We Know Not the Day or the Hour...

I spent some time last week (10th, 11th 12th)

trying to figure out what to say about my personal 9-11.

35 years ago

my mother had a massive coronary on September 2nd...

she spent nine days in ICU and never regained consciousness.

Each of us: Dad, brothers, sister, myself, had some time to

come to terms with the fact that Mommy was

simply not coming home ever again.

 She died on September 11, 1976...

I am 47now... 35 of those years have been "Motherless".

This year was more difficult than many...

I finally figured out

- with the help of the Holy Spirit-

what was bothering me...

My eldest daughter is now the same age as I was

on that awful day...

I prayed so hard that she would not have to experience

the pain of a loss like that at so young an age.

We had a wonderful day on Saturday the 10th at a Healing Mass,

and having some spiritual direction as a family.

Seeker Man was approaching a big legal date

that we have been praying about for many months.

It was a difficult weekend, but we made it through...

Then Tuesday morning the phone rang.

My Sister-in- Law sounded horrible...

her voice caught...

she told me that my brother had a heart attack...

I waited to hear that he was in the hospital...

he was not.

He was dead

at 52.

(This photo was from one of his 50th birthday gatherings)

He was my eldest daughter's God Father.

In the last week, I have seen my Dad and Step-Mom,

My eldest brother and his wife from Florida,

My sister and her family who live in Illinois,

Many cousins and Aunts and Uncles...

I loved and hated every minute of it.

We laughed alot and cried alot...

and prayed so very much.

Surely, we do not know the day nor the hour...

make those phone calls.

Write those letters.

Say "I Love You" more often.

Give big hugs.

You will be glad you did.

So many things to say...

Well, I HAD intended to use the summer months

to catch up and try to post AT LEAST weekly...

HA!

Here it is September 3rd and I have been away from

this blog for months again.

I blame all the fabulous bloggers out there who

attract my attention with their wonderful writing

and keep me reading other's work

instead of writing my own!

I really have to do some housecleaning on here to

update the blogroll, etc.  I have been behind

in keeping this place organized...

sort of like my house : )

I want to try to catch up on some of the things we did

this summer: Catholic Familyland, family funeral,

family wedding, the girls trip to Morningstar Camp,

the boys and I in Massachusetts while the girls

were in New Hampshire...

oh, and the eternally ongoing

"minor" kitchen renovation...

as well as planning for our homeschool co-op...

the first time I am teaching something more

difficult than the art classes...

Middle School History!

Pray for me!!!

July 2011at Catholic Familyland!

It's been a long, long time...

On the 16th of June we had our "Portflio Review"

and "officially" ended our school year...

of course we still have things to do and to finish

over the Summer, but we are done with the heavy stuff...

I still have to drop the portfolio off the

School district for review...but that is a formality.

You'd think I'd be nice and rested this week...
But last week was Vacation Bible School and I was a teacher.
We ALL had a great time, but it is flat out
EXHAUSTING!

It has been ages since I posted last...
(March 29th to be exact)

so many things have happened,

gone on, are in the works or are happening...

I cannot talk about some of it.

I cannot remember all of it...

I would like to share a few things...

I would like to get back to my original intention

for starting this blog...I had such plans!

HA! 

God has His own plans and HIS purposes for everything.

Today I read an article encouraging Catholics to just

BE

on electronic media.

I like that idea.

My Catholicism, My Faith,

should be evident in my life & in my posts...

no need to hit anyone over the head...

no need to preach...just be.
I am going to try to post more often, though
with summer upon us and a couple of trips planned,
I won't PROMISE anything : )

Confirmation!

Not a great photo of Scooter...but the only one we took

with just her and her sponsor with the Bishop...

Much better photo with the whole family!

a very fancy dinner out for our newly Confirmed Catholic!

I used to waitress at this restaurant...

LOVE the tableside cooking!

CONGRATULATIONS Scooter!

A Pi Day Celebration

Ever since my kids watched

Night at the Museum:

Battle of the Smithsonian,

they have all ('cept the baby)

been able to quote "Pi"

to eight decimal places....

3.14159265

We love that scene with the Bobble Head Einsteins...

Soooooooooo

we HAD to celebrate

PI Day

March 13th

(get it...3.14)

some go so far as to

celebrate at exactly 1:59 pm...

For dinner, we had

homemade Turkey Pot "Pi"

and simple baked apples

in Spelt flour "Pi" crust...

(dad gave up sugar for lent)...

This was so much fun,

especially because Scooter 

just finished studying the

Area and Perimeter of a circle!

Tilly and Snorkie have been doing fractions this week...

"pieces of the pie" and Scooter started Pie Charts!

Perfect Timing!

 (found this image and thought that I will

HAVE to do this next year...

it is an Actual apple Pie

baked to look like a math book,

with Pi cut into the top crust!)

Mardi Gras

Here it is...the feast before the fast...
a few decadent photos before Lent begins...

Scooter and Snorkie's

Voyage of the Dawn Treader cake...

they are 12 nad 6 this year...

:::sniff:::

Amazing how time flies...

the ship is 4 layers of brownie...yum.

the ocean is yellow cake and Aslan on the beach is plastic

A "Despicable" birthday event....

Snorkie's "Best" friends party...

Welcome Minions!

9 little minions in flannel minion shirts with felt goggles.

We had so much fun...

all the little minions after games...

Munching Minions....

Snorkie wears his shirt at LEAST

once a week...

We had all minion food...Goldfish crackers, cheese doodles,

popcorn, mini pretzels, lemonade...

My FAVORITE Minion

::::hugs::::

Can you believe that he's 15 month old already???

Happy Birthday Scooter!

Today my beautiful Scooter MacDougall turns 12!!!!

Eeeeek

She got her ears pierced for her birthday gift

(yesterday)

and we had the "party" last weekend

(cake photos to follow).

Tonight we are having her "choice" of dinner

 Bacon and Eggs

(the real stuff)

I'm going to try homemade English Muffins...

Amazing how time flies!

Museum of Natural History Nov 2010

Springtime in the back yard with Daddy...

2002

::::::::::::sniff:::::::::::::

Catch-up Wednesday

It is a snowy day in Easten PA

I will have to shovel in a little while...

BUT...I can waste some time by

catching up on some of the photos

accumulating since November.

Tillie's family Birthday Party cake...

Mommy Hedgehog and 12 babies...

(German Chocolate cake with Chocolate Mousse icing)

encrusted with chocolate sprinkles...YUM

Lumpy is my "Turtle Man"

the red looked more "brown" without the flash...

The hedgehog baby faces were Hershey's Kisses

covered in fondant...

Tilly did the faces and ears for all the babies...

Lumpy's cake was RATHER Large...

three layers of orange cake with vanilla icing and

covered with almond flavored homemade fondant.

We took all the leftovers to my sister's house...

we left the next morning to get there...

At my big sister's house in Illinois...

Grandpop and Grandmom celebrating all five

November and December Birthdays...

(two of my kids & three of my sisters)

the Day after Thanksgiving : )

We celebrate Thanksgiving,

five birthdays and Christmas...in three days!

Back home for...

Tilly's actual Birthday

Pumpkin Pie!

Apple Crumb for the rest of us...

Tillie's "friend" Birthday Party was a

The Lion, Witch and Wardrobe theme...

We had bows and arrows to shoot at the witch's wolves,

put the tail on the Beaver and a white witch's wand piniata...

she had @ 20 boys and girls at the house for the day!

This was a brownie cake with LOTS of Decoration...

everything but Mr Beaver and Aslan was edible...

The trees and Wardrobe were chocolate...

the snow was icing...

the water was piping gel...

I made a "mold" for casting

the wardrobe pieces out of craft foam...

we drew the light chocolate designs first, and then

poured the dark chocolate over top for an "inlaid" look.

This party was actually in Early November : )

(gratuitous cut baby photo)

Chewba Grabowski in Scooter's Beret...

what a face.

Snorkie and Santa in their Jammies!

This Year's Christmas Pajamas

Back in 1964, my very first Christmas,

my father got an 8mm movie camera,

So, basically, my entire childhood (at least major events)

has been captured in 30 second increments....

(that film was EXPENSIVE)

Anyway, I think this was the origin of the

"New PJs on Christmas Eve"

tradition in my family...

(sometimes it was a new bathrobe and slippers)

This allowed us to look cute in those films

that Dad made on Christmas morning...

no holes in our footies or torn jammie pants.

So, now, even if my kids have perfectly presentable PJs,

I generally make them something new.

I love to sew.

This is one fun way to keep

all the kids matching

at least for bedtime.....LOL.

My "eldest" has been trying

to sleep in her sweatshirts all year...

So....I decided to make this year's jammies

out of sweatshirt fleece...

I had a 50% coupon for a single cut of fabric...

I snuck out of the house on Friday evening...

and the only color they had enough of...

was WHITE.

THAT gave me the idea for sailor suits...

and the rest is now family history.

Little guy looks so cute

running around in his sailor outfit!

when he sways like a drunken sailor, he cracks me up!

Thanks Mom, for the tradition!

Thanks Dad, for the home movies!

Thanks Big Brother, for making me a video copy

of so many of those home movies...

THREE HOURS worth!

Belated Christmas photo

Lovey's company holds a

Christmas Party for the Children

the first weekend in December.

Santa is Wonderful, Lovable &

OH, SO, Real.

We have known him for years

and my girls have grown up with him.

Gotta love a happy Santa picture!

BTW: the last two years have been

a Pajama Party!

They get their pictures taken with

Santa and then have a craft (decorating

sugar cookies) then they have milk and cookies

and got crayons and a coloring book.

Santa gets into HIS jammies

before he reads the kids a story...

They also get neat gifts...

A Good Time Was Had By All!

The girls are wearing the satin nightgowns,

lined with flannel, 

that I made for them last year

for their Christmas Eve gift...

A tradition started by my mother...

THAT will be another post : )

(Lumpy is in "Clifford" jammies

complete with ears and tail...

Snorkie is wearing Star Wars flannels...

of course.)

My New Toy

I have been reading...

(the Blogs I follow as well as some classic Lit)

doing Crossword and Sudoku puzzles,

checking email, searching ebay....

all while lounging in my recliner, nursing the baby...

My Darling Hubby got me a ColorNook for Christmas!

woo hoo