Which colour do you like?

I have put a poll in the sidebar and want your opinion of what colour roof you think we should have. If you click on the picture and make it bigger you should be able to see all the colours.

If you think we should have something completely different let me know in the comment box too.

Thanks
Therese

New front door.

Tonight Steve put in our new front door. Our house looks much better with the new door.

Now we just have to paint the roof and the front of the house is finished.

I am going to post some pictures of the house with different colours for the roof and I would love everyone opinion on what colour we should go with.

Therese

Brigette's new outfit.

Here is the photo of Brigette that I took of her new outfit. It was all ready for her to wear to camp but the elastic in the top was too tight so she wore a different top with the shorts.

The pattern we used was The Lizzie McGuire Simplicity Pattern I showed here

Hot Blog.

This is a picture made by Fr. John Speekman

He made it with a really cool program but I cannot remember the name of it. Isn't he clever?

Anyway he told me to pass it onto some blogs so that we can have another award floating around the blogsphere.

I will pass it onto 6 bloggers and those 6 can pass it onto 6 other bloggers.

Don't forget to post the picture in your sidebar to show everyone how hot your blog is.

My 6 hot blogs are:

Laura from Laura the Crazy Mama

Purple Flower Patch from He knows my name

Esther from a Catholic mom in Hawaii

Annie from under her starry Mantle

Tania from Outback.

Vicki from Deogratias

Great pro lifer.

This guy is my newest favourite pro life supporter.

Wordless Wednesday.

Our first Sturt Desert Pea flowers. Steve planted these in September I think.

An Award.

Thanks so much to LD Synder from Poetry and Other Ramblings for passing on the friendship award.

So many bloggers have become really good friends and it is hard to pass it on to just 10.

I pass it onto the following people.


Regan and John Michael from St. Robert Bellarmine: Controversies and secrets.

Melissa from Almost Catholic Momma.

Jean from Catholic Fire

Marilena from St. Philomena's Garden.

Shirley from Seeking Jesus.

Kimberly from Our God is an Awesome God.

Kathy from The Daily Grotto.

Shelly from The Keeper of The Keys.

JoAnn from Creamer Chronicles.

Louise from Purcell's Chicken Voluntary.

Thank you all for your friendship and thank you LD for passing this award onto me.

I have started my summer sewing

Here is Amelia in her new bathers. I wanted something modest and stylish. I had this pattern sent out from the States a couple of years ago. Click here to see the site I bought them from.

Today I also helped Brigette sew her first pair of shorts. She is going on camp on Thursday for one night and wanted a new outfit to wear. I will put some photos up of the shorts and top when we finish her top.

Happy Birthday Sam.

15 Years ago today we had our second child. Sam was our second son and I was very glad that Daniel had a brother to grow up with. Daniel was 22 months at the time.

Sam was 4 weeks prem but still weighed 6 # 10 oz. (2990 grams). We were told he would probably have trouble feeding but he feed like a champ. We were also told he would probably need to go under the lights for jaundice but didn't need that either.

Happy Birthday Sam. I cannot believe 15 years has gone by since you have joined our family. We feel very blessed by God to have you as a part of our family. Thank you for being you.

God bless
Mum and Dad.

Sunday Silence.

Adelaide Cathedral.

This is funny.

Worst Best Man Ever @ Yahoo! Video

H/T to Paramedic Girl for this video.

Abortion is a form of Terrorism.

This is an essay my son Daniel wrote against abortion.

ABORTION IS A FORM OF TERRORISM

Do you support abortion? Now ask yourself, do you support killing babies? The medical definition of abortion is “the removal of a fetus from the uterus.” It is a scientific fact that the foetus is more than a bundle of living cells, it is unique human life. In removing the child from the uterus we are killing it, killing human life, killing a child.

The right to life is one of the most basic and important rights that we have as human beings. Yet we believe we have the right to take it away from these young and innocent developing children. Why do we talk about them as some thing that we can treat as property?

Some heartless people would argue that it is better to allow abortions than have “unwanted” children in the world. There is no value whatsoever to not existing, it is just nothing. Life has value in and of itself. In accepting abortion we are accepting the value of no life. This is a form of selfish thinking because we are the only ones that experience the so called “benefit”. But what is the benefit of no life? Every person contributes to society, the unborn child can only contribute if it is born. The absence of this child is therefore a loss to all of society.

