Saturday, August 30, 2008

In the Minority

I'm used to being in the minority when it comes to certain issues, decisions, thought-provoking... thoughts [!]. So is it any wonder that I'm very disappointed with McCain's VP decision? No... not really.


Am I against women working? No. Not necessarily. But sometimes, yes. I'm very old-school when it comes to mothers working. And again, there are times when mothers need to work... have to work. I understand that.


What I have a problem with is when mothers work just for the sake of working... not wanting to lose whatever it is she feels she loses if she were to just stay at home with her child/ren. Almost feeling as if raising her children wasn't enough for her. That I've got a problem with. And that's the problem I have with Sarah Palin.


As a person - a mother, she can get no higher respect from me. She is indeed a wonderful role-model. In the face of our culture of death - she has turned her back. As a mother of 5 gifts from God, I know she faces the same joys, fears and thoughts as we all do as mothers. And then some. I'm ecstatic that she's Pro-Life! That's terrific that a person in any office is. But...


how can she be this person in this very powerful position - this Vice President to the United States of America - on the world stage and be the mother, the wife, the heart of her home that she needs to be. Someone will suffer. Will it be the American people? Or her family?


I don't want to feel [and I'm a woman... we do feel] that our VP - who's traveling here and there, doing this and that, not doing this or that, speaking to this leader and that leader - should really be home. I don't even want this to be an issue. I don't think it should be an issue. Call me old-fashioned.


We teach our girls that they can have whatever job/occupation they desire when they get older, but the most important job and the only one that really matters is the one with the title: Mother. That is the ultimate job. And that should be their place when that comes to be.


And again, I'm not saying women who are mothers shouldn't work - I have some friends that do and they work around dh's schedule to still be home with the kids - I'm only saying that there's something to be said for sacrificing for the good of the family.

To learn more how feminism has hurt our country and our society read Save the Males.


So please don't blast my views or call me uncompassionate. I'm not and I'm not meaning to come across that way.

We need to pray for the future of our country. Which is still the greatest country on earth.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Gifted


Isn't it funny how you just know as a mother which one of your kids did something? On 7 window sills throughout the downstairs I found these cracker crumbs - 7 sills, so far. And out of the 7 kids that I had to choose from how did I know to yell, "Therese!!" - eh, it's a gift!

Super Commenter

Thank you, Therese, for this award!

Personally, I like to leave comments. The bloggers I visit know this :o)

Likewise, I like to receive comments. But the "rules of acceptance" state that 7 bloggers must be nominated... I rarely have 5! Okay, okay... let's see.




1. What's in a Name - Washingtonians
2. Mom to 5 Minnies
3. Shower of Roses
4. A Crocus in the Valley
5. Living a Simple Life and a Pure Faith
6. Laura the Crazy Mama
7. Knit Together

Now remember, to accept this award you must pass it on to 7 others. Have fun!

Let me make this clear for people who "don't get it" - I have no idea! I'd say do whatchya feel like! If you want to do top commenters, sounds logical to me. But if you don't have that many friends commenters then, sorry, can't help ya ;)

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Fireproof

If you click on Watch Videos you can see the trailer. Don't forget to shut up my music :o)

The thing that I don't like about it, from what I can tell, is that saving the relationship seems to lie on his shoulders [actor, Kirk Cameron] and his shoulders only. I hope that that's not the only message. I'm a firm believer that both have to give their all - and it [a change] can start with one of the two, but it still shouldn't only be up to the one. Why is it that it's always the man's fault when things aren't going well? This is an interesting site that someone in our homeschooling group pointed us towards. Click on 'free movies' then 'marriage'.

h/t: Christine!

Planners, Planning and Planned-Out


This is a totally revamped school year and in doing so I've created a lot of work for myself. I know, or rather I hope, that it will all be so worth it.

I'm awaiting the kids' planners. They're a bit like the Good News planners but these appealed to me a bit more for some reason.

I ordered the Pope Chart from Ignatius Press. Who doesn't love Ignatius?

From Love to Learn I ordered some really neat manipulatives. The shapes are magnets and I use a cookie sheet for the kids to put the pattern down and use that way.

