Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Catholic Bible-Reading Challenge



This week we finished the book of Exodus. Today we get to listen to another audio installment at Our Father's Plan. Go to ewtn.com-> libraries -> audio library ->index of audio library -> Our Father's Plan (it is on page 5) -> Israel in Egypt



Monday, April 25, 2011

Catholic Bible-Reading Challenge

We did not do any of the Bible-reading challenge last week for Holy Week. So welcome to a new week of the challenge!

We are still in Exodus, and do not have another audio until we finish the entire book of Exodus. So here are this week's readings:

Monday (today): Exodus 38-40
Tuesday: audio

Remember that right now we are following the Father's Plan reading plan with audio by Scotty Hahn and Jeff Cavins at EWTN. So we will be skipping around a bit. After we finish that reading plan, we will go back and fill in with everything else.

Wednesday: Numbers 1-4
Thursday: Numbers 5-10
Friday: Numbers 11-15

If you are just joining us, or still need to listen to previous audios, click here to get caught up

Remember that you can like So Happy Together on Facebook and/or follow me on Twitter to receive regular updates, reminders, and notes along this journey!


Article on Unschooling at The Homeschool Classroom

Today I have a new article up at The Homeschool Classroom, called Candid Thoughts on Unschooling. Go check it out if you like!

Friday, April 22, 2011

Lagniappe Tidbits

Oh yeah, baby - seafood boil over at the cousin's house last weekend! Boiled crawfish, crabs, sausage and veggies. Then the next day all the leftovers went into a big pot of gumbo. Good eatin' yall!

So here's something interesting about Louisiana - its very Catholic. So Catholic customs and traditions are prevalent even among non-Catholics. For example, this time of year you see gobs of commercials for all of the Lenten special menus (meatless) that restaurants have created. I even saw a mention of Lent on a Taco Bell sign! You drive through a neighborhood and you'll see lots of yards with a Mary or St. Francis statue in the garden. On All Saints Day the cemetaries are full of people visiting the graves and adding new flowers. I never realized how unique (and wonderful!) this all was until I moved away after 29 years of living in Louisiana.

Due to the trip, not a lot got posted this week, but here are a few tidbits:

No Catholic Bible-reading challenges this week due to Holy Week. I'll be meditating on the stations and reading from the Sacred Liturgy instead.


You can read some snippets about our trip to our home, New Orleans, on the other site.


I put up a video I took from out streetcar ride down St. Charles Avenue on the Home & Garden section of the other site. St. Charles is a gorgeous street to ride down, filled with huge oak trees, mansions of architectural delights, and beautiful landscaping.


Confederate jasmine was growing all over New Orleans! It is so beautiful and smells incredible. As soon as I got back I started researching this plant, because I want some in my yard pronto! You can read all about it in the gardening section of the other site.


If you missed it, I have a new article up this month on The Homeschool Classroom. It is about creative book-reporting activites, so check it out!



That's about it! Have a blessed Easter weekend!

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Preparing for the Big Trip


Photo from our last trip home - at the Audubon Zoo.

We are finally taking a trip back home. We were going to go for Mardi Gras season, but then my parents had the idea for us all to go at the same time and surprise my grandmother. We haven't all been together - my parents, my family, my sister's family, and my brother's family - back home in six years. So my grandmother is going to be soooo happy!

I've been working on packing not only our suitcases, but also the car for the drive. It is a ten hour drive so I want to bring lots of stuff to do. Here's what I've come up with so far:

I still have the folders I made for each kid for our last trip. I had gone online and printed road trip bingo, mazes, word finds, find the differences, the license plate game, a tic tac toe board, a battleship board, and a map of our route. I put them all in page protectors and into a folder for each of them. I bought dry erase markers and we were set to go! I had also found a travel Connect Four game at my dollar store.



This time I found travel Trouble at the dollar store. They also had a travel Battleship game, which I almost bought, but I realized that the real Battleship isn't so big and each kid could hold their own console easily. So we'll bring the real thing for that one.


I went online with Jill and we downloaded some new songs for her mp3 player for the car ride. Then I went online with Jack and did the same thing for his 3DS.


We're still getting ready so there's more to come, but for snacks here is one thing I am doing! Ha ha!:

Anything that can be threaded onto a string will be made into a snack necklace!

More to come on travel and our trip. If you want to follow along our trip even more, follow me at Twitter.





Monday, April 11, 2011

Catholic Bible-Reading Challenge





Last week for the challenge we started Exodus and went through chapter 12. Starting after today I will try to get back to having these posts up at 7am each day for you!

Here is this week's challenges:
Monday (today) - Exodus 13-18
Tuesday - Exodus 19-23
Wednesday - Exodus 24-28
Thursday - Exodus 29-32
Friday - Exodus 33-37

The next audio will not be until we've finished reading the entire book of Genesis.

We are finally getting down to Louisiana soon. We missed going for Mardi Gras because we decided to plan a huge family trip instead. So now 12 of us are going together to surprise and visit my grandmother down there. 

I recently bought an android phone and was happy to find that there is a free Kindle app for androids. I have been enjoying the regular freebies that Amazon makes available for the Kindle. For our trip, I searched for a Catholic Bible for the Kindle so I could do my daily readings that way. I found a NAB Catholic Bible for Kindle for $4.99. You can find a DR Catholic Bible starting at $1.99, and I think there may have even been a free one. But I really wanted a NAB version. You can even get the new Ignatius Bible for Kindle for $9.99. Just wanted to pass that along in case you take a trip you can keep up with the challenge in an easy way.



If you are just joining us, or still need to listen to previous audios, click here to get caught up

Remember that you can like So Happy Together on Facebook and/or follow me on Twitter to receive regular updates, reminders, and notes along this journey!



Friday, April 8, 2011

Lagniappe Links

{Since I have gotten into so many different topics on this blog, I have decided to differentiate each topic using a different site. This blog will still be here, with regular Christian family & homeschooling posts. Other topics will be on the new site and will be listed here in Friday's lagniappe links each week, in case ya want to check them out!}





















 
 
Have a great weekend!