He then took up a collection among all his soldiers, amounting to two thousand silver drachmas, which he sent to Jerusalem to provide for an expiatory sacrifice. In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection in mind;for if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. – 2 Maccabees 12:43-46

This Friday, November 22, marks the 8th anniversary of the death of a good friend of mine, Rick Toracinta. Would you, in your charity, offer a prayer for the repose of his soul?

We went camping over the weekend at Mistletoe State Park near Augusta, Georgia. It was our first camping trip since our last, scorpion stinging camping trip three years ago. This trip was much, much better, much better!

 

We left in the early afternoon on Friday and headed north, with a pit stop in Macon to pick up some snacks at Kroger. (Side story, I’ve had two Kroger/Payless gift cards in the van for quite a while now. I handed them to Joshua and said use them. I thought there was maybe $2-5 on the cards, but it turns out they had over $20 between the two, awesome!) 

 

We got to the park, after getting lost a few times, and found an awesome site (tent only site 81), and set up as the sun was heading down. We started a fire and grilled some shrimp and sat around the fire for a bit, then headed to bed, with some very excited kids. The baby slept from 10-6, which was pretty awesome.

 

After breakfast around the fire, we headed out to actually register at the camp and then headed to the park to play, eat lunch, then head out for a hike. Joshua took the three older kids on a two mile hike while the baby, Benedict, and I headed back to the campsite after going about 1/4 of a mile with them. Scholastica slept for a while and Bene played around the campsite then built himself a little boat.

 

Joshua and the older kids survived the hike then we headed out to swim, then back for dinner and s’mores oh, and hot chocolate. After inducing a sugar coma, we all washed up and headed for bed, so we could be up and ready to go Mass the next day.

 

We woke up super early and headed to Mass in Augusta at Holy Trinity. What a beautiful church! For starters, it was wonderful, just wonderful to hear a real organ being played. After Mass, we took the kids around to look at the stained glass windows and discussed with what each one was and the symbolism in them. There was even a very old statue of St. Martin de Porres. No pictures were taken as our phones were charging in the van. (Sorry, Andrea)

 

Before heading back to break camp, we did the RiverWalk in Savannah and stopped at Dunkin’ Donuts.

 

Overall, I’d say we did a pretty good job camping and I look forward to going again, hopefully before the weather gets warm again. (Not that it is that cool here, but it is cooling down.)  It has renewed my interest in heading over to our local state park to make sure we get some hiking done during the cool season.

I’d marry him all over again.

 

 

This kid turned three two weeks ago. What? How did that happen? Here he’s posing for  a picture we sent to Joshua while he was in Dallas this past week. He’s quite the ham, as you can tell. He loves to build Legos and color coordinates his towers. He is also very helpful around the house as well and eats like he’s never been fed before. He also likes to pray and thinks that every time we sit down to eat that it is his turn to lead. He has a little litany that he does as well, that goes on for about a minute or so. How could our Blessed Mother not smile with joy at the words “St. Mama Mary, pray for us!”?

 

 

She will be six months on Sunday! SIX MONTHS! She’s been pulling herself up on a few things, which blows me away. She chases the big kids around the house as well. She loves the attention she gets from the big kids and gets kinda sad if there is no one around to notice her. She likes to stick out her tongue but getting a picture has proven difficult, but I finally got one.

 

 

Margaret is my helper! In this picture, she was sorting clean laundry for me and folded a good bit of it. She just started second grade and has impressed me with her diligence in her school work. She also likes to draw and is turning into quite the little artist. She’s part of a Little Flower group and loves all things St. Therese. She also loves St. Michael and has proclaimed him her new favorite saint.

 

 

Oh, Karol, the first born. Some days I’m amazed I don’t have a head full of grey hair because of this boy, but he is such a gentle soul. He started third grade this year and is learning that schoolwork gets harder as you go along. Some days we work for 5-6 hours on his subjects, and most of the time, he’s not a fan of that, but he’s figuring out that working hard will get him his half hour of video game time in the afternoon. He is also the chicken man in the house. He takes them out each day, watches them while they peck around the yard, then collects eggs.

 

 

 

And this is the little girl my mother wished upon me when I was a little girl.  She’s me in just about every way, temper and all.  She’s a loving little one though and love to give hugs and kisses. She always asks to hug people as we leave their house or they leave our house, it’s quite charming. She’s getting to the point where she doesn’t hide when it is time for chores and actually offers to help me out. She love to color and play with her little sister.  Oh, and she is learning to read. We’ve (well Joshua) has been working with her for a few months now, but this week she just took off on her own and has been sounding out and reading words.

 

 

No, school doesn’t look like this everyday, but hey, if Benedict wants to sit and color, that makes me happy. If he’s not coloring, he’s usually running through the house like a madman or pretending to be a very loud superhero. This year, when I ordered school supplies, I made sure to get everyone their own pencil box and told them they got two pencils and it will cost a quarter to replace them if lost, haven’t lost a pencil yet.

We are also doing our third year of Kolbe and still really like it. In addition to the lesson plans they send me, I sit down each day and write out what I expect the big kids to get done, so a daily lesson plan. It helps a lot, as I am not always able to sit at the table with them, and they are able to move on to the next subject.  When done, they just check off the box and move on. Then I go back later and correct the work, make notes, then give feedback. It works out pretty well, I think.

Could there be any cuter of a baby girl? (Okay, I’m sure there is, but really, really, this one tops the list!)

She’s crawling all over, sitting up on her own, and today discovered that she could suck on her own foot. She attacks the Lego towers, eats paper on the floor, likes to have tons of attention, and knows what to do when a camera is put in her face.

*Note, clicking on this image will give you a huge, screen filling image of Baby S, just so you know.

 

We’re busy around here, with a crawling baby, cool summer weather, kitchen experiments, and laundry. I have lots of pictures to post soon, but until then, I leave you this: