Coucoumellisms

The following is a list of questions to be asked (without prompting) to each of my children, with the answers of each of my children, written EXACTLY as they said it. Some of these are quite astute, and others are just... funny... This was done December 24, 2016.  Jean-Alexandre was 22, Dominic was 18, Maryssa was 16, Raven was 15, Gabriel was 14 and Nicolas was 11. 1. What is something I say a lot? Jean-Alexandre: "I don't know, shuliyan." Dominic: "I don't know... LET GO OF ME!!" Maryssa: "What?!" Raven: "Vamonos" Gabriel: "Let go of me" Nicolas: "Go to bed" 2. What makes me happy? Jean-Alexandre: "I don't know, books" Dominic: "Uh... (thinking...) coffee..." Maryssa: "Books" Raven: "Soccer, a clean house, books" Gabriel: "Nothing" Nicolas: "Hugs!!" (hugs me) 3. What makes me sad? Jean-Alexandre: "I don't know, bad s...

I was given these questions to answer, some of which I answered rather briefly, as I'm not sure what anyone expected to learn from me, I am neither an expert nor very professional in the way I keep up my home, but I thought I'd post my answers here anyway.  I did try to be, if nothing else, honest. Check out From Chore to Job , where housework is taken seriously. Do you see the domestic care of the home as a profession, and if so, how does one make it "professional"? I see domestic care of the home not so much as a profession as a vocation.  Even then, it all depends on what we really mean by domestic care of the home.  If by that, we mean caring for our family and making it a good place to be, then it is a vocation.  If by that we mean keeping it neat and tidy and perfect-looking, then it is a chore. I am not professional in any sense of the word when it comes to my home.  I am disorganized and somewhat inconsistent.  The only re...

I had this old book  Minute Meditations for Each Day , published by the Catholic Book Publishing Co , copyright 1982, and I hadn't picked it up in a very long time.  In fact, I am not sure that I ever really took the time to read much out of it before. Then, this past summer, Maryssa picked the book up, from the shelf beside the computer, brought it upstairs to her room, and asked me to read the meditations at night, after her prayers. There are days when I ask myself, how can I carry on?  How will I teach my children about God and instill in them the desire to keep up a relationship with him when it seems like everyone is against me?  I feel like I am constantly fighting a battle, and every time I turn around, the enemy has closed in on me even more.  I feel like I have to sneak around teaching them in secret and even become crafty in getting them to mass and other events. There are days when I have no more hope that my children will grow u...

http://feministsforlife.org/news/hard-case-questions.htm http://feministsforlife.org/news/pro-life-feminism-not-tactic.htm

However, we got money for Christmas, and my husband was thinking about a Wii.  I didn't want a Wii either, not even for the sports stuff, because what is the point of playing sports on a Wii when you can just go out and play real sports?  But the kids all wanted a PS3 instead.  And since a PS3 is also a blu-ray dvd player, I eventually gave in, thinking we could just control how often they used the games. I used to let them take turns with the controls then hide the controls, but that wasn't a good idea, because with no controls, you can't watch movies either.  So I got smart recently, and took away the games instead. We had two controls so they could play either with or against each other, but still, the problem is you limit them on how much time they spend playing, but they all have to take turns, so they still end up sitting in front of the thing for 6 - 8 hours, watching the others' turns.  We have recently solved that problem.  The boys wanted to...

It's impossible to get mainstream healthcare (unless it's a real emergency) in this province, so I've decided to go the alternative health care route. Okay, that's not the only reason, I also really prefer natural, less invasive methods to some of the mainstream medical practices. I really appreciated my mid-wife when I had my last child. I will never go back to a hospital for childbrth. I know a girl who took her son to a chiropractor when he had an earache and it fixed the problem. I'd forgotten that, until I came across something recently written by another woman who regularly takes her daughter to a chiropractor for health care. I decided to look chiropractors and earaches up on the internet and came across this . Ear pain is the number one reason for child visits to chiropractors. Many chiropractors believe that there is a strong link between the birthing process and recurrent ear infection, also known as otitis media. During the birthing process, cervical (nec...

