TV Non-Sense

This evening I saw two things that drove me crazy:

1. Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards... um basically every show, movie and guest were inappropriate for young viewers... including all the kids there. So they behaved themselves (the stars, that is)... but these are not people we generally want our children looking up to... is it? Seriously people, children should not know who Nelly is for cryin' outloud! And even the song that Justin Timberlake won for was COMPLETELY inappropriate... TV is not your friend moms and dads!


2. Nancy Pelosi goes to the Middle East to get first hand information. Um, right because you, Nancy Pelosi, can get more info than the president and all the people and agencies that do that sort of thing for a living... right!

Road Trip

We are headin' out on the road with DH for a short trip. Thank goodness, we could all use a break from everything (except for DH who will be working of course). So hotels, no cooking for me, and swimming here we come.

In other news... YAY MAV's . That was a fun win, and nice to George back out on the court with his 7 points! Looks like the groove is comin' back.

And one last thing... How does your garden grow... mine grows with tulips, irises, amd lots of color. Here is just a sampling of things happening...

Seriously

Bobcat is batting 1000 today. What a typical oldest child and 6 year old all at the same time!!! I think he really feels like he is going to win, that he will break me down and he will be victorious! Seriously... and just when you think you have him back from the dark side... the dark side rears it's ugly head again.

Right now, after a long break for him to cool down and his second failed attempt to finish his first subject with a nice attitude... he is working out his frustration on my baseboards!

Hopefully once he gets done with a section of that he will be motivated to stay on task and move on to another assignment.

Unfortunately he was not alone in poor attitudes, currently Bubba is working on baseboards in another area... and Snookie, well he spent over an hour screaming in bed (then another 20 minutes of QUIET TIME) because.... wait for it... FUSSING at the table because.... he FINISHED his yogurt! That ranks right up there for him with crying because he finished a skittle, and finishing his cereal.

Nap time is going to be a welcomed event, for at least me today!

It is definitely LENT in this house... filled with trials and tribulations!

Feast of the Annunciation

Happy Feast of the Annunciation!

While I like Christmas and all, I think there should be more focus on the Annunciation... why you ask?  Um, because this is really the day the Word was MADE FLESH!

Family observance of the Annunciation

In families with young children, this feast would be a good time to begin teaching youngsters important lessons about the inestimable value God places on human life.

First, that He loved us so much that He chose to become one of us to take on our humanity so completely that He "became flesh", as utterly weak and dependent as any human infant is. Second, God became "like us in all things except sin" at the moment of His conception in Mary's womb, not at some later time. The Feast of the Annunciation is a celebration of the actual Incarnation of Jesus Christ.

Children may, quite naturally, think that the birth of Jesus is the time when Our Savior first "became Man", especially since Christmas has become the Christian holiday in our culture. We understand best what we can see, what is visible. The invisible, the hidden, is no less real for our lack of seeing it. (We think of the baby in its mother's womb, known and felt, though unseen, only to her.)

Even very young children can know the truth about the growth of a baby inside its mother's body, especially if the mother of the family (or an aunt, perhaps) happens to be pregnant on the holiday. The nine months' wait from March 25 to December 25 for the Baby to be born would be interesting to most children. (God made no special rules for His own bodily development!) What better way than the reading first chapter of Luke to gently begin teaching children about the beginning of each new human life?

Children should be told how important it is to every person that "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1), and parents can find this feast a valuable teaching moment.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church on Article 3 of the Creed: "He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, and was born of the Virgin Mary" (§436-511), should be read by parents. This will not only give adults a timely review of Catholic doctrine, but it can be a great help to us in transmitting important truths of the faith to our children. The summary at the end can help formulate points we want to emphasize. Excerpts from the Catechism could be read aloud to older children.



Some other lessons that can be drawn from this important feast on the Church's Calendar are:

• Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit


• Angels as God's messengers


• The importance of humility, submission and obedience to God's will


• The value of hiddenness, silence, quiet (baby in womb, Mary at home, &c.)
  
  

Family Prayers and Readings

• Saint Luke 1:26-53 ; Magnificat (Luke 1:46-53); Psalm. 139; John 1.
  
  


• Creed (See also Catechism of the Catholic Church, Creed, Article 3.)
  
  


• The Angelus
  
  


• Rosary (Five Joyful Mysteries: Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Presentation of Jesus, Finding of Jesus in the Temple)
  
  


• Catechism: section on Angels (§328336)
  
  

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Activities with children

Have children draw an Annunciation scene, with the Trinity present Father, Son and Holy Spirit as well as Mary and the Angel Gabriel. Another idea would be to make the figures from clay or play-dough, and make a "tableau" using a shallow box to represent Mary's house.

Mention that Christianity is unique in recognizing the Incarnation of the God as Jesus Christ, the Son. God's taking on a human body, while being truly and fully divine, is the reason why artistic representations of Jesus, Mary, etc., are not "idols" or "graven images" prohibited by the First Commandment. (See Catechism § 476, 466). Catholics who properly reverence images of sacred figures are actually reverencing the Person whom the image represents, not the physical object painting or sculpture or medal or whatever.

Make a flower centerpiece for the dinner table using red carnations (symbolize "incarnation"), baby's breath (innocence, spirit) and ivy (eternal fidelity). Explain how the symbolism of the flowers reminds us of the Annunciation, and the appropriateness of the gift of real flowers for the occasion. Sprinkle the flowers with Holy Water (little children love to do this!), and explain that this consecrates, or sets apart, our gift to the worship of God.

Make a special Annunciation Candle. Use a fat pillar candle of white or blue. Carve a niche in the wax large enough to fit inside it a tiny image (or picture cut from a Christmas card) of the Infant Jesus. Fasten a "curtain", made from a small piece of white cloth, over the opening with pins pushed into the wax. The candle wax represents the purity of the Virgin. The Baby is "hidden" within the body of the candle. Light the candle when the Angelus or Rosary is said on this Feast. The same candle can be saved from year to year. It can also be used on other feast days and solemnities of the Blessed Virgin (Assumption, Immaculate Conception); as well as on Pro-life observances (e.g., January 22, in the US). On Christmas the little curtain would be removed from the niche so the Holy Infant can be seen.

Substitute the regular bedtime story with looking at and talking about pictures of the Annunciation in books. There are many beautifully printed art books containing masterworks of Catholic art that can be borrowed from any public library -- or you may have some in your home library. There you may find reproduced paintings of the Annunciation by Fra Angelico, Roger van der Weyden, and others.

Make a household shrine. A statue or picture of Mary could be placed on a small table in a special place in the house. Or a picture or sculpture of Mary could be hung on the wall over a shelf or cabinet containing the Bible, prayer books and other devotional books, rosaries, &c.

On Marian feasts, especially the Feast of the Annunciation, decorate the "shrine" to "highly favored" Mary with real flowers, if possible. Carnations, roses or lilies in bud would be ideal.

If real flowers are impossible, children could make flowers symbolizing attributes of Mary from tissue or colored paper, etc. (See section on "Mary's flowers" below.) These flowers could be made into a wreath to be hung on the door or placed on a table with a statue or picture of Mary, or to surround the Annunciation Candle.

Plant seeds of marigold (named in honor of Mary) in little pots on a window sill; wait to see them sprout and grow. While you and the children are planting these, talk about the importance of "hidden" work. As a baby grows unseen within the mother's womb, and as the sprouting seed invisibly grows under the soil, so is much essential and vital work that people do -- not visible to most people, and perhaps never known except to God.




Transplant the seedlings to the flower bed outside when the weather permits. There's also a lesson here in the need to grow strong in the faith before we can "flower" as God intends us to do; also the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:2-20; Matt 13:3-23; Luke 8:4-15).




