Extra Reading Diary Post: Saints and Animals

In the unit Saints and Animals unit, my absolute favorite story was The Wolf-Mother of Saint Ailbe.  It was a wonderful story about a wolf foster mother who took in a human baby to raise as one of her own.  This story made me think about my own life and how similar it is to this story.  I was engrossed in this story from the minute I started reading it and couldn't wait to find out how it ended.  It was like I was reading the story of my own life, but written from a foster child's perspective.

In the beginning, the parents abandon the child and this is an unfortunate commonality with fostering in present day.  The children are found in horrible conditions or without parental supervision at all, and then they are given to foster parents to raise.  As in this story, the wolf foster mother loved the child as if he was her own pup.  She did not treat the human child any differently then her biological pups.  This is the same way that good foster parents feel about their foster children.  We love them, even when they don't look or act like us, and we raise them as a member of our family until they are reunified with their parents (or other family members) or become a permanent, legal part of our own family.  When the human baby was taken from the wolf mother, her heart broke for the loss of that child.  As foster parents, we do mourn the loss of a child when they are returned to their biological family, but we also know that is the goal from the beginning of our journey with the child.  After many years Saint Ailbe grew up in the castle with his new family, but also longed and thought about his wolf family too.  This is also a normal part of a foster child's journey.  We've had children who have grown up after leaving our home and have looked us up so that they could see us again.  I loved how Saint Ailbe saved his wolf mother and took care of her and her family after the hunters had captured her.  Often times when we see kids after they've left our home, they are extremely excited to see us and talk to us again.  As in this story, the wolf mother has fears and reservations about the child's new family, but they all became a happy family in the end.  We have also had many similar happy ending with our former foster children and their biological families. 

Saint Ailbe

Reading Dairy A: Week 3--Saints & Animals Unit

My favorite story from the Saints and Animals unit is the story of Saint Blaise and His Beasts.

Saint Blaise icon

The story is about a boy who is born to a wealthy family, but chooses to be something different than the other boys around him.  He loved all animals and wanted to take care of them, as well as, people too.  When he grew up, he studied medicine and chose to heal the sick...wild animals, tame animals, people, etc.  All the animals loved him too because he took care of them with kindness and love in his heart.  He decided to go live in the forest among the animals.  A cave became his home and all the animals came to see him and never disturbed him if he was in prayer.  He had chosen to be a Christian in a time where Christians were not treated kindly.  Once the Christians around him chose him to become their Bishop, the people and animals rejoiced.  But little did the animals know that making his faith known would put him in harms way.  For there was a cruel Emperor ruling over the land and he enjoyed torturing Christians.  Once it became known to the Emperor that Blaise was a Christian, and a highly revered one at that, he sent out his men to find him.  His men found him in his home, the cave in the forest, and were amazed at how the animals treated him.  After they got over their amazement, they captured Blaise and took him to the Emperor's prison.  They tortured him, tried to drown him and finally ended up beheading him at the end of the story.  All of the animals and Christian people were deeply saddened when Blaise was finally killed.

The part I like most about the story is the character, Blaise.  I can relate to him because I love all animals dearly too.  I love where we live in Moore because there is such a wide variety of wild and tame animal life around my home.  I would never harm an animal and neither did Saint Blaise.  My chosen career path is also in the medical field where I can help people.  Blaise chose medicine while I chose Psychology.  They are similar in the chosen field, but he chose to heal the body while I choose to heal the mind.  I also admire Blaise's tenacity to stick to his faith and not waver in his decision.  I feel the same way about sticking to my moral and principles.  Overall, I felt that this story was my favorite and the one story I could relate to the most in the unit.

Mythology-Folklore Topics: Brainstorming

Topic: Cat tales

Comments: I love cats.  They are the most loving and majestic animals on the planet.  Cats are also very independent when they want to be left alone.  I think that there might be several stories throughout history about these wonderful creatures.
Possible Stories: I know there is at least one famous story about a cat named Puss-N-Boots but I'm not sure what other kinds of stories I will find.  I searched the link of past storybooks and found a few stories there.  One story in particular called "The Cat and the Birds" stood out to me for its moral lessen at the end.

