Lest I Forget

Tomorrow is Ben's birthday. He would have been fifteen. My mind cannot fathom that. He will always be my smiling little seven year old. Today I am allowing myself to cry. I cry because I miss him and still grieve for him. I cry over the huge hole in our family and in my heart because he is no longer present. Looking out the window this morning at the German landscape, I wondered to myself how I have carried on for so long without him here. It still seems so wrong. After my tears, I will celebrate the short life of a very special little boy with my family. We will break our Lenten family sacrifice of no meals out and we will find some place here in Germany that serves BBQ wings and we will get very messy and eat them all without wiping our fingers, just like he used to do. We will tell all the great stories that make us laugh and remember how lucky we are to have had Ben in our lives for seven wonderful years. I will order fresh flowers for his grave. I will have Mass said for him...

About a month ago, our little home school group noticed that we all had been hibernating for the winter and had not gotten together in quite a while. It was mentioned that maybe we needed a get together. It was also mentioned that St. Valentine's Day was not too far off. In a moment of I don't even know what, I did something totally out of my comfort zone. I volunteered to host a party at my house! As an introvert who is not a planner but a very good procrastinator, this was big. So what did I do? Nothing! For quite a while, I did nothing. When panic mode set in, I sat in front of the computer and googled "Catholic Valentine's Day ideas". I will give you links to all the wonderful sites I found and used. First is Catholic Icing . She had the most ideas and also links to other people's ideas. I cannot recommend her site enough! It is full of fun ideas to celebrate almost any occasion. With Lent arriving in just a few short days, this would be a great pl...

I keep thinking of Barbara and her explosion of purple a couple of weeks ago. Currently, I have multiple projects on and partially on the needles. On one set of needles is a very pretty purple shawl I am knitting for a friend. On another set of needles is a purple baby sweater. On some of my double points was a first attempt at sock knitting. Somehow, one needle escaped the knitting and landed on the floor. Many other stitches also freed themselves from the needles. I suspect they had some help from little fingers, though I can prove nothing.  Anyway, both of the projects that have stayed on the needles are very purple. Both of them are very soft too. One is Shine by Knitpicks and I have used it before for baby knitting and I love the softness and drape. The other is also from Knitpicks. It is called Diadem and it comes in a hank rather than a skein. I looked up on youtube how to hand wind a center pull ball of yarn and it worked quite nicely! I am reading "Walking With God...

It is actually in the afternoon when I am writing this, so technically it would be tea time, but really, I do love to ponder things over my morning cuppa, so the title stands! What have I been pondering? Everything. It is February and dreary and dull. I desperately need something exciting, something new. So why not look at home school curriculum? I will admit it. I am in burnout mode over here. Are you? I am seeing what is going well and what is going less than well. What is going less than well? The set up of the classroom. As it stands, the classroom and the playroom are together in the loft on the third floor. We have only three bedrooms, a dining room/den, a kitchen, and one large bathroom. There is another bathroom, but I don't count it as one because the washer and dryer are in there and I use the shower stall for holding all the dirty clothes! That loft is the only extra space available for toys or classroom. But this leads to much temptation for students. In an effort...