Benefits of bad weather

This afternoon, since the girls are home with scratchy throats and stuffy noses, we are sipping tea and bracing ourselves for the Nor-easter's second wave. Last night, we were able to show my sister-in-law Milagro who is staying with us from El Salvador, her first snow.
The firewood is stacked, we have: milk, eggs, ice cream, and the ingredients for fresh apple pie, so let it snow.
All we need now is a good book to cuddle with. . .
Speaking of which, Lisa Hendey from Catholic Mom.com has a good book to recommend.

I'm so happy to share some very exciting news with you about a major occurrence beginning next week at CatholicMom.com. Our friend and fellow CatholicMom.com contributor Katherine Valentine, author of several wonderful novels, has volunteered to share her newest novel, Sweet Dreams, with our readers on CatholicMom.com!

Katherine's previous novels have been such a wonderful inspiration to me and so many other book lovers. I know this one will be as well, and would love to share this opportunity with as many folks as possible!

Click here to find details on how to get Katherine's latest novel.

A children's book for Mother's Day: Let me Hold You Longer

Karen Kingsbury is the mother of six children. Her book can be purchased on her website.

Three year old Chloe can read!

Narnia Personality Quiz

Super gift idea: $2 Catholic books

Sofia Institute Press a wonderful Catholic publisher has this great deal here. One book is by one of my favorites, Fr Dwight Longnecker, entitled "Adventures in Orthodoxy". They guarantee delivery by Christmas if you order by Dec 12.

Book Re-readers unite!

OK, I know you're out there! There are readers of this blog who re-read books. Faith and Family Live blog has a post for you.
I did, before I had three blogs and three kids. . . and it was one of the best ways of learning grammar and literary style. I grew up when teaching grammar was out of style (is it back yet? I homeschool, so I'm out of touch with public educational trends).
From learning the difference between subject and predicate in second grade to my monumental struggles to understand indirect object in seventh grade French (it would have been easier to learn in English first, NON?) I had NO grammar in grammar school. I even got a Masters in Teaching English as a Second Language without a single course in grammar. Oh, I paid for a grammar course, and bought a $100 grammar book, but the professor was bored by teaching grammar and preferred to chat during class time. I was shortchanged on grammar.
But, like my Irish gran who wasn't able to get as much formal education as she would have liked,
I read, and I read, and I read. CS Lewis, Alcott, Austen, Laura Ingalls Wilder, James Herriott, and when I was 13 I read 1037 page "Gone with the Wind" in a record 3 days, while my worried mother brought meals to my room. It was actually due for re-release in my local movie theatre, and besides, I was enthralled by the story.
These and many other wonderful authors taught me grammar and literary style. Plus, living through a great story more than once is one of life's great pleasures.
If you like my writing, now you know my secret; READ READ and RE-READ great writers!

Books for Dessert: A Book Club for Intellectually Disabled is catching on

What intellectual stimulation do intellectually disabled adults have to look forward to after high school? Now, starting at a Long Island library, such clubs are spreading like wildfire.
When Jamie Comer graduated from high school at age 21, gone were the in-depth assignments and hours of homework that had long challenged him.As Comer, who has Down syndrome, began to gradually lose critical thinking skills without the aid of vigorous schoolwork, his mother struggled to find opportunities to keep him mentally sharp."People have always assumed that people like Jamie don't really have opinions on anything remotely complex," said his mother, Nancy Comer, 64, of Port Washington. "They're just expected to work and be happy."
And, in true parent advocate style, Nancy started a book club for her son.
Well done, Nancy!
I hope that by the time my kindergartener is old enough that such clubs are in every library.
Read the entire article here.
HT Newsday

Woman author with Trisomy 21 turning heads

Kellie Greenwald is a young woman with Down syndrome who has just written and illustrated her autobiography.

She's creating a sensation in her winter home in Naples, Florida.

HT Naples News

Trisomy 21 reading list

I just found an encouraging new website for new parents of a child with Down syndrome and found a lot of books to add to my ever-growing reading list. Check it out here.

St. Patrick's Day is early this year

It hasn't happened since 1940 but St. Patrick's Day will be moved back to March 14, and St. Joseph's on March 15 so that they don't fall in Holy Week. Easter at the earliest possible date, March 23.
I was going to post on my favorite St.Patrick's Day books, but it seems that Family in Feast and Feria has already done a beautiful post on them. Enjoy.

Doctor's Office Reading

Last Sunday, Sean Hannity in his personal TV show, "Hannity's America" interviewed Pastor Don Piper, the author of "90 Minutes in Heaven". I won't be reviewing it formally since I can't make up my mind whether I believe he actually spent 90 minutes in Heaven after a horrific crash. He claims to have been raised from the dead by a preacher who felt the Lord wanted him to pray over him at the crash scene.
I don't doubt such things are possible, I just can't make up my mind in Piper's case. I don't know him well enough. One thing which made me doubt was the fact that he was certainly not full of God's grace during his long time of suffering. I know we are fortunate as Catholics to have the inspiring examples of the saints, the comfort of Our Lady in the rosary, and the inestimable honor of receiving Jesus' Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Holy Eucharist. We have the example and the intimacy with the crucified Christ to be able to unite our sufferings with Him on the cross. Don Piper, as a Baptist certainly has the Scripture, "If you want to become my disciple, take up your cross and follow ME", but for someone who has experienced the peace and joy of Heaven, he didn't seem to understand the purpose of suffering in " making up what is lacking in the suffering of Christ".
These thoughts were going through my mind in the doctor's office this morning, as I waited some time to be seen. I have some kind of lower respitory infection, and am traveling to visit the schools in Connecticut tomorrow, so I wanted to be sure it wasn't serious.
The doctor was a woman about my age, who was curious about the book I had next to me on the examination table. I was happy to say I like the book but was still making up my mind about it's veracity, and we began to discuss our faith, schools for our children, CS Lewis, inner peace and how to recapture it once it's lost. It was an amazingly deep discussion for the situation, and we nearly forgot the burning in my chest which brought me there. I treasure my faith, and for that reason am considering leaving Long Island, my childhood home, to seek a place which will help my family grown closer to God. It was a blessed opportunity to be able to discuss that with someone who was seeking the same.
I wish her God's grace to bring her heart home to Him.

The Night of Las Posadas

Last night we read this book to prepare for today's beginning of Las Posadas with my catechism class.

Tomie de Paola tells the story of the tradtional procession of Las Posadas which takes place in Santa Fe (Spanish for "Holy Faith") New Mexico.

It has a surprise ending which makes it one of the girls' favorite Christmas stories.

You can buy it here.

Book give away

All week, Catholic homeschooling author Maureen Wittman is giving away books to anyone who sends in their address to celebrate the release of her new book, "For the Love of Literature".

Children's Production of "The Weight of a Mass" by Josephine Nobisso

This looks like a good book to read for All Saint's Day

Sofia Institute Press has just sent me an email about a new book on the lives of the saints.It's called, "The Book of Saints and Heroes" by Andrew and Lenora Lang. Here is their description of it:

"The first Christians to visit Europe and the British Isles met pagans who told tales of fairies, talking beasts, and other wonderful things. To these marvelous stories, they soon added new ones about the Christian saints.
Some were true, others improbable, and many simply fantastic. In the ones we include here, you’ll meet the saint who spent seven Easters on a whale’s back and the amiable lion who was St. Jerome’s friend. You’ll see St. George fight the dragon, and you’ll read about the fierce wolf St. Francis of Assisi converted.
But many of these stories have in them scarcely a wave of the fairy wand. So you’ll also find here true tales of great saints such as St. Louis of France, St. Vincent de Paul, St. Francis Xavier, and St. Elizabeth of Hungary — souls marked by courage, kindness, and piety.
These marvelous legends and exciting true stories of Christian saints and heroes will provide many hours of delightful reading to believers and non-believers alike!
Read the exciting stories of:
St. Anthony
St. Augustine
St. Paul
St. Brendan
St. Colette
St. Columba
St. Elizabeth of Hungary
St. Cuthbert
St. Dorothea
St. Dunstan
St. Richard of Chichester
St. Francis of Assisi
St. Francis Xavier
St. Louis IX
St. Jerome
St. Margaret of Scotland
St. George
St. John of God
St. Malchus
St. Senan
St. Simeon Stylites
St. Vincent de Paul, and others. "

I will be receiving this book shortly, and write up a review after I've read it to the girls, but, I think Sofia Institute Press has enough of a stellar reputation to say this will be as faithful a presentation of these saint's lives as possible.

Common Threads book avaible on discount from Band of Angels

If you're like me, you have wanted to purchase the beautiful coffee table book, Common Threads which features lovely photos of children with Down syndrome, but found the price a bit steep. All those pages of precious photos come at a price, it seems.
Here's your chance to get a slightly damaged hardcover copy (dog eared pages, damaged cover) for only $30.00 from Band of Angels press, the maker of this lovely calendar(see photo) and note cards featuring our gorgeous children.

I have posted here about how much Christina enjoys gazing at faces like hers. so I know who will be 'reading' the copy of Common Threads on our coffee table. Since Christina is an avid reader, but a bit hard on books, I might as well start out with a copy which is already a bit broken in!

Summer Reading

Christina knows which book has been her favorite this summer!

What's on your night table?

What to do during the dog days of summer? READ!

The Bookworm Carnival is up at Reading is my Superpower.

Nothing makes a homeschool mom happier than a box of books!

No, my homeschool book order hasn't landed on the doorstep, it's even better.
A friend of mine who has decided to send her children to Catholic school, has donated at least seven boxes of the kind of books I see my fellow homeschool bloggers rave about.
Books I have been meaning to buy, after reading about them on friend's blogs, like Maureen Wittman's Homeschool Companion, or Rita Munn's A Family Journal.
Books that may be in the basement somewhere, but I can't locate them, like the Bible History. Books I have given away to someone, and missed ever since, like Letters to Gabriel, Fertility Cycles and Nutrition, and .
Books I have seen over and over in Ignatius Press, but just couldn't afford, like The Spirit of the Liturgy by Cardinal Ratzinger, or Fire Within by Fr. Dubay.
Books which I haven't yet read from well-loved authors, like James Stenson's Compass.
Books which I love and can now give away because I have an extra copy like Laura Ingalls Wilder's Farmer Boy, or Karol Wojtyla's Love and Responsibility.
Books I need to re-read like Dr. Dobson's The Strong Willed Child.
Books I planned to recycle but the older child's answers were written in pen, like the wonderfully written, Our Pioneers and Patriots by Rev. Philip Furlong.
Books I've always meant to read like Ruth Beechik's You Can Teach Your Child Successfully.
Books I know I'll read in one sitting like Secrets of the Eucharist by Michael Brown.
Charlotte Mason books. Fr. Lovasik books. Mother Teresa books.
Spiritual books, textbooks, art print cards, old fashioned music books and cool science kits. Phonics games and the perfect history and health books for my 5th grade daughter.
Preschool books for Christina, my Kindergartener.
There are even videos on Maximilian Kolbe, Pope John Paul II and that miraculous staircase.
Don't I have a wonderful friend? Don't you just love these books?!

Thank you, Lord, for your generous provision, there's just one more thing. . .could you send me a bookshelf, please?

A word from Mother Angelica

Mother Angelica's Little Book of Life Lessons, and Everyday Spirituality is on my nightable this summer, so as Iprepare to leave for a day at the beach, I'll let Mother Angelica have the word today.
Ramond Arroyo, the compiler of this little gem, says, "In this world of bloated egos, and overinflated hype, Mother Angelica once told me she considered herself. "a porcupine at a balloon party".