Coucoumellisms

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Halloween is one of my favourite holidays. I have always liked to dress up and imagine that I am someone else. I would love to be an actress, just to be able to wear the cool costumes... As it is, I have made myself one really cool dress, and I wear it once a year, at Halloween, because really, except maybe for around the house, by myself, there is no other opportunity to wear it and not look silly. Sometimes I wish we still wore dresses like those... until I have to rush around the house cleaning and whatnot... then I think feminism and the outcome of women wearing pants is a positive thing... because those long skirts REALLY get in the way.

Found this at http://deusinadiutorium.blogspot.com/ You Are Impressionism You think the world is quite beautiful, especially if you look at it in new and interesting ways. You tend to focus on color and movement in art. For you, seeing the big picture is much more important than recording every little detail. You can find inspiration anywhere... especially from nature. What Art Movement Are You?

Step one: Nurse baby to sleep. Step two: Climb up on stool to get recipe book, gather ingredients and set oven to 350. Step three: Get children a snack. Step four: Start mixing. Step five: Trip over dog. Step six: Refrain from cussing. Step seven: Blow someone's nose. Step eight: Wash hands. Step nine: Back to mixing Step ten: Realize you have forgotten to mix in butter, melt it in microwave to make it easier to add to batter Step eleven: Wipe someone's nose. Step twelve: Wash hands again. Step thirteen: Take butter out of microwave and add to batter. Step fourteen: Realize that baby is crying. Go and get him. Step fifteen: Put brownies in oven. Step sixteen: Take baby away from trash can, pick up trash on floor. Step seventeen: Nurse baby again. Step eighteen: Blow someone's nose. Step nineteen: Wash hands again. Step twenty: Start getting pies ready. Step twenty-one: Rush over to pull baby away from plants Step twenty-two: Pick up dirt off floor, cut circle out of cardboa...

Or rather, in this case, by the example of children... For about a year now, Dominic, and then Maryssa (and now even Gabriel, somewhat) but especially Dominic, kneel down in front of the tabernacle every Sunday after mass to say a prayer. Sometimes Dominic stays there for a couple of minutes, telling Jesus and Mary that he loves them, and I think, just being with them. Of all my children, Dominic is the one who thinks about God the most. God comes out even in his work at school. Like the list of things he was thankful for last year, and again this year in a project "about me". Recently, I have noticed adults coming and kneeling down in front of the tabernacle after mass as well, and staying there for a few minutes too. Even I keep thinking I'll have to get to adoration soon... Halleluia!

We had a party for Gabriel and Marc today. Had mostly neighbours over, and a couple of other friends. We had a good time. I managed to get the pinata finished in time, and the cake baked too. I'm always at the last minute now. I just don't feel like doing the big parties anymore. There's so much work involved and I just don't have time or energy. I did a simpler pinata this time. I'll have to post pics tommorrow. Sometimes, small parties are just more fun though, because then you get quality time with just a few people instead of catch snitches of different conversations with a lot of different people.

B o n n e F ê t e M a r c !

I know there are a lot of good reasons out there for homeschooling. I often wonder if I should/could homeschool myself, except that my children are in a good school. However, it is not because there are not good teachers out there. I've had a few that really touched me in some way, and I'd like to honour them now. I grew up wanting to teach like them. Maybe someday, that dream will come true? I received an e-mail from someone who wanted to do a project on a teacher who had influenced native students. He had chosen John Delaney. Despite the hardships I suffered going to a practically all-native school, often being the only white kid out of 22-24 students, for whom (until they got older and could think of better ones) the worst insult was "white man", I was privileged to know John Delaney. Below are the questions asked about him and my responses: What did he teach? I know he taught grade 8, but he also taught art, gym and enrichment classes. I never had him as a regula...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GABRIEL! I am currently working on a Caillou pinata for Gabriel's birthday party which will be on Sunday at 2:30 pm. This is how the last one, for Dominic's party, turned out:

If anyone is interested, pick any news story, and blog about it, showing how liberally biased it is, and you could win $500.00 For more info go here . They use Israeli-Palestinian relations as an example, but since I'd probably be more on the liberal side of that one,... I think I'll stay away from that kind of thing. Apparently you don't have to be a social-conservative, you can be non social-conservative too, and God knows there is a lot of stuff, every day in the papers that is absolutely and without a doubt liberally biased, especially when it comes to abortion. Newspapers take it for granted that everyone (except a fanatic minority) accepts that women should have that choice, and not only that, but any other view on the subject is an endangerment of women's fundamental rights. It's like there IS no other point of view possible. Case closed. Something like rape is wrong. Everyone agrees, even if there are still perpetrators out there. Case closed. So I g...

Nicolas is coughing in the background : Gabriel : Nicky-pants is sick. Me : Yeah, he has a cold. Gabriel : I don't have a cold. Me : Ah no? Gabriel : No, I have a hot.

