Dept: From the Mouths of Babes

We just celebrated the first birthday of my great-niece Genevieve!  We sang and shared pink cupcakes.  Clare was asked if she liked her cupcake, and she replied "Eh, it's better than nothin'." 

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Recently Abigail will not be content without hearing BonJovi's "Living on a Prayer" any less than three times during any car ride--turned up to eleven. "I need it louda and louda!"  When I didn't increase the volume to her satisfaction, she made known her frustration, "Ugh! I'm getting madda and madda!!!"

Happy Birthday to You, cha cha CHA

Oh little Aidan, how we love you!  We are so blessed by your life. 

♫Happy Birthday♫

Town Hall charm

St Rose of Lima's day!

Happy St Clare Day

Dept: From the Mouths of Babes

While giving the kids baths this evening, Clare asked me to apply "air conditioner" to her hair.  Love it!

Family video updates

A peek into a Charba evening

Henry's keeping up with his studies...

Theology from a 6 year old

Our 6 year old, Henry, is learning from the Baltimore Catechism.  Right now our goal is with memorization of the lessons-and will continually work on understanding as he grows.  Many of the lessons he really understands quite a bit.  Even without guidance, he has gleaned the knowledge from our domestic church.  However, every once in a while, we get a peek into how his brain is working, putting together his own connections--

For example, we always refer to children as gifts from God.  From this Henry made these connections:

• Jesus sends boy babies
• Mary sends girl babies
• God has a "pouch" of babies from which he sends us new children

Sunset on Harvest 2012

Harvest 2012 had a different feel to it this year-- the crop was there, but not exciting after the great drought last year.  

 There was family to visit with and yet so many were missing! Karl's Big bro #1 is moving to TX permanently, but his family is still wrapping things up (literally!) in the NW.  To further thin out the group--a stomach bug grabbed hold of my family early on, and scared away the remaining healthy family!   I managed to stay healthy (yippee!) and sincerely credit my daily kombucha tea for it.

 I got to visit with dear college friends, but unfortunately it was due to tragic circumstances--We gathered to celebrate and mourn the loss of a dear little boy.

So I squeezed my littles a bit harder and a bit more often.  Got up with the sun and stayed up 'til it went down and did a whole lot of ...well...sometimes nothing much.  But that can be a good thing.

Happy (belated) 51st Anniversary!

Thanks to Pinterest, JollyLane, and an enthusiastic husband...my in-laws received this custom birthday chart to honor their 51st wedding anniversary and all of the precious souls stemming from their "good tree."

Dept: From the mouths of babes

"Hail Mary Full of Grace..." "what do you hear? Oh Abigail, you make me (and I'm sure Blessed Mother,) smile!

Love!

Oh Abigail...

I love YOU!!!! So munch munch MUNCH!

Summer, it's that time again!

Adventures in Sourdough part 2

This go-round I used white all purpose flour. I ended up with 2 standard loaves, 1 freeform loaf, and 1 pan of cinnamon rolls :D Delish!

(full disclosure: when the neighbor girls (ages 4, 7, and 8) sampled the East Texas Sourdough...they spit it out. NO JOKE! haha. My kids ATE IT UP!)

I froze the standard loaves.  The cinnamon rolls were prepped then refrigerated overnight for Sunday morning. Before Mass, I left them out on the counter to warm and rise, and voila! A fabulously fresh breakfast treat.

I think I like the bread semi-frozen best of all!  For a last-minute lunch, I put a frozen loaf straight from the freezer into the microwave (eh, I guess it's still helpful for somethings!) wrapped in a damp cloth for about a minute.  The outside of the loaf was warm and soft, and the inside was still quite cold-- it was awesome.  Cold dense bread... mmmmmmm. I really didn't think anything could beat fresh out of the oven bread. but wow.

Here are my fabulous assistants!

Roses from the garden.

oops!   Strega Nona.    

Adventures with Whole Wheat Sourdough (part 1)

The beautiful Betsy Dewey was so kind to share a special sourdough starter from East Texas.

I used whole wheat flour and honey, 'cause that's what I had and it turned out great! It was a little dry, but I think I can remedy that next time by using less flour, more oil as I knead.

Thanks Betsy!

I will post part 2, Adventures with White Sourdough soon!

Window Fun

These fabulous window markers were in each of the kids' Easter baskets this year. WARNING: don't mark on doors that you normally push to open (or you will have sad artists, and angry (dirty) daddies!)

Happy Easter!

Bluebonnets 2012

Merry Christmas!