Is this normal?

Sometimes my kids make me wonder. Yesterday, they came up from the basement and said, "PG is a superhero and we are supervilian." PG said he was Larry Boy (ok). DG was Powerman. But RA was Flake????????????????

A quick change in a phonebooth and we have Cowboy man.

Quote of the Day

Tonight as I put RA to bed, I read her the story of Our Lady of Fatima. It went into detail about each of the children's lives after the apparitions. When we got to Lucia, it mentioned nothing of her death since it was written before her death. So I pointed out that she had died a few years ago.
RA asks, "Did she die of age?"

Oh What A Day!!!!

So... my wonderful husband works with some parishes in Pueblo (about an hour away). And today on the feast of Corpus Christi there was a Eucharistic Procession. So we decided to go. It was at 2pm and the details we received said Mass and procession. So we got up this morning, had a nice breakfast, went for a walk, came home, got ready and drove. We arrived 30 minutes early to the church, looked around, did the obligatory introductions and grabbed a "worship aid". The cover of the worship aid said, "Vespers, Procession, and Benediction". No mass!!!!!
So we went to Vespers, Procession and Benediction. Now it is about 3:30, it takes an hour to get home so lets get food before we drive. There is a 5:30 mass at our parish. At 4:30 still sitting in the restaurant, ok now what? Well, we can't go to the 5:00 mass locally because we just ate. We could go late to our home parish but when will the check come. The entire ride north, I called Catholic parishes between where we were and home to check on evening masses. I found 3. One 15 minutes from our house at 4:30. One downtown (20 minutes from home) at 7, and one 35 minutes from home at 7. Well, I guess we are going at 7. And the one closer to home makes sense. Now what to do until 7. I know drive around in a deluge of rain, stop at a closed toy store and stay under the awning until the hail stops. Now go to Mass. Being the optimist I am, the kids will be awful, the Mass will be crazy and this will be "one of those nights".
Here is my grace for the day, it was the most beautiful liturgy I have been to in a while and "the big kids" did the best they have in Mass in a long time. (PG and Daddy were in the back.) When we got home the kids went right to bed with no fuss. AND, we got to go to 2 different beautiful cathedrals in the same day. Can I just say, architecture can make or break a liturgy?!
Praise God for all His ways. They aren't mine. I would never have suggested today, but what a blessing.

Virtue or bust

I have been keeping up, with great interest, lately with the blog Like A Warm Cup of Coffee. And in God's providence Sarah decided to do a series on Training and Discipling Techniques for Discipling Your Kiddos. Today's post should be read (http://likeawarmcupofcoffee.blogspot.com/2009/06/burdens-or-blessings-dealing-with.html)

I read it last night and it inspired me to go back to a book I had taken a lot of notes with but not implemented much of. So I am now re-reading Mary Ann Budnik's Raise Happy Children...Teach them Virtue. And I am beginning to implement the section on temperments. She suggests keeping a notebook for each child and writing in it their virtues and the plan of attack and their vices and the plan of attack and how it is going along the way.
Would you believe that one of my children has the same temperment as me and the other the same as Blake? :-)
Anyway, this can't come too soon as the move has set us back a little at being productive in our regular routine and those of you who know me and DG know we NEED our regular routine. :-) I'll keep you "posted".

Newly found resources

So with the school year wrapping up (the move put us behind), I found some awesome resources and ideas I just have to share.
At Christmas my mom got DG a book called Logic links for 1st and 2nd graders. It is published my MindWare. I love MindWare. Anyway, it comes with colored chips. Then it gives the colors you use and clues and the kids have to figure out the solution. For example, "Use 2 White chips, 2 green chips, and 1 blue. Clue 1: Both green chips touch the blue chip. Clue 2: The white chips don't touch." There are 100 puzzles like this. Anyway, RG just finished the book (that's right the pre-schooler). She loved it and begged me to "do logic" every day.
DG is really good at memorizing so it was time for states and capitals. There are some really good online quizzes and he loves to use the computer. We also, finally, subscribed to Enchanted Learning.com. So I printed all the state flags and the kids are painting them. We hope to use them to decorate the school room and play room. I also found in my old books, a book titled USA fact book. It has all the states, their capitals, birds, trees... and interesting facts. So DG is using that for reading time.
We just ordered the Great Adventure Bible Study for kids to do over the summer. We are so excited.
So that is what is new at Totus Tuus. Praise God for all the blessings He is bestowing on us.

Flags and stuff

Thought I would post about school today since that is why I started the blog in the first place. Seeing how DG has always been into maps and has a stellar memory for facts, we began states and capitals last week. He knows all the Great Lakes, Mid-west, Mountain, and Pacific states and capitals now. He wanted to know about the flags, trees, birds... so I have added that to the lesson as well. Although he is not memorizing those. So today DG and RA painted a couple state flags. Can I just say when I decided to have them color and paint the state flags, I had no idea how detailed so many of them are. Seesh, it's a flag people!!!!

DG's (above)

RA's
PG's

Just as a fun thing, try an online states and capitals quiz. I guarantee it was easier when we were kids. Then the only cities we knew were the capitals. I mean really who knows the capital of Illinois, Florida, Nevada... unless you have DG's memory.