7 Quick Takes

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Well what can I say, but my husband has left. He has gone on a mission trip/retreat to Ireland. Father Kirby called and said, “come over here, we want you to help.” So off Dh has gone to the fledging monastery for ten days to help with renovations.

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Dh will be gone for 10 days. 10 long days, this is a busy time of the year here for us, Field trips, Musical rehearsals, Dance performance photos, field day. But it will all be slowing down soon. After May 17th we will be done with School. Yes done with school. We will have 2 weeks of do nothing time., or at least do less time. No school and only dance class once a week. I will be flying solo until dh comes back. No one to stop at the store for me on the way home, there is no store on my way home from school. This happens when you live in the country.
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The monks at Silverstream Priory are working on a 5 year plan to renovate and purchase the facility. The have a monumental task ahead of them. If you feel called to help them you can do so over on the side bar here. They are trying to raise more than $4 million dollars, so no donation is too small or large.
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Speaking of field trips today I went with Pi on a filed trip to the Renaissance Fair. Lots of fun was had by all.

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It has been hot here. We are running 10 degrees above normal. We will be going back to normal here soon. But for now we are trying to stay cool.

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We are doing a challenge here on the blog. Less is More –Blessed  Mother Theresa says it best  “The more you have, the more you are occupied. The less you have, the more free you are.” In order to be more free we are working on freeing up 20% of our belongs in the entire house. This week our focus was on the Master Bedroom, but you can start anywhere. Next week we will be focusing on the Kitchen so get ready.
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Has never before been so excited for a May Crowing. This Sunday our little parish will do its May Crowing, and my Pumpkin will get to carry the crown. The best part is he is excited because one of his oldest and dearest friends will get to place the crown on Mary’s head. He is thrilled to do this with friend he has known for 5 of his 8 years.

for more 7 Quick Takes head over to Conversion Diary 

Pretty Happy Funny Real Bragging Time

{Pretty}

My 7 I mean 8 year old son and went to the Municipal Garden, where we both took pictures. I have to admit he is a pretty good photographer. In fact I can’t be sure who took which photo anymore.

Speaking of Pretty, My oldest (Pi) was honored at our Yearly Academic Banquet at school. It is hard to think of her as a 14 year old girl in this picture. She looks much to old and not at all 14. Even the school counselor commented on how pretty she is. Lucky for us the boys have not discovered her yet. As far as her father is concerned that can wait about 10 years.

{Happy}

A couple of weeks ago Pumpkin made his 2nd First Communion, you can read about that here. He wanted to go through the ceremony with his friends. He looks pretty happy here, and I am sure it was because he got to celebrate with friends and Dad was the Deacon(the one making bunny ears)

{Funny}

So my teen took my phone – really she did and what did she do? Yup started posting all over Facebook for me. But hey at least she is sweet about it.

This is what happens when your teenager takes your phone. ^o^ LOL
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{Real}

My sweet little boy took this picture of himself, the same day we went to the Municipal Gardens and took pictures of the flowers. BTW it was his idea to to go to the gardens. He absolutely loves it there. and in his mind it was better than going to the Museum for the Opera Performance I dropped off the teenager for. I love giving my kids the “old” digital camera and letting them take pictures, they have a blast and you never know what you will end up with. I am willing to bet that my kids have taken half of the photos on this blog.
Do you ever let your kids take the pictures?

I am sharing this at Like Mother Like Daughter

Feeding My Family

I like to keep feeing my family simple, I prefer to use the Stocked Pantry Method. I have tried the menu planning method but for me it ended up costing me more, and involved more time.
I confess that when I go shopping I have a bizarre habit. I like to peek in the baskets of the customers around me at the check out line. It gives me a peek into their lives. Think about it when you go to the grocery store what you put in your cart tells people a lot about who you are and what your values are. Believe me it does. Many years ago I was a cashier and I played the same game and would check out what people put in their carts then.
Food Prices are going up, they have gone up  %, chances they are that they will continue to go up.
I like to feed my family good nutritious food. As a family, we do not adhere to any one cooking style, such as Weston Price, Gluten free, Vegan, Paleo, though I do incorporate elements of each into a meals. We eat Real Food here. I define real food as food that is mininally processed and as as close to nature as God intended it to be. What that means for us is that typically I do NOT buy prepackaged or processed food. When we eat dinner or pack our lunches for school we do so with real food that was prepared at home.

