Our Lady of Good Hope

Back in November we took an afternoon to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Hope. This approved apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary is located in Champion near Green Bay, WI.

In October, 1859 Our Lady appeared to a young Belgian woman who had immigrated to Wisconsin with her family. Our Lady asked Adele Brise to gather the children and teach them what they needed to know for salvation. Sister Adele (as she became known as) travelled throughout the peninsula teaching the children as well as opening a free school in the late 1860's.

The five acres where the church and school sat was miraculously protected from the devastating Peshtigo fire on October 8, 1871. This fire consumed 2,400 square miles (1.5 million acres) and took the lives of an estimated 1,200 to 2,400 people. Its amazing that a five acre land, consecrated to Our Lady, should survive such an ordeal.

Image from the Peshtigo fire information website.

Here are some pictures from our visit to the shrine.

The boys are posing next to Sts. Cyril and Methodius.

The main altar in the church.

This statue was admired by Adele herself. It was first in a church in Bay Settlement and then later moved to Champion. The statue was donated to the shrine in the early 1900's since Adele enjoyed it so much during her life.

This is a statue of St. Odilia. I was unaware of this saint until this visit. She is a patron saint of people with eye disorders. Adele's face was disfigured due to the loss of her eye during childhood accident with lye.

This is a statue of what Mary could have looked like when she appeared to Adele. Bishop Ricken has commissioned an official statue of Our Lady of Good Hope.

St. Therese is Blase's First Communion patron saint.

This was a statue down in the crypt.

This is the sight of the apparition of Our Lady to Adele.

On the property there was a walking path for the rosary and one for the stations of the cross.

The boys at the Crucifixion station.

They also had grottos of other Marian apparitions. Here is the one for Our Lady of Fatima.

Our Lady of Lourdes at sunset.

The gift shop and former school building, now being used for a meeting hall and dining room for pilgrimage groups.

The current chapel built on the land in 1941.

all the buildings

Take A Look

I found this wonderful website:

http://www.sanctussimplicitus.com/index.html

It has some of the most beautiful Catholic games and calendar resources for homeschoolers that I have seen yet. I am excited to start using their products. Check out the downloads tab for all their free resources.

God bless their work!

A Thousand Words

If I had the time to type a thousand words about these pictures I would do it. If you had the time to read a post with a thousand words - you best find one of greater importance than my silly blog.

This will be a catch up post from 2011. I have a couple more catch up posts to do later in the week as well. First off....

Little Lady had her first taste of food. She's been a good nurser, but I suppose its time to attempt to feed her munchies. She didn't like it very well.

Gumming it, gumming it...

dropped it.

Take two - more gumming.

A whole lot of drooling!

I think the taste isn't helping matters.

All gone - more please.

What kind of day is an excuse for such goofy faces???

Mom's 33rd birthday of course!!! Stay tuned as there will be another birthday party for me in April. I'm actually looking forward to it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!!!

Christmas Eve was spend with the Gebes Family. The red corner of the picture is the only prove I took of Blase being at the party. He was the official present passer-outer.

Rex and Darren opening presents.

Little Lady getting some help opening her presents from Aunt Lacy! Thanks Aunt Lacy!!!!

A boy's best friend - MONEY!

MERRY CHRISTMAS DAY!!!

We celebrated Christmas Day with the Bestgen families after a very long, tiring Midnight Mass. Brech Earl and Grandpa are resisting the urge to open presents before everyone was ready. FIGHT THE URGE!! DON'T GIVE IN!! You too Brech Earl! (heehee)

If only we all could have woke up looking so rested! Stephen's such a sweetie in the morning.

Grandpa and Uncle Loman (in the Buzz Lightyear pjs) with the kids before we opened presents. They lined up youngest to oldest.

Two of my brothers with Cormac. What a lazy Christmas morning! Just the way we like it.

Big Ana (Juliana) and Little Ana (Gianna)

This is one of my favorite pictures of those two Ana's.

The boys decided to sing:

We three kings of orient are

Smoking on a rubber cigar

It was loaded, it exploded

BANG (sound effects by Rex)

We two kings of orient are (minus Stephen)

Smoking on a rubber cigar

It was loaded, it exploded

BANG (again a little help from Rex)

I one king of orient are (minus both Stephen and Cormac)

Smoking on a rubber cigar

It was loaded, it exploded

BANG (Rex's solo)

God rest ye merry gentlemen.....

Paul and Kaylene checking out her new music book.

Andrew got diapers. He doesn't look too thrilled. Thank goodness it wasn't really diapers.

My second favorite pictures of the Ana's. This time in their footed pajamas. Juliana - I'm glad you are so comfortable with your choice of clothes. Not all of us could pull that off and still look cute. Most of us would just look strange!

Great Grandma Ingalls with Little Lady. She cuddled right in and took a nice nap for Grandma. I'd like to know how much it costs to get one Great Grandma to Horace on those nights when Little Lady thinks she shouldn't sleep. Maybe it would be easier to send Little Lady down to Grandma???

Mashed potatoes in a bag, in boiling water. This is a memory in the making. The other memory was in the making on top of the fridge. THAT bag of mashed potatoes swelled up and probably would have made a massive mashed potato mess in the kitchen if someone hadn't pointed it out.

Patiently waiting!!!

A little bit later in the day we all headed to Mark Park for a some ice fishing and....

the 3rd Annual Bestgen Family Dart Tournament.

Featuring:

9th place - Ante Up (Rita Bestgen and Jason Ingalls)

8th place - Farm Girls (Twyla Bestgen and Mauri Sobotka)

7th place - PB&J *Kickers (Paul Bestgen and Justin Ingalls)

6th place - Nana & TingTing (Juliana Bestgen and Kaylene Bestgen)

5th place - Winner Winner Chicken Dinner (Adam Bestgen and Karen Gebes)

4th place - Outlaws (Peter Sobotka and Darren Gebes)

3rd place - Jess 'N' Nators (Jess Bestgen and Nate Ingalls)

2nd place - Team Sally (John Bestgen and Andrew "Sally" Bestgen)

AND

the winning shot for the FIRST PLACE TEAM:

Lukewarm Rod

Luke Bestgen and Rod Ingalls

I think they should be renamed to the HOT RODS.

Everyone in the Bestgen family spent the night at Mom and Dad's or down at John's house at the sod farm. It was a full house and then some. Grandpa wanted a picture with all his granddaughters. We probably should have had Grandma get a picture with all her grandsons, but we didn't think of it.

Even though Bella (standing) is 9 days younger than Gianna she is leaps and bounds ahead of her when it comes to walking and standing. She's giving her mother fits with as active as she is. I have to say that she is darn right adorable when she starts getting into things. I can say that because I'm just the Godmother who lives 8 hours away. I'm sure if Gianna was into as much as Bella is I wouldn't be thinking she was so adorable.

Go Bella GO!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

HAPPY 7th BIRTHDAY TO CORMAC!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!!

Yummy Spiderman cupcakes with sprinkles and tricky candles.

Wait - didn't I blow them out already??!?!

Money to buy a movie - too cool!

One of his most favorite birthday presents, followed closely by the games and the other toys and the food and the money and the everything else.

more cards and presents at Grandma and Grandpa Gebes' house.

WOW, its so much fun turning 7 just after Christmas.

Headed back to Sturgis - Bear Butte from the east. I just love how it looks. The butte looked so much more impressive in person.

I still haven't been to a place that I love more than my parents house at sunset. My favorite time of the day....well, maybe nap time is getting to be very close to the top of my favorite times.

We decorated gingerbread cookies. Brech enjoyed eating the candies off his man, but that was it.

Sweet smilin' Cormac and his smilin' gingerbread man.

That looks like sweet trouble if you ask me. If only that gingerbread man could talk - what things Stephen and him could come up with.

Rex is not the best picture taker when it comes to "Smile for the camera" poses. You should have seen the first one I took. Yikes.

My redheaded brother Loman and his redheaded gingerbread man.

We had just started getting pink eye so Blase decided he wanted a gingerbread man with pink eye. Yes, you can shake your head and smile. Goofy kid!

Speaking of pink eye - if you asked Brech he has blue eye.

All the kids, but Stephen, have gotten pink eye so far.

We also have 5th disease - at least Brech and Gianna do.

Sore throats, coughs, runny noses, ear infections...ya we got them too.

I am beginning to wonder if we left anything behind in SD for those dear people to catch?!

Here's to a healthier 2012 than its already been.

P.S. According Microsoft Word this post is exactly one thousand two hundred sixty words long. I suppose all of you knew this post would be over a thousand words. Sigh.

Are You Guilty?

There are two types of people I am thinking about right now. The people who make New Year's resolutions and the people who don't. Both types of people have something in common...they are both guilty of failing.

The person who makes a New Year's resolution is setting him/herself up for failure. I remember one year I was going to stop biting my nails. That lasted about 2 days. One year I was going to brush my teeth at least twice a day. That lasted 17 days before I was too tired one night. Some people say they will exercise. Some will want to learn something new. Others will try to break a bad habit. In most cases they are all excited to start, full of confidence, and sure to succeed.

The other type of person, who does not make a resolution, has already failed. The person who is satisfied with who they are and does not see the need to improve is, well, a very sad situation. I have yet to meet someone who does not need to work on at least one bad habit. Or maybe step outside their comfort zone to try something new, becoming a better person in the process. In most cases theses people are in a dull rut in life, seeing little value in bettering their situation.

I propose no one make a resolution this year. Why do something that you are going to fail at? Why even attempt to take a whole year to change something? Instead - take just today to change something. Everyday find something to improve or learn something new. If you take this one day at a time you will not fail. By not committing to one or two resolutions you have opened the door to whole new world of possibilities.

By taking this approach you will have to stop and take a good, hard look at yourself. For instance, if you examine your conscience every night you can see where you failed that day. Maybe you wasted too much time playing Facebook games in the evening. Maybe you ignored that pile of laundry that needed folding (for the 5th day in a row - yes I'm guilty!). So the next day instead of playing that game - fold the laundry! You have become a better person for that day. It is what we do with today that matters, not Day 258 of 2012.

If you aren't sure what you need improve on - ask a friend, ask your spouse, ask God. Someone will tell you. I am sure what you hear will not please you either. Its a very humbling experience to sit through someone telling you what you need improvement on.

I wish you a blessed year full of little daily successes. Do not give up. God blesses us with a new day every 24 hours. He gives us a bright sunrise to energize and inspire us. He gives us enough hours in a day to fulfill our obligations. Then, when we are tired, He gives us a beautiful, calming sunset to relax us into a peaceful sleep.

“Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them -- every day begin the task anew.” St. Francis de Sales