Coloring Pages for February

Coming up:

Feb. 1 St. Brigid of Ireland :: don't forget the soda bread

Feb. 3 St. Blaise :: we are planning to enjoy more candle cookies

Feb. 8 St. Josephine Bakhita :: Creme Caramel is easy when it's instant!

Feb. 10 Feast of St. Paul's Shipwreck in Malta

Feb. 11 Our Lady of Lourdes (Immaculate Conception)

Feb. 14 St. Valentine :: lots of ideas here.

Today, being the feast of St. John Bosco, a favorite of ours, we are making our traditional Bachelor Buttons and enjoying some nice hot cocoa we were gifted yesterday! A Winter Weather Advisory just popped up on our weather radio, so after a quick trip to the store, we will be hunkered down for the next few days!

Happy Feast of St. John Bosco!






P.S. If you ever get an "archive" message when trying to print from Scribd, even if it's only a temporary one, let me know! Thanks!

Cute Books

We found these two groundhog themed books at our library, but I think I might have to add them to our personal library. The first one was a most appropriate find since we stopped by the library after our first Community Garden meeting where we got to meet the other gardeners and learn a little more about what is to come this next season. How Groundhog's Garden Grew by Lynne Cherry is a sweet little book about gardening for kids that involves a groundhog learning to grow his own veggies. While it focuses more on the gardening theme, it does slip in a little groundhog lore.

The second one, Gretchen Groundhog, It's Your Day! by Abbey Levine, is a lovely little book that begins with a brief historical account of the tradition of Groundhog's Day...

If Candlemas is fair and clear, there'll be two winters in the year.

The story that continues is about Gretchen Groundhog who is taking over for her Great-Uncle Gus as the official groundhog of the town of Picadilly but is afraid of taking on this awesome responsibility. It's a sweet story, but I especially liked the reference to Candlemas in the beginning. It's nice to see a secular story not shy away from it's Christian roots.

Unusual Request...

I don't want to appear insensitive to anyone who has ever had the difficult task of choosing a grave marker for a loved one or friend so forgive my tone if it sounds flippant, but I am trying to gather some information regarding online memorial/grave marker ordering. We are getting close to choosing a marker for Vivian. My dearest desire would be to have it in place by her birthday in March or the anniversary of her death in July. The cemetery association has agreed that we could set it ourselves, if we'd like, and they've even offered to help us since they are so glad to have this unmarked grave identified. They indicated there are local companies we could go with, but they haven't always had the best experience with them and they can't recommend them in good conscience.

Anyway, since it has to be a flat marker (cemetery preference) and they said we could set it ourselves, we thought we would look into ordering one online. The cost is significantly less which would allow for the possibility of purchasing one for the aunt (by marriage) who is buried next to Vivian. Many of them have excellent preview websites where you can see what each change will look like as you make it.

I realize I am in a unique situation here... for most people, choosing a grave marker is a heart breaking chore. In my unusual circumstance, it could almost be considered a joy since I know it is fulfilling the life long desire of my Pawpaw and my great-grandparents, Vivian's parents.

Would anyone who has had any experience with this or anyone who has ever used an online headstone service, please send me an email if you want to share your experience privately or leave your thoughts in the combox if you so choose? Thank you!

Hijacking? Really?

Rating some films on Netflix to get more specific-to-our-taste recommendations and this pops up...

Out of all the adjectives that could describe the original, animated version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, "hijacking" wouldn't be on my list.

Chocolate Pecan Pie

This Thanksgiving, my children discovered that they really liked pecan pie! But they also really like their Daddy's famous candy bar pie. So we joked about making a pecan candy bar pie by melting a candy bar on top of a pecan pie. Well, apparently the idea intrigued the Professor, so when it came time for his birthday, he asked if there was such a thing or something similar and low and behold... there is!

This is the recipe I used with my notes in blue. 

Chocolate Pecan Pie

1 deep dish pie shell (I admit, I used a frozen one. Do whatever you like but it has to be deep dish or else split it into two regular pies.)

3/4 C. white sugar

1 C. light corn syrup (I used a smidge less only because it was all I had.)

1 stick of butter

4 eggs, beaten

1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 tsp. salt

1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chunks (I don't see why you couldn't use chips.)

2 C. chopped pecans (most recipes I saw only called for 1 C. of pecans but we like lots of pecans!)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Pour chocolate chunks into pie crust (still frozen) until you completely cover the bottom in a single layer. (I used about half a small bag.) In a small saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup, and butter. Melt over medium heat, stirring constantly until the butter melts and the sugar is dissolved. Set aside and let cool.

In a large bowl, combine eggs, salt and vanilla. (OK, some people say you can add some bourbon or Kahlua to your pie if you want a more grown up taste, anywhere from 2 to 4 tablespoons. I opted not to since I didn't have anything on hand and this was for the children, but did add a tiny splash of rum extract, maybe 1/2 a tsp.) Mix well. Slowly pour sugar mixture into the egg mixture, whisking constantly. Stir in pecans. Pour mixture over chocolate in pie crust. Bake in preheated oven for 50-55 minutes or until set. Can serve warm, room temp, or chilled.

Lord of the Rings Thirteen!

I can't say that having an actual teenager in the house feels any different today than yesterday. The Professor has been taller than me for quite a while now and has been working on a voice that's even deeper than Husband's. It feels like he's been a teenager for months, but today, it was official!

Since this is probably his last year to have a full blown themed celebration, we tried to go out with a bang, or rather, a clang!

When he said he wanted a Lord of the Rings theme, I panicked. You see, it has been ages since I read those books and he has never seen the movies so I couldn't really take my inspiration from there. Thankfully, some dear friends answered my call for help with a ton of really great ideas that got my creative juices flowing. Thank you, you elvish-loving kindred spirits!

