Feast of St John Bosco - Saint Mail

Today is the feast day of St John Bosco, who just happens to be one of our favorite saints!  So when we saw that he was the highlighted saint in our monthly Saint Mail Subscription our boys were thrilled!   St John Bosco was an Italian priest in the 1800's and is most known for forming a place for young boys to gather and learn about God, thus why he has become the patron saint for boys!  Our boys know and love that they can always pray to St John Bosco during any time of need or question.

Our Saint Mail for St John Bosco

We LOVE our Saint Mail subscription and I cannot believe the fun learning and devotion that it has brought to our family over the past year!  When we started implementing living the liturgical year within our own home and in our homeschooling, one thing we knew that we wanted to do was to learn more about the Saints.  If you are anything like me, I am a busy mom of little kids so having someone who put it all together for me and sends me EVERYTHING is simply amazing.  When you sign up for a monthly subscription each month you get:

• A letter from the featured saint of the month
• A Saint Medal or religious figurine
• Ideas to celebrate the Saint's Feast Day with craft, games, activities and recipes
• A refrigerator magnet to remind you of the feast day (my children love to display all of these in our homeschool room!)
• A small trinket/toy or materials for a craft

Our Saint Mail Magnets!

Our first year of Saint Mail we learned about: St Katharine of Drexel (March 3rd), St Isidore of Seville (April 4th), Blessed Imelda Lambertini (May 13th), Saint Erasmus (June 2nd), Saint Benedict (July 11th), St Clare of Assisi (August 11th), St Vincent de Paul (September 27), Saint Margaret Mary (October 16), St Margaret Queen of Scotland (November 16), St Juan Diego (December 9th), and St John Bosco (January 31st).  Look at that amazing group of holy men and women!  We cannot wait to find out who we will continue to learn about in the upcoming year! 

Our children LOVE mail, so simply waiting for the package to arrive each month and the special surprise of finding out who the saint they will learn about is so exciting for them!  The letters are written from each Saint and are written to engage even the youngest of children in a story like form.  The crafts and activities are engaging and truly help make it easy for me as the parent to teach my children about what special things each Saint did or is known for!  The subscription costs $12.99 per month and you get a discount if you sign up for a 6 month or year subscription. 

We keep all of our Saint Mail in our special Saint Mail bag that you get during your first month of your subscription so we can revisit the same Saints in the following years.  The years do not repeat themselves so each year we continue to learn about new Saints each month!  We are so pleased with this ministry and love bringing these amazing stories and people into our lives!

Raising Little Men

I grew up loving the story of Little Women.  I still remember falling in love with the four March sisters reading the novel in bed far beyond the hours I was supposed to be awake with a flashlight in hand hiding under my sheets so hopefully my parents would not notice that I was not sleeping.  I loved their sisterly bonds and their great adventures.  I would find ways to relate to each one of the sisters; Meg with being the calm, caring leader of the group; Jo with her zest for life and yearning for independence; Beth with her introspection and thoughtfulness, and Amy with her animated sometimes whinny youngest child ways. 

Because of my love of this story I grew up dreaming to have four daughters of my own, just like in the Little Women.  Instead, so far God has blessed me with four little men, and although one of them I will never hold in my arms, he will forever be a part of our family history.  This week I was able to re-visit the story of Little Women by seeing the musical at our community theater with my own mother and sister.  Re-examining this story during a much different place in my own life made me relate to a character who I never did before; Marmee (the mother). 

 

Watching the story with my focus on Marmee was eye opening to me.  One constant in the story of Little Women is not only the love that each of the girls have for their sisters but also for their mother.  I found myself thinking, what did Marmee do as a mother that allowed her to have and continue such important and individualized relationships with each one of her children?  How was she her children's constant for strength, inspiration, love and comfort?  What did she do that I could gain insight from as I am following my own vocation of motherhood?

