Retreat!

Retreat season is approaching. I loved silent retreats in college but let them pass by for the first four years of motherhood. It's so hard to slip away for a weekend or long weekend alone with Our Lord. If mothers could leave behind the household and the kids that easily, we'd all be a lot more refreshed, accomplished in our hobbies, and well-traveled. It takes enormous preparation, sacrifice by the whole family, and a giant leap of faith to commit to a retreat.

I finally went last spring. Quite simply, it rekindled the flame of my love for Christ, like a honeymoon. It wasn't a "mountaintop" emotional experience; it wasn't even particularly emotional. It was short few days to focus soberly and gratefully and joyfully on our Love and His plan for my life. Lavish (even for an extrovert), to devote three days to complete silence, solitude with myself and God, punctuated by guided meditations, spiritual reading, reception of the Sacraments, prayer, walking and thinking and listening in God's creation. My retreat was conducted by Opus Dei at Murray Hill Conference Center in Manhattan. Non-city retreats are at least as great.

And AH YES, it was so physically refreshing to have three days off from taking care of children and the household, to eat great meals that I didn't cook, and to sleep through the night.


So, this is a quick plug and encouragement to begin looking at the December-May calendar and focusing in on some retreat dates. Brainstorm ways that family members and friends could be called upon to help your loving family survive the weekend without you. Lent can be a great time to go. Or is there a time to go after weaning the current baby before the next one arrives? Or bring baby along? Set aside some money, tithe or otherwise. Pray through the details. Again, I say this humbly, after missing retreats for several years and then finally returning to rediscover what a gift they are.

Some Perspective....

I met a stay-at-home dad today at the park. He's staying home while his wife helps her brother start his dental practice. As we chatted he revealed that he was formerly a prison guard and that his prison job was WAAAAY easier than staying at home with a 1 and 4 year old1!

A Clove a Day...

It's that time of year for sniffles and bugs and other not so fun things. We are blessed with good immune systems and seem to miss many of the bugs going around, but I like to sneak in as much extra help as possible.

Sometime in October I start quadrupling the amount of garlic in everything from soup to mashed potatoes to just roasting heads and spreading it on fresh bread. We all like garlic and no one seems to notice, but then again, we are all eating the garlic.

Do you all have any immune boosting tips for us other than healthy eating, lots of water and good sleep?

Also, any natural cold/flu remedies you'd like to share?

Fun Activity with Marshmallows!

We've had our Kindergarten kid home from school for the past couple of days, dealing with fever and cold-like symptoms, so I've been trying to come up with fun activities for him to do while our little one is napping. This activity with marshmallows and toothpicks is simple, educational, fun, and EDIBLE (well, at least the marshmallow part).

Supplies: About 20 marshmallows and a handful of toothpicks

Procedure: Have your child build a square base with 4 toothpicks and 4 marshmallows, and then let them build upwards and/or outwards from there

Objective: To learn about 3-D structures, be creative, and use trial and error to see which structures hold firm and which bend and break easily.

Enjoy!

Swine-Ville

Like many of you, my husband and I debated as to whether or not to get the kids vaccinated this season against H1N1. With our children in preschool, we were more inclined to arm ourselves against the hyped virus, but unsure whether or not it was necessary due to other procedures we could take to stay healthy.

When the schools and local pediatricians became inundated with hundreds of new cases, we became concerned (along with every other parent in the town) and sought the quickest, easiest solution to prevent experiencing this illness.

Our pediatrician initially received the H1N1 nasal mist and you'd better believe I was first in line with my boys. We had enjoyed a relatively healthy fall and I wasn't about to jeopardize it (heavy irony here).

Day 1: Boys are willing patients. Docs immunize older two with H1N1 nasal vaccine and seasonal flu shot. The baby gets the seasonal flu shot. Later that evening M (oldest, 4.5) complains of being tired and has spiked a fever of 102.5. We assuage with Ibuprofen and send him to bed.

Day 2: M continues with fever of 103+. Other boys remain cheery and happy.

Day 3: Continuation of high fever with signs of Ibuprofen having a longer effect.

Day 4: M's fever abates, respiratory symptoms begin. Later that evening, T complains of fatigue and begins running a fever, lower-grade. Middle of the night, baby awakens with fever of 101.

Day 5: Younger boys run lower-grade fevers and begin respiratory symptoms. M continues with respiratory symptoms--cough and congestion. Baby is tested for swine flu--Negative. (Apparently 20% of cases are false negatives. I believe ours was.)

Day 6: Mom begins to run low-grade fever, feels tired. T (3) begins to feel better as fever abates. Baby maintains 101 fever. M hampered by cough.

Day 7: Mom runs very slight fever (99.3) and begins to see respiratory symptoms. Older boys are better but with coughs. Baby still with low-grade fever and chest congestion.

