(A video of this process is coming soon!)

Many years ago, I got my kids rosary-making kits and . . . it didn’t go that well. The kit required them to tie knots between each bead and they just couldn’t manage to get the knots close to the beads. Eventually, *I* took over to try to fix the situation, and I didn’t do a much better job than they had done! We still have those rosaries in our rosary storage crock. They’re pretty bad. So . . . when coming up with a DIY rosary for the CAY Subscription Boxes, I wanted it to be the string style, so it wouldn’t require the tools and knowhow of creating wire links, but also not be dependent on knot-tying skills!

These rosaries can be made by adults and by kids with some adult help, and you don’t need special tools or to be magically able to get a lot of knots to land in particular places. I designed the rosary findings and cut them on my Glowforge. Kits containing all the parts you need are included in the Catholic All Year Fall Ordinary Time Subscription Box. Kits are also available individually. You can also adapt this style of rosary-making to use with your own beads and rosary findings!

Making a Five-Decade Rosary

Find the kit here:

Wooden Rosary Kit (Makes 1)

Wooden St. Thérèse Sacrifice Bead / Single-Decade Rosary Kit (Makes 1) – Not currently available

Wooden Rosary + Sacrifice Bead Kit (Makes One of Each) – Not currently available

SUPPLIES

• 59 beads (these can all be the same, or you can choose one type of bead for the 53 ave beads, and a different bead for the 6 pater beads). I used 10mm wooden beads with a 3mm hole.
• 12 spacer beads. I used gold-tone iron beads, 5mm with a 2mm hole.
• a crucifix
• two rosary centerpieces. (You can use just one, but there will be string showing across the back of it.)
• 4 feet string. I used 1.5mm waxed cotton thread. (Cut a longer piece if you are using larger beads.)
• scissors
• small needle-nose pliers (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

Note: I use waxed cotton thread because it’s sturdier and makes threading beads easier. If the end gets frayed, just trim a bit off to get a new clean end. Resist the urge to moisten the end in your mouth, as this will make it floppy and make threading beads more difficult. There is enough extra thread to trim it many times. If a particular bead doesn’t want to go on the thread, use your scissors or pliers to scrape the hole out a bit, or just toss it and grab another.

Tip: Use a kitchen towel to keep the beads from rolling away.

1. Cut a four foot length of thread.

2. Fold the length of thread in half.

3. Insert the loop end through the hole of the crucifix from front to back and put the two cut ends through the loop.

4. Pull and wiggle to tighten the loop down on the crucifix. 

5. If necessary, trim the ends a bit so they are un-frayed and even. Insert both threads into beads in the following pattern: G (gold bead) – W (wood bead) – G – Wx3 – G – W – G.

6. Stack the two centerpieces together and insert both threads into the bottom hole, from front to back.

7. (Look out, here come some knots!) Pull the threads to tighten, then, holding a finger against the centerpiece and the top gold bead, loop the two threads around your finger and the strung beads. Insert the two thread ends into the loop created around your finger, pointing them up towards the centerpiece. Remove your finger and pull and wiggle to tighten, making sure the knot is seated between the centerpiece and the gold bead. Repeat, making another knot. Pull and wiggle to tighten.

8. Split the two threads and the two centerpiece pieces. Bring one thread up on each side of the knot, and sandwich them between the centerpieces, coming out the top.

9. Holding the centerpieces pinched together with Mary facing you, insert the left thread forward through the two left holes and pull. Do the same on the right side. Now both threads are coming out of the top centerpiece holes towards you.

10. Gently wiggle the two centerpieces back and forth to separate them a bit. Insert the left thread between the centerpiece pieces down through the top and out the left side. Do the same with the right thread on the right side. Now both threads are coming out the sides of the centerpiece. Insert the left thread through the left holes again, from back to front, leaving it a bit loose to make a loop. Then feed the thread up through the loop you just made, pulling the thread up between this loop and the other loop already in the hole. Repeat on the right side. Tighten by pulling and wiggling the long threads. Now there is an individual thread coming out of each corner of the centerpiece. 

11. Beginning on the left side, insert one thread into beads in the following pattern G – Wx10 – G – W – G – Wx10 – G – Wx5. Repeat on the right side.

12. Tie a single left-over-right knot in the two threads to bring the two sides together.

13. Insert the left side thread through three more beads to the right (these beads are already on the right side thread). Do the same on the right. You now have your two threads coming out of the rosary in opposite directions, with six double-threaded beads between them. 

14. While gently pulling the beads taught with the left thread held tight in your pinky and ring-finger, knot the right thread. Loop the right thread around your finger and insert the thread through the loop towards the right.

15. Pull the two thread ends in opposite directions to tighten the knot.

16. Repeat, making a second knot. Do the same with the left thread, making two knots and pulling the threads in opposite directions to tighten. 

17. Insert the left thread through two more beads to the left, then cut the tail off between the gold and wood beads. Do the same on the right.

18. Ask a priest to bless your rosary if possible, and get to praying!

Making a Single-Decade Rosary / St. Thérèse Sacrifice Beads

SUPPLIES

• 11 beads (these can all be the same, or you can choose one type of bead for the 10 ave beads, and a different bead for the pater beads). I used 10mm wooden beads with a 3mm hole.
• 2 spacer beads. I used gold-tone iron beads, 5mm with a 2mm hole.
• a crucifix
• a lobster claw clasp
• a jump ring
• a saint medallion. I used St. Thérèse.
• 3 feet string. I used 1.5mm waxed cotton thread.
• scissors
• small needle-nose pliers

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Cut a three foot length of thread.

