My Daybook ~ November 23rd
Outside my window… it is very cold but also so beautifully sunny! I sure wish I felt up to going outside…I am thinking… about how blessed I am to have such wonderful friends, both in real life and online!
I am thankful for… kind, thoughtful, and way too generous friends, including the friend, who gave me the most lovely baby shower this past Saturday. I can’t wait to upload some pictures to share with you all!
I am wearing… a big warm fuzzy sweater and thick socks. I came down with an awful cold late Saturday night and, even after spending most of yesterday in bed, I am still feeling really sick…
I am remembering… my post from November 23rd of last year, the day before I miscarried our little Gabriel. It is hard to believe it has been a year.
I am going… to work on a grocery list for hubby to pick up at the store tonight. I still haven’t gone shopping since my fridge broke down, a week ago… If it wasn’t for Thanksgiving in a few days, I’d be tempted to see just how long I can stretch what is in our cupboards! 😉
I am reading… not much at the moment, though I am hoping to have a chance to catch up on my emails and the 500+ posts in Google Reader soon!
I am hoping… that my ultrasound (and intuition) was right. Wouldn’t I be in shock if this baby turned out to be a boy!!!
On my mind… I am really trying to focus on creating a grocery list… It’s hard when you need to make it for someone else!
From the learning rooms… This will be a short week, so I was hoping that we would get a lot accomplished today and tomorrow. So far it isn’t happening…
Living the Liturgical Year at Home… This week we will celebrate the feast of St. Catherine of Alexandria on Wednesday. Each year we make a Heart Shaped Cake and this year I will also include a Wheel Shaped Pasta Dish with dinner.
Noticing that… it is really really hard to keep my children on track with their school work when I am not feeling well.
Pondering these words… It’s a BOY!!! Head on over and tell Erica congratulations!
From the kitchen… lots of herbal tea and fluids for me. Leftover Hearty Beef Stew and Rolls for everyone else. I was so thankful this weekend for those freezer meals I made for “after” the baby was born! 😉
Around the house… signs that we will be welcoming a baby soon. Where on earth am I going to put everything?!
A few plans for the rest of the week:
- Get better!
- Start writing Thank You cards
- Work on creating an address database for our Christmas Cards/Birth Announcements (Can you believe I’ve been hand addressing about 150 cards every year?! It will be nice to have it all in the computer for once, if I can find the time to actually input them all.)
- Weekly OB Check-Up
- Celebrate the Feast of St. Catherine of Alexandria
- Celebrate Thanksgiving!
- Compile a post of all the recipes for December over at Catholic Cuisine
- Yikes! I have a lot to do this week…
A Picture thought I am sharing:
Thank you to ALL of you that contributed to this surprise project!
I absolutely LOVE it!!!!!
Making a list…
I’ve been making Christmas lists for awhile now, ever since I found out this baby was due on Christmas. Most of them have just been in a notebook on my nightstand, so I haven’t blogged much about them. I was asked by a few of you to share my lists this year, and perhaps if I actually blog about it, it will help me “check them twice” and finish up any details I am more than likely forgetting!
Even though I keep telling myself I am “almost ready” for Advent and Christmas, I still feel completely unprepared! I guess it is just because I really have no idea when this little one will arrive… Our other children have been born anywhere from 3 weeks early (Chiquita) to 3 days early (Snuggles), which (if that is any indication) would put her arrival at anytime in December…
Anyhow, one of the lists I’ve been working on, was gifts for St. Nicholas Day. In our home, we have a family tradition of giving our children new slippers, gold coins, and a new Christmas Picture Book (to add to our collection) from St. Nicholas on December 6th.
Here’s a peek at the picture books I purchased for this year:
For the Family: St. Nicholas: A Closer Look at Christmas
“This beautiful, fully-illustrated coffee table book provides a closer look at Christmas and the St. Nicholas of history and legend. Full of historical information and rare illustrations from Christian traditions around the world, this book will entertain, inform, and inspire readers as it teaches the true meaning of Christmas giving.”
*If you check out the used/like new copies available on Amazon, it is MUCH more affordable!
For Captain: Christmas at Stony Creek
For Rascal: An Orange for Frankie
“In The Princess and the Kiss: The Three Gifts of Christmas, Christmas has come again to the kingdom, but the king and queen (the original princess in The Princess & the Kiss) have a serious problem. Their precious daughter is becoming spoiled. No longer does she appreciate her gifts as she should nor does she remember the true meaning of Christmas. Her troubled parents come up with a plan to cure the princess of her selfishness. This Christmas will be different-she will receive only three gifts, each one as precious as the princess is to her parents. What will the princess do with the gifts she receives? Will she at last discover the true meaning of Christmas? Children and parents alike will treasure this timeless story that reveals the biblical truth-the best gifts come from the heart.”
