2016 Week 12 In Review

The Week in Pictures: 

 Last Sunday, we enjoyed some Irish Ceili dancing in honor of St. Patrick's Day.  The McFadden Academy of Irish dance led the children in some dancing.  

 We got to explore the woods on our new property on a beautiful day - these pictures don't do it justice but we are so excited to enjoy our new 5.8 acres of land!

 On St. Patrick's Day, the children were able to prepare for Holy Week by enjoying a Seder meal (for the older children) and a Last Supper re-enactment for the younger children in our Atrium.  They loved it!  The pictures are taken "through the door windows" so they aren't the best.

 Miriam is kind of hidden and looking away unfortunately.

 Luke and Thomas 

 William at his Seder meal.

For the Last Supper re-enactment each of the children had the name of one of the characters in the Last Supper - Miriam was Mary, Thomas was Thomas and Luke was Joseph of Arimethea.

 John enjoying some time outdoors.

 Who knew a mattress makes a great tent/hideout? 

 Moving day arrived!!  We are so grateful for the many helpers we had to load and unload the truck - everything went well and now we're just trying to dig ourselves out of boxes. :-)  We felt especially blessed to have a pastor on either side of the move present.  Msgr. John McDermott helped us load up at Christ the King rectory which will be his future home and Father Henry Furman from our new parish - St. Luke's stopped by to bless the food and our house and helpers.

 William and Miriam participated in a Dramatization of the Passion and living stations of the Cross for the "Jubilee of the youth that took place today for the Year of Mercy.

 William turned 10 on St. Joseph's Day and got a new house and watch for his birthday :-)

We had our first wild-life siting.  A playful fox out in broad daylight just chasing whatever was out in our field on moving day!

Highlights from the week:

What an amazing week!  We feel truly blessed to be in our new home!!!  As we unpack the boxes and put things in order I'll take more pictures to post but there is plenty of room for everyone to come visit now.  We even have our own campground in the backyard ;-)   Next week we will welcome our first guest - Aunt Jenny who's visiting on Easter Monday and we can't wait to see her.

And now that we have entered into the most amazing week of the year we pray that each of you enter more fully into the Paschal Mystery through the Liturgy of Holy Week!  Please pray for us as well!

2016 Week 11 In Review

The Week in Pictures:

Yep, we're moving again and everything must go back into boxes :-)  This Friday, March 18th is "Closing day" when the house officially becomes our new home.  Then Saturday will be a memorable Moving Day/10th birthday party for William!

 

 On Wednesday we joined fellow homeschool families for our monthly homeschool Mass and Co-op day.  The children sang in the choir for Mass.

 The children joined the crowd for a Shadow Stations skit and reflection that the youth of the diocese will be doing for the jubilee for school age children on Saturday, March 20th.  These pictures are from their "dress rehearsal" this week. 

 This week the kids built Monster Trucks at Lowes - they are getting pretty good at hammering nails.

 We learned how to make St. Brigid's Crosses at an Irish heritage activity at the Library. 

 And now a hello and update from each of the children:

 Hi everyone!  I just turned 11 months on Thursday March 10th.  I still only have 5 teeth but I'm working on at least 1 more.  I love to sing and dance to any type of music (including CSH memory work) and I'm really good at pulling myself up on furniture.  I can even push a chair around while I'm standing.  I'm a bit more cautious than most of my other siblings and I'm not in too big of a hurry to walk yet, that said, I can get where I want to go with my own style of crawling.  I can also make a mess with the  best of them and love dumping things.  I'm really enjoying trying out new foods. 

 Hello everyone!  I love reading and my new big interest is typing.  My Mom bought a typing program for William, but I  am spending more time on it and have also began to type my own stories, check lists and letters.  I even entered the PBS kids Vermont Story Contest this week.  In a little over a month I will be 8 and I can't wait because on that day I will make my First Communion!

It's a bird, it's a plane - no it Super Thomas!  Hi everyone!  I love super heroes, comics, fighting bad guys and playing with my brothers and sisters who I call "friends."  Lately whenever I go into Church I notice that Jesus is on the Cross and that the bad guys have killed Him so I told mom that I'm going to fly and kill the bad guys and save Jesus.

 Hi, I'm Luke.  I am an explorer and I like to explore places that have never been found and to find new things.  I love listening to stories on tape and this helps me to explore new things.  I also wrote a story for the Vermont PBS Kids writing contest called The Mystery of the Silly Box. 

Hey everyone, I am the Knight of the Moving Party.  I'm getting ready for our big move next Saturday on my birthday.  Next week I'll be 10 and it's my job to help Mom and Dad with the move to our new house.  I can't wait because there are woods there and I've already scoped out a place for a tree house fort.  I'm also looking forward to caring for chickens again and maybe even getting a few new pets. 

This week I painted 4 saints for an order for Simple Saints, St. Therese, St. Gianna Molla, St. Bernadette and St. Andre Bessette. 

Highlights from the Week:

William's 1st Session at the Stern center went well - it was mostly evaluations with his language instructor so she has a baseline for his progress.  I'm looking forward to sitting in on the sessions and getting some insights on ways to teach language skills more effectively and efficiently. 

Miriam will have her first "True Vine Meeting" Monday evening which is the first of 5 weekly meetings that will directly prepare her for her First Communion by reflecting upon and going deeper into parables that will help her better understand the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Communion.  She will then have a three day retreat, culminating with the Sacrament of Reconciliation just before her First Communion on the 19th.  I am loving the beautiful preparation of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd and how it really allows the children to enter more deeply into the scripture and beauty treasury of  our Catholic faith. 

