Outside my window…
The weather has been gorgeous this week, it has been cooling down some at night and the leaves have started to change colors. I just hung our fall wreath on the front door and picked up a few little pumpkins to use as decorations. Hopefully we can make a trip to the pumpkin patch soon!
I am thinking…
about how nice it is to have a new iMac! (It ended up being our anniversary gift to each other, along with dinner out.) It has made blogging so much easier and way less time consuming. Blogging had become quite a chore, since it was taking forever to work with photos – the old computer was freezing every time I’d try and use PicMonkey to add the copyright to pictures, and half the time when I was online at all. It wasn’t in the plan to purchase a new computer quite yet, but with the back-to-school specials for educators, and the interest free financing, I decided to just order one. Hubby had taken the laptop with him on that fire assignment after all! 😉
I am thankful…
for my husband! And that he didn’t kill me when he called home from fire camp a couple weeks ago and I said he should “try and find access to wi-fi so we can Skype… Now that I have a computer that works around here!” He responded, “Yeah! That would be great! Wait… What did you just say?!?” Yes, I have been so very blessed with such an awesome (and forgiving!) husband. 🙂
Learning all the time…
The last few weeks have been busy for sure! In addition to our regular studies and the Alphabet Path, we’ve also attended two field trips! Last week we went on a field trip to a “farm” (more on that later, maybe) and yesterday we went to the Planetarium.
Celebrating the liturgical year…
Like Charlotte, we have had a week of very simple, yet sweet, celebrations for the saints! A Cake for the feast of St. Michael (though I was able to make our traditional Michaelmas Dinner on Sunday), Rose Cupcakes for St. Therese, Angel Treats for the Holy Guardian Angels, and maybe some Wolf Paw Cookies or Friendly Beasts Crunch for tomorrow’s feast of St. Francis.
From the kitchen…
tons of snacks… The kids always love it when their Daddy saves some of the snacks from his sack meals from fire camp. After two weeks, and some of his co-workers adding to his stash, he came home with quite the collection! On Sunday the boys decided to graph what was left, not counting the bag full of “uncrustables” in the fridge.
I am working on…
plans for this year’s All Hallows’ Eve Party! I wasn’t going to do it this year… For some reason the thought of hosting another huge party at our home was just slightly overwhelming. But, after talking to my husband and the kids (and finding out that my liver troubles are behind me!) I decided we will host it again after all. How could I not when one of the little boys told his momma that last year’s party was “the best night of his entire life” and another mom (who I was planning on hosting a baby shower for next month) said she’d rather I host the party than her shower! Sigh… It’s going to be fun!
I am creating…
a few accessories for this year’s saint costumes. They all (7 costumes!!!) surprisingly came together extremely easy a couple weeks ago, after a trip to Costco during which we found a perfect (inexpensive) costume for Snuggles who wants to be St. Michael this year! We just need to make wings for him, but isn’t it cute! I love it!!
Rascal decided he wants to be St. George this year. For his costume I used my Gymbucks to order this Brave Knight Costume and Shield from Gymboree. (What a steal at just $10.21 for the costume and $3.80 for the shield!!!)
Captain has decided to dress as St. Paul, with the costume inspired by the picture in Picture Book of Saints. We already had the perfect Robe and Sash, but ordered a gray beard and yellow turban to complete the costume… So fun! Twinkle Toes wants to dress as St. Catherine Labouré using one of my sisters’ old costumes from forever ago. She is going to make a large Miraculous Medal to complete her costume, or maybe just choose one of hers to wear. Chiquita is still trying to decide between St. Joan of Arc (with our Fleur-di-lis Shield) or Mother Teresa. Rose is going to dress as St. Therese! And Bud is going to be St. Francis of Assisi, complete with lots of sweet little animals pinned to his costume.
I am going…
to run to town in a little bit to pick up my nursing cover. I left it at the restaurant last night. Oops.
I am hoping…
that I can find time to get my hair cut sometime in the next week or two. It is definitely time!
I am reading…
The Telmaj, a newly published science fiction book for children, as our daily read-a-loud! It was recently published by Erin Manning, a Catholic author, and our copy arrived last week. We are only on chapter three, but I’ve already caught my boys reading ahead! Rascal declared that it really needs to be made into an audio book, so that they don’t have to keep waiting for me!
I am praying…
this prayer from The Christian Mother: The Education of Her Children and Her Prayer in addition to the prayer on our anniversary:
O holy Guardian Angels, heavenly friends of my children. I address myself with confidence to you, as the children whom the Lord has confided to me are also looked upon by you with love and care. Implore for me the grace that I may cherish for my children sentiments similar to those which you have for them, and that I may, like you, be anxious above all to educate them for God and for heaven. Oh, that I may be such a mother to my children; that I may never appear unworthy of your love and friendship! Obtain this grace for me. Amen.
