Meet Bella

So, we have a bunny.  Correction: Mila has said bunny.  We have had her for almost two weeks and she is still alive. So that's good.  It is a Dutch rabbit named Bella.  She is, in fact,  very pretty, in a fluffy  Oreo cookie sort of way.  The kids say she is very soft.  I wouldn't know, I don't touch animals as a general rule. . She lives in a cage in our garage.  Animals INSIDE my house? Not happenin' cap'n.
Although, I admit, I do have to get over my widespread aversion towards animals, especially since we want to own a farm one day, replete with chickens and goats et al.  Not an easy task, since I've been operating on the premise that 'if animals don't touch me and I don't absolutely have to touch them - then we are good' for the last 8 or 9 years.
Once, a friend asked me to watch her family's bird while she went out of town.  I said yes because I wanted to be nice and I knew I wouldn't have to touch the thing.
I guess I should work on that. Maybe I'll touch Bella tomorrow.  Maybe.

At any rate, with Bella here now we hope Mila will:
a. get a real taste of 'responsibility'
b. understand the ins and outs of animal care
c. not kill it.

Sky High

Well, didn't we have a productive and eventful day today!  Honestly, I didn't think I would get a lick of schooling done with the kids, it being Simon's 4th birthday and all; but I sometimes surprise myself.  The Good Lord must have heard the cries of His anxious daughter, begging Him for patience and speed of mind and hand because, miraculously,  I was able to accomplish all the major tasks of the day:
1. Wash face - check
2. Read to children ( more on that later) - check
3. Bake cake - super check
4. Complain to Amazon for not delivering Simon's gifts on time!! - check (got a sweet refund out of it, thank you very much. I still love you Amazon).
5. Make dinner (who says Cape Cod Waffle Chips aren't a side dish?) - check

Sheesh, I am pooped.  The idea of baking Christmas cookies right now is sitting at a firm numero zero on the Motivation-o-Meter of my life. No, right now, I just want to sit by the fire next to my hubbie and watch a movie.

Nice thought...  Upward and onward we go!  Okay, so first let's discuss books; two books to be precise. The first book is one of my FAVORITE Dr. Seuss books called Happy Birthday to You!

We bought this book for Simon's 3rd birthday last year and thought it would be fun to read to each of the kids on their birthday.  What a delightful and entertaining book!  I literally laugh out loud when I read it.  It is a crazy and fun book. I especially like the part when Dr. Seuss gushes over the joy of being alive and remarks on the dreadful prospect of not being you, or worse than that, an 'ISN'T' or a 'WASN'T':

"You might be a doorknob! Or three baked potatoes!

You might be a bag of hard green tomatoes.

Or worse than all that...Why you might be a WASN'T!

A Wasn't has no fun at all.  No, he doesn't.

A Wasn't just isn't.  He just isn't present.

But you...You ARE YOU! And, now isn't that pleasant!"

Love this silly book for so many reasons, not least of which is the inadvertent emphasis on the beauty of choosing life!

The second book to which I'd like to call your attention is A Day on Skates by Hilda van Stockum. It was written in 1934 (this can only add to the charm of this book) and the illustrations are as sweet and endearing as the story itself. I intend on getting my hands on all things Hilda.  Highly recommended! 

Now, let's move on to the big birthday event.  First, the apparel:

Nothing but a Number 4 shirt would do.

Next the cake:

 And we...

have...

lift off!

Finally, I have found my go-to Birthday Cake Recipe.  This, my friends, is a keeper.  Now, granted, it isn't your standard white birthday cake or your respectable chocolate layer cake, no.  Yet, I assure you, this cake will win over die-hard fans of either cake camp.  To bring home the point, I used Cooks Illustrated (of course) recipe for their Rich and Tender Yellow Layer cake.  Ohhh, recipe, where have you been all my life??  Rich and tender indeed.  This cake is everything you want in a cake: moist, dense, and not too sweet that it overpowers the cake.  To top it off, literally, I used their ingenious Vanilla Buttercream Frosting recipe. Go big or go home, that's what I always say. Not really.  Anyway, this recipe is the cat's pajamas.

Me and my co-pilot.

Maintaining stable oxygen levels.

The crew.

The gifts:  Sadly, there weren't too many of these  (ref. #4 on above list) but Simon enjoyed the Nerf gun (those darts mean business!), sleeping bag and Playmobil carrying case.

All this, AND I didn't have to neglect the baby, yay!  In the end, it was a beautiful birthday for a beautiful boy. A success in more ways than one. So blessed our Simon didn't turn out to be a WASN'T.

O Mary, Conceived without Sin...

So, today we celebrated the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  We colored pictures from Holy Heroes, I made yummy Vanilla Cupcakes and we went to Mass.  It's funny, but, whenever I think of the term "Immaculate Conception" my mind always cuts to the scene in the movie  Song of Bernadette when Bernadette is interrogated by the priest for calling 'the lady' the "Immaculate Conception". It is a powerful scene and one I remember well, both for the contrast between the cold, gruff priest and the soft and humble Bernadette; as well as for the introduction of this mysterious and beautiful title. It brings home the point that Our Lady, unlike any other human that was or will be, was privileged by God. She was preserved from the stain of sin from the very moment she came to be in order for her to be the Mother of God the Son.
Speaking of  'Mother', Richard read to me a very salient definition of the term 'matrimony' this afternoon.  Of course, no other definition save for one from Aquinas' Summa Theologica would suffice:

