*Michelle*
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Posts posted by *Michelle*
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Oh, I forgot about our Jesse Tree! That's a big part of our celebration too. In fact, here's a link to our Advent plan from last year. This year will likely be very similar.
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Advent is a beautiful and solemn time in the Church. It's a time of preparing ourselves for the celebration of the Nativity. The USCCB publishes Advent devotions each year. This is from last year: http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-resources/advent/index.cfm
Some of our traditions:
- No Christmas decorations! We don't put up our tree or decorations until Christmas Eve. We also don't play Christmas music until Christmas Day.
- We put our creche out, but just the stable, animals, and shepherds. Mary, Joseph, and the donkey are placed at the other end of the house and each day we move them a little closer to the stable. They arrive on Christmas Eve. In the morning, when the kids come down, baby Jesus is in the stable also.
- We hang a religious Advent calendar. Vermont Christmas Co. has some nice ones.
- We light our Advent candles. The first two Sundays of Advent are purple, the third is pink (representing our coming joy), and the fourth is purple. There are a variety of readings for the different Sundays. On Christmas and through Epiphany, we replace the candles with white ones.
- We make a Good Deeds manger for the kids. It's an empty manger. Throughout Advent, the kids can earn pieces of straw by doing good deeds. They place the straw in the manger in the hopes of filling it up and making a soft bed in time for baby Jesus.
Our biggest thing is to keep Advent separate from Christmas. It's a little funny at first when you're just getting ramped up for Christmas when everyone else is taking down their trees, but to us it makes the season very special to celebrate from Christmas Day until Epiphany.
I highly recommend Meredith Gould's book, The Catholic Home, for anyone looking to incorporate Catholic traditions into your year. We have a rich history available to us and we should take advantage!
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I think we're going to cancel Netflix soon. My husband has one show he likes to watch there, but for the $105/yr we pay, I could just buy the newly released season on Amazon (and then some!). Amazon has really come leaps and bounds with their streaming service, plus I like that I have the option of renting movies.
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USCCB.org has some wonderful Advent and Christmas resources on their site every year. This is the page from 2012. We refer to this often.
Daily suggestions for prayer, reflection and action during the Advent and Christmas seasons will be available online beginning the first Sunday of Advent, December 2. The content is presented in a clickable calendar format, with each click opening "doors" to a page of suggestions and links for that date...
A Festival of Lesson and Carols, a service of Scripture and song that dates to the late 19th century, is also featured for online listening or download. The audio program features music performed by the choir of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.
Other resources on the website include liturgical notes on Advent, a commentary on the proper prayers of the season from the Roman Missal, a list of recommended holiday-themed movies from USCCB, and prayers and blessings from the USCCB publication Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers.The page also features printable calendars in English and Spanish with a daily suggestion for a family activity during Advent and Christmas. -
In Florida, the law allows the executor to liquidate some assets in order to pay for funeral and other expenses. IIRC, the amount was $10,000. Anything over that is supposed to go to the debt holders.
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No clue. We're making an interstate move towards the end of the month. Their costumes will probably be whatever is left that fits!
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The Jax Zoo is right off of 95, on the north side of town. It's pretty nice!
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I second the Crockpot. The only food I really cook in the microwave (as opposed to just reheating) is rice. You can "bake" potatoes in there, though, and there are lots of steam-in-bag vegetable options available.
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"When I eat at the White House, I'll use the correct fork."
"Then we'll wait to go out again until the White House invites us."
I expect age-appropriate good manners at the table and in general.
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We have used MP's programs for several years now. We've used parts of K-2, most of grade 3, and we're just about done with Grade 4. The K-2 program is completely different from the 3-6 program, and I don't know what grade(s) you need....
Thank you! I'm another one about to take the plunge. I've been drawn to MP ever since I first saw it and finally decided to give it a go next year. We'll start with 2nd grade, keeping our current math program in lieu of R&S. I'm looking forward to it.
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She wouldn't be responsible for a short sale, though. If there is a mortgage on the house, her only duty would be to provide the mortgage company with a copy of the death certificate. It's up to the mortgage company to manage the property at that point.
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The estate is responsible for paying any debts. If there are no monies to settle the debts, the debts are forgiven. You are only a beneficiary if there are any monies left over after debts are settled. You are not responsible for the debts themselves.
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Worksheetworks.com. It creates the sheet as a PDF and you can save that on your computer for later.
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I received a diaper cake and it was very cute, but it was kind of a pain to store all of the diapers. She'd used size 2s, if I remember correctly, and my little guy was premature and didn't hit those until he was about 6 months old.
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Oh, and I love our parish too. The building is a little austere, but the plan is to steadily replace all of the clear glass windows with stained glass, I believe. Over time, it will be very nice. It's just, the basilica! History! Beauty! The dark and the quiet and the incense that has seeped into the very stones! You can't walk in without hushing your voice automatically and staring upwards.
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Our parish and our basilica. Love, love, love, the basilica!
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Playmobil, definitely. Legos. Also, the big Megablock Lego-type ones. My son loves to make big fortresses out of those. We've got Keva planks on his Christmas list, too.
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The trouble is that what is "just a cold" to them could be much more to someone who is immune compromised and churches are filled with people in close quarters and often a lot of older people or those with health problems.
We learned that lesson the hard way. Four weeks in the hospital with our son after taking him to Mass for his baptism, two of which were in the PICU and one of those was with him intubated.
Please stay home if you have a runny nose. It might be a little cold; it might be RSV. It might be the very first stages of the flu.
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Are doctor's required to accept Medicaid?
Nope.
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I agree that many doctors would prefer that method, but I don't think that matters. Insurance covers the patient, not the service provider.
Do you also object to states requiring auto insurance?
States require auto insurance to protect people or property you may injure while driving. Mortgage companies require homeowner's insurance in order to protect their investment.
Neither auto insurance nor homeowner's insurance are required if you don't drive or own a house. This is the only thing I can think of that you are required to buy simply through the act of being alive.
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We adapt the meeting heavily and have since we started with K. We're on 2 now, and it still works for us. I didn't even get the meeting book this year. We skip the graph questions completely and skip those questions on the assessment. Our morning meeting pretty much consists of stating today's day and date and then I hand him a little dry erase board that has the day's pattern, the money amount for the day written in a box, and 3 blank number sentences for whatever today's date is. He fills in the pattern, counts out the money using his cup of coins, and comes up with the equations while I pull our materials for the lesson.
We run through the counting exercises quickly and even skip some days when the lesson itself is longer or when there's an assessment that day. I really like Saxon, but I think I really like it because I don't feel as if I have to read every single word in the script. I definitely adapt it to whatever my son's level is. Some days, I'll read over the whole lesson and see that it's something he's already mastered. Those days, we just do the drill sheet and worksheet. Or I might see that there is a little bit of new material and the rest review of something we've covered to death. I'll pick that piece out and skip the rest.
Some days, the lesson is very simple, but it sparks a conversation about some higher level concepts. We'll spend twenty minutes exploring that idea before finishing off the lesson and completing the worksheets. It all depends on what we're covering that day, what kind of mood he's in, etc.
I personally feel more freedom within a highly structured program like Saxon, odd as that may sound. The new information or changes in the meeting jump out at me, so I find it easy to know when we really need to cover something as written and when I can adapt at will.
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That's what EWTN is for. ;)
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Maybe these are all being put out by textbook publishers. :D
I am desperate for **actual** tea!
in The Chat Board
Posted
I imagine the British empire would have faded to nothing if people didn't drink tea while nursing. I think you'll be okay.