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!!

Christmas 2015

This year our Christmas celebrations started on Wednesday when we had donuts delivered by a couple of Aaron's brothers.  Somehow this has become a tradition and the kids just love it, since clearly we don't get enough donuts every Sunday after Mass.  

Later that day we visited our friend Jean at the care home.  We stayed a little longer than usual, and she took us on a little tour around the place to show us all "her" Christmas decos.  That was fun.  I am so glad that we have built this relationship, it is such a blessing to our family and especially the kids.

When we got home the kids went over to our dear neighbor's for cookies and she had made them each a little pencil pouch.  Clem loved his so much he has slept with it every night with his little kitten zipped up inside.

That evening we went on our annual light-look.  We'd never waited until that late in the year to go.  Suffice it to say that the eve of Christmas eve is a VERY popular night to go out and look at lights.  But we had a really good time. Just don't check the gas mileage on our van.

Earlier in the week we worked on our annual ornaments for grandparents and godparents.  We decided to take a break from the salt-dough ones and did photo ornaments this year instead, I had picked up a pack at Aldi at the end of the season last year for super cheap.  This was a nice change in pace (read: sooooooooooo much easier and wayyyyyyyyy less messy). 

Christmas eve was a really quiet day this year (plans/obligations outside the house-wise that is).  Normally we celebrate with my inlaws that day, but apparently there were some scheduling conflicts so we had the day to ourselves.  We did some shopping in the morning (groceries and some last minute Christmas gifts the kids needed to pick up for me).  I'd be a liar if I said it was a great day.  It was actually a really long day and by evening the kids about had me to my breaking point.  Merry Christmas.  But we survived, we always do.  And the rest of the weekend was pretty good.

We finished up our Jesse tree!  This is such a great tradition, I just love it.  So, so much.  I am glad I finally got my act together and made something we can use year after year.  I like it a bunch.

Christmas morning we took our annual pictures in front of the tree.

The kids were particularly cooperative this year, so that was nice!  We did have one good outtake though.

Then we headed to Mass to celebrate the birth of Christ.  We grabbed a family pic afterwards.  Always amusing.  Here are the two we ended up with. Always amusing. Did I mention that?  Clem is clutching the aforementioned pencil pouch.

Then we arrived home and St. Nick had come!  How does he do that?!  (With a locked garage door and a mama who forgot to write the check for church.  Again.  Every year, same story.  Bahahaha.)

Opening gifts was really fun this year.  We were excited about the things we Santa found for the kids.

Gemma got:

1. a new backpack for school

2. an owl pillow that matches her bedding

3. a sticker book and the Violet books which she has gotten multiple times from the library and loved.

Kolbe got:

1. the much longed-for walkie talkies (I got cold feet on the motorola ones and went with a kids set, they seem to be a good fit)

2. a space puzzle and a similar sticker book to Gemma's (which he had also been pining for)

3. a hooded bath towel (our homemade ones are getting to be on their last legs, they have graduated to pool-use now) 

Clement got:

1. Ten Apples Up On Top (about which he was positively ecstatic, see picture below) and Tops and Bottoms (I only wish I had gotten the CD version, oh well)

2. a Thomas the Train 35 piece puzzle

3. Hi-Ho Cherry-O (I sprung for the vintage version and that was a good call)

All three kids got fleece Old Navy gloves in their stockings.  Gemma got the Chime Traveler chapter books, Kolbe got Blink (game) and Clem got a Poky Little Puppy Christmas ornament for the tree.

The kids both had homemade gifts for us from school (how did their teachers know that hand-print art is my absolute FAVE!), and this was the first year they had strong feelings about shopping for Aaron and me, so Aaron got some Royals swag and I got some kitchen items, including some new glasses as we have broken almost half of ours.  Would you believe Bed Bath and Beyond still carries the exact ones we got for our wedding?!  Now we have lots more to break.... The kids also worked really hard on homemade gifts for each other (completely their idea) and it was really sweet to watch them exchange those gifts.  Lots of perler beads and paper-made creations.  And a library book (bahahaha).  It was a fun morning opening gifts together and then playing some games.  

We had an enjoyable time with both extended families on Christmas afternoon/evening (my family) and the evening after Christmas (Aaron's family) and are actually having a quiet day at home today since the weather was too iffy to travel to see extended-extended family.  This post is too long to detail those with pictures and commentary, so I think it's time to wrap this up!  Merry Christmas to all!!

Journal: spring break

TODAY

Out my window: Cloudy and light rain.  Tuesday, yesterday and today have been chilly.  The ten-day looks awesome!

