St. Therese's Feast Day Celebration

On October 1st we celebrated the feast day of St. Therese of the Child Jesus.  That morning I had to take George to his Art class.  My friend also brought her son to the class. In fact  registered our kids together. Anyways, we were just sharing with each other how we want to celebrate the feast day of St. Therese but realized that I only have the cake mix and she has the frosting to decorate the cake.  We both thought it would be great idea if we could meet at mine or her house to celebrate it together so that we don’t need to go shopping for the cake mix or the frosting.   We both were not sure whether we will be able to do it or not but we went back to our homes.

Taking turns decorating the cupcakes

These two are waiting for their turns :)

That's the best rose we could come up with

Isn't it beautiful?

However towards noon my friend and kids came with the frosting and we were able to bake the cake and decorate it like a Rose remembering St. Therese’s promise of the Shower of Roses from heaven.  It was so beautiful and the children had a great time decorating and eating the cup cakes.  Isn't it wonderful to celebrate the saints feast days??  I really get the feeling of being in communion with Saints when I celebrate their feast days.  I get to read about them, and remember the good deeds they did and specially pray to them and ask for their intercession.   Every time I put in the effort to celebrate any feast days I can see how the Lord brings things together and make it a beautiful celebration just like how He brought the frosting and brought my friend and children to make it even better. 

Trying to get a pic of all three of them

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My friend Rosie was also celebrating her birthday on the feast day.  So along with the cup cakes I also made a cake with the rest of the batter.  I have to say she is such a special person and a very dear friend to me.  Since she lives just few blocks away from our house it is always fun to meet together and see our children play together and growing in friendship.  We actually met at a park and it is the name of her son that brought us together.  His name was a catholic Saint’s name and I immediately asked his dad whether they were catholic and they were.  Since then we have been good friends and we share our faith and love together.  Our faith is what brought us so close together. 

The cake was so hot the frosting melted

She is such a great mom who is really working hard to bring up her children in faith.  Taking care of her twins and the oldest one who is only 3 years old is a hard job but she still does it with such joy and love.  I have seen her go through the hardship of raising the twins when the oldest boy was only 11/2 years old.  But she did it and now they are almost 2 years old.   She is also homeschooling her children.  I am so blessed to have her in my life.  

lol My anna's expressions

awww

They are always on the move

I don't know how she does it

Getting them ready to walk back to her house

My Rosie

Dear St. Thérèse, 

thou wert always good and obedient 

and always did the Will of God. 

Now thou art a great saint in heaven with God.

Thy loving and tender heart rejoices 

to send down roses upon earth. 

O give me the sweet flower of a great love of Jesus!

Pray for me that I may have all the graces I need. 

You are What You Read

I have never been a reader.  I would always look at books, see the pictures and that would be the end.  However, recently God has been inviting me to read books/blogs/catholic magazines etc and he has been changing my understanding on many things and building up new insights and convictions in my life.  I look back at the past two years and I see how much Lord has helped me to grow spiritually as well as intellectually.  Thank you to the Holy Spirit in leading me and guiding me.  Especially as a mom it is hard to find time to read and with two children who are under 4 years of age really take up a lot of your time.  It was always my excuse because when am I supposed to read when I am surrounded by children 24/7 and with all the other responsibilities you have as a mom/wife/daughter.

This book really helps me to calm me down and help me change my style of raising and disciplining my children.  I am still not done with this book but in the process of finishing it.

I remember in 2012 a friend of mine sent me a link to a blog post of a young mother.  I read that post and it really inspired me.  So I did not stop with that one post, I went back and read all of her posts from when she started her blog back in 2007.  I did not read it in one day but within the next 6 months I made sure to read at least one post a day and I started to see how her life story and day to day little things she wrote started to change me.  Its funny last year her blog got the award for the most inspiring blog.  http://mychildiloveyou.blogspot.com/ .  It really is the most inspiring blog for a mom.  From reading her blog I found out how she made time to read with 8 children under 11 years of age.  She would read while she wait for her child to finish potty, or while she is cooking.  She said she will keep books everywhere, in the bathroom, kitchen, living room, basement so that wherever she is when she gets 5 mins or 10 mins she will pick up a book and read.  I was so amazed by this.  I also knew that if you have to raise that many children and home school them she does need to get some inspiration from somewhere and she said how reading books helped her in this area. By becoming a part of her life through her blog I started incorporating many of those ideas into my life.  I started getting convinced by the many good things she wrote.

This book changed my prayer life and my way of praying in itself.  God really touched me through this book.

