Four-four-four-four meme.

Jean tagged me for the four-four-four-four meme.

I was going to do it tonight but I have made a new promise to myself. I promised myself that I would go to bed every night at 9 pm so that I can get up early in the mornings.

I will get to this meme tomorrow night.

BTW, if you like the look of this meme and want to be tagged, leave a comment in the comment box.

Therese

Tom and Amelia musical theatre performance

A hectic day.

Yesterday Madeline, Brigette, Tom and Amelia were in a concert. They all belong to the Musical Theatre and yesterday was their mid year concert. We had a hectic morning getting all the housework done but it was worth it. Steve and I took Christopher along to see the show.

Tom, Amelia and Brigette all did a dance. Steve video taped them and as soon as I have worked out how to put them up here I will.

Madeline did a mono log from the Secret Garden. She was very nervous and it was very hard to hear her. I was still proud of her getting up and having a go.

They had a second show in the evening and I went to see the end of it. I saw Madeline and she did much better. I was right up the back and was able to hear her. She also didn't look as nervous. It was great to see her up there on her own doing it.

The dead duck.

Abbey sent me this in an email;

I really liked it.

This is so good for all of us who sometimes forget just exactly what
our Savior did for us
The Duck and the devil ~ I'm in the 93%
There was a little boy visiting his grandparents on
their farm. He was given a slingshot to play with out
in the woods. He practiced in the woods; but he could
never hit the target. Getting a little discouraged, he
headed back for dinner. As he was walking back he saw
Grandma's pet duck. Just out of impulse, he let the
slingshot fly, hit the duck square in the head and
Killed it. He was shocked and grieved!
In a panic, he hid the dead duck in the wood pile;
only to see his sister watching! Sally had seen it
all, but she said nothing.
After lunch the next day Grandma said, 'Sally, let's
wash the dishes' But Sally said, 'Grandma , Johnny told
me he wanted to help in the kitchen.' Then she
whispered to him, 'Remember the duck?' So Johnny did the dishes.
Later that day, Grandpa asked if the children
to go fishing and Grandma said, 'I'm sorry but I need
Sally to help make supper.' Sally just smiled and
said, 'Well that's all right because Johnny told me he
wanted to help' She whispered again, 'Remember the
duck?' So Sally went fishing and Johnny stayed to help
After several days of Johnny doing both his chores and
Sally's; he finally couldn't stand it any longer. He came
to Grandma and confessed that he had killed the duck.
Grandma knelt down, gave him a hug and said,
'Sweetheart, I know. You see, I was standing at the
window and I saw the whole thing, but because I love
you, I forgave you. I was just wondering how long you
would let Sally make a slave of you.'
Thought for the day and every day thereafter?
Whatever is in your past, whatever you have done...
and the devil keeps throwing it up in your face
(lying, cheating, debt, fear, bad habits, hatred,
anger, bitterness)...whatever it is ..You need
to know that God was standing at the window
and He saw the whole thing. He has seen your whole life.
He wants you to know that He loves you and that you are forgiven.
He's just wondering how long you will let the devil
make a slave of you. The great thing about God is
that when you ask for forgiveness; He not only
forgives you, but He forgets. It is by God's grace and
mercy that we are saved
Go ahead and make the difference in someone's life
today. Share this with a friend and always remember:
God is at the window!
When Jesus died on the cross; he was thinking of you!
If you are one of the 93 % who will stand up for him
forward this with the title, 'I'm in the 93%'

This reminds me that we need to go to confession and confess our sins. God knows what we have done and wants to give us grace.

Seven wonders of the world.

Seven Wonders of the World

Probably a lot of you have seen this. I have seen it several times. Today I got it in am email and wanted to share it. It is beautiful.

Also remember today is Friday so pray for the unemployed today.

God bless
Therese

FREEZE

I saw this at my friend Christine's blog and had to post it. It is soooooooo cool.

Our front yard.

This morning I was looking at Paramedic Girls Aquatic Garden and mentioned our pond with native flowers around it. Paramedic Girl said she would like to see our flowers so today I got Sam to take some photo's of it.

Here it is.

Fr. Speekman has a close up of the Sturt Desert Pea flowers here

Please remember Jennifer and Lynn in prayer too.

As well as our family there are two other families that have lost their babies in the last week.

Lynn and Jennifer both found out their babies had no heart beat at their 13 week and 11 week check up. Please keep them in your prayers too.

