Conclusion to the Year of Faith

Yesterday was the feast of Christ the King.  The feast day is normally notable because it brings the end of the liturgical year and heralds the coming of Advent in only 7 short days.  This year, it also marked the conclusion of the Year of Faith.  Last year, Pope Benedict inducted the Year of Faith, calling all Christians and indeed, all people, to make time to seek and grow in a walk of faith with the Lord.

The Year of Faith provided me a focus and a goal at numerous times during the past year.  I am already a bit nostalgic at its passing.  I challenged myself to pray more earnestly for myself and others, attend daily Mass more often with children in tow, and talk more openly about matters of faith with my children and acquaintances.  But, as with the turning of any page, I look back and I wonder, 'did I take full advantage of the opportunity?  Could I have grown more?  Did I make enough of a difference?"

The answers to those questions are inevitably 'no, yes and no.'  But, there is good news.  Our walk of faith, and our opportunities to share it, doesn't end with the Year of Faith.  Pope Francis touched on this yesterday during his message at the closing Mass of the Year of Faith:

"Jesus’ promise to the good thief gives us great hope: it tells us that God’s grace is always greater than the prayer which sought it. The Lord always grants more, he is so generous, he always gives more than what he has been asked: you ask him to remember you, and he brings you into his kingdom! Let us go forward together on this road! "  ~Pope Francis, November 24th 2013, Closing Mass for the Year of Faith

When we look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, we are at the beginning, not the end, of a journey.  As the Year of Faith ends, the road is still long, there is still work to be done, faith to be found, and love to be lived.  He remains with us to help us on our way.

Overheard in the house this week....

Overheard in the kitchen over the weekend.....

T:  "Hmmm, there is a new IMax movie about bioluminescence.  That sounds cool."

G-Bear: "What does that mean?"

T: "It's a show about bugs and animals and plants that glow.  Can you name an animal or bug that glows in the dark?"

G-Bear:  "A firefly!"

T: "Right!  Or, a glow worm."

Buddy Bear:  "Or a pteranodon."

Hooray for Chick-fil-a

The impossible has happened in Minnesota……

….we have a Chick-fil-a!

We made our inaugural visit on opening day.  I think we'll be eating a lot more chicken.

It will be our pleasure ;)


Happily Ever,
Queen B

A brother's love

Yesterday, while driving home from dropping off E-Bear at school, the following conversation occurred......

Buddy Bear, looking out the window and pouting:

"My MAD."

Me:

"Buddy Bear, why are you mad?"

Buddy Bear:

"My mad because E-Bear go to school."

Me:

"Buddy Bear, why does that make you mad?"

Buddy Bear:

"Because my love E-Bear."

Grocery Bag

Day One

Shrimp in coconut curry from Everyday with Rachael Ray

with couscous and grapes

One of my favorite quick "curries."  Start to finish, 30 minutes.

Photo and recipe from Everyday with Rachael Ray

Day Two

Roasted butternut squash soup from Cooking Light Magazine

with homemade rolls and spinach salad

A new soup that will be perfect tomorrow when the temperature drops

Photo and recipe from MyRecipes.com

Day Three

Tortellini with lemon and brussels sprouts from Everyday Food

with spinach salad

We'll make the bacon variation :)

Photo and recipe from MarthaStewart.com

Day Four

Saag paneer from 101 Cookbooks

with basmati rice and broccoli slaw salad

A favorite prep-ahead dish for busy nights

Day Five

Ribeye steak from Martha Stewart

with Shubert rolls, creamed corn and mixed green salad

A dinner in honor of Dee and Grandma Cookie

Photo and recipe from MarthaStewart.com

Blessings on your kitchen this week!

Our Super Speller

Recently, G-Bear confessed to us that she likes to get 100% on her weekly spelling tests.  She is working really hard in first grade this year.  Her hard work is paying off.   We have noticed amazing milestones in her reading and spelling abilities.

But, I have to admit, G-Bear's spelling prowess causes me some problems too.  Up until now, I have enjoyed the luxury of being able to communicate privately with T in the presence of our children by spelling out words to make our conversation harder to follow.

"Should we get a T-R-E-A-T?" 

"Do you know if it is D-O-N-U-T S-U-N-D-A-Y today after Mass?"  

"Yes, today we'll see the doctor and get V-A-C-C-I-N-E-S this afternoon."  

Well, now our Super Speller's ears perk up when she hears a word spelled out.  Not only is G-Bear able to decipher most words that I am trying to spell for T, if she finds a word too challenging she'll draw everyone's attention to our conversation by asking me what I just said!  Clever girl!  

I am trying to accept the fact that our days of private conversations, at least when our kids are around, are over.  We'll adapt, I am sure.  But until we do, I'm determined to celebrate the spelling successes rather than pout over privacy matters.

Jumping for leaves

This past weekend we managed to collect the remaining leaves in our yard before the first snow of the season.  We raked a humongous pile.

E-Bear and G-Bear set to work doing what kids do best: jumping in the leaves.

We couldn't contain our giggles.

The dives where worthy of perfect "10's"!

Oh my, what fun!  Just don't tell Buddy Bear, the poor guy was napping the whole time.  

