Water colour paints

Many many board books

Thank goodness she loves to read to him

“Helping”

It’s finally warm enough to grill! That was the best steak ever.

Science experiments with daddy

More grilling. He would eat nothing but corn if we would let him

He insists on using a big fork at dinner. None of that silly baby cutlery

Finger painting at the book group we’re going to

My Daybook :: Palm Sunday- March 24th

I am thinking…  That we haven’t missed having cable TV at all since we cancelled it at the beginning of Lent. We still have netflix and my father in law just hooked me up with an HDMI adapter so I can hook up my computer to my tv to watch ewtn. It’s pretty great!

I am thankful… For the sacrament of reconciliation and planning ahead. Our parish has reconciliation from 5:30 to 6:30 on Saturday evening (WORST time ever if you have small children but that’s okay…). We always try to get there early or right at 5:30 so we don’t have to wait long with the kids, thank goodness we did yesterday because it would seem that we weren’t the only ones who thought it would be a good idea to go before holy week. By the time we left there were at least 50 people waiting in line for the two available priests!

Learning all the time…

Copy work. We won’t do much official school work this week, I have a few fun crafts planned instead.

Celebrating the liturgical year…

Holy week is here! We will be spending lots of time reading our Easter stories this week and taking some extra quiet prayer time.

From the kitchen…

Waffles! Everyone had a hankering for waffles after church today so instead of going out for breakfast we stopped and bought a waffle maker. The oatmeal-honey waffles we had for brunch were delicious!! Peanut butter, bananas, and maple syrup on top = best waffle ever.

I am working on…
Plans for the Easter season. I found a copy of The Garden of the Good Shepherd and I’m excited to do it as a family.

I am creating… Felted Easter eggs. At least I hope I am. Big plans for this week, I think Mary and Luke will enjoy wet felting, I hope to try it with them one afternoon.

I am praying… For more patience. Spring just can’t come soon enough, I’m starting to go a little stir crazy cooped up in here!
I am reading… The Bible. Father encouraged us today at mass to read a passion account every day during holy week. We’re going to do that with our kids as well.

Pondering these words… “You will never have more happiness than you have discipline in your life” -Matthew Kelly

I am listening…  To Matthew Kelly talk about The Seven Pillars of Catholic Spirituality. If you do a google search for it you will find a free video, it’s a really great talk and definitely worth watching.

Around the house… Everything is working so well!!! My father in law stayed here for four days with my big kids while we were out of town and fixed everything in here that was broken! He is a very handy guy to have around. Having them come was good encouragement to get a few organizing projects done so my house is in tip top shape, just in time for Easter.
One of my favorite things… 

Dance studio pants from Lulu.  I’ve been saving for months for our trip to a home school conference knowing that I would have an opportunity to do some good shopping. I was disappointed in most of the stores we went to looking for clothing but I may never take off these pants!

A little peek at my day…
It’s a bad cell phone picture but I just couldn’t resist taking a quick shot of the kids waving their palms. It was so sweet.

Outside my window… I don’t even want to talk about it. I’m grateful we have no where to go today as I stare out my window at the sparkling snow. -31 is too cold to take littles anywhere!

I am thinking… A lot about Lent. We enjoyed our Advent traditions so much, I hope to find something for Lent that will bring us together in the evenings like our Jesse Tree did.

I am thankful… For Maggie Reigh and her book 9 Ways to Bring Out the Best in You and Your Child. We have had some pretty major breakthroughs with miss Mary in the last week and it feels really good to finally feel like we are winning.

From the kitchen… oranges! Lots and lots of oranges. They are so yummy right now, I think we have gone through at least 4 boxes. My husband has been making the best orange smoothies every night after dinner.

Learning all the time… Mary has a renewed interest in her Classical Conversations memory work so we have been reviewing that often. We are working on some projects from volume 10 of Alphabet Glue. There has also been lots and lots of play dough time for all 3 kids. I’m always amazed at how long play dough keeps their attention.

I am going… for a pelvic ultrasound tomorrow morning. I just got the letter saying my appointment with the GYN my doctor referred me to is at the end of the month. I’m pretty excited.

I am reading… 9 Ways, and lots and lots of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? Alex has discovered the animals in that book and carries it around constantly.

I am hoping… to make it to the library before the book I have requested three times gets sent back for the fourth time. We’re just so busy!

I am looking forward to… spending the evenings doing something other than watching Grey’s Anatomy. We started watching in December and are completely caught up to season 9 now. That is one addicting show! I’m not sure what we are going to do with all this free time we have all of a sudden! I have to say though, Downtown Abby seems to be calling to me. Everyone on facebook seems to think it’s amazing. Maybe in a few weeks.

Around the house… If anyone dares to sit or lay on the ground they can be certain that they will soon be tackled or jumped on by a rotten baby. He gets so excited to see someone laying down he immediately runs and flops onto them. 

A favorite quote for today… “Instead of bemoaning the loss of “control” and “power” parents had, let us embrace the opportunity to develop relationships that empower us, and our children. Let’s take advantage of the knowledge, understanding, and tools available for personal growth, and challenge ourselves to develop our full potential. We can invite our children to do the same. ” ~Maggie Reigh, 9 Ways

One of my favorite things… A little one happy to be tucked into bed for a nap. Give this boy his sucky and his blankey and he happily goes for a nap without a peep. Definitely not something I take for granted!!!

A few plans for the rest of the week:
Tuesday- I have an ultrasound, preschool for Luke, co-op for Mary, and that evening I’m starting a course at our parent link center.
Wednesday- Mommy group at Church, Valentine’s Day photoshoot with a friend.
Thursday- preschool for Luke.
Friday- Zumba for Mary, music with the boys, playdate with a friend in the afternoon.

