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Closing out 2011

A most blessed New Year to you all!

We had a great end to last year and a very blessed beginning to 2012.

After about 3 weeks of being sick, I finally was back up to health the week before Christmas. It was just in time to find out that I had failed my first glucose test for gestational diabetes. Not to be beat by it, I put myself on a gestational diabetes diet the week before and after Christmas. I made sure to exercise almost every day and by the time I took my second test, I passed with flying colors. But I cheated on my diet last weekend and I definitely felt a difference, so I put myself back on it.

Christmas was wonderful. We went to Mass on Christmas Eve and drove to my parents’ house on Christmas Day. After 25 years they are closing down their video store. It’s been part of our lives since I was in the 5th grade. They truly deserve to retire and enjoy their 60s. This will also give them an opportunity to visit us and my other siblings more often. They had to move out of their building by the 31st. So they told us to take all and any movies we wanted. To that end, we came home with a box of movies to add to our collection. Of course since the quality of movies has gone down in the last decade, it was a small box!

It is certainly a blessing to spend time as a family and Adam was off  last week. I find it sad when parents don’t know how to spend time with their kids and “can’t wait until school starts again.” I don’t know how to be without my kids. We’ve kept busy playing with their Christmas toys (Legos and Calico Critters were a big hit this year) and games, watching movies, having afternoon tea parties, going on walks on the neighborhood bike trail and playing Pooh Sticks on the bridges. They haven’t complained about being bored and we’re enjoying our second week off until we start school again next week.

Adam finished out the year meeting his 2011 goal of making chocolate bean to bar. I am so proud of him. He’s worked so hard this last year reading and taking an online course. When I am fast asleep in our warm cozy bed, he’s up reading another book, looking up new information, learning how to do this and that. He amazes me. And the chocolate came out great! It is a 70% Dominican Republic. I love that all it has is cacao beans and sugar!!–no palm oils, soy lecithin, no extra anything!

We spent New Years Eve with our friends the Shearers who will be moving back to Austin sometime in February. Elizabeth was my confirmation sponsor some 13 years ago and they are Fulton’s God parents. We are also God parents to their oldest son. After 10 years living in different cities, it’s going to be fun getting to know them again while living only 15 minutes from each other!

And to start off our New Year, I received great news that Cecilia may soon be done with her speech and developmental therapy. Her developmental therapist said yesterday, “You know, I don’t think I really need to see her again.” I like the sound of that! She is as delightful as ever and even more so with all her new words and phrases.

The next three months will be busy and go very fast. Between all the schooling and field trips, we will look forward to our 9th anniversary next week. Then Therese will turn 8 (wow!) the week after and we’ll celebrate her and Fulton’s baptism anniversaries. One of my best friends will be visiting from California in early February and the Shearers will be moving down. We’ll also be helping plan a marriage retreat at our parish that will take place in late March. Oh yeah and we have Baby G’s arrival right around the corner in late March or early April.

 

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O Antiphon House and Coins

Today we begin the great O Antiphons! The O Antiphons are the antiphons that are read before the Magnificat during the vespers of the liturgy of the hours from December 17 until December 23 . Each one highlights a title for the Messiah: O Sapientia (O Wisdom), O Adonai (O Lord), O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse), O Clavis David (O Key of David), O Oriens (O Rising Sun), O Rex Gentium (O King of the Nations), and O Emmanuel. (You will recognize those from the song, O Come O Come Emmanuel.)  Also, each one refers to the prophecy of Isaiah of the coming of the Messiah.

Yesterday the kids made their O Antiphon houses. This year I also included a new tradition of O Antiphon coins. Each night the kids peek in the window of the day and find out what the O Antiphon is, then  we read the O Antiphon and they can enjoy one coin. 

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Fulton turns 6

It’s hard to believe that our little guy is already 6 years old. He’s an amazing young man. This year out of the blue and I’m not quite sure where he got this idea, he wanted to put on a play for his friends. After a little bit of discussing, we settled on a play of Our Lady of Guadalupe since he’s birthday is the day before the feast of OLG. That week I was fighting off a cold (and still am), but somehow we managed to pull it off. However the drama didn’t end with the play. Fulton got a stomach bug and was sick during the party. Two of the other children came down with it overnight and I got it the next morning.

