Ahhhh...

On a much needed vacation! Been much to busy, going to do nothing but enjoy the family for the next week! Life will still be there when we get back :)

Happy St. Nicholas day!

I hope every one has a very good Feast of St. Nicholas. Yesterday we went with CCW to sing and deliver gifts to 2 nursing homes
Santa was there
Then we (me and hubby) went to RCIA (I am helping out this year and hubby went for fun) and was given these brand new books by the best Deacon in the world!!! I also was taught a cool card thing from one of the other leaders that I will try to post tomorrow. Happy feast day!!!! Praise God in all things.
On a side note www.stnicholascenter.org has tons of cool things for kids to do and learn about St. Nicholas (the real deal St. Nicholas)

yummy dinners

I have been wanting to do a post on cooking easy healthy meals....

But I just have not gotten to it.

So I decided I would make 1 post with a bunch

of the pictures I had taken.

and just tell you what each meal was.

 gluten free pancakes with fried apples and bananas

 super veggie salad with bok choy and seasoned rice

 baked spaghetti with spinach

 radish salad made with veggies from our garden

 we tried dragon fruit, we're not sure how we feel about it :)

gluten free pretzels



Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

School Planners

At the start of this school year we started using new school planners. This was a free download I had found from The Frugal Family. I printed out a planner for myself, which has space to write daily lesson plans for 3 children. And then I printed each child there own. There were several styles to choose from, and plenty of extras, like calendars, long range planning sheet, objectives sheets for each subject. I put in some of my own extras like, prayers in Latin, chore charts and schedules. After I printed them, took them to Office Max and had them spiral bound. So far the kids love them and so do I! I also makes it a little easier in that, it holds 180 lessons, so once the kids finish I know its time to start a new year. So they can work more at their own pace instead of all working at the same.

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

New Roman Missal Activities For Kids

We will be reviewing Color Me Catholic, The New Roman Missal,

next week, so stay tuned :) 

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

week wrap up

Wow this week (this year really) has flown by.

We managed to stay on track for the most part.

Which is good,

because that is a huge struggle for us.

We started a new school year,

with new school planners!!

We started our Thankful Tree, pictures later this weekend.

I have gotten a little Christmas shopping done.

I decided to shop on BLACK FRIDAY!!

Crazy I know!

Tomorrrow I will be helping a friend do some

lesson planning for her preschooler.

My youngest daughter will be going to sing

at open mic night for the 2nd time!!

Have a blessed weekend.

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

It's been so long!

It has been so long since I have posted anything, it seems like every time I have an idea for a post I either get swamped and am just super busy, or I am feeling under the weather! But I think we are finally in a good schedule, and I am feeling better. So I wanted to post all the things I had planned on, but it would take to long! So I might do 1 or 2 quick posts on some of the other things I had previously planned. But other wise my plan is to do 1-2 posts a week just jumping in where we are in life right now. Have a blessed day. A picture to share from our All Hallows Eve party. And a picture of my children with some children of 2 good friends.

We have a slight interruption of our life skills series, we have a very sick mama! I have been fighting some thing, and yesterday afternoon it hit me like a truck. So I am going to rest, and pray to feel better soon. *prayers for health would be appreciated*

Monday's life skills

Well today is the first day of my teaching life skills series. This is a break down of the things we will learn today.
#1 what are life skills? What life skills do you (the kids) think you need to be a successful adult?
#2 a review of cleaning the major spots in the house, floors carpet and hard, bathroom, dishes, and disinfecting.
Make sure to come back later for more details and pictures.