I also wanted to post this prayer that Lynn got from Mother Angelica.

Miscarriage prayer

My Lord, the baby is dead!

Why, my Lord—dare I ask why? It will not hear the whisper of the wind or see the beauty of its parents’ face—it will not see the beauty of Your creation or the flame of a sunrise. Why, my Lord?

“Why, My child—do you ask ‘why’? Well, I will tell you why.

You see, the child lives. Instead of the wind he hears the sound of angels singing before My throne. Instead of the beauty that passes he sees everlasting Beauty—he sees My face. He was created and lived a short time so the image of his parents imprinted on his face may stand before Me as their personal intercessor. He knows secrets of heaven unknown to men on earth. He laughs with a special joy that only the innocent possess. My ways are not the ways of man. I create for My Kingdom and each creature fills a place in that Kingdom that could not be filled by another. He was created for My joy and his parents’ merits. He has never seen pain or sin. He has never felt hunger or pain. I breathed a soul into a seed, made it grow and called it forth.”

I am humbled before you, my Lord, for questioning Your wisdom, goodness, and love. I speak as a fool—forgive me. I acknowledge Your sovereign rights over life and death. I thank You for the life that began for so short a time to enjoy so long an Eternity.

-- Mother M. Angelica

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning I will be going to the hospital for a curette. I thought I wouldn't need one but the ob/gyn said that she is concerned that the bleeding could start again and that it is better to do this.

I am completely over whelmed with all the prayers and good wishes that many people have sent. Thank you all for your support at this time. It has helped a lot.

Monday.

Tonight we had a Mass said for Matthew.

Things are slowly getting back to normal now. We had a good home school day and I got a lot of house work done. Last week many things didn't get done and I spent a fair bit of the weekend catching up. We only have two weeks left of this term so we are all looking forward to the school holidays.

Thank you to all the people that sent me email and prayers on facebook. I appreciate all the prayers and support that I have been shown from you all.

In Memory of Matthew.

Although we never saw your face or held you in our arms, you still touched us in a special way.

We were so happy when the doctor said congratulation, you are having another baby. We rejoiced and celebrated. We went and bought a cake. Your brothers and sisters were really happy and started to pick out names straight away.

Then the scare came. We went to the hospital and the doctor said I don't know yet. There is something in the womb but I cannot see a heart beat. We prayed and all our friends joined in.

When the news came that you had died we all cried. We wanted to see you and hold you but it wasn't meant to be.

It is comforting to know that you will never know the pain that this life brings. You will have eternal happiness. Still we grieve what might have been.

Thank you God for the gift of new life. Thank you for all the blessings. Help us all over the next few weeks as we grieve.

Thank you for the prayers.

There is no easy way to say this. We have lost the baby. Please pray for the repose of our babies soul. We will name it tonight and have a mass said for him/her. Thank you to everyone that has supported us with prayers over this week.

Therese

frustration.

Tonight I have rang for the results of my blood test. The blood needed to be sent to Adelaide so I won't know what is happening till tomorrow morning at the earliest. I am finding this a bit frustrating. Not knowing what is going on is taking its toll on the family. Please pray for all of us.

Thanks
Therese

Waiting.

I have been for my second blood test this morning and we will know if the baby is okay this afternoon. I will update as soon as I know anything. Thank you all for the prayers.

Therese

Wordless Wednesday.

These are our first baby chickens.

Learning patience. (again).

Day nine of The novena to St. Therese.

I have been to the doctor and she decided to take blood instead of doing a scan. I will go for another blood test on Thursday and we will see if the hcg level has doubled.

This morning I finished of the novena to St. Therese and I asked her to pray for us and for our acceptance of Gods will in any of this. I know that between now and Thursday there will be many prayers and I know that Gods will will happen because of those prayers.

Thank you for all your prayers. I am sure they are making a big difference.

Therese

Please pray.

I have been loosing blood for the last 36 hours. This morning I am seeing our obstetrician and I am going to ask for a scan to see if everything is okay. Please pray for me and for our baby.

Therese

cookie recipe.

Day eight of The novena to St. Therese


I got this in an email. It is an urban legend but it gave me a laugh.

THIS IS A TRUE STORY (as soon as I read statements like this, I open up snopes).

