Cozy At Home Daybook

(It's about time for one, don't you think?)


I am hearing... Kids playing on the computer, dishwasher humming

Outside my window... gray and drizzly - real November weather!

Around the house... we are hunkered down in cozy indoor mode - crafting, reading, creating. The house is warm and glowing with fall decor. I am sorting clothes and trying to get everything put away for this season.

In the yard... Everything has been cleaned up and put to bed for the winter. A few flowers are still hanging on in a pot by the back door - I just can't pull them out when they are still blooming optimistically!

From the kitchen... Fall foods - apples, pumpkin, squash... and big plans for the big Thanksgiving feast next week. It's always fairly traditional here. Jeff and I adopted a stuffing recipe as our own a few years back - sausage stuffing dressed up with apples and craisins - so good and pretty too! 

Living the liturgy... We have focused on learning new saint stories this month, as well as praying for the Holy Souls. Earlier in the month we created some saint paper dolls using the templates here. Now I am trying to make a plan for Advent because it always sneaks up on me and I want to be prepared this year. We usually keep it simple - straws in a basket represent good deeds done for Baby Jesus, an Advent calendar hangs on the fridge, and our Advent wreath is lit at least on Sundays.

Learning notes... We have a simple routine now that involves a little table time every day and we have made decent progress in acquiring some helpful skills like telling time, counting money, writing numbers, etc. Lots of our time is used creating art and pictures, which I like to use as reading time since little hands are occupied and busy little bodies are (more or less) stationary. We have read stacks of fall-themed picture books, along with the kids' picks from the library - books on topics like space travel, electronics, and weather, which may or may not be way above their levels, but fun to look at none-the-less. I have been much more consistent with keeping notes each week on what we have explored, both formally and informally, and find it a good and encouraging habit for myself personally.

The kids this week... seem to have imaginations in overdrive. The complexity of their play is mind-boggling - I'm just getting used to having older kids, I think. Benjamin turns 6 on Friday and he's sooo excited. Birthdays are big fun here!

Last weekend... We did all of our activities, including Mass and confession, on Saturday. Sunday and most of Monday (before Jeff left for work) were total down-time - no commitments or appointments, just go ole' hang-out-at-home-time! It was much needed after a busy fall and with the holiday season rapidly approaching. Nice recharge - I recommend it!

Some plans for the week... It's a busy birthday week here. Mine is Thursday and Benjamin's is Friday! I will be hanging with my sis on Thursday and hopefully doing some last minute errands for Benj's birthday, and Friday we will have a small family celebration for him. We will probably take him to do something fun on Saturday when Jeff isn't working. I am also busily planning our Thanksgiving festivities next week, as well as the homeschool St. Nicholas party to be held here only 5 days later. I am looking forward to a low-key December focused on Advent!

Pondering in my heart... How to balance the excessive busy-ness of the upcoming season with the goal of turning inward and fostering thankfulness, peace and joy. And how to bring joy to those not feeling as celebratory this time of year...

I am thankful for... Online shopping. Did we ever really have to go out to compare prices and look for everything? Thanks, Mom, for ever getting me what I actually wanted for Christmas!! 

I am praying... for someone dear struggling with depression.

A picture to share... Benjamin's tomato project. These were started outside before the cold weather arrived - we are going to see if they survive indoors. Note 5-year-old's inability to make a normal face :)

 

 

Cozy At Home Daybook

I am hearing... Mary Poppins on video, playing in the living room.

Outside my window... Dark, moonlit, warm and breezy

Around the house... Oh boy. I realize the clutter won't go away by itself and needs regular attacking. I get one spot cleared and 3 more pop up in its place! The kids' pillows are spread on the floor for TV watching. Benjamin has scraps of wood and tools around where he is "building". Some toys are out, but will be picked up for bedtime. Several big boxes ("playhouses") have been exiled to the back bedroom just so I can see some clear floor area. I am tempted to add them to the trash pile for tomorrow, but the kids have so much fun with them, I may let them stay another week or so. I wish we had a basement or attic or somewhere that the kids could keep this stuff as my chaos tolerance is low and the only place they play is right in the middle of it all, the "great" center of the house which is all one area. In the same space is my computer area, my dining room table stacked with books and catalogs and magazines, and baskets of laundry awaiting my attention. Oh, and the kitchen. Calgon!!!!

In the yard... I had to weed around the patio as the "rain forest" is encroaching on our living space. The weeds went crazy! I pulled them out by handfuls and slowly realized something had a familiar, green, garden-y smell - bean plants! We had played with dried beans outside earlier in the year, and some of them ended up sprouting and growing into huge plants. I only noticed before I pulled the last 2 out, so I left them in to see what they will produce. I am sure they will not be green beans! Maybe pintos? Can't remember what they were... Anyway, I didn't have to worry about my flowers drying up, as Mother Nature has taken good care of them for us. After this week's rain, they are doing great!

From the kitchen... I am planning to make some soft molasses cookies tomorrow. We need something homemade around here. Last week we "ate on" a big pot of beef stew all week... hastening Fall, I guess, but it was nice to have something ready to heat from the fridge. I guess we are getting tired of summer food. This weekend I have to come up with a nice meal that I can share with my friend whose daughter is in the hospital - mama has been eating snack food for 2 weeks already and needs something comforting and nourishing. Pondering what it will be.

Cultivating beauty... This one stumps me every time. Apparently I don't do this much. Nope, can't come up with a single thing other than continuing to clear the horizontal surfaces.

Living the liturgy... I am going to steal my friend Jamie's idea to make a liturgical folder for each month of the school year with a theme, a saint, a song, a prayer and a virtue. At least I will use it for inspiration since I don't know exactly what she has in there (yet). Sounds to me like a perfect solution to keep a disorganized mama like me on track. Here's one of my go-to resources for craft ideas to go with liturgical seasons and feasts: Catholic Icing. Lacey is so clever and fun!

Learning notes... It is summer, but we are no slackers. Well, actually, we are always slackers in the sense of being terribly relaxed... but I really like this time of year for science exploration. We have watched maybe a dozen of the short videos in the series The Way Things Work (from the library), and they always spark lots of interesting discussion. Sometimes it's way over our heads, but that's OK. We are always online looking up answers to questions that come up. I just had to search some photos of London Bridge for Benjamin, who was asking me about iron bars and other complex issues. What I always thought of as London Bridge is really the Tower Bridge (much more impressive) but the history of the former was fascinating. Onward! Tomorrow we are looking for growth rings in tree stumps. Somehow the questions always come up at bedtime so I have to postpone the searching! Or I get curious and do it myself the same night. I try to back it up with library books or any real life materials that might apply. We are reading, reading, reading (too much to list) and I keep sneaking history videos and books in for my own satisfaction. (Darn it, I will produce a history lover somewhere in this family!!) Nice discussion about the settling of America, tonight, so that's a good sign.

The kids this week... Ah, it's all about the bikes lately, and that's good. We are desperate for a change in the weather so we can get out more and exercise till we drop - we all need it. Today was Jeff's birthday, and his parents gifted him a very nice bike they no longer use, so that he can go riding with Brendan. Benjamin is heartbroken that he doesn't yet have a 2-wheel bike, and cried many huge tears and also rudely demanded that we buy him one "on payday", ha. His birthday is in 3 months, but I think he may die of grief before then, what to do??

Last weekend... This time Jeff took the kids to Lowe's for the Build and Grow workshop, where they made bug boxes. Big fun for them, and I got to sleep late with Molly! It was too hot to do anything outside, so we stayed in, and even went to a very late Mass on Sunday evening so that the sun wouldn't cook us while driving. I like that we often  see my brother Michael and his wife Laura when we go there. 

Some plans for the week... Currently trying to decide if and when to put ourselves through the State Fair experience. It starts today, but we have only a couple of nights that could work. And of course, the weather is about to turn blistering hot again (as opposed to just horribly hot, as it continues to be). Jeff and I have always loved State Fair, but as we say frequently now, it's just not the same as it used to be! That's because we have to do all kid stuff, and we don't get to wander around aimlessly in the vendor area for hours. That is not fun with a bunch of small ones. But the kids love the midway and we love watching them love it, so... decisions... We will also be having some kids over to play at some point, since we've been laying low due to germs in the house while Jeff was sick recently. Ready to socialize now! We managed to get to Aunt Katie's for playgroup today and had a lovely visit with lots of friends and cousins. 

Pondering in my heart... exactly how to approach the school year and which materials we will invest in. We use a lot of random things, mostly free, but I feel the need to be more intentional in some areas this year, particularly faith formation. How to be free to learn, but build some structure into the day. How to keep things simple and uncomplicated, yet make the learning environment richer. I'm glutted on food for thought, thanks to the internet, but I keep coming back to the beautiful lifestyle portrayed in my favorite educational book of all time, Real Learning. It's my wavelength!! And I know that its author, Elizabeth Foss, has been moving towards simplicity in her own journey too, so I consider all that I have gleaned from her in the last year or two as well. She makes me think like no one else.  

I am thankful for... A much-needed step forward in Jeff's job, which we have been working toward since the dreaded lay-off 2 years ago. It means some lonely days a couple of times a week, but it's so much easier on him physically and he is so upbeat, wonderful to see. It will give us a little freedom to breathe easier. Thank you, Lord. 

I am praying... for our friends' 17-year-old daughter Sarah, who is in the fight of her life against Burkitt's Lymphoma, undergoing chemo and a long hospitalization. Her courageous and faith-filled family are an inspiration.  

A picture to share... Finally! Two years in the making... hair long enough to put up.

Cozy at Home Daybook

I am hearing... The silence of the house when everyone's asleep.

Outside my window... the steamy heat still hangs on through the wee hours. It seems interminable and is really starting to get to me.

Around the house...Things are in pretty good shape but it's time to get into the school room and spruce things up for the fall. It's become a sort of collection area for things that don't have proper "homes" around the house.

In the yard... Everything is still growing but the flowers won't make it if I don't get out there and water more. The rain keeps going around us! This time of year, I start thinking of just letting them go. I know to expect myself to get lazy around August. Is it worth the sweat equity?

From the kitchen... We had an amazing dinner on Sunday, meant for our company whom we had to cancel when the kids got sick. So Jeff and I ate chopped salad, beef tips over basil mashed potatoes, corn pudding and buttered carrots, with rhubarb pie for dessert. It was a feast - we even had a glass of wine since the recipe included Merlot! We get to have the meal again as leftovers this week (sans the Merlot this time.) Otherwise we are on a sandwich kick - chicken salad, BLTs, pastrami, turkey, etc. Easy and cool, and the kitchen doesn't get overheated.

Cultivating beauty... I'm paying attention to my houseplants today. I have 3 philodendrons and a rubber tree, which are almost impossible to kill. I also have a basil plant by the kitchen sink. Having a few green, living things adds so much freshness and life to the house! I wish I had more of a green thumb so that I could branch out a little... but for now, I'm watering and trimming up the plants I have. 

Living the liturgy... I must say that since I am not using a calendar daily for school, I'm out of touch with the feasts this month. I did note the feast of Sts. Ann and Joachim, July 26, which is my sister's name day and a good day to pray for our grandparents! (These saints were Mary's parents, and grandparents to Jesus.) I am thinking ahead to something special we can do for the feast of the Assumption on August 15.

Learning notes... It's Summer Reading program time at the library. We have been going to at least one event there each week - last week it was a puppet show. The previous week was a Rain Forest Adventure. Each time, we leave with a big stack of books and videos. Currently, we are going through the video series "The Way Things Work" - learning about things like gears, electricity, etc. It's animated and kind of clever, so the kids love it and have watched each episode several times. I hope they are learning something!

The kids this week... Molly has been sick with a fever and a bad cough. She has been waking up at night crying, sometimes every 15 minutes. Benjamin also had a fever but no cough. Needless to say, we are staying home and feeling a bit stir crazy, and a little exhausted. We've made some weekend plans, so hopefully everyone will be better by then. My worst fear is that the healthy ones will come down with it later and we'll be doing this again next week!


Last weekend... Saturday morning I took the boys to the "Build and Grow Workshop" at Lowe's. It was a  little more informal than I hoped, just a ton of kids hammering away at a very simple woodcraft (of which their parents did half the work) ...but the boys had fun. It was our first time, so they got work aprons, safety glasses, and a patch to sew on their aprons. We made a wooden "UFO" which was really a flying saucer, with a blinking red light. Next month, they are scheduled to make a bug box, which I think will be infinitely more useful. I hope that, down the road, I can find them some more advanced woodworking classes. Benjamin especially seems both fascinated and gifted in this area. 

Saturday night, Jeff took the kids to the park and wore them out while I cleaned the house, in anticipation of our company who never came. It was nice, but a little frantic, seeing how much I could do before they got home. I would have rather put my feet up to read a book! But at least the house looked pretty good for Sunday. Before they got home I filled 60 water balloons and we had a family water fight out on the patio, to cool everyone off. Then baths and off to bed! Sunday, other than the great meal, was a let-down with the sick kids, canceled plans, etc. 


Some plans for the week... Saturday, I should be getting together with my Mom and sister for some girl time - each July we go out to lunch to celebrate our name days (usually around the feast of St. Ann, for my sister.) Jeff will have some "guy-time" in the evening to hang out with a friend. Next week, if everyone is well, we will visit the library again, and perhaps have some friends over to play. It's also the 3rd anniversary of our twins going to heaven, so I plan to make a cake with the kids. I'm not sure if I can get down to the cemetery or not, but that would be a blessing if it works out.

I am thankful for... the telephone. It's been a lifeline this week as I had plenty of time to catch up with friends while rocking a feverish little one.

A picture to share...  Benjamin building his UFO at Lowe's.

Cozy at Home Daybook

I am hearing... the hum of the air conditioner... probably something we'll hear a lot for the next few months!
 
Outside my window... the sun has come up after an early morning rain storm. Everything is green and exploding with growth.
 
Around the house...I finally cleaned up the school room which had become a catch-all room for the last few months. We needed some table space to work on projects. This is one of the cooler rooms in the house during summer, so we like to retreat in there during the afternoons.

In the yard... We've planted lots of annuals around the yard. They are thriving with the occasional rain we are getting. Molly loves to help me water them on dry days.

From the kitchen... We're still eating the amazing German potato salad that Jeff made for our Memorial Day picnic. It's one of our favorites and makes a huge recipe! BLTs are on the menu often as we received a big box of bacon recently - nice timing!

Cultivating beauty... This is a hard subject for me because I don't spend much time consciously cultivating beauty inside the house. I think about it a lot, but battling back the clutter keeps me in survival mode more than on the offensive. One thing I want to do more of is light candles for no particular reason. As much as I love candles, it still feels like a company thing to me. I have a huge stash, so no excuses.

Living the liturgy... We are still saying our nightly Rosary decade. The feasts of the Sacred Heart (June 11) and the Immaculate Heart (June 12) are almost upon us! We are in intense First Communion prep, so we will work the feasts in with that. Corpus Christi on Sunday will be a beautiful day to prepare as well.

Learning notes... We are working on the First Communion book and otherwise spending time outside. Insects are everywhere and we enjoy identifying them and observing their habits. Stinging bugs are not enjoyed, however. I am getting tired of the high-pitched screaming whenever certain kids see one... and no one has even been stung! Yet...

The kids this week...have been digging in the dirt. They are "planting" all the maple seedlings that have sprouted from the abundance of "whirlybird" seeds we had in the spring. They also want to water the flowers all the time, which I am more than happy to allow, especially as it gets hotter and humid-er. I am about to retreat indoors for the remainder of the summer (I am made of sugar, you know, and I do melt!) The wading pool is out, so great fun for those who want to cool off that way!

Last weekend... Sunday we had a fabulous cookout at McNeely Lake Park with two dear families whose friendship we are blessed to share. Eleven kids, 6 parents, burgers, dogs, pork chops and all kinds of good food, swings, a hike with the dads... what could be better? I asked St. Anthony to help us get a picnic shelter, and he cleared the park - there was almost no one there! I got my pick of shelters! Good thing since a brief shower came through. It sure was hot. Then Monday we were able to relax with family at my in-laws'. It was a blessing for Jeff to be off for the holiday, since he has been working 7 days for a few months now.

