Friday Fill-Ins

And...here we go!

1. If I could go anywhere on a road trip, I'd go to visit all of America in a summer with my family in an RV.
2. Hatred and prejudice is something I don't understand.
3. Easter makes me think of Jesus' ultimate sacrifice for us.
4. A lazy afternoon is the best way to relax!
5. It looks like Spring is never coming.
6. Greek yogurt is one of my favorite healthy snacks.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to Good Friday services, tomorrow my plans include an Easter egg hunt and resurrection cookies and Sunday, I want to celebrate Easter with my family!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter weekend! 
 If you want to play along with Friday Fill-Ins, check it out here:

Great Blogging Ideas!

If you haven't noticed I have been really in to blogging lately.  Blogging more regularly was one of my New Year's Resolutions (probably the only one I've stuck with so far, honestly) and I've been having a lot of fun reading new blogs, meeting new people, and having fun interactions with readers.

So I made a new goal and that was to get more organized with what I write about.  I decided that I would make a calendar of topics for the month of April and see if that helps me be more systematic.  As I was looking for ideas, I ran across some really fun websites to pull information from.  I thought I would share them here so that I have them all in the same place and so that others might be able to use them too.

I also set up a Google Calendar titled "Blogging Ideas."  I did that mainly because the first draft of my calendar was with pen and paper and I promptly lost it!  The other fun thing about setting up the calendar is that I can set certain events to recur every year.  That will make my calendar last much longer.

To get started, I wrote down all the personal things that will be happening during the month of April.  I know Benjamin's birthday is coming up, as well as my parent's wedding anniversary.  Easter happens at the end of March, but since I don't typically blog on the weekends, I added that to the beginning of April.

After filling in all the personal events, I still had a lot of blank days left, so I went to one of my favorite websites: Holiday Insights to see what they had to offer. I use this site at work a lot. One of the things I have my students do every month is set up a display on the bookshelves. One display has books from author's who have birthdays during that month. The other display has books about fun and strange celebrations.  My students make posters to go with the displays and I think they have fun with it.

This one just cracked me up!

I picked out some of these holidays that I thought I could write about and added them to my calendar.  These are the type that I set to repeat every year. That way if I end up not using it this year, I can try again next year.

My calendar still wasn't full, so I tried out a few other websites.  History.com has a feature that highlights events from history for each day. It defaults to the current date, but you can use the calendar to pick a different date. I added a few of these that caught my eye to my calendar.

Next I went to Wikipedia.com and typed in a date. Here you can find events, as well as birthdays and death dates of famous people and holidays and observances. You can also click on those events to go to the Wikipedia entry for them if you need some background information.

The last two places might not be for everyone, but I found them useful, so I'll pass them along.  At birthverse.com you can type in a date and get a special bible verse related to that date. For example, my birthday is March 13 (or 3/13), so my birthverse is

1 Thessalonians 3:13 NIV May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.

The actual intent of the site is to find the verse that correlates to your birth date, but you can just pick a date and it gives you a nice verse that you can reflect on. 

Being Catholic I thought it might also be fun to look at Catholic.org and search for feast days and holy days. You can find the Saint of the Day, daily readings, and even a prayer of the day that might spark an idea for you to write about.

Of course, all of these ideas will be trumped if something interesting actually happens in my life. I would prefer to have a daily record of things that happen, cute pictures of my kids and/or funny things they say.  Sometimes, though, they just don't deliver and I have to look for back up ideas.  Now I have a whole year's worth in a few clicks!

Where do you get your blogging ideas?

Wordless Wednesday: Pretty Pretty Princess Kitty

Tuesday Choices

CrazyCatLady invited me to her new meme, so I thought I'd try it out.  She has given us 12 choices and we can explain as much or as little as we like.

