Prague, Czech Republic

To me, one of the best ways to travel, is to combine history and our Catholic faith. Therefore, Prague sounded like the perfect vacation. Prague is a historical place, with the Infant of Prague as well. I did my best to plan prior to going, and took three guidebooks along with us. I booked our apartment on booking.com. We stayed in this apartment, although it looks like they have several. Overall, it was a great apartment. It was very deceiving at first, as when we pulled up, it looked like a front door to get in. The man opened the door all the way, and we drove our car through this narrow alleyway, and parked it on a metal ramp, that actually had three floors of 2 cars each. It was pretty cool and exciting, especially to the kids.

 Jon in the kitchen

 one of the living room areas, where Jon and I slept

The kids room, looking in to the kitchen. On the right is a door to our room.

 Zach took a picture for us.

Then Hannah took one for us.

 From the kitchen, looking at the rest of the kids' room.

From the window, looking in to our room, kids' room on the left, 

hallway to kitchen and bathroom on right door.

The amazing ceiling.

One of the things that is so vastly different about the Czech Republic is while they're a part of the European Union, they don't use the Euro. Everything appears really expensive, until you do the conversion. For example, our dinner one night was 1070 Krona. Jon told me drop the last digit and divide by 2, and that tells you about how much it is in Dollars. So our dinner for the 5 of us was about $50. We felt it was amazingly cheap in Prague. We got some groceries one night, at the little grocery store right below our apartment, cheese, eggs, mushrooms, ketchup, cheese, coffee and wine, and spent less than $15.  We made it home with $200 to spare of our budget, wahoo!

We were near Wenceslas Square, so pretty central to most parts of the city. It's only 2.5 miles from one side to the other. We arrived about 4pm, and set out on an evening stroll, to stretch our legs and get a bit of energy out, and eat some dinner. We ate at a typical Czech restaurant, Jon eating duck and potato dumplings, me salmon, and the kids all had some pasta with salmon or mushrooms and something else. Zach loved his, the mushroom one, and insisted on taking leftovers home and he insisted we have them the 2nd night for dinner.

On Sunday, we woke up and slowly got going. We had plans to attend the noon English mass at Our Lady Victorious, where the Infant of Prague is. We weren't sure how long it'd take to walk there, so we left about 10am. We walked over the Charles Bridge. The kids thought it was really exciting, and loved seeing the statues of Mary, Jesus, St. Joseph and many other Saints. We finally arrived at the church, about 11am. We immediately saw The Infant of Prague, dressed in purple for Lent. I was expecting it to be in a museum in the back somewhere, but it was on a side altar right in the middle of the church. Someone had told us the church was really small, so we got there early to get seats. It was bigger than I had expected, a very decent size, but not a basillica.

The Infant of Prague was smaller than I had imagined from pictures. We took some time and knelt to pray while gazing on it. I've always struggled with kneeling before an object praying. It feels like idol worship to a degree to me. But, I instead looked at the Infant and thought about Jesus as an infant, and meditated on that, and used that as a source of prayer. I prayed for those I know that are pregnant, those I know who are trying to get pregnant, those who've had a miscarriage/lost a baby recently, and those who are struggling with infertility. I think I mentioned most by name, but since I know 14 people currently pregnant (Well, 13 since one had her baby while we were away ;-)), I likely didn't mention all, but God knew my heart. Plus, I was VERY distracted by children who did not want to kneel and pray for long.

 from the back of the church, looking in. The Infant of Prague is to the right.

 The Infant of Prague

The altar with the Infant of Prague and kneeling rail to pray.

Then we sat and waited for mass to begin. This was hard. We had about an hour to wait, in a cold church that did not have heat. It had some heaters that were connected to the back of the pews, that were HOT to the touch, but did not radiate any. By the time mass was over about 1pm, we were all FREEZING cold, miserable, and had to use the bathroom, which was not in the church. Overall though, the mass was lovely and we tried to offer it up. We walked across the street to a deli, ordered a few pastries, and all used the toilet. Then we went back in to the church, bought a few small souvenirs of the Infant of Prague,and visited the small museum upstairs where they had a few of his gowns. They were mostly all gifts from other countries, and very beautiful.

After this, we headed to the Prague Castle. The kids were miserable by this point, tired of walking and cold. We got to see the changing of the guard, which they did like. Then we walked inside. We went inside St. Vitus Cathedral, only to stand in the back for a few. It was huge, beautiful, but required tickets to see the rest of it. Unfortunately, it was 4pm and the church closes at 4:30, so we felt it wasn't worth it. Plus, the kids would not make it. We headed out of the palace, after only seeing a small part, and back towards the apartment. The kids insisted that they did not want to eat at a restaurant, but wanted to go home to leftovers haha. So we did that, and made mac and cheese and brats for dinner with their leftovers.

 changing of the guard

 inside St. Vitus Cathedral

The palace entrance

outside of St. Vitus Cathedral

 outside of St. Vitus Cathedral

inside of St. Vitus Cathedral

 The kids and I in front of a well, that was gated to keep their water system clean.

Monday morning, we woke up and took some time getting ready. My only plan was to head to the Jewish Cemetery, which our guidebook did not mention had a fee. When we got there, we learned that in fact, it did, along with all the other Jewish things. We decided that two tickets for 300 Krona each was worth it, and bought our tickets. It was worth it. First, we went in to the Pinkas Synagogue which had nothing but names and names and names written on the walls. 80,000 Jews of Bohemia and Moravia murdered by the Nazis. It was an amazing, and gut-wrenching sight. Upstairs there were drawings made by children that were living in the Terezin ghetto. These pictures had me holding back tears, and were amazing to see what those young children saw, including a picture of a hanging, the dormitories where they lived, and more. Zachary was really interested in all of these pictures, and wanted to draw one like it when he got home. He was very quiet, taking it all in, and asking lots of questions.

