Zookeeping 101

Menu Planning Monday

2012-01-30T17:12:00.001-05:00

Looking at the calendar, I see the Zoo has a busy week. Lots of doctor's appointments and a couple of activities to attend. On top of all the busy-ness, I have a nasty cold which I feel heading to the chest. Gotta just love this winter, first warm, then cold, all within a two hours. No wonder why people are sick around here. The menu is going to be very simple this week Nothing fancy and quite a few convience foods since I won't have the time to make a lot from scratch.

Monday
Chicken Patties
Macaroni and Cheese
Peaches or Apples

Tuesday
Crockpot Pork Roast
Baked Potatoes
Broccoli

Wednesday
Spaghetti with Sausage
Salad
Garlic Bread or Rolls

Thursday
Fend for yourself

Friday
Fish Sticks
Tater Tots
Applesauce

Saturday
Meatloaf
Sweet Potatoes
Green Beans

Sunday
Taco Bar
Tortilla Chips

What is on your menu when you have a busy week?

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

A change of mind

2012-01-29T23:53:00.000-05:00

I started seeing a chiropractor for some long standing chronic pain I have been having in my lower back and my right shoulder. Boy is my spine a mess! The chiropractor I see is affiliated with a medical doctor and is part of a Physical Medicine office, not just traditional chiropractic care. My first few times at the office, I was put through a gauntlet of tests.

I had the normal series of x-rays and found out I have a birth defect: sacralization of the fifth lumbar vertebra. This is where the fifth and sixth lumbar vertebrae are fused together and then fused to the hip bone, usually on both sides. In my case, the fusing is on the left side only. This explains a lot of the pain in the lower back that I have been experiencing. This proves that Richard and the children are not the cause of the pain. :) I injured my right shoulder about 10 years ago and since that time I have been having pain and mobility issues off and on. I always thought the pain was from the injury, but it is appears to be radiating from the misalignment of several of the neck vertebra. I also had peripheral artery testing, since pain can stem from issues with the vascular system. Thankfully nothing was wrong there.

Since my neck has been misaligned for such a long time, the shoulder muscles are extremely tight and causing strain on all parts of the shoulder. Part of my treatment includes trigger point injections of toradol. These are small injections of the medicine into the muscles, twice a week for 3 weeks. I have to say the muscles around the neck are feeling much looser and the shoulder pain is greatly diminished.

The practice also uses electrical stimulation and sonograms to help ease pain. I spend 12 minutes on a traction table to help stretch and loosen the spine and then have moist heat and an electrical stimulation devices put on the back and knee. After that I head to the table where the actual adjustment takes just a few minutes

I have to say my overall pain has decreased, I do not need to take a lot of OTC pain medications for pain anymore, the mobility of my shoulder is great increased, my lower back pain is manageable now, and the year long pain in my knee from a fall is gone. So while I use to believe in that chiropractic care really was unfounded and not a "real" medicine, my opinion so far has changed.

Of course this has come at the cost of a three times a week visits, which has crunched time for other things, but if I can relieve this chronic pain and increase my quality of life then this short term inconvenience will definitely be worth it.

What has been your experience with chiropractors? I would like to know.

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

A Thursday Funny

2012-01-19T09:00:00.000-05:00

Here is funny for you all to enjoy! It had my homeschool children laughing at the table so much I had to stop homeschooling for an hour. :)

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

PrepWise Wednesday -- Personal Care Stocking

2012-01-18T09:00:00.000-05:00

When you want to start stocking things and start to think about everything, you may get overwhelmed. You start to think: I need to stock up on food, water, soaps, medicines, cleaning supplies, and so many other things. So may start to think why bother, I just can't do it. I am telling you NEED to have a basic stock of at least a month, preferably three to six, maybe even a year. In the case of a natural disaster supply lines of food, water, and energy can be disrupted or even stopped for weeks or months while the infrastructure is repaired.

The most important rule when stocking is to stock what you use and use what you stock. If you know you can't stand beans, then don't stock them because you won't use them. They will go bad and you waste money. Then you will think having these emergency preparations is a waste of time and money.

A second rule is not buying everything at once. If you spread the purchases out over a few months, they will not expire at the same time.

An easy place to start is with personal care items like soaps, shampoos, and lotions. Make a list of what you use. Then determine how much you use in a month. Next you decide how many months supply you want to have on your shelf. Stocking can be done very cheaply or even for free if you coupon, use sales and store bonus cards. If you are not brand loyal or have special requirements, then it is very easy to do cheaply.

In most things I am not brand loyal, however, I have a family that has extremely sensitive skin. The children are all very prone to eczema. Any type of scent or harsh chemical causes flare ups that can take weeks to get back under control. To help with this, we can only use Dove Sensitive Skin Soap. Knowing this I am always looking for Dove coupons and sales. I purchase at the lowest price I can to keep my supply up to my goal amount of 36 bars on the shelf. (Eleven people using about 3 bars of soap a month for a 12 month supply).

For things like shampoos, figure out how many ounces of shampoo you use a month. In my family, Richard uses dandruff shampoo. His bottle lasts about 2 months. So we need to have 6 bottles on the shelf for a year. The bigger girls use a bottle a month between them. So we need 12 bottles for the year. We use much less conditioner with the girls so we only need 6 bottles for the year. The boys use a larger bottle every two months, so again we need 6 bottles. The little girls use a tear free conditioning shampoo, which only comes is smaller bottles. So we need to have about 20 of them for a year. (Once they turn 10 they will switch to the older girls shampoo so the numbers will change).

Then I make plan to spread out the purchases over the year so everything will have different experiration dates. You need to remember to "rotate" the stock so the older products are used first.

I use the same principles to figure out how much I need for the other personal care items we use. My personal care items include:

Soaps
Shampoos
Conditioner
Lotions for dry skin
Lip balms like Chapstick or Carmex
Facial Cleansing Products
Moisturizers
Toothbrushes
Toothpaste
Floss
Mouthwash
Razors
Shaving Cream
Deodorant/Antiperspirant
Anti Chafing Ointments/Creams
Baby Powder
Sunscreens
Sunburn treatments
Feminine Products
Diapers (when they were needed)

Take this week and put together your personal care list. Then use my examples and figure out how many you need to have on hand to survive for three months.

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Novena to Saint John Bosco

2012-01-17T23:52:00.000-05:00

Sunday begins the Novena in Honor of Saint John Bosco.

A novena is a nine-day period of private or public prayer to obtain special graces, to implore special favors, or to make special petitions. (Novena is derived from the Latin "novem", meaning nine.) As the definition suggests, the novena has always had more of a sense of urgency and neediness.

When we pray a novena to a saint, we usually begin nine days before their feast day, and end the novena on the day of the feast.

Fr. Don Bosco was a dedicated priest who took on blood-thirsty revolutionaries, the Italian government and his own archbishop in his quest to rescue the homeless children of Turin. This heroic priest’s undying belief in the boys he sought to help inspired them to fulfill their potential in the Catholic Faith. Don Bosco’s lifelong effort to save the children of the street became the foundation of the Salesians, one of the largest child care networks in the world.

These are the Novena Prayers I will be praying:

Oh holy patron of the youth, I come to you with sincere confidence in your closeness to Jesus. Saint John Bosco, I need your help, I need your prayers, I need your intercession to God for His grace to help me with…

(state your intentions here)

With your love of Mary, our Mother, pray for me!
With your love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, pray for me!
With your love for all those who suffer, pray for me!

Don Bosco, please pray fervently for the grace that I now ask from God our Father. In addition, please pray that I may have a sincere acceptance of the Will of God and a perfect trust in Him.

Our Father…
Hail Mary…
Glory Be…

Please join me in this Novena. If you are interested in finding more novena, please join Pray More Novenas. When you sign up with the site, you will receive notifications of upcoming novenas.
Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Menu Planning Monday

2012-01-16T23:53:00.000-05:00

Another week begins, after a productive weekend. This week seems like it won't involve as much running around as last week did. At least I hope so! Those run around weeks always leave me tired out.

Breakfasts: Cereal, waffles and a fruit
Lunches: Sandwiches, leftovers and fruit
Snacks: Graham crackers & peanut butter, carrots & ranch, hummus & crackers, grapes

Meatless Monday
Cheese Lasagna
Salad
Garlic Bread

Tuesday
Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Goldfish Crackers
Apple Sauce

Wednesday
Pork Roast
Broccoli
Carrots
Baked Potato

Thursday
Fend for Yourself, It's Boy Scout Night

Fishy Friday
Fish Sticks for the children
Baked Salmon
Macaroni and Cheese
Salad
Applesauce

Saturday
Mom and Dad Dinner Out -- Denims and Diamonds Dance with the KOC
Children -- Fend for yourself

Sunday
Pork Roast
Roasted Asparagus
Broccoli
Salad
Dinner Rolls

Have a wonderful, flavorful week!

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Still At It Sunday

2012-01-15T12:44:00.000-05:00

We did get most of the "room dump" completed in the girls' room. We even did some rearranging of the furniture. We are getting the room planned for when the five year olds will have to graduate to twin beds. I think plan should work.

All that is left is to complete in the room is the top shelf of the closet. It should not take long to complete. Once their room is completed after lunch, I am going to do a "closet dump" of the upstairs linen closet.

That particular closet has become disorganized over the past six months because of MY inattention when the children are putting away towels and the health and beauty items (the shampoos, soaps, and toothpastes). Time to pull everything out and reorganize it. I am going to pull out some of the older towels we use for rags and cleanups to free up space on the shelves. Then I am going to group the mouth care, soaps and shampoos, cold products, nebulizers and asthma meds, not to mention our box of ace bandages and assorted braces (from my oh so clumsy family, me included) together. Then it will all be put away in a logical fashion.

Once that closet is completed, I will be definitely working with those that put items away to make sure it stays that way this time.

Have a wonderful, blessed Sunday with your family.

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Sprucin' Up Saturday

2012-01-14T12:53:00.001-05:00

Today is cleaning day around the Zoo. We take Saturday morning to scrub the bathrooms, vacuum the downstairs and scrub the kitchen floor. In addition we vacuum and dust the bedrooms. Over all it leads to a busy morning around the Zoo.

Last weekend I had to pick a room in which to do a deep clean since the children seem to have a need to keep their rooms a total disaster. We did a "room dump" of the boys’ room. This week we stayed on top of the boys and their room remained presentable and only took a few minutes to clean this morning. I think the are getting the idea that a little cleaning each day, leads to less cleaning on Saturday. At least I hope so!

This weekend's room on the "dumping block" is the girls’ room. Thanks to a very messy teen and three extremely messy five year olds, it has become a disaster area. The eleven year olds contribute to the disaster by throwing blankets and pillows about the room. If you were to look into it, you would think a tornado blew through the room and would want to call the Red Cross for help.

Thankfully the normal Saturday cleaning up is now complete. Once lunch is over, the room dump begins. I promise to check in tomorrow. If I don't, please send out the search crews!

Have a wonderful day sprucin' up your home today!

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Thankful Thursday

2012-01-12T07:00:00.000-05:00

Today I am going post some things that I am thankful for in my life. I realized recently that I haven't been vocal enough lately about our blessings. I do not count Our Lord and God in these, because it only through him and from him, I have these earthly blessings.

First and foremost my husband, Richard. He has been a rock the past few years with the turmoil that has been going on in the family and extended family. He has allowed me to stay with Liz at the hospital, run back and forth to Virginia to help out Mom when dad was ill and then after his passing. Most recently he has been so wonderful in allowing me to travel to Virginia to spend time with Mom and run her around to appointments that need to be kept.

Second, is the blessing of homeschooling. Homeschooling has allowed us to separate from the strict schedule of the school system and allowed us freedom teach as we see fit and also allows us to have the flexibility to deal with life's emergencies.

Third, my children. Through them I am learning so much, even while I am teaching them. I see them growing and getting to know each other and their new life as homeschooled children.

Finally, my friends, both in real life and online. Each community to which I belong to adds a blessing to my life. This happens either through fellowship with like minded moms of many, or growing in my faith because of discussions and pointed questions, or even learning how to get out of debt and stay that way! I thank God for each and every one of you.

What are you thankful for today?

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Menu Planning Monday

2012-01-09T16:24:00.001-05:00

A bit of crazy week around here, plus we are trying figure out Liz's new diet so the planned meals just seem awkward to me.

Monday
Pork chops
Seasoned Noodles
Broccoli
Carrots

Tuesday
Spaghetti with meat sauce
Garlic Bread
Salad

Wednesday
Chicken Breasts
Baked Potatoes
Peas
Green Beans (Liz is not supposed to eat these)

Thursday
Fend For Yourself, Clean out the Fridge Day

Friday
Baked Halibut
Sweet Potatoes
Carrots
Salad

Saturday
Taco Bar

Sunday
Roasted Chicken
Seasoned Rice
Zucchini or Asparagus

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

The Ending of the Catholic Christmas Season -- Epiphany

2012-01-08T12:46:00.001-05:00

Today Catholics celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany. This is the day the Wise Men from other nations came to worship and adore the Christ Child. Now we know this happened much later than it is celebrated, but this is the day the Church chose to celebrate and end the Christmas season.

Father Jack's homily about the importance of Epiphany really spoke to me. The Feast of the Epiphany is the celebration of Christ coming for ALL men, the Jews and the Gentiles alike. Having these wise men from other faiths and cultures coming to Christ symbolizes us coming to Christ and God's love for everyone. As Christ told us, the greatest commandment is "To love one another as I have loved you", so we are called to love everyone as these wise men loved Christ and as He loves us.

He told us that we called to love the spouse that annoys us, the children that irritate us, the drive that cut us off, and even the Steelers fans (we live in Baltimore Raven country). We may not have to like them at that time, but we are always called to love them.

Have a wonderful Epiphany and remember to enjoy and love your family!