1. Coke or Pepsi?--I try really hard to stay away from caffeine and carbonation, but if I do partake, my beverage of choice would be Dr. Pepper. Cherry Pepsi, if that's not available.
2. Rain or snow?--Rain!! As in warm summer rain that you can go out and play in and splash in puddles.  I am SO over all this snow around here!!
3. Monochrome or multicolour?--Multi-color is the way to go for me. 
4. Summer or winter?--Um, we must not have met yet!! SUMMER!!!
5. Pecan pie or banoffee pie?--I had to look up that second one (and I left you a link), but honestly? I'm not a pie person.  Cake? Yes. Brownies? Cookies? Yes! Yes! Pie? Eh...
6. Early bird or night owl?--More of an early bird, honestly.  I don't *like* being up early, but I've gotten used to it. I can't stay awake past 10 most nights.
7. Sweet tooth or savoury tooth?--I am an equal opportunity snacker! If I had to make an absolute choice, I would go with savory. 
8. Football (soccer) or American football?--To play? Soccer. To watch? Football
9. Fish and chips or burger & fries?--Burger and fries!
10. Shower or bath?--I would love a good, long soak in a steamy hot bath; but let's be realistic. Every time I try, I get company of the "under three feet tall" variety. So I take showers.
11. Music or TV?--Both. I listen to music at work, because I'm pretty sure that watching TV would be frowned upon.  In the evenings, I watch TV.
12. Walking or running?--Sitting.  I need to be better about that eventually!

I Love You Infinity

This past weekend I participated in my first Saturday Sharefest over at the SITS blog. SITS is a blogging community for women and on Saturdays they host a Twitter party where bloggers can link up their favorite posts for the week.  During the Twitter party and afterwards you can go visit lots of fun blogs and meet new people. 

I saw a blog come across from a blogger that I recognized.  I have visited Kim @ Co-Pilot Mom before and I love her stories about her family.  This particular post caught my eyes because in it she talks about a fun routine she used to have with her son when he was younger.  She tried it again recently and realized he had forgotten their routine.

I, too, have had some fun routines get lost.  It seems that Frances' memory is usually better than mine and she often remembers a routine that I have forgotten.  Or she will teach it to the boys and help to carry it on a bit longer. 

We've had one in particular that has been passed on for quite a while.  It started with the sign language sign for "I love you." Frances or I would flash that sign to the other randomly throughout the day.  Then I started responding with two fingers, as if to reply, "I love you too." That exchange was it for a while and then somebody added in the sign for "more."  This year, as a big, smart, third grader, Frances made up a sign for infinity (it looks like a sideways 8 on paper) where she holds her fingers up to her eyes like goggles.

Then exchange can get silly sometimes and it's always a quick and easy way to touch base whether it's across the room, out the bus window, or to share a private moment in a public place.

I love you.

{I love you} too.

{I love you} more.

{I love you} to infinity.

Anatomy of a Snow Day

5:55 am--Smile sweetly as your husband turns off the alarm so as not to wake you up after he checked your phone and noticed that your work was closed for the day.

6:30--Curse your body's natural rhythms that will not allow you to sleep in on an extra day off.

6:59--Hear the kids up and stirring. Incidentally, had it been a school day for them they would still be trying to sleep for the next 30 minutes.

7:30--Referee the first fight of the day.

8:00--Ask kids of get dressed and give thanks for the snow day since your son has absolutely no clean pants to wear today. Shorts it is!!

8:30--Make bacon and waffles in honor of National Waffle Day (and by "make" I mean "put in toaster)

8:45--Watch TV while eating breakfast. Sing along to the Umizoomi theme song.

9:00--Referee second fight of the day.

9:45--Take TV break to clean up living room.

9:50--Ignore whining about forced cleaning.

10:15--Turn TV back on.

11:00--Serve snack of crackers and cheese even though it should almost be lunch time.

11:15--Reluctantly give in to the oldest's request to get out her microscope.

11:16--Referee fight (3rd) about whose turn it is with the microscope.

12:00--Start blog post about snow days instead of cooking lunch. Watch as children's eyes glaze over in front of the TV.

12:10--Wonder about the possibility of naps for any of your kids.

12:15--Reluctantly get up and make lunch. PBJs day three!!!

Friday Fill Ins

1. The wind blew wildly and sent our recycling all over the neighbor's yard.
2. Sunshine and children's laughter made me feel warm and happy all over.
3. The smell of tomatoes makes me think of summer.
4. When I am feeling lazy I stay in my pajamas and hang out on the couch.
5. Brilliant purple is my favorite color.
6. The door creaked and a little boy in footie pajamas came in.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to movie night with the kids, tomorrow my plans include Henry's first soccer practice and then The Burg's Got Talent in the evening and Sunday, I want to celebrate Palm Sunday!

Play along here:

Spring Has Sprung!?

I woke up this morning to a dusting of snow!  Did Mother Nature not get the memo?? It's spring!!  We've had more snow this March than we've had the whole rest of winter!!  I am sick of it!