See the shapes stay where you put them!
I also got the letters and numbers container. There are upper and lower case letters which is nice.
For planning the school year I'm using Planning Your Charlotte Mason Education . It comes with a DVD so it's as if you're at a conference. Sonya goes through 5 steps - step by step. The five steps are: The Big Picture, Your Year, Your Term, Your Week and Your Day. She makes it real easy as she breaks it down for you and gives you good ideas as she goes. In the manual she shows you some examples from her own family's year, term, week and day - so it helps if you're more a visual learner. And not only examples from her own family but from others' as well [with different family dynamics]. I might add that you don't have to be a CMer to utilize this planner - I don't consider myself a CMer, though I am implementing some of the ideas this year.

I'm still in Your Term. Books were slowly filtering in last week and this week and by now I think I've got them all - with a few on backorder. I'm finding that it is very involved, but I'll be thanking my lucky stars later. Or should I say, the kids will :o)

Science [3rd, 1st and K] we'll be using Serendipity [science baskets]. For books that I couldn't find at the library [which is near zilch] I bought on Amazon.
For the 7th grader - Concepts and Challenges [MODG syllabus]
I also bought a Mr. Wizard DVD through Seton.


History we're studying the Ancient world. We'll do it together somewhat. Here's our history shelf.
This is a cool book on ancient Rome. It's a flap book. Here you can see a home...
...and here's the inside which is revealed when you pull back the flap. Neat!The army...
And then... the Bath House [we all know where this is going]:
Uh oh - this can't be good...and then voila! [this could stay under a flap! - fyi, it's not under a flap! Pun somewhat intended!] I think I'll need to create a flap of some sort - ewwwww! What a visual!
My poor kids. They'll be so scandelized. This is the image they'll have of Romans - ancient or modern - it won't matter. LOL!


I got the CD set for Story of the World - I believe I purchased it through Love to Learn - different than Love 2 Learn. Bonus as well because they don't have shipping costs only a small handling fee.

We'll also be studying 4 continents this year: Europe, Africa, Australia and South America. This should be fun. I say should because I'm not sure all that we'll do. In other words - I haven't totally planned this one out :o) I have found this site for additional fun. "Oh goodie!"

Religion we'll use Faith and Life through CHC and of course, the handy-dandy Baltimore Catechism. #1 for the 3rd grader and #2 for the 7th. Dani also has Bible History - I found a workbook for it on Seton's website. Cha-ching!


Spelling CHC for the 1st and 3rd graders. Seton for Dani, my 7th grader. I'll be combining spelling and vocab this year. Something I've never done - but it makes sense... especially to Dani! LOL


English for Therese, my 3rd gr, is CHC. And for Dani Voyages 7 and Daily Grams [MODG syllabus]


Phonics for Sophia [1st] and Therese [3rd] are both MCP which I got through Seton.


I've also got a Picture Study planned with Rembrant, Kincade, Rockwell, Michelangelo, and Grandma Moses - well, it's in the beginning stages - I know who we'll be studying :o) Not sure of anything else at this point. I'm ordering some cool things through Dover Publications. Love that site!


We'll do a little bit of Spanish and Latin all together as well. With Latin I'm going to concentrate on the prayers and hymns - things we'll actually use.


So that's about it. I have lots of little Montessori-type activities for the littles. More of that in upcoming posts. I know you're excited!


So, needless to say - after weeks of planning... whether on paper, on the computer or in my head - I'm officially planned-out! Not a good place to be when I'm not even done!





Our first day of school: September 8th!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Good Flicks

My new favorite movie is "Meet the Robinsons" - It is hysterical and heartwarming. I decided to put it in my Netflix queue after seeing it on Faith and Family Flix under "Pro-Life Movies". It's about a boy growing up in an orphanage waiting to be adopted. Gosh, it's just crazy! To me, it's one of those movies that the more you watch it the more you love it. We loved it so much that I ended up buying it from Netflix. My blog songs are all from that soundtrack. Great music!


We quote it all the time... well, mostly the kids. That's "what they do"... they memorize movie lines. Don't know where they get it from! I must admit, they are much better at it than I ever was. But then again they watch things over and over and over again. When we saw a movie, it was once. That's it. Once. We enjoyed it for what it was. As they quote movies I'm thinking, "Gosh, those memories are terrific! No more excuses doing schoolwork." Busted, in a sense.


We also watched an oldie but a goodie - the true story of "The Fighting Sullivans". What a great movie.


