Home Schooling Questions Answered, or at Least Some...

I've been asked a lot over the past two months about home schooling. There seems to be an increased interest in home education, and for good reason. Here are the two websites I would like to recommend:

www.setonbooks.com/ and www.chcweb.com/

I have used both of these programs. The Catholic Heritage Curriculum is great for little kids. It is a much more "real books" approach to teaching your little ones. They help by giving you a topic, say mammals, and then you check out library books on that topic. You read a lot of children's books and do plenty of hands on activities. Their whole Social Studies program is focused on character development the first few years. I used the CHC curriculum for Kindergarten, first, and second grade with my oldest two children. I especially like their sacramental prep that they have for second graders preparing for First Reconciliation and First Holy Communion. (This prep is in their lesson plans).

We switched to Seton about a year ago. My oldest is finishing up third grade, and my second oldest started his second grade year in August (he's only six, but was ready). He really likes it and says his favorite subject is phonics. The books are loaded with Catholic art, stories of the saints, and virtues. I really like that nearly every textbook teaches them something about the Catholic Faith. This is how Catholic schools use to teach. Unfortunately, I don't see that in our local parish school. I should know I use to teach there!

I am not trying to bash the local Catholic school. In most cases, it is a better option than sending a child to a public school. Not everyone can home school. I understand that. However, today's curriculum providers make it so much easier than it use to be. Many of them provide daily lesson plans that nearly anyone can follow. You don't need to be a professional teacher to understand and use the lesson plans.

I guess my advice to those who have asked about home schooling, is to pray about it. While you are praying about it, do your home work. Research the topic of Catholic home schooling. You might consider reading a book about Catholic home schooling. One such book is Catholic Home Schooling, A Handbook for Parents by Mary Kay Clark. There is another good one by Kimberely Hahn, I have loaned it out to someone, and I can't remember the title.

Search through the Catholic home school curriculum websites. Look at a home schooling families curriculum. See if there is a local support group near you. Attend a group function. The home school group I belong to does an activity just about every First Friday. You may want to attend a home schooling conference near you. The web is the best place to do this research.

Even if you decide not to home school your children, that doesn't mean you can't supplement their religious education with these great books. Reading to your children is one of the best things you can do with them at a young age. A little each night goes a long way. I HIGHLY recommend the St. Joseph books, especially those written by Father Lovasik. They are all EXCELLENT!!!

Home schooling is not easy, but I know my children are worth it. I also think about how Mary home educated Jesus. It often gives me the reassurance I need to keep going on those tough days. If it was good enough for Jesus, then it is good enough for my kids.

Guns and a Movie?

That's right! I said guns and a movie! We did a his and her's date. A movie for him, and guns for me! HA! LOL!

We went to see the movie "Fireproof". The movie is one of those typical "chick flicks", but had a Christian message about the perminance of marriage. There were some pretty intense action scenes that really appealed to the guys. I was pleasantly surprised to hear them actually talking about the difference between a contract and a covanent marriage. If you haven't seen it, go! Especially, go with your spouse! It was worth the money. We plan on buying it once it comes out on DVD, so we can share it with others who need this message.

I am sure you want to hear about the gun range! Well, since Obama has was elected, we've been talking about getting a gun. Obama's stance on the life issues, gun control, and this 'Civilian Service Force' (or whatever he calls it) makes me think more of Hitler than hope. We've been talking about getting a gun just in case. In case of what? Well, if things tank and go down hill like in the Great Depression, we'll need something that will help us be able to hunt. That is why we got a shot gun. But, because of the worries associated with protecting our family, especially our 5 children, we want to make sure we are ready for anything. So, my dear husband, wants us to buy a hand gun. I have NEVER liked guns! EVER!!! I guess it is a sign of how truly worried I am, that I am more scared of an Obama regime than I am of guns. So, we went to the gun range. We rented two different guns: a 357 and a 9 mil. semi-auto Glock. I was so scared I started shaking and couldn't even shoot at first. What was so scary, you might ask. The thought that I might have to use that gun for real someday. An image of me shooting at someone frightened me. How desperate would things have to be, if it meant I was actually using that gun to protect myself and my family? Once the fear subsided, I was able to try both guns. I think I did a little better with the semi-auto 9 mil. Glock. I was able to get 5 directly in the head of the target. The 357 was heavier and a little more intimidating to me. However, the 357 would be more reliable the gun range owner said. As he put it, "If the rhino is charging you, you want to know that the gun you are holding will work!"