Abortion is a form of terrorism. It is human sacrifice to a false god of selfish individual choice. Life is like a tree, you plant the seed, nourish it and it will grow. Abortion is like planting the seed and letting the tree grow, and then when it is about to sprout fourth fruit chopping it down. Killing it. Giving it no chance to flourish.

Some “abortion terrorists” will argue that the foetus is not a child until it is able to feel pain. The majority of abortions occur between 8 to 12 weeks. When the foetus is a mere 8 weeks old, it is fully capable of feeling pain. If you poke a young infant with a pin you know what happens. She pulls away and opens her mouth to cry. If you poke an 8 week old foetus in the palm of his hand he pulls his hand away and opens his mouth to cry. In other words, changes in heart rate of a young foetus prove that intrauterine manipulations are painful to the child.

Other “abortion terrorists” argue that the foetus is not a person because it cannot think. Wrong! If a man was driving his car and had a horrible accident in which he was left in a vegetable state, unable to think, would this make him not a person? It is also clinically proven that a child recognises the voice patterns of his parents whilst inside the womb. Being able to recognise voice patterns represents the ability of the foetus to think.

In the year 2002, there was approximately 73,300 “human sacrifices” funded by private medical companies within Australia. This is 73,300 people that now cease to exist and are not given the chance to contribute to society. It is estimated that in the western world there are 2,100,000 abortions per year. This is a ridiculous amount of people that will never exist because of someone’s selfish motives.

There are many cases that make abortion seem like the best alternative, for example in the case of a woman being raped; some “abortion terrorists” would argue that it is not her child and that she has the choice whether to keep it or not. In been raped, the woman has already had her body violated. In turning to abortion, the operation is just another violation of her body. Why should the innocent child cease to exist because of someone else’s sins? This child has never done anything wrong yet he is the one that has to suffer the consequences for someone else’s wrong actions. Is that fair?

“Abortion terrorists” claim that because abortion is legal, it must be ok. Wrong! Many years ago, slavery also used to be legal, but was it morally right? Another way of looking at this is that it is legal for a man to sleep with another mans wife, but is it morally right? Abortion is morally wrong, it is a form of human sacrifice. It is time that society opens its eyes and puts a stop to this ridiculous act of terrorism.

Daniel


Resources
“WHY CANT WE LOVE THEM BOTH” Dr C.J Wilke, Ch 14 ‘Fetal Pain” 1997 Hayes Publishing Company 6304 Hamilton Avenue Cincinnati, Ohio 45224 Online accessed 12/10/08 at 10:12am http://www.abortionfacts.com/online_books/love_them_both/why_cant_we_love_them_both_14.asp

“Fundamental Issues” Mark K. Sprengel, May 5, 1999 Online accessed 12/10/08 at 10:26am http://www.abortionfacts.com/parsing_the_arguments/sprengel.asp

“How many abortions are there in Australia? A discussion of abortion statistics, their limitations, and options for improved statistical collection” Angela Pratt, Amanda Biggs and Luke Buckmaster Parliament of Australia Published 14 February 2005 Online accessed 15/10/08 at 4:22pm http://www.aph.gov.au/library/Pubs/RB/2004-05/05rb09.htm

Birthday Baby.

Anna is a baby who's caring bridge page I started following over a year ago.

In January she lost her fight with Leah's syndrome and went to the arms of Jesus. Anna's parents have kept her caring bridge page updated still and I read it everytime it is update. The latest update is so beautiful I asked Kyle if I could post it here:

Some babies are born 'hurry up and wait.' Not with Anna two years ago today. We hurried up and still barely got there in time. Within about half an hour of getting to the hospital, we were seeing Anna smile for the first time, and she was passing her first of what proved to be many medical tests in her short life with flying colors. We could never have imagined what was to come.

Not all of our trips to hospitals with Anna would be so happy. By March, three of us would be basically living in a hospital, far from home, thinking Anna would never leave it, and almost certain we would never see her flash that beautiful smile again no matter what.

We did, though. She got out of the hospital later that month. And soon thereafter we saw her smile again.

I thought of that the other day, how unbelievably huge a milestone that little half smile was. Such a small thing, but one which meant everything.

It would be easy to spend this day mourning the things that could be, a little toddler running around the house and talking and arguing with her sister and eating birthday cake and opening presents with family and friends. Inevitably, those thoughts are going to come to mind.

But I have to say that one of the main graces that sustained us through all the hardship and still sustains us in our grief is gratitude, gratitude to God for what we have been given. From the earliest moments, I believe by a special grace of God, we have known that the remedy for this and every other pain of life is gratitude. It has become a habit, to the point that many people are probably sick of hearing us say the word.

