Eutrapelia

Catchy title, huh?  Know what it is?  Yeah, me neither - 'til last month's Little Flower's meeting.  This will probably come up on google search page one... there's not a lot about this virtue, eutrapelia (yoo trap el EE ah). 

And it is the first virtue for wreath III.  I happened to sign-up for it.  I signed up for it because I was really excited to learn more about this virtue and teach it to our lovely flowers  it was the only virtue not spoken for.  ::grin::

Pleasantness.  Moderate relaxation.  Good wit.  Aristole and St. Thomas Aquinas pinned these words to this virtue. 

So I'm just giving a quick run through of what I did with this virtue. 

* I explained the virtue first
* I introduced the flower - the dandelion. 
    - I pointed out that to grown-ups this flower is a weed.
    - but to children this weed is a flower.  Usually the first flower children bring to Mom.  And the                   'blowers' [as we call them] or 'puffballs'... children blow them with great joy!  This is eutrapelia!  Seeing       weeds for what they are.... flowers!
* I played a song by Marie Bellet - Mother, You are Worried
* We talked about ways or situations where we could be pleasant.
* I told them about how St. Therese had hard times with some of the sisters in her order but she was always so gentle, kind and .... pleasant to those who were a thorn.  She offered up these little sufferings. 
* Luke 10:38 [I believe, going on memory here ::wink::] tells the story of Martha and Mary.  I read it for the girls and then we spoke about its meaning. 

For the craft [done by our creative Craft Mom] the girls did a foam doorknob hanger.  One side had a child making her bed [Martha] and the other side had a child praying [Mary].

I hope this helps any mom out there stuck blessed with doing this virtue!

St. Therese, pray for us.

Smiles Everyone! Smiles!

We had to go to Target tonight.  And whenever we go to the store - I don't care how long we're there or how not long we're there - 9yo Therese always has to use the restroom.  There's one in every family, I know.  My sister was the one in my own.

So, staying true to her character, Therese went to the restroom as Paul waited near the restrooms for her...

(Therese exiting the restroom)

Therese:  Daddy, you have to pay for paper towels in there!

Paul: What?!  What do you mean?

Therese: You have to pay for paper towels.  There's a money thing on it. So I couldn't dry my hands.

Paul:  Ah.  Those aren't paper towels.

Therese:  They're not?  What are they?

Paul:  Uuuuu.... Go ask your mother.

Letter 'C' and More

Our week started out with flooding - so our day Monday looked a lot like this:

But we were cozy in our house atop the hill - and school stayed in session for the duration of the week, sadly to some of our students.

C Week for Joseph!

Crab craft can be found here

C is for cotton

We also read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie - and Joseph completed a lapbook with much supervision.

This is a wheel attached by a brass fastener [you can purchase in the office supply dept. I got mine at Wal-Mart]. As the child spins the wheel he retells the story.

If you give a mouse a cookie,

he's going to want a glass of milk,

if he has a glass of milk,

he'll want to use a straw...

The child dictates here while the mother writes it down.

Feed the Mouse a Cookie... or 20!

I had Joseph leave the lower part of the mouse's face unglued, so as he feeds him cookies they slide under his nose...

I laminated my Joseph's cookies and made a pocket for them + the numbers

that go in the blank box which instructs the child how many cookies to give

the mousie. I had to include a flap of sorts, so that they wouldn't spill all over

everytime the lapbook was opened.

Match how many chips are in the cookie to the correct number.


Even though this is "C" week for us, there were many "M's" that were included in this
lapbook. So here are a few "M" activities and books...

Nursery Rhymes all having to do with mice...

And this, I just loved - very near and dear to my heart! My mom would always

recite this [and probably still does] when we saw the moon growing up.

So, I say this too to my own children!

The back cover. The End.

The lapbook instructions you can find here! (scroll down a tad)

Love this site for lapbooks!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks to Kimberlee and her talented daughter Lydia, we're starting our

MANNERS ALPHABET!

"A" is for Always Ask

You can go here for the printables which Kimberlee has so graciously shared!

Someone was bead sorting and populated Asia in the excitement!


~Art Work~

This is for Kayla:
Look at this drawing which John Paul drew today. I love all
the detail - seen in the second photo.
I thought you'd love all the sketch work - I surely do :)

John Paul's Cobbler

Therese, Sophia and John Paul drew this lion in drawing class today.

Can you see the line of symmetry?

To get the instructions for Linus the Lion go to drawspace.com -
there is a free membership.

Hope you enjoyed the glimpse into our week :)

Have a blessed weekend!

A Giveaway!

[because my hubby gets into this more than I do! LOL]

I challenged him to make something for a giveaway - and 3 days later it was complete. I didn't really think he'd take me up on it. And no, it's not a new schoolroom table.

So, here is the statue pedestal Paul created...

Now let's be clear about this, the Infant of Prague is NOT part of the giveaway [nor are the bananas in the background!]. LOL! This was just to give an idea of how purdy it'll look in your own home :)

So if you'd like to have this pedestal, leave a comment in my comment box. I will be choosing a winner on October 1st - next Thursday - on the Feast of St.Therese. Feel free to spread the word and Good luck to all of you!

Oh, and as extra incentive - my dad said he was going to donate a gift to go with this - also handmade. But that is to remain a surprise!

Good Luck!

St. Pio and Therese!

Could you describe a saint as The Best? Well, I don't care - Padre Pio is the best! (I do say that of many saints and I do mean it each and every time) I love hearing stories and snippets of his life. Super Intriguing. A Supersaint!

Sept. 23, 1968 - Padre Pio died at 2:30am. His last words were, "Jesus, Mary". The Father Guardian of the monastery stated that 10 mins. after Padre Pio's death, all traces of the stigmata on his hands, feet and side, had disappeared.

Here are highlights of his life.

Here is a Litany of Padre Pio.

And you've got to go read this personal story Charlotte posted on her blog. Beautiful story!

Coloring page here

Dinner:
We'll have a sausage and pasta dish to celebrate St. Pio's feast day (hopefully something like this) and to celebrate Therese's anniversary of her Baptism! This day 9 yrs. ago you entered God's family, Therese. We love you Theresey Poo!

You may remember my post on the movie of his life. I also just went on to Netflix and reserved this movie about Padre Pio too. I'm excited to see how they'll differ. It'll be hard to compete with the one I've already seen, in my opinion.

pray, hope and don't worry!

St. Pio, pray for us

The Coax-ster

4yo Joseph - flyswatter in hand: "Here little fly. I'm your mommy, I won't hurt you."

And then... the sound effects that only Joseph can make of demolishing a fly. Splat.

Flooded

My dad emailed me some pictures of their neighborhood's pool. My parents are at the top of a hill from this low area, luckily. Oh, and they only live about 10 miles from us. It was like this most everywhere in metro Atlanta yesterday.

Today.... the sun is shining :)

What a difference a day makes!