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Sufferin' with IIH Saturday

2012-01-07T23:36:00.000-05:00

Thursday Liz had an appointment with the neurologist to try and get her migraines under control. With Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension (IIH) migraines can be a part of the condition. However, Liz has been suffering with daily headaches for over a year. Some days she spends the day in bed because the pain is that horrible. The first neurologist she saw, while a "headache" doctor, really had no experience with IIH and we felt like we were wasting time seeing him.

After her hospitalization in December, she was finally able to get an appointment with THE neurologist at Hopkins that deals with IIH. He reviewed all of her records and her headache history. He is not 100 percent sure that her shunt is draining properly. The patency test in December showed the shunt to be drainint at top level of normal, so he was concerned that it might not be draining properly.

He changed one of her medicines back to diamox to see if that helps control the level of spinal fluid and thus the pressure and the headaches. If this doesn't work, we are looking at another couple of days in the hospital for pressure monitoring (again). Based on those results, Liz could be looking at surgery (again) in the near future to replace the shunt hardware with something that will provide more control for fluid drainage.

In addition to the medicine change, we are going to try the Low Tyramine Headache Diet to see if there are any food triggers which are contributing to the migraines. Since there is a family history of migraines, he figured this was another tool in the arsenal we should try.

Trying to figure this diet out is going to be very interesting, but it could turn out to be blessing in disguise. Liz cannot have chocolate, caffeine, artificial sweeteners, fresh made yeast products, aged cheeses, any type of processed meats, fermented products, any nitrates/nitrites, limit citrus fruits to 1/2 cup per day, MSG, or Vegemite (THAT one won't be so hard to avoid). We also need to limit or eliminate as many additives and preservatives as we can.

Overall this where I have been moving the family's diet anyway, this just gives me the push and motivation to get us totally switched over as soon as I can.

I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your weekend, while I try to figure out a new menu plan for the family which won't force me to fix an entirely different meal for Liz at every meal.

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

PrepWise Wednesday: Stocking the Freezer

2012-01-04T06:00:00.000-05:00

I took a look in the freezer and just about fainted. We had just almost no meat in the there. I checked the prices and sales and headed to our new Wegman's. They have the meats we use for $1.99 a pound. So now the freezer is stocked with meats packaged up for our family's meals, all for under $150.00.

I purchased 4 whole pork loins at $1.99/lb and had the butcher cut them for me. When I came home I packaged them into roasts and boneless pork chops. Most of the chicken packages will give us two meals since the breasts are so large, a half breast counts as a serving. I will use the remaining breasts the next day in a recipe that calls for cooked chicken.

I am feeling much more comfortable about feeding the family now with a well stocked freezer. Here is what I have now have in my freezer. Clearly enough for at least two months worth of dinner entrees and a month's worth of frozen vegetables.

10 packages of boneless, skinless chicken breasts
10 packages of 80/20 ground beef
10 packages of chicken legs
2 packages boneless, skinless chicken thighs
4 packages of mild Italian sausages
5 packages of pork chops
4 pork roasts

These have been added to the meats and veggies already in the freezer:
2 packages of flash frozen salmon
1 large bag of meatballs
6 rolls Bob Evans Sausage (takes 2 for a meal here)
1 large box of breaded chicken breast patties
1 large bag of tortellini
1 large bag of ravioli
1 large bag of pirogi
1 large bag of fish fillets
1 large bag of fish sticks
1 box of pepperoni pizza rolls
1 box of cheese pizza rolls
5 large bags of broccoli
5 large bags of yellow corn
5 large bags of white corn
3 bags of green beans
2 bags of carrots
2 bags of zucchini
2 bags of yellow squash

Since the freezer is very full, I need to give some serious consideration to aquiring a second freezer. This would allow me to stock even more frozen foods for the family. My goal is to get down to a once a month shopping trip for restocking the "dry supplies" with a weekly trip for fresh produce and milk. Plus I could consider doing more of the once a month cooking since I would have a place to store the finished items.
You should consider stocking your freezer and using it an extension of your pantry. What do you have in your freezer right now, and would you be able to feed your family from it for an extended period of time? I am off to check Craigslist for freezers. :)

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Traditional Tuesdays: Back to Traditional Foods

2012-01-03T06:00:00.000-05:00

Today is the day! We start back on the road to health and that means making sure we are eating more traditional foods and less processed foods for the family. I am taking small slow steps this time around to hopefully make it a permanent change for the family this time around.

I plan to get rid of all the prepackaged side dishes that I have been using the past couple of months. I know I can make things that are better for us without all of those preservatives and additives. I will spend today doing the research for some ideas. One thing I will be doing is hauling out the Make-a-Mix book I have on top of the fridge. I will be looking through it to find homemade alternatives for the family favorites.

Once I have the favorites found, I need to make a shopping list of the items I need for the mixes. After the list is done, I will call my friend who works for the McCormick Spice Company and set a date to go at the employee store. I figure I will probably buy them out. Once I have all of ingredients in the house, we will have a mix making day for homeschool (is is math you know).

Our road back to traditional foods and more healthy eating so far includes Meatless Mondays, Fishy Fridays and homemade side dishes.

What steps are you making to move your family toward a healthier lifestyle?

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

2012 Menu Planning -- Week 1

2012-01-02T10:02:00.000-05:00

The New Year is here. Time for new nutrition goals for myself and the family. Over the course of the next couple of weeks we will be heading back to a more traditional diet. The last couple of months I slipped back to using more convenience foods and into the typical American diet. I used the trials of the past few months and took the "easy" way. I can see I need to develop different ways for dealing with meals and meal planning when the family is going through busy or difficult times.

So here is my new and improving menu for the family for the first week of the New Year. I have two goals for dinners to start off the year. First is to have one meatless meal and the second is to add one meal containing fish to each week.

Breakfasts -- Cereal or Waffles
Lunches -- Sandwiches or Leftovers

Meatless Monday
Spaghetti
Tomato Sauce
Garlic Bread
Salad

Tuesday
Meatballs and Gravy
Brown Rice
Broccoli
Carrots

Wednesday
Chicken Breasts
Baked Potatoes
Green Beans
Salad

Thursday
Fend for yourself

Fishy Friday
Flounder
Baked Sweet Potatoes
Brussel Sprouts
Salad

Saturday
Chicken Taco Bar

Sunday
Meatloaf
Baked Potatoes
Baked Acorn Squash
Carrots

What are the nutrition goals for your family this year?

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T06:00:00.000-05:00

Wishing You and Your Family

a Blessed, Prosperous and Happy New Year!

The Zoo

Richard, Donna, Liz, Mandy, Douglas, Becky, Emma, Patrick, Abby, Maggie and Marian

Behavior Boot Camp

2011-12-31T06:00:00.000-05:00

I am starting to plan the rest of the semester and home school year. In looking over what I what to accomplish I realize the children's behaviors and attitudes have slowly been changing over the past couple of months. The cleaning is not being done to our standards. The children are becoming more disrespectful toward Richard and I and each other. They have started up with more backtalk when asked questions or told to do something.

Another area I have noticed is lack of first time obedience. I have slacked off on the enforcement of this. I think is my lack of enforcement is contributing to the back talk and disrespect.

I am planning on taking the first week or two of January after our break and having a "life skills" crash course. I will be re-instructing the children on the correct ways to clean things like the bathroom, bedroom and kitchen. I will be reassigning chores. I will be enforcing first time, positive obedience. I will also be enforcing positive interactions with parents and each other, no more sassy talk or negative comments will be made toward each other. And I want them to hold me accountable too.

So the new year will be ushering in Behavior Boot Camp. I foresee interesting times ahead in the coming weeks.

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Fantastic Friday

2011-12-30T06:00:00.000-05:00

Another laid back day at the zoo. Our holiday week is winding down. I am working on planning the rest of the school year and noticing a a few things that need to be worked on with the children.

We will be playing more games today and just having fun as a family and having some family bonding time. I hope this will carry us through the next couple of weeks. I will have a post tomorrow about what will be happening around the zoo in January.

Enjoy your day!

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Holiday week around the zoo

2011-12-29T06:00:00.000-05:00

All the presents were opened, and now we are spending the days playing with the games. We are having fun playing rounds of Sorry, Uno, Candyland, Dominoes and Connect 4. We still have to play Jenga, Scrabble and some of the little girls games. We also have a few more DVDs to watch. Next up will be the Smurfs movie. They can't wait to see it, but we will probably watch it on New Year's Eve. I am heading out to visit with Mom for a couple of days.

We did have one "disaster." The fudge we was made was attacked by the mutt. I had placed it on the picnic table outside to cool and Biscuit decided she need to try some. Thankfully it was noticed as she was starting and not after she ate the two pans full, but she did get into both pans. So sometime this weekend I will make some another pan or two.

Enjoy the rest of your holiday week and have an enjoyable time with your family and friends!

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

PrepWise Wednesday: A reason

2011-12-28T06:00:00.000-05:00

When you start on your preparedness journey, you see or hear something on the news and you think, what if that happens to us. For me it was when Hurricane Isabelle blew through the area in September 2002. We were one of the lucky ones and by the grace of God did not lose power like the millions of other people in the mid-Atlantic area.

That particular event left stores without power, fast food restaurants without power, and no delivery of food or other supplies to areas for a week or more. I realized that while I had some food stores in the house I was not prepared for something prolonged. So it was after Isabelle I decided to build up my food stores, water stores and emergency medical supplies.

There are many sites you can use to help figure out what you need for your family. Here are a couple I have used in the past, and use now.

For a VERY basic calculator you check out the Latter Day Saints area on About.com. With this one you plug in the number of people by ages and it gives you a rough number of pounds or items you need to have in the house to provide for a year. This will allow to have an estimate of what you would need. Then you can break it down and budget for building up your stores.

A more in-depth food storage calculator can be found over at Millennium Ark. It is the Deyo Calculator and is spreadsheet based. I like using this one since I can customize it more for my family. Millennium Ark Long Term Food Storage area is a great resource to browse when you have time. It has a lot of basic information on preparing you and your family for any emergency. Some of the rest of the site is little too tin foil hatish for me, but the preparedness area has some wonderful information.

Remember to take into account any food allergies or sensitives when you are planning your food storage for your family. We only have 2 allergies we need to be concerned about: coconut and latex. Not as extensive as some, but it complicates things in others

The new year is coming. Check out some of these food calculators and start making your plan for beefing up your food and other emergency stores for your family.

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

The day after the day after Christmas

2011-12-27T06:00:00.000-05:00

I hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas. Our family thoroughly enjoyed ours, although I was ready to hang a couple of the monkeys from a tree about 5AM. My almost 12 year olds and my 13 year old were the worst ones about sleeping on Christmas Eve. One was up at 3 AM and had the rest of the middle four awake shortly thereafter. It was a party in the boys room for the rest of the night for them. At 5AM the 20 year old came in to complain (her room is right next party central).

Thankfully the 5 year olds were not involved and we were able to have them sleep in until 6:30 (if you call that sleeping in!) After that all bets were off and two tired parents threw in the towel and let everyone get up. We all came downstairs around 7:30 and opened presents. All the gifts were opened in under an hour and the living room was a mass of toys, clothes and paper.

While Richard was helping to clean the mess, open all the toys and remove the twenty zillion twist ties that hold the little pieces in the boxes, I heated up the oven. Our family tradition is to have cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Christmas Morning. We all ate, then finished getting dressed and headed out to the 11AM Mass. Not my first choice, but Douglas had been asked to alter serve by our pastor for that service.
It was hard telling the 5 year olds, that the new fun Leap Pad Explorers and LaLaLoopsy dolls had to stay home while we go to Mass. There were tears while they headed to the van. Everyone finally settled down, just in time for Mass to be over. Yes it was one of those days for mom at Mass.

We came home, ate lunch and then played with the toys and games for the rest of the afternoon. We had a wonderful dinner and then watched a movie from Netflix together as a family. Gnomio and Juliet. Yes, a very corny movie that was panned by the critics, but hey the kids all laughed and we had a good time together as a family and that is all that mattered to me.

After the movie the children all went to bed and Richard and I collapsed on the couch for a few minutes and enjoyed the sound of silence. Something that hasn't been heard around the zoo in a few weeks.

The rest of the week is going to be quiet, but busy if that makes any sense. I know more games will be played since we all enjoy board and card games and with several new ones in the house people can't seem to stop playing. We will also watch a couple more of family movies that we have been wanting to see. We will also try out the new Hot Air Popper that Liz purchased for the family during one of these movies.

I hope you take time and enjoy the rest of the week (and year) with your family!

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Menu Planning Monday Holiday Week 2

2011-12-26T06:00:00.000-05:00

So Christmas is past and now we look forward to the New Year. Everyone is home and we have a few days were we are running around, so things will be relatively laid back. I hope you are enjoying this week with your family.

Breakfasts -- Cereal and Waffles
Lunches -- Sandwiches or leftover

Monday
Christmas leftovers

Tuesday
Chicken
Baked Potatoes
Brussel Sprouts/Green Beans

Wednesday
Spaghetti
Salad
Garlic Bread

Thursday
Fish Sticks
Macaroni and Cheese
Salads

Friday
Hamburgers
Chips/Dip

Saturday
Soup and Sandwiches
We have snacks later on in the evening for the New Year Celebration

Sunday
Pork Roast
Seasoned Rice
Broccoli

Have a flavorful week.

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T06:00:00.000-05:00

Wishing You and Your Family

a Very Merry and Blessed Christmas!

Pax Christi!

The Blasdell Zoo

Donna, Richard, Liz, Mandy, Douglas, Becky,
Emma, Patrick, Abby, Maggie and Marian

My Favorite Christmas Hymn

2011-12-24T06:00:00.000-05:00

This version uses scenes from the Story of the Navitity Movie.

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Another Christmas Tune

2011-12-23T06:00:00.000-05:00

I remember watching this in 1977 on TV and thinking Bing Crosy and David Bowie REALLY?!?!?! But the song was lovely and I fell in love it and look forward to hearing it every year now.