Life Skills schedule

Ok, here is the schedule for our Life Skills series. (with a little healthy living thrown in)
Monday 10/24
Basics, what are life skills, what life skills do they want to learn, review life skills they have now (mainly cleaning as they have become lax in their chores :)
Tuesday 10/25
Vitamins, which ones they should take and why they need them (I will be going to the health food store this day so I might as well kill 2 birds), Shopping and budgets
Wednesday 10/26
Organization
Thursday 10/27
no school
Friday 10/28
Sewing, we have a co-op class I teach on Fridays already, so we will go with that theme
Monday 10/31
eating with the seasons, cooking and clean-up when you are done!!!! :)
Tuesday 11/1
Produce picking, how to tell if a fruit or veggie is ripe, more cooking and recipes, creating a recipe binder.
Wednesday 11/2
Cleaning supplies, how to make them, what to use when and stain removal.
Thursday 11/3
no school
Friday 11/4
Nutrition (Co-op Class)

I hope you come and enjoy this series with us, God bless and keep you,
Amy
Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

New next week...

I have been inspired, by all the ladies whose blogs I follow that are doing series of blog posts. And so I have decided that next week I will be doing a blog post series on "life skills". We are wrapping up our school year, as we have finished our 180 days. So I thought it would be fun to do a week or 2 on life skills. I will be posting a list over the weekend of what we will be doing each day. I will be blogging twice a day, once in the morning as to what our hopes are for the day, in a little more detail then the list I am posting this weekend, then again in the evening to show some pictures and tell you how things went :)
God Bless.

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

40 days for life

Today started 40 days for life, so we went to the local planned parenthood, and PRAYED. We stayed about 2 hours, we talked with a few other people there to pray. We watched several girls going in to have their abortions. We watched the medical waste truck come to pick up what the planned parenthood officals tell their clients is "waste", but is really the small broken bodies of many, many babies. All in all 17 girls had abortions at that clinic today. But each girl had people pray for her, and her baby. As emotional as it was, we will be going back often, during the 40 days for life and after.

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

Great post by The Modest Mom

A great post from The Modest Mom

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

some this and that

Whew...where has the time gone?? We are almost done with September! I have not posted in so long I do not know if I should try and catch up and write all the posts I had planned on or just skip it and jump in where we are now? In the mean time THIS is 1 of the things keeping me busy, THIS is another. I found them both HERE, and I found the link from THIS site. Have a blessed day.
Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

I got a new book :)... and poison ivy :(

I will start with a warning, PLEASE always wear long pants, nylons, a long skirt, knee high socks, something that covers your legs fully whenever you go geocaching with your family! Poison ivy is no fun!!!
Now for the fun stuff, I bought a new book, it was very cheap being it was a "hurt" book from IGNATIUS Press, it is titled Designing your own Classical Curriculum by Laura M. Berquist. It looks very interesting. All of the children have subjects that they will be finishing mid-year, and I have been leaning towards a "classical" education, I figured as they finished subjects we would flow in to a curriculum I will make using this book as a guide. The way I figure it I will have this home school thing down by the time the have graduated. ;)

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

Feast days and meal planning

I was just over at Catholic Cuisine, getting tons of ideas for my next month of meal planning, if you have not checked it out, go right now! it has super fun recipes. while I was doing this I was also texting a friend who was kind of shocked I plan a whole month at a time. She said she just wings it each day. I was amazed, "how do you know what to buy" "how do you know what to take out of the frezzer" "what if you want are making tacos and realize you have no cheese" these are the questions running through my mind. But I am  a planner, and I could not wing it, it would stress me out, and add to my spending. She has no problem winging it, and either goes without cheese or runs to pick it up. What kind of shopper/meal maker are you?

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

Blessed Kateri

Today is the feast day of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, and over at Holy Heros they have a free coloring book download, and who doesn't like free!! Enjoy and have a truely blessed feast day, Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha pray for us

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

becuase I like to see what other people are eating...

Yesterday I went and raided our garden of everything that was ready, these two bowls are full of about 3 different kinds of radishes, some jalapeno peppers, and onions, not pictures was the cucumbers, turnips, spinach and green beans. We are trying to eat a much more natural diet, we have been slacking in our food choices lately. So I needed what to make with all of this so it didn't go to waste...