But all in all, the party was great and the kids and Adam did a great job on their first play!

Celebrating St. Nicholas

We celebrate good St. Nicholas on his feast day, December 6. This year I took the kids to “Breakfast with Santa” the weekend before while Adam was on a retreat. On the feast of St. Nicholas we had friends over for a party. We read St. Nicholas books, made bags of food for the homeless, and decorated St. Nicholas cookies. That afternoon the kids also had a choir concert at a local nursing home.  At the end of the day the kids opened their stockings. I filled them with gold chocolate coins with pictures of St. Nicholas on them and a little St. Nicholas chocolate. Their big stocking gift didn’t arrive until the next day. This year the kids got prayer pillowcases. Therese got the one of St. Therese. Fulton got St. Michael the Archangel. Gianna got Our Lady of Grace. And Cecilia got Our Lady of Guadalupe.

And since the next day, December 7, was the feast of St. Ambrose, we used the leftover cookies to make St. Ambrose and I also made some yummy beehive rolls!

Belated Birthday Post

One thing I love about my husband is his creativity. This year for his birthday (back Nov. 20) he picked a winner of a theme. BACON! We made some bacon tomato bread, bacon wrapped shrimp, and bacon brownies. Friends brought some delicious dishes to share! It was some great fun!

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Homeschooling Update

The last month has been a quiet homeschooling month. We did make one field trip in October to the Texas Hill Country Olive Company. It was fabulous! The kids enjoyed it–especially the tasting. We learned a lot about olive trees and the process to make olive oil. The staff was very friendly and accommodating of all the children.

Otherwise, the children are trucking along in their academic year. One thing I really appreciate about homeschooling is the ability to move at the learning pace of the child. Fulton is almost done with 1st grade math and he’s a super whiz. Adam says he has my brains but I don’t think I could do what he’s doing at his age. He’s starting 4 digit addition this week and not even tripped up! He can add two 2-digit numbers in his head, no problem. Therese is also moving on to 3rd grade math next month. The RightStart Math curriculum has a very long Level C which is supposed to be 2nd grade; it took us a little over a year working through part of the summer. But I’m not concerned at all because Therese is doing great and she’s far more confident and happy with math than she was before we started RightStart. I think Baby G is going to be a math person. It seems that s/he is always kicking and moving around when I’m teaching those lessons.

Botany has been a lot of fun. I really enjoy the Apologia Science series. Today was the first day that we ran into a project that didn’t work. But we just move on. Going on walks has been so much more fun as we identify the flowers and now the leaves we’ve learned about. Therese is a superstar in science. Fulton is 5 and I have to remember that. :) The material is pretty dense and I have to remember that most kindergarten age kids, aren’t doing much more with plants than planting seeds or measuring the growth of seeds with non-standardized measuring tools. At least he remembers what cotyledons are. He’ll revisit it with Gianna and Cecilia later.

History and Catholic history have also been interesting. Between Therese’s history lessons and EPIC:  A Journey Through Church History, I must say that having a broader picture and the Catholic perspective on events has really given me much to think about. Learning about the context that the Saints became Saints and martyrs have died for Christ and His Church, have giving me a deeper respect for the holy men and women that have come before us. We’re one episode from the end of EPIC, but I’ll need to go back for some lessons with Therese. I hope we can do Fr. Robert Barron’s Catholicism next, but we shall see what the Holy Spirit guides us to do.

Oh and did I mention the recent fascination with Chess? All the kids except Cecilia are playing it. Fulton ran downstairs one day after his bath saying, “C-H-E-S-S, here I come!” It was so funny. He’s certainly better than me. I JUST learned how to play. It boggles my mind that he can just see all different kinds of plays. Thankfully Adam plays with him too.

Gianna is just itching to start school, but I can’t yet. I will probably start her reading in January when we start back up. She’s certainly ready. She knows all her letters and sounds and numbers.

Cecilia’s speech is coming along. She was recently re-evaluated because she met all her goals from July. She has been saying many more words and now we need her to say them legibly–like “Jesus” should sounds like “Jesus” and not like “tito” or “umbrelalala” just needs one ‘la’ at the end.It’s been a little rough having two speech appointments  during the week, but it’s worth the progress she has made. She LOVES the iPad. We put a couple of flashcard apps and a puzzle app called Tozzle. Speaking of which it is now time to tear her away from it and undergo the torture of the two year old tantrum.

Happy Baptism Anniversary

Today is sweet Cecilia’s Baptism Anniversary. Just two years ago she became a daughter of God.

As is our tradition, we lit her Baptism candle, blessed her with Holy Water and prayed over her.

She’s such a funny little girl. We love her so much! Happy Anniversary, Cecilia!

NFP: Blessing or Burden?

Natural Family Planning was a hot topic today on Relevent Radio’s The Inner Life, a call-in program providing spiritual direction. I am addressing it here because there were at least two people who called in “burdened by the Catholic Church’s teaching on NFP.” I didn’t hear the entire program as the children and I were going to Mass, but what I did hear did cause some concern in my mind. I would go so far as to say, these women are not burdened by the Church’s teaching but by what they THINK is the Church’s teaching.

One of the ladies is a mother of 9 children married 17 years who is frustrated with what she cannot give her children. She is frustrated by the poverty in which her family lives and faced with the reality that she and her husband probably won’t be able to send their kids to parochial school next year. The other woman is a mother of 5 who is overwhelmed and doesn’t feel she can give her children an adequate spiritual education she would like. Both blame the Church’s teaching on the use of Natural Family Planning and I would go a step further to say they really have a beef on it’s teaching on the  openness to life.

I felt sad for both of them. Not for the situation they are in, as God has called them to have the children they have. But I am sad for their misunderstanding of the Church’s teaching and the lack of support they have in their community.

Every month for the past five years Adam and I have been teaching a Natural Family Planning Basic Information Session to couples engaged to be married in the Catholic Church. I give an overview of NFP methods and the medical science behind them. Adam gives an overview of the Church’s teaching on human sexuality.  Adam likes to joke with the couples and say, “The Catholic Church does not have an investment in 15 passenger vans!” Ultimately the Church calls married couples to RESPONSIBLE PARENTHOOD. What does this mean? From Paul VI’s encyclical Humane Vitae:

With regard to physical, economic, psychological and social conditions, responsible parenthood is exercised by those who prudently and generously decide to have more children, and by those who, for serious reasons and with due respect to moral precepts, decide not to have additional children for either a certain or an indefinite period of time. [emphasis mine]

The Church teaches that every act of the marital embrace should be open to life. Does every act need to end in the conception of a child? No. If there are serious reasons, a married couple can decide not to have children for a period of time. Those “serious reason” will vary from one couple to another. If a couple has a serious reason not to have another child, that’s where NFP comes in.  A couple can use natural methods that do not change the function of the woman or the man, or interfere with conception, to postpone pregnancy. A woman is not fertile all of the time and modern methods of NFP teach the married couple to identify biological markers associated with their fertility.

Is NFP a blessing or a burden? I would say a blessing. Why? Because married couples have the opportunity to ask each month, “Is there a serious reason why we should not have another child at this time?” And they have the opportunity to discuss it honestly and act accordingly. And I know there are people who think there’s really not a good enough reason to say no to the question ever. And it’s easy to say that when your family can live on one income and you can still afford to hire a nanny, every one’s  in great health and you can put your kids in all kinds of private extracurricular activities, you have family in town that can help with the kids, and you have a supportive environment. The women I mentioned above are obviously not in that boat. And unfortunately their children will witness their resentment.

On a personal note, Adam and I have used the method to postpone pregnancy at times when God had other plans. The most recent example, last year when we found out my sister had cancer, we put growing our family on hold. She told me after all her chemo she would need a bone marrow transplant. With modern medicine, the doctors said they could harvest her stem cells and transplant them back into her. However there was a small chance that if her stem cells were not “clean” enough, she would need a bone marrow donor. If that was the case, as her sister I would be the best match and in order to be a donor I could not be pregnant. So we felt called with all those “ifs” that we would wait until after her transplant to discuss have more children. We have no regrets and believe that God was calling us to wait.

The Church’s teaching on responsible parenthood is not always easy. Using NFP is not always easy. They require sacrifice and Christ-like love. They also require us to look deeper into our souls at what the meaning of happiness is. The world would certainly want us to believe happiness lies in the stuff you can acquire instead of the love you can create and  give. They also require us to take to prayer our concerns and take to the Sacrament of Reconciliation our faults so as to  discern what God’s holy will is for our lives. And  when we do His holy will, we can trust that He will give us our daily bread.

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All Hallows Eve

Happy Eve of All Saints Day! This year our Saint costumes include, St. Gianna (doctor and mother), St. Patrick (bishop of Ireland), St. Therese of the child Jesus (Carmelite nun and doctor of the Church), and Bl. Imelda Lambertini (Dominican nun and patroness of 1st Communicants).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The older kids were really proud of the saints they chose this year. I think Fulton is now inspired to be a priest with great fervor! I personally think he just likes yielding a large stick and wearing the miter. Therese really enjoyed watching the videos of her Aunt Sr. Maria Kolbe who is a Dominican Sister of Mary explain the parts of her habit.  (I had Sr. tell me about her habit when we saw her this summer.) So I tried to make the most important parts. Gianna enjoyed learning more about the saint who is her namesake. And Cecilia had to wear our typical 2 year old St. Therese outfit. When she learns to say more words, she can be choosy. :)

The kids also helped decorate the door with some saint pictures and were so happy to come home (after getting their own loot) to pass out holy cards and candy! Therese and Fulton gave the little girls the pumpkin candy bags and over the weekend made their own Saint buckets. They are so creative, awesome, and sweet! I love my kids!

Over the weekend we also went to the Festival of Saints at a local parish. It was put on by some awesome young adults! They had great Saint games and it was so fun to see all the different Saints the children were dressed as and to see many of our homeschooling friends. Our kids had a great time and can’t wait to go again next year. Cecilia and Gianna were  big fans of all the candy. Therese and Fulton enjoyed playing the games and collecting the prizes.

And now to sit back, relax and spend the month of November learning about new Saints and praying for the soul in purgatory.

 

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Chicken Tortilla Soup Recipe

My wonderful husband enjoys my cooking most of the time. But very few times do I get compliments on his FB. A whole 2 people asked for the recipes, so that’s enough for me to post it.

Chicken tortilla soup recipe (crock pot)

1 quart chicken broth
1 can diced tomatoes
1-10oz can green chilies
1 cup frozen corn
2 cups black beans ( I usually have beans in the freezer that I’ve cooked just for this, but you can also use one can of drained and rinsed beans)

4-5 long carrots peeled and chopped
1/4 to 1/2 onion chopped
3 stalks celery chopped
1 tbs minced garlic
3 tbs oil

1-1/2 to 2lbs chicken breast cooked and cubed ( or half of a whole chicken deboned.)

Put the first 5 ingredients in your crock pot. I usually have frozen chicken tenderloins that I put in the oven to bake while I sauté the veggies. Sauté the carrots, onion, celery and garlic in the oil until onion is tender. When the onions mix is ready, add it to your crock pot. When the chicken is done, cube it and add it to the crock pot as well. Cook on high for at least 2-1/2 hours or the carrots are tender. It can simmer on low or warm all day if you start it in the  morning.
We serve with at least broken tortilla chips and cheddar cheese on top. Adam likes to add sour cream. Avocado is also very good on top when available. It usually fills our crock pot and good for 2 family meals. It freezes easily. Sometimes I’ll freeze half for another dinner.

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