After this, we headed to the Jewish Cemetery. This was a breath-taking site as well. Because they were forced to stay in the ghetto, they had no where else to bury their dead, so they buried them on top of each other, with just a bit of dirt between each layer. The headstones were brought up along with the rising ground, but now they are just all over each other. Today it contains some 12,000 tombstones, but the number of bodies actually buried here is much greater. The oldest headstone dates back to the 1439 and the last burial was in 1787. We read that Jews are not to be dug up after burial, and that they are given land by the government so that won't happen. But the government refused to give them any more land.

It was really neat, because next to the cemetery is the town hall, and there you could see how they did a lot of the burial customs. There were two other Synagogues we got to go in that had several Jewish artifacts, such as Torah Shields, Torah pointers, and cups used during the Seder meal. Our experience here really made us want to learn more about the Jews and their customs. We found it interesting that since Jesus was Jewish, he likely celebrated many of these same customs. And yet, many people chastise Catholics for our customs and Traditions, but don't ever mention a problem with the Jewish customs and practices. It's very interesting to see the comparison of the Jewish traditions with the Catholic traditions, traditions that were passed on from Jesus Himself.

 The Town Hall in the Jewish quarters. In here was a lot of information on Jewish burial customs, such as they must have a place to wash their hands in the cemetery, because washing hands is part of their customs.

After the Jewish Cemetery, we went to the Old Town square, where we sampled some food from a vendor and watched a street jazz band while the kids danced. After this we headed home, for more mac and cheese and brats for dinner. Then we did baths, and another 7pm bedtime for the kids. They were so exhausted each night.

In the courtyard of the Old Town Square

Abby and Zach giving money to the musicians we were listening to. The kids had fun dancing to them.

The clock tower.

The kids and I in front of the Old Town Square clock. Apparently it does something 

cool every hour, but we were too tired to wait the 15 minutes. 

A beautiful church you can see from the Town Square. It was closed unfortunately the day we were there.

On Tuesday, we were scheduled to checkout from our apartment at 10. It's suppose to be a 5 hr 20 min drive (took us 6 hrs to get there with bathroom stops). I thought well, we could get home at 4, or see something else. I had brought a book with me about various Catholic shrines in Europe, and it mentioned Svata Hora was 30 minutes south, so excited for this new change in our adventure, we headed there. Svata Hora means Holy Mountain. On this mountain is a statue of Our Lady holding the baby Jesus. Many miracles have been attributed to it, the first being of a blind man who came and prayed before it to Jesus and Our Lady for 3 days. After 3 days, his sight was restored. We had to park at the bottom of the small mountain, and walk up it. It was snowing and cold. When we got to the top, it looked so deserted, but we walked inside anyway.

Walking up the hill.

 The front of Svata Hora

Immediately, you saw this huge outside altar on the top of some stairs. It looked as if the statue was originally there, but not anymore. Behind this altar was the minor Basillica. Pope Pious X declared it a minor Basilica in 1905 I think, because of all the miracles attributed to it. Inside was this small church, with the image above the altar. There were two smaller altars within the Basilica, one of which was very cool as it had all these Saints around the crucifix. Back outside, there was basically a courtyard/wall surrounding the Basilica and outside altar. On these walls and ceilings were several paintings, most of which were depicting 100 miracles connected to the statue- people at sea who saw the image and were saved, people who were traveling and their cart rolled over, someone getting struck by lightening, etc. There were also many other altars along the walls, and small chapels on each corner. However, the chapels are now sealed up, due to erosion caused by the weather. I would recommend going, but I would definitely save it for the summer. It looked like there are usually several restaurants, a water closet, and even souvenir shops outside, but they were all closed. I think we saw maybe 2 or 3 other families while we were there.

The outside altar you see when you first walk in, above many steps. The gold oval use to hold the statue. I don't know if it still does in the summer or not. 

 The statue of Our Lady holding Jesus on the altar.

 The side altar with the Saints at Jesus' cross.

The altar with the statue on it.

Back outside, there was basically a courtyard/wall surrounding the Basilica and outside altar. On these walls and ceilings were several paintings, most of which were depicting 100 miracles connected to the statue- people at sea who saw the image and were saved, people who were traveling and their cart rolled over, someone getting struck by lightening, etc. There were also many other altars along the walls, and small chapels on each corner. However, the chapels are now sealed up, due to erosion caused by the weather. I would recommend going, but I would definitely save it for the summer. It looked like there are usually several restaurants, a water closet, and even souvenir shops outside, but they were all closed. I think we saw maybe 2 or 3 other families while we were there.

The ceilings in the outside part... Mary and Jesus in each image.

Here is an image of a man being trampled, where Our Lady rescued him.

 Someone under logs also being saved.

 The man that was struck by lightening.

Outside Svata Hora before heading back to the car. 

When we came back out, the snow had picked up. We quickly headed back to the car and got on the road. About 2 hours away from home, we hit a stau (German word for traffic jam- word everyone knows, and everyone despises). After sitting on the autobahn for 2 hours, we were all being forced off the road. Everyone else was turning right. We started to, but I felt like we shouldn't. The thing about Germany is they send you off the highway, with no detour signs, no direction where to go, so you and thousands of others are just in the dark of where to go. We went with my gut and went left. I told Jon as long as we're driving west, we're heading in the right direction. Two hours later, we were back at the autobahn, 22 kilometers further down it, and able to get back on. During that 2 hours, we drove on many village roads, that were super icy and scary. The whole time, I kept praying "Holy Family help our family. Guardian angels protect us." over and over and over. We finally arrived home, after a 10 hour instead of 6 hour drive.

 What we were driving in. 

 Girls taking a nap.

It was a great trip. In fact, we're really hoping to go back in the summer. But the winter was nice because it wasn't too crowded anywhere. We hate crowds, especially with 3 young children that hate holding hands, so it was worth it to a degree to go in the winter. I strongly recommend visiting Prague if you're looking for someone to go while in Europe. :)

Random Act of Kindness

I just want to recognize a stranger today.

This morning I woke the kids up early (I HATE doing this!) and rushed like mad to get them ready alone and get ready for mass. The rules are if the roads are red or black (from snow) one hour prior to mass, there will not be mass. Mass starts at 9. At 7:45 the roads were changed to red. I discovered this at 8:30 as I was about to go scrape the ice off.

So, what did I do? Told the kids I was going to lay on the couch and rest my eyes. I was soooo tired for lots of reasons. An hour later, I woke up haha. Felt refreshed. I went and shoveled some of the snow, on the stairs and to my car, laid ice down, heated up the van and deiced it, and came back in. We were all already dressed from getting ready for church, so grabbed jackets and headed to the BX. I needed silver or gold thumbtacks, some medicine, and something else i couldn't remember...

We got there. Of course, they only had colored thumbtacks. Boo. I almost couldn't find the medicine I needed, but thankfully did. I couldn't remember what the other thing was, but had this feeling it was near the cleaning supplies or the hardware. Ah ha! An adapter. (To plug my 110v lamp in to a 220v outlet) Then we went to see if there was any playdoh, and like always, there was none. My poor kids live a deprived life thanks to the BX. Yes, they sell it off base, but it's expensive. Yes, I can order it online, but I always have other priorities. Yes, I could make it, but I'm lazy.

Soooo, I knew I had a treat in the back of my mind, but we needed lunch. (NO judging when you hear what we ate today please and thank you!) So we got Anthony's (Disgusting to me, yummy to kids) pizza for lunch with orange drink! The kids were so excited. Poor, deprived kids. As we're eating, a woman comes up to me. She'd been sitting at the table next to us. She said she's sorry, she'd been eaves dropping, and just wanted to compliment me on how I was parenting, that I was doing such a great job, how I was talking to them and dealing with things and teaching them and that you just don't see that kind of parenting much these days. I said Oh, thank you so much! God bless you! She went on to tell me she was a child development something or other and said "I hope you don't mind, but I'd love to buy your kids ice cream." and handed me money to treat them to some ice cream! We said God bless you to each other, and the kids and I all said thank you as she walked away. I was so touched by her sweet act of kindness!!

So I took the kids for their treat- a movie! We've seen it several times, but Tangled was playing at the theater, and it only cost $7! It was a great treat and they loved the experience of going to a movie theater. It was a lot of fun. And we ended the movie with ice cream at Baskin Robbins thanks to the kind stranger.

We came home, and I let the kids do a craft, then being such a great mom, let them watch another movie while I called my best friend in FL, whom I hadn't talked to in over 6 months. Great ending to the day. :)

Hospital visit

I have gone back and forth all week on whether or not to post about a situation that occurred last weekend. However, I felt that to help me get final closure, it would be beneficial to post about it and give people more of a glimpse in to life with Diabetes.

As most people know, I have had Diabetes for 27 years. Yes, I am 28, meaning I was diagnosed at 14 months old. My day to day life is very normal. I can eat everything your average person can eat. I am on an insulin pump, so the only added things are I need to check my blood sugar often, count how many carbohydrates I'm eating, and give insulin for all the carbs I eat. It can become a struggle sometimes when I get low blood sugars, such as when I add exercise to my schedule. It because very difficult to regulate the exercise and blood sugars. Otherwise, life with Diabetes is usually very easy and simple in my opinion. (Thank the Lord!)

Last Friday evening, December 21, we had some friends over for dinner. We had a great evening, enjoying some wine, clam chowder, popcorn and games. We had about 3-4 drinks over the course of the whole evening, so not a huge amount spread out. It ended up getting really late, and we somehow convinced our friends to just spend the night. (This is very surprisingly for them, but we now know the Holy Spirit was working.) We went to bed around 3am. At 3am, I gave insulin to cover the alcohol and snacks we'd been eating, letting my pump do the calculations and not paying attention to how much was actually being calculated. This is very normal for me. My pump is programmed to do the math.

About 5 am, my husband noticed me shaking. He tried to wake me up, thinking it was a bad dream. He quickly realized it was a seizure and grabbed a glucagon shot (Shot of sugar basically that works in about 2 minutes.) He ran down the hall to get some sugar to give me, and told our friend to call the local emergency number. Both our friends were awake, and helping. Jon rubbed honey on my gums because my teeth were clinched shut and I bit both his finger and my tongue. He told me that while he's seen me have seizures before, none were to this extent. My head was thrown back, I was foaming at the mouth, and my whole body was stiff. That's why he felt it was necessary to call emergency. When I did come too, I was very confused. I did not remember them being there or spending the night and was a bit freaked out and she was trying to keep me calm and reassure me.

The military police were here in about 2 minutes, followed by the American fire department in about 5. It took the German ambulance about 20 minutes to get here, and they were zero help. All they basically did was transport me to the American hospital and did not know what a seizure was when Jon told them. I guess we need to add the word "Anfall" to our vocabulary. At least "Diabetes" is the same in both languages. I was in my room for close to twenty minutes until we left to go to the hospital. I don't remember anything except walking out of the den and trying to smile at my friend, but not knowing what to say. Thankfully they'd spent the night and were able to stay with our kids while Jon followed the ambulance.

