Random Bits

As I was about to nurse Cecilia down for her nap, she looked at me and said, "Don't bite me, Mommy. I'm not cake."

Cecilia can now pronounce the word "spaghetti." That is sad... no more "bleggy" here.

I spent over 20 minutes last night trying to turn on the Superbowl on my TV. Seriously. The first 10 or so minutes were spent just trying to figure out how to get a picture and sound... and when i finally did, it was stuck on Fox. I couldn;t figure out how to change the channel. I knew which number the Superbowl was on, but the remotes and various VCR/DVD buttons didn't help me get there. So I watched The Simpsons for about 15 minutes, since that was all I could do. I rotated the antenna to CBS in anticipation... and then, finally, I figured it out. I think I switched the VCR/DVD player over to DVD... or was it to VCR? And the receiver had to be on CD, not VCR, to get sound. This is what happens when you never watch TV, and when you do, you are trying to do it with a system comprised of a VCR/DVD combo unit, a receiver (for a stereo), a cassette player, a digital converter box (relatively new), an non-digital TV, and an antenna on the roof since we don't have cable. Chris says it will be easier when we get a digital TV one day... the channel buttons on the TV itself will actually have relevance. Imagine that! I haven't used the channel buttons on a TV to control what I am watching in about twenty years!

I have been Rickrolling Chris a lot in his car lately... it's his fault. He's the one who told me about the whole Internet phenomenon (and if you don't have any idea what I am talking about, watch this brief tutorial on Youtube), and if it has to do with one of my 80s Florida songs, well... that's just my kind of thing. He was just asking for it by telling me that one of my 80s Florida songs was now a big online joke. Since I have my 80s songs on CDs (or course!), I have the one with Never Gonna Give You Up on it in his car, and each time I use his car, I turn the radio up really loud and have the CD on that song, so the next time he starts the car, he gets Rickrolled. He doesn't think it is cute anymore. Yesterday, I Rickrolled myself. I didn't anticipate driving his car again before he did. But I was expecting it, and hey, I obviously like getting Rickrolled. Much to my delight, a few minutes later, Tuesday Morning Rickrolled me a few seconds after I'd walked through the door of the store.

Speaking of 80s songs and cars, I got to listen to several of my 80s songs CDs the other day when I went to my sister-in-law's baby shower. It was over an hour away, and then I drove an extra 20ish minutes to visit my brother while I was in the area, and then back home. I can't remember when I last drove that distance alone. I love to drive. I love to drive alone especially, because I can do things like blast my 80s music. Having my GPS in the car made it even better. My road map nerdiness has been taken to a whole new level of geekdom.

When we went outside to get in the van in the 30something degree weather this morning, Cecilia was carrying a small stuffed cat. "My cat is brrr-ing!" she announced.

I bought some spring and summer clothes for Caroline at a consignment sale this morning. In the afternoon, I had her try them on to see if they fit so that I would know that I'd guessed correctly at the sizes (it's always a bit tricky buying clothes of a variety of brands and who knows how they were washed/dried, so just buying a particular size doesn't always work). She tried on a white button-up shirt with a flowing skirt, and I felt a strange feeling like I was somewhere else... I think it was the first time that I realized that my little girl is growing up. She looked so tall and mature wearing clothes that didn't look "cute," but instead looked "pretty." I know that she has lots of growing up yet to come, though... but size 6 really appears to be about when the clothes begin to change from "cute" to "pretty" (or slutty, unfortunately... clothes shopping is about to get much more difficult in the next few years since much of the selection is pretty inappropriate!).

Thinking of Lent plans... here are a few rough ideas:

* the Stations of the Cross Box, of course

* crown of thorns made from clay (we made it today and will paint it at some point)

* a daily Lenten calendar, which I am envisioning as a hybrid between this and this

* giving up something: For me, I will give up staying up too late. Seriously, I am so bad about that. As a family, we won't have any desserts except for special feasts and celebrations, like Caroline's birthday and perhaps St. Patrick's Day or St. Joseph's feast day. I am also turning the idea around in my mind that we will give up on different types of bread and just eat our standard basic bread machine whole wheat bread instead of rolls, biscuits, oatmeal bread, etc. We'll also make pretzels a few times, I hope, and those will be a nice bread addition as well.

* hiding the Alleluia... it is not sung during Lent, so we will make a little plaque with "Alleluia" written on it and hide it until Easter Sunday

* Dinner and Stations of the Cross at our parish every Friday

* Attending our parish mission a few days... we'll miss the first few evenings because of travel

* our Lent/Easter books listed in my sidebar

* following Holy Heroes Lenten Adventure... we enjoyed the Advent Adventure!

* hot cross buns for Good Friday

* collecting sticks from the yard to make crosses on Good Friday

Celebrating Our Lady of Lourdes

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. It is the anniversary of the first day that the Virgin Mary appeared to a young girl named Bernadette near Lourdes, France. Mary told Bernadette to dig in the grotto where she appeared, and a spring bubbled up there. People travel to this same spring today hoping to be cured of their ailments. Our lady also requested that a church be built at the site, which it was.

To remember this day, we built our own grotto... out of rice krispie treats! I saw the idea here.

I have actually never made rice krispie treats myself... isn't that weird? We melted half a stick of butter with a bag of mini marshmallows... plus a few large marshmallows, because the bag of minis had already been opened and a few had been eaten... Did you know that Wal-Mart brand marshmallows have no blue #40 in them? What, you didn't know marshmallows usually had blue #40 in them? That is why I rarely bought them before... until discovering that the Wal-Mart brand doesn't have any dyes. They still aren't good for you; I'm not deceiving myself here... but it is one less icky ingredient in them. As a side note, our homemade marshmallows tasted great and were pretty easy, but I stuck with store-bought today.

I did vary the recipe a bit... I did not use Rice Krispies, nor did I use any Fruity or Cocoa Pebbles. I used puffed brown rice. Yes, I am a party-pooper. But hey, the marshmallows were plenty sweet already! So, they had a different consistency than the traditional recipe, but they still tasted good.

While they set in the pan, I read a page out of a Marian book to Caroline about Our Lady of Lourdes. Caroline wanted to act it out. I love her initiative on this kind of thing... she creates her own extension activities!

She built a grotto out of a blanket, and then she draped a playsilk over her head and tied a blue "feather boa" around her waist and picked up a rosary... and she was Our Lady of Lourdes! She wanted me to be Our Lady first while she was Bernadette, then we switched. The white fabric in the cave is the water.

"Cecilia is one of the people who came to see Mary after Bernadette told them," said Caroline. I think Snoopy and Rag Doll came for healing in the waters of the spring. ;)

Here's how we built the grotto. What it doesn't show is how I let them sit too long, and they were too hard to be pliable. If anyone else ever has this problem, I will tell you that a hairdryer works wonders. They were pliable and moldable again instantly! The project was saved! We put a little wooden Our Lady of Lourdes figure that I had painted inside the grotto and had a nice centerpiece. I like how the puffed rice looks... somewhat like actual rocks. I also used about a half cup of puffed millet, just to give a bit of variety. Upon telling this to Chris, he said, "Wow, you really take your grotto-building seriously!"

Caroline built another, non-edible grotto using wooden blocks.

Cecilia got caught up in the festivities as well, and walked around saying, "I'm Mary!" for a while before lunch. She said Snoopy was "Baby Jesus."

Up next... preparing for Lent. I can't believe Ash Wednesday is next week! We have a few things to prepare before then. I plan to make a Lenten calendar and maybe a few other ideas, and I know Caroline will be excited that we'll be pulling out the Stations of the Cross Box again!

Messy Fun!

Er, I mean tactile experiences... these are just a few sensory activities I let the girls do inside. They are especially useful to do on very cold or rainy days when outside time is limited. Warning: these may take a while to develop the tolerance and patience to allow the kids to do them and not flip out over the mess. They did for me! Also, very close supervision is needed lest they get out of hand! Sensory activities usually calm kids down (Cecilia), but they can get some kids riled up after a little while (Caroline)! I don't allow wild play with these kinds of activities, for (hopefully) obvious reasons!

Dry rice - a huge bag of it poured into a Rubbermaid bin. The girls like to dig in it, fill up measuring spoons and those little medicine cups that come with liquid medicines... craft sticks to drag through the rice... they like to push mounds of it up to make "mountains" and that sort of thing. I put down a tarp first (the thing that goes under a highchair to keep food off the floor) and then dump the stray rice off it back into the bin at then end. Any rice on the floor gets eaten by the garbage can, with assistance from the broom/dustpan duo.

Yes, that is flour now, not rice. A tub of cheap white flour. Add some measuring cups, a plastic beaker from a Chick-fil-A kids meal, some spoons, and a couple plastic dinosaurs... voila!

It is really very messy... but of course, flour comes out with a few shakes and beating of the clothes. But then you will slip on your kitchen floor the rest of the day, even after sweeping. Maybe I should have vacuumed.

Finger painting with... chocolate pudding!!

The best part is that they can lick their fingers, too!

A tasty work of art!

How Mothers of Small Children Can Pray

Thanks to Kris for telling me about this great article! Especially for moms of young children or larger families, this is a wonderful reminder to us when we feel like our prayer life may be lacking.

A Mother's Liturgy of the Hours

They're Playing "Our Song"

So, I thought this would be fun... anybody who wants to, leave a comment if you and your spouse have a song... whatever that means. You know, when couples say, "Oh, this is our song!" upon hearing it playing on the radio. Or write about it on your own blog and leave me a link.

My husband and I don't really have a song... although last night, I remembered that I had decided that we had a song, only I hadn't told him! Weird, yes, I know.

I decided it was "our song" because I heard it a couple times when we were dating, and I think Chris had it on his computer... and then, I decided it was definitely our song when we heard it on the radio at least one night while returning from our childbirth classes while pregnant with Caroline (I think we heard it on two different nights after our classes... I have a terrible memory about some things, though!).

So here's the song:

Gosh, as a side note, why were so many musicians just icky-looking in the 70s and 80s? Why is that?? Were there any attractive musicians in the 70s and 80s whose music I like? Any at all?

Last night, I finally thought about it and told Chris, "You know this is 'our song,' right? Then he informed me, "You know they (the members of Badfinger) all hated each other and killed themselves, right?" We looked it up on Wikipedia, and sure enough, two of them committed suicide, many years apart from each other, but both because of issues with their music. That's cheerful, no? And after they'd had much success and number one hits, some of them ended up laying carpet and insulating pipes just so they could support themselves and pay the bills. I would have thought that any musicians who'd had a few top hits would be set for life financially, but apparently many of them made bad decisions or got taken advantage of by their managers or... killed themselves. Maybe because of their financial failings despite having made it big. Depressing.

So, I'll just be pretending I don't know all that and just enjoy the song when I hear it!

Anybody else want to share what "your song" is? Hopefully yours makes more sense than mine! ;)

A Luncheon Tea for Candlemas

I have been eyeing the liturgical year teas at Cottage Blessings, and I thought that this one for Candlemas, or the Presentation of the Lord, sounded easy enough that I could pull it off as a first try at a liturgical tea. I invited my friend Beth to bring her children, and we put together a luncheon tea to celebrate the day. We have been having such fun getting together to have Catholic celebrations, and this was a first-time try at doing something for the liturgical year on a weekday. We have done a few things on weekends with a couple other families as well, and it looks like we're going to have to make it a regular occurrence! It would be lots of fun to have some sort of party each month for our families, and then maybe also something just for the kids on another day. Beth is hosting a Saint Valentine's party in a couple weeks! :)

Yesterday, Caroline and I worked on a little craft to prepare. I found this dove pattern online and was thinking it would be fun to make two turtledoves out of felt... but I didn't have any felt that wasn't green or orange or red or... anything but white or grey! So we just made them out of paper instead. One year we'll make them from fabric!

We used embroidery needles and thin string (yarn was far too thick; I tried that first!). This was Caroline's first-ever time sewing. She did a great job!! Sewing paper for a first time at sewing worked out pretty well... I was impressed with how well she was able to make stitches! She got tired of it after a few inches, but I thought that was to be expected for a four year old, right?

She also decorated her turtledove before she sewed the sides together.

Then we stuffed them with cotton balls so they'd be three dimensional.

Here are the completed turtledoves!

We set out our homemade nativity, as this is the last day that the infant Jesus is mentioned in the gospel readings (the Pope keeps his nativity out through today's feast!), the book Mary, Mother of Jesus open to the page about the Presentation, and...

this little clock, which has a picture of the Presentation in it! I randomly found this over the weekend, in Fred's, of all places. I never go in that store, but there was something in the weekly ad that caught my eye, and I happened to walk past a shelf with these clocks! What luck! If you click on the picture above, you can better see the picture of the Presentation.

I followed several of the recommended menu ideas from the original idea at Cottage Blessings... and came up with some variations as well.

On the menu:

pretzels, which represent Simeon's arms as they held the baby Jesus

baby carrots and hummus for the candles - Simeon said that Jesus was "a light for the Gentiles," thus the tradition of the blessing of candles on this day

Okay, so use your imagination... the hummus is the flame. You didn't need me to explain that this was a candle, did ya? ;)

toothpick "swords," since Simeon predicted that Mary would experience sadness as if a sword had pierced her heart

strawberry "hearts" to be pierced with the "swords," along with whipped cream for dipping, the white representing Mary's purity

Chocolate marshmallow cookies to represent Anna, who prayed day and night in the temple and was there to see baby Jesus as well... the white marshmallow represents Anna because of her goodness and holiness, the black of the chocolate is because she was a widow, and the marshmallow stands on the cookie "floor," just as Anna remained always on the floor of the temple. Deep, no? I didn't make this one up! ;)

two turtledoves - peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cut into dove shapes using a cookie cutter

I made lots of turtledoves, since we were serving six children in all... and the grownups ate the scraps!

The table, all set and ready... I also made some raspberry tea, and chocolate almond tea for the grownups! We used Cecilia's leftover snowflake plates... this date marks the halfway point in winter. Halfway to spring!

Brianna and Caroline enjoy their lunch... Caroline had just stuffed a speared and dipped strawberry into her mouth, ha ha!

Leah, Kaitlyn, and Sam

Cecilia with her tea... I am not kidding when I say that she asked for more tea twelve times! Granted, these adorable tiny teacups only hold about a tablespoon at a time... aren't they so cute? Beth brought them for us to use for the tea!

And here are all the "big kids" finishing up their lunch. This was a fun idea, and I look forward to doing it again in the future! I think these teas will be a fun resource for years to come... I think it is a fun way for the older kids to begin to learn about Bible stories and saints! Thanks to the Johnstons for joining us and for providing strawberries, carrots, cookies, and teacups!

"How do you even find the door, you are so stupid."

That quote is what always comes to my mind when I watch Eat, aka 'Lorpie, the black Australorp hen, trying to figure out how to get out of the coop when the door is wide open. She paces back and forth frantically, looking through the wire, and she goes into the enclosed part of the house, and she even looks through the open door a few times, and still, she has trouble figuring out how to get out. The chickens love to come out, so as soon as they see us, they begin the frantic pacing in the hopes that we will come and open their door. 'Lorpie frequently has trouble getting out... she gets overwhelmed as soon as she sees that another chicken is on the other side of the wire, and she starts pacing again. When these videos were shot, the door opened up right beside the pond, which made it even more bewildering to her. She usually takes about three minutes to figure out how to get out, but this time, it took her nearly 20 minutes. All the other hens had walked right out with no problem.

As for the quote, my brothers will understand it... probably nobody else. It was from the sketch comedy show The State, and I know my brothers Mike and Tim would remember that line... it was from a sketch in which a big Italian family is having Thanksgiving dinner, and a teenage friend of one of them is at the dinner, and she's just very stupid, and the Italian mother makes this comment to her, to which she replies, "Yeah!" So it's not really funny at all unless you watch it... but I thought my brothers might appreciate the reference. Do you think we should rename her Sherrie?

