Happy Pentecost Sunday!

When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled,
they were all in one place together.
And suddenly there came from the sky
a noise like a strong driving wind,
and it filled the entire house in which they were.
Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire,
which parted and came to rest on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in different tongues,
as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

Pentecost Sunday is the "Birthday of the Church" when we're sent out to proclaim the Gospel to all nations. 

This Feast Day is the third most important feast in the Church (after Easter and Christmas) and has special significance to our family as the Holy Spirit has been guiding us in our journey of Faith.  Today in Pope Francis's homily  he spoke of the surprises of the Holy Spirit and that He calls us to strike out on new paths.  Truly this has been our family's experience especially the past few years and my own throughout my adult life:

"Newness always makes us a bit fearful, because we feel more secure if we have everything under control, if we are the ones who build, programme and plan our lives in accordance with our own ideas, our own comfort, our own preferences. This is also the case when it comes to God. Often we follow him, we accept him, but only up to a certain point. It is hard to abandon ourselves to him with complete trust, allowing the Holy Spirit to be the soul and guide of our lives in our every decision. We fear that God may force us to strike out on new paths and leave behind our all too narrow, closed and selfish horizons in order to become open to his own. Yet throughout the history of salvation, whenever God reveals himself, he brings newness and change, and demands our complete trust: Noah, mocked by all, builds an ark and is saved; Abram leaves his land with only a promise in hand; Moses stands up to the might of Pharaoh and leads his people to freedom; the apostles, huddled fearfully in the Upper Room, go forth with courage to proclaim the Gospel. This is not a question of novelty for noveltys sake, the search for something new to relieve our boredom, as is so often the case in our own day. The newness which God brings into our life is something that actually brings fulfilment, that gives true joy, true serenity, because God loves us and desires only our good. Let us ask ourselves: Are we open to Gods surprises? Or are we closed and fearful before the newness of the Holy Spirit? Do we have the courage to strike out along the new paths which Gods newness sets before us, or do we resist, barricaded in transient structures which have lost their capacity for openness to what is new?" (Pope Francis' Pentecost Sunday Homily- emphasis my own:-)

Praise God for the gift of the Holy Spirit!

Come Holy Spirit, fill the Hearts of Thy faithful and enkindle in them the fire of Thy Love, Send forth Thy Spirit and we shall be created and Thou shalt renew the faith of the Earth.  

O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

The Science Fair

Our Homeschool group had a Science fair and Performance Day to wrap up our cooperative classes for the year.  For our project we decided to learn about volcanoes.

To prepare, we researched Volcanoes by getting some books from the Library and watching some videos online.  There are a lot of great videos on-line about volcanoes and footage of eruptions but one we really enjoyed was this you-tube documentary on Mount St. Helens.The kids each then dictated a report to me of what they learned.

Science Fair

After they knew a bit about volcanoes we researched the different ways to make a model of a volcano. William decided to make a salt dough Volcano. We then made the Volcano, painted it and researched ways to make it explode. We decided to run 3 different tests to see which would be the best explosion. Our first test was the traditional baking soda and Vinegar chemical reaction. You can watch our 1st experiment here.
The second test was using Coke and mentos.  We discovered that you need to put the mentos directly into the coke bottle.   Finally we tested our volcano with hydrogen peroxide and yeast.  We then designed a poster for our project.

Luke and William hold the poster and judging sheet for our Science fair project.

Our Volcano display.

Demonstration and judging at the Science fair.

After the science fair a number of the kids presented skits they had prepared during the past 10 weeks and some of the children shared poems or songs they had memorized.  Luke, Miriam and William recited a poem "The twelve apostles" and sang a song about Lent.  Miriam recited a poem entitled "The Only Girl" with a big friend Anastasia.  They also joined their class in singing a song about the seven continents.  All in all it was a great day!

Evening Prayer

The other day Phil sat down to pray evening prayer. 

Luke noticed and said, "wait, I need to get my evening prayer!"

I didn't take long for Miriam to join in and pretty soon..

Everyone was praying :-)

Oh Spring, where art thou?

I looked out my window today and saw a wintry scene.  It's April 10th!

It is not the scene that I would have chosen to see today but I am grateful. 

There are so many times in my life that I have thought "I don't want to do this or go to this place" but God's plan for me included choosing things I would not have chosen otherwise. 

I am so glad that God's able to work past my blindness 

and sneak in through the small cracks I leave for His will.  

I would not have chosen to live in a cold climate 

but then I would never have met my wonderful husband and I can't imagine life without him or the beautiful children God has blessed us with.

