Happy New Year.

May God bless you all abundantly in 2008. I look forward to reading all your blogs and writing here.

Any New Years resolutions out there?

God bless

Therese

A Mothers Rule and Fly Lady.

Last week I got in the post a book called Sink Reflections by Fly Lady. The lovely Adrienne from Adrienne's Catholic Corner sent it too me for a gift.

I have been reading it and I love it. I did belong to Fly Ladies yahoo group for a short time but just couldn't get my head around the emails. There were so many and they didn't really have a plan laid out like the book does. I remember her telling me to shine my sink and put my shoes on. She also asked me where my washing was and a few other things. I stopped the emails because I just couldn't get my act together with them.

About three years ago now I read Holly Pierlot's A mothers Rule of LIfe. It was just what I needed. I worked out a routine. The first year was hard. I didn't really stick to it much at all. The second year it was better but I still had many disorganised days. This year has been the best of all. I have established some good routines and our house has been much more peaceful.

When Tom got him pump and started homeschool I started to fall behind. I just couldn't work out how to get all the extra things for Christmas done, homeschool Tom adequately and maintain our house.

I wrote about it on here and Adrienne came to my rescue. She sent me the book and it was just what I needed.

A Mothers rule helped me establish rountines but I think that Fly lady will help me with getting everything done. When I look at my routine and what I do I mostly do 90% of it and leave a little bit. This makes a difference in the long run. Fly lady has helped me see why I hate washing clothes and why I hate cleaning the bathroom. I think that these jobs are the ones that I only do the bare minimum and they never look really good and finished.

Fly lady talks about people that are born organised. In our house, Steve, Daniel and Brigette are our born organised people. The rest of us are SHE'S. (sidetrack household executives). After reading both Holly's book and Fly Ladies book I am starting to think that we SHE'S just need to find the right person to explain to us how to be organised and suddenly it will click. Holly's book was the starting point for me and Fly lady finished of the process. I think that after reading both books, I should be able to have our house running much more smoothly and be able to get everything done.

ETA, over at Jennifer F's blog Et-tu she has a Great post on Daily living that will hopefully be the icing on the cake for me this year. God points us in the right direction every time we need it.

Our Family Litany.

John Michael at St. Robert Bellarmine: Controversies & Secrets posted about their family litany a while back. I wanted to put one together for our family and John asked me if I would blog about it. So here you go John, for your enjoyment:

Here is what we have:

Leader: Lord, have mercy on us.
response: Christ, have mercy on us.
Leader: Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, hear us.
Response Christ, graciously hear us.

Leader: God the Father of Heaven,
Response: have mercy on us.
Leader: God the Son, Redeemer of the world,
Response: have mercy on us.
Leader: God the Holy Spirit,
Response: have mercy on us.
Leader: Holy Trinity, one God,
Response: have mercy on us.

Leader: Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Response: have mercy on us
Leader: Imaculate Heart of Mary,
Response: Pray for us
Leader: Our Lady of Sorrows
Response: Pray for us.

Leader: St. Stephen the first martyr
Response: pray for us
Leader: St. Therese of the little flower,
Response: pray for us.
Leader: St. Thomas Moore,
Response: pray for us
Leader: St. Francis De Sales
Response: pray for us.
Leader: St. Mary Magdeline
Response: pray for us
Leader: St. Bridget of Sweden
Response: pray for us.
Leader: St Thomas and St. Peter the Apostles
Response: pray for us
Leader: St. Amelia
Response: pray for us
Leader: St. Christopher
Response: pray for us.

Leader: All you Holy Souls,
Response: pray for us.
Leader: All You Angels and Saints,
Response: pray for us.
Leader: Queen of Peace,
Response: pray for us who have recourse to you.
Everyone: Amen.

We have put in St. Thomas Moore for Daniel and St. Francis De Sales for Sam since they are the saints they took for Confirmation.
As far as I know there are no St. Daniel and Sam.

We have two winners.

This morning at 7.54 South Australian time, my 5000 visitor came to my blog.

There were two people that chose the 29th and they both chose in the evening. Lilder from Umm, where am I and Gopher mommy from A Mother's Love are our two winners.

Angels in the Water will be shipped to you this weekend.

Only 43 visitors to go.

My 5000th visitor is approaching fast. Go and make a guess now. I won't be accepting any more guesses once we have 4970 visitors.

good luck to everyone that has entered.

Therese

Happy Birthday Lisa.

Today is Lisa from Episcopollyanna Birthday.

Happy Birthday my dear friend and may you have many more.

May God bless you abundantly on this day and throughout the next year.

Here is a virtual cake for you (which is calorie free)

And a cuddly bear that cannot read yet but it really doesn't matter because he is so cuddly and tries really hard to hold the sign the right way.

I hope you have a great day.

God bless
Therese

I love this.

Catholic Carnival 152.

Ebeth at A Catholic Mum Climbing the Pillars is hosting the Catholic Carnival this week.

Here is the direct link to the Carnival.

Enjoy and thanks Ebeth for a great job.

I'm back.

We had a lovely Christmas and a couple of fun days away.

Before Christmas we all went down to Normanville for two nights. We wanted to take the children to Greenhills Adventure Park .

We had a great day there. It was good to spend some time together as a family. Now that both Daniel and Sam are working it is really hard to organise family time.

We all went on the big slides, in the canoes, moon bikes, maze, jumping bag and paddle boats. We took along a bbq lunch and cooked it. The only things I didn't do was the archery or water slides. It just wasn't warm enough for me to get wet.

Steve had lots of fun on the water slide with the children and helped Tom out with the archery.

Christmas day we went to Mass at Normanville and then drove into Adeliade. We got to Adelaide pretty early so took the children to a park before meeting my family at a different park for lunch.

After lunch with my family we went to Steve's sisters for Steve's families party. It was a fun night with lots of good company, food and drink.

We spent the night at my friend Di's house. Di and I watched Hairspray which I enjoyed.

It is good to be home. I hope your Christmas's were as fun as ours was.

Don't forget, my competition. I have two books to give away. If you can guess the date and time I will get my 5000 visitor, you win. You just have to be the closest. I only need just over 100 to get the 5000.

Go here to vote.

Merry Christmas.

H/T to Totus Tuus Family

This will be my last post until after Christmas. I hope everyone here has a very happy and holy Christmas.

Thank you all for your prayers and friendship over the year. You all are a great blessing to me.

May the Christ Child bless you all abundantly over the Christmas season and in 2008.

God bless
Therese

An update on Tom.

Tonight I changed Tom's pump site. We have been having high sugars for a couple of hours after the new site goes in. Tonight he stayed in the target range. Ketones have been nagative for a few days now so we look like we are back on track.

Thanks to everyone that prayed for Tom and I over the last few days.

God bless
Therese

My Christmas present came today.

I have wanted a benchtop mixer for ever. Today I went and bought one.

Over on the left is the model I got. It is a sunbeam cafe series model 8900. It comes with a 4.4 litre bowl and a 2.1 litre bowl. I have three different attachments for different kinds of beating. You can go here to read all about my mixers features.

So between now and Christmas day I will be in the kitchen whipping up all kinds of goodies. I have lots of different ones planned. The very first thing I am going to cook is Smoked Chicken and sundried Tomato cheesecake.

I also want to make a decadent triple chocolate cheesecake.

I am going to be pretty busy between now and Christmas so wont be posting as much over the next few days.

I hope everyone has a happy and holy Christmas.

Blogging blessing.

I want to thank Jean at Catholic Fire and Lisa at Episcopollyanna for passing on the blog blessing award to me.

I feel very honoured to be chosen twice. You have both made my day.

here is the blessing that Lisa passed onto me and here is the blessing Jean passed onto me.

You can go here to read about the blogging blessings that were started by Deb at Ukok.

The idea… it’s a game of tag with a difference, rather than looking inwardly, we look outside ourselves and bless, praise and pray for 3 blog friend. By participating in this endeavour we not only make the recipient of the blessing feel valued and appreciated, but we are having some fun too. We’re going to see how far the bloggin’ blessings can travel around the world and how many people can be blessed! Recipients of a bloggin’ blessing may upload the above image to their sidebar if they choose to. If you recieve a bloggin’ blessin’ please leave a comment on this thread here so that we can rejoice in just how many blessings have been sent around the world!

I want to bless the following bloggers:

1: Adrienne from Adrienne's Catholic Corner.

