Spirit of Obedience: What I'm Reading (from the doula book list!))

For the Childbirth International doula certification, you must read 3 books. I have begun reading my first book choice, Heart and Hands: A Midwife's Guide to Pregnancy and Birth by Elizabeth Davis.

I purchased this book a few months back when I was dying to read it but my local library didn't have it. I was delighted when I came across it on the reading list. Now I don't have to feel quite as guilty for buying my own copy since it benefits my doula endeavours ;)


**A little side note, only 3 more days until I shadow my first prenatal doula meeting. Wish me luck!

Spirit of Obedience: Binder of Special Days

My summer vacation got me thinking about the need to make--to create--special days for my children. Along with the idea of daily rhythm, that is one of the main aspects that draws me to my interest in a Waldorf -style education. They celebrate various holidays and special events. But I suppose holidays and rhythm go hand-in-hand when you stop to think about it. Waldorf practices daily, weekly, yearly rhythm-- and holidays are those days we celebrate repeated or rhythmically each year.

Wanting to give my children a bit more color, fun, celebration--whatever you want to call it--in their life I decided this school year to 'purpose' more special days into our school year and into our lives. I have wanted to do this for awhile but was never organized enough to implement it. It takes forethought and planning to some degree.

Two book I have found helpful in planning our special days are:

All Year Round by Ann Druitt, Christine Fynes-Clinton, and Marje Rowling

A Year With God: Celebrating the Liturgical Year

To keep the days organized I have created a binder. I have divider tabs to mark the months of the year (and seasons too--another biggy in Waldorf, observing and celebrating the seasons) and a printed calendar behind each to mark the holidays, events, birthdays, etc. we intend to celebrate. We may not get around to doing all of them, but perhaps three or four a month. Some special days may be more involved than others. For instance some may be all out with crafts and foods, while others may be a simple coloring page to commemorate a saints' feast day.

I intend this binder to be ongoing, to cycle through it repeatedly. So the calendars will remain in there year after year to keep me from having to research over and over again that month's holidays and feast days. I have also started to print copies of coloring pages and activity pages to keep in a page protector to xerox annually. The idea being to do the work once while being able to benefit from it over and over again. I also have a page for notes of activities for a particular day and resources of books or web pages where I found them. Doing similar activities and celebrations year after year instills a sense of tradition.

Something else I've come across and found useful is a "Get It Done" Project Planner sheet I printed out from my book, Educating the WholeHearted Child. Essentially it's just a simple form for helping you plan out projects, i.e. the date you need it by, what materials you need, resources to use, steps to take, etc. It's great for preplanning which was one of my pitfalls in trying to do this before. The day would arrive with little to no forethought. I'd have nothing planned out so I'd let it slide by saying to myself, "Well we'll catch the next special day." But the same thing would happen the next time. No celebrating was getting done.

And now that I have that fantastic, new camera of mine I'll be photographing our specials to record in our recently started The Goad Family's Book of Special Days scrap book I'm creating for my girls to cherish as the days pass and they grow older.

Spirit of Obedience: Planning for Another Year of Homeschooling

Amazingly it is already time to think about the new school year as our little summer break comes to an end. I have been busy preparing for our fourth year of homeschooling. I enjoy planning our lessons and organizing our materials. Each year I tweak the previous years curriculum. Our first year of homeschooling I did mainly Classical Education using The Well-Trained Mind. Being a newbie, I felt like I needed to run a tight ship to be sure my children were receiving an adequate education. The second year I had just given birth to my 5th baby in August and felt like I needed a curriculum that made schooling easier. We went with a computer based program called Switched-On Schoolhouse for their major subjects and used Seton workbooks to cover the rest. This past year was our first year of having just two of our daughters at home. My oldest daughter went into 6th grade. We decided, for a number of reasons, it was best to send her back to the local catholic school. Again, we went with The Well-Trained Mind and Seton materials for the other two.

I discovered Educating the WholeHearted Child by Clay and Sally Clarkson at the library. I liked it so much I bought my own copy. I have decided to use it as the basis for this school year, coupled with Charlotte Mason and a hint of Waldorf. Now that I have a few years of home education under my belt, I feel like the past few years have been getting "dry". When I first came into homeschooling I loved the idea of using life as the classroom, of making learning fun. This year my goal is to get back to that ideal. While I'm not comfortable with unschooling, I'm confident enough now to use a loose curriculum covering the basics, but leaving room for exploration and creativity.

I'll keep you posted as I continue to gather resources and materials to begin our Homeschool Year 2012-2013!

What I'm Reading: Montessori at Home

I've had my eye on this book for some time. It's actually an ebook called Montessori in the Home. I love the Montessori method and have implemented a few of the activities in my home already. Back in the day when I had fewer children and money flowed a little easier, two of my older daughters went to an actual Montessori preschool.

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The new Second Edition of Montessori At Home! is a multimedia Ebook that guides you through the entire process of doing Montessori early learning activities at home. Complete background and how-to chapters are followed by clear directions for over 250 early learning materials and activities. Areas covered include:

• Maria Montessori
• How-To Guide for parents
• Everyday Life Activities
• Sensory Experiences
• Digital Life
• Art & Music
• Science
• Geography & Culture
• Mathematics
• Reading & Writing
• Free Printable Materials

Every section is supported and expanded by the liberal use of links to web sites and videos you and your child can visit to learn more. Montessori At Home! is a complete, practical guide to home early learning, written just for parents.

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A great website I get Montessori activity ideas from is called Chasing Cheerios.

I look forward to reading my new ebook and putting the ideas and activities into use--and of course sharing them with you along the way :)

The Love Dare

I've been in the same monogamous relationship since I was 16 years old--close to 14 years now! 10 of those years we've been married. Marriage is a difficult relationship to keep up over the years, especially when you begin your relationship so young--both of you do a lot of growing over the years, some of it growing apart. So marriage is a thing to be maintained over the years, worked on to keep it alive.


 Today I begin the first day of The Love Dare. The Love Dare is a book, based upon the movie Fireproof, starring Kirk Cameron.



From the back cover:

 "Unconditional Love is eagerly promised at weddings, but rarely practiced in real life. As a result, romantic hopes are often replaced with disappointment in the home. But it doesn't have to be that way.

The Love Dare is a 40-day challenge for husbands and wives to understand and practice unconditional love. Whether your marriage is hanging on a thread or healthy and strong., the love Love Dare, is a journey you need take. It's time to learn the keys to finding true intimacy and developing a dynamic marriage. Take the dare!"


To assist in the challenge there is an accompanying website www.40DayLoveDare.com where you can register your own personal Love Dare. It offers you a place to keep a journal, a message board, a blog, and resources.

You can also visit www.LoveDareBook.com which also has a wealth of resources and information about the book, the authors, the movie, and the dare.

What I'm Reading

My library finally got a copy of Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts. I have been waiting to read it for close to a year. I've seen it in the Christian bookstore but I try to live simply, not possess too much, be true to my vow of poverty. I didn't need to own the book; I just wanted to read it. It was a want, not a need, so I never purchased it.


I have my hands on it now, and I am enjoying consuming each page. So many aspects, so many parts of the story, resonate with me. You see I have been a seeker of God in a mess of a life myself. I’ve sought out spiritual direction with a Franciscan monk for a few months a couple years ago, read numerous books on the presence of God and other related topics, referenced other religions outside my Catholic faith—all in an attempt to try find joy, peace—GOD. Seeking meaning to life—my life—for the circumstances I found and continue to find myself in. Is all this mess and despair a sequence of consequences to past sin, poor choices? Is there some higher purpose for why my life, the people in it, my past, my present is the way it is that I don’t see or understand yet?


One of my New Year’s resolutions (as usual) is spiritual progress. I am forever trying to acquire patience, and joy, and peace . . .—true, lasting spiritual transformation. It’s fleeting. Instead of an open ended make spiritual progress daily, for 2012 I am trying:

“Every day keep the intermediate goals into achievable segments, and fix sights on these midway markers: one pound shed this week, 15 minutes of organization, one date night a week with a child, set sights close . . .”  Read more here.

I read this morning in the book about a 10 day challenge—a 10 day eucharisteo experiment—

"Ten days of eucharisteo as a stress intervention, eucharisteo as a practical miracle, not on the mount, but in the faces and the crowd. Whenever we felt stress in relationships, we audibly gave thanks”( pg.133).

Stress and strain has climaxed in just about every relationship in my life: with myself, God, my husband, my children, my parents, etc. I am so not fulfilling my vows as a Lay Missionary of Charity. What a poor example I make. In fact it was only back in September I considered leaving the movement, giving up my vows.  I even gave it a go. But instead of peace, relief, in my choice I found discontent. I don’t think God wanted me to give up my vows, being a poor example, He wants to try harder with His grace-try a different approach. Something (good) will come out of my LMC experience—from my life experience— if I hold on, endure, wait patiently. So instead of giving up completely, I continue to try differently. And for the next 10 days I will try the eucharisteo experiment; I will hold my tongue, intentionally be less reactive in stress situations, relinquish control of situations over to God, instead only offering thanks—eucharisteo—to God for all and everything, whether I perceive them to be good or bad. I have already been doing the 1000 Gift Challenge, but this is taking it deeper. This is a full immersion course in the presence of God. And I know this is the path-for me at least-this is the stuff, the spiritual practices, we used to talk about in spiritual direction. But how easy we forget--I forget. How much easier it is said than done.


And so I start right NOW, this very second. God knows, I’ve already blown my morning, but I will not waste another minute. From this moment, I begin my experiment—good, bad, or indifferent. I expect it to be difficult. I will no doubt have set backs. But I will give it my full, whole hearted, conscious effort for a period of 10 days, that way there is an end in sight--an achievable goal.

A Walk in the Woods

One of my family's favorite pastimes to do as a whole is to take a little hike in the woods at our local park. I really enjoy nature but don't get as much time with it as I'd like. I can tell when it's been too long between visits because I begin to yearn for it. Especially when times are rough and stressful there's a sacredness, a retreat in nature, that calls to me. Some of my favorite books pertain to a person's relationship with the wilderness, like Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer (I've read the book, watched the movie, and listened to the book on tape!--yeah, I'm a fan of this work). Like McCrandless, sometimes I need that solo journey in the wild--to get away from the superficial and the materialism--to renew my spirit. Another good story to check out is A Walk in the Woods, by Bill Bryson. It's about his venture hiking the length of the Appalachian Trail with a buddy. It's quite humorous. Oh, do I admire him! In another life, if I couldn't be a Trappist monk, then I'd hike the entire Appalachian Trail! That sounds amazing to me. Of course, as it is, my life does not afford me the opportunity to attain this goal in this lifetime. But I hold those who do, or at least attempt this feat, in high regards. My brother has a friend who might try the A.T. sometime--I'll have to live vicariously through him. For now, I must settle for short excursions in the local park.

One of the wonderful things about this park is that a local Eagle Scout, as a project, color coded three separate trails of varying lengths. He erected signs and spray painted colored dots on the trees to tell which path you're on and where to go, then designed an accompanying map. Here, O is using her map skills acquired from Dora the Explorer, to guide the family on the trail.