My daughter and I had just finished lunch at a Neiman-Marcus Cafe in Dallas, Because both of us are such biscuit lovers, we decided to try the 'Neiman-Marcus cookie'. It was so excellent that I asked if they would give me the recipe. The waitress said with a small frown, 'I'm afraid not, but you can BUY the recipe. ' I asked how much, and she responded; 'Only two fifty - it's a great deal!'

I agreed to that, and told her to add it to my bill.

Thirty days later, I got my VISA statement, and the Neiman-Marcus Charge was $285.00. I looked at it again, and I remembered I had only spent $9.95 for two sandwiches and about $20.00 for a scarf.

At the bottom of the statement, it said, 'Cookie Recipe - $250.00'. That was outrageous!

I called Neiman's Accounting Department and told them the waitress Had said it was 'two fifty', which clearly does not mean ' Two hundred And fifty dollars' by any reasonable interpretation of the phrase. Neiman-Marcus refused to budge. They would not refund my money Because, according to them; 'What the waitress told you is not our Problem.' and as you have already seen the recipe we absolutely will not refund your Money.'

I explained to the Accounting Department lady the criminal statutes Which govern fraud in the state of Texas. I threatened to report them To the Better Business Bureau and the Texas Attorney General's office. I was basically told: Do what you want. Don't bother thinking of how you can get even, and don't bother trying to get any of your money back'

I said, OK, you've got my $250, and now I'm going to have $250 worth of fun.' I told her that I was going to see to it that every cookie lover in the world with an e-mail account gets a $250 cookie recipe from Neiman-Marcus..... For Free.

She replied, 'I wish you wouldn't do that.'

I said, 'Well, perhaps you should have thought of that before you RIPPED ME OFF!' and slammed down the phone.

So here it is!

Please pass it on to everyone you can possibly think of. I paid $250 for this, and I don't want Neiman-Marcus to EVER make another penny from this recipe!


NEIMAN-MARCUS COOKIES (Recipe may be halved)

2 (500 ml) cups butter

24 oz. (680 g) chocolate chips

4 (1000 ml) cups flour

2 (500 ml) cups brown sugar

2 tsp. (10 ml) (Bicarb) soda

1 tsp. (5 ml) salt

2 (500 ml) cups sugar

18 oz (500 g) Hershey Bar (grated).
(Cadbury chocolate for Australians & South Africans)

5 (1250 ml) cups blended oatmeal

4 eggs

2 tsp. (10 ml) baking powder

2 tsp. (10 ml) vanilla

3 cups (375 ml) chopped nuts ( optional )

....................


Measure oatmeal, and blend in a blender to a fine powder.

Cream the butter and both sugars.

Add eggs and vanilla, mix together with flour, oatmeal,

Salt, baking powder, and Bicarb (soda).

Add chocolate chips, Hershey Bar, and nuts.

Roll into balls, and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes at (180 °C ) 375 degrees.


( The above quantities make approx 112 cookies )

Enjoy !!!

Weekend.

Day six of The novena to St. Therese

Last night we went out to our parish dinner. It was a fun night. The money raised will help our youth get to WYD. The countdown has begun here. Steve, Daniel, Sam and Madeline will travel to Sydney and take part. Brigette, Tom, Amelia, Christopher and I will keep the home fires burning.

I have lots of plans to go out to a few parks, take them out for tea one night, hire some movies and play some board games.

The weather here has suddenly got cold. We will have to start using our heaters a bit more now. Tonight after mass the house felt so cold.

I have started cooking our months meals this weekend. The tiredness that comes with early pregnancy seems to be taking its toll on me so I will have to spread cooking the meals out over the week.

Friday funnies

Day five of The novena to St. Therese

Thankful Thursday.

Day four of The novena to St. Therese.

Thank you Lord for the blessing from big families.

Thank you Lord for another little baby.

Thank you Lord for all the blogging and online friends that support me in my life as a Catholic mother.

Thank you Lord for our family night out tomorrow night and for the weekend.

Celebrate with us.

Day three of The novena to St. Therese.

Baby number 8 is due to arrive at the Aussie Coffee Shop in late January/early February 2009.

Steve and I are both really excited about having another one and feel very blessed.

The children are over the moon and we have plenty of suggestions for names.

Prayers for the baby and for me would be very appreciated.

Washing day, Ironing day, Mending day.

Day two of The novena to St. Therese.