2: John from St. Robert Belarmine

3: Dana from Umm, where am I?

I bless Adrienne because God has used her several times to speak to me directly. The last post on prayer really spoke to me.

I bless John because he and his wife have been a great support for me with Tom. John put me in touch with his wife Regan who is also on an insulin pump and she has helped me with many of the problems that Tom has faced over the last couple of months. (So John, you have to share this blessing with Regan).

I bless Dana because she has been a really good friend for years at dcf forums. She has given me encouragement and lots of cyber hugs when life was tough and been a great friend.

A prayer for Adrienne, John and Lilder:

Lord I thank you for all you give to me. I especially thank you for the friendsip I receive from Adrienne, John and Dana. I pray your blessing on all of them everyday.

So, Adrienne, John and Dana, please pass on the blogger blessing to three other bloggers.

Funny.

Tonight I was looking through my sitemeter to see where people have come to my blog from.

If someone come via google it shows what they searched up.

You can go here to see what someone searched up and get a laugh.

Madeline begged me not to post it and embarass myself. I told her this wasn't embarassing for me.

Some very exciting news.

My friend Christine from More and More Dawson had her 7th child yesterday.

Christine was 12 days past her due date. The most exciting thing about this baby is it is the second son for them. They have 5 girls and now 2 boys.

Their daughter Caity kept everyone up to date with what was happening while Chris was in labour. She posted on their family blog and at the dcf message board in the ladies room. I was sound asleep while it was all happening but got up this morning to the great news.

Congratulations to Chris, Ken and all the family (especially Brian who must be thrilled to have a brother at long last).

What is your inner European?

Your Inner European is French!

Smart and sophisticated. You have the best of everything - at least, *you* think so.

Who's Your Inner European?

Yes. I do have the best of everything.

H/T to Lilder at Umm, where am I

Catholic Carnival 151.

Welcome one and all to my first host of the Catholic Carnival. I must say I am surprised at the amount of submissions I have had for this carnival. I didn't realize how much work goes into each one.

This weeks carnival is no exception to all the others. Plenty of good reading and lots of different great sites.

Firstly Sean McGaughey presents Things that Make Me Go Hmmm? posted at A Catholic Canadian. Go and see what Sean has to say about online community service and flesh and blood community service.

Next, Ian presents Large Families - Not Just for the Poor Anymore! posted at Musings from a Catholic Bookstore.


In keeping with the Advent season, Leticia Velasquez presents THE JESSE TREE posted at cause of our joy.

Also, Christine from Domestic Vocation presents Jesse Tree Readings, Second Saturday of Advent

Does the comercialism that comes with Christmas get you down? Ebeth presents My prayer for Christmas at A Catholic Mom Climbing the Pillars.

Heidi presents It's begining to look a lot like Christmas at Mommy Monsters Inc. Heidi looks at the blessings from the year. I am going to spend some time reflecting on this and write my own post about it.

Heidi also presents Heavenly Hug at Silent Canticle.

Can't think of what to get someone for Christmas? Melissa presents A free faithful Christmas Gift at A Third Way.

Denise Hunnell presents My Revised Christmas List posted at Catholic Matriarch in my Domestic Church aka Catholic Mom. In this post, Denise talks about doing the really important things. Her 4 important things are going onto my to do list too.

The Christmas movie Noelle has caused quite a stir.

Jean presents Noelle the movie posted at Catholic Fire.

Joshua C. Karlin presents How Should We Give? posted at Marketing & Fundraising Ideas.

In Coming Home For Christmas Owen of Luminousmiseries considers the special journey of a friend of his who is presently incarcerated and what it means this particular Advent season.

Esther presents Three Ways to Fight the Devil posted at A Catholic Mom in Hawaii.

Elena LaVictoire presents The O'Antiphons start tomorrow posted at My Domestic Church.

Leo Wang presents Cross Tree at Extraordinary Time. This is a Java applet showing a Christmas tree made up of crosses.

Are you busy with life in general? Sarah from Just another day of Catholic pondering presents Not enough time in the day. In a letter to moms of young children (and, really, women everywhere) Sarah shares encouragement in the "Battle to Push You to Do More."

Have you ever wondered what are the consequences of going green?