Amazing Grace was also good. It's the true story of William Wilberforce an English politician who fought for the abolition of slavery. His mentor was the man who actually wrote the song Amazing Grace. Very inspiring.

Monday, August 25, 2008

There's a Fungus Among Us

And that fungus is cancer. Cancer a fungus? That's what Italian doctor, Dr. Simoncini, says.
Doug Kaufmann interviews him here in this video on "Know the Cause". If you scroll down after the video there's a summary of the interview. [I don't like the quality of the video - could be much better]

The statistics of doctors who - if struck with cancer - would refuse chemo... something like 75%!

Here's a little of the article:



What Causes Cancer?
Conventional medicine likes to focus on the impact
of genetics as a causative agent in developing cancer, despite the fact that
research indicates that genetics is not the main cause of this widespread
phenomenon, even though it may play a small role in some people. Unfortunately,
little attention is paid to the impact of plain and simple
infections.
Dr. Simoncini’s research has led him to believe that
something as simple as a fungus, Candida, is the leading cause of cancer; that
cancer itself is in fact a fungus. What we refer to as a tumor, is nothing more
than your body’s attempt at protecting itself from that fungus.
He
brings up an analogy between psoriasis – an “incurable” disease of the skin that
many treat as a fungus – and tumors, which are also an “incurable” disease of
your body. Several
studies
have linked the presence of Candida with cancer, showing that
anywhere between 79 to 97 percent of all cancer patients also have
Candida.
Dr. Simoncini’s explanation for how this phenomenon works –
how Candida leads to deadly cancer – is that it’s a consequence of the weakening
and exhaustion of your organs, and eventually your entire body, in the following
stages:
Candida roots itself in your deep connective tissue in various
organs
As a result, this evokes an organic defensive reaction as the
connective tissue of your invaded organ attempts to encyst the fungin colonies
through cellular hyper-production, which results in the formation of tumors
Growths continue as the fungi spreads, both in your surrounding tissue, and
remotely (aka “metastatis”). It is still always the same Candida attacking
different tissues, but due to its highly adaptive qualities it is able to mutate
to adapt itself to whatever environment it finds itself in, hence the various
types of tumors
Your body becomes progressively more exhausted, which allows
the fungi to spread and take over more rapidly
You die from
“cancer”
If Cancer is a Fungus, Then What is the Cure?
In the
video, Dr. Simoncini shows actual before-and-after footage of both bronchial
cancer and colon cancer. Four days after his revolutionary and mind-blowingly
simple treatment for bronchial cancer with a sodium bicarbonate and water flush,
the tumors are gone…
Sodium bicarbonate, a.k.a baking soda, is the most
potent anti-fungal substance there is. The problem with anti-fungal drugs,
however, is that fungi are extremely adaptive, and can adapt to a new
environment in three to four days. This renders anti-fungal drugs largely
ineffective. The fungi do not adapt to the baking soda, but it is far more
difficult to use as it needs to be injected directly into the tumor; swallowing
the baking soda would not work at all.
Candida yeast is not “one shared
element,” so to speak, but rather “social elements,” or colonies, that are
highly communicative.
Because of their unique adaptation skills, sodium
bicarbonate must be administered directly onto the tumor, and in so doing
changing its ph very quickly, from acid to alkaline, which quickly and
effectively kills off the yeast before it has time to adapt.
For
example, Dr. Simoncini’s experience has shown that 99 percent of breast- and
bladder cancer can heal in just six days, entirely without the use of surgery,
chemo or radiation, using just a local infiltration device (such as a catheter)
to deliver the sodium bicarbonate directly to the infected site in your breast
tissue or bladder.


The comments after the article are also very informative. Many posts by naturalists and doctors alike. I really believe that the big pharm businesses don't a cure to be found. Why would they? It's disgusting, but don't you think that researchers also don't want the "cure" to be so simple? They won't get funding and have jobs if a cure was found. Maybe it's a stretch, but I think there's something to that. Sadly.

There was also someone in our homeschool group who was recently diagnosed with 2 forms of cancer - probably within the last 3 months. She decided against chemo/radiation treatment and went with an alternative treatment. From what I understand, her prognosis is great.

Maybe someone out there could benefit from this information. That is my hope. There are many U.S. doctors out there that are using alternate treatments. Some of them even posted on the comments.