Upon arrival at the American hospital, I had a horrible headache and was throwing up like crazy. (I went through about 10 vomit bags!) Jon had told them we'd been drinking, so upon my discharge, the 3rd point was "Acute alcohol intoxication". However, a Blood Alcohol Content was never taken to prove this. Glucagon shot has side effects, which include nausea and headaches. My mom has told me in the past that hypoglycemic reactions (seizures) have made me very sick as well. So between the seizure and the glucagon it's no surprise I was throwing up so much. It bothers me a great deal that I got "Acute alcohol intoxication" as one of my 3 diagnoses. Around noon, they decided they were going to go ahead and admit me for the night. Overall, the whole hospital experience was excellent and I have nothing negative other than the 3rd diagnoses.

I remember very little from about 5am until noon. I did happen to look at my pump and discover why I had the seizure. I had given a large amount of insulin at that time. While in the hospital, I thought it was just me being stupid, tired, and having been drinking. When I got home from the hospital, I realized that my settings for that time of morning were incredibly low, much lower than I needed them. Therefore it wasn't *me* that gave that much, but the pump. Yes, I did confirm it, but I was trusting the pump to do the right calculations, just like I do a thousand times a year. I did meet with my doctor this past week and we changed those dosages to prevent it from happening again. Because I never eat or give insulin at that time of morning, we never realized how dangerously low those settings were.

I think the last time I had a seizure that required emergency, with no hospital stay, was in 1997. The only time I think I've required a hospital stay, aside from diagnoses, was in about 1990 or so, so it has been a very, very long time. I was surprised to find the impact it had on me. I've had a very difficult time going to sleep this week, fearful it'd happen again, until I went to the doctor on Thursday. I've also had some other fears that I've had to work through with my husband and God. It was interesting, we went to mass on Friday as a family, and the priest, in the homily, talked about how we shouldn't have fear when we have God. I can't explain it perfectly, but it was just the thing I needed to hear, that I needed to give my fears to God. In addition to that, I've had a lot of body soreness this week, as my body was stiff for a good 2 minutes, so my neck, stomach and back have been in a lot of pain. The pain has finally started to subside this weekend.

But God is good. I can see how He was there and protected me the whole time, from our friends happening to spend the night, to Jon remaining completely calm and handling the situation perfectly. He said he was basically just on autopilot, doing the things he knew he had to do. When all was said and done, he was shaking like crazy. And... our friends admitted that they'd seen a new side of him running around working like crazy... in his boxers hahaha! After about 20 minutes, he realized he was still only walking around in his underwear, and decided to get dressed.

This week, we took it pretty easy, especially with Christmas. And this Christmas, I found I was much more thankful for the many blessings in my life, especially my life itself, and my amazing husband who saved my life.

Homeschooling 101

Since beginning our homeschooling journey, I have had several women message me to ask me questions. When you're interested in homeschooling, I think you seek out anyone who may have some been there, done that experience, and ask them all of the questions you can think of. I felt like doing a blog post may be helpful to others as well.

One of the first questions I get asked is, What curriculum do you use?
Well, since we're Catholic, I wanted a Catholic curriculum. I did a lot of research, reading, browsing, talking to others, etc. I wanted a curriculum in a box for our first year, something that told me exactly what I needed to teach when, while I was still getting my feet wet. I went with Catholic Heritage Curriculum (CHC) for this school year, and have loved almost every minute of it. I love that it's very simple, and has a theme for each month. For example, the first month's theme was "I am happy when I obey." Many times when my kids were not obeying, I'd say "What was our theme for the month?" and drive that back in. I love the way it teaches our Catholic faith to my children at such an early age, where Hannah goes around and does things saying "Mom, that was a good image/reflection of God... Mommy, doing that was loving my sister, just like God loves me." These are all things I wanted to teach them, but wasn't sure the right way to go about it, and our curriculum helps greatly with it. I'm not a fan of their math program, MCP. I may be investigating to see what other math program to use instead for next year. My kindergartener has just finished reviewing all his letters and will begin learning to read after Christmas. I'm noticing a lot of problems with writing his letters wrong, so I'm looking in to Handwriting Without Tears, and may begin to use that as well. I still need to sit down and figure out what I'm going to be doing for the 2nd half of the year during Christmas break.

With that said, most people ask me when they're beginning to look at preschool. I have been using this program with Hannah for preschool, but she's basically the age of PreK 3, doing PreK 4, and I don't think she'll be ready for K next year, so I may be reevaluating what to teach her next year. Also, the curriculum for the PreK and the K religion is the same, and I think she's done a great job grasping what I've been teaching, so I MIGHT do 1st grade religion with her next year. One of the joys of homeschooling right there.

But, preschool... One of the most important things to realize when they're still 3-6 years old or so is that 'school' involves a lot more than books. We honestly spend about 1-3 hours for about 3-4 days of schoolwork is all right now. Why? Because imagination time and play time are VERY important still at this age. So, I let my kids have a lot of play time. Sometimes I'll lead the imagination play, other times I just let them go. I hand out play scarves or princess dress up and let them dress up.I give them their Little People manger scene and watch them act it out. Give them a puzzle, or craft supplies, or a game. This is all VERY important at their age still, and is schooling, even if you don't feel like it is. Also remember to not push too much. They have 13 years of schooling ahead, they don't have to be doing multiplication by the time they're 6. I have found websites that say "What your child should know before K" or "What your child should know at the end of K" and used those as a guide. Many children go to K not knowing their ABCs or not knowing how to write them. Don't push your children too hard.