Blessings from our family to yours!   I'll be praying especially for you this week by offering my joyful Lenten penance of moving one last time and try to smile through the challenges.  Our prayers are with you as we draw near to the Week of Weeks  - Holy Week in which the Liturgy makes present Jesus' work of Salvation!  Please pray for us!

2016 Week 10 In Review

 The Week in Pictures: 

 I love this statue of St. Anne teaching Mary!  It is at St. Joseph's Co-Cathedral in the lower chapel where we attended the Traditional Latin Mass last Sunday.

The kids had a lot of fun with friends at the gathering after Mass. 

A couple cute pictures of Luke - He can often be found with the Cd player listening to songs, memory work and books on tape.  He also often falls asleep with a book :-)

  Movie day at the Library!  

We went up to Fairfax to visit our soon to-be new house.  We explored the library, and had a brief stop to explore the frozen river but it was a bit too slippery to get very far out on the ice.  Only 12 more days until closing day!

 Watching Veggie Tales with friends :-)

 We finished assembling our rocket, the Amazon, for CSH Science!  We still need to build the launch pad and then have a second smaller rocket to assemble. The kids are excited to launch it after we move.

 On Saturday we attended the Home Depot's kids workshop and

the kids made "wee little wagons."  William and Miriam were able to assemble theirs completely on their own and I helped Luke and Thomas who did a great job!  

 This week I painted St. Tarcisius.  I'm planning to send Saint dolls to my 1st Communion students in Green Bay.  I was teaching 2nd grade Religious Education before we moved and though I had to leave them in the middle of the year I'm praying for them and will send them some little saints for their First Communion Day April 24th.   St. Tarcisius for the boys and St. Immelda for the girls. 

Phil made a wooden Castle for William a few years ago and the children requested some knights.  I'm painting them some for Easter - each child has their special knight: Sir William the Blue Knight; Sir Luke the green Knight, Sir Thomas the Yellow Knight and Sir John the Small Knight :-)  Then there is Princess Miriam.  Now we just need to find the Castle when we move :-)

Highlights from the week:

We finished our third quarter of school this week!  The year has flown by, it's hard to believe we have only 9 weeks of schoolwork left!   We are planning to take 2 weeks off for Easter but it may end up being 3 weeks off since we'll be moving just before Holy Week, Aunt Jenny is coming to visit Easter Week and Grandma is coming the following week.  Either way we should be done by either the end of May or the first week of June. :-)

William begins his instruction at the Stern Center on Monday - I'm really excited to see how this helps him make the leap into independent reading.  He is doing well with beginning readers and loves listening to books on tape but I would so love for him to be able to read what he wants to read rather than waiting for me to help him.  I'm also eager to see the techniques they use so we can incorporate them into our home school curriculum. :-)

Laetare!  We continue to rejoice in the Lord's many blessings and pray that the penitential joy of Lent may bloom into the glorious joy of Easter in each of our hearts!  Praise the Lord, who teaches us to love truly by serving others!  Our prayers are with you, please pray for us as well!

2016 Week 9 In Review

The Week in Pictures: 

 William participated in a workshop at the Local Library called "toy hacking"  It was suppose to last 1 hour but after an hour & 15 minutes, I had to pull him away so we wouldn't be late for noon Mass.  He was enjoying it so much the time flew!

 On Friday afternoon, we had a picnic lunch in the living room.  We were supposed to eat lunch on the road to an appointment but a dead car battery changed plans for us...

 The table was set for an important visitor that evening....

 We were blessed to have Bishop Coyne and Monsignor Routhier over for dinner!!  

Phil let me know on Monday that I would get to prepare dinner for the Bishop on a Friday in Lent :-)

 On Saturday, (after a trip to Costco to purchase an emergency battery jump-starter for my peace of mind) we went to a kids carnival where we saw real live Zebu (for those Veggie Tale fans)...

 and the kids got to ride on a camel!

Highlights from the Week: 

This was the week of dinner guests!  On Tuesday night we had a young couple come for dinner that Phil met through his work with the Diocese.  It was delightful to have Simeon and Julia Lewis over for dinner.  Simeon teaches for the local Catholic High School and Julia is a Catholic therapist who is also very involved in Rachael's Vineyard and presented on this topic for the priests in our diocese. 

 Our pastor Msgr. John McDermitt stopped by on Thursday to measure some windows in the rectory (which will become his home as soon as we move out).   The kids were excited to show him their art work - they love Msgr. McDermitt and we will miss seeing him almost everyday when we move to Fairfax. He unfortunately didn't have time to stay for dinner but we sent him off with a dinner to go.  

Finally, on Friday we welcomed the pastor of the Cathedral, Msgr. Routhier and our very own Bishop Coyne into our temporary home!  Luckily, I only had a few days to worry about what to prepare for dinner since Phil let me know on Monday.  In the end I served a Veggie Lasagna, salad and fresh bread and despite some anxiety, everything went well - it was a delightful evening and we feel truly blessed.    (I did keep his reflection on humility in mind and resolved to be at peace whether things went well or not.)

Everything is going smoothly with the purchase of our home.  Our closing date is still set for March 18th and we may even be able to close on the house a few days earlier if everything falls into place. We are eagerly counting down the days when we can unpack all the boxes again!

Our days continue to pass by quickly full of joy and challenges, always striving towards serving Christ with our whole hearts and greeting each person we meet with His love.  Our prayers are with you, please continue to pray for us!