New Traditions & Happy New Year

This year, since we are so close to family, we've decided to begin a new tradition and all spend the night at Mimi's & Poppy's home for New Year's Eve.  Even David's sister and her kids!

There's an exciting rivalry game between University of Kentucky and University of Louisville that starts at Noon so we'll need to be there before the tip off.  Not sure the exact plans yet, but I think someone mentioned a game of Monopoly and some movies... and Poppy has several fireworks saved from 4th of July last summer that should light up the neighborhood!

It's gonna be fun.  What are your plans?

Only 3 more sleeps!

Christmas is almost here! It's been stretched out before and after the holiday for us this year. Last weekend David took the twins to KY to have Christmas dinner with his Dad's side of the family. Nora had a Girl Scout Christmas party immediately following Mass and also they had their badging ceremony and she didn't want to miss that.  Also that evening a classmate of hers invited all the girls over from the 2nd grade and they all went door to door Christmas Caroling Sunday evening... which if we had skipped the Girl Scout thing and went with David and the twins to KY we would have had to leave very early to make it back in time... so for us it was best for Nora and I to stay here and do her things, and David and the twins go to KY for the day. :)

This weekend, we'll go watch Nora in the Children's program at Christmas Eve Mass, then wake up at home Christmas morning and have to be on the road by 11am to make it to my Dad & Clara's home for Christmas Day dinner. Then early next week David's mother will have her Christmas dinner.  Thankfully David is off work until Wednesday!

Last weekend was a busy one for us as I mentioned above with Nora's activities, plus throw in there that Olivia had a Birthday party to go to on Saturday evening.....  but the most fun thing of all was on Saturday, I baked cookies all day while the kids helped with decorating brown lunch bags that said "Merry Christmas from the Minor Family." After supper we bundled up in our warmest coats and took our jingle bells with us door to door and started a new for us tradition, Christmas Caroling! It was so fun! The kids had been begging to do it and I was much easier to convince than David.... But in the end he obliged and ended up having fun too. :)

"Jingle Bells" ~ "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" ~ "May the Good Lord Bless You" are the three songs we sang at each home.

 

So speaking of only 3 more sleeps until Christmas - are you done with everything??  I've been all done with my shopping for at least two weeks now, but something I haven't done yet is wrap A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G. Nadda. Nuttin! Notta Thing!

 

The last 2 days I've been feeling terrible.  Perfect timing with school letting out :/

It started off with aching all over (back and neck) and fever.... Then yesterday every tooth in my head throbbed while my back also ached and I was so cold and chilling with fever on the sofa. Also as of yesterday it felt like I had a HUGE ROCK stuck in my throat. Ouch!

Thankfully David came home from work and served supper to the kids and oversaw their baths... not that he wanted to b/c he was plenty tired too from all the hours he's been putting in at work. He's up and gone from our home each morning before 7am most days.

Today I'm feeling a little better. I've been keeping the ibroprofin in my system all day and that helps a lot with the throat pain. No chills or aching today, but still feels like a rock in my throat.  I might feel up to eating supper which is a big improvement!


Tonight after the kids go to sleep, I'll have to get out to the garage and *FIND* all the presents that I've tucked away here and there... and get them started on wrapping. Only 3 more sleeps until Christmas and would you believe there isn't a single present wrapped under our tree? The kids get up so early (before the sun) each day and are running downstairs to hunt for our Elf on the Shelf, that I just haven't been able to trust that they'd not unwrap anything..... so I just haven't put anything out.

 

I will hold back the gifts they told me they wanted to buy each other and let them help me with wrapping those. We'll see how good they are with secrets after they've helped me do the wrapping..... they also have gifts to each other to take to Dad & Clara's dinner - they let all the grandkids draw names at Thanksgiving but forgot about adding my kids names into the hat. No problem, Nora can draw Paul Thomas, he draw Olivia and she draw Nora. Problem solved or so I thought... then they said their limit was $10 and the gifts we already bought for each other are more in the $25 range.... So I guess I need to pick up something else to use for that.

 

I have a few things in mind...for the $10 gifts... and thankfully with David off work tomorrow, he can stay at home with them while I slip in and out of Walgreens or CVS and avoid any last minute shoppers tomorrow. 