And it's COLD today.  Wa-a-a-a-a-a-ah!!  I want spring! And sunshine! Not this fake sunshine that I've been using to keep myself out of the looney bin!

I am tired of my winter clothes. Tired of tripping over coats and hats. Tired of cold showers because the hot water doesn't last long enough to warm me up.  I want warm weather. I'll even take hot weather (Sorry, Deserae!)  And if you know me, please vouch for me: I don't complain about the heat. Ever! 

If I doesn't warm up soon, I'm going on a groundhog hunt! That creature has some explaining to do!! If he's still alive, that is!

Potty Training Failure Times Three

Sometimes when I have trouble coming up with a blogging topic I look through my camera phone pictures to remind me of what has been going on lately.  When I looked today, I had two choices: pictures of my kids from the weekend (with my messy house in the background) or n@ked pictures of Benjamin while we work on potty training.  Neither of them are ideal for posting on the internet, but I suppose I'd rather show off my messy house than my sons buns (as Henry would say, "Mommy! That rhymes!!")

Anyway, as the title implies, I feel like a complete failure at this whole potty training thing, despite the fact that I have three children.

Frances was either hard-headed or lazy, I'm still not sure which.  She wore Pull-Ups for a long time and it wasn't until shortly after her FOURTH birthday that I finally threw in the towel and said, "FINE!  You will wear underwear and if you mess it up you will fix it yourself."  It only took a week after that.

I honestly don't remember potty training Henry.  I do know it was around the time Benjamin was born (hence the fact that I don't remember it!) when he was about three.  I feel like, with Henry, it just happened.

Now we come to Benjamin.  He will be three in a month. I've been watching for the signs and not trying to pressure him.  At this point he HATES having anything in his diaper.  So much that he has gotten out of bed a few times to tell me that he peed and I have to change his diaper before he will go back to sleep.

Last Saturday, I put him in a pair of vinyl underpants and let him play around the house.  He actually alerted me once to the fact that he had to potty.  He kept those underpants dry all day, but I put him in a diaper for nap and bed and he peed (not immediately) in those diapers.

Last night when we got home, we was dry.  He was dry all though dinner. When it was almost time for pajamas, I took his diaper off and let him watch TV n@ked.  Nothing happened! I had him sit on the potty before bed even though he insisted "nothin' comin' out!!" I let him play a game on my phone, I turned on the water in the sink, I even gave him a big glass of water to drink.  Nothing!  I was convinced that he would pee as soon as I sent him to bed.  Thankfully, that's not what happened last night; but it certainly goes that way lots of other nights.

So now what?  Do I back off and wait for some other signs?  Do I push it?  Do I hire a potty trainer? Do those exist?  HELP!!

Take Your Kids to Work Day

Yesterday's snow meant the kids were out of school.  Ken had to work and I had things to do at work also, so I checked with my boss and then brought Frances and Henry with me.  (Benjamin's day care was, thankfully, open.)

They love coming to work with me.  Who wouldn't? I work in a library/media center in the education department.  They are surrounded by books, computers, iPads, and people who love kids!

JMU had a two hour delay, so I didn't have to be at work until 10, but I came in at nine and let the kids run around the building a bit for some exercise.  After I opened up the office, they went into the corner to read books for a while.  I almost forgot they were there!

Then came tech time and they were lost in iPad apps for a good while. 

One of their favorite apps is called Toontastic.  They can create stories with characters, backgrounds, music, and narration.  This is one Frances worked on yesterday. (I apologize about me talking in the background.)



We had lunch in the cafeteria and took a walk around the building before coming back to work on some math.  Then they sat out at the desk and made name posters with some of my students.

They had a really fun day, and surprisingly, I got some work done too!

Things I Hear That Warm My Heart

Last week we had some friends in the van with us.  One of these kids asked Frances why she was still in a car seat since she is nine years old.  I cringed a little bit because I was worried that she was going to feel awkward or babyish about it.  I also didn't want her to get made fun of because I know most of her friends don't sit in car seats anymore.  Then my ears perked up as I listened to her explain to her friend how seat belts work and how the belt is supposed to come across her body at a certain place and she just wasn't tall enough yet.  As she explained to her friend why her car seat was the safest place for her to be, I took a moment to congratulate myself on doing something right.

