Lenten Reflection

This Lenten season has been a very interesting one for me both personally and professionally.

Our business, like most everyone else's has felt the effects of a down-trodden economy. At first, we believed that things would turn around fairly soon. Now we know, we are in this for the long haul, and we must keep the faith that every thing is going to be ok. It may not look like what we started with, but in the end, I believe that we will end up exactly where we are supposed to be.

Personally, I have done fairly well with keeping my Lenten sacrifices. As I do every year, I have also made Lenten promises. These promises are things that I try to implement into my daily life to bring me into a closer relationship with Christ. Usually, I pick something that is most often something that I fail at, so I decided to try to keep things much simpler this year, choosing to focus on my interpersonal relationships with the ones I love, praying that in turn, this will ultimately draw me closer to Him.

I can tell you all, it has. I have learned more about myself this Lenten season than I have in a very long time. I have been able to identify some of my root sins that cause me to commit the same venial sins over and over again. I can't tell you how many times I have avoided going to confession because I figured it would be just the same ol' same ol' and nothing would change for me.

I don't like what I see at the root of my sin. Thank goodness! Imagine if I DID like what I saw? I am willing to make the change, one small step at a time, and I know that I must invite Christ to take each step with me, as this, my friends, is not a journey for me alone.

The practice of a simple virtue to combat the corresponding sin seems easy enough, but I assure you, if you are dealing with a root sin, it is not. It is one thing to give up sweets, or soda, or something else outside of myself, but attempting to change something at the very core of my personality, well that in itself is a totally different matter indeed.

While I look forward to Easter, I do not embrace the end of my Lenten journey. I am one of those people that needs the constant reminder of the season of repentance to continue to strive to pull away those things which keep me from God.

This is probably why I do love Mercy Sunday so much. For me, it pulls Holy Week and Easter to a whole new level of spirituality. I am not trying to infer that Divine Mercy Sunday is more important than Easter, however, I am saying that knowing that God, in His infinite love, gives us His only Son to redeem us, and then He, in His infinite wisdom, also knows that we are a people of weakness, and therefore, gives us Divine Mercy Sunday to show us that His Mercy reigns always!

A tradition in my family growing up was to purchase new clothes on Easter and participate in the Easter parade, which was not really a parade at all, but just friends and neighbors in the community walking up and down a main street in our town, showing off our new clothes. It was supposed to be a reflection of our spiritual change that had occurred during Lent.

This year, I will not buy new clothes, as I want to break from the tradition of "appearing" to have changed, but rather, I will, with His grace, wear something I already own, but don it as a new person in Christ. A new person from within.

As we enter into this last few days of Lent, I pray that each of you arises on Easter morning a changed being. Not on the outside, but where it counts.

Latest Fishism

This morning, Fish and I were watching a bit of the news when a clip came on touting...

"This woman is being forced to clean houses to survive... Another victim of the Madoff scam!"

Don't get me wrong... Bernie Madoff has done some very bad things and has hurt lots of people with his actions. He should spend the rest of his life in jail, and in my opinion, he should perform lots of hard labor in the most unglamorous of jobs to pay for his stay in the prision system, but frankly, as Americans, we need to stop playing the role of perpetual victim and get up, dust ourselves off, and persevere!

Fish heard this news clip and said... "Is her house that dirty?" I asked what he meant by that and he replied, "Well, she has to clean it to survive!"

When I explained what the clip was intending to say, he ended the conversation with...

"Drama!"

I can't tell you how hard I laughed, yet at the same time, his viewpoint is dead-on...

I mean is cleaning houses really that horrible? Yes, she was scammed, and yes, it is unfortunate that she must return to work after planning to have a nice retired life, but things could be so much worse, couldn't they?

Sure, I'd be angry as heck if this happened to me, so I suppose it's easy for me to sit back and say these things, but I think about all of the women that have worked as cleaning ladies, waitresses, store clerks, among other things, to make a better life for their children and grandchildren.

Let's get past the drama, roll up our sleeves, take our country back, and act like the Americans our forefathers hoped we would be!

The Flu

Nothing has captured what the flu has looked like in our home quite like this shot of Foo

Catechism, Fish-style

Fish and I are reviewing some of the material for his Sacramental Preparation class tomorrow, and while it is sometimes quite mind-numbing trying to grab this boy's attention, I must say, he certainly knows how to get mine with some wonderful one-line zingers!

We were discussing the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist and what those words mean. Eucharist means "to give thanks" and we discussed at great length (ok, for about 3 minutes) how we can show God our thanks.

We brought up the idea that we can thank God in our quiet times with Him. I asked Fish if he ever talks to God. He replied, " Yep, at night when I am trying to go to sleep!" I then asked him what kinds of things he talks about with God.

