Catechism Can Be Fun!

Last night we went to the store to walk up and down the aisles so the boys could make their Christmas want lists. Their choices for what they put on their lists really reflected their personalities. With Jacob anything went didn't matter how big or how small, from a laptop to toys from the dollar bin; mainly action figures or additions to sets he already has. He's putting a lot of faith into Santa can bring him just about anything his heart desires. Joey who is also still a believe in the jolly old guy, chose things that just so happened to have sale tags, even though some of the sale prices we well over $100. He chose a lot of games and things to use for make believe games. Jordan who has things figured out was also considerate of mom's wallet and looked for some of the less pricey things. He has a bunch of computer and video games on his wish list along with to my surprise workout equipment.

Yesterday Joey also brought home a progress report (Jacob claims he did not receive his, although he usually has pretty decent grades anyways) and he is doing awesome this year. He has managed to pull up all his grades and is at honor roll standing as of now. Joey has not had a honor roll qualified report card/progress report since maybe first grade. To acknowledge how proud I was of just how well he has been doing and how hard he has been trying, I gave him a DVD that I had put away from Christmas that he has been wanting to see since this past summer.

What our poinsettia craft should
 look like when it finished.

Using pencils to help attach tissue
 paper to the Advent wreaths.

Today was another fun filled day around here. We started off a bit bumpy but quickly found our groove. Waking up late, then locating the van under several inches of snow and finally racing off to catechism for a family workshop. Being new to the parish I wasn't sure what the workshop was all about. We started off with a short service, then spilt off into groups for a round robin of crafts. Our first stop was practicing some Christmas carols. The boys sung very loudly which the choir director enjoyed, even though they were completely off key and displayed their lack of rhythm (they inherited from their mother). Then we were headed over to listen to a story a little girl and the first poinsettia, the story took up all of our allotted time and we were given a poinsettia craft we could complete at home. I love the idea they used by having the shape of our home state as the poinsettia pieces, upper peninsula for the green parts and lower peninsula for the red. We made an Advent wreath at our next stop. Even though we are starting the third week of Advent, this a project we will be able to set out next year. The boys almost had their whole wreath completed when it was time to go to our last. I think the last session was my favorite! We learned about the meaning of Posadas. A large part of the congregation is Hispanic which made this very interesting for us. Father explained what Posada was all about and those who knew Spanish and the Posada Song. Half the church sang part and the other half sang the response. Father also explained the religious significance of piñatas.  Then everyone gather in one of the hallways and all the children participated in the piñata game. Those who knew the song sang during the game, sung if for every child. Once the candy was spilled and gather by the excited children, it was time to head home.



Jacob getting ready to
take a whack at the piñata.
(and everyone else waiting
 nicely for their turn)

I am very proud of my boys, after gathering some of the candies, they gave it away to some of the younger children. The candy contained dyes (which we don't do) and they thought the younger ones would enjoy it. They were given some chocolate candies and some praise from the priest. I took a few minutes to ask the Father how I would go about locating a "baby Jesus" for our Rosca de Reyes. Knowing that someone in the congregation had to know, the people at Meijer looked at me like I was crazy when I asked them which aisle they would be in. The church actually had some and offer to give us a few when we attended church later in the evening.

After our family workshop, it was a quick lunch and to watch the new DVD again. After the movie the boys couldn't stay inside anymore knowing there was all that snow outside. After bundling everyone up and getting some friends to join them, they spent an hour outside. They would have stayed out much longer but it was time for evening mass.

I had hoped the fresh air would wear the boys down some so the would be settled for mass, not the case this time. After an hour of all 3 fidgeting and practicing sign language instead of paying attention, I was ready to go home. It just happened that they were serving soup tonight following mass, and Jordan told Deacon we would be glad to join them. I couldn't figure out how to tell Deacon "thanks, but no thanks", so we fellowshipped while we ate soup. I'm glad we did stay as we were able to meet some of our fellow parishioners.

The boys had hoped to play outside again once we were home, but seeing no other kids were out opted for another movie. It was a long and busy day, but we had so much fun. While I had planned to wait until after Christmas to work on our Christmas Around the  World, it worked out well that we were able to learn about Mexico from people who practice the traditions.

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Over Crazed about Christmas

Sorry there has been no post, things have been crazy busy around here. I am realizing that I try to cram too much into every holiday. Now that my boys are getting older and busier it is harder to get all the fun holiday themed activities in before the actual holiday. While they are in school I have the time to sit and plan things for us to do because I feel like I have all the time in the world. Once 3 o'clock rolls around there is very limited time to do all the fun things I had planned. While I usually have 2 kids with down time while the other one participates in their activity, I'm holding out hope to complete all my ideas as a family.

With that said Christmas Around the World is getting pushed back to our Christmas break, so we will be able to enjoy the activities more and not feel so rushed. Pushing Christmas Around the World back will allow time for our Christmas traditions and some Christmas shopping. We'll still be following Advent Adventures daily and reading our 22 Books for Christmas (and A Christmas Carol). This weekend I'm making a point to finally complete our last bucket list item and make bake apples.

There is less than 2 weeks before Christmas and my boys still haven't made their wish lists. Not watching TV tends to make it harder for them to rattle off a list of things they want, they just don't know what new toys are out there. Soon we'll be heading to the store with a pencil and paper to create their lists. A couple years back I started doing thins with the boys and they love it. We walk up and down the aisles and they bring me the items they want and I write them down (as well as the price). This has helped eliminate some of the toys they think they want, but turn out not being what they thought. Playing with a toy in the store you can see if it as cool as the box claims (or if it looks like it would break easily). We'll be doing this this weekend because it tends to take a couple hours to check out all the toys.

Next week we'll  be cooking cookies, making gingerbread men, and gingerbread houses, and possible trying to make some fudge. Oh, I guess we better add Christmas shopping seems the boys haven't done any at all so far. There will be a couple crafts tossed in throughout the week as time allows.

I'm still working on not putting so much stress on myself to have the "perfect holidays". I make all these plans then have to back track and start crossing things off or bumping them to another time. I have to learn, I don't have to do it all for it to leave lasting memoires for my boys. It's a working progress, I'm getting better at noticing when I have given myself too much to accomplish.

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Back to Brown Bagging Lunches

As you can see from the multiple pictures I share of my boys, none of them are by any means fat. Those who know me personally know I often worry that they are too thin. However since the beginning of the school all 3 have been packing on the pounds. For my older two this is great (Jordan was almost 13 before he finally reached 100 lbs.) but I don't think they are gaining weight in a positive way. My Jacob has recently had to switch over to husky for his pants sizes. I know part of his gain is from his CVS. He is also a lot like me and craves sodium rich foods. They aren't big eaters and have (mostly) healthy snacks. I think the culprit is their school lunches. I have noticed most of their classmates are also on the "huskier side".

I know Michele Obama has set in place for healthier school lunches, but are they really that healthy. I do love that the junk foods are not in the vending machines and that students can no longer buy pop during school hours. What is really in our kids' lunches. The fruit they get comes out of huge cans, it's not fresh fruit and it's overly processed. Same with the cooked veggies; out of the can, warmed up , and handed out. Having worked as a lunch lady I can reassure you your child is not eating the cooked veggies they are served. The number of times pizza is served amazes me, for my younger guys the 3 weeks of school this month there'll be pizza 4 times; Jordan has the option to have pizza everyday for lunch. Looking at their menu, it's high starch, loaded with sugars and dyes. Three days this month the hot lunchers get an "extra" treat of a cookie or a bag of chips (I have seen last June's menu where they received cotton candy). The "extra treats" are not on days kids most likely would pass on the lunch; they're on pizza day, chocolate chip Eggo waffle day, and Chef Boyardee ravioli day.

Our elementary school does have alternatives, the students can get yogurt or salad as their main dish. Jacob has done this a few times when the main dish was something he couldn't eat. I like that there is an option. The salads vary day to day, chicken, taco, turkey, etc. but who want to eat salad everyday (I've tried it, it gets old fast). My boys don't like that everything is mixed together, on taco salad day Jacob can't get it unless he want to risk eating the cheese. The yogurt sound like a good option except its a 4 ounce sized Danimal yogurt; that's it, their main part of lunch is basically sugar.

Point being; while hot lunch is a great option for some, it does not work for us. After really looking at the menu and looking at what my kids are really eating, no wonder it is effecting their weight. No wonder all these kid seem like they are bouncing off the walls; they consume so much junk then crash, with the crash comes the moodiness and not wanting to do their work.

We have opted for brown bagging it everyday again. My boys LOVE pizza so once or twice a month they'll grab a pizza lunch from school. This way I know what they are eating and that they will have things in their lunch that they will actually eat. When they have "fresh" fruit/veggies it will be fresh from the produce department, not a can. Also they will get a larger variety of food, the hot lunch menu consist of rotating pizza (and Bosco sticks) , waffles and variations chicken (chicken rings, chicken nuggets, chicken tenders, popcorn chicken, southern chicken) with the occasional hot dog or corn dog tossed in there once or twice.

I am not one of those all organic only eat healthy foods kind of mom, although I try most of the time.
I try to teach to boys to be aware of what they put in their bodies. Not that I want them counting calories or anything like that. Just to understand which food help their bodies work more efficiently and what will bog them down. We read labels, try to keep things in moderation, and try to keep active after some "not so good for you foods". We eat food that's not good for our bodies, Heck we've even had pizza twice in one week due to crazy schedules. I love cookies and sweets (as do the boys), and don't deprive us of them. I think the key to teach balance between which fatty unhealthy foods you eat, how much, and how often.

*While the younger ones are taking lunches everyday, Jordan has chose to continue getting hot lunches. I have to trust that he's making the right choices, I can't always be there to tell him to take carrot sticks instead of two cookies.

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I'm Grateful For My Dad

I have to give a shout out to my wonderful dad. I don't know what I would do without him.

Last Thursday, there was a strange noise coming from my back brake. I'm in no way mechanically inclined, so I called dad. That night he had me switch cars with my mom so he could take a look at it. When we went down to visit on Saturday, he had fixed the brake but still needed the van for another day. He planned to fix the heat or rather lack of heat also. For the last year or so there has been no heat to the front of the van. I didn't really worry about it much because the boys had heat in the back and I did have heated seats up front. We have made do, it was what it was. As a single mom it wasn't really high on my priority list. I crochet enough blankets that if for some reason we ended up losing all heat we could muscle through. I have had a couple friends who husbands had offered to help us out, but my van is never still long enough for them to work on it. My sweet father took it upon himself this weekend to fix the heat. Last night my parents brought my van back out to us, windows cleaned (I'm really bad about the van windows), brakes fixed, and heat fixed.

This morning when we woke to snow coving everything, I was grateful for not having to stand outside with a hand held heater to defog my front window. I warmed up the van and 5 minutes later when we jumped in to take Jordan to school it was toasty warm. AAHHH!! Pure Heaven :) Jacob even said on the way to school, "Wow, it's really warm in here."

While my dad knows we would have made it through another winter on limited heat, he wasn't going to allow that to happen. He's always there for me, instead of letting my struggle he steps in and helps us out. I know I can count on him to be always be there when I need him (and even when I don't realize I need help), as well as he is there for my boys. We are very blessed to have him in our lives and we thank God for him.

Thursday must have been the day for things to break around my house, because for no reason the DVD player decided to just stop working. We watched a movie and went to swap it for another and it wouldn't read the disc.

My dad also came to our rescue with a couple DVD players when he returned my van. I am shutting off our cable for a while. We don't watch TV Monday through Thursday anyways, plus on the weekends the boys usually play their electronic games. It just didn't seem practical to keep paying for something we seldom use. We have a nice collection of movies we can watch if the mood strikes us. I have a few shows I love, but I can watch most of them on the computer.

I guess what I'm saying is thank you dad for always looking out for me and my boys. We love you and appreciate all you do for us. Your truly are a blessing and I am very lucky to have you as my dad and a Papa for my boys.

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Tree Lighting

Last night was the tree lighting for Grandma's city, seems we missed the one for our village we thought we'd attend theirs. It was bitter cold, according to my phone it was 23 degrees which means it was much colder with the wind chill. We covered just the basics while we were there and were done in just about an hour.

We stood and listened to some carolers, listen to the major's speech and watched Santa arrive on the city fire truck to receive the key to the city. After they flipped the switch to light the tree Joey wanted to stop my the cub scout tent, where we got a craft to do at home, since their glue had frozen in the bottles. They choose different pinewood derby cars to race for a bit (noting the designs of the winners for when they make theirs). Next was to see Dancer and Blitzen who escorted Santa down from the North Pole. We were not able to actually pet them, but did get to snap a few pictures. There was a petting farm area also. The kids really liked the camel best. I had left my purse locked in the van, so I didn't have any cash on me to buy animal feed. My boys picked a couple of carrot pieces from the ground to feed the camels. Jacob had his hand nibbled on by a friendly camel when he held out a small carrot stick. We spent a some time petting the other animals before spotting a multiple person bike. We took a ride on one of the two original 6 person bicycle that the decked out with Christmas lights. Being thoroughly frozen we headed to warm up our numb fingers and toes. We didn't wait to visit with Santa (although he look authentic) because there was an extremely long line and we were hungry. We'll catch up with Santa another time.


What better way to warm up then a pizza buffet. We spent more time at the buffet then we did at the tree lighting. I love the atmosphere of this one and the creative décor they have. Jacob was able to get a pizza the way he can eat it, pepperoni no cheese. After eating way too much it was finally time to head home for our carbohydrate comas that follow.

 

 

 

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Christmas Around the World- Russia

Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva is Novim Godom!

Aren't you glad you don't have to write that out on every Christmas card? All that is simply Merry Christmas in Russian. The Russian "Santa" is "Ded Moroz" which would be Grandfather Frost or more commonly known as "Father Frost".

Today we started our Christmas Around the World, for no particular reason we chose Russia. Here's some of the cool facts we found about Russia.

They celebrate Christmas on January 7th, and consider it as part of their Festival of Winter. The Festival of Winter is 39 days long, and begins at the end of November and goes until the evening of the January 6th. During the festival people exchange gifts, go to parties, go skating and go tobogganing. They also fast for 40 days. Which means not eating eggs, milk, meat, cheese, or any other food made from animals.

On January 6th dinner starts when the first star is in the sky (or if it's cloudy when it gets dark). They have 12 different courses for dinner; the 12 dishes represent the 12 apostles. Example of what their dishes may consist of; fish, cabbage, dried, fruit, and beet soup (borsch). the most traditional dish is a special porridge call Kutya (Koo-T'YA). Even during dinner they not allowed any of the "fasting foods", also alcohol/wine is not permitted. After dinner kids go door to door singing/caroling and receive treats. To celebrate people go to church, say prayers, and sing hymns and carols.

Jordan's finished Nesting Dolls

Russia is known for their babushka (Matryoshka) dolls also known as nesting or stacking dolls. While I told the boys about how Russians celebrate and the types of traditions they have, they worked on a simple nesting doll craft. I found a template for the babushka dolls on line and ran off copies. In order to "nest" them we used a bathroom cup to glue the largest doll to and placed the dolls in the cup.

To help make this a hand-on learning experience we attempted in making Kutya. The Kutya didn't go over too well. My boys are usually good about trying something new; with the exception of Joey, he likes what he knows and knows what he likes. Jacob and Jordan said it was just alright, Joey took a no thank you bite. I liked it, I wasn't something I would want to eat all the time, but it wasn't bad. It reminds me of eating oatmeal but the poppy seeds makes it taste grainy. I explained to Jacob that his ancestors from his dad's side are for Ukraine and this is what they also at during Christmas. Then I explained what ancestors meant. He cracks me up, he asked "Wow! How many Aunt Sisters do I have?" If you would like to give this porridge a try the recipe is listed below or you can try another variation which can be found on line.


Trying a traditional
Russian Christmas dish.

Joey didn't really care for it.

Kutya

 

1 cup wheat

4 cups water

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup ground walnuts

1/2 cup poppy seeds

Honey 2-3 Table spoons

 

 

1) Was wheat in cold water, then put it in a bowl or pot and soak it in water over night.

2) Pour water out, and wash wheat again. Place wheat in a pan, then add 4 cups of water and cook for a few minutes until ready, you can add more water if needed. (It didn't tell me, but you have to wait for the wheat to pop open and get gooey for it to be ready)

3) Meanwhile, put the poppy seeds in a bowl, pour water over them to cover them. Then cover the bowl and leave it stand for about 1 hour. Pour the water out and use a coffee grinder or mortar and pestle.

4) Put the raisins in a bowl of water, pour boiled water over them, cover and leave for 20 minutes or until they swell. then pour the water out.

5) When wheat is cooked, add honey, ground walnuts, poppy seed and raisins. Serve in a bowl.

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What We Have Going On

There seems to always be more than one thing going on in my house. I don't know if I should chalk it up to everyone's ADD or if we are just really good at multitasking. I think part of why my boys have a difficult time focusing on just one thing at a time is a learned behavior. I rarely do just one thing at a time. If we are working on a craft I'll have something cooking or running to switch the laundry. I read multiple books at a time and have multiple crafts for myself going at once. Daily we have many places we need to be, usually back to back with other activities.

Currently I have a couple things I make to time to do for myself. I'm still working on cross stitching stocking for the boys, Jacob's it 3/4 of the way finished (the hope it I can get it done before Christmas). I learned a new to me crochet stitch and am working on making a couple throw blankets for the boys. I just finished crocheting a queen size blanket for my bed and soon will be fixing the "small hole" in Joey's. I also have 4 scrapbooks I'm trying to catch up (this will never happen with how many pictures I take). I'm reading a book a neighbor has lent me along with re-reading one of my favorites. Jordan and I have just started reading A Christmas Carol. I'm researching for our Christmas around the world. Then there is the everyday things like getting the boys to their activities and things around the house. Oops, and blogging (how did I forget that one?).

Jordan currently also has two books (The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan & The Fire Eternal by Chris D'Lacey) going as well as the A Christmas Carol. Basketball practice or games five days a week. He also has his daily school assignments to maintain.

Joey is reading Beware the Ninja Weenies by David Lubar , The Holy Bible that he reads at his leasure and whichever book he chooses for his monthly accelerated reader through school. He is also working on a craft present for someone for Christmas, but may need to give it to them for their birthday instead (it's a slow and steady project). He has scout meeting once a week and the at home achievements to work on. Plus keep up with his school work. Then catechism once a week.

Jacob has the lightest load with scout meetings once a week as well as catechism. He's also reading multiple books, he has been working his way through The Wimpy Kid Dairies and the Magic Tree House series on top of a book of his choice for his weekly book reports.

As a family we are working towards finishing up our Fall Bucket list and planning our winter one. We are following Holy Heroes daily for Advent as well as our blue book from church. Working our way through our 22 books of Christmas. Within a week we will be working on our Christmas Around the World. Lastly attempting our 18-20 hours of outside time a week. Of course there is church every weekend also.

Thankfully we seem to do wonderfully with multitasking, I don't know how we would get everything done if we weren't. Even though we all have a lot on our plates there is always some down time to enjoy our own interests and family time together. I like that we are busy most of the time, it helps teach the importance of time management and organization to the boys (plus they love all their activities). We have also decided to easy up on our supplemental school work until after the new year.