Sample Story Comments: The story of "The Cat and the Birds" represents someone who learns a harsh lessen after having their hopes set high on a different outcome.
Bibliography Information:
Sample Story: The Cat and the Birds

Book Title: "The Cat and the Birds," from Aesop's Fables

Book Author: Translated by Laura Gibbs
Year: 2002

Topic: Evil Cat Tales

Comments: I love cats.  They are the most loving and majestic animals on the planet.  Cats can also be very independent when they want to be left alone.  Since some cats tend to be more unsociable, like feral cats, I'm sure that there would be some stories about cats getting revenge on their owners or people in general.
Possible Stories:  I searched the link of past storybooks and found a few stories there.  One story in particular called "The Bakeneko" stood out to me for its ability to possess magical powers and its revenge quality.  

Sample Story Comments: The story of "The Bakeneko" represents a cat who possesses magical powers and is known for killing humans while they sleep and taking over their bodies.
Bibliography Information:

Sample Story: The Cat Came Back

Book Title: Bakeneko

Book Author: Wikipedia contributors
Year: Last modified December 2014

Sekien Nkeomata by Toriyama Sekien (2006) Image Source: Wikipedia

Topic: Panther stories

Comments: I liked this story because it was so similar to "Little Red Riding Hood".  Instead of using the wolf character, the story uses a panther (which is a type of cat) as the character who teases and torments the children.
Possible Stories:  I searched the link of past storybooks and found a few stories there.  One story in particular called "The Panther" stood out to me. It was basically a retelling of the classic story "Little Red Riding Hood".

Sample Story Comments: The story of "The Panther" represents a cat who eats some children and their sister and brother want to take revenge on the panther for killing their family members. 

Bibliography Information:

Story title: The Panther

Book title: The Chinese Fairy Tale Book

Book author: R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens

Year: 1921

Topic: Mermaid Roles

Comments: To me, mermaids have always been fascinating creatures ever since I was a little girl.  Most of the stories I've read or movies I've watched about mermaids, they have always saved humans from some sort of peril in the sea.  "The Little Mermaid" is a prime example of this storyline.
Possible Stories:  I searched the link of Sacred Texts and found a story there.  One story in particular called "The Mermaid Wife" stood out to me because she did not chose to live as a human, but was made to be a human.  She longed to go back to the sea and be with her family.  That is the complete opposite ending of "The Little Mermaid".

Sample Story Comments: The story of "The Mermaid Wife" represents a mermaid who is made to become a human and misses being a part of the sea and being with her family there.
Bibliography Information:

Story Title: The Mermaid Wife

Book Title: The Fairy Mythology

Book Author: Thomas Keightley

Year Published: 1870

Web Source: Sacred-Texts (The Mermaid Wife)

Mermaid in the Sea

Web Source: Flickr

Famous Last Words: Week 2 struggling with writer's block

This week has been challenging for me.  It's hard to fight off the feeling that you are falling behind in your classwork, even when you logically know you're not.  My personal life (mainly my children) has really made it difficult to get things done on time & get to my classes on time as well.  I suppose I need to start organizing and prioritizing my schedule a little better, so that I don't feel so overwhelmed and overloaded on the weekend.

With that being said, I feel that my best writing assignment this week was when I rewrote the story of Saint Christine.  I felt like I conveyed the story in a successful way by adding new details and changing the storyline just a bit.  I thought the story was interesting and that is why I chose to retell it.  I really went out of my comfort zone with deciding to read the Women Saints unit.  I really don't read anything religious in nature at all and that was my main motivation for trying to read this unit.  I wanted to try to read something I'd never read before and see if it interested me at all.  I found the Women Saints unit to be completely different from reading religious scripture, so that really helped me stay more involved in reading the stories.

I still haven't really gotten into the writer's groove yet.  In my opinion, there is much improvement needed in my writing to make it more evocative and eloquent.  This class is making me wish that I had a more creative talent for writing stories like some of the other students taking this class.  With the help of reading other people's stories, plus talking to a friend of mine who is a creative writer, I hope to learn some better techniques in my writing style and word usage.  At least, I have an idea now of what I want to write about for this class, so that is definitely one step in the right direction.

Writer's Block

Week 2 Storytelling: Christine the Faithful

Saint Christine was born into a royal family.  The King and Queen had a total of three children, but she was the only girl child born to them.  Of all the girls in the kingdom, her beauty surpassed them all.  Her father knew that princes from all around the world would want to marry his daughter when she became of age.  He decided to keep her hidden away in her room so that no man would ever desire her because of her beauty.  Their castle was the largest in the land and Christine's room was on the highest level of the castle.  She hardly ever got to venture out of her own room much less out of the castle.  Her brothers were able to come and go as they pleased and that irritated her beyond belief.  One of her greatest desires was to be independent and not be dictated to by her father.

Christine's family also believed in pagan gods.  As she grew up, her family forced her to kneel down and worship these pagan gods too.  But her feelings started to drastically change as she grew closer to adulthood. When she became a teenager, she rebelled against her father's beliefs.  Christine was forming her own opinions and beliefs while she was growing up, but she kept them a secret from her parents.  While wandering through the vast castle one day, she happened upon a room she had never ventured into before.  The room was a library full of books.  Hidden behind a stack of novels, she found a book about a christian God and was intrigued by its title.  She read this book incessantly for days and days.  Christine became obsessed with reading about this wonderful, forgiving God.  

A few days later, her father told her to come downstairs from her room so they could pray and give offerings of gold and silver to the pagan gods.  She refused to leave her room.  Her father became angry and yelled at her.  Christine finally worked up the nerve to tell her father that she no longer believed in his gods and that she had converted to Christianity.  Her father became enraged and ordered his daughter to be tortured for her newfound beliefs.  In her father's eyes, Christine became a traitor to the pagan gods and his family.

She endured many forms of torture, but never relented in her Christian beliefs.  Christine was tortured for many weeks.  The mighty Christine suffered through the burning of her flesh and extended periods of imprisonment.  Her torturer also ripped the flesh off of her body thinking that Christine would recant her beliefs.  She became numb to the pain and claimed it was because God was giving her the strength to survive.  Christine’s mother visited her while she was imprisoned in the dungeon, but Christine sent her away when she realized that her mother was not there to save her.  Her mother's ulterior motive was to get her to renounce her faith in Christianity.  Her mother never returned to the prison to see her again.

She finally succumbed to her death when her torturer shot her with an arrow through the heart. Christine became a martyr for her Christian beliefs. Her father buried her lifeless body behind the castle where she lived her whole life. After burying her body, her father never spoke of his daughter ever again.

painting by Francesco Cairo

Author's note: This story is part of the Women Saints unit. Story source: The Golden Legend edited by F. S. Ellis (1900). This is a story about a woman named Christine who became overcome by the Holy Spirit and decided to believe in Christianity instead of the pagan gods that her family believed in. Her father disowned her and had her tortured until she died from her numerous injuries. She became a martyr for her faith in Christianity.

I did not make any major changes to the storyline, but I did make some minor changes.  In addition, I did pull some ideas from the Disney movie "Tangled." In the original story, Christine's father kept her in a tower in Italy.  I changed the setting a little bit by putting Christine in a castle in the highest room. The setting is one of the parts of the story that resembles the "Tangled" movie storyline.  The other part of the story that somewhat resembles the movie is that the King and Queen had a beautiful daughter together.  Also in the original story, there was no mention of how many children were born to the King and Queen.  Therefore, I added that detail into my version of the story.

In the original scene between Christine and her mother, the story really didn't expound very much about her mother's intentions when she came to visit her in the prison.  Therefore, I decided to change the storyline a bit, so that there was more interaction between them.  Her mother must have been very sad to see her daughter imprisoned and hoped that she would come home with her.  

I chose this picture of Saint Christine because it shows her natural beauty and innocence. The other reason I chose this picture is because it was included in the original story from the unit I read.  I chose to read and write about this story because I have an affinity toward princess and heroine story lines. Women who are powerful are an inspiration to me. Saint Christine is a perfect example of a woman who is powerful by standing by her beliefs.  She also survived numerous forms of torture and in my opinion, you have to be a tough, strong and determined woman to survive all of that.  In addition, it didn't matter to her what the cost was for believing in a Christian God instead of the pagan gods.

Extra Reading Diary: Women Saints

In the second part of the Women Saints readings, I found that a lot of the reading were quite interesting reads.  I found one story in particular to be the most intriguing.  It was the story of Saint Martha.

In this story, she is an unmarried, virgin who believed in God and devoted herself to converting people to Christianity.  Saint Martha comes upon a beast, a dragon, who has killed everyone before who had dared crossed the river where this dragon resided.  It was interesting to me that all she had to do to stop the beast was to speak some words and make the mark of the cross.  Once she caused the dragon to be still, she defeated the dragon by tying it up with her girdle.  After the dragon was tied up, the townspeople played the dragon with swords.

Later, in the story, a man was so enticed by hearing her speak that he attempted to cross the river, but never made it across because he drowned.  Once Saint Martha found out about the man's death, she prayed over the body and was able to raise him back to life with the Lord's help.

This story is quite different from all of the other stories in this section.  No other story that I can recall ended with the woman saint remaining alive at the end of the story.  I believe this is why I find this story so intriguing.  The characters actually sought her out to hear her words of the gospel instead of martyring her for her beliefs.

15th-century painting of Saint Martha

Reading Diary A: Women Saints

The Women Saints unit was filled with an abundance of stories about virginal women who sacrificed themselves for their beliefs.  Some died in monasteries, while others were beheaded for their beliefs.  Here are a couple of my favorite stories from this unit:

Saint Pelagien:  The attribute that I admire most about her is that she stood up for what she wanted and believed in, which was not getting married and taking care of herself.  She was so devote in convictions that she cut off her hair to disguise herself as a male so she could live in a monastery. While living in the monastery, she was accused of getting a woman pregnant and was treated terribly because of the accusations.  Saint Pelagien denied the accusations against her in her story.   I'm most intrigued by this story because no one ever figured out she was a male until she had written a letter exposing her true identity upon her death.   When her true identity was discovered to be of a virginal woman, her body was then exhumed and buried where she truly belonged...with the nuns.  A truly fascinating story to read.

Saint Marine:  This story is very similar to Saint Pelagien's story, but the details are quite different.  She did not move into the monastery to escape marriage, but was taken into the monastery by her father who disguised her as a boy.  Saint Marine also lived out her life there and while living in the monastery was also accused of fathering a child.  Saint Marine chose not to deny the accusations that she fathered a child while living in the monastery.  She chose to keep her gender a secret and took in the child as her own and raised him.  Even though she never admitted that she was indeed a woman, she was found out to be a woman upon her death.  She was then blessed and buried as the virginal woman too.  It truly amazes me that no one in either monastery ever found out the women's true genders until their deaths.

Saint Marina by joeatta78

Week 1: Famous Last Words--New adventures in writing

This week started out pretty rough for me.  I really don't think of myself as a creative type of person, so writing blog stories ended up being a little out of my comfort zone.  I don't mind being pushed out of my comfort zone somewhat, but it does make me a little more anxiety ridden when I do get put into that position.  With the encouragement of my husband & family and the ability to use people and experiences from my own life, I was able to complete all of the assignments before they were actually due.  I have never written a blog before either, so I was pretty worried about doing that task correctly.  After completing a few entries, I'm starting to feel more confident in that task.  As for the Pinterest task, I found that to be somewhat easier but I'm still not 100% confident about pinning posts and other people's boards.  I'm sure I'll get better at that too with time.  I feel like my most creative writing post was my post about the nursery rhyme.  I was able to use my daughter, Mary, as my inspiration for the main character of the story.  I also used my adult son as a character in the story, but I did change his name to better fit into the story.  In my opinion, my second most creative blog post was my Introduction.  For the most part, I don't mind writing about my life experiences and telling people about me in general.  However, I am a pretty private person overall, so I will keep a lot of my life details to myself.  In reflection, I found this first week of class to be quite challenging and rewarding at the same time.  I'm also thankful that is seems like the class workload will be tapering off just a wee bit.  I'm also taking an online Trigonometry class through OCCC, so I'm hoping that these two online classes combined won't be too much for me to handle.  All I can do is wait and see.  Wish me luck!

(Image information: Family Photo from November 2013--My inspirations: My husband Steve & daughters Mary (on left), Tiffany (middle) and Jacqueline (on right).

UnTextbook: Mythology & Folklore

The 5 reading units that I chose for this assignment are:

Celtic Fairy Tales 1--I chose this topic because fairy tales interest me the most out of all the choices on the list.  This group of stories will have a collection of fairy, leprechaun and ghost stories.  I look forward to reading the story about The Horned Woman and Gold Tree, Silver Tree the most.

 

This story is part of the Celtic Fairy Tales (1) unit. Story source: Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1892).