2. Fold the length of thread in half. Insert the loop end through the hole of the St. Thérèse medallion from front to back and put the two cut ends through the loop.

3.Pull and wiggle to tighten the loop down on the medallion. 

4. If necessary, trim the ends a bit so they are un-frayed and even. Split the two threads apart. Insert the left thread through a wood bead horizontally from left to right. Then insert the right thread into the same bead from right to left. Pull the threads in opposite directions to tighten.

5. Repeat with nine more wood beads. Pull each one gently tight.

6. Adjust each bead individually to be horizontal, and adjust the threads to be gently tight. Trim the very ends of the two threads to be even.

7. Insert both threads together vertically into a gold bead, then a wood bead, then a gold bead.

8. Tug the bottom horizontal bead down a bit, to leave an opening a little less than one bead-width.

9. Insert both threads through the hole in the crucifix, front to back. Pull it up towards the gold bead. Hold your finger alongside the gold bead and top of the crucifix. Loop the threads around your finger and insert the tail of the threads up through the finger loop to make a knot. Pull and wiggle to tighten.

10. Tie a second knot in the same manner, pulling it as tight as possible.

11. Use pliers to pull it really tight, then trim the threads off close to the knot.

12. Use pliers to twist (rather than spread) the jump ring open.

13. Insert the clasp onto the jump ring, thread the open jump ring into the moon-shaped opening at the top of the medallion, and pinch the jump ring closed with the pliers. If your saint medal has only one hole, use it for both the string and the jump ring + hook.

14. Tidy up after yourself and you’ve got your first sacrifice to record!

You might also enjoy this blog post:

The Family Rosary: Why is it SO Hard?

And this video:

The post Making a Rosary with No Special Tools and Almost No Knots (because knots are hard) appeared first on Catholic All Year.

1. Read Aloud

Reading aloud is my favorite part of our day. Or maybe nap time. But reading aloud is a close second.

Picture books are easy enough to find the time for. Starting up a chapter book with a little kid can feel daunting. But it’s totally worth it.

A couple of years ago, I decided to really make reading chapter books aloud to my kids a priority each school day. And it’s been great. All of my kids, from the toddler to the teenager, listen to the same book together. We have inside jokes, and shared experiences because of it. And, for the little ones, it sets the stage for learning to read.

I’m modeling for them that I think reading is important and enjoyable. I’m demonstrating for them how reading works, so when they get to the point of trying it for themselves, they’ll have an understanding of how words flow when you’re reading.

So far this school year, the newborn has made it difficult to consistently read a chapter a day. But I’m trying to make up for it with audiobooks.

2. Begin at the Beginning

Before they’re ready to start reading, I like them to know their letter sounds. I’ve found the easiest way to do that has been by letting them watch the Leap Frog DVDs.

My kids really like them. I don’t mind them. And they do a really great job of teaching the letter sounds, and the basic rules of reading, in song format. So, even years later, when one of my kids is having trouble with a word, I can sing, “when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking” at him. Good times.

I cannot recommend THESE PARTICULAR Leap Frog movies enough:

LeapFrog: Letter Factory

LeapFrog: Talking Words Factory

LeapFrog: Word Caper

LeapFrog: Learn to Read at the Storybook Factory

I’m not sure what’s happened to the Leap Frog brand. There are a whole bunch of new Leap Frog shows available on Netflix, but not these original ones. I watched a few minutes of a few of them and was really disappointed. They don’t have the useful songs, and the animation on a couple of them is downright creepy.

I’m sure there are other, more recent shows that also do a good job of introducing phonics. But these are the only ones I can personally vouch for.

Once my kids know the letter sounds and seem to be able to sit still for ten minutes and complete a task, we start actual lessons. That has happened for my kids between three and five. For lessons, we use this book:

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

It says twenty minutes per day, but we do closer to ten, because I don’t use the writing component of the program. I haven’t found that reading readiness always coincides with writing readiness in my kids, so I prefer to teach those skills separately. After Hundred Easy Lessons, we move on to phonics readers, then easy readers from the library.

3. Be Consistent

My goal is to do reading and phonics consistently, usually four days per week. I also try to be consistent about the time of day that we do lessons. I find that there is less push-back from the less enthusiastic kiddos when they know when to expect lessons.

Then we just do them. There’s no complaining allowed. We just do it and get it done.

I’ve had some kids LOVE these lessons, and some not love them quite as much. But they’ve all been amused by the silly little stories and illustrations. And the techniques of Hundred Easy Lessons has been really effective for all of my kids so far.

4. Be Patient

Here’s the big secret: My Kid Will Read Well When He is Ready

My oldest daughter was able to ready easy chapter books by the end of Kindergarten. But the same has not been true of any of her brothers. My so-far-reading other kids have done Hundred Easy Lessons in Kindergarten, and moved on to easy readers after that. But three out of four couldn’t read easy chapter books until the summer between second and third grade.

My older two sons are very strong readers now. The third one is coming right along. Somehow that rising third grader age, seems to be the sweet spot for us. That’s when my boys start reading, regardless of what I do.

I was too hard on my oldest kids. I had this expectation that all kids learned to read in Kindergarten or first grade. But my experience with teaching five kids (so far) to read is that it just isn’t true.

