grateful that we had already been doing those things. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We've eaten on a schedule ever since I can remember. Breakfast around 7:00, snack at 10, lunch at Noon, snack at 3 and dinner between 5 and 6. Perfect. We've cleaned up our eating considerably during those years and all of our kids know what carbs, fats (healthy vs unhealthy) and proteins are. If I had had to tackle all of that on top of everything else (like injections and monitoring and worrying about those lows) my brain would have exploded. I can see the beauty of being organized even more clearly now because it has made this chaos much more manageable. God is Good! All the time!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So we move forward into our second month of a lifetime. One step at a time as we cling tightly to Jesus' hand and walk this walk with Our Lady of Sorrows who knows exactly how we all feel and is with us every step of the way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">God Bless!</span></i></span></span><br />
Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05869227734763516464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217113382324060876.post-80889843071437402712016-02-22T15:44:00.004-06:002016-02-22T15:44:46.424-06:00Peanut Butter Crackers to the Rescue!<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Whenever I'm faced with a difficult situation, I've noticed that I tend to do two particular things to help me cope.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The first is to find humor in the situation whenever I can. It hit me, not too long into our diabetic adventure, that this is just like having a baby in the house again. We get up in the middle of the night to check on my son, and, if necessary, feed him. It is quite humorous to wake him at 2:00 am and tell him to get up and eat something. He usually smiles, gets up, eats whatever we've determined he should eat, smiles again and goes back to bed. God has blessed him with a good disposition, that's for sure.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My son is not much of an adventurous eater, so we've found a few staples that have been carrying us through the past month. These babies</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ_L3bAuOh5YW9LsCtNA6sokpCiJys0zn1qXZU5wHCf2G3u0xIJ8U6R0V-UjOZgIkFc4IMebJofrX6UU4hu8wr8_Mlr0YEGOhBEVR5ZX5f0bno6Xj49w6T0cf9aRhvWY6Ax5sWBSku7jI/s1600/2016-02-22+15.18.15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ_L3bAuOh5YW9LsCtNA6sokpCiJys0zn1qXZU5wHCf2G3u0xIJ8U6R0V-UjOZgIkFc4IMebJofrX6UU4hu8wr8_Mlr0YEGOhBEVR5ZX5f0bno6Xj49w6T0cf9aRhvWY6Ax5sWBSku7jI/s320/2016-02-22+15.18.15.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">have been indispensable. They are portable, have a the right amount of carbs to boost him up a bit and contain a bit of protein from the peanut butter to level him off, they are inexpensive and most importantly, he likes them. The other night while we were sitting there at 2 am and he was eating his prescribed 12 crackers, the thought popped into my head, "It's 2 am. Do you know how many peanut butter crackers your child is eating?" It cracked me up at that moment, which is a good thing, because you have to laugh whenever you can or you'll cry instead.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The second thing is that I tend to fixate on something else to take my mind off of the situation. Right now I'm fixating on my house. Cleaning and straightening have very cathartic effects. It is something I can physically do which brings peace to my mind. My kids aren't thrilled because I'm always telling them to clean up their piles of stuff, but to see a very neat house makes me feel more peaceful.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've also been fixating on my laundry room. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Specifically, this door. The room is small and dark. We have bigger plans for it, but for now my eye is on replacing that door with one that has a window in it. The good thing about this project is that we have some Menard's rebate money and since the hospital won't accept that as payment, I have to use it for things for the house! SCORE! We went this past weekend and got the door, now we just have to put it in. I just know that the sunlight (of which I am craving, seeing as how it is FEBRUARY in the Midwest) that will stream through that window will bring me great joy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And so we all cope with difficulties in different ways. Of course prayer has a central place in this coping, but I've also found other ways that are helpful to me and not harmful to anyone else! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How do you cope when you're in a difficult spot? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">God Bless!</span></i></span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span>Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05869227734763516464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217113382324060876.post-569052767561136932016-02-15T16:20:00.000-06:002016-02-15T16:20:43.710-06:00Another Curve in the Road<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Exactly 11 days after my last post, God thr<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ew</span> another curve in the road of o<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ur</span> life. I never expected to find myself in the pediatric ICU with my baby boy, but that's where we ended up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Fortunately the stay was short, just two days, but he left with a new normal - Type 1 Diabetes. Came out of nowhere, really. It doesn't run in our family, so we were a bit surprised that he should get this. They say a virus can cause it to begin. Who would have thought<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">People have asked me how I knew. Because there seems to be quite the occurrence of this nowadays, I'd like to share with you how I knew because the fact that someone had shared their story with me was lifesaving to my son.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My best friend from forever has a son who was diagnosed with T1 last May. Over the summer we got together and she shared her journey with me. Fortunately, it wasn't something that my overworked brain forgot.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I noticed on Saturday, the 23rd, that my son had gone to the bathroom two times within a short period of time. This, for him, was not that unusual so I didn't think much of it at the time. Later that night, however, I saw him get out of bed and go into the bathroom twice within about half an hour. I had a quiet voice in my head tell me to pay attention to that. I immediately thought of my friend's son. I sat in bed with my kindle that night looking up the common symptoms of Type 1.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">- Frequent urinatio<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">n </span> </span> <span style="font-family: "wingdings"; font-size: 100%;">✔</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "wingdings"; font-size: 100%;">- <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Increased thirst</span></span> <span style="font-family: "wingdings"; font-size: 100%;">✔</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "wingdings"; font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">- Increased hunger</span> </span> <span style="font-family: "wingdings"; font-size: 100%;">✔</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "wingdings"; font-size: 100%;">- <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Fatigue</span></span> <span style="font-family: "wingdings"; font-size: 100%;">✔</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "wingdings"; font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Although I have to say that he didn't come to me and tell me he was thirsty and hungry, he just kept asking for more to eat and drink. He had told me all of the week prior how tired he was. My response? "Try going to bed earlier!"</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">It wasn't until I looked at the sy<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">mptoms </span>all together and thought about the past few weeks that I saw the pattern. Otherwise, life is life and you tend to ignore all of the "I'm thirsty" and "I'm hungry" statements.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">While he didn't have the blurred vision or tingling hands and feet, when he came downstairs on Sunday, he did look like, all of a sudden, he had lost a lot of weight. His face looked sunken in and his arms looked very skinny. Just like that! Some of the kids said they had noticed on Saturday how skinny he looked, but we hadn't.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">I thought back to my friend and remembered her telling me about checking her son's urine for ketones. I knew you could go to the pharmacy and get strips so after Mass we headed to Walgreens and picked up our first bottle of urine strips. Once home we tested him twice. Both times he tested Moderate/High. Yikes. I called my friend just to go over what was going on and she told us to head to the ER with him now before he started vomiting, which would be the next thing that would begin to happen.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">It wasn't long before he was being admitted to the ICU and hooked up to his insulin drip. At that point his blood glucose level was 524. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">Over the next two days we learned more about insulin, shots, glucose checks and diabetes than I ever wanted to learn. We were sent home with a dazed look in our eyes. It was like coming home with your first baby and thinking, "What on earth am I supposed to do with this kid to keep him alive". </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">It's been quite the ride these past three weeks. There's more to be said but, I think that, for now, this is enough. Please keep us all in your prayers as we navigate this new normal for our family.