Tomorrow morning our Cupcake #3 will receive her First Holy Communion with 3 other children in our Homeschool group. She is excited to crown our Blessed Mother during the May Crowning, bring up the gifts to prepare the altar for Communion, and receive Jesus' Precious Body and Blood for the first time....How beautiful it will be!


 

A few weeks ago we went to OH to visit friends and we found this nest of robin eggs on their playground set in their backyard. So pretty! The eggs have hatched recently as our friends keep us updated on the cute chicks. I wish we could have seen the babies!

I recently came across this post HERE from The Homeschool Post that lists companies where discounts are given for homeschool families. 

I would like to add Staples to this list, as well as, Office Max and Office Depot since all of these office supply stores also have a Teacher Reward program. 

I personally love Staples as they give 10% back on ink, paper, and printing purchases and their Easy Rebates are really easy.  They will also recycle your empty ink cartridges and give you $2 for each cartridge you turn in.  The $2 comes in the mail in the form of a Rewards check that you can redeem for other purchases in the store.  I recently received over $60 in Rewards money in the mail from Staples from turning in ink cartridges and other purchases and was able to buy new ink cartridges with this money. 

At the beginning of each school year, I use my Staples Teachers Rewards Card to purchase school supplies that are sold for 1 cent.  Traditional classroom teachers can get up to 25 one cent items and so can homeschool parents.  HERE is a post where I got alot of school supplies for only 37 cents at Staples using my Teacher Rewards Card.  

Last Thursday we got back late from visiting dear friends in Chillicothe, OH while my husband was in Cincinnati on a business trip.  So between getting back from our trip (hopefully, I'll blog about our fun trip soon), soccer games on Saturday, our 4 year old vomiting late Saturday night with a stomach bug, a baby shower at the end of the weekend that I hosted, and attending a heartbreaking funeral for a 11 month old baby boy yesterday (A BIG sad face) :( ,  it's been a whirlwind with so much going on!

But, I wanted to share some pictures of the baby shower I hosted for a mother in our homeschool group who just gave birth to her fifth child, a beautiful and sweet baby girl!  I am also posting pictures of the food I made with recipes in case you want to try them out.

Guests had to guess how many Hershey kisses were in the jar....Hey, it was a great way to use up alot of Easter candy that I did not need :)  The winner was one of the baby's big sisters :)

I decorated the house with this pink bouquet of flowers and the mother took home the vase with flowers.

A few weeks ago, I was waiting for my oldest daughter to finish piano lessons and my 4 year old  here fell asleep in the car.  Boy, was I surprised to see that she had one eye open while she was sleeping when I turned to check on her in her car seat!  It was a little freaky! :)  Even while she's sleeping, she has to know what is going on and keep up with everything and everyone!  :)   Happy Wednesday!

My husband and I just got home from seeing October Baby, which opened in our local theatres on Friday, 4/13.

This is the story of 19-year-old Hannah, who finds out she is adopted and is the survivor of an attempted abortion. She goes on a road trip to find answers, locate her birth mother and, ultimately, discovers how powerful forgiveness can be.
 
I  heard such wonderful reviews about the movie and knew about the story line, but my husband had no idea about it and I did not volunteer any information.  He went because he kept hearing me talk about it.  :)  When I found out it was coming to our local theatres, I was so excited and wanted to see the film for myself.  I was also blessed to see this movie with my husband and share such a special movie with him.  Here is the trailer for the film to give you a glimpse of the story line.  



So when the movie was over, my husband turned to me and said, "That was a great movie and I would pay to see that one again! Everyone needs to see it, including men!"  Now you have to understand that he typically goes for the adventure type movies with/without guns.  October Baby has no guns :) , no foul language, but lots of adventures, twists, and turns. I usually go for the drama films and I knew this movie was a good one based on other's reactions, but it exceeded both our expectations.

I enjoyed discussing with my husband how abortion affected all the actors and actresses in the film and in real life including the birth mother, the child with health issues, adoptive child's sibling, adoptive parents, birth mother's husband, nurse at the abortion clinic, adoptive child's friends... all these people were affected by the birth mother's decision so long ago.

Both my husband and I agreed that this movie is worth watching as it will make you laugh, cry, and fill you with hope and affirm that every life is beautiful, no matter what our society tells us again and again.  We want to purchase the movie on DVD so that we can share this movie with our four young children as they get older.  There is so much to talk about after seeing October Baby and so much to learn.  

I am also so impressed that the producers of October Baby have assigned 10% of the profits of the movie to the Every Life is Beautiful Fund, which will distribute funds to frontline organizations helping women facing crisis pregnancies, life-affirming adoption agencies, and those caring for orphans.

Be sure to stay at the end of the movie while all the credits are rolling through to hear the testimony of actress Shari Rigby before you leave the theatre.

If you get a chance to see this movie, it will be well worth your time because October Baby captures how every life is beautiful and brings this truth into theatres everywhere and into our hearts and home.