Rest in Peace Kelly V

10-31-09

I got this email this morning. I know that she is resting with the Lord. My heart aches and yet I am incredibly joyful for her. Finally she is without pain. Finally she can enjoy the gifts that God gave her. Heaven is more wonderful than we can ever imagine. God Bless this beautiful woman. Please pray for her family and friends as we grieve the loss of yet another precious soul and celebrate the life of a wonderful sister in Christ.

"Kelly peacefully passed away at 7AM this morning. Her mother was at her side.

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; and those who are crushed in spirit He saves.
Psalm 34:19"
Jackie

10-30-09
Kelly V and family need our prayers!

Once again it is with a heavy heart that I send yet another request to my faithful friends. Kelly (single mother with breast cancer - recent convert to our rich Catholic Faith) will be leaving the earthly world today and soon will be with the Father wrapped in His Immense love. Some day we will join these precious souls. As Mother Theresa is quoted as saying, "I am on the way to Heaven."

My Linda says, "Each minute He sends me a blessing, each minute is a blessing!" She is so right. I pray that each of these deaths will remind us to bring our hearts to Him and to see all the gifts around us. Thank you for being so willing to pray for my requests and know that you are lifted in my prayers as well.

Kelly is free to love as Christ and has been showing us how to die with Grace. So beautiful to see and to be a part of. Soon we will be asking Kelly to pray for us. If you are looking for a good prayer to pray for the dying, I like the Divine Mercy Chaplet. It takes about 6 minutes and is set up using our very familiar rosary beads.

Rest In Peace Natalia

10-28-09

Please read about this young woman and pray for her.

She went peacefully this morning. I will write more when I can.

We love you Natalia.

All Saints Party

Every year our homeschool group has this wonderful event. A family that lives away from the city offers to host an All Saints Party. The children are to come dressed as their favorite Saint. The plan is to have the kids gather, parade around the home, play games at booths that the parents run, eat a pot luck and enjoy the company of some wonderful people.


What do you dress you kids up as when you decide two hours before the party starts? This was a hard one. I didn't have the time to create a costumes for each of the children's desired saint. I thought I would just make them all an angel and go from there. That wasn't to be. I couldn't find white wings anywhere. So here are my future saints.

We missed the parade, by just minutes. We parked and jumped out just in time to be on the first St. Paul's Journey Hay ride. In the end this was our favorite part. Thank you Mr. O.
Sugar was too old to wear her costume for more than the ride there. Jumba was annoyed by his shirt so off it came. Later he would wear his cap the entire time.
For a family of true city folk we really loved the tour of the property and then visiting with the Longhorns and then the chickens.


We quickly learned that those horns can hurt.

They were so cool.

When we got back another group took off.
Our second activity was in the prayer garden. The kids said a Hail Mary as they put stones down creating a rosary.

These two like the toss game. Go Bagel.

These moms were so creative and so cool. The cookie decorating booth was a big hit.

Jumba loved it.

We went fishing as well. So many of the original disciples were fishermen, we gave it a try.

Not as easy as it looked.



Our buddy C hung out with us most of the day. His dad and our dad were at the Texans Football game together.

This is the wife of Mr. O, the farm owners. She also ran a booth. St. Theresa the Little Flower's Rose toss. She was St. Elizabeth of Hungary. These people are so creative.

Here was St. Anthony's bin. The kids started by reciting a prayer to Saint Anthony to ask for help in finding something lost. They then went looking and he always helped them to find a special treat.



Face paining is always a big hit.

. . . Or hand painting.



Jumba spent his time waiting learning how to role in a somersault. He was so proud.

Sugar ended up with band aid. That is a perfect painting for any member of my family.

Some of us were ready for a craft.



Some were not ready just yet.






We arrived at home to the older three that were not with us. It was good to have all of my future saints together again. Thanks so much to my Bread of Life friends. This was a super fun day!

Neighborhood Halloween Celebration

I love this neighborhood. We really are blessed to have a wonderful group of people that get along and truly care about each other. We disagree and still love each other, we are a family. We lost Miss Lisa last weekend. It was such a surprise. As it turns out Halloween was this young mother's favorite holiday. I saw all this because I was blessed to run into her husband at the annual neighborhood Halloween party. He was so positive and upbeat. He misses his wife for sure but spoke over and over again about our neighborhood. It really is the best. Our kiddos have come up with "family costumes" the past couple of years. The little ones still love picking their own out of the much used collection of Disney characters that has been saved over the years. Moogie was a pirate (not a Disney character but she still looked cute).


Bear's favorite movie from his younger days is Toy Story. He has worked hard to share that love of Buzz and Woody with his brother.

As you can see it is working. Pickle wasn't too sure about dressing up but eventually played along.

Another character set that we love is the Pooh group. Hence Bear's blog name. I used to call him my little Pooh Bear. Here Princess is Tigger and Bagel is Pooh. We also have a Piglet and an Eeyore.
These two did not have costumes on but they were proudly showing their Cuda love.

Here they are taking a break from the cake walk.

Jumba wasn't too sure about the huge spider that was a decoration.
They always do a great job transforming the area into the Halloween theme.
Look at all those great people. Ready to have fun together.
Here the old ones are helping to sort some stuff to help clean up.
What a great neighborhood we picked so many years ago when we moved to Texas.

Who made you?

Most Catholic homeschooling moms are familiar with the Baltimore Catechism. It is recommended in almost every teaching program as the backdrop for elementary faith study. I remember memorizing the first 20 in my days in second grade to prepare for 1st Holy Communion. There is a comfort in those familiar words.

Q. Why did God make you?
A. God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to
serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him for ever in heaven.

I love the faith books that we are using this year. I often switch it up an
do all kinds of things. We often read from the Bible and do reflections. This year I went with a well used and much loved program called Faith and Life series. They are based in the the Catechism. I love that they put the questions in context with scripture and beautiful art work. Great books. Simple but wonderful at starting conversations about the faith. Love the
time with the books.

Pickle finished his schoolwork and was very proud of what he did. He turned to Jumba and tried to share his knowledge with his baby brother. It made me laugh at his response. He didn't pause, he didn't say huh? He just answered with conviction.

Pickle: Hey Jumba, who made you?
Jumba: Barney!