Articles from September 2010

What am I cooking?

Applesauce and cinnamon.  It’s cooking right now and filling my kitchen with the most amazing smell.  And now I wish the humid air would go far away from here.  I’m ready for some crisp fall weather.

What am I reading?

The Silver Linings Playbook, by Matthew Quick.  I eat local food so I figured I’d give this locally written book a try.

And the internet, including, ESPN, Crashburn Alley (a Phillies blog and hey, they did just clinch another playoff birth!), this blog by children’s author Max Elliot Anderson, and Ross Douthat.

What are my weekend plans?

A visit sans kiddos to DC.  I’ll be seeing two of my college roomies, one blogs here.

What are my prayer intentions for the day?

For Nathaniel, the four year old son of our friends, he is suffering from brain cancer.   And for a fellow homeschooling mother and friend on strict bedrest with her 5th pregnancy.  Life is very hard for her right now, and she really needs a lot of prayers.

What can my children do instead of watching TV?

Make a village or city with every toy in our playroom.  It seems to keep them busy for hours, but unfortunately requires some serious cleaning assistance from mom!

What is one product that is making my life a little easier?

My washing machine.  Seriously.  I dread doing laundry, but how much worse would it be if I didn’t have a washing machine.  It is amazing that after only 1 hour a huge load of clothes is completely clean.  Now I just wish they would invent a washer/dryer all in one.  How amazing would it be to just set a wash and dry cycle and have clean and dry laundry waiting for me.  Am I the only one who runs a cycle and forgets to transfer to the dryer?

What am I grateful for?

My children.  I have been thinking a lot lately about all the people I know with very sick kids.  I’m hugging my little ones just a little bit harder and longer today, thanking God for his many blessings.

What have I done for my marriage this week?

Prayer.  I have been setting time aside each day to pray for my relationship with Mr. Red.  The small time it takes to pray for our marriage is bearing fruit.  God’s grace is a big part of every relationship.  It’s a pity I don’t remember to ask for it more often.

What’s challenging me lately?

Unreliable child-care.  I’ve been burned two times in the past week.  Scrambling for help at the last minute is not my thing, it leaves me drained and angry.

Something that made me think?

A conversation I overheard while running at the beach.  I overheard two older women discussing the death of their friend.  They talked in great detail about her last days and hours.  From the small bit I overheard, these two ladies were in regular phone communication throughout their friend’s last night.  They couldn’t sleep, so they prayed and chatted.

I then thought of all the wonderful builders, and our late night phone conversations when someone is in labor.  When a dear friend is laboring, I can’t sleep well, so I pray and chat with my friends, waiting for the baby’s arrival and an end to my friend’s suffering.  And I wonder, in 50 years, will I be praying and talking about death in this way?  I saw us in these two older ladies, pretty intense, huh?

Pope Benedict XVI has encouraged us to use all forms of media for apostolic work, and I love that Mother Church recognizes the potential value of these new technologies.  My own mother is also very much in favor of technology, especially any kind that makes life easier or better.  To that end, in addition to giving PT a Kindle for his birthday, she gave me an iPhone for mine.  I gave my DH an iPad, which he is using to read on the train, listen to music and also watch the Phillies games at night.  This has been a great addition to his life, turning his commute into a nice respite, which is great, since he doesn’t get much downtime.

So far, I have loved the PeaPod app which is letting me do my grocery shopping on my phone, and the St Josemaria app, which has most of the Saints written works, the Navarre bible, a checklist for daily norms, prayers to aid with preparation before and after mass, even a timer for mental prayer times.

Both of these apps are life changing — taking care of my needs for spiritual and material food!

I have also been really loving our local EWTN radio station lately, the great talks and support are uplifting and informative.

However, I am looking for more ways to use my phone to aid in my prayer life, and also life in general, so I was wondering if anyone has some suggestions.  I would like some prayers that I can listen to while I am driving, especially morning prayers for while I am driving to mass, and perhaps some good praise music.

Any kid friendly apps that you are enjoying?  The only one I have used so far is Sprout, but that is just watching TV on the phone, which I don’t really love as a way to spend time.

A while ago I had to speak to our Town Council in defense of our small town library. That’s right, they wanted to cut the library from the budget to pay for more parks and playing fields. Shouting over the noise of a torrential downpour pinging off metal-roofed fire station, I tried to explain to the all male town council why a local library was so important to a community, especially the children. To be perfectly honest, I think they were so shocked to see a female under the age of 65 at a Town Council meeting, I’m not sure they heard me. But after some follow up, the library was saved…for the next fiscal year.

The fact is I was just plain sad to have to go and make the argument for keeping our library open and sharing the treasure of books with our community. With the onslaught of the digital world, the Town Council saw the library as becoming obsolete. Statistically, they did have a point. Until the economic downturn, the library usage was down. Now many community members come to use the computers for job searches in the poor economy and parents looking for more free activities frequent preschool story time in addition to checking out books for free.

As a mother of (only) boys, I cringe when I hear the reading stats for children, especially boys. Which is why I  love, love, love this article by Tom Spence in the Wall Street Journal called, How to Raise Boys That Read. I couldn’t agree more with what he says on why dumbing down books for boys to potty humor is the wrong approach, as is bribing with video games. Here are some excerpts, but I highly recommend reading the short piece in full:

One obvious problem with the SweetFarts philosophy of education is that it is more suited to producing a generation of barbarians and morons than to raising the sort of men who make good husbands, fathers and professionals. If you keep meeting a boy where he is, he doesn’t go very far….

The secret to raising boys who read, I submit, is pretty simple—keep electronic media, especially video games and recreational Internet, under control (that is to say, almost completely absent). Then fill your shelves with good books….

People who think that a book—even R.L. Stine’s grossest masterpiece—can compete with the powerful stimulation of an electronic screen are kidding themselves. But on the level playing field of a quiet den or bedroom, a good book like “Treasure Island” will hold a boy’s attention quite as well as “Zombie Butts from Uranus.” Who knows—a boy deprived of electronic stimulation might even become desperate enough to read Jane Austen.

My two and a half year old just changed his own poopy diaper while I was teaching kindergarten in the other room!

Ladies, I had mentioned the Baby Dipper bowl and spoon set a few weeks ago, and it has been a smashing success in our household!

Pros: Sturdy design; The ability to feed baby with one hand because the bottom really is non-skid; Spoon is just the right shape and size; The slope in the bowl really does make it easier to scoop food!

Cons: The only con that I can think of is that there is no lid available, so if I’m storing leftovers in the fridge I need to use plastic wrap.

What baby products are making your life easier these days?

*For those who are interested, I decided not to purchase the Beaba Babycook – we have a steamer and a blender, so even though it’s more work, I couldn’t justify the purchase.

Well, I just had my burnt cake moment, it is flat cake instead but we really messed up a cake recipe last night and it will have to be re-done today, except that I am out of sugar and eggs now, so there will be a trip to the store involved.  PT always makes his own cakes and this time he chose a rather involved and new Martha Stewart Boston Cream Pie recipe.  We started it at 9pm after being out for the twins birthday party, and there were cranky over tired kids all around us.  I was trying to supervise/help him while shuffling them off to bed, and we managed to miss a step.

I burn dinner on a semi-regular basis, cooking and multi-tasking are just not a good idea, I think it is really time to gate off the kitchen.

I will say that to reduce stress I chose a party at a party place and it was wonderfully easy.  I had to let go of my perfectionism about hospitality as there were some tacky aspects but the kids had a super awesome time and I think even the adults who stuck around had fun.  With that in mind, I am calm, cool and collected, annoyed but not in tears about this cake thing, which is huge progress.

4 celebrations for three birthdays in five days…birthday week, so much fun it just might do us in…

Well, B-Mama tells us that by the end of the week her fridge is empty, but my groceries come on Thursdays, so while my fridge is full I find that by Fridays my reserves of energy and patience are what is running low!  Our weeks are busy by the calendar, but then there are always those unscheduled extras that put me over the top, play dates, birthdays, nightmares, potty training, a mother is like a clown who is already juggling while the ringmaster just keeps throwing in extra balls!

This Friday, as usual, I am super thankful for our family tradition of movie night.  In my ambitious (or self defeating) times, I wished that movie night was game night more often, but the reality is that with a husband who always gets home late, I really look forward to a simple dinner and a movie at the end of the week.  If you have any suggestions for family friendly movies that go beyond the Disney classics I would love some, we recently watched Star Wars, so fun to have a movie that the grown ups can enjoy too!

