Been Slackin!!

I'm sure I don't need to explain all that goes on when you are selling a house (SOLD!), preparing for a move from the top of the country to the bottom, trying to transfer, change, cancel things, get some school work done (ha ha ha!) and are pregnant with twins....I'm sure I don't, do I?

One high light I will share is that I had the privilege of meeting Father Frank Pavone at a Pro-Life Mass and dinner. (Thanks to my Amiga Sue for being my date!) He is an amazing speaker, and if the name just sounds a bit familiar, he is the founder of Priests for Life. I was also given the Mother/Children blessing by him, quite the honor!

My latest bout of research has been on children's literature, and the same question seems to be going around my groups of friends who all have budding readers: what is safe for them to read? I have been reading Michael D. O'Brien's A Landscape with Dragons, which written around 1992, still gives extremely relevant explanations on what literature is fruitful for the child's mind and what can be morally confusing based on the depiction of good vs. evil. I highly recommend it. Here is an article about more recent children's literature and it's impact.

Some other Catholic sites that have reading lists and book reviews are from Love 2 Learn, Catholic Fiction.net and Catholic Mom. My other methods of finding good children's literature is when I collect my homeschool catalogs (I always check out Seton, Kolbe, Our Lady of Victory, Mother of Divine Grace, Emmanuel, Rod and Staff (Mennonite-but has some basic wholesome kids books about faith, note: to get a real catalog from the actual publisher (not a store) you have to call them and request it: 1-606-522-4348) and Sonlight (non-defined Christian, but still has some good books) and I'm sure there are some I've left out...) and I take my time to go through their reading section grade by grade. I love to hold the paper catalogs, to dog ear, to circle, to compare prices (for example a lot of repeats are in Seton from Rod & Staff, but are much cheaper through R & S, also whatever you find from the publisher go online and then check out Adoremus Books, it is usually cheaper and less shipping). FYI: Some of these sites have a place to click and just put in your info to request a catalog, others, like Kolbe, you have to send them an email and request one.

Now for some FUN STUFF!! LEGO Education of North America is having a creativity contest! Go HERE to order your FREE LEGO kit and get your kiddos building!

Also, check out my updated You Tube section with your kids! I found some super fun stuff mine love to watch! I added Philomena Girl to the kids section, let's see if it's worth the stay; Hug a Hero Daddy Dolls to the Military Support Section; and I also added some new places to shop that I found on another search. Enjoy!

Extra kudos to Sue & Michaela for the resources and friendship! If you find any of my hyper links don't work, please leave me a comment, I worked on this while my girls were hopping around me having a "balloon party". :)

Missed you too! Will be doing better at keeping up!
Mrs. Murphy