Happy Halloween 2008

Just a quick post with some pictures from our Halloween night. Skylar was a batgirl, Alexa was a witch, Evan was Thomas and Taylor was Alice in Wonderland (a sad Alice, who's trapped in Wonderland).

Taylor had a couple of friends come over to trick-or-treat with. Michael was a pirate, and David was The Joker. I don't have any pics of David, because he came after we were already out.

Evan was a trooper and almost lasted the whole night, walking around the neighborhood with us. The children had a good time, but were exhausted by bedtime.

So am I.

TTFN

~Tina

Atrocities of Abortion

I have always considered myself to be a "glass half full" kind of person. It's just my nature. I'm optomistic and like to see the good in people no matter what. My husband thinks I'm too much that way, to the point of naivety.

That's the way I am with abortion. I have to believe that most people who are pro-abortion are just uninformed or misinformed as to what abortion actually is. If you think about it, do we ever see pictures of aborted babies? Do we see the little victims of this horrible LEGAL act on the news? No. The Press has shown us so many atrocities of war, in stories and in pictures. It's undeniable. These things are awful, and I feel so much for the people who are living this. War is terrible. It's so hard on the men and women serving their countries and fighting to protect our freedoms. I feel for their families with the constant worry about their loved ones safety and just dealing with life in their absense. I keep them all in my prayers. And then there are the many innocent victims of wars, some are women and children, and it's so incredibly sad. Thanks to The Press, we see their suffering in photos, we hear about it on the news. It's right there, in our face.

When I think about people voting for Obama based on their feelings about the war in Iraq. I understand to some degree, because they see the horrible things happening because of this war. (But, I do find it ironic that based on this pole by Military Times, many servicemen and women are backing McCain in this election.)

I was thinking of how people are compassionate about victims of war, and many are outraged at what they seek and justafiably so. So I thought (maybe the naive part of me) that if people could see the victims of abortion, just like they see the victims of war, maybe they would come to understand how brutal, evil, inhumane and unnatural it is. Maybe they would come to understand that abortion is murder. When you see the pictures, I don't see how you can deny that.

There is a quote by Harrison Hickman who spoke to the 1989 conference of the National Abortion Rights Action League, ""Nothing has been as damaging to our cause as the advances in technology which have allowed pictures of the developing fetus, because people now talk about that fetus in much different terms than they did fifteen years ago. They talk about it as a human being, which is not something that I have an easy answer how to cure."

The following are pictures taken from the Priests for Life website. They are pictures of babies, still growing and living within their mother's wombs. So if you are going to vote for Obama who vows to sign the Freedom of Choice Act as his first act as president, take a look below. See for yourself if these are just part of the woman's body, or are they little humans, little blessings that God has already given life to?

7 weeks

11 weeks

12 weeks

3 1/2 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

I'm not one for sharing gory pictures on my blog. Not at all. But if there is a purpose, even a need for the pictures of abortion to be shared, then I want to make them available. Partly because I have a feeling that most pro abortion people are not going to go looking for these types of pics and may never have been faced with the evil of this legal type of murder. I can't justify posting the actual pics, for the sake of unsuspecting people who happen upon them. But I will make it easy and link to pages of pictures of aborted babies.

If you are planning to vote for Obama, and ok or maybe even "all for" abortion, then these photos shouldn't bother you in the least. Go ahead, take a look. But if you see abortion for the evil that it is and you see the babies as babies and not just fetuses, then you might not want to go any further than this page. It's not a direct link to the aborted baby images, but it leads to a page at Priests for Life, and from there you can view the abortion photos.

I, personally feel that if you are voting for Obama, which is in essence voting for abortion, then you should have to see these pictures. We all have seen the terrible and sad images of victims of war, now we need to open our eyes to see the innocent victims of our own "civilized" laws. As Mary Ellen of the Bonny Blue House said, "There can be just wars, there are no just abortions."

Please keep praying the Novena Rosary. There are many precious little lives depending on it.

Obama and Babies

Defenders of Obama seem to get all worked up when he is referred to as a "baby killer". Of course he doesn't go around randomly killing babies. So to be politically correct I suppose we should call him an "unwanted baby killer". Well, that might not go over too well, either. It sounds so awful. Because it is. It makes him sound so cold. Why does he value the "choice" of the mother, over the life of the innocent child? Hmmm... Well, for one thing, unborn children can't vote.

Remember to keep praying the Rosary Novena! It's so, so important!

Hmmmmm.......something to think about.

A Blustery Autumn Day

It was so windy outside today. A very cold wind was blowing everything around. It is still quite blustery, and I'm so happy to be snug inside. The wind blew through the trees with a lot of force, but you can't really tell from the photo I took. You'll just have to trust me on that. ;)

Due to the high wind gusts, we had to bring in some of our Fall outdoor decorations. Evan didn't mind. He got to see Mr. Jack-o-Lantern up close and personal (it's an electric one we use every year). The real pumpkin that we picked up on our family field trip was heavy enough to brave the winds outside.
And Mr. Evan met some little friends that were getting blown around outside, too. We rescued them and let them have a playdate inside with Mr. Evan. At first, he didn't know what to make of these two new characters. But he warmed up right away, and even posed for a picture......

Inside the house felt extra cozy after being out and about in all the nasty, cold winds. Especially with Sky and Alexa taking their turn to make the apple pie.

Yep, this pie smells and tastes as good as it looks! The girls did a great job!

Here are some other indoor "signs" that it's Autumn, and Halloween is only a few days away....

Some things to welcome you.....

Skylar colored this Casper poster. Now he hangs on the front door to welcome our guests. And here's a sneak peak at Evan in his costume...

What a cute little Thomas!

And if you are wondering where my oldest daughter was during all the apple pie baking and such, well, she kept in her room for a good bit of the day. You see, she is quite the creative one and very talented at sewing. She has a good sewing machine and volunteered to make a costume for a friend. She bought the pattern and fabric and is very busy with it. It's quite complicated and is consuming much of her time, but it makes her happy. I love to see her focus and work on something she enjoys so much. Especially when it's something I just never learned to do well. I'm quite impressed with her, actually.

Hope you are having a pleasant week full of the sights, smells and tastes of this Autumn Season.

TTFN

~Tina

Today's Math Problem

One Silly, Adorable Little Guy+Plus+

Chocolate Icecream

=Equals=

This......Wow.

and This
Still silly and quite adorable, but wow.



TTFN
~Tina

It Begins Today

" A great prayer for life is urgently needed, a prayer which will rise up throughout the world. Through special initiatives and in daily prayer, may an impassioned plea rise to God, the Creator and lover of life, from every Christian community, from every group and association, from every family and from the heart of every believer.”
– Pope John Paul II, The Gospel of Life(Evangelium Vitae), n. 100.
HT: Priests for Life

Today begins the Rosary Novena to Our Lady of Victory. Please join us in this most important 9 days of prayer for life.

Their lives depend on it.

I Couldn't Agree More

Read this wonderful post. Give it some thought. She makes a lot of sense.

It's Time to Pray

A Call for a Rosary Novena
By Fr. John Corapi

Among the most important titles we have in the Catholic Church for the Blessed Virgin Mary are Our Lady of Victory and Our Lady of the Rosary. These titles can be traced back to one of the most decisive times in the history of the world and Christendom. The Battle of Lepanto took place on October 7 (date of feast of Our Lady of Rosary), 1571. This proved to be the most crucial battle for the Christian forces against the radical Muslim navy of Turkey. Pope Pius V led a procession around St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City praying the Rosary. He showed true pastoral leadership in recognizing the danger posed to Christendom by the radical Muslim forces, and in using the means necessary to defeat it. Spiritual battles require spiritual weapons, and this more than anything was a battle that had its origins in the spiritual order—a true battle between good and evil.

Today we have a similar spiritual battle in progress—a battle between the forces of good and evil, light and darkness, truth and lies, life and death. If we do not soon stop the genocide of abortion in the United States, we shall run the course of all those that prove by their actions that they are enemies of God—total collapse, economic, social, and national. The moral demise of a nation results in the ultimate demise of a nation. God is not a disinterested spectator to the affairs of man. Life begins at conception.

This is an unalterable formal teaching of the Catholic Church. If you do not accept this you are a heretic in plain English. A single abortion is homicide. The more than 48,000,000 abortions since Roe v. Wade in the United States constitute genocide by definition. The group singled out for death—unwanted, unborn children. No other issue, not all other issues taken together, can constitute a proportionate reason for voting for candidates that intend to preserve and defend this holocaust of innocent human life that is abortion.

I strongly urge every one of you to make a Novena and pray the Rosary to Our Lady of Victory
between October 27th and Election Day, November 4th. Pray that God’s will be done and the
most innocent and utterly vulnerable of our brothers and sisters will be protected from this
barbaric and grossly sinful blight on society that is abortion. No woman, and no man, has the
right to choose to murder an innocent human being.

May God grant us the wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and counsel to form our conscience in
accordance with authentic Catholic teaching, and then vote that well‐formed Catholic conscience.

God Bless You
Fr. John Corapi
http://www.fathercorapi.com/

My children and I will be sending our desperate prayers to heaven. Won't you join us? Many, many lives depend on it.

Another Important Video

Simple and Delicious Apple Pie

I made my first homemade apple pie today! It was made from the the apples we picked at the orchard. It was delicious! Even my girls said so, except Alexa who doesn't like apple pie. She made odd, unpleasant faces as she tried to eat it. Those expressions would have offended me if I didn't know she just doesn't like any apple pie. (More for us!)

I found the recipe here and it was uber easy! I just took a ready to bake pie crust (ok, so it wasn't ALL homemade~ but this is as close as I get). I put it in the pie pan and trimmed the edges.Then prepared the apples...I put the apples in the pie crust, one layer at a time and sprinkled them with the cinnamon sugar mixture....At this point I called the girls in to each do a layer. When I make the next pie, I plan on including them more, but this being my first time I wanted to be confident in what I was doing, before having them help.

Taylor did a layer, too, but she didn't want to at first (she was in the middle of something). But she changed her mind at the last minute, and I forgot to pull the camera back out at that moment.


Then you put the butter on top, before you cover with the top crust.

Trim and crimp the edges together. Put slits in the center.

Cover the edges with foil, so they don't burn. Part of my foil came off, but it didn't matter.The girls (especially Taylor) and I couldn't wait to try it. We ate dinner while the pie was baking and cooling. So once we were ready for it, it was ready for us! The whole house smelled wonderful!

We topped it off with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It was so good! It tasted very fresh and sweet, with just a little tartness to it. You can play around with how much sugar and cinnamon you want to add.

As much as we liked it, it's hard to tell if it's really good without the Apple Pie Expert (otherwise known as PapPap~John's Dad). We'll have to try to time my pie baking next year with a visit from Pap Pap and Grandma.
The next time I make it, with the girls' help, I plan on reading this book while it bakes. I read it to them last week as part of our Apple Science Lessons but I think they'll get more out of it, if they are baking a pie shortly before we read it.

We have lots of apples left, so I need to find some more simple apple recipes. Know any you'd be willing to share?

TTFN

~Tina

Straight From the Horse's Mouth

"The first thing I'd do as president, is sign the Freedom of Choice Act." ~Barack Obama

Please watch this video.

It's hard to get a straight answer out of Barack Obama on the subject of abortion, unless he is standing in a room full of supporters, like the people from Planned Parenthood.


Pro-life voters that are going to vote for Obama excuse away their decision to vote for him under the pretense that "abortion laws won't change in this country, no matter who gets elected."

They couldn't be more wrong.

The abortion laws will change and Obama will see to it. But they'll change for the worse! In his own words, Obama adamently vows that the first thing he'd do as president is to sign The Freedom of Choice Act. That will make abortion laws more lenient! How can we allow that?!

NO PARENTAL CONSENT needed!

And he SUPPORTS PARTIAL BIRTH ABORTION! Do you understand how brutal that is?

BARACK OBAMA COULDN'T BE MORE IN SUPPORT OF ABORTIONS!!

"On this fundamental issue, I will not yield, and Planned Parenthood will not yield."~Barack Obama
Senator Obama makes it sound like he and Planned Parenthood are working as a team!



If you are Prolife, then do you really want this man as our president?

Update on Taylor

We heard some good news at the Orthopedic Surgeon's office today. Taylor will be fine and the condition, called Spondylolistesis (try saying that 5 times fast), was from a fall she must have had as a toddler. The Dr. said that the tailbone pain and the Spondylolistesis are unrelated. The Spondylolistesis is asymptomatic, but was found accidentally during the x-rays (go figure!). It's very common from childhood falls and usually goes unnoticed. The tailbone was simply bruised from sitting on the sandbox the wrong way and it just takes a while to heal. The other symptoms she experienced are a mystery. We don't have the results of the bloodwork back, but hopefully there's nothing else and then we can breathe easy.

Thanks for the prayers and if you could just keep her in your prayers a little while longer, I'd appreciate it......just until the bloodwork comes back. Thanks!

TTFN
~Tina

A Prayer Request

Taylor is dealing with some unusual health issues lately (painful tailbone, pain in the muscles in her legs, headaches, dizziness, etc.). Although her symptoms seem to be subsiding a bit, the Drs. are running tests. She had a spine x-ray today and will have bloodwork tomorrow. And they told us to have her see an orthopedist on Friday, once the bloodwork and x-ray results come back.

Please say a prayer for her. We are just hoping it's nothing serious.

Thanks so much!
TTFN
~Tina

Very sad, Very important

Please go see the video at Danielle Bean's Blog. Read her post, too. It won't take long, but it's so, so important.

To Senator Biden

Click here to see Senator Biden's "explanation".

As Catholics we are to LIVE the Faith in ALL aspects of our lives.

You, Senator Biden, have the opportunity to be a powerful voice for those millions of innocent little babies that suffer in silence until death.

And you choose not to.

Your Catholic Faith, Senator Biden, defines ALL aspects of your life, ALL choices you make, including those you make during your political career.



You, Senator Biden, let your political career define your Catholic Faith.



And you will have to answer for it some day.

Just Can't Do It

Why my conscience just won't let me vote for him.

Autumn Family Field Trip

Thursday morning, as the girls arrived downstairs for breakfast, I told them we were going on a field trip. Their reaction was, "What? Where?!" They were excited, knowing they wouldn't have any bookwork that day, but also curious as to what I had in mind. I kept the suspense going for a while. We all got ready and just before we went out the door, I told them. "We are going apple picking!".

The orchard is almost an hour away, but it's an easy drive, and goes opposite most traffic for that time of day. I was concerned because it started raining about 15 minutes into our trip. It was off and on. I said a prayer, and felt that turning around wasn't an option. By the time we arrived, the rain had stopped and it was only a little wet at the orchard. I was so thankful that my prayers were answered!!

Here are some photos of our day that I'd like to share with you....

We stopped in the main building to get bags and a map of the orchard and pick up our "apple picker". Then we drove to a spot that seemed to have a good amount of apples left. We picked two different types of apples, but off the top of my head, I can't remember exactly which ones they were. I'll have to ask the girls tomorrow. It was so convenient to be able to drive through the orchard (very much appreciated by a mom of a two year old). We saw other people, but it wasn't crowded by any means. Then, when we picked enough, we got back in the van and headed back to the main building. We paid for our apples and some peach preserves (love it!)....
and then started the process of choosing the perfect pumpkin. Skylar grew her own pumpkins this year, but unfortunately, they've since rotted and had to be thrown out. That was hard for her. But we were all happy to pick a pumpkin from the ones at Stribling Orchard. They had a beautiful selection and they are reasonably priced.

It was hard to choose. But once we did, we headed to the van, and Sky and Alexa and I made a brief trip to see the animals. Evan was too tired, and Taylor was fine with waiting with him at the van. It was getting hot, and I think they Evan needed a drink and the AC in the van.We got to see a rather huge steer named Sparky (not kidding) and then we were pleasantly surprised when this pair came out from hiding. That's Blackie the horse and Rusty the pony.And the scenery surrounding this orchard is just breathtaking! We don't have full Autumn foliage yet, but it was still lovely. These pictures just don't do it justice.

We ate our lunches on the way home. It was a pleasant drive back. Everyone had a good time and I'm pretty sure they hope I spring this kind of thing on them more often. Hmmm.....I'll have to think where to take them next....

I am attempting an apple pie tomorrow, and possibly applesauce in the near future. Sky and Alexa LOVE applesauce. I'll let you know how they turn out.

Oh, and BTW, when we got back and after we rested and cleaned up a bit, we had a very nice Teatime for St. Margaret Mary Alacocque. I hope to post about it soon.

Hope you all have a wonderful Autumn weekend. It's actually starting to feel like Fall, now! I love this weather!

TTFN

~Tina