If so, Christine presents Australian Medical Expert Advocates Baby Tax to Offset "Greenhouse Gas" Emissions at The World IMHO

Is Frosty a Christian Allegory?

Domini Sumus presents Frosty the Christian Allegory posted at We Belong to the Lord.

Erin presents "Speak, show, argue, listen, rebut, correct, pray." posted at Bearing Blog and looks at what the new Doctrinal Note on evangelization requires of us.

Seth presents Burning Question at Catholic Land. A roundup of and final thoughts about Purgatory, Indulgences, and the Spiritual Economy.

Alvaro Fernandez presents Travel and Engagement as Good Brain Exercise posted at Brain Fitness Blog.

Are you interested in learning about Catholic Social Ethics?

David Jones presents Deacon Keith Fournier interviews Govenor Huckabee at la nouvelle theologie.

Geoffrey Taylor presents Obedience, Humility, Patience - The Byzantine Catholic Church posted at Small World.

Are you like me and need help with the virtue of patience? Kevin presents Patience at his coming posted at Heart Mind and Strength.

Finally, we have three great homeschooling articles from Whimsy.

Whimsy presents HOMESCHOOL AS BEATITUDE posted at Whimsy-Whimsy.

Whimsy presents Teachers Love (and Hate) Flex Days posted at Whimsy-Whimsy.
Enjoy!

Whimsy presents School Lunch Program posted at Whimsy-Whimsy.

So that is it for this week. Thank you everyone for your submissions.

Tom needs prayers again.

If you could all please offer a prayer for Tom. Yesterday his canula came out without us pulling it out and we have changed the site twice since then. His sugars have been very high since then and he now has ketones.

I am hoping we will be able to see a diabetes educator today and hopefully they will know what is causing this problem.

Thanks
Therese

Hey. now I know another reindeer's name.

You Are Blitzen

Always in good spirits, you're the reindeer who loves to party down with Santa. Why You're Naughty: You're always blitzed on Christmas Eve, while flying! Why You're Nice: You mix up a mean eggnog martini.

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

lol. H/T Jane at Building the Ark.

Getting everything ready.

Over the last couple of weeks Steve has been preparing our bedroom for painting. If you all remember, our bedroom is an old kitchen so he had to pull the tiles off the walls and remove the taps too. The walls have been a lot of work. He is finally just about ready to paint though. Now the hard part is agreeing on what colour to paint it.

I have made a bit of progress with the children's clothes that need to be sewn and had a shopping trip on Saturday and got most of our presents. I will have another shopping day later this week.

I spent a bit of the weekend working out our food menu for the next two weeks. I found a great recipe for home made egg nog at As we wait in Joyful Hope and I am going to have a go at making it. If we have egg nog here, I buy it in a carton. I am also going to make some White Christmas and Rumballs and make a Christmas Pudding. I haven't ever made my own Christmas pudding or egg nog before so I am looking forward to making them both. I hope they turn out as yummy as they sound.

I love holidays.

The children are all finished. Steve has one day left. Yesterday was such a relaxing day. I had to take Daniel to work early but went back to bed after Steve had left for work. Since our neighbour's car has been burnt, I haven't slept well. I am waking at every single creep. Our gates were rattling a lot last night and every time I thought is someone out there? When I got up I did a bit of housework and then started my sewing. I got Amelia's dress cut out. I also traced Tom's pattern and started tracing Christopher's.

I took Brigette, Amelia and Christopher to the pool. When Steve came home, he took the children to the library and I went and did some shopping. After tea we went to soccer. Steve and I made some final decisions on Christmas presents.

Madeline's friend came for a sleepover after soccer so they had a late night. Today we will go to the soccer presentation and then I think all our commitments for the children's extra activities are over. I really enjoy days that we don't have to be anywhere at any time. That is what the next week will be like. We will hang out around the house, do housework and go to the pool. I will hopefully get a lot of sewing done and I am looking forward to trying out the oamc sometime during the holidays.

What Christmas movie are you?

Your Christmas is Most Like: A Very Brady Christmas

For you, it's all about sharing times with family. Even if you all get a bit cheesy at times.

What Movie Is Your Christmas Most Like?

H/T Jean and Alexandra

Tagged again.

Boy. It seems that every corner I turn these days I am getting tagged. I really like tags. It makes me think about myself and what I really am like.