But I have to say it again. I am grateful for the gift of knowing Anna. I'm grateful for the gift of every second of her life, even those last ones seared in my mind. I'm grateful for the opportunity to suffer with and for her, to stand vigil by that hospital bed in the night by the glow of monitors and hold her hand. I'm grateful for every tear, and the ocean of them yet contained in me. I'm grateful for her blue eyes, her courage, her good nature, her crooked grin, her feeding tube, her little feet, every med, every changed diaper. Every bit of it. I'm grateful for every doctor and nurse, every prayer-filled family member and friend, every kind word, every visitor.

I'm grateful for that first smile after Mayo.

And I am grateful that Anna is in heaven, waiting for me and praying for me. Even if I miss her terribly.

All our love through Christ,

Kyle (for Sandy and Elisabeth)

Watch a video clip of Anna

I will extol you, O LORD, for you have drawn me up
and have not let my foes rejoice over me.
O LORD my God, I cried to you for help,
and you have healed me.
O LORD, you have brought up my soul from Sheol;
you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.
Sing praises to the LORD, O you his saints,
and give thanks to his holy name.
For his anger is but for a moment,
and his favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may tarry for the night,
but joy comes with the morning.
- Psalm 30:1-5

Thankful Thursday.

What are you thankful for today?

I am thankful for the blogging community and all the friends I have made online.

Add your thanks for anything in the comment box.

Cell phone vs . Bible

Ever wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat

our cell phone?

What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?

What if we flipped through it several time a day?

What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?

What if we used it to receive messages from the text?

What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?

What if we gave it to kids as gifts?

What if we used it when we traveled?

What if we used it in case of emergency?

This is something to make you go....hmm...where is my Bible?

Oh, and one more thing.
Unlike our cell phone, we don't have to worry about our Bible being
disconnected because Jesus already paid the bill.

Makes you stop and think 'where are my priorities? And no dropped calls!

Have a blessed and wonderful day!

Knock, Knock I knocked at heaven's door this morning. God asked me...'My child, what can I do for you?' And I said, 'Father, please protect and bless the person reading this message.' God smiled and answered...'Request granted' . .'

THIS IS PRETTY NEAT,

Place your mouse on the E below and drag to the U.

E ven though you can't see Him, GOD is there for yo U

When Jesus died on the cross, he was thinking of you!

If you are one of the 7% who will stand up for Him, forward this.

93% of people won't forward this.

Thanks to Abbey for emailing me this.

The type one mom song.

Mary Jayne from Type One Parents saw My post on momsense and sent me a message about this video.




This is very similar to what our life is like with diabetes. I would like to support jdrf but while they are spending funds on embryonic stem cell research I am not able to support them and have a clear conscience.

---------------------------------------------------

Theresa:

A couple of weeks ago, a poster called Theresa left a comment on my post about Tom. Theresa, if you are reading this I would love to speak to you via email about diabetes and home schooling. My email is in my profile or if you want to leave a comment here with your email, I am happy to email you.

Thanks
Therese

Tasty Tuesday.

This weekend I did my big cook. I still have a couple of dishes to do but we have enough meals for the next month in our freezer. I am hoping we will have the money for a new big freezer before Christmas so that I can start cooking muffins and biscuits ahead for snacks too.

In the freezer we have:

Spaghetti sauce.
Chicken Snitzel
meatloaf
pizza
chicken spaghetti
chicken and corn casserole.
carrot and zucchini slice
stew

Still to cook are

mac and cheese
potato pancakes.

Here is my recipe for chicken and corn casserole.

300 grams chicken fillets.
1 tin corn kernels
1 tin creamed corn
100 grams each red and green capsicum
100 grams carrots cut
1 whole onion
350 ml sour cream
1 cup chicken broth.
1 tbspn curry. (or less - we like it spicy here)

cook chicken on stove top and add to all other ingredients in casserole dish. bake at 180 Celsius for 45 minutes. Serve with rice.

Do you want a Patron Saint for 2009?

This year St. Gianna has been praying for me and I have asked for her intercession many times. Angela Messenger did the Patron saints last year and this year Marilena from A Traditional Catholic has taken on the job.

So if you want a Patron Saint to pray for you through the year, go and ask Marilena and I she will pair you up with someone.

I am going to have St. Anne praying for me next year.

Edit to add the patron saint for the year is now closed. 1/1/2009

Sunday Silence.

