Brigid and the Butter
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| Brigid and the Butter: A Legend about St. Brigid of Ireland |
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| Ostheimer Black & White Cow, Calf Drinking and Lamb Standing • St. Brigid from Catholic Folk Toys |
Stacks of Books on Epiphany {Little Christmas}
For a number of years now we’ve been giving our children Stacks of Books for Christmas or Epiphany. As our home library (and family size!) continues to grow the stacks for each child have started shrinking. Last year there were four books in each stack and this year we decided on three for each of our children, saving any extras for Easter which is going to come up so quick this year.
Captain (age 17) received Battlefield Chaplains, John Flanagan’s newest release The Caldera from the Brotherband Series, and Peanuts Mad Libs.
Ranger (age 15) received The Hobbit Movie Trilogy: Heroes & Villains Coloring Book, A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-191, and The Perfect Blindside.
Twinkle Toes (age 14) received Emily of New Moon, Emily Climbs, and Emily’s Quest.
Chiquita (age 12) received The Chronicles of Narnia Pop Up, National Geographic Guide to the Night Sky: A Stargazer’s Companion, and the (new and improved!) Spiritual Journal from Holy Heroes.
I had actually purchased The Chronicles of Narnia Pop Up (from Ebay I think) last spring for her 12th birthday to go along with the Chronicles of Narnia themed party but completely forgot to give it to her. Such a neat book!
Snuggles (age 10) received Picture That: Knights & Castles (Exploring History through Art), John Ronald’s Dragons: The Story of J.R.R. Tolkien, and On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness.
I’ve been catching this little guy wide awake in the middle of the night as he reads through The Lord of the Rings series… He is currently reading (and loving!) The Two Towers. (Hard to believe I was ever worried about his reading just a couple years ago!) He was so excited when he unwrapped this picture book about J.R.R. Tolkien and immediately read the whole thing, ignoring all the chaos around him.
Rose (age 8) received Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, and Pride and Prejudice Seek and Find.
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| Still searching through the pictures! |
Bud (age 6) received Winter is the Warmest Season, Mr. Ferris and His Wheel, and The Seven Silly Eaters. He loved all three, but Mr. Ferris and His Wheel (the story and all the gorgeous illustrations) was definitely the favorite.
Grace (7 months) received Jonah and the Big Fish, All Creatures Great and Small, and Love Is Patient, Love Is Kind.
Celebrating Epiphany
January 6th: I haven’t been baking much this Christmas, at least not since recommitting to 100% AIP on the 1st, but there will be a crown shaped king’s cake for Epiphany! #thanksforthehelpgirls
Happy Epiphany! 👑✨ {we are saving the cake for after Mass tomorrow since one of the boys had a high school basketball game over at the coast and didn’t get home until really late tonight – but we still had plenty of Christmas treats and a family movie night}
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| Stacks of gifts from the Wise Men – also saved for after Mass |
Seven Months
or you can rejoice because thorns have roses…”
{pretty, happy, funny, real} :: forty
It’s not easy to make a beautiful cake without any grains, gluten, dairy, nuts, seeds, eggs, or sugar (basically just using vegetables and/or fruit with some honey or maple syrup) but this is the third year in a row that our girls have made one for my birthday! This year they decided on a Raspberry-Coconut “Cheesecake”. I’m still enjoying the leftovers! 🎂😍
I’m a hard one to surprise with anything, but my husband had all sorts of surprises for my birthday this year including beautiful roses, an appointment scheduled at a day spa for a facial on (last) Saturday afternoon, and three tickets for me and the older girls to go see Sense and Sensibility opening night at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival!
I joked that I wanted to go sledding so the kids could take a picture of me coming down the hill while they hold a sign that says “over the hill and picking up speed!” 😉 It’s been a very mild winter here though and we hadn’t had any snow within driving distance. The ski resort hasn’t even been able to open yet due to lack of snow… (We actually woke up to a light layer of snow this morning! It was slushy and has already melted but the kids were so excited.) Instead we ended up taking the kids miniature golfing and had the whole golf course to ourselves!
After golfing we ended up going to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. I didn’t think it was funny when our waiter made me sit up on a saddle and then announced to the whole restaurant “This is Jessica. She is celebrating her 40th birthday today!” On our way home we told the story to the young barista at the coffee drive through. He responded, “No way! You don’t look that old!” Ummm, thanks?
I haven’t had a chance to get my hair cut since last March and it had gotten really long and dry/scraggly. My mom and dad surprised me with an appointment to get it cut and highlighted on Saturday with a new hairdresser. She even curled it for me! Even after getting over six inches cut off it’s still long but feels so much healthier.
Life is the Most Beautiful Gift of God
From the archives: Culture of Life Studies Pro-Life Prints is a fun and engaging hands-on way to teach children more about the dignity of every human life! You can read all about it in the archives: Day 1 – Preborn Babies, Day 2 – I Am Unique, Day 3 – Helping Others, and Day 4 – Praying for Others
New Year’s Daybook
Outside my window…
Happy New Year! We haven’t had any snow yet this winter, unlike the major snow storms we had last year, but on New Year’s Eve we were surprised at midnight with quite the fireworks show over at the neighbors. We had a great view from our front porch!
I am thinking…
How did I keep up with blogging when our last babies were born?! I have been slowly working on this post since New Year’s Eve and keep asking myself that question… I guess back then we didn’t have three high schoolers with all their extra activities, the babies were easier and slept better, and I wasn’t working outside the home. I miss blogging and am hoping to figure out how to make a little more time for it each week. In the meantime at least there is Instagram for sharing little snippets!
When she started pulling herself up on Christmas Day I told the other kids not to encourage her – I’m not ready for this yet – but there is no slowing this one down!
Celebrating the liturgical year…
The celebrations have been extra simple this year, but still fun and memorable. Here are a couple pictures I shared over on Instagram.
From the kitchen…
I went back to 100% Autoimmune Protocol on January 1st. It’s time to focus on getting my health back after a really hard year. It has been really hard, especially the first week, but so far I’ve been able to stick with it without cheating at all! I think I had started to rely on sugar for energy and that has been an adjustment. I am now tired all. the. time. but at least it’s forcing me to rest a little more!
Tigernut Butter
Ingredients:
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp coconut oil
1/4 cup palm shortening
1/4 tsp + 1/8 tsp Himalayan pink salt
2 tablespoons maple syrup
Instructions:
Place ingredients in either a high powered blender (I use the Vitamix) or a food processor.
Blend or process until it looks like a creamy nut butter. You may have to stop and scrape the sides during blending/processing. Enjoy!
It’s been hard to juggle working and home educating (and a new baby, and blogging, and, and, and…) but I’ve really enjoyed working for my Dad and brother Brian the past couple years! Sean and I (and the baby!) had so much fun at the Murphy Electric Christmas Party!
My mom loves giving everyone a family photo album for Christmas, collecting photos from all my siblings and putting them together in a book with a couple pages or so for each of the kids. The only problem is she doesn’t know how to make them and is always trying to recruit one of us girls to put it together… I made the album back in 2013 and then
My favorite page(s) ended up being the two page spread of all of us lined up from youngest to oldest, even though I look HUGE. When mom scheduled the reunion for the weekend I hit 37 weeks I kept joking that it was “Murphy’s Law” that I (as one of the few siblings that still lives near my parents) would end up in the hospital, but I made it though the weekend… Barely!
I am going…
Last April 16th my parents celebrated their 40th Anniversary! I was born exactly nine months after their wedding which means I’ll be turning 40 on January 16th. I didn’t think it would be a big deal but all of a sudden I’m a little emotional about that…
to figure out a way to get our oldest son to the Archbishop’s Discernment Retreat. Even though he’s not quite 18 yet (he will be this summer!) he was invited by the Director of Vocations to attend and would love to go. I wish it wasn’t so far away! (Update: He ended up getting a ride with friends and will even get to go to the 2018 March for Life in Portland. I can’t wait to hear all about it when he gets back home!)
