Happy Feast of St. Ignatius

Happy Feast of St. Ignatius!  This is one of the more influential saints in our family.  It was through the Spiritual Exercises that my husband and I, and ultimately our whole family, really took a leap forward in our faith.  

We have each been participating in silent retreats for five years now and our two oldest daughters have also gone on a retreat.  My husband and I each lead a formation group which follows Ignatian spirituality and once a month we meet with the priests of Miles Christi for an Evening of Recollection.  

St. Ignatius is so important to our family that I wrote my first unit study on him and the time in which he lived.  In St. Ignatius and the Renaissance Era, you get to explore the life of St. Ignatius, the virtue of obedience, the printing press, Our Lady of Guadalupe and much more.  You also learn about other important people who lived during that time as well as other saints that were peers of St. Ignatius.

If you would like to find out more about St. Ignatius, just check out his page on my website.  You might also consider going on a silent retreat this year.  You can check out the Spiritual Exercises as preached by the priests of Miles Christi for a life-changing experience.

St. Ignatius, pray for us!

Catholic Woman's Almanac

Moments of Gratitude:

~ a fun dinner and movie night with friends
~ a very good homily (even humorous at times) from our priest
~ cooler days and cooler nights since we still have no a/c
~ a painting project with Ms 16 yo
~ work for Ms 20 yo
~ a box of fresh picked Michigan peaches from a friend

In the Kitchen:

Right now it's scones and juice for breakfast.  Tonight we'll be dining on one of our favorites, grilled balsamic pork chops and peaches.  Based on the above last entry, there's sure to be a lot of peach based items coming from our kitchen this week.

Looking Ahead:

This week we have our Catholic Kids Camp that friends of ours put together every year.  This is the first year the kids will all be involved for the entire week.  I'll be taking photos and plan to post about this wonderful event later in the week.

Reading:

Still plugging my way through "Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist".  Last week for fun I read "Catholic Philosopher Chick Makes Her Debut" by Rebecca Bratten Weiss.  It was a good book that I'd recommend!  Now I've started "Platform" by Michael Hyatt.

Praying:

~ for the families we know who have recently lost loved ones
~ for financial concerns
~ for safe travels for my parents
~ for the grace to recognize and do God's Will


Captured:

Ms 20 yo practicing her petitions at the wedding rehearsal we were at last week while Father blocked the sun from her eyes.  I like it because it looks like he's blessing her while she's reading :)

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7 Quick Takes July 27, 2012

--- 1 ---

Our air conditioner has been broken all this past week.  Not sure when the part is supposed to come in, but I sure hope it is soon because it has been very hot and, at times, very humid around here.  I was really hoping to get things back to normal this week but I just don't function well when it's this hot.

--- 2 ---

We actually had to retreat last night because it wasn't cooling down so we went and stayed at my parent's house for the night.  What a wonderful respite it was.  There house is peaceful and nicely decorated and not full of all the stuff that nine people have when they live together.  I always enjoy going over there because it feels like being at a nice resort.  Besides, they have a screened in porch and coffee in the morning always tastes better when you drink it on a screened in porch (unless of course it is December or something like that :)

--- 3 ---

We don't have any TV reception or cable or anything here, so when we go to their house we usually turn on HGTV and get engrossed in all the interesting shows that are on.  Before we got to HGTV, we stopped off at a reality dance show but realized quickly that watching scantily clad people gyrating on stage probably wasn't a good family event.  We settled down for a late night of House Hunters and Property Brothers.  What fun we had!

--- 4 ---

I really like those shows that show you how to do really cool things with your house for not a ton of money.  I wish I had vision like some of these people have.  I suppose that is why they have a TV show and I do not :)  However, it helps me to see what other people come up with so as to figure out what kind of simple things I can do at home to spruce things up.

--- 5 ---

.Case in point.  We used to have this ugly hutch that we bought at a garage sale and it sat in our dining room holding our good dishes.  It was so unattractive that you just tried not to notice it but it did serve its purpose.  We moved and my aunt took it from us but she thought it was ugly too, so it sat in her garage for the past two years.  Finally my dad took it home, put some new paint on it and now it looks wonderful.  How come I didn't do that 7 years ago???  A couple of hours and a few dollars in paint and she has a beautiful hutch to hold her dishes.  Vision...that's what I need. 

--- 6 ---

So after our marathon of HGTV shows I got to thinking about the desk I am sitting at right now.  My dh built it so it is big and sturdy but the paint is old and it is ugly.  I just might feel inspired to sand it and give it a new paint job to spruce this old baby up.  Sounds like a good "before we get back to school"  project!  Remember, a couple of hours and a few dollars in paint... I can do this!

--- 7 ---

We have a quiet weekend at home this weekend!  How wonderful that sounds.  It will sound even more wonderful if I can hear the soft hum of my a/c instead of the loud roar of all these fans.  Hope you have a blessed weekend wherever you are at!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

 

Life of Fred Pre-Algebra

I am very excited to be delving into these relatively new books in the Fred line-up.  These two books were added about a year or so ago, but until now I did not have a student to try them out on.  Prior to the pre-algebra books being added, whenever I needed to fill in the gap between decimals/percents and beginning algebra I would hop on over to Saxon again for a year.  Let's just say that both my children and I are thrilled that Fred is here to teach them all they need to know about pre-algebra!

What's even more exciting is that, in true Fred fashion, they aren't just getting math concepts but biology and economics thrown in there.   For example, the first book includes the following topics:

seeds, plants, kingdoms, genes, bones, skin, DNA, volume, diameter and circumference of a circle, sets and negative numbers

just to name a few of the topics.  It looks like the book does a wonderful job of covering biology for the middle grade students.

In the second book, many timely economic topics are covered as well as math concepts.  Some of the topics covered in pre-algebra 2 include:

domain and co-domain, how to run a successful business, money, capitalism, socialism and communism, loans, freedom vs liberty and Venn diagrams.

I will be starting the first pre-algebra book with my son who is entering 7th grade this year.  Depending on whether you student finishes fractions and decimals/percents in one year or not, you could be starting this in 6th grade, which I think would also be appropriate.

If you are looking for an interesting middle-school math program, I think these books fit the bill.  You can get more detailed information and order the books from my website, Catholic Homeschooling Resources.

Wordless Wednesday

A Good Bye and a Hello

Our house has been abuzz for the past two weeks.  I recently told you about all the fun that was had during ReginaCon.  After that ended and the last people left on Monday morning, we had a day to turn the house around and get ready for a good bye party for friends of ours.

Turned out to be one of the hottest days of the week, my air conditioner broke that afternoon and I was expecting 100 people at my house that evening.  Fortunately the A/C got fixed in time and we were able to offer respite to some of those 100 people since not all of them would fit in the house at once.  

It was a glorious, but sad, evening as we said good bye to some of the best friends my kids have. 

We had two days to turn the house around after that one when we, fortunately, had to leave this time to go to a family wedding out of state. 

 We left on Friday to partake in the rehearsal festivities as Ms 9 yo was a flower girl, Mr 11 yo was serving and Ms 20 yo read the petitions.
 

I opted to leave my camera at the hotel on the day of the wedding because, for once, I really wanted to enjoy an event with both of my eyes open instead of looking at it all through the camera lens.  Of course, I now regret that as I have no pictures of everyone in their formal attire :(


I did, however, have the awesome job of taking pictures on Saturday morning of the groom and his men.  
 

It isn't often you get to see the groom's side of things before the wedding so I took advantage of that and snapped our nephew as he prepared for his big day.

The wedding was beautiful and we headed home on Sunday, happy but totally exhausted from two long weeks of partying!  I had hoped to get back to some semblance of normalcy, but we came home to the A/C being broken again, probably for the entire week, with temps in the 90s.  Unfortunately I just can't manage to get much done when it is that hot and humid.  Maybe soon things will be "normal", whatever that is...

Fairy Tale Novels Fan Gathering

Last week we had the honor of hosting the official Fairy Tale Novels Fan Gathering (aka ReginaCon).  

If you are not familiar with Regina Doman and her wonderful books (as well as Chesterton Press and all of the exciting projects that they have in the works), then by all means, get on the band wagon and find out what all the fuss is about!

Regina and her hubby as well as two of their children joined about 20 other teens and young adults at our house for four days of talks, prayers and lots of fun.  

Thursday the group learned how to make marshmallows

and had relay races in the evening

 





as well as a bonfire...where those wonderful marshmallows were consumed.  











On Friday there was a very good weapons demonstration by a "weapons expert" because every good writer should know how to accurately incorporate weaponry into their story!

There was also an Anime drawing class 

 an informative lecture about how to write fiction

and the highlight of the day was the live "Clue" game where there was a wild cast of characters and a murder to solve!  That was a lot of fun and everyone really got into their characters!

 

 The "murderer"

 and

 The "murdered"

Saturday was a fun day at a local beach and then a talent show and a dance!  It sure felt good to cool off for awhile.

Sunday we all went to Mass together and then began the goodbye process.  Parting truly is such sweet sorrow when you've spent four days with some wonderful young people.  What a blessing for our girls to have such a wonderful opportunity to learn from a talented author, have a lot of fun and make some great friends.