Visitation - May 31

Visitation - May 31

We Have Winners!

We Have Winners!

My First Communion story won first place!  I'm so grateful  - thank you my friends for voting!!!

Salted Caramel Rice Krispie Treats

Salted Caramel Rice Krispie Treats

Laura Berquist on Strategies for Teaching Children at Home

Mother of Divine Grace School - Why I Founded the School

So much winning ;)

..well, in a sense, feeling the relaxation of victory of a school year under our belts…yes, for this mom it feels like winning! 

The last week has been such a welcome change!  NO appointments, THAT was hard to believe; a sleep over with one of Michael’s bestest friends ever, which was very nice…I mean these guys just play and get along and are NO trouble at all – they are so absorbed in fun.  Then the added treat of having my husband actually home on a day off for a change…so nice…and all of us together under one roof as a family.  Haven’t had that for over the last 9 mos due to college.  I even got to get in some good laughs watching old classics like Malcolm in the Middle on Netflix; while a little tacky in some episodes, there are a few that are so priceless …like when the father sells Christmas trees – and at the same time a squirrel is loose in the hardware store where the mother works….so funny in my book – hilarious.    So overall, it’s been a pleasant week and holiday weekend.

Now back to reality! hahaha….well, it’s not all bad – ONE appointment this week, which is later tomorrow; maybe if I’m lucky and the traffic in the area isn’t too horrible by that time I can sneak over to TARGET and get a Starbucks coffee on the way out of the area.  The boys would like smoothies and icees, so I’m sure it wouldn’t take too much talking into. 

Right now, I’m trying to set dates on my calendar, and that in itself is very hard.  We have the town Homecoming parade and festival and our parishes’ directory photos to navigate around, as I’m trying to plan the PSR teacher/helper dinner.  THAT has been such a job in itself, it’s been so hard to get a good date and location and plug in the chef.  *sigh*  Still working on it.

In the meantime, my lovely daughter is going to have her wisdom teeth removed in 7 short days.  And then my son will be celebrating his 13th birthday.  He doesn’t know it, but his “white” cake, will really be green when we cut into it…he’s loving the HULK these days, although he hasn’t seen the new Avengers movie due to sensitive material …he is easily subjected to phobias and nightmares and so this one I need to guard cautiously…but, he has seen the old Bill Bixby series that was on TV in the 70s and it’s just right for him.  He is more of a detective as it is…and it has more of that in it.  So, he is enjoying HULK of the past, and will have a kind of hulk-themed birthday this year – with a special SuperHero Lego set (and a special edition HULK minifigure that comes with it) as his main gift.

Shortly after his birthday, comes my birthday….we’ll just skip over that one this year! LOL….:/

But, then follow my darling daughter’s birthday and in the last 8 years she has actually been away for most of them to Catholic Familyland in Bloomingdale with another family.  It’s been her special Catholic summer camp for a week every summer for many years now.  It will be different to have her here to celebrate on her actual birthday – looking forward to that.

And…so goes summer, with many more birthdays and a planned trip to a science museum and zoo this summer and later a wedding.   Again, we are cautious with travel because of our one son’s difficulty driving overall, but we are getting there little by little making strides.  Recently, I have noticed such an improvement in him (knock on wood), straying further and further away from me and our location on the street, and that is just fine with me – he needs to do that.

Right now, I’m feeling pretty good about the simple things life holds. 

Marvel Comics creates superhero in honor of NH boy - Boston News, Weather, Sports | FOX 25 | MyFoxBoston

Marvel Comics creates superhero in honor of NH boy - Boston News, Weather, Sports | FOX 25 | MyFoxBoston    SUCH A GREAT STORY about a little boy who needs a hearing aid

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars | The Girl Who Ate Everything

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars | The Girl Who Ate Everything

Friday Daybook

Outside my window..

Lots of bright SUN,….very bright

I am thankful for...

quiet early morning hours

I am thinking about...

how it felt eight years ago this week when my father passed away

Learning all the time...

I am actually missing the excited feeling of learning along with others the beginnings of Catholic homeschooling; I’m reading other’s thoughts and posts on Mother of Divine Grace forums and re-kindling that wonderful spark and affirmation

From the kitchen

I have a new stand up indoor/outdoor grill! Very exciting to be grilling all kinds of foods – chicken breasts, steaks, fish filets; I think I’ll got for kabobs tonight

I am creating

nothing new ……

I am working on...

still organizing and cleaning the old; when you homeschool there is little time for real cleaning through the year and in the last two weeks I can not tell you HOW much debris of homeschooling for 13+ yrs got tossed from this home.  Papers and workbooks….years of it.  Not necessary to hang on to

I am going...

for three haircuts later, a little grocery shopping and picking up my son’s friend for a sleepover

I am hoping...

our finances won’t suffer as much because we have so many expenses lately

I am reading...

well…I started reading a book about a home schooling mom of eleven children who ends up in a terrible separation and divorce…but I couldn’t read it ~ so I began to read a children’s book I downloaded thinking my son would like it called The Kingdom of Patria series.   I am always looking for excellent literature for the children, and that sometimes means I have to do the homework of reading before passing it on to them.  (I usually do this with movies, It has to pass my inspection first for whatever child…as we have issues here)

I am praying for...

my mother as she faces this eighth anniversary week of the death of her beloved husband, my father.  Sunday mass is for his intention this weekend

I am hearing...

someone’s little alarm clock going off – dinging lightly sound

Around the house...

I haven’t seen the rest of the house yet this morning…still sipping coffee enjoying the quiet in my own bedroom

One of my favorite things...

beautiful smells…as in perfumes that aren’t heavy and clingy, but rather aromatic type fragrances, just like the beautiful shower gel AWAKEN from Arbonne – refreshing and pleasant…

A few plans for the rest of the week...

no real plans for the rest of the week-weekend really.  It’s Memorial Day weekend, that in itself is enough.  We stick around home, visit the cemetery, attend Mass, and my husband will have his day job off on Monday – he’ll work his evening job though as the store remains open for holiday sales

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...

I love this man.  If I hadn’t married my husband, well John Fogerty and Harrison Ford were next in line on my list of best choices :)   John’s music and voice can always make me smile!  Classic Americana…only he could write an album of blue moon swamp music….yea for sure, bayou style….

Progressing in reading…stepping stones to authentic works…

This is the sweetest book: an introduction to the writing of G. K. Chesterton’s Fr. Brown Mysteries.  I bought this book for Michael’s Easter basket this year knowing he’d eventually have made It through all 50+ Hardy Boy Mysteries and would need another wholesome detective series to take off on.  If this introduction book appealed to him, he could likely just go right into the adult version of the Fr. Brown Mysteries.  My plan worked :) 

The Father Brown Reader
By Nancy Carpentier Brown

Now Michael has begun reading this one (below):  some of the elevated writing and vocabulary surpasses what he is use to, but he is ready for more elevated language.  The Hardy Boys were a great wholesome way to introduce serial reading that wasn’t too twaddly, but exposed him to the detective-mystery genre.  In between, he read a short version of Sherlock Holmes left to us by my husband’s mother,  which included a few stories and got him interested.  I would imagine once he finishes Fr. Brown, he might be able to read some  original Sherlock Holmes as well.  I am thrilled he is reading at all and as voraciously  - maybe he is making up for the couple years lost to OCDs grip of ruminating thoughts.  That really set him back.  Now, I feel he is progressing nicely with literature and has not only caught up but passed up where he needs to be for entering 8th grade in a classical curriculum.

The Complete Father Brown, G. K. Chesterton

Remembering Dad 1933-2004

This day, 8 years at around 8:30 am, my dear father passed away from a tough year long battle with Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS as it’s referred to today).  It was the battle of his life although this man was a Marine, having served in the Korean Conflict, three times earning two purple hearts.  Dad had scars, big fleshy obvious wounds from shrapnel taken in the shoulder. He also scar inside he kept well hidden.  He was tough but he was gentle at the same time.  He was also orphaned early in life with another brother and put in a Milwaukee orphanage to live until a foster family took him in to help work on their farm in Ripon Wisconsin. Three brothers, whose mother died at the early age of 32 leaving them to a father who had issues, (like drinking).  One brother, my uncle Jim who was the last brother to leave us last year around Thanksgiving, was only 3 when my grandmother Adelaide died, and he was taken in by my grandfather Charles’s sister and raised.  But whether raised by a single aunt or by the Nuns in the orphanage, it was not easy as a broken family. 

There was always a terrible soft spot in my heart for my dad and his rough start in life.  Being a boy of 6 without a mother and a rather haphazard father always makes me all the more proud and grateful of the kind of father he turned out to be.  A gentleman, a hard working businessman, a good provider beyond his transition into civilian life.  He was sensible and intelligent in his decisions, and took us places on vacations showing us the Canada and the US through our childhood.  So many happy memories.

He deserves to rest in peace, now and always in our hearts and minds and in eternity until we meet again.

Theological Virtues 101

Faith - belief in God, and in the truth of His revelation as well as obedience to Him (cf. Rom1:5:16:26)

Hope - expectation of and desire of receiving; refraining from despair and capability of not giving up.

Charity - selfless, unconditional, and voluntary loving-kindness such as helping one's neighbors.

They occur in the Bible at 1 Corinthians 13:13:

“And now these three remain, faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these  is love."

The theological virtues are so named as they are infused by divine  grace not obtained by human effort.

To recognize that one needs fortification in these divine virtues is to recognize and acknowledge their opposites:

• Lack of faith may give place to incredulity (as in atheism and agnosticism), blasphemy or apostasy.
• Lack of hope may give place to despair or cynicism.
• Lack of love may give place to hatred, wrath or indifference.

We could all use a refresher course in theological virtues and pray that we are gifted with them, receiving them freely from our great Lord.  This may take removing obstacles such as sin that is blocking our reception; charting a course, such as preparing for a good confession, disciplining ourselves further by morning, noon and night prayers. Praying WITH those we love, our families, especially the strong uniting prayer of the rosary, for healing and guidance and peace within ourselves and families.

We can not give what we don’t have.  We all need regenerated in our Christian beliefs and practices and fully infused with the theological virtues.  The old saying my mother repeated A LOT was “charity begins at home.”  It’s really something to meditate on.  It’s what Mother Teresa was really telling us when she said things like:

“Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do... but how much love we put in that action.”

And when Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize, she was asked, "What can we do to promote world peace?"  She answered "Go home and love your family ...

Mother Teresa was a living example of the three theological virtues on earth. If you want to hear more from her, just google her name and any combination of Love, Faith, Hope, Family, Work, Prayer……

+May you be blessed with the theological virtues in abundance and recognize they are yours for the asking, through Christ Our Lord, Amen+