Friday, July 31, 2009

Four Weeks Old

My new born son EA is 4 weeks old today. He was born July 3.

Inner Peace

I was reading a book specifically about inner peace. Inner peace allows Jesus to work through you. The illustration of the sun reflecting on the water was used. The sun is much better reflected off of calm waters than it is off of rough waters. God is the sun and the water is our soul.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Out of the Meal Time Rut

I am so happy that I actually made something aside from the usual for our evening meal today and yesterday. The best part was that I was able to use ingredients that I already had and the meals were really very simple to make. I got the recipes from a bargain cook book I bought a few years ago. Yesterday I made beans and rice and today I made meat balls and had them on spaghetti. Mmmmm. I loved the spaghetti and meat balls!

I was really beginning to dread supper time when I would make the same thing over and over agian. It was the same with grocery shopping, buying the same ingredients to make the same thing week after week. The more you put into something the more you will get out of it applies in this situation. I just decided to look for something different to make and lo and behold I did it! Just a small variation seemed to make all the difference in my feelings about cookingl.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Baby Names

Here are some names we have been thinking about:



Bernard

Dominic

Joachim

Joseph

Benedict

Jude

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Moving On

Today is a rainy spring day in Iowa. Son is away on a day long youth retreat at our church that is being led by the Brothers of St. John from Peoria, Illinois.

Husband, baby and I went to do some work on cleaning up our condo that we will finally be putting on the market again. Although we were originally intending to sell it, we had rented it out to some relatives as they had three small children and the place where they were living wasn't fit due to landlord negligence and exploitation. We gave them more than a fair deal but unfortunately the place ended up getting trashed so here we are again spending thousands to clean it up and put it back on the market.

It feels like we have had to work hard (and are still working) to get our lives and our finances back together. Husband was unemployed about two years ago for a few months which was what really put us in the hole. We are also gradually getting out of a traumatic situation (of which the condo situation is only part of the story )where we were able to help some of our family during a difficult time but now are looking to move on as we have continued to take less and less responsibility for these peoples' lives.

I know these particular family members really did need our help, but we also had a tendency to take on more responsiblity for them than we should have. It is time to let go as we have been and let them take responsiblity for their own lives. We have done what we could for them and now it is God's hands and theirs.

Friday, April 24, 2009

On the Homestretch

I am working to get my son through the end of the year and trying to push him through until July (this is when the baby is due). Our goals are to get math, Rome, and writing done.

Math- This would be getting through Saxon 7/8 2nd ed.

Rome-This would mean getting through the Haaren's Famous Men of Rome.

Writing & Language-This would mean getting through Sandra Garant's Writing Workshop. We signed up for this through Catholic Heritage Curricula. I would also like to have him complete the first half of Linga Mater: Language Lessons from Literature by Margot Davidson but this may not happen.

Religion-We were working on St. Joseph's Baltimore Catechism #2 but haven't done too well since Easter. We had also been working on The Virtue's of Jesus

Other-G also takes Spanish and Orchestra at the local Jr. High every other day as well as participating in a local Future Problem Solvers homeschool group.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Where do I go from Here?

I put myself on the blog list for Catholic Mothers Online. I feel like this blog is becoming more of a sounding off place for political and moral issues than it is me talking about being a Catholic Mother. Maybe I'll start another blog.

As far as Catholic Mothering I'm not sure there's too much to write about there. That involves more personal things. How much of my life do I want to let hang out there? Other Mother's write about homeschooling and have pictures of their children on their blogs. I love reading these blogs but am not sure that is for me. We'll see.