Welcome Home, Soldier

We attended a wonderful luncheon to celebrate the completion of Basic Training Camp by my nephew, who is also my Godson.

The attendance was fantastic! Four generations turned out, about 50 family members in all to welcome this 18 year old soldier home.

Cecilia cooked a feast which included roasted corned beef and cabbage, buffalo chicken dip, a chicken casserole, fruit, cherry cobbler and ice cream cake. She held the luncheon in the church hall which made for a very roomy and comfortable space in which to eat and visit. Jeff and the other men gathered to talk at their own table!

Of course the cousins all had fun seeing each other. The guys went outside to play touch football on the school football field next door.

It was very nice to see the youngest members of the family and how they are growing.

After our terrific lunch, everyone pitched in to help clean up.

Dad chose KP duty and washed most of the dishes!

Many of us went back to the house to visit until dinnertime. It was so nice to chat with everyone.

We brought three ATV's with us to the party and folks wasted no time in getting them out to ride on our cousins' many acres.

The weather was nice enough for the children to go outside to play.

Jasper and Skyler, one a red and the other a blue heeler, are  puppy brothers. They enjoyed their reunion as well. They are each from a recent  litter of Aunt Kathy's momma dog. These little fellows are now members of some close cousins' families and will continue to see each other throughout the years, Please God.

Habemus Papam!

Knowing that Mom would be watching today, I asked her to call me if she saw any of the smoke signals from the Vatican so that I could see it. Early in the day she did call once to say that it had been black smoke  that bellowed. This afternoon, she mentioned that the Cardinals had voted again and that smoke would issue forth shortly. The girls and I were visiting Grandma Dolly and we turned her TV on. Soon, we saw White Smoke pouring forth and heard the crowds gathered in St. Peter's Square cheering loudly! What a thrill! I texted the kids so that they wouldn't miss it.

This morning I read that it would take about 50 minutes from the time the smoke rose until the new pope would be introduced and would come out to meet the crowds from the balcony. It was time to take Kit home and when we arrived there, we were invited in by Allison to watch this momentous event.

We watched the evening scene of Rome as they are 5 hours ahead of us and listened to folks speculating on just who new The Vicar of Christ on Earth might be. I had no opinion on the matter but instead had been praying like most Catholics I know that the Holy Spirit would truly guide the Cardinals to choose the right man for the job to guide the church in these difficult times.

When they announced his original name and his chosen name, Francis, the commentators were completely surprised. When he first came out, he was so quiet and reserved and obviously overwhelmed. Then he spoke and smiled and gestured to the crowds. He asked everyone to take a moment to pray for him. The cheering crowds went silent. We, also, joined in praying for this man, who is going to guide our Church.
Then he asked the crowd to join him in thanking and praying for Benedict XVI  by leading us in an Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be, in Italian, I think. Our eyes were tearing up, in response to the spirituality we were  experiencing. What a great concept to pray together with all the people there and the many millions watching from all over the world. We all agreed that he was on the right track by unabashedly beginning by  praying aloud and inviting us all to join him.

We knelt in the living room to receive his Blessing and were very grateful to God for giving us what seems to be a holy man. Let us continue to pray for our new Pope Francis.
 Lord God, please help him to know your Will and to Do it, serving You in Love and Holiness. Please help him to continue to bring forth the New Evangelization by attracting the young people, and help him to lead each of us to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Lord, Have mercy on me, a sinner. ... God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:7–8).

Butternut Squash

This is the soft inside of a baked butternut squash. My niece-in-law, Kat has taught me how to cook large  hard-to-cut squashes in a very easy way! I LOVE squash but often hesitate to buy it because it is SO difficult to slice down the middle to cook it, or to peel it when raw to boil it. I was truly afraid that I might slip with the knife when trying to tackle this incredibly rock solid vegetable.

This picture isn't much to look at but it demonstrates the simplicity of roasting whole the squash that Kat taught me. The secret is to use the sharp end of the meat thermometer to poke holes through the skin to the center of the squash. That was surprisingly easy to do. I poked the holes along one side only and placed that side "up" on the cookie sheet. (I didn't cook the meat thermometer)!  I put the squash on the cookie sheet into a 375 oven for a little over an hour. After it rested on the pan and continued to soften inside, I cut it open.