Before I picked out a curriculum, I was going with the basic "Letter of the Week" idea. There is a website with it, but I did not like the flow of their program at all. So, instead, I took the idea of a letter a week, and just looked online for ideas. I would search around my house for items that started with an "A", put them in a bag, and let the kids pull it out, tell me what it was and what it started with. I looked for a Bible story that started with that letter, like "Adam and Eve" and then a Bible verse to work on memorizing that began with "A" as well. I began by searching for  "ABC Bible verse" or something of that nature. This website and this one were helpful for some Bible verse ideas. I also used these verses through our week, such as "Be kind one to another." When they weren't being kind, I'd say "What's our 'B' Bible verse?" We'd also do crafts for the letter of the week. I'd take a word that we'd learned, such as "Butterfly" and just search for "butterfly craft", and we'd do that together. As I was researching things in the beginning, I found several websites that had wonderful ideas, and I'd just use their ideas, and went for those sites almost every time, with just a bit more research if I didn't care for what they offered that week. I'd share these sites, but my computer crashed over the summer, and I don't recall what sites I used at all. But it's easy to research and find what fits what you want to teach.

What led you to homeschool?
Ha! THE question. I grew up in Catholic school (As a Southern Baptist) and then in public middle and high school. (Part of the reason I was open to dating my Catholic husband in the beginning). I always swore my kids would go to school and they would not be homeschooled. Besides, I did not have the patience to homeschool. And really, when I met Jon, I did not even want kids. He was homeschooled and swore our kids would be. I figured "We'll cross that bridge when we get there." That all changed, and by the time I had my second child before our 2nd anniversary, I was Catholic, wanting lots of kids, and planning on homeschooling. God has a way of slowly changing my heart and mind. What changed my mind? I really began to understand the fact that it was my JOB to teach and train my children, to make sure they knew the faith and understood it. I knew that there was no way a public school would do this. I also knew that Catholic schools were expensive, and my experience with Catholic schools is that even those schools aren't best with behavior, etc. I also knew that in a way, it was my job to protect my children, and if that meant sheltering them to a degree, I was fine with it.

Now hear me out when I say sheltering my children. I don't feel that I should keep them locked in my house with no outside experiences. I mean, I should shelter them from learning about sex at 7 years old from kids in their class who know what it is. I will teach my children what sex is when I feel it is age appropriate for each of my children (may be 12 for one, 15 for another! We'll cross that bridge down the road ;-)) I should shelter them from bullying in schools, from bad behavior of children who are not raised the way we raise our children, from hearing things that contradict our faith at such a young, formative age. I should shelter them from hearing things from others that I think they should be learning and hearing from me first. For example, many parents have currently been talking about the CT shootings and how they will tell their children, because they want to be able to talk to their children about it, as a parent, guiding them, teaching them, etc. through this situation. That's how I feel about all situations.

Aside from this, we move with the military usually after schools have begun. And it's a better time than it is during the summer when everyone else is moving. Homeschooling allows this. It also allows for my parents to visit for 3 weeks in Nov., or for us to go home in March, without worrying about school. Either I can take school with us, or we school through the summer. Either way, we're more flexible and don't feel so trapped by the school system.

Will you ever send your kids to a public or Catholic school?
This is not up to me. I pray that this is not the case. But, if situations arise that caused us to need to evaluate it, we'd pray about it long and hard, and pray God would guide us in the right direction. For example, a woman we know who did a fabulous job homeschooling her children, ended up having to put some in school because one of their children got very sick and needs lots of treatments. Those are the type of situations that surely we can't control, and we'd do what was best for our family.

With that said, I think it's important for me to point out that I think no less of anyone who does not homeschool. I strongly feel homeschooling is a calling, and just like He doesn't call everyone to be a doctor, He doesn't call everyone to homeschool. I also realize that like above, there are sometimes issues that require you to put a child in school. And, the trick is, I also think He calls some people, but they try to ignore or fight the call ;-) But anyway, I know each and every family is different and is making the best choices for their children they can.

What websites do you recommend? 
Well, I don't know haha! I knew of a Catholic homeschooling forum, so I began there. They told me about a few Catholic curriculum to look in to. There is CHC, Mother of Divine Grace (was my 2nd choice), Kolbe Academy, Seton, and many more. These four were the ones I researched the most. I love CHC but I'm unsure if I'll use it forever, as it's unaccredited. At this point in our lives, it's ok because our kids are still so young. We'll reevaluate it as they get older and closer to middle and high school. But my first point would be do research. There are books and websites you can find. Type in what you're looking for "Catholic Homeschooling, Baptist Homeschooling, Preschool homeschooling, Homeschooling 2 children at once." There is a wealth of information. Look on Amazon and type in "Homeschooling" and see what comes up. Because I've ordered so many Catholic books, it tends to give me Catholic homeschooling books first ;-) Unfortunately, I can't give much recommendations for curriculum that are not Catholic, but I know there are thousands of wonderful resources out there. If you are catholic, CathSwap is a great place to buy used books from.

One website I do love is education.com  They have tons of printable worksheets. My kids were really not coloring in the lines, so I started to print some color-by-number worksheets from there to have them work on. I do not like it though at the same time, because it's very politically correct. All their Christmas stuff is snowflakes and stockings, nothing Jesus related.

I've used starfall.com for Zach to play on, and heard good things about cookie.com but haven't used it much.

