Ordinary Time

Sometimes weekends are so eventful that one is glad to see Monday arrive. Even a Monday which signals the end of a vacation. Here are some of this past weekend's "highlights": First, many of the younger children went into a huge jag of imaginary play. Here you see TM, G., L., H., and K. They are sitting in their car (TM is driving) and are ready to leave on their trip to Arizona to visit their grandparents.  This went on for quite some time. They packed the car, would all get in and drive, stop the car, unload and sleep at a motel, get back in and drive some more. It was very cute and allowed me time to dig out my desk. I also loved it because everyone so fully entered into the imaginary world. Even TM and H. I was thrilled that both of these children were playing so whole-heartedly, but for very different reasons. I just love  seeing my children play , in general, but I also believe that only a calm and relaxed child can really play. Calm and relaxed are not...

In keeping with my desire to do more family activities for the liturgical year, I have been investigating Epiphany. First some things I have learned for those who might not be as familiar with the church calendar. As I have mentioned before, the church year begins with Advent which is comprised of the four Sundays before Christmas. It is a time of preparation, fasting, and repentance which is not entirely the way our modern culture has come to celebrate the lead-up to Christmas. Then as far as the church historical is concerned, there are 12 days of Christmas celebration, with the first being Christmas day itself and the last being Epiphany, the 12th day after Christmas. (Hence, the song, The Twelve Days of Christmas .) Epiphany is the traditional day which marks the visit of the Magi to the Baby Jesus. Of course, if I had really wanted to start this right, I would have done more research at the beginning of Advent. It might have changed slightly the way I ordered our Christmas activ...

Having made enough meatball sandwiches to serve 13 people last night using just two pounds of beef, I thought I would share my recipe. This makes a lot of meatballs, so that I even had some leftover and three people were able to have them for lunch. I'm also not quite sure how you go about halving it. I would suggest if you don't need to feed 13 people, that you go ahead and make the whole amount and freeze*** a portion of it. That way you'll have one or two meals in the freezer for the work of one. Meatballs for sandwiches 2 pounds ground beef 1 cup of rehydrated TVP (**see my note about this below) 1/2 cup wheat germ (I use raw wheat germ, but you could use toasted as well) 3 eggs ~1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese (we use Romano these days because it is made from sheep's milk) 2 tsp dried parsely 4 large garlic cloves, minced 3 tsp oregano some salt and pepper Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly. Shape into ~1 ...

I'm on an email group for adoptive parents who also homeschool. One mother posted a query asking for people's experiences of going from 3 to 4 children... Could she manage it? Is four that much more work than three? Would she have time for another child? The questions parents ask when contemplating adding another child regardless of the number. Someone else on the group suggested I post my response here as well. And that's what I'm going to do since I'm elbow deep in cleaning out my desk and discovering all sorts of unexpected items that I have let slide over the holidays. It's not been a happy morning for me, but once I get everything sorted out (by dinner, I hope) I know I will feel significantly better. So, here's my reply: I've been meaning to reply to this, but life kept getting in the way. In some ways, once you reach a certain point, adding another child just means that you throw in an extra load of laundry and start tripling everything inst...

Horrible pictures, I know, but I didn't want to use a flash and possible spook the horses. In case you can't tell, these pictures show A. and P. having their first horseback riding lessons. The lessons were a gift from my parents for Christmas and the girls were very excited about them. Very. They are riding at pretty much the only stable near us and it happens to be where I used to take lessons when I was on my university's equestrian team. Because it is the only game in town, so to speak, I hadn't done any checking on the types of trainers or horses. It's not as though my children are terribly likely to go into competitive riding, you know. But I was quite pleased with the barn. Each trainer stayed right by their respective girl the entire time and seemed very vigilant about starting good habits right away. Also, the horses seemed pretty good for lesson horses. (I've ridden some pretty bad ones, so I know what I'm talking about.) I noticed they wer...

It's 11:30 am here, and people are still straggling out of bed. Even L. slept in until 10:30, which is very, very good considering how tired she was last night. Both little girls made it until midnight, though a little worse for wear. We had a wonderful party with wonderful friends. It was a good way to start the new year. So now I have pinto beans soaking on the stove waiting to be turned into beans and ham for the new year. For my readers in the south, yes, I know they're supposed to be black-eyed peas, but I have a rather unique reason for using pintos. My paternal grandmother grew up in Louisiana and moved to Arizona as a young woman. At that time, black-eyed peas could not be found, so she settled for pintos which could be. Consequently, it was pinto beans and ham that my father grew up eating on new year's. And because this is what my father was used to eating, it is what my mother fixed every new year's, so it is what I fix for new year's. Interesting stuff...

My compulsive photo uploading continues. I'm through 2009, 2010, part of 2011, all of the China pictures, and some of 2012. This is making me feel very good as some of these pictures were merely on memory cards and not saved anywhere else. And while I wait for the photos to slowly upload, we will be making the house presentable for our New Year's Eve party this evening. J. and I once tried to go out and do the typical couples New Year's Eve-thing, but it wasn't so fun that we ever wanted to do it again. We would much rather ring in the New Year with our children and good friends, so that's what we do. We'll have at least four other families over this evening. The adults traditionally play hearts (which can be an entertaining spectator sport as well, because some of us are a wee bit competitive), the younger children run around and play, and the older children tend to talk together and play games as well. Sometimes we have become so engrossed in our game that...