Perhaps this is partly what St. Paul had in mind when he compared athletes training to win a prize to christians struggling to follow Christ? Everytime I walk into this particular church for Sunday mass, the same man walks over to me after mass and says exactly the same thing. "Ça doit être du sport hein? 5 enfants?" And then he repeats it, like I didn't hear the first time. "Perhaps he thinks I didn't, because mostly I now just half-smile, nod and keep walking. I get tired of this constant reminding me of a person's incedulity that I deal with 5 children. I've talked to him before, and I've told him it's not that bad, or I've told him they aren't all the same age, and the older one is obviously more of a help than a hindrance. My second one helps out quite a bit too, at home. This has been ongoing for years, now, the only think he can think to say is the same thing, to translate litterally: it must be some sport having 5 kids. In...

At mass today: Nicky: Where's Jesus? Me: Over there in the front. The bread becomes Jesus. Nicky: Where? Me: Over there on that big table in the front, it's called an altar. Nicky: Where? Me: It's the bread on the table, Jesus turns the bread into himself so we can eat him. Nicky: Eat Jesus? But we will kill him. Me: No, we can eat Jesus because he makes the bread become his body, so we can eat him without killing him. Nicky: Why? Me: Ummmm, so he can be our spiritual food. Nicky: But we will kill him. Me: No we won't that's what is cool about it, Jesus turns the bread into his body so we can eat him, but without killing him. Nicky: That's not cool, that's AWESOME.

I am posting this whole article because I got it by e-mail and they haven't posted it on their website yet. The legal ramifications of this concern me because I already have opposition to my bringing up my kids in the Catholic faith. I think some of their "possible outcomes" are a tad far-fetched... but then who thought polygamy in Canada would ever even be considered and it is being seriously considered in BC courts at this very time... Here is the e-mail I received from UFI: Being a parent is one of the greatest joys we have in this world. Being able to guide, direct, encourage and support your child is what being a parent is all about. That could all come to an end for parents all over the world if the treaty named the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is ratified. Currently, only two countries have not ratified this treaty: the United States and Somalia. This treaty will substantially change the rights parents have to raise their children and will tre...

The weekend is coming again. I enjoy weekends. All of my kids are home, my husband is at home, I don't have to get up at 6:30. But every weekend there is a certain factor of stress that eats away at me more and more as the years go by. It is the uncertainty of how-am-I-going-to-get-everyone-to-mass? Summers aren't so bad, because soccer activity is mainly limited to weekdays, except for tournaments, which can be very worrisome, because then I have to find masses in places I am not familiar with at times that will not interfere with games. (Or annoy the husband too much) This weekend, I am going to see some very dear, old friends. They go to mass too, although I am not sure of the frequency. We'll be there most of the weekend, which makes it kind of hard to get to a mass without being impolite and leaving. If we ALL went to mass, it would be one thing, but since they are too good hosts to leave my husband behind while we go off, I think I'll be the only one to go. Which ...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1056415/Teach-pleasure-gay-sex-children-young-say-researchers.html?Gay You know, I'm not going to go bashing gays, or beat them up, or whatever. But honestly, could they back off of our children? Heterosexuals don't teach the pleasure of hetero sex to kids at five. Just BACK OFF OKAY! Someone else had this to say and I totally agree: The economy is going to hell in a handbasket. Tax payers are feeling the bite in their pocket and yet having to subsidise our financial services industry because of banking practices that push beyond the boundaries of boldness and yet our government can find a spare £600,000 to advocate teaching five year olds about homosexuality? Five year olds! These children aren't even of the age to read Biff, Chip and Kipper and yet the government finds a spare £600k, in what Alistair Darling calls the worst economic climate for 60 years, to learn whether their sexual attitudes require exploring? Unbelievable. You...

Decorated the house yesterday for advent. (Pink and purple) Christmas is coming! Advent wreath Stockings waiting... I started this tradition with my kids where we hang up the stockings on the 1rst Sunday of Advent, instead of on Christmas Eve. That way, the kids can participate in putting little things into the stockings too. They have all Advent to do this. I usually do some baking or crafts with each of them, so they can add stuff. Sometimes some of them take their own money and go to the dollar store. St. Nicolas comes the night of December 5th, so they wake up on the 6th, (feast of St. Nicolas) to find some goodies in their shoes, where the night before they had left a carrot for St. Nicolas's horse/donkey, whichever it is. So technically, we don't "do" Santa Claus, not in the popular North American way anyway. I prefer the European way, which hasn't lost sight of the Catholic/Christian roots. Now for finishing those projects I've started, cleaning out...