Bake a special cake to celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation (perhaps a traditional seed cake?), or make waffles (a Swedish tradition). An angelfood cake would also be appropriate. It could be iced in pale blue, the traditional color of Mary's mantle.





Lilies (Easter or Madonna lilies and lilies-of-the-valley) -- white color and sweet fragrance symbolize Mary's purity, humility, loving obedience to God's will. (Jesus is also called Lily of the Valley.)




Iris (old-fashioned names were "flag" or "sword lily"): the deep-blue color symbolizes Mary's fidelity, and the blade-shaped foliage denotes the sorrows that "pierce her heart". The iris flower is the "fleur-de-lis" of France. This symbol of the Blessed Virgin is also the symbol of the cities of Florence and of Saint Louis.




Mary's Flowers




Gladiolus (name comes from Latin word for sword): Sword-shaped leaves also symbolize "piercing sorrows"; also martyrdom especially red gladiolus (a palm branch also signifies martyrdom.)




Baby's Breath symbolizes innocence and purity; also the breath ("inspiration") and power of the Holy Spirit.




Ivy (evergreen): The ivy stands for eternity, faithfulness.




Violets: The violet's delicacy, color, sweet scent and heart-shaped leaves, refer to Mary's constancy, humility and innocence.




Blue Columbine: The columbine (from the Latin word for dove, columba), is a circlet of petals thought to resemble doves. The blue columbine is a symbol of fidelity, and often appears in paintings of Mary.




Marigold (calendula, "English" or "pot marigold" and common garden or "French marigold"): both flowers were used as gold-colored dye for wool. Named in honor of Mary ("Mary's gold"), symbolize her simplicity, domesticity. Marigold also sometimes denoted Mary's sorrows, perhaps because its strong scent was associated with burial ointments.




Carnations (or "pinks"): pink or red color symbolizes love, life. Carnations' color and spicy fragrance refers to the crucifixion, "love unto death". The name "carnation" also suggests the Incarnation of Christ.




Rose: The rose is regarded as the "queen of flowers", and often symbolizes Mary, the Queen of Heaven. Also an almost universal symbol of perfect love, its color, perfection of form, and fragrance, as well as its thorns signifies Mary's role in salvation history as the Mother of God the Savior who was crowned with thorns and shed His blood on the Cross for love of mankind. The rose, arising from a thorny bush, also signifies Mary, the Mystical Rose, "our fallen Nature's solitary boast", who alone of the human race was conceived without sin. It also may contain a parallel with the fiery thorn bush from which God spoke to Moses: Mary, immaculately conceived, was the means through which God became Man, The Word made flesh.

I have an illness!

Cleaning is my illness... I know, I know... some of you out there are not going to throw me a pity party or anything :-).

But take for instance today. DH got home early from work, and took the kids out in the front yard for some wear down time outside fun, and that freed up a little of my time so I vaccumed the living room, and then decided I would take the vaccum into the kitchen and clean out some of the lower cabnets... you know they get little things back in the corners and it is easier to suck it out and then go back with a rag to dust it (well that's at least what I like to do). Then I remembered that I really needed to pull EVERYTHING out from under my sink and clean that up and lay down some contact paper because some of my bottles under there were leaving rings, and at some point we had a pesky leak under there and I want to protect the bottom from any further water damage. That took some time, cleaning it all up, then laying all the paper, then putting things back where they go. And, heck, since I was going to that much trouble why not pull the stove out as well and clean back there... it's been a while and dog hair likes to slide under there and cluster. And then the fridge... well I didn't pull it away from the wall, I just stuck the hose thing under it and sucked a bunch of dust from there as well.

Then I had a few dirty rags, so I threw them into the laundry room... and realized that there were enough dirty towels to make a load. So I went around to the bathrooms to collect the rest of the towels and figured I should clean up around the sinks and toilets while I was at it... finally I got that done and the towels and rags into the machine and washing.