He replied, "Well... we just play Rock, Paper, Scissors"...

I said, "WHAT?! Ok, Fish, so who wins?" To which his answer was, "Uh, mom? He does! Remember, He knows my thoughts, so He already knows what I am going to do, so He always wins!"


Later in the conversation, he said "Mom, God is tough!" I inquired as to why he would say that and he replied, "Well, He ALWAYS beats the Devil!"

Finally, we completed our lesson with the writing of a prayer to be said after meals.

Here is Fish's prayer... just when I thought nothing was getting in there...

Thank you God for our family. Thank you God for our lives and all of our blessings. Help us to always remember to share our blessings with others. Help all of our family to go safely to Heaven. Amen.

As Lent Begins

Another season of Lent has arrived and I find myself not ready for it. I am currently sick as are a number of the children right now. It's hard to feel as though I am fasting or abstaining when I can't eat anything anyway. It's kind of like cheating!

But my mind is what truly needs to be prepared. My heart, my soul need to be aligned with Christ and Lent provides us all the opportunity to do so.

As I ponder the sacrifices that I will make and the virtues that I will try to strengthen, I pray that I can keep my eyes fixed on Him.

The Tool of Dictation for Younger Children

In my last post regarding Charlotte Mason techniques, I addressed Copywork. In today's post, I'd like to discuss a bit about Dictation and how I have used it in our homeschooling.

Children can begin with copywork very early and most do fairly well with it. Dictation is the next step within the process of CM style of Language Arts. I do not recommend beginning dictation with a child until they are of the age that they can recall a small line of prose or scripture from memory. Also, the child should be able to read at least at a beginning level, in other words, he should be able to read the selection that has been chosen for the copywork and dictation.

I like to use a very simple line of literature or scripture when first beginning this process. Most often, my children will start with a quote from Miss Mason herself;

I am;
I can;
I ought;
I will.

The dictation begins with several days of copywork preceding the actual act of the dictation.

Typically, I introduce the selection by reading it to the student and then go over any words that might be difficult to spell. I also am sure to point out marks of punctuation, if appropriate, I'll instruct in why a specific mark is being used, and I would also point out the layout of the selection. For instance, in the quote above, I would point out:

1. Why the "I" is capitalized,
2. The semicolon and the period and why each one is used.
3. The difficult spelling of ought.
4. The layout of the quote. It is not in one line, but rather 4 lines. This is how it should be copied and memorized.

The student will copy this selection each day for several days. Most often 4 - 5 days, but if he needs longer, that is fine as well. On the last day, instead of copying the piece, I will dictate it to him.

Dictation is done in the following manner. The student reviews the selection one last time being sure to commit to memory spellings, punctuation, and the layout of the selection.

When he is ready, I give him a blank piece of paper and a freshly sharpened pencil, complete with an eraser.

I instruct the student that as usual, this dictation needs to be in his best handwriting. Then I begin to slowly read the selection, a small bit at a time, carefully pausing at the marks of punctuation. I only recite each bit one time. If the student misses something, tell him to leave a blank and move forward.

At the end of the selection, I then re-dictate it to the student at a normal pace and he is to fill in any missed information at that time.

Once he feels that he has completed his dictation, I then hand him the original selection of copywork and ask him to find any errors that he has made. When he finishes, I ask him to correct the errors and place the number of errors at the top of the page.

Then I review his dictation and am careful to check for any errors that he may have missed on his own. I always praise the student for doing a wonderful job, if in fact they did. Take every opportunity you can to applaud a difficult word spelled correctly, a mark of punctuation placed appropriately, or the beautiful penmanship that the assignment had been finished in.

What I treasure about dictation is much of what is unseen while performing this activity. Through dictation, we are developing the habit of attention, the skill of memorization, editing, and the art of listening, which is so important for auditory development. We are also incorporating the learning of grammar, spelling, and the skill of beautiful handwriting.

Dictation and copywork are very simple techniques to implement in any home or school. Do not let their simplicity fool you however, as they are extremely powerful in the art of education.

I do want to add that the above technique is what I use for my younger/new to dictation students. I do things slightly different for my older students and will elaborate more on that in another post.

Happy Birthday, My Sweet Lem!

Lem celebrated her 11th birthday recently and had a series of events which commemorated it!

First was a wonderful party with some of her friends. The girls made homemade personal-size pizzas and watched a few of their favorite movies.

On her actual birthday, she was treated to her favorite breakfast, crepes, and then her favorite dinner! She has wonderful tastebuds, so we all were able to enjoy the meals.



