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Right Brained?

03 Dec 2009 by

We’ve picked up on our homeschooling the last few weeks. This is one of the reasons I haven’t done a lot of posting here.

Therese has been doing well. Of course her favorite school time is anything that involves her friends such as her Latin. We’ve been hitting the reading and writing pretty rigorously since we started. In my estimation she’s doing great! On Monday, she read the entire third chapter of the book of Genesis. That was the first time she read a whole chapter from the bible.

Her handwriting has improved tremendously over the last three months as has her spelling. We’ve already finished the 1st grade books in those areas. And we’re almost finished with the 1st grade English book and book on maps and graphs.  Of course she still LOVES to draw and write letters.

Now because I’ve stressed the reading and writing so much, her math skills are not where I’d like them to be. So, over the next few months I’m probably going to pick up the intensity of that with more science and reinforce the grammar and spelling we’ve learned.

For now it appears as if Therese is taking after her father and leaning toward the right brained population.

Category: Family, Homeschooling  Leave a Comment

Santa Claus or St. Nicholas?

02 Dec 2009 by

Advent is upon us!

Sunday, I pulled out the Jesse Tree ornaments I painted last year along with our Advent wreath and stockings. Those are the only decorations that go up for a while until the Christmas tree as some point. Then Monday rolls around and Therese and Fulton are writing letters to Santa with a list of things they want.

hmmm.

We’re not sure where they got this idea. It was certainly not from us. Adam and I don’ t do Santa Claus. I know it’s a touchy subject and some readers probably think we’re only a hair shy of being scrooges. We’re not trying to take the “fun” out of the season. But we’ve been very careful the last few years about guiding the kids in what Advent and Christmas is really about– preparing our hearts and minds for the coming of Christ not only as the babe in the manger, but as the living God who nourishes us at every Mass. Secondly, we don’t want to lie to the kids about a Santa who brings them stuff.

St. Nicholas (not Santa Claus) has his place in the liturgy, on December 6, we celebrate his feast day with great joy! That is the day we open up our stockings. (I got the idea from my dear friend Misty that PJ’s make a great stocking suffer. So a couple of months ago, I got some nice cozy PJ’s for all the kids.)  It’s also around the time we make a fresh batch of bags of food for the homeless. And we make a run driving around to deliver the bags to  feed those that don’t have food and to teach the kids that St. Nicholas was a saint with a generous heart who gave to others and that is what we are called to do as well. The past couple of years  we’ve also taken the time to drive out to Burnet to Main Street Bethlehem to stay close to the reason for the season.

So how did we respond to their letters to Santa? Well, we talked with the kids about who Santa Clause really is…St. Nicholas. And what it means to be a Saint (ie. a holy man up in heaven now)…and how we talk to people in heaven (prayer)…and we should be like St. Nicholas and give to those who don’t have…and gifts and blessings that the children get are from Jesus and HE works through mom and dad and other friends in our lives.

When people come up to the kids and bring up Santa, I  simply say, “Right, we celebrate St. Nicholas on his feast day, Dec 6. We celebrate Jesus’ birthday on Christmas.”

Category: Faith, Family  2 Comments

Happy Birthday Adam!

20 Nov 2009 by

Today is my beloved’s 33rd birthday. Thanks be to God for his life and his vocation as husband and father.
Today he decided he wanted to go on a brewery tour at Real Ale in Blanco, Texas. Afterwards we drove up to Marble Falls and went to the Bluebonnet Cafe for some country cookin’ and pie (and dancing M&Ms)!
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Happy birthday, dear! We love you!

Category: Uncategorized  2 Comments

Baptized in Christ

18 Nov 2009 by

Our dear sweet Cecilia Rose was baptized this past Saturday. Adam’s mom and Fr. Tim flew down from Indiana for the big day when all her sins would be wiped clean and she would become a child of God and a sister in Christ! At the end of the Mass, Fr. Tim consecrated her to our Blessed Mother as he has done with all the children.

We had many friends and family join us. Brad and Misty Cey and family came from Houston to give us the honor of serving as Cecilia’s Godparents. Thank you all! You made the day such a blessing.

Here are some of the highlights (photographed by the talented Misty Gretencord (thank you!) and our neighbor, Chris).

Her God mother, Misty, made her a beautiful baptismal gown (her talents never cease to amaze me) and a friend from church, Bunny, knitted her little white booties for the day.

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Pre-baptism distractions…

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The kids were captivated with Grandma’s iphone!

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Even though they always have been, now the Ceys are ‘officially’ part of the family!

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Grandma with her 5 Texan grandchildren!

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Little Grace discovering God makes babies smaller than her.

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…and after the long day, Cecilia was quite pooped!

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Category: Faith, Family  4 Comments

Pumpkin Ale Success

11 Nov 2009 by

“This is really close (to perfection).”

That was the top response I received from the folks at Austin Homebrew Supply after asking them to sample my Pumpkin Ale. Honestly I was a bit surprised. I knew the beer had an imperfection or two but apparently not as noticeable as I had believed.

Photo is too dark. The beer is more red-orange in color.

Photo is too dark. The beer is more red-orange in color.

They pointed out that it’s a bit light on body and has just a tinge of astringency. This is most likely due to mash temps dropping too low. Also in small batches imperfections tend to show more. They offered some advice on how to keep the temperature high (reheat and recirculate liquor during steps) and boost the body (Carapils®). I’ll definitely try these suggestion next time around.

Category: Homebrewing  One Comment

Cecilia at 6 weeks

01 Nov 2009 by

I told Adam that I think Cecilia is hitting that age where she look less like a generic new born baby and getting more character.  She’s starting to make all those cute little baby faces including her first smiles. She weighed 9 lbs 5 oz at 5 1/2 weeks.

Cecilia scrunchy 5week

Cecilia yawn 5 weeks

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Cecilia head up 5 weeks

Cecilia surprised 5 weeks

Category: Family  3 Comments

TAL Dinner Pics

01 Nov 2009 by

We saw so many friends at the Texas Alliance for Life dinner this year. Thankfully we’re not short on people to ask to sit at our table. We had some new faces this year including three of the Dominican Sister of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, Sr. Mary Jacinta, Sr. Mary Cecilia, and Sr. Mary David.

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Our neighbors, Chris and Sandie.

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And the newly engaged, Matthew and Lauren.

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Us with Sr. Mary David.

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And our God daughter, Lindsey, with Sr. Mary Jacinta.

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Sr. Mary Cecilia and Sr. Mary Jacinta enjoying our sweet Cecilia.

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Cecilia enjoying a little bit of time with her future God parents, Mr. and Mrs. Cey.

Category: Events, Friends  Leave a Comment

Our Little Saints

01 Nov 2009 by

Halloween
Here are our little saints. This year due to the newest addition to our family, mama didn’t have time to make new All Saints Day costumes, so we recycled the old ones under new names.
Fulton is St. Joseph. Muffin is St. Teresa of Avila. (She even went out to the first house without any shoes–get it? St. Teresa was a Discalced Carmilite.) And Therese wanted to be St. Cecilia in honor of her baby sister. That’s a harmonica in her other hand. And that’s Adam in the back as the side-ways happy dad.

Category: Family, Uncategorized  4 Comments

Employed

30 Oct 2009 by

logoMonday I’ll be heading to work at Enspire Learning.

I want to thank you all for your prayers, help, and encouraging words these past few weeks. You’re all amazing. God bless.

Thanks, Ed.

Category: Work  One Comment

Cecilia at 1 Month

20 Oct 2009 by

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In this photo she is sporting the Kiddopotamus SwaddleMe–or as we like to affectionately call it, the baby straight jacket!

Today she weighed it at 8 lbs 13.5 oz. She gained 13 oz since last week. Since 0.5 oz is the allowable minimum weight gain, she’s putting on the weight very well.  The supplementing is helping her continue to gain and the midwife I’ve been seeing at the birthing center has advised to continue doing what we’re doing.  It’s been very difficult for the mathematician in me to let go of the numbers game–the 2.5-3 hour feeding cycle, the extra oz of supplement, setting and resetting the alarm clock in the middle of the night waking me to wake her to eat. Every so often, I don’t think I’m making enough milk, and I start pumping and doubting and stressing out. Thankfully when my hubby is away from the brew pot, he keeps me in check.

How is the rest of the household holding up? Well, we finally have a working shower in our bathroom! It’s been very nice. Now we have to save up to do the upstairs shower–when Adam secures a new job. It’s taken me over week to bake a loaf of bread because it seem to never be the right time. It took me two days to vacuum two rooms. The laundry beast is about all that I can keep up with because I really don’t have a choice.  We’ve been using more paper plates that our friend Mark brought over the other day because doing the dish–even getting them in the dishwasher is quite an accomplishment. So usually when someone brings a meal, we’re eating on paper plates.

The kids…Therese has been a trooper doing her school work most of the time. It certainly keeps us busy. With this Mother’s Milk tea I’ve been drinking we’ve started an afternoon tea time. She’s just in it for the cookies of course.  Fulton keeps talking about his birthday and everything he wants for it. I’m not sure where this is coming from, I just nod and say, “ok.” Muffin, oh Muffin! Mischief and mayhem is imprinted in her DNA or something. Since the weekend, I’ve found her running the water forever to wash her hands. Saturday, I just found the water running. I don’t even know how long it was doing so.  Yesterday, half the bottle of shampoo was squirted ALL OVER the kids’ bathroom. I’m sure because a certain little two year old thought it was nice smelling hand soap. You would think I would have been able to clean the bathroom then but instead only got far enough to wipe up the mess. I’m sure the toilet is still sudding when the kids flush.

So, we’re still alive.

Category: Family  4 Comments
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