And when I was putting stuff away in the cabinet in the laundry room I saw the can of compressed air (for cleaning electronics and what not) and thought to myself, "myself, I can't remember the last time I blew out the keyboard for the computer... hmmm, I should do that"

After I finished that up... I said that it must stop, honestly I saw several more things I could have done, but I needed to get dinner going! So that is in the oven and instead of picking up some other job to take care of I decided to blog... because between all the laundry I've done today, grocery shopping, thrift store drop off, vaccuming all the rooms, ironing, and then my little kitchen extravaganza... I'm tuckered out!

When I saw it is an illness... I say that because this is a regular thing for me, I get to doing something and it SNOWBALLS! I think I need a drink... happy weekend :-).

Mavs win again!

Yay, go Mavs! Nice win, I would've enjoyed a larger spread in points, but they got the job done! Now what was that last shot Dirk took... what in the world happened with that.

Props to Harris and Damp (even with his large number or fouls)!!! Seriously guys your stepped up your game and it showed!

Stress

So this morning DH had a pretty important interview and I was all nerves all night and all morning.  Why?  Well, it was important and could mean really great things for us... not that things aren't great right now... we are happy, and DH really likes his current job, but this would be 'the job'.  I was up most of the night, and the morning plagued me with a rotten stomach and nerves.  Thankfully a friend and her kids came over and we went out to lunch and that got my mind off of DH's interview...

How did the interview go... well.  We're not out shopping few a new house just yet (we would need to upgrade so that we could have a home office since he would be a full time telecommuter)... okay so I'm already shopping for houses, but WE aren't shopping for houses... but we won't be shocked and horrified if he doesn't get it, and we will be super stoked throwing a big ole' party and what not when he gets it :-).  This is the next logical step up with in the company and it will happen when it is meant to happen.  I just hope it gets to happen now... I'm some what impatient, even though it isn't even me interviewing or doing the work :-)... I'm just the super supportive wife.

When we will know... 2-3 weeks, UGHHHHHHHHHH

Auto Show 2007

We like cars... and we are passing that love on to our boys.  So in the spirit of liking cars, liking super cool cars (trucks and SUV's as well) we attended the annual car show.  We haven't done this with the kids before (this was something we did pre-boys), and decided it was high time for them to experience these cars in person that they are so used to seeing in DH's car magazines.

 

Those are a few highlights from our trip!

And if you are wondering what my favorites were... Porche Boxter (white) with chocolate brown leather interior... fit me like the most wonderful glove!!!  Oh and the new corvette wasn't bad either :-).

Double Overtime...

We lost :-(... in double overtime. We meet up with the Suns again on April 1... here's hoping we come out on top.

One month later...

I've had my phone now for 1 month... I really REALLY REALLY like it... but it has taken me an entire month to get my act together and start using the iTunes feature. So as I'm typing this blog, my phone is connected to my computer getting songs.

What songs you might ask... well, one of my favorite CD's... Harry Connick Jr.'s Red Light, Blue Light! Good work out music. Now you are thinking, this svelt youthful person doesn't need to work out (okay so that is the skinny person inside of me telling me that)...

Oh... it's done! Yeah... now I'm typing while listening to my phone play me music... awe, what a nice phone! Pinkie knows just what I want to hear!

I can't believe what happened

Okay, so it has been Mavs Mania here at MyThreeSons... but alas my dear Mavs had a terrible upset last night. Honestly, I can't believe I had to stay up till midnight for such horrible massacre.

Not that I'm all that surprised based on the lousy day we had... poor concentration at homeschool, a phone call from CPS (not about my kids, but another situation that we're consultants on), and then the Mavs.

Hopefully tonight the Mavs will rally up and defeat the Suns. And hopefully the refs won't have their heads in their unmentionables and call a fair game!

Catholic National Readers

This is a shout out to my dear friend Mitzi for lending me her set of Catholic National Readers to use with the boys. They are so cool... in my opinion. Very old school in nature, think Little House on the Praire one room school house kind of thing. Oh, and the study guides as well... double score!