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

A Christmas Tune

2011-12-22T06:00:00.000-05:00

I heard this song last year and fell in love it. I hope you enjoy it too.

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

PrepWise Wednesday: Stocking the Medicine Cabine

2011-12-21T06:00:00.000-05:00

When you think about stocking up, you should also consider adding over the counter medicines to your preps. Think about what type of illnesses you and your family has over the course of year and then plan accordingly.

In my family alone we have had the following in the past year: headaches, muscle soreness, sprains, stains, menstrual cramps, tummy issues, allergies, yeast infections, jock itch, athlete's foot, colds and flu. Most of these can be treated relatively inexpensively with over the counter medications.

Here is what I have in my over the counter medication preps. You should look them over and considering adding them to your preps too.

Ibuprofen -- I pick up the 750 caplet bottle at the local warehouse club for about $10.00. That is 7.5 cents a capsule. And you can take prescription strength dosing by using 3 or 4 caplets. You can also watch for sales and coupons and get these inexpensively.

Acetaminophen -- Again I pick up the 500 extra strength tablet bottle at the warehouse club for about $7.00. Again right around 7 cents a pill.

Aspirin -- 81 mg dose. Daily dose for those with heart issues or a family history of the them. Once again a warehouse club pick up. Large bottles for little cost.

Aspirin -- 325 mg pills. Good to have on hand for those aches and pains that the Motrin and Tylenol aren't kicking alone. Also wonder to have on hand if you think someone is having a heart attack. Have them chew an aspirin to help block the clotting factors as you get them to the hospital.

Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) -- A wonderful antihistamine. Good for block allergic reactions and nasal allergies. It can be uses in a pinch as a sleep aid, if it makes you sleepy.

Pseudoephedrine (Sudafed) -- Get the good stuff behind the counter. It helps to relieve the congestion in both the head and chest. I have everyone over the age of 18 grab the largest box possible about every 2 months.

Plain Robutussin -- Good to help with check congestion and coughs.

Loperamide (Imodium) -- Best over the counter medicine for diarrhea. I get liquid and tablets.

Meclizine (Dramamine) -- Anti-nausea medicine. Helps relieve nausea, vomiting, motion sickness, and vertigo-like dizziness.

Calcium Carbonate (Tums) -- Anti-acid and calcium supplement. Helps relieve temporary heartburn.

Mylanta -- Liquid anti-acid/anti-gas to help with tummy issues.

Rantidine (Zantac) - another anti-acid, relatively inexpensive and can help with hives and migraines too. Liz's over the counter migraine "cocktail" is a zantac, a benedryll and 600 mg of Advil.

Hydrocortisone Cream - the 1% version is the strongest OTC available. Good for adults and children with rashes, eczema, poison ivy, and diaper rash.

Bacitracin Ointment -- good topical antibiotic ointment for skin broken by bumps, scratches, bug bites.

Clotrimazole (Gyne-Lotrimin) -- Same anti-fungal medication as in lotrimin. This medicine can be used to treat female yeast infections, jock itch, athlete's foot, ring worm and yeasty diaper rashes.

Zinc Oxide (Desitin) -- excellent protection for skin irritations, a heavy duty sunscreen if necessary.

Having a good supply of these medications will allow you to mix and match to treat a wide variety of ailments in an emergency.

Like mentioned above, you can have an effective migraine cocktail. You can mix sudafed, Robitussin, a pain killer and benedryll and have a cold medication. You can mix the mylanta, hydro-cortisone, gyne-lotrimin and the zinc oxide and have an effective diaper cream for bad diaper rashes.

In addition to these OTC medications, having a good basic knowledge in herbal medications would be a help also.

So think about your family and what you would need to survive during a time of emergency if some one became ill with a minor illness. Then make a plan to build up your stores of those medications throughout the year. You do not want to purchase them all at once, you want to spread the acquisition of them throughout the year so they do not all expire at the same time.

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Late Lists for Santa

2011-12-20T06:00:00.000-05:00

Richard asked me to make him a list of things of I might want for Christmas so he can take the children out to shop. The little ones overheard him and wanted to make their own lists. Never mind that we already have their gifts, but I humored them and sat down to make their lists. My heart melted when Marian gave me her list.

1) Cookies for Santa
2) Chocolate Milk for Santa
3) Lalaloopsy Doll
4) Doll house
5) Doodle bear
6) Her favorite -- white milk

I just love the fact the first two are for Santa and she is thinking about others first. It shows me that I am doing something correctly, in spite of my thinking other wise. Her sisters' lists were not quite so generous, but they did add so we can share and play together with just about everything they listed.

Maggie's List

1) Play food for the kitchen set so we can all play restaurant together.
2) Silverware for the kitchen set
3) Lalaloopsy so we can play with the Loopsies together
4) Dollhouse
5) Stuffed Pig
6) Doll stuff so we can play mommies together

Abby's List

1) Lalaloopsy so we can all play together
2) Oven mitts for the kitchen set so we can play food
3) Toy Kitty
4) Toy Puppy so we can play pet store with our animals together
5) Dollhouse with 3 girls so we can play
6) Toy town so the dollhouse girls can play together

So I guess I am teaching my children to think of others first. Sometimes you wonder, and then God gives the sign that you are on the right track with them.

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Menu Planning Monday: Menu for the Holiday Week

2011-12-19T06:00:00.000-05:00

We are going to have a busy beginning of the week. Mandy is in school until Thursday. We have a couple of holiday get togethers and on Thursday, the Lady Knights are wrapping presents at the Barnes and Noble for a fundraiser. I will be there most of the day, so the dinner has to be quick and simple that night.

Breakfasts -- Cereal or Waffles
Lunches - Sandwiches or leftovers

Monday
Leftover from the weekend

Tuesday
Fend for yourself for the children
Knight of Columbus Christmas Dinner for Donna and Richard

Wednesday
Chicken
Baked Potatoes
Broccoli

Thursday
Fish Sticks
Macaroni and Cheese
Salad

Friday
Meat loaf
Seasoned Rice
Green Beans

Saturday -- Christmas Eve
Taco Bar

Sunday -- Christmas
Spiral Ham
Candied Yams
Green Bean Casserole
Sweet Potato
Rolls

I hope you have a menu planned out for your Christmas week

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Fourth Sunday of Advent

2011-12-18T06:00:00.000-05:00

Today is the Fourth Sunday of Advent. As usual, it seems we are flying through the holiday season. We have exactly one week until Christmas day. This year's Advent is a full 28 days since Christmas is on a Sunday. Which means we should have more time, but to me it seems like less time to get more done.

This morning we have Breakfast with Saint Nicholas at our church. I know a little late, but it was the only open Sunday this month. All the children are looking forward to the breakfast. My middle four love to help out at the breakfast by setting up, serving and even cleaning up. Douglas is a very hard worker and always gets praises from everyone when he helps out. Now if he would just do the same in his room.

Richard and I did get started on the wrapping last night, so I am feeling less stressed. I think we knocked out about half the presents so getting everything done early is looking like it WILL happen. I was even able to sneak and get most of his presents wrapped too. He was surprised to see his name in the mix of wrapped presents. LOL

This afternoon I will be making several cookie doughs and starting to bake our Christmas Cookies. I am going to mix up all the cookie doughs and put them in the refrigerator. Then when we want cookies, we can take out the dough, let it warm up some, and then have fresh, warm cookies within in minutes.

This week we start our Christmas break from homeschooling. I plan on baking cookies, making fudge and watching holiday shows with the children. If the weather is cold enough, I might even make some homemade hot chocolate. Our Wal-mart had peppermint marshmallows on sale the other day and I can't wait to try them in hot chocolate.

Unfortunately, Mandy has school until Thursday so she won't get to help out much this week. It seems like most of her teachers did not want to leave anything hanging over the holidays, so she has several papers and presentations due all the way through Thursday. I think that stinks!

How are your Christmas plans coming along?

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Wrapping It Up Saturday

2011-12-17T06:00:00.000-05:00

The Christmas shopping is done other than picking up a three more books and four more gift cards. Now comes the task of wrapping the presents. :( Wrapping is NOT my favorite thing, but it needs to get done and I have a week to complete it. I have between 50 and 70 presents to wrap. I know that seems excessive, but I have 5 to 6 presents for each person. I usually stick with this little poem for giving gifts at Christmas:

Something you want,
Something you need,
Something to play with,
and something to read.

This year since my children have really started to enjoy reading and have started to read series, I purchased some additional books. Each of them have been given more clothing than normal since all of them have gone through a growth spurt and have outgrown large portions of their fall and winter clothing.

I am going to wrap 10 to 15 presents each night after the middle children are asleep. Breaking it down makes it seem much more manageable in my mind. Not to mention, it means I won't have to pull an all-nighter on Christmas Eve to wrap. I will start this evening, and if all goes as planned I should have the presents done by Wednesday, which will leave me a couple of days to just relax and enjoy the season.

Have you started your wrapping yet?

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Fantastic Friday

2011-12-16T06:00:00.000-05:00

Liz has completed her first semester back at college! Today is the "official" last day of exams, although she completed her exams earlier in the week.

She made some great friends, became involved in one of the service organizations and most of all learned her away around the campus and how to use all the tools that have been provided for her to learn. She figured out how to use her class note takers and test scribes for the greatest benefit. Having people to help out was a totally new experience for her and she had a difficult time at first. The most important thing learned was how to advocate for herself in a positive way to get her needs met. She has grown up and matured so much these past couple of months and her self confidence has really increased.

Looking back on the past two years with everything had she has survived, I have to say we are so blessed to live in Maryland. This state takes a very proactive approach for people who suddenly lose their vision. The state's Department of Rehabilitation provided Liz with mobility training, teaching her how to safely navigate situations with her white cane so she can move about on her own. They provided training for many personal care type of things like how to set up your closet and dresser so you don't wind up wearing red and orange (on accident), how to set up your immediate environment so that you can safely move about, and even how to set up medications so you know what you are taking. They also provided tools and training for the kitchen. She attended a two week confidence building seminar over the summer for teens with vision impairment who are planning on going to college. She had a blast with the training which included a white water rafting trip and visits to local college campuses. It was actually on one of these visits where she registered for college and set up her schedule.

After all of this training was completed, the Department of Rehabilitation provided the tools and equipment so she could go back to college and prosper. Things like a huge CCT screen that magnifies the print in her textbooks, a special machine for reading audio books (some text books can be provided in an audio format), special papers and pens for completing homework and taking her own notes, plus they provided a software program that will enlarge the computer screen up to 8 times normal. It can also reverse the colors (white on black) which provide a better contrast for Liz to read. To house this program a new laptop set up was provided. All of these tools and training allowed Liz complete her semester and realize that while she has new challenges to face and it might be more difficult, she can complete college and move into a career. I know we are all looking forward to the day she walks across the stage to receive her college degree.

I hope you have a fantastic Friday too!

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Traditional Thursday: Water Kefir

2011-12-15T06:00:00.000-05:00

I am sure you have heard of kefir. This is usually a fermented milk drink that has wonderful properties for the body. However, I have never been able to get the milk kefir to turn out right, so I gave up trying. A friend of mine told me about water kefir, which I researched and decided that I wanted to try in the future. Recently another friend, had some extra water kefir grains available, so now is the time to give it a try. The grains are dehydrated, so I need to rehydrate them first.

To do this, I need to heat up 4 cups of water, then dissolve 4 tablespoons of demerra sugar (or other unprocessed natural sugar) into the water. Once the sugar water is cool, I will add in water kefir grains and let them rehydrate and plump up. After the grains soak for about five days, I will be able to actually start making the water kefir after straining them out of the rehydrating solution.

Water kefir is simply made by dissolving organic, unprocessed sugar into water. Then adding the kefir grains into the solution and letting it ferment for 24 to 72 hours. After the time has passed, you strain the grains off and start all over again for a new batch. What I am finding out and can't wait to try is that you can use non acidic fruit juice instead of water and sugar for a different take and taste on the water kefir. I will start experimenting with flavors sometime next month after the grains have a chance to really get going again.

There are other variations and flavors that can be tried. One I can't wait to try is lemonade kefir. I would suggest a visit to Cultures for Health to learn more about kefirs and other good for you cultures.

Here's to good for you ferments!

Pax Christi!

PrepWise Wednesday: Shelving

2011-12-14T06:00:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago the homeschool bookshelf collapsed. Thankfully no one was injured and we were able to repair it. To lighten it's load, I moved a few (more like a bunch) of books off the shelves that are not in use at this time. Hopefully it will stay standing for a while.

This made me assess all of the storage shelves that we have in the house. During this process, I realized that our storage shelves in the basement are not as sturdy as I would like them to be. We actually had one collapse a couple of months ago. Looking at the listing and sagging shelves, I mentioned to Richard that we need to get stronger shelves soon. He and the boys headed to the home improvement box stores to see what was available. They priced several options and all were very much out of our price range. Since we have eight shelves in the basement and want to add shelves to the garage we are looking at 10 to 15 shelves to meet our needs. Most of the industrial shelving cost about $400 a shelving unit, so we would be looking at $4000 to $6000 total cost. WAY out of our budget.

Richard and I looked around the Internet and found this article from Mother Earth News, which is a wonderful magazine by the way. On our next date night we headed to the home improvement store to price out the cost for building these shelves.

The materials required to build TWO shelving units are:
1 1/2 inch thick plywood         $21.00
16 8 foot 2 x 4s                        $ 2.97
1 5 lb. box 3 in deck screws     $22.00

Total Cost for the units: $91.00  which makes the total cost per shelf $45.50, which is within our budget. And considering the box of deck screws will probably make more than one set of shelves the cost will probably be lower overall.  For a little more than a price of 1 of the home improvement store shelves, we can have 10 shelves made. Not too bad. We have started our fund to budget for building these shelves and hope to have the first shelves made by the end of the next month.