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="color: blue;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">God Bless!</span></i></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "wingdings"; font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "wingdings";"> </span></span> </span>Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05869227734763516464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217113382324060876.post-46554249250211792682016-01-13T16:25:00.001-06:002016-01-13T16:50:28.870-06:00Around my Kitchen<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When we looked at this house, the first thing we did was look at the kitchen and realize that it wasn't going to work long-term for us. We know there is a remodel in our near future because there just isn't enough counter space and the eat-in section of the kitchen is big enough for a small bistro table and not much else.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another thing I noticed was that the basement door was smack-dab in the middle of the kitchen. I had been wanting to have a nice big chalk board in my kitchen for awhile, so I decided to turn the basement door into a giant chalk board. While it didn't quite work out to my expectations, it does, in fact, serve the purpose of putting that door to good use. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So far we've used it for a nice Thanksgiving motif, which I can't believe I do not have a picture of because it was so cute, an Advent and St. Andrew novena calendar</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmmKxtoLkqcr82ZBiFr1sEtOrZ6mr2flfDpNk6D0pU_Z__ge2hpBm2nj6KdA9T7zZxjVx1099b4dJ7dy2b8rbHYW5ZkbRtUsio900u_MBDSAk7iU7aRRY4zgUtnwAGotoywmfepR3OdNA/s1600/2015-11-30+12.17.34.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmmKxtoLkqcr82ZBiFr1sEtOrZ6mr2flfDpNk6D0pU_Z__ge2hpBm2nj6KdA9T7zZxjVx1099b4dJ7dy2b8rbHYW5ZkbRtUsio900u_MBDSAk7iU7aRRY4zgUtnwAGotoywmfepR3OdNA/s320/2015-11-30+12.17.34.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and a spot to count the 12 Days of Christmas.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWqRMNppwvXgPg1sqT-4CEAAinvZ6M3oSWwaAV6va6FGb0C02ptir5EZhE9Agh6M8CfcQGFKoV3ME3vs97XV6t2t2-qcnh0poTeQ0Ub6vgSyDxWhpMDdtItp0NziHJyVcPZgvLy9ClUW0/s1600/Christmas+door.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWqRMNppwvXgPg1sqT-4CEAAinvZ6M3oSWwaAV6va6FGb0C02ptir5EZhE9Agh6M8CfcQGFKoV3ME3vs97XV6t2t2-qcnh0poTeQ0Ub6vgSyDxWhpMDdtItp0NziHJyVcPZgvLy9ClUW0/s320/Christmas+door.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It has sparked a lot of creativity (as you can see above) and has been a fun thing to have in the kitchen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now, however, I find myself with this:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWwtOmWm3OVfMjEkGb_ZQC9sP3kdreiuSkhBcbU9i2ZiCDcEFSd3nfPx78GWLyx-arSIucc0WEMkzay3Be1PkisKZC4CodqGZ1mA2EkM2P9YhwRaICmK5Gknp3pYX3qpdunZ_rB81VKQM/s1600/2016-01-13+16.17.06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWwtOmWm3OVfMjEkGb_ZQC9sP3kdreiuSkhBcbU9i2ZiCDcEFSd3nfPx78GWLyx-arSIucc0WEMkzay3Be1PkisKZC4CodqGZ1mA2EkM2P9YhwRaICmK5Gknp3pYX3qpdunZ_rB81VKQM/s320/2016-01-13+16.17.06.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">a blank door and no ideas for what to put on it. January means, what? Ordinary time? How do you draw that? It's too soon, in my book, for Valentine's designs so what can we do until then? Ideas appreciated :)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another thing I've added to the kitchen to kind of spruce things up a bit is a craft my oldest daughter did at the library one evening. This idea is so cute that it inspired me to want to have a coffee theme in our remodeled kitchen. They are pages from a book that they painted coffee/tea cups on. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNcwkjyLuZtSTVBhWXJ9q1_pNdgpGq42_N3H9HjsPi8DUpYj50FBgSzujUM0GhaN54jn-eMEXvZ76qX_mHBPNjmpICTVNRRVLywoBjKC__8MQz3jaQ5n45MdEzlD-B48cBhxqc9aoMNug/s1600/2016-01-13+16.04.24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNcwkjyLuZtSTVBhWXJ9q1_pNdgpGq42_N3H9HjsPi8DUpYj50FBgSzujUM0GhaN54jn-eMEXvZ76qX_mHBPNjmpICTVNRRVLywoBjKC__8MQz3jaQ5n45MdEzlD-B48cBhxqc9aoMNug/s320/2016-01-13+16.04.24.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">She did four of them, so she found some frames in the basement and we decided to hang them up to help brighten up the kitchen. It doesn't take much to bring some zing to a room. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCPw58x1x_VcFarmCPvexWveNjPTCVecCka43T8Tk7EbFRRIjdyhCK7KAmu2LbSIUYKf2SzloTNQ0eGj50HCy-ycCrFmhWXvscYnA_nFBEm1XJEdDYIFTbv2nImjq92R20tRNdSc9QPBw/s1600/2016-01-13+16.18.18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCPw58x1x_VcFarmCPvexWveNjPTCVecCka43T8Tk7EbFRRIjdyhCK7KAmu2LbSIUYKf2SzloTNQ0eGj50HCy-ycCrFmhWXvscYnA_nFBEm1XJEdDYIFTbv2nImjq92R20tRNdSc9QPBw/s320/2016-01-13+16.18.18.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sometimes you just have to take a few minutes to look around your house and find something you could switch to a different room to make it brighter, or, in this case, take a craft someone did and put it in some left-over frames. I like this kind of decorating; it's cheap and easy!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Need something to brighten a part of your house during these dreary days of January? Walk around and see if you can't make a small change like this one.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">God Bless!</span></i></span></span>Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05869227734763516464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217113382324060876.post-51051092559535606632016-01-09T16:00:00.001-06:002016-01-09T16:00:01.140-06:00My 2016 Word<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Last year I went along with the crowd and picked a word for the year. The word was "purposeful" and my intention in living this word was to be much more purposeful in what I did with my time and my attention. Looking back over the year, I would say that I did much better at that. There were a lot of things that required my attention and I was able to walk away from my distractions (mainly this lovely computer) and get down to the business of doing what needed to be done.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now, that's not to say I always did that. No sirree, not in the least. And, when I did do it, it certainly wasn't always easy. Releasing ourselves from our mindless distractions is a difficult thing. That is why, for example, I don't want to have HGTV available in my home. I know, at least for awhile, that I would be addicted to sitting in front of show after show watching others do exciting decorating things instead of doing them myself.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This year's word is "wisdom": </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span data-dobid="hdw">wis·dom</span></span></div>
<div class="lr_dct_sf_h" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i><span>noun</span></i></span></div>
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<div data-dobid="dfn" style="display: inline; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the quality of being wise.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_1dEfa9qG-hMjQtgiMwFMKqV4S8asTrkKa9GCpUP7mS5gEvJV8TTC2eI7L2uxpQ2F2i0zFAFNpGiBY-3TG8FfgKmWjn6PngHHdfLmfHWtQCoPa0_5wT8S4amVwuYfFN5pX0CUphoixx0/s1600/IMG_5593-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_1dEfa9qG-hMjQtgiMwFMKqV4S8asTrkKa9GCpUP7mS5gEvJV8TTC2eI7L2uxpQ2F2i0zFAFNpGiBY-3TG8FfgKmWjn6PngHHdfLmfHWtQCoPa0_5wT8S4amVwuYfFN5pX0CUphoixx0/s320/IMG_5593-3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> It isn't a new word to me as it began popping up on my radar last year. I kept reading or hearing in various places how good it is to pray for wisdom. When Solomon asked God for wisdom he asked for</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> "a discerning heart" to govern God's people and "to distinguish between right and wrong". And God was very pleased by his request. I figure a mom like me can't go wrong in asking for a discerning heart to govern the people in my charge and it can definitely help me in distinguishing between right and wrong; especially when trying to sift through the myriad of disagreements that go on here every day!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So this will be my prayer, and hopefully my guiding principle, as I go through this year. Given the events of the world, having some extra wisdom might just not be a bad thing!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">God Bless!</span></i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05869227734763516464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217113382324060876.post-86234422730653192042016-01-04T16:16:00.002-06:002016-01-04T16:16:46.491-06:00Our Friends Were on TV!<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While we have not formally resumed schooling yet (still in the 12 Days of Christmas. Sounds reasonable, right?), we did take some time today to watch an educational program on EWTN. Well, we also had another incentive to watch it because our good friends, Laura and Mary, were live on the "At Home with Jim and Joy" show talking about the unit study they wrote for the <a href="http://cultureoflifestudies.com/" target="_blank">American Life League</a>. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC2x8nBby7MrIXhkYDuV19Aaj4LmgfEVuDxCoox23HLiQYTYC7ktGUFqid_5fAU9gds9lmA0mZ99Z0Fmg_2F1KLgsKjngWVcr6QoyRR8kpriuDHOsxhn-8b_oftNPrEKenaIqcA8wulKw/s1600/laura+and+mary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC2x8nBby7MrIXhkYDuV19Aaj4LmgfEVuDxCoox23HLiQYTYC7ktGUFqid_5fAU9gds9lmA0mZ99Z0Fmg_2F1KLgsKjngWVcr6QoyRR8kpriuDHOsxhn-8b_oftNPrEKenaIqcA8wulKw/s320/laura+and+mary.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You might remember that <a href="http://www.hsjoy.blogspot.com/2015/09/its-pro-life-giveaway-time.html" target="_blank">I reviewed and gave away</a> some free copies of this unit study and, since we know them personally, it was so fun to watch them talk about how important it is to cultivate the pro-life mentatlity, especially in our young children.