ABC Art

I want to share with you a project we started at the beginning of the school year. I started it because there were a few letters my littles kept getting stuck on remembering, so I thought this would help them, and it did! They have the letters mastered now! I hung these in our toy room as we did them, in no particular order. I did the cutting of the letters, but they glued, drew, stuck, painted and did the rest.

Sorry for the lighting in this video, but it was too cute not to share!

"Now I know my ABC's, next time won't you sing with me?"

Living Rosary for Moms

 I belong to a Living Rosary for Moms group. In this group, we gather together every day in prayer spiritually, praying for one another in our vocations as mothers. We unite our prayers and petitions.

My friend Mary started this group after reading this post. She read this article and wanted to get together 20 of her friends to pray one full 20-decade rosary. What happened next, was a whirlwind for her. (God works like that) Within a couple months she had 9 full 20-decade rosaries!  Each of the 180 women praying a decade for and with each other spiritually. Mary chose the above picture for our group to show the love Jesus had for His mother. His love, joy and respect is so evident

I have the 2nd Luminous Mystery, The Wedding Feast of Cana. Every day I pray my mystery, my Our Father and 10 Hail Mary's, trying to contemplate on the words of Mary about her Son.

"Do whatever He tells you." -John 2:5

She always brings us to her Son.

She does not take away from Him, she adds.

I try to think about all these other women and the intentions they all carry in their hearts, just like me. I pray my decade in the shower, in my taxi van, waiting in line or at a doctor's office, after or before Mass and sometimes in bed before drifting off to sleep.

I can't even begin to describe the bond I feel with all these beautiful prayer warriors. It's our love for our families and our faith that bind us together.

My friend Mary has put me in charge of keeping the Living Rosary for Moms going,

and I currently have several open decades from women that needed to leave for various reasons.

We can also start a 10th 20-decade rosary!

The options are infinite!

If you are interested in being assigned a decade, please contact me via email if you are reading this through my blog:

(jamiejo99 at gmail.com) (no spaces and use @ for at)

I will then assign you a decade to be prayed every day for and with the other moms in the group.  You will be allowed to join the Facebook group if you are on Facebook, introduce yourself if you so wish, and ask for any petitions you'd like to. We won't bother you with any postings other than petitions and Rosary related memes.

Facebook group is HERE if you'd like to look around.

You must message me directly.

If, after you've signed up and been assigned your decade, you find you need to quit it, you'd need to only message me and I will relieve you of your commitment. It is important you let me know though, so I can fill your spot and we have no lapse in the rosaries being prayed.

(I apologize blogger is messing with my text switching from left margin to center not letting me pick just one)

God bless you and may the Holy Spirit prompt you to join us!

Reviews

This song has been out for a while, and I still love it!

I'm really loving this new song from Ed Sheeran too. He also has another new song out, I love the tune of it, as in for dancing and working out, but it's just not a very clean  song. Why do artists feel they need to make songs like that?

We might go to a Jeremy Camp concert and this man is opening for him. I love this song!

You know I have to add some Shawn Mendes! I think my kids' friends think I'm some crazy older woman in love with this teenage heart throb. (OK, maybe they don't think he's a heart throb) But, I am not. (Crazy or in love with him) I do, however, love all his songs!

OK enough of my favorite songs for now.

How about some movies?

This is one of my all-time favorites to watch at Christmas. You do know, that these Hallmark-type movies that are on at Christmas time, actually have nothing to do with Christmas, right? They are just love stories that happen around Christmas time. I love Hallmark-type movies. I love them because there's no guessing, there's no stress, just watch 2 people fall in love and get your happy ending.

We do  not have TV. We just stream Netflix and rent movies. SO, that means no Hallmark channel. You can watch Hallmark movies via YouTube but, the picture is just not as clear this way. I found something new this year, it's called "Feeln". It's an app I signed up for via the computer to be streamed to our TV.

For only $2.99/month I am able to watch a ton of Hallmark-type movies! All year long!!

So far, we, as in the girls and I, are loving Feeln.  Go HERE and check it out! (I think the price is now $3.99/month though, which is still an excellent price)

Tom and I watched this movie this past fall. I made a note to review it because it was such a good movie! Based on a true story. (I love those kind)

I don't really care for Matthew McConaughey, so I wasn't that excited to see this.

He really is a good actor though.

I don't  know, there are so many new actors out there, I just thought

it wouldn't be believable with such a popular actor, but he nailed it.

OK, back to Hallmark.

This show, we, as in, the girls and I, loved this!!

The first 2 seasons are on Netflix streaming.

Season 3 we had to order via Netflix

(you know, get the DVD's via the mail)

Good, clean, wholesome, love stories.

 Tom and I finished up Major Crimes via Netflix. We loved this show. It is a spinoff from the show The Closer. So if you are a fan of The Closer (we were) you'll love this one!

 This one is a favorite. What a  perfect role for James Spader. Seriously, he's the guy you hate to love. But you will love him. He's her dad. He has to be. This is another Netflix show we watch. I wanted to keep up with this season though and not wait a whole year for it to come to Netflix, so I'm watching current episodes via NBC.com on the computer. With my headphones on. Late at night.

 This show goes down as one of my all-time favorites. Not only do I love this actor, who is actually Australian, playing American roles, but I loved this show! This one is another show that is DVD only, so Netflix would send this to you.

Tom and I just started watching this one.

We just started season 3

I really like it for the cases they have. I like it for the look into the life of lawyers.

But, it's a little scandalous...there's affairs and just not much of happy.

I like happy.

What do you watch?

Are there any good "couple" shows that guys like to watch too?

I just think it's slim pickin's these days.

OK, if you are still with me, I've got a scarf review:

 OK, so I saw this scarf at Walgreens, you know, walking through the whole store to the back to pick up prescriptions, because the drive-thru line was too long. They sucked me in, I bought this scarf. I thought it was so pretty and I thought, "it's so pretty, I can pull this off, I can wear a scarf and look cool."

Well, I put it on and my kids kept looking at me funny all morning. They laughed and told me I'm not a "scarf person". What's a "scarf person"?

 What if I wear it like this? Lots of people wear scarfs like this. "Who mom?" I guess no one wears scarfs like this. I think they should. I think it looks pretty. My kids don't. They laughed.

 This is my review of the scarf. I'm not wearing it. But it  is a pretty scarf, isn't it? Waste of money.

I have no sense of fashion.

My husband  Santa bought me a pretty pearl necklace and my first thought was,

"What about  my medal?"

I wear a Miraculous Medal every day.

No big deal, I just decided to add a medal to my necklace.

It looks OK, doesn't it?

See? I can be stylish by wearing jewelry (not scarves)

and still wear my medal, right?

Alright, songs, movies, TV shows, fashion (haha!)

I think we're done.

Anyone want a scarf?

(I apologize blogger kept switching from left margin to centering my paragraphs. Left margin was my goal)

Thankful December 2016

 What better way to catch up on my blog than a "Thankful" post? I'll start with December and maybe work my way back hopefully in the next few weeks! Thankful for December Homeschool skating days! These littles have so much fun together! Sims here got skates for his birthday so I don't think he'll need this white walker thing next time!

 Thankful for Christmas tree decorating, gosh the kids have fun doing it! Christmas is new again every year. (like how they grouped the snowman all together?)

Thankful we have a fake tree, because we can put it up anytime and it doesn't dry out and die! I'll take it down this weekend, made it to Epiphany! I like a ton of lights, so I have white and multi-colored and it looks beautiful from the street!

 Thankful for St Nicholas Day celebrations! Thankful to still have littles that enjoy making fun cakes and all that comes along during Advent!

Thankful for little kid choir concerts Can you find my kiddos?

Thankful for big kid choir concerts! (it was combined with our homeschool band concert)
 My 3 oldest are in this choir but where I was sitting, I couldn't see my 2nd oldest daughter.

 Thankful these 2 love to puzzle with their daddy! They do 1000 piece puzzles all the time! This was one of the December ones! (1 of like 5)

 Thankful for Christmas book coloring! These 2 love to color! And they love to color with their mama! I love it too!

 Thankful for Christmas-time crafts!

Thankful Tom and I celebrated 20 years of marriage on the 20th!! I can't believe it's been 20 years!!

Thankful for our life together and all we've gone through together. It's been a really hard year for our family but we made it and I'm so very Thankful for the graces from our Sacrament of Matrimony. Gosh, sometimes I beg for those graces. We all have the graces we need in the Sacrament of Marriage, to get through anything that happens within the marriage, that includes our children, illnesses, good things and all the hard things.

 Thankful this sweet boy turned 5!!  My baby is 5!!  I say that with a little ache in my stomach. I'm happy and sad at the same time. Can you guess what kind of birthday it was?

Yep! A shark birthday!!

I'll try to post a birthday post and show you his fun birthday!

 Thankful for big brothers that help little brothers with Legos! So fun!

 Thankful my mom came to bake Christmas cookies with us this year! They got a little carried away with the flour!

 Thankful for cookie decorating! Our good friend Melissa and her fiancé' came to help decorate! (it's a tradition we've been decorating with Melissa and her family for years and years!)

 Thankful for quiet a Christmas Eve. My oldest had to work (Panera Bread) so we didn't go to Mass that night but Christmas morning instead. We celebrated with a special dinner and gift opening afterward!

 Thankful for our special guest Kylo Ren. He's this little boy's favorite!

 Thankful for cold Christmas mornings! I had to pay these kids a piece of candy to pose outside like this!

 Thankful for our beautiful, crazy family!

 Thankful for Christmas at my mom's!

 Thankful for my siblings! I'm the oldest, then my brother John, (right side) and then my sister Brenna, and my baby brother Jordan (left side)

 Thankful for Christmas at my in-laws! Grandma playing with the littles here! Liam has a blurry face because he wouldn't sit still!

 Thankful for Tom's parents!

 Thankful for Lego gifts! Sims here put this dragon together all by himself!! Seriously, he is amazing!

 These 2 girls also put their Lego sets together in record time!

 Thankful at least these kids like it outside, because I don't! They make it at least bearable!

 Thankful for sleep-outs under the Christmas tree! Such a fun tradition.  (There wasn't much sleeping though)

Thankful for another year filled with blessings. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!