Until then - I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas Weekend! 

CLANK-CLANK-CLANK!!!

Ever wash a pair of shoes, and remember the sound of clunk-clunk-clunk when it starts the spin cycle?  Well yesterday I was doing laundry and still close by the machine when suddenly I heard a very loud CLANK-CLANK-CLANK!!!  much louder than being off balance, or washing a pair of tennis shoes!!

Thankfully I hit the button to stop it before opening the door, b/c when I did - I found that the center piece of the washer was in about a half a dozen pieces!!  ?? How did this happen?  So I called David at work and he asked me to take a photo and email it to him so he could see how bad....  the camera took one photo and then the battery died. figures. :/

After we picked up Nora from school, I came home and loaded up this wet load and my other 2 loads of laundry and took all of it and the kids to the laundry mat with me.  We left at 4:50 and was there until about 6:30pm. 

Wanna know the crazy part.... when I was taking out all of the wet load to load up to take with me, I removed all the machine pieces, then clothes................ then I pulled out a AA Battery.... then a wooden wall CLOCK!  Yes, a clock - the kind you hang on a wall!!  About as big as a dinner plate! 

NO WONDER, it tore everything loose when it went into the spin cycle!!  Now who do you suppose did that???  At the supper table I asked if anyone had dropped a clock into the washing machine, and got three "NOT ME" replies. :/  Thankfully I think David can fix it pretty easily!  I hope!





 

St. Nicholas

 Happy Feast of St. Nicholas, everyone!

Last night before bedtime, Nora made sure to put her shoes outside of her bedroom door and Olivia and Paul Thomas quickly followed suit although they really didn't understand why.  They just did what Nora told them to do. :)  She also gathered up mine and David's and did the same with ours outside our bedroom door.

This morning the children woke up to find two lolly pops in each of their shoes!  Thank you St. Nicholas!

Nora's Habitat Diorama - The Blue Whale

I am ***SO*** glad I thought ahead, and put Nora's Science project in the front seat of the van tonight so we don't forget it tomorrow!   I'm so proud of her and her 1st "project" for school.

 

Just before Thanksgiving she brought home a sheet saying they were to choose any animal that lives in desert, rain forest, ocean, artic, or regular forest and show how they get their food, water and their shelter. 

Before I finished reading the assignment paper she was already telling me, " I want to do my natural habitat for the BLUE WHALE because it's the biggest animal or mammal on the earth Mom!  I am gonna keep my animal choice a secret and not tell any of my friends at school b/c I don't want them to copy me!"

It took me a whole day of shopping to gather the stuff we had decided we needed for our shoebox.  Hobby Lobby, the pet store for the rocks, Target are just a few of the places that I found what I needed.

Adding the facts of her blue whale to the side of the box was her idea....but we typed them b/c there was no way she could write small and neat enough... Did you know that a Blue Whale's heart is the size of a small car?? Or that it's main arteries are large enough that a human could comfortably swim inside them?

She knows so much about animals of the ocean... thanks to her Godparents (Michael & Abbey) for getting her the book "Nora the Nonapus" when she was only 3 or 4 years old. We have read that book at least 500 times and now she reads it to us! :)  Who knows, maybe one day she'll get to swim and scuba dive in the ocean and take up-close looks at all the creatures that keep her so fascinated..... 

 

Maybe Marine Biology is in her future? Who knows?  and to think I start to sufficate if I am sitting in knee keep water and try to put my face with snorkel tube and mask into the water.  true fact.

Here's a view from the top looking down - and the over all view so you can see the box top that it will sit on.

 

 

I'm looking forward to seeing what animals her classmates choose tomorrow.  Who choose desert, or forest, arctic or ocean...

 

 

 

 

 

 Oh and you know one of my favorite parts... the back of the box. :)  She wrote, "Nora Minor.  Together with Mom. Cool! Really. ♥

 

2nd Week of Advent

 

 During Advent, we are called upon to:

1) prepare ourselves to worthily to celebrate the anniversary of the Lord's coming into the world as the incarnate God of love,

2) transform our souls into holy tabernacles for the Redeemer coming in Holy Communion, and

3) make ourselves ready for His final coming as judge, at death and at the end of the world.

