Deogratias

Andrew's Birthday

Yesterday my youngest son turned 7 years old and I can't believe it.  Seems like just yesterday that he was the little baby pictured here.  Today he's shooting his brand new bow and arrow and is pretty darned accurate.

  Our family spent the whole day together, first going to Mass, then to shop for his favorite present, one that he has been asking for for several years - a bow and arrow.  Thanks to his  granddaddy, we were able to pick out one just right for him.  Then we brought it home and everyone had a chance to try it out.

 He opened his other presents and then we had homemade pizza for dinner, which was Andrew's choice.  Afterward we had cookie cake, also his choice.  We had fun with the trick candles which wouldn't blow out.

 

Unfortunately the camera batteries died before I could get a shot of the attempts to blow it out.  After all that blowing, I declined a piece of the cookie-cake, but no one else seemed to mind it, as the cake was nearly consumed in one sitting.  I had to hide it away so that Andrew could have a piece on his birthday + 1.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that Andrew dubbed this one his best birthday ever!  We'll have to see if we can top that for next year.  I know that I LOVE it when a birthday falls on a Sunday!

Homeschooling Successes

We're ending our third week of homeschooling for the 2009-10 school year, and I'm so pleased with our success so far.

Credit Number One goes God for his wisdom and grace.  He has allowed me allowed me to become aware of some fabulous resources and to implement them successfully. 

Number Two  is Mother of Divine Grace School  in which we are enrolled for the year.  We have a fabulous consultant and a superb well-tested curriculum which we are using.  The result is that I have the confidence to teach the kids and have expectations of excellence, and they have the motivation to do a good job and learn.  We're back with Saxon math with the assistance of DIVE CDs, Prima Latina, Easy Grammar and much much more.  Andrew is doing Sound Beginnings for phonics and he and Nicholas are doing Handwriting Wthout Tears which is greatly needed.

Number Three is Sue Patrick's Workbox System which is really making a difference, especially for me, in getting the assignments organized.  I absolutely LOVE seeing all the assignments in the boxes and knowing that it is all planned out and in front of us for the day.  It means so much more to me than a lesson planning sheet to check off. 

The result is that the I'm preparing the assignments, the kids are doing them, and I am grading them.  I love it!  I'm also finding time to go to daily Mass with the kids once a week and by myself another time.  Thanks be to God!!

A Book Review

   Hiking the Camino by Father Dave Pivonkea is a book about a priest's 500 mile journey the Camino de Santiago in Spain, but it is so much more than that.  It is about a religious pilgrimage along an ancient path to the tomb of St. James the Apostle, but most of all, it is about love, sacrifice and developing a closer relationship with God.

The book contains suspense, adventure, comedy and wisdom, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in those four qualities.  Even my agnostic brother-in-law enjoyed reading a few chapters, and got a chuckle out of the author's insightful humor.

Pivonkea is a Franciscan priest who took the 10th anniversary of his priesthood as an opportunity to walk 500 miles across Spain on the ancient pilgrim path to Santiago.  He and his friend and fellow Franciscan did the journey together as a way to thank God for allowing them to become priests.  The author's purpose was to grow closer to God, as the subtitle 500 Miles With Jesus implies.

The walk took 30 days, and along the way the author encountered the opportunity to suffer for the Lord and to learn valuable lessons from encounters with other pilgrims along the way.  The Lord's wise hand was definitely present in many of the stories documented in the book. It is a love story between a priest and Heavenly Father, and it culminates in a beautiful Mass at the Cathedral de Santiago.

I highly recommend this book to anyone, whether you are a looking for a closer relationship with God or are just interested in a good story.  You can pick it up at The Catholic Company.

Where Have I Been

I can't believe it has been so long since I've posted here, especially considering that we haven't gone anywhere and I've had plenty of computer time.  Its just a combination of beginning school (tomorrow begins week 2) and my addiction to Bejeweled Blitz.  And I just haven't had many post inspirations lately either.  

But yesterday I told the family a story about something that happened in the backyard, so I'll share it with you too.  It's short, but sweet, and perhaps sad if you're sensitive about these things.