 

1.  Giving importance to the Gifts of Childhood:  Marmee's girls spent hours in the attic writing, reading, putting on plays, dressing up and spending time together.  They spent years of their childhood playing the piano, ice skating, spending time outside and enjoying each others company.  Sure, times are different now, but I think that there is something important to gain by providing time and space to let our children be children.  The relationships and bonds that childhood creates through play is priceless, and the years go by ever too quickly.

 

2.  Appreciating and Cultivating Individuality:  Marmee spent time to get to know each one of her children individually and she allowed them to develop in their individual talents and skills separate from each other and from her.  She defiantly had basic expectations for moral standards and character development with how they would treat each other that she taught in her parenting.  Yet, beyond those basic expectations she would listen to each of them, what their thoughts and dreams were, and then stand behind them instead of trying to fit them all in the same box. 

 

3.  Putting Marriage First:  Marmee's girls where deeply important to her, but when her husband was ill she did not question the need to put him first and leave her girls at home when she tended to him.  She showed her children on numerous occasions through her words and actions how important her love was for her husband was.   She respects him and speaks highly of him to her children.

 

4.  Not Controlling Sibling Bonds:  Marmee did not interfere between her children, but instead calmly guided their relationships.  When Amy threw Jo's story into the fire because Jo was able to go to the ball and she was not, Marmee did not lose her temper or get between her daughters.  She spoke to Amy of what she did wrong, she comforted Jo in the loss of her hard work with her story, and then she let them be.  It took Jo and Amy weeks to find forgiveness and mend their relationship, but what a gift it was that she allowed them to find their way back together on their own. 

 

5.  Modeling Character Skills:  Marmee was quiet and soft spoken and instead of lecturing she was found to teach more by action.  She more often would model behavior of how to respond during different situations in life.  She was honest with her children about their financial struggles, about what was going on in the war, about her own flaws.  She was loving, genuine, caring and she made her daughter want to follow in her footsteps.

 

6.  Guiding with Motivation and Support :  After Beth died and Jo did not think that she could go on, it was Marmee that helped give her perspective to use her pain and grief and put it to work within her passion of writing. 



This part of the story is sung by Marmee in the song "Days of Plenty" in the musical of Little Women.  Tears were streaming down my face as I thought of the loss of our dear Samuel, and moving through the grief of not being able to hold him and kiss him, but finding meaning in God's plan.  I know that I need to take my pain and grief and find goodness and purpose.  In thinking of Marmee, it also made me very aware of how I hope and pray to be able to be an important person to help guide and motivate my children toward seeing and trusting God's plan in life.

 

Days of Plenty

I never dreamed of this sorrow,
I never thought I'd have reason to lament,
I hoped I'd never know heartbreak,
How I wish I could change the way things went!
I wanted nothing but goodness,
I wanted reason to prevail,
Not this bare emptiness.
I wanted Days of Plenty.

But I refused to feel tragic,
I am aching for more than pain and grief.
There has got to be meaning,
Most of all when a life has been so brief.
I have got to learn something,
How can I give her any less?
I want life to go on.

I want Days of Plenty

You have to Believe,
There is reason for Hope.
You have to Believe
That the answers will come.
You can't let this defeat you.
I won't less this defeat you.
You must fight to keep her there,
Within you!

So Believe that she matters!
And Believe that she always will!
She will always be with you!
She'll be part of the days you've yet to feel!
She will live in your bounty!
She will live as you carry on your life!

So carry on,
Full of Hope,
She'll be there,

For all your Days of Plenty

Thank you God for my Little Men, and for the gifts that I have been given in my vocation as a wife and mother.  May I continue to learn and grow, gaining from the experiences in my own life while also patiently guiding and being present to our family with love.  I am so blessed by our Little Men.

What can you gain from the character of Marmee?  Do you have a character from a favorite book or story that has inspired you in your life?

 

Ask Me #2: Our Homeschool Schedule

Here is another part of my series Ask Me, where I let you, the followers of Children Of The Church ask me questions that you might have about our lives, homeschooling, etc.  Find Part 1 of the series HERE, where I answered the question about photography on my blog!  Another question that was asked of me was what is our homeschooling schedule during the day and also what do I do with our little kids as I am teaching other children.