The peel came right off from the cooked vegetable as it was sliced for serving. With butter, salt and pepper this was delicious with a roasted flavor. I had no idea that squash could be cooked this effortlessly and safely ( I am not kidding when I said that I have worried about cutting my hand with a knife trying to wrestle one of these when raw). I look forward to trying this easy cooking method with acorn squash and with spaghetti squash which Kat introduced me to by bringing it on Thanksgiving this year.

Art Teacher

Although I like to teach certain things that I enjoy, I have had an opportunity to teach a subject that I know very little about. Our homeschool CoOp depends upon every mother doing her share to provide an educational experience for our children weekly. I was asked to help teach Art. In spite of being terrified that I wouldn't have a clue, it has turned out to be fun!

The curriculum for each week's project is completely written and well laid out by another Mom who has a background in many subjects including art. All of the supplies have been gathered at the beginning of the year and are stored at our meeting place. Another busy Mom and myself alternate the job of being the lead teacher each week. The following week we are the assistant which requires less preparation and pressure! One of our duties is to drape the entire art room, the floor and the tables, in heavy plastic dropcloths. We have found that these are extremely washable and reusable.

Our job is to teach a weekly Art concept, explain the project and then patiently encourage the students to make their own. They enjoy the process. We have three separate classes that come into our art room for thirty minutes each.  There is a very steep learning curve each week and we improve our methods for actually completing the project by working with our first students of the day.

I have discovered another useful duty and that is to wash the Art Smocks at home after our Coop meeting day. Paper mache and then painting took a toll on these old tee shirts and aprons but now they are clean and ready to be handed out as the students enter our classroom.

You live and you keep learning! This week I realized that the Art Smocks could be divided into Small, Medium and Large sized lots to better fit our age grouped classes of students K-6.

Lenten Supper

In the last few weeks, we have attended and helped to provide food for three Lenten Suppers. Work Camp sponsored this one and the theme was "Potato Bar"

Yukon Gold and sweet potatoes were purchased at the local farmer's market. The Youth washed them, rubbed them with oil, salted them and baked them in time for the parish dinner. Every kind of fixing was made available to put over the potatoes like butter, sour cream, chives, cheese, and brown sugar (for sweet potatoes).

Other menu items were grilled cheese sandwiches, scrambled eggs, green salad, potato salad...

and the vegetarian chili that we made. This dish includes three kinds of beans, nine kinds of vegetables and taco seasoning to make it spicy.

The teens have worked together on this and many other projects because they need to raise 15,000 dollars to buy building supplies for Work Camp. They build camaraderie and practice team work while they fund raise and provide labor for parish sponsored activities.

Many parishioners attended this dinner and donated generously. The Youth made 600 dollars on this evening while supplying a wonderful meatless meal on a Friday night in Lent. When folks come to eat in the parish hall, they get to know other members of the parish that they might not have had a chance to talk to. Stations of the Cross follow these dinners and many people stay for that as well.

Alice In Wonderland

We recently took the girls to see the dress rehearsal for Alice In Wonderland. This high end ballet studio offers both school and homeschool groups the chance to see their dress rehearsals for only a dollar per student with tickets reserved ahead of time.

Many children sat on the wood floors to watch it while the adults sat in chairs around the edge of the  auditorium. This studio is known for its quality productions so it was a treat to be there and at such a great price.

Many dances, loosely based  on adventures that Alice could have had if she had taken a nap in Wonderland, were performed in fantastic costumes. The older students were en pointe and did pretty twirls and leaps to classical music. I took a picture at the final curtain call. Alice, The rabbit, and The Queen of Hearts are visible above.

At the end of each of their shows, the ballet students sit down to meet and greet the audience by introducing themselves and give their ages. The dancers seemed to enjoy performing and the young students watching were an attentive audience.

Ladybug Bibs

My little niece just celebrated her first birthday with a ladybug themed party. We wanted to make her something special and found this bright yellow fabric with ladybugs on it. Seeing it, we decided to make her a bib! We also picked up quilting material, polka-dotted ribbon, rick-rack, and ladybug buttons to accessorize it with.

Juby and I took a whole day together to sew and created our own pattern, figuring it out as we went along. The quilted material is inside the layers of fabric to add real protection from food while in use, and the zigzag rick-rack "quilts" the layers together.

The ladybug buttons are hand sewn onto the top corners where the ribbon for tying is inserted. We picked up a half yard of each fabric. When we got home, we were delighted to be able to make a bib for both my niece and my grand-daughter, and to put away two for gifts! If you are related to me and are expecting a baby girl (or might be!) watch for one of these coming your way soon!

Snake Savy

Our Homeschool CoOp  spent the day at The Arboretum which is another name for a "tree museum". An Arboretum is a place where tree varieties from all over the world are gathered and grown in one place. The younger children studied Snakes in the morning, and the older students took a class on Birds in the afternoon.

Five stations of hands-on exhibits were set up for the kids to touch and learn about. Different kinds of coverings are shown here, fur, feathers and a shell are pictured.

I liked these owl wings. At this point, our teacher was discussing vertebrates which is what snakes are.

She was so comfortable handling this non-poisonous snake that it crawled into the back of her shirt through her sleeve.

Outside, we looked through this window grate to observe a group of snakes sunning themselves. It was such a chilly, blustery day that we weren't able to walk around much to enjoy the trees, but we did take the driving tour and it looked very inviting for a pleasant walk when the weather warms up.

Engagement Party

We received an invitation to attend an Engagement Dinner Party to celebrate the upcoming wedding of my son and his lovely fiancee, hosted by one of their Bridesmaids.  Although I have heard of these occasions before, I had never attended one!

Drinks were served as well as a Prime Rib Dinner that was fantastic! We met many of the Bride's friends and  conversed with her family and our own in a very classy, yet relaxed atmosphere. Two long rows of tables were set up in a private third story room that looked out onto the Downtown area.

In addition to the great company, dinner, and plenty of beverages, this "Engagement Cake" was a show-stopper! It was a very moist spice cake in 5 layer pieces with fabulous buttercream frosting. A few of us thought that it was the best cake we had ever eaten!

We all had a great time and got a chance to know better many of the attendants and family members who will be at the Wedding. Many thanks to Martha and Brady who treated us all to an elegant evening out to  celebrate with this much loved couple.

Cutting Fresh Pineapple

It seems that any '"How To" question one has these days can be answered by looking at a You Tube Video. I've  wondered "Who thinks to film all this normal stuff they do in a day?" I recently was also meditating on the idea of skills that young people learn at work that come in handy later on in life. A friend of mine said that she used to work for a carpet repair shop as a teen and can now spot an expensive handmade carpet at a Thrift Shop and repair it herself.
When I grabbed my camera, it was along this train of thought that I was pondering. I had started to cut up this fresh pineapple. I learned how to cut pineapple while waitressing at a restaurant that served a fancy Sunday Brunch. In addition to pineapples, we also cut up many exotic melons on Sunday mornings. Not only cantaloupe and honeydew but also casaba, crenshaw and canary melons. You can be sure that these were imported as this restaurant was in Vermont!
There may be many ways to do this job, but how I do it is to first cut off the top of the pineapple, the green stalk. Next, slice the fruit into four quarters.

Remove the tough inner fibrous material (the core) by slicing horizontally across each quarter with a steak knife. These are delicious to nibble along the edges if the pineapple is ripe and sweet, then discard these pieces.

Use the sharp knife to slice along the bottom as close to the rind as possible to get every bit of the fruit possible. Once it is free on the bottom, slice along through the middle, and then make bite sized chunks by cutting through in the opposite direction.

I serve the pineapple chunks in a  bowl with a spoon for folks to take a serving but many people like to reach in to grab one piece at a time! Squeezing the rind over the bowl releases lots of sweet juice that otherwise would have been wasted. Fresh pineapple is a terrific addition to any meal or as a special stand alone snack. It takes no time to cut one up, once you know how!

Kidgits

The Mall has a new playland for kids that is very colorful and pleasant to visit.

The furniture, carpeting and equipment is all bright and new.

After accomplishing our errands, we enjoyed sitting down to watch the kids play and interact with other wee folks.