Thanks to Shelly at Keeper of the Keys for this meme.

1. One book that changed your life: A Mothers Rule of life.

2. One book that you’ve read more than once: Agatha Christie's The big 4.

3. One book you’d want on a desert island: The pieta prayer book.

4. One book that made you laugh: Graham Crackers, Goloshes and God.

5. One book that made you cry: Flowers in the Attic.

6. One book that you wish had been written: A mothers guide to once a month cooking.

7. One book that you wish had never been written: The whole Flowers in the Attic series. I read them when I was a teen but would never let any of my teenagers read them. They just have too many immoral things happening without any consequences.

8. One book you’re currently reading: Create your own Classical Curriculum.

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read: The same as Shelly, I have been meaning to read the Screwtape letters.

Now 5 people to tag.

Mark at Dominican Idaho.
Bon from Defenders of the Catholic Faith. You can answer here in my comments section.
Karin at Wife and mom of two.
Muddy Mama.
and finally:
Adrienne at Adrienne's Catholic Corner.

At 1 am this morning.

The police knocked on our door.

I didn't hear them. Steve got up and that half woke me then he came back and put on the light, got dressed and said I'm going to answer the door.

He went of and I heard him talking to someone. Then he came back into our room and I asked him what is going on. He said someone tried to set our next doors neighbours car on fire.

I don't know exactly what happened but the perpetrators were heard and when my next door neighbour went outside they jumped over the fence and ran down the street.

So we had a bit of midweek excitement. Although this is the kind of excitement I can do without. Please pray for these perpetrators and my neighbour. She must feel so violated.

ETA, Steve has looked at the car and it is wrecked. There are some real idiots out there.

The Child King.

Lynn over at Signs and Wonders did the Christmas meme.

In it she mentioned that she hopes that the movie The Child King would become her new favourite Christmas movie.

I went and had a look at the site and have ordered the dvd for our family. Each year we try to get a family movie and this movie is going to be it this year.

The movie is about a Young man with Down Syndrome that takes his brother to find Santa.

I cannot wait for this to come.

busy busy busy.

The Christmas season is lots of fun but I get really stressed out with all the different Christmas shows.

Last night we had Christmas Carrols and a BBQ tea at the school. On Thursday night we have a Scout Christmas party out our house.

Because we went out last night no one did any of their evening jobs. It was also difficult to get the children out of bed this morning. Most mornings I try to get up around 5.30 to pray and go on the internet before the children get up. I haven't been doing that much since I came back from Adelaide with Tom becuase I have been up through the night checking his sugars. Now I only need to get up at midnight so I started getting up early on Sunday morning again. I wasn't able to get out of bed early this morning either.

So the housework is behind and the house looks like no one has done any work for a month. I was going to go over to the school at lunch time for a shared lunch but I have decided to give it a miss and get things done here.

I really need to look at my mothers rule and work out how to fit extra things in and keep up with the housework. Those of you that have a mothers rule, how do you cope with the extra activities at this time of year?

Can you guess?

Over in the sidebar you can see my sitemeter icon. At this moment I have 4106 visitor's to my blog.

Can you guess when I will get my 5000 visitor?

This shows a summary of my visitors so all those mathematical minded people work out the average and see if you can guess.

Last time Leah from Lowdenclear won. I will have a prize for the nearest time and date. I don't know what it will be though yet.

ETA I have two books for the prize. The two closest guesses will win a copy of the book Angel in the Water which can be read here.

Christmas Meme.

Lisa from Episcopollyanna has tagged me for this Christmas meme.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Definitely gift bags. I hate wrapping presents.

2. Real tree or artificial? We have an artificial. I don't think we could get a real tree here. Marie probably could but the climate we live in doesn't really grow Pine trees. When we lived in Millicent there were lots of real Christmas trees and we were given one the first year there. I love the smell of the pine but hated cleaning up all the pine needles that dropped off.

3. When do you put up the tree? Usually on the first week of advent. I haven't got it up yet this year.

4. When do you take the tree down? No set time. Just when I am sick of it being around.

5. Do you like eggnog? love it.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I remember the year I got a watch and dress wrapped up together. I loved the dress and the watch.

