One More "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel"

I'm always a tiny bit sad at the end of Advent, because I love "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel".

Here is a lovely Croatian singer, a former pop star named Tajci singing a truly haunting version. I especially love the Hebrew chant in the middle, weaving together the coming of Christ with the

Jewish roots of our faith. We saw her perform here a couple of years ago, and it was so beautiful.

Santa Lucia

I'm not a bit Swedish or Sicilian (two cultures with devotions to St. Lucia), but my memories of Santa Lucia go back to way before I was Catholic. Back in the seventies, when public school teachers could still mention God in the classroom, my beloved first grade teacher (are you out there, Mrs. Dobler?) decided to teach us about Santa Lucia. Mind you, this was in a public school. Anyway,
she told us she would choose the girl with the birthday closest to Christmas to "be" Santa Lucia, and that was ME! I got to leave the class, and go into the library where my beloved teacher and the librarian put a long white gown on me over my clothes, and a crown with unlit candles on my head. I was then given a platter of peanut brittle (okay, it's traditionally rolls, but they used what they had) to pass out to the class. This scenario would never happen in a classroom today for a variety of politically correct reasons (too religious, sexist, non-inclusive, etc.), but it's a special memory for me. If you've never heard of St. Lucia, she was an early Christian martyr who angered her betrothed by giving the family fortune away to the poor. He apparently wasn't a Christian, and he ratted her out to the authorities, who put out her eyes, and eventually put her to death by the sword. She's the patron saint of blind people, and is often shown holding her eyes on a small plate. To honor St. Lucy, and bring back a lovely memory, I'm baking this braided St. Lucia bread from Karen Edmisten's blog. I'll let you know how it turns out.

A Blessed Thanksgiving to All

Uncle Jack and Christy

My Mom's Uncle Jack is a great guy. One of the family members that reminds me of fun family reunions, when he would always greet me with a big hug and a cry of "Hi Gracie!' I always feel that he's glad to see me again. He's also a pillar of the small community he lives in, and still plays golf and volunteers. We visited Uncle Jack at his country home a while back, and the boys loved playing with his frisky, somewhat ornery dog, Christy. Uncle Jack says she's bossy, always imposing her will on Luke, his grandson's dog. They're both herding dogs lots of energy, so they loved running with the boys and fetching balls. Uncle Jack's property is on a hill looking out over farm fields and woods. Being a country girl at heart, I was happy soaking up the beautiful surroundings. We love you, Uncle Jack!

30 Day Cooking

This fall I'm working two very part-time jobs, in addition to teaching four kids at home. One job entails working from 3-5 p.m. three days a week, and the other job is one day a week from 6-8 p.m. The other day I had a head-smacking revelation that, duh, cooking dinner is really messing up my already complicated life. This may be partly due to the fact that Jim is working late almost every night during his department's busy season. A few years ago, my friends were talking about 30 day cooking, and I didn't pay much attention. I think now is the time for me to give it a try. The idea is so simple, although I'm not so sure about the execution. It involves spending a day cooking and freezing the bounty of your labors, to be eaten over the next month. Not being crazy about doing anything for a whole day, I'm going to start out small. I found this book at the library, which should help in getting started.



My plan is to cook as many meals as I can in half a day, and freeze them for the days when we're just too busy to cook. I also hope to prepare extra batches on other days, also to be frozen.
The worst part is going to be cleaning out not only our small kitchen freezer, but also the small chest freezer we have in the garage. I also need to clean out the pantry and cupboards, since I'll have a lot more ingredients to put into them. I'd love to hear if other people are doing this, how it's going. We'll see how it goes...

Cupcakes As Art

My daughter Mary created this lovely "Starry Night" from 2 dozen cupcakes. The

how-to came from this fun (but probably fattening) book:

How cute is that?



Her ten year old brother, Sam, was inspired to paint this today. Interestingly, they both made their creations while I was out of
the house. Hmm, should this be telling me something?

The Perilous Peach Pit

I love ripe, juicy, fresh peaches. The juice-running down-your-arm variety.

Slicing through one this afternoon, I actually cut through the pit, too.

Here's what the inside of the pit looked like.