Today even though I don't read many books, I do find time to read good books at least one or two a month.  I am so amazed how much a good catholic book can change you, your attitudes, change your lifestyle itself,  inspire you, challenge you and encourage you to be more than what you are right  now.  My prayer life and my relationships with people have changed.  I am able to bring changes everyday in my life.  I am able to see the joy in raising children and building up my relationship with my husband.

Great book for moms who have preschoolers or even older kids.  Gave me great ideas

I also like to share this article with you which I read recently.  It would be great if you can read this.  http://www.setonmagazine.com/catholic/spirituality/you-are-what-you-read-how-spiritual-reading-is-the-healthier-option  It would only take few minutes.

Small things in Life

I wish I could blog about every single day of my life.  So much goes on during a day and I feel like I have to write about everything or otherwise I would forget.  Time does not wait for your desires to get fulfilled.  Each day passes by and when you hit bed around 11:30 or 12:00 in the night you hardly have any energy to sit at the computer blogging about your day.  However, today I have decided to do the opposite.  I am not going to bed without writing this blog.  It is right now 12:03 am and I hope to finish this in the next 10 minutes. We'll see how that goes :))  

After longing and desiring for a new camera over a year, yesterday we finally got a brand new Canon.  I was so excited to finally have a camera which will take pictures with good clarity unlike the the old camera we had for a long time and the broke phone camera I use.  I hope to post some good quality pictures on my blog from now on.  Even though so much is there to write since the last time I blogged I am just going to focus on the little things that took place today in our lives.

getting back from the library

My Handsome little Georgee

haha

lost in their world

We started off early morning, went to mass, grabbed a small breakfast and free coffee from McDonalds and hit straight to the library for Story time.  We left the library right after story time.  Once we arrived home I had to bring our new camera outside to take some nice pictures.  I love this camera especially after comparing it to what we have been using these past years.

We had a pretty easy day today.  Kids were behaving, not too many tantrums.  George is really enjoying his homeschool.  In fact he sits for almost 1 hr these days during our school time.  I am amazed at how much he is starting to enjoy it.  Praise God!!  

George & Anna singing along as we begin our family prayer

Padre Pio - pray for us

George is drumming for our song.  

His pretend Kajon

Anna dear just enjoying the things on our prayer table

We went to the park today, George rode his tricycle.  The best of all was the lovely weather today.  I am really enjoying these last few days of summer/ beginning of fall.  Sony was home by 7:45 after his night school.  It is always a joy to see the expression on the kids when they see Sony coming back from work.  

I can never stop enjoying this priceless smile she gives when she sees her dad

We had a special prayer along with our family prayer to our dear Saint Padre Pio whose feast day we celebrate today.  It is always good to look back at the day and ponder upon how we experienced God's love through these many little things.

Can you  believe my little Anna is one year old!!  Sigh!!!  

Home Education Begins

There is so much to write about homeschooling and my decision to move forward with Homeschooling George.  I haven't had the chance to write all about it but I hope to post more on it in the coming weeks. Tomorrow George will officially begin his first day in Preschool at home.  I have been home educating him since last year but it was never on a set schedule rather it was to get him used to learning and seeing me as his teacher.  I don't know how everything is going to go tomorrow or the rest of the year but I am fully surrendering it to Jesus, Mary and Holy Spirit to help me and guide me through homeschooling.  The church has given us parents the responsibility to be our children's primary educators and I think I am taking my first step into this role.

I have planned to start early tomorrow and take the kids to morning mass at our church to get blessed by the priest.  I am also taking his books and other items to be blessed so that we can have a fresh start.  I think this will also help George to see that it is not the same anymore where we just do school whenever we feel like but we are doing it more seriously.   I have been telling him all about it today and preparing him.  I have no idea what it all means to him.  I will let the Spirit lead me.  

Items inside the Schultutes

Back To School Schultutes

I added a rosary also in there

I just finished making a Back to School Schultutes for George.  I added some goodies for him to feel extra special on his first day of school.  This is going to be fun.  With regards to teaching I am going to continue where I left off last week.  Currently I am using two preschool curriculum for George, Little Saints Preschool Program and Seton.  I hope and pray that I will do the best I can with the little knowledge and understanding God has given me.  I know I am no expert and I don't have the patience or capabilities to do this but I do know that I shouldn't be depending on my strength, instead completely trust in the Lord who has blessed me with the children and the call to Homeschooling.

Seton

Our Homeschool Area

 As I prepare myself for this new endeavor I am also praying very specially for all the moms and children out there who are beginning their new school year.  May God guide each one of us to do what is best for our children and let our only goal be to bring our children closer to Jesus.

Anna darling joins us too in school and this is what she does

Messes up cheta's (George's) school stuff haha

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Surrendering our little ones to our mother as we prepare for the feast day of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary