Sunday Is For Rest

As I've said before, I am always learning things right along with the kids as we go through our adventures in homeschooling. In this particular instance I needed to be reminded of something I already knew. In the last couple of weeks Nick, Zack, and Michael have all been studying the 10 Commandments. Michael is memorizing them as part of his preparation for First Reconciliation and First Communion, and they have come up in the others' catechism books.

In our discussion of the commandment to keep the Lord's day holy, we were talking about how it means more that just going to church on Sunday. Now, we never miss Mass on Sunday unless someone is sick, but we easily forget that there is more to it than that. It means not doing any unnecessary work on Sunday and to do things that honor God. So preparing meals and taking care of the kids is certainly necessary, but I am always doing laundry and catching up on cleaning on Sunday. It also means not doing anything to cause others to work, like going grocery shopping or going to my favorite store Target.

So I am going to make a better effort to make Sunday a day of rest. I'm going to try to get all my errands run and shopping done during the week and take Sunday's off from doing laundry. This is harder for me than it may sound since I typically do laundry every day.

It seems funny to me to call it a day of rest since I hardly ever feel rested. We don't do much resting when it come to child care since we have an active little guy and 3 busy big kids. Luke has started crawling and yesterday he figured out how to climb stairs. Still, there are ways that we can do better in keeping the Lord's day holy, so my goal is to improve and strive to live out that commandment the best I can.

Birthdays and Ballgames

Once again our October was full of activities, visitors and excitement. Nicholas turned 12 years old on the 9th. We celebrated at Alley Cats with a couple of his friends. They bowled, played laser tag, and played video games. On the 20th we celebrated Zachary's 10th birthday. We took him and a couple of friends (and Uncle Todd) to a SMU soccer game. I can't believe how fast the time has gone! We also had family come visit on two different weekends to see them.

All of our Saturdays were consumed with soccer games. Nick, Zack, and Michael all had great seasons and proved themselves to be super goalies! Luke enjoyed being outside and loved watching all the kids run around.

Zack and Michael auditioned and got roles as Oompa Loompas in Willy Wonka with the Grand Prairie Arts Council. This was Zack's first time to do anything like this, and he did great. Michael had been in 2 other GPAC performances and auditioned like an old pro with much confidence. It's going to be a great show!

We finished our super busy month with Halloween festivities. Nick and Zack went as Mario and Luigi. I even made their hats to go with their costumes. Michael was Darth Vader, and Luke was Yoda - what a cute pair! We went to the carnival at church and trick-or-treated in our neighborhood. Michael helped me carve pumpkins, and we drank swamp punch.