Review: Twenty Six Letters to Heaven

Sarah Park, the author of Twenty-Six Letters to Heaven, sent me a review copy and asked if I would share my thoughts on this lovely pre-school program she put together. This past weekend, I sat at a table with lots of other Hillside Education publications and got a good chance to take a look at it, not to mention, share it with everyone at the IHM North Texas Homeschool Conference. There was not a more popular book on my table except maybe the Father Brown Readers but those aren't for preschoolers! It was a delight to get to look through it and explore it with friends and fellow homeschoolers.

While I have not had a preschooler in many years, I do still remember first doing preschool with The Professor when I was a young mom and excited to start teaching him at home. I used another Catholic pre-school program that I liked at the time but soon realized was better suited to a larger class environment or maybe co-op; not a home.

Sarah's program is wonderfully suited to a home teaching environment with lots of fun suggestions to keep little people busy. With simple suggestions and even recipes, not gawdy craft ideas that make a mom want to pull her hair out or itch to throw away the glitter/paint covered monstrosity. And it's a total package... science suggestions, math games, picture book lists, literacy skill practice and more but not so much that you feel overwhelmed with options. There is even a coloring page for each saint of the alphabet in the back so you don't have to go hunting all over the internet or some silly woman's blog : ) to find one for each letter.

I look forward to using this program when Cupcake reaches the pre-school age. I especially look forward to watching my big girls bake and play and color with her!
 

Remembering Matthew...

Emily, Matthew Karol's beautiful mama, is offering a giveaway to celebrate the day her precious little man was born into this world. Brief though his time here was, he touched many lives, ours included. Go read and be blessed by this lovely family's courage and strength, say hello, offer a prayer for them and then enter for a chance to receive their generosity.

St. Matthew Karol, pray for us!
 

GF Raspberry Mousse Brownie

This was sooooooo good! Don't skip the fresh raspberries! They really add more than just decoration.  You can find the recipe here. I used a different recipe for the brownies because I couldn't find any Betty Crocker GF mixes. You could use regular brownies if there is no need to eat GF in your house. 

Why, yes, those are white chocolate chip stuffed raspberries on top!  

I also made a batch of Peanut Butter Truffle Brownies since my kids are not big raspberry fans and I wasn't sure how this recipe would turn out since I'd never made it before. The GF Birthday Man was very happy! He didn't mind getting to choose one of each. Didn't mind one bit. 

Dadurdays

A few weeks ago, the lovely Dawn shared an idea that she did with her boys to celebrate her husband's birthday. I showed my kids and they loved it and immediately sat down and came up with ideas to go in a box for their Dad's birthday (which is today!). Funny how "a visit to the Apple store" ended up on both of our lists! (I get the feeling Bill and Sean would get along.) My kids called their dates "Dadurdays" because they are silly like that and like weird sounding words. Each of them also claimed a one-on-one date with Dad.

I didn't have a regular box, but I had this leftover book box from a St. Anne craft that I did a few years ago still stashed in my craft closet. (Happy Feast Day!) So, we painted it blue and green, the colors of his favorite football team. (Go Seahawks!)

While I was taking pictures in the kitchen, where I take almost all of my pictures, I noticed that the colors were the same as my favorite Polish tea for one set. He must be rubbing off on me! Except that he'd much prefer a steaming cup of Joe to my tension mint herbal tea.

 

Crochet Crush

Sunshine is in love! Yep, that's right. My dyed-in-the-wool knitting natural is ready to trade in her needles for a crochet hook after checking out this book from the library. OK, maybe not trade them in, but she's definitely interested in taking a sabbatical. She wants to play hookie for awhile. Do you blame her?

Austentatious Crochet: 36 Contemporary Designs from the World of Jane Austen

If only I had known it existed back in May!

 

The Year of Less

I have enjoyed reading Kelly's blog, The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking, and now I'm really looking forward to reading her new adventure, A Year of Less.  In her words...

By western standards, we don't have much.  We have five (soon to be six)  kids in a house little more than 1000 sq. feet.  We live with one vehicle, no fancy vacations, on one modest income. But we still have too much.  Too much stuff, too much debt, too much to do.  Too many things vying for our attention. As Christians we believe that we are meant to be world changers.  Compassionate.  Radical. Set apart for God. This world and its stuff ought not to have a hold on us.  But it does.  Somewhere along the line we traded Jesus in for a Christianized version of the American Dream.  We grew cold to the needs of a starving world. We fell for the lie that what we really need comes from a store. It doesn't.
So consider this a fast of sorts.  Or an experiment.  Or a personal resolution with the added accountability that living your life online brings.

She's only on Day Three so check it out and follow along if you feel so inclined.

 

Attention moms and dads....

Two stroller recalls announced this morning. A Kolcraft tandem (fall and choking hazard) and a Peg Perego (strangulation... sadly, one death already reported). Check out these links:


Kolcraft Recall


Peg Perego Recall

Friday Food Fun

Tonight, The Professor has a book club meeting so I whipped up this little fruit dip to go along with some apple slices for him to take and share. It was so good, the kids staying home begged me to make a batch for them! Here it is. I cobbled it together from some recipes I saw online and came up with my own ratios which you can certainly change to suit your tastes.

Fruit Dip

1 C. greek yogurt

1/2 C. peanut butter
(I added a little extra to finish off the jar.)

1/4 C. honey

Mix together. Chill. (Yes, it's that easy.)