Celtic Fairy Tales 2--This group of stories is written by the same author, but he uses different stories about mythological legends, kings, and fairies.  I'm most interested in reading about The Fate of the Children of Lir and Elidore.  In addition, I wonder how similar or different the Celtic fairy tales will be from the Chinese and English tales.

 Chinese Fairy Tales--Now, this group of stories sounds really intriguing.  It has stories about ghosts, animals, fairies, gods, devils, etc.  These stories sound like they are going to be not only creative but also completely different from the Celtic fairy tales.

 English Fairy Tales 1--This group of stories sounds like there will some very similar stories to fairy tales that I grew up with like The Three Little Pigs.  These stories will probably sound more familiar to me, but I'm sure that some won't at all.  The story I'm most interested in reading is The Laidly Worm of Spindleton since it is a story about a dragon.

 English Fairy Tales 2--This unit is the second group of tales written by Jacobs.  This section will have comical stories, tragic stories and several stories that are spinoffs of the story of Cinderella.  I am most interested in reading the Cinderella type stories in this section.

Storybook Favorites

The first storybook I chose was called Desperate Goddesses.  Mythological goddesses fascinate me.  I love to read about goddesses, so this is a very familiar topic for me.  Even though I am more familiar with Greek goddesses, I do love to learn about goddesses from any tales.  The title drew me in and made me want to read about these desperate goddesses.  It also made me wonder why they were so desperate.  The introduction was very interesting to me and I can't wait to read further into her storybook.  Her introduction was written from the perspective of a desperate Japanese goddess.  The layout, pictures and color choice of her storybook post were very nicely chosen because it made it seem more regal and real.  I actually preferred the darker background with the words written in white lettering.  It gave the page a more dramatic effect.  I feel like everything in her storybook post meshed well together and I think I may use the darker background with lighter words for a more dramatic effect as well.

The second storybook that I chose was called Adventures of Aphrodite.  Again, I reiterate that goddesses, and especially Greek goddesses, are one of my favorite topics to read about in my spare time.  The most famous and well-known goddess is Aphrodite...the goddess of love.  The title seemed interesting to me because it made me think I was going to learn about Aphrodite's life adventures and experiences.  I liked reading this introduction because it is quite different and about Aphrodite sharing her life stories from her diary.  I think that is a very unique perspective to take when writing about this goddess.  One thing that really stood out to me was that she chose to center her text and used smaller, more easily read paragraphs in her introduction.  The layout and color choices fit perfectly with her choice of picture.  The image choice was a very classic depiction of Aphrodite standing on a seashell.  The design features that I might use in my storybook are the text centering and smaller paragraphs. 

The third storybook I chose was called Princesses of Japan.  Even though these women are not goddesses, they are very important, powerful women in their culture.  I liked the fact that she wrote her storybook from the perspective of an editor of a magazine.  The title drew me in just because it had the word princesses in it and I wanted to know more about the story.  I thought the introduction was interesting because it gave you just enough information to where you would want to read more about the princesses.  I also liked how it said, "Check back weekly for new updates on this princess". That made me think that I might learn new things about the princess like in a gossip magazine.  The layout was much different than the previous two storybooks that I read.  Each picture had a small paragraph that went with it.  That made it very easy to see and read about each princess.  The pictures were very pleasing to the eye and were all dramatic in color and beauty.  I also thought that the font choice of the main topics were more ornate and went well with the pictures.  I liked the formatting of her storybook...the smaller paragraphs with each picture and the centering of her text when she wrote about each princess individually.  Those would be the qualities that I would most likely incorporate into my storybook post.

Image Information: Bamboo Princess

Web Source: Trevize's Computer

Week 1 Storytelling: Pat-A-Cake

PAT-A-CAKE, pat-a-cake, baker's man!


(So I will, master), as fast as I can:

Pat it, and prick it, and mark it with T,

Put in the oven for Tommy and me.


