What I learned from Father's homily...

I don't mean this in a "I'm so smart that I rarely hear something entirely new during a homily" way...it's more of a 1)I don't often get to hear a homily uninterrupted, and 2)I read all the time, so I've usually at least come in contact with an idea before.

So, Father preached about the first reading yesterday, from the Acts of the Apostles. The reading talks about how the people had only been baptised in the name of Jesus, and then Peter and John (I think it was John anyway) came and laid hands upon them and the people received the Holy Spirit. Father talked about how the reading discussed two sacraments (baptism and confirmation), and asked us about the different types of baptism discussed in the Bible.

There are three, but at the time of the reading from Acts, they did not yet understand Baptism of the Holy Spirit. So, what are the other two? Well, he explained that there was John's baptism, and then there was the baptism that Jesus commanded (baptise all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit).

John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. Jesus's baptism in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit was different. So the Jews at the point of Acts knew of two baptisms...the baptism of repentance and the baptism that Jesus commanded. Therefore, when the reading said that they had only been baptised in the name of Jesus, it is not saying that they literally were baptised only in the name of Jesus, but instead were baptised the way Jesus commanded, and had not received the baptism of repentance from John.

I just thought the whole concept was very interesting, and not something I had ever contemplated before!

Getting up the ambition...

Well, hubby is in Denver at the Knights of Columbus convention. The girls are at my MILs house, where they stayed overnight, and I am about ready to get dressed for church.

Today is the last day of religious ed and also is a children's Mass. Since hubby is gone, I get to help teach his 4th graders (which actually means walk them over to the Kwik-E-Mart and buy them all something...gotta love traditions that you didn't start and don't particularly like...as though volunteering our time all year for free weren't enough...we are expected to buy junk food for our students the last week!) Since I didn't really relish the idea of taking broken armed Charlotte with me and the 4th graders (the girls in the class always want to hold her...which of course disrupts the actual classes!) I figured my MIL could watch her...and if Charlotte gets to go to grandma's house, Eva is going too! My MIL even offered to come stay the night down here so that Eva could sing with the kids at the children's Mass (they're doing some lame song after communion with the littles), but Eva preferred to spend the night at grandma's house and go to grandma's church instead.

So, I'm going to Mass all by myself! This doesn't happen very often!

Hubby picked up my old twin bed from my parent's house (he took his mom's SUV...she got his car, then I traded her my car so she had car seats for the girls, so at the moment, no one has their own vehicle) and we're going to paint it white to match everything else in the girl's room, and probably move Charlotte to a bed in about 6 months. He also picked up Currywurst from the German deli near my parent's house for my MILs exchange student who has been missing real German food all year.

I had PLANNED to do spring cleaning in the living room/dining room while the girls were gone, but in actuality, last night the only thing I accomplished was the laundry. So, the goal is to do all that after church before everyone gets home (around 3 or 4). Hopefully I'll have the ambition and the strength to do it (I have to move the piano, bookshelves, TV cabinet and couch, etc.)

Sick...but alive...

Well, I have a sinus infection, and have spent the last two days with barely enough energy to help hubby cook (always a scary prospect!) and sit in his recliner and do Sudoku puzzles (I am getting very good at the very hard puzzles, though!)

Thursday night through Monday morning, our Internet was out...slightly irritating, but at least we are cheap enough that we don't pay a lot per month...

I've started a new diet through Calories Count. Going well so far, but they do seem to like to make vegetables more complicated in their meal plans (that is, more complicated than dumping them in a microwave safe dish, nuking them, and throwing them on the table...my general vegetable plan!)

I notice the Bloggy Giveaways are going on this week...to tired to participate this time...I'm off to Denver with my MIL and her exchange student (and my girls, of course) tomorrow, and we'll get to meet my parents for supper. They are going to be amazed at how much Charlotte has grown (and of course, dismayed by her cast!)

40 bags of bark and 3 years later...

Wow...I think that we are FINALLY done landscaping our yard (just the one lot that our house is on...the adjoining lot that belongs to us is still in its natural state!) The cashiers at Alco probably are still laughing about hubby having to fill up our car twice today (you can fit 20- 2 cubit ft. bags of bark in a Buick Park Avenue if you use either the whole backseat and trunk (no car seats) or 1/2 the backseat and 1/2 the front seat with the whole trunk.)

So, for a full picture of what has occurred in terms of our yard...here's a few posts from back in the day:

May 15th 2006: Pants update and general craziness!

May 23rd 2006: We have a yard...and my hubby is insane!

Apparently, I didn't blog any about our improvements last summer (they weren't much...just some stepping stones to make a front walkway, and about 1/3 of the area in front of our fence covered with bark), but just because it is such a cute post, and deals with our yard, here's one from last year:

May 4th 2007": Our Blessed Mother had an accident...

So, now we have a yard with grass (though we always seem to be trying to get a patch of grass to come back somewhere in it!) A sidewalk made of pavers from our side door to the street, paving stones making up a front walkway, a fence with two gates (side door and front door), bark all along the fence (about 1 1/2 ft wide on side, about 10 ft wide on front), a couple of flowerpots on the porch waiting for the weather to be nice enough to plant flowers, and a bird feeder hanging from the porch. Next on the "make our house look a little less like rednecks live here" agenda is finding some sort of nice looking storage for outdoor toys and decent patio furniture to replace the camp chairs that hubby got with his WestLaw points in law school...

Well, maybe they are just deranged walnuts...

I may be the only person on the planet that actually recieved the nickname "Deranged Walnut" in school...so I thought that I had walnut in the bag on this one...any arguement that brazil nuts are simply deranged walnuts??? I didn't think so...

You Are a Brazil Nut

To most people, you seem exotic, unusual, and even a bit scary. But you're really quite normal. You're just hard to get to know. If people leave you alone and let you do your thing, you really shine. But you tend to get lost in a crowd, especially if it's filled with big personalities.

What Nut Are You?

Menu Plan Monday - Too Much Chicken!

Happy Monday!

This week's menu planning was particularly difficult, because as I looked through my freezer, I found chicken, chicken and more chicken...VERY strange for us, as we've had two + years of having half a pig in our freezer, and hubby's family raise beef...

So, I managed to make a menu plan that only had chicken 1 time per day (minus Friday, which we try to do meatless year round)

Monday - Salad with Canned Salmon
Crock pot Moroccan Chicken with Couscous (Split Chicken Breast from SHARE)

Tuesday - Meatless Spaghetti with any leftover salad
Chicken Enchiladas (I don't have a recipe yet...just a baggie of precooked chicken and some green enchilada sauce in the pantry...I'll need to make tortillas for this, too!) with Spanish Rice (from SHARE)

Wednesday - Frozen Pizza with Carrots and Celery (Hubby has training out of town, so this will just be me and the girls)
Marinated Lime Chicken (using boneless, skinless chicken breasts from the freezer) with Crescent Rolls and Veggies

Thursday - Barbecue Crock pot Chicken (rest of boneless skinless chicken breasts) with veggies
Bratwurst (from SHARE) Potato and Sauerkraut Skillet Dinner (I'm making this one up as I go!)

Friday - Pancakes with Fruit
Salmon, Rice-a-roni and Veggies

Saturday - Fend For Yourself/Leftovers

After this menu, I'll be down to one baggie of precooked chicken, a package of bacon, a package of ham hocks and 9 hamburger patties (from SHARE)...so I guess I may have to do some meat shopping before too long!

More menus up at OrgJunkie!

It was fun while it lasted...

Well, I don't think that I mentioned this in my last post, but as our doc was putting Charlotte's arm in a tiny purple cast, he didn't have that much faith that she wouldn't be able to pull it off...

Technically it wasn't her fault...technically, I am blaming hubby for this one!

He had the idea to put one of his socks over her arm for nap time so that she wouldn't tug at the cast (which she had been doing since it was put on) and after nap time when I took the sock off...the cast came with it...

I did fail to mention exactly how the cast came off to our doctor, though...kinda embarrassing!

So, cast #2 isn't really a cast at all...Our doc created a splint out of the cast materials, held it in place with an ace wrap with adhesive, clippies and a whole bunch of tape.

One of the other doctors came in (to make fun of our doc, so far as I could tell!) and when our doctor said he hoped this one would stay on for at least 48 hours, the other doc told us that he thought the odds were 50/50...

Also, we went from 3 weeks in a cast orders (at 11 am) to one week with the splint (at 4:30 pm)...so, we'll have to see how quickly this heals!

Broken arm...

Well, we spent the afternoon at my MILs house yesterday, and I got a lot accomplished. I sewed my first ever clothing...dresses for Eva and Charlotte to wear for our family picture for the church directory.

Charlotte fell off a chair, and was favoring the other arm quite a bit...and after a bunch of hubby's co-workers told him horror stories about bad injuries that they had not gone to the doctor right away for, hubby made an appointment.

Good thing, too...she has a broken forearm. Not a snap in half kinda break, but a break nonetheless. Our doctor said that if she were Eva's side, he would just do a splint...but that they don't have any splints in Charlotte's size, so she has a cute little purple cast on her arm. Maybe I'll post pictures after she is feeling a little better!

Menu Plan Monday

I'm just running out of inspiration this week...I had to beat my head against the wall to get this done. It's just kinda a BLAH week around here...

Monday: Pancakes and Bacon (Hubby's gotta make lunch while I get my hair cut)
Crock pot Beef Roast with Potatoes and Carrots

Tuesday: Hamburgers (SHARE) and Fruit
Ham Steak (SHARE), Rice a Roni and Veggies

Wednesday: Bratwurst (SHARE) with Potatoes, Sauerkraut and Applesauce
Chicken Divan Casserole

Thursday: Quiche made with leftover meat and veggies
??? for Dinner...I have Bible Study, so Hubby and girls are on their own...maybe they'll go mooch off grandma!

Friday: Lentil Rice Casserole (which may have to be Lentil/Split Pea Casserole, as I'm not sure I have enough Lentils at the moment) and Veggies
Salmon, Rice a Roni and Veggies

Saturday: Fend For Yourself/Leftovers

So, there you go! Of course, there are lots more menus up over at OrgJunkie!

My first ever sewing project!

Okay, that's a little bit of an exaggeration. I somehow ended up in a home ec class in middle school, and I had to sew a stuffed animal (mine was a teddy bear pillow thing)...let's just say that thankfully there was a cooking portion of that class, because I believe that I got a C...

So, beyond that trauma from my youth, my sewing skills have been limited to hemming (with a lot of cursing) and limited clothing repairs (very necessary when married to my hubby...)

So, here are a few pictures of my first mama cloth. I need to make the pattern just a hair bigger, as the inserts that I made (out of worn prefold diapers) are a little too long for this one. I also think I need to make the wings a little wider. I still have to hand sew on some velcro.



The liner is a red patterned cotton. The topper is a gold colored flannel, and the back is a dark blue nylon (I think!) I have enough fabric for about 6 to start with. I have twelve inserts made already.




So, I am very impressed with my handiwork! During our usual fight to the death...I won and the sewing machine behaved for once! (I know, I'm a dork...)

Eva wants a brother...

...it all started the other day. Hubby took the girls over to the park and the store while I did some cleaning at home. Somewhere in there, they saw a woman who was clearly pregnant. Eva figured out that the woman has a baby in her tummy. She turned to Hubby and said "Mommy's going to have a baby boy!", to which Hubby replied "Well, not now...maybe someday!" So, in the car on the way home, Eva turned to Charlotte and told her all about how Mommy's going to have a baby boy someday and that Charlotte will have a brother to play with.

So, we thought it was a cute story, and that was the end of it...

Of course not! So, she has been bringing up a brother a lot recently. We told her she should ask God for a little brother. She told us that she didn't want a little brother, she wants a big brother. I explained that God USUALLY gives mommies and daddies a baby, not a big kid, but that she might want to pray if she wanted a brother.

So, since we've been trying to teach her some traditional prayers (in a repeat after me fashion) she has insisted that we should repeat prayers after her. So, we have to repeat "Thank you God for playing. Thank you God for reading books. Thank you God for watching TV. Thank you God for (fill in the blank...playgroup, going to grandma's house, etc.) Thank you God please send me a big brother. Amen."