I am praying…
for the repose of the soul of Joyce Sample, our dear Archbishop’s mother. She was such a sweet woman. May she rest in peace +
I am reading…
The kids all unwrapped this year’s stacks of books on Epiphany and I’ve been reading aloud some of the picture books to our little ones. So far one of the favorites has been Mr. Ferris and His Wheel.
Pondering these words…
from St. Alphonsus:
Around the house…
I’m just not ready to think about taking the Christmas decorations down yet. So cozy! We will leave the nativity up until Candlemas, but the tree is starting to dry out quickly and will need to come down soon.
I recently got to spend a little time (all by myself, which has been very rare this year) walking around one of my favorite towns and then (finally!) visiting the day spa for the last of the three prenatal massages Sean gave me last Christmas! Here are a few more pictures I snapped while walking around this historic little town. I owned the local phone book here once upon a time.
A little peek at last year…
The year of Grace! Born on the feast of Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces, just two days after the death of her grandfather, our little “Grace” has been such a blessing. She definitely stole the show (and our hearts) this year making it into all of my #2017bestnine pictures including my sibling re-enactment the weekend before she was born!
- October 31st – Our Lady of Guadalupe 💙✨ {This favorite costume – made by her Grandma for one of her older sisters over 10 years ago- was a little big on her, but I’m pretty sure it will be too small next year so we made it work!}
- June 8th – Thank you all for the prayers! Our beautiful little girl is here! Everything went really well and she arrived at 1:56 AM this morning weighing in at 6 pounds 15 ounces and measuring 19.5 inches. God is Good! #deogratias #37weeks6days #countingthedaystojune24
- October 31st – Happy All Saints’ Day! Can you guess who our children choose to dress up as this year? Answers are over in today’s blog post with additional pictures. 😇🙏🏻✨
- December 8th – Our baby girl ❤️ #startedcrawlingtoday #sixmonthsoldtoday #feastoftheimmaculateconception
- June 10th – I could not be more in love with this little beauty! 💕 {New post over on the blog with all the details.} #threedaysold #number8bornonthe8th #countingthedaystojune24
- December 6th – Happy Feast of St. Nicholas! #wideawakeat3am #saintnicholas #orapronobis
- June 3rd – ALL of my siblings are in town this weekend for a Murphy family reunion! It’s the first time all 12 of us have been together at the same time in over 13 YEARS! I figured this would be the day I’d go into labor… #murphyslaw … but I made it and we were even able to get some family photos including a fun reenactment of one from 21 years ago! #ilovemycrazyfamily #firstbornoftwelve #sixgirlssixboys #37weekspregnant
- June 8th – A few more pictures ❤️ So grateful her Daddy was here for her birth. So was Grandma Murphy and Aunt Mary. I’ll share more later, after we get some sleep and introduce her to her siblings later today! 🌹#daddyshands #countingthedaystojune24
- August 21st, watching the solar eclipse – All Eight! 💙💙💗💗💙💗💙💗
Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus!
The Year of the Hanging Advent Wreath
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| A Time to Keep by Tasha Tudor |
I briefly mentioned in this year’s Advent Book Basket post that I hoped to modify the activity suggestion in Catholic Mosaic to go along with St. Francis and the Christmas Donkey and make an “Advent Calendar” path for St. Joseph, Mary and the Donkey to travel. The girls did a lovely job creating the Advent path and every morning, before I made it out to the kitchen/dining room, our little ones had already moved St. Joseph, Mary and the Donkey to the next spot along the way! They also ended up adding other wooden figures for the feasts of St. Nicholas, St. Lucy, and Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Six Months
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