Signs and Wonders

Preparing for Lent

Lent is almost upon us Ash Wednesday is tomorrow and marks the beginning of this season of penance and reflection. Unlike the joyful anticipation of Advent lent has a more somber tone, a time of fast and penance that surpasses that of advent, a time to offer our cross to Christ who so willingly walked the road to Calvary for us and of coarse a time to prepare for that most wonderful of feasts the Resurrection of our Lord, the over coming of death that we might be born into new life.

Like advent we will spend the next six weeks waiting and preparing, offering the small and not so small sacrifices to him who sacrificed all for us.

This picture shows part of our family altar ready for lent, our crown of thorns sits next to the statue of the Sacred Heart. As the children perform acts of penance or good works over lent they will be able to remove a thorn from Jesus crown. For each Thorn they remove they will be able to place a red plastic gem stone ( red for the drops of blood Jesus shed on our behalf) into a cup with their name on it for each gem stone collected we will give five cents to project compassion and and a small Easter egg on Easter morn. As the thorns are removed from the crown they will be replaced with rose buds and flowers, the type commonly found at craft stores. On Easter day we will have a wreath of flowers made upon the children's gifts and sacrifices to adorn the family meal table.

In addition to our crown of thorns we will be following along with the Lenten Adventure at the Holy Hero's site. After reading this post last December from Anne I  also have decided that we will memorise St Patrick's Breast plate during lent I have been meaning to do this for a while and now at last the time seems right. We will also be printing this stations of the cross colouring book for the younger children. And I hope to get things together enough to at least do the readings that go along with Jessica's Jesus Tree, I'm woefully unprepared as far as this activity is concerned but I do have the felt so that a least is a start.  Catholic Mom has this file full of links and lesson plans I haven't had a chance to go through it all yet have already found some must do activities that I hope to incorporate into out Lenten plan.

Our Lenten Book List
The Story of the Cross, the stations of the cross for childrenby Mary Joslin

The Story of EasterBy Mary Joslin

Sawdust Carpetsby Amelia Lau

He has Risen,the Easter story adapted by Elizabeth Winthrop 

The Easter Storyby Brian Wildsmith

The Easter Angels by Bob Hartman

Little Rose of Sharonby Nan Curley

Easter Eggs For Anyaby Virgina Kroll

Petook, an Easter Storyby Caryll Houselander

St Patrick patron saint of Irelandby Tommie de Paola - march 17th

Father and SonGeraldine McCaughrean - A story of St Joesph March 19th

Mary the Mother of Jesusby Tomie de Paola - the feast of the annunciation March 25th

What Jesus Saw from the Crossby A. G. Sertillanges

Lent and Easter Wisdom From St. Francis and St Clare of Assisicompiled by john V Kruse

And the Water Continues to Rise

The picture above is of the creek that runs through our property was taken just before Christmas.

Today we can't even make out the creek bank.

 This is usually a road/ bush track that runs around the boarder of our property

 This is our neighbour's paddock all that water you can see is usually grass.

 What child doesn't enjoy playing in puddles

 

More wet weather fun

What A Difference 24 Hours Make

 

Remember that dam yesterday, still a long way from being full

 

Today after almost 100mls of rain.

A Simple Womens Day Book Febuary 16th

Be sure to stop over at Peggy's and check out this weeks Simple Women's Day Book.

Out side my window.....  The rain is gently falling as new day dawns as opposed to the torrential rain we have had all night and Mike is bringing the cow in to be milked while there is a bit of a lull.

I am thinking.... About changing our chore assignments, who will do what, when.

From the learning rooms...  Were exploring the wilds of Africa at the moment and this week we are looking at habitats and wildlife.

I am thankful for...  For each little flutter and kick that indicates our little one is doing just fine.

From the kitchen.... Breakfast is underway nothing exciting just cereal and milk. Chocolate cake is on the menu for morning tea

I am creating....  Herb gardens for both medicinal and culinary use

I am going....    To hunker down and get some school work completed were in flood mode here so going out isn't on the cards.

I am wearing.....  My penguin jarmy pants and a floral nightie,ok, so it's not the height of fashion but it is comfortable.

I am reading....    Dressing with Dignityby Colleen Hammond I'm pretty sure the above outfit doesn't fit the  criteria

I am hoping....    That if Mike makes it into work this morning he will still be able to get home tonight.

Around the house.... The morning routine is underway, breakfast and chores before school and the rain has added an extra task, that of rescuing our feathered and furred friends from their very water logged homes.

A few plans for the rest of the week....   As I spent most of last week in Brisbane this week will be spent at home catching up on missed school work and try to keep up with the laundry in the wet weather.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you....

A little Catching Up

These first few weeks of the new school year have been very hectic and I haven't had much time to blog. So I thought I do a little pictorial update of the past few weeks.

Starting the new school year off with other home schooling families at a local park, Amiee, Anthony and Paddy enjoy the climbing ropes.

 

 

Learning all about CPAP, Amiee and mum spent four days in Brisbane last week for Amiee to be fitted with a CPAP machine and for mummy to learn all that is needed to ensure that the mask is place correctly and pump working properly. This has been quite traumatic for Amiee, she really isn't very fond of her mask and who can blame her but she needs to wear it and therefore we need to ensure that it remains on. Our nights at the moment are very  long as mummy and daddy struggle out of bed each time the CPAP alarm sounds and refit the mask. One to hold Amiee and one to fit the mask we then take it in turns to lie with her until she goes back to sleep. It's a bit like musical beds here at the moment.

As Amiee only had to be in the hospital over night we were free during the day to do as we pleased. On Wednesday we were blessed to have a friend pick us up from the hospital and drive us to Marian Valley for the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. What a lovely day we had, Mass, confession, exposition, benediction, talks and so much more. Anne's daughter took Amiee under her wing and she was dully dressed in white, hair done and ready to join the other children for the procession of the Blessed sacrament to the grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes.

 

The children processing to the grotto, Amiee is holding the pillow. Anne has a lovely post about the day with more pictures here

 

It has been very hot here over the past few weeks with much of Australia experiencing heat wave conditions. Our new dam has sat dry and dusty until the past few days when rain had slowly started to fill it. It still has a way to go before it full but in the mean time the children will take advantage of those steep, slippery clay walls, just perfect for a home made water slide.

The New School year Begins

  The new school year got off to a great start the little ones loved their lap book from home school share and had a great time with the craft activities. The natural beetroot flavoured play dough we made was also a great hit keeping them busy and out of mischief for quiet a while. Having the younger two occupied and happy gave the older children the opportunity to get on with their own work minus the interruptions often caused by the youngest set. I need to make organising Anthony and Paddy's activities a priority each weekend giving them a little time first up each day and providing a self directed activity that their older sister can supervise really makes a difference to how well the day runs for the rest of us.   

  I decided to start the year off slowly with my primary aged children doing religion, maths, English, nature study music and copy work each day and this week we will add science, geography,history and our Friday homeschooling groups sports and art activities. For science we are going to use the young scientist books published by child craft interlaced with as many living books as I can find on each topic. Geography will see us explore the wilds of Africa using Continental Hop Africa and history will see us reading our way through the early and patristic church we will use ABC'c of Christian Culture as a spine for this and adding as many good living books as possible.  

 Our high schooler wasn't as fortunate as the younger children he had a full work load right from day one. He was a bit dismayed at how much more work we require from him this year especially the extra writing but has diligently applied himself to the task, at least for week one. We are requiring hour long lessons from him this year and that can be a challenge for someone who suffers from attention problems but with his input we are working hard at reducing distractions and giving him skills to help keep him on task.