Thankin' God for the Simple Life

We shall not waste our time in looking for extraordinary experiences in our life,

but live by pure faith, ever watchful and ready for his coming

by doing our day-to-day duties with extraordinary love and devotion.~Mother Teresa

Just doing a little braggin'

After an afternoon of studying the great artist, Van Gogh, the kids put their art supplies to the test with their rendition of Starry Night.

I had a few copies of Van Gogh paintings, but none of them were this one. So, I found an image on the Internet and let them study that. With over 800 paintings to his name, we will have more than a few weeks of material to emulate if we want.

Here Prez was using short, thick coats of acryllic and then grew weary of the process. He kept complimenting his sister though, which we thought was cute.

Okay, I'll quit boasting. I was just SO proud of them!

Batty for Bats

Even though our Science lessons have us studying the Sun, Prez stumbled upon a book on bats (go figure with Halloween around the corner) and has decided it's not fair that he hasn't personally seen one. So, with his enthusiasm up, I opened up a mini-unit book from the schoolroom on bats.

So far, we have learned why bats are not birds and why they are not rodents. This particular book also has scattered throughout, some great folktales and myths on why bats have crooked knees, short legs, and night vision. It has been fun.
The black construction bat was just a quick throw together idea that let him run around the house with his new pet. It also kept Sweetness entertained as the wings floated up and down. That is until Prez left it on the floor and she took it upon herself to dismantle the thing and figure it out. Luckily, she didn't try to eat it. He should have remembered that bats like to hang upside, hidden, and preferably out of reach. With all the extra fall season energy, I think I might be going batty!

Sweetness goes to the Doctor in honor of the feast of St. Luke

Today was the feast of St. Luke, the writer of two books of the Bible: the gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. He was a convert of Paul and never encountered Jesus directly. In order to write and share of God's greatness, Luke went about getting testimonies from those who had contact with Christ. He is believed to have been a doctor.

Although it was purely "God-cidence" that our appointment was today, it was, nonetheless, a tie-in to this great saint.

Now, why in the world were we at the doctor's office? Sweetness was getting her 12 month check-up! What? A whole year has gone by? Did I miss the post about her birthday celebration? The answer is, "yes" and "no". It's hard to believe that time has flown by, but harder still to believe is that I didn't have my camera for her birthday! What kind of a mother am I? ? ?

It was a low-key celebration with family and my sister-n-law (no pressure, Aunt Jamie) is going to send me the pictures she took as soon as she can. Below are some pictures I have managed to collect of our precious angel!

This girl is definitely a tinkerer. She's determined to figure things out.
Oh yes, she's also the great imitator!
This is my idea of a pet! :0
There she goes again, figuring things out.
Enjoying the ceremonial bath in grandma's sink! Sweetness makes grandchild number eight bathed in that sink!
Keeping up with the big kids in their playtime. Poor thing. Oh the stuff she puts up with because of Prez. She is such a trooper!

Her appointment went well except for her weight. Even though she continues to gain weight, her weight gain is not significant enough to even land her on the growth chart curve. Everyone, even the doctor, swears she is the epitome of health, but numbers don't lie and she's just burning up too many calories or I'm not giving her enough. I've tried to convince myself that it is because she is walking, and often time sprinting away from Prez, or because the majority of her diet is fruits and vegetables, which fill you up, but don't have high caloric value.

So, my task is to load my fridge with ice cream, butter, mayo, sour cream, cream cheese, etc. and begin loading this girl with the good stuff. Naturally, I'm on the lookout for healthy ways to use these foods and my first attempt tonight was homemade rice pudding. She loved it and so did I. With whole milk, eggs, butter, and rice, I'm thinking it aught to put some meat on her bones.

Any suggestions other than peanut butter milkshakes, or any milkshake for that matter, is welcomed! Thanks!

Bubbles gets ready for Fall

Does the thought of rotten apples crawling with worms make you sick? What if the apples were really frozen cider and the worms were sour gummies? What now? Well, for us, we couldn't stop ingesting it. That's right...we devoured rotten apple cider!
Bubbles was so thrilled to discover that my cake plate transforms into a punch bowl. I can't blame her for getting giddy. I was the same way when I found out!

While looking for costume ideas, she stumbled upon these crafty treats. Thanks to her generous spirit, we all enjoyed an afternoon of fun and food!
Witches' brooms of pretzels and fruit leather.
Candy pumpkins made of circus peanuts and DOTS candy.
Creepy fingers consisting of string cheese and bell peppers.

If you were guessing, which do you think was the favorite, besides the cider?

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If you guessed pumpkins, you were wrong. :) My kids DO NOT like candy circus peanuts, go figure. They did inhale the brooms though. It was so much fun. Thanks, Bubbles!

Almost forgot my disclaimer....these ideas came from here.

Concert memory for a lifetime

Five excited girls, five tickets to a sold out show, one chauffeur, one Taylor Swift concert!

Two weekends ago? I'm so behind I don't quite remember, but just recently, Taylor Swift played a sold out show at the Dallas Cowboy's stadium. Thanks for the generosity of my parents as well as perfectly timed birthdays and Confirmation celebrations, we were able to attend.
After an awesome Chinese meal to fuel us up, we piled into the truck with the most handsome, courageous, and patient chauffeur.....my dad! We only had several blocks to travel since my parents live in the city and pretty much down the road from the stadium, but with the pandemonium of the Rangers playing in the American League Championship Series, as well as the concert, the truck was just not working. After driving two blocks and seeing the sea of people walking, we decided to get out and get moving...too much energy to sit around anyways.
On our way with the wind in our faces...ah!
The ballpark in Arlington where the Rangers did eventually take the title of American League Champions. GO RANGERS! We just "had" to pass this in order to get to the stadium.
Feeling so relieved not to be stuck in this traffic or have to pay a parking ticket! See the stadium in the back?
Okay, how's that for seeing the stadium? Better! Ohhh, we're so excited. Too bad my boot was cutting into my ankle. Ever have someone slice you with a razor blade? Yeah, me either, but it sure felt like that. Well, luckily we were almost there and I was able to patch myself together. :)
Here we are, early even for the pre-show, but we're all smiles. Look at those great seats. Nobody's heads are in front of us. yeah!
Just a glimpse of how crowded it was two hours before Taylor took the stage. I think I remember her saying that the crowd totaled 55,000 fans! Amazing.
Amazing performer....
In disbelief at the reception of the fans.....
Amazing costumes and amazing night! This young lady is a hard worker and it was good, clean fun! Her new nickname in our family is Taylor Sweet! Well, it will be a lifetime memory for Bubbles. Oh that reminds me, I should have taken a picture of her in her T-shirt. She loves wearing it, so I'm sure there will be a shot of her sometime soon in it. Anybody want to play Where's Waldo Taylor swift T-shirt?

The Feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch

St. Ignatius was a first century Bishop who served the community of Antioch, the city where Peter labored before moving onto Rome. It is also the city where followers of Jesus were first called Christians.

St. Ignatius served as Bishop for forty years until his persecution and eventual death. He was to die in the arena in Rome and on his way, during the many stops at different towns, he met with the Christians and wrote them letters. His letters are still read today.

On the last day of the public games, December 20th, he was pushed out into the amphitheater where he was eaten by lions. His final witness to the faith leaves an indelible mark.

When we are faced with situations that are unpleasant to us, we can call upon St. Ignatius for help and comfort.

We made these paper lion remembrances which I should have tacked up near the outside shed or some other place that the kiddos hate to go and work. :) Right now, it is above a light switch. By the way, we learned an "art form" called quilling, which involves tightly rolling paper and gluing it down. It is a very tedious and time consuming task which the kids didn't enjoy too well. I won't do it again in the future, but come to think of it, I guess it really went well with the message today.....when doing something you find unpleasant, pray for St. Ignatius' intercession. :)

Little Women was once again a BIG success

Second meeting down and once again it ROCKED! The girls had a blast! This meeting's theme was dusting and cleaning in preparation for a guest. Now, most girls are not excited about cleaning, but once we began discussing the discomfort we've felt when visiting somebody's house that was dirty, they realized the importance of this dreaded task.

It all started with our opening prayer and discussion on why this skill is important in showing hospitality. I gave the girls a sheet to list the different ways they could use this skill. I loved the idea of offering to clean house for someone who just moved in, had a new baby, and even clean the church. I also shared with them some scripture verses on keeping our hearts clean which goes right into the joyful attitude we need when performing works of mercy. The patronage for this skill is the Immaculate Heart of Mary. How perfect!

After that, each girl received a Cleaning Checklist. We all read aloud the steps that are taken when properly cleaning a room. These included things like dusting the tops of shelves before the bottoms, straightening a room by fluffing pillow and folding blankets, leaving the floors for last, but making sure to create nice vacuum lines etc. I always like to light candles or add fresh flowers to add warmth to a room, so that was on there as well. Finally, we got to play our game.

The manual suggested a literature selection that told of a game where a mother hid buttons to be found if her daughters had done a thorough job of cleaning. That's exactly what I did. They found all seventeen buttons and they only needed two hints (which were the frames on the walls that needed to be dusted).

Here they are doing a fabulously joyful and complete job of moving objects, dusting objects, and dusting shelves.
They each ended up receiving a prize because some of the girls couldn't make it to the meeting. The first place winner got to pick her bag first, the second place chose next etc.
These snacks were totally inspired by God. I had wanted to do something with a button theme and this came to me. I twisted the top off of the Oreo cookie and then took the end of a straw to pull out four circles of creme. This created the button holes. Next, I used slivers of fruit by the foot to create the thread. They were a big hit, especially because there was an oreo cookie at the bottom of each cupcake!

Next, I led them all to a craft. The manual didn't suggest this, but I had seen an idea similar to this years ago for a different virtue. I just loved the idea of making work more fun when you're feeling silly and even glamored up a bit! So, each girl brought their own pair of dish gloves. I put before them a HUGE bucket of miscellaneous puff paints and they went to work. I am hoping that by using their "new" gloves for cleaning, it will encourage joyful attitude and thus bring graces upon them. As one girl said, "My mom always says that a job not done joyfully is not worth doing."


After the craft was lunch and they even had time for a few games of Scattergories. By 12:45, we were headed down the street to a neighbor who suffers from chronic back pain. I had offered the help of the girls to do her dusting and windexing since getting up on ladders and bending over is really painful for her. We were so happy that she said yes.

Here we are arriving with treats that we had baked her in order to keep practicing our cooking skills from last month. Each girl had baked something different and we put them all together in a tray. There was pumpkin banana bread, brownies, and sugar cookies. YUM!
After receiving instructions, the girls suited up and in an extremely happy way, started working!
Wiping down blinds so that the dust doesn't just get moved around is such a tedious, but necessary task. I wish I had thought to have the girls do mine. ;)
Getting up high and dusting each knick knack. I'm so proud of them! Something she did as a treat for the girls, based on the button game I had described to her, was that she tightly rolled up one dollar bills and began hiding them around the house. At first the girls were bringing her the money saying they had found this while dusting and she would smile and say, "Finders keepers" then she told them of her own take on the button game. Believe me when I say that they began cleaning swiftly!
As an added surprise, she had baked for the girls a hot fudge sundae cake and served it in the end with vanilla ice cream. Bubbles expression says it all!
I brought Prez along when I went to pick the girls up and he was able to eat some too! He felt so lucky.
Here are the girls with the benefactor of their hard work! Way to go girls.