After taking my kids with me all over town last weekend doing good deeds, I was exhausted.  Then two days later while we were cleaning out some of the toy baskets in the dining room, I overheard Henry examining toys.  He said, "I have two of these, so I can give one to someone else."  And then I heard, "I don't play with this very much, I think somebody else would."  We had a bag ready to go that we could put stuff in, but the kids are always reluctant to actually get rid of stuff.  This time I hadn't even asked; he just started filling the bag on his own.  After I dried my eyes, and thanked him; I took a moment to congratulate myself on doing something right.

It's hard to know how you're doing with a two (almost three) year old, but I did catch him singing Mass parts last month, so that tells me that at least something is sinking in.  Also, we experimented with potty training over the weekend and I had Ben in some vinyl pants with no diaper.  He was sitting on the carpet in the living room and all of a sudden his eyes got big and he yelled, "MOMMY!"  You parents out there know what that means, so I scooped him up and took him to the bathroom. I'll skip the TMI details, except to mention that he earned 3 M&Ms.  He went back out to the living room while I got his treat.  When I gave him the three M&Ms he got very excited.  Then he said, "I give one to Bubby!!  Because I love him!" And he proceeded to share his treat with his brother.

Motherhood is hard.  Issues seem to always get split into two camps and mothers tear each other down over choices like breastfeeding, homeschooling and parenting philosophies.It's good to stop every once in a while and reflect on the things you are doing right.  It will improve your perspective next time you yell at them for not flushing the toilet!

Good Deed Winners!

Well, I'm a bit behind because of Inauguration Day here at JMU, but I did put a list of names through random.org and got some winners.  I decided to go ahead and pick two winners just because I felt like being nice.

So, Ladies from The Dose of Reality, you'll have to duke out to see who gets a photo book.  Then let me know your favorite kinds of colors and how to get it to you.

Also AnotherJennifer, you can get in touch with me and let me know the same info as above.

Congrats ladies! Thanks for making the world a better place by performing good deeds!

Friday Fill Ins

1. I was looking for my purple sweater today, so I could "purple out" for the JMU nation!!
2. Online is one of my favorite ways to socialize.
3. I looked at the clock twelve times yesterday to make sure I didn't forget Benjamin's conference.
4. A pen with purple ink is the type of pen I most prefer to use.
5. What in the heck takes Frances so long getting ready in the mornings?!
6. Crazy things seem to happen to me often.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to going to bed early, tomorrow my plans include Fun Day at the kids' school and Sunday, I want to wear green while I teach Henry's Sunday School class!

See other responses, or play along at Friday Fill-Ins

P.S. It's not to late to do a good deed and enter my giveaway "35 Good Deeds for my 35th Birthday."

On the Go Meals

I've been thinking all week that this Thursday would be our last peaceful one before the craziness of soccer season kicks in. That was before I remembered Heritage Night at my kids' school tonight.  So, apparently last week was my last normal Thursday; but of course we were snowed in then.  Must have been...Oh who am I kidding! Nothing is ever normal around here!!

However, starting next week our Thursdays are about to get a bit more crazy.  I would detail it out, but then some stalker might know exactly where we were at any given moment, and y'all know that's not good!

Suffice it to say that Thursday nights will now involve two children in four different activities, a kid swap between parents, and no reasonable way to sit down at a table and eat dinner.  In the past this would have been a great excuse for the drive-thru; but that is neither healthy or financially savvy.  So what are we to do?

I have a few meals that can be packed up and taken with us.  The obvious ones involve sandwiches, but the kids eat those every day for lunch (and Daddy packs them, so I am not messing with that set up).  This will involve some re-arranging on our regular menu plan, but I think I can do it.

The older two like quesadillas and there are lots of ways to make those.

All three love it when I make homemade "lunchables."  Those don't involve much more than cutting cheese and meal into small squares and adding some crackers.

I can usually get them to eat salmon balls (please, somebody give me a better name for these!!) which are basically fish cakes in a smaller, more spherical shape.

What do other families do on nights like these?  Drive thru? Late dinner at home? No dinner?  Any suggestions to share with the rest of us??

35 Good Deeds for My 35th Birthday

As I've been promising since last week, here is the epic birthday present I gave myself this year:

35 Good Deeds for my 35th Birthday!

This has been a project in the making for a long while.  I think I started my original list back in December and have been adding ideas as they came to me.  Then we got our big storm and some of my ideas got ruled out. It's hard to pick up litter when the litter is stuck under a foot of snow!  Despite that, and some other challenges, I think I got all 35 of my deeds accomplished. I started last Friday and have continued on through today. Here's the list (there's a prize at the end, so make sure to read the whole thing!):

1.     Buy coffee and a McD gift card for the crossing guard at the kids' school.
2.     Pay for the person behind us at McDonald's. (I'll admit to being thankful when the vehicle behind us ended up having one person, instead of the van full of people in the other line!)

3.     While waiting for the crossing guard to get to her post, I noticed some people's trash can lids were blowing away, so I jumped out of the van and replaced them.

After I dropped the kids off at school, I met Julie at Costco to mooch off her membership.  I bought a supply of food for our food pantry at church and lots of cookies. And had quite a fun shopping trip as well!!

As I was packing my groceries into the van, I was excited to see that someone had left a cart in the middle of the lot! I was going to put it back and count that as a good deed.  Then I heard a man behind me say to another person, "Here, let me take that for you." And before I could turn around to see, he was by my van, loading my groceries and taking my cart, my good deed cart, his own cart and another customer's cart.  I said, "I was going to put that away as my good deed, but I guess it would defeat the purpose to fight with you about it." And we both laughed!  So instead, my good deed was

4.     Allowing another person to serve me by doing a good deed for me.

5.     I delivered groceries to the food pantry at my church.

Then I met Julie and D for daily Mass.  After Mass,

6.     I took my former co-worker/office mate Louisa and Julie and D out for lunch.

After all that, I was tired and full, so I went home for a break.  Of course, as soon as I sat down, the phone rang. It was Benjamin's daycare calling to tell me that he had been coughing all through naptime. I went to pick him up and came home and snuggled my boy on the couch for a while.

When it was time to pick up the older two, they helped me

7.     Deliver cookies to their after-school teachers and then

8.     Tape popcorn bags to the Redbox machine (while we rented ourselves a movie for our Friday movie night).

After a good's night rest, we started again fresh on Saturday morning.  As I mentioned on Monday, the kids colored some thank you cards while I took a shower.  Then we headed out and

9.     Delivered a bag of dog food to the SPCA. The kids also got a tour of the facility and loved looking at all the cats, dogs, bunnies, and a random guinea pig.

10.  Delivered a bag of cat food and cat litter to the local cat rescue center (and played with kitties).

11.     Then we took Daddy and his co-workers some cookies before visiting the

12.     Fire Station with cookies and

13.     Taking cookies to the Police Station.

We took a break at a local Mexican restaurant and the kids stared at the Spanish language soap operas like they were fascinated.  (Frances says they are more fun than regular TV because you can make up your own story!)

14.     We delivered some baby blankets and sippy cups to the local family homeless shelter and then

15.     Visited the Rescue Squad with more cookies.

We cam e home for a break and nap for Benjamin and then we

16.     Anonymously bought some strangers a gift from their Amazon wedding registry.

17.    Anonymously bought a woman a gift from her Amazon baby registry.

18.     Bought Project Home Indy some items from their Amazon wish list. (If you click no other links today, please read that story.  Bring some tissues!)

That was about all we could handle for Saturday!!

Sunday morning we went to Mass and the the grocery store as usual.

19.     We bought some flowers for the lady at the deli who always gives the boys cheese slices when we visit.

We finished our grocery trip and then picked Frances up from Sunday School.  We went home, lunched, napped and headed back our to

20.     Scatter some bird seed in the front yard because Henry was concerned about the birds.

Then we went to the dollar store and bought

21.     Balloons to give to sick people at the hospital.  While we were there we also

22.     Delivered a craft kit and some kids' magazines to the Pediatric Unit.

Monday morning, bright and early, we

23.     Delivered cookies to the garbage collectors as well as

24.    The recycling truck.

25.     We also left a gift card for the mail carrier.

26.     Benjamin helped me deliver cookies to his teacher for her birthday. Even though all he would say was "cookies" while giggling, instead of saying "Happy birthday" like I had told him to.

27.     I made dinner for a co-worker on the eve of her honeymoon.

Monday afternoon, {like a complete jerk}I forgot to order pizza for the teacher's at Benjamin's day care like I had promised, so I called the pizza place right away and made arrangements for

28.     A pizza delivery Tuesday at Benjamin's day care.

29.     On Tuesday, I hid lottery tickets in the seats and computers at work.

30.     I put a pre-paid copy card near the printers for free printing for the students.

31.     I invited another friend of the family out for dinner with my family. (He hasn't responded as of yet, but if he doesn't I promise to do another good deed to replace this one.)

32.     On Wednesday, I ordered flowers for my Mommy for my birthday with a card that says "thank you."

33.     I spent an hour playing vocabulary building games at FreeRice.org

34.     I wrote "thank you" notes to Frances and Henry's teachers to show my gratitude for all they have done for my kids this year.

35.     I need your help with my last good deed.  I would like each of you to perform a good deed today.  It can be something simple or something elaborate. It can be free or expensive.  Do something nice for someone else today.  Leave me a comment about what you did (or plan to do).  I will pick one winner for every five comments here to randomly send a handmade photobook. 

If you plan to enter, please make sure that I have a way to contact you in case you win.  I will end this contest on Friday at noon and pick winners shortly after that.  I will announce the winners Friday afternoon in a post as well as contacting them by email.  These photobooks are made by me.  Depending on how many winners there are, it may take me a a week or so to create them.  One entry per person please.

I would also like to thank my mother, my big brother and my friend Julie for helping to fund this crazy endeavor.  I really appreciate it guys!!

The Glass is Half Full

The sun is shining, the snow is gone.  I have received at least five pieces of good news today that positively affect lots of other people I know.  Things are still in the works, so I don't want to list out the details here, but it just stuff that makes me happy. 

Going, going, gone!!

That is not to say that everything is coming up roses, (but the daffodils in my yard are trying to come up!!) because not everything is 12 shades of awesome.  There are lots of things in my life that aren't perfect right now; things I wish I could change.  But I choose to focus on the good.  And today the good is really overwhelming the bad. 

It's my big/little brother's birthday today.  I call his that because he's younger than me, but taller.  Most people are taller than me, so that's not all that unusual, but I can't honestly call him my little brother because he's bigger than I am.

We are 364 days apart. He was born the day before my first birthday, so we are twins today.  He was the birthday present I couldn't return!  We fought a lot when we were kids.  We hung out with the same people and played with the same toys.   But the good news is that we've gotten much closer as we've gotten older.

He's a great uncle to my kids.  We named Benjamin after him.  Actually, if you ask Benjamin he will tell you that his name is "Benjamin Uncle Alan Lieber."  Alan made me the proud aunt to a clutch of chicks!

Happy birthday Alan!  It's a great day! Go out and celebrate!!

Who's Awesome? Henry's Awesome!

We had a busy Saturday planned at Casa de Liebers.  (You can check back on Wednesday for details on our "good deed marathon.")  The kids were coloring pictures at the table while I took a shower. I came out to find Henry wearing Ken's bike helmet at the table.  After they finished coloring I asked them to get their shoes on so we could get out the door.  I got Benjamin taken care of and Frances took care of herself.  I was trying to hurry everyone out the door, but I couldn't find Henry.  He was in his room trying to put his shoes on.  Problem was, he couldn't see because the helmet kept sliding down over his eyes.

"Henry, please take Daddy's helmet off and go put it back where you got it."

"But Mommy! I want to look cool."

"Sweetie, you'll be fine without the helmet. Let's get moving!"

So he got finished with his shoes, took off the helmet and got his coat. As I was leaving to room he said, "Mommy? Am I still cool?"

"You're awesome, honey."

"Is awesome better than cool?"

"Yes, it is."

And as I walked out I heard him mutter to himself, "I am AWESOME!"

Friday Fill Ins

1. Life always keeps me on my toes.
2. I thought winter was over and then a little snow (16 inches) fell.
3. I knew it was love when all our friends told us we were perfect for each other.
4. I miss sunshine and blue skies.
5. A little nap is wonderful; just wish I could get one.
6. I love cooking my favorite things to eat for dinner.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to fish sticks and movie night, tomorrow my plans include delivering cookies all over town and Sunday, I want to go to Mass and spend time with the kids!

Don't forget to check back on Wednesday for my special 35 good deeds for my 35th birthday. I'll need your help with the last good deed.

SnowPocalypse 2013

After missing school at least three times for what amounted to really cold rain, the kids finally have some snow to talk about. Over a foot!! My parents, just south of us, didn't get anything at all. We got so much that Ken's store and my university both closed. In fact JMU closed for two days! It's Spring Break for the students, and now it's Spring Break for the staff!

