Happy Homemaker Monday~ August 25, 2025

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Happy Monday! It's crazy to think it's the last Monday in August. Summer flew by, but then again, it always seems to, doesn't it? The weather here has been beautiful. 

This past weekend was a busy one. On Saturday, we worked on the porch. We are finally finishing up the project we started a few years ago. On Sunday, I attended Mass and then headed to my classroom to start decorating it. We also had a meet-and-greet for our students. 

Let's get started with Happy Homemaker Monday with our beautiful hostess, Sandra from Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. Be sure to stop in, grab a cup of coffee, and say hi.

The Weather in My Neck of the Woods~

Fall temps have arrived here. I've finally been able to open the windows and air out the house. It's so nice. The cats are loving the open windows. 

Monday~ Sunny, 78*

Tuesday~ Sunny, 74*

Wednesday ~ Sunny, 72*

Thursday~ Sunny, 74*

Friday~ Cloudy/Chance of Rain, 72*

Saturday~ Sunny, 71*

Sunday~ Sunny, 73*

As I Look Out My Window~

It's actually dark out now, so I can't see a thing. With the windows open, I can hear the usual nighttime noise... crickets and tree frogs.

Thinking and Pondering~

I've been thinking about the seven little ones in my class this year. I'm praying for them. I want to have a great year with them and hopefully see their faith grow more. 

Right Now I Am ~

I'm typing up this post. It's 9:30 at night. I didn't have a chance to do it until now. Everyone is in bed, so it's quiet and peaceful right now. 

How I'm  Feeling~

I'm feeling better. Two weeks ago, I slipped on the porch stairs and completely wiped out. I twisted my ankle, bruised my back, and pulled muscles all along my right side.  It was not graceful at all. I was pretty sore the first few days. I still have some back pain, but the chiropractor is helping relieve that. 

What's on My Nightstand~  

After Sandra shared a picture of Morning and Evening by Charles H. Spurgeon, I ordered it from Amazon. 

My Bible and the Catholic Mom's Prayer Companion: A Book of Daily Reflections. 

What's for Breakfast~

I only had a cup of coffee for breakfast.  I had to get ready and leave the house to make my chiropractor appointment. 

Looking Around the House~

I need to pick up some. We got bins to box up some stuff for Therese's room and Michael's old room. We are making room for a few new additions. 

On My To-Do List This Week~ 

Change the Sheets

Clean the bathroom

Box up some books

Clean out the fridge

Organize my classroom supplies

Plant some new flowers we bought

Vacuum and mop

Laundry

Wash the dog beds

Happening This Week~

The only thing I have on my schedule is the chiro appointment this morning. Michael and I both had appointments, so we took trash, stopped by the dollar store, and then had our adjustments. 

On My Reading Pile~

Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon

Framed and Frosted by Kim Davis

Christmas Wishes in Wild Harbor by Grace Worthington

One Kind Heart by Christine DePetrillo

What I'm Listening To~

I've been going back and forth between the 80s and the 90s playlists I have.  

On TV this week~

Netflix

Sullivan's Crossing

Call the Midwives

Blindspot

Amazon Prime

Reacher

YouTube

Cooking Videos

Quilting Videos

Exercise videos

On the Menu this Week~

No clue yet this week. I'm sitting down to plan the next two weeks, but I need to get everyone's schedule first. 

Monday~ 

Tuesday~ 

Wednesday~ 

Thursday~

Friday~

Saturday~

What I am Sewing, Quilting, and Creating~

I hemmed Michael's pants for the academy. I'm also working on sewing some decorative dish towels for fall. 

My Simple Pleasures~

I've been chatting with the girls when I go out to feed them in the morning. They have been quite rambunctious lately. Talking a lot and trying to get pets and cuddles. I still have one hen that is broody. She's been broody for a few months now and just won't give up.

