Written by admin on March 5th, 2014
Lent started today and we’re hoping to have a good Lent, maybe even start a few new prayer habits by the end too.
This morning John and I walked to Church to attend the 9AM Mass to receive our ashes. John is finally old enough to not freak when seeing those ashes on my forehead. As a baby he cried when he looked at me with ashes on my forehead. As a toodler, he couldn’t even look at me. As a 3 yr old, he just asked that I wipe them off quickly. This year, he’s good with the whole thing. Whew…another milestone reached!
There was a little guy about 15 months old at Church with his mother this morning. I watched him react to his mother having ashes on her forehead. He was totally fine. He was even reaching out to touched them, then he’d pull back and giggle. That was so not John’s reaction at that age. John acted like Dave & I each had a tarantula sitting on our foreheads about to pounce on him. Good thing I had baby wipes with me because we both had to wipe our foreheads before he stopped spazzing.
Ah, the memories of Ash Wednesdays past.
Posted in Catholicism, John, Lent | No Responses »
Written by admin on January 6th, 2014
Others in the blogging world have done this…picking a word for the year. I thought it might be an interesting exercise and as soon as I thought this, a word popped into my head: JOY! I am not predicting my whole year will be filled with joy, but instead I think I want to cultivate joy in my life. Smiling, laughing and seeing joy around me is what I want to do this year.
I especially want to be more joyful around Dave & John. A four year old can be trying at times and instead of turning to my old stand-by…anger…I want to at least try to turn things to joy.
So my goal this year to is live it out as joyfully as possible.
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Written by andrea on January 2nd, 2014
Happy 2014!
Yesterday we had all sorts of great plans. We got up early so I could make breakfast and then we could attend Mass. About 3 minutes after we awoke, John got sick and changed our plans for the day. Instead, we spent almost the entire day hanging out in the living room tending a sick little boy.
John has gotten 4 of these nasty stomach bugs in his four years and each one he’s managed to beat in about 12 hours. He’s sick as anything for most of the day, then he falls asleep late in the evening for about two hours and awakens chipper and ready to go. He did the same thing yesterday. And today he’s eating normally.
God Bless!
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Written by admin on February 28th, 2013
Feb 14th was the feast day of St. Valentine. We “celebrated” by having a special dinner and putting out a few special decorations.
I made a pretty little garland from some glitter covered cardboard hearts and some pink ribbon. I bought the hearts at the dollar store for…$1 (duh) and I had the ribbon already. So a lovely little decoration for cheap!
For dinner, we had a heart-shaped meatlaof, mashed potatoes and broccoli.
John and I made Valentine cards for Daddy too.
Posted in 3 yr old, Catholicism, Feast Day, Homeschooling, John, Kid Craft | No Responses »
Written by admin on February 28th, 2013
I am wishing like crazy for Spring! A bunch of the blogs I read are posting pictures of pretty spring bulbs blooming. There are even discussions of gardens already. We’re like 3 months away from gardening time. And spring bulbs are at least 3+ weeks away. Late February and March always finds me pinning for color and vegetation.
Posted in Gardening/Farmers Markets | No Responses »
Written by admin on February 28th, 2013
-loves playing with small construction vehicles in a 9×13 baking pan filled half-way with cornmeal
-relentlessly bothers the 17-year-old cat, who is dumb enough to keep coming back for more
-wishes like crazy that his plastic tools were real
-still takes a blissful 1-2 hour nap everyday!!
-loves to sit on our laps for stories
-can’t hold a pencil, paintbrush, crayon, marker properly for his life…still uses the fist grab
-will taste and eat just about anything placed before him (THANK YOU, LORD!)
-loves being tickled and wrestling with his Daddy
-enjoys putting together puzzles, with his Mommy
-enjoys watching Curious George
-is a wonderful, happy, bright, little boy
Posted in 3 yr old, John | No Responses »
Written by admin on February 22nd, 2013
In the past, I have NEVER finish doing a top to bottom “spring cleaning” of my house EVER! I really wonder who does. Over the years, every room has gotten “spring cleaned”, but never every year and never every spring. I think my problem is perfectionism. I suffer from this problem that if I can’t make it perfect, I don’t finish and it weighs on my mind for eternity. So I have perpetual spring cleaning guilt.
I might, just might, have stumbled onto a cure. For one, I started in January. For two, I made no list. You see, a list makes me feel like I have to complete everything on the list. If said list doesn’t get finished to perfection, I get discouraged and quit…with regret.
I have completely spring cleaned my son’s room. Did it in January! I am almost finished in our master bedroom and the living room. How awesome is that!!! I just walked into my son’s room, started moving around furniture, cleaning as I went, and before I knew it I was done. I had gone through every draw, found every lost toy that was hiding under shelves, the bed, the dresser. I had organized his toys. I had washed the curtains. I had dusted the walls and ceiling. It was awesome.
No list, that’s my new plan! The other part of the plan is to complete my house spring cleaning by Easter Sunday! I’m on my way!!
Posted in Homemaking & Recipes, Lent | No Responses »
Written by admin on February 5th, 2013
Good golly it sure has been a long while since I was last here.
Things are good. How are you?
Lots of stuff roaming around my little brain, but I haven’t put finger to keyboard to blog about anything for a long while.
I know I talk about this all too frequently, but spring cleaning is going to actually happen in the entire house this year! Promise! I decided that by Easter Sunday this house will be fabulous! Okay, maybe not fabulous, but it will at least be free of little dust bunnies everywhere. And I already have a head start! I am 80% completely done spring cleaning John’s room…already! Yeah, for me. All I have to do is wash his curtains and wash his bedding and I will be done in there! I even changed all his furniture around and it looks pretty awesome in there, if I do say so myself.
So I thought my cat (17 year old cat) was dying. He’s been kind of yucky for several months. He hangs out in the kitchen in a cardboard box and doesn’t do any of his normal stuff. I figure that he is dying. Nope, he had an allergy. Fantastic hubby figured it out. Allergy dealt with and Riley (the cat) is now acting like a 10 year old cat. He’s back to his old self. Honestly, I was getting use to him being quiet. But, my loud, obnoxious kitty who will go into “self-petting” mode by rubbing his wet little nose all over your hand if you are not actively aggressively petting him is back.
John is doing fantastically. He is a very active little boy. LOVES his tractors, trucks, tools and being read too. He does not like just sitting and looking at books anymore. He demands that someone “do the words” as he sometimes puts it.
We’re thinking about Lent. “Doing Lent” is heavily on my mind these days because I want John to get a better understanding of our liturgical seasons.
Hope everyone out there is doing well!
Posted in Homemaking & Recipes, John, Lent, News | No Responses »
Written by admin on November 1st, 2012
Our little family weathered Hurricane Sandy pretty well. We were prepared for a multiple day power outage, but thankfully our power never went out!! We finally came through a big storm with power…yoohoo!
The wind began gusting Monday around 4AM, picked up as the day progressed and calmed overnight into Tuesday. For us, the worst gusts were probably over 50mph.
We had one scary moment around 2PM though. There was a strong gust and suddenly the Hemlock tree, which stands about three feet from our home, fell. I was like it fell in slow-motion and landed in the only spot it could have fallen without doing damage. God’s hand was on that tree for sure! If it had fallen to the east, if would have taken out our living room. Falling to the north and it would have blocked the street. Directly falling south and it would have damaged the pantry and taken out windows. But instead it fell in a perfect westerly direction next to the house doing absolutely no damage whatsoever! What a blessing!
Our Idaho family is visiting and staying with Dave’s parents. Their power went out Monday around 6PM and did not come back until yesterday around 2PM. This causes some pretty substantial stress, but everyone was safe.
Our MA family did great and didn’t have any power issues or damage. Even our Manhattan family is doing fine. Their neighborhood came through unscathed from what I’ve heard. Another huge blessing from God!
Our prayers are with all those who did not fair as well and lost property. We also pray for the souls of those who lost their lives.
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Written by admin on November 1st, 2012
Last night was John’s first Halloween where he actually got to walk around and “trick or treat” for candy. We were joined by the Idaho cousins, B & MB, who dressed up as a black cat and lovely princess. We went over to Dave’s parents’ house and then went to a few of their dear neighbors’ homes for trick or treating.
John could not figure out this tradition. He kept asking what we were doing and was not too sure of why his cousin had black painted whiskers face on his face and a tail. The concept was very foreign to him. Then we left his grandparents’ house and walked, in the dark, across three lawns to get to a neighbors’ house, knocked on the door and said, “trick or treat”. John said, “why are we doing this?” We went inside the home and John was given several little candy bars. As we were leaving John says, “can we do that again?” Yup, he got the point!
We went to four homes, receiving plenty of candy for two 3 yr olds and a 5 yr old.
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