Aflack and the Kids

There is a really sweat lady from church, named Nancy. She is such an inspiration to me. Nancy has a 40-something-year old son who is in what doctors call a vegatative state. She is so faithful about going and reading and praying with him. He has recently recovered a miraculous amount of mobility and cognitive developement. Her faithfulness to her vocation as a mother is so amazing!

The other night Nancy came over to babysit. She brought with her a collection of ducks. Nancy and her son (before he was in a comma) had used these ducks to create the pictures for a wonderful children's book called Grandma's Back Porch that she had written. In her generousity, she wanted to share this story with my kids. I was surprised to find that she had left one of the ducks at our house so the kids could play with him. His name is Aflack. The kids took this duck under their wings and have played with him quite a bit. These pictures are some of the times that I have caught them playing with Aflack. I thought they were precious. But, what I find even more priceless is the story Nancy wrote and her inspiring journey with her son who took the photos.

Election Part II - Catholic Culture and the Election of Barack Obama

Spirit & Life®
"The words I spoke to you are spirit and life." (Jn 6:63)Human Life International e-NewsletterVolume 03, Number 42 Friday, November 21, 2008
..................................................................................
http://www.hli.org/
Election Part II - Catholic Culture and the Election of Barack Obama
It is impossible to speak of a "Catholic culture" in America any longer. A whole segment of the populace who call themselves "Catholics" do not feel bound by any standard of Catholic orthodoxy or sanity. In fact, it is impossible to even speak of a Catholic culture in most parishes! At a recent "ministry faire" of a large Catholic parish in south Florida, the Respect Life ministry of the parish displayed its pro-life materials next to the table of the "social justice" committee of the same parish. Any commonality between the two ministries was simply in the space they shared. Their worldviews could not have been further apart, but they both call themselves Catholic.
In fact, the "social justice" people were positively aglow about the election of their new messiah, Barack Obama. Several of them were speaking of their plans to attend the Inauguration and were utterly unaware that there would be 100,000 people marching on the nation's Capitol two days later for the right to life of unborn Americans which they had just voted into irrelevancy by electing Obama to the highest office of the land. One of them even expressed shock at the provisions of the upcoming Freedom of Choice Act until he was confronted with the nasty little fact that his messiah had been a sponsor of that pernicious bill in the last Congress. True to form, he steadfastly refused to allow that truth to have any effect on his euphoria. His mind was made up, and he would not let himself be confused by facts. Needless to say, the orthodox, practicing, believing Catholic pro-lifers will not be attending the Inauguration.
How can these two groups sit side-by-side in the same pews and display their ministries in the same space at the same Catholic parish? Simply because this contradiction has been tolerated for years by those in charge of our Church. In this election season neither of these two groups received any guidance about voting according to Catholic principles because, as per usual, there was silence from the pulpit on the issue. The absolute failure of our church leaders to define for us what membership in the Church means - and then to enforce it - has led to the degradation of Catholic culture and the loss of meaning for things that are sacred. When Christ and Belial are considered equal partners in the sanctuary, then nothing in the sanctuary means anything any more and no meaningful standard exists to distinguish a true Catholic from a false Catholic.
The degradation of Catholic culture is largely, but not exclusively, the fault of the clergy. For four decades in the Catholic Church in America we have seen:
Liturgical abuses run rampant, aided and abetted by those in charge
Two or three generations of Catholics left un-catechized or taught with flimsy, Protestantized fluff passed off as Catholic education
Sexual abuse by clergy excused and unaddressed by the hierarchy
A blind eye turned to high profile dissent and political class heretics
Wholesale attacks on sacred teachings that receive virtually no response from our pastors (and if it weren't for Catholic Answers, EWTN and the Catholic League we would have no defense whatsoever)
The succumbing of our Catholic institutions of higher education to the ravages of political correctness, and the list goes on.
In the face of all this, should we be surprised that 54% of "Catholics" voted for Barack? Hardly.
The battle for Catholic culture begins with us, and there is no time like the present to don the armor of spiritual warfare. We either believe and practice what the Church teaches or we live as part of the shadow church, falsely trading on the Name Catholic for its benefits without at the same time shouldering the crosses that this entails.
There is, however, great hope for the future because the battle has already been engaged: new Catholic colleges are springing up to replace the old decrepit houses of heresy, new religious orders with abundant vocations and orthodoxy have arisen, home schooling families and strong lay movements are abundant now. Only when we take back our beloved Church from the false Catholics and clerics will our Church be able to stand up and rebuke the storm winds of paganism that are building faster than we care to admit. This project is not without its price, however. The cost of being a true believer will undoubtedly be much higher than ever before in our lifetime. Starting now and into the next generation we as Catholics will have to show the world not only what we believe but that we are willing to lay down our lives for it as a witness to the truth.

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Goals for the New Liturgical Year...

Some people make New Year's resolutions. I have never been one of them. This year, or at least this Liturgical year, I find myself needing to be one of them. I must get more organized! All this clutter is creating even more chaos. I have determined that the Liturgical Calendar my dear husband made for our wall will be the catalyst that will help orchestrate this massive undertaking.

1. I plan to systematically use the wonderful books, Catholic Traditions in the Home and Classroom by Ann Ball and A Year with God published by Little Way Press. The kids will hold me accountable if they see our activities written down on the calendar.

2. I plan to put my older daughter to work! She needs to take a more active role. She'll be starting 4th grade in January. Until now, I have not made her help out much or mentor the younger kids. I was too afraid that she would resent the fact that I had asked her to help her younger siblings. Today I realized I've been wrong about this. When I received a phone call this morning, she stepped in, without being told, and helped her younger sister with her reading. I was so proud of her and she was so glad to have helped. Now I feel bad for depriving her of the satisfaction she gets from helping others. Plus, this helps me!

3. I plan to utilize the Internet and all the vast resources it offers for keeping younger kids busy. I have found this website helpful for free preschool papers: http://homeschooling.families.com/blog/tips-for-home-schooling-multi-aged-children-printable-worksheets-for-preschoolers I use the ABC teach and enchanted learning pages the most.

4. Last, but not least, I want to stay home more! We need to simplify and slow down. I want to enjoy the time I have with my kids. I want to have the time to interact with my kids without having to rush out the door to yet another activity. The rush, rush, rush of doing so many activities has worn me out.

Lofty goals, I know. I think a fellow home schooling mom who is expecting her 13 child said it best, " We are trying to get our kids into Heaven, not Harvard!"
God bless!

Why do so many people dislike large families?

I've had an interesting today, to say the least! This morning, I was trying to email a fellow home schooling mom, when I hear shouts of "Mommy, she swallowed the chap stick lid! She swallowed the chap stick lid!" Immediately, I bolt up the stairs and expect to see my baby girl laying on the floor choking to death. Instead, I see her sitting up smiling at me with the tube of chap stick in one hand. The missing cap was nowhere to be found. I started interrogating the two older girls who saw her swallow the lid. They still emphatically said that the baby had swallowed the cap.

After five kids, you'd think one of them would have done this sort of thing before, but they hadn't. So I sort of panicked and called my husband at work. He said I should call the doctor. Well, dah! Why didn't I think of that? So I called, answered all their questions, and went in for an appointment at 1pm.

When I get to the doctor's new office, they all stare at my five kids and I with a rather disgusted look. You'd think that I had just brought a pack of muddy dogs into their newly carpeted room! The receptionist never said a single hi, hello, good day, can I help you...just stared for awhile and coldly handed me the paperwork to fill out. After awhile, she asked which doctor I'd be seeing and which one had the problem. I wasn't too offended at this point, just felt unwelcome, until I looked around the room and everyone was noticeably counting kids and shaking their heads back and forth in disapproval.

Why do so many people dislike large families? The kids were even being really good at this point! The baby was asleep and the other four were nicely sharing the toys they had brought with them!

Soon after I filled out the paper work, my dear husband shows up to help watch the kids while I see the doctor. Normally, I wouldn't have asked him to come help, but I had no idea if they were going to need to do anything extensive to the baby, like a scope. Plus I just needed someone to be there for me! I was still pretty worried. I don't think he even noticed the on lookers, but I did. As soon as they heard the kids say, "Daddy!" They all looked at him almost in anger, as if to say, "How could you do this to that poor woman!" Again, why do so many people dislike large families?

Long story short: the baby should be fine as long as the lid passes in the next 3 days.

As if the adventure at the doctor's weren't enough, I figured that since our school day had been cut short, and I was in town anyway, I might at well go to the grocery store. I should be use to it by now, I know, but the looks I got from everyone today, as I loaded the kids up into the two-seater blue cart, really get to me. Why can't I get use to the fact that I will always stick out like a sore thumb wherever I go? We live a counter-cultural life style. People see that, and they stare. I can live with that. What I have a hard time with is the nasty comments, the disgust, and sometimes anger that people have toward us. How do I get past that?

The Question of Socialization...

Our two oldest are in a Christmas production put on by the local theatre in our home town. Here are two pictures of my experiments with the face paint. If you can't tell, our daughter is portraying a cow and our son is a sheep. Of course, with the costumes and ears on, they look a lot more convincing. Play practices have been demanding more and more of their time as opening night fast approaches.

That leads me to address the question I hear from so many people the instant they realize that we home school.... "Don't you think you are socially depriving them by keeping them at home?" To that, I always have to contain my laughter. If people only knew the difference between being social and being socialized they would think twice about ever asking that question. Let me clarify the difference. Being social simply means being around others. Being socialized means acting appropriately in any given social situation. So let me address these two terms.

If anyone were to observe our family, they would quickly realize that my children have plenty of opportunities to be in social situations. The children are involved in soccer, ballet, Girl Scouts, Faith Formation at our parish, attend daily Mass, go to the grocery store, library, museums, the zoo, Dad's office, and to visit relatives and friends' homes. Obviously these are in addition to all of the interactions each family member has with one another throughout the week. How busy do kids really need to be? I'd say mine are busy enough and are exposed to plenty of social situations!

The key question is: are my children acting appropriately when interacting with others? In other words are they socialized? The answer is: Yes, well, most of the time! Seriously, though, they are actually very good kids or at least they sure do get complimented by other nearly every time we go out. I have seen them act appropriately in nearly everyone of these social situations. I find that they are rather patient, kind, share well, speak respectfully to adults, and cooperate with others. They know how to wait their turn, help each other, walk in a line, and say please and thank you when the situation dictates that you be polite. Isn't this being socialized? Of course it is! Where did they learn all this? Well, not from kids their own age! Kids don't innately know how to behave. They must be taught by an older child or adult how to act in any given situation. A 'traditional school' does not afford for much interaction with older children who would model the good behavior and teacher to student ratios are not ideal for this either. However, in a home school situation, the parent is able to be the role model and instruct the child. I feel this is actually one of the main reasons to home school! Who wants their child learning manners from a fellow six-year-old? Not me! So, as for me and my house we will home school! God bless.

November's First Friday Activities

I finally got the picture of the kids at First Friday activities uploaded! This was just a few days after All Saints and All Souls Day. Our home school group, on this particular First Friday, had the kids dress up like a saint. Each child had to give clues about the saint they were portraying and then the rest of the group guesses who they are. The kids learn a lot about a particular saint and get to play dress-up at the same time. From left to right, and in age order, we have St. Scholastica, St. Benedict, St. Agnes, and St. Agatha. The oldest liked this project so much that she wrote every one's little script and clues. Afterwards we all gathered for a game of saint's bingo, where the squares are filled with the names of the saints and the "caller" reads a saints name and a sentence or two about that saint. I learned a lot that day just by playing this game. Of course, the kids did too, but I think they liked the prizes and candy they won the best!

