An excellent book...

about Mary... but don't take my word for it. Instead hear what MinnesotaMom has to say about it. Myself - I intend to buy me a copy as soon as hubbie gets his first pay cheque! Unless, of course, someone would like to buy me a copy sooner. If you would like to meet author Meredith HENNING click here.

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Walking the walk and not just talking the talk!

In the past year we have seen some well known Catholic Colleges take actions that flew in the face of their Catholic Heritage - so it is wonderful when we have the opportunity to see a Catholic School uphold the teachings of the church and incorporate them in their policies.

Recently Belmont Abbey College was advised by the EEOC that they have been found to be discriminating against female employees as the University's current health plan will not cover abortion, prescription birth control or sterilization.

According to President Thierfelder "As a Roman Catholic institution, Belmont Abbey College is not able to and will not offer nor subsidize medical services that contradict the clear teaching of the Catholic Church,... There was no other course of action possible if we were to operate in fidelity to our mission and to our identity as a Catholic college."

To read Belmont Abbey's full response to this accusation - click here.
To respectfully express your concern or support for Belmont Abbey's religious freedom to choose the health plan that reflects our Catholic values, you can write to:

Reuben Daniels, Jr.,
EEOC Charlotte District Office Director
129 West Trade Street
Suite 400
Charlotte, North Carolina 28202
fax: 704-344-6734
or call 1 800 669 8000

You can also write to:

Stuart Ishimaru,
Chairman, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
131 M Street, NE
Washington, DC 20507

An email address is also available info@eeoc.gov
phone numbers available for this location are:
1 202 669 4900
& TTY 1 202 669 4494

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March of Dimes

We have all heard of March of Dimes - but have we all heard how pro abortion they are despite their claims of being neutral in the controversy? Read this article from Rockforlife and have your eyes opened before you make a future donation to an organization that is clearly pro-death if you are less than perfect in the womb.

Please note that comments, while open, are moderated. There are two simple rules for your comments to be approved for this post.

1) You can not post ANONYMOUSLY - if you leave an anonymous comment - it will not be posted. If you do not have a google account - you must at least leave a first name and an initial for your last name.
2) Whether you are leaving a positive or negative reaction to this post - you must be polite.

Rudeness will not be tolerated so if you can not be polite and have not the courage of your convictions to sign your name to your comment - you will not be heard - not on this blog. Thank you for your co-operation.

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Prayer of a Parent for a Departing Soldier

Prayer of a Parent for a Departing Soldier

Father all-powerful and ever-loving God,
from before we were born,
your love has nurtured and sustained us.
Hear my prayer for N., my son/daughter.
Keep him/her safe in time of battle
and faithful to you, day in and day out.
Bring him/her safely home to those who love him/her.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Prayers courtesy of:
Committee on the Liturgy
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
3211 4th Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20017-1194

One of my favorite pictures of Miguel Alexander from his sister's wedding - 3 summers ago.
Today Miguel leaves for Military Prep School in Columbus SC, then it's off to train as a Calvary Scout in Kentucky, then Air Borne Training in Georgia. His wife, Ashley, moved in with us this weekend. She is expecting their first child, Alexander Ryan, this coming fall. Last week she went into premature labour - leading us all to decide she needed to live with us for the next few months - until Miguel finishes his training. Please keep us all in your prayers as we adjust to this HUGE change in our lives. Especially keep Ashely and her unborn child in her prayers as she continues to need oral meds to keep her from labouring.

THANK YOU, as always for your prayers.

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Have a chuckle...

compliments of Here we are . Click here to read his incisive post as to why men don't live as long as women.


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Sunday Snippits

I joined this Catholic Group some time ago. But have been so busy I have not had time to create a Sunday Snippit most Sundays since then. But here is my Sunday Snippit for this Sunday. Read more!

Oh my...

Oh My is actually the title of the post I am linking to. And this is exactly what I found myself saying in my head as I read... Oooh My! Especially the part about answering the same question again and agan. I recently told my children that I thought that maybe they should form a "question committee" so as to avoid being the inevitable child who receives a growled answer to the 10th rendition of the same question. At least one child was insulted by this slightly tongue in cheek suggestion while others laughed. You guessed it - the one insulted was the child recovering from a growled response. But ooooh my! Go read what Sister Faustina would say about my 'question committee" & equanimity! Perhaps I need to locate a copy of this book.

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Is it 1984

or 2009? Perhaps George Orwell was only off in the choice of his title of Nineteen Eighty-four. Perhaps it should have been Two Thousand and Nine.


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A great idea

...should always be shared. Something we will be taking into consideration in our home - click here to see what I am thinking about.


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Price of admission - 25 cents

I am used to the little ones coming up to me and asking if I might have a spare nickel, dime quarter or even just a penny. Typically my pockets are empty and so I apologize and keep moving. So it was today that I did not really take notice when the little girls asked me if I had a quarter on me until later when I over heard them complaining bitterly that NO ONE had a quarter and so they could not buy a ticket to get into their brothers room.

"What!?" I exclaimed. "You have to pay to get into the boys room?"

"Yes." They sighed heavily, "and no one had a quarter that we can use to buy a ticket." I was sorely tempted to call the boys bluff by finding each of the girls a quarter - yet I could not bring myself to reward the boys' behaviour with money.

I just know there was a brilliant solution to this scenario but I was not feeling particularly brilliant today given I finally succumbed to taking pain medication for my back that left me almost pain free but ... brainless. Read more!

Prayer Request

Today I see the Dermatologist and have the biopsies completed. Keep me in your prayers please! Cindy D is driving me and Peggy is watching the majority of the children. Anna is in Belmont watching her niece and Gabriela will come with me and help with the baby. It will be a full day.

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Life imitiating ...life

There has been a friendship blossoming between two children: a young lady who is not yet 7 and a young man who is also in the single digits. But of late my darling daughter has begun to complain that her newly found friend was avoiding her and she was bitterly disappointed as she has not yet made many friends her own age.

Then today she came to me all excited.
"Mummy - now I know why 'X' doesn't want to play with me these days. "
Before I could ask why she burst forth with the explanation.
"Its because I talk so much, he said. He just wants to play but I just talk, talk, talk!", her hands flew in added demonstration of how she just talks, talks, talks!
Before I could commiserate she rushed to tell me: "So now I know what to do - talk less!" With that she flew away to practicing playing... with less talking.

Hmmm - this might be a challenge for this little one of mone - there is a reason her father has nick named her motor mouth...
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Choosing Life...

I would like to share a link to a very special post - written by a mother who has walked the talk - not just talked. Her post says it all - so I will not say another word but just send you right over to her post.

Hope to be back posting regularly soon. We are s l o w l y settling in. Thanks to you to all who have been praying for us - a move is so stressful, along with a new job. My back is continuing to trouble me and I can not get a referral to my chiropractor as my family doctor I have recently learned does not believe in Chiropractic care of any kind... so please keep that in your prayers.

I also need prayers for courage please as I have to go see a dermatologist to have three biopsies done and will have to go alone. It is a one hour drive one way - due to our move... please keep me in your prayers. I dislike driving to new places intensely and am not particularly fond of doctors and especially dislike meeting new ones... Thank you again for all of your prayers!
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Where did mum2twelve - now a bakers dozen dissapear to?

Well - after washing all that laundry at my friends house - mother nature saw fit to wash our beautiful earth and in the process knocked our Internet connection out. At the same time my husbands cell phone took a dying breath gasped and gave up the ghost - literally. All of his contacts went with it... (As in they were on a card that was readable on his phone....)

We were waiting patiently for his new phone and once it arrived... we needed the INTERNET to activate the phone and we needed the phone to call the IT guy about the Internet... took a while but we got this vicious cycle beat and here I am!

But I'm just too busy to blog today - so a quick hello to you all! I will be back with an important link - tomorrow. Now I am off the run errands, errands and more errands!


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Many thanks to...

...to Good Remedy for allowing us all to hang at her house ALL day and for a good portion of the evening so we could roll out load after load of clean laundry! We currently do not have a washer and dryer hook up so lets look at the math:

(nine kids + two adults) X (no laundry facilities) = countless baskets of laundry

Peggy - what would I do without you ?


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Prayer request

My good friend Dorry is in GHANA with her family. Dorry and I have been friends since we moved to the US twelve and half years ago. Her son, Charles, was one of my second daughter's best friends and was in her wedding party.

This is a once in a life time opportunity for Dorry and her family. Please keep them in their prayers as they travel and enjoy the country of her husband's origins. Pray for peace (we all know how stressful traveling can be - heck sometimes I have a nervous breakdown shepherding everyone to the library - never mind flying halfway across the world!) safety and good health. After all who wants a summer cold on the trip of a life time. Tony and Dorry both work full time, while raising their large family and really deserve this lovely vacation.

How moving it must be for Tony to show his children his birth place. I am sitting here listening to a Ghana radio station to get a feel for what the kids and Dorry are experiencing - sound wise. However, the Internet has not yet come up with a way for one to experience the smells or climate of a foreign country. So I am depending on photos and my imagination to participate vicariously in my friends' journey to the other side of the earth.

Jenny and Charles, after she tied the knot with John!

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Quote of the day

Elsa (4) "Daddy, can I help wash the dishes? There are plenty of them to wash..."
The 'plenty of them ' was added in an emphatic tone as if to convince him to share his sacred toy with her.

Question of the day - will she still be asking that in her teens?

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what is our newest addition doing these days

• pointing at everything with her index finger, carefully checking it out before then grasping the object and stuffing it in her mouth.

• staring intently at any and all food as it leaves our plates and enters our mouths, often grabbing at the food.

• practicing with the intensity of a soldier under heavy fire - the combat crawl. Occasionally her bottom wags up in the air and she steadies herself for one or two 'steps' forward on her knees and hands and then her bottom wiggles wildly and she topples over and continues to 'soldier' on to her goal.

• grabbing 9 year old Nataniel red hair and pulingl it with all her might, as often as she can. She seems to love Elsa's red locks with the same intensity. Both deserves medals for their patience with her for this 'lovin' she heaps on them whenever they are in grabbing distance.

• has one little tooth peeking out of her tiny pink gums on the bottom.

• when not chewing on her toes, she is chewing on her fingers and sometimes concentrating on her thumb - naughty girl!

• is the object of the intense love of all her siblings, especially those at home who are enjoying her goofy grins, shining blue eyes that follow you with love and the energy that radiates from her as she concentrates on picking something up and then gumming it to death.
  

We are all so grateful for this lovely little addition to our family who is just a little over six months old. Thank you Jesus for our little darling baby and all of my other twelve blessings!

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day dreaming

A girl can dream, can't she?

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