Have you thought about your storage spaces yet?

Pax Christi,

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Traditional Tuesdays: Amish Friendship Bread

2011-12-13T06:00:00.000-05:00

Last night I went the month meeting of our area's version of Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS). It was our Christmas celebration and one of my friends at the table gave us all a container of Amish Friendship Bread Starter. YAY! I had starter going about a year ago, but with everything going, I forgot to feed it, so it died off. I now have a chance to redeem myself with this new batch.

Today is day one for the starter, for the next four days it will be stirred. On Friday I get to feed it a cup each of flour, milk and sugar. Then for 4 more days it is stirred. On Wednesday the 21st, I feed it again with flour, sugar and milk. Then I get to make the bread just in time for Christmas. I think I am going to feed it a mixture of whole wheat and white flours and eventually move it all to whole wheat.

I am also going to be selfish and not give any away this time. I may actually feed it double the next couple of times to build up the starter so I have enough to make 4 loaves for the family each time I make it.

Here is the recipe I use to make two loaves of the bread.

1 cup Amish Friendship Bread Starter
2/3 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour (or 1/2 whole wheat)
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 2 (9x5 inch) loaf pans.
2.In a large bowl, combine the ingredients. Mix well. Pour into prepared loaf pans.
3.Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes. Cool on a rack for 15 minutes and then remove from pan and finish cooling.

Enjoy!

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Menu Planning Monday

2011-12-12T06:00:00.000-05:00

This is finals week for Liz. In addition, we have a lot of other errands that need to be run. It will be a busy week around the zoo so the meals will be quick and simple

Breakfasts will be either cereal or waffles this week.

Lunches are going to be leftovers or sandwiches.

Monday
Chicken breasts
Mashed potatoes
Brussel Sprouts or Green Beans

Tuesday
Crockpot Roast
Seasoned Rice
Carrots

Wednesday
Steak Sandwiches
Chips
Sliced Fruit

Thursday (Boy Scouts Christmas Party)
Fend for yourself

Friday
Crockpot Lasagna
Salad
Garlic Rolls

Saturday
Taco Bar
Fruit

Sunday
Roast Chicken
Baked Potatoes
Broccoli

Have a flavorful week!

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Third Sunday of Advent -- Gaudete Sunday

2011-12-11T06:00:00.000-05:00

Today is the Third Sunday of Advent. We light the pink candle to Rejoice that the birth of Christ is coming soon. This week we have a lot to celebrate.

Liz spent the early part of this week in the hospital. Last Sunday her vision suddenly became more blurry and foggy. Since this was how things started for her in February 2010, we headed to the Johns Hopkins Emergency Room. Johns Hopkins is were all of her specialists practice and rather than deal with the local ER, who would just have to send her down there, we went there instead.

I know God was with us that day. There was no wait at all for her to be triaged and placed in a room. You have to remember Hopkins is in the middle of Baltimore, MD. The last time we went there in 2010, we spent almost 4 hours in the waiting room. So it was a minor miracle that she was in a room within 20 minutes of our arrival.

All the preliminary testing happened quickly. We saw all the opthamologist and the neurosurgeon fellows within 4 hours of arrival. The neurosurgeon fellow even expected her to be discharged and come back later in the week for an outpatient shunt patency test. However, Dr. Rigamonti, her neurosurgeon, had her admitted so they could do the test the next day, rather than wait for a future date. The neuro-opthamologist also ordered specialized eye imaging of the retina and optic nerve. Monday was spent doing these tests.

Tuesday the doctors conferred over the test results. The tests are showing the shunt is working and her eyes are looking okay. So while we do not know exactly what has caused her vision issues, we do know the shunt is working and that means no major surgery right now. We were all relieved over this.

She is completing her first semester back at college this week. She will have finals next week. Then she will have more follow up appointments at Hopkins. We are praying that her vision returns to her new baseline over the break and the issue has just been overuse and strain over these last couple weeks of the semester. If that is the case, we have all learned a lesson and she will need to pace herself more during the semester and not have to spend a large amount of time on the computer for days on end.

I hope you have a wonderful week and rejoice that the Lord's birth is drawing close.

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Just a reminder

2011-12-10T06:00:00.000-05:00

I think this a wonderful idea. It is time for we Christians to demand the same freedom of religion rights that other religions demand.

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Father Pat's Thought of the Day

2011-12-09T06:00:00.000-05:00

THE ROAD

The road to success is not straight. There is a curve called Failure, a loop called Confusion, speed bumps called Friends, red lights called Enemies, caution lights called Family. You will have flats called Jobs. But, if you have a spare called Determination, an engine called Perseverance, insurance called Faith, a driver called Jesus, you will make it to a place called Success.

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Feast of the Immaculate Conception

2011-12-08T06:00:00.000-05:00

This has been a busy week week for the Catholics!

First on Tuesday was The Feast of Saint Nicholas (the Real Santa Claus)and now today we celebrate the conception of Mary, conceived without sin so that she could be the mother of Jesus.

Have a blessed day!

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

PrepWise Wednesday: Heirloom Seeds and The Garden

2011-12-07T06:00:00.000-05:00

Part of prepping and being self sustainable is learning to have a garden to grow foods for your family. One of the most important things you need to remember is that most seeds in the big box stores you purchase are hybrids or genetically modified (GM).

You want to know why to use heirloom and non-GM seed I am betting. Some of the major seed companies want to control the seed market and force people to use them for their vegetable garden seeds. If this happens they then control the first stage of food production. If they chose not to provide seeds, then you will have to purchase THEIR foods from the markets.

Hybrids and GMs are geared to modern agriculture's mass production. They aim to produce higher yields and more uniform size and maturity times of fruits and plants. With this focus on breeding for specific characteristics, much has been lost in the flavor and nutrition department, with unhealthy side effects for us all as we have witnessed in our population over the past generation.

With the proper ground preparation, heirloom seeds produce vibrant, wonderfully tasting fruits and vegetables. Now they may not look the pretty because they haven't been bred for looks, but the flavor compensates. Plus you can save the seeds and use them to grow next year's crop.

In the past I have purchased my seeds from several places. One company I use is Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. They have wonderful customer service and the plants and vegetables have been wonderful.

Another company I plan to use this year is St. Clare Heirloom Seeds. It is run by a Catholic homeschooling family. I want to support as many companies as I can which are providing us these seed options. St. Clare's has seed packs for a variety of needs: a beginning gardener, a large family, an herb garden, a children's garden and so on. Plus they have a large selection of books to help you get started.

During the late fall and early winter is the time to check with you local extension office for when you can safely plant in your area and the usual growing season length. Decide what you would like to plant for the coming year. If this is your first time, maybe to a salad garden. Your would plant different types of lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes and maybe onions and bell peppers. Zucchini is always a good one to plant, and very hearty with decent yields.

Then look online and through the catalogs and see how much you would need to plant to feed your family. The wonderful thing about a salad garden is you can have multiple plantings of lettuce through the growing season so you can always have fresh. I love heading out to the garden and picking our salad for the night.

Once you know how much you need to feed your family, then you need to plan your garden. You will need to figure out the best place to plant the garden in your yard. Based on what you are planting, you will need to figure out the size you need for your garden.

Next you will need to decide are you going to do a Square Foot Garden, or a regular in the ground garden. Once that is done, you will need to plan it. There are several garden planning tools available on the Web or you can just take out some graph paper and go to town.

One book I love to share is The Backyard Homestead. It shows you how to use the space you have to have a bountiful harvest. It is amazing what even a quarter acre can provide for your family. It even shows how you can use your space to have things like dairy goats, make cheese or raise meat rabbits.

So check out The Backyard Homestead, as good starting point to learn about being self-sufficient. Once you have the basics there are so many other books where you can go for details and further knowledge.

Now is the time to start thinking about a garden, so come on and join me as I plan mine.

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Feast of Saint Nicholas

2011-12-06T06:00:00.001-05:00

Today is the Feast of Saint Nicholas.

Click on the link above to find out learn more from the Saint Nicholas Center. You find information, crafts and recipes to enjoy this day with your family.

The true story of Santa Claus begins with Nicholas, who was born during the third century in the village of Patara. At the time the area was Greek and is now on the southern coast of Turkey. His wealthy parents, who raised him to be a devout Christian, died in an epidemic while Nicholas was still young. Obeying Jesus' words to "sell what you own and give the money to the poor," Nicholas used his whole inheritance to assist the needy, the sick, and the suffering. He dedicated his life to serving God and was made Bishop of Myra while still a young man. Bishop Nicholas became known throughout the land for his generosity to the those in need, his love for children, and his concern for sailors and ships.

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Menu Monday

2011-12-05T06:00:00.000-05:00

Breakfasts
Monday -- Cereal
Tuesday -- Scrambled Eggs
Wednesday -- Waffles
Thursday -- Cereal
Friday -- Waffles
Saturday -- Dutch Baby
Sunday -- Cereal

Lunches
Sandwiches
Leftovers

Dinners
Monday
Roast Whole Chicken
Potatoes
Broccoli

Tuesday
Fish Portions
Salad
Applesauce

Wednesday
Meatballs and Gravy
Rice
Salad

Thursday -- Boy Scouts
Soup
Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Applesauce

Friday
Homemade Pizzas
Fruit

Saturday
Spaghetti
Salad
Garlic Bread
Sunday
Taco Bar

Have a wonderful and flavorful week!

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Second Sunday of Advent

2011-12-04T06:00:00.000-05:00

After a crazy busy Saturday, I am looking forward to a slower day spent mostly at home. We will head to 11 AM Mass, then come home for lunch. The weather is supposed to be in the high 50s and sunny so I am thinking an afternoon outside will be in the works.

One of the houses in the subdivision has a K'NEX train garden up and running. Douglas helped set it up this year (another benefit of homeschooling), so we will probably take awalk over there tonight, before the weather turns colder later in the week.

I hope you have a peaceful Sunday

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Not So Silly Saturday

2011-12-03T06:00:00.000-05:00

Today is going to be crazy, insanely busy and full of running around almost ALL day.

It will start early with taking Mandy to the local SAT testing by 7:45 AM. Then I have my monthly homeschool mom's breakfast at 8:30, across the county. Once I get done with that I need to pick up Mandy at 12:45.

In the mean time Liz has a doctor's appointment at 1:00, then she needs to attend the local production of The Nutracker for her Art of Listening class final paper.

So a crazy insanely busy Saturday. On the upside, everything is productive and I get to spend some time with my homeschooling friends.

Here is hoping your day is not to crazy!

Pax Christi,

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Only in a Homeschool

2011-12-02T06:00:00.000-05:00

Homeschool was put on hold Wednesday. Dad and the boys had Life Skills training that needed to be done. While pulling out our school books for the day, the book shelf collapsed. I think it is time to go through and move some of them out of here. It is hard to believe how many books you accumulate in just two years, I don't want to think about how many I will have when it comes to an end in 15 years or so.

But I love the fact we do homeschool. In the midst of a "crisis” we can just switch gears and move on to something as important as learning how to reinforce shelves.

Next up the boys will be researching how to build stronger storage shelves. We will need the stronger shelves for both homeschool books and our pantry storage, so they will be killing two brides with one stone, as the saying goes.

Richard will teach them how to read the plans, how to calculate the amount and types of wooden boards needed. They will figure out how much hardware is needed. They will inventory the tools to make sure we have them all that we need. Then they will take a trip to the big box hardware stores to price the options and calculate the price per shelf.

After that is all done, they will calculate how many shelving units we will need for the homeschool, garage storage area, and the basement storage areas. Then we will all sit down and prioritize which shelves need to be built first based on the stability factors of the existing shelves. Once this is all done, we will lay out a plan for construction of the shelves based on the available cash flow.

This project will use Math, Reading, Life Skills, Personal Finance, Economics, Budgeting and PE. Not mention social skills and a couple of field trips. Sounds like a great unit study to me!

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Traditional Thursday

2011-12-01T06:00:00.000-05:00

One of the things we like to do around the holidays is bake cookies. Today I am going to take the day and get the recipes out that we make and write out the list for what we need to purchase to make our goodies.

We make a several types of cookies. It is quite an eclectic mix. Some of the cookies get baked a couple of times during the season. They are a quick go to hostess gift. I pick up a couple of dollar store Christmas plates, some red to green colored saran warp and some curling ribbon. They we pile up the plate, wrap and go to our events.

Here is the list we are making this year.

Sooper Dooper Bars. They are similar to seven layer bars, but they are more like five layer bars. We omit the butterscotch chips and the nuts.

Chocolate Crinkles. These are so fudgy and good. Just don't over bake or they turn into hockey pucks.

Peanut Blossoms. These are the family favorite. Peanut butter and chocolate. Yummmm!

Chocolate Fudge. I make a family recipe similar to this. Is so good.

Sugar Cookies. These are so simple. We don't roll and cut shapes, we just roll in holiday sugars.

Fattigmann. These are wonderful, airy, crispy goodness. Just before serving, I dust them with confectioner's sugar. And I don't fry them in lard, just plain old vegetable oil.

Chocolate Chips. The old fashioned family favorite!

Snickerdoodles. Another family favorite! Cinnamon sugar on a sugar cookie, who can complain about that?

Molasses Cookies. Another cookies that conjures up vision of sitting in front of the fire with a cup of hot cocoa.

What treats are you and your family making this year?

Pax Christi,

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

PrepWise Wednesday Challenge

2011-11-30T06:00:00.000-05:00

It you all have been following my blog for a while, you know I like to keep a large pantry and storage of daily use products. Since we have a large family, I prefer to shop out of my pantry for the week and restock when items go on that once every two month sale.

Over the past 20 months or so, the pantry took a major hit. I praise God that I had the provisions in the house to help us get through the leaner and more turbulent times. Now that things have settled down, it is time to rebuild the pantry and other provisions.

