My friend, Jake, wrote this nice blog post regarding a story he heard on NPR regarding the Nashville Dominican Sisters. He was nice enough to include the audio file and the NPR link for the transcript.

Right now…11:25 pm and I am in the kitchen waiting for my sugar to reach 300 degrees, otherwise known as the hard crack stage. Benedict is hanging out in his Bumbo seat and Joshua is offering moral support on the making of candy. He will also be helping me put eyes in the bear I made for my niece in a bit.
This weekend… was filled with lots of cleaning. You can’t tell by looking at my house now, but we cleaned out quite  a bit of stuff and organized the office so that I could set up my sewing machine and crank out some Christmas Gifts. We picked up our tree on Friday night, cutting it fresh from the farm. The trees at a few of the tree stands around town looked pretty yellow so I am glad there is a U-Cut farm near by.

I started on Christmas gifts for my nieces and nephew weekend, the Michigan ones and cookies for the rest of the family. I am making candy for the nieces whose names we drew for the Facemyer family.

Some plans for the week…continue working on the O Antiphons with the kids and preparing the house for Christmas!

If I can find time for myself, I want to…no plans, as I don’t expect any!

Some prayer intentions for the week: For Mr. Vincent’s Father, who passed away this week. (He was not Catholic so there will be no one to pray for him except for our friends). For a friend, who emailed me a special intention. Most of all, for hearts to open to our Lord this week as we celebrate His birth.

Something that makes me smile: Benedict laughing up a storm when I change his not so pleasant diaper.

Right now…10:00 am, cold much too cold for South Georgia. Kids are playing all around me, Benedict is sleeping nicely on the other couch and the washer just beeped at me, pleading for me to keep it full all day today.
This weekend… was jam packed! We went to Charleston, SC to visit my sister for two days and had a great time, a great time! We met up with her on Saturday morning, and it was raining a bit. We decided to head out to the Charles Towne Landing and spent the day. We learned how to make beef stew over an open fire, how to make pegs for the table, to keep it stable and how to start a fire using flint and steel. We also got to see some animals and even got to watch the birds eat. We headed out to dinner then to my sisters to visit more, then back to the hotel, for a good nights rest.

Sunday we headed to Mass. We planned on going to the Cathedral of St. John, but I was concerned about parking so I looked around for some alternatives. We decided on going to Stella Maris Parish on Sullivan’s Island. What a wonderful little church! We arrived right before Mass started, and it was packed, so Joshua stood in the back with the three older kids. I was seated by an usher who must have thought I was a bit smaller than I am, but I managed to squeeze in next to a family, after the usher told them to “move down”. Let me just say, the ushers there do an amazing job, there was not an open spot of pew to sit on.

We swung through downtown Charleston to snap a picture of the Cathedral, so I could send a picture of it to my friend (who, if I am correct, got engaged there) then back to my sisters house for lunch.

Our drive home was uneventful, slightly windy, but the roads were pretty empty. We stopped in Waycross to visit Kroger and stocked up on things we needed and that Kroger has the best price on. Did you know milk there is usually $2.28/gallon. It was on sale for $2.18 but we didn’t need any this trip. We did get butter for $1.98/pound. Yes, I have eight pounds of butter in my freezer right now. How much are butter and milk by you? Oh and flour was $1.35 for a five pound bag!

Some plans for the week…bake for Christmas gifts then set up a bit for Christmas. The Piano Tuner is coming this week and we are finally going to have it set so that I can use it….to put things on, I don’t play ;). I am looking forward to that. Of course we will do a bit of school work. Today we will celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Lucia, by coloring some pages.

If I can find time for myself, I want to…our hotel room had “crazy pillows” that the kids just loved, so I am going to work on making them, if I have time, for gifts for them.

Some prayer intentions for the week: For Stephen, our Favorite Seminarian as he begins his finals. For those living in the Nort’ Country and are being buried with snow right now, that they stay safe and warm. For those who do not have shelter or enough food, that their needs are provided for.

Something that makes me smile: A picture my sister took of Benedict on Saturday. He is all snuggly in his sling and enjoying the ride.

For more Monday Musings, check her out!

Have you seen this blog? I started reading it a few months ago and have fallen in love. Leila often has posts that are just perfect for me and often are a swift kick in the behind for me to get in gear to do things…or a boost to help me remember why we do what we do in our family!

Today she had a lovely post about the kitchen sink, check it out.

I have to admit that my current kitchen sink makes me sad. While I am happy that Joshua has found a job so well suited for him, a part of misses our house in Ohio. Well, mainly the kitchen, I loved that kitchen. This kitchen has very little counter space and the cabinets have not been taken care of very well, so they are warped and the paint is pealing from them. Our faucet is too short and I have to really reach over to rinse dishes. I gave up on hand washing dishes when I was pregnant, it hurt to do the reach.

Alas, the flow….

The dining room is to the left of the kitchen, when facing the sink, so our dirty dishes are stacked to the left of the sink and hand washed ones are placed on the dish drying mat to the right. I have a draining think in the right sink for most dishes and the mat catches the over flow. Above the sink, on the window, I keep a bottle of pain reliever, vitamins and a containers of Burt’s Bees hand cream, all out of the way of wee little hand but accessible to me so I remember to use them.

I also have a few religious articles hanging, as a reminder to pray as well as a reminder on frustrating days of why I am a stay at home mother, to get these kids to meet those people at the end of their life journey. Often times, the window also holds things I take away from hands that should not have them.

It is a simple kitchen, perhaps a lesson to me, on simplicity, as the Holy Family was simple.

{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  Hosted by SouleMama.

Here is a shot of the weather at my parent’s, here, and at my sisters. Baby it’s cold outside!

According to Joshua’s boss, on nights like this, people in the south put water out, to watch it freeze!

Also the Feast of St. Ambrose, so we had these bumble bee cookies.

Right now…7:15 am. I attempted to get up before the rest of the family and get a few things done. I had Benedict up with me and was feeding him and playing with him a bit when Karol joined us. A short time later, Caecilia came down the hallway…so there went my plans to get things done. Oh well. Karol has informed me that if I am up, they are up.

The sun is mostly up right now and there is quiet playing all around me.

(Okay, scratch that, as soon as I typed “me.”, Karol came looking for food. We ended up doing St. Nicholas Stockings with the kids. Karol and Benedict got matching robot teeshirts, Margaret got a skirt (her first skirt!) and a pair of tights and Caecilia got tights and a frying pan to play with.)
This weekend… Saturday was Caecilia’s 2nd birthday, so we celebrated a bit. I let them have cereal for breakfast, sugar cereal at that! Then we headed out on some errands, the library, to return some overdue books and to Hobby Lobby to look at shelves. Our house doesn’t have a fireplace in the main part, so I don’t have anywhere to hang stockings! We found a neat shelf that Joshua added some hooks to, for hanging stockings.

I made Whoopie Pies for her “cake” and of course, the kids sang Happy Birthday to her about 200 times during the day. It is hard to believe she is two already, but at the same time, I think “she is only two?!”. She enjoyed her birthday treat and her birthday dinner!

We finally put out the Advent Candles, no wreath this year, just four simple candles, on a shelf, so little hands won’t touch them. Last night we did the Blessing out of the Magnificat Advent edition then prayed compline together as a family.

Some plans for the week…we are going to visit my sister sometime this weekend, so I need to pack for that. I am looking forward to seeing her and the city she lives in. I also need to get some baking done to mail out to family this year. It seems like every other Christmas we are in a new place, so I make something from that area or that uses ingredients grown around us. Our first Christmas in Ohio found us mailing out Buckeye candies to everyone. This year, I am going to do something with pecans and peanuts.

If I can find time for myself, I want to…pish posh, time to my self? This week? I do have to pick up milk and eggs at the store, so I may, just may take a long time to do that and get myself a coffee at the bookstore near us and sit and read a bit.

Some prayer intentions for the week: For all the December birthday people! There are so many of them in my family and within our circle of friends. Also, for our friends in college and Seminary, as their finals approach, that they are able to focus and not be too stressed out! And, always on our prayer list, an increase in vocations to both priesthood and religious life.

Something that makes me smile: I found this when I woke up this morning. Margaret was laying on the couch under the stockings. I don’t think she knew they were there, but it was too cute to resist a quick snap with my phone. (The Advent candles are out on the table from last night still, you can see them at the bottom of the photo)