Feast of the Archangels & 40 days

Archangels pray for us!

The Brothers and Sisters of the Alliance of the Two Hearts hosted a family night of music, talks, games and skits centered around today's Feast of the Archangels - St. Michael, St. Raphael & St. Gabriel. These men and women religious are so dynamic, their smiles exude joy!

I have made Chaplets before for the Prayers to the Archangels and here is one....

Visit http://www.miraclerosarymission.org/csm.htm for the prayer.

We also started our 40 DAYS here in prayer for an end to abortion! http://www.40daysforlife.com/about.cfm With our friends beside us, we prayed 4 rosaries peacefully outside a local abortuary.

We ask for St. Michael to intercede to defend us in this battle, for St. Raphael to heal those hurt by abortion and for St. Gabriel to get the message out that LIFE should be valued from conception untill natural death!

Mother's Mass

Started 30 years ago for Mother's of young children, this is a monthly Mass for Mother's of small children. It affords us the opportunity to recieve the Sacramaments, especially Confession on a regular basis.

Held monthly at rotating homes, our dear Priest arrives to hear Confessions while the other Moms and children pray the rosary. We then have Mass and that is a catechism to all there. Afterwards we share lunch and spiritual conversation together thanking God for this blessing!

Remembering blue

It's beginning to look like Fall, and that IS my favorite season. Soon the leaves will be changing colors and our backyard will be filled with yellow, red, purple and orange. They'll crunch under our feet when we're walking off the pumpkin pancakes....But before I embrace Autumn fully, I just want to visit my sweet summer again...The boys are surfing and my girl is coming towards me... from the blue, smiling.

Why?

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Tour of our homeschool

Welcome to our homeschool classroom ~ St. Joseph's Academy!

This is usually where we work and sometimes it's our dining room too. Joining me at the table are our 1st grader, 5th grader, 7th grader and 3 year old auditor.



My children use Our Lady of Victory curriculum ( http://www.olvs.org/ ). This is our 2nd year homeschooling and our first year with OLVS. As of week 2, we are loving it! The lesson plans are great and our days are very managable. We have had no problem condensing the 5 day week to a 4 day week so that we can participate in Sacramental activities our Catholic homeschool group plans. I am enjoying how each student's daily work is all written out for us.


The boys each have their own shelf of schoolbooks and a lesson plan.

Fifth grade books are top left and 7th grade is under it. Top right is 1st grade and underneath is our dictionary and some books on saints and flashcards.







This is our wipeboard. Above it are rules of behavior and our Daily Offering Prayer. Attached to the wipeboard are a list of the 70 most used prepositions and a map of the world.




This section holds, at the top, our encyclopedias. (Actually, they are mine from when I was a child and still so helpful!) At the top with them are more reference and history books. Below and on the left are Science books. Across from them and to the right are more reference books including a nice Time Life collection on the Great Ages of Man. At the bottom are buckets for items our younger students might like.



Closest to my chair ( and sunny spot) are teacher items. At the top, reference books, a box of wipeboard supplies, and my teacher manuals. In the middle are some more reference books and my Catholic Woman's Daily Planner lies atop some answer keys. On the bottom shelf is a collection of our Art books and our PACE books on Character Education and related Virtue books.



Our student nook (above) holds supplies. At the top we have portfolios for the year of work for each student. Underneath are tools like stickers, colored pencils, tape, stapler, timer, pens and pencils, scissor, sticky pads and prayer books. At the bottom, loose leaf paper and graph paper are stored along with a tub of extra supplies.






In this corner math manipulatives and alphabet games can be found as well as our classical music appreciation and Latin CDs. The globe and anatomy models and a few puzzles fill it up.



Completing the 360, here is Grandmom's girlhood piano. My 7th grader, and budding songwriter, composes on it and his siblings enjoy tickling the ivories as well. Every Monday our 1st grader fills in the weekly calendar. A Rule for Children is on the top left and religious items grace the right side. (Including an oil painting of Christ by my paternal grandmother!)




In this, our nearby "living room", is our library as we use the room more as that and a playroom. On the other side, is a big cozy reading chair and ottoman, a shelf of toys and a train table in the corner. Close by to the classroom, and with fun & educational cdroms on the computer, the 2 littler students can move to this room to have "fun" nearby.


