Journal: Easter 2016 (and lots of pics)

TODAY

Out my window:  Sunny and gorgeous.  The kids have the day off school and have been playing outdoors since we got home from our lunch out (see below) and errand eggstravaganza.  Funny though, less than 36 hours ago when I looked out my window we had about 4 inches of snow and the most beautifully (albeit odd) white Easter landscape you could dream of.  Yup folks, after a winter of literally no snow, we woke up to a white Easter. 

Around the house: I have this little space in our dining area, between the cabinetry and the deck door, where we have a rounded corner shelf mounted on the wall, below which is the prefect place to tuck our three drawer cabinet for craft supplies and legos (things used at the dining table).  It is one of my favorite spaces in our whole house (weird, I know) because a.) I am able to get so much bang for my buck space-wise, and b.) because the little shelf-top is the perfect place for our liturgically-themed items.  It is a place we see often (most of our prayers are said at the dining table) yet it is fairly out-of-the-way.  Win-win.  Enough of that.  As I accumulate more items over the years it is fun doing things for specific liturgical seasons and days, and this year I was pretty pleased with what I came up with for the Triduum.  Top L-R is Holy Thursday and Good Friday, bottom L-R is Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday/Easter Season. The white orchid (artificial) has been stored in the basement for several years, I am so glad I found an excuse to pull it back out (and that I didn't KonMari it).

The kiddos: Hmmm, not much.  Here's some pics from their Easter egg hunt at grandma's.  We really don't do much to observe the more secular aspects of Easter around here (don't shoot me, but the kids don't get Easter baskets or hidden Easter eggs or anything, shhhhhh, don't tell them that's a thing...) so it is fun for grandma to put on an egg hunt for them.

They were really excited to get to play in the snow Easter morning, and it was perfect conditions: wet snow, relatively warm outside, sunny.  I mean, the boys went back out in it after lunch barefoot.  BAREFOOT!  They built a few little snowmen in the morning, and then made a snow-blob with the remnants of said snowmen after lunch.  The snow-blob cracked me up.

In the kitchen: Today I took said children with day off on many errands and promised them a pizza date as well.  We went to Pizza Hut, and it was the kids' first buffet experience.  They had a blast!  Kolbe got two plates of pizza, a huge plate of vegetables (I know, right?) and then I think two or three more plates of pizza and dessert.  Clement got his dessert first (and last), and Gemma marveled numerous times that it seemed very wasteful to get a new plate each trip to the buffet. She also said she thought we should just stay there forever (um, is my cooking really that bad?) and asked me why I didn't order any wine.  Whaaaaaaa?????  It was lunch!  Barely noon!!!  Add to that the fact that we rarely eat out and I know for a fact I have never ever ordered wine when out with the family (and also don't make a habit of drinking at lunchtime).  And last time I checked, Pizza Hut's wine-lists wasn't all that stellar.  Where does she get this stuff? Gave me a good chuckle.

Learning:  The big kids both went to Holy Thursday and Good Friday Mass/services with me and Aaron respectively, and all three kids and I went to Stations on Good Friday.  I am hoping maybe we can go to both aforementioned Triduum services as a family next year, it has been years since I went on Good Friday.  The kids asked about the Easter Vigil, but right, wrong or otherwise, I just wasn't feeling it.  So long, so late, so past bedtime after two nights at Church past bedtime already.  Some year.  My point in putting this in the "learning" category: I just love LOVE that our Faith has such beautiful, meaningful rites and rituals that teach us so much about Jesus and our Redemption story.  

During the next few weeks we'll be doing Bible readings from the Via Lucis at the breakfast table.  I was really excited, for our Lenten Cross this year we only used our children's Bible for one of the forty readings, for the rest I just read straight from my RSV.  I love reading to the kids from the actual Bible.

Reading: Still working my way through Fire Within (Dubay).  Gemma and I are reading Caddie Woodlawn together, The Moffat Museum with the whole crew at the breakfast table, and Gemma is reading the Ramona Quimby and Betsy Tacy series' on her own.  No links today.  :)

Watching: Eh, not much.  Opening day is a week from today! But the Royals actually play Sunday evening.  Can't believe it's practically baseball season again.

Bringing me joy: Easter. Grace. Liturgy.  Incense. The Year of Mercy.  I am loving the Divine Mercy Novena this year. A pretty great end to errands today after a rocky start.  I love my kids.

Thinking about: 

Pictures to share: 

Family at Church after Easter Mass. Love all the bells and smells of the Triduum services and the flowers and brand-new Paschal Candle Easter morning. He is risen! He is risen, indeed!!

Journal: SB 2K16 (and aimless wanderings)

TODAY

Out my window: Nice.  The pear trees are beautiful, if not a bit past their peak and things are getting greener every day.  A bit of a cool-down over the weekend but overall the forecast is still beautiful Spring.  Lots of good outdoor time this spring break.

Around the house: I made some new chore charts for the kids and put them on the fridge.  They had some old ones in their rooms, but I have added a few chores over the past few months (Gemma has graduated from some of her chores and passed them on to Kolbe and moved onto new things for herself) and it was just time to be a bit more intentional about it.  Plus I updated the format as well.  I bought some fun stickers to mark off the squares and intend to reprint them weekly to keep some novelty going and also make tweaking them easier.  Wow.  I just wrote a whole paragraph about chore charts.  I am sorry.