On our Family night, Sunday, we celebrated both her birthday and that of her soon-to-be uncle! It's always so much fun to be a part of a big family! Sharing birthdays make them even more special!!

As I watch my youngest baby girl grow into a lovely young woman, I am in awe of her grace and poise. She is one of the nicest people I've ever known, and I see the hand of God upon her each day. She has a very sensitive nature that allows her to feel for others in a deeply moving way. I am excited to watch where life brings her, but I will admit, I do not want to let her go...

Something's Been Missing

It's true. Something HAS been missing around this blog. That would be posts! More specifically, homeschooling-related posts.

I am so blessed to still be homeschooling after 10 years! I have learned so much, and yet still learn more every day. It is an amazing journey, and I pray, one that we can continue until we start on our grand-children.

As most of you know, I love to follow the Charlotte Mason Methodology of education. I implement as much of her philosophies as possible into our school life. Actually, into all of our life. I am not the best at it, but what we do works for us and keeps our learning joyful most of the time.

I also begin to integrate some to the Classical Model as the children get older, typically around 7th or 8th grade. I feel that this really helps us to become better writers and thinkers as they enter the high school age. Without the CM method in the younger years, I have no doubt that the cognitive processes which need to occur before writing can be of any quality.

Another aspect of my life is working with children who have auditory processing difficulties. This translates into the academic world in the form of poor reading/writing/spelling skills. Most of the students that come to me are considered dyslexic or ADD and are doing terribly in school. When I implement the programs that we use to help re-train the brain, I can't help but see how brilliant CM was. One of the key components that CM used was the practice of Copywork/Dictation/Narration.

In today's world, all of us are using more and more visual skills and less and less auditory skills. Computers, tv, movies, iphones, text messaging... it's all visual. The auditory centers of our brains are not be utilized and therefore, often results with their delayed development.

I try to get the parents of my students to understand this. It is so very important to read aloud to the children, let them narrate back to you, and to actually LISTEN to what the child is saying. It is not important that they get each detail correct, but more, that YOU are listening attentively and that he/she is able to verbalize what they are trying to express. This is the surest way to excellent writing skills. One who can not express what they mean to say verbally, will NOT be able to write effectively. I have seen this theory proven time and time again, with my own children as well as the many that I have worked with over the last few years.

I am so passionate about the way our children are educated. When I see what is being asked of our young people in the public school setting, it makes me cringe. Don't get me wrong, I think the educators are trying in earnest to have our students be as well educated as possible, but I believe they are missing a key component. That is the normal cognitive and fine-motor development of a child.

I have seen assignments expected of these students that ask children as young as 5 to write stories. Never mind the spelling, the teachers tell them to just write. The problem with this is that the young mind is impressing upon itself the incorrect spelling of many, many words. This is just one example of the problems I see with the current method being used by many traditional schools. I could cite many more, but the point of this post in not to rip apart schools. Rather, I would like to present a different CM method that I use in my homeschool a small bit at a time.

Today, I would like to discuss Copywork. Please note that the way that I implement these methods may be slightly different than the way that Miss Mason actually practiced them. This is what has worked best for my family over the years. Feel free to comment about what you might do differently and how it works in your home.

Copywork is a wonderful tool for so many different reasons. It is a wonderful way to introduce in a gentle way, punctuation, grammar, spelling, memory skills, handwriting, and exposure to quality literature, biblical verses, and famous essays, quotes, and poems.

In our home, mom, (or dad, as you'll see below), selects a piece for copywork according to age and experience with the Copywork. In our home, we do not begin copywork until the child can comfortably handle a pencil, can form letters well, and is beginning to read. This typically ranges between 6 or 7 years of age. If the child is not ready, and you will know fairly quickly if he or she is NOT ready, (the crying, fitful, episodes of drama are usually a dead give-away), shelf the copywork until a later time.

If the student is ready, the selection should be short at first, one line is best. I usually start with Charlotte Mason's infamous quote, and our school motto,

I am;
I can;
I ought;
I will.

This is a wonderful exposure to punctuation, some tricky spellings, and introduces the high ideal that we as parents hold for our children.

I introduce to student to the selection by reading it aloud to them and then begin pointing out all marks of punctuation, teaching why a particular mark is being used and making sure that the child can recall the name of the mark if it is not new to them.

I also will point out indenting, stanzas, capitalization, new spellings, and other items of interest that may come up.

The child will then copy this phrase, in his very best handwriting, allowing no errors. This means that the teacher must be present as he does his assignment, carefully overseeing the process. If there is a misspelling, it must be corrected immediately. Do not allow the child to impress this error within his mind's eye. If the word is a particularly difficult word and the child continues to misspell it, we practice a visual spelling method of pointing to the letters in the air, spelling it out forwards until he knows where each letter is and then demonstrating true knowledge of the spelling by correctly pointing to each letter in a forward and then backward manner. I will try to post a video on this technique later.


The child will continue with the copywork selection, copying each day for several days, typically in our home 4 - 5 days, eventually moving to a new selection of copywork.

I really like to use Spelling Wisdom from the website Simply Charlotte Mason The selections are graded from beginner to advanced ability. Honestly, you can use any good quality selection you would like. In the past, I have used the poem that they might be working on memorizing at the time, a scripture passage that we are instilling, or even a passage from one of their favorite books.

Keep in mind, CM allowed for short lessons, so for a young child of 7 or so, no more than 5 minutes should be expected. Older students, I would say, no more than 10.

One more thing regarding copywork in our home. With the young/beginning copywork student, the selection is copied onto the same paper that he will be writing on, placing his work directly below the copied lines.

As the student becomes more comfortable with the method, he will transition into copying from a separate typed selection, possibly even directly from the source such as the Bible or the novel itself. This helps with the visual skills necessary for copying from books and chalk boards for eventual note-taking and other needed study skills.

When the child can demonstrate his very best work, be sure to praise him and even place the best copy into a notebook for safe-keeping. I try to put ours into page protectors in what we call their Commonplace Book.

Below are two examples of copywork that were done by our 7 year-old, Fish.

The first was Dad's choice. (I find it humorous to see what Dads pick over what Moms pick!) This was a very early attempt at copywork as you can see that the selection was printed onto the lined paper for him to refer to.



The second example is his first attempt at true copywork, copying from one sheet to his copywork book. This was also the first selection that he was able to transition into dictation with. Dictation will be a topic covered in another post.



Please feel free to comment how this works in your home. I love hearing new ideas and trying them out on my guinea pigs... I mean children!!

My first Blogging Award!

I am the proud recipient of the highly coveted FOMUBA award! It's the first award I've ever received, and probably will be the last...

So take in the precious sight and yes, Envy me... go ahead... envy me!

The End of Christmas 2008

Today we begin the process of packing away the Christmas decor. It makes me so sad, but not because I'm sad to see Christmas go, but because I know that this next year will fly by and things will change. Some for the good, and some things will disappear forever.

I know that by this time next year I probably won't hear...

"Mommy, yook! Chris-chris tree!" "Mommy, yook! Chris-chris yights!" "Mommy, yook! Jesus!"

Boo will probably be potty-trained.

Bean will probably be off to college.

Fish will have made his First Communion.

Foo will have grown even taller and enter into high school. He'll probably be a 3rd degree black belt by then.

Lem will probably not be my cute baby girl, but rather, a beautiful young lady.

The seasons are always changing around here. My New Year's resolution is to try to soak up each moment as it comes and find the beauty in it because it won't last forever.

And while I know that I can somewhat predict what will happen this year, all things are left in His hands for good reason.

Whatever may come this year, I pray that when we unpack for Christmas 2009, we are all able to recall the beautiful memories of the past, embrace the pain that drives us to our knees, and become more like Christ as we journey through this thing called Life.

Merry Christmas and Happy 2009!

Christmas 2008 Memories

Bean was accepted to Franciscan University, the only college she has really ever wanted to attend.

Fish received the Sacrament of First Reconcilliation on December 17th.

Alicia turned 21!

Boo loves Chris-chris yights, and Chris-chris trees. He recognizes Santa. Even better, he recognizes Jesus in the Manger.

Godmothers give great presents... Think a Nativity Set for children, complete with SAND!!

While finances were tighter, the love flowed freely and God has blessed us immensely.

I set a new world record... I had to go to Hobby Lobby 7 times for the same craft project and Michael's once. Three of those trips were in the same day...

Speaking of crafts...something I learned this season... what do you get when you leave a 7 year old, a 6 year old neighbor, and a bunch of craft paint unsupervised?? A unique "artsy" look upon the garage floor. And acrylic paint does NOT wash out of the good shorts, only the yucky ones. Guess which ones he was wearing!

Happy 21st Birthday, My Sweet One!

Alicia turned 21 today! I can recall some days in those turmultuous teenage years that I wasn't so sure she would make it this far. She has brought me to my knees in prayer so many times, and now I drop to my knees in thanksgiving for her safe, healthy, and much more happy outlook on life.

I thank each one of you who have prayed for my sweet oldest child. I do not doubt that your prayers coupled with ours are what have carried her this far.

I look to the future now, with hopes of a wonderful life. A life that she deserves and that she will embrace as God reveals it to her.

