Over at A Pondering Heart, she is giving away the newest addition to the Kingdom Series. D read the first book and loved it. He keeps begging me to get the next one from the library.
We touched a bit of our history as to how the Roman Catholicism became a prevalent religion in our country, the Philippines, an archipelago hundreds of miles away from it's colonizer, which was King Philip II of Spain. In fact, Philippines was named in his honor. When Ferdinand Magellan (Fernando Magallanes) came in the "name of the King and the Cross" in 1521, many natives were converted from animism and Islam to the Catholic religion in the 300 years they ruled the land. At present, 85 percent of our population are practicing Catholics. 10 percent are Protestants, and 5 percent are Muslims and other minor religions.
Are there Christians in Iran? I tried to find out by doing a quick search in the internet. Here are some of the latest news and information that came up with the search results.
� Sep. 4, 2008 - It has been brought to my attention....
Posted By Paula
that it has been so long since I posted an entry that some people think I died. I am back to assure you all that, while I am tired and frazzled after a long week, I am alive and (mostly) well.
The last week has passed by in such a blur. We have been firmly adhering to our new schedule, which includes me getting up and showering at 6:30 before Hubby leaves and the bulk of the children wake up. Everyone has chores in the morning to get us "going" for the day and to keep our home running smoothly. All of the chores are things that the kids have always been responsible for, but we let slide a little for the summer. It is nothing too serious or painstaking and no one has died yet. (Of course when they canceled Arthur at 7:30 in the morning, M almost did.)
In addition to our school/homemaking schedule, we have had a few other scheduled events. We spent a fun-filled day last week at the beach with one of our homeschool friends. The kids all had a fabulous time! The highlight of that trip (besides being with wonderful friends) was finding a live star fish to examine.
Last night I went with my mother and sister out for a special girls night out. We had a great Italian dinner and then went to see a production of My Fair Lady. While not my favorite musical ever, (That'd be Les Mis) it was nice to get out and spend time with Mom and Sis. The show would have been MUCH improved if it weren't for the ancient couple sitting behind us who, judging from their behavior, either had Tourette's syndrome or were just too old to care about being rude.
Tonight I have my first TEACH meeting of the new school year. It is an exciting feeling to see many of these wonderful families again after the long summer break. I also love joining with the group to welcome new homeschoolers and to remind each other (old and new alike)why we all sacrifice so much to do what we do.
WE are still having some church troubles. I have mentally composed a blog entry about it several times and with many different outcomes. My heart is really torn right now as to which direction we should be heading in church-wise, and Hubby and I have been prayerfully trying to consider all the options. I'll write more and be more specific soon...
The classes that I am scheduled to teach all start next week. I am (almost) thoroughly prepared for the American girl class, the toddler/preschooler class at the Y not-so-much! I have vague ideas about how I want the class to go, but I am not entirely sure yet. I have a week until the class starts and I always do work well under pressure, I suppose!
I am embarrassed to say that I have found a new vice. I have been spending far too much of my free time on Facebook, reconnecting with old friends and playing on the 'I Can Quote Gilmore Girls In My Sleep' forum. Not a very good use of my time, I know.
Well, that's all for now I suppose. Off to bring A to TKD....
An alien came and switched Toddler B with some other child.
I was changing him this morning and I asked the same question I do every morning. "Are you going to sit on the potty today?" Only today, he said yes! I thought I heard wrong so I asked again. "You want to sit on the potty?" He said yes. So off he went to sit on the potty. He sat for a few seconds and said, "It's not coming." I let him get off and decided to ask if he wanted to wear undies and to my surprise, he said yes! I was shocked. I figured he really didn't know what was going on being that he said, "It's not coming," and actually looked confused as to why it wasn't. But I know 90% of the battle was getting him to actually want to use the potty. To my even greater surprise, he did extremely well. He had two small accidents, but he was able to hold it back and get to the potty to finish. And the poor thing, had a fever! He ended up falling asleep on the couch:
And he even stayed dry the whole time! By that time though, I had to give him Tylenol because he was so hot.
In the evening he was battling the #2 urge but eventually, he went on the potty! I think this is the strangest day I have ever had in 10 years of parenting.
Yesterday, we were at my sil house. Her two year old is potty trained. I keep telling Toddler B about him. "Look. Carter goes on the potty. Isn't he a big boy? Do you want to go on the potty?"
"No."
So I was very jealous and had some harsh feelings toward them, but now I think I owe B's "early" (for the boys in our family) potty training to them. He was watching Carter in interest yesterday. And today when he got dressed he found the shirt Carter gave him and wanted to wear it. He often says, "I'm Carter."
Sorry Michelle for saying I hate you! hehe....
Now, I hope tomorrow goes just as well. Hopefully Toddler B won't be back to his normal self. I do hope he isn't sick, but hopefully being well doesn't mean he is back to being stubborn!
Oh and one more strange thing. I sent the other kids to bed but kept him up since he had a nap. He almost followed them up. I had to call him back and tell him he didn't have to go to bed yet. I said, "You don't even have your pj's on yet." So he went and got his pjs and a diaper and started getting himself ready for bed. And after he was ready, he played for a few minutes and then came over, gave me a kiss, and then headed up to bed. He got up there and was calling for me to put him to bed. And then, after I put him to bed, he stayed in bed! Do you hear the twighlight zone music yet?! Strange, yet glorious...
Welcome to the Thoroughly Organized Thursday Meme!I hope you are having a good week.
Organization tip:
Set aside time to do planning. I know it sounds simple enough, but a lot of us get caught up in the day to day grind and forget to plan. If it's not on the calendar or in the planner, it will likely get forgotten.
If you need a button for this meme, you can go to this website:
Thank you and I hope you have a great rest of the week.Please don’t forget to leave a comment so I know you were here!
Please join in by writing an organizing tip (for home or school) on you blog and linking back here and signing Mr. Linky to let us know you have a post.
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This week's assignment is to post your routine. This assignment is VERY hard for me. I don't really have a routine. Sure, there are a few things that I do in order out of habit, but I doubt I do them at the same time every day. So the routine that I'm going to post is the one I HOPE to follow, that I'm going to TRY to follow.
8:30
Wake Up
9:00
Breakfast
9:30
Get Dressed and Hygiene
9:45
Begin School
11:30
TV (World World)
12:00
Lunch
12:30
TV (Between the Lions)
1:00
School
2:00
TV (Magic School Bus)
2:30
School
3:30
Free Time
The TV time is not set in stone. I will try to make time for Little One to watch these shows because they are educational, but there are other educational videos that he will be viewing through the year that may take the place of these tv shows for a few days. I do strive to break up the day into smaller bites and the shows work in nicely for that.
I am really looking forward to this month. It is fall and I am starting some more activities at church and home. I will start homeschool with some formal material with Jorri and Jabin will be included to some extent. I am planning to start up again playing guitar just as soon as possible. I have some songs that I want to learn and my spouse is encouraging me saying that we could practice together at church. He could drum and I would learn a little more about keeping time.
At church I will be participating in children's ministries Wednesday night. There are different groups for differnt ages. I would be doning "Sonshine" group age birth to 3 years. I think I will do some flash cards, music, snack and prayer...the rest will be play time. Little ones don't seem to be too easily focused on sitting still and learning so I will probably engage them as much as possible and then just supervise. My husband might get involved in the boys ministry "Royal Rangers" then again he might not be able to with the crazy schedule.
I am letting the girls help more with cleaning activities, I go back and forth on just wanting to get things done. the other day they "washed" dishes there was water everywhere but the floor needed to be mopped anyway. It makes for the cutest pictures and the biggest messes!
Marriage update, I am seeing some prayers answered, my spouse is really trying to invest in his little family more than just financially. He is beginning again to see the benefits of caring about poeple emotionally and also serving and teaching his girls. I might have mentioned before that he is not the "sentimental" or "emotional" sort of man? Well, even still God can change the heart and show Tim the needs in his family. It does seem to happen in seasons, there are long winters sometimes. I suppose that is just life. I am trying to have faith where it seems my faith has taken a frozen spell too. It is not really easy all the time to live what you believe or even trust it. I don't think I am alone in that. but I came back time and time again to really remember that God, is faithful to me even when I have not been so to HIM. I am really looking forward to taking up some of my own interests again. I seem to leave everything behind and really end up empty and run down. I think moms need good things to look forward to. So I am really excited about beginning all sorts of things.
