Thursday, September 29, 2011

Michaelmas 2011!

Today was the feast of Michaelmas, of the feast of St. Michael the Archangel!  We celebrated by reciting the St. Michael the Archangel prayer during morning prayers and then talking about St. Michael.  The girls (Olivia really) decided to create a "St. Michael" out of their laundry basket, a shawl, two rulers for arms and a wreath on the head.  They created a whole procession, complete with handmade flowers cut out of construction paper, carried in a plastic Home Depot tool box and tossed to the grown.  They took turns "crowning St. Michael" with the wreath and then kneeling in front of "St. Michael" and reciting prayers.  It was so darn cute!

Later we colored angels and they designed their own puppets and put on a puppet show for me. 



In France, the tradition is to serve Gaufres or waffles.  So, waffles it was for supper!  I made these from scratch using this recipe and added blackberries instead of blueberries.  Tradition has it that when St. Michael threw Satan out of Heaven, Satan landed in a blackberry bush.  He was so mad that he spit on the blackberry bush and now blackberries are no good to pick after this date. 

Dessert consisted of Devils Food cake topped with angelic whipped cream.  The girls each got a plastic knife and got to kill the devil devils food cake!  They got a kick out of that!

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Naomi's Cheerios

For breakfast this morning, Naomi wanted dry cheerios.  She said "I don't want milk in it.  I want it flat!"

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Baking day!


In an effort to eat "healthier" (eliminate processed foods from our diets) and hopefully experience more energy, less "I need a snack...I'm hungry Mommy"..."I was so hungry I had to swing by McDonalds on the way home from work" and hopefully have less illness this winter...I baked up a few goodies to help transition us into more whole foods.  Below is a bag of omelets for the freezer, a bag of Apple Cinnamon Muffins, bag of granola, No Bake Energy Bites (just about all gone!), plate of Protein Pancakes (with a Timmy bite mark on one) and a baggie of "Sun-dried" cherry tomatoes made in the oven.
Fruits of my labor!


In the process of cooking
I have to say the kids ate 3 pancakes each, but I didn't care for them.  They were bland, dense and thin.  The energy bites were yummy.  I liked the muffins...we'll see what Pete says about them tonight!  Pete and I both like the granola, though it's not overly sweet.  The tomatoes are going in the freezer for recipes.  The omelets are in the freezer for quick lunches for Pete.  All in all, I think I started cooking about 2:30 or 3 and finished everything including the cleanup around 5.  Not too bad considering there were a million and one interruptions!

....drum roll please....


Before...

After....!!!


Of course, we will be filling the window boxes.  We will also be repainting the door and garage door to look a bit more cranberry red.  They look brown, which is NOT our intention!  We Pete still has to do the trim on the rest of the house, but at least the front is presentable now!

From the Mouths of Babes

A couple cute sayings from Naomi this week:

~ deflated balloon- "Mommy, my balloon is out of breath!"
~ praying for Nana's "hips"- "Poor Nana, she has hips!"
~ getting dressed this morning- "Naomi, I think this dress is too fancy for a play dress"..."Ok, Mommy (pointing to another dress)...is this one too crunchy?"

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Delicious Smoothie Recipe

Oatmeal Smoothie from Martha Stewart

Ingredients

  • 1 cup ice
  • 1/2 cup frozen raspberries
  • 1/2 cup plain lowfat yogurt
  • 1 banana
  • 1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 cup coconut water (or other liquid, such as juice)

Directions

  1. Place ice and raspberries in the bottom of blender, and all other ingredients on top. Whir until completely smooth. Serve.
I made a few changes to use what I had on hand.  Instead of raspberries, I used strawberries; I used vanilla yogurt rather than plain; and I used juice instead of coconut water.  Yesterday I used the honey and 1 cup of juice and it was way too sweet!  Today I eliminated the honey and used 1/2 cup of juice.  It still was too sweet.  Tomorrow I think I'll use milk or water instead of juice.  Next time I buy yogurt I'll get the plain for the smoothies.  I really like the oatmeal taste to it and I was suprised that I couldn't really taste the banana!  In one smoothie, I get dairy, fiber/whole grains, and fruit!  Sweet! 

Friday, September 9, 2011

The Sun!

