"Sanctity Consists in Doing Good...in Whatever Condition and Place God Has Places Us"

What's a mama to do when she has kids of different ages and stages of belief, and sadly, unbelief?

Keep on, keeping on.

Recognize that while hearts for God are strengthened while serving others, hardened hearts, can be softened by service.

There are plenty of people close to home who could use  helping hand.

Case in point for my crew: friends with littles who are trying to start a big garden project.

As the old saying goes, "Many hands make light work." So, when a friend of ours was feeling overwhelmed about building gardens in time to plant this year for her growing family, other friends were there to help.

Some talked through possibilities and plans, helping our friend imagine what could be done to make her garden plot fruitful. Others helped haul supplies. Still others - including us - came together to build the gardens...

Breaking down carboard boxes...

Measuring out where beds and stakes would go...

Driving stakes into the ground to tie off measured garden beds...

Shoveling compost onto the carboard to create deep garden beds...

Persisting shovelful by shovelful with a project to move it from dream to reality in an afternoon.

The ordinary help of laboring to create friend's gardens was a good that we could do that day, and who knows what good it may seed - both literally and figuratively.

As I think about my child who is at a place of unbelief, I am grateful that the child is still willing to offer acts of service alongside family and friends. I pray that the child's heart is extraordinarily moved back towards belief one day while we are going about the ordinary good of each day.

I ask for your prayers for this, too.

I also ask: What good is there to be attended to in whatever condition and place you and those around you are in?

Answer that and then go savor an opportunity for sanctity.

May God bless you and yours - and those around you - in whatever condition and place you are in.

A Perfect Motto when Conversing

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

I recently had the pleasure of taking some teen girls on a short hike through a nature preserve.

While we enjoyed spying star flowers..

...exploring old mill sites and farm walls...

...crossing streams...

...discovering frog eggs...

... spying spring blooms...

...chatting, laughing, and more, there was one thing that was not so delightful:

At times, conversation turned to those that some or all of the girls knew, and, from there, turned negative.

That was when a practical and succinct quote that I read in Counsels of Perfection for Christian Mothers came into play:

 "Speak not ill of the absent."

I recalled how the book explained that "Saint Augustine had these words posted in his refectory" and that, putting them into play, "he was not only a saint but also a man of honor." 

The book also encouraged readers to put the motto into practice and to see that families lives up to it, saying, "Your voice, with a sweet firmness, should remind those who are prone to forget, that with you, and before you, no evil must be spoken of the absent."

Perfect!

Each time the girls' conversation leaned toward speaking ill of others, I simply chimed in with "Speak not ill of the absent."

The girls then joked with me about how, if we could not speak ill of the absent, we might speak honestly - even if ill - of the present. (Girls!)

Even still, the point was made.

Succinct and powerful, "Speak not ill of the absent," has since become a motto that my daughter and I remind one another of when bad habits if ill speaking come over us.

I share the quote here in case it might help you or yours break a similar habit which hurts others and causes us to lose our way on the path toward perfection.

I also encourage you to read other gems in Counsels of Perfection for Christian Mothers.

If you don't have the book I shared links here for audio, print, an e-versions that you can access paid or for free. 

Cross Seven Offers Musical Memory, Quiz Tracking, and More {A Review}

I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.
Disclosure: Impressed by Cross Seven, I am now an affiliate, which means I may earn from qualifying purchases.

When I was offered an opportunity to review a subscription of Cross Seven Ventures - Homeschool Musical Memory Tool by Cross Seven Ventures LLC, curiosity caused me to jump at the opportunity.

I had long wanted to see if the power of musical memory work might help my children learn, but, sadly, when my children were at ideal ages for it, I could not take advantage of the variety of programs out there that use it.

Budgets, time, and, to be honest, a child who went through a long period of being averse to any music with lyrics, precluded me from jumping on the bandwagon of awesome musical memory work that so many others I knew were benefiting from.

Fast forward to recent days: all of my children now like music with lyrics of one kind or another, and I remained curious as to how effective music memory work might prove here.

Thus, when I heard that we could try out Cross Seven Ventures - Homeschool Musical Memory Tool, which pairs music and audiovisual slides to help build students' working memory of many bits of knowledge considered foundational to Classical Education and also offers online quizzes and such, I was excited.   

What A COMPREHENSIVE, YET FLEXIBLE AND EASY TOOL!

The Cross Seven program is designed to be easy to use and to take minimum time so that families can benefit from it while attending to other life and learning, too.

It includes four cycles of musical memory work that cover Scripture, Hymns, Math, History, Science, English, Latin, Geography, and Timeline.

Each cycle includes 28 weeks of material on a four-year cycle, which means that relaxed families can use it as a spine for all learning, while families that prefer to can use it as a supplement.

Further, since the musical memory work and related online quizzes can be used week by week, or accessed by subject, there is flexibility and ease of use even for families that just want to focus on specific areas.

We use are using the program here for one child at present and he does it on a laptop, but I have heard others are using it on streaming apps such as AppleTV, Roku, and FireTV, so everyone is able to learn together! 

WHAT'S INCLUDED?

With your subscription, you get access to a parent portal where you can access quiz scores for your children. 

These results - we discovered after reading the site - will only appear if your child remembers to log in on his or her own account. 

You also get a plethora of resources for each cycle!

 If you use the program traditionally, your family or co-op class will start by listening to the hymn, followed by prayer, and then: pledges to the American flag, the Christian flag, the Bible, and the Lord’s Prayer. From there move into Scripture and the Timeline - which has both audio and visual components That completes the opening of each day. 

Then, children can move onto other subjects - weekly History, Latin, Grammar, Science, Math, and Geography - as well as quizzes and fun links that can be accessed to expand learning taking place.

If using the program with one child, like we are, the child can simply log on, select a cycle/subject to work on, click on links to view the slides listen, take quizzes, explore, etc.

There is so much potential learning in this program!

Grammar has lessons related to the parts of a speech, the purpose of a sentence, patterns, adverbs, and so much more. It is all presented with simple songs and visuals so students can read along with each song while learning about nouns & pronouns, adjectives & articles, verbs & adverbs, conjunctions, interjections, fundamentals of sentences, prepositions, phases & clauses, helping & linking verbs and more.

Math includes skip counting 1-12, 15, 25, squares, cubes, order of operations, common fractions, decimals, prime numbers, Roman numerals, conversions, percent, commutative, associative, distributive properties, prefixes for metric, Pythagorean theorem, absolute value, place value names, averages, etc.

Latin works through numbers, poems, and scripture to read and sing along with as well as  grammar lessons—verbs, declension, Scientia potentia and more, plus the Apostles Creed.

Science covers various laws and scientists; taxonomy, types of leaves, parts of a flower and more and takes but a minute at a time each, concluding in Cycle 4 with Physics: Kepler, Newton, Newton’s Laws, forces, work, energy, simple machines, Archimedes, electricity, Laws of Thermodynamics, heat transfer, Faraday, Maxwell, electromagnetic spectrum, light, sound, Einstein and more!

History begins with Creation and the Earliest People and works through, the topics from various historical events ending on September 11th. 

Geography starts with the continents and oceans; proceeds through the Seven Wonders of the World, Ancient China, and Egypt; expands to Canadian Provinces, U.S. cities, and capitals; and essentially takes you through each continent from ancient to modern times with short, simple videos.

Hymns include classics with rich lyrics to hide in hearts or sing aloud when you wish.

The Timeline has a pdf download to help you create your own timeline as you work through each lesson. Oh, and there are videos with hand gestures to go along with each lesson. 

Together, the program provides a gentle approach to Classical Education where young children can simply read, hear and sing their way through all nine subjects that are contained in the cycles, then use quizzes - with matching to map work - to  quickly learn and recall what is being taught. 

Quiz results, as I said before, can be accessed on a parent dashboard, and students can earn a variety of badges and certificates through the subjects and completing their quizzes. 

HOW WE USED IT

When we first got Cross Seven, I introduced it to my just-teenage daughter, hoping she might be interested in it as a way to review and fill in some of her skills and knowledge. She tends not to like online programs, however, and I have no "fancy phone" for playing the musical memory work in the car when she is a captive audience, so my hopes for using Cross Seven with her did not come to fruition.

At the same time, I introduced the program to my tween son. He has been into Math, so asked me if, for now, he can concentrate just on the math portion of it, and, then, in the future maybe do other subjects. I agreed.

When I asked him for his thoughts for this review, he said:

It's a good program, but, of course, the math, which is what I chose to start with, would not be a full math curriculum, because it does not teach you, but gives you drills and memory. 

The drills are set up as easy, quick questions and proceed to get harder as they go on. The memory work is presented as songs and is okay. I did not like them much now, but I think I would have when I was littler. 

I am interested in trying the other subjects in the fall. 

I would recommend it to people ages 7-12, with under nine's probably enjoying it most.

WOULD I RECOMMEND IT?

I have browsed other Classical Education musical memory programs before and never seen one delivered like this - with full memory work, quizzes, videos/skits, fun links, a parent portal for quizzes, etc. So, for that reason alone, I think it is worth looking into.

Further, as I popped around our subscription, I was impressed with how much is included in the four-year cycle of work and thought the songs could have truly benefited my daughter and younger son had we had this when 5-10 years ago. 

I can see this full program working wonderfully for many families with right-age children and am finding it useful for my older children to cherry pick from.

It is well put together, easy to access/use, and appreciated. Also, i is NOT parent intensive!

All children in your household can login under the same family account. Then children can login to their student profiles and use the product on their own, with you checking in on quizzes through the parent portal. Or, you can join in or complete studies as a group with no need to do a lot of prep or follow up.

Many of us on the Homeschool Review Crew appreciated the ease of this program. Click through to find links to over 20 social media, video, and blog reviews which provide honest opinions and ideas for using Cross Seven.

A NOTE FOR FELLOW CATHOLIC READERS

Since we've been focusing mostly on Math, my son and I have not run into anything that would take further discussion for Catholic families. 

It is a Christian, not Catholic, resource though, so, like with all such resources, I suggest that if theological questions come up, you simply address them, and also, add whatever additional expressly Catholic teaching/memory work/hymns you wish.

CONNECT

You can get a FREE 1-day trial to Cross Seven online, then, sign up with a lmonthy or yearly subscription. You can also connect with Cross Seven:

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What a Delightful Book to Inspire Concrete Way for Kids to Love One Another {A Tommy Nelson Publishing Book Review}

I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

Loving others is often easier said than actively done. Thus Tommy Nelson Publishing has put out Everybody, Always for Kids by Bob Gott and his daughter Lindsey Goff Viducich in order to encourage children to find creative and practical ways to love to others.

Filled with 40 witty, entertaining, real-life stories, the book is aimed at ages 6-10, but can be inspiring and profound for any age!

Recently, my daughter and I have been using this book during our 1:1 study times as an enjoyable and fairly easy resource with which to build reading fluency while highlighting virtues. It works perfectly for this.

My younger son also got interested in the book and has been picking it up to read on his  own at times. 

Both of my younger children and I recommend the book at one that can delight and inspire through its stories of the authors' childhood memories, trips taken, places visited, and, of course, relationships experienced which clearly tie into practical examples of how we can love one another.

As you read the book, you cannot help be be reminded that the perfect example of loving others is Jesus and when we genuinely love others ourselves, we are living God's will.

Whether encouraging others, curbing our bad habits, thinking of others before ourselves, celebrating others' successes, or modeling after one of the other concrete example that Everybody, Always for Kids details, we are all called to love one another, and this book offers plenty of food for thought and practical ideas for doing so.

I asked my daughter to write her own review of the book to share here, and this is what she said:

Everybody Always for Kids is a nearly 200-page hardcover book with 40 little, illustrated stories inside. Each story tells a real life experience from author Bob Goff's and his family's lives and uses the experiences to talk about virtues, Bible verses, etc. that teach kids about loving everybody always. The book has an attached blue ribbon bookmark and large print. 

We got the book to read and discuss together during our 1:1's.

 

I enjoy how the book teaches with relatable stories. The author has had a normal life. For example, his kids once had a hallway they really liked and made a game with it. (When I was little, I did similar things.) He had a story about holes in his pockets. Who hasn't had holes in their pockets? He has children that liked to try to make things when they were little. (My brothers and I did, too.)

 

The author also had an interesting life. For example, he went sky diving with his son, a helicopter landed in his front yard, etc. 

With each story - normal or unique - the author connects it to loving everybody always.

The only negative thing I have to say about the book is that the glossy pages are good quality, but, because they are glossy, if the light hits the book a certain way, it can cause a glare that makes reading harder.

 

I would recommend this book to families with children. It is easy and quick to read the stories. It would be a good family read aloud for little kids and makes for quick reading practice for older kids.

We also received a pdf copy of the Everyday. Always for Kids Five Day Lesson Plan with our review. This 16-page resource is filled with hands-on ideas and discussion prompts suitable for younger children. Since my daughter is older and our conversations and narrations tend to flow best without prompts, we chose not to use this extra free resource, but I did look it over. 

With crafts, questions, planting ideas, and more, I think the ideas in it would be helpful to homeschoolers and religious education teachers with younger children or co-ops to extend ideas from the book.

If you'd like to read a sample of the book, head on over to the webpage. You can also connect with Thomas Nelson Publishing:

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You can also Plus, you can click through to find 25 video, social media, and blog reviews from other Homeschool Review Crew families!

Are You in the Habit of Daily Spiritual Reading?

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

It's no secret that I've been reading, rereading and thinking about the book Counsels of Perfection for Christian Mothers lately.

It's just such a gem - and even better because - as I shared here -  it's available to everyone despite budgets or preferred "reading" style.

One of the first practical tips it gives is to use "spiritual reading as a first means of becoming fervent."

It goes on to explain that "all reading which enlightens the mind and determines the will to do good" can be included in this category of reading and then reminds us that "there is hardly one among you who cannot spend a quarter of an hour each day in spiritual reading"

That's the truth!

Yet, I know I, for one, had been letting distraction, poor priorities, and busyness of life prevent me from tapping into the edification daily spiritual reading can bring until I read these different passages in the book:

Do you engage in spiritual reading every day?" I have asked; and they have responded: "No! I have not time." Well, for mothers of families who toil from morning till night to gain a livelihood, this reason is acceptable; but when it is alleged as an excuse for the laziness and inertia of those who squander a considerable amount of time in useless babbling, in long and purposeless visits, and in reading the daily papers, this excuse is intolerable. How many are there among you, my daughters, who cannot reserve at least a quarter of an hour every day for spiritual reading, by omitting all futile occupations, and by economizing their time. There are some, perhaps, but not very many, I know. 

Devote at least a quarter of an hour
every day to pious reading. Let it take the form of a talk, an intimate conversation with God, and I promise that it will not be long before you will witness a happy change in your lives. 

In short, spiritual reading, if methodically practiced, will effect a complete transformation in your lives.  

Left to yourselves, you will always revolve in the same plane, think the same thoughts, and perhaps never find a new habiliment in which to dress them. Therefore, you must frequently renew your wardrobe of ideas. Some one must whisper new sentiments into your ears each day. Now spiritual reading can render you this service.

Sure. I often read spiritual things - but had fallen away from doing so daily. So, when I read the passages above, and then read that "the success of our struggle against nature is always the measure of our progress towards perfection," I heard the Spirit speaking loudly to me:

"Commit to daily reading again, dear. Do it now. Do it daily!"

I listened.

I committed to prioritizing a habit of focused daily spiritual reading and have been holding myself accountable by actually using a timer and not allowing myself many distractions until it goes off each day.

Of course, as a mom, some distractions are inevitable, though, so, when they come, I either remind my children that I need x amount of minutes to finish what I am doing or, when needed turn my timer off, take care of pressing matters, then reset my timer and begin a new 15 minutes of spiritual reading.

Doing so has helped me solidify a daily spiritual reading habit again - even if I did miss one or two days since committing to this, and, then, on subsequent days, dusted off my "failed" fallen self, set a timer for 30 minutes, and to got reading again.

It has been a blessing! I encourage you to tap into this blessing, too.

I also would LOVE to hear what your favorite not too heavy, but still edifying and inspirational saint books and spiritual reading titles have been. Please do share them with me in a comment here, on Facebook, or in person. Thank you!

Some that the book recommended were:

• The Spiritual Combat by Scupolis
• The Introduction to a Devout Life by Saint Francis de Sales.
• Christian Perfection by Rodriguez
• The Practice of Love Towards Jesus Christ by Saint Alphonsus Liguori
• the various works of Père Saint-Jure.
• Meditations on the Holy Ghost by Pergmayr
• The Way of Interior Peace by Père de Lehen.
• The Manual of Interior Souls, The School of Jesus Christ, The Interior Life of Jesus and Mary by Père Grou
• Retreats by Père Olivaint

May we each take that quarter an hour or more each day to immerse ourselves in the blessing of spiritual reading!

Here's that Wonderful Prayer Again as a Bookmark Image

 Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Last week, I shared a beautiful prayer by a holy princess, Mme. Elizabeth, daughter of a king, and sister of Louis XVI that I read in Counsels of Perfection for Christian Mothers.

Since I read the prayer, I have been wanting to pray it daily, but did not always have the words handy. So, I just made a quick bookmark image to help me - because I read something or another daily!

I am sharing the image here in case you want to print, laminate, and use it, too!

You should be able to right click the image to save it and print it in any size you wish.

Hope it blessed you.

Also, if you have not read Counsels of Perfection for Christian Mothers by Rev. P. Lejeuna, I I cannot encourage you enough to do so!

I shared links for here for different ways to access print, audio, e-book, free, and paid versions of the book.

May it inspire you to live God's will for your life well!

Who Knew Douglas MacArthur Would Draw in Three Super Different Kids? {A YWAM Publishing Review}

I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

If you are looking for fabulous biographies perfect for individual reading, family reading, unit studies, and more, YWAM Publishing is a name to remember.

Through the years, our family has been blessed to review a number of titles in their Heroes of History series and have thoroughly enjoyed each one. 

The latest - Heroes of History, Douglas MacArthur: What Greater Honor by Janet and Geoff Benge (which can be paired with a downloadable curriculum guide) followed suit with being as engaging and well-written as the other books in this series we have read. In fact, for one of my children, it trumped all the other titles!

Seriously, this is what my 10-year-old dictated to me when I asked him for his thoughts for this review:

I thought this book was amazing in every single way, and we should get more of these stories. 

You may be wondering why I liked it so much.

Well, it is well written and engagingly narrates the life of Douglas MacArthur, who was a leading general in the army during World War II and the Korean War.

I was amazed by the courage, determination, and character of Douglas MacArthur and the way the story was told magnified the excitement of Douglas MacArthur's life.

For example, I like the way the beginning of the story started later in Douglas' life as he and his family were evacuating the Philippines and, then, the story flashbacked to MacArthur's childhood and told the rest of his story.

Overall, the story ignited my imagination as I pictured MacArthur fighting bandits in Mexico, driving off Japanese enemies in the South Pacific, and standing up for the Philippines, post-war Japan, and Korea. 

The story was a motivating and inspirational story that you - yes, you!- should read it.

I have read other books in the YWAM series and liked them, but this one is my favorite so far, because it was about a courageous man during war times.

He truly loved the book and would often stretch our read together times by asking for more of the book.

As you can imagine, he was quite disappointed when the book ended.

His big brother also enjoyed the book.

In recent history, my eldest child, 15, has rarely joined us for read aloud time without complaint. However, the Douglas MacArthur book eased his contention. 

When I asked him for his words for this review, he said:

We decided to read MacArthur as a family read aloud. Lately, I have not liked read alouds and have tried to avoid them, but this story drew me in.

I enjoyed it.

 

Before reading the book, I knew a bit about General Douglas MacArthur from a video game and thought he sounded cool. When we read the book, I realized he had an interesting life and was an amazing person.

 

Some things that stood out to me about him were:

• how he overcame his medical condition to get into West Point.

• how he always stood on the front line with his soldiers.

• how he rebuilt the destroyed country of Japan and made it into an economic and cultural power.

• how he believed that if you go to war, you must win it as effectively and as quickly as possible, yet, in peace times, he treated everybody wit dignity and honor.

• that he possessed remarkable courage, diligence, and ambition.

I would recommend this book for any American. Even though Douglas MacArthur died in 1964, some of what he experienced and fought for affects us today, in particular, things related to China and Korea.

My daughter, 13, also noted how apropos the MacArthur book seems to current issues with China, Korea, Communism, and Socialism.

She shared:

Douglas MacArthur was a veteran in World War II and the Korean War, therefore, I had never been that interested in him, because topics I tend to avoid are the French Revolution and the World Wars. (Both tend to be extraordinarily gruesome.)

Still, when my mother introduced us to the YWAM book, Douglas MacArthur, I found out it was quite intriguing. 

I probably would not have agreed to listen to the book if I had not liked the other books in the YWAM series, such as Milton Hershey, Benjamin Franklin, etc. Because I found those books engaging even if the people and places in them had not seemed interesting to me before, I did not immediately disregard the Douglas MacArthur one. 

I did not regret my decision to listen to Douglas MacArthur. As the book told it, his life was not as boring and gruesome as I expected to be. In fact, it was quite intriguing.

One thing that stood out to me were that the president that told Douglas MacArthur not to go ahead and crush North Korea caused many issues and conflicts that could have been avoided in later history. (This was not actually explained in the book, but my common sense when looking at the history in the book and current events filled in the gaps.)

I would completely recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about an outstanding man who fought for freedom and treated others with dignity and respect.

So, as you can see, the book was a hit here and made a rather profound impact on my children.

I admittedly was wowed by some of the details and connections the book brought to light, too, and even found myself sharing about it at several recent homeschooling events.

This book is definitely one we all recommend!

Oo, and if you are a homeschooler that likes to turn books into studies or a teacher in a co-op or classroom, great news! There is a downloadable Unite Study Curriculum Guide available to go with the book, too.

Because we were so getting into just reading the Douglas MacArthur book together here, I did not pause to go over the Key Quotes, Chapter Questions, Maps, Extension Ideas, and more that are contained in the comprehensive unit study, but I did look them all over, and I have some quotes printed out that I intend to use for either copywork, dictation, or impromptu speech exercises as well as some essay prompts to challenge my older child with.

Surely, if I were still teaching at co-ops, I could easily run a full course with the book and all the materials and suggestions within the unit study. It's fabulous stuff!

If you'd like to learn more about how others are using this book title and its corresponding unit study materials - or if you'd like to read about some of the other studies, do click on through to the Homeschool Crew Review to find links for 40+ Crew reviews for YWAM titles.

You might also want to connect with YWAM Publishing:

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A Prayer Too Beautiful Not to Share

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Sometimes, you read a little prayer and it touches you so much that you feel compelled to share it.

Such was the case when I read the prayer of a holy princess, Mme. Elizabeth, daughter of a king, and sister of Louis XVI in Counsels of Perfection for Christian Mothers, a fantastic and seemingly timeless read which as I explained last Sunday is also available as a free audio on the JMJ site, as a pdf on SCRIBD, and as a free audio on YouTube:



The book said that Mme. Elizabeth made the prayer each morning of her life and suggested that readers repeat it daily if not verbatim, then, at least in its general sense.

I think that suggestion is a wonderful one, so am sharing it forward.

Please consider joining in praying regularly:

My God, what will happen to me today, I do not know; but I do know that nothing will happen to me which Thou hast not foreseen and ordained for my greater good. I accept, then, Thy thrice holy will; I submit myself to it, and desire to delight in it despite all the revolts of my reason, and the repugnances of my nature. Amen