 

{p,h,f,r} Instagram Version

As you can see, I've been playing around with Instagram. It's kind of fun, I'll admit. The kids debate over which filter looks better for which picture. I don't really have a favorite. Do you? I'm not signed-up to receive feeds or send mine out other than via email to my husband and my mom (maybe a beloved godmother, too). I'm just not comfortable with the way social media apps are constantly pushing us to share every minute of our lives. It's not because they care about us so it must be for profit. I'll hop off my soapbox now. The blog funk continues but it's getting better. I think I might spend some time strolling through my archives and see if that helps.

{pretty}

 She has stolen this Superman pillow away from BigBoy. (Actually, he relinquished it quite joyfully when he first saw her coo and melt all over it.) She calls him "Muh-man" cuz you know... he's her man.

Pretty baby in a mirror! It's a plastic mirror that got stepped on so the crease in the lower middle makes it look like a fun house mirror.

{happy}

Little girl toy boxes make me very happy!

{funny}

Why is the high chair so much more interesting when you aren't strapped in to it?

{real}

It's not all babies all the time around here, just most of the time. Believe it or not, I took this picture, not my 14 year old son. But I took it for him because he really likes cool cars. It inspired a little bit of a local history lesson the other day when I mentioned to The Professor that our neighborhood was built on the remains of an old drag strip. According to my Dad, who was actually here as part of a team back in the 1960's for different competitions, we live on the side of "Shut Down Hill". That's the hill that made all the drivers pray they'd slow down before hitting otherwise I think there was a chance they'd find themselves launched. We actually found old videos of a race on YouTube. My Dad thinks he might have been here for the one that was filmed. He remembers a lot of the cars (which is pretty remarkable since he has trouble remembering my birthday most years : ).

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~
with the lovely ladies at Like Mother, Like Daughter

The public has spoken!

There's a whole lotta love here in Funkytown.

Baby photobomb!

 

I just don't know what to say.

I mean it. I'm not trying to be dramatic. I don't know what to blog about. There isn't much going on here right now. We are doing some rearranging in the kids' rooms, swapping beds, building dressers, cleaning out closets. It's not the kind of thing that I think anyone here would be really interested in. We have postponed our start of school until July 30th. Really it makes more sense. We only started as early as we did last year because having a baby was on our to-do list for September. And now, here we are a few months away from her 1st birthday. Plus, our homeschool conference is coming up next week. Books! Books! BOOKS!

I know I could always blog about Cupcake and her ethereal cuteness but you wouldn't really want to hear the details of her frustrating sleep patterns or lack there of or that she only wants to eat what comes off our plates and chowed down on my chicken baked potato soup the other day but still has to take her reflux medicine and still doesn't like it when I eat dairy and still only has 4 teeth which can't chew all of the delicious things on our plates?

Let's talk about the weather... it's hot. That is all.

Not as hot as it was last summer, but still summertime hot.

Does it sound like I'm in a funk to you? I think you might be right. Hence the picture at the top.

Why yes, I'd love some cheese with my whiiiiine... but I still can't eat dairy.

 

A Mystery...

So, we've had a slight change of plans and haven't actually started back to school officially yet. That change of plans included a change of sleeping arrangements for the big kids with the requisite furniture re-arrangement and cleaning out of junk and clearing off bookshelves that comes along with giving your already extra-tall 14 year old and your still-growing-not-getting-shorter-anytime-soon 8 year old the twin extra long bunkbeds that your definitely-not-extra-tall daughters have had for years and coming up with a new sleeping arrangement for them.

Anyway, in cleaning out the bookshelves we found an old copy of The Story of a Family: The Home of St. Therese of Lisieux. It has an autograph in the front that we can't identify.

We aren't sure where this book came from, possibly a used bookstore. It looks like an autograph, not a "this book the property of" kind of signature. We can't decipher the name at all but believe that underneath it says Phila (as in Philadelphia) 1950. Any ideas?

A Little Jane

We had a few extra onesies to decorate after we made Cupcake's patriotic cupcake. The girls' decided to use up a leftover Jane Austen silhouette from Sunshine's birthday party and make her a Baby Jane.

 And then on the very same day, we received the most delightful gift in the mail...

I had no idea such an adorable board book existed! And look... there are more!

Thank you, Miss Kelly! 

I think today might be a day for a little Jane. Shortcake is on the couch with a fever.

Fun on the Fourth

We have some non-Fourth related plans for part of the day today so we decided to paint our shirts last night. The girls also decided that the onesie I had planned for Cupcake to wear just wasn't girlie enough. So, they came up with a design and I painted it...

Isn't she cute? Wait till you see the back...

 This is our fifth year painting shirts and I'm pretty sure my kids would revolt if I ever said we would skip it. This year, I challenged them to incorporate a religious symbol into their designs. The oldest three chose the cross.

BigBoy chose a more understated approach... three stars representing the Holy Trinity.

We also have some beautiful treats waiting in the fridge. These were super easy and only took five minutes to make, I promise!

We decided to forgo our traditional treats and opt for some healthier choices this year. Ok, they look healthier, I'm not sure if they really are. Sarah found both of these ideas and pinned them thereby making them easy to steal find! I'm going to try to use honeydew melon instead of the feta for the watermelon flag. I'll post a picture when it's done.
Update: Here it is looking a little more green and pink than red and white but still delicious!

We don't plan to do much of anything. We aren't firing up the grill because... it's too darn hot. I really don't want my husband getting heat stroke trying to cook dinner. Frankly, some nice chilled chicken salad and fruit sounds deliciously cool right now. We are going to watch our fireworks on TV and hope that the ones outside don't scare the baby or the dog.