This is the veggie salad we had with dinner, it is radishes, cucumbers, onions, carrots and tomatoes (carrots and radishes are not from our garden)

These are the green/burgundy beans from our garden, I lightly steamed them and they turned out like this...

The kids thought it was pretty cool that they turn green when cooked, so did I ;)

Then I made mostacolli and put spinach in some, but really could have put it in more, because I had planned on only me wanting some, but my son wanted it and older daughter would have too if there had been enough.

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

giving encouragemnet for the everyday

So I saw some cute little cards the other day with little sayings like, God is crazy about you... I just think you are crazy, and, God loves you for just being you... and so do I. they were the 99 cent small cards but when I saw them I instantly thought AHA!! What a great thing to stock up on and give to your kids when they least expect it, like slip a card in their pj drawer so when they go to get ready for bed they find it, or slip it in their math book if you know they have a hard time with the lesson. You get the point. I will have to take some pictures of the cards and the little gifts I plan to slip in some of them for an even extra special pick me up... when I get them, I saw them when the kiddos were with me. Giving your kids encouragement in the everyday is so important,
"you should praise a child 10 times more then you correct them"- Michelle Duggar

**edited for spell check, I was typing really fast and then hit post**



Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

food shopping, in the desert....

After reading what Melissa had to say here, I realized we live in a food desert, while I have the means to drive ands shop elsewhere, unlike the people Melissa talks about in her post, it is a pain to drive 30 minutes or more 1 way, then shop and drive back home. I would much prefer if I could even get most of my food closer to home and maybe only do a once a month "travel" shopping. SO.... I headed over to ALDI the other day, now I have shopped at ALDI before, but never with the mindset of can this be a replacment place to shop? More often I see fruit or veggies in the flyer on sale and run to grab just those things. But here is what I found,
1st our ALDI is SMALL, so the selection was not good and I did not find anything in the "pantry" or frezzer sections that I would buy.
2nd I was happily surprised on the amount of fruits and veggies they had and they were super cheap.
Bananas  $0.93 for 7
Strawberries $0.99 or a pound
Limes $0.99 for 7
Cantaloupe $0.99 each
Tomatoes $1.49 for 7
Green Peppers $0.99 for 3
I bought more, but you get the jist... Now I would still need do go some where else for most of the shopping that I would need to do, but I could run in to ALDI for fruit and veggies and it is only a few blocks away and it is a easy in out type of store.
On the other hand I stopped at HYVEE while my son had an appointment and boy howdy do they have an awesome "health" food section. I used to shop there when we lived in Iowa, and they just built on close to us, and by close I mean 1 hour away. My other option in Woodmans, they have an awesome selection of anything and are pretty cheap. but the are 40 minutes away, But if I was only going once a month, that would not be that bad. my other choices would be Wal-Mart, But I pretty much hate them, so I only go when I HAVE to. We also have a Target and a Jewel, both that I shop at but are not for everyday shopping if you are trying to be frugal :)

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

going into the desert...

after reading Melissa's post here, I realized I live in a food desert, although I can drive and in anywhere from 30-60 minutes be at a store that sells good, organic food that is a long drive round trip plus the time of shopping, cost of gas etc... plus the stores are pretty pricey. So we grow a garden to help somewhat and make do or buy whatever, even if it is not something I would normally buy, coupons don't help much because I got on a kick of buying whatever I got a good deal on, which equals crap food, with a son who has food intolerance's I really need to watch what we eat especially after a vacation at my moms where he ate whatever and now feels like junk!!! so I am off to ALDI to see what I can find, they are about 5 blocks from us, and then to the new HYVEE while my son has a therapy appointment, I am trying to combine trips and time as much as possible!!

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

Sewing link

I just found the funnest sewing project link up here, they have already started and are about 1/2 way done, but I think I am going to start at the beginning and have my girls do it with me, which means it may take way longer then planned in the link up, but it looks like a blast.