7. Do you have a Nativity scene? no. I want to get one though.

8. Hardest person to buy for? My brother in law.

9. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Like Lisa, I cannot think of one.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? I am a very slack snail mail writer. Every year I buy cards intending to post them and usually they don't get posted. I then send out e Cards at the last minute. :::oops:::

11. Favorite Christmas Movie? Like Lisa, I love love love A wonderful life. It just isn't Christmas if we don't watch it.

12. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Most of our Christmas shopping is done in December. If I see toys that I know the children are interested in through the year on special I will grab them and put them away.

13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Probably. I cannot think of a spacific one though.

14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Christmas pudding with custard.

15. Clear lights or colored on the tree? coloured.

16. Favorite Christmas song? Joy to the World.

17. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We usually travel home to the town we grew up in.

18. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? no. I know that there is a Rudolph, dasher and prince. I cannot name the others.

19. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel.

20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning.

21. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Without a doubt, the comercialism.

22. Best thing about this time of year? all the family is on holidays.

I want to tag Lynn at signs and wonders and Erin at Seven Little Australians

A fun night.

Tonight the pageant was on in Port Augusta.

We went along to help out with the scout bbq. I did the serving while Steve watched the younger children and the pageant.

After the pageant we headed down to Hungry Jacks for tea. Pageant night is their busiest night of the year. They have free lucky dips for the children, free photo's with Santa and 10% of for staff families. Both Daniel and Sam work at Hungry Jacks so we got our 10% off.

In town they usually have a party with free rides. Over the last couple of years Steve and I have found this really stressful and hard to keep an eye on where our children are so going to Hungry Jacks for tea was a nice alternative.

This weekend Daniel and Sam will put up our Christmas lights.

Sam, Brigette and Amelia will finish school next week on Wednesday so that will probably be Tom's last day of home school too. Madeline will finish of Friday and Steve should finish on Monday week. We will have 6 weeks of holidays and are looking forward to our Christmas break.

Great Christmas baking site.

For all those mum's (or mom's) out there looking for lots and lots of great christmas goodies, this would have to be the best site I ever came across.

North Pole Kitchen

H/T to Gail at Butterfly Gail for this website.



There are also a couple of hidden stories in the picture which Christopher enjoyed.

Tasty Tuesday Tuna Mornay.

Tonight I cooked Tuna mornay for tea so thought I would post the recipe I used and the carb factors.

Now that Tom is on a pump we need to count every bit of carb going into his body. The way this is done is by working out the total carbs in the recipe and then weighing the food. If the food weighs 2kg and has a total of 300 carbs then we divide 300 into 2000 and get a carb factor of 0.15.

If Tom eats 200 grams then he has a total of 30 gram's of carbs.

Simple maths (when you have a calculator). I am working out the carb factor for all my recipe's and writing it down in a little book that I am keeping in the kitchen by the scales. It is a lot of work now but once I have most of our recipe's I will only have to weigh Tom's food.

Tonights recipe:

1 can of Tuna in Springwater.
2 medium onions
1 can of creamed corn.
1 can of corn kernels.
500 grams of mixed frozen vegetables.
2 cups of milk.
50 grams plain wholemeal flour.
2 tablespoons of oil.
1 packet of Dried French Onion soup.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and cook the onions. When the onions are turning clear add the flour. Mix to make a think paste. Add a little bit of milk at a time and mix until it disappears into the paste. Keep adding milk until all is added. Add the tuna, mixed vegetables, corn, cream corn and french onion soup. Bring all to the boil and simmer for 15 min.

Serve with rice or pasta.

Carb factor is 0.18 per gram.

Praying Novena for family members.

Marilena at Divine Mercy Blog has a great idea about praying for family members.

She suggests that each month we pray a novena for each member of our family during the month that their birthday falls in.

This is such a great idea I had to link to it.

Thanks Marilena. I will be offering special prayers each month for all my family.

RoseMary Teresa

Any of you that have been following my pray blog would know that one of my prayer intentions for my rosary has been to pray for RoseMary Teresa.

RoseMary Teresa was the 10th child and first girl for Mary and Dave. She was born with Trisomy 18.

Last night RoseMary Teresa died in her parents arms. She was surounded by her brothers, uncles, aunts and cousins. They were praying the rosary.

I have opened up the comments for this post so that people can go and leave a message for RoseMary Teresa's parents and brothers.