I love you so much, Alicia. You are the one who transformed me from a selfish young woman into a mother and in turn, towards my vocation in life. I thank God for you every single day!

The Season May Still Have a Reason!

I am just as guilty as the next person of getting caught up the all of the craziness of the season. We don't usually go overboard with the cost of gifts, but we do try to give something to most everyone we know.

We also try to do enough baking that could, honestly, feed lots of hungry people.

Add to that the special moments I've tried to "create" (aka as contrive) over the years, the perfect Christmas card picture, the 400 Christmas cards I try to mail out, the traditions I try to instill, and I end up one stressed out mom who is not much fun to be around.

This year is different. Perhaps it's the fact that the economy is slow and more of us are trying to conserve that which we have. Perhaps I'm finally realizing that I really don't have to run myself into the ground. Perhaps I have really, truly, and honestly found the real reason for the season.

I have always known the reason, and I've always talked about how we should always remember the reason, but what I did was contrary to what I was saying. My heart is in a different place this year.

Just like everyone else I know, we have cut back quite a bit this year. We've been moving in this direction for a few years now and this is the year that we finally have made Christmas more about what it is and less about ourselves.

I know that there are many people suffering this Christmas season, and for those people I pray that times get better and life gets easier, but for those of us who have not gone without very often, if ever, I pray that this year, we embrace the true meaning of Christmas, and that we hold onto it the whole year through.

In an effort to really be family-centered for the remainder of the Advent season and the Christmas season, I am restricting my computer time to only that which is necessary. I will not be blogging until 2009. I will be snuggling with the kids and finishing up our home made projects. We will be worshiping Christ and thanking Him for His gift to us. We will be reflecting on our baptismal call and what that means to us as a family.

I wish each of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Houston We Have Snow!

We don't typically see this on our desktops...



It was a night of fun watching the kids reacting to real snow falling in Houston. By this morning it was gone, but for just a brief few hours, we had an early Christmas complete with white stuff!

2nd Week of Advent

It seems that the season of Advent hardly gets it's due. I know that I try in my heart of hearts to celebrate the season through a few small traditions in our home that can easily be forgotten with the business of the day.

I am so thankful that my children will remind me to stop and light the candle on the Advent wreath or that we will be mindful of taking the time to attend Mass on the feast days that make this period of waiting more beautiful.

I pray that you are each enjoying this small time of waiting before the Christ child comes to us on Christmas morn.

The value of persistent prayer is not that God will hear us,
but that we will finally hear God.

The newest Fishism

Today, Mark was reviewing some of Fish's religion lesson and was asking him if he remembered where Jesus went to pray before he was crucified.

Fish responded, "He went to Olive Garden to pray, Daddy!"

I wonder if he got breadsticks while He was there...

I have been feeling quite unsuccessful lately, in many areas, running, work, mothering, homeschooling, my faith life, etc. In fact, I actually uttered the words, "I think I am just going to quit running until after the holidays" last night. Then a "friend" shared this with me. It is from Magnificat and she read it during adoration last night...

"When we see our efforts are unsuccessful, let us throw ourselves at the feet of Jesus. Groaning over the world's iniquity, let us beg his divine heart to lay bare his infinite treasures of mercy. Then let us return again to our work, without giving in to exhaustion. Hardships must never discourage the spouse of Christ; rather, they should make her stronger and more determined. Do not be dismayed by rejection and mockery. Go forward always, with the serenity and fortitude of angels, because you are the angels of the earth and so must continue on your way in the midst of so many contrary influences. Everyone can be serene when things run smoothly; it is in difficult situations that fidelity and constancy are proven."
- Mother Cabrini

It is now blown up, placed on my mirror, and being studied by me. I swear, I need some new friends... LOL

I thank God for my friends. He always uses them in the most wonderful ways!

Prayer of St. Therese

This prayer brought me to my knees on Sunday night. Gomer, our youth minister, shared it with us and about 250 teens at LifeNight.

A Day Out With Thomas

For Boo's 3rd Birthday, we celebrated with a trip to Rusk State Park and the Texas State Railroad.

Thomas was there complete with all the trimmings. The weather was perfect, there was plenty of shopping, and priceless memories were made.

How do you choose just ONE train??!!



This is Boo's reaction to seeing the full-sized Thomas pulling into the station.



This was everyone's first ride on a real train, including Mark and I. It was lots of fun and we plan to go back with the Polar Express comes into town!



Boo was getting a bit sleepy...



Boo could have spent weeks at these train tables! Needless to say, each child that had to be extracted from these tables left the same way... kicking and screaming!




Lem had fun even though she and Foo were probably the oldest kids there...