Advent is a season of preparation and waiting, a season filled with hope. 

 

First Sunday in Advent

 

It seems that sometime after Halloween, a catalog will arrive in the mail and I'll think about ordering new candles for the advent wreath, but then think - oh it's too early yet... and then each year before I know it, Thanksgiving comes and goes and then Advent is upon us and I'm not ready!! 

Again this year I do not have my wreath out on the table yet.  I hope that I can find all the Christmas decorations pretty easily this season.  We placed them in the basement in our new home when we moved this summer.  The kids are already excited as we drive by neighbor's homes and they see decorations.  They keep telling me, "Momma we need to get a Christmas tree TOO!!" 

I am looking forward to putting up the tree...  the hardest part for us is finding a weekend that we are all at home on a Saturday together! 

So until we are decorated for the holiday, please know that we are already preparing our hearts for Christmas.  Only 3 more weeks left.

St. Joseph Pray for Us

"Oh God, who in thine unspeakable providence did vouchsafe to choose Blessed Joseph to be the spouse of thy most holy Mother, grant, we beseech thee, that we may deserve to have him as our intercessor in heaven whome we venerate on Earth as our protector."

A sick week

There's been no school all week, b/c the kids have been on "Fall Break."  You'd think I'd have all sorts of fun stuff to report... only we've been feverish and vomiting and the doctor confirmed today that ALL THREE KIDS tested POSITIVE for Strep....*again* - We just had this in September. :/

As luck would have it, tonight was our appointment for the church directory... and there was no calling to reschugle b/c this was their last night at church.  They've been taking photos every weekend for 2 months and all this week...  GREAT. This is the worst day of the week and we'll have a photo to prove it! lol  

David drove from work and met us there and I left plenty early so that I could change the twins after I arrived...  Paul Thomas had a bath towel over him b/c today he's been my puker.  He spit up 4 times on the way there... so I'm glad I didn't have him dressed before hand. 

On the way home, both he and Nora were asleep before I even got onto the interstate. :(  Poor kidos!

Needless to say the photo lady didn't make a sale on our family... just pick the best one for the book please and let's get outta here.... 

Each New Day Is A Gift

Perhaps one of the best things about our move is that I get to see such beautiful Sunrises each morning.  In Texas David always took Nora to school on his way to work, but here I'm the school bus each day. 

Each new day is a gift... and how thankful I am to receive it!

Only $2.00 more per week

Recently we received an annual financial report from our church explaining the deficiate.
they mentioned that if each family would increase their offering gift by only $2.00 per week that they'd have enough and get caught up.

Which got me to thinking...  Every Sunday all 3 of our children eagerly hope to be the one that David gives our weekly offering envelope to so that they can place it into the basket as the usher pushes the long handled wicker basket down our pew in front of our laps...  Nora will try and get as far back as she can so that the usher has to really stretch out to get to her when it's her turn....

I remember as a child I had my very own church envelopes.  There were boxes to check if I was placing 0.25 .50 or .75 inside.  What if all 3 of my kids had their own envelopes and we did this together at home the night before after supper.

Any amount that they can share is a true gift that will be appreciated, and hopefully one day they will share this gift of giving with their own children! ;)

Praying for Rain and Texas!

 On facebook today I've seen at least a dozen ofmy Texas friends post this as their status:

Photo taken from the Beaumont Enterprise - click to go to the story

ATTENTION TX & SURROUNDING AREAS.. FIREMEN NEEDED. According to news, as of 4:15pm, the Bastrop fire is ZERO PERCENT contained. Begging for retired & any fireman to call number to help. Cannot contain town of Bastrop, 35 miles away...fire is 16 miles long, 6 miles wide, jumped Colorado river, evacuated entire town and also neighborhood called Steiner ranch of 5500* PLEASE EVERYONE REPOST EVEN IF NOT IN TEXAS.. SOME OF YOUR FRIENDS MAY BE. HELP!! Call 512-978-1187 Please REPOST

I keep checking this FIRE ACTIVITY SITE and while there are no wild fires near Orange, TX  it is so dry there that I can't help but worry about my friends and their homes.  Praying for rain and lots of it for the whole state of Texas!