Lenten Idea

Our Lenten thing is something we worked very on last year. We bought a woven wood wreath. The size and the color really aren't that important. Your goal is to have it look like the crown of thorns. We then took several packages of toothpicks and soaked them in red food coloring. As we put the red toothpicks in the wreath we talk about our sins. We then talk about how each kind action we do will help the pain be a fraction less for our Lord. This is great motivation to keep the kiddos on track for their Lenten resolutions. They can take a thorn out with each kind act or resolution followed. It helps us start the season off with a bang.

Ash Wednesday

We are such a homeschooling family. I have to laugh at us. We knew that we needed to change the pictures on the blog this week. It just wasn't OK to start Lent with Advent shots up. We took a round of great pictures on Tuesday. My very creative and thoughtful son, Bear then decided that it would be best to use Ash Wednesday pictures. I agreed. The first thing we did when we got home from Mass that morning was to grab the camera and try to get some shots. The kiddos realized that they had rubbed most of the evidence off on the way home from the church. What should any respectable homeschooling Catholic family do? Well this family should run around and gather up all the blessed palms that were hanging out around the house from last year and burn them. That is how the church does it, right?



It might have taken time away from our official school day studies but we did learn a few things. Those palms are not easy to burn. They smell nasty as they burn, so go outside. You can hide them from the wind putting them into the BBQ pit and closing the lid. The big surprise to us what that you really need a lot of palms to get a substantial amount of ashes. That being said some of our Ash Wednesday shots to the right are a tab staged (SSShhhhh!). One of them was even added today when we realized that none of the shots of one child turned out from yesterday. The artistic angle of having those pictures with ashes is cool and we did learn quite a bit.

One important questions that Pickle had after dressing like a priest from our junior Mass kit was one that we hope our friend Fr. Tom Keller can answer. How does the priest keep their clothes (the vestments) so white when they do this? Ours didn't do to well!

Mardi Gras

We all love Fat Tuesday. In our home it means that our dear friend from the New Orleans area sends the children a King Cake. These cakes are to represent the three kings and season of this cake starts at the Epiphany and ends with Lent. Our always includes the baby. Bagel found the baby king this year. She took baby Jesus to church with her to show the priest and everything. We know that the next day means sacrifice, fasting and abstaining. Fat Tuesday to us means one last day to indulge. It doesn't mean over indulgence. The Texas T family also tries to spend part of day choosing what we might like to give up for Lent and what we might like to add. This can lead to some wonderful discussions. We all try to be honest with what me might want to hang on to. As a family we have decided to really concentrate on our word usage. We use too many bad words in our home. It is bad news. We are also committed to attempt daily Mass. We are also working together in the evenings on home repairs and reading together with less time on the TV between 7 & 10 p.m. Individually the choices ranged from giving up soda, candy and coffee to avoiding Taco Bell. None of us think that is a good one because it was offered by Pickle and he hates Taco Bell anyway. Our prayer is that your family can grow closer to Him as we all spend time thinking of ways to better ourselves in His honor.

Way to go Bagel!

Moogie has a head ache!

Those of you that haven’t known us that long will not understand how worried dad and mom get when Moggie doesn't feel well. I think we feel guilty for years of being mad at her for being so crabby as a baby and a toddler. We later discovered that she had a congenital heart defect and was probably in constant pain. She also never slept real well, that would make any one crabby.

Anyway when she feels ill we tend to over react. She has learned to word it in funny ways so that dad doesn't put her directly in the car and head to the hospital. All the kiddos have had a little head ache with cold symptoms for the past few days. Moggie is one of the latest victims of this annoying illness.

She walked into our bedroom this morning while mom and dad were both working away on the computers. She wanted to tell us she had a head ache without the over reaction. These are the words she picked, interesting girl! "Just so you know, things would be great if I didn't have little green monsters in my head singing 'party over here, party over there'"

Superbowl Traditions

I just love the Superbowl even though I hate watching football. I don't love the nasty ads that are 5 to 1 to find the funny, cleaver ones. I know nothing about the teams, the game, or even how the clock works. I never know when to cheer or grunt. It just isn't me. So you might be asking, why does she love the Superbowl then?

(Even the dogs are in on the tradition.)

Family traditions. I still don't know how all of our "family traditions" have gotten started. It doesn't matter because they are here to stay. It might be that if we do something fun with more than one child and they still remember it a year later we call it a tradition. We have a few Superbowl traditions.

(That is not Bear's Beer!)

We watch the Superbowl while eating a variety of appetizers. It used to be that we would buy a few chicken wings from a restaurant but that was thrown out the window as the kiddos got older. One reason is that with 8 of them liking wings it would cost a fortune. The other reason is that I live with a houseful of chef want-to-bees. Now they find a recipe, heat up the cooking oil and make their own chicken wings. While that is going on outside a few others are gathering the other snacks together. Dinner is just one big party food sampling. I did hear on child mention that we could just live on chicken wings for ever.

The other part of the tradition is the bets that take place. It is always the boys vs. the girls. Year past it has been for complete servitude to the winning side by the loosing side for a week. Arguments always break out after two days so the actual payment is usually over within a day or so not the full week. This year the rumor was that it wasn't for complete servitude but for remote control rights. In the end the arguments over the terms were debated and abandoned before the close of game. Some believe that was because Dad's chosen team was losing. If he had just held tight his team would have won in the end. They have a blast arguing over all that even if no on wins.

BOYS VS. GIRLS (Notice Cowboy looking at dad. "So this is how we act during the game!")

Thank you God for my crazy family and our silly traditions!

Saturday spent working on the yard.

We don't have any thing as nearly as cool as the inches upon inches of snow that our St. Louis friends got. Our weather did heat up a tad and we are back at 70 degrees. We will dip below later in the week and at night. Dad decided to trim some trees and much to our surprise (wink-wink) there were tons of pine needles to rake up. Check out my hard working kiddos enjoying the weather.

Last Friday Pizza Night until Easter

We all like this way to much. When we are not in the middle of swim or volleyball seasons, our Friday nights usually involve a calm evening at home as a family. Often we are watching the new episode of one of our favorite TV shows or a new movie. We might watch a latest Hannah Montana or Suite Life with the entire family. After we say our night prayers as a family we send the younger half up to bed and then watch a new episode of Monk and Psych. For our family these shows are perfect. We enjoy them together as a family and that might be why I love this special time so much.
Now the pizza is another issue all together. I prefer Dominos and J prefers Pizza Hut. The kiddos fall somewhere in between. OK so we then pick the place now the toppings are another issue. From what it looks like little Cowboy likes pepperoni and apparently he prefers Dr Pepper.I tell you they grow up way too fast.