Please pray.

Tom has been admitted to hospital today. His blood sugars have been fine but he woke up and was sick quite a few times this morning and had high blood ketone's.

When I left the hospital tonight his sugars had come up and he has no ketone's. He has had the drip disconnected and hopefully won't have to have it put back on.

Thanks and God bless you all
Therese

Lenten Meme

Alexandra Tagged me for this meme.

1. What’s been your best Lenten-effort-idea ever?

This year I am not spending as much time on the internet. I am spending more time reading with our children, going through all our stuff and giving away what we don't need. Some things have been pretty hard to part with even though I never thought I would hoard stuff I am finding that my sewing stash is very hard to part with even the things I don't know what I will do with.

2. And your worst?

This year also. I knew that God was asking me in prayer to give up excessive computer time and I didn't want too. That was why I closed comments. I thought it was something I could handle. I realized a couple of days into it that it wasn't enough. It wasn't really challenging me or helping me become a better Christian.

3. What Lenten advice would you share?

If you are finding your sacrifice too hard, the sacraments will help a lot. This week we didn't get to weekday mass at all. It was much harder for me to go without the treats that I did the week before. I think the Eucharist and confession particularly give us the strength to go without and to say no to ourselves.

4. And what will feature this year?

I will continue limiting my internet time, We are going to the Stations of the Cross every Friday and I will make more effort to get to daily mass the days it is on.

I tag:

Lowdenclear

Annelisa

Angela

Cliff Richard: Millenium prayer

I love the way Cliff sings this.

Lauren Richardson.

Click on the title post and you will be taken to Lauren's site.

This week is very important to Lauren's family. There is going to be a mediation taking place between Lauren's mother and father. Please pray that this is successful in saving Lauren's life.

Our Week.

This week has been very long and hard. I started out Sunday night not feeling well in the stomach and was up several times in the toilet. Steve stayed home to help out since I hadn't had a very good nights sleep.

On Tuesday Madeline was home with the same virus and on Wednesday Sam was. It was very disruptive to our home school and Thursday was very challenging. Tom and Amelia were off task a lot and took many hours to complete the work I expected them to do. Christopher also has come to realize that he can make Tom and Amelia laugh when he does something naughty and was a big distraction on Wednesday and Thursday especially.

Friday seemed to go better and they both finished their work by 11.30. Because they did it so quickly I took them food shopping and bought them lunch at the bakery. Hopefully this week will be easier and no sickies here.

Photos

sleeping in

giving teddy a hug
With his new blocks and teddy
Tom built this dog with the blocks
at the pool with mum
with his birthday cake.

I don't know what I did wrong but the camera suddenly showed up on my computer so here are the photos.

Lenten Hiatus.

I have decided that I am going to take a hiatus from the internet for the rest of lent. I will still posts on Sundays and update you all with what is happening still.

I have decided that my internet time needs to be cut right back until I have finished our decluttering and cleaning out. I will still check my email so if you want to get in contact with me feel free to email me.

What does a three year old do on his birthday?

He sleeps in first of all. Everyone was so excited about Christopher's birthday that they were all up before 8am. My teenage children like to sleep. Usually we don't see Madeline and Brigette until after 9am.

Sam had to work so I took him at 7.50. I got home and Christopher was just coming out of our bedroom. Everyone started singing happy birthday to him and he got a bit overwhelmed and shy. He came over and started opening his presents (with plenty of help from Tom and Amelia). The teddy was a huge hit. He was pretty excited and gave it a big hug but then threw it away to play with his other toys.

From Amelia and Tom he got a hopper ball, Daniel and Sam gave him some mega blocks, Brigette gave him a matchbox car and Madeline made him some shakers. The mega blocks have been a huge hit and they will come in very useful keeping him occupied while Tom and Amelia are doing home school.

The day was fun. We went to Mass, went to Hungry Jacks for Icecream at afternoon tea time, went to the pool after tea and then had birthday cake. I made a green velvet cake. (This is suppose to be a red velvet cake but we only had green food colouring). I was going to upload some photo's but the cable doesn't seem to be working that well so they will have to wait till later.

Pro life wins.