By this sweet loan, I am able to move the budget I set aside for them on to something else.... something more fun and crafty for next term!

I realize that this enthusiasm may seem somewhat geeky... but to a homeschooling mom, well that is just how life is :-).

Yahooooooooo

Go Mavs, it's your BERFDAY!!!!

Wow, the Mavs ruled the court and the Lakers... SUCKED!

Team	1	2	3	4					T
Mavericks	28	31	26	23					108
Lakers	24	11	23	14					72
Final

Daily Mass was a struggle

The moment the door opened for us to enter into the church Snookie started whining/fussing. It is this super annoying sound he makes with every breath to let me know of his sheer anger that he is having to do something that HE DOESN'T WANT TO DO. Unfortunately all the boys have gone thru this at about this age (4). The entire Mass he sat next to me making that noise, and on occasion for no apparent reason he would bust out laughing... in MASS.

I was struggling, I was frustrated, I couldn't take him out of Mass for a 'conversation' because that would leave the other two alone in there... and I wasn't going to parade all three of them out of there... so I just sat there fuming (if humans could shoot fire from their nose... well all sorts of things would have been on fire in front of me). Over the last several weeks I have learned to ignore him during daily mass when it is just the 4 of us, but for some reason today I wasn't able to. I completely missed the Gospel Reading. I mean I was standing, but I had to keep grabing him because he was playing around or kicking the kneeler or rubbing his hands on the pew wall in front of him.

Finally it was time to sit and listen to the homily. As I sat there wondering why it was so bad today, I heard it... Fr. Gary said "God is full of surprises."; and I knew that Fr. Bob, my he rest in peace, was praying for me at that moment. Probably one of Fr. Bob's most famous comments was "Our God is a God of Surprises". Every muscle in my body loosened up, I was able to listen to what Fr. Gary was preaching, and I knew I could make it thru the Mass. Even though the boys were acting all weird for Outdoor Stations afterwards, I was able to keep my cool and be in the presence of our Lord, Jesus Christ!

Thank you Fr. Bob for reminding me you're still praying for us!

Oh, and as far as the kids... early lunch and nap time for them!

School Work

Bubba finished up his letter practice book this morning... so we are back to homemade sheets that I make or print off from the computer. I feel like we reached a milestone with him finishing it! Ahhhh. Plus I picked up these neat little flash card deals called Hot Dots for Bubba to work with for his phonics... and eventually Snookie and even Bobcat with different cards to use. Could we do things with out a talking pen, sure, but trust me when I say that sometimes you need to change it up in order to make progress.
Speaking of progress, I think I have nailed down my curriculums for the fall! It turns out I will be doing a combination of Seton and CHC again this year. For us it really seems to be a winning combination. I really pumped that I did the research and that I'm done with the hard part. Now I can have fun looking for crafty/artsy stuff to add to the mix for the next school year.
I'd be lying if I wasn't a little nervous about next year though. I mean, now, when Snookie throws his little fit, or Bubba or even Bobcat (like today) it doesn't totally throw our schedule off... but the having all three of them with goals to meet... well, it will be the work of the Holy Spirit to keep us all on the right foot!

Welcome to my new blog!

Welcome to my new host for blogging. Blog-city is no longer offering free blogging (it will expire at the end of 2007), so I decided to come over here and start anew!

Happy Birthday to me

Camping was great. It was really nice to get out of the house and spend some time with the fam without having an agenda. We've been so busy lately that we really haven't had time to just chill, and this 3 day get away was just what we needed. The weather turned out to be nice during the day, but a bit chilly at night... but no worries we just snuggled up under the blankets, no worries.

At our favorite spot, we set up camp and had the entire place to ourselves. This particular area has spots for a total 5 tenters, but we were all ALONE!

On to the Mavs. Thanks guys for a great birthday game... 50 wins, 15th win streak... and a good game to boot. The only sad thing that happened was that Dirk broke his 42 free throw streak with a miss.