The first thing I am going to do is take a physical inventory of the items I have in the house right now. Then I am going compare what I have on hand with what I need to get the stores back up to at least a three month level. Then I will make my plan for restocking.

After I complete my plan, I need to have my husband build better storage shelves for the food items. The ones I have now are plastic shelves and they are showing signs of age. One even collapsed a month or so ago. Thankfully there were no glass jars on it so nothing was lost. I want to avoid having that happen in the future.

For the next week I am going to work on my inventory, research plans for shelves and start a plan for restocking.

For this week I encourage you to start your prepping plan. Post here with your prepping plans.

Pax Christi,

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Spiritual Works of Mercy in the Home

2011-11-29T06:00:00.000-05:00

As Catholics we believe that we are to perform works of mercy to help others and ourselves along our faith journey. Last week I discussed the Corporal Works of Mercy in the home. Today I want to discuss how mothers and fathers fulfill the Spiritual Works of Mercy in the home. I know first hand how hard it is to perform anything other than a basic prayer with a young child in the home. If you have more than one child, it becomes so much harder. Then if you add in something like a special needs child or homeschooling, the journey becomes even more of a struggle.

As Catholics we believe mercy is a virtue of our personal will that allows us to have compassion for, and hopefully alleviate another person's misfortune. The corporal works of mercy help with a person's physical or corporal needs. The spiritual works of mercy help with a person's soul.

So the spiritual works of mercy are as follows:

•Instruct the ignorant;
•Counsel the doubtful;
•Admonish sinners;
•Bear wrongs patiently;
•Forgive offences willingly;
•Comfort the afflicted;
•Pray for the living and the dead.

How are we, as parents, to perform these spiritual works of mercy in our homes? Here are my thoughts.

Instruct the Ignorant --Our primary job as parents are to take the little blobs of humanity that God has entrusted to us and form them into God loving Christians. This means we teach them how to be compassionate towards themselves, their family and others. We teach them how to feed themselves, dress themselves, numbers, and letters. We teach them how to pray for others, the world, and that it is okay to pray for their needs too.

Counsel the Doubtful -- We teach our children how to respond to questions that make them doubt themselves and their families. We teach them how to respond to those that question their faith. We teach them where to go to look for answers about their faith when others make them question that faith.

Admonish Sinners -- This is an easy one. We are all sinners. Including that precious little child in the middle of a temper tantrum because you, as the parent, said no you cannot go play in three feet of snow in a swimsuit. We correct them for hitting others, we correct them when we catch them telling a lie. We help them to understand that as humans, we are sinners and we need the grace in the sacraments to help us get through this life and get to heaven. As Catholics, we teach them about the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This sacrament that allows us to actually hear God's love and forgiveness expressed to us from one of his representatives here on Earth.

Bear Wrongs Patiently -- As a parent this is key. Many times your children will do wrong against you. In the midst of anger they scream "I hate you." A toddler becomes so angry, she lashes out and hits you or bites you. A teen "borrows" the food money from your purse so he can get a burger with the guys after school As a parent, offer a prayer for them and yourself. Then you get back to the the process of admonishing and instructing. That toddler goes into time out. That teen gets grounded and winds up with peanut butter and jelly for the week for lunch and dinner. The one that screams "I hate you," gets told "I love you."

Forgive Offenses Willingly -- Again as a parent this will be practiced often. Take the examples above. The one that screams "I hate you" will come up in a calmer moment and say "I am sorry, I didn't mean it." You say that is okay, I know it and forgive you. Then the offender gets a hug. The toddler gets to say he was sorry and you say I forgive you and gets a hug too. Even that teen will say I am sorry, and you say I forgive you, put the punish stands.

Comfort the Afflicted -- Afflicted means to comfort someone who has physical or mental pain. As a parent we will often comfort our children. There will many illness of the body while a child is growing up. There will even be mental pain too. Especially in those hard middle school years: they are best friends one day and enemies the next. Or there is the first break up with a boyfriend or girlfriend.

Pray for the Living and the Dead -- As Catholics we believe in the communion of the saints. That means all people, living and dead, are connected as one in the Body of Christ. We can pray here on Earth for those that are in heaven and we can ask for them to intercede for us with our Lord. We also believe in Purgatory, so we pray for those souls in Purgatory so that their time spent away from the face of God will be shorter. We teach our children about these beliefs so that they can pray for all the saints of the church.

We must first take the time in our home to instruct our children in these things. Then we can expand to the rest of the world.

Pax Christi,

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Menu Monday

2011-11-28T06:00:00.000-05:00

Breakfasts
Monday -- Cereal
Tuesday -- Scrambled Eggs
Wednesday -- Waffles
Thursday -- Cereal
Friday -- Waffles
Saturday -- Dutch Baby
Sunday -- Cereal

Lunches
Sandwiches
Leftovers

Dinners

Monday
Spaghetti
Salad
Garlic Bread

Tuesday
Baked Chicken
Seasoned Rice
Broccoli

Wednesday
Meatloaf
Sweet potatoes
Broccoli

Thursday -- Boy Scouts
Soup
Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Applesauce

Friday
Baked chicken
Mashed Potatoes
Carrots
Green Beans

Saturday
Lasagna
Salad
Garlic Bread

Sunday
Taco Bar

Have a wonderful and flavorful week!

Pax Christi,

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

First Sunday of Advent

2011-11-27T06:00:00.000-05:00

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. It marks the start of the new liturgical year. This year we will again be following the Holy Heroes Advent Adventure.

This is a fun way to help learn about our Catholic Faith and the true meaning of Christmas. I have also made an Advent Calendar, well actually Advent Chain, which has activities the family will do throughout Advent. Things like writing the Christmas cards, baking cookies, and serving at the Sharing Table as a family.

We will be making a bed for the Baby Jesus. This is an empty manger into which we put pieces of "straw" (yellow and brown yarn) based on the number of good deeds or sacrifices the children make through out the day. The idea is to have a soft, fluffy bed for the Infant Jesus on Christmas Eve because the children have been showing compassion and a servant's heart for everyone in the family and others outside the family.

We light the Advent Wreath and have a little devotional before dinner and have at least one family night a week. This includes things like a favorite family dinners, watching family favorite holiday movie or even a game night. In this hurried time of year, I think it is a good thing to try to slow down, connect as a family and enjoy each other.

What are some of your family's Advent traditions?

Pax Christi,

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Advent Wreath Graphic

2011-11-26T16:35:00.000-05:00

If you would like to snag the Advent Wreath Graphic that you see in the sidebar you can grab it from The Curt Jester Blog. Take some time a look around his site, you will laugh and learn a lot.

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Silly Saturday

2011-11-26T06:00:00.000-05:00

Today we are going to be decorating the house for Christmas. We like to enjoy the lights and the decorations for as long as possible, so we put up our decorations the weekend after Thanksgiving. Richard actually put the outside lights up last weekend since we had perfect weather for it. Which is unusual for mid-November around here.

So we will be putting up the Christmas tree, the indoor lights and some of the lighted Christmas houses. When we replaced our 20 year old TV, we had to get a new TV stand, the old entertainment unit which used to hold our houses, was relieved of duty. We now have two little tables on which to display the houses. So this year all of us will pick and chose our favorite ones to display.

After the decorating is all done, we will sit down and watch some more of the classic Christmas shows. I might even make some hot chocolate to go with some freshly baked sugar cookies. Those are always special treats around here.

What are some your family's favorite Christmas decorations?

Pax Christi,

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Black Friday Drop Out

2011-11-25T06:00:00.000-05:00

Today is the official Black Friday. Although the stores have been running huge sales already. So much for an economic recovery.

I have to admit, I have only done Black Friday shopping once. I refuse to do it again. I know there are great deals that can be found, but I just don't like crowds, chaos and rude people. And I found all of those on my first and last time shopping on Black Friday three years ago.

So while all of you are out shopping, I will be cruising Amazon.com and doing my shopping. I found I did just as well, if not better doing most of my shopping on-line last year. Amazon was my favorite place.

Enjoy your shopping and stay safe. It is a jungle out there.

Pax Christi,
A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T06:00:00.000-05:00

I hope you are having wonderful and bless Thanksgiving Day with your family.

Pax Christi,

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Thanksgiving Eve

2011-11-23T06:00:00.000-05:00

Today is a prep day around the house for tomorrow. We are making pumpkin and apple pies. Probably three of each type. That way they can be refrigerated. We like to eat our pies cold. I know. We are weird. I have heard that quite often in the past few years about many things. So you saying we are weird because we like cold pie won't phase me.

We will make the rolls that we will be eating. My family LOVES rolls. To make sure I have enough I will make them today, then I can just pop them in the oven to warm them up tomorrow.

I will also mix up the stuffing and get that ready to go for the morning. It doesn't take us long since I use the Pepperidge Farms Seasoned Bread, but why worry about getting up crack of dawn early to make sure everything is done.

I will mix up a traditional green bean casserole or two, or three. My family loves this and I do not make it often. They will also head to the fridge to await cooking tomorrow.

The sweet potato casserole will be put together too. One less thing to have to do on the actual day. I only make one of these since only a few people like to eat the entire thing, most of them just like the browned marshmallows on top.

I will make sure the turkey is defrosted and ready to go into the oven in the morning. I will even make sure to take out the bag 'o guts. My sister-in-law forgot about them the first time she made a turkey and was horribly embarrassed at the time. We joke about it now.

I will use that bag o' guts to flavor the broth to make the gravy, which I may or may not start today. It will depend on how much I can get done and how much stove and refrigerator space I have available.

My mom used to make all the Thanksgiving food items and put them in the garage on the top of the huge chest freezer. That garage was like a walk in refrigerator in the winter, so it made life easier around the holidays. I wish I had a garage like she has.

All that will remain to do tomorrow is cook the bird, make the mashed potatoes, bake the green bean and sweet potato casseroles, and reheat the rolls. I think all the day before prep, makes for a much easier Thanksgiving Day for my family. We can all sit together and watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade and them move onto some Christmas videos. Yes Christmas videos. Things like Rudolph and Frosty. We all know the Christmas season starts after Santa arrives at the end of the parade. So that is when start to watch our favorite Christmas shows.

What are some of your Thanksgiving family traditions?

Pax Christi,

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Corporal Works of Mercy in the Home

2011-11-22T06:00:00.001-05:00

There was a discussion started on board that I often visit. The talk was about corporal works of mercy and how hard it is to perform them with all the demands on a mother's and father's time.

For those that do not know, the corporal works of mercy are as follows:

• Feed the hungry
• Give drink to the thirsty
• Clothe the naked
• Harbor the harborless
• Visit the sick
• Ransom the captive
• Bury the dead

One of the moms on the board talked about how as a parent we fulfill many of these in our day to day lives. Here are some examples I came up with from this discussion:

Feed the Hungry -- fixing those three square meals day in and day out. Let's not forget the time that goes into meal planning, shopping and keeping it all organized.

Give Drink to the Thirsty -- giving out that cup of milk, juice, or water for the 20th time in a day. And those with newborns that means getting up every 2 to 3 hours round the clock for quite a few months.

Clothe the naked -- chasing down the slippery, wet toddler running down the hall after a bath and wrestling them into pajamas. Not to mention making sure all the laundry is done so the clothing they have is clean. Plus we cannot forget the numerous diapers that are changed. And if you had multiples, you know that number multiples exponentially!

Harbor the harborless -- providing a safe place to land after a hard day out in the world for both your spouse and your children. We provide a place where they can let their hair down and be themselves, warts and all.

Visit the sick -- how many of us have not had to get up at 2 AM and care for a sick child? And then have to do it again and again in the same week because that nasty stomach has a 24 hour incubation period. Oh and you better be keeping up with the laundry to make sure you clothe the naked during this time!

Ransom the captive -- picking up that baby or toddler from their crib and letting them start to explore the wide world or take care one of the other corporal works of mercy like change that diaper or feed them.

Bury the dead -- this one can get tricky. I know I often tell my children that I brought them into this world and I can take them out (a la Bill Cosby), but murder is forbidden by the Ten Commandments. If I had to take them out, then I would bury them before I went to prison. If you think about it, you help to bury those childhood fears as your children grow up. In my case, I actually had to bury a little one and I know many others have had to do the same, so that is a literal performance for this corporal work of mercy. I pray many do not have to actually do this.

I often say if you cannot practice these things at home, you cannot perform them outside of the home with a true heart. As a parent you are practicing these corporal works of mercy, and most important of all teaching you are teaching your children to do the same. You will expand from your home to the world as your children grow and you have more "time" outside of the house.

Pax Christi,
A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Menu Monday

2011-11-21T06:00:00.000-05:00

I have completed my menu planning for the week. I made a few tweaks from last weeks menu. I found out making a hot breakfast will not work well on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, until the middle of December. Right now we are driving Liz to college so she can get to class by 9:00 AM on those days. So we will be doing cereal or frozen waffles then.

Breakfasts
Monday -- Cereal
Tuesday -- Scrambled Eggs
Wednesday -- Waffles
Thursday -- Cereal
Friday -- Waffles
Saturday -- Dutch Baby
Sunday -- Cereal

Lunches
Sandwiches
Leftovers

Dinners

Monday
Chili Mac
Cornbread
Salad

Tuesday
Baked Chicken
Rice
Broccoli

Wednesday
Clean out the fridge

Thursday -- Thanksgiving
Turkey
Stuffing
Green Bean Casserole
Sweet Potato Casserole
Mashed Potatoes
Carrots
Apple Pie
Pumpkin Pie

Friday
Thanksgiving Leftovers

Saturday
Turkey Divan
Salad

Sunday
Fish Sticks
Macaroni and Cheese

I hope you have planned your holiday meal and uses for your leftovers. Have a fun, filled Thanksgiving week.

Pax Christi,

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Christ the King!

2011-11-20T06:00:00.000-05:00

Have a blessed Sunday on this Feast of Christ the King.