Praying For~

My parents

My husband and children

Our country

Friends and family

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Till Next Time,

Monique

Sunday Inspiration~ August 24, 2025

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Monique

Sunday Inspiration~ August 17, 2025

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Monique

Happy Feast of the Assumption of Our Blessed Mother

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Monique

Wednesaday Hodgepodge~August 13, 2025

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Hello friends!  I'm joining Joyce over at From This Side of the Pond for Wednesday's Hodgepodge. Each week, she hosts a weekly link-up that is a collection of questions for bloggers to answer. It's to help bloggers get to know each other better and have a little bit of fun! It's a great way to hang out with friends. So grab a cup of coffee or tea if you prefer and join in on the fun. 

So, what is a hodgepodge? A hodgepodge is an unorganized mixture of various things, a jumble of items that don't belong together. 

Here are this week's questions and my answers for this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge~ 

1. August is National Golf Month...do you play? Do you enjoy following golf? Have you ever been to a professional tournament? 

Does mini golf count? I've played mini golf since I was a kid. We had a place when I was growing up that we went to as kids. It had mini golf, batting cages, and the best part, it was next to an ice cream cone place called the Arctic Circle. It was a popular hangout for us. It was right across the street from the drive-in movie theater (which is now closed). 

I'll admit, I have never played "real" golf before, and I honestly have no desire to. 

2. Astronaut Jim Lovell of Apollo 13 fame passed away this past Thursday. Are you interested in outer space and what's happening today in terms of space exploration? If space travel became common in your lifetime, would you go? How do you personally relate to the idea of exploring something vast and mysterious...does the idea excite you, intimidate you, or something else? 

I really don't keep up with space news or exploration. I did hear about the ladies going to space a few months ago. Do I believe that they did? No. 

Was it a publicity stunt? Most definitely. But either way, I don't really care. 

I personally have no desire to travel to space. I've never been interested in it. When we studied it in school, I was not a fan. I actually found it rather boring. I'm not a big science person. 

3. Describe your communication style in three words. 

Quiet but friendly

4. Do you have a favorite cookbook? A favorite celebrity chef? Do you watch any cooking shows on TV? 

I don't really watch any cooking shows. I'm not a big TV person. When the kids were little, my son loved to watch Rachel Ray, so I watched that back in the day. 

I tend to Google or find recipes online I'd like to try, and then give them a try. If we like them, I'll print them out and put them in my recipe binder (which is overflowing now)

The one cookbook I go back to time and time again is my very first cookbook, the Betty Crocker Cookbook. Mine is from the 1990s. It was a gift from my mom when I moved out after college. When I went searching on Amazon, I saw my mom's cookbook from the 60s, and they were trying to sell it for $100! I have a second one, which I got when my kids were little, but some of the recipes had changed. I tend to go back to my first one. It's beat up and missing the cover, but it still works. 

5. As a child, did you have any back-to-school traditions? If so, did you carry on those same traditions with your own children? Do you have any back-to-school traditions you've started on your own? 

The only first day of school I remember is my first day of Kindergarten. After that, I don't think our parents took them. I didn't get new clothes, since I went to a Catholic school and had to wear a uniform. We got new shoes if our feet had grown. We did go shopping for new school supplies every year. I remember getting new pencils, notebooks, etc. I loved Hello Kitty, Lisa Frank, and my Trapper Keeper. The little cute erasures were my favorite!

We homeschooled, so no new clothes here. I did the first day of school pictures with the kids. I did let them go to the store and pick out cute school supplies they liked. When we did co-ops, they did get to pick out backpacks, pencil cases, and unch boxes. They liked doing that. We used to take packed lunches to the park, so they could use their lunch boxes more. 

6. Yesterday was our sweet girl Ruby's gotcha day. She's been with us for 2 years now, and life has not been the same. 

She has an eternal alarm clock that wakes her up at 5:30 every day! Her belly says it's time for breakfast. She's the sweetest, most lovable dog. She loves to cuddle, go for walks, and play with her big sisiter. She's afraid of the cat. She's not a fan of water, which is strange since she's a Labrador retriever. 