I let the dog out yesterday, at about 5:00 pm, to do his business and run about a bit. He knows his "territory" and our back yard is pretty big, so he hangs around the house (and the neighbour's house, where his sister lives). After letting him out, I thought to myself, "I hope I don't forget him outside.", (because, you know, distracted woman that I am... I'm always forgetting something), and continued down the stairs to the basement. Fast forward two hours or so, I am rushing around the house, getting coats on kids, and finding shoes so that we can go and pick up Marc at the bus stop. I open the front door, and there is Toby, sitting on the stoop, staring patiently at the doorway. For some reason, the expression on his face, which resembled something between patronizing patience with some irresponsible younger child and contained exasperation, struck me as really funny, and I just laughed and laughed. If he had been able to roll his eyes, I'm ...

Check this out, a school in Attleboro, Massachusetts has banned tag and other chase games on the school grounds! Because children could get hurt! Kids get hurt all the time. What's a little scrape or a bruise? Come ON! Maybe we should just ditch physical education altogether. I'll bet the health bills for all those out-of-shape kids would be a lot higher than any health bills they might get because of injuries sustained while playing tag. Are these people for real? I've been hurt more often at sports like soccer, basketball, volleyball, pinball etc... than by playing tag. Oh, wait, I've never been hurt playing tag. At least not enough for it to be memorable. I HAVE however broken phalanges and sprained things in the above sports. The world just gets weirder and weirder. No wonder so many are homeschooling!

From the Ceasefire Campaign: Dear Friends, North Korea's nuclear test last week showed that policies of isolation and threats of regime change will not prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. We need to act quickly, before the Bush Administration makes the same mistakes in Iran. The UN Security Council is scheduled to discuss sanctions on Iran this week, making it critical to get as many people as possible involved in this campaign over the next few days, while world leaders are debating their options. Click below to send a message to President Bush, calling on the US to enter direct negotiations with Iran: www.ceasefirecampaign.org/iran The last thing the world needs is a global nuclear arms race, so let's seize this moment to show the Bush Administration that the world has a stake in resolving things with Iran peacefully – and will hold him accountable. Talks between the US and Iran won't guarantee a solution to the nuclear problem, but no talks will guarantee failure. The...

Isn't this the cutest thing?

Before: The deck was small and un-safe After: The deck is much bigger, beautiful and safe Unfortunately for Marc, He just smashed his finger this week-end while winterizing the pool. He went to the hospital and the x-ray revealed a shattered bone. There was so much pressure from the blood that rushed to his finger that the blood burst through his skin (tore a hole through it) to get out. He bled a lot. He was using an electric saw to cut a small piece of wood which he was holding and the wood caught in the saw and jerked back three times. His fingers were caught between the wood and the back of the stand for the saw. So, not cut, just jammed. He went back to work today with a big white bandage around his middle finger. He is unlikely to go unnoticed.

I took Gabriel and Nicolas to Tim Horton's the other day (canadian version of Dunkin' Donuts) for breakfast. Gabriel chose the table to sit at, right at the back window, where all the cars going through the drive-through were in a line. At that time in the morning, there were a lot of cars lined up too, with more coming every minute. The whole time we were there, Gabriel stood in the window and made sure he waved to every single person driving by. Most of them smiled and waved back. How's that for a welcoming committee?

(Il faut comprendre que pour la deuxième fois en 3 ans, un viaduc s'est écroulé sur l'autoroute 15, à Laval - au nord de Montréal - tuant quelques personnes qui passaient par là.)

Sleeman has this new commercial in Quebec that I overheard the other day: This guy walks into a pub/bar and meets up with some friends, who immediately ask him why he has two black eyes. He explains that his girlfriend walked in on him while he was doing "overtime" at the office. His friends all laugh and tell him they're in trouble with their girlfriends too and the best thing for a guy in trouble is a Sleeman beer. Normally, I kind of like the Sleeman commercials, because there's always some humour in them, but this one I don't like at all. Call me a "stickler" but isn't that making light of a pretty serious offence? As a woman, I tend to sympathize more with the cheated on girlfriend than the guy with black eyes. So, we're just more disposable "fun" for them eh? There is no remorse whatsoever, more like a "who cares" attitude, practically promoting infidelity. How inspiring.

Cool, low-heeled shoes that do not make your feet look like elephant feet. Finding these shoes in sizes above size 10 Tall husbands with broader shoulders than your own (unfortunately, these ironically tend to end up with all the petite girls, leaving us with the medium-sized men, and in desperate search of low-heeled white satin shoes...) A size 38+ bra in an A cup Shirts that are neither too short in the waist, too short in the chest area, too tight in the shoulders, nor too short in the sleeves. (An empire waist that actually fits under the breasts, not across them) Finding gloves that a) will not be too tight; and b) will be long enough that they will last all winter before your fingers start poking holes through the tips of them. Pants that fit around the waist without being huge everywhere else (for those of us that have a comparatively wide waist for comparatively narrow hips, in other words, no hour-glass shape!) Can you relate to any of these? You might just be a stout gir...

