Basilica cancelled

Sorry for the last minute notice, and you may gathered already that, due to forecast, fieldtrip is cancelled and rescheduled for 4/15 (two weeks from now). Stay safe and warm and pray for sun. Caroline

I Did It!!!

Go here, click and learn/register, and do a search for Maine. I'm so cool!!!!

Healing Service

Father Rice is leading a healing service April 10th at Saint Mary's for those of you who don't get the All Saints bulletin. 1pm music, 1:30 prayers for healing If you've never been check it out. Talk about the presence of the Holy Spirit...wow!

Up coming events

April1, 10:00 Basillica Tour, Lewiston

April 4, 10:00 Planetarium Show, Portland


Hmm... changed color to Lenten theme but lost up coming events section. Help?

Science Meets Art: the foundry

Husbands! Well, so much for Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. Digby says he will pour on FRIDAY of said week. This is April 8th rain or shine 1pm. We can pretty much count on this. He prefers to pour on Fridays and apparently he had to sneak in some extra pieces so had to push things back a few days. I hope this works for people. Let me know if you can make it. I'm going to try to pull together a plaster project making had prints in pie plates so the kids can get an idea of the sculpture to mold to cast process from a tactile perspective. Don't count on it but I will try! Janine, I know this leaves you guys in the lurch but there will be plenty of other pours. This current date is ideal because the foundry is "clean" which translates as "safer" for a group of people.

Bates College Art Museum

Hello all,
I spoke with Anthony at the Bates Art Museum on the campus and he's enthusiastic and accomodating to our interests. Unfortunately they are closed this Friday due to the installation of a new exhibit and will reopen on June 9th. I told him I'd get back to him at that time. An exhibit of Wyeth's from the Wyeth estate will run from June through October. If we're interested maybe we could set up something in conjunction with some other worthy field trip in the Lewiston area. I'm game to pursue it if anyone has any thoughts/possibilities?

Tea and talk

Hi friends! Anne Litchfield, who has occasionally attended Bible study, has organized a night for Catholic women to get together and talk at Borders. It's the last Thursday of each month, so that means this Thurs. 3/31 at Borders in Brunswick at 7. Caroline

Planetarium

OK, Field trip scheduled to visit the planetarium on April 4th at 10 am

See previous post for cost, directions, and link to check out 8 planets and counting.

PLEAS let me know (again) if and how many will be coming. Thanks! Val

Foundry Fieldtrip

Hi everyone,

The Long and Short:

As much as we want to invite the kids to sculp and cast, the cost and time are prohibitive. The cost of bronze has risen dramatically and Digby is booked with work through May which is good for us. The cost for casting for the kids would be about $30 minimum each in bronze never mind the time and cost of actual casting.

BUT we'd still love to share this with the kids so how about a tour of the foundry led by yours truly (I know far too much about this process) that highlights the 27 step process from wax sculpture to bronze. We have plenty of working examples of each step. We will finish the tour by having the kids watch an actual pour. I will prepare handouts ahead of time, if interested, covering the scientific principles and brief history of lost wax principles. Or I'll skip it if you don't care much about that stuff.

If this sounds good, it would be ideal for Digby to have it take place 4/5 or 4/6 1pm. He will know the final date this Wednesday and I will let you all know if the interest is there.

The work on the Christ piece finished rapidly without enough time to be in on the Patina given the artist's schedules and personal commitments.

Let me know if you want to move forward with this.

Thanks!

No Sugar Tour

Hi All,
I called Goranson Farm earlier in the week but they never called me back. This weekend is one of their busiest in the spring so I'm not terribly surprised. This Sunday is Maple Syrup Sunday in Maine and many farms are open for tours of their sugaring houses and some have a pancake breakfast. Google Maine Maple Syrup Sunday for more info. Have a great day!

Great kids Books to recommend

I found a series called "Words are categorical"---look that up on google and all the titles (7 in all) will pop up and can be ordered at the library to borrow. They cover nouns, verbs, pronouns, adj. etc. in a fun, colorful and humorous way.

I really appreciate it when you all share HS ideas and books, so thought I'd pass one along to you:D

Link to audio curriculum discussed last night

http://www.audiomemory.com/index.php

Meeting Tonight!!

The scheduled topic tonight is learning styles. Do you have kids who learn more through hearing, seeing, touching/feeling? Or kids who learn best with ambient noise, or best in silence (ack!). How do you meet the needs of different learning styles while using the same books? In your daily life how do different learning styles help you with family chores etc? What is your learning style and that of your husband? Do your children reflect the similarities and differences you and your husband have?

I'll look for some kind of easy quiz or guidlines for determining learning styles so we can try to evaluate ourselves and our children.

Can't wait!!

St.Joseph's Day- See you 11-2 Saturday !

(The color of the day will be blue with white.)

Directions to my house.

Get into the Cook's Corner area.
Head South down 24 towards the islands.
After 1.2 miles turn left onto Board Rd.
After .4 mi, turn right at the T onto Woodward Point Rd.
Go .8 down we are #174 on the right.
It is tan with red shutters/trim garage and well out front.

(Janine obviously head N on 24 turn R onto Board Rd.)

The Worst of Times

The Best of times...I have insomnia because my teenager took a day off homeschooling work. So I was lying in bed keeping John up agonizing over whether I should head into the Guidance office at the high school and sign her up, and wash my hands of this whole thing! Because if she's going full time I don't have to do any more work, right? HA!


Mary Catherine and Ezra on twin day.


But when I finally got out of bed to get a drink, do some writing etc I saw on the fridge dry erase her plan for getting all her work done by Saturday Morning. It is a LOT, but she at least made her own plan. So I guess I'll keep her home. . .by the skin of her teeth!!!


I really am trying to work on not having negative emotional reactions to her every whim. But when she has procrastinated the work we have to do together, and I'm looking at over an hour of algebra and dinner clean-up and putting Little's to bed I start getting a bit emotional, and negative.

All this AND I'm feeling like a LAME CATHOLIC since the first week of lent was spent eating pounds of decadent food and sitting in luxury in New Orleans. Someone get me a hair shirt so I can feel better!!

But we did pray our rosary tonight. . . and tomorrow is a new day. . . I will pray better tomorrow. . ..God Bless you Mamma's--hope to see you Saturday!

I can't make this new photo smaller ??? Help!

Changed Mom's Support meeting to the 22nd

Hi Ladies,
After running into 2 Moms who did not know tonight was the meeting, and knowing Lisa and Allison were away, I called Janine and she agreed we could change the meeting to next Tuesday the 22nd 7-9. I called the church to inform them of this change and to request a reservation for the conference room next week. Janine and I also called other regular group members to pass on this info.
Hope to see you before then at the St.Joseph's day Family Feast at my house 11-2, potluck brunch.
Call with any questions or complaints.  ;)
Love and prayers, Val

Basilica Fieldtrip

Hi Friends!
Lisa N. called on Friday re: the Basilica fieldtrip and when to schedule the Bates Olin Arts Museum fieldtrip that day. I'll have to call Father Parent for a back-up time in the event of a funeral, but Lisa also mentioned that she would like to have a tour by the organist. She's away and not sure if she's checking the blog. Does anyone know his name and number so that I might coordinate that tour with Fr. Parent's?
Thanks!
p.s. I'm available for a girls' night after Easter. Also, Conor just returned home from an Ignatian retreat in CT. He said that they'll sponsor another one on April 16 at the Basilica for mother's and daughters. Keep it in mind and I'll get more info.
p.p.s. not sure I can make it Tues. night, so could someone please do a quick blog about the meeting? Thanks so much.
p.p.p.s. Janine, trivia day sounds great!

Allison, Can you change the back ground to St.Patrick-y themes please? Thank you!

Get ready to Novena!

http://www.stjosephsite.com/SJS_Ninedays.htm

In addition to the previous resource posted on some past blog, I found this and it seems quite rich. I am not familiar with this site so I reserve the right to discredit it later if it turns out to be heretical or anything ;)

We can fit a novena in between now and St. Joseph's Feast on the 19th. Blessed Lent to you all!

I have another idea.....hmmmm

What do you ladies say to having a kids trivia game afternoon at our house next month sometime. They had one at the U of M in Augusta with all age kids and it was a blast. The set-up is questions on everything they are learning that can be applied to all ages and is interesting: animal trivia, biology, geography, maybe some American history. No math or spelling and such.....too boring (or so they might say). The kids are in groups, they make up a team name and the questions are asked on a big piece of poster paper (since i have no big screen for a power point presentation) and the answers are multiple choice. The answers are on a second sheet of paper with other interesting facts given on the subject of the question. So they get to learn a bit while having fun. We could all make up the questions and I will put it all together. Maybe we could make 4 teams with all the kids we have for the competition. We could even get some cheap dollar store prizes OR some recycled items from our own homes for a grab bag prize for all participants rather than for just the winners......followed by snacks of course. Let me know what you think.

NO Planetarium TRIP on March 14th.

The rescheduled field trip to the planetarium is also cancelled. Everyone was already busy.
What cultured and adventurous home scholars you all are!
Please let me know if there is a good day for you to go and I will reschedule it.
STANDING BY-

Mom's night out?

Hey Pretty Mommas,
Never heard back from most of you if you were interested in a Mother's Night out at my place this weekend. I had one interested in Friday after another event. And another one maybe interested in Saturday but never heard back.
Please let me know if you want to come and when, or else we will put it off until a more convenient time. (Which is what I am assuming and is fine with me if there is no need now.)
See many of you at Janine's.

One more (important) thing

our driveway is a bit icy and on a downhill slope.......not real steep, but if you don't have 4 wheel drive, not sure if you will get back up it once you come down it. Sorry about that everyone.

Our Car is not here but we are

just want to tell you all that our car is in the shop, but we are home. So the good news is there is more room for you all to park tomorrow. Our driveway has been taken over by snow,so there is room for 3-4 cars. There is addit. 2 parking spaces just before you hit our drive on the left, and of course along the road as well, since the road dead ends at us and one neighbors driveway. See you all tomorrow!