"Black as Night"

My oldest daughter and some her friends have really been into a series of books for awhile that were written by Regina Doman. Not having the time, nor the inclination, I had never read any of the books and was wondering what the big deal was that they could spend so much time discussing these books, both on the internet and off. Well, a few weeks ago, the first book in the series, "The Shadow of the Bear" was sitting out and I casually picked it up to see what all the fuss was about. I have to admit that I was hooked. I don't think much else got done until I finished that book. It is not just for teenagers, but for anyone who likes a modern mystery that doesn't have all that gore and immorality in it. I was almost finished with "The Shadow of the Bear" when my daughter informed me that the second book, "Black as Night" was currently out on loan to a friend of hers. Not only that, but it would be a while before it came back because her friend's mother wanted to read it, too. FINE. "That's okay, I have more than enough stuff to keep me busy," I thought.

Now, two weeks before our big homeschooling conference, when I have a dress to make for the girls' dance performance, a talk to write (just in case I have to fill in for someone who doesn't show up), a critical web page to get up and numerous meetings and practices to drive to, my daughter tells me that "Black as Night" has returned to our house. How could she do that to me??? Doesn't she realize I have way too much to do??? Doesn't she realize I have no self control when it comes to a good book??? Unfortunately, since it was Mother's Day yesterday and I took some time to sit on the couch, I picked up the book....and started reading it....and now I am afraid that all of this other stuff will not get done until I finish it because it is just as good as the first one. And I also happen to know that the third book, "Waking Rose" is still in the house. God, give me strength!

I would recommend you check the books out at this website of Regina's. I'm looking forward to meeting her at the upcoming ILCHC conference!

God Bless!

Happy Mother's Day and Happy Pentecost

I thought I would take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy Mother's Day! As I thought about this upcoming weekend, it just dawned on me that Sunday is both Mother's Day and Pentecost Sunday (I'm kind of slow, it has been a very busy week:) What a great time to pray that all mothers will be infused with the gifts of the Holy Spirit so that they may carry out their God-given duties in a more Christ-like way.

When I look back on my "former" life and my desire for only two children, I am so grateful that the Holy Spirit helped me to find my way to the path that God had for my life. I often look at my children and think about what life would be like without the last five kids. (Okay, so on days when everyone is crabby and the house is a wreck, you could say that I fantasize about what life would be like...) My oldest two are 16 and 14. What a different life it would have been if we had stopped there. I am truly grateful that God's will won out and that we have been blessed with all seven of our children. I am grateful that they are all healthy, fun-loving, wonderful images of God and I am in awe that God has allowed us the awesome responsibility of raising them. I certainly don't feel worthy of the task and I know that I can definitely use a constant infusion of the gifts of the Holy Spirit to keep me going.

I am glad this Mother's Day is on Pentecost. I feel that as life becomes more difficult, God is giving us mothers an little extra gift this year. As we celebrate the birth of the Church as well as the births of our children by which we became mothers, let us unite ourselves with the Holy Spirit and thank God for the many gifts He has given us in our motherhood.

Veni, Sancte, Spiritus

Come, Holy Spirit, come!
And from your celestial home
Shed a ray of light divine!
Come Father of the poor!
Come, source of all our store!
Come, within our bosoms shine.
You, of comforters the best;
You, the soul's most welcome guest;
Sweet refreshment here below;
In our labor, rest most sweet;
Grateful coolness in the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.
O most blessed Light divine,
Shine within these hearts of yours,
And our inmost being fill!
Where you are not, we have naught,
Nothing good in deed or thought,
Nothing free from taint of ill.
Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour your dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away:
Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill:
Guide the steps that go astray.
On the faithful, who adore
And confess you, evermore
In your sevenfold gift descend;
Give them virtue's sure reward;
Give them your salvation, Lord;
Give them joys that never end.
Amen.
Alleluia.

Studying Fish

I'm a big fan of unit studies. It took me a long time to make the transition away from workbooks for everything, but now that I have done it, I find I can get much more excited about school. This month we have been studying fish. We got a whole bunch of books from the library about fresh and saltwater fish and the kids have been pouring through them. They each had to pick one type of fish and then do some research about it. For the younger kids, I provided them with an outline of information that I wanted them to find. Next, they had to organize their information into a report - the older the child, the longer the report. To add color to their report, I asked them to draw and color a picture of their chosen fish. The next step will be to have them present their report to the rest of the "class" so that we can all learn some details about more fish.

Since my dad likes to fish, I asked him to catch us a fish so that we could look at it up close and personal. Yesterday he brought us a striped bass (what the lake he fishes on terms a garbage fish. They ask the fishermen NOT to put them back in the lake, so hopefully the fact that we cut this fish up won't upset anyone. I know our cats were happy when we were done!!:) We were able to touch it and look at all of the different parts.

Next, we got out our biology disecting kit and carefully opened it up to study the insides.

My dad also showed us the best way to filet a fish.

I think that one of the things I like most about homeschooling is the freedom to study things as they come up. I got the idea to study fish because we went to a funeral home not too long ago that had a HUGE saltwater tank with some really cool fish in it. We were all fascinated by it and it brought up a lot of questions, so I decided to spend some time learning about fish. I think it is really cool when you can involve members of your extended family in your learning, too. I think my dad really enjoyed sharing his knowledge about fish with his grandchildren. I try to find ways to include grandparents, aunts and uncles in our learning as often as I can. It also helps to show them that we actually do learn things! I'll be sharing more about unit studies in the near future. Please feel free to comment if you have any good ideas or have had a good experience with unit studies.