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another exciting project they just released is a unit study for high schoolers on <a href="http://cultureoflifestudies.com/project-status/" target="_blank">Euthanasia</a>. I'm so glad that this has come out and I definitely think it is something we'll have to look into. Coincidentally, I just finished reading the book "Me Before You", which is about a quadriplegic who wants to die on his own terms. It was a great book, but if you are not catechized as to why this is wrong, you will definitely be swayed by the emotional aspect of this topic. This is why it is so important for us to arm our youth with the facts and reasons why the Church teaches as it does, so that they are not swayed by emotions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To learn more about these important programs that our friends are producing through the American Life League, you can either go to their website, catch the replay of the show on January 9th at 10:30 am or watch it on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/EWTN" target="_blank">EWTN's youtube channel</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Spread the word about these great unit studies and pray that we can all become ambassadors for life!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">God Bless!</span></i></span> </span><br />
Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05869227734763516464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217113382324060876.post-253686076000189452015-12-29T21:25:00.001-06:002015-12-29T21:25:42.142-06:00A Very Special Intercessor!<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope your Advent went well and that you had a beautiful Christmas with the people you love. We had two days with nice weather, good food and lots of family, as well as a beautiful midnight Mass. But this post isn't about Christmas. It's about a story that I've been wanting to tell but just haven't had the time. It's an intercessory story related to our move.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You see, in our history of moving we've never had an easy time. More often than not, the first house we would set out to buy would become encased in some sort of turmoil or other and we would end up buying a completely different house. This happened to us three times. The last time we moved, we did so because we had lost everything and were moving into a rental. Needless to say, God had mercy on us and there was no extra drama.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This time, however, we were buying again, and although we did not have a house to sell, I fully expected the experience to be like it had been in the past. I expected to find a house, fall in love with it, have something happen with the deal, lose the house and then find an even better one. After all, that's how it had been before.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But God had other plans. Let me backtrack a bit. For the past year +, I had been praying, along with many others, for <a href="http://passionateperseverance.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Courtney Lenaburg</a> and her family. In fact, it was just one year ago that she died. When she did, I cried along with everyone else. After her passing, I had read stories of her intercession, one in particular about a family who wanted to move but needed a miracle with their septic field. Through Courtney's intercession, that miracle occurred. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That got me thinking that maybe I should call upon Courtney to intercede for us in this move since I really didn't want to have to go through what we've been through in the past. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Can I tell you something? St. Courtney came through with flying colors. We began our search and had looked at a few houses when something (or someone :) nudged me back to the computer to look at the 90+ listings again. There I found it, the house we had overlooked the first time through. We went to see it and we loved it. We brought our kids (who, being older now, had some very definite opinions about what they were looking for). They loved it, too. We put in an offer and at first it didn't seem like we were going to come to terms with the seller, but I called on Courtney even more and before we knew it, the sellers came down in price and then started offering us their furniture...at no extra charge! We closed in 30 days! 30 days, people! With not one hitch.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Many times when miraculous things happen like this, I often find that God sends me a confirmation that what I am seeing is real. The moment this time was when we were at the closing (which only lasted about an hour) and our realtor said, "I don't think I've ever been at a closing that got funded that fast." From past experience, I know that that was God's way of telling me that I've witnessed something grand. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We moved into a great neighborhood. Having not had neighbors for 12 years, and having 7 children and 5 cars, we were a bit leery of what having neighbors might mean. Our neighbors are wonderful. Even funnier is the fact that in our small subdivision of about 33 homes, 95% of the people are Catholic. God has chosen a wonderful spot to reintroduce us into communal living.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I write this to let you know, in case you don't already, that there are many saints up there in heaven just waiting for us to call upon them for their help. There is no other explanation in my mind (based on our past experiences with moving) for how smoothly everything went other than her intercession. Miss Courtney is up there calling for miracles and how happy I am that we have been on the receiving end of her powerful intercession. Thank you, Mary and Jerry, for raising and caring for such an extraordinary young lady! I've been recommending her to others in need, so I think she'll be pretty busy up in heaven for quite some time. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">St. Courtney, pray for us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">God Bless!</span></i></span></span>Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05869227734763516464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217113382324060876.post-59678567929721399852015-12-02T15:34:00.003-06:002015-12-02T15:34:51.170-06:00Our 30 Day Move<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It has now been over two months since I've been here to my good ole blog. It has been a crazy time of moving our family of nin<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">e from our rental house on <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">five acres to our own home <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">in a neighborhood. <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In what became a rather <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">fast<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">-paced event, we began looking for a home, found one and then<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> moved 30 days later. Since I really can't do<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">-it-all, some - no A L<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">OT - of things had to <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">go and anything social media like was at the top of the list.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We're moved now and all settled in so I'm back to share<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> again. I mean really, I had j<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ust dec<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ided that turning 50 <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">warranted more blogging and look what happens? Sheesh. I'm still <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">50, <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">though, s<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">o I guess it is better late than never.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">'s so much to talk about that's happened over the past two mo<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">nths, <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">if I can just r<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">emember it all! Like I said, we were down to a bare bones lifestyle for awhile so I thought I'd sh<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">are how <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">we hand<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">led the whole "move your family in 30 days" thing.<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> And just to be clear, w<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">hen <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">our offer got <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">accepted, we had not <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">packed ONE box. Not even one! Also, we did all the packing and moving oursel<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ves. Here's <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">h<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ow it w<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ent down.