Examining the Evidence for Cue feeding of Breastfed Infants at StorkNet's Breastfeeding Cubby

Examining the Evidence for Cue feeding of Breastfed Infants at StorkNet's Breastfeeding Cubby

This article is a tad scientific for a mom with lots of interuptions, but IT'S GREAT STUFF!!

* Feed the baby using the baby's cues, not a schedule
* Feed the baby until the moms' milk is gone, not because 5 minutes should be enough.
* Pay attention to baby's early hunger cues, don't wait until baby is screaming to latch-on.

It doesn't sound like much when I summerize it, but they have a bunch of science behind the it. It was really interesting....

5 REASONS WHY HIGH-NEED INFANTS SLEEP DIFFERENTLY

5 REASONS WHY HIGH-NEED INFANTS SLEEP DIFFERENTLY

One of my children was like this and didn't sleep through the night until she was 7. Looking back it makes so much sense, but at the time no-one knew what to do to help me. It was a tough looooong period of me being a tired mom.

As we age...

We notice things about ourselves we hadn't before.

For the first time in my life, I woke up this morning (at 41), looked in the mirror and thought

WOW! I REALLY need MAKE-UP!

This is a singular event for me -- it's never happened before.
I guess I'll have to call my Mary-Kay lady.

GivesMeHope.com

This stuff is GREAT! I'm laughing and crying --- and I HATE crying. People write in some of the most touching snippets of true love. http://www.givesmehope.com/

These are my some of my favorites :

My grandpa was suffering with cancer for several years after his heart transplant. In his last few days, my mom and her sisters stayed with him every night. One night his medication made him believe he was fishing in the toliet. My mom and aunts stayed up with him for hours catching fish. They GMH.

----

Today I was crying because I felt ugly and unloved and my 8 year old nephew that lives in the room next to mine comes in my room and tells me whoever doesn't think I'm the most beautiful girl in the world will get their butts kicked by him. I love my nephew, and he always GMH

Book Review : The Sacrament of Confirmation for Confirmation Candidates

The Sacrament of Confirmation For Confirmation Candidates by ESD (Edizioni Studio Domenicano) in collaboration with the Institute of St. Clement I, Pope and Martyr


We bought this book and it didn't really work for us. It was a little on the light side for Dd#1. It was also mostly review of what was in Faith & Life and other books we've done for Confirmation. I may have overbought for Confirmation Prep, but this is the first book we haven't been pleased with out of our Confirmation Plans and here. I may keep it for the other kids in case I have one that would prefer it.

Here's a more positive review of the book.

Happy 14th Birthday, Dd#1!!

She's smart and beautiful!

Spaghetti is her favorite food.

She loves truth and seeks God.

She's a peacemaker with a sharp wit.

She has a sense of humor that gets more irreverent (and fun) as she gets older.

Christ and His Church are her favorite subjects.

Someone referred to her as my right arm. That's fitting. She's the extra arms and legs helping and doing when I can only do so much.

She knows me so well, she sends me to bed for a nap and takes over when I'm running on fumes.

She loves me enough to remind me to put myself in time-out when I need one.

She sees me and I see her.

She's modest and wears it well.

She is so tender and loving with her siblings that even the dog treats her like one of the adults in the family rather than one of the kids.

Can she feel my appreciation for her efforts?

I can't imagine my life without her.
She's a comfort, like a warm blanket when it's cold.
She'a a joy, and spending time with her is becoming more and more fun.
Her smile is infectious and when she laughs I can't help but smile.
Her tastes are so similar to mine -- sometimes I forget she's not grown, yet.

Does she know how loved she is?

I always wondered if my children would want to be friends when they grew up. She's someone I would choose as a friend in a heartbeat!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful first-born gift from God.

Snow Baby

What can I give him? by St. John Chrysostom

The Magi brought gold;

you bring a temperate and virtuous spirit.

They brought incense;

you must offer pur prayers, which are the incense of the soul,

They brought myrrh; you must bring a humble and contrite heart along with alms.

~St. John Chrysostom

Advent Banner

If I was going to put the effort into making an Advent Calendar, I wanted it to really do the job. A friend had wanted to make an advent wreath and bought all the felt, but didn't have time to do it. So I inherited the materials (THANK YOU!) and set to work -er- set to thinking about it.

I've never liked the numbers on top of the scene of a Advent calendar, but I love the idea. So I thought I'd make a calendar where we insert a leaf for each day we count down. I cut TONS of leaves. I made a leaf template that was 3"x2" and cut and cut and cut (that took a whole year).

The next year, I cut the candles for the wreath and sewed on leaves and candles. I used pins to put the leaves and candles where I wanted on the purple felt and shoved it through the sewing machine. I'm not very good with the sewing machine and some of the leaves didn't lay flat. I decided that it made it look cool that way rather than messy (and I wasn't about to tear it all out.) Then I put it away 'till the next year.

In 2009, I decided I wanted to celebrate special saint days in Advent...it turns out there are lots of saint days in Advent. So I plugged saints into their dates and then plugged personal saints for our family (the names of our kids, our favorites, etc.)

I found clipart online and added a textbox that stated the saint name and date Dec 6, etc. I used Iron On Printer Paper and then ironed the
picture onto a white fabric. I cut out

pictures and text boxes (which were
now backwards -- I didn't want to wait another year to figure out the new version of Publisher how to make the words backwards so they ironed-on forwards). I glued the text to the back of the leaf and the picture to the front of the leaf. I used adhesive backed velcro dots to affix the leaves to the banner.

Using silver and gold fabric paint we wrote the themes for the weeks of Advent on each candle. (The silver didn't look good on the lilac.)

I was THRILLED to find a tight tule in pink, orange and yellow to make the flames. I folded them until I was happy that it looked flame-like and sewed it into that shape at the bottom. Then I used the velocro dots.

Dave bought me a banner hanger (the black wrought-iron picture below) for $15 at Lowe's. I was thrilled with the price.

I sewed a casing in the top of the purple fabric so it would hang where I wanted on the fireplace.

• felt in purple (backing)
• felt in lavendar (3 candles)
• felt in pink (1 candle - Gaudette Sunday)
• Felt in green (leaves)
• green thread
• purple thread
• fabric for the flames
• adhesive backed velcro dots
• Iron On Printer Paper
• elmers glue

I meant to do an iron-on of the O Antiphons, but I didn't get that far this year. I did print off a booklet I made with each O Antiphon and reflections -- maybe next year I'll add them to the banner...

2009 Christmas Homeschool Band Concert

Soft on my toes

Grandma's blanket felt so soft on his toes, he couldn't help but dance!

A riddle by St. Augustine of Hippo

"The maker of man, he was made man, so that the director of the stars might be a babe at the breast;

that bread might be hungry,

and the fountain thirsty;

that the light might sleep,

and the way be weary from a journey;

that the truth might be accused by false witnesses,

and the judge of the living and the dead be judged by a mortal judge;

that justice might be convicted by the unjust,

and discipline be scourged with whips;

that the cluster of grapes might be crowned with thorns,

and the foundation be hung up on a tree;

that strength might grow weak,

eternal health be wounded,

life die.

It was in order to endure these and similar indignities for our sake;

in order to set free those who had forfeited all dignity;

though he deserved no evil but endured such terrible evils on our behalf,

and we deserved no good, but received such splendid goods through him;

so it was for these reasons that the one who was before all ages the Son of God, without beginning of days, was prepared in these last days to become a son of man;

and that the one who was born of the Father, not made by the Father,

was made in the Mother whom he had made;

so that he might exist here for a time, being born of her who could never and nowhere have existed except through him."



~St. Augustine of Hippo (+430)

Christmas Band Concert 2009

To hear a snippet Click on this
My saxaphone is my accessory!


A beautiful girl making beautiful music.

I LOOOOVVEE my saxaphone.
I'm liking my trumpet more, but it's still pretty hard.

I'm not in the band -- but I have a recorder!

Christmas Confession

We didn't decorate the tree this year. We have a pre-lit tree and just didn't bother to put up the ornaments. It's in a darker room (family room) so we just leave the lights on all the time and you can't really tell.

We didn't put up any other Christmas decorations. Just a lit, bare tree. Actually, the kids put it up while I was gone one day, so that means I didn't personally put up ANY Christmas decorations.

The big one:

We didn't even get the nativity scene out. It almost seems like a sin and weighs on me...but now that today is the first day I've got time to do something like that, it almost seems anti-climatic to do it after Christmas (although the Christmas season lasts for another 2-3 weeks.) I keep looking at the clean, bare mantle and feeling - bad. I just don't honestly think too little too late would help at this point. My kids all said they had a great Christmas...I still feel bad. False guilt? Reasonable guilt? I don't know...

Friends For Life Pro-Life Camp 2009

How confident are you when engaged in a discussion on abortion?

Have you heard the scientific and philosophical evidence for the humanity and personhood of the unborn?

Next June, Scott Klusendorf—nationally renown speaker/author/bio-ethicist and President of Life Training Institute—will once again train students in winning the debate for life.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to learn from the best, to meet other pro-life high school and college students, and to enjoy a retreat of FUN!

Click here to view the Pro-Life Boot Camp brochure.
http://www.youshare.com/AllenCountyR2L/c7ec2b062c372740.pdf.html

Happy 2yrs old

"Happy Day to me" is how he sings the song....

Happy B-day

I left the camera at Ds#5's Godmother's house for a month, so this is a little cold off the press...

The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pray for us

God, the Father, painting his portrait of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Juan Diego showing the gift Our Lady gave him

Our Lady of the Americas protecting children from Satan

ROCKIN' Cool Nuns!

I just came back from the annual Mom's retreat in Ann Arbor with Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist and it was FABULOUS! Those are some seriously FUN nuns! You just don't expect the joy to exude from a group of nuns like that.

10 moms made the trek from Fort Wayne up to Ann Arbor. We had a van full of conversation up and back. It amazes me how much you can be social or completely set apart at this retreat -- your preference.

They invited us into their home to have Sunday morning Mass at their Motherhouse! The church was SOOO BEAUTIFUL (just like these rockin' cool nuns!) Sr. Joseph Andrew is such a unique and dynamic woman and the priest who gave the reflection Saturday and homily Sunday was GREAT with the moms! The Holy Spirit was DEFINATELY apart of this retreat and this community of WONDERFUL sisters. (And I LOVE their full habits!)

I'm still processing... Spending that much time in Adoration really opens you up to receive what God wants to tell a girl.