I’ve had some kids learn to read pretty early, some a lot later, and the odd thing is that as long as I’m consistent in steps 1-3, they seem to put it together themselves. And even when I’m NOT as consistent as I probably should be, they still seem to put it together themselves.

5. Read Aloud

It WASN’T all about me, after all. As long as I give them the tools, and read aloud to them and have them read aloud to me, from easy readers or whatever level book with which they’re comfortable, they are able to make progress relatively painlessly.

Having them read to me lets me make sure they’re not just skipping words if they’re having trouble with them.

Sometimes we take turns reading pages of a picture book. Another trick is have them read aloud to younger siblings, which is enjoyable for the little kid, and great, stress-free practice for the big kid. But I often eavesdrop.

Then, once they do graduate to chapter books, I have plenty of good ones around the house, so they’ll keep it up.

But the main thing I’ve learned is not to fret about the timeline. Some kids read early, some kids read late, but almost all kids WILL learn to read. As long as they have a solid foundation, it seems to come — like a lot of things — in its own time.

The post The Secret to Teaching Kids to Read is . . . appeared first on Catholic All Year.

I figured it might be nice to have all the schooling-type posts in one place, and I made some new schooling-type printables, and now there’s a way for you to get a custom printable . . . made just for you.

Yay!

Maybe Homeschooling Isn’t For Me?

The Secret Truth About Why I Homeschool

See Me Homeschool

Seven Odd Things I’ve Come to Appreciate About Homeschooling

Quit Worrying About Preschool. Seriously, Stop It.

Why I Homeschool Like That

Homeschooling: One Room Schoolhouse Meets Three Ring Circus

My Top Ten Books for Teaching Kids

A Homeschooling How We Roll

A Day in the Life of Me, Kendra Tierney, in Which a Lot of Things Happen and Often I Don’t Yell

How to Get Your Husband on Board With Homeschooling

How To Introduce Kids to Poetry, Fine Art, and Classical Music

Homeschooling for Beginners

Homeschooling Multiple Grades: MODG hacks and other things I’ve learned the hard way

Homeschooling is a Scary Proposition

As with all my printables, you are welcome to save the images to your
computer for your own personal use. You may
print the images and / or upload them and have prints made for your
personal use or to give as gifts. (These are sized for 8×10 or square
but will
print well much bigger.) First click on the image to bring it up in a
new window, then right click on the image to save it to your computer.
You may use my images on your blog, just please
link back to my blog. If you would like to sell my images, please
contact me first.

 For LOTS MORE free printable prayers, check out my Pinterest board.

I love making printables! I get lots of requests from you good folks for specific prayers, but I thought I’d make things official, and offer them for sale. For the low, low introductory price of only $10, I will create a printable digital image, just for you. Have a favorite prayer, quote, poem, or house rule that you’d like to be able to print out and stick on the fridge, or have professionally printed and framed for posterity? I’ve got you covered.

All YOU have to do is click through to my Etsy shop up there, or over on the sidebar, to
make your payment, and include in the comments box the exact text, along with (if you’d like) your preferred colors.
You can also check out the Pinterest board, and tell me which style you like best. You’ll have it in your inbox within a few days.

The post Everything I Ever Thought About Homeschooling, Schoolish Free Printables . . . and anything YOUR heart desires appeared first on Catholic All Year.

Okay, you asked for it. Here it is. You have no one to blame but yourselves.

My days start at about 11 pm, since that’s when I can usually put Lulu down for an hour or two and attempt to accomplish all the things . . . 

4/1/14 11:06pm. I nurse Lulu to sleep while reading blogs and checking Facebook and returning emails on the iPad, then slip her into the swing in our living room. I go visit with the husband for a bit before he goes to bed. Quality time. We got it.

11:23pm. Meal plan for Lent is to clear out the freezer. I fish a bag of chicken bones out and put them on the stove to make stock for soup for tomorrow’s dinner. I’m thinking chicken and dumplings. Or maybe Chicken Corn Chowder.

11:28pm. I sit down at the desktop computer to blog with two hands. But, first, I check my email and comments and feed reader (yay! Christine had her baby! Nothing from Colleen. Does that mean she’s had the baby or that she hasn’t?!) and Facebook timeline. I feel a great need to keep my unread emails at zero. I like to respond to comments and emails right away, before they get lost under a new batch. I’m pretty meticulous about the blogs I follow and almost always read every post. I always scroll down to the last thing I remember seeing on Facebook. I don’t want to miss anything.

4/2/14 12:10am. All caught up on that, now it’s time to write. I should have at least an hour before Lulu wakes up. Normally I’d start working on my seven quick takes. I have a few concepts I’ve been considering for future installments. But, I’ve been nominated for a Leibster award. It’s an AWARD! I don’t want to put that one off too long. So, I start writing.

12:34am. Lulu wakes up. Ugh. Okay. Switch off the computer monitor, turn the stock down to simmer, pick up the baby. Be greeted by her adoring, adoring smiles. Less mad. I put Lulu on my hip and go floss and brush (one handed).

12:40am. Lulu and I sneak into bed. I latch her on and finish a few things up on the iPad (including this). I say my evening prayers and do my examination of conscience.

1:06am. Despite having the whole internet in my hands, plus a book I’m enjoying AND an itty bitty booklight that wakes neither husbands nor babies, I decide to go to sleep.

4:23am. Roll over. Nurse.

6:27am. Roll over. Nurse.

7:24am. Roll over. Nurse. Wake up, say morning offering. It’s better for me to get out of bed for my 15 minutes of morning prayer. But Lulu is wiggly, so I stay put. I only fall back to sleep for just a second in the middle there.

