The One Where We Become Saints

         I have always wanted to be a saint, I used to recreate my saint story as a child (for some reason I was always a peasant child in some far off country, even though I lived in parts of ghetto America). With years of sinning under my belt and the slow progression of stagnant piety, the idea of becoming a great saint became something that I slowly stopped thinking about. I will often jest about my imaginary holiness, even going so far as a friend creating a holy card for me. Even though I would brush this idea aside, because who am I to be called to holiness, when I look at that "holy card", my heart literally yearns for those words, St. Maria.  Recently, I've come back to my old goal of becoming a saint after watching Bishop Barron's video series "Catholicism" and I new devotion of a consistent weekly Holy Hour (where I am the crazy person in the back, talking to God with my hands).  Why not me?! Why not us?!

       I've dubbed myself the "annoying" saint and I take solace in stories of other great saints who were not super popular in their time.  So, I want to be a saint with a capital S. Yes, it is a bold statement but the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, when asked how to become a saint, "Will It!" is my go to statement. I see a resurgence to the call of sainthood within the Catholic Church, I don't know if its because I'm older and can pay better attention or if the Church is truly making sainthood a priority for hot topics.  I don't know how I'm going to get to Sainthood, all I know is that I want it and if I want it enough, God will grant me the graces to become what I desire.......right?! I am fearful of making a mistake and messing up on my way to holiness, but the stories of saints before me show that missteps are part and parcel of the journey. My journey refines me enough so that I can successfully end my journey, falling into His arms. I don't have the eloquence of some of the great saints, I don't have a theology or philosophy degree, I don't have a "Little Way" and I am definitely not a poor peasant girl, but what I am is me, Maria, sinner, child of God, earnest lover of my Heavenly Father and Mother and ready for my story to unfold. I don't have to be anyone else, I just have to be the Saint that God created me to be. Does this give you courage to boldly say," I want to be a saint!"? I hope it does! What better way to lead the life that God created for you, then to live out to the fullest measure. I know that trials will be thrown my way and my faith will be tested, but what's a great story without a couple of plot twists, villains and a happy ending? Bring it ON! I'll pray for you and your story and I ask that you pray for me, as I continue my upward and steep journey to Sainthood with a capital S.

Looking forward to the School Year

        One of the things that I get asked on a regular basis is how can I be some enthusiastic about the beginning of the school year and where I get all my energy :)  Here is my answer to both (spread the news, it's worth sharing):


          1. When you do what you love, you are never tired......I LOVE being a mom, homeschooling and doing all the things that I do. If I didn't, then you would have to put me in an insane asylum because there most be something wrong with me if I keep doing something that makes me miserable (I think they call that being a masochist). If being a mother and homeschooling didn't bring me joy, then why did I start on this path in the first place. Ask yourself, why am I not as joyful as I should be? Find the answer and then go about to change it.


         2.  Ok here are 5 tips that have helped my homeschool get started off to a great start (note: it will fall apart at some point, but at least you've gotten a good week in :) )  These 5 things have helped me stay on task even when the emotion has left, because I've put these things first:

• Start planning your curriculum and notification prep way in advance.......I mean January, yes January! I do it that way because A. it's cold out, what else am I going to do? and B. It gives me time to space out my work.  If I leave it until the summer, then I get sucked into warm weather, Netflix binge watching and lazy days.  Starting in January gives me at least4 months of prep time because I'm working on it 30min here and there and not dedicating HOURS to it. It also creates a buzz for the new school year (if you are not excited then we will need to talk later), the more times excitedly yell "School's starting!" in your best Will Ferrell in Elf voice, the more excitement you will build.......even if it's only in yourself :)  Sometimes you have to fake it until you make it, but if you aren't excited, how do you expect your kids to be excited? (think about it).  Planning this far in advance also cuts down on last minute crisis.......don't lie, you know what I mean when I say crisis. If you are the type of person that leaves everything last minute, then, yeah, you are going to be stressed. Let's pare that down, shall we?  It's going to happen, whether you like it or not, and you might as well make it a peaceful transition. Be intentional!

• Set your start date and write it IN STONE!  Sandwich your start date between two fun or long awaited events, for example, we start our school year the Monday after our Homeschool Mom's Retreat and before our Back to School Swim Party. This gives me "pegs" to work off of and I can constantly be reminding my children of when we start when I'm tagging it to another event. For example, your child is enthusiastic to learn when Christmas will come and if they are little (or even older) they have no concept of time. But what they do know is that Christmas comes after Thanksgiving, which comes after Halloween, etc.  Pegging the start of the school year sandwiched between two big events, softens the blow if you will. Constant, random reminders of the start date attached to whatever fun thing is coming around that time, helps amp up the excitement factor.

• Pick up your duster and apron and SPRING CLEAN!  Ok, just like a "regular" teacher would come into her classroom and clean and decorate for the new year, so should we get our classrooms ready to learn. I don't know about you, but knowing that my house will be spic and span for at least the first two weeks of school, takes a loaf off my shoulders and helps me center on the important task at hand......making my kids smart :)  So, take the 2 weeks before your start date to do some deep cleaning and decorating.  When you are done, you've created a peaceful, relaxed environment where you and your kids can get excited to learn. Don't set yourself up for failure, having a messy and unorganized house can lead to stress that you don't need when you are trying to start a whole new year.

