7QT: Austin Adventures Cont'd

~1~

I never finished telling you about the rest of our Treeschooler's adventure. One of the deciding factors in making this commitment was that the day of the shoot was the day before my grandmother's 92 birthday… and in the same city! We hadn't seen Granny since Cupcake was about a year old. We surprised her by showing up at the restaurant where she thought she was just meeting her adult children. I think she was pleasantly surprised, don't you?

~2~

My aunt had displayed some family photos and I was so delighted to see this one. I don't think I've ever seen a picture of both of my grandparents looking so young before. That little guy is my dad, I think. I'm pretty sure because he looks just like my brother did as a kid. Although, it could also be my uncle.

I have always thought my oldest son looked an awful lot like my PawPaw, but also thought maybe that was just wishful thinking on my part since I loved my PawPaw so tremendously. (I'm tearing up just typing that.) This picture and the comments of some dear friends on IG made me believe that it wasn't just my imagination.

~3~

Afterwards, we headed to the Texas Memorial Museum because they promised DINOSAURS and a paleontology lab with a real, live paleontologist to talk to. Well, they delivered on the dinosaur bones part…

...and some really beautiful rocks and gems. But the Paleontology Lab was closed, much to BigBoy's dismay. :( Oh well. It was a pretty sparse museum, but it worked for us since we weren't trying to kill a lot of time there.

~4~

The next day, we headed over to Sean's sister's house to meet up with family and squeeze in a little baby cousin love.

This little guy was fussy with a capital F but so squishy and delicious to kiss!

It was a crazy busy kind of weekend but good. It made us think that we really need to plan a family vacation. I know summer's over, but we are thinking a nice fall vacation somewhere cold.

Anyone know anything about Missouri? ;)
{To clarify… this is not a reference of any kind to recent troubles in MO. We really and truly are planning a trip there to see some (we hope) beautiful fall colors!}

~5~

Now, it's back to grind of daily life. Some of the online classes the oldest two are signed up for start next week but The Professor's Latin 3 class has a translation due before the first class begins. (High school is hard!) I think we will be easing into the school year a little at a time instead of just jumping right in. Right before this picture was taken, The Professor walked through the kitchen, smiled and sighed saying, "It's good to be doing Latin homework again!" He's such a cute little classics nerd!

~6~

 On the feast of the Assumption, we attended the Ordination Mass of this young man, the newly minted Fr. Justin, O. Cist.. He was beaming!

We couldn't hang around for his reception so we waited to give him a gift at his first Mass.

Cupcake was so excited to give him a present. She insisted that she had to give it to him and watch him open it. I think she thought it was his birthday. It was so sweet and beautiful that even the professional photographer who was there came to take pictures of the scene. So I was only hugely slightly mortified when she asked why we gave Fr. Justin a necklace. It was a rosary. 

~7~

And speaking of rosaries… I was playing around with taking pictures "off auto" on my big camera the other day and thought this one turned out pretty good. This is a quote that I love (from the movie Shadowlands) that I had asked Kendra to go all "Picmonkey Crazy" on but knowing that she's got lots of little ones, I decided to play around and see what I could do with it. Of course, Kendra came through and even posted hers today. (I never should have doubted.) Thank you, Miss Kendra! Her printable prayers are really just amazing… all free and beautiful too. 

Whether it's the first of your school year or the last of your summer, have a great weekend!

7QT::Ospreys, butterflies, and soccer… oh my!

Being hosted by Team Whitaker this week while Jen enjoys her vacation from the internet. She's probably at a spa or something with cucumbers on her eyelids soaking in meditative mud...

~1~

I was met bright and early this morning with the news that the baby Ospreys had hatched! Bigboy has been keeping an eye on this osprey cam, having become thoroughly acquainted with ospreys at our last book club meeting. Cupcake has decided that the mama birdie's name is Rachel. She hasn't told us what the baby birds are called yet. 

~2~

Are you a soccer fan? Not really? Well, Kendra's take on it will delight you. (Pssstttt….If you are a soccer fan and you don't laugh, then lighten up.) I could have written this exact post… except it wouldn't have been nearly as funny and I'm sure I would have offended someone since that seems to be how I'm rolling these days. Working on changing that, bear with me, m'kay?

