I love my family!!!  Sometimes, when the years seem to melt away into a dream, I can remember being a girl Aubrey’s age as if it were moments ago.  As a young girl, I would dream of my prince; he would swoop me off my feet and take me to his castle.  We would have horses and wide open spaces.  There would be a creek and God’s magnificent wild creatures.    We would have wonderful children running around the castle property, laughing and playing carefree.    Soon I am brought back to the present and I think of my family — my real family– Patrick (he is even more handsome than Prince Philip from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty,  my real prince being more wonderful than any fairytale),  Aubrey (my most often dreamt dream come to life),  Joshua (the little boy I always hoped for, that would love to catch critters and dream of adventures with me),  Max (he is fearless, confident, passionate, driven, and with a great sense of humor; all the qualities I have tried to foster in myself, which he has naturally) and our 5 sweet little souls who went before us to be with the Lord -Nicholas, Elizabeth, John, Mary and Joseph (although I had imagined holding all my children, singing to them and breathing in their sweet scent, I am so grateful the Lord chose me to be the mother to these most precious souls, created by God to Glorify Him forever).  I am in awe at the wonderful gift of my life.  The Lord has blessed me so abundantly with more than I had even dared to dream of as a child.  Even my smaller dreams–  the romantic castle built in 1930, beautiful land, fun pool, wildlife (check out the deer in this picture), a cat, dogs, misc. indoor tank critters, and even the goats and horse.  We even have great neighbors…fences might make good neighbors but bridges make them even better…   The only possible wish I can even think of is that we could become independently wealthy enough (we are not extravigant types) so Pat can also be home with me full time to enjoy our incredible life together. 

 As I prepare to go to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Homeschool and Parent Conference, I am keenly aware of my responsibility to treasure and care for my family.  I pray that the Lord will bless me with the wisdom to teach my children in a way that is pleasing to Him, useful to their souls, and a value to them as they discern and carry out their vocations from God.  I ask for the Grace to be the wife my husband deserves, the wife I am called to be.  I also pray to be a good steward of the treasure entrusted to me and open to learning the things that will best help me to accomplish the tasks set before me by the Lord.

I am looking forward to this convention not only because of all the incredible speakers, and they are incredible, not just because I will be going with Kirsten, but also because I will be officially buying the curriculum for both Aubrey and Joshua.  I have decided that this coming school year will be slightly different from previous years.  In the past, I have relied on myself to organize and arrange my children’s curriculum.  Some years were very good, others were more of a struggle.  This past year was a rather good year, however, I need to unload some of the pressure.  I have over the years become familiar with several “boxed” curriculum.  As I prefer a “Catholic Charlotte Mason” approach to teaching, I was looking for a prepackaged curriculum that would still allow the flexibility my teaching style requires.  I am very excited with my decision to use Catholic Heritage Curriculum aka CHC.  I have used many of their products over the years and have always been moved by their gentle faithful beauty.  As our faith is first on my list of what to look for in any educational curriculum, CHC is a perfect match.  Second, I feel that CHC’s science program best fits my love of the hands on with the organized structure I need help with.  History was the reason I did not start this program sooner.  I am a huge RC History fan.  I love this program; it brings history back to life.  This year I have decided to go ahead and purchase both the CHC program and the next volume of RC History.  Although I will use the CHC book as my primary text for scheduling, we will use RCH as a supplement incorporating it into my lessons for both Aubrey and Joshua.  The only subject I am completely not using from the CHC “box” is math.  We use Math-U-See; I love it and my children are doing very well with it.  I am so excited I can’t wait for our new year to start.

Please pray for me; Kirsten and I are flying and I hate to fly.