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1. I knew that we needed <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">to keep schooling as long as possible. With tw<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">o high-schoolers<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> and t<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">wo grad<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">e<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">-schoolers, I d<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">id not want to take of<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">f too much time. The high-schoolers kept to their schedule pretty well, i<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">t was the two younger ones that needed a revamp<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> sin<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ce much of what they did required me. Right off the bat<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> we <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">put our non-essential <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">subjects on hold until the <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">second semester. That included geography (which was t<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">aking up a lot of time), map skills and Latin. <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That right th<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ere made a hug<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">e difference.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2. <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My three college aged girls <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">all have classes and jobs, so I knew they wouldn't be much help<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">. When they were home and free (about 20 min<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">utes over <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">30 days :), they were required to <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">help out as much as <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">possible, wh<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ich they did.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">3. My other four kids were an immense help, e<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">specially the t<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">wo in high school! <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">W<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">e got into a great rhythm of <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">doing <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">our school<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> work in the morning and then packing and moving things in the afternoon. Because of their hard work, we only en<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ded up taking two weeks off of<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> school!</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">4. I <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">made a firm decision to add nothing new to our schedule. We kept up with what we<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> were already invo<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">lved in but we <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">rarely did <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">an<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">y other activities or events beyo<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">nd that. <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Saying NO was<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> not fun, but c<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">rucial.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">5. Once we got in the new house I spent the firs<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">t week working like a mad woman to get it into a state of readiness. I knew tha<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">t that was all the time I had<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">, so we worked mornin<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">g till night that <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">first week so that every</span></span></span></span>thing was put away and in<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> order</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>. I knew that I wouldn't be able <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">to function for <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">very long with everyone wondering where things were.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So that is how we surv<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ived our 30 day moving adventure. Being organized<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> wa<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">s crucial. Also, th<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">e fact that I have declu<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ttered on an <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ongoing basis made things a<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> lot easi<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">er. <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That's not t<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">o<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> say that <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">we still didn't get r<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">id of a lot of stuff! There were <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">MANY bags of g<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">arba<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ge as w<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ell as multiple t<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">rips to <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">the local G<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">oodwill. <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hopefully ever<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">y<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">thing that made the cut into the new house is stuff that we need and use and not much that is superfluous! </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It's good to be back here and<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">, G<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">od willing, I hope to continue on a much more regular basis. I say that, but we'll see what <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">T</span>he Plan really is :)</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">God Bless!</span></span></i></span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05869227734763516464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217113382324060876.post-80482712380303977552015-09-28T14:03:00.003-05:002015-09-28T14:03:46.176-05:00And the Winners are:<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Congratulations to: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lori W, Stephanie S. and Chantal C.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You've been notified by email, so look for that email and send me your address so that I can get your unit study out to you before Respect Life month begins.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thanks to all who participated!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">God Bless!</span></i></span> </span>Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05869227734763516464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217113382324060876.post-46844554112981355022015-09-21T19:51:00.000-05:002015-09-21T19:53:15.022-05:00It's Pro-Life Giveaway Time!!<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">October is Respect Life month and I've got just the thing for you to make it memorable! I've had the pleasure of previewing the "Life is Precious" unit study from the <a href="http://cultureoflifestudies.com/" target="_blank">American Life League</a>, and it is a great resource that you can add to your own homeschool for the month, use it with a co-op or a religious ed class you're teaching. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The cool thing about this unit study? I know both of the authors AND the illustrator. I've watched all three girls grow up and become talented, wonderful, Catholic young ladies. They've put their heart into this study and I'm happy to share it with you.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz0gjqbKALUSWv1ghUeLupu_VRRYV2OVmMjEa54Oo-9fk9rz5GHnWl7vB0S0REALAzEtB69XDJoWI0Xz5S3zfJifLQSzveQS-lp5q6yvvH9-2MqEQVTH4grXWv1yn8ITHGtkUg75hu-70/s1600/2015-09-21+17.29.32.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz0gjqbKALUSWv1ghUeLupu_VRRYV2OVmMjEa54Oo-9fk9rz5GHnWl7vB0S0REALAzEtB69XDJoWI0Xz5S3zfJifLQSzveQS-lp5q6yvvH9-2MqEQVTH4grXWv1yn8ITHGtkUg75hu-70/s400/2015-09-21+17.29.32.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We took it for a test run a couple of months back and, even though it is geared for grades K - 3, I used it with my 4th and 6th graders and they enjoyed it. The unit study is based around four picture books and has easy to do activities and discussion questions to help emphasize the life message in the story. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have three copies of this great unit study to give away. Follow the Rafflecopter instructions below to win. The giveaway begins at midnight tonight and ends on Sunday evening, so hurry and enter as many times as you can. I'll have it shipped to you before October starts! Good luck!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span>
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="48b83d230" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/48b83d230/" id="rcwidget_8ze1qb55" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