Pax Christi,

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Silly Saturday

2011-11-19T06:00:00.000-05:00

Today is going to be a goof off day around the Zoo. We will do the basic cleaning of the house and then I think we will have a family fun day. Although the local park is closed from November through March, which makes a quick trip to the playground hard.

I won't head to Annie's Playground, the local HUGE playground on the weekend. Too many chances to lose the children in the maze of playground equipment and crowd of people. Although all of the children love it, I hate crowds and the chaos of unruly children, my own included.

It is going to be a decent day with typical fall temperatures. We will not have too many of these types of days remaining before it gets too cold to head out for any length of time. I need to come up with some fun things to do outside today.

I know the girls love to draw with outdoor chalk. Since we have had rain, they have a clean slate on which to draw. Maybe I will get a rousing game of dodge ball going with the neighborhood children. Or maybe kickball. You know all those fun games we used to play as children, that they can't play in school because some one might lose and get their feelings hurt, but they were all so fun to play.

Have a Silly Saturday and enjoy your family today!

Pax Christi,

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Friday Favorites

2011-11-18T06:00:00.000-05:00

This topic is going to be used to talk about some of the "favorites" in my life. It can be a book, a blog, a kitchen tool. You get the idea. ANYTHING that makes my life as a homeschooling mom with a large Catholic Family.

Today's Friday Favorite is a book. I have had a hard time getting my morning time in with God. Earlier this year I found out about a book. It is called Small Steps for Catholic Moms. It is written by Danielle Bean and Elizabeth Foss. It is a wonderful tool!

It provides a quote from a saint, a prayer focus for day, and a simple action you can take. So you read the quote, say the prayer you meditate on throughout the day. The action is often something you do with or for your family so you don't even have to leave the house. This books provides a simple tool to help you grow on your faith journey without having to start from scratch. And that has always been my problem, where do I start. Now I have help every day of the year to get me spiritual imgaination growing.

It also has a great journal available to help you record your experiences along your journey.

Take a look at these tools and see if they will fit into your life and help you along YOUR journey.

Pax Christi,

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Advent Lesson Plans

2011-11-17T06:00:00.000-05:00

I love the Advent and Christmas season. This is my 2nd year of homeschooling through the holiday season. I began homeschooling in January of 2010. Last year we were all recovering from the horrors of the year, so we just heaved a sigh of relief and did the bare minimum.

In my years of researching how I wanted to live the liturgical year with my family, I dreamed of following Elizabeth Foss's Advent and Christmas lessons using the Tomie de Paola books. This year I am doing it. I ordered most of the books. Some are out of print and hard to find, but I was able to find most of them at decent prices. I am still looking for The Lady of Guadalupe. If you find it at a good price please let me know.

My older ones will continue with their course of studies, and will be doing the family activities. For Faith Formation will be using Holy Heroes Advent Adventures.

I will be moving some of the books around to make sure they match up with Feast Days during Advent. I am also adding some stories from Tomie de Paola's Book of Bible Stories. This is noted with a (B) next to the story. Another book is used that is called Hark! A Christmas Sampler. That is noted by an (H) next to the story title.

Week One: November 27 - December 3
Merry Christmas, Strega Nona and Jingle the Christmas Clown

Read An Angel Visits Mary (B)
Discuss the Annunciation and what it meant to Mary, Joseph and the world

Read Merry Christmas, Strega Nona.
Make pasta like Strega Nona
Make glitter glue star decorations
Make apple star prints on brown craft paper for gift wrap

Read Jingle, the Christmas Clown
Make a Gift Coupon for each member of the family. Illustrate them Tomie DePaola style
Make a gingerbread stable for Jingle's animals. Use animal crackers.

Read The Legend of the Birds (H)
Make star cookies using the recipe in Jingle, The Christmas Clown.

Week 2: December 4 - December 10
The Country Christmas Angel, The Clown of God

Read The Gift of the Littlest Shepard (H). Compare the gift of the shepard with the gift of the juggler.

St. John Bosco could juggle. Research how this skilled helped his ministry.
Learn to juggle.

Read The Country Christmas Angel
Compare pictures of St. Nicholas with de Paola's drawings. Draw your own pictures of St. Nicholas.

Week 3: December 11- December 17 (This will spill into Christmas week)
The Legend of the Poinsettia, The Night of Las Posadas, and Francis, the Poor Man of Assisi

Read about Christmas Plants in Hark! A Christmas Sampler.
Research Mexico. How is Christmas celebrated there.
Make a Holiday Flan
Learn about the Creche. Read Francis, The Poor Man of Assisi.
Make tissue paper flowers the traditional poinsettia colors of red, white, pink.
Describe Los Posadas.

Week 4: December 18 - December 24
Mary, the Mother of Jesus, Jesus is Born (B)

Read Jesus is Born (B)
Discuss the meaning of God becoming man

Read Mary, the Mother of Jesus.
Illustrate the mysteries of the rosary.
Read the Donkey's Dream.
Read The Donkey's Song (H)
Break out the calendar for the new year and write all the Marian Feasts on the calendar.
Read The Legend of the Rosemary (H)
Make rosemary candles

Weeks 5 and 6: December 25 - January 6
The Legend of Old Befana, The Three Wise Kings, Strega Nona's Gift

Read The Littlest Camel (H)
Read Babushka (H)
Read The Legend of Old Befana
Read Strega Nona's Gift
Read The Three Wise Kings
Learn all the verses to We Three Kings
Make stars from translucent paper to hang in the windows.
On January 6th, leave a little gift at a neighbor's door with a note signed "Old Befana"
Make cardboard Crowns, decorate with jewels as you memorize Bible verses.
Make a King cake with treasures baked into it. Serve with wassail punch.

Have you made your Advent plans yet?

Pax Christi,

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

A Master Shopping List

2011-11-16T06:00:00.000-05:00

How do you shop? Do you wing it? Do you make a list each time you go to the store?

Since I try to shop from my pantry and restock the shelves, I shop with a list. I have even made master shopping lists for each store that I frequent. And these lists are set up by store lay out. I know how geeky. But I am able to get into the stores, shop and check out rather quickly. Most of my time is spent waiting to check out.

Oh the looks I get when I am doing a major restocking trip and have 2, 3 or even 4 carts that are full. I try to go on off hours for these types of trips, it can take an hour or more to check out and going on a busy weekend morning tends to make the store managers cranky. I like to stay on their good sides. I often will have them waive the sales limit requirement for me. Of course it helps when you get Christmas cards from the managers because you are on a first name basis with them.

Right now, I need to recreate my lists; one store where I used to shop has closed. We also now have a Wegman's. I have had many people tell me that they have good prices on the basics. I am placing that on my To Do list for Thursday since today's list is already full.

Why don't you join me and start a master list. Overall you will have a better shopping experience.

Pax Christi,

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Making the menu plan

2011-11-15T06:00:00.000-05:00

I finally sat down and made the menu plan for the week. Everything listed here is from my pantry so I do not have to rush out to the store to buy anything for this week. I will save this menu and in a month or two pull it out. That way I will build up a stockpile of menus and I won't have to reinvent the wheel. I am going to build up at least a year's worth of menus. So that I can have a seasonal menus based on the local in-season foods.

Here is the menu for the week.

Monday
Spaghetti
Salad
Garlic Rolls

Tuesday
Crock Pot Pork Roast
Seasoned Rice
Broccoli

Wednesday
Fish Sticks
Macaroni and Cheese
Salad

Thursday (Boy Scout Night)
Leftovers

Friday
Homemade Pizzas
Salad

Saturday
Taco Bar

Sunday
Roast Chicken
Stuffing
Green Beans
Biscuits

Breakfasts
Monday -- Cereal
Tuesday -- Waffles
Wednesday -- Dutch Baby
Thursdays -- Muffins
Friday -- Cereal
Saturday -- Breakfast Casserole
Sunday -- Cereal

Lunches
Sandwiches
Leftovers

Have you inventoried your pantry yet and figured out a meal plan?

Pax Christi,

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Change of Plans and a Challenge

2011-11-14T12:08:00.000-05:00

DH had to retire from the fire department, his 30 plus years of saving lives and property caught up with his body. The doctor decided that it had enough and needed to stop being punished, so as of August 1st he was retired.

Now we had a "plan" that involved him working for another at least 5 years. In that time all the consumer debt would be paid off, the van would be paid off and we would have about a year’s worth of food in the pantry. Well you all know what they say about plans.

The good news is that all of the consumer debt is paid off. The next step is to pay off the van. If we get a decent income tax refund, that should be take care of the remaining loan balance. If not it will still be paid off with a year or so.

Unfortunately, the pantry isn't as well stocked as I would like, even if he were still working full-time. I like to have about 3 months worth of food in the freezer and on the pantry shelves. The shopping that was done over the past couple of months was to fill in the gaps, with very little planning and stocking being done.

It is time for me to get back on the stocking and menu planning band wagon. I need to get the pantry restocked and back to my comfort level. My plan this week is to figure out what I have and what needs to be purchased to start to accomplish these goals.

Here is my challenge to you. Inventory your pantry and freezer. See how many meals you can come up with for your family. Think three meals a day, and maybe a snack. Include drinks too.

Would you be able to survive a week without a run to the store? Would you be able to survive two weeks? If you do not have a week's worth of meals, then make a plan and start stocking your pantry. Once you have a week, move on to two.

Having food in the pantry is a blessing to you and your family.

Pax Christi,
A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Another Survival Tip -- A Great To Do List

2011-11-11T06:00:00.000-05:00

I have another great survival tip. Having a "to do list" that you will use. For me finding one that I could work with was a God-send. My "to do list" is made up of three columns: To Do, To Go, and To Call.

Each night I pull out a blank copy of my list. This is my To Do List. On this list, I write down everything that needs to be done for the day, every place I have to go and every person I have to call. I even put down the phone numbers and little note why I am making the call. The list and my calendar go with me on my errands, if I have any for the day. If I wind up waiting somewhere, I have the phone numbers and can make calls and save some time later in the day.

I should note that the items on the To Do part of the list are things that are not part of my normal routine. I do have a household management binder that lists everything out that is done on a daily, weekly and seasonal level.

I also have learned not to sweat it if everything does not get completed in the day. It has taken me a long time to get to this point, Type A personality that I am. Over time, I slowly realized that unless it was matter of safety, items can wait until I have time to get to them. Most of the items are taken care of within a week. I just place the unfinished items on the first lines of tomorrow's list and they will usually get done the next day.

I also limit myself to number of boxes on the sheet for each day. That means 12 To Do, 12 To Go and 12 To Call. Let's face it, if you are trying to accomplish more than 36 items above and beyond the normal routine, items won't get done.

I hope this list will bless you as it has blessed me.

Pax Christi,

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Going Bananas.

2011-11-10T06:00:00.000-05:00

I was away at mom's off and on for two weeks. Before I headed back for a long stretch, I did some shopping. Everything was unpacked and put away. We have to hide the bananas in the house because I have 5 year olds that will just help themselves, not to mention the 11 year olds and the 13 year old. So I put them up out of site. Before I left, I picked up to bunches. While straightening the kitchen today, I found the bananas. OOPS! I know have two bunches that need to be made into something.

So I pulled out recipe most of my family loves (the only one who doesn't can't have bananas because of her allergy). AND it makes 2 loaves, which is always a plus for our family.

Math tomorrow will be multiplication in real life.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
1 cup Butter
2 cups Sugar
2 Eggs
3 Very Ripe Bananas
3 Cups Flour (I use half whole wheat, half white)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 2 9 x 5 inch loaf pans. In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Stir in bananas. Mix together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda (I use a whisk). Blend the flour mixture into the banana mixture, stirring just enough to combine. Fold in the chips and walnuts.

Bake at 350 until a toothpick inserted into the center of the load comes out clean, 50 - 75 minutes. Cool in the pan for 20 minutes. Remove from the pan, then cool completely on a wire rack. Then enjoy!

Pax Christi,

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Large Family Survival -- A Basic Schedule

2011-11-09T06:00:00.001-05:00

I have been asked many times, how I do it all with my large family. I discovered a powerful tool -- the dreaded schedule. I have tried many versions of scheduling, some with some success and many with not so great of a success.

What I have found that works for us is using a basic outline of a schedule. I use what I call anchor times. Others call these times pegs. These are the times that are set in stone for the family. For us they are wake up times, meal times and bedtimes. Everything else is worked in around these times in block of time

This Basic Schedule is our current schedule. As you can see it is very basic, but it provides a guide for our day. I don't get stressed out over 15 minute increments of time, which I do if I use a more detailed schedule. We have a large block of time for homeschooling in the morning so I can cover the topics we need. If we wind up on a rabbit trail, so be it. If we finish early, then we have more free time. The afternoon also has a large block of time for homeschooling. We don't often use it all, but I have it if we need it.

This outline has reduced the stress for all of us over the past couple of months so I know we will be sticking with it for a while.

I would love to know how you all manage your days.

Pax Christi,

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Preparing for Advent

2011-11-08T23:59:00.000-05:00

With everything going on in our lives, I am late getting started on my Advent plans this year. I had a vague mental outline of what I wanted to accomplish this year, and I think it has all been blown out of the water for now.

For those that do not know follow the Catholic Liturgical calendar, is a time of preparation for the coming of the Light of the World, beginning four Sundays before Christmas. Advent varies in length, depending on when Christmas Day falls during the week. It is also the start of the new liturgical year for Catholics. We use Advent as a time of drawing closer to God by heading to the sacrament of reconcilation. To represent this repentence, the church linens and the priest's vestments are purple.

This year Advent begins on Sunday, Novemeber 27th so I have a little time to get it all planned out. Over the next couple of days I will developing my Advent lesson plans and deciding what we will be doing as a family.

Have you started your Advent plans yet? If so, I would love to hear what you are planning for your familes during this wonderful time of the year.

Pax Christi,

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Update on my mom

2011-11-07T06:00:00.000-05:00

I have spent the past month living between my mother's house in Virginia and my house in Maryland. Since my father's illness and death last year, mom basically lives alone. My brother does live with her, but he works as an assistant manager in an auto parts store. You all know what that means -- long hours. So mom is alone most of the day, but he is home most evenings (at some point in time). Last month, he wanted to visit his children and grandchildren in Georgia. I volunteered to stay a few days with her while he was gone.

While I was staying with her, she ended up in the hospital with a COPD exacerbation. Her oxygen saturation was at 74. Her blood level of carbon dioxide over 80. In addition she has been battling fluid retention in her legs for the past couple months. This is being caused by cor pulmanale. This is where the heart has to work harder to get the blood circulated through the lungs. Fluid build up in the body and the heart works harder so fluid builds up in the body and the heart works harder. It is a vicisous circle as we all found out.

Thankfully she is home now and doing better, but we all are learning a lot about COPD and the long term effects it can have on the body.

Pax Christi,

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Rest Stop

2011-11-06T06:00:00.000-05:00

Today is Sunday. I am truly trying to keep Sunday as a day for family and friends and not a lot of running around. I try, but do not always succeed. I am going to truly make a more conscience effort to have all the shopping done by Saturday and keep Sunday simple for all of us at home. Sandwiches for lunch and a one pot crock pot meal for dinner. I might even switch to paper plates and silverware for the meals so we won't have to worry about a lot of dishes.

I would love to give up doing all housework on Sundays, but I feel that Mount Washmore would grow to such proportions that it would take the entire week to conquer. So alas, laundry will done on for the foreseeable future at the Zoo on Sundays.

Take today and enjoy family and friends, keeping the hustle and bustle to a minimum in your life.

Pax Christi,

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

A Summer of Change

2011-11-05T15:18:00.000-04:00

What a very hectic summer we had! Just so you all know I did finish the Great Housekeeping Project and the house looked great (for about 2 days!) Such is the life of a large family.

Douglas had a great time at the scout camp over the summer and earned 4 badges and advanced a rank. He is on track to make Eagle Scout by the time he is 14. Which is his personal goal. Patrick is starting his trek up the Scout advancement ladder and is enjoying himself.

Liz completed a several classes and training sessions with the state department of Rehabilitation. This has enabled her to return to classes at the local community college. She is enjoying being back in the college lifestyle and is working on a comptuter science degree.

Mandy is a senior this year. That is another hard one to believe. She is on track to graduate from the International Baccalaureate program this June. She is currently looking a few colleges.

Becky, Emma, Patrick and Douglas are enjoying the homeschool environment (for the most part). We are planning a trip to DC to visit the monuments and museums soon.

We survived the earthquake and Hurricane Irene. Both were fun adventures for the family. I just love homeschooling! Where else can a 4 year old learn about earthquakes and be able to tell you how they happen.

We have had a number of milestones occur during my time away. Most significant is Richard's retirement after almost 22 years from the fire department. Of course if you include the years of volunteering, he has been saving lives for over 35 years, so it was time. Liz has turned 20, Douglas is now a teenager and the "babies" are now five.

Also if you look for me on Facebook, you won't find me. I have given up my account there for the time being. It was too much of a time hog and I wanted to refocus and prioritize on other things in my life.

I hope you had an enjoyable summer and are enjoying a lovely fall so far. We enjoyed our first snowfall in October in over 60 years. I hope this does not foretell the type of winter we will be having.

Pax Christi,

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

The Great House Organization Project -- Day 7

2011-06-23T17:41:00.000-04:00

Today was a very productive day. The Master Bedroom is DONE! I have gone through sorted, purged and organized everything that I can touch. I left Richard's dresser alone. He has promised me it will be done this weekend.

The count is now 20 bags to go to Goodwill and 15 cans of trash that have been picked up so far. This is a very freeing exercise.

Here are the before pictures of the Master Bedroom.

The Bookshelf and assorted other piles of stuff

More piles of stuff plus my jewelry box

Richard's dresser

My dresser

Now here are the after pictures. I will add Richard's dresser once it is done.

The shelf is now all purged and organized. The boxes next to contain my sewing machine and our flannel sheets. On top of it is my Thirty-One Kit. Notice the jewelry box is cleaned off too. The bin on top contains our unmatched socks.

My dresser all cleaned off!

The bed and cedar chest all cleared.

I hope you are having a wonderful day! I am feeling very productive lately! Tomorrow I am going to work on the landing and the coat closet. Time to sort through all the shoes, the hats, scarves, gloves and coats that no longer are worn or fit. I see at least one more Goodwill bag coming from here and at least 2 more trash bags.

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

The Great House Organization Project -- Day 6

2011-06-22T18:34:00.000-04:00

Today was another productive day, in spite of low motivation. Both the bathrooms were cleaned and organized. The top shelf of Liz's closet was also purged, sorted and organized. So now everything is hers in there, no more storage for the "babies."

As promised here are the pictures of how we are doing so far:

Front Part of the Garage

Back part of the garage

The growing Goodwill pile

Organized hallway storage cabinet

Bottom of the linen closet

Organized lien closet (with a little mess building, which has been fixed).

Boys' bed in its new position. Complete with peeled wall cause by "Not me!"

Boys' Shelf

Douglas's dresser, complete with taped up door because someone thought it
would be cool to use the duct tape like that.

Boys' desk

Boys' closet

Abby's bed (complete with an Abby)

Maggie's Bed

And Marian on her bed

Shot into the room from the door. That is Mandy on the bed.

Another girls' room view

Girls' closet

And for a little humor. These are all the extra blankets taken off the boys' beds. Now I know why all the blankets were missing. There was a similar pile from the girls's room. They are now placed into two HUGE bins.

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

The Great House Organization Project -- Days 4 and 5

2011-06-22T00:06:00.000-04:00

I told you the organizing bug has bitten me. Things are going along quite well here. Monday Patrick and I attacked the boys' room. It took us most of the day, but it was completed in just one day, not the two I had planned. We went through every shelf, every drawer, every toy and every piece of clothing in that room. We even did a little bit of rearranging. Another 6 bags of trash and 5 bags of Goodwill items are ready to go.

Today we attacked the girls room. This room has 6 girls that sleep there. Three of them are 4 years old and they don't like to put things away, but the sure love to pull things out. I had planned on this room taking three days because of the size and the overall clutter in there. But Mandy, Becky, Emma and even the little girls all pulled together and we got finished today. Once again every shelf, bin, drawer, toy and item of clothing was purged, sorted or donated. This time there was 4 bags of Goodwill items and 8 bags of trash.

My trash men are definitely not going to like me come Thursday. I think tomorrow we will be baking them some brownies as a thank you for putting up with our messes.

On top of it all I have come down with a summer cold. I hate summer colds, but I have been pushing through it to get the work done. Since I am not feeling one hundred percent, tomorrow I am going to make it an easy day. I am going to work on the three bathrooms and one shelf in Liz's room that has some of the little girls things stored on it. I don't think that will take all day. But then again, you never know.

I have been told that these posts are worthless without pictures so I am going to post some of the after pictures soon. The only before pictures I have gotten are from the boys' room. I don't think it fair to post those when the girls' room won't get the same treatment. See kids mom CAN be fair. So tomorrow I will post some of those after I get my pictures organized.

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

The Great House Organization Project -- Day 3

2011-06-19T17:08:00.000-04:00

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers!

I hope you are enjoying your day.

The Great House Organization Project -- Day 3

Today Douglas headed off for a week of Boys Scout summer camp somewhere in Delaware. So we will be down one child until sometime next Saturday. Mandy is now off of school for the summer. Well sort of. She has a bunch of summer homework to do, so she will working on that. As I mentioned yesterday we are on a three week break from our homeschooling. So it should be quiet at the zoo. Although I am sure that remains to be seen.

Today I had planned as a day of rest in The Great House Organization Project, but I have the organizing bug has hit, so I decided to tackle the next item on my list. Emma and I attacked the upstairs hallway, linen closet and small cabinet we have there. Three hours later we have thrown out expired products, bagged up 6 bags of usable sheets, blankets and towels to donate and organized the remaining items.

We used my bedroom as the staging area and only had one small glitch. A bag of Epsom salts had not been tightly closed, so when I reached across the bed to pick it up, it opened up and I had salts fly all over the comforter. Right now I can laugh over it, when it happened, not so much.

Now the linen closed is organized, has open space and is functional. I can't believe how much stuff I had been holding onto that we didn't need. We really didn't need 5 sets of sheets for each bed and 6 towels for each person. Nor did we need 35 hand towels and 100 washcloths. Each bed now has 2 sheet sets, plus a flannel set for winter. Each person has 2 towels, plus we kept 5 extras for pool use. Washcloths fill one small bin. The hand towels have been pared down to 20: 10 for the downstairs bathroom and 10 for the upstairs bathroom. We tend to go through 2 hand towels a day, so I feel like that is a reasonable amount for our house.

All the toiletries and medications we use have been organized and been grouped so they are easy to find. We have put together a neb kit for those moments when we need to get a neb going quickly. It is a bin with the tubing, mask, medications and the neb machine. I can tell a child to go grab the neb kit and we won't have to search for the components.

Overall a very productive afternoon!

Next up on the list is the boy's ~~black hole~~ room. I have slated two days for that disaster. I hope that is enough time. But Douglas is not here, so it should go faster. :D

I hope are enjoying a wonderful day!

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

The Great House Organization Project

2011-06-18T20:49:00.000-04:00

That is it. We are done. The past 18 months has been hard on the entire family and the house. The basics around the house were done, but much was left undone. The house was surface clean, but nothing was really gone through, sorted, purged, or organized. NOTHING! I think every piece of paper, catalog, bill, and junk mail that entered the house is still somewhere in the house, garage or basement.

Thursday I went to find my mop in the garage and could not even walk out the door. I would tell one of the children to go put something in the garage. They must have stood at the door and pitched it. I picture them standing there yelling "INCOMING!!!!" it ws thrown. I noticed they would place one overloaded box on top of another box and the bottom box would collapse, everything on it and in it ended up on the floor, onto which more things were thrown. The garage looked like a bomb had detonated out there. Box stacked up on caving in box, empty boxes piled to the ceiling, paper strewn everywhere, cleaning supplies dripping their contents all over the floor and onto the papers. One good match and the house would have been history.
A dungeon. A disaster zone. A hard hat area. A fire zone. If anyone had seen it I am sure it would have been condemned. Wee decided to do a Clean Sweep of the garage.

Friday morning, Richard and the children started by taking EVERYTHING out of the garage. It was placed on the driveway. We went through each large item and made a decision about it. Many things were tossed, others were put in the donate pile and just a few were kept. We were ruthless. Then we moved onto the smaller items and boxes. Similar decision were made for each item, piece of paper, and "momento" we touched.

During the process we discovered we had a mouse issue, so many things were placed in the trash just because of those little rodents. Finding a nest in a box of papers or books makes the decision easy -- TRASH! Those items we are keeping have been catalogued and put into bins or boxes so we can easily find them in the future. Not to mention, if we don't use them in a year, they just might be donated.

We worked steadily all through the morning and early afternoon. As the day went on we got started to tire out. We called it a day around 5 PM. Since rain was a possibility overnight, we put everything, including the trash, back into the garage for storage.

First thing Saturday morning, Richard and Douglas loaded up the van and made a dump run. It was a very full van! Once they returned, we started going through the remaining boxes and baskets. There were still so many of them. We continued to trash, donate or keep each item. We continued to catalog the kept items. Once again around 5PM we called it quits. Right now I still have 10 bins of paper to go through. My goal is to go through a box a day for the next 10 days to get it all done. Then we can say the garage is no longer a disaster area waiting to be condemned. Well actually you can say it now, but it sounds better that way.

This has led to a lets get the whole house done train of thought. The Great House Organization Project has officially begun. We will be focusing on one area or room until everything in it has been sorted, purged, or donated. Then we will clean the room top to bottom and put the remaining items back into the room in an organized, well thought out plan. Well that is the ideal we are shooting to reach anyway.

We are on a homeschooling break for the next three weeks, so I have come up with a schedule that will get the entire house done by July 5th. Some rooms will take a day, some will take a couple of days, one or two will take three days because of size or mess.

I am not planning on pushing myself or the family to the point of aggravation or exhaustion. We are going to work steady, finish up by 5 PM and have a fun family evening. I have planned dinners that are all 30 minute one-pot meals or crockpot favorites.

Anyone else care to join in The Great House Organization Project?

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

A medical day that was okay :)

2011-06-16T23:45:00.000-04:00

Richard had to have a couple of medical tests done today. He has reached "that age" when there are several tests that require unpleasant preps. Yesterday was that day. I am just glad it was Richard going through it and not me. I know cruel, but true.

The tests were today and we are thanking God that everything is okay. He has had several symptoms that could have led to bad results. The only "negative" was that he has to eat healthier and more fiber. Well that was music to my ears.

I have thinking about getting a grain mill, so next up on my to do list it research which one would be the best to purchase. Then I need to research the different types of wheat, and which one to use for things like bread, pastry, cookies. All things we all love and can be made at least a bit healthier. I guess God will give us reasons to pursue our desires if we drag our feet, especially if it involves our personal health.

Friday is going to be a catch up day since the past two days have been spent with a different focus. We are ending our home school year tomorrow too. Douglas heads off to a week long Boy Scout camp next week, then we have my birthday and July 4th in the following two weeks.

We plan on starting up the new year on July 11th. We have a new plan that we have been working out. I will blog on that sometime soon.

I hope you all have a wonderful Friday!

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

For those who have lost someone...

2011-06-15T17:37:00.000-04:00

This is a quote taken from Of Many Things, America Magazine, November 3, 2003. The article is written by George M. Anderson, S.J.