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Till Next Time,

Monique

10 Quotes for the Feast Day of the Assumption of Mary

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Good morning, friends. The church's feast day for the Assumption of Mary is quickly approaching. While looking for quotes for my Sunday Inspiration post, I came across these beautiful quotes that we can reflect on, pray on, and hopefully inspire us to draw closer to Mary, our Blessed Mother. 

~1~ 

The feast of the Assumption of Our Lady prompts us to acknowledge the basis for this joyful hope. Yes, we are still pilgrims, but our mother has gone ahead, where she points to the reward of our efforts. She tells us we can make it. And, if we are faithful, we will reach home. The blessed Virgin is not only our model, she is the help of Christians. And as we besiege her with our petitions- "show that you are our mother"  -she cannot help but watch over her children with motherly care."

~ Saint Josemaria Escrivá

Christ is Passing By

~2~

“Today too, the dragon exists in new and different ways. It exists in the form of materialistic ideologies that tell us it is absurd to think of God; it is absurd to observe God’s commandments: they are a leftover from a time past… Even now, this dragon appears invincible, but it is still true today that God is stronger than the dragon, that it is love which conquers rather than selfishness…The message of my life was: I am the handmaid of God, my life has been a gift of myself to God and my neighbour. And this life of service now arrives in real life. May you too have trust and have the courage to live like this, countering all the threats of the dragon.”

~ Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

~3~

"Mary’s Assumption is an event that concerns us precisely because every human being is destined to die. But death is not the last word. Death – the mystery of the Virgin’s Assumption assures us – is the passage to life, the encounter with Love. It is the passage to the eternal happiness in store for those who toil for truth and justice and do their utmost to follow Christ.”

Saint Pope John Paul II

~4~

“When finally the Blessed Virgin had fulfilled the course of this life, and was now to be called out of this world, all the apostles were gathered together from each region to her house…and behold the Lord Jesus came with his angels and, receiving her soul…at the break of day the apostles lifted the body with the couch and laid it in the sepulcher, and they guarded it awaiting the coming of the Lord. And behold the Lord again stood by them, and commanded that the holy body be taken up and borne on a cloud into paradise, where now, reunited with (her) soul…”

~ Gregory of Tours

~5~

 “While she lived on this earth she could only be close to a few people. Being in God, who is close to us, actually, “within” all of us, Mary shares in this closeness of God. Being in God and with God, she is close to each one of us, knows our hearts, can hear our prayers, can help us with her motherly kindness and has been given to us, as the Lord said, precisely as a “mother” to whom we can turn at every moment.”

~ Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

~6~

“By a special privilege, she was enriched by divine grace from the moment of her conception, and Christ, who ascended to the right hand of the Father, opened the doors of his kingdom to her, first among human creatures. Now from heaven, where the Queen of the angels and saints is crowned, the Mother of God and of the Church is close to the Christian people before whom she shines as the ‘new and immaculate woman (who) mediated for the guilt of the first woman." 

~ Saint Pope John Paul II

~7~

“We pronounce, declare and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma that the immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul to heavenly glory.”

~Pope PiusXII

~8~

"By looking at Mary’s Assumption into Heaven we understand better that even though our daily life may be marked by trials and difficulties, it flows like a river to the divine ocean, to the fullness of joy and peace. We understand that our death is not the end but rather the entrance into life that knows no death. Our setting on the horizon of this world is our rising at the dawn of the new world, the dawn of the eternal day.”

~Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

~9~

As Mary was assumed into Heaven, she beckons us to follow her path of obedience, faith, and unwavering trust in God."

~Unknown

~10~

"Mary's assumption is a sign of hope for all of us, a reminder that death is not the end, but rather the beginning of eternal life."

~Pope Francis

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Monique

Sunday Inspiration~ August 10, 2025

Please note that posts may contain affiliate links. If you choose to click on a link, add it to your cart, and complete your purchase, I will receive a small percentage. We are very grateful for this additional source of income. Thank you.

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Till Next Time,

Monique