No Need for Divorce in the Philippines, Part 2
I received several comments on my previous blog post on divorce, so here's Part 2. Mostly what I'm seeing is that people have a lot of misconceptions about what divorce is vs. annulment. I myself am not an expert and rely on people to educate me on these things, but I...
When the Cake Becomes the Cross
Today, while my hubby cleared spaces of dried brush and old wood, our 6-year-old ran around enjoying the sun and the chill air; I planted seeds. "As soon as the ground can be worked", said most of the packets. This was as good a time as any to get started. I've had...
No Need for Divorce in the Philippines
In just the past week, Philippine news outlets, plus several international ones, published almost 50 articles on divorce, and how oppressive it is to keep Filipinos from having access to this 'unmet need'. There are too many intertwined issues which cannot all be...
Homeschooling First Grade Science (A Sample Curriculum)
Posting this for my friend Madora who asked for a bit of guidance on how to homeschool Science with a first grader without the use of a textbook. Prior to fifth grade and often even beyond, I rarely use a textbook. I find that living books very much fit our...
How I Didn’t Teach Science
A close friend and fairly new homeschooling mom recently asked, "How do you teach science?" I told her the truth. "I don't." There was a time, years ago, when I would have been embarrassed to say that, because I would have interpreted my own answer as an admittance of...
@D&G&E: #blessthechildren
While the "adults" are having a Twitter war and calling for boycotts, there's this: Lettera a Dolce e Gabbana da sei figli cresciuti da coppie gay: «Grazie per il vostro coraggio» The English translation is here: Dear Dolce & Gabbana- a letter of support from children...
Contraception vs. NFP in Catholic Philippines
Oh yes, it’s Lent. It seems the anti-life and anti-family movements are out in full force again. Did funding come in recently? In just the past week, several articles have been published targeting the Catholic church yet again for its [archaic, primitive, bigoted,...
Where I Get My Pro-Life News and Commentary
A friend, Francis B., requested a list of my sources for pro-life news. So, in no particular order, my favorites: General Crisis Magazine First Things Catholic World Report MercatorNet NewAdvent.org National Catholic Register Abortion Live Action News Americans United...
The Plan for Lent 2015
- Commitment to daily Mass whenever we have a car at our disposal. (This sentence was very hard to type with it being 1 degree F outside. UGH. Please pray for me.) - Confession every two weeks. - Adoration on Wednesday evenings. - Mom's Reading Material: Sheen,...
Vaccination Needs to Remain a Prudential Decision
Do you know how hard it is to be a parent these days? Oh goodness. The multitude of decisions we need to make on a daily basis, ON TOP of just living daily life and deciding what's for dinner. To illustrate, today's parent is often confronted with these choices: -...
Further Up and Further In: The Adventure of Raising Catholic Teens
I started this post days ago. A discussion at the 4Real forums called my attention to this article, and I quickly typed up some notes -- things I wanted to cover in response. That very night, with this post still in my drafts folder, I got a long email from our...
It’s Not About Rabbits, But Maybe It’s Not About You Either
It's been a little over 24 hours since I woke up to Facebook hopping (pun unintended) because of a remark the Pope made on the plane to Rome from Manila, where he spent four days with the Filipino people, celebrating, teaching, loving. Many are upset because once...
What Nino Read, October 2014
Religion The Monk Who Grew Prayer New Catholic Children's Bible - he reads this on his own Catholic Children's Treasure Box Books - he now reads these on his own, and asked me for sacrifice beads, though he hasn't used them much History/Geography Abe Lincoln Remembers...
What Nino Read, September 2014
Corduroy Makes a Cake It's Milking Time (didn't like this one that much -- maybe he can't relate since we hardly ever drink cow's milk here) Cam Jansen: The Mystery of the Carnival Prize The Best Kind of Kiss by Margaret Allum *** The Little Piggy's Book of Manners (a...
Nino’s First Grade (After-the-Fact) Curriculum, 2014-2015
(the STARS ***** = Nino's rating) August 2014 Fix-It Duck by Jez Alborough ***** I loved it because it was funny and he didn't fix anything. Mr. Popper's Penguins * audio book read by Nick Sullivan I didn't like it because they were penguins and I didn't like Mr....