Mama-luia

Hurray! We have made it successfully through three months of 'real' homeschooling. I want to just pause and say... I am proud of that. It is morphed into something different than perhaps I had envisioned a year ago, or even in the end of August, but in many ways it is better than those expectations of mine had been. Having Patrick so actively involved has been a tremendous blessing. Because seriously, I do not get how women look after babies and tots while still making any headway teaching an older child Math & Phonics. I know it works for some families. But that wouldn't work for ours. Not without a pharmacy of anti-anxiety drugs or a maid. What we have devised has been wonderful, however: concentrated phonics, Math and catechism lessons for an hour a day for Noah taught by Patrick, while I play with the littles and work on letters and so on with Isaiah. Then throughout the day I do art, music, readalouds, science, baking and other life skills (how to make...

I'm sure you understand why I didn't post our All Saints' Day activities; Anna was all of five days old when we suited up the boys to attend our parish's All Saints' party. Besides simply being worn out from having such a new baby, the entire day was a crazy scene. To give you some perspective, the previous evening, Patrick tucked the kids in, I sat on the couch nursing the baby, and my mom took it upon herself to sew the boys' costumes. (We already had a cassock for Isaiah, as it was a hand-me-down from Noah {the story of my poor middle child's life} but she needed to sew a cassock for Noah and a surplices for each child. Their one request was to go as altar boys. The "saint" part was completely irrelevant to them. {In an attempt to catechize them, however, Patrick and I would correct them whenever they said they were 'altar boys' and tell them they were St. Dominic Savio and St. John Berchmans.}.) Within moments of her sitting d...

1. We went apple-picking in the Valley, on a glorious sunny October Thursday. I talked Patrick into taking a day off mid-week, and it was heaven. We picked 60 pounds of apples, and did our first attempt at food preservation -- freezing, making apple butter, and apple cider. 2. I burnt the apple cider. (Note in the above that I said it was an "attempt.) 3. I realized that some blogs I had been reading are actually not healthy for me mentally or spiritually. This could be worthy of its own post, but suffice to say, unless I am your personal friend or I find your blog a source of encouragement to my vocation, I can't read it anymore. If every time I sit down to read it, I think "How in heaven's name are they DOING all these crafts/homemade delicious food-whatevers/attachment parenting victories etc.?" and simultaneously feel bad about myself as a mother, it's not helpful. Yes, yes I know, we all have a tendency to compare our worst moments to each othe...

Thank you all for your prayers. It means a lot to me and Patrick. I promised to keep you updated on us, and so here I am. I would like to do an Advent post soon, but I think that will have to wait until... um... closer to Advent when I actually dig out our decorations and have something to photograph! So instead, I thought I would show you Noah in his All Saints costume, albeit intensely late. Before that, though, I would like to say that I don't want to give the impression that I think Halloween or trick-or-treating is "evil." Heavens, no! I am concerned about how some families celebrate Halloween, either by allowing their kids to dress up in frightening costumes or decorate their homes in creepy ways, or both. But other than that, Halloween is so much fun. I know many lovely families who celebrate Halloween, go trick-or-treating and so on, and I think that is great! In actual fact, I think trick-or-treating is delightful because it gets neighbours who ...

Oh what a truly pun-ny title, given that we are in the midst of getting ready for All Saints Day here in Craine Corner. Yet what actually inspired me to write that title wasn't so much the theme of tomorrow's party but rather the amazing help I received today. Since Patrick is away this weekend , and won't be arriving home until about 45 minutes before our little All Saints party begins, I am left with doing all the prep work. I must have expressed my terror at the thought quite vividly to my family, because my in-laws offered to baby-sit Noah for the morning while I got some preparations done. As well, my father offered to come during this toddler-free time to lend a hand. If that wasn't enough, and really, it is more than enough, my in-laws returned with Noah in time for his nap, but stayed until close to supper hour to help out! My father, likewise! My house is almost immaculate right now! Something I haven't enjoyed since... well... the last time Pat...