I am so excited for our dinner tomorrow, I want to cook it today. I figured that living in the south, we are going to try to eat like southerners tomorrow, so I have picked recipes from my two favourite** southern cooks, Alton Brown and Paula Deen. (I love those guys!)

Our menu will be:

Roasted Turkey (unstuffed)

Paula Deen’s Southern Cornbread Stuffing.

Alton Brown’s Best Ever Green Been Casserole

Rolls

Pecan Pie – minus the chocolate, Joshua would rebel. The pie is done and is made with fresh South Georgia pecans!

What will be on your table tomorrow?

Right now…it is 9:24 am, sunny and 62 degrees! Today promises to  be a beautiful day, the house is mostly clean, so I can spend the day relaxing a bit before I head in to a baking frenzy tomorrow!

This weekend…sigh, was good and frustrating. Joshua and I are both nursing colds. They aren’t bad, just annoying. Friday evening started out well, I made Alton Brown’s fish tacos and Joshua loved them.

Joshua’s parents were coming for a visit this weekend, just passing through to and from a visit to family in Florida. We weren’t sure when they were going to arrive, so some plans were up in the air. We found out that they wouldn’t be arriving until around 430, so I headed out to Target, the Pecan store and the produce market. I had Margaret and Benedict with me and that was great! I put Benedict in the sling and he stays so happy and content there. The pecan store was AWESOME. I put in an order for shelled pecans and they were only $6.99/lb! Awesome.

We came home to wait for the in laws to arrive and all the kids took naps, at the same time! When Joshua’s parents arrived, he and I headed out to pick up dinner. After dinner was a spirited conversation about politics. I am pretty sure that my inlaws think I am a liberal who voted for Obama. Nope, but I also don’t worship at the feet of Fox News. I listen to NPR too. 😉

Saturday night was hard, Caecilia did not want to sleep and Benedict was up all night too.

Sunday was Mass and lovely. We had a quick lunch out, well, C fell asleep in the van between church and the restaurant and Benedict needed to eat, so I sat in the van. Believe me, I was fine with that. We came home, took some impromptu pictures of the kids in the back yard, rested and folded five baskets of laundry! Then we discovered one more. Oh well. I can get that done today during nap time.

Some plans for this week…preparing the church bake sale items and baking for my family for Thanksgiving. Packing for our trip to KY (a wedding ;)). Keeping on top of the clean house, as I let it fall apart pretty badly a few weeks ago. Of course, schooling for the kids. Today we are celebrating  Caecilia’s feast day! For dinner tonight, I am making a beef brisket and we are having left over cheesecake bars, yum!

If I can find time for myself, I want to…I get two hours to myself tomorrow night, I am driving to our parish to drop off some baked goods. I will have Benedict with me, but that is just fine! I will probably pick up a coffee and drive slowly, perhaps pray a rosary or two.

Some prayer intentions for the week…for my dear friend Jaime, because I love her and she needs my prayers ;). My uncle Mike, who just completed a second round of treatment for a spot on his lung, this time via CyberKnife. For the soul of my dear friend, Rick Toracita, who passed away 5 years ago, today. Finally, for Emily and Steven as they prepare to be married this weekend.

Something that makes me smile: Benedict sitting up in his Bumbo seat. I really like that thing.

Check out this little Patch o’ Dirt for more Monday Musings.

Deserves the best of the best for Sunday dress!

Today is a good day…all four kids took a nap at the same time!

From the Diocese of Raleigh :

The Most Reverend Michael F. Burbidge, Bishop of Raleigh, has requested in a letter that all the Priests, Religious and lay faithful in the Diocese of Raleigh participate in a novena to the Immaculate Conception, patroness of the Diocese, on behalf of Philip Johnson, one of our Diocesan seminarians. The novena will begin on Monday, November 29, and culminate on Wednesday, December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

Mr. Johnson, who is currently pursuing his vocation to the Priesthood at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia, has been receiving chemotherapy treatments for a brain tumor, which has continued to progress despite these treatments. He expressed “deep gratitude to the priests, religious, and laity of our Diocese for their prayerful support during this difficult time in my life.

“While my treatments can often be physically and emotionally draining,” he said, “it brings me great strength to know that so many prayers are being offered to Almighty God on my behalf. Please be assured of my prayers for our entire Diocese, especially for those who currently suffer in any way, that we may all unite our sufferings to those of Our Lord on the Cross.”

Links to both the Bishop’s letter and the Novena Prayer in English and Spanish are provided below so that you may forward this request to others who you may wish to invite to pray for a needed cure for Philip. A link to an earlier story on Mr. Johnson provides additional information.

http://www.dioceseofraleigh.org/docs/news/Letter-NovenaforPhilipJohnson-English.pdf

http://www.dioceseofraleigh.org/docs/news/NovenaPrayer-English.pdf

Next week is Thanksgiving! What?! There are still leaves on the tree, the highs are in the 70s, we don’t need jackets to play outside during the day and iced tea still sounds like a good beverage.

However, seeings as it is next week, I headed to the store last night to pick up our turkey bird and a few other things for Thanksgiving Dinner. Butter was on sale too, $2.50 a pound. Butter here is expensive, even for the store brand, so I was thrilled to find it for that price. (Even if it isn’t organic from grass fed cows, I will still enjoy it.) The grocery store was also having BOGO on canned veggies, so I stocked up there too. I don’t think I will have to do much shopping for a while now, except for milk and fresh produce! Sweet.

I also went to Target to pick up a shower curtain liner as the curtain we have is fabric. I have been meaning to do that for a while, but finally got around to it last night. I also picked up a Bumbo seat for Benedict. WOW. I had one with Caecilia and lent it to my sister. Since she still uses it and loves it, I decided to get another one and I am glad I did. I put Benedict in it last night while unloading the groceries and he loved it. He then sat and watched Papa do computer work while I did a few other things. This morning he was in it while I got Caecilia dressed and Karol thought it was the best thing ever. He showed Benedict all sorts of toys then Margaret showed him how to do lacing toy. We know that because we found Benedict holding on to one of the lacing toys and the lace.

Tonight I plan on making Alton Brown’s Fish Taco’s (minus the crema sauce) and I am very excited about it. The recipe seems so simple and I have a bunch of cilantro to use, yum!

Tomorrow Joshua’s parents will be here to spend the night, passing through on the way home from visiting family in Florida. We plan on having getting take out barbeque for dinner, yum. 🙂

Also this weekend I need to squeeze in time to bake a few pies for the parish bake sale and begin to prepare for our trip to KY for a wedding!!!!!! (I am more than just a bit excited about that!) I love going to KY to visit with our friends there, they are such great and wonderful (and so forgiving at our lack of communication!) people.

After KY we have a trip to visit my sister, Mary,  in SC for her birthday weekend. I want to do something the week between Christmas and New Years, but can’t really decide. I am thinking Avery Island, LA (home of Tabasco Sauce) with a stop in New Orleans, but we shall see, we might just stay home.

Have a great weekend everyone!

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!