Hey, how'd that almond get in the middle of a peach pit?" Did you know that peaches and almonds are related, and that there is a small bitter almond in the middle of a peach pit? Did

you also know that said bitter almonds contain cyanide? I didn't know this when I put the nut in my mouth, but the bitterness did make me spit it out, fortunately. Unfortunately, I had swallowed a small amount. I freaked out just a little bit upon reading the bit about the cyanide

on the internet. Then, just to demonstrate how neurotic I am, I called the poison control number.

The lady told me (pretty casually, I thought, while I was panicking) the small amount I had

eaten wouldn't have any effect. The experience shook me up, but we all learned something

new about peaches. I'll never look at a peach pit the same way again.

Cup Stacking

Okay, it's not official cup stacking, but I never cease to be amazed at the cool ideas kids can come up with. Besides, it kept 'em busy for about 20 minutes!

Fun Cleaning

Cleaning up the yard (especially the slide) can be fun! This was Paul's idea.



I was grateful for the 20 minutes of cooperative activity this provided. Plus, of course, the

clean slide.

We loved this classic diner we stopped at in Goshen, IN on our recent Garden Tour, the

South Side Soda Shop.

We saw this logo:

on the front door, and thought it was just their endorsement of the Food Network.
But it turns out that our favorite Food Network host, Guy Fieri, taped a segment there for

his show, Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, a couple of years ago. We didn't get the Food Network

back then, so we missed the episode, but now it's one of our favorite shows. Here's the video:

I've got a thing for soda shops. I wish someone would organize a tour of those!

I didn't actually get any ice cream because we were so hungry, we just needed some hot food. The cheeseburger and fries were
great, and I took a trip back to the lunch counters of my childhood by drinking a cherry phosphate.
Check out my daughter's account of the trip, but please overlook her grammar. I think she does it on purpose.

Amish Country Garden Tour

Last Saturday, I took my mom and daughter on a little day trip to Amish country in Northern

Indiana. We took part of the Quilt Gardens Tour, a collection of gardens that are made to

resemble quilt blocks, thus combining two of my favorite things, quilts and gardens. There were

other favorite things along the way, like exploring cute little towns, and eating in a cool retro

soda shop. Here are some highlights:

Mom and Mary posed inside the Nappanee library. The old exterior facade is now a beautiful interior wall in the renovated building. Breakfast consisted of coffee, and a chocolate chip scone at a local coffee shop. Yum!


This was the first garden we found in the small town of Wakarusa, IN. A cute little burg with a fun old-fashioned candy store, The Wakarusa Dime Store, home of the world's biggest jelly beans.



After a LOT of wandering around on the outskirts of Elkhart, we finally stumbled on the next garden, this lovely flower basket
pattern. It was right next to this grand home:
This is Ruthmere, an elegant 1908 mansion which is open to the public for group tours.

The final garden we visited was the prettiest:

It was located at a funny place called Linton's Enchanted Gardens, a garden and landscape center outside of Elkhart. I have to say I've never been to a garden store with a petting zoo before, but they had one. Too bad the boys weren't with us. They would have gotten a kick (or

peck) out of this guy:

His name is Philip Diller, and he's without a doubt the funniest looking chicken I've ever

seen.

My Junk Food Picks

For some reason, maybe because it's summer, I just feel like posting about something utterly silly, irrelevant and useless. Like
fast food. Now let me say, we rarely eat at fast food places anymore, largely because of the monetary cost, but also due to
the high fat content, and general junkiness. I AM NOT ADVOCATING A FAST FOOD DIET!!! Having said that, sometimes I have a yen for a Big Mac and fries like you wouldn't believe. So here are my picks for the best fast food restaurants, in several
categories, and I welcome anyone else's opinions on the matter.

Best Hamburger: Hardees' hamburgers taste like they just came off the grill. However, a Hardees restaurant can be hard to
find. We only have one in our town. As I already mentioned, I also have occasional cravings for

a Big Mac from McDonald's.

Best Fries: I have three favorites (although, as I said I hardly ever eat them). First place goes to Chick Fil A's waffle fries.
In second place are Penguin Point's nice fat crinkle fries, which I haven't eaten in years, but I just know are as
good as ever.
And the fallback third choice is McDonald's fries. Don't even mention those horrid french fries they have at
Burger King. Arby's curly fries are okay, but they have a nasty oily aftertaste. (Sorry, Burger King and Arby's!)

Best Chicken: Hands down, the best chicken anywhere is Chick Fil A. Please watch this video for a little musical
commentary.

Best Subs: Well, if you want a healthier sub, Subway is pretty good, but if you're splurging, and want something tasty,
Quizno's is the best I've had. I have to admit, though, that I haven't tried all the sub places out there.
Arby's Italian sub is okay, but the quality is inconsistent.

Best Shakes: Ooh, that's a hard one. Chick Fil A has great handmade shakes, but I also love Steak and Shake's.
And what about Dairy Queen? I've only been going there for ice cream my whole life. I still don't
think their shakes come up to Chick Fil A and Steak and Shake, though.

Best pizza: Pizza Hut has good pizza, but far and away my favorite is Pizza King's Royal Feast

pizza. It doesn't cost lots of money for nothing. Which is why we only eat it at other

people's houses.

I realize there are many other options now in fast food, but I'll leave those for someone else

to critique.

Now go eat some vegetables.

Birthday Boys

         It's Paul and Patrick's birthday today! How can it be eight years already since these two

burst into the family scene? Or rather, were snatched by the doctor into the family scene (I

had my one and only c-section with them because of medical issues)? 

Their birthday breakfast of choice? The seldom-eaten-at-our-house-and-therefore-a-treat Toaster Strudel of the blueberry
variety. Yum!

All Movied Out

I can count on one hand the number of movies we've seen in theaters this year. We've seen two. 

And both of them were today.  Normally, I wouldn't take my kids to see two movies in one day. Heck, normally I don't take them to see any movie. The Rave Theater shows a free kids' movie

every couple of weeks, though, and today's feature was "The Tale of Despereaux", which my boys and I

enjoyed greatly, what with all those creepy rats, a valiant mouse, and a princess. Okay, the boys

weren't all that impressed by the princess, more by the creepy rats and the humor, which was refreshingly not as gross as most of today's kids' movies.

Tonight we went to a local outdoor theater, and it was FREEZING. Well, actually, it was about

63 degrees, but there was a wind tunnel feel to the place, so it's a good thing we wore warm clothes. We saw "Kit Kittredge" for the first time. Yes, I'm aware that it came out a few years ago.

What you must realize is that we don't get out much, so to us, it was like new. It was also free.

I love free movies! Having read all the Kit books when Mary was about ten years old (she has the doll, too, thanks to my mom), the plot was very familiar. I really didn't expect to like the movie that much, but it was easily the best of the American Girl movies, and was very entertaining. Thus ends my exciting review of two older, though new-to-us, movies.

Our First High School Graduate

                                                  We're proud of our recent graduate!

Baby O

Congratulations go out to my friend/college roommate, LSM, and her husband PJM on their beautiful new daughter, Baby O! After years of being childless and trying to adopt a Down's Syndrome baby, they were blessed on May 17 to bring home Baby O from the NICU.  You can follow their family journey at Ups and Downs of O.

In Memoriam

Teresa

Did you ever have a friend who was so much more than a friend? A friend who had a profound influence on your worldview and way of life? Teresa was such a friend. Although she and her family moved to a different state a couple of years ago, and we didn't keep in close contact, I prayed for her every day. Because Teresa battled breast cancer for the last five years. On Monday,  she lost the battle. I continue to pray, but mostly for her husband and four young children. 

Teresa changed our way of life; we never would have considered homeschooling until I met her, and my Catholic faith has grown much deeper through her example. Never one to hang back from reaching out to people,  Teresa called me several years ago, asking if I'd like to join a prayer group she was starting at our parish. We didn't know each other, but she had seen me at Mass, and wanted to invite me. I often looked to her for spiritual guidance, and just to have fun. She had

an amazing sense of humor and fun-loving spirit, even while living with cancer. May God grant her eternal rest, and I know she will be interceding for me and for many others.

On a lighter note!

Thanks to Ruth at Just Another Day in Paradise, who put this funny video on her blog. I wanted to share it with you. Tim Hawkins performs a lot of other

hilarious songs, but since we have a family member who works at Chick Fil A, this really tickled us.

Barb

Blogging has been on the back burner for some time now for me. In fact, I haven't done much since St. Patrick's Day. Part of the reason is the ongoing struggle within myself as to how much information to make "public". Our family recently came through an intensely personal and painful situation in dealing with the death of my mother-in-law, Barb. 

We found out the day after St. Patrick's Day that she was ill and in the hospital. Over the next few days, we learned that she had an aggressive liver cancer, and very little kidney function. Jim and 

I spent much of our time at the hospital for the next week and a half, along with Jim's stepdad, and sister, and brothers, all of us aware that nothing could be done. Two weeks to the day after she

was admitted to the hospital, Barb passed away. We had known of her illness for 13 days.

It's so hard to put into words what Barb meant to us. The best I can do is to share what my mom

wrote on her blog:

Barb

I lost a lovely friend tonight and we lost a part of our wonderful Ft. Wayne family. Her name was Barbara Shaffer and she was elegant, generous and fun. Elegant because she always seemed to know what was tasteful but not stuffy. Generous with her wit and inclusion. She entertained people who needed entertaining. Barb was fun with a beautiful smile and good natured zing. I will think of her every time I look into my Ft. Wayne grandchildren's eyes . They are so like hers. She was their grandmother too.

Urgent for the Protection of Religious Freedom!

An important piece of legislation protecting pro-life health care professionals is soon to be rescinded. The federal legislation protects doctors and nurses from being forced to perform, assist in, or refer for abortions. The Department of Health and Human Services is taking comments from the public until tomorrow(!), April 9, on this subject. Unfortunately, the pro-aborts will be flooding HHS with appeals to rescind the legislation in the name of  "access to abortion". Please go here to read more about this and to send an email letting your voice be heard to protect pro-life health care workers, hospitals, and ultimately, religious freedom.

Beannachtai na Feile Padraig! (Happy St. Patrick's Day!)

From your friendly retriever, O'Shadow the Dog.

Recent (And Not So Recent) Purchases

I wanted to highlight some fun and effective "teacher's helpers" that I've bought fairly recently:


I actually bought these big dominoes about two years ago from Big Lots. They're inexpensive, good and sturdy, and are useful for counting practice, addition, and subtraction. I made little number cards, so the boys could match a number to a domino, or make addition and subtraction sentences with the cards to match what is on the domino.


I've seen the above cards for years, but never considered using them until I saw them on Pioneer Woman's website. They're
meant to be used with a book called English from the Roots Up, but we just use the cards to

learn the Latin and Greek roots of English words. The green bordered cards are Greek, and 

the red bordered cards are Latin. On the back is printed the meaning of the root, and common

English words that contain that particular root, like the photos card has the word photograph

on the back. We only learn one root per day, with a lot of oral review.

One of the most exciting discoveries I've made is this set of cards, from Picture Me Reading. They're a wonderful tool for my
very visual, picture-thinking son, Sam. Each card has a Dolch sight word (there are 220 of them!) with a picture embedded in it that give a clue as to what the word is. On the back is the word without the picture, and a sentence using the word/picture.  This is really working for him in a way that phonics never has. Oh, I know he still needs to work on phonics, but now I can help him learn phonics from the words he actually can read. Being very right-brained, he thinks much better from whole word to word parts/letters, rather than the traditional letter

sounds to words to sentences. 

Check out the cool tees at Wild Olive. They're trendy/modern/beautiful, and have some of my favorite Bible verses on the backs.
There are ten different styles to choose from, and even better, the ladies of Wild Olive donate ten percent of profits to charity. Right now they're supporting a Christian charity that helps families who want to adopt a child, but can't afford adoption costs.

A Great Day in the Woods...

sloshing through oozy mud.




It was great fun, though, watching the kids in our homeschool group...

haul a small tree through the woods,

man a crosscut saw,

watch Mr. Yoder wield a cool, medieval looking axe,

collect bucketsful of sap,

or just hang out with friends under a big loud bell.

I can only be talking about Sugarbush 2009, of course! Thanks to the folks from Merry Lea forewarning us about the right way to dress for a day in the woods, we were more or less prepared for the cold, dressing in layers with hats and boots. Except for my kids. It wasn't their fault that they outgrew their boots, and I didn't get around to buying new ones. At least they were wearing old shoes. They also learned the history of maple syrup making, toured the sugar house and learned about the evaporation of the sap, made their own wooden spiles ( little sap spigots), and got to sample the syrup itself on pancakes cooked on griddles over a fire. Yum!