St. John of the Cross. Feast day 20 October.

Do you remember momsense?

I posted this last year sometime. I view it regularly. Today when I went to have another look at it I found this one.

Dadsense.

The man cold.

This is so funny.

H/T to Esther

Soccer starts in Port Augusta.

Tonight we had the first round of soccer at Central Oval. Tom and Amelia are our two players this year.

They are playing every Friday night for the next 9 weeks and then in first term next year.

The team Tom and Amelia played won hands down but Tom was goalie for the first half and stopped many goals. He also got a goal in the second half but the referee said no goal because the goalie from the other team had his hand on the ball. Oh well. The season is young and they have plenty of more games to go. I will take some photos at some stage and post them.

Thankful Thursday.

Once a fortnight on Thursday we get paid and I pay all our bills for the fortnight. Going over all our bills and expenses today I realized how blessed we are in the western world.

I never have to worry about when we will be able to eat,
I never have to worry about not having clothes or shelter.
I know that we can provide well for all our children's needs.
We even have left over for extras and have been able to spend a lot of money on renovations and regular holidays.
We have good health care and can get help with any need from Tom's diabetes to any flu that one of us may get.
I know I am loved by Steve and the children.

I am thankful for the lifestyle we have and realize that many people are not nearly as blessed as we are.

Thank you Lord for looking after all our needs and giving us extra blessings too.

Therese

Ave Maria Gratia Plena...: You're walking down the street one day with five friends and you see a woman being raped...

Why be against ......

The gift of motherhood.

H/T to Ebeth at A Catholic Mom Climbing the Pillars

Occasional Care.

One of the kindy's here has an Occasional Care program for children that are pre kindy age. Today Christopher went for his first day of Occasional Care. I will be taking him every Tuesday for the rest of this term.

Here are a couple of photos of him. The first is Christopher at home with his kindy bag all packed. The second one is doing some hammering. This was the activity he was doing this morning when I left him there.

It was a bit funny cooking in the kitchen without him. He usually brings a chair into the kitchen when I cook to stand on and see everything that is going on.

Therese

Happy Birthday Steve.

Today Steve turns 42. Here he is cutting his Triple Chocolate Cheesecake

Followers.

A couple of days ago Sr. Mary Martha left a comment on my blog.

I told my husband and he said well you better drop her a line and ask her to comment all the time because it gives your ego a big boost.

Then today Jackie commented on the amount of followers I have. I knew that I did have 27 followers but I thought other bloggers had many more. I was surprised looking around at the different widgets how many followers other bloggers have so my ego got another boost this week.

So thanks to all the people that have signed up to be a follower. If there are others out there reading my blog, click on the widget to let me know and follow along with my blog. I have put all the blogs I have in google reader in my following list. Google update your dashboard whenever the blogs you are following are updated. I read updates at my dashboard and in google reader. I really like the way google have put it all together and knowing who is following along reading my blog.

Therese.

Sunday Silence.

New TV.

This is our new TV.

I picked it up this morning as a present for Steve for his birthday. We were going to get a new one for Christmas but I decided to surprise Steve with it for his birthday so it is here a bit earlier.

Tonight Steve and I will watch X-Men once the children are in bed.

What a nice surprise.

Your result for The Commonly Confused Words Test...

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Take The Commonly Confused Words Test at HelloQuizzy

Victoria decriminalizes Abortion laws.

This makes me feel sick

As soon as I read that the bill looked like passing, Steve and I sat down and prayed the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary. Unfortunately the bill still passed.

Premier John Brumby said he was pleased the bill had passed and he believed they had done the right thing.

How sad that a Premier believes killing innocent little babies is the right thing to do.

Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

Tonight Steve took our children to see Journey to the Centre of the earth. Since Christopher is only three and the movie looked a bit too scary for him, he and I went out for ice cream at Hungry Jacks. The other children all enjoyed the movie but Tom said it was a bit frightening and made him feel a bit sick.

We have had my girlfriend Di and her husband Mark staying with their three children since Tuesday. Tomorrow they leave to go home. School starts again on Monday. I will spend a bit of the weekend preparing Tom and Amelia's last term of school work. We only have 9 weeks of school left for the year.

Two tags.

Shelly from Keeper of the Keys tagged me for this fun meme.

Here's the deal - go to your pictures, go to the 6th file, go to the 6th picture and then post it. For bonus points [yeah, sure, there's points] see if you can remember even taking the picture.


So here is the photo:


I cannot remember taking it. I would say though that Tom took this photo instead of doing his spelling that Amelia is so diligently doing in this photo. I was probably out hanging washing when Tom took this photo. I didn't even know we had it on the computer.

I tag the following for this fun tag:

Esther

Karen

Catholic Convert

JoAnn

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Esther also tagged me. My Unspectacular Quirks Meme.


Here are the rules:

The RULES
1. Link the person who tagged you.
2. Post these rules.
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag 6 fellow bloggers by linking them.

1. I hate going to bed but love being up early. The only way I can get up early is if I go to bed early.

2. I love having a dog but hate it when he wants me to pat him and gets in my face.

3. I like our children to have home made muffins and quiches for their snacks but hate cooking them.

4. I love meeting new people but I am often too shy to walk up to them and introduce myself.

5. This is the third time I have done this meme but I like doing meme's.

6. I thought it was my dream to build our own dream home but I think renovating our house has been more fun.

I am going to tag the following for this meme:

Journey of Truth

Kalona

Fr. John Speekman

Terrilyn

Our Summer Sewing.

A casual dress for Madeline.


These two New Look patterns are for Amelia.



Some casual pants for me. (Another New Look pattern)


The pattern on the left is for Brigette and the dress and top will be for both Brigette and Amelia.

A fun weekend.

We are back from our trip and had lots of fun. We did lots of shopping and saw lots of family and friends. Thanks so much to Louise and Maddie for putting us up for the two nights and to my hhc (Holden Hill Corespondent) and Mrs. hhc for having Brigette. Thanks also to Lynda and Mary Anne for your warm hospitality. It was great to catch up.

From our shopping, I bought a couple of patterns for summer, some summer outfits for the girls and some cups, plates and kitchen ware for the house from Ikea.

We only took one photo for the whole trip and that was of my hhc. I will have to ask him if he minds us putting him up on the net before I post it. If you are reading this Mal, let me know in the comment box.

Therese.

Thank you everyone.

In looking back over my weeks posts I realized that I hadn't thanked people for their birthday wishes or for the support and encouragement I got from everyone praying and offering words to help with Tom.

So thanks for all the birthday wishes. We had a good day and I am looking forward to another year.

Thanks also to all the people that are offering prayers and help for Tom. This week has been a pretty hard week with his diabetes but I know that all the people praying for us has helped. We are having some high sugars but they are not off the planet. My thinking is Tom has had a growth spurt and needs a higher basal rate. I will be speaking with his endo and working out the best rate for him.

We are now at the end of our first week of holidays and I am feeling rested already. Next week should be just as good. The girls and I will be in Adelaide for the weekend so I probably won't be updating my blog. I will have lots of photos to share when we get back on Monday.

I think the boys will have a great weekend at home without us. Steve has said it will be very quiet here. I can just picture Tom and Christopher sitting on the wii all weekend and Steve, Daniel and Sam on the computers. Since we have three now they won't have to share.

Have a great weekend.


Therese

View From The Pews: A Family Blessing

View From The Pews: A Family Blessing

click on the link to see Ginny's wonderful post.

Thankful Thursday.

Today I am thankful for my mother. She has come up for a holiday with us and it is good to have her here.

I will take her home when I take the girls to Adelaide this weekend.

I received the following from Abbey



The Images of Mother

4 YEARS OF AGE - My Mommy can do anything!

8 YEARS OF AGE - My Mom knows a lot! A whole lot!

12 YEARS OF AGE - My Mother doesn't really know quite everything.

14 YEARS OF AGE - Naturally, Mother doesn't know that, either.

16 YEARS OF AGE - Mother? She's hopelessly old-fashioned.

18 YEARS OF AGE - That old woman? She's way out of date!

25 YEARS OF AGE - Well, she might know a little bit! about it .

35 YEARS OF AGE - Before we decide, let's get Mom's opinion.

45 YEARS OF AGE - Wonder what Mom would have thought about it?

65 YEARS OF AGE - Wish I could talk it over with Mom.

The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place here love resides. The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole, but true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows, and the beauty of a woman with passing years only grows!

Today is my birthday.

I turn 42. My mother has come up to stay with us and took us out for tea tonight. We went to Barnacle Bill's which is a seafood restaurant chain here in Australia. Seafood is one of my favourite meals and Barnacle Bill's is good value for money.

I got lots of chocolates and sweets from the children and a gift card from my mother for presents. I am going to get a few sewing accessories from Steve when I am in Adelaide with the girls.