A few weeks ago, I was invited by my friend, Erin, to give a presentation to her Womens Group at church. She said the theme would be cooking with the saints.  Pick a saint and demonstrate a recipe that could be made on that saint’s feast day. I asked to do the Feast of the Epiphany because we like to celebrate that one up here.

I had so much fun. Normally I am so scared to do public speaking that I would generally never dream of doing something like get up in front of a group to speak. Tonight, I thought, I could do this all the time. Talk about my faith and talk about cooking?  Total fun.

Maybe EWTN will let me have my own cooking show….Cooking with the Saints?  A Catholic Mumma Cooks?

Off to watch NCIS…..have a great evening.

FOR TODAY
November 16 2009

Outside my window…dark and gloomy, perfect warm apple cider weather.

I am thinking…about all the fun things I want to do with the kids during Advent.

I am thankful for…the guidance of our Lord.

From the learning rooms…the oldest one and middle one shared a game on the computer without fighting.

From the kitchen…the sounds of a nearly one year old  cleaning out my cabinets.

I am wearing…Khakis and a pink shirt

I am creating…two jumpers for the girls to wear to Midnight Mass.

I am going…to sit in my comfy chair

I am reading…The Faith Explained by Fr. Leo Trese

I am hoping…for acceptance of God’s wisdom.

I am hearing…my kids chatter while they should be sleeping.

Around the house…we are in various stages of construction.

One of my favorite things…coffee with friends on the porch.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Giving a presentation about the Feast of the Epiphany and baked goods that go along with it on Wednesday, Thursday I am meeting up with friends in Columbus for dinner and Saturday I am going to my Opus Dei Morning of Recollection.

Special thanks to: http://thesimplewomansdaybook.blogspot.com/

Today I decided it would be a good idea to take K and M to the library for story time. This usually involves leaving C with Papa as there isn’t a story time for her age group today. M decided that today would be a good day to be sassy, so I told her, no story time for her. She cleaned up her behavior and was good for a bit, so I relented.

I should have gone with my first instinct.

When we got to the library, I noticed the Loguemobile in the parking lot, yea! (Hard to miss, what with the IU alumni license plate holder) Thank goodness for bank holidays! When we got inside, Mrs. Logue said that she was going to take her little guy in to the 4 year old room and agreed to take Karol with her. (Thanks!) Well, M decided that she didn’t want to go to storstytime (her pronunciation). So instead we sat in the main library where she played with board puzzles and the like. Then when it was time to leave, another fit. And she isn’t quiet, she cries, incoherently and loudly. Then she becomes dead weight and that makes her a million times harder to carry.

Karol had a grand ol’ time in the big kid room. He told me all about the books they read and things they did. The nice thing about the older room is that the kids do not need an adult with them. This way we can go and do the two separate room on the same day.

C stayed with Papa at his office, where she is now. We will go and get her soon!

Now for an update on a few other things. I am working on the curtains for the dining room. I have one set up, the lower ones, so I am not working on the upper curtains/valance. Since the sewing room is also the baby’s room, I have a limited sewing window. Last night I sewed the hem on the upper curtains by hand. That wasn’t too bad actually, so I think  I will hand stitch the curtains. With the tabs, I will start them on the sewing machine but hand stitch them on.

I realized after the curtains were up that the window seat would look very nice with a few long cushions, so I will start those eventually. Slowly but surely, the house will come together!
Have a great Wednesday!

Caecilia is getting to be so big and such an explorer these days. This morning I moved the furniture around in the living room and she took the time crawl around and explore everything as it is now. At one point, she was sitting by my feet then, suddenly, she sprung to her knees and hands and put her head on the floor, looking. She lifted her head and moved toward the loveseat but stopped, just short of it, by the coffee table. She  put her head back on the floor, looking, looking under the loveseat perhaps  for a forgotten toy or book. Her head was flat on the floor as was her chest, only her little tiny diapered bottom off the carpet. She moved again to the edge of the loveseat and stuck her chunky little baby hand under the couch, searching for that forgotten toy or book. Nothing. She didn’t find a thing, so she crawled away, crawled to the dining room.

In the dining room, she found Legos and blocks. After moving them from one location to another, came back out to me. Crawling along, pushing the Lego box with one hand and using her other to help crawl. A triumphant smile was on her face the whole time.

In the living room, she lost interest in her Lego box and crawled on to the kids short table. She is quite proud of her ability to climb on to the table and works at trying to climb on to higher things, like a kitchen chair or the couch.

Soon, she will be talking and chasing after the older two and our baby will be no more, replaced with another rambunctious toddler. Until that day comes, she will be our little baby and the day of chasing and talking can hold off a bit longer.

Today was the annual Mudbowl at the PCJ. There could have been no better day for the Mudbowl! Sunny and 65 in November!

We arrived early, around 9 am to pray rosary and go to Mass with the seminarians and visit with our friend, Stephen (a member of St. Mary, Marion, seminarian for the Diocese of Columbus and all around good guy). I have to say it is always wonderful to attend mass at a seminary. It is the one of the few places in the world where your child(ren) can scream scream scream all the way through mass and you will be approached afterwards and told how wonderful it is to have children at Mass.

After mass we got a snack for the kids and some coffee for their mumma and took a tour of the grounds. Stephen and Joshua took the kids down a deep ravine in the woods. I wanted to go but I didn’t wear the right shoes, so I sat at the top of the hill and enjoyed the day.

Then it was time for tailgating. A seminarian from Louisiana made some delicious barbecue. The story was that he stayed up all night to make sure it was all done and he did a fabulous job. There was pork, beef, brats, hotdogs, chips salsa, gumbo, soda, beer and more! We actually took a plate home for dinner. During lunch, we visited with former professors of Joshua’s (oh, did I mention, he is an alumnus?) and got to see our dear friend, Fr. Schalk. (We just love him!)

At 2:00 it was time for some good ol’ Flag Football.  Sadly the College guys lost to the Theology guys. Both Karol and Margaret LOVED watching the game. They tossed the little football we brought along and put  an arms length of raffle tickets in their belt loops to have flags. They played and played and played. Caecilia took a nap on a blanket during the game. Well, until the College scored a touch down. After the game was over, we headed home, much to Karol’s dislike. He asked to stay. I told him in 15 years, he could go back to live.

I love going to the PCJ, I really do. When I helped with the Youth 2000 retreats, we would go there once a month for the months leading up to the retreat to join the seminarians in a Holy Hour and to pray Vespers with them.  Those Sunday nights first introduced me to a few things, starting with the Liturgy of the Hours.  They would be chanted and I had never seen such a wonderful thing in my life. We would be paired up with someone who had a breviary and they helped to to pray them. I was also able to meet and become friends with  seminarians from all over the country, if not the world.  Their witness helped me in my discernment process , something for which I am eternally grateful.

Of course, it is also where I met Joshua, but that is a story for another day….

Kimberly? I have been an off and on reader of her blog and today, after posting an article of hers, I was informed that she belongs to the same Ladies Night Out group as I do! So while I haven’t met her yet, I hope to soon. This article she wrote was just what I needed to hear today.

I think my baby has decided she no longer needs naps. I put her down twice a day and she doesn’t sleep for either of them, I am pretty sure. She gets quiet but I am pretty sure she is just playing quietly. My oldest has informed me that he no longer needs naps either, whatever kiddo, you will take a nap and do it now! The middle one is hit and miss and well, she doesn’t like to take naps unless the lights are on, in the middle of the day. Hmmmm. I often find her in our bed under the covers.

The two older ones have taken to getting in to bed with us in the morning. I never know who I am going to wake up next to. This morning I thought it was Karol as when the alarm went off, the body next to me turned it off. Nope, Margaret knows how to  turn it off too. (as if I needed another reason to be lazy in the morning).

Today I am preparing for advent by making things a bit more organized around the house,  finishing projects that have been hanging around for ages, mostly curtains. I have the kitchen ones done, they just need to be hung. I have to make one for the laundry room as I must have been on drugs when I measured and sewed the one I made for back there, too short to be a full curtain, too long to be a half curtain. I plan on cutting tabs for the curtains in the dining room. I really love tabbed curtains, they are a bit more time consuming to make than the other curtains I have made, but they seem to do much more to a room.

This year I want to do a Jesse Tree. I don’t actually put the ornaments on a tree, but plan on hanging them from the fire place mantle. We are also trying to prepare for the true joy of Christmas by making small sacrifices during Advent. One of those will be going meatless through the month of December. I planned out all the meals, leaving Sundays as a day with meat as it is a mini-Easter. (My plan is to then freeze the left overs from that meal and use them in January).  What does your family do for Advent?

Then, tomorrow will be be spent preparing for the weekend. We have the PCJ  (Pontifical College Josephinum) Mudbowl on Saturday afternoon (Go College!!!).  On Sunday we are going to St Patrick for Mass in the morning then heading to the cemetery to pray at Rick’s grave as it is his birthday and the last day in the All Saints Octave then to lunch with some friends from the city.

Off to cut some tabs now…kids are sleeping! Have a joyous day!

It has been a while since I posted last. I often start a post then realize it is the most boring thing, so I don’t publish it. So here I try again!

Today is the Feast of St. Charles Borromeo and as Pope John Paul II was named Karol Jozef in honor of St. Charles Borromeo, we celebrate this day as one of Karol’s feast days. I am roasting a chicken in the crock pot and we will have chocolate cake with butter cream frosting for dessert. (Or maybe pumpkin pie, I haven’t decided yet.) This morning, after mass, I made the kids oatmeal with chocolate chips sprinkled on top, that went over like a lead balloon. 🙁

Yesterday we celebrated the Feast of St. Martin de Porres by making cupcakes to take to our friend, Martin. Karol also colored a picture for him. Martin in turn shared his Halloween candy with Karol and Margaret.

The kids are getting big, as is expected. Caecilia has been trying to take steps here and there. She loves to stand up in her high chair and do gravity defying stunts while sitting on it. I normally keep her on her Baby Bjorn Potty Chair and put the tray on, then she sits and eats no problem! Today she is 11 months old. One more month until she is One! What happened to the year?

Karol is doing well at home schooling. When I am lazy about it, he asks to do school work. He sits with books often and pretends to read to himself. Yesterday he was reading a dinosaur book that had a picture of a volcano island. There was smoke, fire, water and the sky. He was pointing out words and saying: “Look, Mumma, it says ‘Smoke on the water. Fire in the sky”. (Thanks, ADL)
Margaret has been amazing us with her smarts lately. She has been such a free spirit and doesn’t seem interesting in learning anything but lately she has shown us that she does know how to count to 10 and her colors! Right now she is laying in her bed, reading a book to herself. She will often try to come to the dinner table with books to read and gets upset when we don’t let her read at the table.

We have been doing more home improvements. I have made some curtains for the kitchen and I finally finished the one for the front door. Now I have to do the ones for the dining room.  I have a bit of time as we are getting new windows throughout the whole house (well, save for the addition). This will be a nice update as the windows are original and pretty darn drafty. We have three windows that certainly need to be replaced but figured with the tax credit, that it would make sense to do all of them now. We plan on insulating the attic this winter too. We hope to someday finish the attic and the insulation is one of  the most expensive parts of that project. Next spring we will need to put in a new furnace, then our house will be almost all Energy Star rated.

In January, we are going to split the kids up. C is in her own room right now and K and M share. We are going to put K in his own room and the girls will share. I don’t know how this will work out, but we will have to do it some day and this seems like the time to do it.

So that is what is new from Ohio! What’s new in your neck of the woods?

…I am so very happy that God allowed me to marry the love of my life! I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

…and so we went. We just got back from a 9 day camping trip to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and the northern part of the Lower Peninsula. We spent our first two nights at a campground called Lake Michigan campground, oddly enough on Lake Michigan, in the UP of MI. It was WONDERFUL, right on the lake. If the water had been a bit warmer, we would have all taken a splash in the lake.

After our first night, we headed to Sault Sainte Marie, MI to watch the freighters go through the Soo Locks. I enjoyed it, as did Joshua, but the kids were pretty bored. I think that was because the ships go pretty slowly through the locks. We bought some fudge and some souvenirs and had a good time. We went back to the campsite, ate lunch then headed to the Deer Ranch. The kids got to feed a few deer and had a fun time looking at them. We picked up some salmon for dinner and cooked it on the fire with some potatoes, yum. Joshua’s parents joined us that night so we visited with them around the camp fire.

The next day we broke camp and headed to Tahquamenon Falls to take a look at the falls. I highly recommend going to see them if you never have, they are breath taking. After the falls we headed to Joshua’s grandma’s house near Munising, MI. While there we spent time looking at the Pictured Rocks and visiting with family.

On our way back to the LP, we visited the Mystery Spot near St. Ignace. It was as cool as I thought it would be and then some! Before heading over the bridge, we picked up some pasties for dinner, yum!

Once back over the bridge I showed off my stellar map reading skills. We were heading for a campground near Petoskey but missed a turn off so we headed to Fisherman’s Island near Charlevoix for two nights. Our site was again on Lake Michigan, quite beautiful!

We went to Sleeping Bear Dunes and had so much fun just driving around trying to find a place to take the kids to the beach.  Someday we want to hike the mile and a half dune, some day. After a wonderfully beautiful drive down the coast of MI, we ended up at my aunt’s where we spent the night. My aunt ROCKS! She gave me two copies of my grandparent’s wedding pictures. LOVE IT! LOVE HER!

Of course this trip would not have been complete without seeing my family and meeting my newest little niece. She is quite a little joy and very pretty. We were able to go to Mass at the Assumption Grotto this morning and headed home!