Monday Meme: May Day!!

Hey mom!!  I have today's craft and service project planned for you!

May Day flowers and baskets to deliver to neighbors, family and friends.  A small act of love that goes a ...l...o...n...g... way!

Easy peasy!!  Three simple steps...

(these pictures are 10 years worth of May Days for our family - please don't think I did all of these in one year)

#1 -  Make some paper flowers, buy or pick some real flowers.

#2 -  Make up some baskets (paper bags, paper, or paper plates work well!)

 #3 -  Delivery - ding and dash style!!

So, watcha waiting for?  Go brighten someone's day!

MAY your DAY be joyful!!!

Read To Me Monday: Bringing Lent Home

Donna Marie Cooper O'Boyle is one of those older wiser women in the Catholic Faith, who has lived though many experiences and loved much along the way.  She is one we can look up to and gleam from her wisdom.  I own almost all her books!  She is such a blessing -both through her writing and being in touch with her on FB.  She is very gifted in encouragement and offering women and mothers inspiration on their faith journeys.  God love and bless her!!!

She offers four devotionals for families that can help guide them on their Lenten journeys.  Four to choose from - just buy whatever one speaks to you most and let that giant in our faith "walk with you" during Lent this year.  A huge plus about these books - is that they are well under $5!!!  For that price, buy a few and give some away!!  Each devotional starts on Ash Wednesday and ends on Easter Sunday.  Here are on the links on amazon where you can buy them...

Bringing Home Lent With St. Therese of Lisieux:  Prayers, Reflections, and Activities for Families

Bringing Home Lent With Mother Teresa:  Prayers, Reflections, and Activities for Families (who is not St Teresa!!  ++thank you, God!!++

Bringing Home Lent With St. John Paul II:  Prayers, Reflections, and Activities for Families

Bringing Home Lent With Pope Francis:  Prayers, Reflections, and Activities for Families 

Just a quick peek into these lovely books - each day includes....

• Saintly Inspiration (or Papal Inspiration)
• Parent Reflection
• Family Prayer
• A Story from the Saint's (or Pope's) Life
• Fasting
• Almsgiving
• Prayer

Here's a sample of one of the days from the St. Therese devotional, to show you how simple and doable these are to follow....

++St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for us!++

++St. Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us!++

++Pope Saint John Paul II, pray for us!++

**************************************************************

Linking this post up with Siena Sisters, which will have a Lenten Blog Hop (go live date 2/21)

Click on the image below to get more ideas for Lent this year!

**************************************************************

Friday Feasting: Oatmeal Banana Muffins

"As a busy mom of a crew of kids, I will be the first to admit, we do serve cereal (from a box!) to our children on a regular basis.  But, there are days when the kids will awake to the aroma of something yummy baking in the oven.  I try to aim for a once a week surprise like this.  And, it's nice to throw in fruit and oats to make it a little more healthy.  Chocolate too, does that count for another health benefit?  We like to think so in our house!!  Served with yogurt and some orange juice, these muffins make for a great breakfast and lots of happy tummies"

**Makes 2 dozen muffins**

Ingredients

3 cups flour
2 cups oats
1 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1-1/2 cups milk
2/3 cups applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla
3-4 mashed bananas
chocolate chips

Directions

1.  Mix together all the dry ingredients: flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

2.  Mix together all the wet ingredients:  eggs (beaten), milk, applesauce, vanilla, and bananas.

3.  Stir together dry ingredients and wet ingredients until just combined.

4.  Add in chocolate chips and stir a few more times.

5.  Pour batter into greased muffin tins.

6.  Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes.

.

Ma Katie's Favorite Things: Kitchen Gadgets

Today's post is linked up with Five Favorites.  

Click on over to Big White Farmhouse for more...

***********************************************************************************************************

Out of all the rooms in our house, the kitchen is definitely one of our favorites - this is where we cook the meals that feed the 10 bellies in our family.  We have a large island where I can work while still socializing with my crew or even helping a kiddo with a math problem, not to mention enough space for many of us to cook together!  I could share so much about what I love about our kitchen, but I thought I'd start with sharing my five favorite kitchen gadgets ... 

#1 - Crockpot

I rely heavily on our crockpot for meals.  I think without it, getting a homemade meal on the table would be difficult.  My first crockpot was a circular one and was great when we only had a few kids. But we were needing to upgrade and this oval one has been perfect for our large family.  I even shared one of my crockpot recipes here for a recent Friday Feasting.  I actually own two of these because I'm known to have both going at the same time! 

#2 - Rice Cooker (new version found here)

We love to eat rice - topped with a yummy jambalaya, dijon pork, teriyaki chicken or just with a little butter and salt and served as a side.  When we first got married, I used the instant rice where you boil the water, dump in the measured amount of rice and then fluff with a fork after five minutes and eat.  It was easy and quick, but as we grew, it didn't make sense to use it any more - we were going through a box so fast and it was expensive.  So we tried cooking rice over the stove top.  Truly, I never could get it right.  Probably all the distractions and not cooking it properly, or maybe I was stirring it too much and peeking when I shouldn't.  Thankfully I found a great microwave rice cooker from Pampered Chef and we used that for  few years, but we outgrew it quickly.  Hubs suggested we get a rice cooker, looked at reviews and found this one for us.  And - wow!!!  Was I thrilled when we did!!  It is a piece of cake to make rice now!!  And, we still have leftovers when I make a batch and I've never even made the max amount yet.  So I think this cooker will suit our family for the long haul!  

#3 - Espresso Machine (new version found here)

I make myself a cup of coffee from this machine only a couple times a week (because I'm not really a crazy coffee drinker, but do love my coffee when I get one).  It's so nice to have it to have fresh coffee from freshly ground coffee beans when I do make myself a cup and it's SO fast and easy to use!  My favorite use of this machine is during my weekly prayer group gathering.  You see, I have this really cute Barista that makes lattes for my friends and I when we go through our Cursillo Reunion Group card and pray and share and discuss how God is working in our lives.  The good company, amazing coffee and gathering in His name make for one of my favorite nights of the week!!  

#4 - Bread Machine 

Oh the questions I get asked being a homeschooling mom of many - "are you done yet?", "do you have a tv?", "are you Catholic?", and I find this one the weirdest but one I still get asked often - "do you make your own bread?".  Mostly I say "no" to the last question, because I'm a cheater bread maker.  I just don't feel right patting myself on the back and answering yes to the kneeding and such when all I do is dump in a list of ingredients and hit the "start" button.  Anyways, this lovely machine gets its workout too.  Our crew can knock out a loaf of bread in one sitting!  We make the basic white loaf and banana bread the most - those are our two favorites!!

#5 - Under Counter CD Player with Radio and Bluetooth 

Okay, so this isn't really a kitchen gadget that helps with food prep or cooking, but it's one of those gadgets that make the time in the kitchen fun and enjoyable because it provides a little music for ya.  Or a podcast to listen to when you are preparing meals and doing dishes.  Or if you want to project the volume of the daily Mass readings/soul food so all the kids can hear, this makes a great option to plug your smartphone right into it and play them.  SO many options!  And it's so handy to have it right there in the kitchen and out of the way.  Ours definitely gets great use!!  

So there ya have it!!  What are your favorite kitchen gadgets?  
I'd love to hear from you!!  

Friday Feasting: Minestrone

"The kids and I were invited to a sweet friend's house a few weeks ago for lunch and a playdate and it was a Friday during Lent.  For us, we are pretty simple with our Lenten meals - pancakes, fish sticks, egg & tuna sandwhiches, meatless pasta dishes, and more - super simple is the "name of our game"!  So, when we arrived to our friend's house to the amazing aroma of a yummy homemade soup simmering on her stove, I was overtaken with appreciation from the hospitality she showed to us by all the work put into it!  (She's an amazing friend, if you haven't got the hint yet!  I just love her to pieces!)  Anyways, I *had* to make the same recipe for my own family the next Friday.  So we searched online and found one very similar to hers and tweaked it a little.  Our kids gobbled it down at her house, that I actually had to make it a second time during Lent!  And once again, it was gobbled down!!  You can make the meatless version (see below) or even brown up a pound of ground beef or sausage to make it more hearty.  But the meatless version was amazing in itself!!  Enjoy, my sweet friends!!"

Ingredients

1/2 cup minced onion
1 small yellow zuchinni - diced
1 small green zuchinni - diced
1 bag frozen cut green beans
1 bag of crinkle cut carrots
1/2 cup minced celery
2 teaspoons minced garlic
4 cups of vegetable broth
2 - 15 oz cans red kidney beans (drained and rinsed)
2 - 15 oz cans great northern beans (drained and rinsed)
1 - 15 oz can diced tomatoes
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1-1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil

Directions

1.  Pour everything into your crock pot and stir.  Let cook on LOW for 8 hours.
2.  Serve with bread - store bought or homemade (you can even try Ma Lorij's homemade rolls!).
3.  Serve with parmesan sprinkled on top, if desired!

Variations

***you can add small shell pasta for the last 30 minutes, if you want (we did not, but it's a popular minestrone ingredient).
***you can also add meat - ground beef or sausage.  Up to you!!  Or the meatless version we ate was amazing too!
***you can also switch out the broth to chicken broth, for a meat version

Monday Meme: Silly rabbit!

Trix are for kids!!!  

I mean, Easter is for Jesus.  

Yes, we are one of those families....  Easter is for Jesus in our house.  It's not about the Easter bunny, nor is their an Easter bunny that comes to our house.  

When our oldest was just a little tot, hubs and I decided what we would do with all these present-bearing-fictional-characters who come on these ever so important holidays in our culture, but mostly in our church year.  

We chose to focus on the religious meaning with these holidays, and put the worldly celebrations aside.  I know, I know, I bet you're going to say that my kids are missing out.  But truly, we feel they are not.  They know the meaning of these holidays and there's no confusion about a silly rabbit coming instead.  My crew still wake on Easter morning to eggs hidden all over the house and baskets full of chocolate, books and little toys.  But these are gifts from mommy and daddy instead.  So they still get all the sweets and fun, but there's no confusion whatsoever about the Who of Easter.   

Now I did want to add, that with us, timing was perfect.  Hubs and I were both on fire for the Faith and just newly starting our family.  We were able to start with these traditions from the beginning and so it worked beautifully and smoothly for us.  I say this because many moms have said, "man, I wish I knew this was a thing or even a choice (meaning not doing the Easter bunny thing), and they feel bad and even somewhat envious.  And I reassure them, that for us, it was all about timing.  I think it would be very confusing to switch things out mid-way through, nor do I pressure or judge anyone who still has the Easter Bunny visit them.  It's just works for us and did from the beginning and has provided blessing upon blessing when it comes to celebrating and focusing on these major holidays and what they truly mean.  

So now you may ask, "what about Santa?".  That'll be another post!  But here's a little hint.... it's very similar to this Meme.  We celebrate in a way where Christmas is fully and 100% about Jesus and his birth.  More later!!

Monday Meme: Catholic Weight Loss??

Bear with me on this one as I attempt to explain a Catholic Weight Loss observance I am doing for Lent this year...

Dieting for Lent?  Hmmm, can that be done?  Can that be a sacrifice to offer up to Him and grow closer to Him in doing so?  We already fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, so why not incorporate some extra fasting by choice throughout the week....

(Quick side note:  I'm not a fan of skinny jeans, nor do I wear them, nor do I allow my girls to wear them)    But....  I do like the chocolate reference here, especially tied to the possibility of losing weight.  Yes, many people give up chocolate.  So much so that Matthew Kelly is encouraging people to try something new than the same ole same ole of giving up chocolate this year.  But if chocolate is a vice for you and a way to unite that suffering to His, then by all means, continue to give it up!!

My fasting this year has been many years coming.  For 14 years now, I've either been pregnant or nursing, so I haven't been able to do much with fasting.  (other than the giving up chocolate or coffee or Mountain Dew or sweets).  But only one full meal on Ash Wednesday or Good Friday have more or less been out for me.  Not this year though!  Not pregnant.  Not nursing - my little guy weaned himself a month ago (waaaaaah!).  But it was God's perfect timing and just in time for Lent!!

Two Lents ago I was really inspired by one of my closest friends.  She fasted three days a week for both breakfast and lunch, but did allow herself one helping of food at dinner time (so they still ate dinner as a family - we all know how important family meal time is!!).  To get through the day, she allowed herself to eat bread when her body needed it.  As her belly grumbled and rumbled throughout the day, it was that constant reminder of that sacrifice she was making for Him and to rely on Him to get through the day.  And, get this - by the end of Lent, she had lost 10 pounds!!  (she got me there!!)  After 8 babies, I have some extra weight to lose.  You calculate those last few pounds that are so hard to shed times my 8 babies, well, yeah, you know what than comes to!  ....around 25 pounds!  Oy!!  Is losing this amount of weight my goal for Lent?  Nah, I'll be happy to lose even 10.  Even losing 5, I'd be thrilled!!

I've made it through 5 days so far - Ash Wednesday and the Friday after, and then the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of the first full week of Lent.  And today I start my second week of fasting on Monday, Wednesday, Friday.  I am tweaking my friend's fast a bit and not doing the bread throughout the day.  My hubby has done some fasting over the years and said the bread/water allowed sometimes makes it harder and makes you more hungry, so he suggested I go cold turkey.  Cold turkey, it is!!  Thankfully, I keep pretty busy from the time I wake up til that dinner time hits, so truly it has been doable to do this.  I am very reliant on prayer throughout the day, for sure.

Here's a peek at my fasting days....