7:45am. Grab iPad. Check comments. Last evening I published the post about why I’m letting my hair go gray. Folks seem to like it. Cool. Check emails.

8:00am. I should get up. Lulu’s still wiggly.
I check Facebook.

8:03am. Lulu seems asleep.
I’m not done with Facebook.
I want to read Bonnie’s review of Noah. What an enigma that movie is. I haven’t seen the Christian blogosphere this divided since . . . Well, since Frozen. So maybe it’s always divided. I wasn’t initially planning to see it, but it have to say, I’m intrigued.

8:04am. My guardian angel helps by making the internet painfully slow. The page won’t load. I close the iPad and roll stealthily out of bed, leaving a sleeping baby and the iPad with it’s white noise app behind. Not exactly a heroic moment, but I’m up. I get dressed: jeans, sweater, nursing tank stays on, scarf — note to self: find a scarf that matches. I slip on my new slip on running shoes.

8:10am. In the kitchen, six kids are up. The big kids set an alarm and get up at 7:30, so by now the chickens are fed and watered, eggs are brought in, dishwasher is emptied, little trash cans are brought to the big trash can, and that’s taken out, and the recycling is taken out and sorted. Two kids are dressed, most are eating breakfast. They’ve made scrambled eggs. Daddy made a pot of oatmeal and cut up some fruit for them before he left.

Our wonderful, amazing, super-terrific housekeeper is here and folding laundry.

I start reminding people what time it is.

I check the chicken stock and turn the heat up on it. I check for other ingredients and decide to make chicken and dumplings. Know what we’re having for dinner before 10am. Check.

I put an English muffin in the toaster.

8:14am. I check iCal. Need to return library books. We lost a library book
months ago. Our kind librarians keep renewing it for me, but I finally ordered one from Amazon to give them. Now I just need to remember where I put it.

Frankie has speech therapy, Betty has a voice lesson, both at our house. I need to write a check for her teacher.

I notice that it’s JPII’s death day. D’oh. We usually celebrate that as Jack’s name day, since he is named John Paul after Pope John Paul II.* That means Jack gets to pick what we have for dinner. I ask him. He does NOT want chicken and dumplings or any other chicken-stock-based dinner. Blerg.

He wants Indian curry and rice. Okay. I need I to check for ingredients.

Back to iCal. Betty has softball practice at 5, Jack has a baseball game, also at 5. So, soup was never going to work anyway. We need a to-go dinner. Curry burritos it is. And I have everything we need. All planned. Still before 10am.

I turn the stock off to cool down and take my English muffin out of the toaster. Frankie wants it. I remind him how we ask for things. He asks for it. I give it to him and put another in the toaster.

8:19am. I remind everyone what time it is.

Kids who aren’t dressed get sent to dress. Everyone gets sent to make beds.

Anita can’t find her school dress and asks for help. I find it hanging over the foot of her bed. How could she be expected to find that?

I go get clothes for Frankie and change his diaper and dress him. He wants to put on his own shoes. I wish him good luck.

8:22am. I remind everyone what time it is.

I remind everyone that we always have to put on shoes every morning.

I remind the girls to brush their hair.

I do my make up. Frankie does his.

8:30am. I remind everyone what time it is. School starts at 8:30, but so far it’s just me and Frankie in the entry way.

8:32am. We’re all out front for the Pledge of Allegiance and P.E. Gus beats us all running laps, as usual. I used to be pretty confident that I could beat him if I really tried, but now I’m not so sure.

8:45am. Back inside for prayers.

Morning Offering, Guardian Angel, Memorarae, Gus recites the Act of Contrition in preparation for his First Confession on Saturday.

8:51am. We light a candle and Betty reads aloud a story from our Children’s Bible
. Gus is surprised that Jesus was healing leopards. We have a discussion about lepers.

I do a quick two minute guided meditation with the kids, then we have two minutes of silent mental prayer. Even that is usually too long for us <cough — Frankie — cough> to stay silent. But we keep trying. Today goes pretty well. We each choose an intention and a resolution for the day. My resolution is to remember to go to the library. Must. Remember.

9:06am. We blow out the candle, put the Bible away and start our school day. Anita and Frankie go out back to play. Betty and Jack go to the kitchen table where Jack will do her math lesson with her and work on spelling on the iPad and editing in his workbook. Gus and Bobby sit on either side of me at the dining room table to do math.

My main job is to tap the table with a pencil every time Bobby spaces out. So, every 15 seconds or so. Math is supposed to be finished by 10am. I remind everyone what time it is.

I eat my breakfast.

9:27am. Wow. Baby’s still asleep. I sneak to the bathroom the back way, so Frankie doesn’t see me. When I open the door to come out, he’s standing there.

Frankie: Mama, are you all done? 

Me: Yes, Frankie, I’m all done. 

Frankie: No Mama! I lika go whichu!

10:00am. We’re supposed to be done with math, but we aren’t quite. I remind everyone what time it is.

10:12am: Math is finished and corrected for Betty, Bobby, and Gus. Lulu is still asleep! Normally we would all sit down at the kitchen counter to do All About Spelling
together, but this week is our homeschool group Spelling Bee, so we head out to the front yard to work on our spelling lists.

Betty quizzes Gus and Anita, I quiz Jack, Bobby climbs the apple tree.

10:19am. Lulu wakes up. But she can wait a minute.

