Weeks 19 & 20 in Review

 Weeks 19 & 20 in Pictures: 

 On Saturday morning we had the perfect conditions to launch our rocket.  

If you look carefully at the speck in the sky you can see how high the rocket went.  Our neighbors joined us for the launch.  

 Unfortunately we weren't able to get far enough from the trees so it landed in the trees.

 

 Phil helped the kids find a toad.

We've been blessed to make friends at Mass with a retired farmer.  He and his wife have adopted our kids and it's a great blessing since we're so far from family.  He came over with his tractor and prepared our garden for us - he even brought fertilizer - we look forward to our biggest and best garden yet!

"Grandpa John" & "Grandma Fern" kept 100 acres from what was once their 400 acre farm.  Grandpa John likes to take the kids for rides in his 4 wheeled ATV around the property and this was one of the stops - a giant rock.  

 We made cookies to celebrate Pentecost Sunday today.

For Mother's day Phil gave me a new rose bush :-)

 The kids displayed some of their artwork at our end of the year home school talent show.

 The boys enjoyed some time at Lego club at the library.

 The kids' favorite place to play - the dirt hill.  The bathtub and laundry machine are doing double duty as a result. :-)

They got an extra hill from the grass layer that was over the garden plot.  

John turned 13 months old on May 10th. 

Other Highlights: 

We are busy wrapping up our school year and looking forward to enjoying the nice spring and summer weather.  We're scheduled to finish May 27th and I'm working on the children't portfolios to submit to the state and making our summer plans as well as preparing our curriculum for next year.  I'm looking forward to going to a Homeschool conference next Saturday in Montpelier, VT.

The kids have been enjoying weekly "homeschool swim lessons" at a local gym each Friday.   They have a great program where the kids get 50 minute swim lessons for 6 weeks.  We're really enjoying it.  William and Miriam will also have their first piano recital next Saturday!

This Wednesday we get to go visit and have lunch at the monastery of the cloistered Benedictine Sisters in Westfield Vermont - a little over an hour drive away.  Miriam has been praying for a sister Myriam who will soon be making her profession at the end of May as an extern sister there.   

Happy Pentecost and may the Holy Spirit aid us to bring the Gospel and Christ's love to all we meet! Our prayers are with you, please pray for us! 

Happy Pentecost Sunday!

When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled,
they were all in one place together.
And suddenly there came from the sky
a noise like a strong driving wind,
and it filled the entire house in which they were.
Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire,
which parted and came to rest on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in different tongues,
as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

Pentecost Sunday is the "Birthday of the Church" when we're sent out to proclaim the Gospel to all nations. 

This Feast Day is the third most important feast in the Church (after Easter and Christmas) and has special significance to our family as the Holy Spirit has been guiding us in our journey of Faith.  Today in Pope Francis's homily  he spoke of the surprises of the Holy Spirit and that He calls us to strike out on new paths.  Truly this has been our family's experience especially the past few years and my own throughout my adult life:

"Newness always makes us a bit fearful, because we feel more secure if we have everything under control, if we are the ones who build, programme and plan our lives in accordance with our own ideas, our own comfort, our own preferences. This is also the case when it comes to God. Often we follow him, we accept him, but only up to a certain point. It is hard to abandon ourselves to him with complete trust, allowing the Holy Spirit to be the soul and guide of our lives in our every decision. We fear that God may force us to strike out on new paths and leave behind our all too narrow, closed and selfish horizons in order to become open to his own. Yet throughout the history of salvation, whenever God reveals himself, he brings newness and change, and demands our complete trust: Noah, mocked by all, builds an ark and is saved; Abram leaves his land with only a promise in hand; Moses stands up to the might of Pharaoh and leads his people to freedom; the apostles, huddled fearfully in the Upper Room, go forth with courage to proclaim the Gospel. This is not a question of novelty for noveltys sake, the search for something new to relieve our boredom, as is so often the case in our own day. The newness which God brings into our life is something that actually brings fulfilment, that gives true joy, true serenity, because God loves us and desires only our good. Let us ask ourselves: Are we open to Gods surprises? Or are we closed and fearful before the newness of the Holy Spirit? Do we have the courage to strike out along the new paths which Gods newness sets before us, or do we resist, barricaded in transient structures which have lost their capacity for openness to what is new?" (Pope Francis' Pentecost Sunday Homily- emphasis my own:-)

Praise God for the gift of the Holy Spirit!

Come Holy Spirit, fill the Hearts of Thy faithful and enkindle in them the fire of Thy Love, Send forth Thy Spirit and we shall be created and Thou shalt renew the faith of the Earth.  

O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.