God Bless!

12 Step Internet Recovery Program

My husband picked up this little newspaper this past weekend while we were out wandering and inside was full of advertisements, jokes, riddles and interesting facts. One thing that caught our eye was the "12-Step Internet Recovery Program". In light of my other post about the internet, I thought it might be fun to share this with everyone. How many of these can you identify with? I can identify with half of them (although I am not willing to admit which ones:) So here they are:

1. I will have a cup of coffee in the morning and read my newspaper like I used to, before the Internet.
2. I will eat breakfast and lunch with a knife and fork and not with one hand typing.
3. I will get dressed before noon.
4. I will make an attempt to clean the house, wash clothes, and plan dinner before even thinking of the Internet.
5. I will sit down and write a letter to those unfortunate few friends and family that are Internet-deprived.
6. I will call someone on the phone, even if I can contact them via the Internet.
7. I will read a book...if I still remember how.
8. I will listen to those around me and their needs and stop telling them to be quiet so that I can get my blog written:)
9. I will not be tempted in between school subjects to check for email.
10. I will try and get out of the house at least once a week, if it is necessary or not.
11. I will remember that my bank is not forgiving if I forget to balance my checkbook because I was too busy on the internet.
12. Last, but not least, I will remember that I must go to bed sometime...and the Internet will always be there tomorrow!

God Bless!

Musings of a Simpler Life

This past weekend my husband and I got the chance to get away to celebrate our 20th Anniversary which will be occurring this month. We stayed in a quaint one-room cabin at a state park, ate a lot of good food and walked among God's creation. During this time of walking through the woods, we talked about living the "simple" life of days gone by. You know, the days when your work was mainly tied to your immediate survival. Hardly simple, I know, but the people who lived back then didn't have all of the STUFF that bogs us down today. Would it be possible to live this "simple" life now-a-days? How hard would you have to fight against society to live a life where all that you did each day was tied to meeting the basic necessities of your life? My husband thinks it would be neat to build all your own furniture. Would it lose some of its charm if you had to do it? Quite often we think how neat it would be to make everything from scratch, grow most of your own food, make you own clothing. How neat would it be if that was what you had to do in order to survive? I keep following Mark Mallet's blog and I often wonder if we might not be heading toward events that would require us to live this simple life. How hard will it be to adjust if we are forced into it (due to events that might happen in the world)? Would we do better if it was by choice? I know these are a lot of questions and no answers, but that is why I titled this post "Musing..." and not "Answers..."

So, as always, one must return home and get slammed in the face with reality. It was nice, however, to be alone with my husband for 36 hours and wander, pray and muse about things that might be. Enjoy the pictures!

God Bless!

Unite in Prayer Tomorrow

Tomorrow, Saturday, May 3rd, The Saint Michael the Archangel Organization is organizing a rosary crusade for an end to abortion. The specific intention is for the end to the surgical and non-surgical killing of unborn babies. They are hoping to get as many as 1 million people praying the rosary within the same hour tomorrow morning. The schedule of times throught the country are as follows:

9 AM to 10 AM (Eastern Time Zone)
8 AM to 9 AM (Central Time Zone)
7 AM to 8 AM (Mountain Time Zone)
6 AM to 7 AM (Pacific Time Zone)
5 AM to 6 AM (Alaska Time Zone)
4 AM to 5 AM (Hawaii Time Zone)

Just so they can keep track of how many people will be praying during this one hour, they would like you to go to their website and sign up. I'm not sure what is up with their counter, however. The other day I went on there and it was showing over 11,000 people, today it says 46. I think there must be some kind of a glitch.

Take a moment and let other people you know this important prayer event.

God Bless!

St. Joseph the Worker

Today is the feast day of someone who is very dear to our family. Since we have been in business for ourselves, we have dedicated our work to St. Joseph the Worker. I have lost track of the number of times that St. Joseph has come to our rescue. If you have your own business, you know that cash flow is the monster by which your life is run. Many times that long awaited check that was "in the mail" came at just the right moment thanks, I believe, to the intercession of St. Joseph. In honor of his feast day, I would like to share my favorite prayer to St. Joseph; claimed to be over 1900 years old.

O St. Joseph whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the Throne of God, I place in you all my interests and desires. O St. Joseph do assist me by your powerful intercession and obtain for me from your Divine Son all spiritual blessings through Jesus Christ, Our Lord; so that having engaged here below your Heavenly power I may offer my Thanksgiving an Homage to the most Loving of Fathers. O St. Joseph, I never weary contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms. I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart. Press him in my name and kiss His fine Head for me, and ask Him to return the Kiss when I draw my dying breath. St. Joseph, Patron of departing souls, pray for us. Amen

Also on this feast day, I would like to go "public" with my new website, which is currently still very much in progress. It is my hope that it will be full of useful information and resources that will help both the new and veteran Catholic homeschooler. Since my time is very limited, I am not quite sure when more new pages will be created. I ask for your prayers that I may finish this website in a timely fashion. My dream is to have a website where you can order your homeschooling books and supplies, explore different methods of homeschooling, have a forum for selling and buying used homeschooling books and resources and find info on homeschooling groups and conferences. HMMM, if school weren't still "in session" maybe I could get this done :) As with all of our work, I dedicate my new website to St. Joseph the Worker and to The Blessed Virgin Mary.

St. Joseph the Worker, pray for us!

God Bless!