Sweet deal, we have an organic supermarket here in Valdosta. I love this little store already. Tonight I headed out to see what it was like and was not disappointed. I found organic butter, from a local farm for $3.50/pound. For real! No, for real!! I can’t even get crappy, stale,  refrigerator tasting butter from the local Winn Dixie for that price. I can’t wait to try some!

I also found some home made marshmallows, and am excited to try those. I picked up some rye flour to make rye crackers, maybe with the kids this week, if they are good and allow me time to do my regular chores! 🙂 My treat to myself was drinkable yogurt, for the times I need a snack or don’t get to finish my breakfast!

I plan on adding Whisked to my regular rounds of shopping, if even just for butter and drinkable yogurt.

Right Now…11:29 am. I am always amazed when I see Nadja’s times, always way before I am awake! Last week I stayed up after Benedict woke up at 5 for a feeding, I figured I would get some paperwork done, and maybe fold some laundry. Ha. Caecilia came plodding down the hallway around six. So much for that.

Anyway, it is sunny and cool here, around 70 degrees, according to my weather widget. The windows are all closes, so I can’t tell if we have swamp fire smoke still lingering out there. It was really bad over the weekend.
This weekend…was jam packed full of fun times. On Friday night, I went out for a bit and found a bookstore here in Valdosta. I thought it was going to be one of those discount stores, ones that are set up for a few weeks or months, then are gone. Turns out it was more like a Borders or a Barnes and Noble, coffee bar and all! Woot. I picked up a math workbook for Karol, as he is blowing through the kindergarten curriculum like nothin’ else. I also picked up an audio copy of Dean Koontz’s “Odd Hours”. We plan on listening to that while on our trip to KY. I found a copy of “Little Women”, from the kids section.

On Saturday we headed to an air show at Moody Air Force Base. That was a riot. It was great when Karol got so excited about all of the planes, he even got to sit in the cockpit of one of them.

After spending a few hours watching planes fly and seeing them perform death defying feats, we headed home for a bit of a rest. While everyone rested, I took Benedict to the produce market to pick up some much needed fresh items. I found tomatoes 3/$1 and in the shell fresh pecans $1.69/a pound and they are goood. The tomatoes are “real” tomatoes, not pretty looking at all and gooood too.

When I got back, we headed out to the K of C hall for the monthly social dinner. It was a nice dinner again this month, Thanksgiving food!

Between all of that, I discovered a new organic market here in Valdosta. I found out about it just before closing time on Saturday, so I am going tonight and am EXCITED. It opened just at the same time my grocery budget opened up, sweet. I hope to be able to get our grains from there. We get our produce from the market south of town, our meat from the local grocery stores, which ever are cheapest. I wish we could afford organic grass fed meat, but not right now, maybe in the future. Or if we find someone local who sells freezer beef for a good price. Any way, the local grocery store flour and oatmeal sections are pretty sad. First, most of the flour is self rising, whole wheat is hit or miss along with unbleached.Fresh herbs like cilantro would be nice to find too!

Sunday was a pretty full day too. We went to Mass in Moultrie then back home for a quick breakfast. We went out to the store for some things for the kids. We realized that we needed a light jacket for them, mainly in the mornings, for Mass. I had a coupon for Carters that was expiring this week, an this was the only time we could go, so we headed out. We picked up the outfits they will wear for the Feast of Christ the King and Christmas also, as well as a few more shirts for Margaret and Caecilia.

We came home, cleaned up a bit then made dinner. After dinner we tackled the laundry baskets and folded all the laundry, yes!

Some plans for the week…cleaning the house a bit and getting ready for a visit from my in laws. We aren’t exactly sure when they will be here, but sometime this week or next.
If I can find a little time for myself, I want to…clean my desk area and set up a sewing area.

Special prayer intentions for the week…For Nan, our dear friend!

Something that makes me smile: Caecilia pretending to feed Benedict and him smiling at her!

Do we pick great Godparents, or what?

Right Now…According to the clock on the wall, 11:45 but it is really 10:41 am. It is sunny and cool outside, just the way I like it.

This Weekend… Started out with a celebration! We sold/closed on the house in Marion on Friday morning. I spend a good part of my day checking our bank account for the funds and checking on things we have been wanting to buy but have put off until we had the money.

I bought or won you could say some gDiapers from a friend on Ebay then bought the inserts. We have a bit of traveling ahead of us and figure this would probably be the most eco friendly way to use disposables. (The inserts are bio degradable and the covers reusable!)

We went out to dinner after Joshua got home then met up with his boss and his family for ice cream. The kids were great when we were out, no fighting with each other and they all ate their food, it was awesome. After we got home, I paid off the balance on a few credit cards, paid the midwife our final balance (the check is in the mail!) and found out that the woman who bought our home had everything switched in to her name before closing, sweet!

On Saturday, we got up and after breakfast, we headed out to pick up a few things that we had been wanting to buy. The first being shelves for the “work room” to store things on. What a difference that makes. Joshua thinks he will go back and pick up a few more for tools and one for the kitchen, for me to store pantry items on. We then headed for shoe shopping, for the kids and for Joshua. Karol is now in a size 10.5 and Margaret is a 9.5! Margaret’s old shoes were a 7, I almost feel bad but I think her feet grew overnight. We also found some clothes for the kids. Karol has some new pants, same with Caecilia and Margaret got a few new shirts and a few dresses. It is nice to have things rounded out for them again. It does take some time to find clothes for the kids these days. So many things are just the smaller version of adult clothes, with themes or ideas that I just don’t want my kids to be exposed to or wearing.

Saturday night, we watched two episodes of CSI-NY and I worked on a project for Vianney Vocations.I booked a hotel for us for  Thanksgiving weekend, as we are going to a wedding in KY. I also started planning a trip to Charleston, SC to visit my sister. I am glad that she lives near us, five hours is much better than 19 to visit family.

Sunday started with Mass then home for brunch. I went to the store after brunch, normally we do not shop on Sundays, but I was out of butter and nearly out of formula, so I headed to Target and then the grocery store. The grocery store had steaks buy one get one free, so I purchased two packages, and boy were they good. We were supposed to fold laundry after dinner, but I fell asleep in the recliner before I could get things started, so that awaits me this morning.
Some Plans for the Week…Find a piano tuner, take the van in to be looked at, work on the Vianney Vocations project some more, meal plan the rest of this month and next, school work and on Saturday, an air show at Moody AFB! Woot!
If I Get Some Time for Myself, I Want to…work on organizing my desk area and set things up for sewing.

Some Prayer Intentions for this Week…in Thanksgiving for the closing of our house.  For priestly vocations and for religious vocations. For those who are struggling in their marriages that they remain faithful to their vows.


Something That Makes Me Smile: Watching Karol sound out words and spelling words on his own!

The house is sold! The house is sold! Yippee, the house is sold. God is good.

Boondoggle!

We went to Florida on Sunday, originally to be able to see the Space Shuttle launch on Monday, however, the launch has been delayed, so we just kept with our other plans of visiting the Alligator Farm, camping, visiting the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame and visiting Showcase of Citrus.

The Alligator Farm was much better this time. I am not 8 months pregnant, it wasn’t 95 degrees and it was not that crowded. I wasn’t in the park for long before Benedict needed to eat, so I sat in the van and nursed the sweet little guy while Joshua walked around with the kids. We met back up, had a treat, watched a crocodile eat dinner then headed out to our campsite, down the shore.

Most campgrounds in Florida are geared toward RV campers, so the spots are usually treeless and only big enough to park the RV and extend an awning. Our site barely held our tent and mini-van. If we were to have a fire, the van would have had to have been moved. We didn’t have a fire as the blazing hot sun made the idea of a fire sound just awful. We set up camp, made/ate dinner and put the girls to bed. Karol stayed up with us to eat s’more that we cooked over the campstove. I was preparing to eat my second yummy treat, when I saw something moving on the table. A cockroach. Nice. That was the end of that. We packed up our stuff and headed to bed.

