WoW ~ Starting Over!
**This is probably a really boring post for most all of you… But, I am putting it up anyway, since WOW was really helping me lose weight and eat well earlier this year. Thanks Regina for getting it going once again! I need it!
It has been quite some time since I have posted for WoW (Weight on Wednesday). I did not do very well over the summer. I started gaining while on our road trip (it was SO hard to eat well) and continued with way too many cakes all summer!! It didn’t help that Regina took a break from WoW and I wasn’t having to report my gains until the last few weeks…. and I conveniently ignored posting here as well! 😉
Well it is time for me to shape up.. literally!!! hee..hee.. I am going to start eating better and exercising. Not only do I need to lose the weight from the summer (approx 7 pounds as of last Wednesday), I would like to lose another 10+ on top of that, which should be achievable… (unless God has other plans and I find out I am pregnant before that happens–which is usually the case! I am not, as of Monday, though a number of people asked me if I was this past week–and honestly, I was wondering myself!) … In fact, another friend asked me last night at Bunco… My summer weight gain must be really noticeable! 😉
Even though I would like to lose weight, what I really need to focus on is increasing my energy and getting more rest. I have been SO tired, but at the same time, I can’t sleep. I think I have gotten maybe 15 hours of sleep in the last 3 nights. Since I haven’t been sleeping, I have been drinking lots of coffee, which is probably what is keeping me awake at night!
Ok, so here are my goals for this week
- Exercise for 10 minutes before bed each night. (My chiropractor seems to think this will help me sleep better.)
- Do some sort of exercise program/video 2 times. (3 would be better, but I want to try and start slow and realistically)
- Eat some protein with breakfast. Preferably a protein shake (as long as it is dairy, sugar, banana, and blueberry free).
- Cut out coffee. Is it possible? I had a cup of green tea this morning.
Weight Gain/Loss since last Wednesday:
- -2 pounds Wahoo! Only 5 more to go to be my pre-summer weight!
To join in, or see everyone else’s results, click here.
The Nativity of Mary
Today was the feast of the Nativity of Mary, and what a beautiful day it was!
While the boys were finishing up their school work this afternoon, the girls colored a picture of Mary from Fenestrae Fidei. I wasn’t planning on taking any pictures, but I was amazed at how well they colored today — ALL BY THEMSELVES!! I am sure our Blessed Mother is pleased with their loving efforts.
During dinner each night, my hubby reads from Saints for Young People for Every Day of the Year, and I thought I would take a second to share today’s excerpt on the Nativity of Mary:
We do not usually celebrate the birthdays of the saints. Instead we celebrate the day they died because that is the day they are born into the joys of Heaven.
But the birthday of Mary, our Blessed Mother, is an exception. We do celebrate her birthday because she came into this world full of grace, and because she was to be the Mother of Jesus.
When Mary was born, legions of angels hastened from Heaven to surround her little crib and exclaim over her beauty and holiness. The birth of Our Lady was like the dawn. When the sky starts to turn a rosy pink early in the morning, we know the sun will soon come up. In the same way, when Mary was born, she brought great happiness to the world, for it meant that soon Jesus, the Sun of justice, would appear. Mary was the wonderful creature whose privilege it was to bring the Lord Jesus to all mankind.
Even today, if we have Mary, we have Jesus. Whoever is very devoted to her is very close to the Heart of Jesus.
Do we want to offer a gift to Mary on her birthday? What pleases her the most is that we avoid sin, every kind of sin, because sin offends her Son Jesus.
After dinner, it was time for cake! I had the made a recipe for a delicious Blueberry Cheesecake found in Ann Ball’s book Catholic Traditions In The Home And Classroom. The all white cheesecake symbolizes Mary’s purity, and the blueberry topping is symbolic of her blue mantle.
We topped the cake with a small statue of Mary and surrounded it with a circle of 10 candles, representing one decade of the rosary. We let the children take turns lighting the candles as we prayed a “Hail Mary” for each candle.
We then sang Happy Birthday and let the children blow out the candles!!!
My children LOVE this tradition. It was so much fun!
And the Cheesecake was pretty good too!
(Traditional Prayer found in Maiden & Mother
)The Simple Woman’s Daybook ~ Sep 8th
Outside my (open) Window… the birds are chirping and the sky is blue. It looks like it is going to be a beautiful day!
From the learning room…lots of books from the library. I am a couple books away from maxing out my limit! We are going to be busy, but it’s a very good type of busy!
