What I Wore Sunday: Late Night Crafting

We went to Mass on Saturday night this week (we normally do) and I never got around to having one of the girls taking a picture of what I wore to Mass.  Of course, I realized this at about 11:30 on Saturday night after Bryan had fallen asleep on the couch.  Ordinarily I'd be wearing my favorite lounge wear that late at night, but I had found myself engrossed in night #2 of crafting so I was still dressed.  Not wanting to wake Bryan I decided to pull out my camera remote and snap a picture of my outfit.

So this week's outfit consists of a maroon scoop neck tee from the Gap (it's at least four years old) and a Whatever Skort from Athleta.  I love this skort so much that I have it in three colors.  It's got lightweight shorts attached so I don't have to worry about my toddler lifting up my skirt in skirt in public.

Madeline was the cross bearer at Mass on Saturday.  She and the other girl who was serving did rock paper scissors to determine who would get the coveted job of cross bearer/book bearer/bell ringer.  This is the second week in a row that Madeline has been the cross bearer for Mass.  I came to the realization on Saturday that Madeline is at the point where she is now one of the older altar servers.  We have a handful high school kids who altar serve but most of the kids are in 4th-8th grade.  Now that she's heading into 7th grade she really is one of the older kids.

With Madeline altar serving that left us with just Katie and Ellie in the pew.  Ellie did her best to distance herself from us as Katie acted like Katie.  I think Ellie tries to pretend she's at Mass by herself or with other people sometimes.  Katie had a few moments of loudness but overall she wasn't bad.  We went to the 4PM Mass instead of the 5:30 and I think that keeps her from being overly cranky.  

After Mass we formally met our new parochial vicar. [The girls and I had gone to him for confession earlier in the day, and I had already been to a few daily Masses where he was the celebrant.]   He seems like he could be a fun guy.  As we chatted with him Bryan suggested that I ask him if he'd like to dress up in the cowboy costume that I've been trying to get my deacon friend to wear for VBS.  Bryan thinks I have a good shot at convincing him.  I did tell Father that I thought it would make the kids happy.  Of course, I also think it would make for some great pictures for the VBS slideshow.  Maybe if we offer him dinner we can bribe him to wear the costume.

So how about the late night crafting?  Well a few days ago I went a bit nuts when I discovered the huge messes my girls have been concealing in their bedrooms.  One likes to hide dirty clothes and the other likes to stash candy wrappers all over her room.  Their rooms still aren't clean but a start has been made.  Bryan and I determined that check lists, and a sheet outlining the morning routine just isn't working.  The girls had excitedly told us about a chore chart their friends had so we figured maybe that would work.  I took what they told me about the chart along with elements from other families chore charts and came up with something I hope will work for us.

On Friday night I was up late working on the first version of the chore chart.  It was a bunch of cutting, labeling and laminating about 30 chore flowers.  I went to bed around 1:30 feeling exhausted.  On Saturday I decided I wanted to use prettier papers and needed to create chore flowers that were more specific.  For some reason my children need me to micromanage them right down to telling them the number of times they need to brush their teeth.

Here's a peek at Ellie's chore chart.  I'll be writing up a post on the chore charts with more pictures soon.  

Visit Fine Linen and Purple for more What I Wore Sunday posts.

Book Review: Becoming The Woman God Made You To Be

Sunday afternoon I found myself with a little bit of spare time while the baby napped and I went looking for a book to read that was light reading.  I had just finished St. Francis De Sales' Introduction to the Devout Life and I wanted something that I could read over the course of a few days.  I came across Tammy Evevard's Becoming: The Woman God Made You to Be and thought it seemed like just the sort of book that would fit the bill.

I really had no expectations of this book when I sat down to read it, but I quickly found myself engrossed in the book.  Tammy weaves personal stories and practical advice together for an inspiring book that encourages women to be who God made them to be.  Her approach is one that most women will find easy to relate to.  She finds a common ground such as make-up, shoes, cooking or ordering take-out and from there ties in inspiration that surely will resonate with many women.  I honestly had a difficult time putting this book down.  I felt like I was following the author along a transforming spiritual journey.  I enjoyed the book so much that I devoured the entire book the same day I picked it up.

No matter where you are in your spiritual journey, there's sure to be something in this book that will help to inspire you to see yourself as a beloved daughter of God.  This book is a gem of empowerment for women.

I was provided with a review copy of Becoming: The Woman God Made You to Be by the publisher, Servant Books, in exchange for my honest review.  You can take a sneak peek inside this book at Amazon.

Quick Takes: Volume 72

~1~

Two nights ago I let a room full of people know that I have difficulty telling animals apart.  First I called a cartoon prairie dog an armadillo and then I decided to help my cause by telling the story of my "elephant sewing box" that actually has camels on it.  The funny thing is no one else in the house realized the sewing box had camels on it for about five or six years.  If I asked for the elephant sewing box they brought me the one with the camels.  I don't recall who noticed the error.  It was either Bryan or Madeline.  So anyway back to my original thought....last night Bryan put on an episode of Only in America with Larry the Cable Guy that he had recorded.  He was doing something with armadillos.  Man, I can't get away from these things!  While I was trying to get the remote to turn off the show as they started to chop up the armadillo I did learn that they DO have some fur or hair on their bodies.  Some people at the meeting were insisting that they don't have any hair, but thanks to HD TV and the History channel I know that they have hair on their bellies.  Now you know it, too.  Aren't you glad you're spending part of your day reading this blog?

~2~

I spent a lot of time in the older girls' rooms stuffing a trash bag with junk/trash and small items that I classify as choking hazards.  I think it probably goes without saying that I was not happy.  I'm pretty sure the girls' first few days of summer break will involve organizing and cleaning their rooms.  We're considering having them share a room to cut down on the number of rooms in the house that are disaster areas.  And yes, it's really that bad.  At one point I decided to take pictures of the messes I was encountering with my phone so I could show it to the priest the next time I go to confession.  Sort of an explanation of the root cause of my impatience.  Bryan doesn't necessarily think bringing picture proof to confession is the best idea.  He's probably right, rationalizing never seems to be well received.

~3~

I'm going to have to start planning out my crafts for the upcoming school year.  I offered to teach back to back kindergarten classes on Sunday for the next school year.  I'm excited at the prospect of teaching two classes again.  In the past I had taught my kindergarteners on Sunday morning and then an older grade on a Thursday night.  I took the past two years off from teaching a second class, but I figured I could teach two classes of the same grade back to back on Sunday morning and it wouldn't require any more of me than an hour and a half or two more of my time.  I love the idea of prepping once to teach two classes.

~4~

Bryan and I went to lunch this afternoon with one of his business contacts and his wife.  We went to Fogo de Chao in Philadelphia.  Ordinarily I don't eat meat on Fridays, but I made an exception today since Bryan has raved about the phenomenal meats this place has for a couple of years now and I have been wanting to go there.  I tried a bunch of different meats, but I have to say that I enjoyed the filet mignon and the bacon wrapped filet mignon the best.  On our walk back to the car both Bryan and I were discussing our favorites.  I thought it was funny that we both noted the seat salt dry rub.  I think we notice it because that's how Bryan prepares our filets.  

~5~

School is almost done for both of the girls.  Ellie has two days left and Madeline has three.  I'm looking forward to the Summer.  This past week Ellie has been cleaning out her desk at school so I now have a stack of workbooks and notebooks on my kitchen counter.  I'm convinced that the teacher probably thinks we're disinterested parents.  I have discovered notes from her teacher, award certificates and sundry other things of this nature nestled in the items she's been bringing home.  Some of it is from December and January!  I have no idea why she never brought any of this stuff home.

~6~

Bryan and I have come to the conclusion that we need to find a way to get the girls organized.  I'm the sort of person who thrives on organization so I don't understand why the kids aren't organized.  I think this will be our primary objective for the summer.

~7~

I have less than a month to plan for Ellie's American Girl themed birthday party.  I need to get moving on party ideas.  I also need to design and send out invitations for her friends.  I'm using this American Girl party book for game and food ideas.

Theme Thursday: Dad

This week's theme for Theme Thursday is Dad.  So I went digging through some pictures on my laptop to find a few of my favorite pictures of Bryan with the girls.

These pictures of Bryan and Katie from last summer were part of a series where he was doing his best to make the same exact face as Katie in each of the pictures with the exception of the first one.  Many of them were hilarious, but I liked these two pictures the best.

I love this picture of Madeline gazing at Bryan.

Bryan's a fun dad.  He's happy to dress up the dog to make his little girls happy.

He cleans up nicely, too!

I laugh every time I see this picture of Bryan with his dad in his never-nude pants.

And here's a picture of my dad at our birthday last month.

Visit Clan Donaldson for more Theme Thursday Dad pictures.

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real}

Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life.

{Pretty}

The look on Katie's face in this picture makes me want to pick her up and squeeze her and give her lots of kisses.  Sometimes it's hard for me to believe she's this cute.  I love how cute this dress looks on her, too.  It's funny how she gets loads of compliments anytime she's wearing hand me down outfits from friends.  I should really stop shopping and just outfit her in hand me downs.  That's where we wind up finding most of our favorite outfits anyway.

{Happy}

I'm having a good time shopping for baby stuff for my sister-in-law's baby.  We don't know if she's having a boy or a girl yet so I'm buying for both and will just return what isn't for the right gender.  I was really excited to find these cute printed breathable crib bumpers on clearance at Target.  I used to love the regular traditional bumpers until we had a few instances with Katie where she would smoosh her face into the bumper while she was sleeping.  We found her looking a bit blue a couple of times and decided that the traditional bumper had to go.  We tried to go bumper free and that resulted in her getting her arms and legs stuck as she wiggled around at night.  Our solution to keeping her arms and legs safe and the pacifiers in the bed while not posing a suffocation risk was a breathable bumper. 

{Funny}

Last night was the VBS meeting for the adult volunteers.  As I was giving the overview of the program I pointed out that this year's mascot for the them is this cute armadillo that you see on the SonWest Roundup logo.  Let's just say that my inability to distinguish between a prairie dog and an armadillo provided a lot of levity for the evening.  

I blame this furry stuffed armadillo for my confusion.  Doesn't it look remarkably similar to the one on the VBS logo?  They're dressed alike, they're furry, they're practically the same animal.  

{Real}

Katie has this habit of jumping into my seat, whether it's on the couch, at the kitchen table or in the dining room at my laptop, as soon as I get up.  I think she's pretending to be me.

Then again, I don't take all of my papers and toss them on the floor, so maybe she isn't pretending to be me.  Maybe this is just how she cuts a path of destruction throughout the house.  She's a busy little girl!

Visit Like Mother, Like Daughter for more pictures of contentment.

Book Review: The Catholic Children's Bible

When you think of a children's bible the first thing that probably comes to mind is a picture bible that has selected bible stories.  I know that's been our experience with children's bibles.  And the few that are actual bibles are difficult for younger readers to use either because it's just not geared to helping a young child be able to read and understand the bible.  The Catholic Children's Bible from Saint Mary's Press bridges the gap and gives young readers in the second through fourth grade age range a bible that is accessible for them.

The Catholic Children's Bible is set up in such a way that children will be

able to read it, navigate through it and most importantly, understand it.  Reading this bible is easy for a young child because the print is large enough that they can follow along without getting lost in the text.  Vocabularly words are in bold and there's a column divider on the page that helps young readers learn how to read pages with a two-column format.  Finding a particular book in the bible is easy thanks to the color coding and labeled tabs.

Now maybe your wondering what this bible has to offer to a child to capture his or her attention.  Sure, large type, and color coded sections and tabs are nice, but is there anything else that makes this bible stand out?  Indeed, there is.  First, each of the books of the bible has a great child friendly explanation as an introduction.  And, then there's the featured stories.  If a particular book has a featured story, it is listed immediately following the introduction for the book along with the page number where you can find it.  These featured stories are told on a colorfully illustrated two page spread.  There's an illustration that gives you a feel for the story, followed by the scripture.  Within the scripture, key words are highlighted and are then defined after the passage.  A section called "Understand It!" gives an excellent explanation of the story.  The "Live It!" section gives children a practical life explanation that they can relate to for how to put the lesson they learn from this story into practice in their own lives.  Finally, the "Tell It!" section gives children the opportunity to tell the story in their own words using pictures from the story.  I like the layout of the story format because it encourages children to think and act on what they learn from the story.

To really see how accessible this bible is for an elementary school aged child, I asked my daughter who is in second grade to look a few things up.  She has some experience with looking up scripture in a First  Communion bible that is really laid out like most regular bibles with just a few full color inserts added in.  Typically, it takes her a while to find what she's looking for when she's looking up scripture in her bible.  With The Catholic Children's Bible, she was able to find the book she was looking for quite a bit faster, and she had an easier time navigating through the text to find the chapter and verse.  With her regular bible she typically has a lot of trouble when it comes to finding the verse numbers and then once she finds it she struggles to read the tiny type.

As a catechist, I like that this children's bible is so much more than just a bible.  There are some great teaching resources available to help children get even more out of this great bible.  The Catholic Children's Bible Leader Guide is a resource that teaches catechists how to effectively use this bible with Children.  The guide has activities, prayers and helps for guiding children as they navigate through the bible.  The Leader Guide is filled with plenty of valuable information.  There's also an activity booklet that contains two reproducible activity pages for each featured bible story.  For every story, there is an activity page geared to younger children and one that is for older children.  In most cases, children in the 1st-2nd grade age range will be best suited to the level one activities while the level 2 activity sheets would be best for 3rd and 4th graders.  Each activity page has a section entitled "Seek and Find" that encourages children to go back to the story and look for something found on the story pages.

The Catholic Children's Bible also boasts a great companion app that can be used in the classroom or at home to further involve children in the stories.  The app features several activities for each bible story to  engage children.  There's even an option to have the Read It!, Understand It! and Live It! passages read to you by the app.  This is great for younger children who aren't yet old enough to read independently, however, there are some activities that may be too challenging for very young children.  There are plenty of fun activities in this app that will challenge even some of the older children.  The Catholic Children's Bible App is available as four different downloads.  Each set has it's own set of bible stories.

I could see using this app with my kindergarten religious education class.  The children could listen to the story and it's explanation and then could retell the story in their own words.  I plan on incorporating some of the bible stories from this app into my lesson plans for the upcoming school year.  I think it will be a hit with the children.

I was provided with a review copy of The Catholic Children's Bible and it's companion resources by the publisher, Saint Mary Press in exchange for my honest review.

Celebrating the Sacred Heart with Cookie Cake

I've become a bit of a heart shaped bakeware junkie with the sole intention of having these different pans for celebrating various feast days.  It's a little sad, isn't it. Even more so when you consider that I'm not particularly fond of baking.  Actually, it's not the baking that I have the problem with so much as the cleaning up the mess that I dislike.  Anyway, this post isn't about that.  It's about how we celebrated the solemnity of the Sacred Heart on Friday.

Friday was a busy day for me.  I took Katie to Mass with me in the morning and then had to run and grab soft pretzels for Ellie's class so they could celebrate her summer birthday with her a month early.  So there was a bit of running around in the pouring rain.  Then I had an appointment with my chiropractor followed by me rushing home to take care of lunch for Katie.  I decided to make a heart shaped chocolate chip cookie cake that would be decorated with buttercream icing to look like the Sacred Heart.  Originally the plan was to have it made before the kids got home but that didn't work out since Ellie had a half day.  Then I got sidetracked with eating copious amounts of raw cookie dough and chocolate chip cookies for lunch.  Eventually I got around to making the buttercream icing.

I'm not sure why, but I have the hardest time making red icing.  It never comes out as dark as I'd like no matter how much red dye I add to the icing.  By the time I got done fighting with my mixer that I now realize has a motor issue, I was too tried, hungry and frustrated to do any kind of decorating that was even remotely impressive.  The kids didn't seem to mind.  They enjoyed eating it.