St. Peregrine, pray for us. Pray that a cure for cancer may be found and put into action quickly. Open the hearts and minds of the medical community... that they humble themselves for the good of mankind. May a cure be readily available to all who are afflicted with this terrible disease.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Freezer Full

Last Friday morning, before going to the airport for our Houston trip, Paul drove about an hour north to pick up our side of beef. [sorry, Chick-Fil-A cows!] Our Grass Fed Beef! Yay. We split it with another homeschool family of 7.

We are newbies at this endeavor and had no idea how to order the cuts - to be honest, I don't really know my cuts of beef. Apparently the processor guy told Paul that "we did it wrong". Well, not really - but we could've done a better job of getting more beef. I ordered all our steaks and stuff, boneless. I figured less weight and no worries. Well I'm finding out now that that's not neccessarily the way to go. There's a lot of beef that's wasted when you go boneless.

So now we have a freezer full of cow down in the basement...

On top, those are 2 lb. pkgs of ground beef - we got 43 of those! My mouth dropped when Paul told me. 43? Really? That's a lot!

The bottom portion is... the rest! Steaks and roasts, mostly - I guess. I really haven't gone through it to look for myself.

I browned 2 lbs of ground beef on Wednesday and I didn't even have to drain it. That right there is worth all the moola we paid [pun obviously intended :)].

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Houston Trip

Warning: major puppyage included in this post

You'd think that I'd show pictures of my brother, but no. This is his new toy that he just got on Saturday. His Buddy scooter.



Nobody really looks that great in a helmet, I've decided. Maybe some burley Harley dudes, but not I!I think Nina was doing a bit of training here with their new pup, Swayze. I would say that this has to do with more "potty training", but Swayze happens to be of the more gentler gender. :o)Little Swayze... she is so sweet. She's got the sweet puppy breath, that roly poly belly, the floppy run, the klutziness that comes with puppyhood, the occasional "oops" and piranha sharp teeth! "This too shall pass".
Cue Stevie Wonder... "You are the sunshine of my life... yeah" - until those middle-of-the-night wake-ups. :o)
Remember the piranha teeth?
Okay... we need another babyWe had such a great time this weekend! Friday we really just hung around and ate at their house. Chris grilled some potates/onions and chicken. Afterwards Chris brought out this big chocolate cake [in celebration of my birthday which was last week] - and as he's getting it out of the container, he and Nina made a quick change of plans... we went to "The Chocolate Bar" instead. They still put 4 candles on [I'll let you figure that out!] and I blew them out and we headed out the door.

At the Chocolate Bar I'm the only one who ordered a "slice" of cake. Huge. And $10! I enjoyed it more the next day at breakfast! Yes, I had a lot left over. Chris enjoyed it too.

Actually, Chris bought some tamales at a little tamale shop, cut some up and put them in with some scrambled eggs and then he wrapped them in tortillas. That with homemade cappuccinos... awesome!

Saturday night Paul and I stayed at a nice hotel downtown - Sunday was our anniversary and he wanted to do something special. Chris and Nina thoroughly enjoyed all the complimentary goods that our hotel provided. "Yeah, I'll take a chardonnay and 10 chocolate chip cookies." Yes, Chris, I'm still laughing 'bout that one!

They took us to the Astros game Saturday night. Wow, those Diamondbacks had quite the fun game! We left at the 7th inning. There were some cookies calling our names! We went to Tipanos for dinner @ 9pm. It was a great night.

Here are Chris and Nina downing all the complimentary beer during "Happy Hour". They were happy!


Sunday morning they met us and we all walked to Mass. The Annunciation is the 2nd oldest Catholic Church in Houston. It was magnificent! Make sure to scroll down from the link to the church - all those pictures! Karen, everything that I tried explaining to you... is in those pictures. Make sure to go to page 2 too!

After Mass we went to brunch at a quaint little place. The food was extremely good. The exciting part was when Nina tackled the waitress in order to get our complimentary cinnamon rolls! Nice goin' Nina!

Thank you both for an extremely fun, memorable and blessed trip! Oh and give Swayze a good ol' belly rub for me!

Monday, August 18, 2008

More on NObama

This is definitely *not* for the faint of heart. But it *must* be seen and spread. Is this the kind of *change* Americans need? Is it? Please... wake up - see the truth.
You cannot be both Christian and Pro-Abortion. Period.