School is definitely in session

Being that we are six weeks into our new school year (and I haven't posted ANYTHING outside of our first day) I have too many pictures and too much info. to share. So.....here are a few highlights that brightened up the days filled with papers, reports, tests, calculations, and chores.

History: We started in the time period of 1730's when George Washington was born. Many other great men/women of our country are also around or being born including John Adams, John Hancock, Daniel Boone, and Ben Franklin. We aren't exclusive in our study of America and we are also learning about what is going on in England, France, China, and India. Here is just a snapshot of a week's worth of reading. We actually frequent three different libraries in the area so I'm not out a small fortune each year.
The book below was such a find! This is a copy of the book that George Washington used in training himself as a gentleman. He hand wrote each rule and put it into memory and practice. Having it as a reference was funny as well as enlightening.

Science: We started the year with a short, four week study of the human body. I thought it would be a motivating hands-on way to start the school year. The kids really seemed to enjoy it and the lack of projects in History were made up for in Science.

Cute board game that Bubbles had received for Christmas sometime ago. We cracked it open for Prez to have a go. It includes removable decals of the body's organs and he LOVED racing us to see who could "build" their body first.
This was a cumulative game of Jeopardy we played to see what we had learned. I thought the kiddos did a great job of remembering details.
Bubbles was the winner, but in Prez's defense, he didn't sit in on every Science lesson.

Inside of a chicken bone with lots of bone marrow.

Gross!
Model of a lung and how the diaphragm works.
Red balloon is the lung...yellow balloon on the bottom is the diaphragm.
Model of how the arm muscles work.
One muscle pulls, while the other pushes.
Blood had to be studied with the circulatory system, of course!
Luckily, it was fake blood that we made. Although, I'm sure he had Daddy fooled.
Homemade stethoscope.
Two eggheads? No. Naturally this is a Science experiment.
What's the importance of brain fluid?
It protects the brain from injury. We used water for our fluid, but down below the poor fellow had an empty head, so he cracked!
Made a little brain hat in order to get an idea of what parts of the brain were used for which things.
The senses.
We learned that an adult brain weighs about 3 pounds and has a gray/pink, warm, squishy appearance and feel.
Using sand, instant mashed potatoes, and warm water in certain measurements, we attempted to get a grasp on that information.
Pretty fun to play with.

Art: I have shortened our school week to four days of hardcore lessons and on Fridays we do all of our fieldtrips, Mass, and art lessons. I am teaching the kiddos to draw and we are studying different artists. One of the lessons was teaching the kids to look for simple shapes when drawing still life objects. You sketch this out first and then add details and more precise lines to have your picture come to life.
This is a picture of a jalapeno pepper that Prez drew. He used an oval shape for the body and a triangle shape for the top.
Here is a pencil, which when turned you can tell was laying on the table. I suggested he add some charcoal underneath for the shaded effect. I thought it turned out well.
Here is Bubble's rendition of a green onion. The oval at the bottom with the crescent "leaves" really likened to the original vegetable.
Prez's log cabin he drew when learning about Daniel Boone.
Bubble's log cabin and tree, which she was very happy to "get the tree branches to look right".
Here is Bubbles working on her own take of Paul Signac's Palais de Papes Avignon.
The object was to draw a landscape, practicing drawing straight lines, and then filling it all in with different colored squares of paper.
Last but not least, we were working on transforming 2-D objects into 3-D objects with proper shading. I thought Bubble's sphere really popped out and she was extremely content with her efforts.
Prez also did a remarkable job, but I did help him with instruction on where to darken, lengthen, and shade more. We also traced the circle. Either way, I believe they both have learned a lot.

I hope to stay on top of the school posts, but one never knows. I wish I had pictures from our trip to the Nasher Sculpture Center, but I'll try to do better next time.

As for now, we continue the papers, reports, tests, and calculations, but we are now studying Astronomy. That should be "out of the this world". :)