I said I didn't want to move further north or to a place so far from an airport but God has enriched our lives with new friends and the joy of sharing our faith with others and growing to trust and abandon ourselves to His will.  No, on my own I would not choose many things that to me seem undesirable but by embracing God's plan in my life I have found joy and happiness as well as trials and growth beyond what I would have ever envisioned.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow,

Snow and ice, bless the Lord!

Thomas is six months old!

The past 6 months have flown by and my baby has grown so quickly!

March

February

January

December

November

 

October

September

 

September 21st, 2012

William is 7!

 On March 19th, William turned seven.  It's hard for me to believe that my firstborn is already seven!  The years have just flown by!

It seems like yesterday he was taking his first steps.

For William's birthday, we celebrated by going to a nursing home in town where they had some special festivities planned for the residents and children who came to visit them. 

Everyone had a wonderful time and the kids each received a teddy bear and balloon and the opportunity to brighten "the grandma and grandpa's" day as well as lots of smiles. 

That evening we had cake and sang Happy Birthday to William with his good friend Micah.  (It's a good thing William's birthday is always on the solemnity of St. Joseph since it will always fall during Lent.)  
All in all a blessed 7th Birthday for William. 

Ann Arbor or Bust!

 Last weekend Thomas, Miriam and I went on an adventure to Ann Arbor, MI.  We took two young ladies from our parish to a retreat with the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist.  I forgot to get a picture of the lovely ladies who traveled down to Ann Arbor with us, but here is a slideshow of the retreat courtesy of the Sisters:    While Mary and Alice attended the 24 hour retreat with the sisters, the kids and I spent the night with my friends from College - Beth and Collin.  It was great to see them and Miriam had so much fun with Aunt Beth and Uncle Collin that she didn't want to leave!

 We then had brunch and attended Mass with the Peter's family.  Miriam bonded instantly with Theresa and Margaret.  It was a great visit but much too short - we're hoping to see them again in August when Sr. Rose Anthony makes her Final Vows. 

Before we knew it, it was time to pick up Mary and Alice at the Sisters' retreat and Miriam was so excited to spend even a few moments with the sisters even though our beloved Sister Rose Anthony is in California right now.  We got these great pictures:

Miriam future Sister

It was a great trip though the 3 1/2 hour drive with a 5 month old wasn't the easiest, Mary and Alice got to have a taste of the vocation of Marriage and of Religious life and we're doing our best to foster vocations :-)

Luke's ABC's

Now it's Luke's turn to have his moment in the limelight. At 2 1/2 he's already learned the ABC song and he loves learning his letters.

 He is very eager to participate in our homeschool lessons and loves to count as well. Like most younger siblings, he wants to do everything his brother and sister are doing.

Outside of learning his letters his favorite things are Thomas the train and Frosty the snowman. We've made several "snowman" crafts and he listened to Frosty the snowman over the Christmas Holidays so many times that the whole family has most of the song memorized.

He also loves to help and loves his little brother Thomas as well.

Our 100th day of school

Today is our 100th day of homeschooling this year!  

We planned some fun activities to help us celebrate this milestone.

We started off the day with pancakes shaped as a 100.

We were ready to attend classes at our homeschool Co-Op but due to weather (Icy roads and freezing rain) classes were cancelled.  It's a good thing we homeschool so our 100th day of school could still take place :-)

I saw this cute idea to make 100th day glasses on Pinterest and what's a celebration without balloons?

 For Math we did this fun activity where the kids see how many rolls of the dice it takes to get to 100 (also found on Pinterest :-)

Luke decided to play with his car and chalk instead of rolling the die :-)

We also read a story and sang a song that we found in a book at the Library.
Miriam and Luke loved the song from the book "50 Thematic songs sung to your favorite tunes" (sung to 99 bottles of beer on the wall):

"100 days of school in all, 

100 days of school.

We managed to count a large amount, 

100 days of school in all."

The book,100th Day Worries, showed the various ways to count to 100 and it was a fun story to read.

Finally, we had the opportunity to attend Mass in the extraordinary form offered by our Associate Pastor Father Peter Wigton. (The Church is really close to our house and the roads were pretty well salted by Mass time.)

All in all it was a pretty fun day- now on to the next 100 days :-)

Let it Snow!

Thomas is all bundled up and ready for the snow

This post is primarily for my family and friends in Southern California. In our new home of Gaylord, MI they average 150 inches of snow a year. This is three times the amount of snow we had in Stevens Point, WI and well I know most of my family and friends have a hard time picturing what life with that much snow would be like. The week we have a winter storm brewing and it'll be snowing pretty much every day so I took some pictures of our drive to Mass to share with you! 

Here they are:

Our view out the front windshield of the car

See how well the roads are plowed!

Snow everywhere as far as the eye can see