<script src="//widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05869227734763516464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217113382324060876.post-27248611234641109422015-09-14T20:14:00.000-05:002015-09-14T20:14:29.363-05:00A Birthday and A Give Away!<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is now officially a new decade around here. In other words, I officially turned 50 last week. I don't feel much different, and I certainly didn't feel <i>old </i>until I saw "50" printed on a birthday card. Looking at it in print, for some reason, made it seem old. Well, we'll just put those cards away now, won't we?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We did some good celebrating. Life's been a whirlwind, what with starting school and celebrating big life events, not to mention all of the usual stuff that goes on. We managed to sneak in some fun and A LOT of good food. Not only did I get a year older, I got five pounds heavier. Back to the old grindstone to work that back off.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So I needed to come back here to let you all know that coming soon I will be having a give away. Now, in the past those haven't worked that well for me as something always seems to get messed up. However, I am willing to try again and will be announcing the giveaway soon!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What's the prize, you ask? Well, I just happen to have three copies of the "Life is Precious" unit study from American Life League. We were privileged to get a copy of it to try out and some other copies to give away. I love unit studies, especially if you're schooling a handful of kids. This one is great and is very easy to do, so check back in and get ready to win.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This unit study will be perfect to add to your schooling for the month of October, which is Respect Life month. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">See ya' soon!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">God Bless!</span></i></span> </span>Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05869227734763516464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217113382324060876.post-26185926053142572072015-08-27T20:57:00.003-05:002015-08-27T20:57:47.982-05:00A Family Event - An Awesome Outdoor Concert<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Having a large family on one income definitely makes things more difficult in a lot of ways. What the world says you should have and do is far different from what is attainable (in most cases). The other day I was reading a blog post about how one family paid off their debt of $150,000 in a few years. The author made a great point about how, when doing something like this, it is important to realize that you still have to go out and do things that are enjoyable that cost money.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sure there are lots of free things to do, and that should definitely be a priority in terms of planning things for your family if you are tight on money. But every once-in-awhile you need to do something that you would all enjoy, even if it costs a bit of cash.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For example, we all decided a few months ago that we would love to go see <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/ThePianoGuys" target="_blank">The Piano Guys</a>. Who? The Piano Guys. Seriously, if you have never heard of them, you have to go check out all of their <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/ThePianoGuys" target="_blank">music videos on youtube</a>. They are incredibly talented musicians who love to have a good time with their music.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anyhow, they were going to be playing at an outdoor music venue about 1 1/2 hours away from us, so we decided to get some lawn tickets and go enjoy them as an end-of-the-summer fling.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Having older kids who have jobs comes in handy, because one way to make things like this a bit more doable is to have those who earn an income pay for their own tickets. That cuts down on the amount of money we are responsible for, which helps immensely.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It was a cool evening, with blankets and sweatshirts galore, but it was a great concert. We were all so glad to have been able to do this together. With school starting for everyone, and the variety of work schedules in the family, it isn't that often that everyone is home at the same time. To spend the evening together outside listening to great music, sure was a nice way to start ending the summer. We hopefully won't be ending it quite yet (although you can't tell by the weather we've been having), but I can feel that it is starting to wind down.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Be creative in your what you do for fun, try to find ways to do it cheaply, but realize that, even with a big family, sometimes it is just necessary to splurge and have a good time together.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>God Bless!</i></span></span></span>Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05869227734763516464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217113382324060876.post-87803509365199040962015-08-23T22:09:00.003-05:002015-08-23T22:09:50.557-05:00Welcome 2015-16 School Year! Yay! Yippee!<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So did you read the title of this post with sarcasm or with enthusiasm? Chances are, if you've been at this for a long time, there probably was a hint of sarcasm in your mind. If this is your first year, or one of your first, then you are probably full of enthusiasm! Good for you!! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I spent all of Saturday, from morning till night, getting everyone organized with their books, laying out what needs to be done when and by whom, and making up all of my nice little Excel spread sheets for the various classes. Excel is my best friend when it comes to homeschooling. I urge all homeschooling mothers to learn how to use it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anyhow, I thought I'd lay out what our year will look like since I know it helps me to see what other people are doing. You can find out more detail about a lot of these books on <a href="http://www.catholic-homeschooling-resources.com/" target="_blank">my website</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Junior:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Math is not her strong suit so we will be spending this year going over things she has already learned to make them more cemented.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Religion - Didache "Understanding Scripture"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">English - American Literature using MODG syllabus</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">History - "Christ and the Americas" book and workbook</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Science - Apologia Biology with lab</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Spanish - Duolingo</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sophmore:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Math - Algebra II using Teaching Textbooks</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Religion - Apologetics using various books</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Grammar and Vocabulary - one semester of each </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Spanish - Duolingo</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Science - Apologia Biology with lab</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">World Geography </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">7th Grader:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Math - LOF Fractions and Decimals and Percents</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Map skills</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Language of God from CHC</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Apologia Animals of the Ocean</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Geography unit study</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Faith and Freedom Readers</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All About Spelling</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">5th Grader:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Math - LOF Fractions and Decimals and Percents</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Map Skills</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Language of God from CHC</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Geography unit study</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Faith and Freedom Readers</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All About Spelling</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While my 5th and 7th graders are doing many of the same subjects, some of them will be together and some will not. I'm basing my unit study on the book "Trail Guide to World Geography" and adding in some of my own ideas. If it turns out good, I'll put it out here to share with you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Overall, I think it all looks doable. I don't know that any of us is ready for summer to be over, but like I keep telling the kids, the sooner we get started, the more likely we'll be done sometime in May. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I pray that your school year is a good one and that you can accomplish all that you want to.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">God Bless!</span></i></span> </span>Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05869227734763516464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217113382324060876.post-8499210172736245272015-08-20T14:48:00.004-05:002015-08-20T14:48:58.119-05:00When Your Brain Feels like Molasses<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today I'm starting to finalize the plans for the high school kids' school year, which, incidentally, begins on Monday. I've been mulling it all around in my brain for awhile, now I'm just pulling the books and putting it all on paper.