Birthday Adventure

I thought I would have a nice post about all the fun and exciting things we did on Lucas's 4th birthday, and I guess I do. Just not the things we were planning on.

10:30pm Wednesday night
Lucas hears thunder and wanders downstairs while Steve and I are catching up on Celebrity Apprentice. It's storming pretty bad. All of a sudden, water is gushing into our living room through a vent on the wall. Not coming up through the floor. Trying to devise a way to divert it to the garage. No luck. Muddy, cold, and wet. Lucas and I finally warm up and go to bed at 1:30am. Steve stays up to fight the water, which slows down to a trickle before it comes rushing in again around 5am.

8:00am Thursday morning
I look outside to see just how much standing water we have in our backyard (a lot). The retaining wall around our garden had fallen over in the storm. This is the retaining wall that my dad built one year ago and had a heart attack at age 50. Great - he'll probably have another one when I tell him what happened.

10:00am
I trapped the kids in the upstairs living room (full of all the junk we moved from downstairs) so I could work on the water damage, and they tell me there are bugs flying around. Sure enough, five wasps somehow found their way inside our house.

10:05am
AT&T guy shows up and puts caution tape around our phone/electric pole that is well within striking distance of the house. He says it is rotted at the bottom but it's not an emergency because he doesn't think it will fall over right away. Our water-logged yard is the only access and will be torn up by all the equipment to put up a new one.

So at this point I decide to take the kids to my in-laws.

That afternoon I managed to frost the cake, and we headed to Bass Pro for his birthday dinner and bowling. He got his first pet, a blue betta fish, that he named Goldie. Silly boy.

 

 

Happy 4th Birthday, Lucas. Glad you were treated to a big birthday adventure. Next year, we're hoping for a much more relaxed day.

What I've Been Up To

Or, random thoughts in the middle of the week that may or many not explain my absence from the internet:

We got a new computer. It's a desktop. I spend way less time on it. It's wonderful. Most days I just check my email, the newspaper, and read through my Facebook feed real quick. I caught up on three blogs last night, but that's been it. Something about this screen just doesn't suck me in as much, and it has completely changed my days. Reminder: no smartphone. So if you are trying to get my attention, call, text, or email. :)

Today is the last day of Lucas being 3. Tomorrow he will be a 4 year old! Where has the time gone? We're just doing a small family dinner and bowling tomorrow night. The boys will have a joint "kid party" in a few weeks. Gotta get on that. (And mushy-mommy-birthday-post coming in the next few days.)

We had a really beautiful day on Sunday, so we spent it outside doing yardwork. I enjoy it much more as an adult than I did as a child. I'm ready for sunny days every day. Too much rain lately, and we're ready for some playground playdates.

I had a doctor appointment on Monday. I think they may be onto something that explains most of my symptoms instead of just one or two of them. Now waiting for bloodwork.

Tyler is a handful. That boy, he is either running, throwing, or screaming nearly every minute of the day. But he loves Mickey and playing basketball and eating cheese puffs, so as long as one of those three is available, we're good.

Steve and I went to a talk last week by our favorite Monsignor on "A Rule of Life for Families." He shared some good ideas and insights. We need to work on a few things at home, but I keep feeling like there is always something coming up and we'll just start after that... and then something else comes up.

Cloth napkins are going over well. I'm still using paper towels for some things, but less than normal. The lights have stayed off for the most part, but on dark cloudy mornings like this it is hard. Also, Tyler is in the fascinated-with-lightswitches stage, so sometimes I just give in.

Can I just say that the dishes have actually been completely done a few times this week, and it is really nice to have a clean kitchen! Just don't look at the mountain in the laundry room. I'm good for one or the other, folks. (And Steve gets partial credit for the dishes. I cut my thumb pretty bad the other night making dinner, so he did the dishes the past two nights since it hurts like heck to have my finger under running water.)

That's it for me. Hope you're doing well and enjoying the glimpses of spring!

Letting Divine Mercy In

About eight years ago, after I had become a not-very-practicing-Catholic for a few years, I came back to the Church through two teachings I had never heard of before: Divine Mercy and Theology of the Body. It was both eye opening and heart breaking to realize that God not only has a plan and purpose - a good plan and purpose - for our bodies, but that even if we don't follow that plan, He was waiting for us with open arms, pouring His Divine Mercy out of His own heart and into ours, when we were ready. It is hard to describe the combination of sadness and joy that overcame me when I realized just how wounded my heart was and how much Jesus wanted to heal me and love me.

