Fortnight For Freedom Prayer ~

Prayer for the Protection of Religious Liberty

O God our Creator,

Through the power and working of your Holy Spirit,
you call us to live out our faith in the midst of the world,
bringing the light and the saving truth of the Gospel
to every corner of society.

We ask you to bless us
in our vigilance for the gift of religious liberty.
Give us the strength of mind and heart
to readily defend our freedoms when they are threatened;
give us courage in making our voices heard
on behalf of the rights of your Church
and the freedom of conscience of all people of faith.

Grant, we pray, O heavenly Father,
a clear and united voice to all your sons and daughters
gathered in your Church
in this decisive hour in the history of our nation,
so that, with every trial withstood
and every danger overcome—
for the sake of our children, our grandchildren,
and all who come after us—
this great land will always be "one nation, under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Learning All the Time ~

I've just finished reading the first chapter of  Learning All the Time by John Holt.  I sure wish I would have read this book a lot sooner!  It would have been a great baby shower gift.  This book is so insightful.  Mr. Holt explains so much of what I have been unable to explain to others about what I have seen happening with my children.  So many times I've been asked what I used to teach my children to read.  Sure, I have tons of phonics programs, but have yet to complete any of them.  However, my children can read.  I really started thinking about this when Buck was younger.  My older two girls were reading well and had been for some time.  Friends wanted to know how I taught them and well, I had a hard time answering the question.  I would say, "I really don't know..  I didn't really teach them."  I just read to them.  You know, that was some wonderful advice I got when I first had "the call" to homeschool.  "Just read to them," was the advice I was given.  So read we did.  We enjoyed life and lived and learned.
Over time I felt the need to add more and more "curriculum" to my older girls days.  After reading A Little Way of Homeschooling, I realized that I had fallen into the trap of  'filling their buckets and not necessarily lighting a fire' in their education.  This post tells more about that...

It's good to take time to re-evaluate the reason why you are doing what you are doing.  Write a Family Mission Statement - updating it from time to time as you grow along your journey. Our latest version ~

To live our faith through the gift of God's Holy Church and the Sacraments, staying focused on the reason we are here.  To live a life of charity and service, seeing the image of God in all His creatures and letting His light shine through us in all we do.

It's so easy to get caught up in what the world is telling you is important. But, how is God calling you???  We are focused on Heaven, not Harvard!  God has great plans for each of us, as he tells us through the prophet Jeremiah.

For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare, not for woe!  plans to give you a future full of hope.  Jeremiah 29:11

Spend time in front of The Blessed Sacrament and He WILL tell you where He needs your family and what it will take to get you there!

F is for First State ~

The other day Buck asked what the first state was.  Of course I knew the answer...  as I quickly Googled it - Delaware!  This reminded me of the geography study I've been wanting to do with the kids for a while using the Sleeping Bear Press series of Discover America State by State books!  I had wanted to buy these notebooking pages to go along with it, but never got around to it.  Then I came across these **FREE** Notebooking pages on Pinterest. 

So, I checked out F is for First State from the library and this morning after we were home from Mass we all gathered around the kitchen table and enjoyed it together.  As I read aloud they filled in info they heard like it's nickname is The Diamond State.  I printed off a state map and flag from Enchanted Learning and we glued them as seen below.

Then they colored in the flag to match.

Once they were finished we added the date to their time lines ~

and filed them in the back of their Book of Centuries.