The Simple Woman's Daybook

For Today, March 2, 2009...

  Outside my window...

     It's surprisingly cold, even for early March.  Only 22 degrees, but it feels like a bone-chilling 11!

     The sun is deceptively shining, though.

   On our lenten journey...

      Today we began learning the Angelus, after watching the video on Lenten Adventure. 

     

    I am thinking...

       about the laundry, decluttering and other household tasks awaiting me, now that our 

       school day is finished.

    I am thankful for...

       the new job my 19 year old son is starting today. 

    From the learning rooms...

        Well, as I said, we've finished for the day, but Sam is drawing a picture of ancient ruins.

 

     I am wearing...

         a very toasty warm green sweater over a pale blue shirt, brown pants and my usual 

         tie-up shoes.

      I am reading...

         actually I'm rereading Perelandra for my book group, since I read it so fast the first time.

      I am hoping...

          that my brother is able to get safely back to Indianapolis. He's flying in from Atlanta, and

          the last I heard, they had quite a bit of snow.

      I am hearing...

           a very annoying, repetetive phrase my boys are quoting from "Phineas and Ferb", 

           prompting me to warn them that they will never, never, never again see the show if they

           don't stop.

      Around the house...

            I finally did last Monday's declutter mission (living room shelves) on Saturday. I'm 

            hoping to work on cleaning out the linen closet (it's been about three years, after all)

            in about half an hour. 

      One of my favorite things...

           is watching old B&W movies from the thirties and forties while I fold laundry.

       A few plans for the rest of the week:

            continuing to learn about Ancient Egypt, trying to get to Mass every morning, 

            learning about fractions, getting ready for Sugarbush 2009! (YAY!) 

       Here is a picture thought I am sharing...

       

   

   

    

Here's to March, St. Patrick's Day, and all things Irish!

Thanks to Peggy, creator of The Simple Woman's Daybook!

Random Mardi Gras/Lenten Doings

I always seem to be figuring these things out (or remembering to do them!) at the last minute.

However, here are some things we are doing today:

•     We're finishing up reading this book:

   Instead of the often raunchy celebrations of Mardi Gras found in New Orleans, it focuses on

one Cajun family and their community in a small town in Louisiana. Sam was inspired to create

this "costume" for our mini-mardi gras celebration this evening.

He, Paul, and Patrick also made very fancy masks for the occasion.  We're still working on the hat.

I hope to find some Cajun music (also featured in the book) online that we can listen to tonight.

No, Gumbo isn't on the menu for tonight, just chicken fingers. We don't do the traditional pancakes for Fat Tuesday, because pancakes are semi-regular dinner fare around here, so it would be nothing special. Besides, Catholics no longer give up dairy products for Lent.

•     Hopefully, if I can get affordable wooden letters from Michael's, we'll be doing  this activity. Hiding the word "alleluia" is a good way to teach the absence of alleluia at Mass during Lent. 

• Tomorrow we'll make a dough "crown of thorns" by making a braided dough wreath, and sticking toothpicks in it to look like thorns. Each time a good deed is done, the good deed doer removes a "thorn". The goal is to be able to remove all the "thorns" by Easter, then beautify the wreath for use as a table decoration.

These are the plans. I'll let you know how it goes.

Getting Ready for Lent

Getting Ready for Lent

One thing we'll be doing is the Holy Heroes Lenten Adventure program. It's FREE, just like the Advent Adventure was! Here's the info from the Holy Heroes website:

We invite you and your friends to join us for Holy Heroes Lenten Adventure - and you could become a Holy Heroes Lenten Adventure Guide.

It's free (costs you nothing!) and easy for your Mom and Dad, because all they need to do is:

Open our emails three times a week, then
Click and watch... a short video of children teaching children,
Click and listen... to children leading and explaining prayers,
Click and print... fun activities for all ages,
Click and answer... questions to see how much you've learned.
New for 2009 Holy Heroes Lenten Adventure:
We have a special way for YOU to be part of this year’s Lenten Adventure:

Send us YOUR short videos about your family traditions for Lent and Easter, about your family prayer times, or about the Saint Days during Lent--and we may select YOU to be a guide in Holy Heroes Lenten Adventure!