(traditional nursery ryhme)

At the tender age of 5, a little girl named Mary decided she wanted to become a famous baker.  Her favorite shows of all time were "Cupcake Wars" and "Chopped".  She watched these shows faithfully every chance she could.  One day, she walked up to her mommy and said, "Please teach me how to bake.  I want to be a famous baker".  Every day she would ask her mother the same questions and impatiently wait for her mother to help her.  Mary wanted to learn how to bake right now and as fast as she possibly could.  Once her mother started to teach her, Mary picked up the skills quickly.  She learned how to measure the ingredients, crack eggs and mix them all together.  When the ingredients were mixed well, Mary learned how to knead, pat and prick the bread so that it would rise correctly in the oven.  Mary's mom put the bread in the oven for her.  Mary watched with eager eyes as her dough began to rise and look more and more like bread with each passing moment.  When the bread was done, her mother took it out of the oven.  Mary wanted to taste her creation immediately, but she was told she had to wait until it cooled down before cutting it.  Mary couldn't contain her excitement, so she ran into her big brother's room to exclaim her achievements!  Her brother, Tom, was not amused by his sister bursting into his room to tell him about the bread.  He was busy playing video games on his computer.  Mary didn't care; she wanted her brother to be one of the first people to taste her new creation.  So, she ran back into the kitchen and begged her mom to cut the first slice of bread for Tom.  She then got the squeeze bottle of margarine from the refrigerator and wrote a big letter "T" across that freshly sliced bread.  Mary ran back to Tom and presented him with her creation.  He belted out a jolly laugh when he noticed the letter "T" written in margarine on the bread.  Tom thanked Mary for giving him the bread.  She wasn't about to leave his room until he tasted it, so Tom took a big bite.  It was the most delicious bread he had ever tasted, he said.  From that day forward, Tom was Mary's number one taste tester every time Mary and her mom decided to bake anything new.

(Image information: Pat-a-Cake by Mary Brigid Barrett and Illustrated by LeUyen Pham.

   

(Image information: Personal photo of my daughter & avid baker, Mary...who was my inspiration for this story)

Author's Note: This story is based on the nursery rhyme "Pat-A-Cake" which is quoted there in the story; you can find the rhyme in The Nursery Rhyme Book, edited by Andrew Lang and illustrated by L, Leslie Brooke (1897). 

The reason I chose this story was because this nurse rhyme was one of my daughter's favorite nursery rhymes as a toddler.  We would do the hand motions to this rhyme repeatedly everyday.  I changed the story quite a bit.  I rewrote the story to reflect my daughter's love of baking.  I put a modern twist on the storyline by including her favorite cooking shows and including her brother into the story as well.  Even though her brother's real name is not Tom, I changed his name in my story to follow along with the original storyline.  I also embellished the story with details about her brother and the setting itself.  The story implies that the baker is an adult, so I decided to change the baker's age to my daughter's age and I added myself in as her "helper" or baker's assistant.

The photos I chose represented both the Pat-A-Cake nursery rhyme written by Mary Barrett and one of Mary's baking lessons with me.  We were baking chocolate chip cookies and were decorating them for the holidays.  When we bake together, it is always fun and makes both of us extremely happy.

Introduction -- All About Myself

Hi, my name is Krista Pursley.  I have been married for 7 years to a man named Stephen.  All together we have 6 children and 3 grandchildren.  I am a part-time student at OU taking 11 credit hours, but I am also taking a 3 credit hour Trigonometry class at OCCC.  At OU, I am taking the following courses: Research Methods II, Psychology Capstone, Mythology & Folklore, and I am a TA (teacher assistant) for a PSY1113 class.  My graduation date is scheduled for this May where I will be receiving my Bachelor's degree in Psychology.  

I am a full-time foster parent & mom as well.  Since I became a foster parent in March of 2009, my husband and I have fostered approximately 35 children.  We will be adopting one of the children this February and will adopt a second foster child in the near future.  In a few days, we will also become legal guardians to a wonderful 15-year-old girl.  My goal for after graduation is to secure a job as a foster care worker for either DHS or through a private organization.  

The main hobby that my family and I participate in is called the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism).  For anyone who does not know about this group, we dress up in medieval style clothing and reenact the Middle Ages.  In addition to the people in our household, we have 4 cats named Blizzard, Thumper, Luna & Snickers.  My favorite TV shows are House, Law & Order: SVU, The Walking Dead & Castle.  However, I rarely get to watch TV anymore because of my family’s hectic schedule.  

Over the Christmas holiday break, my family spent a lot of time together doing arts & craft projects, going to Christmas parties, and reorganizing and deep cleaning the house.  That last part was pretty boring though!  If I had the time and energy, I would love to spend my “free” time making jewelry, sewing clothing, working out & getting back into shape, dancing and croqueting. 

(Image information: 2014 Mom's competitive dance group.  I'm on the left.)

(Image information: Family photo from November 2013--Our 3 youngest children)