I am thankful… for socks and sweaters on chilly mornings.
From the kitchen… Blueberry Bagels for Breakfast in honor of our Blessed Mother’s Birthday! Last weeks shredded beef burritos were so yummy, I’ll be popping another roast into my crock-pot and will have them again tonight… Followed by Blueberry Cheesecake for dessert.
I am creating… little wooden saints. I’ll try and post pictures soon.
I am going… to exercise this week. I am going to exercise this week. I am GOING to exercise THIS week! 😉 Now let’s see if I actually do it…
I am wearing… warm socks! My feet are freezing!
I am reading… lots of emails. I am sorry if I owe you a response. I wasn’t on the computer much this past week, and am quite behind once again.
I am hoping… that I don’t have to report a gain for the 4th week in a row! sniff.sniff.
I am hearing… the children talking… They just woke up. Time for me to get off the computer!
Around the house… lots of laundry and stacks of various things that need to be put away. I spent too much time “creating” this weekend. (It was so much fun though!)
One of my favorite things… Have I mentioned socks? Nice fluffy warm ones?
- Week two of school, the tutor will be coming Mon, Tue & Wed
- Dentist appointments for our 3 oldest on Thursday.
- Mass and Benediction on Friday, followed by lunch with Father.
Here is a picture thought I am sharing:
To see more Daybook entry’s, click here.
The Feast of Blessed Mother Teresa
September 5th is the anniversary of the death of Blessed Mother Teresa, and her feast day.
I remember very clearly traveling to San Francisco in 1988 (when I was just 10 years old!) with my Grandmother to see Mother Teresa, at St. Anne’s Church, as she welcomed 11 new nuns into her order. I remember my grandmother telling me that, “one day this amazing little nun will be declared a Saint!” My grandmother passed away just a few short years after that trip. I am so thankful for those precious times we had together, and her amazing love for our Lord and His Saints that she shared with us grandchildren. I sure do miss her, and Mother Teresa always reminds me of my grandma!
You know, my very first “Saint Themed” blog post was on our plans for celebrating this feast last year. I followed that one up with a post containing pictures from our Tea-and-Craft. It doesn’t seem like it was that long ago, but it amazes me how much our children have GROWN this past year!
This year, we spent the morning at Mass and Benediction, then picking plums at Father’s house. After that we had a few doctors appointments to go to, so by the time we got home it was after 3pm.
My kids were begging to make Indian Sweet Bread once again, but with so little time I had to improvise. Thankfully I had a package of our favorite uncooked tortillas from Costco in the fridge, so I just sprinkled them with sugar and cooked them like normal. They were GREAT! They were even better than our homemade ones from last year, and SO MUCH easier. I also made iced Chai Latte’s with Oregon Chai! Yummmm!!!!
After dinner the children colored the beautiful coloring pages from Charlotte, while listening to The Gospel on Five Fingers.
Every time the “Gospel on Five Fingers” was mentioned, Twinkle Toes would stop coloring, and say it as she counted on her fingers at the same time… “You did it for Me!” It was so very cute!
They devoured the Indian Sweet Bread while watching Mother Teresa: Seeing The Face Of Jesus
This coming week we will be reading Mother Teresa
In my search for Wooden Folk, I did run across a bag of wooden spoons, and immediately remembered Alice’s Spoon Saints. Since the spoons were quite inexpensive, I purchased a bag. After deciding it would take too much time to make a wooden Mother Teresa, with the short time we had, we made a Mother Teresa Spoon Saint instead. It was quite easy, and turned out pretty good for our first attempt, if I may say so myself. I added a popsicle stick to the back, and told my boys that they could use it as a puppet. Captain replied, “Yeah!! Now all we need are some slums!!!” (They may have to use they little imaginations for that!)
Picking Plums
Yesterday, after Mass, Father invited us over to his home to pick plums…
I am so glad I ran back into the house before we left to grab my camera! :o)
Wooden Saint Dolls
Since we are hoping to start Along the Alphabet Path this year, I spent a couple weeks looking at all the local craft stores for the little wooden peg dolls with no luck. Anyhow, I ended up emailing Tracy (which I should have done in the first place and saved all that gas!) and she directed me to an online store that carries all the little Wooden Folk and Puppet Bases. THANK YOU TRACY!
This evening, since we were celebrating the feast of Blessed Mother Teresa, I thought it might be fun try and make a “Wee Felt Saint” of Mother Teresa. I never did get around to making one… However, as I was looking to see if I could find an example online, I ran across these darling Wooden Catholic Dolls and Toys. I had never seen these before, and fell in love with them! They are so cute… Ahhh! If only I was even a little bit talented in painting or drawing… I will probably have to stick with the felt, unless I can talk my very talented sister into helping out! Maybe?!?!
That’s it… Just wanted to share! 🙂
“I Belong to God”
My children have all loved the Little Saints Pre-School Program. I love that they love it. 😉 No really, I do love it, it just initially took a *TON* of preparation. In fact, the first year I justified all the hours I spent cutting out flannel board pieces and card stock learning games, and $$$ I spent purchasing the recommended children’s books, by telling myself, “It’s worth it.. We will be using this over and over with all our children.” So, even though I would love to switch to using just the plans over at Serendipity this year, we will also be using Little Saints. Actually, I think they will work out pretty well together, if I follow each one loosely without trying to take on too much. In fact, the Little Saints program eventually introduces one letter per week anyways, and what better way to do so than with the Alphabet Path?
Even though I plan to attempt both this year, I decided to start out slowly. I think maybe in a couple weeks we will begin Along the Alphabet Path, and maybe do two weeks on, one week off, but I am going to see how this first month goes before deciding for sure. So, this week we just completed Week 1 of Little Saints. In the Little Saints Program, each week has: a Lesson Emphasis (this week it was “I Belong to God” and everything we do relates to the theme), Bible Passage, Poems, Storytime, Nursery Rhymes or Finger Plays, Songs and Circle Games, Music Appreciation, Art Projects and Learning Games.
Here is a glimpse at what we did this week:
I made these matching cards from various Catholic images that I found online, printed onto cardstock, and then laminated.
by Twinkle Toes
by Chiquita
We are looking forward to continuing next week!
Memory Lane Tag
Memory Lane…the tag that gets everyone involved. This comes from my cousin Meg. Be a good sport and play along (and YES, that includes all you lurkers out there!). Here are the directions:
- As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn’t matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
- Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you leave a memory about me, I’ll assume you’re playing the game and I’ll come to your blog and leave one about you. (If you don’t have a blog, or don’t want to post, please comment anyways!)
Making Lunch Time Fun
Last week, while I was grocery shopping, I got distracted by the summer “clearance” table… Look what I picked up for less than $1.00 each.
Lunch Trays!I pulled them out today, and I must say, lunch time has never been so much FUN! My kids absolutely LOVED them!
I have a feeling that these are going to be a great asset this year. They will make it much easier to use up our dinner left overs as well as simplify portion size, resulting in healthier lunches, less waste, and hopefully less strain on our ever increasing food budget!
Todays lunch was rather basic, consisting of PB&J’s, applesauce, baby carrots, goldfish and juice, but you never would have known it by the smiles on my kiddos faces.
Isn’t that great?!? I love how all the compartments hold the food in place. I buy most of our food in large containers (Applesauce, Yogurt, etc…), and the compartments allow me to pour out each serving onto the tray without needing cups or bowls!! Less dishes is always a plus!
Today I was trying to brainstorm ideas for lunches and the possibilities are endless. Here is the basic list I came up with:
- PB&J, Tuna, Egg Salad, Meat or Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
- Cheese Quesadillas
- Mac n’ Cheese
- Any dinner leftovers: Spaghetti, Pizza, Hot Dogs, Chili, Chinese Food, Mexican Food, Salad, etc…
- Fruit (Canned or Fresh)
- Applesauce
- Veggies: Baby Carrots, Broccoli, Celery Sticks, Cherry Tomatoes, etc.
- Popcorn, Chips, or Nachos
- Animal Crackers, Graham Crackers, Gold Fish or Pretzels
- Nuts
- Yogurt, Pudding, Cottage Cheese
- Cheese Sticks
- Cookies, Cupcakes
- Any more suggestions??
It’s funny… I am already looking forward to making lunch tomorrow! 🙂
Oh, and by the way, today went SO MUCH BETTER than yesterday! Ahhh, I really do LOVE homeschooling. I’m just bummed I didn’t have a chance to try and make that cake… Hopefully soon!
Morning Inspiration
Along with my cup of coffee, this was just what I needed to hear this morning!
And since I am sharing links, Charlotte has posted a couple more of her beautiful coloring pages over at her blog Waltzing Matilda in honor of today’s feast of St. Pius X and St. Gregory the Great. We will definitely be coloring these today! Thanks Charlotte!
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