It's educational, catechetical, and FUN to learn what other families do to make Lent and Easter memories that will last a lifetime on earth - and fruitful to last an ever-lasting lifetime in heaven.

And it's free - did we say that?

Plus you'll get a coupon code for 20% off all the products we sell at www.HolyHeroes.com.

And when you sign up, we'll send you instructions for sending us YOUR videos about your own family traditions. We'll select the best ones to be part of Holy Heroes Lenten Adventure! That's right: you could become a Lenten Adventure guide!

Holy Heroes Lenten Adventure will help you and the children you love learn more about our faith beginning with Ash Wednesday (Feb 25) through the 40 days of Lent, into Holy Week and Easter Week, and concluding with Divine Mercy Sunday.

Join your family with Holy Heroes to learn more about:

Family traditions from around the globe that you can make part of your family's Lent and Easter
The Stations of the Cross
The Seven Last Words of Christ from the Cross
How to live a fruitful Lent of prayer, penance, an alms-giving
The Rosary and other prayers and devotions that bring the faith to life in our homes
Like to sing? Sing along while you learn the Divine Mercy Chaplet, the Regina Caeli, and the Stabat Mater - in English and Latin
And much more!
Sign up now, and you'll receive your 20% off coupon code and instructions for sending us your videos about your own family traditions.

May God richly bless your Lent and Easter,
Your friends at Holy Heroes




I'm also hoping to do some heavy duty cleaning this Lent through Clearing Spaces 2009. This is from Sarah at Plainsong. She's organized a plan for decluttering a different hotspot of our choice each Monday of Lent. In case you're not up on Flylady terminology, a hotspot is
any part of your home where clutter regularly collects. I have lots of those. We'll take 30 minutes each Monday to bag up unwanted clutter to be thrown away, put away, or given away by Easter. The seven hotspots I chose are the living room shelves, linen closet, master bedroom, master bedroom closet, boys' bedroom closet, basement t.v. room, and the homeschooling supply cupboard.
Oops, I guess we were supposed to start today! Oh well, I've been sick all day (see, making excuses already), and it's never too
late to jump in, so my Monday Mission this week will be on Tuesday.

Planting Time

I'm blessed to have grown up with a mom who was always planting things, either in plastic trays in the house (or greenhouse, since she has one on the side of her home), or in outdoor gardens. Mom and Dad, who became Master Gardeners at some point in my childhood, also "dragged" me to various gardens throughout the country, such as Longwood Gardens, in Pennsylvania. So I'm happy to pass the love of growing things on to my
kids. Also, I have a great source of help and information available in my mom. Yesterday, the boys and Mary could wait no longer, and
"talked me into" cleaning out the yogurt cups we've been saving, finding the seed starter I had stashed away, and planting seeds.
They've been talking about it for a few weeks, but I have to admit I've been putting it off. They chose a mix of vegetables (peas, beets, and gourds) and flowers (four o'clocks, larkspur, sweet peas, and moonflower). For some reason, someone arranged the little pots around the rooster lamp in the kitchen.
Today, I moved our little seeds to a special light box my Dad had made many years ago:

It's great, because the light can be moved up as the seedlings emerge and grow taller.

I love the way doing one activity with my kids leads to all kinds of discussions. The kids wondered why I was putting plastic
on top of the cups, so we talked about how it keeps the soil moist through evaporation and condensation. How cool is that?
Science was covered for the day!

Red Envelope Project

Please consider sending a message to President Obama with this simple red envelope:



All it entails is getting a red envelope (who doesn't have extra Christmas card or Valentines envelopes lying around? Write
the message on the back of the envelope, stamp it, address it to the president, and mail it empty.
You can get complete instructions and more information at
www.redenvelopeproject.org.

My Corner of the Blogosphere

Jenn tagged me, so here is the spot where we blog, do schoolwork, surf the internet, pay bills, and

once in a while, play Monopoly or Uno Attack. I have to admit, I did tidy up the clutter a bit, but 

there is still a lot lurking behind the monitor. I also swept off the eraser crumbs, rocks (the boys

are avid collectors), and other debris.