How does your day run?
HA! This one is funny. This year began with me not sure if I'd do K for Zach or PreK. Technically he would not start K if he was in our local school because he missed the cut off by less than a month. So, I got involved in things like I'm use to- MOPS, Bible Study, etc. This has been a huge struggle in getting our schooling done. I'm pretty sure I won't be involved in as much next year. But on a good day, we begin our day with prayer- VERY important. Then we do our music class song "Good day", the theme of the month, the Pledge of Allegiance, our Bible verse and prayer we're working on memorizing. Then we do a few more songs from our music lesson plan, then religion. I use to have religion at the end, but realized that if I have to cut the day short, religion is most important. Then we do another song or two, and do our reading/writing and math work. Then we end with the "God Bless" song we use in our program, and end with a prayer. If we have gotten through our work quickly, we'll read a bit before lunch. Usually we end just in time for lunch, and sometimes I am making lunch while they are doing their math and reading work. In fact, while they are actually working on a subject, if I am not having to hang over them to make sure it's done right, then I'll get the kitchen cleaned, dinner going, etc. The afternoon, both of my girls usually still need naps, so our afternoons are 'quiet time'. Sometimes I'll do some extra work with Zachary, or some specific reading with him, or i'll give him some kind of busy work he likes while I do other house cleaning. Then we try to read together in the evening, or I ask my husband to. This gives him a chance to work on homeschooling some with them and me a chance to clean up from dinner or get other things done around the house.

"I don't have the patience to homeschool. I don't know how you do it."
It's not about me. It's about my kids, and ensuring they get what God has called me to give them. I don't have great patience, but as my husband often points out, we can't grow in patience if we don't have things to put our patience to the test. I think my patience has grown a bit. I still struggle with it, but I'm learning many ways to help my children better listen and understand, and other days, I just have to walk away and pray a Hail Mary, or say "Lord have mercy" before I actually respond to them.

These are the things I usually get asked and can think to share at this moment. Do you have any other questions you may wonder about homeschooling? It's an overwhelming thing to consider, but there are tons of sources out there now. Just begin to research and see what there is! :) Good luck if you are considering it!!

Bastogne, Belgium

Have you seen the HBO series, Band of Brothers? If not, watching that is a must, no matter where you live. It is a ten-series show about Easy Company, the 101st Airborne Division in World War II and their journey throughout the war. One of the episodes specifically shows Bastogne, Belgium and the Battle of the Bulge.

I thought Bastogne would be an incredible place to take my parents while they were visiting. My whole family really enjoys WWII history. We spent the first few nights of their visit watching all ten episodes, then set out for Belgium yesterday morning. We packed a picnic lunch, jackets, gloves, scarves, potty chair, etc. and headed out on the two hour drive. We knew there was a 70% chance of rain, but felt we needed to just get up and go. It poured rain almost the entire drive. Approximately 10 minutes prior to arriving in Bastogne, it stopped raining.

Our plan was to visit the Mardasson Memorial and attached museum, then head to Luxembourg to go to the American Military Cemetery in Luxembourg City.  While driving in to the Bastogne, we spotted a local cemetery. I knew that it was unlikely to be Americans buried there, but it was very neat-looking and I encouraged my husband to use the roundabout and go back, since it was not raining at the moment. He amazingly obliged me.

We got out of the van, bundled up, and walked across the street to look. We didn't stay long, as it was so windy, but it was beautiful. Several people buried in one small area, flowers on almost all the graves, crucifixes and crosses, pictures, and much more.

As we were leaving the cemetery, my mother saw this sign across the street and wanted to walk over and look at it better. 

The Bastogne barracks is where the 101st Airborne's headquarters was. While reading the sign a bit, we discovered that they give tours of  these Barracks for free. But we didn't know if you had to have an appointment, if they were in English, or what. So we walked through the gate to to see if there was further information. My father (bravely) walked in and tried to ask (The main language in Belgium is French, which none of us speak a lick of). The man inside didn't really speak English, but did tell dad the next tour was in 10 minutes and pointed us to the waiting room! We had no clue if there would be English or not, but figured just getting to see the barracks would be fun, so we decided to wait it out. (At this point I took our newly potty training daughter and older daughter back to the car to use our new €3 Ikea potty chair before beginning the tour. Very helpful for little bums in the car while traveling!!!)

As the tour began, the man said "Who speaks English?" and asked who spoke French in French. Those were the only languages he spoke, and he spoke English beautifully! He informed us the tour would last approximately 2 hours. The whole tour, he'd speak a bit of English, then a bit of French, explaining everything in both languages. He took us all over the barracks, giving a great history lesson the entire time. This is where the famous quote from General Anthony McAuliffe was made when told by the Germans to surrender or be killed. 

His reply? It made him famous...

Apparently when the Americans returned this letter to the Germans, the translation was misunderstood and the German asked "Is the response positive or negative?" The American said "The answer is in the letter." The German said "Yes, yes, I know this, but... is it a positive answer or negative answer. We don't understand what he means." American said "It is definitely a negative answer." (Not exact quotes, a rough translation of what the tour guide told us.)

The tour also included many military vehicles and a museum of artifacts that were all original to the 2nd World War, including a container of blood for transfusions, cigarettes, gas masks, machine guns, and so much more. We were unsure if the children would last. Part of the tour was outside, so we let them be just a bit away from us and run around however they wanted. When we went inside the buildings, we explained everything we saw to them and they behaved fabulously. They LOVED the vehicle restoration center. 

The barracks were originally Belgium. They were at war with Germany for 17 days, then the Germans took over the barracks. The Belgiums were forced to help the Germans and train them here. Then Americans  drove the Germans out and the Americans used it as their barracks while in Bastogne. Bastogne was the halfway point from Normandy and Luxembourg. The Germans had attacked all 3 at the same time and wanted to get Bastogne to use it when going back and forth between Normandy and Luxembourg. This is the only place where there is any evidence that the Germans were there.  You can see the white with black on this wall.

After the tour, we went ahead and went to the Mardasson Memorial. This was incredible, to see how much the Belgium people appreciated the Americans and that we would always be allies. It was amazing to see the American flag flying in Belgium. The Memorial is in the shape of a star, with all the states listed at the top. On the sides are all the units that fought in the Battle of the Bulge. On the inside of the circle is the story telling about Bastogne and the Americans. Unfortunately, the museum was closed for reconstruction. I was so glad we had found the Barracks, otherwise I would have been slightly bummed to have driven two hours just to see the memorial. The museum is suppose to reopen in May or June, 2013. 

The Memorial

 Our family

 My mom and my daughter

 Our flag

 Me with the 101st Airborne Division sign

We ended up postponing our Luxembourg trip, and headed back toward our home around 5:30. On our way back, we stopped at one of our favorite local restaurants, Hotel Anna's, and ate dinner. It was a fabulous day and very moving. We couldn't help thinking how chilly we were and we were dressed warmly, while the soldiers were fighting in the snow with no warm gear. It really made me think of them and thank God for the sacrifice they gave for Americans, and people in other countries as well! I pray they are resting in peace. I strongly recommend this trip to others. 

Information from the Bastogne Barracks Facebook page:  Bastogne Barracks - district Hi Heintz - Street rock 40-6600 Bastogne Free Admission Days and hours: daily except Mondays Guided tours only, starting visits: 09.00 Hr, Hr 10.00, 13.00 and 14.00 Hr Hr For groups of more 20 persons, appointment bookings 32 (0) 61 24 21 24 bb.mra @ skynet.be http://www.klm-mra.be/

I would recommend calling to make sure they are doing tours and finding out if there is an English one before going. 

Information for Mardasson Memorial: Maison du Tourisme du Pays de Bastogne, Place McAuliffe, 6600 Bastogne - tel: 061/21 17 11 - fax: 061/21 2725. No guided tours.

Living the Catholic Faith

I may have done a post similar to this in the past, but I feel a need to do it again.

As many of my readers know, I grew up in a very large Southern Baptist Church. Attended this church my whole life. A Church that to this day, I still love dearly and have many friends who continue to attend there.

When I began to date Jonathan, I began to lose some of my friends. I know there were many issues that played in to this. I wasn't at the church every time the doors were open, because Jon lived 4 hours away, so many weekends, I wasn't in town. However, there was still the opportunity to email me, talk to me in other ways, as my closest friends, even to this day, still do. Many events transpired to make me feel like I should not be attending the church anymore. My faith was also shaken and there were some things I just really struggled with.

Jonathan was a Catholic. Honestly, I faced a lot of issues from my friends because he was a Catholic. Many comments about how we were unequally yoked. I ended up losing many friends over our relationship. However, many of the things I was struggling with, he could answer.

I began on my own journey, studying about Catholicism, hoping to find fault in it as I had always been taught growing up. But as I began to study it, I learned that the things I had been taught, weren't exactly what Catholics believed. This isn't a post to talk about why I converted though...

For a long time, even after converting, I was afraid to change my Facebook status from Christian to Catholic. I thought "Why should I. I'm still a Christian." Truth was, I didn't want to have to explain myself to any of my friends from my old church. I KNEW I belonged in the Catholic Church, but yet, still felt some... shame? I hate to say that word, but it's the only word I can think of. I had studied everything and in 2 years time, decided to join the Roman Catholic Church (RCC). Yet, in 2 yrs time, I hadn't learned how to defend many of my new beliefs.

After a while, as I began to grow in my faith, I quietly changed my status. Then for a while, that was it. I didn't post anything possibly Catholic sounding. But then I began to grow more. I began to want to share stuff. My group of FB friends that were Catholic also began to grow, and I wanted to share with them the exciting things I was finding and learning. Slowly, I began to post Catholic links, comments, and more. I think now, all my friends probably know that I am Catholic.

Growing up, the Catholics I knew were 'cafeteria Catholics'. I hate that term, but we all know some of them. They picked and choose what they wanted to believe about Catholicism. But that's not Catholicism. When you're Catholic, you can't pick and choose. Don't get me wrong, sometimes people are struggling with a certain aspect of the faith. Maybe they're struggling with Mary, or confession. But if they are, the wise thing for them to be doing is studying more about it, praying about it, and seeking Christ and why the Church teaches what they do. Usually, they will see and understand it better eventually. But to say "Oh no, I think the  Church is wrong about XYZ (Abortion, gay marriage, contraception)" without studying WHY the Church says what she believes, is wrong.

But recently, something has occurred to me. If the majority of the Catholics I knew growing up were not devout in their faith, or never expressed to me why they believed what they believed, what does that say? That says it is time for me to be THAT Catholic, the one among my non-Catholic friends who DOES talk about my faith, let's it be known that while I am Catholic, I truly love the Lord, serve Him, and know I am getting the most out of my faith possible. THAT Catholic that can explain (to the best of my horrible debating abilities) why we believe what we do. I need to be an example to the friends from my youth, of what a Catholic is suppose to look like. A sinner, seeking after Christ, doing my absolute best to live a Holy life, using all the wonderful things my faith has available to help me live a Holy life, and receiving Him in the Eucharist each week, not because it's a Holy Day of Obligation but because- it's Christ!! I should WANT to be there to receive Him each week.

I have been a Catholic now for 4.5 years, and could not be happier in my faith.

Knights of Columbus

When my husband was in high school, he attended a Catholic boys school. While there, he joined the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men's organization. He became a 1st Degree Knight, but never went further with it.