Kendra made my husband laugh out loud and he's usually the guy making us laugh out loud so that is a huge compliment! He's going to share it with the soccer fans at work today.

~3~

Those same soccer fans were really excited about the Mexico vs. Brazil game. Sean's boss is from Brazil but his partner in crime in work was rooting for Mexico. The morning after the big game, Sean brought in a box of donuts with this taped on top:

Yeah… I made it for him. If you recognize that quote, we can be best friends.

~4~

I know that FB has all of these games and app like things that you can get addicted to and I don't even know what else because that's just not my thing. But you know what I am addicted to on FB… those blasted quizzes that show up in random spurts. I can't not click one… Which President Would You Be? Which Sound of Music Character Are You? What Your Favorite Color Says About You!

I like to see how accurate the answers are to the way I think I understand myself or the way I think other people understand me. Am I the only one who over thinks these things though? This morning, it was "What Your Favorite High School Book Says About You" and I seriously spent quite a few minutes trying to figure out if it wanted me to choose the book that I actually read in high school that was my favorite or pick my favorite book from the whole list of high school level books. (caution… it's a BuzzFeed site… the quiz seems to be fine but there are other words and pictures that might not be)  I went with the first option first…

This is the cover I remember...

To Kill A Mockingbird

You have a strong moral compass and don’t blindly follow what everyone else is doing, no matter how easy it may be to do so, or how tempting. You have an intuition that tells you what is right and wrong and while you make mistakes like everyone else, you also learn from them and generally make wise decisions.

I hope that is as accurate as I'd like it to be. I read this book in high school and loved it. Not even my annoying freshman English teacher who insisted on reading to us in obnoxious character voices could ruin it. (She tried though… oh how she tried!)

Second option (probably because it is a favorite of mine and I kid you not, we were just talking about it with the kids the other night)…

Ohmygoodness, my copy is so old I couldn't find a picture of it online and had to take this one… sigh.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

You didn’t particularly stand out in high school, but that never meant that you were boring. On the contrary, you were really bright and quirky, and the people who did get to know you will always remember you for going against the grain and now, you totally do stand out and capture the attention of everyone around you, as you rightfully should.

Hmmmm… the first part is mostly true and as for the last part… well, negative attention still counts as attention, I guess.

~5~

Random dinner picture… Oven Baked Fajitas! So yummy. I used this recipe only instead of drizzling it and mixing the chicken and onion and peppers and spice mixture all together, I brushed the spice mixture on the chicken and scattered the onions and peppers on top.

~6~

We found a monarch in our backyard, but sadly, we think it was injured or sick because it stayed in the same general area for a whole day before it was gone. It was sad, but such a nice opportunity to get to see one up close. We took some videos of it and some pictures. We even tried to feed it some watermelon which it definitely seemed to like… it just wasn't enough to make it all better.

Sunshine…she's still my Butterfly Girl!

~7~

Cupcake at the Abbey

She waltzes on her way to Mass

And whistles on the stair

And underneath her wimple

She has curlers in her hair

I even heard her singing in the abbey

So, now that Cupcake is totally potty trained… (squeeee... she even uses a big potty, not just her potty chair) we are working on making Mass time a little more focused for her. It's just so hard when there are babies to pet and itsy-bitsy spiders to look for and water fountains to test (a job she takes quite seriously, maybe the Abbey would hire her on). This picture was taken before Mass the other weekend in one of the parlor rooms where we hang out when she's feeling particularly chatty. We had been preferring to stay close to the bathrooms, but now that she's a old pro… I think we just might be able to sit with the whole family again! Whoo hoo! If I can just get her to understand what "whisper" means. 

7QT: Facelift!

~1~

Check out the blog facelift I just did this morning. I've been thinking about doing some sprucing up for a while and maybe it was the hormones or the sweet little one who woke up with bad dreams twice last night, but this morning I. Just. Did it. What do you think? Please don't tell me that you hate it or that you loved it the other way because I didn't save anything and I really don't want to start crying.