We had a big breakfast of sausage, eggs, and muffins and then began the long, grueling task of collecting winter wear: clean underwear, tights, socks, leggings, corduroys, tank tops, t shirts, long sleeves and sweater. Over all of that went snow suits, jackets, hats, gloves, scarves and boots. I even remembered to have the kids go potty before they started!!

We went out and tried getting out the front door. Ken had shoveled the walk before he had gone to check on the store, but it had snowed another few inches after that. Benjamin kept getting stuck by walking into snow that was up to his waist.

We eventually made it down the street and had fun sledding down the road by our house. Then we went to our neighbor's house and built her a snowman right by her back door.

When Ken got back, we went to a different part of the street to sled and throw snowballs. Henry had fun just diving into snow piles. Frances tried building a snow fort, but I'm not sure how far she actually got.

After about two hours we came in for lunch (tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches) and the a 'nap.' I think Ken was the only one who actually slept. We did some housework and I got started on dinner before we went back out to build a family snowman. All in all, it was a great day. It was also the first time we've had a day together as a family in a very long time. And we get to spend today together too!

Wordless Wednesday: Cat in the Hat edition

When did you first feel like a grownup?

I remember that shortly after Ken and I bought our house, something broke and I called my dad for some advice.  His reply still makes me smile (and I have quoted it to many people since then):

"Welcome to the joys of home ownership!"

 It was odd not to be confidently calling the landlord and waiting for someone to come fix it.  Instead we were trying to decide who to call at the same time we were figuring out whether we could afford the repairs as well as debating who would stay home at which times to wait for the repairman.  I felt like a grown up then. 

I find it strange that graduating from college, getting married, getting a "real" job, and having kids didn't necessarily make me feel like a grown-up, but having a broken appliance did.

A few weeks ago, I was listening to one of my students talk about her dinner the previous night.  She said she had eaten plain noodles, because she really needed to go shopping and that was all she had left in her house. I was thinking that it's been a long time since I was down to "just noodles."  We go through three gallons of milk every week now! We always have certain things on hand: bread, milk, eggs, butter, etc.

Last night I had another "I'm a grown up" moment.  Because of a confluence of circumstances on Mondays, I am usually home for about 45 minutes with just Frances.  I usually use this time to get dinner started in relative peace.  I had already planned on making sandwiches, but the weather was a bit chilly and I decided to make some soup too.  I remember a recipe for tomato soup that Rosie had left on my post about finding new recipes.  I decided to go for it and was pleasantly surprised that we had most of the ingredients on hand without having planned it that way.

Tomato Basil Soup

• 1 onion
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 cube chicken bouillon
• two cups water
• three cans of whole tomatoes
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup of cream (this was the only thing I didn't have, so I used 1/3 cup of melted butter and enough milk to make 2 cups)
• basil (Frances doesn't like tomato soup, but she like tomato basil soup! Go figure!!)

Dice the onion and saute in butter.  Add bouillon cube and water along with tomatoes, sugar and baking soda.  Simmer for as long as it takes to empty the dishwasher and supervise homework (or an hour).  You can mash the tomatoes with a potato masher (slightly effective), an immersion blender (best choice/something I don't own) or a regular blender. I ended up blending it in two batches with my Ninja blender.  Add cream and basil.  Serve with grilled cheese sandwiches.

There's something having the ingredients to make something delicious and healthy in my pantry/refrigerator with no prior planning makes me feel like a grown up. How about  you? What makes you feel like a grown up?

What's in your desk drawer?

Last week, I actually remembered to bring a spoon to work so I could eat my yogurt for lunch. I had been using a fork, but you just can't get as much yogurt out with a fork.  I jokingly made a facebook status about finally remembering my spoon and it for some reason that led me to a listing of all the crazy stuff in my desk drawer.  Just in case, you know.

So here you go; the contents of my desk drawer:

• three toothbrushes (one is child-sized), toothpaste, mouthwash, dental floss
• deodorant
• extra earrings
• a comb
• lip gloss, lipstick and chapstick
• Pain relief, allergy meds, and vitamins
•  two bottles of lotion
• bandaids
• feminine hygiene products
• "thank you" notes
• a sewing kit
• a bunch of quarters
• birthday balloons (leftover from wrapping the boss' office for his birthday)

•  a card reader
• a box FULL of business cards
• my private stash of colored pens and highlighters

What's in your desk drawer??