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi 

Patron Saints/Names for your home school

This is a good post on the patron saints/names for your home school. We named our school Sacred Heart of Jesus Learning Center, mainly because I would like us all to keep Jesus as our main focus and I really like the pictures of His Sacred heart, which has lead us to have a special devotion to Jesus and His Sacred heart :) and we are a learning center NOT a school because I wanted to teach my children to learn, to love learning and to be able to learn on their own, now and for the rest of their lives, and so calling ourselves a learning center helps me to remember why I am doing this. We do not have a permanent patron saint, we rotate yearly, and we let the kids write a report on which saint they think we should have, the best report wins. We take in to account the child's age and skill level when writing, and supply them with books to get facts and dates from. this year we have, St. Maximilian Kolbe. We will be choosing a new saint next week. This lets us learn  in depth about new saints and celebrate them in a special way. What do you call your school? Who is your patron saint?

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi 

thinking out of the grade level box...

thinking outside of the grade level box
here is a link to a link, both are very good blogs, which is why I am linking to the the first one who linked to the second one, enjoy and good night!


Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

Oh boy....

Ugh, after months of trying to make all of our stuff work in our little apartment I give up! It will not work, not at all. I have to much, plain and simple. I asked my husband to bring home boxes from work and I am packing up all things not needed in the next few months, (our lease is up in November and we will be doing a month to month lease while we look for a house to rent) we may need to live with out books, and most of the toys, fancy kitchen do-dads but the space will be worth it!!!

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi 

uuhhh.......

I so hate it when I am wrong, especially when it is because I did not look at something good enough... While making my lesson plans for the girls history, I noticed that the book on google books is not complete like I had thought. I had skimmed through it and thought it was all there, but about every other chapter it is missing pages. I was just so happy about finding it that I did not pay enough attention to the books. So now I need to decide do I bite the bullet and spend the $80 for the books? I really want them... but $80 is a lot. I have 2 Christian American history books, I could use either 1 of those, but I had really wanted to use Catholic  books.... oh what to do....


Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

This years curriculum

Well here is or lesson plans/curriculum so far. I think I have everything we need and I am hoping that in writing this I will not discover things I forgot :)

I would usually wait to switch books and curriculum until the start of our new year, January 1st, but we have finished early or come to a point in the curriculum where I thought, "wait we need to go back and start over because you are NOT getting this as much as I feel you should". And I am not very concerned about what "grade" they are in, we just move on as we finish and continue in a progressive order. So I am just putting their age and not a grade level for each child, but I will put a grade level for the books. Also this does not include crafty, read a louds and field trips, those are planned weekly. We also only have 4 basic subjects, english, math, history and science. We do Bible/prayer/Catechism together daily. I also included prices and places I got the books to give you an idea of how much we spend for a school year.

Claire age 10

Math- Arithmetic 4 curriculum this is a review unit for her, we had been doing a 6th grade book, but fractions and more so decimals were a struggle. I got this curriculum (teacher workbook key I am just going through and writing the problems in a spiral notebook, my grandpa gives us about 25 each year, for her to use as her "workbook"and teacher lesson book that I will use for the daily teaching lessons) for free at a book sale and decided to just start over, we will be flying through this book just because most of it she has down, but thought it would be more beneficial to start at the beginning and I really like ABEKA.

History- From Sea to Shining Sea grades 5-9 American History from Ignatius Press we will be doing this a combined class with Maria. I found the book on google books and the teachers edition up to chapter 6, but that gives me time to either find the teachers book cheap or go through and make my own tests. 

Science- Science Order and Reality, grade 7, I really like ABEKA books they seem to flow nicely and are easy to use. Claire has not done a science curriculum before she has done unit studies in the past, but looking through this book she has already learned about most of the units, so she will be expanding what she knows. This is another book (just the student book) I got off the free table at the last book sale I went to.

English- Literature and the Language Arts this is a grade 6 textbook that is full of short stories, it focus on reading comprehension and vocabulary and writing skills. I got his curriculum (student book, teacher book and answer key) from my dad, my brother who was home schooled never used it.

Claire age 10 at least 1 year of lessons; cost free

Maria age 12

Math- Saxon 6/5 grade 6, I love Saxon math, I always use Saxon (except for Clarie's review bc I got the ABEKA free) I got this student textbook free from a book sale. We will do 1 lesson a day, Maria was just not as strong as I wanted her to be for math. We will supplement with some of the free resources on the Saxon website.

History- From Sea to Shining Sea grades 5-9 American History from Ignatius Press we will be doing this a combined class with Claire. I found the book on google books and the teachers edition up to chapter 6, but that gives me time to either find the teachers book cheap or go through and make my own tests.

Science- Matter and Motion in God's Universe grade 8 ABEKA. I got this student book from a friend. Maria also has done only unit studies in the past but I like that ABEKA mixes reading and hands on in their books so I think she will enjoy this book.

English- Grammar and Composition I grade 7. I have the teacher book and student book, I got both from my dad unused.

Maria age 12 at least 1 year of lessons: cost free

Pio age 13

Math- Saxon 8/7 grade 8 with pre-algebra. another set of books (teachers, student and test) I got from my dad, we will do 1-2 lessons a week. Depending on how Pio does in the teacher instructed lesson, if he gets it we usually just do part of the mixed practice, if he needs more time to work with it we do the lesson practice and all of mixed practice

History- Christ the King, Lord of History this is a 2 year curriculum book for 9th and 10th grade and is world history. I got he book off a Catholic curriculum swap Yahoo group for $13 including shipping. And found the workbook for it on a Catholic book website, it is in a down loadable/printable form but I will probably just have him answer the questions in a spiral notebook instead of printing it all out (we are all about being cheap frugal around here)

Science- Exploring Creation with Biology High School grades, I have never used anything from Apologia but this is a computer based curriculum, all of the lessons are on that computer disk that runs on Internet explorer and has hands on experimentsPio will answer in a notebook so we can cut out printing costs. This is a really in depth curriculum and I am excited to use it. I only wish it had a timeline of how long each study unit will take. I did not take biology in high school and I am unsure of how easy/hard it will be for Pio, so I do not know how to plan my lessons.

English- Themes in Literature grade 9 (another free table find) similar to Claire's book this is a collection of short stories, poems and the like the are read and have vocabulary and comprehension questions along with each story. It also has writing assignments that go along with each story, so if it is a biography the student might need to write a biography. All assignments are short and able to be done in a day. It also has a timed out loud reading section so once every 9 weeks you can test their reading speed which for me is not a big deal but some people like it. Aslo the teacher book is outlined very well as far as lesson plans, easy to implement.

Pio age 13 at least 1 year of lessons: cost $13

So for 1 year of home school curriculum for 3 children I spent $13 on textbooks. On craft items and printer ink I spend around $100 a year. I try to ask for craft items, glue and that sort of thing from my in-laws who like to by the kids "back-to-school" stuff. And depending on what I find at Good Will and garage sales that number might go down, or up if I have a pricey craft that I have to buy all the items for at a regular store. So all in all not a bad cost considering that school fees in our district are between $160 and $200 a child depending on grade. 

I hope you enjoyed seeing what we are up to. :)
Amy

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

uuggghhh.......

Ughh.... I havebeen busier than a 1 legged man in a.... well you get it, I have all these pposts in my head ready to go, now just to find the time to jot them down. I am hoping that after VBS this week I will be able to get to it, May God bless you all in these wonderful summer months.

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

sorry....

Sorry to anyone that was wanting to see/read the posts I had said I was going to post last week, I was in Michigan with my mom and did not have wifi, ssooo after I get unpacked today I will be posting the link up with raising arrows (if it,s not to late) and the school posts about our upcoming year. have a great day,

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

Well my pots will have to wait until next week, no wifi while on vacation. :( Have a turely BLESSED! week, :)
+JMJ+

???????

Really the 10 worst toys ever, I saw this and could not believe that this was real. please do not click the link with children present. But this speaks volumes to what is wrong with the world today, with companies making these and worse, parents buying them, we really need to PRAY!!!!! for children and families.

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

Well...

Well I was going to do a nice post that I had all planned out in my head but... We went and unloaded a truck and helped fill bags for the local food pantry, and then went to play at the park with our homeschool group, in the 100 degree sunny hotness. Came home and I am beat. we all took a cold shower to cool off and I was going to cook dinner but I think pizza might be a better choice. Which will please my son to no end! Have a great weekend everyone. I plan on doing posts next week out our orginazation, and school plans, so come check me out starting Monday, and starting Wednesday join me in a link up with Amy from Raising Arrows and Caroline from Modest Mom, for She Wears Skirts, where they are inviting all ladies who chose to to show a weeks worth of their skirt outfits. Can't wait! 

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

Top Ten Tuesday- Sewing Projects

This Top Ten is my sewing projects that I am working on right know. Complete with pictures : ) my list is in no order, other then what came to mind first. All projects are in various stages of completion, so you may have to use your imagination on some... but it might get me working harder on some of them so I can do a follow up post. And if you want to join the Top Ten fun, head over to ohamanda to link up.

#1 This little jacket and matching dress and purse for a way too cute 2 year old I know.

#2 I used a old woman's knit top to make this little skirt, and the matching top is an up cycled girls top also for that cute 2 year old.

#3 These quilt squares will one day keep me and the hubby warm on cold winter nights while we watch our shows in bed.

#4 This is an up cycled ladies polo shirt. I just took the sleeves and narrowed the chest a little, Viola a 3T polo dress

#5 I plan on taking in this 2X men's t-shirt and making it a M ladies T

#6 This is a skirt for my older daughter, the white with stars is a band at the bottom of the skirt, I just need to put a waist band on it.... and maybe some pockets

#7 This red white and blue will be a little girls sundress

#8 These 2 little dresses just need the bodice lining put in, add some buttons and button holes and call them done!

#9 I plan on making place mats for the girls with this, they will each have a plain color back, to match the green and pink.

#10 this is a skirt that we found at the GoodWill that was to big, and to long, sooo I chopped off the top and will add a lining and an elastic waistband.

So that is what I have been, and will be working on this week. How about you?
Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

"Hearts at Home"

This is my first "Hearts at Home" post... So for a "Hearts at Home" post if you don't know all ready is a post in which you list 4-6 things that you do, or will be doing this week to encourage yourself and other stay at home moms to keep your "Hearts at Home" put on by Gae over at Cherished Hearts at Home. So on with my post...

This week I will be working on our lesson plans for the fall (and if I am real lucky I might get all the way til spring done) I will be incorporating more crafts and meal prep/planning for my girls and more hobbyish stuff fr my son.

I will continue to pray for help having a gracious and thankful heart, by not letting my grumpies show through when doing housework I don't like, grumbling because it's hot, or being in a mood because my husband is running late coming home from work, instead I will try to focus on the positive of each situation, at least I have a house to clean, it could be cold : ) , and so on.

I am reworking our chore and school schedule so that we have a bit more free time during the day, and more "quick clean" times so that instead of doing a huge block of chores we will be breaking it up through out the day.

I have made some new goals for myself to always have the dishes washed and put away before I leave the house and before I go to bed, and to have the house picked up before my husband comes home each day. These are some things that I think make me feel better which in turn makes me in a better mood and that just flows though to every one else : )

What are you doing this week to keep your "Heart at Home"?


Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

Smart Martha's, a book review

Smart Martha's Catholic Guide for Busy MomsSmart Martha's Catholic Guide for Busy Moms a book by Tammi Kiser
Over all this book was a easy read, with chapters like, Toys 'R' Taking Us Over, which gives you suggestions about keeping toys under control through which toys are meaningful, and how to organize them, and From T-Ball To Trombone, a chapter on how to keep track of all the kids activities. I would recommend this book to any mom, weather they are looking for a organizational book or not, it gives good hints for Catholic moms, without being SO Catholic that other Christan moms could not read it and use the techniques. Her techniques would work well if you have 1 toddler or 10 kids of multiple ages. She just throws out what has worked for her family, 9 kids and a husband. I linked to her web page up top along with a link to Amazon.com, top link. So go out and grab this book or rent it from your local library and see if you can be a Smart Martha!!

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

it's been soooo long

It has been so long since I posted on my poor neglected blog. So many posts I want to write... I do have a book review to do on a really good book, and hope to have it posted by tomorrow night. until then I am going to do a quick link up with The Simple Woman's Daybook

Outside my window... The sun is up and shining, it is going to be a gorgeous day
I am thinking... That it has been way to long since I was at Adoration and glad I was feeling good when I got up this morning so I could go.
I am thankful for... My family and the time we spend together and My Faith
From the learning rooms... We are gearing to slow down for the summer, we go year round, but once May hits we get shorter and shorter days. Today after a quick math lesson and Bible time we will be taking a family bike ride/picnic.
From the kitchen... Bread! yummy, after we all get home I will be baking some bread, but it has been to warm to do to much cooking, sandwich and salad weather I call it ; )
I am wearing... I light weight black with colorful designs skirt and a t-shirt
I am creating... SSSOOOO much sewing happening over here. Dresses and skirts, some gaucho pants for bike riding, and costumes for VBS
I am going... to get my lists together and do some grocery shopping, no extreme couponing this week, but I will be couponing, : )
I am reading... A couple of books, Consoling the Heart of Jesus, is 1 of them.
I am hoping... For a good day, we have a lot to do and I hope we can do it and have fun at the same time.
I am hearing... My youngest, she is giving her horse a check-up and being very quite so she doesn't wake anyone else up.
Around the house...  Sewing, sewing, some more sewing, gardening, biking, cleaning and some school thrown in for good measure.
One of my favorite things... Silly kids
A few plans for the rest of the week: Babysitting a fun pair of twins, as much school as we can squeeze in to maybe get a head, a lot of outdoor time and of course some sewing.
Here is picture for thought I am sharing... Me and my son at the flea market on Sunday.

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

54%

So I have been couponing and today is the first day that I did a "good" job, I have saved a couple of bucks in hte past but today I saved 54% over all. I hit 5 stores and saved more at some then others.

Target; I spent $7.93 before coupoms, after coupons I spent $7.01

Pet Smart; before coupons $27.37 after $8.37

Walgreens before coupons, $55.94 after $21.10

 Jewel before coupons $143.35 after $78.53

 Woodmans, $79.10 (this is a guess bc of the clearance fruit I bought, I did not look to see how much full price was I just figured $1 apiece for mangos, avacadoes and 3/$1 for kiwi.) after $57.90

Total I spent $320.69 before coupons and after coupons I spent $146.41 for a total savings of 54% not as good as the ladies on "Extreme Couponing" but pretty darn good.

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

Happy Feast

Happy Feast of the Annunication!

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

Smart Martha's Catholic Guide for Busy Moms

I just recieved my copy of Smart Martha's Guide for Busy Moms. I can't wait to start reading it!




Thank you to Fr. Longenecker for sending me this book to review.

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

I have to say we might have some of the coolest priests ever. The priest singing is not "our" priest. We do have Marian priests at our parish and our parish priest is in several of the pictures, and we know many of the other priests pictured. 

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

"Mary's Sons" Music Video (Performed by Giuseppe Mignano and Br. Brent T...

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi