A great find at St. Vincent DePaul's

This is a awesome Pyrex pot I found at St. Vincent's for $3.00 and I just love it. I can cook the childrens mac n cheese, drain it and serve it all from the same pot instead of having to dirty a colendar and then put the mac back in. Yeah! Makes mama's life easier.

The best thing about summer...

BERRIES!!!!

And fresh fruit and veggies. There are such wonderful things you can cook and bake with them like pies.
Today the boys and I ran to Triple B Farms- a local farm here- and picked up some fresh berries and apples for fresh eating with yogurt and for pies. Oh, do I love to bake. Another wonderful farm in the area called Sand Hill Berries makes a delicious pie with blueberries, cherries and raspberries but since its pretty pricey I just took there idea and make my own- no cherries today though.

Here are the pies before I put them in to bake. Note that I make 2 smaller pies instead of 1 larger pie sometimes to please everyone in the family. Usually it is 1 berry and 1 apple like today.







All done

Manny in the Sink

I let Manny enjoy a Yummy Earth Lollypop this morning in his highchair so that I could get some laundry folded and he needed a good bath afterwards so I gave him one in the kitchen sink and he loved it. I took some video as well and I'll try to get that up later. He is sucking in his fat belly in the picture above.

Just push play below-

A Little Boys Dream...

As I type this my lil boy is living the dream at 10:00 p.m. We had a water main brake in the alley behind our house tonight and they are working on it right now. It is perfectly out our schoolroom window and you can see right in the hole they are digging with a lighted backhoe and dumptruck. I told my husband that Mason will probably be there all night till we hear a thud and he passes out.

Our Boys

Aren't they just the cutest! Mason just loves his brother. I pray it stays that way.

Just a little something for Memorial Day

I dont usually have much luck with this but my aunt sent me a really cool link for Memorial Day and I wanted to share it. Here it is...

http://www.usba.com/memorialday/

I hope it works. It really makes you think about our soldiers and how awesome they are and how lucky we all are to have people willing to die for our country.

Babies are just so silly

Just push play....




There is nothing on that spoon!

I'm Soooo Tired!

Yes I am. I haven't posted because we have been moving the past week. It all happened so fast and its not easy to move with 5 children- one being a teething baby- makes it even harder but its all worth it. God answered our prayers and we are now in a 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom, large spacious home with an attic every child dreams of. I am beyond happy and thankful! There are only three things I had to give up for this great home.
1. My yard- or a yard period. I have a fenced in cement patio now with a tiny little bit of dirt that will be the home of 2 blueberry bushes, raspberries and strawberries. As much as I can cram in!
2. My dishwasher! Oh, how I miss you already. I told my hubby we are going to have to use 2 dish strainers for the amount of dishes our family of 7 uses. And I LOVE to cook.
3. Whole house air. Sadly missed. I can't even talk about it.

But its great here. We are in my husbands churches- he's Anglican, I'm Catholic- Parish house. We can both walk to church since his is right next door and the Roman Catholic Church is two blocks down-a very large, steep hill- and to the left. And the Byzantine Catholic is two blocks up- that steep hill and two blocks to the right. Today I walked to the Roman Catholic one. Mary, Mother of the Church. It was a very nice mass with guitar and tambourines rather than organ and I liked it. It's beautiful inside and I can go to the 9:00 mass and be home in plenty of time for my husband to go to 11:00. Next week I want to walk up to the Byzantine Liturgy but I need to get there mass schedule.