I've posted this link to the Chaplet of Divine Mercy in Song before, but I'm going to post it again (click to listen, right click to save). This Sunday is Divine Mercy Sunday, and if your heart needs healing, this is the prayer and this is the day. Many churches will be open for prayer and confessions during the Hour of Mercy, 3-4pm. Maybe your Lent wasn't the greatest. Maybe even Easter didn't have that special meaning for you this year. Open your heart and let Divine Mercy in.

Going Green in April

As our new Pope has reminded us, it is within our duties as Christians to care for all of God's creation. While keeping humans at the top of that list, we should also be doing our part to be good stewards of our natural resources and protect our plant and animal life. We recycle most of our paper, plastic, glass, and metal, and at times have made other efforts to lessen our family's "footprint," but I am feeling called to make this a more intentional part of our daily life.

I have three "Green Goals" for the month of April. First, we will be switching to cloth napkins for meals and using towels and rags to clean instead of paper towels. Second, the boys and I will be trying a lights off policy during the day, with the exception of the bathroom that has no windows - no way I want to clean up after two little boys trying to use the bathroom in the dark! Third, we will be planting our vegetable garden later this month, which has so many benefits in terms of how and where our food is grown.

An added benefit of going green is saving green. Eliminating paper napkin and towel waste, using less electricity, and growing our own vegetables will all save us some money on top of helping our environment.

April is the perfect month to reflect on the beauty of God's creation and teach our children about taking care of the world around us. What are you doing to go green in April?

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from our family to yours!

Signing Off for Holy Week

I'll be signing off the internet for Holy Week. In the past three days, my iPod Touch screen shattered, our laptop stopped recognizing my camera memory card, and today the mouse touchpad has been either unresponsive or acting erratically on its own. Not to mention it has to be plugged in at all times because the battery will no longer hold a charge. Instead of sitting here frustrated (or rushing out to spend $500 on a new computer), I'm taking it as a sign that I need to unplug for a few days and focus on my faith and family during Holy Week. I'll be checking email twice a day because so many of our family and friends use that as our primary means of communication. Other than that I'll be keeping my eyes off the screen and taking a longer, closer look at the beauty and blessings all around me instead.

I'll see you back here on April 1st with some exciting plans for the month of April, the Easter season, and the season of spring!

Five Favorites v.2

Lately I have been so bored with my normal cooking repertoire, so this week I decided to try some new recipes. These were all hits and will be added to my recipe box!

1) Homemade Brownies

We were out of boxed mixes, and Lucas wanted to bake something. These were easy, and Steve said he actually prefers them to the box mix. We threw in a quarter cup of chocolate chips instead of walnuts. Will be making again!

2) Corned beef, cabbage, carrots, and oatmeal bread

One of my favorite dinners of the year, and a new quick bread that I will be making with soups and stews.

3) Empanada Pie (okay, I made this up)

I planned on making Argentinian empanadas on Tuesday in honor of Pope Francis' installation. However, all the recipes for Argentinian empanadas called for green olives and raisins mixed with the beef, and I just couldn't risk it. Instead, I made a version of Columbian empanadas which includes diced potatoes instead of the olives and raisins. Then, when I had made the filling (which was very good) I couldn't get my dough to roll out at all. I threw in the towel and made it into one big pie instead of  individual empanadas. Still, it was very tasty and some version of this will be going into our regular "Mexican" food rotation.

4) French Toast Eggs (sort of made this one up too)

I have found that I really need to eat more protein throughout the day and not just meat at dinner. However, I usually want something sweet to start my day. I looked at some recipes for sweet egg casseroles and adapted this one. I tripled the recipe (6 eggs) to feed all of us, and I added a tablespoon of maple syrup to the egg mixture. After it baked (and got really fluffy and smelled great!) I dusted it with cinnamon and powdered sugar. We enjoyed this as a special breakfast on the Feast of St. Joseph. It was yummy!

 5) Quick Soft Pretzels

I can't find this recipe again. : ( I think I found it on my iPod Touch, so it's not in my history on this computer. Anyway, this recipe did not involve boiling the pretzels and was pretty easy. The most time consuming part was rolling the dough, which is why we switched to pretzel sticks instead of trying to roll pieces long enough to shape into a pretzel twist. I sprinkled half with salt and half with cinnamon and sugar. Even though I can't find the recipe, I have one tip to share: don't forget to spray your pan. I had to shove a metal spatula under these to get them off.

Do you have a successful no-boil pretzel recipe? Soft pretzels are one of the boys' favorite snacks, so I'd be interested in trying other recipes to find one that we really like (and is easy/fast enough to do with them).

Thanks to Hallie for hosting Five Favorites! I love reading about other people's tried-and-true favorites!