Pope Explains the Second Coming:

With the end of the Liturgical year fast approaching here is a great post from Adele about the Pope's explanation of the end times:
Journey to Therese: Why Christians long for the Second Coming: Pope Explains

Human Life International letter from Fr. Euteneuer

Spirit & Life®
"The words I spoke to you are spirit and life." (Jn 6:63)Human Life International e-NewsletterVolume 03, Number 41 Friday, November 14, 2008
..................................................................................
http://www.hli.org/
Election Part I: "We Have No King But Caesar"
The following is the first of a three-part series on the 2008 Elections. In the next two weeks we will deal with issues of Culture and Conscience.
Now that the election is over, we can separate the real Catholics from those who just act the part. Those still reeling from the results of the election can rest assured that they are in good company with the saints. Those who have drawn a line in blood and made a decision to stand with the culture of death need a serious examination of conscience. Now look at what we've done to ourselves. America has made her "choice" for maximum leader and it is not pretty. In fact, it is one of the most devastating blows to American civilization that we have ever undergone, and I do not speak in hyperbole. Even such a saintly figure as Mother Theresa said that "a nation that kills its children has no future;" likewise, an authority like Fr. Benedict Groeschel recently commented that we have entered into "the beginning of the twilight" of our country - dire words that touch on the reality of electing the most extreme, pro-abortion candidate America has ever had the misfortune of occupying the highest office of our land.
This has happened before though. When the prophet Samuel complained to God that the people of Israel were asking for a king, the Lord God replied that they were not rejecting Samuel but were in actual fact rejecting God Himself, His sovereignty and His authority over them (cf. 1 Sam, ch. 8). He also told Samuel that the people would have to accept the consequences of their wicked desire, and as we know, the craven need to be like the surrounding pagan nations was a bitter pill for them to swallow. The people of Israel echoed that rejection of their God more than a thousand years later when the King of Kings and Lord of Lords stood before them in Herod's derisive purple robe and the people shouted, this time with vehemence: "We have no king but Caesar!" In essence, we have chosen a Barabbas over Christ - again.
And choices have consequences they say. The consequences of this election will be imprinted upon our national conscience for years to come, one of which is that, by electing abortion extremists to rule over us, both in the Presidency and in the Congress, we have now lost the blessing promised in Psalm 41:1-4 - "Happy those concerned for the lowly and the poor; when misfortune strikes, the Lord delivers them. The Lord keeps and preserves them, makes them happy in the land, and does not betray them to their enemies. The Lord sustains them on their sickbed." It is hard for Americans to imagine that a land so consecrated could be shriven of that blessing. Yet, we have made our sickbed and we must lie in it.
This did not happen, though, without dire and prolonged warnings about the institutionalization of evil. We can't say we were not warned. When moral persuasion about the killing of innocents did not work, rational science was our witness. When science was ignored and then co-opted for the works of death, AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases came to awaken people's consciences, but these did little better. God then had to allow such an onslaught of terrorism, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, wildfires, earthquakes and tsunamis in the past decade that He surely thought we would wake up to the deadly reality of the culture of death and repent. When that didn't happen, He hit us in the most sensitive spot on the human body: our wallets. The gas price hikes and the recent financial meltdown surely would do the trick, He thought, but apparently that did not work either because our people adamantly refused to be deterred at any price from our lust for abortion and put into office all those who would serve the interests of this unholy agenda for decades to come. Alas, we all need to get on our knees and repent from the very depths of our hearts for the plague that we have just invited onto our beloved nation.
At the same time, my friends, despite the dismal picture, this is a time to thank Almighty God for the gifts of life, love and family that we have been given. It is also the time to seriously engage in efforts to take the culture back so that eventually our politics will follow the growth of a new pro-life culture from the seeds we are planting today.
Stay tuned for next week's segment on winning the culture wars.

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Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,President, Human Life International

These Things: Morning Musing: The Near Occasion of Sin

Just found this really cute short story about the near occasion of sin. Well worth the read. I think I will be sharing this with my Wednesday night Faith Formation kids who will be celebrationg their first reconciliation in Jan.

These Things: Morning Musing: The Near Occasion of Sin

Liturgical Calendar

To my surprise, my husband has decided to put his talents and knowledge of auto-cad and computers to good use in creating a liturgical calendar wheel for the upcoming year. The current liturgical year will be ending on Nov. 29, 2008. The calendar he is designing is similar to liturgical wheel calendars you can buy at www.ltp.org/ . His, of course, is less colorful than the ones you can buy, but will be more practical for our needs because he has left more space on each day for us to write in special events like birthdays, lector schedules, and our home school groups First Friday activities. One advantage, of dear hubby being a civil engineer, is he has a very large printer at the office where he can print a really big version of this liturgical calendar wheel. I am not so thrilled about the large calendar taking up so much space on the wall, however, I am excited that we will be more organized about celebrating the feasts days throughout the church year.

