Date Night 2011

This year, we shared a quiet, uninterrupted dinner, went to the symphony, and ended up at Starbucks. Happy 12 years to us, and many more!

Gigi Meets One of St. Nicholas’s Helpers

My Planned Parenthood Poster Contest Entry

Back in 2003, Planned Parenthood hosted a poster contest to celebrate the 30-year anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The theme of this contest was “Behind Every Choice Is A Story.”

I couldn’t help it; I had to submit an entry. I found it recently while going through some old folders, and I thought it was worth sharing again. It got me a few hate emails from the PP folks at the time. ;-)

(Click to see full size) 
Speaking of Roe v. Wade…did you know that Norma McCorvey (aka Jane Roe) is pro-life now? I heard her speak a couple months ago. Here is her book “Won By Love”.

Our Little Gem is Five

One of these days, I’m going to learn how to use a real camera. Until that day comes, here are the pics I snapped with my iPhone.

 
Mama put together a rainbow fruit tray and made rainbow cupcakes topped with marshmallow cream and the My Little Pony characters. We even had rainbow drinks! I made colored ice cubes with food coloring, and we poured Sprite over them.
(Want to hear something funny? Back when I was pregnant with Gem, I asked Mojo, who was five at the time, what we should name her sister. She insisted that her name was Rainbow Fruit. As I was putting together the fruit tray, I chuckled at the memory.)
 
Here’s my precious birthday girl! In addition to rainbow cupcakes and fruit, we also had Gem’s meal of choice—barbecue meatballs. And carrots and dip, pickles, and blue chips with salsa.

 
Some of Gem’s favorite friends came to celebrate with us.

  
Big sister, Sunshine, once again donated her artistic talents to help us Pin the Tail on the Pony. We also made paper princess crowns (there are some nice templates here, and the boys even enjoyed making king crowns). The guests also guessed how many pony treats were in the jar. 

Here are Gem’s favorites this year…
Color: pink
Toy: Ponies
TV Show: My Little Pony (big sister pulls them up on Youtube for her to watch)
Movie:  Cars2
Song: “that pony song!”
Food: grapes
Dessert: M&M McFlurries

Happy happy birthday, Princess Gem! You are truly a bright, sparkling part of our lives!
 

All Saints’ Day 2011

St. Nicholas, St. Maria Goretti (she also carried lilies), Blessed Mother Teresa, and one of St. Francis’ little friends. ;-)
Our church had a party on November 1st to celebrate, with games, a wiener roast, and “trunk or treat”.  The kids had a blast.

A Simple All Hallow’s Craft

We usually carve our pumpkins with a Christian theme for All Hallow’s Eve, but this year, I'm debating whether to even get pumpkins. I feel a bit “stretched” lately, Greg will be working on All Hallow’s Eve and Day, and I’m not keen on dealing with the mess. (I could change my mind later. You never know.)
But the thought of ditching the pumpkins came to me as I was sifting through our craft drawers looking for inspiration for All Hallow’s crafts, and inspiration came. Luminaries.

White paper bags, scissors, markers, and flameless candles. I may make some more with symbols of saints (maybe a crown symbolizing martyrdom?) and line the front porch steps with them.

Love

Juju’s First Story Hour

All of my children have attended story hour at our small library from the time they were wee tots. In fact, my brother, cousin, and I attended the same story hour as wee tots. (Ms. Pam was there even way back then, too. I swear, she never seems to age!)
Today was Juju’s turn to be an “official” participant, along with big sister.
  

National Life Chain, Sunday October 2nd

A peaceful, silent witness:

My ten-year-old wrote these words in her journal this week:
”People kill babies all over the world, every day, and it’s wrong! Who would want to kill a baby? Babies are sweet, cute, and fun to love, watch, and teach. Their little voices are…they make my heart explode with joy! I LOVE BABIES!”
That’s what is being destroyed. Babies. Children recognize that babies are babies even when they are still in their mamas’ tummies.
The lawmakers recognize that they are babies—they’ve even enacted laws (the Unborn Victim of Violence Act) to make it a crime to kill an unborn baby. Sometimes.
Medical personnel recognize that they are babies. Doctors and nurses work diligently and lovingly to save babies who are too small to survive outside their mothers’ wombs. If their mothers want them. 
The saddest thing of all is that many of the mothers who choose abortion also realize that their choice ends the life of their baby. Some don’t realize it at the time, but make the discovery later. I’ve heard from so many of them through the years—friends and strangers. They often live for years with regret, guilt, depression, anxiety, and even PTSD. They experience infertility and complications affecting future pregnancies. My heart aches for women who carry this heavy burden around, and I want every woman who finds herself in this situation to know…Jesus loves, forgives, and heals. I also want women to know…there is a better choice.
 
For now, it remains legal for mothers to choose to kill their own unborn babies. We are a split personality nation—on the one hand, we go through great lengths and expense to save the lives of our smallest helpless members. On the other hand, we destroy them and throw them into the garbage. It’s illogical. It’s wrong.

 
My friend’s son, Little Man, age 10: " It is really a no-brainer, who would not stand up for life? It is LIFE, just stop and think about it.”

 
Sunshine, age 17:  “It was nice to see so many people honking and waving in support. But then there were those people who were driving by making rude gestures at us. When I saw them, I thought it would be nice if everyone were honking and waving. Then I realized…those who are making the rude gestures are the ones who need to see our message the most.”

We Got To See The Holly-Copter!

I’ve mentioned previously that Juju is obsessed with helicopters. One evening when we went to pick his Daddy up from work, we heard the Medflight helicopter taking off. Juju got so excited! We couldn’t see it,—we just heard it--but that was what Juju talked about all the way home.
It occurred to me that maybe we should go see that helicopter. A friend of mine works in the ER; I gave her a call, and she gave me a number. 
I probably never would have thought of that if we weren’t homeschooling. But since we are homeschooling, everything that interests us is a potential field trip!

Our Catholic homeschool group and some other local homeschooling friends joined us, so we had a group of close to fifty.


Half of us toured the dispatch station…

 
…while the other half toured the helicopter.

  
 
The Medflight crew were great! I so appreciate them taking the time from their day to show us around.

Afterward, we went to the park for a picnic.

Morning Coffee

I enjoy my morning coffee on the front porch with my Lovie.
(And Spock and Jim.)

I’m Gonna Tell Y’all a Secret

Some of my friends already know this secret, but now I’m going to blab it to the world.

When I was about to give birth to my first child, I asked my OB for a tubal ligation. My first pregnancy was a surprise; I hadn’t planned on having any children. Ever. So now I was going to have a child, but I was certain that I did not want any more. How certain was I? Absolutely 100%.

Dr. C. refused. “No, you are too young,” he said in his endearing Vietnamese accent. “You’ll change your mind someday!” 
Oh, I was peeved. Who did he think he was? It was MY body. I should have the right to choose whether or not to permanently prevent children. Right?

Now…
 

I just want to say…

THANK YOU, DR. C…     

…for not “fixing” me.

The County Fair 2011

Gigi’s first parade…
 

Juju enjoying the candy he caught…


Standing beside our friends…


Everyone won blue ribbons for their artwork. Sunshine, once again, won a grand champion ribbon.