First of all, we are JUST starting out our "true" journey of homeschooling with our oldest son starting kindergarten in January 2015.  Yet, when you really get into it you realize that homeschooling is just a continuation of every day life with children and teaching them basic life skills!  I am a Type - A person, so I LOVE schedule and order. 

When I knew that we were going to start homeschooling our children I had this "idea" that we would wake up at the same time, eat breakfast, then all sit down together to work on school work.  Can you tell that I went to a brick and mortar school my whole life?  Well, I QUICKLY learned that one of the many amazing things about homeschooling is we do not have to follow the "typical" schedule! 

Since our children are still little (5 years, 3 years, 1 1/2 years), our structured school time does not take long during the day (45 min - 2 hours) so we still have the time to do a lot of outings during our week.  In a typical week we: go to the library, have one playdate, go on one trip somewhere fun (Children's Museum, Zoo, etc), go to our children's classes with our Homeschool Learning Center, and have a Homeschool Co-op activity (adoration, Fun Friday workshops, etc).  We also try to go to daily mass one day a week.  A beauty of homeschooling is that once you get going you really learn that life is all about learning and each day and activity can be a continuation of learning.

Playing at the Children's Museum

We always start our day no matter what we do with Calendar time (month, day of the week, number day, weather), Saint of the Day and a Decade of the Rosary.  We all do this together and usually even our 1 1/2 year old will sit long enough to "listen".  He has a plush toddler rosary that he will hold and is already starting to join in prayers! 

If we don't have a morning activity we then will do a few lessons with our oldest two children with math, phonics or science.  If our three year old is not wanting to sit and listen I usually give him puzzles, books or play-dough and he is happy for 20-30 minutes!  Our basement, where we homeschool, is pretty secure and child friendly so during this time our youngest will just go around doing his own thing and play.

Our book worm!

See our entire Homeschool Room Tour HERE! 

Our youngest two children still take one nap a day, typically from 1-3 pm and we have learned we have to use that time wisely.  We always start by doing our oldest son's reading time.  We put the little one's to bed with read - aloud time with everyone and then we move to doing Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons once the little ones go to bed.  We quickly learned that learning to read was an activity that our oldest son needs 100% of my attention for and it usually takes about 20 minutes per day.  Now that he is ALMOST done with the lesson book and reading so much on his own (I STILL cannot believe it!!) we also spend that time reading BOB books or Level 1 reading books from the library.  He loves having books that he is able to read on his own!

Also during nap time is when we do our daily chores and finish our laundry for the day.  Our oldest son does help with chores and does things like fold socks, wash the kitchen floor, dust, feed the dogs and helps with the trash.  I think it is great that they learn the responsibility of helping in the home.  They also love to help with cooking!

Then with any extra time during nap time we will finish up whatever lessons we did not complete in the morning.  If the little ones start to wake up (again usually after 3pm), this is the time during the day when they are able to watch an educational television show.  We had gotten pretty lenient with our kids and electronics and recently changed rules greatly, which has helped all around behavior in our home!

So, if it is a "normal day" this is what the schedule looks like:

 

6:30-7:30:  Wake up, get dressed, brush teeth

7:30-8am: Breakfast/ Morning Chores (Unloading Dishwasher/Making Beds/Starting Laundry)

8-8:30am:  Calendar time/ Morning Prayers

9-11am:  Either Morning Activity or School Time (Math, Phonics, Science) / Arts, Crafts, Music

11-noon:  Lunch

Noon-12:30pm:  Read Aloud Time before Little Ones Nap

1-1:30pm:  Reading/Phonics with Oldest Son

1:30-2:15pm:  Chores

2:15-3:15pm:  Finishing School Work (If Needed)

FREE TIME/FAMILY TIME!!!

Currently we plan to have a year round schedule, taking a few longer breaks around Advent/Christmas, Lent/Easter and a small summer break.  I think that this will keep us on a better daily schedule and allow homeschooling to become a constant in our lives instead of a chore.  I also love that this schedule can change as things change in our life.  It is constantly being tweaked and adjusted to what works best for us and that is such a beauty with homeschooling.

So that is what works for us right now!  Do you have any secret tips on making your day run smoothly? 

Ask Me #1: Taking and Organizing Photos

Children of the Church

 

One part of blogging that I am loving is the community that it has formed.  I love that by sharing my life with all of you that you have also opened your lives to me!  One way that I want to give back is by making sure that I answer questions that you might have about our life or how we do things in our home.  I am starting a little series called "Ask Me".  So many of you have started asking me questions about our life, homeschooling, etc and I want to make sure to address them!  Please feel free to contact me at any time on the blog or by "liking" and commenting on the Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/ChildrenoftheChurch

 

The first question I am going to address is about PHOTOGRAPHY.  First of all, thank you for so many of your kind words about the photography that I use on my blog.  I am by no means a professional photographer, but I truly enjoy taking pictures, especially of our children.  My father has always loved photography and passed that love along to my husband when he and I were engaged to be married.  We bought our first Nikon camera when we got married and my husband used it 90% of the time.  He is an amazing photographer and really knows a lot more about the art and skill of photography than I do.  When we started having kids is when I started gaining interest in photography.  I read a few books, and then just PRACTICED, PRACTICED, PRACTICED!  Here is a little about how I have learned, what I use, and how I organize photos.

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Books

 

Here are a few books that helped me learn when I was starting photography with a DSLR camera.

 

The Digital Photography Book

 

DSLR Photography for Beginngers

 

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Camera

 

As much as learning about F stop, ISO, aperture and shutter speed are very important when using a DSLR camera one thing that also makes a big difference is having a nice camera.  I have used multiple different Nikon DSLR cameras over the years and currently have a Nikon D7100.  I love this camera and think that it is easy to use and takes great photographs.

 

Nikon D7100

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Storing the Camera

 

This is a topic that took me a while to learn about!  For a long time I would just take our DSLR camera, throw it in my diaper bag or in the front seat of our van to bring with on our outings to the zoo, Children's museum, etc.  It did not take long before we had to send the camera in to be repaired and let me tell you that my husband, and our pocket book were not thanking me!  I tried carrying a camera bag around for a while, but it just didn't work.  I couldn't carry a camera bag, diaper bag and assist three children under the age of 5 years old!  After a LOT of searching and a few different options I found the perfect bag for me.  It is the Kelly Moore 2 Sues Bag!

 

I love Kelly Moore bags in general and love that she "gets" that moms are looking for something that can function as a diaper bag AND a camera bag, while also looking stylish.  I had received the AMAZING Kelly Moore Libby Bag as a gift from my in-laws a few years back and it is wonderful.  Yet, it is big, and heavy and when you pack it with lots of extra stuff it is really too cumbersome to use on a daily basis.  I still love that bag for trips or when I want to bring extra camera gear.

 

I got the Kelly Moore 2 Sues Bag a few months ago and have used it every day since, it is perfect!  It is flexible and molds to your body as you carry it, even with a camera inside.  I keep both the short and messenger strap on the bag, which I love depending on how I want to use it.  The bag has a padded insert for the camera with dividers so you can fit things in different arrangements.  If you are not using your camera the padded section is completely removable and you can then just use the bag as a regular purse/diaper bag!  I can easily fit my DSLR camera, 18-200mm lens, external flash PLUS baby wipes, 2-3 diapers, a cup and small snack for the kids, rosary, chapstick, keys, and phone.  Plus it also has an awesome pocket on the side which is easily accessible to hold all of your credit cards and cash so you don't have to carry a bulky wallet.  I cannot even explain to you how much I love this bag, and how much my husband loves knowing the camera is protected!

 

Kelly Moore 2 Sues Bag

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Taking Photos

 

The best thing and worst thing about digital photography is that you can take a ridiculous amount of photos to get the result that you want.  You might see a lot of cute photos on the blog, but a lot of times there were 20 "out takes" to get that one cute picture.  Thankfully I think that when I take more photos our children naturally become more photogenic, so that does help as well.  Even our 1 1/2 year old will say "CHEESE" with a big smile when I pull the camera out!

 

I love taking photos of our children when they are just being themselves and "catching" those special moments.  I also love taking photos outside and with natural light if possible!

 

 

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Organizing Photos

 

Thankfully when my husband and I got married between myself being a Type - A organizer and my husband being very savy with technology we quickly developed a great way for us to organize our photos.  I have a daily chore rotation (which might be a whole different post) to help organize my week and make sure everything gets done around our home, and one thing on my list each week is Photo Organization.  Every Friday I take the time to sit down, take all of the photos that I have taken from that week and organize them to our home server computer that my husband manages.  This way the photos are not taking up space and running down my own personal computer. 

 

I have folders that organize the photos by year --> month --> day and then each particular day I label with any important event (zoo trip, Christmas with family, etc).  I have found that by not only labeling the folder by the day but also by the event name it makes it easier to go back and find exactly what photos I am looking for at a later date.  Some folders may only have 4 photos and some might have 100, but this has made it much easier to locate the photos when I need them.

 

I also use Shutterfly to make photo albums for each month and special events so that family and friends can follow.  This was especially helpful when we were living in a different state from most of our family last year.  I love that there is no limit on how much that you can store, you can set great privacy filters and people can print your photos from the site if they want any copies!

 

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Preserving Photos

 

Another huge piece to my photo organization is making photo books.  For this process I use MyPublisher as I truly love their quality of books and ease of use with their program.  They can be expensive, but let me give you a BIG tip!  Every quarter of the year they run a sale of "FREE PAGES".  Their typical book includes 20 pages and then you pay an additional $0.99 per extra page (each book can hold up to 100 pages).  What I do is I make sure I fill up 100 pages in a book, then I sign up for their e-mail list serve and WAIT for these sales.  When I wait, I then get my book for the base price of $29.99 instead of $110 ($29.99 + $80 for the 80 extra pages past 20 pages).  It makes great quality books very affordable!  

 

I used to make one book a year when my husband and I first got married, and then as we started having kids it went up to two books, three books, and now I usually fill four books per year!  I also make a photo book for each big family vacation that we go on.  I feel like we take a lot of additional photos on vacations and I like to have separate books for them!  Adding photos to my photo books is also a part of my "weekly chore list" and because I do this every week it usually only takes me 10-20 minutes per week depending on how many photos I have taken.

 

I LOVE that we have photo books starting from when my husband and I were dating and engaged until the current time.  These are truly some of my most treasured things that we own and I know I will appreciate them for years to come.

 

 

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Knowing when to Get Help

 

The last thing I love to do with photography is invest in a professional photographer!  I love taking photos, but often that means I am not in them, or my husband is not in them if he is the photographer for the day.  I think it is so important to get photographs of us together as a couple and as a family to preserve these years that fly by so fast.  We have made it a habit to get professional photos at least once a year, and when we have new babies sometimes that happens even more than once.  Thankfully we have a few favorite photographers in our hometown that are very affordable, do a fantastic job and also give us rights to the photographs so that we can choose on our own what to do with them!  I think that taking the time and money to hire a professional every year is definitely worth the investment if you can make it work!

 

Heidi Keene Photography

 

Jaybee Images

 



Deepening Our Prayer Lives

I was so blessed to be able to have a day retreat to be with God and a group of wonderful women from our Catholic Homeschool Co-op at the Pro Sanctity Retreat Center in our community.  I am always looking for ways to reconnect with God and deepen my spiritual life, so I was thrilled to hear that our Homeschool Co-Op puts on a yearly women's day retreat.  I was feeling even more of a pull to take this day away with God after we experienced the loss of our son Samuel by miscarriage.  I knew that I needed time to be quiet in prayer and process through my grief on the path to healing.   I gained so much wisdom at the retreat and am feeling refreshed and ready to re-examine my prayer life and be more available to receive God on a daily basis.  I wanted to share with you some of what I learned in hope that it might help you in your prayer life as well.

Just as children learn from us as parents how to speak and how to act, we learn how to mirror God's image by going to Him in prayer and being open to hearing His words and how He wants us to respond.  It is essential that we take time daily to pray, and that means not only say the rosary or read the daily scripture but to have "imaginative prayer" with God.  With this type of prayer we are truly entering a relationship with God and talking to him about our sorrows, joys and sufferings throughout each day.  Even though he knows all of our actions and thoughts he still wants to hear from us about our thoughts, feelings and desires.

We learned about praying with the acronym A. R. R. R. which stands for Acknowledge, Relate, Receive, Respond. 

Acknowledge:  We need to be aware of what is going on inside of our heart and then learn how to relate these feelings to God.  We can think "This is how I am feeling, but I am not sure why".  We then dive deeper to give that emotion a name and accept that God cares about us and our life and wants to hear about it. 

Relate:  In this step we are telling Jesus everything; what we feel, think and what we want.  There is a big difference between thinking thoughts internally throughout the day and taking them to God to relate with Him.  We need to personally let him into our lives to know and understand our deepest feelings.  If we are in a difficult place and do not know how to communicate our true feelings we can use the Psalms as a guide, which speak through many different emotions of joy and suffering. 

Receive:  In this part of our prayer we need to sit back, and be patient.  This part of prayer is God's work and God's gift to us.  We make ourselves available to be receptive to truly receiving God.  We need to trust that God is listening to us and wanting to fill our lives with His love and truth.  The priest leading our retreat gave us the beautiful example that just as women can physically make room for another person to grow inside of our own being, we also need to be open and aware of making room for God in our being and truly ready to receive Him. 

Respond:  Here we respond to what we are receiving.  We can respond in thanksgiving, in tears or in laughter.  It can be a response of a deeper conversation or a response of a practical resolution or change in our life.

Our retreat was held on the feast day of St Francis de Sales and so we were also able to learn more about his life and pray to him during our morning prayers and Mass.  My favorite quote from St Francis de Sales is the following:

"Accept the duties which come upon you quietly, and try to fulfill them methodically, one after another. If you attempt to do everything at once, or with confusion, you will only cumber yourself with your own exertions, and by dint of perplexing your mind you will probably be overwhelmed and accomplish nothing."

 

I think that this quote helps us greatly as Catholic mothers to realize that we need to pray about our vocations and accept and receive what God is giving to us in the gift of our families and respond with grace and love.  God is the ultimate redeemer and when we act like we have it all together we are not able to truly let Him in.  It is in those messiest places in our lives and heart where Jesus's response can be the most glorious!  Sometimes we do not feel like we are receiving a response to our prayer, but God only asks us to wait when he has something amazing planned in our lives. 

 

God is there and present in each day and in each part of our lives.  Now it is up to us to give Him the space he needs and to truly receive the gift that God is.  God wants to provide and protect that space in our lives to draw closer to Him.  The amazing thing is if we try today and do not get that intimate prayer time to fit in our day, God is just as available to us tomorrow as he was today.  All we need to do is try again.  There are many responsibilities that can overwhelm us in our daily lives between loving our spouses, caring for our children, tending to our homes, making meals, giving to our community but the only thing that we really need to accomplish in each day is receiving God.  He is there, all around us, and through daily prayer if we take time to acknowledge, relate, receive and respond to Him I think we would all see remarkable gifts in each of our lives.

 

What do you do to fit time in your day for prayer and to deepen your relationship with God?  How do you best receive God?  Let us pray for each other as we also draw closer to Him.

7QT-Homeschool Fun

I wanted to get back into participating with Seven Quick Takes Friday posts as I think it is such a great and fun way to wrap up quick events or thoughts from the week.  This week we had a lot of quality time at home due to the miscarriage of our son Samuel.  It was a great reason though to spend time together as a family at home and enjoy the blessing of homeschooling!

 

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Starting Kindergarten



Our oldest son, who turned 5 years old at the end of December just started Kindergarten using Seton's core curriculum last week.  He loves workbook style learning, as well as a great mix of hands on stuff and is loving his new books.  He especially is loving the Math and Phonics books so far.

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Toddler Fun During Homeschool Time

 

Many people will ask how we homeschool with little ones in the house.  I have an entire post coming up soon in a new series that I am starting called "Ask Me", where I answer questions that people have asked and one is about our homeschool schedule!  If you have any questions for me please use the comment section or come on over and "like" Children of the Church's Facebook page and leave a message there!

 

The biggest thing for us is since our children have never known anything different than homeschooling, it truly has become a way of life for our family.  Our toddler is an active 19 month old boy and so we have learned to have some fun active toys for him, which keep him busy!  His favorites are the Little Tikes Trampoline and our Tunnel! 

 

 

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Preschool Learning

 

Our middle child is 3 1/2 years old and is currently not doing any formal curriculum.  He followed along a lot with Seton's Pre-Kindergarten program that we did with our oldest son this past fall and honestly knows 90% of the information, except for the writing portion.  He does not have the fine motor skills of writing yet, and we did not want to push him.  He knows all of his letters, letter sounds, numbers, etc.  He has been so interested in his big brother learning to read that he has actually started asking to learn to read himself.  We have started Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons with him, which has been working GREAT for his big brother so we hope it works just as well for him.  The fun part is, for now he spends a lot of time playing with our favorite learning games and putting together puzzles.  He LOVES school time and is the first one to ask for it each day!

Melissa and Doug See & Spell Puzzles

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St Sebastian's Feast Day

 

We celebrated St Sebastian's feast day this week on January 20th.  He was a Roman soldier in 283 and always defended the faith and helped with many people with their conversion to the Catholic faith.  He is the patron saint of athletes because of his "physical endurance and energetic way of spreading and defending the Faith".  One thing that I love about homeschooling is taking our learning time about the Saint of the Day and then using it as a great opportunity to go outside in the fresh air and play sports!  It was a great way for the kids to understand how during different times and activities during their life that there are different Saints that they can pray to and receive guidance from!

 

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Brotherly Bonds

 

I LOVE that  homeschooling allows for our children to spend a lot of time together and truly become best friends.  Yes, sometimes this is also a negative side of homeschooling if they are disagreeing or fighting, but most of the time it is a blessing.  I love to see them finding special moments all on their own to seek each other out to play or teach each other new things.  Both of our oldest boys love to find our 1 1/2 year old to help him with a puzzle or get him to play whatever their newest game is (store, cars, etc).  I hope and pray to be able to continue witnessing their sibling bonds growing over time.

 

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Enjoying Springtime Weather in January

Last year we were living in Minnesota with feet of snow in January, so we were excited to be back in Nebraska with a more mild winter.  Yet, we were NOT expecting 60 degree weather in January.  We have been loving the beautiful weather and all of the fun time we can play outside!

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The Joy of Catholic Kids

 

Our children have these beautiful moments that they warm my heart with how much they love our Catholic Faith and how integrated it is becoming in their lives.  Our oldest son loves trucks and has been very interested in the huge trucks on the highway that carry Oversize Loads!  I caught him this week in our living room with his wooden semi truck carrying our statue of the Holy Family.  I asked him what he was doing and he said "Mom, Mary, Joseph and Jesus are an Oversize Load!"

 

Another moment this week our boys were being good and I told them they could each pick out a new toy at the store as a reward.  They found these Shining Light Saint Dolls and they were thrilled and each wanted one as their choice.  They picked St Patrick, St Nicholas and Our Lady of Lourdes. They are simply adorable and our boys have loved playing with them!

 

We went to Adoration and then to our parish Prayer Garden the morning of January 22nd, the 42nd anniversary of Roe vs. Wade.  We brought our book Angel in the Waters to read together, which we had given to the boys when we announced our pregnancy with Samuel.  It is a great book to teach children about the gift of life from God from the moment of conception, which is the first part of being pro-life that we want to teach our children.  We then said a decade of the rosary together for Samuel and for all little babies who have died.

 

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