I will try and get some pictures up soon. Happy Memorial Day and God Bless all our soldiers. Please pray for them and thank them too!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, another birthday has come and gone. I turned 37 on Mothers Day. And surprisingly again I'm just fine with aging, dare I say even happy? I keep expecting to feel abit sad ever year when I wake up and I'm a year older and I don't. I can honestly say I just feel happy and thankful to God for the wondering family he has trusted me with and the life he has given me. What is there to be sad about. I have a wonderful husband, 5 beautiful children here with me and 2 more waiting and praying for us in Heaven, good health, enough to get by so I can stay home and raise and educate our children. Sure, I would still love that small family farm some day but it will come with God's grace and prayer if its meant to be. And I truly believe that so I'm at peace with it. Everything we have and don't have is a gift from God. Sometime its hard to keep everything in perspective and remember that. Just cause we want something doesn't mean its ours to have or that its good for us. Everything we have is a gift from God and we have to trust in him. Its hard, I'm not saying its easy at all. Especially when we know our friends and family may not always agree with the way we do things but just try and remember who will you answer to in the end? Not your friends, not your parents, not even your husband and certainly not the stranger at Walmart who not so kindly asks "Are they ALL yours?"
Looking back over my life and especially the last 12 years, every time I have trusted in Him we have been blessed. With each new child there has been a raise or promotion, just a lil more to help us get by. And we have been praying for a bigger home-right now we are in a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom- which we are thankful to have but our prayers have been answer by my husbands parish asking us if we would like to rent their large 5 bedroom 3 bathroom parish house since their Priest bought his own home. What a blessing!
Speaking of blessings, here's my lil guy teething on the tablecloth at Bravo. My friend Sue took Madison and I out there for our birthdays Friday night. She's another one of our blessings, she's so good to us.

Lots of Laundry

This is what happens in a family of 7 when mom takes her birthday weekend off, 4 huge piles of laundry. Now keep in mind this doesn't include my hubbies or the load of Manny's cloth diapers. My man generally washes his own clothes because he has some sort of special method that I just don't quite understand but I am very thankful that he's happy to do it himself. I can do anything of his that goes in the dryer only.
One of my favorite things about summer is the lighter laundry load. I'm not crazy about the heat but I do love that it almost cuts the laundry load in half! It's not even the washing, drying and folding thats hard for me, its getting it all separated and put away. I'm hoping when we move to a bigger home to come up with a better method. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a giant laundry room that had shelves for everyones clothes along with a shower so that you could just have it all in the same area? Life would be so much easier if you could just shower, dress and wash your clothes all in one big ol room.

Cutie Pie

Oh my, my lil guy is cutting teeth and I am so tired. It's 2:00 a.m. and I just wanna sleep. Can you believe this adorable lil guy is keeping me awake? I have to admit that a few years ago I would have been wallowing in self pity right now. Crying and complaining to myself because I was being kept awake but now I just feel sorry for him and the pain he is feeling. He doesn't want to be awake either and he's only awake because he's hurting. I dont know if I handle these things better now because I'm older and I know what to expect, because I know he may be our last baby so I better just enjoy every moment, or because I had prayed for Gods grace and peace so much during my pregnancy with him but I have been able to find peace and even joy in the hard times with this precious lil boy and I am so thankful to God for that.

Mmmmm, Blackberry Cobbler

This is sooo yummy.

I had a coupon for Border's lastweek for 40% off of 1 book and since my birthday was coming and I love cookbooks I went for The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond. It has great pictures and recipes.

I halved this one and baked it in my cast iron skillet.

This is the complete recipe- not in 1/2 but its so simple to increase or decrease the size of this one.

Preheat oven 350- bake about an hour.

Ingredients-

1 stick of melted butter

1 1/4 cups of sugar plus 2 Tlbs. for spinkling

1 cup of self-rising flour

1 cup of milk

2 cups of blackberries- or any berry

Just melt the butter in the micto and wisk 1 cup of sugar, flour and milk together then wisk the butter in. Put in grease dish and drop in the rinsed and dryed berries. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup sugar now and then 2 Tlbs. again just about 10 mins before you take it out of the oven.

So good, so simple.

Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

These are just the best!

1 1/2 sticks of softened butter

1/2 block softened cream cheese

Cream those 2

add 3/4 cups of sugar

add 1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

in seperate bowl sift

2 cups of flour with

1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

1/4 teaspoon of salt

Mix all and refrigerate for about 4 hours or more

Divide cold dough and roll on floured surface to about 1/4 inch.

Brush tops with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 350 for 8 - 10 mins.

Mac N Cheese Recipe For Minnie

Hi Minnie. This is for you. Love ya.

Mac n Cheese-

2c small curd cottage cheese
1c sour cream
1 egg slightly beaten
3/4 tsp salt
2c sharp cheddar cheese
7oz elbow macaroni

Cook macaroni-mix all ingredients
Bake in 350 oven 25-30 minutes

This is so yummy and it's great in a crock pot at parties.

My Oldest Baby is 12 Today!

Wow, I can't believe it. My oldest child is 12 today! She is growing up to be such a beautiful- dare I say it- young woman! She's not to crazy about growing up. She loves being a child. She's not one of those who always want to be older than they are, quite the opposite most of the time. I'm so proud of her and I just love her sooooo much! Happy Birthday Honey.

Babies Sleepin and I'm Bloggin Like Crazy Today

Since the babe is taking a good nap and the children are playing together I thought I might as well take advantage of it and put up things I have been wanting too but just cant get around to it. I started this blog for our family when I was pregnant with Manny and loved doing it as a record for us- like a scrapbook but easier- and I wonder why people who had them didn't post everyday and now I'm lucky if I can every week. When he's napping there are just so many things to do like clean, school, cook, garden, laundry, and just play with the other children to name a few. It's so hard to decide.
Oh, and I have been watching that show called Hoarding, Buried Alive, and I could go on and on about that and myself. I think I'm a organized hoarder! So, I have been trying so hard to give things away. I will try and post more about that struggle later. Here are some pictures I have been wanting to post.


Mason made this with the Elemental Blocks. Isn't it cool.




More Pictures from the Children at Round Hill Park in March



Mason and the Goose



Round Hill Park




My big guy swimming at the YMCA




Last week at the South Side Works- FUN

Manny's baptism went great. He was so good and so were all the other children who were there at Mass. His Godmother has 7 and his Godfather has 3 and with our 5 plus a few more I was worried but all went well. He is wearing my gown from my baptism that all the children have worn, he looked beautiful!
I know alot of friends and family think we're crazy for having 5 children and welcoming what God gives us but I couldn't imagine life with out any of them- yes, even when they drive me crazy- and I miss the 2 that are in Heaven and know that someday we will all be together. Its a struggle for us to live this way- to trust that He knows whats best, well, let me put that another way, we know He knows whats best and that He will only give us what we can handle, what the struggle is is keeping the faith and not worrying about what others think and trying to remember that is usually only because they worry about us financially. Okay, I'll quite babbling now.

Manny trying to keep quiet during Mass. Everytime he's start fussing I would give him his ribbon to chew on and he loved it.




Out in my neighbors yard.

Yesterday was a Good Day!

Yesterday we had a big day. First it was off to the new Childrens Hospital for a trip to the dentist for all 4 children with teeth. I have to say it went well. The oldest 2 girls have all the adult teeth now and no baby teeth left. I cant believe it. They only have one tiny start of a cavity each. Marlee is cavity free- Yeah Marlee! And Mason has a few- yuck. But he was so brave, he just jumped right up in the chair and volunteered to go first. I have to say I like the new hospital much better than the old so far.
Next we went to our favorite spot to eat on Mondays when we are in town- Spaghetti Warehouse, yum. The have one of the best family specials going on Mondays. You can get 2 kids meals per 1 adult for $1.99 each and that includes a drink, soup, salad or applesauce, entree' and a dish of ice cream! Oh, and it goes up to age 12 not 10 like most. Our whole family ate- drinks included- for under $30.00 but thats not including tip and since my hubby and I were both servers we do tip accordingly or we just feel to guilty later if we dont.
Then we went to the Aviary. Thanks to my very good friend- and Godmother to some of them- She was kind enough to get us a year membership for Christmas to the Childrens Museum which is right by the Aviary so they have a dual membership thing going so anyway I paid the difference and now we can go to both free all year. Tommy's best friend- also a Godfather- did that for the children this year for the Zoo too. We are so thankful for these awesome gifts that just keep in giving all year.
Anyway, here are some picts from yesterdays trip and I hope to get more up later when Tommy comes home and I can get them from his phone- mine ran out of battery.
We had such a great time and it was a beautiful day, just perfect weather.

Have you noticed I love taking picts of the children from behind. I just think they look sooo cute.




Mars and the Penguins




Nasa watchen the Penguins




Mo being LOVED by the Lories




Madi loven the Lories




Masey with the Lories




Nasa and Daddy with the Lories