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It has taken me all morning and into the afternoon to do one child. My brain feels like it is moving at the speed of molasses, making me feel like I'm trudging my way through a thick swamp.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This used to happen because of lack of sleep due to small children and infants. Now I'm thinking that it might be because I'm approaching menopause. Or is it something I ate that is dragging me down? What about all the stressful situations in my life right now? Could that be slowing me down? Maybe it is a combination of some of them. Or even all of them!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I took a walk to the mailbox (which is actually a bit farther than it sounds) only to find that the mail was outside my front door. That's okay, the short walk in the cool temperatures and sunshine felt nice.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I feel like gorging on chocolate and just vegging out rather than sitting down to tackle the next student who is eagerly awaiting their school schedule (haha, I know you laughed, too!). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some days when I get like this, I forge ahead with what needs to be done, and other days I give in and quit thinking. This day, after analyzing the situation to the best of my ability, I think I must forge ahead and at least get that next student underway. Then it's cooking dinner and meal planning for next week; both of which should thoroughly utilize any existing brain cells I have left.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What do you do on days like this? Go for the chocolate or push through it? I'd love to hear your insight.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">God Bless!</span></i></span> </span>Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05869227734763516464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217113382324060876.post-13353385064586586072015-08-18T14:40:00.000-05:002015-08-18T14:40:00.331-05:00Surviving Grocery Shopping<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was thinking last week, while whizzing through Aldi and Wal-Mart, how my grocery shopping has changed and evolved over the past years. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I actually detest meal planning and grocery shopping but I know that my life is much better if I take the time to do it. Well, let me clarify, all our lives are better if I grocery shop, for without food...well, you know. In reality, I guess all of our lives are better, too, if I take the time to meal plan since I save my sanity, my time and our money.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When my kids were much smaller, I would go grocery shopping in the evening so I could leave them home with my husband. It would be a grueling task to drag my tired body through Wal-Mart for hours on end; because, really, who gets out of there in under an hour? But far worse than trudging through the store at night was trudging through the store during the day with seven children. This happened ONLY in extreme emergencies. If this is your only option (taking everyone with you) then I will pray that another option makes itself available to you!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Once I had some old enough to stay home with the littles, I moved my shopping to the daytime hours. I still went by myself whenever possible, but doing it during the afternoon made it go a little bit faster because I wasn't quite as tired. If needed, I would still go in the evening.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now that I've transitioned into older children, I still go during the day, but here's the difference. I now try to take one of them with me. Why, you might ask? Well, because I despise standing in line at the deli counter and so I take said child with me, give them the deli list and send them on their way. Usually by the time they are done at the deli, I've completed 90% of the shopping. The only thing left is to stand in the checkout line, which can usually take as much time as the shopping did.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've also begun shopping at Aldi again because the quality of their food choices has gotten much better over the past few years and the lower prices help in the budget area. It has become a challenge to me to see how fast I can do my Aldi shopping because, well, you have to make it interesting somehow. Last week was my personal best: 22 minutes. It is also important to be accurate and last week I actually didn't forget anything even though I flew through the store.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My daughter and I then moved on to Wal-Mart, where I know the time is at least double that of Aldi. I asked her if she was up to the challenge to make it another personal best time and she said she was, so in we went. Now granted, I didn't have that complicated of a list, but many times that doesn't mean anything. So I sent her off to the deli with her short list and before I had even made it out of the personal and household sections, she was done. It was looking promising at that point. We made our way through the food aisles and then headed to the checkout, where I knew that everything we had accomplished thus far could be thrown out the window. Miracle upon miracle abounded and we were out of the store 35 minutes after we entered. Our entire trip, from leaving to getting home, was 1 hour and 40 minutes. Unbelievable!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So if you hate this whole process as much as I do, then try to find ways to make it easier and more fun. Take a helpful child along with you, make it a game, buy yourself that special treat once a week, whatever it takes to make it more tolerable. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />As always, feel free to share your favorite shopping tips so others can benefit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">God Bless!</span></i></span> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span>Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05869227734763516464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217113382324060876.post-56923787631402930532015-08-15T17:00:00.000-05:002015-08-15T17:00:00.345-05:00Join in the National 54 Day Rosary Novena<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I just wanted to jump in and encourage you to join in the <a href="http://rosaryea.org/index.php/hearts-united-programs/national-rosary-novena/54-day-national-novena-2015" target="_blank">National 54 Day Rosary Novena</a>. If you aren't sure what that is, it is a series of 6 novenas of rosaries. The first 27 days are days of petition and the second 27 days are days of thanksgiving.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The novena starts today, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and ends on October 7th, the Feast of the Rosary. How providential that these two Marian feast days are 54 days apart! Coincidence? I think not.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you've been wanting to start praying the rosary together as a family, then now would be a great time to start. <a href="http://rosaryea.org/index.php/hearts-united-programs/national-rosary-novena/54-day-national-novena-2015" target="_blank">This website</a> has all of the information about the national novena, including the intention and the prayers (in case you are unsure of how to pray it). You can even sign up to get email reminders, which I did, of course!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Happy Feast day and I hope you'll join in this national effort to bring our country back to God.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">God Bless!</span></i></span> </span>Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05869227734763516464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217113382324060876.post-30603823616434633562015-08-13T13:21:00.003-05:002015-08-13T13:21:45.587-05:00A New Venture<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Recently I did some cleaning up on my blog. I removed and reassigned my labels so that there were fewer of them. This, of course, meant that I had to skim through all of my almost 2000 posts and made me realize that I've been at this blogging thing for a very long time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm also about to turn 50. I'm not really bothered by it because I've always felt that age is more about how you feel about it than what the number says you are. I still feel a lot younger than that, so turning the numbers up one digit higher doesn't really bother me. Now my youngest son, it bothers him. He says it kind of "creeps him out" to think about me and his dad being 50. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, after much pondering about this space here, I've decided that I'm old enough now to be more of a mentor, so I'm looking to have the posts in this ole blog be more in line with my organizing book "A Plan for Joy in the Home"; which is why I reassigned all of my labels. I'm hoping to help people more than just keep them up to date on our doings. Of course, that will all still find its way in here, but maybe with more of a purpose.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I hope you'll join me on this new venture and share this space with your friends and homeschooling groups. It's so much more fun when we can interact and share, so I'm hoping you'll be game to do that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hopefully, God willing, this will also mean more consistent posting. I won't be surprised, however, if there is still some sporadic moments! Overall, I'm looking forward to see what comes of this space in the future.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">God Bless!</span></i></span></span>Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05869227734763516464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217113382324060876.post-32116067943118471102015-07-06T15:59:00.001-05:002015-08-05T20:53:43.178-05:00Rosaries Aren't Just for Teething on a Retreat<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Way back and a day ago, I was on retreat. That's how long ago it seems, although in reality it has only been about three weeks. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius are the retreat of all retreats, and when you can go to one of them preached by the priests of <a href="http://www.mileschristi.org/activities/spiritual-exercises/" target="_blank">Miles Christi</a>, well then, my friend, you are in Heaven. Once a year they hold a retreat that goes from Monday afternoon until late Thursday afternoon. The rest of the time they are weekend retreats, so this gives you about one extra day which translates into more talks and more time to pray and meditate. There's also more free time so I like to walk around and do all of that praying and meditating stuff outdoors. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is the first year I had a decent camera on my phone, so I took a few minutes to take some pictures of the grounds. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Isn't it just beautiful? This Shrine is run by the Franciscans and has had Perpetual Adoration EVERY DAY, no matter what, since the 1930s. Unbelievable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So on that Monday I was preparing to go and I looked up on my information sheet to see what time the retreat started. I saw that registration began at 4:00 and so I knew that meant that the rosary was at 4:30. Good. I left my house about 3:15 and knew I would be in time for the rosary. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Except that I wasn't, because registration really began at 3:00, the rosary was at 4:00 and I arrived at 4:25 with Mass to begin at 4:30. Ugh. I ran up the stairs, threw my stuff in the room and ran back to the chapel so that I could be on time for Mass. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm still not sure how that all happened, but later that night I realized WHY it happened. I decided later on that evening to go to the chapel in the photo above to pray my rosary since I had missed it earlier. I remembered that I had won a copy of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0692434003/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0692434003&linkCode=as2&tag=catholhomes07-20&linkId=SYDA4NLZKEBEZFEE" target="_blank">"Rosaries Aren't Just for Teething"</a> a few weeks back from <a href="http://clan-donaldson.com/" target="_blank">Cari </a>and had the urge to read it along with my prayers. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This, of course, meant taking my phone out to read it on my Kindle app. That meant possibly seeing a message or an email or a notification and then having to fight the major temptation NOT to look at it. But the urge persisted and so I went directly to the app and began reading the meditations for the Joyful mysteries.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wow, they were just what I needed to hear. Had I not missed the rosary, I would not have gotten these messages that I needed to get. For example, from the meditation on the Annunciation, "Rather than shake His head at us with a condescending grin, He mercifully offers us something better". I struggle at times with the "loving" God and so this was a great thing to read to set me on the right path.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">From the Visitation, "Miracles surround me through the everydayness of life and the suffering and the joys". How often I forget this. Especially the suffering part. Miracles are there...everyday. We just need to look really hard sometimes to see them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">From the Nativity, "God's plans are always better and the stories He writes are always more interesting." Much more interesting and much, much better than anything I could ever write.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Finally, from the Presentation, "Motherhood isn't just about our own pleasure. It is a sharing in the self-giving love of God. It is also a sharing in the suffering of the cross." The cross. Oh how I need to learn to love to embrace the cross. Right now I run away as fast as I can. Much more work to be done there, that's for sure.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I continued to read the other three sections of the book over the next three days I was there. They were chock full of great quotes and insights that really helped me during my retreat. One of the way God typically speaks to me is through the written word and once again, He came through for me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I hardly ever win things, so I am thrilled that this was one of those rare times. The book is a gem and if you can, you should <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0692434003/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0692434003&linkCode=as2&tag=catholhomes07-20&linkId=SYDA4NLZKEBEZFEE" target="_blank">get yourself a copy</a> and use it to mediate on the mysteries. And, if you haven't done so this year already, you should make time for some kind of retreat with the Lord. I know times are busy, but even an afternoon away at an Adoration chapel will be well worth it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">God Bless!</span></i></span></span><br />
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Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05869227734763516464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217113382324060876.post-87896189684976640052015-06-22T13:16:00.001-05:002015-06-22T13:16:28.764-05:00Homeschooling Moms Helping Homeschooling Moms!<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've been away for too long! A lot to catch up on, but I'm short on time today so I just want to leave you with this:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was privileged to do an interview with Kerry Olvera from Catholic Homeschool Moms. She's interviewing homeschooling moms from a variety of homeschooling backgrounds to help other homeschooling moms out, or just give them a boost if they need it. It was so much fun and I'm very honored to have participated. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You can find <a href="http://www.catholichomeschoolmoms.com/001-laura-dominick-shares-home-school-resources/" target="_blank">my interview here</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">More will be coming, too, so check back at <a href="http://www.catholichomeschoolmoms.com/" target="_blank">her home page</a> often. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Oh, and pass this around. I think it has the potential to help a lot of people.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thanks, Kerry, for the opportunity.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Be back later to update you all on more exciting things!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">God Bless!</span></i></span> </span>Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05869227734763516464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217113382324060876.post-18981630303322250132015-06-07T01:00:00.000-05:002015-06-07T01:00:01.417-05:00Corpus Christi<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Happy Feast of Corpus Christi...one of my favorite Solemnities of the year. The parish we used to belong to had two-mile long processions at noon and it never failed to be super hot. This year, since the parish we belong to now isn't having a procession, my mom encouraged us to come to their procession on Saturday evening. It was an absolutely gorgeous evening and the procession, while shorter, was just as beautiful and nowhere near as hot. Here are some photos to enjoy in case your parish isn't having a procession.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This beautiful chalk image was on the steps leading into the church. It's hard to see it (phone camera picture!) but there is a Latin phrase written on the face of each step. Of course I can't remember what it says <i>or</i> what it means.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-AtpgwLdYerTdVbOyHyalqiQOeDDj_sl8pLymF3NBLEcKF2LMq0K6JaAh9_cDCnIC3Tw1tcKgYPTIaKMnn1WyAr5t8wB60FMkstsMMbCjLhwpDMv_fYo-4cA9ebtqfEzllu8v8O4a2M4/s1600/IMG_1183.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-AtpgwLdYerTdVbOyHyalqiQOeDDj_sl8pLymF3NBLEcKF2LMq0K6JaAh9_cDCnIC3Tw1tcKgYPTIaKMnn1WyAr5t8wB60FMkstsMMbCjLhwpDMv_fYo-4cA9ebtqfEzllu8v8O4a2M4/s400/IMG_1183.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My baby and my mom *sigh*</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The altar my mom was in charge of preparing</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This lovely little country church</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6dAzm6sGOJ2U5AWmikmEveXLwlN7MEjf-NhyphenhyphentYDtg68Z7WsqyG3NHNeCOBWoj2E9WWozXc5lHAj6dta9AP8pgi7_cPaRICQQsMGPf3m49bHg4PJSH5ku1d0JZa1Nrnj15TXVoDdTlAY4/s1600/IMG_1191.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6dAzm6sGOJ2U5AWmikmEveXLwlN7MEjf-NhyphenhyphentYDtg68Z7WsqyG3NHNeCOBWoj2E9WWozXc5lHAj6dta9AP8pgi7_cPaRICQQsMGPf3m49bHg4PJSH5ku1d0JZa1Nrnj15TXVoDdTlAY4/s400/IMG_1191.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Recently remodeled and gorgeous!</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Have a blessed Solemnity!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">God Bless!</span></i></span> </span>Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05869227734763516464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217113382324060876.post-79523202746225314592015-06-01T17:24:00.002-05:002015-08-07T17:51:40.368-05:00Deep Clean Day 1<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today began my summer-break spring cleaning fest. We're too busy in the spring time to do the deep clean so I save it up for our summer break, which officially started today (WOOHOOO!). We're having a party in two weeks so I set it as my goal to be done by then. I wrote out a list of all of the rooms (basement not included...ugh, that takes a week in and of itself!), and am thinking that if I do one or two rooms per day that I have free, I should get the whole house done in time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now, that doesn't leave me much wiggle room, so that is assuming that I feel good (no dizzy spells) and am motivated enough and that nothing else gets in the way. How likely that is to happen, I just don't know.