10:24am. Lulu doesn’t want to wait anymore.

I’m finished with Jack’s words, so I leave him to quiz Bobby (still in the tree) and go get Lulu. She wet the bed. And by “the,” I mean “MY” bed. Oh well. So many smiles. I will sleep on a pee spot for you, baby.

10:28am. Betty is done with quizzing the littles and comes to find me and Lulu. I quiz her on her words while I get Lulu changed. Anita arrives and insists that Lulu wear a fancy dress. Then she climbs up on the bed in her muddy cowgirl boots. The things I will sleep on for them . . .

10:39am. I get Betty, Bobby, and Gus going on the self-directed part of their school days. Bobby has copy work to redo. His handwriting has lately taken a turn from “lovely” to “Did you do this with your feet?” Hopefully the 4th time is the charm on “The Ostrich.”

I realize that Jack is missing. I find him still out front, hitting tennis balls with a baseball bat. Erg.

I don’t yell.

I don’t yell.

I don’t yell.

I yell.

I make a new resolution not to yell and steer Jack back to his school work.

10:50am. Despite my best efforts to put her off until next year, Anita keeps asking to learn to read. She follows me around with the book.

So, I read to Gus the directions on his new phonics workbook pages, then do one of the Hundred Easy Lessons
with Anita.

11:06am. Anita would like to do another lesson, but Frankie’s speech therapist will be here soon and I need to get the sand off of him. Bobby says he’s done writing the essay, but I don’t have time to check it now, so I tell him to do his geography page.

I pull some leftovers out of the fridge for lunch. Betty seems to be the farthest along on her school day, so she gets to make lunch. Other kids are disappointed. They should’ve thought of that before they . . .

11:14am. Miss Hannah (speech therapist) arrives. Betty is the one to let her in. This is very, very upsetting to Frankie. I tell him to knock it off. He does.

Jack is missing again. Betty thinks he’s at Dad’s desk doing his Latin. He better hope he is.

Miss Hannah, Frankie, Lulu, and I go into the playroom. Anita, Frankie, and Gus are reading and coloring at the dining room table, which is visible through the playroom doors. But mostly they are just wishing they could do speech therapy.

I nurse the baby and feverishly try to keep up with this note-taking.

11:38am. There’s Jack. I hear Bobby asking for him help on his geography page. Jack helps him, albeit rather sarcastically. It sounds like Betty is working on lunch. I see the housekeeper leaving, which means the house is at its daily peak of cleanliness. It’s all downhill from here. It’s almost time for the Angelus. I need to remember to do the Angelus.

12:04pm. Speech therapy is over. The therapist is going to recommend that services for Frankie be terminated in the next few weeks. That’s fine with me. Frankie will miss his sessions, but I was never really convinced he needed them, and he’s made a great deal of progress. 

12:12pm. We head out to the front yard for lunch. The kids eat while I read aloud from James and the Giant Peach. I do voices.

12:56pm. I eat what’s left over while the kids bring the dishes inside and load and start the dishwasher.

Time for naps, the bestest time of the whole day.

Jack has a job bringing in trash cans on trash day for seven houses in our neighborhood. Since the trucks have all been by, he heads out on his bike to do that. Gus tags along with him. Frankie wants Betty to put him down for his nap, so Bobby will put Anita down today, and I get Lulu. (I always get Lulu!)

1:04pm. Anita pinches her finger in the door. The world might possibly end. But somehow, with the help of a ducky-shaped frozen teether, it looks like she might pull through. Stories for Frankie and Anita recommence.

1:15pm. Betty’s voice instructor, Mr. Kaviani (or, as Frankie calls him, Kani Kani) arrives, so I take over with Frankie. He wants ALL the songs. He only gets three.

1:20pm. The chicken stock is cooled down, so I move it to the fridge for tomorrow, and start the rice for tonight.

Jack gets home. He has accomplished very little of his school day so far. (I heroically do not yell.) I have him write out a list of everything he still needs to do for the day and tell him that he needs to complete each item or no baseball game and NO FEAST DAY FOR HIM. I resolve again not to yell. He says he can get it all done.

Betty is on track.

A quick review of his poetry and catechism means Gus is finished.

I check Bobby’s essay. Nope.

Frankie is shouting. I tell Frankie to stop shouting.

1:30pm. I’m off to nap. Lulu has fallen asleep in the crook of my arm. Hopefully I can lie down without waking her.

1:32pm. I cannot lie down without waking her. This is a great disaster.

I try to nurse her back to sleep. I think she will, then I think she won’t, then I think she might again, then I’m pretty sure she’s not going to, which is THE WORST. I don’t take a full night’s sleep at night, because of being able to do stuff uninterrupted in the middle of the night, so I count on a nap during the day to get enough sleep. Otherwise I get grumpy.

1:45pm. I turn on the ceiling fan for Lulu to look at, skootch her to the middle of the husband’s side of the bed, and let her kick for a bit.

I hear a bedroom door opening and closing. This is not allowed. I get up to investigate.

Anita is up and out of bed. She knows she’s caught, and bursts preemptively into tears. She wanted to put the teether back into the freezer, despite a hard-line Tierney Family policy against getting out of bed at nap time unless the house is on fire. And even then, you better be sure it’s good and on fire. Anita gets put back. The teether does not.

At least Lulu was already up, or I might have forgotten to not yell.

Frankie is quiet.

1:49pm. Lulu is tired of kicking already. She can wait a minute.

I kind of want her to get a bit upset so she’s more likely to fall back to sleep when I nurse her on the other side — my last best chance for a nap.

1:55pm. The internet is being SO SLOW. Will I never get to read Bonnie’s review?! Lulu is sufficiently mad. I change her diaper. Oh, no wonder she was mad. Oops. Trying nap again.

2:00pm. Forgot to say Angelus. Say it now.

2:07pm. Nap time isn’t working. I try letting her kick again.

Me: Lulu, you have a full tummy, and a clean diaper, and a fun ceiling fan to look at, and a delicious dress on which to chew. If you don’t want to sleep, fine. But why don’t you want ME to sleep? It’s very like the fable The Dog in the Manger. Do you remember that one? We may have read it before you were born. But this is very like that. 

Lulu: Wuh-AHH! 

Me: Whatever. Let’s try this again.

2:10pm. Nursing again. I’m pretty sure it won’t work and my whole day will be ruined and we’ll all be miserable. And probably this is what will happen every day from now on.

3:10pm. Oh. Good.

Lulu is still asleep so I check my email, lots of comments, yay! and try to check Facebook and blogs, but it does not please The Lord today to have my iPad get the internet.

3:30pm. I carefully slide away from Lulu and head out to see if any disasters have befallen us during nap time.

All is well.

Jack has left on his bike to go to the 4pm baseball practice before his 5pm game. His note says he finished his school day.

Anita is still sleeping. Frankie is up and he, Bobby, and Gus are having our favorite afternoon snack. I don’t mind if I do.

3:44pm. I work on Bible History and grammar with Betty and Bobby. They’re almost done for the day. This time I don’t make it past Frankie without being spotted, “You remembered Mama!” so I have some company in the bathroom.

4:10pm. I start making dinner.

4:15pm. Lulu wakes up. I’m not done.

Lulu supervises from the bumbo. Yay for already cut-up veggies.

We need to leave in 30 minutes. I remind everyone what time it is, and start them looking for shoes.

4:20pm. I coordinate with the husband via text message since we’ve got concurring sporting events this evening. He is going to come by and pick up one van with Anita and the boys to go to Jack’s game. Lulu and I will take Betty to practice in the other.

4:33pm. Twelve Indian curry with veggies and rice burritos are wrapped in foil and in the oven to stay warm. Shoes are on feet. People are dressed appropriately for the day and activity. Schoolwork is finished, though I never did see that ostrich essay again. We do a flash-tidy of the house. I change the laundry.

I check my make-up and put on big girl shoes for going out and seeing the people.

4:41pm. Gus says it’s starting to rain. While that may not be a problem in some parts of the country, here in LA, if it rains, everything is cancelled.

There is texting.

It looks like just a passing shower. Everything is still on. Betty and I get everyone buckled into the appropriate vehicle.

4:55pm. The husband arrives home. We kiss hello and good bye, then jump into two different vans and are off.

5:01pm. I drop Betty off at practice. Lulu and I head for the library. WITH the book I need to return AND the book I need to replace both in the car. Pat self on back.

I’m hoping we’ll be able to say a family rosary tonight after the baseball game, but you never know, so I start saying a rosary in the car. I accomplish the library, get some new books.

5:46pm. Back in the car to pick up Betty, I finish the rosary.

5:52pm. At the park, I get Lulu out of her seat and nurse her under my scarf (most useful accessory ever) as I walk over to Betty’s practice field. They finish practice, and vote on their team name.

6:08pm. Back to the car with a full baby and a Northridge “Rebel.” We head to the other park. This is the first year we’ve done sports at two different parks. I miss NOT doing sports at two different parks.

6:16pm. Arrive at Little League field. I greet the husband and the other kids, who react as if I’ve returned from a polar expedition rather than the library and another park. It’s nice to see them too. We say grace and count to forty and eat dinner and watch the game.

7:04pm. The game’s over, we lose. It wasn’t our day. The husband loads Jack’s bike into one van and stays with him for his team meeting. I take the other six kids home. It’s getting late, so we say one decade of the rosary in the car on the way home in case we don’t get to it tonight.

7:11pm. At home, we unload the car of people and stuff.

Betty brings in the dinner bag and unloads it.

Bobby hangs up all the raincoats we didn’t end up needing.

Gus cleans up all the sports equipment in the car and all over the front yard.

7:14pm. The kids are awfully dusty from the park, so I draw a bath and put the first shift of three littles in.

I ask to see completed schoolwork and there is remembering of things that they thought for sure were done but maybe might not actually be completely done. So they go check.

7:25pm. First shift out of the tub and into jammies. Next kid in.

Daddy plays the “smash ’em, steamroll ’em, tickle ’em, poke ’em” game with the boys while I dry Anita’s hair. Teeth are brushed, prayers are prayed. Daddy puts Frankie to bed.

7:40pm. Last two kids take shifts in the tub while I read stories to Anita and Gus. They’ve chosen to sleep in the guest room bed together tonight. They are threatened with relocation if there is talking.

8:00pm. Lights out for them. Lulu has fallen asleep in my arm.

I check the kids’ schoolwork. I find some things Jack has missed. I am assured that it was an oversight and that he’ll have it done in a jiffy.

“The Ostrich” is not getting better. Bobby gets sent to bed early. He’s sleeping in the boys’ room with Frankie tonight, so that he can get up with him in the morning. The big four take turns with him.

8:34pm. I start trying to tidy the kitchen one handed, then regret it, because I wake up the baby.

8:38pm. Jack is done. For realsies this time. He heads to bed (actually, a sleeping bag on the floor of the guest room) to read until 9pm.

Betty holds Lulu so I can finish the dishes, which are not one of the things I can do one handed. I take a quick look at Facebook. Yay! Colleen had her baby! WHY is the internet so slow today?

I cut up a cantaloupe for the kids to have in the morning.

8:49pm. The dishwasher is running and the counters are wiped down. That will have to do for tonight.

I take Lulu and send Betty to bed. There’s an empty bed on either side of her in the girls’ room tonight.

I go get changed into my jammies, even though I won’t be heading to bed any time soon. If I don’t get to it before she falls asleep on me, I end up sleeping in my clothes — in the boot-mud (and whatnot) that’s in my bed. But not tonight. Tonight, it’s jammies all the way.

9:00pm. I remind the big kids what time it is.

I turn the iPad off and back on again. The internet now works fine.

I read Bonnie’s review of Noah. Now, it’s a well-known fact that Bonnie and I don’t always agree about movies, but I like what she has to say. I’m tempted to see it. But I don’t much care for epics. And I require good guys. And it’s Lent. So, probably I won’t.

9:14pm. Lulu gets wiggly, so I sit down at the desktop computer to nurse her and while away the next couple of hours catching up on emails and comments and Facebook and my blog and other people’s blogs while the husband works on our taxes and provides for our family by doing stuff on his laptop.

*It turns out JPII DOES already have a Feast Day. It’s October 22. Don’t tell Jack.

The post A Day in the Life of Me, Kendra Tierney, in Which a Lot of Things Happen and Often I Don’t Yell appeared first on Catholic All Year.

I wasn’t surprised when my Open Letter to Breaking Bad and Flannery O’Connor inspired other posts, but now I’m going to go ahead and take credit for the existence of a whole new blog.

Kathryn’s blog, Through a Glass Brightly, is really, really smart. Her post about Breaking Bad and Flannery O’Connor references Dante, Faust, Gollum, Shakespeare’s Richard III, and The Passion of the Christ. All of them. In one post.

I, personally, remain unconvinced, but all you Breaking Bad enthusiasts and Flannery O’Connor-ophiles should get right over there and give her some love.

Hey, speaking of intellectuals . . . 

ThoughtCatalogue asked people to share “The Most Intellectual Joke I Know”

These are a few of my favorites:

How about you? Know any nerdy jokes?

update: There is a shirt. Want.

found here

Some of these 99 Life Hacks that Could Make Your Life Easier are pretty brilliant:

Food should not be “great for kindling.” Are Doritos made of wood? Is nacho cheese powder flammable? So many questions.

Hey, you know how you proof read your emails, and Facebook status updates, and blog posts, and term papers, and job applications and stuff, but you never seem to quite be able to catch that one last spelling error until after it’s sent/posted/submitted?

I’ve got good news: Spelling errors make things MORE VALUABLE.

The Vatican recently issued a commemorative medal in honor of Pope Francis, but had to recall the 6000 that had already been minted after it was discovered that the word “Jesus” was misspelled as “Lesus.” While the mistake was embarrassing for the Vatican, it was thrilling for collectors. A spelling error like that is rare indeed, and the few medals that were sold before the rest were pulled are sure to command a hefty price. When it comes to collectibles of any kind, spelling errors always add interest and value. 

Check out MentalFloss for 12 other spelling errors that have really paid off.

Folks have sent me some great links in response to my recent posts here, here, and here about my support of Halloween and scaring children.

I thought you might like them too . . . 

The Fun of Fear by Hallie‘s husband Dan Lord

Some people worry about the idea of dressing up as scary things. But we are scary things. We are substantially good, because we are made by God — but then we all proceed to disfigure that goodness by our sins, making our spirits ugly. Halloween gives us a creative, theatrical way to express this: We are made ugly by sin and become participators with evil; consigned to a kind of purgatorial state, we go from house to house receiving the grace of God that will purify us, symbolized by treats. We bring the treats home, take off our masks, and enjoy the taste of Heaven.

The Holiness of Pretending by Karen Ullo

How sad that on Halloween, the one day of the year when society openly celebrates pretending, our costume shops are stocked to the rafters with pimp hats and fishnet stockings.  We have so glutted our imaginations with exploitation, we have left ourselves little else to explore.  Oh, the ghosts and vampires and witches are still there—the dark forces within ourselves with whom we are better able to contend after we look them in the eye and call them by their names—but it seems their aisle gets smaller and cheaper every year.  No one wants to be ugly anymore, not even for an hour.  We have forgotten that pretending is about seeing the whole world through others’ eyes, not just ourselves.

and I loved this from Stephen Greydanus, my favorite Catholic movie reviewer, in his review of The Nightmare Before Christmas

Like the gargoyles and grotesques on medieval cathedrals, these kitchy flattened hags evoke for me what I think of as the best sort of Halloween spirit: a kind of satiric defiance. “The devil,” St. Thomas More tells us, “the prowde spirit… cannot endure to be mocked.” Properly viewed, a jack-o’lantern or a child’s monster mask, like a Gothic grotesque, is not a concession to superstition, but a dismissal of it: It proclaims that we are not afraid. Far from glorifying evil, it caricatures it in such a way as to pay oblique tribute to the straight and true. Think of the upside-down values of the Addams Family, or Far Side cartoons that deal with the grotesque or uncanny. Real evil isn’t anything like that. Of course real good isn’t anything like that either; but it’s real good — not real evil — that provides the point of contrast that makes the skewed caricature interesting. No one looks at the Addams Family thinking about how the Addamses compare or contrast with the Manson family; the point is how they compare and contrast with an ordinary family.

So, this Halloween, let’s all get out there and mock the devil!

Speaking of scary — really scary, there’s a post wending it’s way through the homeschooling community called Homeschool Blindspots by Reb Bradley.

In it, the author details his own failings as a parent, and how the mistakes he made contributed to rebellion and loss of faith in his children. The piece is touching in its honesty and humility. And his main advice: to avoid focusing on sheltering, mindless discipline, and outward appearances over love and relationship, is one to remember.

But, in reading a post like this it’s easy to start falling into self-doubt and despair. After all, anyone who homeschools has probably been treated to a story about someone’s brother’s neighbor’s cousin who homeschooled and her kids ended up atheist pot heads who are living with their boyfriends and don’t like Flannery O’Connor.

And yes, that could happen to you. It could happen to me. But it’s not a homeschooling problem, it’s a human nature problem. We can do the best we know how for our children and still fail. But that doesn’t mean we should just stop trying, or not do the things we feel are best for our kids.

So, I’m going to take note of his shortcomings and try to learn from them. But mostly, I’m going to . . . 

‘Cause all I can do is love my children and trust God and follow my gut and hope for the best. And worrying about the future isn’t going to help one bit. Besides, God says not to do it.

And, finally, Matt Walsh did it again. He wrote a post, which I believe he intended as a defense of his wife’s vocation to stay-at-home motherhood against some rather tactless acquaintances of his. It has elicited well over ten-thousand comments.

Many people really appreciated his post, but many others were offended by the vigor with which he asserted the nobility and difficulty of his wife’s “job” and his stance that no matter what, the thing that’s best for children is to be with their mothers as much as possible and everything else is lesser, if not downright tragic.

As someone who chooses to stay home with my children, and who was raised by someone who chose to work outside the home, I have some thoughts . . . 

I believe that staying at home with my kids is what’s best for me and for them. I think it’s my vocation and God’s plan for me. If I didn’t think that, I wouldn’t be doing it.

But I also happen to think it’s the easier and more fun thing to be doing as well. And I am very grateful to God and my husband that I’m able to do it. The moms that I know who have to work for financial reasons seem to me to have it a lot harder than I do. Sure, we stay at home moms have our rough days, but I read about Colleen’s day, and I wouldn’t trade places with her. She’s making the best of a challenging situation and really doesn’t need to be told that her kids are suffering because she needs to work.

Especially because I don’t think it’s true. Obviously, I can’t speak for all children. But I can speak for me. Our family could have afforded for my mother to stay home with my sister and I, but my mom liked her job as a flight attendant and she chose to keep doing it. My dad was a pilot, and he really liked his job too. Most of the time one or the other of my parents was home overnight, but we also had a live-in nanny.

Even as a child, I understood that my mother chose to work and it did not make me feel less valued. I knew that my parents loved me. My mom showed her devotion to her children in many other ways. I made plenty of bad decisions as a teenager and young adult, but there’s no guarantee that I wouldn’t have made those same bad decisions if my mom had stayed home with us. If you think staying home with your kids is a guarantee that they won’t end up screw-ups, then you didn’t read take number 6.

My home was filled with love and both my sister and I have very close relationships with my parents today. And, despite feeling that I was not screwed-up up by my mom’s mothering choices, I have made pretty much opposite ones. Here’s hoping mine work out as well for me as my mom’s did for her.

The post You’re Welcome: 7 Quick Takes XXX appeared first on Catholic All Year.

If you were around for the early days of the blog, you may remember the series we had of Catholic Toddler Letters!

Anyway, Monica has issued a challenge and a link-up, and if you know me you’ll know that I can’t resist either. She’s hosting Blog in a Blink, which invites bloggers to choose the nine posts they think best represent their blog. I’ve only been doing this for a few months, but it was still really hard to choose. I tried to go with posts that I like, but are less popular.

So here goes . . .

So, how do you think I did? Do those posts sum up this blog?

The post Blog in a Blink appeared first on Catholic All Year.

So, I prefer to have the quizzes in writing, that way they can do them on their own if necessary.

We use Prima Latina in the fourth grade (the Mother of Divine Grace syllabus suggests either Prima Latina or a modified Latina Christiana I). I had already bought Prima Latina on the recommendation of a friend when Jack was in first grade (we did NOT end up using it then!), so I prefer to use that for the fourth grade, then move on to Latina Christiana I for fifth grade.

I’ve been really happy with the program, ESPECIALLY with the DVDs. I’ve never taken Latin, so I am much more comfortable with having someone else to introduce the concepts and pronunciations (in a cute southern accent!).

BUT, there are no weekly quizzes with the Prima Latina course, just 5 tests for the year. Like I said, I wasn’t getting to the assigned oral quizzes. Like I said, I’ve got a case of the pregnant crazies. So I MAY have stayed up until 3am last night typing up quizzes for the year.

On the off chance that anyone who reads this blog also uses Prima Latina but isn’t crazy and therefore does not have plans to stay up all night making quizzes, I figured I’d post them here: Prima Latina Lesson Quizzes.

It’s my first try embedding a pdf link, so please let me know if it works (or doesn’t work) for you.

Happy Quizzing!

The post Prima Latina Lesson Quizzes appeared first on Catholic All Year.