Busy with Blessings

Friday, November 11, 2011

{this moment} ~ 11-11-11

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

You can visit Soulemama for more sweet sharings.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Hearts For Home ~ Last Week of October 2011

In today’s busy and aggressive society mothers at home are not given much encouragement to be committed to their role in being home.
Visit Cherished Hearts at Home for more inspiration.

I've been wanting to make this post for a couple of weeks now. It's a little late but, I didn't want to miss out on sharing our fall fun.

We celebrated The House Cats Baptism Anniversary. Here she is holding her baptism candle and lapbook. I just love our little tradition!

I just LOVE the view from my laundry room ~

and seeing this in the back yard.

My mama took Buck, Honeybee and I to the pumpkin patch. It was their first time to go and they enjoyed it, especially the hayride ride to the patch.

It was a quick trip since HB's been coughing for weeks now. I finally took her to the doc and she's taking an antibiotic for a sinus infection :(

This pumpkin became one of our Saint O-Lanterns.

Roasting Marshmallows for Smores ~ Yummy :)

Dad and Buck worked hard one day chopping wood for the fireplace. I've never had a wood burning fireplace before and am happy to have one now.

Dad said Buck worked HARD and loaded this whole load in the back of his truck for him!

While the guys were doing the lumberjack thing, us gals had a tea party.

Snuggle Bug made a delicious carrot cake (bread). The recipe was given to her by a dear friend who is a Dominican Nun. I hope to post the recipe soon.

I just Love this time of year. God has blessed us with so much beauty to behold.

We saw six turkeys just down the road from our home

Thank you Lord for ALL of Your Blessings!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

My New Fitness Plan ~

Keep a food journal.
Keep a bottle of water with me.
Keep a log of miles rode on my new exercise bike.
No scale!!!

These are my four steps towards a healthier lifestyle. I'm tired of being tired and overweight. It's been two years since my hysterectomy and a year since my daddy went to meet the Lord. We've moved and are settled. NO MORE EXCUSES!!! It's time to deal with it and be consistent! I'm going to add a new gadget on my sidebar that keeps up with the miles I ride. I'm NOT going to weigh. I know what to do and I don't need a number to tell me how I'm doing.

I sure would appreciate prayers for consistency, my biggest struggle!

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

All Saints Day 2011 ~ pt. 2

Today we celebrate all those who have made it to heaven, which of course is our ultimate goal. Inspired by this theme, I came up with this game.

Score the Ultimate Goal ~

We made halos out of sparkly pipe cleaners and did our best to score the goal of heaven.

Buck helped to make our ~ Knock Out Sin Game

He made these little signs for the punching bag showing things we should try to stop doing.

We also blew up lots of balloons and played

St. Sebastian's Volleyball.

We hit them back and forth to one another and talked about how we are here to help pick each other up when we are down. And of course how the Saints in Heaven are always ready to pray for us.

I loved our Saints Bingo game ~

Jessica created these using pics from one of our favorite Saint books.

Thanks so much for sharing these Jessica!

The House Cat was the winner.

We also carved our Saint O' Lanterns today.

Buck and Snuggle Bug chose

St. James's cross

and

Honeybee and The Housecat carved

St. Clare's Monstrance

Snuggle Bug and I made Caramel Apples for dessert

Yum! I can't wait for supper!

I loved hearing Honeybee singing ~

I'm growing with the Saints

To be the best that I can be.

I'm growing with the Saints,

Won't you grow along with me?

Hope you had a wonderful day too!

All Ye Saints of God ~ Pray For Us!

Saturday, October 29, 2011

All Saints Party 2011

We all enjoyed our homeschool groups yearly All Saints Party.

Snuggle Bug went
dressed as St. Cecilia and helped at the St. Garbriel Cookie Decorating table.

The Housecat as St. Gemma Galgani, helped out at St. Maria Goretti's Face/Hand Painting table. Honeybee, already out of her costume as St. Perpetua, had a cross painted on her hand.

Buck was St. Sebastian, the patron saint of athletes.

It was great catching up with old friends and making new ones too.

Friday, October 21, 2011

1st Quarter Successes

It's that time again - the time I dread and afterwards am thankful for.

This was a crazy first 9 weeks of the "school year," as most are.

We completed 5 weeks of schooling in July and August. On the Housecat's 15th Birthday, God gave us the gift of a new home. The next weeks, basically the month of Sept., were spent packing, moving and unpacking, which in itself was a huge Home Ec. lesson.

We are basically settled now and it's time for me to complete progress reports for the first qtr. of the year. This can be a headache, especially for Buck (2nd grade) and Honeybee (1st). There's no possible way to keep track of all that is learned. My goal has been and continues to be to create a learning environment, our domestic church, where our children are surrounded by the beautiful and can hear God speaking to them.