 

The kiddos: Enjoying spring break...it's always a little taste of what summer vacation will be like.  Trying to weigh our options for screen time, we have scaled wayyyyyyy back on TV and it has been so.nice. Not that we ever watched a ton, but I will be honest it is such a sanity-saver at times with the five and under crowd.  But now that the kids are getting older, I don't know.  Ditch it all together (for the most part)?  Gemma is still happy watching preschool shows (Blues Clues, Clifford, etc.) and I just don't really want to navigate all the trashy tween TV out there.  And computer time.  I let Kolbe play "educational" sites twice weekly (Clement likes to watch and occasionally Kolbe shows him how to do something) but Gemma doesn't do any computer (at home) so trying to decide what will be best for all of them come summer.  I think we will stick with no TV during the week, as that has been great this school year but they don't exactly take well to mandated-quiet (reading) time and they (and I) need a midday break.  Sigh.  This hasn't really been about the kids.  Curious what screen-time looks like at other households with kids in the 4-10 range...

Back to the kids...we haven't done anything terribly exciting this week but we sat down and made a list of things we wanted to do last Friday and we've accomplished most of them and had fun too!: play at the park, fish fry, make protein bars, dinner with grandma/grandpa and cousins, birthday cards for the neighbor, crafting afternoon with our friend at the care home, donut shop, sheep shearing at the zoo, plant pumpkin seeds (I think we will wait until after the cool-down this weekend for that one) and we still have a dear friend whose husband passed away last month that we'd like to visit.  It has been a very good week.

In the kitchen: It has been a week to try new recipes!  

Sweet and Salty Chicken: Very tasty, a bit messy, but definitely worth repeating!

Bacon and Brussels Sprouts Pizza:  Good, I salted the Brussels sprouts and added some baby bellas. Next time I will ditch the bacon and use medallions of link Italian sausage and maybe add some thinly sliced romas. The ricotta cheese was a super-nice touch that I don't think I would ever have thought of.

Irish Soda Bread: A fun "treat" for St. Patrick's Day! 

Looking at pulled pork, a pot of Mexican chili, lasagna and meatless egg casserole to round out next week, with some leftovers in there somewhere as well.  ;-)

Learning: meh, it's spring break.  The kids have gotten very into origami and I am trying not to let it make me lose my mind.  The words "easy" and "origami" should never appear together in the same title.  Ever.  I took the week off with Clem's Letter of the Week and we will jump back in with Cc, Oo and Qq coming up the next three weeks.  Gemma has taken to pointing out places that are missing commas in children's books.  The apple does not fall far from the tree, folks.

 

Reading: Gemma and I are really enjoying Caddie Woodlawn together!

Watching: Aaron has gotten into this show called Forged in Fire. It is actually kind of interesting.

Bringing me joy: Confession.  Time with my family.  Snuggling with the kids in bed at the end of the day.  A fun, busy Saturday.  Gemma, oh  my she is growing up so much and parenting her is just such a joy.  She is turning into a real, rational person!  It is good.  So, so good.

Thinking about:

Pictures to share:  

DONUTS! (The one with Fruity Pebbles on top was every bit as disgusting as it looks.)

Journal: not much out of the ordinary

TODAY

Out my window: Cloudy, muggy, maybe some rain moving in. I hope, we could use it. The weather has been so gorgeous, and the 15 day forecast does not disappoint.  Early Spring it is in these parts.  We'll hope for no late freezes. Trees really starting taking off with the blooming yesterday and most things are budded out.

Around the house: Not a whole lot out of the ordinary.  Pulling out warmer-weather clothes for the kids.  Gemma needed a few new things, but not much.  Clem needed some new everyday shirts (as Kolbe was particularly rough on shirts at that age) and is growing out of his church pants, and I picked up a new pair of church pants for Kolbe as well but he doesn't seem to need anything else!  With the two olders wearing things for more than one season, and having hand-me-downs for Clem, I find myself buying a lot less clothes for the kids.  It's been nice.

 

The kiddos: Again, not a whole lot out of the ordinary.  Looking forward to Spring break, and then a small break for Easter after that, and then goodness we'll be counting down to the end of the school year!  We took everyone swimming at the Y this weekend and that was fun, I foresee using the water park a lot this summer. We need to get back in swimming lessons again soon.  Still thinking about Summer activities and what will work best for everyone.

In the kitchen: This week...pesto chicken with creamy parmesan rice and steamed broccoli; crispy chicken salads (yes, we have these more weeks than not); goulash with steamed something; leftover night?  I am cooking chili for 15 this weekend for my job.  Wish me luck, cooking for big groups still intimidates me because I find it really hard to know for sure how much to make.  Lucky chili is pretty easy to estimate.  Even so...

Strawberries were on sale for $1.29/lb this week and my kids will eat through almost a whole bag of grapes in one sitting if I let them.  I hate to limit them on fruit, I mean, it is healthy and everything, but I have found myself putting the brakes on more than once of late. 

Learning:  Clem has gotten really into doing preschool, and asks to work on things most mornings, sometimes for several hours if I can find enough to keep him busy.  He is meticulous like his big sis.  Still using lots from this program and always on the hunt for good booklists.  We are doing letter U this week.  He told me when he turns four (this summer) he will go to school like the big kids.......

Gemma has the class stuffed animal/journal for the next two weeks (she gets a bonus week since it's spring break) and will be Student of the Week when we go back after spring break.  Kolbe is student of the week this week!  To the right is Gemma doing her homework with "Tex" keeping an eye on things.

Reading: Still working my way through Fire Within and I have gotten into a good groove with daily Scripture meditation.  Pope Francis was a nice break from the heaviness of FW.  I need to find something else a little lighter to intersperse now.  The chapter on detachment is bogging down my brain, holy moly.  

With the kids...still working on The Moffat Museum at the breakfast table and Gemma and I are reading Caddie Woodlawn now.

Watching: Gold Rush finale.  Looks like there will be another season, with two crews in the Klondike and one in Oregon.  Not so sure about that... 

Bringing me joy: The little things.

Thinking about: Too. Much.

Pictures to share:  

Kolbe is a man of many hats.