"Three things may be considered in matrimony.  First, its essence, which is a joining together, and in reference to this it is called the conjugal union; secondly, its cause, which is the wedding, and in reference to this it is called the nuptial union...thirdly, the effect, which is the offspring, and in reference to this it is called matrimony, as Augustine says... because a woman's sole purpose in marrying should be motherhood...since the duty of bringing up the children chiefly devolves on the woman...Although the father ranks above the mother, the mother has more to do with the offspring than the father has. Or we may say that woman was made chiefly in order to be man's helpmate in relation to the offspring, whereas the man was not made for this purpose.  Wherefore the mother has a closer relation to the nature of marriage than the father has." Q.44 Article 2

Isn't that powerful? "The mother has a closer relation to the nature of marriage than the father has"? Wow.  That whole revelation and understanding just blew me away.  Truth be told, I never really gave the nature of marriage an in depth examination.  The roles of husband and wife and mother and father, yes.  But this.  This is beautiful ...and scary.  Beautiful because it makes sense, especially when you look at it through the lens of the Holy Family. Joseph played a small yet important role as Jesus' adoptive father but Mary IS the Mother of God. Her whole life and marriage pointed to and centered on being Jesus' mother.
This beautiful revelation is also scary when you apply it to one's own life:  I may be solely responsible for the kind of people my children become.  That the duty of bringing up the children chiefly devolves on the woman!, who knew?  Aquinas did.
 Oh Lord, help me to be a good and patient mama.  Help me to be kind and gentle and humble.  See my weaknesses and grant me the grace and strength to raise these children to be virtuous and good. Our Lady, intercede for us and keep us under Your mantle of protection.  O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee!

Failing that, at least my kids like my cooking.

In the Nick of Time

Yesterday we celebrated the feast day of St. Nicholas and, as excited as the kids were (cut to Mimi waking up at 1:39 am and then waking the boys up to sit in front of the remaining fire and eat their chocolate coins etc.), I was more excited to have an excuse to use my brand new 4-square Belgian waffle maker! Seriously. Bye-bye pancakes and the whole one. pancake. at. a. time. process. Let me tell you: it works like a dream! Not only that, the waffles look pretty too.  Now, that is a win win situation.
But, I digress.  St. Nicholas day was celebrated with chocolate coins (idea from the blog Shower of Roses), fabric-wrapped gifts, a note from St. Nicholas encouraging each child to love God, pray and work on certain...character flaws.  For example: talking too much, whining and complaining, being contradictory etc.
Well, as the song goes: these are a few of my favorite things:

Saint Nicholas sugar cookies that take too long to make but sure look cute.  I really don't mind, the children only get one and the rest they give to their friends.

Here are the St. Nicholas coins I was telling you about.  Aren't they charming?

Brunch is served. See the waffles? That is what I'm talking about.

                           

Since I didn't post an entry from last year's St. Nicholas celebration, I thought I'd insert a couple of pictures from 2012. This year I forgot to make the sugar 'staff' cookies. It's a pity because they add height to the overall look of the table; not only that, they are GREAT for dunking in tea!

While I'm Here

I'm already at the computer and I've already posted a blog entry, so...what the heck? Why not post ANOTHER one? Now that is what I call good time management.  Okay, 2013 will now and forever hold a warm place in my heart as the year I canned.  I've always wanted to can something and something I did, more specifically: salsa.  I wanted to make a reasonable amount to give away as Christmas gifts. It turned out so wonderfully fresh and tasty!  Poor salsa, it never had a chance. This picture is the only remaining evidence:

Playing Catch Up

I believe God has His ways of entertaining Himself.  Take, for example, Time.  It comes and goes and comes and goes again and we humans are always chasing after it, trying to catch up with it.  In many ways it isn't unlike a puppy whose master teases it by pretending to throw a fastball and the puppy turns around looking for it: "Where did it go?"  The master gets a kick out of it EVERY time.
Yes, I am convinced the key to a well-run home is good time management.  It only took me 36 years to figure it out. But, boy, once you get that and you're taking charge of the hours God grants you by filling it with useful and necessary tasks, then Time becomes a fast friend.
With that said, as I strive to get this clunking blog into a well-oiled and well-run machine I will have to carve out time more regularly to contribute to our wavering blog.  So, in the mean time, here I am, and here are some pictures from this years' All Saints Day party.  They're late.  Give me some time to catch up.

Can you guess who's who?  No? Okay, Simon is St. George ( see the little dragon hanging by his side?) Ezra is a spitting image of St. Dominic Savio, if I do say so myself, and Mila is St. Kateri.  I was actually St. Gianna Molla and Augustin was the baby she holds in her iconic pose but in all the hustle and bustle we forgot to take the picture.  He looked something like this:

I should probably include some pictures from Halloween as well.  I like this one:

Here's my little squatting turtle:

Lalaloopsy

To kick start Mila's 8th birthday party I made "Sew Cute" Lalaloopsy  invitations. 
 I was so pleased with the way they turned out I snapped a picture of them.

I used store-bought Starbucks cappuccino bottles to get the 
sweet effect of old world milk-bottle jars.

Truth be told, Richard handcrafted the oversized number "8",
 all I did was weave the ribbon through; 
and all Mila did was stand by and look cute! 

Sugar love.

I made "Cute as a Button" cookies to add to the Laloopsy theme.

This Button Banner has to be one of my favorite decorations, it just screamed 
Lalaloopsy!
 I took pink paper plates and glued white paper circles on them;
 then I tied old remnant strips in between, it was adorable!

Making our own Laloopsy paper dolls with remnants and ribbon and yarn... "sew fun!"

                                                                       

The day after her birthday, we took our girl to get her ears pierced.  
She is hiding her fear very well...

Ta-daaaa!

Thanks to my Nonno and Nonna for my new ride!