• We eat gluten light (not free ) I am gluten free but the kids are not – so anything I prepare for the family will be gluten free but we do have regular bread in the house for the kids.  I don’t bother buying special gluten free foods for myself, no gluten free bread, rolls etc. I just prefer to do without. The exception is a gluten free pasta that I get so I can eat spaghetti with the family once a month.
• We do not drink a lot of milk, a gallon generally lasts us a week, the biggest consumer of milk is my dh. I am dairy free but the kids and husband do eat cheese. I buy a minimally processed preferable local cheese but when they are not available I will buy the big blocks of Kerry Gold or Cabot’s Vermont.
• One pound of meat is enough to feed our family of 5 for at least one meal, usually with leftovers. 

I confess I do buy packaged food from time to time, but we aim for the 80/20 rule. Eat 80% of our meals at home from unprocessed/unpackaged food.  I will buy the occasional treat like store bought cake and ice cream for my son’s birthday the other day. But that only happens a couple of times a year.
If you were to run into me at the big grocery store you would be likely to find the following in my cart.

• tp
• baking soda
• washing soda
• dish soap
• dishwasher detergent (I am looking for a good alternative to this, let me know if you have one)
• sale produce
• white vinegar – by the gallon
• Borax
• herbal teas
• Natural Peanut Butter with no added sugar
• Whole Wheat loaf bread for the kids, with no High Fructose Corn Syrup – read the labels closely, even though some brands advertise right on them they have no HFCS.

at Sam’s

• organic salad greens
• organic spinach
• whole cooked rotisserie chicken –at $6.99 – this gives me a break on busy days and keeps us away from the fast food places
• fruit
• big bags of brussel sprouts
• baby carrots
• Lara Bars
• oatmeal – for making our Homemade Cliff Bars
• cheese – I find mini bell and Kerry Gold Cheese at mine. – no sliced cheese at our house.

At our Local Store

• Sale produce
• Nature Well Meats – on sale
• Smart Chicken -  on sale
• Organic Cereal – yes my little local store is the best place to get Organic breakfast cereal.
• Pop corn – they have big bags for us to pop our corn in the Whirly Pop.
• dried beans - they have a HUGE variety bigger than the big store. 
• bulk grains - brown rice, buckwheat groats 

At our Food Co-op

• We get a meat share about every other week – this runs us $32.50 for hormone free grass fed local meat. I can chose to opt in from week to week and I am not obligated to purchase each week, they also offer breakfast shares and produce shares.

At the Farmer’s Market -  I only go about every other week, since it is a bit of a drive for me.

• meat about $20 worth of the sale meats offered by local producers
• produce in season.

At Our Local Health Food Store

• buckwheat noodles (gluten free option for the whole family)
• artichoke flower pasta (gluten free option for the whole family)
• raw walnuts

In our Garden

• I grow easy to grow foods
• tomatoes
• onions
• lettuces
• spinach
• rosemary
• basil
• sage
• kale
• We also have an orchard,that came with the property, that has
• apple
• pear
• peach
• blackberries

I do not shop every store every week. I do not do a “big shop” anymore. Until recently I was doing a two week shopping trip.  I do not even go shopping every week. How do I manage to not go shopping all the time? I buy multiples when I do go, (When the closest store is 7 miles away it is inconvenient to run out of things, so you learn to buy two.) Because I use the stocked pantry method of meal planning I don’t need to worry about needing and ingredient for dinner and not having it, I just adjust and move on.   You may be wondering where the “kid food’ is. They eat what we eat, there are no chicken nuggets, or cookies or crackers. or juice. I feel as if cookies and crackers and juice are filler food and are not the best food for kids or anyone.
After writing this I wished I could have included my food expenditures for you, but alas I did not think to save my receipts and it can vary from month to month, since I do take advantage of sales and stock up, If hard pressed to put a number on it I would have to say I feed my family of 5 for about $500-$600 in an average month.
How about you do you have any secrets to feeding your family?

This post is linked up to Your Green Resource

Wordless Wednesday - Family Celebrations

Our little School had its annual Academic Gala the other night. I would like to give you an idea on how big our school is.  The top ten percent in each grade in high school were recognized. That meant 5 students per grade. Yup we have about 50 students per grade in High School. 604 Students from Pre-K to 12th for a public school district. It really is smaller than many private schools in town and the teachers make it like a family.

My Pumpkin had his 8th Birthday this past weekend. I can hardly believe it!

We celebrated by going out to eat, just mom and dad with the little guy and then to a Ball Game. Eight years old is a big year at our house. typically with a fancy restaurant, but since we had just gone out to eat at a white table cloth restaurant the week before my boy opted for something simpler. An Irish Pub and a trip to the minor league baseball game.


Yes my son’s cake says Happy Birthday Avengers – that is what he wanted according to dh who took him to pick out the cake. The flowers are for his sisters.
We were not planning on any gifts as the night out was supposed to be it but the sisters wanted to get him gifts so we obliged. They are all looking at the the Dangerous Boys Book.

How about you have your celebrated anything with your family lately?

Less is More Challenge–Master Bedroom

Yes friends it is time to launch the Less is More Challenge for May 2012. Our goal it to reduce our possessions by 20% this month. To begin we will be starting in our Master Bedrooms. I know a bit of a change for most of us. I know that for me the bedroom is often last on the list. I know that I normally start my weekly cleaning in the living room and kitchen,
I have my reasons for starting in our bedrooms though. There is a certain satisfaction and a feeling of relief when you can retire to a room that is peaceful and tranquil.
Tackling the Master Bedroom
There is no need to do all of this in one day. Our goal is to finish the master bedroom in one week.  Truth be told I did my closet and bureau  throughout one afternoon. The easy part is the math, simply count how many of each category you have and take out 20 % of those items.  But to help you out I have some guidelines below to follow.
The Closet -
We are going to start with our clothes, next to our bed they take up the majority of the space in our bedroom. To make this easy lets assume that you keep all your clothes in your closet. I know you probably do not but lets go through it. Lets be real, how often do you do laundry? I know that at my house it is a daily occurrence, having said that let’s think critically how many of each particular item do we really need. Keep in mind that you are probably wearing 20 % of your clothes 80% of the time.
I am going to make this as easy as I can for everyone. It is simple math. I only want to you to work my category of clothing at a time. I have listed them below for you. If a category does not fit you skip it! Easy Peasy. The easy math part is this take out all of your, lets say sweaters, lay them out on the bed. Count them. How many do you have?  Now look at those sweaters if you were packing for a trip which ones would you take? Yup those are your favorites and the ones you probably wear 80% of the time.
Now lets count how many sweaters you have. Let’s say you have 10, easy time to let go of 2.
My second point when it comes to clothing is how often do you do laundry a week? If you are like me and do it more than once a week, more like once a day do you really need 10 of anything?  Probably not. Most likely some of your clothes are showing signs of wear and tear, are out of date, don’t fit you well, or you never liked them. Okay it is time to tackle that closet.
Sweaters – we are going to let go of 20% of these this week, take a few minutes and pull out all of your sweaters. Count them. Really, Yes I said count them. If you have 10 sweaters, chances are you are not wearing them all. Some probably have seen better days, some are probably too small, some are only good for those Ugly Christmas Sweater Parties. Okay take a real critical look at ALL of your sweaters. With 10 sweaters you will let go of 2 with 5 just 1. Simple easy math here friends. 20% less sweaters just like that.
Sweatshirts – Okay lets face it do you still have sweatshirts from 20 years ago? I know we do. But again how many sweatshirts do you wear in a week? I don’t wear sweatshirts everyday, even if I were to wear sweatshirts everyday I don’t necessary get them dirty each time I wear them, therefore I don’t need to wash them and I can probably make do with 3 or 4 shirts tops. But lets say I have 7 sweatshirts, I would let go of one, poof 20% less sweatshirts.
 Workout Clothes/Swimwear  – Okay moment of truth here. We all have work out clothes, but are you working out? If you when is the last time you culled your workout clothes, chances are some do not fit anymore, whoo, hoo! They are too big or have stretched out, or have faded. If you participate in road races, how many race t-shirts do you have? Can you wear them all? Time to cull. I know that when I did this I was happy to get rid of some clothes that never really fit me the way I liked.
Jeans – this is an other area many of us tend to accumulate samples in. We have nice jeans, work jeans, colored jeans, jeans with bling. I will make it easy for you. Jeans can be worn more than one time before washing them. Simply hang them back up between weariings. As long as I don’t spill or get mud on my jeans, even work jeans I save them for another day. Now I live in the country so work jeans for outside work are essential, for most people we all need a pair to jeans to do yard work in. Perhaps you need 2 pairs of work jeans if you work outside on a daily basis. Most of us can make do with a good pair of dark wash dressy jeans too. You know the kind you need to go run errands or go to a kid’s soccer/baseball game. I am willing to bet many of you have more than 3 pairs of jeans though. So now is the time to look at them, are they in good shape? do they fit? Count them. Multiply by 20% and figure out which ones no longer work for you.
Work Clothes  For those of us working outside the house, do you need different clothes that are specific to your job? Scrubs perhaps, or dressier clothes than what you would wear at home. Are all of you work clothes in good shape? Do they all still fit? Time to cull. I am working on this one I have more dresses than I can wear in one week. 
Church Clothes  Okay I will say that in our family we do dress up for Church. But I will also say that the clothes are not exclusive to church, We can wear our church clothes to school/work and for special occasions. Take stock of these clothes and lets see what we do wear and does not work for us.
Pajamas – time to throw out those all ratty pj’s tops and bottoms, clean out that drawer.
Undergarments and Socks  match up the socks, go through the undergarments, do they all fit and are they in good shape?
Shoes  Our feet change shape and size throughout our lives, do all of the shoes fit? Do you wear them all? Are they in good shape? how many days of the week do we have? Do you wear more than one pair of shoes a day? Then we  probably only need 10 pairs of shoes tops. I know I like shoes too.

