PSAT and Moving Toward College

Where did the years go?  I can't believe Matthew is scheduled to take the PSAT on October 14!  As he moves closer to graduating, it seems that college could be a reality.  Hopefully, it will be a reality, but you never know what path he will chose to take.  Though, I do know that path will be directed by God. 

He is such a great kid! On the 24th of September he will be working a pro-life booth at the Eucharistic Congress.  He is working for Room at the Inn of the Carolinas, a maternity home for homeless women. He's been on their board for a year now and works to help raise money for this wonderful cause.  He is still very active in the Triad Students for Life group he started several years ago.  I know that whatever path he chooses, God will be at the center.

Now back to getting him through 11th grade!

Constitution Day- September 17, 2011

Here are some great links to help you celebrate and learn more about the Constitution of the United States of America.

5 Question Quiz- How well do you know the Constitution?

Need lesson plans for Constitution Day?  Here's the link: Constitution day lesson plans

Prayer and Journal Apps

Prayer is essential to life.... and I find that I forget my prayer request notebook and my prayer journal when we go on trips to the hospital or just the local hospital adventures.  I tried a few free prayer apps, but then ended up getting the one that cost $1.99.  It is AWESOME -- it is an app called Prayers for the iPad (not available on the iTouch).  You create lists of people or groups, then when you click on the person, you can add as many prayer requests as you would like for that person/group. When you pray, you can click on "I prayed for this" or "Answered" -- it keeps track of the number of times you prayed for each request. Once the prayer is answered, it gets moved to the answered prayer file.  You can then click on "answered prayers" to see how many prayers have been answered. Can't wait to see how many prayers have been answered in a year!

iJournal is perfect-- it is the first journal with blank pages.... you create it from scratch.  I think this one is also only available for iPad. I'm trying to add notes from my latest prayer journal to the new iJournal.  The colest part is that I can search iJournal.... unlike my regular prayer journal! If I want to look up what I have written about forgiveness, I can do that.... or I can search my pastor's homilies, etc.  It really is super cool to be able to search the journal.

Neither App is "Catholic", but they are a great addition to my life.  I can reflect on Scripture or my favorite Saint's quotes.... then later find them easily. 

Spanish Helps

We're making our way through Spanish I with two of our boys.  Seton's Spanish Counselor will be my new best friend these next few years!  He gave us a few Spanish resources, as did our priest. We also found a few on our own. Chris has been using eLanguage Spanish Essentials for the computer to help him (he flies to Mexico and Central America quite a bit) We found High School Advantage from www.southwestern.com had a helpful Spanish language tool, too.

Apps:  Matthew likes the iTranslate App he purchased and I found a free app called LL Spanish that is VERY helpful!  I think LL Spanish is only available for the iPad, where the one Matthew purchased is available for both his iTouch and my iPad.  Another free Spanish App called Essentials seems to be okay, too.  It is worth a shot, since it is free.

Websites:

Manuel at Seton gave us these: 

A Catholic TV station with lots of great things and this foreign language vocabulary site  (this site will pronounce the words for you)

Our priest uses this:  Ambiguo (this site pronounces the words for you)