Day 8: Everyone's fevers are gone!!! We make a trip to the HomeGoods store and come back, completely wiped out. We are all coughing and congested, but ok.

Day 9: Mom visits the doc to check on a recurring ear infection, randomly decides to be tested for swine flu. POSITIVE for swine flu; contagious until Friday. The doc thinks I picked it up from the kids' vaccination response. Praise God it is subsequently a very, very mild form of the virus.

All of our attempts to stay healthy, get vaccinated, etc., etc. has cost us this. If I had it to do all over again, I can't tell you I would do this again. One thing is for sure, I will never vaccinate my children with a live flu mist again. We had a bad reaction last year to the seasonal flu mist and now we're once again dealing with the aftermath of the H1N1 live mist. I do not claim to be a knowledgeable medical source on the subject, but thought our readers would benefit from knowing our situation. God bless!

November Book Baskets -- Thanksgiving and Saints, and my brainstorming for the months ahead

I just went to the basement to switch out the September (Apple) and October (Pumpkin) books and bring up our November (Thanksgiving) books to fill our fireside book basket. As I was going through the books, I also uploaded our Thanksgiving choices to the Amazon page. I hope you will find some new favorites for your family this month, and please let us know if you have any to recommend.

One favorite is this woodcut illustration of Over the River and Through the Woods. My children love to hear this poem and look through this book over and over, and I love the reunion with grandma at the end. We have a board book version.

I failed to mention in our seasonal baskets that we were also following the liturgical season by studying the Rosary in October. We ended the month with a visit to a beautiful grotto to our Lady on October 31 for a family rosary. John face lit up when he saw the statue of a girl kneeling below the Blessed Mother. "Mom" he said "it's Bernadette!" Don't think he's too much of a saint, he did spend most of the Rosary time playing with an umbrella, but I was still touched to know that he has taken in this story. This is an example of how good media can really help a parent, my kids learn about the saints through the CCC cartoon videos and Glory Story recordings, both of which are available from Catholic Company. In the car this month, we have tried to mix praying the rosary into our usual lineup of Laurie Berkner and Sandra Boynton, though I don't have a recording that I really love. For more Rosary resources, you can visit the terrific new website, ROSARY.COM. I did not do a Rosary craft this year, and I wish that I had, perhaps I will wait until May, or perhaps I will sneak it in this month. We will continue to pray the Rosary together on Wednesdays as part of our school day.

For November, we will be focusing on stories of the Saints, and I will read from the Saint book basket on Wednesdays at lunch, after our Rosary. We will also feature the Glory Stories in the car. It will take me some time to pull together my saints book basket; these books are spread around the house because they are used at other times of the year for spiritual reading, feast day celebrations, etc, so they can't just stay in the November file in the basement for 11 months. I will start a list on amazon, but it will probably be under construction over the course of this week.

The kids really respond well to theme, reinforced in various areas of the curriculum. This is especially important for the earliest learners. I think we will keep this as part of our art lessons. They loved the pumpkin paper mosaics, and now that they are learning the technique, they can practice it on the next monthly theme -- stained glass saints, or mosaic turkeys? We also wound up doing a lot of Jack O Lantern coloring pages while they were all whining taking turns while carving our pumpkin. From now on, I am going to prepare a file of busy work dittos like word searches and coloring, writing prompts, drawing prompts, etc, tied to the monthly them. This will also help me to reduce interruptions when I am working with another student, they will have something simple to grab and do in a few minutes until I can come and check the spelling page, etc.

Lastly, on the seasonal school work front, we had some cute fall Montessori works -- three part cards on the life cycle of a pumpkin and apple as well as a leaf matching memory game. I liked the way these works, our craft projects, our books and our frequent visits to the orchard fit together. I would like to do the same with the catechesis part of our seasonal work. In the Atrium in New York, we had a card work for the mysteries of the Rosary which was appropriate for children who could read, and we also had scenes (like nativity figures) for all of the joyful mysteries, where the child set the scene and the catechist read the bible verses. Working with the nativity is so popular in our house, I am sure that these works would also be wonderful additions, though they are more involved than adding paper works! Perhaps I will think of adding one each May, the same way that I have built the secular seasonal baskets.

How about a "work" for the Saints -- I could easily make memory cards, and I am going to keep working on some other ideas, stay tuned...

Looking forward, in December we will feature Nativity books and works as well as some traditional Christmas tales. In January and February, we usually read lots of folk and fairy tales (so cozy), and the catechism basket and works will feature the Sacrament of Reconciliation. From there, we will move on to study the Mass as Holly prepares for First Holy Communion.

Wow, I think I just re-planned the rest of my semester, if you have made it this far into my rambling, thanks for listening, you have spared my husband, because I do most of my thinking out loud!

Happy Feast of All Saints

Praying that someday this may be our Feast Day!