Doodle Acres

I don’t remember what children’s show featured those lyrics in an oft sung tune, but I found this cute ticker on a running site today and wanted to share it!!! Isn’t it cute?

  This afternoon, we attended a beautiful Good Friday service.  Our wonderful pastor, Father McCartney, preached a sermon on St. Longinus, the centurion who pierced Jesus’ side at the crucifixion.  He punctured Jesus’ heart in order to confirm His death before removing Him from the cross.  Scripture tells us that out of it flowed blood and water.  According to tradition, St. Longinus went on to convert to Christianity and was eventually martyred for his faith.

Father McCartney explained that there are sorrows in our lives that break our hearts, like Jesus’ was on the cross.  This can be very difficult.  But as our hearts are broken and emptied, there is room for the graces of God to flow in. 

For our family, the death of our Mary would fall into this category.  It’s not something that we would have chosen for ourselves, but we have experienced so many graces as a result of it.  He encouraged us to view our sufferings in this way and challenged us to empty our hearts of those things that hinder us from letting the graces of God to flow in.

I told you Father McCartney is wonderful!!!   

Last Thursday and Friday, we were privileged to spend two wonderful days in Pennsylvania with two blogger mom families.  We (the children and I) headed out to Lancaster at 4:30 a.m.  Only those who live on Long Island understand the need to beat the morning rush hour through NYC. :)  At 7 a.m. I headed into a rest-stop and took an hour and a half nap.  This nap enabled me to revive enough to enjoy our visits.

Thursday was spent with the Quigleys of Family-Centered Life.  The children got along great.  My children discovered the joys of “Rock Band” and the day just flew by as Michele and I chatted about home-schooling, blogging, good books, food, dieting, calendars, planners, marriage, friendship, etc.  Neither of us are quiet and from my perspective, we never lacked for a mutually enjoyable subject on which to share.  (You can click on the photos to enlarge them)

Friday was spent with the Kimberlees (that’s our nickname for them) of Pondered in My Heart.  We all had a hoot.  They are just as creative and fun as they come across in their blog.  The older children spent much of the day shooting a script-less medieval themed short film, filmed and directed by Josiah of Random Interesting Stuff.  Kimberlee and I talked for hours about home-schooling, baking, books, home-schooling paperwork, portfolios, babies, etc., while the little ones (Peter, Eliza, and Kateri) enjoyed playing together in Kimberlee and Michael’s beautiful home.

Friday evening as we headed home, we said many prayers as we traveled through NYC.  My GPS (we call her “Jane”) took us through a part of the city I am unfamiliar with and we prayed many prayers as we traveled through the Holland Tunnel and Canal Street.  Jesus, the Blessed Mother, St. Michael, and our guardian angels all delivered big time!!!  We even made it home before midnight!!!

My children are already “nagging” me to make a return visit to PA to see their new friends.  Hope, Lenny, and Lily have all requested to come with me to the Family-Centered Learning Conference in July (which is where I first met these lovely families last summer).  So this year’s conference should be even more fun!!!

A big thank you to the Quigleys and the Kimberlees for their willingness to share their homes with us for a brief but uplifting visit!!!

I really am feeling a lack of success today, so I probably need to write this list more than ever. 

My Small Successes for this past week:

1- I ground up a whole bunch of whole wheat this morning with my grain mill.  I have been a total slug with baking for my family lately.  This leads to success #2…

2- I baked a couple of dozen whole wheat pumpkin ginger muffins for my family this morning.

3- I decluttered the main section of my house and am working diligently to keep it that way, despite not feeling up to par.

Check out more small success stories over at Faith and Family…

Crystal over at Biblical Womanhood has started a “Spring Cleaning for Normal People” challenge.  She’s taking it at a nice pace - a week to do each assignment.  Frankly that is a great pace for me right now.  We’ve got so much on our plate right now, but I am desperate to get this place into better shape.

Well today I made some real progress.  I wish that I had taken some pictures.  I promise to take some before and after pictures for the upcoming challenges.

Today, I worked on decluttering the surfaces in the main section of my home (not the bedrooms or the office).  This included:

- Recycling many of the magazines and catalogs in my overflowing bathroom reading basket

- Putting the end of the Christmas decorations up in the attic

- Cleaning off my desk in the family room

- Putting the stray medicine bottles (that littered our notch in the kitchen) back into the medicine chest

- Dead-heading the plants/flowers that are in my bay windows

- Putting books back on the appropriate shelves 

- Packing up unloved knick-knacks

- Hanging pictures (I just got a beautiful print of “The Angelus” by Millet)

It’s amazing what a difference it made.  My plan is to continue the process in the bedrooms and the office.  Boy, oh boy, the office is a mess.  Those pictures will be worth looking at when I conquer that disaster.

I saw this over at Ten kids and a dog and thought that it would be great for lifting my spirits during these dark, cold days of winter. Thanks Joann!!!  You can check out more over at Faith & Family Live!

Here’s my list:

1-  Getting back on track with formal school work this week after an extended layoff due to my husband’s being on vacation so much over the last six weeks.

2-  Exercising three out of the last five days even though I have been feeling a bit under the weather.

3-  Meal planning for this week.  When my husband is home, he enjoys doing most of the cooking.  Really, he enjoys it!!! I’m not making it up. :)  So I was having trouble getting myself back into “Betty Crocker” mode.  But Praise God, I did plan my menus and grocery shop within my budget ($120 per week) this week.

I had been undecided as whether to watch the swearing in of our newest president today.  For my family, it is a dark day in our country’s history.  I feel no optimism.  

At about 12 noon, I decided to turn on the TV and watch the swearing in.  Well I lasted about 2 minutes before the tears of sadness began to flow.  I spontaneously found myself praying out loud through tears for the future of our country.  Then I shut off my television.

I read recently that we have entered another “Dark Ages”, where babies are discarded like yesterday’s trash and the moral fortitude of the average citizen is at an all time low.  I do believe that. 

But I also believe in a God that is so great that He can overcome all the Obamas in the world and He has the victory.  Praise God!!! And it is to this that I cling on this dark, dark day…

Laura over at Heavenly Homemakers  has started a series called Women with a Mission: Family First.

It was exactly what I needed to hear and I hope you will check it out.

That’s my new motto: “Perfectionism is the Death of Homeschooling!!!” What was my old motto you ask? I’d have to say it was, “Parenting is a humbling experience!!!” LOL

Over the last ten years I have read MANY, MANY books on homeschooling. Most of them have been helpful. Most of them have been inspiring. I usually finish the book feeling that I have found the “right” way to home-school. But experience has taught me that there is no “right” way to home-school. And what works in my house might not work in yours. And what works in my house this week or this month or this year, may not work in my house next week or next month or next year. And what works with Child A might not work with Child B, C, or D. So what is a homeschooling mother to do?

For me, I have come to realize that my perfectionism was the death of my homeschooling and of me!!! I am a first-born with a Type-A personality. I want all my ducks in a row every minute of the day!!! But you know what, that’s not a healthy way to live as demonstrated by my high blood pressure.

A number of years ago, I read a book called The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer. While I’m sure that the author of this book had the best of intentions when she wrote it, I fear that many children have been sent back to school because of the unrealistic expectations set by this book. I love the four year history cycle explained in this book and continue to use it. But I had to learn to set aside its unworkable schedule and ideals.

So now I seek to be more level-headed in my choices for my homeschooling and in my expectations for my children and myself. I now enjoy sites such as Guilt-Free Homeschooling. I am not as quick to purchase every new book or material that I see. I try to think about what I am really trying to accomplish when I make a curriculum choice or an activity choice. These are the kinds of questions I try to ask myself as I make these choices for my children:

Is this (curriculum, activity, etc.) really going to add something wonderful to our lives or is this just something to do?

Does my daughter want to be a professional dancer? No, then why am I carting her to dance 6 days a week?

Does my son want to be a professional basketball player? No, then why am I considering putting him on a second basketball team.

Am I more concerned about the product on a written page than I am about the product which is my child? Because truly, these pages of finished math problems will mean nothing if my child doesn’t know and love the Lord, and doesn’t function well in our family and in society.

So as I look back on the first half of this, my 10th year of homeschooling, I try to remind myself of what is truly important in my life and the lives of my child AND I will continue to chant my new mantra:

PERFECTIONISM IS THE DEATH OF HOMESCHOOLING!!!

And yes, parenting still is a humbling experience…