2016 Week 4 In Review

The Week in Pictures

 A glimpse into our schoolroom here in our temporary home...

 The view out the window - that is Christ the King school and the kids love playing with the school children after school.  Also, Christ the King Parish is in that building - so what could be more convenient than walking across the parking lot to a daily 8:30am Mass!  We couldn't ask for a nicer "temporary home" and we are very grateful for the use of the rectory until we find our new Vermont home.

 An evening sunset view out the window :-)

A peek into our classroom on a "typical" homeschool day.  Luke's desk and work space.

 Miriam at work at her desk.

 Thomas hard at work as well :-)

 An evening game of chess - we miss Green Bay Chess club but are enjoying the seeds planted by attending!

 A glimpse into the Atrium at our Catechesis of the Good Shepherd - this is Miriam's group during their presentation on looking things up in scripture.

 A special presentation for William and Miriam to show them how to prepare the cruets for Mass. 

 Thomas learning how to do a new "work."

 Luke learning how to do one of the "works."

 Luke has a presentation while Thomas is hard at work at the table.  I need this to happen in my homeschool more often :-)

 Family Game night playing the Settlers of Catan.

 The kids had fun making things for their stuffed animals this week - Wolf got a super cape and Elephant has a new saddle.

 Miriam made a pie for dessert and she and Thomas are decorating the pie with chocolate chips.  Yes - that's William in the background wearing his fake teeth.

 Miriam's pie.

 Luke's "Bat Mobile" made from his legos.

Hello from John!

A couple more "stuffed animal accessories". 

Highlights from this week:

1. We have found a potential "home" to buy and are praying a novena to see if this is where God wants us to be.  Prayers for things to go smoothly in the purchasing process would be appreciated (for this house or whatever house we end up with).

2. William had his 2nd day of language/verbal evaluations and we look forward to meeting with the evaluators and getting their feedback sometime next week.

3. There is actually a Benedictine Monastery in Vermont and Phil was able to visit it when he went up to visit the Northeast Kingdom(the Northeastern part of Vermont) this week.  I'm looking forward to taking the kids to visit sometime soon.

4.Phil's been giving a weekly video update about his work here in Vermont and it will soon be available on the Diocesan website.

God is so good to our family and we continue to be grateful for His many blessings!  Know that our prayers are with you!

2016 Week 3 in Review

The week in pictures...

 We participated in the Vermont March for Life from Mass at St. Augustine's Church to the Capitol Building in Montpelier.  It's the first time I've actually been inside a capitol building and only the second time I've been to a State's Capital.

 The day was beautiful!  Warm for this time of year and snowing beautifully.   It was a nice walk with the kids down the streets of Montpelier and a great gift to be able to share in this witness for life.

 Thomas is modelling our science experiment for Catholic Schoolhouse this week having to do with the four states of matter and the density of different liquids.

The kids were just having fun tonight- so here's an action shot :-)

Highlights from the week:

Miriam's 1st Communion date is set for April 19th - her birthday.  She'll be doing her preparation with the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd group which meets about a half hour north of where we are living but she is the only homeschooler in the group who will be making her first communion so we asked our pastor if he'd be willing to allow her to have her First Communion on a weekday - her birthday -  at our parish and he was willing.  That way the people we've been going to daily Mass with can rejoice in her first communion as well.

We had a nice meeting with the homeschool group this week and a fun play date with new friends who have kids our children's ages.  Miriam also had her "form B" evaluation at a teacher's resource and William had a more extensive session at the Stern Center.  I'm excited to have some support and extra resources as we work with his dyslexia.  I was impressed with how thorough their questions were and how they tailored the evaluation for William based on my comments.  He'll have 1 more day of testing in the language/ verbal area and then I look forward to hearing their report.

A neat tidbit about the Diocese of Burlington, which covers the entire state of Vermont, is that the first Bishop had a great devotion to St. Anne and the first Bishop of Burlington, Bishop Louis DeGoesbriand, consecrated himself and the whole diocese to St. Anne as well as the Immaculate Conception.  I was excited to learn this as St. Anne is my confirmation saint.

Finally, two more Simple Saints are painted and almost completely ready to go St. Andre Besset and Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.

2016 Week 2 In Review

Happy Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord! 
We concluded our celebration of the Christmas season with French silk pie (since the ingredients make 2 pies :-)



Our first week of school in 2016 went well!  It's amazing how moving to a new state and living in a temporary home (read most of your personal belongings are in boxes and will be for the next 3 months) has a bit of craziness/chaos involved.  There is still much to do and each week is an adventure but at least now I can look a week ahead at a time rather than taking it day by day or hour by hour.  We remain grateful for the many blessings God has showered on our family and are in awe as we watch His hand at work in our lives. 

Here are the highlights from this past week:

John turned 9 months old today!
 Favorite things - playing with my brothers and sister, being tickled and riding on my little car.   I can stand and scoot backward.  I'm not quite cruising or crawling yet but I can make my car go forward and love it when my siblings push the car really fast.




We completed week 11 of Catholic School House including the art project and science experiment(I had to order the science and art books so we took December off from CSH.  I really miss our Co-op in Green Bay - it's a lot more work to do it on my own without the other moms - but still fun and worth it.   I'm hoping some other homeschoolers will be interested in CSH for next year.


Learning about homogeneous and heterogeneous - washable marker is hetergeneous

Enjoying a snack while checking out the results of our chromatography experiment

Luke got a new tent for Christmas and the kids camped out this weekend.  We made a "camping" special dessert - smores in the microwave :-)


The kids played nicely with their toy animals - all 5 together without fighting or tears ....well at least for a little while....



I was able to have a night out for a women's Bible Study reflecting on the Visitation and learned a few things - I love Scripture studies!  The study is done by Dr. Edward Sri at the Augustine Institute and it was excellent - I really enjoyed the materials.  Cool insights from the study:  Elizabeth's greeting of Mary "Blessed are you among women" echoes the praise of two other women in the Bible Jael (Judges 5:24-26) and Judith (Judith 13:18) at the moment when they crushed the heads of their adversaries....as the seed of Mary will crush the head of Satan (Gen. 3:15).  The Ark of the Covenant spent 3 months in the hill country before entering the city of David just as Mary spent 3 months in the hill country with Elizabeth.  (read Lk 1:39-43,56 & 2 Samuel 6:2, 9-16) and there was more :-)

We looked at many houses this and are still looking for the right house that fits our price range, size needs with a nice yard and isn't more than a 30 minute drive...

Life is good and we love this time with our little ones!  May God bless you and your families!

The Week in Review and Epiphany

Happy Feast of the Epiphany!

 It has been a glorious Christmas as we have settled into life in Vermont.  Phil has had the past 10 days off and we have just spent it doing fun things together as a family and relaxing.  It has been a welcome reprieve from the amazingly busy summer and fall.  We were involved in so much in Green Bay that the days literally flew by!  We are now ready to jump back into daily life in Vermont - school and work start again tomorrow - and see how the Lord calls us to service in our new home. 

Today we celebrated the Epiphany by attending Mass at Christ the King Parish,  eating our traditional King's bread (with pennies baked inside), marking the doorway with blessed chalk  and with a special French Silk Pie.  Christus mansionem benedicat!

 

Some Small Victories for this Week

Lesson plans are ready for the week and we're ready to start up with school tomorrow and our regular routine.

We became members at Costco for the first time in our married life and now the fridge and freezer are stocked and ready for me to make a dinner menu :-)  Tomorrow's project. 

The playroom is neat and clean again - it had become a camp ground over Christmas break and I'm happy to have everything cleaned up and put away again. 



My new facebook page is up and running for"Simple Saints" and I started painting Mother Teresa.  I didn't quite get her Sari right....but I think I'll have it for the next one :-)

 

New Year's Resolution...

My New Year's resolution is to start blogging again! I am sad to see the last 2 1/2 years missing from the blog and so I'm "jumping back in" from a new location: Burlington,Vermont. The Green Bay, WI years flew by!  But now that I left all of my volunteer work behind I have some free time :-) So here are a few updates in pictures.


The first Snowman of the year and the "best one yet"

We're here in Burlington Vermont!

John Paul Irenaeus Lawson, born on April 10, 2015 got his 2 front top teeth for Christmas :-)

Vermont is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful!  The lake is amazing and I am so excited to be near mountains again!
 

Look for regular updates this year!:-)

2015 Advent and Christmas letter

2015 Advent and Christmas Letter by Patty Lawson

2014 Family Christmas Letter

It has been almost a year since I posted on this site and that year has flown by!    Here is our Annual Christmas Letter :-)

Advent Letter 2014

The best gift you can give a child is a sibling!

This Christmas I took this sweet picture of my two oldest together under the Christmas tree and was reminded of what a blessing it has been to watch them grow up together. It really is true that the best gift you can give a child is a sibling as these pictures show. They are as different in personality as night and day but they are so happy together!

 

I can't believe how quickly the years have flown by!