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Easter Reflection (by Laura)

April 26, 2011 By Laura 2 Comments

They found the stone rolled away from the tomb; but when they

entered,they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. ~Luke 24:2

I am still very much growing, in my faith, and particularly in my Catholic faith. I imagine I always will be. Or I hope that will be the case, anyway. For every Liturgical Season that I live through, I find a little more seeps in. I grasp a familiar Scripture a little more than before, as the clarity of the story is as real as a movie playing in my mind….I am there, I see, I smell, I feel. I forget where I physically am. And then the message of it all, speaks to me on a personal level, in regards to my own life, it’s current circumstances, and my own self. The moment of Consecration; when the bread and wine transforms into the living Body of Christ, and Cup of Life, makes my heart leap with excitement, and my spirit crave approaching His table once again, and becoming one with Jesus. With every passing season, I find I am falling deeper, and deeper, in love with my Catholic faith.

But there is no denying, that the connection and attention I earnestly pay to my faith, ebbs and flows from day to day, week to week, and month to month. It depends on how much is going on in my life, what is going on in my life, what kind of focus I have had lately anyway, and what Liturgical Season we are in. How much I have so weakly let myself become distracted with earthly matters and struggles, which are only temporary, as we all know.

So it most always starts out with Lent, as is did this year. Not every year – but some, and maybe most. Certainly this year. Ash Wednesday approaches, and I think, “Really? Already? When is Easter? It’s only 40 days away?”

So naturally we attend this Holy Day of Obligation, Ash Wednesday, and our Lenten journey begins. By then I have reviewed with the children once again, in our morning Scripture study/prayer time together, about this period in our faith and life that comes every year, and how important it is to prepare ourselves for the coming events. And I have also made my Lenten choices to live by, in hopes of ultimately growing yet a little closer still, to Christ, by the time Easter arrives.

But as I do all of this, at the start of Lent (certain years), it’s admittedly all too much like mere obligations. Motions I go through, as it is just time to do these things. I am shamefully aware of how emotionally or passionately disconnected I am, from this annual journey I am embarking on once again. As the days pass, I stay true to my Lenten choices, and try to take the time to reflect on how they should be helping me grow. But I fleetingly question it, brushing away the weight of guilt I feel inside. I know I am not paying enough attention, and I am struggling with truly giving the attention and time needed, to invest my heart as it should be.

The more Easter draws closer, the more I fear; I am really going to blow it, this year. I’m down on myself about it, yet I don’t do enough, to really change it, really. Maybe because I am afraid it won’t help anyway. Or maybe because I am, again…..too weak and distracted to switch gears as I know I should. Whatever the reason, I acknowledge I am lacking inspiration, for THE-most-important-season of my Catholic faith. Instead of seeking the inspiration, putting the time in, giving it a chance to all come together, I carry on as I have been. With a piece of me inside, quietly puzzled, confused,…..maybe lost?

Then comes Holy Week, and everything changes. It’s as if my Father loves me too much, to let me, let myself down.

The call gets louder, and my spirit and heart respond more readily. The Holy Spirit invades me with a vengeance, with no denial of it’s presence within me, and gets my attention once and for all. I find myself alive. Intrigued. Eager. PRESENT. In heart and mind. Not much else matters to me through the next Triduum of days, as we attend Mass daily. Not much else, can keep my attention. I’m all but mesmerized by the events of these days in Jesus’ life on earth, that played out exactly according to the Scripture. Emotions are at their surface, for me during this time. My mind is focused, and my heart is full of so much,….ever changing. Holy Thursday; Jesus’ last supper with his disciples, the betrayal to come, the agony in the garden, as he sweat drops of blood. His knowing what lied before Him. All that would happen to Him. His acceptance of it as the command of His Father, and His love for us. Good Friday; the deep sadness inside, the thoughts of helplessness I knew His mother must have felt, like others who loved Him and believed he was in fact, the Son of God. The visions of Him being tortured, scourged & spit upon. The heavy cross. The pain and thirst. And mercy. His death. It’s a day of much silence and prayer for us all, as a family. And as I (we) fast, I am filled with such nourishment and satisfaction. I treasure that day with my family, in so many ways. Then Good Friday evolves into Holy Saturday, as we continue to grieve and feel so sacrificed for, with the ultimate price. His life. We find ourselves so thankful and encouraged, that we will celebrate His Resurrection soon, as He said He would, and have good reason to sing ALLELUIA!

