Daybook #7

Outside my window... cold this morning. But hoping for another beautiful, sunny, winter day like yesterday.
I am thinking... about how to embellish the new curtains I bought. I painted my living room pale yellow and bought brick red curtains. The curtains are too.... well, red.

I am thankful for... Mike's new business and how well it is doing! Also thankful for his partner who keeps this business going.

From the learning room... our co-op has had to cancel the past two weeks because too many families were sick. I'm working on a new Math system that will include more games and hands-on activities. Little Miss Chatterbox is a very visual person and needs that.

From the kitchen... This was the third week of trying new "kid friendly" recipes in hopes that my kids would actually EAT their dinner. But I'm still getting complaints. Every.single.night. I don't know what I did to these kids but they are the pickiest kids I've ever met in my entire life. I'm starting to think it's all some kind of sick joke they've got going between themselves. Last night we had Mexican Lasagna. Taco meat between layers of tortillas and cheese. Chatterbox said she doesn't like tortillas. Funny said he didn't like the meat. Tickle said it smelt bad and wouldn't even try it. Sunshine pointed to it and said, "Yucky". Oy.

I am creating...

-decorating plans for a few rooms in the house
-Funny's birthday plans
-new school routine
-chore list for the kids

I am reading... The Letters of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque.

I am hoping... that I will have the heart to wean Sunshine and get her to sleep in her big girl bed. (sigh) I don't want to. She definitely doesn't want to. But the longer I wait, the harder it will be.

I am praying...
-for something my sister's been creating.
-for my friend who still hasn't been able to bring her premature baby home from the hospital
-for James Brogan. A friend's teenaged son who was in a car accident and is still in critical condition
- for Jonathan Turner. A teenager of a family from Church who has cancer and will be starting 9 weeks of chemo.

I am hearing... Pandora radio. Veggie Tales songs. The kids love to dance to this.

Around the house... the smell of fresh paint. I have always loved dark, bold colors. All of a sudden I'm loving pastels. Not sure what developed this change but I'm loving our new pale yellow walls. It makes the room look bigger, brighter and cleaner. Love, love, love it.

One of my favorite things.... the quiet, peacefulness of snow days. It's the end of January and besides the snowstorm we got in October, we haven't had any significant snow. The kids and I are wondering, "Where's the snow???"

Living the Liturgical Year... Candlemas is just around the corner. I need to gather some candles together.
Little Miss Sunshine this week... is copying everything we say. She doesn't pronounce words too well but I'm glad to see her trying. I understand her and that's all that really matters, right? ;) The best thing of all is when she says thank you. She communicates to me. I'll understand and help her with what she needs and then she gives me a big smile and says in the littlest, sweetest voice, "Thank you, Mama!" Which sounds more like, "Toot do, Mama!" It melts my heart every time. You gotta love a toddler with manners. ;)

Here is a picture thought I am sharing...

It was so nice to see my brother and his family at Christmas. It had been way too long!

Christmas Morning

First a picture with mom and dad.

The boys put baby Jesus in His manger.

Then we gathered around our big baby Jesus who resides under our tree to remind us of the greatest gift of all. Little Miss Sunshine LOVED that baby Jesus.
She was continually kissing his head and rocking him. It was so precious. We knew there was a chance that she might drop him, but it was just too sweet. So we let her love that baby. And then she dropped it and his arm broke....


Being the youngest sometimes has its perks. Sunshine got to open presents first. But her older siblings didn't mind. They all enjoyed watching her open her gift, ever so carefully. They were happy to revel in her joy.


Just as Mike and I revel in ALL their joy! It is so fun watching the kids open their gifts.

It's amazing how the fighting and arguing amongst siblings always ceases on Christmas morning.

After that we enjoyed a quiet Christmas breakfast together before time would come to get ready for the beautiful Christmas Mass.


The kids (and mom and dad) favorite item on the menu: Monkey Bread

It was a very merry CHRISTmas!! We are so blessed.

Advent Celebrations

There are many little celebrations leading up to Christmas. It can get a little overwhelming for me so I've learned to keep it simple. Things worked out really well this year!
The children love all the traditions we have started and if I forget to do something they quickly remind me! I'm glad that the little things we do each year mean so much to them.
On the first day of Advent, we get out our Advent Wreath. We place new purple and pink candles in the wreath (purple is the color of penance to remind us that Advent is a penitential season) and Mike blesses it with Holy Water. Then we gather around a say a prayer, asking God to bless us this Advent season and bring us closer to Jesus. New this year, we started learning "O Come, Emmanuel" in Latin. It's very beautiful. We'll work on learning a new verse each year. We also get out our Christmas books which have been packed away since last Christmas. I put them all in a basket and the children pick one to read together every night. But we always start Advent with Tomie DePaola's "Clown of God". Then the children talk about what gifts they can give to Jesus for his birthday. We write it down on a piece of paper and place it in a little gift box. I saved their "gifts" from last year and we enjoyed reading them. Mr. Tickle wanted to give Jesus a donkey last year and this year he asked if he could get baby Jesus a St. Michael statue. The older kids got a kick out of this. ;) Some of the gifts from the older two were to be nice to siblings, to listen to Mom, to not complain about dinner. Every once in awhile we open the gift box and read what they wrote as little reminders.
Then comes December 6th, St. Nicholas' Day, which I explained in my last post.
Gaudete (which is Latin for "Rejoice") Sunday changes each year, depending on when Advent starts. But it is the third Sunday before Christmas, the day you light the pink candle. Pink represents Joy and on this day the Church shows her excitement that the Savior's birthday is very near. This year, it happened to land on the 11th. The day before 2 other feast days! It was a busy week. ;)
But on Sunday morning I made the kids pink pancakes with whipped cream and raspberries which we ate after lighting the pink candle. The kids were so excited to see that there was only one more week before we would light the last candle! We certainly joined the Church in her joy.



Then comes December 12th. The feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The kids and I wanted to go to Mass so we drove to a church in Warrenton for their noon Mass. But after getting there, a nice old lady explained to us that the stopped having the noon Mass and moved it to 6:30AM. We were disappointed but they had a huge, beautiful painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe inside so we went in to pray. Little Miss Sunshine was being very loud and I worried about disrupting the other people who were praying in the church. So I quietly told the kids it was time to leave. Mr. Tickle did not want to go. He was kneeling down with his little hands folded together in prayer. It was so sweet. I waited a few more minutes but Sunshine was getting louder and louder. Still Tickle did not want to go. I had to literally drag him out of there and when we got to the van he was crying and kept saying, "I want Jesus!" I reminded him that he could still talk to Jesus even when we aren't inside the Church. But he wanted to be back inside with the beautiful picture. Bless his little heart.
When we got home the kids colored pictures of Our Lady of Guadalupe and we watched a cartoon about St. Juan Diego, who witnessed the apparition of Our Lady of Gaudalupe.


We had beef fajitas for dinner and Mexican Wedding Cakes and Mexican Hot Chocolate for dessert. We also read a book about the apparitions which is gorgeously illustrated. The kids always enjoy looking at the pictures in that book.




Then comes December 13th, St. Lucia's Day. St. Lucy just happens to be the patron of electricians so we feel indubitably honored to celebrate her feast day. ;) Traditionally, the oldest girl in the family prepares breakfast and serves it to the family in bed. I'm not too comfortable with bringing food into our beds so we opt for a picnic in the family room. it's also a tradtion to serve lussekatts (St. Lucy Buns) which are made with saffron. I go the easy route and just buy cinnamon rolls in a can. I was really excited to find cinnamon buns with orange flavored icing this year because saffron has an orange color to it.
The girls wear candle wreaths and boys wear star boy hats. I'm not quite sure what the meaning behind the star boy hats are. I'll have to look in to that. We do it simply because I don't want the boys to feel left out!
Little Miss Chatterbox always brings her stuffed animals to the family room to join us. It's quite the party. ;)

Lucy is always depicted wearing white, to symbolize her purity and wears a red sash, symbolizing her martyrdom.


Chatterbox has a barbie named Lucy so of course she needed a candle wreath too. And we couldn't leave Tigress out either. She is part of the family, you know. Chatterbox even made them white dresses out of tissues.

I love this picture. Doesn't she make a beautiful St. Lucia Bride?

Then things quiet down for a day or two before the O Antiphons start on December 17th which lead us into Christmas. During that week we get our Christmas Tree and start decorating for Christmas. Advent and Christmas is definitely the children's favorite time of year though I can't imagine why. ;)

St. Nicholas' Day

St. Nicholas' Feast Day (Dec. 6) is a very special day in our house. My middle name is Nicole so he is one of my patron saints! St. Colette was also named after St. Nicholas. He is the patron of children and sharing (amongst many other things!!) so he fits in very well with this family. ;)
When Nicholas was a young man, his parents died and left him a big inheritance. 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, especially for children. One such story says that there was a poor man who had three daughters whom could not afford a dowry for them. The larger the dowry, the better the chance that a young woman would find a good husband. Without a dowry, a woman was unlikely to marry. This poor man's daughters, without dowries, were therefore destined to be sold into slavery. Mysteriously, on three different occasions, a bag of gold appeared in their home-providing the needed dowries. The bags of gold, tossed through an open window, are said to have landed in stockings or shoes left before the fire to dry. This led to the custom of children hanging stockings or putting out shoes, eagerly awaiting gifts from Saint Nicholas. That is why our kids get their stockings on Jolly Ol' St. Nick's feast day.



Along with their stockings, the kids always find a letter from St. Nick, praising them for good deeds they have done and also some friendly suggestions on what they could improve on. ;)

In honor of this generous giver, the stockings are hung a week in advance in case anyone in the house would like to leave something for the others to find. Little Miss Chatterbox worked very hard on writing stories and drawing pictures for her parents and siblings. This led to the boys doing the same. It was so sweet to see them drawing each others favorites things. It was even sweeter when they found each others "goodies". They were all so thankful and so excited to give. It was the highlight of my day and I'm pretty sure St. Nicholas was proud too. ;)


They were all very excited with what they found in their stockings. But Mr. Funny had the best reaction. He was overjoyed with his new G.I. Joe which Mike's mom gave me to give to the boys.

On the kitchen table the kids found chocolate St. Nick's, complete with a candy cane crosier and gold coins.

We had Catholic Schoolhouse that day so I had to wake the kids up extra early. I decided to let Little Miss Sunshine sleep in a little longer so she didn't get her stocking until after the other kids had already opened theirs.

I put a little holy card of Our Lady of Victory (one of her patron saints) in her stocking and she kissed it over and over! My little Sunshine loves to give kisses. ;)
I found this little tin full of candy canes at our local grocery store. I was so excited! I thought it was really cute but Little Miss Sunshine didn't quite understand what it was. haha

Happy Saint Nicholas Day!