When we got married and moved to Colorado, I heard the Knights of Columbus mentioned several times. I kept trying to convince him to get involved, but he would have been the youngest by far and was not interested at all. I just kept praying that eventually he would, as I knew he would make some Godly friends and grow in his faith if involved. 

Forward 5 years when we got stationed here in Germany. I made several female friends, and they asked me if my husband was a Knight, as their husbands all were or were in the process of becoming one. I began praying again and trying to convince him. After meeting some of the men, he decided to get re-involved and became a 2nd and 3rd Degree Knight. 

Twice a month, he would go to their meetings and socials. I all of a sudden began to see a new man form in my husband, one that was truly seeking God, wanting to know how to become a more Godly man, husband, and father. I knew that having this time with other Godly men was having a serious impact on him. Usually at the meetings, one of our local priests was also there, and he began to get to know them better. 

During this time, I was also getting to know more Catholic women better, and my Catholic faith was really growing. Slowly, I noticed my husband suggesting we go to Confession more, and for Lent, as a family, we made the commitment to start attending daily mass once a week. This has even continued for the most part since Lent. 

In May, the KOC decided they wanted to have a 4th Degree Exemplification. This had not been not in Europe yet, and would be a big undertaking. This past Saturday, October 13, was the first 4th Degree Exemplification. When they began to plan this, they expected to have about 40-60 men participate. Instead, this past Saturday, they had one hundred and twenty-one men make their 4th Degree Exemplification!!! Here is a picture of all of the men. (This picture was taken by the KOC, but I cropped it)

It was an amazing day. The men had the Exemplification in the afternoon, then we met them for a special mass with Bishop Spencer, Episcopal Vicar for Europe and Asia. He was an incredible speaker. (And on a side, he is one of the guest speakers at a Catholic women's conference I'm about to go to, and it makes me super excited to get to hear him!) Following this was a formal dinner at the Officer's Club. The food was great, the company fabulous, the speakers entertaining and enlightening.

Through one of the speakers, we learned this was the 3rd overseas military 3rd Degree Knights of Columbus order (in fact, we have a local German priest that sometimes says mass on base, and he became a 4th degree as well!) It is the 3rd in 6 months, but by far the largest! Men came from all over this country, and even from England and Naples! There were also 5 sets of fathers and sons doing it together, one of which we knew.

It was so exciting to see 121 men stand up, all dressed in their uniforms or tuxes, in the front rows of the church, and know that these are our leaders, the men in our homes setting Godly Christian examples, for their community, wives, and most importantly, their children. I am so proud of my husband, and the other men in our lives living here, and so thankful for each and everyone of them, and what they mean to our family.

Please pray for these men, as they continue to be leaders, following Christ and setting an example to others. Also, please pray for their wives, as we are all about to leave for a European-wide Military Council of Catholic Women conference. We know God has a lot planned for each of us, but prayers are welcome.

Struggles of Diabetes

I don't talk much about my life with diabetes. It's not that I dislike talking about it. After having it for 27 years, there's usually not much to talk about. It's just "normal". However, today I had an incident that I thought I would share. I will start by saying it was very, very scary and has made us decide we need to make a plan, and educate our 5 year old son more.

Ever since moving here, the thought has crossed my mind "What would happen if something happened to me?" I had it all planned, I'd tell Zach to call the number on the board for daddy's job, and go get one of our 5 neighbors. Today, we put that in to practice, but it did not go like I had planned.

I woke up sick, spending the whole morning in the bathroom and bed. Around 11am, I was feeling mostly better and had a bowl of cereal. Around 1pm, I started feeling so nauseas. I took an anti-nausea pill, and threw up the cereal I'd eaten 2 minutes later. I knew that I had insulin in me for that cereal, and without it, I was going to crash. But at the same time, I knew that if I tried to eat or drink anything, it'd likely come back up. And I was sooo tired and exhausted. So I drank some juice, turned my insulin pump off (to get no insulin) and laid down for a nap. After a bit, I woke back up knowing my blood sugar was very low.

I yelled to Zach to bring me some juice. I have something called a glucagon pen. It's a prescription shot that is suppose to get your blood sugar up SUPER fast. Growing up, mom said they didn't help, but I have used 1 or 2 since having kids, when sick and pregnant, and they help. I had one, but it was expired a year ago (I know! Bad me, but with the struggles I've had getting good diabetes care here, it wasn't a top priority unfortunately.) So I called my mom to see if it was ok to use it, while checking my blood sugar. It was 39! (Normal is 80-120 usually) My mom told me to get my neighbor up here and husband home.

Thirty-nine is the type of low that I would send Jon to get me juice for. Yet, I had to do it. I sent Zach to get a neighbor, mainly because if I went in to a seizure, I needed someone to be able to call emergency, or to help get me stuff, etc. NONE of my five neighbors were home! I called Jon multiple times (Later found out it was 8 times!) and he wasn't at his desk. I was hoping calling that many times, the person at the desk would pick up, but the officers didn't. I was able to give the glucagon shot. A very short time later, I was trying to check my blood sugar again. I couldn't see. My hands were shaking, everything was blurry, and I was praying. I was seriously probably just a few seconds from going in to a seizure and felt like I was going to black out. I was about to call emergency myself, not knowing what would happen to my kids, how they'd notify Jon, etc. when the glucagon shot kicked in and started working. Jon called me about 30 min later and came home.

Thankfully, I'm doing fine tonight. But I don't think I've ever been so scared. I informed Jon that I need a way to be able to reach him if he's not at his desk, to get someone in the building to track him down. We're going to be teaching Zach more about my diabetes and what to do if mommy is having a serious issue, like today. Tonight, we're just thanking the Lord that I am okay, and praying nothing like this happens again any time soon.