Tonight our big boy got a ride from neighbors to a casual baseball practice in the park, so I am thankful for that, too, for the community that we have found here, for the friends that he has, and that we all have.

Someone asked me recently why parenting seems harder these days than it was for our mothers.  I am not sure if it is, but I do know that now that I am settled in to my life I find that routine and community help a lot, and many of us who had children during graduate school lacked that sort of support, the stress of many moves and constant changes adds up over time.  We are into our third year here, I can’t believe it, but I do feel that I am finally starting to relax, I have a store of friends and sitters to call on in a pinch, I have found the activities that really work for us, we  seem to know people almost every where we go.  What a relief that is, it has been a long time coming, but I really, really love my life, and my emptiness on Fridays is not lonely but instead a very joyful, used up, sort of feeling.

I am astounded on (what seems like) a weekly basis how quickly our home runs out of food.  At the week’s beginning, our fridge and pantry are burgeoning forth with edible goodness only to feel vacant and sparse by the weekend.  Usually at this time, my meal planning has gotten us through the week and I’m quickly running out of steam.  Alas, what is a mother to do but… cook pancakes!  They are easy, use ingredients most of us have all the time, and in this case, don’t require eggs!  I found this recipe for FLUFFY EGGLESS PANCAKES last week when I was in an eggless predicament and they turned out wonderfully and were so delicious!  My theory is that the cinnamon adds a little extra something.  You can even substitute in whole wheat flour to make them extra nutritious!

Maybe try them for your Pancake Saturday?  Maybe try them for dinner?  Whenever you do, you’ll most definitely enjoy them!

Parents, I just have to share this great CD with all of you! The artist, Steve Roslonek, sings with a talented group of children, and is also the “Steve” on PBS Kids, a connection that I just made after months of enjoying his music in our car! This is truly one of the few CD’s that both my children and I can enjoy at the same time – the songs are clever and fun, and many also teach values such as hard work, honesty, and charity towards others. If you go to the website, you can hear some samples of our favorite Steve Songs – enjoy

What am I cooking?

Mini acorn cakes and mulled cider for the beginning of fall!

What am I reading?

Interior Freedom by Jacques Phillipe

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

The Explosive Child by Ross Greene

Simplicity Parenting

Mater et Magistra magazine

The Chosen, by Chaim Potok

And my To Be Read pile on my nightstand is threatening to crush me in my sleep.

What are my weekend plans?

Was hoping to speed across Texas to visit Kat, but that will have to wait for another weekend.

Most likely a visit to the pool. The calendar may say it is fall, but not yet in Texas.

What are my prayer intentions for the day?

Employment for a friend’s husband, safe travels for my parents and JM’s parents this week

What can my children do instead of watching TV?

Build beaver dams in the backyard, though I think they got the idea from watching The Cat in the Hat on PBS…does that count?

What is one product that is making my life a little easier?

Jim Weiss’ audio stories. Between school two times a week and nature class once a week, we are in the car more than we’re used to. We all love these sweet, silly, historical, cultural and interesting stories! Check your local library for copies.

What am I grateful for?

Praying the rosary with a sick two year old nestled in my arms for hours at a time.  He’s at that age when he’s everywhere (unless he’s strapped to my back) so it is such a treat to rock and rock a snuggly little guy and help soothe him.

What have I done for my marriage this week?

Added sausage to the green beans

What’s challenging me lately?

Having to wake the 2 year old up from his nap twice a week to pick up my son. Neither of us is happy about this, but he won’t go down earlier and it’s too late to put him down when we get back. He is an unhappy camper when I put him in the car.

Something that made me think?

The long-term consequences of inner attitudes are more important than they might seem. When faced with daily suffering, the “burden of the day and the heat,” and tiredness, we should not spend time cursing interiorly or telling ourselves we can’t wait till it’s over or dreaming of a different life. We should just accept things as they are. Life is good and beautiful just as it is, including its burden of suffering….This attitude sets us firmly within reality and conserves energy otherwise wasted on complaining, wishing things were different, dreaming of an impossible world.

from Interior Freedom by Jacques Phillippe…HIGHLY recommended reading!