~2~

New and improved blog facelift even comes with a picture of my face! Over there on the sidebar. It's the one that Shortcake edited for me that makes me look 20 years younger. I don't color my hair but I don't mind filters that do it for me. And I MADE SOCIAL MEDIA BUTTONS!!! All by myself... with the help of a couple of blog posts and a YouTube video. I've been obsessed with adding them to my blog for a while and then when I finally did, I realized… I don't use social media that much. I mean, I have a FB page for the blog and I use Instagram privately; I think I've used my Twitter account maybe 20 times and I don't even remember my Pinterest password anymore. But never mind… look at the pretty buttons!!!

~3~

Sunshine and BigBoy were the last to succumb to the bug. They've been mildly miserable but entertaining themselves spiritedly with movies. Today, it's The Sound of Music. I love that show! I took this quiz on FB that everyone was linking to "Which Broadway Musical Best Describes Your Life?" I wish I had gotten The Sound of Music. Instead, I got Wicked. Not sure what that's supposed to mean. Does that make me Galinda or Elpheba? Not quite sure I want to know the answer to that.

~4~

So apparently by some people's standards, four stars just isn't good enough. It's got to be 5 stars or nothing. I read Jennifer's book and reviewed it here. I don't normally do Amazon reviews but I thought it would be fine to take part of my post and put it over there as a review. It's been deleted now, but there was a comment left by some guy who thought I ranked it 4 stars in an attempt to get my review read over everyone else's. (Why would anyone even do that? I can't even conceive of why someone would want their review read over others. Do people get paid to be reviewers now?)

 Maybe I do over think the whole star thing. In my mind, 4 stars is still a compliment. I liked it! That's what it means. I reserve "I loved it" for things that my whole family enjoys or things that I'm going to re-read over and over and over for years to come. Classics, you know? A memoir just doesn't fall into that category for me no matter how well written or thought provoking it is. Because it's someone's story and once you know the story, you know the story. If people nowadays think that it better be 5 stars or nothing, then they really are missing the point that some skeptical people (like myself) won't have an easy time believing all those 5 star reviews unless there are some 3's and 4's thrown in here and there. Nothing but 5 stars can feel like an echo chamber, not a consensus. So, don't hate on the 4 star-ers. Maybe some of us just have trust issues and have trouble saying "I love you man"!

~5~

SOOOO… Kendra has been talking smack about all of us ancient bloggers who chose cutesy nicknames for our kids all those many, many moons ago when we first started blogging! Seriously though, I can kind of see her point. I wrote this comment in response to one of her other reader's thoughts:

When I first started blogging in 2007 (back when dinosaurs roamed the Internet) we didn't know who would come find us and try to stalk/steal/murder our children. I admit feeling awkward about using the nicknames now but then I read that employers are using every kind of social media to do research on potential employees and I really don't want my son's future employer to google his name and find out all about his issues with potty training and Algebra II (not in the same year, obvi).

Nowadays, as my husband likes to point out, the safest place to hide a tree is in a forest, but back then… we were still building this virtual forest. Maybe these young whipper snappers need to take some time to think about what life was like back when Google image search was only as old as Pinterest is now, Pinterest didn't exist and Facebook was a babe in Zuckerberg's arms. 

Now, I admit, the nicknames that I've been using for my kids on my blog for the last 7+ years haven't aged perfectly with them but they still say they don't mind them. Even the 16 year old. I've thought about changing them. I've thought about using their given names. But then the whole privacy issue/future employer thing comes up and I chicken out. I'll think about that tomorrow! (If you read that like Scarlett O'Hara in your head, we can be best friends!)

EDITED TO ADD: Btw... if it's not obvious, I'm just teasing Kendra. I think this subject has been brought up by many people, hers was just the most recent iteration. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and should do what they feel comfortable doing. There is no right or wrong here.

~6~

These are getting progressively less quick. I've already spent too much time on the computer today so I'm just going to leave you with this last one...

~7~

This is my husband's idea of teasing his MIL. He's lucky he's cute!
Sorry, Mom. ;)

7QT: Princess bunnies and potty woes

~1~
Cupcake's Cuteness:

"Here comes The Cuteness!"

Whenever we get Cupcake dressed in an especially cute outfit, we yell out of her bedroom door, "Here comes The Cuteness!" as she prances down the hallway to show off her snazzy self. Now, she says it herself. Gee, I can't guess why she thinks she's the Queen of the Castle.

~2~

Cupcake Quips:

Waking up early, running out of her bedroom into her Daddy's arms, "I was so sad. I had a bad dream. Mommy stole and broke my Postitos!"

(Those would actually be her Doritos and yes I did crush them because she tends to choke on them if I don't. I had no idea it was so traumatic for her. Sometimes I think she's so big and then she proves that she's still my little girl.

~3~

 Cupcake's Potty Training

Chocolate Princess Bunny from Grammie

I took this picture of Cupcake admiring her lovely Easter gift from her Grammie and then realized that I'd made her the promise that she could take a bite of it if she finally did #2 in the potty. She hadn't yet done it and we were going on day 2.5 of toilet training! That might sound cruel and even look cruel considering the way she is holding it so lovingly in this picture but I considered it an incentive or a reward. Should I start saving for her therapy bills now?

~4~

She earned her reward that day!

But she's still having some trouble with this particular issue, so I'm looking for advice. I've only ever had one other child who was so reluctant to do #2 in the potty (potty chair or insert seat didn't matter). Thankfully, she's not capable of withholding for as long as that child was (8 days!!!). I thought that after a few successes she'd get the hang of it, you know? Normally, I am not one to push potty training believing that waiting is the best remedy to difficulties, but she is doing such an amazing job with every other area that I just can't see stopping right now. She regularly wakes up dry after her nap and even nighttime. She flushes with success and is flushed with success! Hahah... just a little potty humor for you. I don't know that she would go back to the diapers now.

Also, she's developed a little rash/itchy patch on the top part of her little bum. I read online that it's probably just some irritation due to slightly sensitive skin being more exposed. Have any of you ever had this happen to a little one? I know it itches her, because I see her scratching it and see the little finger nail marks. I'm wondering if it's the Pull-ups that we put on at nap time and nighttime? Or maybe chafing from the band of her new underwear? Thoughts? It only showed up after we started potty training, I'm sure of that. Thanks!

~5~

So, something weird happened a couple of weeks ago. I was talking about "selflies" with my girls. About their benefits and their drawbacks. About how this younger generation seems obsessed with them in a way that the older generations can't seem to understand. (I have always hated to have my picture taken. It's not just a vain I'm-getting-older-kind of thing. I've always shied away from cameras. I'm sure a therapist could spend lots of time talking about that…) So, I was trying to be a good mom and demonstrate that I can get over my hangups and challenge myself. I took some selfies with my phone and then edited some. I had a few left over so I let the kids pick one to edit for me. I was so pleased with their artistic editing jobs that I decided to post one on IG saying...

That's it. I'm letting my children edit every picture of me from here 'til eternity. They make me look better than I ever could.

It's true! Those clever filters have a way of smoothing out the wrinkles and washing out all the grey! Amiright?  The funny thing was that immediately after posting it, IG went down for like... the whole world!!! Argh… I killed IG! That, people, is why I don't post selfies!  ;)

~6~

So, I couldn't really tease you with that and then not post the pictures, right? From left to right, starting with the top left… The Professor's picture, Sunshine's, Shortcake's and Bigboy's. I guess I could have just said "birth order". Cupcake didn't get to do one because knowing her, she would have LEGOed me!

~7~

And last, but certainly not least, the woman of the hour is… Miss Jennifer Fulwiler! Check out my Kindle lineup from the other day. It's changed a little bit since then. I've finished Jen's book and I have to say that I am completely impressed. If I hadn't read her blog all this time and seen the posts about her rewrites all these years, I wouldn't have believed that this book had that many incarnations. It flows so seemingly effortlessly, so smoothly. I highly recommend Something Other Than God. It was quite literally a couldn't-put-it-down read. Congratulations, Jen, on a job truly well done!

7QT: April 4, 2014

~1~

{affiliate link} thredUP… have you heard about it? Of course you have. Everyone is talking about it. It's like a really good quality secondhand store online. What's not to like? Well, my natural skeptical nature says "Plenty, I'm sure"! So, I looked and looked and couldn't find anything that I was even remotely interested in for myself, but I am a terrible shopper so don't be put off by that. Lots of lovely ladies have found great deals on beautiful outfits for themselves. I hate to shop for myself but I love to shop for the kiddos. Since the potty train will be pulling into our home station just as soon as it gets consistently warm, I decided to load up on beautiful summer dresses for Cupcake. (I find dresses are so much easier to potty train in. I just couldn't get my boys to wear any… that's why they took so long. KIDDING BOYS!!! :)

Anyway, still skeptical me was expecting to be disappointed but I am pleased to say that each of the dresses I ordered was precisely as it had been described with the exception of one. One of the dresses was a Gymboree summer dress that was listed in like new condition, but the elastic ruffled sleeves had obviously been stretched beyond belief (either that or the elastic was too cheap to hold up for regular wear and tear). When I tried it on Cupcake, the bodice hit just above her belly button. Being handy with a needle, I was able to fix them…just not my opinion of "LIKE NEW". Maybe it was a defect that was missed since they aren't likely actually trying these on real children during their evaluation process.

~2~

I have decided that when the time comes, I'm sending my daughter to Ireland to find husbands and get married because I want to see this happen in person one day…

Look at all the pretty Irish boys dancing!

~3~

Karen's post last week brought so much peace to my heart the other day. I can't stand people in the middle of the journey giving advice. I personally hate to give advice and feel very uncomfortable when asked "How did you homeschool your kids?" I'm not done yet! Not even with one of them, so don't ask me that right now. But people like Karen, Auntie Leila, even my own mother-in-law who have finished the course with at least one child are the ones who can look back and be a light, an inspiration to those of us still on the journey.  Go be inspired!

Now that I have a daughter in college and a high school senior who has taken classes,  I've seen some of the fruits of our relaxed homeschooling. I look back and recall the worries I had over the years, the ways in which I questioned myself, and wondered if what I was doing would work out.
So, here are some of the questions I used to panic wonder about, and the answers I've observed...

~4~

And speaking of Karen Edmisten… she alerted me to something my book budget really didn't need to know about. Amazon has Matchbooks {affiliate link}. What are Matchbooks, you ask? You can purchase a Kindle version of a physical book that you purchased from them for only $2.99 (or less if the Kindle price is normally less than that). So, for example, The Professor's Latin book {affiliate link} is a qualifying book that we purchased for him. Now, we can go get the Kindle version and he can just take his Kindle with him when we go to the orthodontist instead of lugging a big huge book. Awesome sauce!

~5~

It's spring in Texas and that means storm season. Fellow Tornado Alley residents, stay safe! Did you know there is a weather radio app for your phone? I'm trying to decide if we need to replace our old weather radio that died or if this will be enough. What do you think? We've already cleaned out the garage enough to be able to fit both cars in case of hail and cleaned out the master closet as a storm shelter. If you want to see some amazing photos of what a Texas spring storm looks like, check out this link.

~6~

Creepiest spam comment I've seen in a while…

I couldn't resist commenting. Well written!
Take a look at my homes page :: chainsaw reviews

Um… no. thank. you.

~7~

Trickiest spam comment I've seen in a while…

Howdy, i read your blog from time to time and i own a similar one and
i was just curious if you get a lot of spam responses? If so how do you
protect against it, any plugin or anything you can recommend?

I get so much lately it's driving me crazy so any help is very much appreciated.

Visit my site:: Plantar Fasiitis Shoes () 

So close, Tricksey Spammer. So close.

Playing along with Jennifer and the cool kids.

7 Quick Takes :: In (Mostly) Pictures

~1~

Our Charlie and the Chocolate Factory book club included lots of fun treats for the kids to make: Edible Teacups, Chocolate Spoons, Crazy Colored Mustaches, Fairy Wands, and Candy Sushi. Next time, we won't pick this book during Lent!

~2~

The Princess is not amused...

~3~

…until mama busts out the REAL paints. Watercolor pencils just don't cut it. 

~4~

We are beginning a new adventure with our teens… a monthly board game playing afternoon. First up was Lord of the Rings Risk. Huge success all around!

~5~

 I had a custom request come in that allowed me to get a little creative and try my hand at some new designs. The one on the far left is St. Genevieve, one of my first designs. Can you tell who the other two saints are?

Sadly, I have to admit that it wasn't until someone else requested St. Teresa of Avila that I actually made a St. Teresa of Avila. I had thought about making one but just hadn't gotten around to it. There is one already waiting to go in Cupcake's Easter basket. 

~6~

An IG friend mentioned that she thought she could make a coffee table book with pictures of ugly waiting room carpet. This is my contribution. It was at the orthodontist's office. Is it just me or do those look like tiny little teeth lined up in rows? Creepy. BTW…we LOVE our orthodontist! Just not his carpet. And with two already in braces, a third on the way and BigBoy starting Phase I of his treatment soon, we will be spending a lot of time trying not to count the creepy tiny teeth on the floor.

~7~

For those of you who might be interested, there are some new kits and dolls up in the shop. I'm going to be doing a giveaway next week and then I plan to put the shop "on vacation" starting April 6th through Easter. 

Quick Takes on St. Valentine's Day

~1~

Joining in for the first time in a long time to Jen's Quick Takes Link Up. I wish I could join in on the Edel excitement and giggling, but not this year. Maybe next year! But I can't wait to see what all those lovely ladies report from it.

~2~

Happy Feast of St. Valentine! I made some of my kids' favorite muffins for breakfast and decorated them with some candy heart toppers. I tried to make this beautifully creative pound cake but ended up just covering the bottom of my stove in burnt cake and filling my kitchen with smoke. I think my pan must have been way too small. Oh well, when life hands you busted pound cake, make trifle!

~3~

I restocked some of the kits in the shop yesterday. St. Therese and St. Elizabeth seem to be the favorites. If you have any requests for a particular saint, feel free to email me here or through Etsy and we can chat about it. I can't make any promises, but I've found myself enjoying the challenge of creating some new ones so I am considering the possibility. I'm also planning to post some completed dolls for sale at the end of next week.

~4~

Mary, Queen of Heaven

~5~

We discovered that BigBoy had not yet read The Chronicles of Narnia. Whaaaaaaaa???? Tell me that's normal for the younger ones in the family! We took care of it immediately. According to Jessica Spice, I have ruined my children by having them read the books in the wrong order (chronological, not published order), but I'm hoping to set aside enough money to cover their therapy bills someday. ;)

~6~

And because Miss Cupcake (also known as Feisty Pants around here) always insists on looking at puppies on the computer, I'm posting these two pictures:

Our dog, Crouton. Technically, she's a Rat Terrier/ Chihuahua Mix. We call her a North American Food Hound.

~7~

Crouton's dress up stunt double.

Cupcake calls him, "Puppy Baggins" after our friends' real life dog named Baggins. 

7QT: The Birthday Edition

~1~

Today we are celebrating Sean's birthday! I won't say how old he's turning except that he's finally figured out "the answer to life the universe and everything." ; )

~2~

The kids decorated for him this morning after he left for work and I am making a GF double chocolate cake (recipe later) with mocha frosting to entice the birthday boy to come home as soon as he can!

~3~

It's also the feast of Sts. Anne and Joachim (don't forget Joachim!) and if you are looking for some fun ideas for celebrating check out the archives or Catholic Cuisine.

~4~

I painted these yesterday to tuck into a care package for some sweet little friends. I was really disappointed that the blue Sharpie marker ran when I painted on the sealer. That's the first time this has happened. I think maybe it wasn't completely dry. Oh well, I hope they like them anyway.

~5~

I'm working on putting together a family graduation party for my niece who finished up her final year of homeschool this year and is starting college classes next month. I was looking for ideas for a homeschool graduation party and really couldn't find anything except for "how to have a graduation ceremony for your homeschooled kids". Not what I wanted! I was thinking more decoration inspiration... I don't want the typical cap and gown graduation stuff {affiliate link}, because that's not what homeschoolers do. Well, maybe some of them do I guess... anyway, my sweet niece reads this blog so I don't want to reveal too much, but I've got a couple of ideas I'm working on. If you've got any suggestions, shoot me an email, OK?

~6~

Speaking of non-typical graduation stuff... I think Lissa's graduation announcement for her daughter is the most clever thing I've seen for a homeschool graduation announcement! Pure awesomeness and as someone who has had the pleasure of meeting that sweet graduate in person, I think the only thing it's missing is a huge pile of books! (Then again, I bet the TARDIS has an amazing library!)

~7~
My oven timer is beeping so I need to wrap this up. Have a wonderful day!

Day 5 of the 7 in 7 blogging challenge!