Monday Wash Day

Lord, help me wash away all my selfishness and vanity, so I may serve you with perfect humility through the week ahead.

Tuesday Ironing Day

Dear Lord, help me iron out all the wrinkles of prejudice I have collected through the years so that I may see the beauty in others.

Wednesday Mending Day

O God, help me mend my ways so I will not set a bad example for others.

Thursday Cleaning Day

Lord Jesus, help me to dust out all the many faults I have been hiding in the secret corners of my heart.

Friday Shopping Day

O God, give me the grace to shop wisely so I may purchase eternal happiness for myself and all others in need of love.

Saturday Cooking Day

Help me, my Savior, to brew a big kettle of brotherly love and serve it with clean, sweet bread of human kindness.

Sunday The Lord's Day

O God, I have prepared my house for you. Please come into my heart so I may spend the day and the rest of my life in your presence.

Thanks Abbey for emailing me this.

Novena to St. Therese

Day one of The novena to St. Therese.

Prayer intentions:

Alexandra: For wounded extended family members - may they find peace and love through Christ, and not of people and things of this world.

Easter: For the unemployed and for Kathy H that she finds a kidney donor soon.

. from Alfazema: For her mother's need.

muddy mama: For good health.

Ukok For a private intention.


Vicki: for Cyndi B - a homeschooling mom who was recently diagnosed with cancer.

Lowdenclear for a private intention.

John Michael:
A elderly parishioner who has just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer;
My mother Mary Alice and all Mothers without whom we would have no Church;
My discernment of a vocation to the Permanent Diaconate;
All those suffering in China and Myanmar in the wake of the earthquakes and tsunamis;
All who suffer persecution for their faith and belief in God.

Esther
for my dear father in law and his wife's private intentions.
for My sister and brother in law's renting their home to good and responsible people.

Karnak: to secure another more interesting job by the end of the year.

I also will be praying for one of my private intentions during this novena.

Therese.

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be the first day of The novena to St. Therese.

If you have any special prayer intentions that you want me to pray for while doing this novena leave a comment and I will include it in my prayer intentions. If you want me to pray but don't want to tell me what for, just leave a message that you want me to pray for a private intention. Let us all storm heaven together.

Therese

Sunday Morning.

It is a cold and rainy morning.

This morning Sam was suppose to start work at 5.00. His alarm didn't go off. He woke me at 5.50 and said I have to go. I am late. When I looked at the time, I told him he better ring and tell them he had slept in. I went and took him and then decided to stay up on computer. I caught up with a couple of blogs and was so cold I went back to bed. It was nice and warm and I could hear the rain on the roof. I think that cuddling in a nice warm bed and listening to the rain would have to be in my top ten of favourite things to do.

I got one curtain for the girls room done yesterday and I am hoping to finish them of today. Tomorrow I will do the last one for our bedroom.

I am also hoping to get some winter jackets made for us all in the next couple of weeks.

This Friday our parish is having a dinner. It is to raise money for the youth to go to WYD. Our whole family is going and I am looking forward to a night out. We went to Mass last night because I was on ticket sales before and after mass. I will go and sell them today as well.

A long weekend.

This weekend Australia has Monday off to celebrate the Queen's birthday. Even though The Queen's actual birthday is on April 21st, we celebrate it in June.

The weather looks like it is going to be a bit cold but it is a perfect chance to spend some time sewing curtains. I am hoping to get the girls room done and do our last curtain in our bedroom.

Last night Steve and I watched Memphis Bell. It was a good movie. I enjoyed watching it. Steve's and my movie tastes are so opposite that we rarely can find a movie to watch that we are both interested in. This one we both enjoyed though. It reminded me of Pearl Harbor.

An oldy but a goodie.

SISTER MARY ANN'S GASOLINE
Sister Mary Ann, who worked for a home health agency, was out making her rounds visiting homebound patients when she ran out of gas. As luck would have it, a Texaco Gasoline station was just a block away.

She walked to the station to borrow a gas can and buy some gas. The attendant told her that the only gas can he owned had been loaned out, but she could wait until it was returned. Since Sister Mary Ann was on the way to see a patient, she decided not to wait and walked back to her car.

She looked for something in her car that she could fill with gas and spotted the bedpan she was taking to the patient. Always resourceful, Sister Mary Ann carried the bedpan to the station, filled it with gasoline, and carried the full bedpan back to her car.