Some of our attempts to bring the lands of Middle Earth to our dining room included ivy garland recycled from many other birthdays but most recently, The Secret Garden.

The Nerf swords were not just decoration as they were battled with whenever there was a break in the day and some Legolas target practice happened in the afternoon with a bow and foam arrow set out in the garage.

A Gandalf sized walking stick and hat (which was one of my sun hats covered in greyish fabric) was a must!

  

Banners with the White Tree of Gondor and the flags of Rohan flanked by columns of streamers were easy to make. I wish I had had enough fabric scraps to make them flowy instead of papery.

 

In keeping with our new tradition of theme oriented banners, this one was made using one of these fantastical fonts! (Thank you, Kimberlee et all!)

And of course... the One Ring!

Presents were wrapped in brown paper tied with string, with elvish lettering.
Easiest wrapping job EVER!

We fortified ourselves with Lembas wrapped in napkin leaves at the break of day before we set out on our quest of fun and birthday adventure, aka... a trip to the book store!

 

The tankard is a travel mug from our cabinet. I had hoped to make more with coffee mugs and tin foil but ran out of time. We let the birthday boy have the one tankard to fill them all!

Dinner was a feast of grilled meats and vegetables according to the birthday boy's delight followed by a decadent Chocolate Pecan Pie (also his request; recipe forthcoming)! 

 

While I silently pondered this grown-up young man and his new taste in grown-up desserts, he blew the candles out on a day filled with fantasy and wonder.

Happy Birthday, Professor! We love you tremendously!

Celebrating...

...the life of our oldest one as we do every year. I will be back with more specifics of the celebration once we are at the day's end. In the meantime, I wanted to point you towards the touching poem that my SIL wrote for The Professor. The last stanza brought a lump to my throat and tear to my eye....

Yet pause one moment in the wood,
Before you take the greater way:
The old, you know, wish they had stood
In Lórien, just one more day.

How my head feels right now...

All this crazy weather is playing havoc with our sinuses. Dear Winter, I'm done!

St. Agnes Coloring Page

I found this beautiful image of St. Agnes last year and have had it saved for coloring page inspiration. I thought it very appropriate considering the oranges in the background and the double feast of Our Lady of Altagracia today. (Check out Jessica's beautiful celebration over at Catholic Cuisine.) I have no information on the tapestry other than: St. Anne Tapestry 1887 Standen, UK. If you know more about it or where we can see it in its entirety, please let me know.

St. Agnes Coloring Page

Also, to placate the perfectionist in me... please let your children know that lambs have hooves and not paws, so they should ignore the slip of my pen that wasn't corrected before scanning! Just tell them that my head was too full of gunk to notice the problem. Also, by my count, there are 8 oranges in my drawing. The one behind St. Agnes's head was supposed to be part of her head wrapping, but it just kept looking like an orange to me. I blame the gunk.

Updated to add: Michelle found some information on the tapestry. The link is in the combox! Thanks Michelle!

Another movie suggestion...

Can you guess how we cope with temperatures like these?

When it gets cold like this (don't laugh Minnesota!), we don't want to go anywhere if it feels like a chore. Not even the library! That explains the extra online educational exploration and embracing the afternoon movie!

If you are a dog loving family, you might like Nova: Dogs Decoded. It's on Netflix Instant Watch right now and we found it really fascinating. Especially the eye tracking technology they used to determine a dog's visual focus and the domestication experiment they did with foxes! Wow!

So, how are you surviving these winter doldrums? Movies? Chocolate? Warm beverages?

Adorableness Overload!!!

If you don't know about the ZooBorns website, and you haven't had your fill of sweetness today, then click over there right now and be prepared to awwwwwwwwww!


And they even have ZooBorns books!

Warning: Cuteness Advisory is in effect!

A Bear Named Winnie

If you are looking for a sweet family flick for movie night and subscribe to Netflix, on Instant Watch right now is an endearing little film called A Bear Named Winnie. It's based on the true story of the real bear that inspired A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories.

Stephen Fry is adorable as always in the role of the head zoo keeper. I didn't recognize too many of the other actors, but they all did a fine job. In the interest of full disclosure, this movie is set during WWI and there is one battle scene towards the end that might be difficult for sensitive or young children to watch. It's not gory, just sad. And the ending might make sensitive mommies a little teary-eyed.

And the winners are...

For the Fr. Brown Movie:

 Emily Snow!!!

And for the John Paul II movie:

 My helper was keen to get back to his P.E. game. He didn't stick around for the last picture.

 Mrs. Smith... could you send me an email so I can get your address?

Tuesday's Treasures

In cleaning out our movies and what not, I came across these items that I thought I would offer here. We have been blessed by them and now wish to share these blessings with anyone who might want them. I will be happy to ship them to you, free of charge, if you think you might like one. All items work according to my knowledge. If they don't, I'm sorry, I don't have a way to play them right now... that's why they're free! Let me know in the comment box which item or items you are interested in and if there is more than one person interested, we'll do an old fashioned drawing.

First item: John Paul II "Family, Be Yourself" VHS tape

Produced by CCC America. Running Time: 30 min.

Second item: The Detective VHS tape

Columbia pictures presents Sir Alec Guiness as "The Detective" based on the Father Brown stories by 

G. K. Chesterton. (For you Star Wars fans, this is Obi Wan Kenobi in his younger days portraying Chesterton's loveable Fr. Brown). It's also the movie role that started Sir Alec's journey to the Catholic Church. It's in black and white and was produced in 1954.

Third item is a set of cassette tapes: Spiritual Boot Camp ~ Becoming a Soldier for Christ

These are a set of talks by the amazing Fr. Shannon Michael Collins of the Fathers of Mercy. As you can see, two of the tapes are missing. My husband might know where they are.