A peek into my day…

It doesn’t matter what I do, it is impossible to get this boy to sit still long enough to get a picture of him!

Three sets of shoes were left out with great anticipation tonight!!

I don’t think they are going to be disappointed.

St. Nicholas brought new slippers, candy canes, oranges, bears stuffed with wheat (to warm in the microwave for owies or tummy aches), new books, and a new movie!

Our Advent has started out wonderfully. I’m really enjoying the extra family time in the evening when we do our Jesse tree, pray together, read a Christmas story, and add a sticker to our Advent Calendar.

On the knitting front, I took a brief break from the endless ruffle scarves (I have 5 done now! I’m getting faster, I can pump one out in a couple hours) to crochet a hat for the baby one of my friends had today. I got to hold her tonight, she wasn’t even 12 hours old!!

(excuse the terrible cell phone picture)

We are enjoying our Advent Storybook and my husband and I are reading an Advent devotional every night.

I’m looking forward to giving the kids the books St. Nicholas is bringing tomorrow. Mary has been asking a lot of questions about Santa lately, she is very skeptical and we just aren’t sure how we want to handle it. We put most of our focus on Jesus and other Catholic traditions, so up until now Santa has just been a little side game. I’m not sure what is stopping me from just telling her he isn’t real, it seems like such a big deal… I’m just not sure why? Any insight? How do you handle Santa?

Joining up with Ginny’s yarn along again this week. Thanks for stopping by!

We set up our tree last weekend to use as a back drop for our Christmas card pictures. I got a few that I love but there were definitely lots of out takes. It’s pretty much impossible to get three kids looking in the same direction at once, never mind smiling!!

{pretty}

This one was a close contender for the Christmas Card but I got one I liked just a little bit more.

{happy}
There is probably nothing that makes this mama’s heart happier than seeing all my kids reading together. ♥♥

{funny}

We stole this from Pinterest. What did we do before Pinterest?

{real}

This picture cracks me up. It is probably the most accurate portrayal of our shoot. Luke has the best pouty faces.

Joining up with Like Mother, Like Daughter’s {phfr} again this week!

I am currently really enjoying Mary Reed Newland’s books. It started when I opened my copy of The Year and Our Children from Better World Books. That is by far my favourite book to go to when I’m looking for ideas for feast days and other liturgical celebrations. I can’t even express how thrilled I was to see that the copy they sent me was from when it was first published in 1958, it is definitely has a special place in my collection.

I just started How to Raise Good Catholic Children and have We and Our Children on it’s way to me, I plan on reading it during Advent.

Another exciting find this week was Show Me a Story by Emily Neuburger. It was sitting on the display of new books when we went to pick up our holds and I grabbed it because it looked fun. It is a fabulous book, full of neat ideas to encourage story telling. I have bookmarked a few of them and hope to make them for Christmas.

On the knitting front I had the brilliant idea to knit ruffle scarves for my son’s preschool teachers for Christmas. The first couple were kind of fun to but I need to make 6 of them and it’s getting a little tedious. Fortunately they are pretty mindless so I can work on them while dh and I watch The Big Bang Theory in the evening. We’re on season 4, I’m hoping I can finish them before we get caught up!!

Linking up with Ginny’s Yarn Along.

According to Mrs. Sharp’s Traditions (I’m not obsessed with that book at all…) the Sunday before Advent is considered “stir it up Sunday.”

This old custom probably originated because on the Sunday before Advent, English congregations were exhorted in church to “stir up” and bring “forth the fruit of good works,” a timely reminder to the Victorian women that it was time to prepare the Christmas puddings. Eating plum pudding as the grand finale to Christmas dinner is as English a tradition as you shall ever find. Despite the fact that there is not a plum to be found in the recipe, this dish began during the Middle Ages as plum porridge, and by the 18th century became pudding. The Victorians invented the method of steaming the pudding in a basin – and added brandy. ~Mrs. Sharp’s Traditions

My family is very English and we eat a plum pudding every year after our Christmas dinner. It never occurred to me to try to make it until I read this entry, but Mrs. Sharp included a recipe and so I figured it would be fun to try it.

Getting the ingredients together was quite challenging. It turns out suet is basically impossible to find and I had to go to 4 different liquor stores to find sherry. I was very excited to find a traditional pudding pan at our local kitchen supply store, although the lady there had no idea what it was.

We poured, mixed,  and measured. We sampled the currants and the candied citrus peel (no one was a fan).

It was a messy process, I ended up using my hands to incorporate the butter all the way.

It is sitting in the fridge resting right now, tomorrow we will put it into the pudding pan and then steam it in a boiling water bath for 8 hours! It doesn’t look particularly appetizing at the moment, but I’m hoping after it steams and then sits in a cool dark place for 4 weeks it will be delicious!

I’ve been wanting to participate in Like Mother, Like Daughter’s {Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} for ages, I see so many other people participating and enjoy their posts so much! I never seem to remember on Thursdays but today I did!

{Pretty}

My girl doing her school work. We are both loving the IEW curriculum we’re using for writing.

{Happy}

This is his happy face. Every time I point my camera at him I get the fake *CHEESE!!!* smile. I know he’ll grow out of it, Mary did but it still makes me want to pull my hair out some days. Especially when I’m trying to get a picture of all three  kids together!!

{Funny}

My mom came for a visit last weekend and introduced my son to the great fun of feeding himself with a spoon!! He has since then refused every attempt I might make to feed him and screams until I let him feed himself. He is actually pretty good at it all things considered… it definitely makes for a lot more clean up though.

{Real}
We are talking about celebrating Advent with your family next week at the mommy group I attend at our church. Dh was nice enough to dig through the shed for my Advent boxes so I can bring some of our treasures to show everyone. It has kind of taken over my kitchen table though…