HT: Amy

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

A Shower for "The Princess"


Last Saturday I threw a shower for one of my best friends. Many of you know her - whether in person or through the blogosphere. For those of you who don't, she's pregnant with #5 with 4 boys in her brood. She's due toward the end of this month - though I know she'd be glad to "go at any time". She is holding out hope that the baby is born on the 18th. You can read more about her story/pregnancy here. And the reason she'd like the baby to be born on that date is because that's her son Matthew's birthday.

The "Princess", as you've probably guessed, is #5! And if you read the link up above you know that she's been a long awaited #5!
Before everyone arrived Charlie decided to climb up onto the table to play with the bunch of balloons [this is the boy who *LOVES* balls and balloons - not to mention climbing]. So instead of immediately grabbing him and reprimanding him... I grabbed my camera! "But of course!" [French accent]. And the boy was in festive attire with his sisters' dress-up clothes... cute.One of my friends made these cute little ducky cookies...And another one of my friends made this beautiful cake...
Below are Megan's mom and aunt who flew in for the shower...We played the "Toilet Paper" game - where each person has to tear off how many squares she thinks will fit around the expectant's belly. After everyone has taken from the roll, the Prego is measured and a winner is declared. Only 12 squares?!

The basket below is filled with gorgeous receiving blankets made by Megan's mom. We all went ga-ga over them! They have crocheted edges - I don't recall the stitch name, but they were saying it's very simple. Simple or not, we all want Bruce to teach us how to make them. She comes back in 3wks and said she'd be happy to give a lesson... or 2 :O) And, yes, Megan's mom's name is Bruce. She really needs to write a post on all the male gendered names in her family - and I'm not talkin' about names for the boys! I tried to zoom in on the picture to show the crocheted edges, but it won't save like that. And no, I didn't try in Photoshop - which we ended up buying the other night.

Megan and I are in the middle - not sure if the others would mind their names in here, so we'll just call them "Cake Maker" and "Ducky Cookie Maker", respectively ;)

Showers are so funny - all the oooo's and awwww's that accompany each unwrapped gift!

Megan ~ you, Catherine and all the boys are in our prayers. May God grant you a speedy and safe delivery so that we can all snuggle with that little blessing!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Continent Study

Didn't get input from the homeschool group, so here's my situation and a question:

I'm trying to implement some Montessori into our school. I'd like to do a continent study in place of the map skills wkbk [which I've always used - 10yrs now]. How much time per week should they spend on this? How much time per continent do you spend? I know "it depends" - but what do you do? I'd just like specifics, I guess. Different activities within this study. Maybe some helpful blog/websites?

I just ordered Teach Me to Do It Myself from Amazon. Hopefully I'll get some great ideas for pre-school activities too.

Thanks in advance for any and all ideas, comments and well-wishes :o)

More Schoolroom Stuff

I know I'm boring some of y'all to tears. But maybe one person out there is lovin' it! One can only hope!



Our hamster cages used to sit on top of our old piano which was in the schoolroom. The new electic piano - which is smaller - is in another room. So we have a little more space in our schoolroom. We were stumped as what to do with the hamsters. We couldn't put them upstairs in the playroom or in the girls' room - both of those options would be like planning their death. So we decided on this solution:They're in the schoolroom and it works out perfectly! The bottom one is an escape artist; hence the brick on top. See how he also chewed a hole in the top of his hut? This is the little shelf that we put up for the printer to sit on right at our computer nook. It's a wireless printer so from my laptop at my desk in the kitchen I can print. It's nice....when it's working. :o)



For our large puzzles I got those large zip-loc baggies with handles. There's about 6 puzzles in each bag.



Our dry erase markers are out of reach but accessible with this shower basket which I got at Target. I only wish the markers lasted longer than 2 days!


Want to know what my handyman is doing here?

He's making a house [?] for my 2 maps. We used to have our world map tacked to the wall, but with the added shelves we put up, we lost the wall space for those large maps. So we bought some window shades and I glued the maps on with Elmers spray adhesive. I may need to tape down the corners with some packing tape.


He needed to tighten the tension a bit because of the added weight. They work great! I still need to glue the US map. I'll have to post of picture of it hung.