Just ordered this for my kids; The theology of the Body for Teens DVD Series. Got it with the workbook and the leader's guide. A little expensive, but I consider it investing in my children's future. That is worth all the money in the world to me. Hopefully, this will make them better prepared than I was. I was rather ignorant and very naive myself. Also very trusting. Too trusting. Were I ever single again, I'd probably be one of those frustrated women who'd have a hard time trusting any guy again. I know there are trustworthy guys out there, because my brothers and my father are trustworthy. But gosh, for every guy willing to wait, there are hundreds who only want to hop into the sack with you right off the bat. Who'll dump you quicker'n that if you don't comply. Were I ever single again, I'd probably end up a hermit.

Never thought I'd say this, but Brad and Angelina are starting to impress me. I came across this magazine at the grocery store, and almost bought it, for the title story. Shiloh Jolie-Pitt and Suri Cruise are the precious pampered babies of Hollywood royalty, but, as Star examines in our new issue, they're growing up in two totally different worlds. The daughter of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie , Shiloh, 2, lives behind the walls of the elegant Château Miraval in the South of France, where competition is fierce and chaos rules. Quiet, gentle and easygoing, the adorable little blonde — who's big sis to newborns Vivienne and Knox — loves playing with older siblings Maddox, 7, Pax, 4, and Zahara, 3. Shi , who is affectionately nicknamed Tweety, takes orders from Zahara and endures lots of good-natured roughhousing from her older brothers. "The boys are tough," a source tells Star. "Zahara hollers back at them, but Shiloh is very gentle. The boys don't mean to...

I am gone downstairs for 10 measley minutes and this is what awaits at my return: Cat food strewn all over the floor. Yes, I spend far too much time on the computer. Yes, I hate housecleaning. But gosh... how can anyone keep a house clean with 5 of these terrorists running about? Ok, I take it back, I've managed to brainwash the first 2 into being civilized human beings for the most part, and the third is on her way... but still... Update He did it again, and it is still morning: Playing cards this time. And no, this time I was not on the computer when he did it, I was taking a shower...

I don't get how people can be happy to see their kids go back to school. First, I like having my kids around. Second, school is no holiday. I don't get all the jokes about cheering one's kid back off to school. The people who cheer when their kid is gone must only have one. Only one to feed at night, only one to watch to make sure he's doing his homework. Or maybe she already does all her homework on her own. I bet none of them have to watch an almost 3 year old to make sure he's not making trouble, while keeping countless people off the computers and away from tv in order to do their homework. Or worse yet, getting them to eat a snack quickly, change into soccer clothes, off to a soccer pratice, eating sandwiches there and doing homework at the same time with the ones who don't have a practice and alternating when it's someone else's turn to pratice, coming home at just after bedtime, trying to get everyone showered and in bed at a decent time. I...

I was styling the hair of an older client today, for a wedding. She'd been to a different wedding two weeks ago. She told me she had been worried that she wasn't dressed up enough, but apparently, compared to others, she ended up being over-dressed. This first wedding ended up being a civil wedding, all done at the bride's home, where the mother of the bride, who had paid to get all the papers/permission, was the one who conducted the wedding herself. So no need for a justice of the peace or judge or minister. Needless to say, my client found that a little strange. That's the first I've heard of anyone doing something like that myself. Some people came in flip-flops and casual shorts, no more than what one would wear to the beach. The groom himself, was in black jeans. A very casual affair. Basically, this is what you're telling us you think about marriage: "It's just a piece of paper." I've heard it said before too, but you don't ...

Raising boys: Your family, our culture Meeker, M. (2008). Boys Should Be Boys, Washington DC, Regnery Publishing Inc. By Rebecca Walberg, a Winnipeg-based writer and policy analyst Meg Meeker, an American pediatrician, wife, and mother, has written a second book about parenting that will be very unpopular with those devoted to the premise that there are no natural differences between boys and girls. But for those who believe that mothers and fathers play different, complementary and essential roles in the raising of children, Boys Should Be Boys is an insightful and thought-provoking look at what sons need from their parents, and how families and our culture shortchange many young men. Dr. Meeker’s first parenting book, Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters, published in 2006, discussed the importance of the father-daughter bond to young women. This time, she turns her attention to boys, from preschool until young adulthood. Parents who have raised both will already know some of the dif...