St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

Madeleine's teacher asked me to find several moms who are willing to dress up as a saint and make a presentation to both 1st grade classes as an enrichment program to their religion class. Of course I volunteered! Her teacher suggested I present St. Elizabeth Ann Seton since she is the patron swing if catholic schools, so I hit busy reading up on her life and putting together a costume. The kids asked lots of great questions and really seemed to enjoy the presentation. I hadn't told Madeleine about it beforehand, so she was totally surprised when I arrived in costume. And of course the first thing she wanted to do when we got home was put the costume on. I love seeing her so excited about learning her faith!

Chili Recipe

I tried a new chili recipe tonight... A group of my friends from CKS and I signed up to take dinner to the two auction chairs this evening and I was "assigned" the entree.  In other words, I was the last one to respond to the group text and everyone else had already claimed the salad, bread, wine, and dessert catagories.  So one of the girls sent me this recipe.  It was delicious!  I doubled it since we were taking dinner to two families and I wanted enough for our dinner as well.  It made a LOT of chili!

Male Chauvinist Chili

1 lb ground beef

6 slices bacon

1 lb sausage

1 large red onion, chopped

1 bell pepper, chunked

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 to 1 jalapeño, minced

1 cup dark red wine

1/2 cup Worchestershire sauce

1 tsp dry mustard

1 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp celery seed

1 1/2 tsp chili powder

1 1/2 tsp salt

3 15oz cans tomatoes, chopped

1 15oz can pinto beans

1 15oz can garbanzo beans

1 15oz can kidney beans


Preparation Steps:

1.     Fry, microwave or bake bacon; crumble and set aside. Brown beef and sausage; drain and set aside. Cook onion, bell pepper, jalapeño and garlic in a little oil over low heat, 2-3 minutes. Add wine and Worcestershire sauce, and simemr 10 minutes, uncovered. Add mustard, chili powder, salt, pepper and celery seed. Add tomatoes with their liquids. Stir in meats. Simmer 1/2 hour. Add beans with their own liquids. Simmer 1 hour.

Tired Baby

So... this morning after breakfast Charlotte just laid down on the floor next to her baby doll and cuddled up with her blankie.  I'm guessing she wasn't quite ready to get up-and-at-'em yet.   Poor kid doesn't have to be at Mother's Day Out until 9am but has to be out the door at 7:30 to get big sister to school on time.  It's hard being the third kid.

Goofy Kids

The backyard remodel is almost complete and we have moved the dining table and chairs off the porch and out into the yard under the arbor.  For the porch, we purchased a double chaise and two swivel chairs.  The double chaise was my idea - I love to sit with my feet up (since I am so short, I haven't ever met a patio chair that allows my feet to touch the ground when sitting).  It turns out, the chaise is also very popular with the kids, especially when Mommy is sitting in it.  Tonight it turned into a major goof-off party with the kids trying to be silly for the camera.  I was just trying to get a lovely picture of the three of them cuddling on the chaise.... never.gonna.happen.mom.

CKS Valentine's Day Party

It was "Jump Rope for Heart Day" as well at Valentine's Day at CKS today, so the kids got to wear a red shirt instead of their uniform today.  Between jump roping in the morning and the class party in the afternoon, it was a busy day for the 1st graders!  One of the mom's got all the girls in Madeleine's class together for a picture - you can see how Madeleine still likes to be the center of attention when the camera comes out.  :-)

Now Presenting...

Madeleine presented her report on the state of California today to the whole class and all the parents in attendance.  She did a great job and did not seem nervous at all, even though she was the first to present!

Kids' Class Valentines

Madeleine's: I'm CRAZY for you Valentine! (with a crazy straw)

James's: Valentine, you make my heart bounce! (with a bouncy ball)

Charlotte's: ORANGE you glad we are friends? Happy Valentine's Day! (with a cup of mandarin oranges)

Cherub Choir

This Sunday was Madeleine's third performance at a Mass with the CKS Cherub Choir.  The choir consists of 1st and 2nd graders who like to sing (it is a volunteer choir, not a part of the school curriculum).  They did a great job!

Family Interview

Tonight we completed the last item on the "to-do" list for James' application to Christ the King School for next year - the Family Interview.  The interviews are something new the school had added to the application process this year.  My understanding is that it is just another chance for a school representative to interact with your child, see the parent/child dynamic, and give the parents a chance to ask any questions they still might have.  We decided to leave the girls with a friend and just took James with us, since he was the focus of the interview.  We met with Ms. Muelschen, the Vice-Principal, and I think it went well.  James answered all her questions about what he liked to do at school (cutting work), what his favorite color was (Gold, one of the CKS school colors - and, no, I did not tell him to say that), what he liked to eat (Chick-fil-a), etc.  She asked us what we thought James did well and what areas we would like to see him improve.  Since we have already been through Kindergarten with Madeleine, we didn't really have any questions about what it would be like, but we did mention how much we enjoyed having Mrs. Clark (hint, hint).  Now, I guess we just have to wait to see if he gets in. But I'm not really worried...

I'm Not Ready Yet!

Well, it is only February 6th and I already have two clients who have sent me their information to prepare their 2012 tax returns.  Wow, that seems early!  I am not quite ready for tax season to start, but perhaps this means it will be over earlier?  Ha! Who am I kidding? There will always be those last-minute returns to prepare... you know, like our own.  :-)

State Report - California

We have officially finished Madeleine's first school report!  As part of her social studies and science classes, each child was assigned at state to research, write a report on, and decorate a puzzle piece in the shape of their state with at least three of the landforms they discovered their state had during their research.  Madeleine was assigned the state of California.  The questionaire they were required to fill out included questions like: 

What is the capitol of the state? (Sacramento) 

What is the state bird? (California valley quail)  

What is the state tree? (redwood)

Name one interesting fact about your state: (It was the first state to have an official state insect = the dog-faced butterfly.)

Name three landforms in your state: (the Sacramento River, the Central Valley, Mount Whitney)

They also had to draw a picture of the state flag.

The report she was required to write had to have at least 5 sentences, but no more than 10, had to have a topic sentence and a concluding sentence, and had to describe the three landforms she chose to report on in the questionaire.  Here is her report: 

There are three things in California that I find very interesting.  The first is the Central Valley.  It was formed by uplifts, has earthquakes, and is home to lots of farming.  Mount Whitney is interesting because at 14,505 feet, it is the highest mountain in the lower contiguous 48 states.  Lastly, the Sacramento River is the largest river in California and is used for creating power and watering crops.  These are the three things I found most interesting when studying about the state of California.

She will have to read this report in front of her class and all the parents in attendance next week. So, we will be practicing it a lot over the weekend!

The final part of the project involved decorating a puzzle piece (all the of states, when put together, make a map of the US) with the three landforms.  We chose to cover the piece in tissue paper and glue, then used a blue pipecleaner for the Sacramento River, green puff balls for the Central Valley, and used brown playdough to make mountatins.  She decided to make Mount Whitney dark brown and then used the light brown playdough to form the other mountains in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Coastal Mountains.

She really enjoyed doing the report - particularly the research and the decorating of the puzzle piece.  Each day since the report was assigned, she asked to work on it and was very concerned that we got it done on time.  Her eagerness probably had something to do with the fact that I let her use my iPad to do research, but that's ok with me!  If I am able to do it, I'll try to take a video of her presenting to the class and post it here.  I'm sure she is going to do great!

Brisket in the Crockpot - So Easy!

So tonight we had brisket for dinner - I knew it was going to be a busy day and I wouldn't have much time to make dinner after swim lessons, so I decided to try a new crockpot recipe.  It was so easy! Last night I coated a 3lb beef brisket in a dry rub (I just used my Salt Grass dry rub mix) and let it marinate overnight in the fridge.  This morning I put the brisket in my medium-sized crockpot, poured a can of Dr. Pepper over it, put the lid on and set it on low.  10 hours later, it was perfectly done!  Just before leaving for carpool, I mixed some baby carrots in honey, cinamon, salt, pepper and a little olive oil and put those in my small crockpot and set it on high.  They were ready at the same time at the brisket, so I steamed a head of cauliflower while I shredded the brisket and set the table and then dinner was ready.  The kids loved it and I think it will make great leftovers in a few days in either brisket quesadillas (for the kids) or brisket tacos.  I would totally use this recipe again!

How Can It Possibly Be February Already?

Wow. This past week just flew by. And somehow we landed in February? That totally just snuck up on me... time to get the Valentine's Day decorations out!

So what happened this past week...

Tuesday I spent the morning at CKS at their final open house for the year. The principal asked me to be a member of the parent panel this go-around, so basically I sat at a table with three other parents and answered any questions prospective parents had about the school. We had another large group attend, even though the deadline for applications for next year had passed. I had a ton of fun talking about something I am really passionate about - my kids Catholic education.

Mom had her surgery last Thursday - it went very well and she has been recovering nicely in the ICU. Brannon did a great job with her anesthesia and she woke up from surgery very alert and without much pain. Her blood pressure has been a little low, so the surgeon is keeping her in the ICU just to be on the safe side. Barring any complications, she should be out of the hospital in the next few days.

Last Thursday I also went up to Madeleine's school to help out with Catholic Schools Week. I had originally signed up for playground duty, but one of the 1st grade teachers was out for jury duty so I stayed to help out with lunch duty as well so her aide would have a break. I love my kids and all, but I honestly don't know how these teachers handle twenty-something first graders all the time. I would be totally exhausted at the end of the day! Just having 20 first grade Girl Scouts for two hours in the afternoon makes me crave a glass of wine like you wouldn't believe!

Friday went by in a flash as Charlotte had Little Gym in the morning and Madeleine had only a half day of school. I decided we should go on an "all girls lunch" since it was just the three of us girls, and of course Madeleine picked La Madeleine. After we picked James up from school, I took the kids to get haircuts and then we went of for a visit with Mom at the hospital. Brannon left on a flight to Lubbock for a speaking engagement and we returned to the house for an early bedtime. I am pretty sure I was way more tired than the kids were.

We spent a low-key weekend visiting Mom and hanging around the house. I volunteered in the Nursery at church this morning during the 9:30am Mass, so I got up early to go to 8am Mass by myself. It sure is a different experience without the kids! After church we had lunch and did a little patio furniture shopping - the backyard remodel should be finished this week, so our dining table will be moved out from the porch to the new arbor, leaving room for us to put a couch and a couple of chair next to the fireplace on the back porch. We still haven't found exactly what we are looking for I think, so the search shall continue.

I did some CPA work after dinner, made lunches for tomorrow and now I think it is time to start getting ready for bed. Time to start a new week!