Pondering these words…
from I Believe in Love:
I am listening…
to my four oldest read picture books about the saints’ who celebrate their feast day’s this week to the little ones. They each choose a day/saint (St. Michael, St. Therese, Guardian Angels, and St. Francis) and corresponding books off of our bookshelves. Some of the new additions this year include Therese: The Little Flower of Lisieux and Francis: The Poor Man of Assisi, which were both Christmas Gifts from my husband’s parents (along with a couple other books from the series).
Around the house…
lots of sweet little saints – both homemade and from Catholic Folk Toys and St. Luke’s Brush! I also ordered this sweet little St. Therese doll from St. Anne’s Pixies to give to our little Rose in honor of her nameday. She loved it!!
One of my favorite things…
I love, LOVE, my binder and checklists for this school year, and all the progress we have been making! It’s going to be a great school year!
- Celebrate the Feast of St. Therese
- Field Trip to the Planetarium
- Park with Friends
- Celebrate the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels and our 13th Anniversary!
- Lego Robotics Class for the older boys
- Feast of St. Francis
- Tutor on Thursday Afternoon
- First Friday Mass
- Festival of Cultures
Darling picture of you two! How do you like your iMac? Did you have a Mac before? Our desktop computer died and we have been considering making the switch to a Mac but can't seem to bite the spendy bullet. We are a cash only couple so its a lot to chew off at one time especially with the need of about $350 in software on top of the computer.
Love your costumes, we also have a son intending on being St. Paul… the other St. Peter!
Beautiful daybook Jessica!
Thanks for the book mention! I'm glad your children are enjoying it! 🙂
I LOVE the iMac!! My first computer was a Mac and I've loved them ever since – even though I have owned a few PC's over the years. Mac is definitely my preference! This is my 5th (?) Mac in about 20 years. The first two were towers, followed by our first iMac (the one that was just replaced) and our Laptop. The old iMac is still great, especially for the kids to use for their Teaching Textbooks, so it was moved to one of their desks.
And good for you! We too, try to pay mostly cash, but usually have one piece of equipment/appliance/furniture at any given time on an interest free plan. We've always paid them off during the promotion period. It makes it a little bit easier to make these sorts of purchases, and be able to take advantage of the best sales.
I wanted to leave a comment yesterday, but didn't get a chance. Happy Blessed Anniversary!!! You two look wonderful!!!
In my hurry to finish up the post I had missed adding a few links and finishing a couple sentences! lol I think they are all corrected now, maybe? 🙂
May I ask where you got such a great sale with an educators discount? And how do you prove homeschooling = educators discount? Need to get in on the deals! 🙂
From the Apple Site: "Apple understands the benefits of homeschooling and knows which products are the most relevant. Education discounts are available to homeschool teachers."
The Education Discount saved $100 – I wasn't asked to provide any proof. Last month they had a bonus special, offering an extra $100 iTunes gift card for software and apps with purchase. I also clicked the link to Apple, through Bill Me Later (which I used for the financing) which qualified me for a $35 cash rebate off the bill. Overall it isn't huge savings – but for Apple products which don't often go on sale – I thought it was worth it. Hope that helps!
Happy Anniversary! God Bless the happy happy couple.
Thanks! Well, it every penny is worth it, so good for you! Wish I was an "Apple" girl 🙂
Happy anniversary! The same as my birthday. Guardian Angels pray for us!
Beautiful saints costumes! Everything is beautiful and you are such a hard worker!!!
Thanks for the homeschool discount note at Apple, too.
God bless.
this is so nice blog….
Happy Anniversary!!
I would love to have a glimpse into your checklist and homeschool binder. I am struggling with how to put mine together.
Oh I was going to ask you about that book! I will add it to my ever growing wishlist and I agree, I prefer audio books too. I like having a good story read aloud to me too!
I hope you guys had an amazing anniversary! You truly deserve it!
So many lovely things going on over here!
We're (new) iMac-lovers at our house, too…lately I've been using Picasa for all my pics (which is fast & does a nice job on the editing) but I don't think it's very compatible w/Mac's. Maybe I'll have to check out PicMonkey one of these days!
Cute binder! I'd love to hear about how you've organized it, too :0)
I really enjoyed the quotes you included…especially the one by St. Therese ~ so much to think about, there. There's so much peace in her little way, I think. 🙂
Wishing you a productive & joyful week!