THANKSGIVING PICS (AT MY MOM & DAD'S HOUSE)

 We put the cookies into a pretty basket to take to grandma & Grandpa's house for our Thanksgiving celebration

 My mom's table was set so pretty with all of her best china

 The "Blue Willow" dishes looked so striking with the red table cloth

 My mom made a special place for Jeremy during the Thanksgiving meal so that he could watch the important Cowboy football game!!  They won!!!

 My sister and her hubby, "Uncle Chris"

 Me and my Love Bug! (Notice his "jelly of the month club" t-shirt from the movie,  Christmas Vacation)

 Nicholas trying his first bite of the wonderful food...after we said our before meal prayers of course.  His favorite part was the turkey!!! Mine too

 Now for Savannah to have a try.....her favorite part is the sweet kernel corn

 Now, Madison.....her favorite part is the stuffing!

 My sweet little niece, Courtney with her Santa cup

 My sweet little niece Kerry (named after me!) eating one of our Christmas cookies

 The kids adorned Grandma's Christmas tree with Candy canes!

 Auntie Deonn reading some "Black Friday" newspaper specials

 Here is my Daddy!  I love you!

 Jerms and Uncle Chris talking about teeth! (Uncle Chris is in Dental school)

 Me, my Sis (Kelley) and Dad

 Me, my Sis, and Mom

 All four of us.....it is crazy to think that this was our ENTIRE family for so many years!!

 Now THIS is our ENTIRE family.....isn't our Lord amazing!!!!

 The Girls (Madison, me, Mom, Sis, and Auntie Deonn)

 Jeremy and his sweet Nana.....she didn't want any pictures but finally agreed to this one.  We were so glad that her and Papa could be with us on Thanksgiving

The Boys!!  Papa, Jeremy, and Little Nicholas....we are so spoiled to have Nana and Papa close by!

Happy Thanksgiving

IT'S OFFICIALLY CHRISTMAS?.....Well, Almost

I love the sound of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in the house on the morning of Thanksgiving!  The kids just love to watch it.  It is a LONG parade, though. The kids had kind of lost interest when all of the sudden, Nick yells, "IT'S SANTA! IT'S SANTA!"  The official end to the Thanksgiving Day parade is Santa and his sleigh!  All of my children (there are only 3 but when they all run down our wooden staircase, it sounds like the word "all" fits better) ran down as fast as they could to see!!

 Savannah hasn't quite made it all the way to the familyroom yet.......but I hear her running and yelling

 Here she is

 Their faces were lit up with excitement!  "Is that the real one (Santa), mommy?" Nicholas asks.  "Of course it is, Nick!" answers Madison quickly...."It is the MACY'S parade!" ("probably the biggest parade in the world", I follow by saying)

I had to get a pic of their faces as it feels more and more like Christmas each day.  This is an exciting time of year......As you all know, our family has already kind of started celebrating Christmas a bit early with decorations and cookies.  Well, I felt a little silly about it, BUT now that St. Nicholas has made his official appearance, I am feeling pretty good!

But don't worry....we realize that the season doesn't OFFICIALLY BEGIN until the first Sunday of ADVENT which is this Sunday! (The start to our beautiful Liturgical Year) We cannot wait to really start preparing our hearts for the Christ Child. Until then.....

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

THANKSGIVING BAKING

I must say that the joyfulness that I felt over the weekend quickly vanished and I have been quite crabby for the last 2 days.  This is when it matters most to practice virtue, especially with my family.  Well, I am not sure how they would describe their experience with me during this time, but I struggled pretty hard with being patient and friendly.

I got sick and was put on medicine that absolutely keeps me up at night.  I am so tired and cranky.  It was getting harder and harder to pull of the nice face, as the days went on, following the sleepless nights!   I have been on this medicine for over a week now and the no sleep has really caught up to me.  Tonight, after apologizing to my children NUMEROUS times during school today for being crabby, we baked cookies, toffee brittle, and pumpkin pies for our Thanksgiving celebration tomorrow at my parent's house.  It was such a wonderful night with the kids and with my Love, Jeremy (who would not let me take his pic because he was already in his pajamas)  We laughed a lot and listened to Christmas music.......I am so in the Christmas spirit (even though Advent hasn't even started yet), and besides, there is no such thing as Thanksgiving music anyway!!

 Here are Savannah and Nick mixing up the Pumpkin pie ingredients.  Jeremy insists on me making my homemade pumpkin pie each year.  I am not sure if he REALLY loves it that much or if he is just being so sweet and building me up!

 I was trying to "enjoy" them "enjoying" mixing it all up without mentioning a possible mess if they were not careful....I might have slipped and said it once or twice (I am really cranky today!)

 Then we cut out gingerbread cookie shapes.  They just loved it.  We had Christmas music BLASTING in the kitchen.....I love to sing Christmas songs REALLY loud, and then have to stop while I cry (because they touch my heart so much!)

 Flour (and dough) was everywhere!!

 I don't look crabby......but I kind of was on the inside!! I am so ashamed when I am so blessed but acting like such a baby

 My three little Angels!!  They just love to help me bake!

 Savannah and Nicholas sat on the counter in order to reach the cookie dough and ended up getting flour and dough on their pajama bottoms.  I made them take them off before getting down (to try and spare the newly mopped floor).  This is them checking on the cookies in the oven without their pajama bottoms on.....this makes me just laugh!

 They just noticed that I was taking their picture and started to scream....yet they kept running back in front of me and laughing!  They thought that they were pretty funny......and they were!

 We took the cookies out of the oven pan by pan and let them cool while we made more batches.  We were a little factory.  Then we got to decorate them!  That was so much fun!!  They are little artists

 Madison fake eating one of her creations.  She would really take her time to add a lot of detail onto hers.  She is really creative!!

 Little Nicholas making his gingerbread man.  He even put shoes on him!

 Here are some of our finished creations!  They look really yummy, don't they......lots of icing and red hot candies!  This is a dry run for our Christmas cookies!!

 Here were some of the family favorite designs this year.....Savannah's "Christmas Tree Frog"

 Madison's embellished Christmas stocking (Wow, that is a lot of candy) We call it the insulin maker!!

 Here is Nicholas' famous "Ginger Man wearing a Green Boot"  He said it was a tie die boot!

Jeremy sweetly agreed to put our little bakers to bed while I finished making the toffee brittle and cleaning up.  I saw it fitting to take a couple minutes out for a hot cocoa (while the candy was boiling) in my favorite BIG mug!  It just seemed like the right thing to do.  Now that the house is quiet, I thank our Lord for promises we make to our children.....I was so not in the mood for baking tonight, but since I promised them that we would today after finishing our school (I made this promise when I was in a really good mood the other night) , I was kind of stuck.  I am SO GLAD  that I was stuck!  What joy I would have missed out on tonight with my family!  I am such a crab sometimes.  I hope that they don't remember that part!!  

I really wish that I could re-do today and just be that sweet, tender mother that I was called to be and the mother that they really deserve.  I guess that I can start fresh tomorrow morning.  Jesus, please give me strength.....and sleep!  God Bless you all

PRAYER TIME WITH MAXIMILIAN "OUR MAX"

Today our prayer time was a bit interrupted.  First of all, Little Savannah has a fever that started yesterday afternoon (after playing outside in all of the leaves), so she is really miserable (a bad night of sleep for her).  She didn't want to be alone in mommy and daddy's bed, so I made her a bed on the floor of our schoolroom (aka: the nurses office) so that she could join us for prayer time before going back for another rest.   Well, with her laying on the floor with her blanket and pillow, really crowed our prayer area (candle, over-sized Rosary prayerbook) and THEN in walks Maximilian (our beloved HUGE dog). He saw the opportunity to snuggle on the floor and plopped himself right in the middle of everything.  My first reaction is usually to take him out of the room until we are finished on the floor (candle blown out...he's a huge and clumsy fire hazard)

ANYWAY, I decided instead to capture the moment and blog it so that I could always remember how cozy and warm it felt to all be together on this rainy fall morning.

 Max is loving life right now with all of his best friends on the floor snuggling him

 The kids just never get tired of loving on their dog

Well, we did get to all of our prayers (Joyful Mysteries today) and even "little Savannah", still in her pink Pomeranian puppy pajamas, perked up a bit.  I live for those little smiling faces (Savannah did a little work and then went back to take a nap...feel better soon my sweet baby girl).

BEAUTIFUL FALL SUNDAY

HERE IS WHAT I SHOULD BE DOING TODAY

1. Finishing folding that last load of laundry (I could finally check that off)

2. Printing out the kid's daily lessons for next week

3. Getting that timeline up on the wall in our schoolroom for History...it's half done (been on the to-do list for weeks)

4. Stamping my Christmas cards that I worked so hard to get ordered early

5. Getting a start on dinner so that after Mass tonight, I can just stick it in the oven

Or a million other things......

WHAT AM I DOING?

 

I know that I tend to always blog about how I need to take time to be with my kids and that I love it when I do.  I guess this is my biggest vice....not being present in the important moments...not enjoying this special time that I have.  I am always distracted by what I need to get done.  They are all jobs of a mother and they are important too, but this is the time to just really enjoy THEM!! I guess I use this blog to keep reminding myself to stop and take time with the important.
In the words of Aristotle, "The best activities in life are the most useless.....this is because such things are not subordinate to a further end, rather done for their own sake"  These goods (activities) are excellent in themselves as opposed to an activity that is in service of something beyond them"
In my experience this holds so true......the most enjoyed and memorable moments are never the means to another end.  They are joyful because they are simply joyful, and not "getting something accomplished"  Even in prayer.  When we pray, we are uniting with and loving our Lord.  It is not an activity that is accomplishing a chore off of our list of things to do.  There is nothing physically to show for it when you are done.  It is just wonderful, valuable, and joyful in and of itself.

HAVE A BLESSED AND HAPPY SUNDAY

I AM SO THANKFUL TODAY

I am so thankful today......it has a little to do with it being almost Advent and the end of a very busy week......but it has A LOT to do with:

1)  The fact that I LOVE praying with my children EVERY morning to start school...I don't mean a quick offering in the car (don't get me wrong...that is a truly blessed and important time) but I am fortunate enough to get to really have a nice long prayer time (candle lit, cuddled on the schoolroom floor...rainy days are an extra treat) I get to teach them all about God and live out our Catholic faith together each day.

This is when they learn about the most important things of life.  I get to hear their sweet innocent voices praying to our Lord which I know pleases Him even more than it pleases me....and I am REALLY pleased!  

2)  I get to interrupt whatever is happening when one of my little ones has a worry or a concern, or just wants to talk.  We can just stop whatever we are doing and I can TRULY, at those precious times, live out fully my vocation as a mother (we have had so many VALUABLE chats that wouldn't have happened if they were not able to be with me in such a special situation).

3)  I love that I get to teach them all of the their school subjects and learn a lot right along with them.  I know exactly what they have learned and exactly how much of that they know and I would never trade that for anything.

4)  I get to put stickers on their papers (which puts huge smiles on their sweet little lips).  I get to jump around when they finally "get it" and practice lots of patience and love when they "just don't".

5)  I get to wake them up slowly, and feed them all 3 meals!

6)  We get to do EVERYTHING together and for that I am thankful!!

I am not meaning to brag or sound anti-school because I am not anti-school at all (I loved our wonderful Catholic school and pulling the kids out was truly difficult for me) I was just feeling so much joy (a special consolation from my Lord) and just felt called to praise Him. My blog is like a prayer for me!  I know that Jesus did not call everyone to this vocation of homeschooling, but I am so thankful that this was my calling.  I am just so joyful today!

If there is a way to slow down time, I pray that it will be slowed because it is going by so fast.

CUB SCOUT UNIFORM INSPECTION

My little Nicholas had an exciting morning.  He had a very important Cub Scout Pack meeting.  Different from his normal Den meeting, this is a meeting where ALL of the different levels of Scouts from St. Elizabeth Seton meet together.  Today they had a Marine come in to do a uniform inspection.

Here he is checking Nicholas' uniform with the rest of his Tiger Den.  This morning Nick asked me to cut and clean his nails for the inspection.  Those little boys' nails can get pretty dirty.  He is so precious and really takes his uniform seriously.  What a great way to start forming these little men.

 Nicholas got an award for Popcorn sales.  He was the first scout called.  You cannot see his face very well, but his dimple was really deep with a that smile...he was just elated!!

 He received a special prize.....a super cool AM/FM radio with a flashlight and an alarm that sounds if you are in trouble.  It is for hunting at the lease with Daddy.  He gets to go to the lease in 3 weeks, which is exactly 21 days away....he is counting down!!!

After he earned a bead, and won 2 prizes for Popcorn sales (that is 3 trips to the stage already), they started drawing names from a hat for additional prizes that were open for everyone.  I heard Madison whisper a prayer aloud for Nick's name to be called and yes, you guessed it.....he was the last prize drawn from the hat.  A really neat "Boy Scouts of America" wooden box to keep all of the important treasures in.  

Wow, it was one of those times when the blessings were falling so heavy that I felt a little guilty, even though I was so happy for Nick.  I know that Jesus was teaching me a lesson in gratefulness because He knows how distracted I am by what others might be feeling and thinking about me.  He wanted me to be thankful and realize that He has a reason for all of this and for everything that He does and allows.  Nicholas needed this blessing today for things that I may not even understand and I should not question.  I smile to think that our Lord even threw in that special wooden box....just because He can!!  He is God!! And He loves to shower His little ones.

Thank you, Jesus for giving Nicholas such an uplifting and confidence building experience!  He could not wait to call Daddy and tell him (Daddy is hunting this weekend).  He wants his Daddy to be so proud of him......and you know what??  he is!!  There is nothing like a father's love.

Especially a Father's Love (Who is Love)

MADISON AND HER SWEET FRIENDS

We are so blessed to have a wonderful homeschooling group at our church.  These families truly inspire me and I just love to spend time with them.  I love that my kids get to be around all of these great kids.  Life in our group is a little simpler and truly focused on our path towards Christ.  I just love it!  Today was picture day for our homeschool co-op and I snapped this shot of Madison and a couple of her sweet friends.  It is a kinda blurry iphone pic, but I still wanted to blog it.  They are such sweet girls.

(left to right: Veronica, Madison, Beth, and Claire)