• Go shopping!!! Yes, I've given you permission to shop (sorry hubbies, we will need your credit cards). Back to school traditions are fun ways to keep the excitement and motivation high. For us what that looks like is we always get back to school haircuts, an outfit and some little gift. One example is that I take the kids shopping for a new outfit the week before, I let them pick whatever they'd like to wear for their first day (this works great for the girls). They get to pick if they want pants, skirts, dresses and the only thing I regulate is price and modesty level. They can't wear the outfit until the first day, which builds anticipation.  I, also, get them something fun either we do an activity or I get them a gift. FOr example, one year I got them all backpacks, another lunch bags, another year I got them dollar store purses filled with school supplies, and just recently we had a lunch time pizza party with friends.  You can be as extravagant or as creative as you want, but creating these memories help with building excitement (do I sound like a broken record yet?)

• Last but definitely not least is to go on retreat. School teachers have a whole summer to be away from their students, we unfortunately do not have that luxury. But, we can get that same rejuvenation in just a weekend, if done right. Our homeschool group hosts a retreat every year, it's a weekend retreat where we get to go to Adoration, Confession, Mass, pray the Rosary and Divine Chaplet, have silent time, community and a speaker. It's a soothing balm on the soul. If you are not as fortunate to have this event near you or can't go for whatever reason, start one of your own or create one for yourself. What this gives you is the ability to center your mind on God and have your spirit fortified for the task that lies ahead.  Even if you do not have an event specifically for homeschool moms, go to a convent and ask to stay with them for a retreat weekend, get a hotel in your city and organize relaxing activities alongside activities centered around a spiritual rejuvenation.  You are teacher but you are also mom, and wearing those two hats at the same time can be daunting and draining. But, if you hire God as the principal for your school and allow Him to work through you to mold the future saints of the Church, then no matter how many times your school plan fails, you will always know that He is rooting you on.

I'm Not Dead Yet......starting over again!

       I've been neglectful of my little blog. mostly because I'm not very confident in my writing skills. My husband says that I have a lot of run on sentences and don't use proper punctuation(pfft! whatevs, dude!) But, recently I've rekindled a passion of mine which is mentoring and helping new moms and new homeschoolers. And even though I love having six hour conversations with people about it, I feel like a broken record sometimes and what to reach more people with my words of inspirational wisdom (who says I'm not humble?!).  So in an effort to revamp this tired blog and give myself a vehicle to help others, I'm going to be changing the name and hopefully adding short podcasts to listen to (I speak better than I write), as well as some written work.  I have SO many ideas to share!

       When I was a little girl, I dreamt of this magical sisterhood of women who would wrap me in their mantle of wisdom and I would sit at their feet and absorb all that they had to say. Beautiful imagery, huh?! But the reality was not at all what I expected, when I entered this sisterhood nobody was their to welcome me with open arms, in fact it was quite lonely. I never want others to feel that way, I want to be there, planted right beside them, always willing to listen and give counsel. Thank God I found some women like that several years afterwards, but I literally had to be a pest about being in their space :)  When I started talking to my husband about what I wanted to do, it was clear that I needed to write about and talk about the things I love the most: my God, my children, homeschooling, parenting, homemaking and life as a wife and mother and woman in this world. It's a very broad topic, huh?!  But, my hope is that if you look past my writing style and obvious grammatical errors, that something I say will inspire, motivate and light a fire in all who hear it.

I'm Back- Homeschool edition

After a long time away from this blog, I decided to pick it up again. Here we are in late February and I've been battling the "homeschool winter blues", but I'm glad to say that I think I've mastered it this year.  I threw out Kolbe and Seton altogether, I realized that I'm not a "box curriculum" girl, I like creating my syllabus and lesson plans and even though both curriculum allowed you to make changes and additions, what's the point of spending all that money when you have to change things? Plus, I felt like I was teaching to a test and I hate that feeling. I went back to my roots and I am much happier.....I decided to keep using some of the workbooks that I had but I also bought some new stuff.  Our homeschool group had a mini-retreat to help re-focus us for these months of being cooped up. Most of the women talked about growing closer to God and our spouses and really centering our minds to the question of "why we are doing this?" Me? I like to mix up our regular homeschool and start planning for next year :)  This year, I decided to take planning next year slow, I want to really think about what I want before I throw myself into it. For the rest of the schoolyear we are doing something fun, I wrote down each subject on index cards and every day the girls get to blindly choose one subject each, 3 subjects daily, to do the next day.

1. Religion- Rose is finishing off her Seton 6 and Bible History 6 books, Sofia is doing the Catholic Bible History workbook (used in Kolbe History) and Gemma is watching videos of saints and I am reading Fr. Lovasik books to her.

2. Composition/Grammar: Rose is finishing off English 6 and Sofia is using Easy Grammar 3 worksheets. I also bought Wordsmith Apprentice to use with the girls.

3. History/Geography: next year I will be using RC history (Connecting with History) with the girls, starting at Level 3. So we are reading through some of Level 2 books just to get us started. Rose and Sofia are also finishing off their Map books from Seton and Kolbe.

4.Math: each girl is finishing off their math: Saxon 76, MCP and MUS Primer

5.Phonics/Reading/Lit: Gemma is finishing her Get Set for the Code C book and Sofia her MCP Phonics book. The older two are reading some literature and Gemma is enjoying BFIAR (Before Five in a Row) with Sebastian.

6.Science: Mr. Wizard videos and experiments from www.superchargedscience.com are being enjoyed.

7. Spelling/Vocab: I bought Spellwell for Sofia and I might have Rose use it as well (her spelling is not good). Wordly Wise A,B,C  for Sofia and finishing Vocab 6 for Rose.

I've really got into Cathy Duffy's Review website (how did I not know about this sooner?!) and I've been making my decisions for next year based on her reviews. I love researching and organizing things for my school, it's a total passion of mine. What a blessing to get to live out my passion! What are your thoughts for beating the winter blues? Do you like my schedule? Let me know....

Go Get Them Ladies!!