“Frank McCourt’s first Christmas book is by turns tender and heartwarming, and wholly unforgettable. Angela is six years old and worries for the Baby Jesus on the altar of St. Joseph’s Church near School House Lane in Limerick, Ireland, where she lives. December nights are damp and cold, and the church is dark. The Baby Jesus’ mother doesn’t even have a blanket to cover him. The Baby is sure to need Angela’s help, even if she is not allowed to step near the altar, especially by herself. Filled with the character and incident that have made Pulitzer Prize recipient Frank McCourt internationally renowned and beloved, Angela and the Baby Jesus is a timeless story of family–and all of its joy, tradition, love, and incongruity–and a book for the generations to cherish.”
For Snuggles: Christmas in the Barn
For Rose: All for the Newborn Baby
(I also just ordered a used copy of this book
I have always wanted to order St. Nicholas Chocolate Coins for his feast day, but every year just end up sticking with the little bags from the local store. We usually repackage them though and attach a little note from St. Nicholas.
Breakfast, after Mass, will include a Candy Cane Coffee Cake and St. Nicholas Hot Cocoa. (We always make this to give away to friends as well!) Oh, and since it was such a hit with my children, I’ll probably make St. Nicholas Pizza once again for dinner. (Very easy and cute!)
This year, I also purchased a Playmobil Nativity Set
Ok.. that’s all for now. I’ll try and post a bit more about our plans later!
35 Weeks…
Holy Heroes Advent Adventure
Have you signed up yet for this year’s Advent Adventure at Holy Heroes?
It is offered for free and nearly every day, 22 times during Advent, they will send you an email with a link to that day’s activities including: Short videos and audio selections, coloring pages, word searches, crossword puzzles and more!
This year it is going to be based on the Jesse Tree, one of our favorite Advent traditions!
OH! And after signing up, you’ll even recieve a coupon code (good through Epiphany) for 20% savings on nearly all of the products offered on their site!
Small Successes :: November 19, 2009
!), washed, and put away all the 0-3 month baby girl clothing! Now I am starting to feel a little more prepared for our little one to arrive.
Our refrigerator/freezer stopped working Monday. It isn’t that old! At least I didn’t think it was… I was thinking it had to be around 3 years old, hubby thought it hadn’t even been that long. Turns out we bought it in January of 2004, nearly 6 years ago… Wow!
Anyhow, it forced gave me the perfect opportunity to deep clean it… After two long afternoons of sorting through thawed food, cooking way too much (including a delicious blackberry-raspberry cobbler using this recipe), throwing out what couldn’t be salvaged, and then scrubbing for hours after the repair man was able to fix the problem, it almost looks new again! Now, if only I had the energy to go grocery shopping…
I assembled one of Twinkle Toes Christmas gifts
What are your Small Successes this week?
Wordless Wednesday ~ Timeline Entries
My Daybook ~ November 17th
Outside my window… 100% chance of rain.
I am thinking… of our friends, Dan and Stacey, and their family. Yesterday I tried posting a few different times, to ask you all to keep them in your prayers, and I just couldn’t complete the post… My heart is just aching for them, as it has for so many other friends this past year. Sunday afternoon, one of Dan’s sisters let us know that late Saturday night Dan and Stacey lost one of their nine young children, their adorable 2 1/2 year old daughter Rachel, unexpectedly to meningitis. It all happened so quickly and within just a couple hours of showing symptoms, Rachel went to Heaven. Could you all please remember their family, and their extended family, in your prayers?
I am thankful for… the reassurance given to us, though our Faith and infant baptism, that little Rachel is now perfectly happy in Heaven, even if it is so very hard for those still here, especially the families of these little ones. St. Rachel, pray for us!
I am wearing… a long-sleeved lavender maternity shirt, black fleece maternity sweat pants, and warm fuzzy socks. It is really cold this morning.
I am going… to miss Rachel’s funeral… I wanted so badly to go. But, with all the contractions I’ve been having, as well as the 4 hour drive each way, my midwife doesn’t think I should be making the trip. :'(
I am reading… A Life of Our Lord for Children
I am hoping… to have a little time this afternoon to check over my St. Nicholas, “O” Antiphon, and Christmas Lists to make sure I’ve ordered all the little gifts and supplies I had planned on ordering.
On my mind… Father’s sermon from Sunday morning Mass. He was reminding us that we never know when our life is going to end and that each and every second here is a gift from God.
From the learning rooms… as I mentioned in my “K” week post, we are continuing “L” week for a few days this week as the girls finish up a Ladybug Lapbook/Unit Study. Now that a few other things have come up as well, it looks like we won’t even begin “M” until next week. As for the boys, they are working on finishing up a few of their projects before our Christmas break.
