Lenten Suppers

Three Fridays in a row, I have prepared lots of food for our Church's Lenten Suppers. The first week the menu was Baked Potatoes with every kind of fixing one could think of. That night, our contribution was homemade Vegetable Chili. I can only cook in large quantities, and by purchasing a second crock pot, I was able to deliver twice as much hot cooked food to church.. Both were filled and every bite was eaten by the crowd of 150 parishioners who came out to share a meatless meal with folks from church. The meal is free but donations are accepted for our groups.

The next week was Italian food and it was our pleasure to bring Stuffed Shells. They were a big hit!
I really do like it when people eat my food!

This past Friday was grilled cheese and soup night. I was swamped with other commitments and just didn't have the time or energy to make homemade soup- all that chopping and cooking! Larry suggested that I buy soup to put in my crock pots. New England Clam Chowder filled one and Vegetarian Vegetable filled the second. No one seemed to mind the soup from a can and once again everything was consumed!
The table above is decorated with our tablecloth and the St. Joseph statue that my cousin Terry gave to me a long time ago and which usually sits on our mantle. A St. Joseph's Table is an Italian Tradition. It is filled with bread and butter.
Each parish group usually receives about 400 dollars in donations from putting on a Lenten Supper. In addition, there is wonderful fellowship among the group members who bring in loads of cooked food from home to share and the parish folks who dine in the church hall on Friday nights during Lent.

Co Op Projects

Projects are the preferred teaching and learning methods in our Homeschool CoOp. They are the things that are hardest to do for a few kids at home. It is easier to make the preparations one time for a group. In Science, the class simulated making clouds. The cotton ball "cloud" was filled up with water by using a dropper until it was so full that it had no choice but to "rain". Each student was able to count the drops it took to saturate his or her cotton ball. The kids recorded the numbers and then averaged the result.

In Religion class on the same day, the kids made a Crown of Thorns using rolled up, braided clay.

Toothpicks were inserted into the crown to simulate the Thorns of Jesus' Crown. The idea is that each time the child does something positive, he or she can remove a toothpick.

For some reason, that never happens at our house! Nevertheless, the Crown makes for a nice centerpiece during this holy season of Lent reminding us of the cruel and painful sufferings of our Lord, for our sake.

Cacapon State Park

The weather forecast looked fantastic and Kat wanted to get out to walk the little guy. She sent a "shout out" for hiking and got a big response from the cousins!

EVERYONE wanted to get outside and to move around after months of snow and cold temperatures.
We met at a central location and caravanned up to a scenic State Park with hundreds, if not thousands of acres, free to hike on.

Snow on the ground was no deterrent and a light jacket was all that was needed to keep warm while walking.

The adults and the babies stayed on the winding road, which was closed to traffic, while the kids and teens headed up the big hills to scale the rocks and take in the view.

It was so much fun to be outdoors and moving! We chit chatted about everything and enjoyed the scenic beauty. At the top of the hill we came upon this little cluster of four rustic cabins. We talked about the idea of renting them out to form our own little village for the Thanksgiving weekend. Could we simplify our menu and cook over a fire?

No! Unfortunately, they are booked!

Technology intruded on our bliss when the teens set off my car alarm. They called on the cell phone to ask me to hit the button to turn it off. It wouldn't reach from there!

We slowly made our way down the mountain and turned it off when it could connect.

This State park has an awesome lodge. We all went in to the lower level which boasts a huge recreation room.

We must have stayed close to an hour while the kids had a blast pretending to play on arcade games.
MH was warning Cupcake not to crawl into the  little door at the bottom of this game like someone they had heard of!

It is amazing how much fun you can have for free!

Some of the teens had pocket money and treated the group to Pool.

So much fun!!! Let's do it again soon! With more notice, we can get the rest of the cousins to join us:)

Sausage Gravy and Homemade Biscuits

I don't often take the time to cook a nice breakfast, even on the weekends. Considering how much the family does enjoy it, I should try to treat them more often! Sausage Gravy was the plan for this early Sunday morning and I got right to work after making a pot of coffee.

The Internet provided me with a quick and easy biscuit recipe with only six ingredients.
I don't think I am alone in that it is now faster to get a recipe off the internet than to poke through my overstuffed recipe box!

Doubling the recipe gave me a tray full of biscuits in no time.

They baked up tasty and golden brown.

Children seem to remember big breakfasts better than any dinners that I cook.

Missing Mass to cook a big breakfast is not an option but since we seem to go in the evenings more often, cooking breakfast could indeed be a weekly thing to "show the love".
Why not?
I think I'll defrost some sausage!

Patsy Cline

I took Juby and Kit to visit the childhood home of Country Music Legend Patsy Cline. This house was open to the public for free on the anniversary of her untimely death in an airplane crash at the age of 30, on March 5, 1963. It is furnished as it would have looked at the time she lived here. Docents were there to tell her story and the gentleman who spoke to us had known the girl who would later be called Patsy. He told us that she had bought him a Coke when he was 11 years old!

The songs of Patsy Cline are unique and catchy. She has a huge fan base and is buried near by. She truly grew up in this town and then made it big on the world wide stage.

This date happened to be on Ash Wednesday. Going on tours is not exactly penitential but I wanted to see inside this house at the great cost of zero dollars. The cost is prohibitive on any other day. I particularly enjoyed the adorable kitchen with its old stove and tiny little table set for two. It really showed that fame can come from God-Given mighty talent and very humble beginnings.

Psych!

I am sure that no one who knows me will believe that I have LOVED every minute of watching all six seasons of "Psych" on Netflix. This is one funny show which is essentially a "Whodunit?" mystery, complete in 43 uninterrupted minutes! The two main characters, Shawn ( I saw the spelling on on episode in which he had a name plate on his desk) and Gus, short for Burton Guster are best friends from childhood. Their interactions are hilarious as they work together to solve crimes.  Astute observation techniques drilled into Shawn as he grew up by his detective father lead to his conclusions which are so precise and inspired that they seem like magic. He capitalizes on this by  claiming to be "psychic" and actually gets hired on to many cases by the police department. There are other terrific characters who are regulars on the show which are equally endearing. Many references are made to movie characters in each show which I do not understand because my movie experience is very limited but I appreciate the intelligence involved from the writers.

Most of the seasons we have watched as a family but I have to say that the last season or two, that became harder to do. I was forced to turn off an occasional episode along the way and move on to the next one due to impurity, a too graphic crime scene or other affronts to our faith. It definitely did show me how the standards for TV shows decreased over time.

This program has been a real pleasure to view during leisure time and I found it very easy to watch "just one more episode" on Netflix. What a great way to go! I really appreciate not having my time wasted with commercials. I have been given suggestions about other series on Netflix that might be worth watching. For now, I am just starting this series over from the beginning to catch the  occasional episode that I missed along the way.

Snow and Sickness

Old Folk Lore that I have heard is that in a Winter in which there is a lot of snow, there is less sickness.
I think the rational is that below freezing weather which allows for snow kills germs.

We have certainly seen lots of snow falling this winter which is always very beautiful to experience, when you are home and all of the family is safe!

At least weekly during the month of March, we have had a snowfall that let schoolchildren take the day off to enjoy at home. We have taken "Snow Days" in our homeschool as well and it is a treat!

Contrary to folk wisdom, this long winter has also brought with it tremendous amounts of sickness.
The stomach bug has been severe and highly contagious.Influenza, pneumonia, strep throat and strange viruses have been more common then in years past, in my experience. I can't help but notice that there are many more obituaries in the paper than usual.
Grandma Dolly has been in and out of the hospital three times in the past few weeks. She most recently went in on her birthday which everyone was so excited to celebrate with her. The doctors and the nurses were thrilled to wish her a very happy one, and thanks to their excellent care, she was feeling much better in no time!
Dear Lord Jesus, Please help all those suffering in sickness at this time and console all those who are grieving lost family members as we move past this brutal winter into the hope of spring and the promise of new life in You.
Amen.

February Cooking Club

For our February gathering, we baked Blueberry Muffins with a Crumb Topping to honor Our Lady of Lourdes. These muffins were very fun to bake and the girls had a ball! The recipe (taken from Catholic Cuisine Blog) suggested using extra blueberries and we did.

These were so tasty! I remember Aunt Catherine once saying about Apple Crisp that you could pretty much skip the apples and just make the crisp! The brown sugar, oatmeal and butter topping on these muffins were really good.

Using a variety of fresh fruits, the girls cut them and arranged them in a unique way.

Strawberries, blueberries. red and green grapes, oranges, pineapple and cantaloupe melon were cut by the children and circled on a platter to look like a sunburst.

 While we waited for the muffins to bake and cool, Allison led a discussion on St. Bernadette and Our Lady of Lourdes and also the Miracle of the Sun which happened at Fatima in 1913 and which was witnessed by tens of thousands of persons.

We brewed tea and served it in three tea pots.The girls sipped it out of cups and saucers. Cream and sugar pitchers made it a lot of fun for them while we enjoyed a lovely feast.

Creamed Vegetable Soup

I had some leftover  butternut squash which I had thrown into the oven to bake the day before. It was simple to take out the seeds and put the cooked squash into the blender with some water to thin it.

 I also had this unappetizing looking batch of cooked potatoes . Like much of my food, these tasted great but just didn't look like much.

Creamed soup was the answer! Fresh celery, onion and garlic sauteed gave extra flavor as a base.

I added water and Half and Half, salt and pepper and Dinner was ready.

 This was good in the crock pot and we ate it over a busy weekend. Delicious!