And what's a day like? Well, here's what a day is supposed to be like... OUR SCHEDULE


7-7:30 wake up - breakfast - vitamins/meds - hygene - dress - make beds



8-8:30 daily prayers, RELIGION school work, daily saint (Baltimore Catechisms and The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass book)


8:30-9 Voyages/Excersizes in English GRAMMAR


9-9:30 MATH (Math U See and TeachingTextbooks.com)


9:30-10 READING COMPREHENSION - Catholic National Readers


10-10:30 Break for snack, excersize


10:30 - 11:30 Traditional Catholic SPELLING and

HISTORY (American, Pioneers & Patriots) and/or SCIENCE (SciLiving in God's World)

LATINa Christianna, Latin Prayers, learning to serve Latin Mass

(Fridays - Seton ART, classical MUSIC, guitar lessons)


11:30 leave for Mass - pray rosary in car


noon Mass and Angelus


12:30-1 car ride READING


1:15 lunch and recess


2-3 anything not done, journal WRITING - Moms reads P.A.C.E. for character education stories
or a novel, sometimes a special video


3 Chores - empty dishwasher, collect/put out trash, gather/put away laundry

That's the ideal...it doesn't always happen like that.... this is our goal. Hoping our 3rd week finds us hitting this mark more closely.

Seminarians, Brothers and Priests...oh my....

Without much planning, a holy weekend happened to us. We are still glowing from it.


Late FRIDAY afternoon, the Seminarians that stayed at our house while we were at the shore came back to meet us and thank us. Two Brothers sat and chatted with us for a few hours about their Order's lengthy discernment and their calling. Besides being so personable, it didn't hurt that they told the boys they played ice hockey in Seminary! Men in collars...on the ice!


SATURDAY started with a gathering of our homeschool group, the rosary was prayed - decades led by families - and then we were off to the park for a picnic with the families. A great start to our year as everyone enjoyed a beautiful, cool day with the Dads. Such a blessing to be with these Catholic families who share such a love of our faith.


And then SUNDAY, what a busy day! We started it at our Latin Mass. After Mass our Latin Mass society took a vote to propose a weekly Tridentine Mass and it garnered the majority vote! (Pray that comes to fruition.) Six families headed to a BBQ afterwards. Dads joking around, kids playing tug of war...it couldn't have been more idyllic! And it doesn't end there! We left to serve dinner to a Home Enthronement team at our house.


At 6pm a Priest and 4 Brothers in flowing cassocks arrive at our home. What a sight coming up our front lawn. (The neighbors, if they saw the Men in Black on Friday, must now be really wondering by Sunday!) These Oblate Apostles of the Two Hearts could not have been more impressive! Their glowing smiles, fun-loving conversation yet with orthodox ideas, their guitar playing singing harmonies as a quartet, and joining the boys in carpet hockey ...I don't think my sons will ever forget it!


Father was praying so fervently holding his relic of the True Cross (which he allowed us to venerate) and the Brothers each spoke about the gospel, Mary and Jesus in ways that captivated our family. We prayed a group rosary. The boys were given prayers to recite that pledged them to virtue, my husband and I to rededicate our marriage. We were all given the rite of enrollment in the Brown Scapular as well. Each room of our house was blessed with Holy Water, The Relic and exorcised salt. The Home Enthronement to the Two Hearts was a beautiful, detailed rite.


This order is solely concerned with the attack on families and so this is their focus. They also run weekly and monthly family nights for further fellowship and formation. Prayers answered! It has been a long held prayer that our sons would get to spend time with Priests, see them as real and masculine and as friends. Praise God.


We can't believe the weekend we have had! What a start to our school year. God has given us a gift, I'd like to pray that he was planting religious vocation seeds.....

Motu Madness

Back home, back to school, back to birthdays!

We're back!

Three glorious weeks at the shore and this week we are back into the swing of a new year of homeschooling.

But the big news is .... Another birthday and son #3 has turned 6!

On the feast of St. John Chrysostom, our youngest son started his day with his special breakfast cereal. He had a terrific day in 1st grade, it's a breeze for him. Before lunch we went to Mass at the Oratory and he recieved a special blessing.

Afterwards, ( and after some Burger King) he and Dad went golfing (of course) and Dad exclaimed that he is the best golfer of all at this age!His dinner request was for one of those Chinese buffets where we cracked many a crab leg for him. Our little guy is still so full of energy, love and hugs and constantly keeps us laughing.

BIRTHVERSE Matthew 9:13 "Go and learn the meaning of the words, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.