My belly rumbles and grumbles constantly at me all.  day.  long.  From the time I get up and my feet his the floor.  When I'm showering and getting ready for the day.  Feeding my 8 kids their own breakfast.   Grumble.  ++Lord, be with me+  Teaching them school.  Giving the baby snacks.  Rumble.  ++I need You++  Teaching more school.  Giving baths.  Grumble.  Rumble.  ++Help me do this!!++  Running to activities/classes.  Reading books.  Rumble.   ++All for You++  Making lunch.  Grumble.  Serving lunch.  More school.  More running to and from.  Rumble.  Grumble.  Phew - time to make dinner.  ++Thank you, almost there...++  It's getting closer!!  Rumble.  Grumble.  Family dinner time!  I get to eat with my husband and eight great kiddos!!  Yippeee!!  

++thank you, God!!++

So, there's my take on a Catholic Weight Loss program for Lent.  And because I highly doubt I'll lose the full 25 pounds that my body could lose, I may continue with a plan similar to this after Lent., if even for one day a week.  It can be such a blessing to sacrifice and fast from food like this and lift up your heart and rumbly grumbly belly to Our Lord to help you get through it.

And before I send you all off, I couldn't help but share a little wisdom from some holy ones who have gone before us and paved the way on true beauty.  Because truly, it is not about how much we weigh, or skinny or squishy we are, etc... it's about the beauty of our soul and the JOY of our Lord living in and shining through us...

"Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul."

~Saint Augustine

 “The only ones who are truly beautiful are those who look beautiful when they come in out of the rain. That kind of beauty comes from the inside out, not from the outside in. It is the product of virtue, not rouge; it is not skin-deep, but soul-deep.”

~Archbishop Fulton Sheen

 “Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.”

~Mother Teresa

Monday Meme: WARNING! WARNING! Brain on overload!

Do you ever feel run down?

Too many things going on at once?

Your head spinning because it's trying to process/plan umpteen things and you cannot even successfully accomplish ONE thing?

Yeah, me too!  My bet is every person who reads this has felt this way at least once in their lives.  Me?  It's my normal every day life....  when you have a eight mouths and bellies to feed, those same eight bodies to keep clean and clothed, those same eight brains to stimulate and teach multiple subjects to, and last but not least, the same eight souls to feed spiritually and nourish with love daily, your one brain becomes accustomed to planning/thinking/processing way more than it can handle.   So how do you survive this chaos going on inside your brain?  How do keep your cool without blowing it?  How do you make sense of the multi-tasking that causes spinning out of control?  How do you find peace amongst the chaos?

Through Him.
With Him.
And in Him.  

Yes, it is by God reaching His mighty hand down upon my overloaded mommy brain and bringing meaning and sense of the very busy vocation in which He has called me.

"Though the mountains leave their place
and the hills be shaken,
My love shall never leave you
nor my covenant of peace be shaken,
says the Lord, who has mercy on you."
~Isaiah 54: 10

He come to us.  He dwells within us.  He dwells all around us.  He brings us a sense of peace.  If we but.....   Stop.  Look.  and Listen.  For me, this can be done in many ways....

• say a prayer - something so simple as, "Lord, I need You", "Please take this over for me...", "Saint ***fill-in-the-blank***, pray for me".  Calling on Our Lady and offering up "Hail Mary's" can also bring about a beautiful sense of calm as well.  

• scoop up a kiddo, smooch them, and go read them a book/play a game with them/or just snuggle them - Seriously!  There is something about distracting yourself from the constant commotion inside with the beauty God's presence in the children He gave you right here, right now.  Distract your overloaded brain and focus instead on their innocence, their love, and the presence of Our Lord within them.  

• go to the bathroom and shut the door - for prayer, quiet time, alone time, but remember you have been forewarned....  

• turn on some music - for me, it's Christian music (K-Love, Matt Maher, etc....).  And some make-you-wanna-plug-your-ears singing may follow.  And dancing.  Yes - dancing around the kitchen!  

• and if you are so blessed to be able to sneak away to get a Son Tan, spending time in adoration is a given that can bring you a peace like no other.  But as a busy momma in the middle of her day, it's not always easy to pack up and leave or possibly to run away to run to Him.  This needs to be a somewhat planned thing for me. 

What brings you peace??

What can you do to calm the go-go-go inside your head?  

************************************************************************************************************

Now as an aside, and so you can all laugh at/with me, I had to share my computer screen when I was busy typing this post.... (hint:  focus on the top)

Do you see the multiple tabs open?  Yikes!!  Yes, it's okay to count them....  16 tabs!!!!  You see, I was trying to do way too much at one time - go figure!!!  Not only was I writing this post, but I was also printing labels for a return, reading the new Catholic Icing blog post on Lent, and perusing Pinterest to get new ideas for St. Valentine's day.  And, yes, this is normal computer surfing for me.  (sigh)  All gung ho with doing so much at once, and most of the time, my computer in trying to keep up with my clicking and multiple open tabs often freezes and freaks out at me anyways.  Shall I take this as a hint??  Ummm, yeah....

Breathe, sweet momma....

Slow down....

And, connect to Him, the King of Peace....

Friday Feasting: Fluffy Pancakes

Fluffy pancakes

A "tried and true" recipe at the Young house.  We have always loved the buttermilk pancake recipes that we have made in the past, but we don't always have buttermilk in the fridge.  So, we googled and found that you can add vinegar to your milk to make your own!  This recipe already includes the buttermilk/vinegar variation plus is already adjusted GRANDE style.  The picture above shows what was leftover after feeding the 10 Young bellies at our house - plenty, as you can see!  We always use left-over batter to make "cookie pancakes", and if you leave them on the counter, they just seem to disappear.  Adding chocolate chips to our pancakes is also a favorite at our place.  Here, we added a special Halloween combo bag of white chocolate chip flavored orange pumpkins and normal chocolate chips.

Ingredients
4-1/2 cups milk
3/4 cups vinegar
6 cups flour
3/4 cups sugar
2 T baking powder
1 T baking soda
1 T salt
6 eggs
3/4 cups butter

Directions
1.  Combine milk and vinegar into a bowl and set aside to "sour".  (wait at least 5 minutes)
2.  Meanwhile, mix up all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl (large enough to hold all the wet ingredients in a bit too!) - flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt.
3.  Add eggs and melted butter into the "sour" milk and whisk.
4.  Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk until all the lumps are gone.
5.  Pour 1/4 cups batter onto skillet or griddle and flip once bubbles begin to appear on the top of the pancakes.  Cook until medium brown on the other side.
**optional - add chocolate chips, blueberries, etc... during step 4**

Enjoy!!  :)

Monday Meme: What kind of mom are you?

Choice A:

Choice B:  

First off, I want to share that I'm not the fit-into-a-perfect-box type of mom. I can relate to choice A because overall, my house is relatively clean.  Tidy and somewhat clean, but many families of dust bunnies reside in our house.  I try to make a "place for everything" and that helps a TON.  But to be honest with you all, there are 10 people living under my roof.  TEN!!  

10 sets of coats/sweatshirts

10 sets of shoes

10 sets of clothes

10 sets of hobbies/collections/toys

6 students and their paperwork/schoolwork

2 adults with paperwork/stuff/junk from our 35+ years of life  ;)

Whether it's two or ten or six or five, it's a LOT of stuff.  A lot of mess.  And, only a handful of us regularly pick up after ourselves somewhat well.  

Second, I very much dislike these comparison meme's, so I don't even want you to answer the question.  I think moms (at least me) can get down when I start to compare and see how much better and lovely and beautiful and perfect another mom has it - whether it be her house, clothing, hair, curriculum choices, blog, car, etc...  We need to be happy with US.  The perfect being that God created US to be.  Moms need to team up and be on the same team.  Stop with this comparison junk.  And be happy with the gifts and talents in others, rather than falling into the comparison trap, that can lead to getting you down or even jealousy.  So, just stop!   Let us encourage, compliment, and lift each other up.  Let us love one another and the person God created us to be!  

"If any one says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen."

~1 John 4: 20

And if we want to do any comparing, let it be to the person we were yesterday or last week or last year.  We can reflect on our own successes and failures and change our lives according to this more healthy type of comparison.  We should always strive to be a better mom today than we were yesterday.  

"Act today in such a way that you do not need to blush tomorrow."

~St. John Bosco

Friday Feasting: Sweet Chex Mix

Sweet Chex Mix

**This recipe was given to me by my dear mother-in-law many years ago and is a family favorite!  We take it to large group gatherings and potlucks on a regular basis.  The recipe below is my doubled recipe and makes what you see in the picture - two 9x13 pans.**

Ingredients
1-1/2 cups margaraine
1/2 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
18 cups rice (or mixed) Chex

Directions
1.  Grease two 9x13 pans.  Measure and pour 9 cups of Chex into each pan.
2.  Bring first 3 ingredients to boil.  Pour onto Chex and stir good.
3.  Bake for 7 minutes at 350 degrees.
4.  Stir and bake for another 8 minutes.
5.  Take out from oven place onto a cooling rack.  **optional - you can add candy corn, M&M's, candy hearts, etc...  at this time**

Enjoy!!!  :)