Living the Liturgical Year at Home… I had wanted to make St. Elizabeth’s Crown for her feast day today. Doesn’t it look both beautiful and delicious!?! However, with the state of my kitchen right now, it is not looking like it is going to happen… Perhaps I can make it on Thursday, which is her traditional feast day. She is one of the two patrons I choose at my Confirmation!
Noticing that… the days are quickly ticking by and Christmas will be here very, very soon… Only 37 days to go! I’ve been quite nervous about labor and delivery this pregnancy, and trying not to think about it too much…
Pondering these words… “It is so consoling to think that Jesus, the strong God, experienced all our weaknesses, that He trembled at the sight of the bitter chalice – the cup that He had longed for so ardently.” ~ St. Therese of Lisieux
From the kitchen… Do you really want to know? Yesterday, after lunch, I noticed (or rather Snuggles pointed out) that the floor in front of the fridge was covered in water. At first I had the boys just dry it up for me, thinking that Snuggles had pushed on the water dispenser… Then, a few minutes later, it was wet again. I opened the freezer to find that all the ice had melted and everything had defrosted. Needless to say I spent the rest of the day sorting through thawed food, baking a Berry Cobbler with 2 1/2 pounds of thawed berries, making Chicken in the Crock pot for dinner, and juice popsicles with all the juice concentrates which were on the verge of falling apart. What a day! Thankfully a couple of my sisters stopped by on their way home from school and took a couple bags of food/condiments home with them, since my mom has an extra fridge… The rest is on our front porch in a cooler. The appliance repair man will be out in a couple hours.
Around the house… So much to do, and so little energy with which to do it… It’s amazing how quickly it can totally fall apart when something breaks!
One of my favorite things… the looks on my kids faces when they notice or feel the baby rolling around inside my tummy! She has been quite active lately.
A few plans for the rest of the week:
- Wednesday ~ Blue Knights Meeting for the Boys
- Thursday ~ Evening Open House/Party at at Friends
- Saturday ~ A Baby Shower for our little “Rose!” I have been so blessed with such kind and generous friends!
A Picture thought I am sharing:
Highlights from “K” Week
I wasn’t kidding when I said we kept “K” week simple. It was such a busy week with celebrating the Feast of St. Martin, planning a Baby Shower, and trying to keep up with the core subjects.
We didn’t get to the Picture Book Science or the Picture Study… In fact, Rascal said he “wouldn’t do anything that had had to do with Kiiissssessss… Ewwww!” Well, that changed pretty quickly when I said, “oh… that’s too bad, I thought you might like to help the girls make some Hershey Kiss Kritters!” 😉 lol!
Here are a few of the things we did do during “K” week, in addition to reading Elizabeth’s lovely story about Michael and the Kingcup Fairy, creating Modelling Wax letter K’s, and practicing forming the letter K with Handwriting Without Tears Hands-On Materials and Kimberlee’s Grey Block Paper.
From this Coloring Book
(While looking at the Flower Fairies Alphabet book and listening to the CD!)
(link removed – Catholic Artworks has a history of not shipping orders)
Copywork from An Alphabet of Catholic Saints. (You can print the one I made here.)
We also listened listened to I want to be a Christian! The Story of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha,
Supplies:
I knew I wasn’t going to have much time this week, so when we made cupcakes on the Feast of St. Martin, I kept half aside for the girls to decorate for K week!
Colors of the Rainbow
…Little Flowers Girls’ Club ~ Prudence
Well, today was our last Little Flowers Girls’ Club meeting until March, since I prudently decided to give myself a baby break from Dec-Feb!
I can’t believe we have already had FIVE meetings this year. Wow!! I am very thankful for the break, but I will miss our meetings and all the girls. My girls will too!! They have LOVED having so many of their little friends over every couple weeks.
I hadn’t had much time prior to the meeting to think about ways to explain prudence to the girls, so before the meeting I did a quick search on the Little Flower Leaders Yahoo Group and ran across the suggestion to use the story of the Three Little Pigs. It was so easy, not to mention they loved it and it really helped them understand what being prudent means.
We then went on to discuss other ways in which we can be prudent, including practicing the Spiritual Works of Mercy. While we talked about the Spiritual Works of Mercy, the girls colored some pictures of the Spiritual Works of Mercy, which I had printed onto card stock and, once they were done, we cut into Flash Cards for them to take home. (This was from Catholic Artworks Teachers Helper Edition #17.)
I included the memory verse for Prudence, an image of St. Angela Merici, The Spiritual Works of Mercy, an image of a violet, and the prayer to St. Angela Merici from the Little Flowers Virtues CD.
(If you would like to download the document I created for this notebook page, you can do so here. Also, you can find links to all of my notebook page documents in this post.)
Saint Therese, the Little Flower, pray for us!
0 Comments