The first video shows the not-so-bright chicken pacing...

...and this video below shows more of how she wanders back and forth and how the door is propped open, yet she just can't seem to find it and get out.

Daybook for February 1st

Outside my window... Caroline's "chicken house," which she rebuilt again today. Hopefully it won't rain on it tonight!

I am thinking... about how I can always tell when Cecilia is teething based on her sleep. If she has a tough night, or a really crabby day, I may wonder a bit what is wrong... and then, when I look in her mouth, it never fails: there is a red, almost bloody spot on her gums at the base of one of those mean ol' molars. The top molars first came through in November. We're working on two and a half months with these suckers... it's like they come in a bit and then stop moving for a few weeks before they do a bit more pushing through...

I am wondering... what to get Caroline for her birthday. Wasn't I wondering what to get her for Christmas when I last did a daybook entry many moons ago?
I am thankful... for a pro-life ad being on schedule to be aired during the Superbowl commercials!! Yay for Tim Tebow!

Learning at home... We've been doing winter and snow songs for Circle Time. Today, Caroline sewed for the first time... a few stitches with an embroidery needle through paper.

From the kitchen... just made some hummus and hot chocolate (not to be enjoyed together!! The hummus is for tomorrow!). We had butternut squash risotto for dinner... ohhhh, yum!
I am reading... blogs and the latest LLL magazine.To live the liturgical year... Lent is fast-approa

ching! I need to start getting ready for that. Tomorrow is Candlemas, or the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. We are hosting a luncheon tea for friends, based on this idea... it should be fun!!

I am creating... magnets for March, Candlemas luncheon foods, paper turtledoves with Caroline...

Around the house... we set out our February stuff today... I got out a couple Valentine's Day books. Candlemas is the official day to take down the

nativity. Ours got taken down early this year and I didn't feel like getting it back out again, but we have a few little Mary and Child figures (at least, I think they look like Mary and baby Jesus, but they are really just some random mother and baby from the Dollar Tree!)... tomorrow will be their last day to be out.
I am hearing... "Cry for Help" playing on Youtube, which is open in another tab, and the little movements of Cecilia over the baby monitor.

One of my favorite things... sleep. I really should do more of that since I like it and all.

A few plans for the rest of the week...

* Candlemas Luncheon Tea tomorrow

* Caroline has MMO on Wednesday, and I think I'll get Cecilia's 2 year photos made then

* Possibly attending a wedding shower for a co-worker of Chris's on Friday

* I'm attending my sister-in-law's baby shower on Saturday... she's due in March with a baby girl!

A picture thought I am sharing...

Caroline experiments with symmetry

sweet sisters!

Saints and Holy Days Magnet Box

I have been loving making our magnets and using them on the magnetic calendar to remember various feast days throughout the liturgical year. What I wasn't loving was the storage... I had little plastic baggies for each month, and they seemed bulky and just not easy to organize. So I came up with this idea...

I bought a pill box from the pharmacy section in Wal-Mart... this one has 14 compartments, and I needed one with 12... this is as close as you can get. I also got out some cardstock and my paper trimmer, a marker, and some adhesive corners for scrapbooking (double-sided tape would work here as well).

The pill box is labeled already to show the days and times which the medicines are supposed to be taken... so I stuck the adhesive tabs onto each one and then put a cardstock label on top, so now each compartment lid is labeled with one of the twelve months of the year. I can stack each month's magnets inside in order... they are well-organized and safe in this sturdy box!

Caroline was excited... the compartment lids are fun to open... press the little purple tab part, and they pop open! I even sat around playing with them for a few minutes, ha ha!

Random Bits

Today, Cecilia said the most unintelligible thing she has said since she was about 16 months old... "Me sie-ged." That means, "I'm excited."

For some reason I have been stockpiling snack crackers... I just counted, and we have NINE boxes of some sort of cracker snacks in the pantry. Okay, so two or three of those boxes were given to me, but still... that's a lot of snacks!! At least they are mostly whole grain, and hey, they won't go stale any time soon.

Caroline was watching a Richard Scarry video, and an elephant was plucking grass with its trunk and then putting it into its mouth. Caroline said, "Hey, he's eating snot!"

There are so many "trendy" kids' names out there nowadays... and before I say more, I don't want to offend anybody, so if I list your child's name, I am not talking about him specifically! I just prefer more traditional names rather than names that are newer... and maybe some of these are old names that have become popular again, I don't know for sure. There are so many kids named Tucker, Bronson, Jackson, Harley... okay, so maybe not Harley. I'm sure there a few Harleys out there though, right? Anyway, I just realized today that one day my daughters might be married to men who have these currently popular names, and so I better get used to them! I wonder how they'll feel as adults with these names... Tucker is cute for a little kid, but it sounds kind of odd on a 30 year old. Riley is a cute little girl name (probably a boy name too), but think about how it sounds on a 60 year old lady... it sounds like a last name, not a woman's name. Jackson may well be a family name, and it can be shortened to Jack, too... I shouldn't really talk though, because I like Dallas as a boy name... although I don't think I'd ever actually use it. And I knew a delightful little boy named Grayson in a preschool where I worked while I was in college.

Today Cecilia walked into the kitchen, where I was listening to an 80s music CD while getting breakfast ready. Her eyes widened and she exclaimed, "Never give you up!!" The song that was playing at the time was actually "Together Forever." So, I guess she can pick out the voice, or the style of the music?? Or maybe it was a coincidence and I am giving her too much credit regarding her musical giftedness! ;)

A funny phrase Cecilia has been saying lately: "for quick." It means that she just wants to do something else for a minute before, say, getting her diaper changed. As in, "I want nuh-nuhs for quick!" And just a while ago, she rubbed her eyes and said, "I'm tired for a minute."

Caroline built a "chicken house" yesterday. I can't figure out how to get the photos of it off my phone. For some reason, it says that they are too big when I try to send them, although I can send other pictures just fine. Whose idea was it to make the camera in the phone be able to exceed the size limits for sending the pictures?? Anyway, Caroline's chicken house: she propped up a bunch of boards and other random junk around the little table that is connected to their playhouse outside. Then she'd stick a chicken inside and block it in with a board. The house got quite elaborate, with another two tables pulled up to it to make additional rooms, and the sandbox lid forming a wall. Sally was the lucky chicken who got to live in it. Each time, she'd find a spot where there was a gap large enough for her to squeeze through or to hop over... it was funny that she didn't object to being stuffed through a little opening repeatedly when Caroline kept putting her back into the house! And then, the horror... she pooped inside her house! This was quite upsetting to Caroline, who had taken such care to build this lovely little vacation home for a chicken ungrateful enough to get the floor all dirty! ;) But it was really good to see her so busy with her task, dragging boards across the yard, being active and imaginative.

Yesterday, Cecilia told me while I was changing her diaper, "I have blue eyes. I have not brown eyes."

Tonight, we had breakfast for dinner - omelets and pancakes, mmm! As I was clearing away our dinner dishes, Cecilia said, "Bye, bye, pancake. Sleep well!"

Does anybody else's kid do this??? Caroline offers Cecilia a choice: "Cecilia, do you want Ensa (Caroline's baby doll) or Una (a stuffed bear)?" Then, when Cecilia chooses the one Caroline wanted, she gets upset! I keep trying to explain to her that if she offers two things to Cecilia, they need to both be things that Caroline is okay with giving up to her at that moment! Apparently, Caroline is hoping that Cecilia will pick the unwanted item each time... and it never happens, of course! This scenario occurs at least once a day!

Cecilia keeps talking about going to the "moosum," so I guess we need to schedule a trip to the Creative Discovery Museum sometime soon! She probably doesn't remember going before, but Caroline keeps telling her about it.

Hubby and I watched Back to the Future one night earlier this week. I'm calling for another date night tonight for Back to the Future II. The 1980s in all their glory!! I love the first two movies, but Back to the Future III was a bit lame, in my opinion (okay, the first two were sort of lame as well, but not quite in the same way...). Popcorn, hot chocolate, and a movie... that sounds good to me, and so I am off!