I was first introduced to the liturgical calendar wheel by the book A Year With God, Celebrating the Liturgical Year published by Little Way Press and distributed by Catholic Heritage Curricula. This book can be ordered at http://www.chcweb.com/ I believe it is written by Theresa A. Johnson. The reasoning behind the celebration of these wonderful feasts can be best summarized by the following quote from Pope Pius XI:

"...people are instructed in the truths of faith and brought to appreciate the inner joys of religion far more effectively by the annual celebration of our sacred mysteries than by any official pronouncement of the teaching of the Church. Such pronouncements usually reach only a few and the more learned amount the faithful: feasts reach them all. The Church's teaching affects the mind primarily; her feasts affect both mind and heart and have a salutary effect upon man's whole nature."



I think this is especially true for children. The more children attend Mass, hear about the heroic lives of the saints, and experience our rich Catholic Traditions and traditions, the more they come to understand the joy of being Catholic. I want my children to experience this more than I want them to memorize the names of dinosaurs, planets, or famous dates in history. If I can succeed at building a firm foundation of love for Christ, His Church, and His friends, the saints, then I will have given them the best gift I could ever give them, next to life itself.

Abortion, the genocide of our generation...

I am inspired by the following quotes:



1. Auxiliary Bishop Robert Hermann asserted that more lives have been lost to abortion than in America's wars, and called upon his brother bishops to be courageous.
"Any bishop here would be willing, would consider it a privilege, to die tomorrow if it meant ending abortion," Hermann said. "We should dedicate the rest of our lives to taking any kind of criticism, whatever it is, to stop this horrible genocide."


2. Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Chicago raised the specter of potential threats to Catholic health care if (Catholic) hospitals were compelled under the law (proposed by Obama) to offer abortions.


“It could mean discontinuing obstetrics in our (Catholic) hospitals, and we may need to consider taking the drastic step of closing our catholic hospitals entirely,” Paprocki said. “It would not be sufficient to withdraw our sponsorship or to sell them to someone who would perform abortions. That would be a morally unacceptable cooperation in evil.”


“I do not think I’m being alarmist in considering such drastic steps,” he said. “We need to respond in a morally appropriate, responsible fashion.”



3. Sedlak was particularly critical of recent comments by Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., that he will not seek to deny the Eucharist to Vice-President-elect Joseph Biden, the country's first Catholic vice-president, after he takes office in January.


"You cannot say that abortion is a sin against God, and then deliver that same God into the hands of politicians who support abortion," Sedlak said, calling the failure of the bishops to adopt a uniform communion ban "a scandal and a source of confusion to lay Catholics."



These three men are modern day heroes of the Catholic Faith! I applaud them and pray that God will continue to strengthen them in the inevitable trials that await our country beginning inauguration day. May God help us all and bless this nation with more courageous individuals willing to lay down their lives for the Truth that is Jesus Christ!

Little Moments of Grace...

So many trials and so many joys can be found throughout my day! There have been many moments of grace today. That little encounter with struggling Catholic moms at the library where I dropped some helpful hints about how to use a sling and why NFP builds trust in God, that was a moment of grace. The question from my six year old to my 11 mo. old, "You don't want to go to Hell, do you?", that was a moment of grace. The nice old lady from church who on a moment's notice came over to watch my kids while I had to go teach Religious Education, that was a moment of grace. The little old nun who smiled with glee when I showed her that they do still make a little catechism in a question and answer format like the old Baltimore Catechism, that was a moment of grace. Searching for the right phrase, opening a book, and finding the exact sentence I wish I had written, that is a moment of grace. God is so good. Jesus I trust in you. Thank you for my crazy grace-filled day.

Sick in more ways than one...

It was a very long night last night. My second youngest daughter woke up about an hour after I finally had gotten to bed. Long story short, she 'got sick' on and off throughout the night and I was able to only sleep a few hours. Life with kids is like that. I am not complaining just explaining my thought process. When I finally "woke-up" this morning, I felt rather sick. I don't know if the smell has gotten to me or if I am really sick. My middle daughter, just interrupted with, "My tummy hurts, Mommy!" School is officially cancelled for today. Now how do I get the oldest, 'healthy' daughter to Girl Scouts, ballet, and play practice without getting the rest of the world sick?
'The rest of the world sick', that phrase reminds me of how sick the rest of the world is, spiritually speaking. When our nation chooses death over life, at such a critical point in our history, it speaks volumes about our moral decline in this country. Is America even sure what they voted for in this election? I know God has His reasons for allowing this to happen. I know that now, more than ever, I need to trust Him and not those of this world. Good will come out of evil, but at what cost? That question sickens me more than this physical sickness that has overtaken my children. How many more unborn, helpless babies must be massacred before this country sees the genocide that abortion has allowed?

"The abortion President"

This is from the DFW Catholic Forum at www.dfwcatholic.org:

President-elect Obama Reveals his Position as ‘The abortion President’ with Proposed Executive Order Reversals
November 10, 2008
Washington DC (MetroCatholic) - On Sunday, transition advisors to the President-elect have revealed a potential list of executive orders that Mr. Obama would reverse once he became President.
They include reversing a provision barring international organizations that receive American aid from counseling about the availability of abortions and reversing President Bush’s ban of federal funds for embryonic stem cell research.
The Christian Defense Coalition, along with other faith organizations, warned that if Barack Obama were elected he would be the “most radical pro-abortion President” in American history.
The reversing of these executive orders would offend millions of Americans in the faith community and betrays President-elect Obama’s public statements about building bridges of unity with differing groups and being a President that respects faith and social justice.
Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, Director of the Christian Defense Coalition, comments, “It was with a profound sense of disappointment that I heard President-elect Obama’s transition advisors publicly talking about reversing some life affirming executive orders once he becomes President.
If Mr. Obama reverses the ‘Mexico City Policy,’ which forbids groups that receive American aid from counseling women about the availability of abortion, it would greatly increase abortions around the world. It would also create a scenario in which American evangelicals and Catholics would be paying for abortion referrals through their tax dollars.
If President-elect Obama reverses this policy, it would show a complete and blatant disregard for the faith values of millions of American Christians as well as expanding the violence and tragedy of abortion worldwide. America should be exporting justice and human rights not brutality and violence.
Is this what President-elect Obama means by hope and change?
By reversing the ban on federal funds being used for embryonic stem cell research, Mr. Obama again shows a lack of respect for social justice and the deeply held beliefs of millions in the faith community. Embryonic stem cell research is the tragic destroying of human life and with modern breakthroughs in stem cell research is no longer needed. We invite President-elect Obama to step into the world of modern medical technology and move away from archaic barbaric medical practices.
We warned America that if Barck Obama were elected he would be ‘The Abortion President.’ Sadly, that appears to be the case. Since these decisions have not been made, we invite the faith community and all people of good will to pray that President-elect Obama will embrace a culture of life and stand for social justice and equality for all.
We also invite the pro-life community to come to Washington, D.C. on January 21-24, 2009 to be part of ‘The Birmingham Letter Project’ in which people will be able to participate in a prayerful and prophetic witness for life.”

Life is busy....

Life here is busy, with five children it is a constant balancing act just to get everyone dressed, fed, and educated. I feel a wave of insanity must have come over me when I decided to try my hand at blogging. Just one more thing on my plate! However, I feel that maybe adding one more thing, this time something for me, (an outlet for my inner dialogue) might add to the chaos, but just might help me stay sane.
My goal in creating this blog is to express myself, (when I feel I need to be creative), to update my friends and family, (when they are unable to see us in person), to enlighten others (who do not yet know the fullness of the Truth found in the Catholic Faith), and to encourage others (who hope to homeschool or have a large family). Lengthy and lofty are these goals, but little by little I hope to achieve them.
Why is life so busy? We are only here for a little while, and there is so much to do and see! Maybe that is why I feel so compelled to try to do it all. Not that I can, but I still feel compelled. The word 'no' just doesn't seem to be in my vocabulary sometimes. That being said, I feel like I need to say, "My name is Michelle, and I am a recovering 'Yesaholic'. God help me to say 'no' more often." May God bless you.