The next morning, we made breakfast then headed to the beach (we were pretty much on the ocean). We set up the little beach shelter and Benedict slept there while we went to play in the waves. They were pretty awesome and my fearless kids wanted to go deeper and deeper. Joshua carried Karol out for a bit and they were hit by a wave that must have been 4 feet tall! That was awesome.

We headed back to the campsite for showers and lunch. During lunch, Margaret started SCREAMING. SCREAMING like I had never heard her scream before. I was in the tent changing and Joshua was holding Benedict, so I threw on my clothes and ran out to see what was going on. She just kept crying and scratching her leg, I didn’t see anything and figured she was just being over dramatic (not unusual for her at all) and went back to changing. She was also calming down a bit. I was in the middle of changing when she screamed again. This time, Joshua got up to investigate and made a noise I had never heard out of him. It was part fear, part what the heck and part oh my. Then I heard him say:

I think Margaret just got bit by a scorpion.

Enter frightened parents. Frantic parents. Are they poisonous? Will she die?  Do we need to get her to a hospital. Picture both parents on their cell phones calling their parents to find out the 411 on scorpions. From stage left entered the wonderful woman who would be our guardian angel for the day. She said she was a homeopathic doctor (or something like that) and asked if Margaret was stung by a bee and offered some lavender oil.  We said, “No, A SCORPION!!!!!!!!” (picture running around with our hands waving in the air, panicked!)

This wonderful woman told us that in Florida there are two kinds of scorpions, harmful and not harmful. Well, ones that look like scorpions, but aren’t and ones that look like scorpions and are. She thought the one that got M was the former, praise God. She even prayed over Margaret. We calmed down a bit and this wonderful woman walked with Joshua and Margaret up to the camp host to get his opinion.

When they got back, Joshua and I had one of those moments where we didn’t have to say anything and just said “we are leaving”. So we started packing up and left. No more Florida camping for us.

We drove south to Orlando for dinner and to find a hotel. We were not sure if we were able to use our tickets for the Hall of Fame or not, but we certainly wanted to go to the Showcase of Citrus, so we figured if we stayed on the East side of Orlando, we would be able to do both without too much trouble. Turns out the East side of Orlando is 30 miles from Titusville, where the Hall of Fame is, so we ended up in Titusville for the night. It was very wonderful to shower (as I hadn’t gotten one earlier) and relax in our room. The kids were great, Margaret was fully recovered and we settled in to watch the “Cooking Man Show” aka “Good Eats”. (We all love Alton Brown).

Our trip to the Hall of Fame was pretty neat. It is certainly for older kids, as there is a lot of boring reading and things that kids four and under find just awful. They had fun looking at the pictures of the Earth and climbing in one of the space capsules. Karol found a room with interactive video games and was set. Caecilia had fun playing on the Mars-scape and Margaret ran between the two. It was pretty neat to see the capsules that were used at the beginning of the space program.

After we left, we drove past the Kennedy Space Center to take a peak. From the outside, you can see real rocket busters and external tank as well as one of the space shuttles! It was awesome. Maybe next time we will go there, but for this time it was a bit out of our price range.

The next leg of our journey took us back to Orlando and beyond. We headed to Clermont, Fl and the Showcase of Citrus. This place will get its very own blog post, but let’s just say that it was awesome. We picked oranges, tangerines and pomelo in the rain (well, I did for a bit then headed for shelter).
Our trip home was uneventful and we arrived back safe and sound. So, what started out as a boondoggle of a weekend (no space shuttle launch, bad camping) turned out to be pretty nice after all.

Oh, and about that scorpion bug that really isn’t a scorpion, horse pucky. We looked things up when we got home, if it looks like a scorpion, it is a scorpion. However, they aren’t always poisonous, praise God.