After our jumping escapades, it was time to fill up our leaf bags and visit the compost pile.  The mountain of leaves at the compost was legendary.  Seriously, it was a nirvana for leaf lovers.  

E-Bear and G-Bear helped unload the leaf bags.

Great job, team!

Our tree worked so hard to make those leaves all summer, and now the last are raked and gone! *Sigh*.  I would be sad, except that it snowed today, and the kids were just so excited.  Colder days are ahead of us, and we'll surely enjoy them too.

Happily Ever,
Queen B

Grocery Bag

Colder weather this week, snow in the forecast, swimming lessons and evening school conferences....sounds like November to me!  Here's our menu plan to make sure we enjoy family dinner together.

Day One

Warm lentil and potato salad from Southern Living Magazine

with steamed peas and pesto toast

Day Two

Bacon and broccoli pasta from BBC Good Food

with apple sauce

Photo and recipe from BBC Good Food

Day Three

Sausage and lentil soup from Everyday with Rachael Ray

with bread maker breadsticks and spinach salad

Photo and recipe from Everyday with Rachael Ray

Day Four

Parmesan tortellini 

with delicata squash

Photo and recipe from Summer Tomato

Day Five

Sweet potato tortilla pie from Vegetarian Planet

with corn salsa and spinach salad

Blessings on your kitchen this week!

Happy All Saints

All Saints Day has become one of my favorite holidays. 

After the happy hustle of Halloween, I love the chance to celebrate heroes of the Church as a family with a slower-paced day.

This year we started out with a special breakfast: a delicious sweet potato baked oatmeal with whipped cream and sprinkles.  

Saint-in-training E-Bear

During breakfast, we talked about favorite saints and how we each want to be a saint for the Lord.   G-Bear remembered her all-school Mass from the year before, how she had helped to lead the "procession of saints" with the other kinders.  Then, she led her brothers in a round of "When the Saints Go Marching In!"

Saint-in-training G-Bear

Father H's message during Mass was especially encouraging:  our Christian faith is not for already "perfect" people, but for those of us who want to become saints with the help and grace of our loving Lord Jesus.  We can look to saints who have gone before us for encouragement and inspiration in the ways that they loved the Lord and followed Him.

Saint-in-training Buddy Bear

After church, we celebrated with friends over First Friday donuts.  After school, I let each of the kids choose a saint prayer card and coloring book at our nearby church bookstore.

One of our favorite All Saints activities is making armor of God paper dolls from Ministry to Children based on  Ephesians 6.

After I read the Bible passage about God's armor, we talk about how the saints are examples of people who put these words into action.  Hopefully, as my kids grow older, I'll be able to use this activity to teach them about how righteousness, truth, saving faith, the gospel of peace, and God's Word are the real armor that we can wear everyday.

For now, I think it is enough to admire our favorite saints as heroes for their faith and loving actions.

Hopefully, we'll be hard at work putting these words into practice!  

Happy All Saint's Day!

A Happy Halloween 2013!

Happy Halloween!

This year, Papa and MoMo's pumpkin had some friends come to visit.

E-Bear, G-Bear and Buddy Bear's pumpkins with Papa's pumpkin on Halloween.

G-Bear, E-Bear, Buddy Bear and I carved our own pumpkins this year for the first time.  We were all happy with our final faces.  By the time the sun went down on Halloween, our pumpkins were ready to light the way for trick-or-treating.

This year, we had talked about how we can be like our Halloween pumpkins.  Just like we dig out all the yucky inside of our pumpkins when we carve them, Jesus will clean the sin out of our hearts if we trust him.   Just like our pumpkins light our way on Halloween, if we have Jesus in our hearts, we can be lights in the world too.

MoMo's table was festive as always. She had pumpkin breads, pumpkin ravioli and green "finger" breadsticks with almond fingernails for dinner.  Somehow, even though we could hardly wait to venture out for treats, we managed to eat a good dinner before trick-or-treating.

This year, we had a black cat (G-Bear), a black bat (E-Bear), a Woody cowboy (Buddy Bear) and a little pumpkin (J-Bear).  G-Bear and E-Bear had both created their own costumes this year.  G-Bear even made her own mask, and E-Bear and I made his together.  Daddy T was dressed as a dragon, but he had shed his costume by the time we took pictures.   

Our little J-Bear looked pumpkin perfect in our traditional 6-month-old halloween costume!  She was a trooper for the evening, even holding out for the first few houses of trick-or-treating before falling asleep.

Our crew made it 6 blocks in MoMo and Papa's neighborhood and came back with a GIANT bag of treats. Now we have to figure out what to do with all our candy!  One of my favorite memories from this Halloween will be the sweet way that Buddy Bear would say "Happy Halloween!  Trick or Treat! Thank you!"  to everyone he met.  He certainly had great examples to follow in his older brother and sister.

By the end of the evening, we were exhausted.  Everyone was excited to choose two treats before bedtime.  E-Bear was especially excited:  "You mean we get to have TWO treats, not just one?!  That must be because this is a REALLY special day."  It was indeed a special day.  Happy Halloween!