Clothing myself in: jeans, pink tank, turquoise T, grey 3/4 sleeve cardi

Around the house:  Getting ready to revamp our family pics on the living room wall a bit.  Currently we have an 11x14 family picture (that's 1.5 years old) and 8x10's of the kids (3) and Aaron and I (I).  We went this past weekend and had family pictures done at Portrait Innovations (which we'd never done) as they were running their free 16x20 special.  We got a picture I was really happy with, so our 16x20 should be in soon.  Which necessitated a new frame.  So I decided to try Hobby Lobby since that's where we've gotten our other frames.  They actually had a frame identical (just bigger) to the 11x14 one I have, so I was thrilled as I really like the frames we had, just felt like we needed something bigger.  There were two of this particular frame, and both were slightly damaged., one worse than the other.  So I grabbed the one I thought was doable and asked the gal about what it would take to hang it (wire kit).  I decided to mention the damage and see if there was any way they could discount it a bit (I would have been happy with 10-15%, and honestly I would have bought it as is, but still it was enough to be worth mentioning).  She said she'd ask a manager, and came back to say they could do a 66% discount if that would be OK with me.  OK?!!  I got a really nice frame for $14.95!!!  Pretty excited about that.  The current 11x14 frame I will use for a wedding picture in our bedroom that has needed a nice frame (for, ahem, almost 9 years).  

With the advent of warmer weather Aaron has been busy with yard projects, and is redoing part of the shed as the siding is rotting.  Our ornamental plum has seen its better days so he is going to take it out and plant a flowering cherry in its place.

 

The baby/toddler: He has started to do this funny stutter when he talks.  I don't think it is a problem, I think his mouth just works faster than his brain.  Lots of, "I want I want I want I want some more milk." etc.  Also, when he wants a lot of something he says I want "a lot a lot a lot a lot" and gets more intense with his voice as he goes.  It is funny.  He still has some funny, random night-waking issues where he gets very upset or has bizarre requests.  Not quite as bad as Gemma's night terrors at that age, but bizarre and sleep disruptive nevertheless.  AH parenting.

 

The kiddos: It's been a nice break in routine having Gemma home for spring break. The kids have been getting along and playing together really well this week, indoors and out.  It has been nice.  Lots of pretend play.  Lots of Gemma-led art projects.  A decent amount of reading.  It has been a nice week.  I will be ready for the change in pace that summer will bring here in 2ish  months.

In the kitchen: This week I made a really tasty stroganoff on Monday, sauteed green beans and applesauce on the side.  Tuesday was salads with crispy chicken.  My MIL bought us a really tasty balsamic vinaigrette from Sams (it is a Panera product) that was just fantastic.  We usually do homemade vinaigrette but man this stuff was good.  Wednesday we had a family dinner, but I was cooking for Father so made a white chicken chili (with enough for us today).  I also tried my hand at cheesecake for the first time and ended up making a regular and a chocolate chocolate-chip for us and Father (I'm just cooking for one this week with spring break) for the Feast of St. Joseph.  For Friday Alton Brown's Baked Stuffed Flounder with cheesy rice and asparagus for us and Baked Flounder in Lemon Soy Vinaigrette with asparagus and couscous for Father.  I need to hammer out next week's meal plan as soon as I am done blogging.  The only thing I've got so far is something with lentils, we have recently come upon an over-abundance of lentils.  

Crafting: Cheesecake?

Learning:  playtime and good books.

Reading: The usuals.  Enjoying Little Farm on the Ozarks (a continuation of the Little House books, following Laura and Almanzo and their daughter Rose to Missouri) with Gemma.  Looking forward to Be Saints!, which I purchased for G for her name-day on April 11.  I've also been getting some good picture book read-aloud titles from these lists from Sacred Heart Books and Gifts.  I've also been listening to some podcasts from The Read-Aloud Revival.

Watching: Finished up this year's season of Gold Rush.  Glad there will be another season!  Les Stroud has more bigfoot episodes coming up on Survivorman, and there is a new season of River Monsters on deck as well.  I'm sure we will watch our share of college basketball these next few weeks as well, and baseball season is right around the corner!!

Bringing me joy: Cooking.  Spring.  Spring break and a break in our regular routine. My dear hubby.  It is so nice being married to someone who I love to hang out with.  Chiminea fire and an enjoyable dinner guest last week.  Snuggling with Clem.

Thinking about: Discipline, of the "self" variety.

Pictures to share:  

This crew is ready for spring.  It's just too bad Clem lost his green aviators at Aldi less than a week after we bought them. :-(

Donuts after family pictures!!