The Housecat and Snuggle Bug have become very good "independent learners." They know what they need to accomplish from our beginning of the year, sit down, and are proficient in writing what they do down in their lesson planners. Of course, I am available to answer questions and give direction when needed. It is always a blessing for me to sit down with them and go through their completed work.

Here are a few of the books they really enjoyed reading and studying this during this first quarter ~

The Graphic Life of Jesus the Christ (This book was on the history reading list for the older girls. They took turns reading it aloud to one another a chapter at a time.)
The Bronze Bow (on Snuggle Bug's history list)
Animal Farm study (House Cat, Seton English 10)
Apologia Biology units 1-3 (House Cat)
Baltimore Catechism 2 pg 1-100 (Snuggle Bug)
The Childen of Fatima, ch.1-4 (I'm reading this aloud to Buck and Honeybee)
Seton K Science experiments
Paddle to the Sea, ch. 1-10 (Buck and Honeybee)
Columbus, d'Aulaire
Urchin of the Riding Stars, Mistmantle series (Snuggle Bug read aloud to Buck)
The Preamble to The Constitution (Classically Catholic Memory) School House Rock style with Housecat on guitar.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Pray More Novenas ~

Do you know about the site Pray More Novenas?

Well if you don't you should!!

It's an awesome resource that sends you an email each day with the novena prayer for that day. I can't count how many times I have started a novena, only to miss a day or more in praying it!

It was a great feeling for me to actually start and finish the Novena to St. Therese.

It's easy to sign up. I highly recommend giving it a try!!

Friday, October 7, 2011

On The Feast of the Holy Rosary

I am printing off these beautiful coloring sheets and meditations.

The idea for a Rosary Box is great for little ones

and I'd LOVE to print the Rosary cards onto cardstock and laminate them!

Our Lady of the Rosary ~ Pray For Us

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Morning With the ASO

The kids and I took in a concert by the Alabama Symphony Orchestra this morning.

As always the ASO was incredible!

So was our seating!!

How often do you get front row seats at $4 a piece???

We were right by the Harp and Percussion instruments, which I know Buck dug.

He said, "The man playing that snare drum played like he had four hands."

As I sat there hugging Honeybee, I had another of those "I LOVE Homeschooling moments!" How thankful I am to have said yes to God's calling!!

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

On the Feast of St. Francis

We had a surprise on our back deck

This hungry little guy and two others were eating Dixie's dog biscuits.

I went out to see them but, the other two ran off. This little guy was to hungry to care.

He is so sweet. We all hope he will stick around!

Thursday, September 29, 2011

The Great Battle for Heaven

This is the perfect book for today ~ The Feast of the Archangels

The Great Battle for Heaven

You can buy it here for $3.99, (not sure about shipping)

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Do you Sudoku?

Buck, Honeybee and I had fun with Sudoku this morning, which turned into a good lesson in number writing and problem solving!

Monday, September 26, 2011

U.S. Geography Maps and Notebooking Pages

I just came across these great maps and notebooking pages for U.S. Geography study from Home School in the Woods. They look great! I hope to download them soon and start working through the Discover America State by State series with Buck and Honeybee.

Jessica used them with her Pennsylvania study.

You can check out the sample here.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Happy Birthday Daddy

You went to meet Jesus a year ago today. What a relief it was to see your suffering complete. How my heart broke at the same time. You were so young. Now you are ageless in Heaven with Our Lord.

We sang Happy Birthday to you this morning. Honeybee cried.

I read her this prayer someone gave me after you left us.

It has brought me much comfort over the last year.

We all love and miss you dearly.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

I'm Back :)

Hello again. We've had A LOT going on since I last blogged. We have moved into a larger home (PRAISE GOD) and are getting settled. This morning as I was reading about The Exaltation of the Holy Cross, I came across this wonderful site. I immediately thought - I need to share this on my blog!! So, here I am again.... a little more hidden than before. I'm private now but, don't want to shut anyone out who'd like to visit. Just let me know if you or someone else wants to visit and I'll gladly roll out the red carpet!

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Beautiful Ending

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

To Everything There Is A Season ~

A time to blog and a time to take a break. I've been thinking a lot about taking a break from blogging. I seem to get overwhelmed pretty easily these days... Life throws so many twists and turns at you. I know Our Lord is in control of it all. However, I also know when I need to pull back and re-group. That's what this is a re-grouping.

So, with that being said...I'm going to to change my settings to private soon. I wanted to give you a heads up in case there's a link you might want to save.

I pray you will all be blessed abundantly.

Love, Lori