As I was walking across the clover that we call our back lawn, I saw a beautiful Black Swallowtail Butterfly flutter by.  She was so beautiful and she brought back memories of the day last spring when we set our Swallowtail free - the one we found gnawing on our parsley plant when she was just a caterpillar.  We had captured her and raised her in our butterfly cage, feeding her parsley and then watching her disappear into a crystilis. 

When we set her free we were hoping she would stick around and fly near us for a while, but she would have none of that.  She took off to the tippy top of the trees and off to a new world never to be seen by us again.

So this new Swallowtail came very close to me and sat down on a piece of clover to search for some nectar or to take a rest, or to do what butterflies like to do.  I wondered if she was old, because she didn't seem to active.  But then, perhaps she had just layed some eggs somewhere nearby.

Then all of a sudden I heard something rustling in the clover and I looked up just in time to see.  A big bad predator was on her trail.  One of our little Khaki Campbell ducks came up and gobbled the little butterfly up. Bye, bye butterfly, I said quietly to myself.  I hope you were tasty.

Sex Ed the Natural Way

Nicholas likes to teach people about chickens.  Many people don't know much about chickens, but some things he tells them I'm pretty sure they already know.  For example, "When the rooster gets on the chicken he puts something in her that makes her eggs fertile."

Somehow the response from adults is always the same - "I know."

George and Martha are our two Cuyuga Ducks - a male and female approximately 6 months old.  This morning Andrew was on the back deck watching them when he came in with some news.

"You know that thing the rooster and chicken do?" he asked. "George and Martha just did that."

Trying to be an educational mom, I informed him that they call that mating.

"Whatever," he replied.

I have a feeling that when it comes time to have that "talk", my boys will have no trouble at all. 

Sixty-Four is too much!

Today Lee took all four boys to Six-Flags Over Georgia, which was a rare treat for everybody, including me who got to stay home alone all day long.  The boys got a chance to ride some roller-coasters, play in the water park and spend some time with their cousins and aunt who went with them.  I was able to clean all the books and papers left behind in the old classroom, which is now Lee's office, and organize my bookshelves and my desk.  Bonus for everyone.

The only downside is that instead of having the boys around to help care for the animals, I had to do it all.  Let me tell you, it's pretty time consuming to feed and water all of those birds twice a day.  I'm beginning to wonder what I've gotten myself, and Lee and the boys into.  It's one thing to have a few laying hens and some replacement chicks, quite another to have a flock the size of ours.

Our flock includes: ten laying hens, one rooster, four pullets, six guineas, 31 six-week old chicks, and 12 ducks (four grown and six babies).  That's 64 birds, not to mention 3 dogs and one cat.  That is a lot for one homeschooling family of six. 

Sure, we're getting tons of eggs lately.  They slowed down when the weather got really hot, but due to the recent mild weather I believe they have picked up.  In the past two days we have gathered 16 eggs.  The other day I found a hidden nest which contained 20 eggs.  That's plenty for us to eat plus some to sell or give away too.  I've got two and a half dozen in the fridge which I'm planning on giving my sister-in-law when she brings 3 of the boys home this evening.

Even aside from the eggs, my consolations are many, however.  I LOVE watching the birds.  It's so much more fun than TV, and I could just do it all day.  I like to sit out on the porch and drink my coffee in the morning, and a glass of win in the evening, and watch their antics.

It's also very good for the boys, both educationally and in helping them to learn a good work ethic.  Not only that, but I believe feeding them the farm fresh free-range eggs is so much more nutritious for their growing bodies.

We're also going to get a chance shortly to eat farm fresh chickens, as soon as our chicks get old enough to slaughter.  It will probably be sometime in the late fall or early winter, and hopefully we'll get a freezer full of birds.  We may make stewing hens into some of our laying  hens too, depending on the ratio of pullet to cockerel that our chicks turn out to be.

I've also learned an important lesson.  Ultimately, our flock size needs to be smaller.  Sure, they're fun to play with, but 64  is just too many for us!