Right now…847 am. I am sitting at the table with the kids eating their special breakfast. In our house, special breakfast is cereal, as I seldom buy it. It is cool out side, about 35 degrees, if my weather widget it to be believed, sunny though, which makes all the difference.
This weekend…was crazy busy! We started out our weekend on Thursday by driving down the Titusville, Florida, home of the Kennedy Space Center. My friend in Ohio had given us two tickets, leftover from a visit to Florida, so we headed down and just needed to purchase the ones for the two older kids. We spent a good part of the day there, looking around exploring things. We even got to walk through a small part of a Shuttle.

After our day on the Atlantic side of the state to visit Joshua’s aunt and uncle. Oh the fun we had! We arrived mid evening on Thursday and visited with them. We woke up the next morning and after breakfast, we headed off to the beach. We put the kids in their swim suits, knowing that they would probably get themselves wet, even though the water was cold! And wet they did! C tripped as a wave was coming up and was covered with water. Karol and Margaret did a better job, just getting their feet wet. They enjoyed playing in the sand and running around chasing birds. The sun was wonderful and the Gulf was calm, a wonderful day.

We headed back for naps, and after had dinner at the house of one of Joshua’s cousins. It was a good time! It was nice to meet more members of the family. Our kids played so well with the other kids, no fights!

On Saturday, we headed out for Mass at Christ the King Parish in Sarasota. They are staffed by FSSP priests and Mass was in the Extraordinary Form. My usually well behaved children were awful at Mass that day. I suspect it is because Mass is so quiet, they don’t realize it has started and because it is not a Form we go to often, they have a hard time following. Add in the fact that they are under five, not a recipe for success. We sat next to a saint of a man. Benedict spit his pacifier out and it landed near this man’s feet. He nicely used his booklet to scoot it close to pick it up, then picked it up by the side, so as not to touch much of it. I figured the daggers would start after that, and guess, what none! After Mass, he complimented the children. Oh, and Caecilia had to be taken out three times and Joshua left with Benedict after Communion.

We headed back to Aunt Donna’s and Uncle Dave’s house for a nice breakfast and they had gifts for us! What kind thoughtful people. After breakfast, Aunt Donna took us to another cousin’s house. We visited there for quite a while also, with two of Joshua’s cousins, Jessica and Mary along with Jessica’s husband and their children. Let me just say, that for as much as Margaret looks like my mom’s side of the family, we saw her future self on Sunday. We had seen pictures of Mary as a child around her parent’s house and Margaret looks very much like her and we could totally see Margaret in the future looking like Mary.

As we were leaving, Micheal, Jessica’s husband, was telling Joshua about a Flea Market that also had a produce area and it was on our way out of town, so we headed that way. We found some cute lizard cutouts to hang on the wall in the kids’ room then picked up some fresh strawberries and some other produce.

Our ride home was uneventful. We stopped for dinner at a Cracker Barrel in Tampa and the waitress complimented our family about a dozen times, about how well the kids  behaved. It makes me wonder if other kids are total hellions or what! I mean, we have to constantly tell Karol to get back on his chair, we have to keep Caecilia throwing things and well, Margaret, if you give her crayons and paper, she is just fine!

I was again thwarted in my quest for Starbucks on the road. Seriously, Starbucks, why no love for the drivers along I75 from North Tampa to Valdosta, Georgia?

Some plans for the week…Though the Catholic Church in the United States celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany yesterday, we will also Celebrate it when the Pope celebrates it, on Thursday with our gift exchange. Also, today is Karol’s Fifth Birthday!!!! We are going to have a chocolate cake with whipped cream frosting. I will incorporate crushed candy canes in to the frosting too, yum! Karol wants a face or a snow man or his name on the cake. This coming weekend, we are going to meet the Borja family from Thomasville. They are friends of a friend and we have been “friends” with them on Facebook for a while, so I am looking forward to meeting them in real life! :

If I can find time for myself, I want to…read a book!

Some prayer intentions for the week: My sister and her family, that her husband find a job in SC so they can all be together again!

Something that makes me smile: My five year old boy, trying to play games like his Papa!

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!