Archive for » September, 2008 «

Fireproof

13 Sep 2008 by

The other week Sharon and I went to a premier showing of:

Fireproof the movie

Yes, you heard that right. We both went to a movie without the kids. I believe that’s called a “date”. :)

Fireproof will do for marriages what Bella did for the pro-life movement, and then some. This movie is rock-solid. It addresses many evils out there that destroy marriage – selfishness, pornography, money, jealousy, unwillingness to forgive, and affairs. It didn’t back down from the fact that 1) marriage is hard work that takes time and 2) Love is Sacrifice. The conclusion is that God is merciful and his grace saves all.

It is a movie with a Christian message for anyone wherever they are in their faith. The ministerial Web site, www.fireproofmymarriage.com, has a number of wonderful marriage enrichment and counseling resources. We were especially excited to see there’s even a special section for Catholics – given that the Church has always taught that divorce is unacceptable and has provided a great number of resources for married couples for many years.

My advice for every married couple out there: do whatever it takes to see this movie. Even if your marriage is strong, it’ll make it stronger. If you have kids, get a sitter. Swap an evening of babysitting with another couple. See it together. Spread the word. It’s a must-see.

Category: Uncategorized  4 Comments

Hurricane Approacheth

12 Sep 2008 by

The last of friendly skies to the northwest.

Before the Storm

Clouds are building up in the southeast as Hurricane Ike begins to make landfall. May the Lord protect all those in harms way.

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54-Day Rosary Novena…

11 Sep 2008 by

“For the outcome of the November election that is pleasing to Almighty God and which best serves the eternal and temporal interests of all His children.”

…begins today!  Please join us.

http://www.electionnovena.org/

(The first 27 days are in petition and the last 27 days are in thanksgiving.)

Category: Faith  One Comment

“It was the way we always did.”

10 Sep 2008 by

Therese and I are reading the book, A Pair of Red Clogs, by Masako Matsuno for our Five in a Row book this week.

In the book the little girl, Mako, gets a new pair of red clogs that shortly thereafter she cracks playing a game with her friends. She almost does a dishonest thing to get a new pair-she dirties the broken pair so much that her mother would want to buy her another pair.  But instead her mother sends her to clean her shoes.  Mako reflects,

“And I remember that you should try to clean a thing first before you decide to buy a new one. It was the way we always did.”

What a lesson in stewardship!  That was not the way I grew up.  If something broke, I don’t remember my dad going to a whole lot of trouble to fix anything.  He was of the, “let’s go buy a new one,” mentality.  On the other hand, I think Adam grew up like Mako.  And over the last six years, he’s been working on me.

Remember our camera that was sent off to Canon for repairs? Well, it was because Adam did his research to find the problem and discovered that there was a recall on the camera.  And if the part was indeed faulty, Canon would fix our camera free of charge.   Well, guess what arrived today–less than 2 weeks since we sent it off?  That’s right, our camera!!! In working order. And this was a great learning lesson when FedEx rang the doorbell and the camera arrived while we were reading this book!  This is one of the things I absolutely LOVE about my husband.  He doesn’t like to create unnecessary waste or make unnecessary expenses.  The camera still meets our needs as long as it’s working.  And now it works again and it didn’t cost us anything but a little of his time.

I hope someday, our children will get this virtue of stewardship from their dad and think fondly of his hard work and say, “It was the way we always did.”

Category: Budgeting, Family, Uncategorized  One Comment

From the creators of The Priest Game

10 Sep 2008 by

Dear All,

            We are writing today to ask each of you for your help.  The Priest Game has been a beautiful gift from God to our family and we would like to ask that you help us by forwarding this e-mail to as many as possible to spread the word or even include information about this game on you blog sites, Facebook accounts, etc.  Just help us spread the word!  We have already had internet orders from 12 different states and much to our surprise; we had our first contact last night from a national company who wants to include this with their Christmas flyer. 

The Priest Game can be purchased individually and in cases of 6 from our web site.  A case of 6 is the best deal since we do offer free shipping on those purchases.  Many cases are selling all over and in fact, we have 2 cases to process from an order in North Carolina .  We also offer this as a fundraiser for parishes and organizations and once again to our surprise, the first inquiry we are working on is from San Diego .  The Holy Spirit is amazing and has worked such wonders through all of this.

            Our web address is www.catholickidsgames.com. More information about the game, the fundraising scale and ordering can be found on our site.

            Thank you for all your help in spreading the word about The Priest Game, which helps in spreading our beautiful Catholic faith.  There is much work to be done!

            God Bless each of you!

            Ken and Michelle Newcomb

            Catholic Kids’ Games

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Happy Birthday Mary!

08 Sep 2008 by

We had a great day celebrating Mary’s birthday today! We had a few friends over…of all ages…even younger than Gianna!

I printed 9 different images of apparitions our Blessed Mother on a half sheet of card stock.  We talked a little bit about how God sent Mary to different placed around the world to show His love for us. Then we put tag on the country where Mary appeared–thanks to Mrs. Bradley, former military, who helped me with some world geography.  Then each child chose a picture of Mary and the kids cut them to make puzzles.  Therese chose Our Lady of Medjugorie and Fulton chose Our Lady of Guadalupe!  We also played pin the crown on Mary.  Then we talked about giving a gift to Mary for her birthday and each child made a card with his/her gift–such as “I will be nice to Therese,” or ” I will share with Fulton.”  Finally since our family are all Knights of the Immaculata, we talked about being Knights for Mary!  The older kids made a shield and put things on their shield that would fight for or that would protect them like Jesus and Mary.

Of course no birthday celebration is complete without birthday cake.  So we sang happy birthday to our Blessed Mother.  While we were at it we also sang happy birthday to Little Muffin who turns one on Sunday.

Mary our Queen, pray for us!

Category: Faith, Family  3 Comments

Kindergarten Week 3

05 Sep 2008 by

My mantra this week when Adam asked, “Did you do [such-and-such],” was, “Sorry, I didn’t get to it because we did….” I think I must have said this to him at least once a day.

The biggest accomplishment this week was Therese blending two sounds together fluently and Fulton mastering his short vowel sounds.  All of this was in the midst of transitioning Gianna to a one-nap-per-day schedule, a trip to the library where we checked out almost half the kids’ section, two field trips, and a couple of naps for myself!

Since Adam was off on Monday, we ventured out to Inner Space Caverns in Georgetown.  I hadn’t been to caverns since before we were married and Adam and the kids had never been.  It’s certainly one of those outings that you are in awe of God’s creations–His secret masterpieces.  Fulton LOVED it.  He kept saying, “This is awesome.  I like this place, Mommy.”  Perhaps he’ll study geology like Dr. Cey.  Therese on the other had was only happy when we left.

Today we went out to Pioneer Farms for their Home school day.  I hadn’t been out there in almost 10 years.  I used to volunteer there when I was in college with some of their events and actually helped restore the James Bell Homestead when it first arrived at the farm before they had the funding for the whole makeover.  I scraped many a wall of lead-based paint and filled many a hole with putty.  There was good crowd today but I was surprised and almost sad to see that whole housing communities have surrounded it.

I had to take pictures with my old film camera…hopefully the pictures will come out. I’ll post them later sometime.

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In all fairness…

03 Sep 2008 by

even though I stay at home with the kids all day, I shouldn’t be the first person to witness ALL their milestones.  The kids DO have a dad after all that spends a fair amount of time with them.  Gianna took her first steps TWICE for Adam tonight.  The best I could get was some free standing.

Category: Family  3 Comments
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