This video was flagged by You Tube as inappropriate. I wrote about it here.
You Tube has reversed its decision and put the video back up. Read ALL report on it here

Sneak Preview.

Tomorrow is Christopher's third birthday. Since he is in bed and asleep, I have got the teddy that I made for him out so you can all see. This is my first time making a teddy. I have made a Raggedy Ann doll before so I had a bit of an idea how to make one. I am really pleased with the way it has turned out.

Middle name meme.

Louise and Kalona tagged me for this meme.

Rules:
1. You have to post the rules before you give your answers.
2. You must list one fact about yourself beginning with each letter of your middle name. (If you don't have a middle name, use your maiden name or your mother's maiden name).
3. At the end of your blog post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name.

My middle name is Angela.

Angelic. I think most of the time.

Nurturing.

Girl. I love girly things and being feminine.

Entertainer. I love entertaining and having people over.

Lively. Living life to the full one day at a time.

Attentive.

I tag:

Annelisa, John Michael and Regan , Vicki, Ivar and Swede

Make the World a better place award.

Lisa from Unexpected Journey has passed on this award to me.

The rules are that I need to link to Ukok Place and pass it onto 5 other bloggers.

Easy:

1 Muddy Mama
2 Lisa
3 Abbey
4 Louise
5 Easter and because I want to pass it onto one more blog I am going to also pass it onto

6 Marie and Ginny

Life for Lauren Richardson.

In the side bar I have added a link to the site for Lauren Richardson. I origionally wrote about Lauren here.

Here is a video that shows Lauren is responsive and not brain dead as her mother wants everyone to believe.




Here is Fox Television interviewing Lauren's Father.



Please pray for Lauren and her Father. Pray also for her mother that she can see that starving and dehydrating her daughter is wrong.

ALL sensored by YouTube.

Thanks to Jean at Catholic Fire for this news.

You tube is sensoring American Life League:

" On Monday morning, American Life League (ALL) was informed by YouTube that one of its exposé videos on Planned Parenthood was evicted from their for its 'inappropriate nature.' Strangely enough, the ad that the ALL was criticizing remains on YouTube.""It is outrageous that YouTube would black-out our video warning the public about a Planned Parenthood sex video while it continues to carry the original Planned Parenthood video,” said Jim Sedlak, vice president of American Life League.

Sign ALL's online petition to send YouTube a message by clicking here.

New pro life blog.

Dawn from the The Three B's has started up a new pro life blog.

Go and check it out.

PA Pro-Lifer

Motherhood press.

I want to give a plug to Motherhood Press.

I first ordered Orderly Days a couple of years ago. It was great. I wrote regularly goals for the week and kept a prayer journel. I kept the journel and weekly goals for the entire year. I didn't order the planner last year. I don't know why. When I was going through our bedroom cleaning it out for the renovations, I came across it and decided to order it again. It arrived today and I am looking forward to having spiritual goals and prayer journel writing again.

ETA, many people keep coming to my blog searching for Motherhood press. Motherhood press has closed down.

You can get a good planner from Family Centred press. Their shop is here.

Sundays during lent.

Do you still continue your lenten fast on Sunday's during lent?

I never knew growing up that Sunday's were not a part of the 40 days.

I have opened up the comments for this post to hear from you all and what you do. I do have some treat that I am going without on the other days of lent.

Pumpkin damper.

Yesterday I had a cooking day. I found a lot of pumpkin in the freezer that I had already cooked and mashed. I had seen the recipe for Pumpkin Damper at Bruggie Tales so I thought I would try it.

This is one great damper. I made three. We have one left. I am certain that the only reason it is left is because I put it in the freezer.

Received in an Email.

This story gave me a laugh. It is an Urban Legend but I still think it is funny.

A lawyer purchased a box of very rare and expensive cigars; then insured them against, among other things, fire.
Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile of these great cigars and without yet having made even his first premium payment on the policy the lawyer filed a claim against the insurance company.

In his claim, the lawyer stated the cigars were lost "in a series of small fires." The insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason, that the man had consumed the cigars in the normal fashion. The lawyer sued; and WON!

(Stay with me)

Delivering the ruling, the judge agreed with the insurance company that the claim was frivolous. The judge stated nevertheless, that the lawyer held a policy from the company, which it had warranted that the cigars were insurable and also guaranteed that it would insure them against fire,without defining what is considered to be unacceptable fire" and wasobligated to pay the claim. Rather than endure lengthy and costly appeal process, the insurance company accepted the ruling and paid $15,000 to the lawyer for his loss of the cigars lost in the "fires".

NOW FOR THE BEST PART.. After the lawyer cashed the check, the insurance company had him arrested on 24 counts of ARSON!!! With his insurance claimand testimony from the previous case being used as evidence against him, the lawyer was convicted of intentionally burning his insured property and was sentenced to 24 months in jail and a $24,000 fine.

London Times Obituary of the late Mister Common Sense

'Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:

Knowing when to come in out of the rain; why the early bird gets the worm; Life isn't always fair; and maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.

It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an Elastoplast to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason. He is survived by four stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, I Want It Now, Someone Else Is To Blame, and I'm A Victim.

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing.'

Lauren Richardson

My friend Dawn, at The Three B's has a great post about Lauren Richardson.

Lauren Richardson is threatened with death by starvation. Her life is threatened by her mother, the very person that should be protecting her life. May God have mercy on her soul. Please go to Dawns blog, watch the video and read more about Lauren. Most importantly please pray for this girl and that life wins against death.

Ash Wednesday. The start of lent.

Jen at Et-Tu is closing her comments for lent. I thought this is the perfect sacrifice for me to make over the next couple of weeks so I am doing the same thing.

As well as no comments, I am going to pray the rosary everyday, we are doing a lenten reflection with the saints as a family and I will give up coke, sweets and meat on Fridays. I will be praying for all my blog readers. Please pray for me too.

I hope everyone has a holy lent.

Need an idea for a shrove Tuesday Treat?

I have to thank JoAnn for this link. She posted it at DCF forums.

These Cinammon Rolls with maple frosting look absoultely delicious.

While you're at the site, check out some of her other great recipes too. What a fantastic site this is. I am bookmarking it for future reference.

please pray.

Urgent Prayer Request.

Please go to the above link and read about Melissa Hackeny who is in very grave danger of dying from Cancer at the young age of 24.

The affect decluttering is having.

Since starting fly lady, I have been decluttering each room. I have done the lounge room, kitchen and our bedroom. I am working on Tom's and Christopher's bedroom at the moment and I think it should be finished by the end of the week. Then I will move onto the girls room, the family room and finally our storeroom. (the older boys are being left to do their own decluttering so that is two rooms I don't need to worry about).

With the rooms that are decluttered, cleaning is easy. I have a morning routine that keeps them clean most of the time.

After prayer and checking out dcf message board and some blogs (while eating breakfast), I go and shower, get dressed, clean my teeth, make our bed, take dirty clothes to laundry, empty dishwasher and fill our sink with hot water. From the time I get dressed to filling the sink up takes me about 20 minutes tops. Because it isn't going to take long, I don't mind doing it as much. While the children are eating breakfast, I put washing on and start cleaning up the benches. The children are responsible to get their breakfast, put their dishes in the sink when they have finished, make their lunch and pack their bags. I can usually get the dishes in the dishwasher before they leave for school but if I don't, I leave them there till Tom and Amelia have a morning tea break.

Once the older children leave for school Tom and Amelia start their homeschool day. If everything get's done the night before the lounge is generally tidy when we start our lessons. The children seem happier to work in a clean and tidy room so I am pretty motivated to get everyone helping the night before.

I am amazed at how get rid of excess stuff can make life easier. With just three main living areas done, 1 in progress and three more to do I am noticing a difference. I would say that this week we have done more than half the decluttering and I imagine when every room is finished it will be much easier to manage the whole house and finish of chores 100%, instead of the 90% that I was doing before.

Pavarotti and Eric Clapton sing Holy Mother hear my prayer.

I saw this a while ago on In God's Company. I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to post it here too.

Dancing a happy dance.

I just got an email from Tom's endo. His hba1c is down to 7.2%. His last one was 10.3% so it is much better. To put it in perspective, a non diabetic person has a hba1c of 5%