I went yesterday to l'Équipeur (Mark's Work WearHouse in English) to buy me this coat: The one on the left, obviously, that the woman in the picture is wearing. I received the above flyer yesterday morning, and really liked the coat (for the quality as well as the style) and it being on sale half-price and me having $10.00 off on top of it... I decided to go and check it out. (Since I need a proper winter coat anyway). I tried the woman's large coat on, which fit, although it was a tad snug (especially with a sweater on underneath to boot), but the sleeves were definitely too short. So I ended up trying on the extra-large coat which fit better, in this colour: I put it on this morning to drive Gabirel to pre-school, because it was a bit chilly out there, and I realized the sleeves were going about a quarter of the way up my arms, leaving my wrists and then some open to the air. Come winter, that was definitely going to be a problem, I wouldn't be able to do anything tha...

I liked this post : “Pro-Choice” Distortions Kill Human Beings on Contra/Diction. If you're not always sure what to answer back to a pro-abortion person, the dialogue at the end is quite interesting. I also liked the perspective of this one : Star Trek is Pro-Life on Back off Government!. There are a lot of other good posts out there, I haven't even read them all myself, so go check them out here : The Big Blue Wave Pro-Life BlogBurst

In honour of the Big Blue Wave Pro-life Blogburst /Life Chain Sunday: I have always been pro-life. Of course I was brought up pro-life, but also it just makes sense. Abortion does not. So when I got pregnant out of wedlock, I had two options: 1.) Face up to the fact and admit that I had done something wrong and now there was this new person to take care of. Tell everyone and face the disappointment of my parents. 2.) Suddenly move to a different city where I knew nobody, to continue my studies there, have the baby there, and give it up for adoption. Noone would have to know. There was no other option. Abortion didn't even figure. I couldn't give up my baby, so I chose option number one. And I have never, ever regretted that. Also, I had so much help from so many people along the way that I would never had experienced had this never happened. Where there is sin, grace abounds. This I learned first-hand.

Anyone with half a brain (who isn't trying to kid himself with illogical excuses) is pro-life, because of course unborn babies are people too, what else could they be? Noone deserves to die because YOU made a mistake. It not about freedom of choice, because what about the baby's right to choose to live? Does he not have a choice too? It's not the woman's body either, because while that baby might be inside the woman, he's got his own body that isn't hers. What is it all about? It's about not taking responsibility for your actions. It's about sterilizing sex and making it all about what I can get out of it and nothing about what I can give in it. It's about taking the easy way out. What hero takes the easy way out? What an inspiring movie that would make, a hero who didn't do what was right no matter how hard it was. A hero who never sacrificed anything for a greater good. Abortion assumes that we are not capable of being heros, that we are not ...

OK, I may sound obssessed about this book, but I'm going to quote again: (for the last time I promise) There are three levels of demonic influence on men: (1) temptation, (2) oppression, and (3) possession. Temptation comes to everyone. Oppression, in the form of great sorrow of spirit or great external tragedies, happens to many. Possesion is rare and happens only to those who are asking for trouble by violating God's essential safety precautions such as his severe prohibition against the occult: "There shall not be found among you any one who burns his son or daughter as an offering, any one who practices divination, a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a medium, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord" (Dt 18:11-12). The same evil spirits who inspire human sacrifice inspire these other activities. Serious fortune-telling, seances, or ouija boards are linked to the same demonic causes as sacrif...

Angels and Demons by Peter Kreeft Just had to share this too: Page 52 Question 23: If angels have no bodies, how can we ever see them? Angels sometimes "assume" bodies, as we would put on a costume or hire a tuxedo or a limo. At other times angels influence our imagination from within, like hypnosis or mental telepathy. Then it looks as if there is a body there but there isn't. In this case a camera would not record anything. It would in the first case, if they "assumed" bodies. If you are ever visited by an angel and wonder whether it is objective or subjective, without or within, here is how to tell. Angels respect hospitality, so offer the angel some food. ... I had to smile at that, assuming that the chances were great that I'd ever actually see an angel (in this life) and actually know it.

Miss Tidwell, an American artist, was inspired to paint this beautiful depiction of our Blessed Mother grieving over the millions of aborted babies. Normally, a picture like this would take her months to finish. She completed this one in two hours. The stars around Mary's head represent the crown of the Woman of the Apocalypse (Revelation 12:1): 'A great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.' The large star is the "Star of Bethlehem". The rose colored ball in the lower left corner symbolizes the earth in turmoil. The glow of Mary's heart is an evident sign of her tremendous love for all her children, especially the most helpless of all. The incessant weeping over this horrendous evil has blackened her lovely eyes . The baby's Guardian Angel seems to be both saddened over the death of his charge and grateful for the Blessed Mother's care and concern. The baby bear...