Happiest of Halloweens from:
Robin Hood
Sir Bam-Bam
and, The Plumber
The family is a beautiful image of he Trinity. The man is head and he
resembles the eternal Father, and like the Father he is to protect, to provide,
to create, and tounderstand. He is to be compassionate like the Father and full
of mercy.The woman is made to the image of Jesus, and like Jesus she is to be meek, loving, ameans of reconciliation and gentleness. She has intuition . She has something aman doesn't have: she is intuitive.
The children are like the Spirit. As the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the
Son, so the children proceed from the husband and wife. Like the Spirit they are
a power, a bond of union, joy and love. We call this 'family.'Now, when the one in the middle wants to be head or the children want to be head, we have a distortion of the family image made to the Trinity, and you cannot deviate from this plan of God! When you do, you have a monster in your family. That's way the families today are not what they should be...
First, get out your supplie -- 9x12 construction paper (shown here folded in half to make a 9x6); pencil, colored pencils (on the black paper, white really shows up nicely!), marker and glue stick and scissors.
With the fold at the top, draw the cat's tail, than the body as one piece -- legs, up and around (to leave space for head) and then the other leg up to the neck. I've shown here the head drawn between the legs (you can be persnickety and use a cup to draw a perfect circle, but I like the more natural less-than-perfect look!). I've also drawn triangles for the ears.
Cut out the pieces -- here you can see that this makes a 4-legged beast as God made the cat!
Glue the pieces in place ... don't worry too much about placement. Kids can tip the cat's head (even accidentally) and the cats look much more real. Here, I've shown the tail being glued to the front -- if you'd like to make the tail look "more" realistic, glue the tail in place on the back side of the cat.
Draw in details -- here we used a green colored pencil to make the eyes "glow". Now, if you want to make a lion, here's what we did .... using yellow paper we did just as above. The mane is cut from two squares of paper -- one orange, one yellow -- that are about 4" x 5" (the orange is a bit smaller) ... we then randomly cut strips going toward the center (leaving a 1.5 x 1.5 inch center). Crinkle this in your palm to get the mane separated ...
and then glue the cat face onto the mane and the mane onto the body.
Some tips for this project:
1. the better quality (or heavier) construction paper the better ability to stand
2. the placement of the head affects the "tippiness" of the cat -- if necessary, you can make a paper brace to hold the legs up by cutting a strip of paper, folding each end in about 1/2 an inch or so, and gluing these "tabs" to the feet (as shown above) or higher up the leg to be less obvious
3. you can really go wild with these -- using yarn for manes, pipe cleaners for whiskers, color the cat before cutting out (black stripes on orange would make a tiger), etc.
Just have fun with this one!
And the back end so you can see what that looks like, too! 
The film is rated PG-13 for the subject matter and a brief, and well-handled accident scene. It's too bad it has to have a rating at all .... EVERYONE should go see this one! The conversations that this will engender will be useful for all .... the teens at their lockers on Monday morning, the family around the dinner table on Sunday night, the adults at work ... in carpool line ... or blogging this weekend ...
Because, you see, this movie will speak to everyone in the audience differently ... dh saw it as a movie about how to "be a man", I saw it as how best to live with irreversible events, the littles saw it as a beautiful love story, granmere saw it as reality.
Bella, a movie all should watch (and then live the message!).
B-18. Left-Handed Students
The National Education Association believes that the needs of all students, including left-handed students, should be met. The Association also believes that appropriate governing agencies should provide desks, scissors, and all other materials and instruments necessary for left-handed students to achieve on an equal basis with right-handed students. The Association strongly recommends preservice preparation and staff development for education employees that present strategies for handwriting instruction to left-handed students. Such training should also address sensitizing instructional staff to the needs of
left-handed students. (1979, 2001)
First, get out your supplies: good, large & unblemished apples, sharp knife (or kids can use a ball point pen/plastic fork or knife), bowl, lemon juice, directions (in the book).
Peel the apple so that all peel is removed -- probably best for an adult to do this step as you need a SHARP knife.
Carve the face -- start with the nose, cutting away the sides so the nose is above the rest of the face. Make holes for eyes and cut in the mouth, chin, cheeks, etc. The one on the right was "cut" using the back end of a plastic fork -- the definition seems better than the one on the left where a sharp knife was used!
Place the apples in a deep enough bowl so that the apples can be covered with lemon juice (to which 1-2 tbls of salt has been added). For our two apples, I used a whole bottle of lemon juice. Let the apples soak, submerged for at least 5 minutes.
Place the apples on a rack (or hang from string) to dry completely. The apples should shrivel up and look like old, weathered faces.
(from l-r, top to bottom): LegoManiac, Mom, String Bean & Bam-Bam.
BTW, we used the Stone Beeswax crayons for the first time -- they work great with wonderful color coverage. They can blend nicely and you can adjust the amount of color by the pressure on the crayons. Plus, they give off a heavenly bee-honey smell.
The funny thing? This is EXACTLY how I am as a mom. I love to spark their interest -- which is why I lean toward an unschooling atmosphere around here -- and see them create out of nothing. My kids are all very different and so I try to read about all the different philosophies of education to see which one will work the best with which child. I am an AVID reader and love to get the kids sparked on reading -- my teens are big readers too and my littles are getting there!“I keep the encyclopedia in the kitchen so we can look up things together while we
eat.”
Intellectually curious and patient, the INTP mother relishes those times with a child when they are learning something interesting together. Whether they’re at the zoo or computer terminal, she sparks to answering his or her “whys” with in-depth responses or new knowledge. The INTP mother is also objective and introspective. She listens to and discusses children’s ideas and questions as she would those of a peer, fostering self-esteem and confidence. Open and non-directive, she allows children the freedom to do for themselves and quietly encourages them to believe they can do it. Independence, autonomy, intellectual development, and self-reliance are probably the INTP’s highest priorities for her children. An avid reader, she naturally imparts an appreciation and love of reading as well. Drawn to all types of learning, the INTP may also value her mothering experience for all the new insights about life it provides her.
LegoManiac's puppet show dealt with bionic spiders and super-heroes
String Bean (note the professional backdrop!) had a story about a rich lady and a poor man
Bam-bam's was about Nazis almost defeating Superman (the puppet that's down but eventually arises and "creams the bad guys")
The entire chapel painting 
The Blessed Mother and St. John the Evangelist at the foot of the Cross
God's hand in everything
Image of the family
Jesus pours out His blood for our lives!
LegoManiac got him Peeps -- my dh, who has done lots of food science coursework, think Peeps are second only to chocolate as the best candy. And they're wonderful for Peep-wars! We then walked to daily Mass. When we got back, we had to do a few car races and Peep-wars (while I cleaned up and did some laundry) than it was off for a day of adventure with Dad.
We went to the Denver Zoo -- which is a great zoo (if you can ignore the totally non-scientific "evolution is fact" signs scattered throughout the primate area. Dh and kids went on Friday and bought a season pass ... with the size of the zoo this makes great sense as you just can't do it all in one day. We rode the carousel and zoo train, saw the elephants and coatis and just generally had a grand time (even if they weren't selling any kettle corn for us to eat!).
We then popped over to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (which is basically next door) and had some lunch and then checked out the Native American and Egyptian exhibits. BTW, dh was impressed by the kids' knowledge of egyptology (we've been studying ancient Egypt this year). Another exhibit that dh hadn't seen is the "Russian Gem Sculptures" -- about 20 sculptures carved by Russian emigre Vasily Konovalenko, depicting Russian folk life. Very cool and easily missed as it's tucked away on the 3rd floor of the museum -- but definitely worth the hunt to find!
We ended the day with dinner and chocolate cake -- and finished watching the movie, Saint John Bosco. This is an Italian dramatization of the "apostle of the youth's" life story -- and had the family enthralled througout the 200 minutes running time! It's dubbed into English so we didn't have to "mess with" subtitles. Definitely a great family video.
Just all and all a wonderful real learning day to celebrate dad's day-off and his birthday!
and here it is the next morning .... pretty awesome scenery, huh?
This is no better exhibited than in the recent happenings on the 4real board and members' blogs. We forget that the written word is a permanent landmark -- a stake in the ground where we state something and we can't erase it, no matter how hard we try to delete or re-state.True, This! —Beneath the rule of men entirely great, the pen is mightier than the sword. Behold the arch-enchanters wand! — itself a nothing! — But taking sorcery from the master-hand to paralyse the Cæsars, and to strike the loud earth breathless! — Take away the sword —States can be saved without it!
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