The SUN!  It's back!  YAHOO!  It can almost make a person feel giddy!  We can actually eat breakfast this morning without turning the light on!  Welcome home sun!  Please stay for a while.  We really missed you!

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Happy Birthday Blessed Mother!

Happy Birthday Blessed Mother!
May you grant us the graces we need to imitate you in our lives so we may spend eternity with you in Heaven!
Icon of the Nativity of the Mother of God.  (Photo © Slava Gallery, LLC; used with permission.)
image source http://catholicism.about.com/od/holydaysandholidays/p/Birth_of_Mary.htm







It's Raining!

*Sung to It's Raining, It's Pouring*

It's raining, it's pouring
I wish I could be snoring.
The kids have croup
I want to fly the coop
Maybe the sun will rise in the morning!

Can it possibly rain much more?!  We've had three. straight. days of RAIN!  And I mean pouring rain!  We've been held captive since Sunday by croup and we're all climbing the walls!  The sun better come out tomorrow morning or we're going to go nutty! (Not that we aren't nutty already or anything!)

On the agenda for this lovely rainy day...

~baking: muffins for Pete (who seems to eat them faster than I can make them!) and cupcakes for Our Lady's birthday- frosted blue and white of course!
~fold laundry
~probably color a coloring page of Our Lady and read a book about her
~make a few phone calls
~do some long overdue dusting
~maybe make some magnets with the kids if we're still really bored!
~and of course naptime all around :-)

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

PreSchool and Kindergarten Begins

We started school yesterday!  The day didn't quite go as I would have planned, but flexibility is the beauty of homeschooling.  The day started off with 2 cases of croup!  Timmy started with a fever Saturday at the Zoo.  That night he woke up with a lovely croup cough.  He's been under the weather ever since (ie: whiney, clingy, not sleeping well at night, tired, feverish, breathing tight...).  Naomi started with a fever Monday night and woke up with the cough that night.  She's been under the weather ever since too.  Since her airways are (luckily!) bigger than Timmy's her breathing and cough hasn't been as bad. 

We decided to persevere and start school anyway.  Much to my surprise, it was Naomi who seemed to enjoy school more and pay attention better.  Olivia was in a "mood" and having a difficult time with it.  This morning went much better. 

First day of Pre School and Kindergarten



Watching a "show" in the afternoon


Southwick Zoo!

Since we were unable to take a family vacation this summer, we decided to take a few day trips instead.  Our first was this Saturday to the Southwick Zoo.  We had a great time and everyone enjoyed it! 


This was the funniest looking bird!



 We decided to take a train ride through the forest.  The kids loved it!




We were able to pet deer in the deer forest.


When asked what her favorite animal was, Naomi said the carousel!




We ended the day with a trip to Friendly's for dinner (and ice cream of course!)

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Follow up

~Walk 1 mile Actually ended up doing the 2 mile walk!
~Shower  Yes Jess, I found time for this
~Fold ALL the remaining laundry Managed to get 3 loads folded and put away.  I discovered the load in the dryer I thought was dry, never got turned on!  That backed me up a bit.  I have 2 more loads left for tomorrow.
~Make muffins Made a double batch of Mom's donught muffins and a batch of brownies and a ratatouile from our garden veggies for dinner that came out delicious!
~Make chore chart for the girls- I made a list of chores they could do and now I just need to make it look enticing for them!
~Get the kids outside if it doesn't rain They were out quite a bit today!
~Return kids library books and get more  Did the next best thing...renewed them online.  Maybe we'll make a trip there next week
~The usuals!

Follow Up

Here's how I did yesterday. As I expected, I didn't get everything done. But, I had a lovely visit from my sister-in-law Sarah and 2 nephews and I'll just finish up everything today!

~Walked 1 mile in 15 minutes...figured I'd start off small
~Shower done
~Folded and put away 2 loads of laundry
~Did not listen to a talk...folded the laundry in spurts and it wasn't quiet enough to listen to anything
~No muffins made
~Took the kids outside for several hours while visiting with Sarah and kids
~No chore list made
~Made it to chiro, Bobs and Kmart
~All the usuals done!


So for today's goals:
~Walk 1 mile
~Shower
~Fold ALL the remaining laundry
~Make muffins
~Make chore chart for the girls
~Get the kids outside if it doesn't rain
~Return kids library books and get more
~The usuals!