The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies

Around this house the dance of the sugar plum fairies refers to the kiddos and a tendency known as ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). This only kicks in after the enormous consumption of sugar and it always seems to coincide with a visit from Grandma!No, I am not exaggerating. No, this is not the only thing she brought. No, I am not complaining! Thanks to Grandma, who came to visit last week, our pantry is brimming, the kids are on the ceiling(but staying out of trouble), and I've gained five extra pounds.

To hear her say it, "Sweet kids deserve sweet treats." To hear me say it, "Yes, Mom. Actually I am getting low on milk and eggs. Well, I'm going shopping on Friday, but if you don't mind picking it up and bringing it in, that would be great! Well, I'm low on bread too, but I don't mind whipping up some. Okay, thanks, bread would be great. Salad? No, I only have some celery left. Okay, salad sounds good. Well could you throw in some fruit? Whatever is on sale. Nope, we're good on chips. Wait, we have absolutely no sugar in the house. Yes, could you please bring me lots of empty calories. I'm dying to go up a size in my pants. No, leggings are the in thing this season and the kids haven't had a cavity in a year, so if you don't mind could you please buy out the candy section? Thanks. Okay, see you in a couple of hours. You're the greatest!"

Actually, I just love to give her a hard time. She really made our day. The truly sad part is that there is only a little bit of cereal left and one bottle of soda. Well, there may be two or three Rice Krispies left.

Did I let the kids have any? A little.
Here is everyone outside the Cracker Barrel after a delicious lunch and much anticipated time together. Thanks, Mom (and Dad) for spoiling us.

Boredom is the Mother of all Invention

Bubbles invents a pulley system to alleviate the tedious task of carrying games and snacks up and down the playset. Lazy or genius??
Prez seeks inspiration from a higher source. Mama asks for protection from THE higher source.

Preparing for Confirmation

Bubbles is currently preparing for her Confirmation. There are many good books out there to study, but my ten year old is more of a hands on type. So, I decided to take the necessary information and break it into bite-sized pieces to study using a scrapbook. Some of the pages I have given her graphics to use (like this Confirmation guy below) and other she has created all on her own.

It has definitely been a lot of work, but the information is sticking. That makes me happy. These are not all of them since it will be a year long project, but these are a few of them. I'm proud of her hard work and I hope you will enjoy them.
Confirmation means strengthening. A confirmed person has the obligation to spread and defend the Catholic faith through words and deeds.
A sacrament is an outward sign initiated by Christ to give us grace. There are seven sacraments.
Grace is a free and undeserved gift from God that helps you live as a child of God and helps you fight temptation.
The Bishop is the one who usually administers the sacrament of Confirmation and he uses oil saying, "Be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit." He will lay hands on her head and bless her with the sacred chrism. We learned that in the old days, the Bishop would give a little slap on the cheek as a reminder that in our duty to share the Gospel we will also share in Christ's cross.

The first outpouring of the Holy Spirit came to the apostles during Pentacost when they were gathered in the Upper Room. Through the gifts given to them, they had the courage and ability to go out and preach the Gospel of Christ--3000 converts were counted that day! That's some good preachin'!

Feast of the Chair of St. Peter

I know that this was days ago, but that's what happens when your backyard gets torn up, your toe gets hurt, and your baby is teething you're me...I'm always behind.

Anyways, this special feast day celebrates the special role of St. Peter in the church. Christ called him out of the apostles, renamed him, and entrusted to him the role of leadership after Christ himself had ascended into heaven. Peter finished his ministry in Rome, the center of the Western World at the time when he was Bishop there and led the growing church. His authority is passed down and has had an unbroken passage since the beginning of the church. We still have a Bishop in Rome and his special name is the Pope. So, naturally we prayed for our current pope, Pope Benedict XVI.

I had super big plans to decorate a table chair, create a chair to represent, and/or play musical chairs, but these all didn't happen. We were able to discuss this great man and his readiness to answer the call of Jesus and put his trust in him again and again. The above picture shows Peter and his friends putting down their nets after a night of hopeless fishing and catching an enormous amount of fish. I helped Prez color some of this, but I love what he decided to have Saint Peter saying when he pulled up his net.

Even though we know that Peter was told by Christ that he would be catching men, not fish (meaning he would be a disciple who would win many souls for God), we still add fish in honor of St. Peter. Every kid's nightmare is to have a tunafish casserole with peas no less, but that is the only fish I had and you just don't run to the store in these parts. So, with a little sacrifice and a lot of complaining, it made it down. Thanks be to God!

Cool Cuts for Kids...a franchise or a mindset?

Last year, during my very sick pregnancy, I took Prez to get his haircut at Cool Cuts for Kids, a franchise salon. The draw is that the kiddos can choose to either watch a movie or play a video game while getting sheared. Prez decided this was way cooler than sitting at home letting me nip his ears. Unfortunately, there is no local Cool cuts for Kids way out here, well, that is until I borrowed Bubbles' DS. Prez is just as happy and I can't believe I never thought of this before.
Showing off his new haircut. It's amazing what you can learn from youtube.


The many faces of Prez, our precocious four year old!

The family that denies personal space is the family that stays together?

Just some recent shots at my aunt's 50th birthday celebration. Sweetness is being loved on by many, many relatives and the kiddos took advantage of my empty lap. I, of course, LOVED it!
Where is Sweetness you ask? Being passed around of course. I couldn't resist this picture opportunity though. It's no secret how very much they love adore their Dad.

like father, like son

This was taken before Prez got too hot and the shirt came off. Did I say hot??Oh yes, we were blessed with 70 degree weather this past weekend. With all the sunshine and all the hard work, I am officially out of popsicles. That sounds so weird to say in February!

When the going gets tough....

In the midst of the home improvement plumbing project, I decided it would be great if I tripped on a case of soda and jammed my toe. At least I am hoping that it is jammed and not broken. You can see the bruising on the left coming down from the pinkie toe. I'm hoping that by putting it up and staying off of it for awhile will help. This is one thing I could use prayers for. Thanks.

It's a Mole, It's a Badger, No...it's a home improvement project

If you've been wondering why I haven't posted in awhile, the reason is below. Thanks be to hubby and his amazing ability to solve ANY problem, we now have fabulously new plumbing. When we purchased this old house it was perfect for us because not only did it have the space and yard we desired, but it was going to allow us to practice home improvement projects. It has certainly come through for us. So, after a week of Septic companies and plumbers, not to mention a ton of time on youtube, Hubby went at it. I am PROUD to admit that he is AMAZING!

Leveling ditches for the new pipe.
Torn up porch to get to cracked pipes. What a MESS!

Say What?

During breakfast this morning...

Prez: "Thank you for choosing Life, Mommy."

Eyes widen, jaw slightly drops: Mom: "Well, you're welcome, honey."

Prez: "It's my favorite cereal."

**Usually the kiddos get to choose the cereal, but last week I chose it because I saw it on sale.**

Too much of a good thing?

Have you had enough, yet? We can't seem to get enough of Sweetness. Don't you just love that grin? Don't you want to squeeze her and love her and try to make her laugh? Welcome to our world!

Sometimes few words are necessary

I think the only appropriate thing to say is, "Awwwwwww!"

You Fiery-Eyed, frog toed, foot licker!

Well, our study of History has intersected with the life of William Shakespeare. I decided to focus the whole week on him, rather than do a fly-by mention of this great playwright and poet. So, before you are photos of Bubble's lapbook.

A lapbook is a pretty new "it" thing in homeschooling. It is a creative way to study a subject in depth by putting lots of information into small, foldable books to create one keepsake book about your subject. I particularly like to use them as a way to encourage good research and practice our summarizing and main idea writing. Bubbles likes them, most of the time, because the writing is done over many days and them compiled together. So, here is our introductory tribute to Shakespeare.
Bubbles used the outside flaps to list the many "hats" of Shakespeare. On the large, inside square, she wrote a bio summary. Prez colored the bust shot and it made him prouder than a peacock that she decided to use it.
The flapbook on the left is a timeline. Each flap opens up to reveal what special event took place at that time. The scroll on the right gives examples of the many different spellings that the Shakespeare name has been recorded. We discovered this was due in most part to the way people spelled back then--not many spelling rules--spell it how it sounds.

These little matchbooks and flap books were learning about poetry in general and also specifics of Shakespeare's poetry.
This was more poetry and exploring the ways that Shakespeare has influenced the English language. There are some great websites out there with lists upon lists of how many times he used a certain word, how many phrases he coined etc. The insult generator was Bubble's favorite. The one in the subject line is an example of being insulted Shakespearean style.
Here, I decided to expose Bubbles to just one of his many plays. With Saint Valentine's Day being so close, I decided on Romeo and Juliet. I read her the plot of the play, which I found in storybook form(but it used many of the lines from the play) and she drew her favorite scene. Prez's favorite scene was the fight scene, of course, between Tybalt, Mercutio, and Romeo. The envelope book contains her writing assignment that week. She had to create a story that told of our the Capulet and Montague rivalry had begun. The dolls are Elizabethan Era outfits.
The last page was a compilation of fun facts which included Shakespeare's nickname, The Bard, his family's coat-of-arms, his epitaph, various quotes from Romeo and Juliet, and a chart of insults used to generate Shakespearean language insults. All in all it was a lot of work, but well worth the time spent.

I focused heavily on research and writing that week, but did have her memorize a sonnet and a few lines from Romeo and Juliet. For Science I wanted to do something with bacteria since the Plague forced all play houses to close for two years, which led Shakespeare to write and publish poetry. (Plays were not written for literature or published as such and only made money when they were performed. Needing cash, Shakespeare began writing sonnets and having those published). Well, I didn't have any petri dishes and we had enough to do, but hopefully I'll get my act together and set that experiment up later.

More Saint Valentine's Day Stuff

Well, I found the camera!! Yipee. On the other hand, I mistakenly lost all the photos as I was downloading them. Which is exactly what happens when your four month old doesn't sleep ALL DAY thus resulting in no rest for you. There was a really great photo of Sweetness in her Valentine's Day outfit, but I guess I'll put it on her again and take another photo at another time. Sorry, Aunt Tina.

As for the picture below. You saw how we spent most of our day yesterday, but this is how we started it...loaded with sugar! Hey, we needed energy for all we had planned. I say the only thing missing was the Whipped Cream.
Below is a picture of the treat left for Hubby and me by Bubbles. For only being ten, she is so aware! The coolest thing was the prep work. She and her sleepover friend made the roses on Friday night then hid them from me. Also on Friday, Bubbles had gone to her Rosary making group after Mass and a friend had given her a baggie full of chocolate covered cherries...Hubby's favorite. She saved them all for him. I just think that is the COOLEST!
Well, I hope everyone else had a great day too!

Happy Saint Valentine's Day

In the spirit of love, and since we didn't partake in the homeschooler Valentine's Day party this year, we decided to spend our day making treats for people in our community. We asked the parish secretary last week for the name of someone who was in need of cheering up. So, with name and address in hand we proceeded to bake. Bubbles made sure to add the extra TLC. Above are my favorite, melt in your mouth, candy cane cookies. I decided to omit the crushed candy cane on top and shape them into hearts rather than canes. Unfortunately for my ever growing post baby shape, they were just as delicious.
These are some homemade whoopie pies that Bubbles begged me to allow her to make for Hubby. They turned out DELICIOUS! The cookies are very flat, unlike a traditional whoopie pie, but somehow they didn't lose a single bit of spongy, light, moist goodness. She dyed the filling pink in honor of our beloved Saint Valentine. We also decided to add some of these to our delivered treats.
In addition to our parishioner in need of cheering up (his cancer has returned; this time in his bones), we decided to pay a visit to our neighbors who are always looking out for us. They all adore Sweetness as well and love her visits. So, a few hours of baking and card making, we were on our way.
Here is a picture of one of our neighbors and her daughter, who was visiting. Just three weeks ago, she brought over some homemade pumpkin bread which was devoured in a matter of hours.
Our final stop was at our parishioner's home. They knew we were coming and had the great time with the kiddos. We got to learn a lot about them and we will try to remember them in our nightly prayers. The kiddos had the best time playing with their THREE dogs. Naturally, all I hear is that they desperately want a dog--as if they hadn't told me that before.

Well, I have more pictures to post, but first I have to find the other camera. Whoops! I hope you all had a great day as well. We LOVE that you guys are such an important part in our lives and we LOVE God for his continued blessings.

For you Aunt Kimi

Not only have we learned how to grab a toy and hold onto it; we have chosen a favorite one. Look at her go to town on Sophie, her giraffe. Thank you, Aunt Kimi, for such a thoughtful gift!

My latest time consumer

I thought you might like to see something that took up WAY TOO MUCH of my time. I painted this plaque for our neighbor as a thank you. He has been a tremendous help to us, especially at Christmas, when he handcrafted a tool bench for Prez. He would only let me pay him for the supplies. Once I get it stained, I'll post a picture of it.

Anyways, he is a Razorback fan so I thought he might like to hang this in his woodshop. I purposely didn't fill in the white space with cute little designs or Woo Pig Sooie stuff since it is for a man, but I'm pretty satisfied with how it turned out. On the other hand, Hubby thinks it's a little confusing. He read it: I Am Hog. I wanted it to be read: I am A hog. Oh well. I had fun doing it and it was well received by our neighbor.

We all have God given talents, but only some of us....

have a God-given Mohawk. Eat your heart out, Mr. T.

Superbowl Sunday

I know this is late, but I thought I would share with you some of our pre-game festivities. This was the snack since Hubby and Bubbles went to a Superbowl party at the church that night where dinner was served. They are sliders with homemade onion straws. All of it was a copycat idea from the pioneer woman, but I did have to adjust it a bit since I didn't have a few of the ingredients (and running to the store is not really an option).

They turned out delicious though. The recipe is super easy and I hope you have the same success we had. By the way, Bubbles was hoping Green Bay would win. She even made herself a green and yellow hair band to match her green shirt. I wish I had taken a picture of it.

Onion Straws:

1 large onion, sliced very thinly

2 cups of buttermilk

2 cups of flour

1 tablespoon of salt

generous amount of fresh ground pepper

cayenne pepper if desired

oil

Slice your onions and soak in the buttermilk for at least an hour. Heat your oil to 375 degrees. Mix the flour with the spices. Dip your onions into the flour until coated. Fry them until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Prez and his shenanigans

"Sweetness, Sweetness. It's okay. Mommy's coming to get you. Don't cry. " says Prez.

"You know she can't hear you, right?" says Bubbles.

"I know, but I can hear me and I feel better now." says Prez.

Prez: "Mommy, I'm a man now!"

Me: "Really? How's that?"

Prez: "Ha-ha. I have a beard. Will you help me tape it on?"

Food for ....the sheer pleasure of it

Just a sampling of some of the AWESOME food we've been enjoying these days. The potato soup is a signature dish of Bubbles. Prez actually requests it from her. It is so rewarding to have her prepare the meal and serve it. You go girl!