40 Days for Life - Are You Ready?

One of the best things about being Catholic is being 100% Pro-Life! To me it's part of being a Disciple of Christ, I stand firm on defending LIFE because, well, Jesus died on the Cross so that we may have it and abundantly! I recently received an e-mail from a good friend, Toni, who runs the 40 Days of Life local campaign. The new campaign to pray for the un-born is right around the corner. My kids love going and participating (not as often as I'd like but a couple of times is good since they are still small) by holding signs and praying the Rosary. From September 22 through October 31, you get a chance to get involved in this beautiful event. In addition, if you go to the Saint Michael the Archangel site, you can register to pray a Novena for the un-born.

This little video should inspire everyone to participate:


Here are some great projects for families who get their kids involved in 40 Days for Life!

Check them out: http://catholicicing.blogspot.com/2010/01/pro-life-craft-for-kids.html

There is also a super cute game: http://catholicicing.blogspot.com/2010/01/pro-life-game.html

and other pro-life printables and activities: http://catholicicing.blogspot.com/2010/01/pro-life-printables-and-activities-for.html

Catholic ABCs - A Curriculum

This year will be a very exciting one for our family....most of our kids (four out of five) are ready for some type of schooling!! Our eldest is flying solo in middle school, but our three middle kiddos are 2, 4 and 5 so they will be doing similar activities with different expectations regarding outcome. I was putting something together that revolved around the Saints and Liturgical year as well as teaching the three Rs and such. As of today, I have three weeks to square things away so as soon as I got a chance this morning, I got online for some more gathering of ideas at my usually favorite sites.

So I have some very exciting news; that is if you are a mommy to a pre-schooler! Catholic Mama Blogger, Lacy, over at Catholic Icing is going to share a preshool curriculum she designed for her Co-Op. She will begin posting it weekly commencing the first week of September. So click on this logo and go visit her. Go on, what are you waiting for? Oh and if you've never been to her site, be prepared, grab a cup of coffee or tea because she has a plethora of ideas to celebrate the Liturgical year! Thank you, Lacy, for sharing with us!

The Trouble with Vampires***

In my "past life" (pre-SAHM/pre-Catholic Homeschooler) I was a Reading/Language Arts teacher for eight years and prior to that I spent four years in the Elementary classroom. Therefore, I know LOTS of teachers. Either as previous co-workers or peers at college, or a friend of a friend....most of my friends are teachers. Over six years ago (I think it was right before I got pregnant with #2), a group of them started a "Book Club" and the first book was great. When time came to read a second book, everyone voted on The Davinci Code. Most of the teachers in this group were Catholic School teachers in either Middle or High School. Much to my dismay, I read it...but when we met up, everyone's interpretation of the book was warped by what society teaches...not what they know as FACT from our Mother Church...these ladies were all supposed to be Catholic....I was appalled, to say the least, and once the next book was announced, I slowly but surely exited stage right from this little group. Maybe I did it to save my "friendship" with them because I just couldn't listen to my friends of many years speak such uneducated and false interpretations of our Lord and our beautiful Church. Fast forward years later and now living in a different state, my only form of contact with these ladies, most of whom are English teachers, has been via Facebook. (This is the background story to the purpose of this discussion.)

The past two months on Facebook have been bothersome to me...not just because ex-students status and posts but also because of adults my age (married and all) where acting like obsessed out of control teenagers....all because of the Twilight series! The adults were, yep you guessed it, the SAME LADIES from my book club 7-8 years ago. One post or two I can live with, but when they continued to post things about this series and one who recently divorced posted this status, "I am leaving my window open tonight, maybe Edward will pay me a visit." well, my jaw dropped!

In addition, it brought flashbacks of when Harry Potter came out and all of my students went nuts! I must admit I did read books one and two of the series until I stepped back and thought
about the whole thing and something bothered me about it. I even had it as one of my required reading books in my seventh grade class at the charter school I was teaching at. Sad to say, not one parent objected to my selection! So the Twilight books are also being devoured by
teenage and adults of the female species alike...something about these books just didn't sit right with me! Then I came across this article: http://www.patrickmadrid.com/vampires.pdf A little long but so well written and if you have a teenage girl wanting to read Twilight, it's a MUST READ!

I have not read them....I must confess...but I have to say that the pattern of "LOVE" for this series, like that of Harry Potter, kinda worries me. Ladies, the Devil comes in many ways and we MUST call him at it...please don't think I sound kooky...read the attached PDF and give me your thoughts on this and PLEASE pass this on to any mom with a teenage/pre-teen girl....

*** I am no expert on this subject AND I had no time to go back and re-read or edit this piece...so please excuse my errors, and point them out if you'd like! ;)

SAINTS SPEAK: St. Alphonsus de Liguori (Holy Mary)