A reflection by the Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner deals with this issue of remaining in tough with those who have died: "The great and sad mistake of many people...is to imagine that those whom death has taken, leave us. They do now leave us. They remain! Where are they? In darkness? Oh, no! It is we who are in darkness. We do not see them, but they see us. Their eyes, radiant with glory, are fixed upon our eyes... Oh, infinite consolation! Though invisible to us, our dead are not absent... They are living near us, transfigured...into light, into power, into love."

Such a strong assurance of the continued presence of those for whom we cared can serve as a needed...consolation.

What a comforting thought.

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

What a hard, long month this has been

2011-06-15T13:18:00.000-04:00

This has been a long, hard month. A lot going on,and nothing really accomplished. Homeschooling is just about done for the year, I had my review in mid-May and everything went well.

We are shaking things up a bit for our next school year. We are going to start our new year on July 11th. We will school for 6 weeks and then take a week's break. I think this will help with some of the "burn-out" that has been happening over the past year. It will also enable us to have a week off at Thanksgiving, three weeks off during Advent and Christmas and another week or two at Easter. If things go as planned, then the "school-year" should be finished sometime in early in May 2012.

Mandy is finishing up her junior year and will be a senior next year. THAT seems hard to believe for me. She remains in the International Baccalaureate Program. She is surviving, but it is a very hard course of studies and many of the children are faltering this year.

We are in the midst of making some life altering decisions, so pray that we make the correct decisions for the family.

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Enigma Squad: The Cast of the Old Man in the Mailbox

2011-05-05T06:00:00.000-04:00

A few months ago, we were asked to read a new book that has recently been published by the husband of one of my friends on the MOMYS board. We received the book and my son Douglas devoured the book in a day. He is huge fan of the mystery/adventure genre of fiction so this book was right up his alley.

I also have read the book. I find it to be comparable in tone and adventure to the old Hardy Boys mysteries. I did not find anything objectionable in the book that would prevent me from letting him read the next book in the series (Hint, Hint Brian!) So if you have a pre-teen son that also loves mysteries, I think you would both find the book a pleasure and fun to read.

Douglas's review of the book

Enigma Squad: The Old Man in the Mailbox was written by Brian C. Jacobs. It is a great read for everyone who likes a simple mystery with a deadly twist. It all starts when three friends, Tyler, Scooter and AJ see a man at a mail box. As they investigate who this mystery man is, they stumble across a crime. The investigation of this crime can turn deadly for the friends. The only dissapointment I had was in the book is the mystery man dies before the friends can meet him to find out more of his story. Other than this, I give the book five stars. As for the crime, you will have to read the book for yourself. A word of warning: Once you start, you will not be able to put it down.

So Mr. Jacobs when IS the next book coming out? -- Douglas Blasdell

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

New Blog Button

2011-05-04T16:07:00.000-04:00

I want to point you all to my new blog button over in the sidebar. As you know, Liz has been home dealing with her medical condition and subsequent issues. She has always enjoyed learning, so just sitting around the house has been hard on her. Over the past couple of months she has been finding online tutorials to learn various aspects of computers and computer programs. She has been enjoying playing around with them, but she was getting bored, since she had nothing to practice in real life.

I have been contemplating having a button designed for the blog. I think they are a fun addition and felt like I was missing out not having one. So I asked Liz if she could come up with one for me. Over the course of a couple of days she played around with the graphic and developed a couple of prototypes. After looking though them all, we settled on the one you now see.

I invite you to grab the button for your blog.

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

A new one from Anita Renfoe

2011-05-04T14:33:00.000-04:00

Enjoy!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Traditional Foods Tuesday: Peanut Butter Granola

2011-05-03T06:00:00.000-04:00

This is a favorite recipe in our house. I have to make a double, triple and even quadruple batches of this recipe to keep it in the house for more than a meal. We eat it as a snack by itself, over vanilla ice cream, or mixed in yogurt

Peanut Butter Granola

2 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup natural peanut butter (to make it nut free double the honey)
1/3 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup raisins or other dried fruits (optional)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (if being used as a trail mix type of thing)

Preheat over to 375 degrees.

Begin by melting the butter and peanut butter together in a 3-quart saucepan. Add the honey, vanilla and salt. Stir the mixture until it is smooth and hot throughout. It doesn’t need to boil. Add the oats. Stir until the oats are completely coated with the sticky gooey peanut butter mixture. It will be chunky. Turn the mixture into an ungreased cookie sheet, or a large 9 by 13-inch pan. Spread the granola out evenly and bake it for 10 minutes.

It will be brown and crispy. Now remove it from the oven and allow it to cool right there in the pan. Break it up into pieces after it is cooled. Transfer the granola to a clean coffee can or sealed canister. Add the raisins, fruits and or chocolate chips if you are using them, when the granola is cool.

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework
St. Francis of Rome

Laid Back Sunday at the Zoo

2011-05-01T16:31:00.001-04:00

It was a quiet day the zoo. Richard picked up Douglas from a Boy Scout camping trip mid morning. Early afternoon Mandy and I headed out to the store since we were running low on milk. Running out of milk in this house is NOT an option. The children played outside between the rain showers.

Right now dinner is in the oven and we will be sitting down for family meal here in the next hour. We are having a family favorite: zippy beef. We are going to have salad, applesauce and garlic bread with it.

I hope you have an enjoyable rest of your Sunday.

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Clear Your Clutter Day is Today!

2011-04-30T09:12:00.000-04:00

My friend Nettie Owens, a wonderful organizer, is the owner of Sappari Solutions. A local organizing organization that can help you get your life, home and/or office organized.

She has helped to spearhead Harford County's Clear Your Clutter Day. If you are local to the area and have household items that you are planning to clean out of your house, consider participating in this worthwhile event.

Check out the event website and see what the sponsors will accept and head on over the Harford Community College!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Here we go again...

2011-04-30T06:00:00.000-04:00

Liz had a neurology appointment on Friday. Since this all began in February of 2010, Liz has had horrible headaches. She had some relief from the pain after the initial surgery in February and then again with the revision surgeries in June. Lately the headaches have been getting worse.

There is a test that is done called a shunt patency test. Dye is injected into the shunt and the x-rays are taken to see how long it takes to drain. The last time Liz had one it took 14 minutes, it should take under 10 minutes. No one had told us about this delay, but since the headaches have steadily been getting worse, so it is now a concern.

Shunts have settings, or openings, to allow for the different speeds of draining of the cerebral fluid. The doctor adjusted Liz's shunt to the lowest it can possibly go. So now we will see how it drains over the next week.

She goes next Friday for another shunt patency test to see if the shunt adjustment has worked and the shunt is draining faster and better. I had to ask the question of what happens if it isn't doing better. The doctor said let's not borrow trouble. I HATE when people say that!

I hope you have a wonderful rest of your weekend.

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Sourdough Bread Killer

2011-04-29T06:00:00.000-04:00

I admit I have a fermentation issues. I think I have killed them all: kombucha scobies, milk kefir grains, water kefir grains and sourdoughs. I can't get them to go, or they go moldy on me. So I consider myself fermenationaly challenged.

Sourdoughs do not start in my house on their own. I don't think there is enough wild yeasts in my home. But I love sourdough and I am going to try it once again. This time I am going to start it with the horror of white flour and add a yeast to it, but I am going to use organic red grapes to provide the yeast.

I will use Nancy Silverton's Grape Sourdough Starter. Once the starter is well established, I will start feeding it with whole wheat flour to have it transition to a whole wheat.

I will start it this weekend and report back next week how it fared and if it still lives.

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework
St. Francis of Rome

Spring is springing!

2011-04-28T06:00:00.000-04:00

The weather is fabulous here! The rain has FINALLY left the area and we have had sun and warm (actually HOT, think 85 degrees) temperatures this week. Of course that makes life interesting at the zoo. The kiddos do not want to sit down and focus on their work; they want to be outside running around. Can't say I blame them.

I am going to revamp the schedule and on good days give them all a couple of "recesses" throughout the day. One of my greatest joys all the way through middle school was getting the break, two to three times a day for recess. In our school system if the children get ONE 20 minute break day in elementary school, they are lucky. That was one of the reasons I brought the children home. I want them to enjoy life rather than being cooped up in building all day on nice days. What better way to enjoy spring, except by being out there in it.

I still struggle with meeting the expectation of making sure they are progressing. I figure as long as they are working daily on the basics, they are progressing. Throw in science, history and art at least once a week each and we are good. Lord knows when Patrick was in school and struggling all he was doing was reading and math. He would have is regular classes and then be pulled out for "remediation." He also had an after school reading program. No wonder by the time he got home he was D.O.N.E! And honestly, he wasn't progressing there. He has made more progress the past year than he had in four years in the "box" school.

A wonderful lady on my Catholic Moms board made a point when I mentioned my struggles there. She told me: Homeschool exists for the family, not the family for the homeschool. I strive to remember that daily. We homeschool for the benefit of the entire family, we don't have to do school at home. I keep repeating this when I get caught up in the "but homeschool isn't done" mode.

Pack up your books kids and head outside. I will call you in for dinner!

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Just for fun

2011-04-27T06:00:00.000-04:00

For the past five years the Washington Post newspaper has been had a contest for dioramas using those marshmellow peep critters. Here are this year's winners. The past years are there too. Be prepared to waste some serious time and to laugh out loud.

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Traditional Food Tuesday: Honey

2011-04-26T06:00:00.000-04:00

I am slowly working my way back to the traditional food lifestyle. One of the first things I need to go is get the "whites" out of the diet. The white flour, white sugar, and white rice.

My family is BIG on sweets, we are definitely a dessert loving family. So right now I am researching alternatives to sugar and how to use them in the recipes we like. There are many good alternatives to white sugar that we can use. I am going to talk about probably one of the best out there: honey.

Honey has been collected for over 10,000 years. Can you imagine the first man that tried the honey and tried to get others to try it. I can just imagine that conversation. Humans began to keep bees sometime in Ancient Egypt. Honey is comprised of fructose and glucose. It also contains antioxidants, enzymes and trace minerals.

If you can find raw honey from a local source that is wonderful thing. It will contain pollens from your area and can work wonders on seasonal allergies since it will act as immune booster and reduce your seasonal allergy symptoms. You should start taking 2-3 spoonfuls day a few months before your seasonal allergy symptoms begin. Natural allergy shots!

Another interesting face is honey is the only food that never goes bad. Honey was found in an Egyptian tomb that was over 3,000 years old and it was still good. How is that for freshness!

Honey is sweeter than white sugar so you would use three quarters of cup for every one cup of sugar in a recipe. Since honey has so much moisture in it, you will need to adjust the amount of liquid in the recipe. A rule of thumb is use a quarter cup less liquid for every cup of honey. In addition honey can be acidic, so you will want to add 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda for every cup of honey used.,

Finally, honey can cause things to brown much faster because of the sugar content. You will want to reduce the temperature in the oven by 25 degrees.

I also love that you can get different flavors of honey depending on the the source of the pollen. Right now in my pantry I have wildflower, orange blossom, clover, strawberry and buckwheat. Sometimes I use honey to flavor the bread or muffin and then make a complimentary sauce, topping or glaze. It makes for a new depth flavor.

I would encourage you experiment with a trusted quick bread or muffin recipe and see if you can discover the joys of leaving the white sugar behind.

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Mary, Jesus, God and Prayer

2011-04-25T06:00:00.000-04:00

As a mother, I have and affinity with Mary, Jesus' mother. I know my heart hurts when one of the children is hurt, struggling or just sad. I also rejoice when they are happy and joyful. I like to align myself with Mary in prayer. Her intersessions have never let me down. I may not get the answer I want from God, but after the crisis or season has passed, I can see His hand in the outcome. And it is almost a better outcome than that which I prayed. He is like that.

One of my most favorite Marian prayers, other than the Morning Offering is The Memorae. It carried me through Andrew's life, Elizabeth's trials and my father's illness last year. I invite you to try it when you are having difficulties.

REMEMBER, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly to thee, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother; to thee do I come; before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Easter Morning at the Zoo

2011-04-24T10:47:00.000-04:00

Late last night we were able to get the baskets all assembled. Since we have such a large family the baskets are placed where the children sit.

Side one of the table

Side two of the table

Then in the morning we have the grand unveiling and required candy sneaking.

Abby

Maggie

Marian and her jelly beans

Emma

Becky

Patrick

Douglas and his super huge "Dude" bunny

A tired Mandy (teens don't like having a little ones waking them at 6:30 AM)

Liz

Richard hiding out away from it all.

And then all we have left is this:

Morning chaos

And just because it is so darn cute:

Hop in his new home

And just so you know that isn't always fun at the zoo.

Emma the Grumpy

I hope you are having a wonderful day with your family this Blessed Easter.

Pax Christi!
A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

2011-04-24T06:00:00.000-04:00

A Happy and Blessed Easter to you and your family!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome

Sad update at the zoo

2011-04-23T21:48:00.000-04:00

As we were expecting, the last wild bunny passed away this evening. Everyone is very sad. It is hard explaining to the four year olds about death. We told them that Gramps was going to take care of the baby bunnies for us. I hope that was a gentle way to explain it to them and won't cause permanent scars later in life.

Mandy is very much like I am. When I get upset I cook, she bakes. So we have some wonderful desserts for Easter now. We have 2 apple pies and 2 chocolate pudding pies.

She also gets adventurous and looks for new recipes. Since we had so many apple peels, she looked for ideas to use up apple peels. She found a neat one: apple jelly that uses apple peels and cores.

We will let you know how it turns out. It is still cooling right now, so we are hoping that it sets up.

My big tough husband was very upset about the loss of the babies and didn't like that the rest of the zoo was so sad. So he and I took a road trip this evening.

Meet the newest member of the zoo: Hop. A cute little grey bunny. He is settling in nicely and all the other zoo mates are loving having a new member of the family.

Pax Christi!

A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome