My Advent Daybook

For today ~ Monday November 30, 2009 ~ Happy New Year Everyone! What a wonderful way to begin our preparations for the birth of Our Savior. A new liturgical year - a fresh start- preparing our homes and our hearts!

Outside my window ~ Rain. It isn't dampening our spirits though!

Around the house ~ Snuggle Bug set up our beautiful Advent wreath with purple and pink candles standing tall ready to welcome the King. The entertainment stand is freshly dusted (and cleared away of the junk it attracts.) Now you can actually see the liturgical candle burning brightly! Our new Advent calendar is waiting for us to begin peeking in it's doors tonight. Yes, we were planning on starting yesterday but, God had other plans for us :)

Last night ~ A call from my hubby's oldest brother. He's passing through town with his two sons. Would we come and visit with them at their sister's home here in town? You bet! You just can't let that opportunity pass you by. Even if it is passed the little one's bed time and Honeybee is still coughing :/

One (or some) of my favorite things ~ Excitement in the air. Spontaneity. Laughter!

I'm working on ~ Our Christmas list. I'm really leaning towards doing most of my shopping on Amazon this year. It just seems soooo much easier. Easier on the body and on the nerves :) I'm also getting ready for a run to the library. Time to drop off Thanksgiving books and pick up the Advent ones :)

I'm hearing ~ Snuggle Bug, Buck and Honeybee singing The Advent Wreath Song. No doubt they are sitting around it upstairs :) The dryer is running. Do I hear The House Cat shuffling around upstairs after a late night?

First week of Advent ~ Read aloud a story from The Jesse Tree each day. This is a book about Our Lord's family tree. Fling Wide the Doors Advent Calendar, prayers, and Advent songs each evening before bed.

~In the Advent basket ~ Cobweb Christmas, the tradition of tinsel on the tree. The Cobweb Curtain. The Christmas Cobwebs. Christmas Is..... by Jan Brett. B is for Bethlehem. Christmas in the Stable. S is for Star. When it Snowed that Night. All For The Newborn Baby. Apple Tree Christmas. The Attic Christmas. Christmas Tapestry. The Anne of Green Gables Christmas Treasury. Christmas With Victoria (2002).

Looking forward to ~ Celebrating my birthday this week with my family. The music of the season. I'm especially enjoying The House Cat bringing her guitar into atrium and sharing Advent songs with all of us. She'll come for our Advent celebration next Sunday morning.

Feast Days This Week ~ Monday Nov.30 ~ Saint Andrew. Plans: Print these fish for Buck and Honeybee to color. Explain why the fish is used as a Christian Symbol.

The fish is a symbol of the Christian faith because the letters of the Greek
word for fish, "ichthys" form an acronym for the Greek phrase, "Jesus Christ,
Son of God, Savior". Early Christians, during the time of persecutions when it
was not safe to be a known as a Christian, drew a fish in the ground in order to
secretly identify themselves to other believers. Even today one sees this fish
symbol, often containing the Greek letters spelling "fish", on religious
articles and even on bumper stickers.

Maybe make Saint Andrew Scones for snack time. Watch the part of Jesus of Nazareth that has Saint Andrew on it. Here are some other links for your Saint Andrew Day Celebration.

Other Saints we celebrate this week: Saint Edmund Campion, Saint Francis Xavier, Saint John Damascene and on Sunday Saint Nicholas. I hope to share more plans for these celebrations later.

~ My Picture Thought ~

This is how my mom's pecan pie looked when we arrived for Thanksgiving dinner. My dad can never wait until Thursday for his first piece of pecan pie :)

I pray for God to richly bless you and your families as we begin our Advent season. Love, Lori

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Wordless Wednesday ~Fall Outside and In~

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Our Thanksgiving Menu 2009

~Turkey~

~Mama's Cornbread Stuffing~

Made the way her mama made it - scratch cornbread, onion, celery, eggs, chicken broth and lots of sage. YUM!

~Honey Glazed Ham~

~Sweet Potato Crunch~

One of my favorites :)

~Green Bean Casserole~

For my honey :)

~Squash Casserole~

Granny's recipe. A new addition this year.

~Mashed Potatoes and Gravy~

For The House Cat and Snuggle Bug

~Nae-Nae's Macaroni and Cheese~

For Buck and Honeybee

~Cranberry Sauce and Crescent Rolls~

For Dessert

Mama's Pecan Pie~

~Sour Cream Pound Cake~

~The House Cat's Apple Pie~

~Snuggle Bug's Pumpkin Pie~

Lemon Lush~

My stomach is growling and my mouth is watering as I work on this post! You know - the first Thanksgiving lasted for three days.....Looks like we'll need three days to eat all of this food!

P.S. I've spent WAY too much time today working on this and trying to get all of my pics and captions lined up. It's still not how I want it.... It all looks fine on the page I compose it. But, when I post it it looks like this :/

If anybody knows of a good book or link I can use to learn more about how this works PLEASE SHARE :)

My Thanksgiving Week Daybook Entry

For Today ~ Monday, November 23, 2009

Outside my window ~ The sky is grey and the ground is covered with a beautiful blanket of colorful leaves. Only a few pretty red leaves are left hanging onto the top of our Sugar Maple in the front yard.


I am hoping ~ To get outside with the kids and collect some of these beautiful leaves before they are all gone. I have this wonderful book checked out from the library. I hope to be able to do a little something from it. It's very informative. It tells you how to clean and prepare the leaves you bring in. I also read an article on decorating your home with them. It said to press them in a book and display in small glass beakers and vases. Very Beautiful :)

I am hearing ~ More stuffy nose sniffles and coughs :( We all just finished a round of antibiotics for strep throat and sinus infections. I sure was hoping that would get us through the end of the year.

I am praying for ~ The House Cat's nerve conduction study to go well tomorrow. I'm hoping it will give us the answers to why her arm is still bothering her after all this time. I'm also keeping a dear friend and her family in my prayers as she takes care of her aged father who was just diagnosed with pneumonia and 4th stage lung cancer.

I am thinking of ~ My time spent in our Good Shepherd Atrium yesterday. I just love working with little children. Seeing the wonder in their eyes as they listen to a lesson on The Land of Israel or The Annunciation is just so enduring. I tried to be a good girl and sit in a chair for my lessons... At one point I found myself down on a mat with a child helping them to paste the symbols on the land of Israel map. A sweet brown eyed 4 year old placed her hand on my shoulder and said, "Mrs. Lori, You're not supposed to be on the floor!" :) Too cute!

The House Cat came in and shared Advent songs with us at the end of class. I am so glad she's able to play her guitar again. The 3 year olds enjoyed learning these new songs and the 4 and 5 year olds picked right up on them from last year. I think their favorite was the Advent Wreath Song....Sitting with my brothers, sitting with my sisters, sitting by the advent wreath. Waiting with my brothers, waiting with my sisters, waiting by the advent wreath. Why are we waiting boys? Why are we waiting girls? Who are we waiting for? Stand up and sing. HE is the KING! He is the Lord of Lords! That's who we're waiting for, that's who we're waiting for!

Preparing for Thanksgiving ~ We are enjoying Reading ~Cranberry Thanksgiving, P is for Pilgrim, One Little, Two Little, Three Little Pilgrims, An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving, and Watching Mouse on the Mayflower, An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving,and William Bradford and The First Thanksgiving.


I'm also making our Thanksgiving shopping list. I'll share more on that later :) We will celebrate with my parent's this year. I'm so thankful to have them so close now.

I am planning on perusing Enchanted Learning's Site for activities for Buck and Honeybee. Last year we had fun with this.

Living the Liturgical Year ~ Today we celebrate St. Clement and Bl. Miguel Pro. We read a wonderful poem on Miguel Pro this morning from Cloud of Witnesses II. Once Upon a Time Saints had a great story on St. Clement, the second bishop of Rome. Tomorrow we remember St. Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions. Wednesday, it's Saint Catherine of Alexandria and Thursday - St. John Berchmans. Saturday we celebrate Saint Catherine Laboure. This will be a great day for a craft on The Miraculous Medal!

Then on Sunday ADVENT begins!

One of my favorite things ~ Music. All kinds. As long as God likes the message :) Right now I'm listening to I'd Need A Savior by Among the Thirsty.

I actually Enjoy ~ Clothing my family. Yes, that includes doing the laundry! I'm so thankful to be back in action there!

May God Bless You and Your Family This Week :) Love, Lori

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7 Quick Takes From A Very Blessed Week

1. The week started off wonderfully. We were all together for Mass on Sunday.
2. I was able to go back into the atrium after Mass and co-listen to God with the children.
3. Sunday evening me and my honey made it to our Teams of Our Lady prayer group meeting. It was so wonderful to see everyone and to pray for our marriages and our families! We felt like we were on a date :) The kids had a good time hanging out at Nae-Nae and Pap-Paw's house.
4. We celebrated my honey's b'day on Monday with a wonderful meal and special time together.
5. Buck and Honeybee both did an excellent job with their reading lessons on Wednesday.
6. I was able to make it to The Confraternity of Christian Mother's meeting last night. Yesterday was the nine week mark since my surgery! It definitely took NINE weeks to feel almost back to normal. I am so thankful to be feeling better and to be able to drive without discomfort!
7. Today I took the kids to gym day. They all had a great time and I enjoyed "watching" them all running around smiling. Who knows, maybe next month I'll be running around with them ?

I'm so glad I took a minute to sit down and think about my week. I am so thankful to be getting back into the saddle again! I so needed to be back in the atrium with the kids, at the prayer meeting with my honey, and at the CCM meeting. These things all fill up my cup!

Visit Conversion Diary for more quick takes:) Have a blessed weekend. ROLL TIDE!

Wordless Wednesday ~More B'day Fun

We are blessed to celebrate lots of birthdays this time of the year.

Monday was my awesome honey's turn.
Thank you God for him!

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Happy 6th Birthday Buck!

Yesterday we celebrated Buck's 6th birthday



We had a busy, fun-filled day.

First, he made his cake (with the help of his sisters).

As we were cracking the eggs, I remembered the book, The Hen Can't Help It, in the library basket. We took a minute to compare our egg to the fertilized one in the book. A quick science lesson :)

While the cake was cooking we made a batch of homemade play dough.

Once the cake cooled, we set out to make the Alabama - Roll Tide Cake he wanted. Unfortunately, I failed to make a picture of the first icing attempt. Note to self: I'm not on Food Network for a reason. I thought I'd try out Paula Deen's wax paper trick. You know, the one where you put the wax paper on your serving dish to keep it nice and clean while you are frosting the cake. My mistake....The wax paper should have been only on the edges of the cake bottom. Guess what happened when I went to remove the wax paper? Yep, the cake spilt into thirds.

God gave me the grace to laugh.

My mom was sweet enough to bring another container of icing.

The second attempt turned out great and twice as sweet :)

ROLL TIDE ROLL! (9-0)

He was about to burst to open his presents!

First he got some camouflage duct tape from Honeybee.



Then a guitar from his sisters: Passed down from The House Cat to Snuggle Bug to Buck.

A BB Gun from his daddy. (To be used under strict supervision only with daddy!)

And last but not least....

A fiddle from my parents. He's been wanting one ever since we saw L'Angelus live on Life on the Rock. He was soooo excited!

He had a BIG birthday!

Thanksgiving and Advent are Right Around the Corner

You may have noticed that I posted some Thanksgiving books on my sidebar yesterday. Yep, it's time to get prepared... And... we can't stop there because Advent begins only 3 days after Thanksgiving! It's time to get the book baskets together and decide whats right for your family this year. There are always SO many wonderful ideas out there. But, trying to do too many things will take the fun right out of the season! There are always the tried and true family traditions we enjoy. Each year I try to step back and look at why we do what we do. Is it truly blessing us along our path? If not, I try to take the spotlight off of it and try some new activity I've been inspired by. This year I came across this Advent and Christmas calendar. I'm sure it will be a wonderful addition to our Advent preparations and celebrations.

As we watch and wait for the birth of our Lord may will stay focused and prayerful.

The calendar has one or more doors to open each day.

It also comes with a booklet of readings and prayers.

I ordered it from the Cathechesis of the Good Shepherd catalog. (It's down towards the bottom on the left if you are trying to find it.) If you've read much of my blog, you know how blessed I've been from this catechesis. It has truly brought so many of God's words to life for me. To be able to share it with my children and others is worth more than diamonds and gold!

I hope to add an Advent book/link list to my sidebar soon :) God Bless!

Wordless Wednesday ~ Thank You Veterans!

Don't forget to call and thank all of the veterans you know today!

More WW fun...

First Look at Science Series

Last year I checked out From Little Acorns from the library. It was so cute that I thought of it again this year when autumn came knocking. The kids had fun collecting acorns and their caps underneath the oak tree in the backyard. This year we had fun making the pretty acorn caps. They are so beautiful. I'm thinking of making some picture frames or something from them. I think they would make pretty Christmas gifts. Last year Buck and Honeybee made letter A's from the caps. We had started walking Along the alphabet path. Maybe next year I can find my way back to it again : )

When I read the book this time, I noticed it was actually a part of a series. I love coming across these kinds of things! So, I researched the authors name (Sam Godwin) on the library's website. Come to find out, my library has several of his books.

Today we are reading The Drop Goes Plop .

A perfect Science study for such a rainy day!

My Daybook

FOR TODAY... Monday, Nov.9,2009

Outside my window... Lots of beautiful leaves all around.

I am thinking... of The House Cat's Rite of Welcome for Confirmation at Mass yesterday. She has grown into quite a young lady. We are so proud of her and how much she loves God. I thought it was really neat that she and her cousin were asked to be part of the prayer petitions.

I am thankful for...being able to kneel at Mass yesterday. The first time since my surgery!

Music in my head...Shelter me O God. A hymn sang at Mass yesterday and copied in my prayer journal last night.

From the learning rooms... The House Cat was trying to write her math on her own but, it's still too painful :( Just put in another call to the orthopedic.

Snuggle Bug's straightening her desk. We moved her and HC over under the window.

Buck and Honeybee are enjoying a new series of Science books I found at the library. I hope to post on these soon.

I also purchased a copy of CHC's Lesson Plans for Pre-K. I need extra inspiration these days!

From the kitchen...Homemade chicken soup for my sick honey and kids.

I am creating...A new layout for my blog. One of these days I'll get it like I want it. Sorry it keeps changing so much.

I am going...To try to walk on the treadmill this week.

I'm looking for... a desk of my own . I've realized over the past weeks that I really need one. I didn't realize how much I gathered books and carried them all over the house to do my work.

I started looking online at Walmart, Kmart, Sams etc. Then I thought of the book I had just read about the Duggars and I remembered their motto of "Buy Used Save the Difference!" So I've got a list of ads from the local paper that I'm calling around about. One in particular sounds promising and it's only $25. That would be a huge savings!

I am looking forward to...Buck's birthday at the end of the week. Our little man will be 6 years old and is soooo excited.

I am hoping...Everyone gets well soon. Dad's going into see the doctor today. He sounds terrible! He missed Mass yesterday and took a nap. Both are unheard of for him!

I am hearing...At the moment silence....hum-should I go see what they are up to? :)

Around the house...I had hoped to make something more elaborate for the month of All Souls. For now - I copied the prayers for All Souls page from A Year With God and we filled in the names of our departed loved ones. I put it on the front of the fridge surrounded with pictures of deceased family members. Each day we offer prayers and works for one of our loved ones.

One of my favorite things...Organized living..will I ever get there?

A few plans for the rest of the week... Hum... God is in control!

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

A beautiful day for a picnic at my honey's work place.

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OLGC All Saints Day Party 2009

Buck as St. Joseph the Carpenter

~Yummy Treats~

Holy Ghost Cookies

Heavenly Haystacks

~Saint-O-Lanterns ~


The Holy Spirit ~Dove~

Christian Symbols ~ The Cross and Fish~

The Church and Christmas Star and The Holy Eucharist

Pro Life

Crosses

~Crafts and Games ~

Blessed Mother Fans

Snuggle Bug's

David and Goliath Bean Bag Toss

Honeybee as "The Queen of All Saints"

Strike Away Those Sins!

Saint Martha's Cookies

Honeybee and a friend icing and decorating Donkey shaped cookies :)


Snuggle Bug's Yummy "friend"

My crosses. (I'm not sure why blogger insists on uploading them sideways?)

We all had a wonderful time. It was a long day for me but, was worth it! It was great to see so many of our home schooling friends. We missed those who weren't able to make it. Hope you all enjoyed your All Saint's Day Celebrations!