The link is below.

RoseMary Teresa Goes Home

meme.

8 random facts about me.

I read this tag over at blondie's Xanga and told her I would do it.

First of all, the "rules"

....Here's what you do:~Each person starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves and post these guidelines. ~At the end of the post, choose 8 people to be tagged and list their names.~Don't forget to leave a comment telling them that they are tagged and to read your blog. Have fun!

1 If there is a way out of work, I will always find it. I always look for short cuts and ways of making a job easier. (I really am lazy).

2. I am very shy and hate talking to strangers.

3. My favourite movie of all time is A wonderful life.

4. I hate the sight of blood.

5. My dream holiday is a weekend away with Steve on some deserted island resort.

6. I was a very rebelious teen.

7. I have more friends online than irl.

8. I love spaghetti with any sauce. I think I could eat it every night and not get sick of it.

Now I tag the following:

1. JoAnn at Creamer Chrioncles

2. Fr. Tim at Spirit of Vatican two

3. Lisa at Episcopollyanna

4. Ivar at Mussings on the Divine

5. John Michael at St. Robert Bellarmine: Controversies & Secrets.

6. Lisa at Unexpected Journey

7. mum6kids at Thinking love, Not twaddle

and finally

8. radtradchad at Society of St. Leo 1st

The start of Advent.

Today is the first Sunday of Advent.

Here is what Advent is about From EWTN:

The word Advent is from the Latin adventus for "coming" and is associated with the four weeks of preparation for Christmas. Advent always contains four Sundays, beginning on the Sunday nearest the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, (November 30) and continuing until December 24. It blends together a penitential spirit, very similar to Lent, a liturgical theme of preparation for the Second and Final Coming of the Lord, called the Parousia, and a joyful theme of getting ready for the Bethlehem event.

Since the 900s Advent has been considered the beginning of the Church year. This does not mean that Advent is the most important time of the year. Easter has always had this honor.

The traditional color of Advent is purple or violet which symbolizes the penitential spirit. Religious traditions associated with Advent express all these themes.

I am going to make an Advent Callender and Advent wreath. I really should have done it last week but didn't get the time. Tom and I will be able to do it this week for his religion lessons.

Another Award from Divine Mercy.

Divine Mercy has chosen this blog for the blog of the year along with View From The Pews and A Catholic Mom in Hawaii.

Thanks Marilena for this award. I feel very honoured to be chosen by you.

Our week in review.

It has been a busy week with the trip to Adelaide midweek. We have had a lot of sucess with changing Tom's pump to the sillhouette inserter and yesterday we changed the insertion site into his bottom. He is going the full three days now with one set and we are getting a pretty good idea of what base rate he needs. Sugars are staying more consistent and I am noticing that he works well when his sugars are like that.

On Sunday Madeline was in her Musical Theatre play. She was a Island girl and mermaid. I wasn't able to get to the play because I needed to cook and get organised for the trip to Adelaide. Steve took Tom, Amelia and Christopher.

Monday we got our paper work for our taxation. We are getting a big refund this year. The cheque should arrive in about two weeks.

Tuesday I headed of to Adelaide with Tom and Christopher.

Sam started working this week. He has a job at Hungry Jacks. Last Thursday was his first day on the job. Daniel has been working there for three years now and enjoys it. He said that Sam went well.

We had family night at Madeline's school on Thursday too. They started with a bbq and then each class did a dance. Madeline's class danced to Crazy Frog. It is one of my favourite songs.

Because of the late night Thursday night only Daniel and Sam went to school on Friday. I must admit I am ready for the holidays now and don't feel too motivated to get them ready. The children have two weeks of school left and then they have 6 weeks off over Christmas. Next year Tom and Amelia will do homeschool, Madeline will go to our local public school and Daniel, Sam and Brigette will be at Caritas.

Yersterday was Daniels last day of school. He won the leadership award for year 10's and was presented with a certificate and cheque for $100.00 at the closing asembly. We are very proud of him and all that he has achieved this year.

This weekend is going to be busy. Steve is weeding the garden and doing lots of little jobs out the front.

I am hoping to get snacks for the week made and start the girls curtains.

It is the first week of advent and I thought I would change my blog colour to purple for the 4 weeks.

Have a great weekend.
Therese