Some plans for the week... I still have many errands to run. I am working on planning for my parents' big anniversary celebration at the end of the month, which is also the First Communion day. Thankfully, we got the catering tied up last night. This weekend I'll be attending the homeschool conference in Radcliff, near Louisville, and I'm honored to be on the question and answer panel. Hope I have something useful to say! After that, back to the planning and prepping. So many clothes to procure. Confessions to plan. Etc., etc.

On my heart... my sister-in-law as she returns to work after losing the baby. We are waiting to hear when they might have a small service for this little one, most likely in the next few weeks.

I am thankful for... Online shopping! I have found almost all of our party clothes, not to mention many items for the anniversary, this way. Oh, the convenience! Until something doesn't fit...

A picture to share...  a peek at our patio. When I get the camera fired up, I'll update with the flowers and other improvements we've made. It's a nice, flat patio and yard, which I love, considering the wobbly steps of little kids! Hope you are all having a good week.

Cozy At Home Daybook

I am hearing... the clock ticking. It's very quiet and peaceful this time of day. The kids are asleep. 

Outside my window... it's very, very gray. Not raining anymore, but a good day for sleeping in!

Around the house...everything has been picked up. With so many people at home all the time, stuff is a constant problem. We work relentlessly to keep it just barely under control! I finally cleaned the glass on the entertainment center. It was getting nasty.

In the yard... a jungle has sprung up after all the rain. I have a wisteria and a honeysuckle in the garden just off our patio, and they get positively creepy, reaching their twisting arms out and grabbing on to anything. I bought a pair of pruning shears yesterday. Hee hee.

From the kitchen... Looks like meatloaf, baked potatoes and corn on the cob tonight. Meals here are very, very basic and I don't bake much. Maybe seeing this daybook category once a week will motivate me!

Cultivating beauty... I need to work on my bedroom today. It looks awesome when everything is fresh and tidy, but so easily gets sloppy. We'll do clean sheets, dust and vacuum this afternoon.

Living the liturgy... We learned about the Ascension this past week. Now we will focus on the Holy Spirit as Pentecost approaches. I'll be searching up some dove-type crafts and recipes! We continue to pray our daily Rosary decade during May - a habit we are easing into. The kids are doing very well with it - I really should have done this sooner.

Learning notes... We are deep into First Communion prep now. Brendan's will be part of a special family celebration in June, when my parents renew their wedding vows. Seeing the journey of several other parents of First Communicants (via blogs) has been inspirational for me. I am pulling together resources to make this final month of preparation more about reaching his heart than learning the drill. We'll be creating a book and doing several read-alouds.

The kids this week...have been kept inside by the rain quite a bit. They found their fishing rods and tackle box which they have been tearing apart examining. We really need to take them fishing this summer! Brendan and Benjamin have been keeping a very simple chore chart, and I am finding their small jobs surprisingly helpful. It's nice not to feel like I'm the only one "maintaining". Molly continues to be very independent and is improving at telling us what she thinks. Now if we suggest something she would rather not do, instead of saying "no," she says "Nah nah nah nah nah," like I do - in the tone of "I don't think so, buddy!" She dances and hops and skips everywhere, and loves acting goofy with the boys.

Some plans for the week... we are having dinner with good friends one night, which has had to be postponed numerous times in the last few weeks due to illness. We have been looking forward to this a while now. We're also hoping to go to our monthly homeschool playgroup on Wednesday. 

On my heart... the family of my college classmate Dan Ziglinski, who passed away from lung cancer this past weekend. As hard as this is to accept, its happening during the Easter season and during Ascension week puts all of life into perspective. So much food for thought. Rest in peace, Dan.

I am thankful for... my hard-working husband who goes out there every day, usually without complaining, to earn our daily bread. And boy, does he work for it!

I am praying... for my dear mom, who turns 66 today.

A picture to share...

   Happy birthday, Mom! We love you!