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I decided to begin in the rooms that are less likely to be seen by visitors so that the ones that will be seen and used will be cleaned closer to party day. That being said, I began today in my bedroom.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Deep cleaning meant vacuuming the window screens and washing the windows, vacuuming up all the miscellaneous cobwebs that seem to grow this time of year, moving furniture, cleaning out drawers and closets (they weren't too bad since I've kept up with them) and then tackling these two headboard too-easy-to-hide-junk-in type cabinets.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is what I had "hidden" away:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqosNIJqKb6S3KGYBvpA8Om7ifNWRVqEDABIX7JHwzK4GIH5MxalVMWi1Xbuvbd0TeSBViYFO0089X6d1_XX1VSGwjjUiRhzMufE7FcbP2lV-2xBumkTG0P4CEknKPFe1ZwY7GuSgEacI/s1600/2015-06-01+14.01.51.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqosNIJqKb6S3KGYBvpA8Om7ifNWRVqEDABIX7JHwzK4GIH5MxalVMWi1Xbuvbd0TeSBViYFO0089X6d1_XX1VSGwjjUiRhzMufE7FcbP2lV-2xBumkTG0P4CEknKPFe1ZwY7GuSgEacI/s400/2015-06-01+14.01.51.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Years worth of old scapulars, medals, religious stuff you get in the mail but feel guilty throwing out so you hide it away, and loads and loads of pamphlets and catalogs. After sorting through it all I ended up with A LOT of old scapulars that we can bury in the yard, a bunch of medals and rosaries and such that I will bring to our Adoration chapel, two bags of holy cards and prayer/novena cards that I will either leave in the back of churches, give to other people, send in the mail with correspondence or things like that, and a ton of outdated pamphlets and catalogs that I promptly tossed since all of the info can be found online.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Whew. That felt good. One room down, about nine more to go. The countdown is on. If they all go as well as this one did, the house should be looking lighter and brighter very soon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">God Bless!</span></i></span></span><br />
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Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05869227734763516464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217113382324060876.post-14056920359556281192015-05-31T20:58:00.001-05:002015-05-31T20:58:51.813-05:00What I've Been Up To<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is absolutely amazing how much time can fly by without me ever even visiting my own blog, let alone writing on it! Seems like lately we've been busier than even the bees. Let's get a rundown on the past few weeks, shall we?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I really do wish that I had photos to share, but alas, I do not. I got to be the 2nd shooter at our friend's daughter's wedding over Memorial Day weekend. I've known her for most of her life, so it was quite an honor to be a part of it. They are a beautiful, Catholic family so I knew how important their 2 hour Mass was to them. I spent a lot of my photo-taking time taking photos of them during that Mass. Unfortunately, I had to turn over all my photos to the main photographer as he is doing all of the editing, so I didn't even get to see any of them. I am eagerly awaiting the finished product - to see if I can tell which ones I took :)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My son got to be one of the nine servers for the Mass. It is always so wonderful to see him in his serious-serving posture. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here's the lovely couple. (My daughter took both of these pictures, by the way) If you look closely you can see me in the upper left with the camera in front of my face (I'm behind the other guy with the camera!). </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK6DM7IcTWXGAoU9umCQ7iTW8YyASl8mZcW96_hHDb8vJT6egLmQDZAeP7U__N3bCXEjef9qRcxxCziPfuEs6YpTJ6bZbMc0kNz7Q9U_ncrGVPIW5dLEAp0puVjmFlfEwEDV8ddfjt-xY/s1600/Sarah+and+Moises.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK6DM7IcTWXGAoU9umCQ7iTW8YyASl8mZcW96_hHDb8vJT6egLmQDZAeP7U__N3bCXEjef9qRcxxCziPfuEs6YpTJ6bZbMc0kNz7Q9U_ncrGVPIW5dLEAp0puVjmFlfEwEDV8ddfjt-xY/s400/Sarah+and+Moises.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Right before the Mass it began to rain buckets. After awhile we had this 10 minute respite so everyone ran outside and threw rose petals. It was quite lovely.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That same afternoon, during the Mass, my mil had emergency surgery so my husband actually missed this part of the day. She's doing a little better now, just slower on the recovery end of things than they were hoping for so any prayers on her behalf are greatly appreciated. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">During this same time, we also had a short, somewhat last minute visit from Ms 23 yo's boyfriend. He came in to see her before she starts her new full-time job this coming week! Yay!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The weather has been quite the roller coaster ride around here. We've gone from cold to hot and humid and back to cold again, all with a lot of rain. With the rain comes water leaking (ok, sometimes pouring) into our basement which means the mold goes into overdrive. We're discerning what we need to do about all of this mold business. Hopefully we can come to some clear direction on that VERY soon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">School is over (YAY!!) and I am ready for summer. I started my summer-time to-do list; you know, all of those projects which I hope to complete at some time over the next three months, but probably won't. I'm hoping to get to at least most of them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This week Ms 11 yo makes her Confirmation. She is taking the name Colette. This I will have pictures of! Prayers for her, please, as she takes this important step.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Essentially, June will be like the last two weeks have been. We have so much on the calendar that it will be gone before I can say...well...June. I will try to post updates here as much as I am able. If I'm not here, I'll be out enjoying that crazy thing I call my life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">God Bless!</span></i></span></span><br />
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<br />Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05869227734763516464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6217113382324060876.post-54958564191863502102015-05-19T11:57:00.001-05:002015-08-08T22:15:37.692-05:00Catholic Words Memory Match<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've had the pleasure recently of meeting (via the internet) <a href="http://www.catholicwords.com/" target="_blank">Dan Gonzalez</a> who has a great set of cards and an app for apple and android devices that deal with Catholicism. He's a new advertiser on <a href="http://www.catholic-homeschooling-resources.com/catholic-owned-companies.html" target="_blank">my website</a> and he also asked if I'd be willing to review his <a href="http://www.agnusgiftshop.com/catholic-words-memory-match-card-game/" target="_blank">Catholic Words Memory Match card game</a>. He graciously sent me both volumes of his game and I can say that I am impressed with the quality of them. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir8RYSI3H0HMspbKRhLJvGRQyVpKdzggYMrepblQPYTY6f9_n5LmxxMV4c4JeG2l0SINI2vLoBRbgyD5rUzFp9BLH0ebrkRR70qIjuNuDC-oRkYq4jApMoT36nfbfbXYkHq9qJJyczcjE/s1600/IMG_0127.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir8RYSI3H0HMspbKRhLJvGRQyVpKdzggYMrepblQPYTY6f9_n5LmxxMV4c4JeG2l0SINI2vLoBRbgyD5rUzFp9BLH0ebrkRR70qIjuNuDC-oRkYq4jApMoT36nfbfbXYkHq9qJJyczcjE/s400/IMG_0127.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Each deck has 26 pairs of cards with Catholic words on them. There is also a .pdf available that has the definitions of the words so that you (if need be) and your kids can learn the proper definitions. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The cards are designed to be used in a matching game by 1 to 5 people. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We opted for the "1" route. My youngest has played this and enjoyed it. The cards are very sturdy and colorful. They will definitely catch the attention of your children!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Even though Mr 10 yo knew the words, he still enjoyed playing the game. I think this would be a great way to teach your budding Catholic students all of the important words of the faith.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For those of you who are into electronic ways of teaching, Dan also has a <a href="http://www.catholicwords.com/" target="_blank">Catholic word app</a> that looks very cool. I haven't tried it, but I think the Catholic Spell It looks like it might be particularly useful.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So while you're planning for summer activities, or for next school year, you might want to consider getting yourself either <a href="http://www.agnusgiftshop.com/catholic-words-memory-match-card-game/" target="_blank">the card game</a> or the app, or maybe even both. While Dan sent these to me to review, it doesn't mean I had to like them, so when I give my endorsement to something, you can be assured that I really did enjoy it. I hope you'll consider supporting Dan in his endeavor to bring the Catholic faith to families in new and fun ways.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">God Bless!</span></i></span> </span>Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05869227734763516464noreply@blogger.com0