2013 - New House, Kids and Food

2013 was an exciting year for our family.  We were FINALLY able to make our move back official by moving into our new house.  Jack graduated pre-K and Nicholas and Jack started a new school together.  Below is a picture summary of the year.

Note: We bought a Fresh20 subscription for last year and followed it each and every week for 52 weeks.  Almost all of the food you see below came from the Fresh20 Classic Meal plans. 

January 2013:

Daddy turned 30!

 February:

Joshua turned 1!

 ...and we moved into our new house.

March:

Easter

 April:

Baseball

Fresh20 Turkey Sausage Ragu over Creamy Polenta

May:

I cut 11.5" of my hair for Pantene Beautiful Lengths

Goat cheese stuffed chicken over brown rice
with balsamic asparagus

Jack Graduated Pre-K

Mother's Day Tea Party

Nicholas and Jack turn 5 and 6
...and celebrate with friends.

Poached Salmon over Garlic Spinach
and Brown Rice

June:

Apricot Braised Chicken over Couscous
and Summer Veggies

July:

 

Grilled bay scallops over linguini. (Fresh20)

 

August:

We went to see the Crew play.

Started a new school.

Ginger Crusted Salmon over Soy Lentals
covered with Sautéed Spinach (Fresh20)

Hern Crusted London Broil
over Summertash (Fresh20)

My biggest eater!

September:

Tilapia with Capers Spinach and Beans

 

November:

Jack making homemade applesauce.

Homemade Eggs Benedict with
faux hollandaise sauce

Chicken and Broccoli Stirfry
 over brown rice.

December:

Christmas

 

Freestore Foodbank Holiday Ops.

 

 

...go tell John we are ready for 2014, just as soon as we can go back to school!



Will this ever end?

We (me and the boys) have been on winter break for 18 days.  Its been fun. We got ready for Christmas, celebrated Christmas, played soccer, got snowed in, went to the Museum Center, celebrated New Years,  had play dates. And now we are frozen in. FROZEN IN. It's a POLAR VORTEX.

This is a good summary of the last couple of days.

Yes, that is a cowboy hat paired with a basketball jersey.

So what do you do when the laundry is done, your closet is organized, Christmas decorations are put away and you can't sweep the floor one more time. I started cooking. We watched Trisha's Southern Cooking the other day and it looked good so I decided to make everything she made on the show. Un-Fried Chicken, Mashed Cauliflower and a Carrot Cake.  Yes, I made a Carrot Cake. I followed the recipes on foodnetwork.com and made some small changes to fit my pantry.

Trisha Yearwood has a 30 minute show.  It took me nearly 3 hours to make all of this. 

Here is a trick I use (I think I'm clever) instead of having a garbage bowl I take a plastic grocery bag and put it in my sink. I also use my cutting board over my sink this way everything can go from washed to cutting - scraps go in the sink/trash bag.

 Here is the Carrot Cake:



  

While making the Carrot Cake I was able to
use my new Christmas toy.

Instead of using my hand chopper on a cutting board I do it
in a measuring cup like this so it doesn't make such a mess.

 

 

 Here is the Un-Fried Chicken:

I didn't have any buttermilk so I used greek yogurt 1 for 1. The good thing is if you use yogurt you can use the leftover in the mash.

 

 

 

Here is the Cauliflower Mash:

 

 

 



This calls for a Donut

After days and days of being told that we were going to have a HUGE snow storm I thought this morning would be a great time to be trapped inside making donut. And eating donuts.  I even made a trip up to Jungle Jims to check out their AWESOME accessory selection which often includes great deals on clearance items. I found a donut baking sheet. It was official.

Then I woke up this morning to find that our weather predictions had changed and our 6+ inches of snow was switched to rain with maybe a 1-3 inches of accumulation that we won't see until tomorrow morning.  I can't lie I found this to be bittersweet. While I was getting excited about being snowed in I was also getting worried that school might be canceled on Monday and with the last two weeks off of school and work we are READY to get back into a routine. 

So this morning I made donuts.  If you choose to make these donuts you can find the recipes at Cooking with my Kid and Buns in My Oven.  I made the Baked Maple Cinnamon Donuts and the Chocolate Donuts.

 

The chocolate ones were eaten so quickly I barely was able to get a good picture.  My only two suggestions are 1. Only fill your donut pans have way, they plump up plenty in the oven. 2. Buns In My Oven suggests 8 minutes for the Chocolate Donuts, my suggestion is a full 10 minutes.

 

 

Go tell John

This Sunday's Gospel Reading is one of my all-time favorites.  It's the "Go tell John..." reading.

Read it here.  Today is one of those more challenging Catholic parenting days.  What would you do?

My husband and I have already gone to Mass this weekend. We fulfilled our Sunday obligation yesterday at a vigil Mass at the Cathedral. This morning my husband went to RCIA with a friend who is discerning  membership into the Church.  So here I am warm and cozy, just finished breakfast with my boys and.... to go to Mass, or stay home?

We are going to Mass. I'm kind of stoked to hear this reading again, and get another priest's homily. 

And to end with a joke. Yesterday the priest told this joke during the homily:

"A Jewish man sent his son to Israel to learn and observe the culture when he returned he was disappointed to find that his son had become a Christian.  He immediately went to his friend and told him his story 'I sent my son to Israel and he became a Christian, what should I do?' his friend said 'Funny you should ask, I too sent my son to Israel and he came back a Christian, let us go ask the Rabi'. So they went to the Rabi and told him 'We sent our sons to Israel and the both came back Christians, what should we do?' The Rabi said, 'Funny you should ask, I too sent my son to Israel and he came back a Christian, let us pray to God for an answer'. As they prayed to God a voice came down from the heavens and said 'Funny you should ask, I too sent my son to Israel and he came back a Christian,'

Happy Advent!

Camel skin wearing, locust eating man in the desert.

Today's gospel reading we hear from John himself.  Read it here.

This weekend has been such an interesting one. We have been dealing with the snow and had an unexpected long weekend because of the snow day on Friday.  After having Thanksgiving week off last week and this "short" week. We have been seeing a lot of each other around here.  This stretch from Thanksgiving to New Years has helped me to really see how blessed I am to have the job I have. I continue to see how spending more and more time with my boys is a blessing I can't afford to take for granted.

After Thanksgiving I decided to completely cut out facebook and twitter from my life. At least through Advent. I felt like I needed this month to prepare "with joyful anticipation" for the coming of our Lord. I have promised to say a prayer for God to give me opportunities to be a better mother every-time I get the urge to use social media.  So far I have been able to stay away. It hasn't been easy.

Initially I don't think I had a full understanding as to why it was important for me to take this Advent for preparation.  After this week's reading and hearing the homily from Father Don at Mass today I feel as if I have some what of a better understanding.  Father Don made it clear to us that there are often times things that make it hard for us to prepare for Christ in our heart - and this is even more true during Advent. Pride, convenience and the distractions that come from comparing ourselves all too easily pull us away from our focus.  This includes participating in the sacraments. In particular reconciliation. God will never tire of forgiving us - we need to have the fortitude and endurance to continually do better and continue to ask for forgiveness.

As a side note, this weekend started with an abrupt and raw reality as to how "unfair" our world can be. When the innocent and most vulnerable in our society are neglected and exploited it is easy to become angry and saddened but without action we are doing nothing to improve their reality. Over the last four days I have witnessed a generosity like none other in my lifetime. Prayers, thoughts and concern for a child that has no connection to these families. And then a blessing, a reminder "God is good". YES HE IS.

Diligence in prayer is the perfection of the Gospel.

Diligence in prayer is the perfection of the Gospel.

-- St. Aloysius Gonzaga

 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around our house. I have to admit I started looking up ideas for Advent Calendars in July on Pinterest. Having found nothing that I really loved (although I think I repined about 50 of them) I found this in Good Housekeeping and went with it.

 

 

We found nativity passages from the Gospels for Nicholas to read to us each day. He is doing a great job reading

 



Do you know how hard it is to find Christmas stockings with nativity or Christian themes? Well it was impossible for us, so we made those too.



 

We made a wreath for our door. Nicholas and Jack did a great job helping.

 

Then we bought, installed and decorated our Christmas Tree.  Joshua did a great job helping.

 

 

And what is Advent without our nativity scene?

 

 

 

 

 





 

 





Saving Christmas

I LOVE Advent. LOVE IT!!

But, I've noticed that the TV shows, movies and even Christmas songs are becoming incredibly annoying to me.  Have you ever noticed that every other Christmas movie or episode has to do with "saving Christmas"? Does Christmas really need to be saved?

When I was expecting Nicholas (what seems like a million years ago) the phrase "waiting with joyful anticipation" was used at one Advent Mass- it was perfect for me at the time. I was waiting with joyful anticipation for my beautiful first born son AND it was our first Christmas married. Joyful Joyful Joyful and a lot of anticipation.

Seven Christmas' later and we are right back here in December. We have three beautiful sons and as a family we are preparing for the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ at Christmas.

We try try try  to monitor the influences in our boys lives (television, friends, video games, etc...) but I've found we are some of our own worst influences. So this Advent we have shifted to a Christ only Christmas.  Don't worry, there are still presents involved. And don't worry, they are the toys the boys want. They will still get video games, toys and clothes just like every other kid. We will still have Santa but they know the truth and we talk constently about what is true and real.

Now I'm not trying to save Christmas, because I don't think it needs saving. Actually Christmas saves us.  Advent reminds us of the preparation God and the Holy Family made for the coming of Christ and helps us prepare for everything leading up to the coming of God our Savior.  Christmas is an important milestone in our salvation history. Christmas is a step in salvation. Christmas through Christ saves us.