Easter is most always a memorable occasion, that we as a family have always enjoyed. But this Easter in particular was the best, most beautiful, most perfect Easter, ever – for me. I was truly rejoicing in my heart the entire day, relishing in the amazement of what Jesus Christ did for me, for you, and for you, and for us all! Realizing, in yet another layer of understanding and truth, just what that means for us all. And cherishing my family, as we celebrated together, knowing how very blessed we are to have each other, and the people in our lives. Loving, how we continue to grow in our Catholic faith, as a family. Happy, that our efforts to keep Christ as the center of the 6 of us as a family unit, no matter what, has been rewarding and given us strength when we have most needed it. In times when others have let us down, time and again, or turned away. He is there. He is always there, always understanding, always forgiving, and with love that does not and will not ever end.

We have all we will ever need.

We have each other.

More importantly, we have Him.

He, who gives us nourishment, strength, and hope.

And has given us the GIFT, of ever-lasting life.

ALLELUIA.

**********

Hoping you had such a blessed & beautiful Easter as well.

(A small collection of photos of the kids, from Easter Day, to come. )

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Welcome to the ValenDiner | Our Valentine’s Day Diner Theme Party

February 23, 2011 By Laura 6 Comments

For this past St. Valentine’s Day, I had the urge to throw a fun little party for our kids. The more I got thinking about the little details, (which I love to do), a theme party sort of started snowballing in my head (which is often the case, when I think), and I got beside myself with excitement (which happens quite easily with me.)

Simply put, my idea, was simply, a St. Valentine’s Day diner theme party.

We invited a family we are good friends with, who have just as many kids as we do! That was enough for me, because frankly….I had never (evah!) waitressed before. But I was about to!

A menu sign welcomed them, as soon as the ValenDiner was open, at 1:00 in the afternoon.

The menu offered all of the specialties any good diner would, as you can see. Milkshakes, in 3 flavors, and even deep fried french fries and onion rings!

( Soon, our home would smell like a real diner too. ; ) )
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Here are our special patrons!! A happy-go-lucky, handsome little crew, huh?? One of our crew, {D}, top center, was even so kind enough to take a shiner at his wrestling match that weekend. I could have taken care of that, with my photo editing skills, of course. But us parents decided it added a nice 50’s sort of touch to our party…..like one of “The Outsiders.” ; ) So, we just thanked him.
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Us moms (a.k.a – the waitresses), took the kid’s orders soon after ‘we opened’. We hung the order up, for the kitchen crew, over the breakfast bar window. (See them?) Me and my side-kick were just like ‘Alice and Flo’. (From that old sitcom, Alice. Remember? I’ll tell you a secret….I had a crush on Alice’s son, Tommy. Sshhhh.) I really got into my role,….more like Flo. (Because it would just be weird, to be Tommy’s mother.) I had fun blowing bubbles with my bubble gum, as I took orders, and asking, “Alright kids, what’ll it be.” <Pop!>

As many of you know by now, we take every opportunity we can, to let the kids learn. It’s personally important to us (4 parents), that our children understand the history and true meaning behind every holiday or saint day. (or anything else, educational, that we can squeeze into them.) So while the kids were waiting for their orders to be up, and being that our celebration on this day, revolved around the life of St. Valentine, they watched a very informative and wonderful (wonderful!) power-point presentation, put together by….well, Alice. ; ) I learned a thing or 2 more, I didn’t know, myself! (More on that later.)

They each got a printout, too.
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Here’s ‘Grill Boy”. (Mel?) He was cookin’ up those hot dogs and cheeseburgers.

We had some unexpected mechanical difficulties with the frialator, that really held things up a bit. But eventually, we got it working right.

The little wait, just made the kids extra-thankful for their food!! Honestly, it melted my heart, to see them join hands, and say grace together.

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A ‘cheers’, with milkshakes…..in vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry.
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Yum. It’s hard to find good diner food, these days.

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Us parents loved seeing the kids, all chowing down, giggling and chatting. There was a real ‘hum’ of a busy diner.

<Swoon.> I so wish, I had gotten the shot of this sweet boy’s expression, when he tried that dill pickle. I was a fraction of a second too late. But I think I’ll remember it in my head forever, because it was ‘that’ comical. There was actually a couple of hysterical moments with that pickle. What a blessing this boy is. (Well, that all are. But, you know.)

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The patrons lingered. And our tip they left us, was the echo of their generous giggles, in our hearts.
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All of our kids, made Valentine cards, for each other. (More on that later, too.) But our friend’s sweet girl {S}, above, got an extra-special, unique Valentine, made by our boy, {JM} (with a little wording help from his Mama. ; ). You need to know……{S} is a competitive Irish Step Dancer. So, her Valentine was a 4 leaf-clover, with a heart center. And it read:

* “I-RISH” you’d “Step” into my heart, and be my Valentine! *

Do you want to know the best part? (Of course you do. ) As I type this post this moment, that Valentine card, right now, is in IRELAND!! I’m not even kidding. {S} took it there with her, for ‘good luck’, as she competes against the best Irish Dancers in the world!!

All of the kids, totally loved exchanging Valentines with each other. They were all ‘keepers’.

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{Baby E} loved his Valentines, too! Holding him, is “Milkshake Man”…..a.k.a Daddy! He and
“Grill Boy” get along great.

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There’s my good friend, “Alice!”. I would have never survived the diner crowd on this day, without her. Actually…I may have not survived a few things in my life, with out her.
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The kids partied on, to the 50’s ‘jukebox’ playing.

(Pandora. Whatever.)

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We all partied, until we started poopin’ out!!

Honestly, it’s always a good time of memory-makin’, when our families get together.

And this St. Valentine’s Day celebration, was no exception.

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Before we all parted ways, we each had a Valentine fortune (paper-cookie) to read. They actually came with fortunes already. But because “Alice” and I have higher, perfectionistic standards, I pulled those lame ones out, and re-stuffed them, with our own alternative fortunes. The theme of course, was “LOVE”, and together, we combined our lists of messages about “love”, that we wanted our kids to be sent <wink-wink>, including some Biblical Scripture quotes.

It was a wonderful St. Valentine’s celebration, I think we ALL, always will remember.

If not, we have this post to remind us!

And if that fails us, there is that faint “deep-frying Diner” scent, I swear still lingers in the air.

*** We hope you “LOVED” this theme party post!! As an FYI…..we have more Valentine season ideas/photos from this year, that we hope to share with you next year, pre-Valentine’s Day, if I am still blogging away! Then perhaps you might like to use those ideas too, when you might need them. (I’m sure you all are all Valentine’d out, by now.) There will be some treats under the ‘Recipes’ tab, as well as some Valentine card ideas (complete with sayings) under ‘Crafts & Creations’ tab. And just maybe, I can manage to get that educational power-point presentation on St. Valentine, to share under ‘Homeschooling.’ That’s my plan, if I blog-on, anyway. Hey, a lot can happen in a year! Right?***

Meanwhile, leave us your thoughts, and then….let’s get on with Spring! (Lent, Easter….Alleluia!!)

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Midnight Snaps (Festive Cookies for New Years Eve)

December 30, 2010 By Laura 20 Comments

My kids and I were trying to come up with some themed food for New Year’s Eve, and {JM} came up with this great idea, right off the bat: Cookies that are designed like clocks! (Oh, to have his quick, 8 year old brain!)

Right away I started trying to figure the details, and decided to start with homemade Gingersnap Cookies. To design them, we went with a white icing that hardens, and a bit of chocolate art. The design process does involve some intricate detail work, but if you enjoy the creative process and have a little patience to work with, they are worth the effort! Your party-goers will be impressed with these festive cookies, you made!

First, I’m going to start by giving you this basic Gingersnap Cookie Recipe. This post is not featuring how to make the cookies, with step by step photos, etc., but how to turn them into clocks. So, using the recipe below, bake some cookies and let them cool before getting to designing.

Participating Ingredients for Gingersnap Cookies:

3/4 shortening
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets.

In a large bowl, cream the shortening and sugar. Add the egg and beat until light and fluffy, then stir in the molasses. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger and cinnamon. Add to the egg mixture, and stir until well blended. * (See foot note below). Roll bits of dough into 1 inch balls. Dip each ball into sugar and place on cookie sheet, sugar side up, about 2 inches apart.

*Now, being the first time we made these, we did indeed use 1 inch balls of dough. However, we found that the cookies were pretty small to work with, and it was difficult making such tiny chocolate numbers! So……we advise that you make cookies twice the size, using 2 inch dough balls, and putting a little further apart on the cookie sheets. That way, your chocolate numbers can be made larger, and it will all be easier to do.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until cookies have spread, and cookies have cracked. Let cool on wire rack.

They are delicious straight and plain, for sure! Crispy on the outside, a little softer on the inside, and amazingly good! Surely no one would notice, if just one, was missing. ; )

Again, these are small cookies, and we recommend having bigger ones to work with.

Now, once they are cool, you’ll need to whip up some icing. I am going to guess some of you already have a recipe, and I am sure there many variations out there. This one below is the one I started with. BUT, I really needed to add a lot more liquid than it calls for, being careful to keep it a very pretty thick consistency. Really, this is one of those recipes where you need to tweak as needed, depending on how yours is looking.

Note: You’ll probably want to at least make a double batch of this icing.

Participating Ingredients for Cookie Icing

1 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 teaspoons milk *
2 teaspoons light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon of preferred extract (called for almond, I used vanilla, frankly, because I hate almond. )

* I probably had to add at least 2 tablespoons of milk! But gauge for yourself.

Using a piping bag, we outlined a circle around the edge of each cookie, and filled it in, using the tip to push the icing around some, to help get it all covered.
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The icing is bound to drip a little sometimes, but if you try not to be close to the edge where the fall-off is, you should do o.k.

At the back of the photo above, you can see where we experimented with seeing if covering the whole cookie would be easier. It was just too much icing. So we stuck with our original icing plan.

Allow the iced cookies to set, so that the icing can harden.

*****

Now you’ll need to melt some chocolate to work with, otherwise known as tempering. I should do a post just on this process at some point, but you’ll need to know it for this recipe! So I’m going to share with you a quick tutorial. Now, you may have used the double-boiler method of melting chocolate before, but we’ve never had much good luck with that. Then, we learned a quick and easy trick to tempering chocolate, from Barefoot Contessa – and I am going to share it with you right now:

You’ll need: some milk chocolate -shaved or chips (we used Hershey chocolate chips, which as chips are easier to melt), a glass measuring cup, a wooden spoon, and a microwave.

In the glass measuring cup, add about half of the amount of chocolate that you’ll need. Microwave it for about 15-20 seconds. Take out, and with the handle/ butt end of the wooden spoon, mix the chips rapidly. It will likely need more melting, so put it in for 10 second increments, and stir with the end of the wooden spoon very rapidly after each time, until the chocolate is all melted smooth and glossy. Now, just as the remaining half of your chocolate, and stir rapidly some more. You really want to mix it hard and fast – the more you do, the shinier your chocolate will be.

Now that’s a tip we can all use for life!! Thanks Contessa!

***

Now below is some writing with chocolate tips. Since I didn’t photograph making the teeny-tiny numbers, here below I am using the photos of when we made the words for Jesus’ Birthday cake on Christmas.

We printed out the words on a piece of paper, having laid out the size we wanted, in the font we wanted. Then we slipped that ‘stencil’ to trace, under a piece of parchment paper. Using a fine tip on a piping bag filled with the melted chocolate, do your writing or designs!

As the chocolate cools, it will harden.

Our words came out nice, and when they were hardened, we just placed them on our cake!

Michael and the kids had chocolate left in the bag, and they just couldn’t stop themselves from playing with chocolate some more.

See how you can just pick it up?

So this is the method we used, to make tiny little number and click hands. They were probably only 3/8ths of an inch, so you can imagine it was a tad difficult. Bigger would be easier. This way, doing the chocolate work on parchment paper first, if something comes out awful, you didn’t ruin a cookie or a cake. You just start a new one on the parchment paper, and use the ones that came out best.

If the icing on the cookies is hardened, then use a bit more icing to apply the numbers and dots to the cookie.
Otherwise they won’t stick and stay put.

So here is how our Midnight Snaps came out!! Not perfect by any means. But we think they are imperfectly cute!

Now I realize I am giving you this grand idea, pretty last minute. (lol….lol….). So I wouldn’t blame you, if you went out and tried to find some large, store bought gingersnap cookies, or maybe even molasses cookies, to just bring home and decorate. That would be a time saver for sure. ; )

May you all rock around the clock on New Year’s Eve, (or at least until midnight) and may we all have a Happy New year!

America’s Hometown Parade & Thanksgiving Day- 2010

December 1, 2010 By Laura 6 Comments

With Plymouth MA being America’s Hometown, and where the pilgrims first settled, we have quite the Thanksgiving Parade every year, not to mention a historical culture to enjoy all year long.

For 15 years, hundreds of thousands of people have traveled to the historic Plymouth Harbor and Waterfront to experience a bounty of authentic Americana. The celebration of Thanksgiving becomes history-brought-to-life as Pilgrims, Native Americans, Soldiers, Patriots, and Pioneers proudly climb out of the history books and onto the streets of Plymouth. You’ll see some of that in the photos to come!

There is so much to enjoy this weekend. The festivities include not only the big parade, but a crafter’s pavilion, an educational Wompanoag pavilion, food vendors, kid’s activities, the New England Food Festival, and more. It’s a very interesting and festive event, so consider coming down in the coming years, if the trip is do-able for you and your family. And give us a call while you’re here!

We had a great view of the parade, as we sat on the hill pretty much right across from Plymouth Rock. That hill can be seen in the photo on the top left below. Afterward we did a bit of walking around.

I know Thanksgiving is over and everyone is ready to move on, but I thought I would just share with you a bunch of photos I took, so you can enjoy a little of this event with us. It was a beautiful, and fairly mild day. So use your imagination, sit back and enjoy.

Not much more chatting in this post at all. Maybe just a little.

Plymouth MA Thanksgiving parade America's Hometown Many of you know that Michael is a 2nd generation sign maker and letterer. Well Michael’s father used to hand letter the Hallamore barrel wagons you see in the photos above, pulled by Clydesdale horses. That was an interesting piece of family history to share with the kids.

Plymouth MA Thanksgiving parade America's Hometown Seeing so much live history, right before your eyes, is a thrill. We are blessed to see some of it all year long, around here. With the Plimoth Plantation so close, we can step back in time, anytime! Photographing it all is so fun. Aside from the modern-dressed people all about, it’s easy to imagine you are back in time. One thing we DID see a few times, that really cracked us up repeatedly, was the evidence of today’s technology, that not many can be away from for very long! To see pilgrims and indians, texting, was a hoot!! I wanted to get a photo of that, but never got one. A funny sight though, as I’m sure you can imagine. All in all, it was a wonderful and memorable family day together.

As for our Thanksgiving Day……..

thanksgiving-plymouth-ma-3 ….ours was simply peaceful and lovely. We do not have a lot of close extended family, so we have often spent this holiday just the 6 of us. In the past years, we have opted to cook a ham or cornish hens on Thanksgiving. But this year, we cooked our very first turkey! It came out….perfect. As you can see. ; ) Dinner was delicious, as were the pies. We played games, watched football, and played some football outdoors too.

thanksgiving-plymouth-ma The kids set a real festive atmosphere as always, with the creative decorations.

thanksgiving-plymouth-ma-1 Each turkey that the little ones made, displayed feathers that expressed some of the things that they were thankful for. “Reagan”, by the way (on the last feather) is our other pet: a Republican beta fish. : ) Yep, he’s red.

thanksgiving-plymouth-ma-2
I really loved {S}’s indian.

thanksgiving-plymouth-ma-4 We hope you and your families, had a blessed and memorable Thanksgiving as well!

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Our Halloween Costume Ideas from the Past

October 30, 2010 By Laura 4 Comments

I don’t plan on having a big post on our Halloween/Hallowtide this year. But last night I got to thinking about some of our past Halloween costume ideas we’ve come up with, and I went digging through photos. Putting together costumes, is a creative process of sorts, so we thought this section of the blog was a good place for this.

There is SO much I could share with you from our pre-blogging days, because I have always taken lots of photos. But I haven’t always shot digital. The scanning of old photos, and cleaning up dust particles, etc, is not a process I enjoy. At all. But if I’m inspired enough to share with you some old stuff, I guess I will do it. As I just did!

I thought it would be fun, to share with you some of {A}’s Halloween costume photos from when she was little, as well as the triplet’s second Halloween, but first in costume. Naturally, we think they are all so cute. But then, they are all our kids. Maybe we’re bias. But something tells us you might get a chuckle or 2 as well, looking at these. Or we might at least get a smile out of you, and that’s good enough for us too.

kid-clown-costume
{A} in 1998, as a clown. She was 1 year old. I have to laugh at the ‘very best first walking shoes’ she has on. No, we didn’t do that too, for babies 2, 3 and 4. Turns out they are all walking and running just fine!
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kid-genie-costume
In 1999, as a genie, and 2 years old. Is she not the cutest thing? My sister-in -aw made the costume for us. I helped cut fabric and stuff though. And I also made the bottle. I have to admit, I’m not into allowing my girls to jaunt around with bare midriffs anymore. But I wouldn’t give up this photo of her at 2 year old, in this costume, for anything. What a doll she was.
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kid-pediatrician
In 2000 at 3 years old, she was her own pediatrician, at the time. lol. We have had a new pedi now since I was pregnant with the triplets, and the former one is no longer practicing, that I know of. But she was beyond ecstatic to learn that {A} was her, for Halloween that year. She (the pedi) showed everyone in the office that day, while {A} waited in her paper gown. lol I think this photo is still hanging in the office there.
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kid-indian-girl-costume
In 2001, as an Indian, at 4 years old. I really loved this costume.

But this head shot, is one of my all-time favorite photos of her when she was little.
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baby-farm-animal-costumes-triplets And then we had our little farm animals, in 2003. lol. They were 1 year old. Remember the Tom Armani costumes? The kids were a riot in them. We had so much fun this year. {S}, on the far right, was just on the verge of another hysterical laugh. He would always, get laughing so hard, he couldn’t compose himself. He still does that. He was a happy baby, all of the time, despite all he went through.
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baby-cow-costume
Our big cow. He was as heavy as one too.
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baby-lamb-costume

Our sweet little lamb.
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baby-goat-costume
Our Billy Goat – always smiling.
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{A} (big sister) was their loving farmer, who tended her little farm animals with such care.
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We just had to show them all off, and trick or treating is always out of the question for us (with {S}’s severe peanut allergy)….so we thought we’d take them to the mall, and just pull them around. There was Halloween festivities going on there anyway, and it was warm, light, and safe.

And from that idea, our idea grew….

farmer-and-baby-farm-animals-triplets-big-sister We put a little picket fence around our farm animals, in their ‘choo-choo wagon’. They were the biggest attraction. People just stopped, and watched us, cracking up.

The funniest thing that night, that still gets us hysterical when we think about it, was that {S}, was the billy goat, and every time we looked back as we pulled him, he was chewing on the fence!! I was always laughing too hard, to get a photo.

Then we heard there was a costume parade judging contest at the other end of the mall. So we went down there and pulled them through. There was a big crowd, and then we had to go by this whole panel of judges at a table. They were all so smitten with our farm.

We won 1st Place, for Most Original Costume!

The judges thought our farm yard was very creative. The farmer and her little animals had a fun night, and then they went back to the farm and went fast asleep in their barn.

If you have blogged your kids in some of your favorite Halloween /Hallowtide costumes, leave us a link so we can come see them! If you haven’t, wouldn’t it be a fun post?

Thanks for stopping by. We hope you enjoyed seeing our kiddo’s costumes from the past, as mush as we enjoy revisiting these wonderful family memories.

Wishing you all a Happy Halloween / Hallowtide!!

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We won 1st Place, for Most Original Costume!

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