Don't worry if it takes several days to go through your closet and drawers. Don't worry if your spouse is not on board yet. They will soon be when they see the new space in the closet.

Remember you are doing this for you. The benefits of downsizing your wardrobe can be numerous.

Have you joined the Less is More Challenge? You can jump in anytime.
Let me know how you are doing leave me a comment below.

Birthday Boy

this baby face is now 8  and is taking his own pictures!
Today my youngest turns 8. Where does the time go?  It seems like just yesterday he was a little boy. Now he wears a size 4 shoe, no biggie but his 11 year old sister wears the same size. (hence her nickname Peanut).
He is growing up and I can’t wait to see what sort of man he grows into. For now I am hoping he will be like the young man that Rudyard Kipling was writing to.
IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
‘ Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!

7 Quick Takes

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Last week was one the craziest of the year for us here. We had our normal crazy Tuesday night, but it was also the week before the Madonna House Tea and Fashion Show. This was my first foray back into volunteer fundraising in a long time. Not only was I involved but the girls also modeled.

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Not only did we have the Tea and Fashion Show last Saturday morning we celebrated Pumpkin’s First Communion. Some of you may have read the story of how he made his “first”  First Communion when he was 5 1/2, but he felt he missed out on the celebration with all of his friends, some of who he has known for over 5 years.

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I can’t imagine how special it was for him to have his Dad on the altar.That would be Deacon G, making the bunny ears behind Pumpkin.

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Peanut finished up her track season last week too. According to her Dad she was real good form. I believe him.

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This time next week Deacon G will be in Ireland. He is going over to visit Father Kirby at Silverstream Priory. He will be gone for 10 days. Pray that not only does his trip go well but that all goes smoothly here at home.
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As if all this was not enough in the span of 7 days, Peanut (in the blue shorts, center) tried out and is now a Jr. High  Cheerleader. For those of you in our part of the country (Oklahoma) this is a BIG deal. Even bigger still is that I am a Cheer mom. Yup, but not that kind of Cheer mom.

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I have some talented and smart kids. we recently found out that Pi  yes this one that wins academic awards every year scored in the top 2 % of a National Exam. We sat her down and had the “talk” with her. You know the one about performing up to your abilities.
For more 7 Quick Takes head on over to Conversion Diary