As she was pouring the gas into her tank, two Methodists watched from across the street. One of them turned to the other and said,

'If it starts, I'm turning Catholic.'

look at these.

I got sent these pictures in an email. These babies are made of marzipan. Marzipan is an icing that is made from sugar and almond paste. I find it amazing that someone can make these from icing sugar.

Five people in five categories.

Jean did the meme Ten people I would like to have 10 minutes with

and mentioned the Five people for five categories meme

I decided I wanted to do this one.

"If you could meet and have a deep conversation with any five people on earth, living or dead, from any time period, who would they be?" (Explaining why is optional.)

Name five people from each of the following categories:
Saints, Those in the Process of Being Canonized, Heroes from your native country, Authors/Writers, celebrities.

5 saints:

St. Therese of the child Jesus.
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
St. Thomas Moore.
St. Joseph
St. Gianna Beretta Molla.

5 in the process of being canonized:

Blessed Mary Mckillop.
Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen.
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
Pope John Paul 11.

5 heroes from Australia.

Archbishop Pell.
Sir Donald Bradman
Edith Cowan
Sir Charles Kingsford Smith.
Sir Robert Menzies

5 Author's.

Mary Higgins Clark
CS Lewis.
Agatha Christie.
Paul Thigpen
Laura Birquist.

5 celebrities.

Judy Garland
Audrey Hepburn
Fred Astaire
Paul Hogan
Bert Newton.

Tag 5 people.

Jessica from the Flying Dutch Girl
Mark from Dominican Idaho
Marco from Third blog from the right
Leah from Lowdenclear
Shelly from Keeper of the Keys.

Wordless Wednesday.

10 people I would like to have 10 minutes with.

I read this on Ebeth's blog and wanted to do it.

1. Pope Benedict.
2. St. Therese
3. St. Elizabeth Seaton.
4. My Father's mother Annie.
5. My father's father, Thomas.
6. Cardinal Pell.
7. Mother Angelica.
8. Steve Ray.
9. Pope John Paul 11.
10. The Queen of England.

Who do you want to spend 10 minutes with?

Of course, I would love to meet all the people I know online but 10 minutes wouldn't be enough for all of them. I would want at least to have a meal with them.

Little Miss Splendid.

A while back I made a blog for my daughter Madeline. I didn't realize at the time you had to be 13 or older to have a blog. When I found out, I let her keep the blog but made it private.

Back in March, Madeline turned 13. She decided she wanted a new blog so started LIttle Miss Splendid

A great day.

Today I changed our home school and housework routine and it was great. The children seemed to like it too.

I have decided to get the children a bit more involved in the housework and be close by doing other things while they are sitting at the table working on their school work.

So I told them this morning that we were going to do things differently today. We started with prayer and then read a book. We then went in and they helped me clean up my bedroom and sewing area. My sewing area has been very neglected for the last couple of weeks and it tends to be a bit of a dumping ground for the children when I am not tidying it regularly. We did the room in 20 minutes so I let them go and play. Sam was home so I got him to go out and play a game of soccer with them. They really liked this. They had a snack and then played for a while together in the cubby house.

After their break I gave them both their spelling list and activities. I told Tom to do his spelling while Amelia read to me and then Tom read to me while Amelia did her spelling. They both needed to do a bit more work on their spelling when I had finished listening to them read so I went into the kitchen and started to prepare to make some muffins. I was still close by to them if they needed some help. My plan was to get them to help with the cooking once they had finished their spelling. When Tom finished his spelling he asked me if he could draw because they had some new colouring pencils. I said fine so they drew pictures while I cooked the muffins.

While the muffins were cooking, Tom and Amelia did some maths and then literacy. It was time for lunch so we packed up the home school books together and then ate lunch. In the afternoon, they played a couple of computer games and I cleaned up from my cooking and put the muffins away (before the other children came home and helped themselves to them all).

I found the day moved very smoothly and the children didn't object as much to working. I think they liked working together. I was concerned about giving them a break after only prayer, reading a book and doing a chore that they wouldn't want to come back and do anymore school work or housework. They surprised me when they did come back so willingly.

My plan is to continue this for the rest of the week. We will see how it goes. I am pretty confident we have found a good working routine that the children like and I like too. Best of all, the house is tidier than it has been any other day. Steve came home tonight and said wow, everything is so tidy. Hopefully this will continue and we will have a happy balance here for school work and house work.