Science and Art week again!

Hooray, it's my favorite week of the quarter. Instead of my usual, planning-intensive, combined and cohesive art and science unit planned for multiple levels, we are all working on Maria's TOPS Balance Beam unit. The big boys say it's so much easier this time. And on day one our art consisted of carving pumpkins for Halloween. Ok, it's a little more "crafts" than "arts".

Yes, Maria is Smiling while doing her science!
We have one homemade balance and one that we bought.
Everyone from Joseph up has been able to do the lessons so far. 

Thomas quickly grasped that he could express the equation
of a line graphed on Cartesian coordinates by using the balance.
This line is y= 3x + 1
He then pointed out that the two coordinates we can see from this are (0,1) and (9, 10).
We used graph paper to check his answers and he was right. I'm calling this a big success.

Joseph is carving his own pumpkin!

Cecilia did several practice faces on paper so she could
learn the technique of how to carve without the teeth
falling out. Unfortunately, she didn't quite do as well
with the carving knife, but she used toothpicks for the final
teeth and I really like how it looks.

Charles didnt want to carve his own pumpkin this year,
but he was willing to be very helpful pulling out insides and
scoring designs on the pumpkins for others to carve.

James seemed very excited that he was big enough to use the pumpkin carving tool by himself.

Maria also practiced the art of making crepes which we ate for dinner.

This is possibly the face Anthony was trying to translate onto the Jack O' Lantern?

Maria on taxes

Maria: "I think everyone should have lots and lots of babies so they wouldn't have to pay so much in taxes and then the world would be very nice. And have homebirths. With midwives."

Christmas!

Carmen gives to Monica

Alan L. gives to Stephen

Victoria gives to Maria

Marc gives to Juliana

Chrysostom gives to Theresa

Catherine gives to Cecilia

Michele gives to Laurence

Doug gives to Rachel

Jonathan gives to Dominic

Monica gives to Carmen

Patrick gives to Isabel

John gives to Bill

Theresa gives to Chrysostom

Alan C. gives to Anthony

Isabel gives to Patrick

Gregory gives to Charles

Juliana gives to Marc

Stephen gives to Alan L.

Laurence gives to Michele

Paula gives to Thomas

Naomi gives to James

Veronica gives to Joseph

Rachel gives to Doug

Bill gives to John

Thomas gives to Paula

Anthony gives to Alan C.

Maria gives to Victoria

Charles gives to Gregory

Cecilia gives to Catherine

James gives to Naomi

Joseph gives to Veronica

Dominic gives to Jonathan

Please send any suggestions for gifts to your assigned giver.  For example, I know that Marc needs new Scotch tape to hold his phone together (or even a new phone) but maybe what he wants is the new Taylor Swift CD.  To know for certain, he must send me his ideas.  You, also, go and do likewise.

Anthonyisms

Anthony and I were talking today about his vocation to the priesthood and his feelings about girls. I told him that he would have to learn to be able to friends with women while getting used to being chaste. 

He looked at me with confusion. 

"I have to get used to being chased?"

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Anthony came up to me and asked if I could have 4 more kids by the time I am 47 because then we would have a chance at becoming a big family. 

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(PG-13)

Watching Jim Gaffigan's "Mr. Universe" we were all laughing at his piece on babies. He starts by describing the miraculous nature of a woman's body: it grows a baby, it births a baby, it feeds a baby. His next comment is that the man's brief contribution to the miracle is spending a few minutes actually doing what he thinks about all day. 

Anthony looked at me and said, "Eating?"

OLYMPICS!

The boys have lately been watching the olympics and have been inspired to create their very own.

Anthony (in red) won 6 out of 8. "May" the best man win!

Fencing!

 That's about it though ping-pong has also been popular.

Bedtime Prayers

He has already been shaken
off and Joseph has been refocused

When Dominic started to stand independently, it happened during our evening decade of the Rosary. But we made the mistake of breaking off our praying to encourage him, which has led to a bad habit.




While you might see seven people kneeling reverently in prayer, Dominic sees a human bowling alley. We make the Sign of the Cross and up go his arms over his head to elicit a "hooray" from the encouraging crowd. Then he unsteadily walks over toward the group and wham! slams himself into his brother, knocking him over. The other pins are usually fairly eager to wrestle rather than reset themselves. And I cannot help but laugh, a rare commodity these days which is why I haven't worked too hard to train him out of it yet.

There he goes again!

James

James recently decided to email his godmother Jodie Francis whom he has never met in person. I wanted to save his email to her because he typed and formatted it completely on his own and so so sweet:

dear micas francis I love you more then you thought please say you love me.

maybe I can visit you

               love!

                JAMES. 

May The 4th Be With You

The weather cooled down to a breezy 98 yesterday so we could celebrate our country's birthday in relative comfort.


To start the day out right, the twins marched in the 4th of July parade in Pinehurst with their Boy Scout troop while the rest of the family marched with American Heritage Girls.     Sadly, the Boy Scouts didn't have a camera.

It felt a little funny to be marching right behind the Girls Scouts....
And the choice to hand out patriotic glow in the dark fake tattoos
turned out to be ironic since many of the families, including those
who helped pick the tattoos, do not let their girls wear them!

Cecilia enjoyed handing out invitations to girls
more than carrying the banner.               

Halfway through the parade Joseph went missing. Within 10 minutes he was found
several blocks back on the parade route, hands full of candy he had found on the side of the road.
Thank you, Guardian Angel.

The girls passed out invitations to an AHG info brunch. Charles and the little boys
enjoyed giving out fake tattoos to brothers as we walked along.

Even Dominic wore spirit-wear to celebrate the day. His attitude was less spirited at this point.

                             
Sweating and tired at the end of the parade, we gratefully accepted an invitation to swim with our neighbors at their pool. If it weren't for the severe thunderstorm warning, we might be there still.


Both Cecilia and Charles whipped up special holiday treats for dinner. Cecilia made Ribbon Jello from Grandma's recipe. And Charles finally had a chance to make an American flag cake he had seen in the Tiger Cub Handbook several years ago.

And finally, for the first time since we moved to North Carolina, we went to watch a firework display. All the kids loved it, even Dominic, and watching the beautiful explosions of color was uplifting and made us proud of Bill's sacrifice for our great country. 

ABOUT US

A: is getting glasses.

B: just had a birthday.

C: is being active in a troop and enjoying it.

D: loves playing outside.

E: just is.

F: also had a birthday.

G: is turning four.

H: is just getting cuter.

I: still needs to blog some birthdays.

J: is participating in scouts a lot.

Those are some luscious looking cheeks!

Happy Easter!

Joseph turned 4

Joseph awoke unhappy this morning because his presents were not wrapped and waiting for him at the table. However, it wasn't long before he was all smiles. He is the proud owner of a Playmobil Western Town and fire helicopter. It took a little deliberation, but he decided that his new cow's name is "Milkshake".

Joseph is still a decided thumb sucker/bellybutton fiddler.

When he wants to convince you to do something, instead of asking he will put up his finger and say, "Aha!!!" which will be followed by something like, "You forgot to take me to the ice cream parlor today!"

For the past year, he has worn a hand-me-down "Awaska" shirt to death; probably 5 of 7 days he had ttat shirt on. This week, the moose and the bear bush pilots were retired to my "to-be-a-quilt" pile with holes in it. And amazingly, I have no pictures of him in it.




Joseph's favorite activity is coloring. He will lie on the living room floor and carefully fill in any coloring book picture with side by side lines. As his favorite color to use is black, this sometimes makes it hard to know what the picture started as.

Joseph taught himself to write his name, notable since he learned this earliest of all the kids.

Joseph's sense of comedic timing is the best of all the kids, and we often laugh at the funny things he says. Case in point: Yesterday I said something to Bill about "moves" and Joseph piped in with, "I got moves like Jagger?" He knows Justin Bieber but I don't think he knows Mick Jagger.

My birthday

A birthday on Good Friday means no cake, but I did get some fun gifts.

Odds and ends

Spring, birthday season, Easter. They are coming; they are here. Here are some glimpses into our recent past:

Maria in front of the USS Yorktown

Cecilia was especially excited by the "vendor" machines

Dominic and I got to see the berthing quarters

Look at the relaxed and happy faces of the unplugged, living it up outside, pre-teens!

Charles' valet service

Dominic's first time driving the cart

ready to hit the strawberry patch

Joke Pies for April Fool's

LTC May

The Who family?

I haven't been feeling wordy or clever lately which has shown on the blog. Here's a quick midwinter update:


Thomas
OMgoodness, I got to the end of this post and realized I had forgotten Thomas. Fortunately, Thomas is here to tell me something amazing about himself. ....Time's up!  Maybe next time.


Anthony


Recently, Anthony submitted an article about an Eagle Scout from his boy scout troop to the local newspaper and got it published.  He was very excited and proud as were we.


Maria
Maria has earned enough money to fly to California for AHG camp this summer. Now she is working on her swimming skills so she can participate in all the activities. She has taken over the apron business and recently got some more orders.


Charles
Charles is about to graduate from speech therapy.  Here he is a few years ago.  When he started therapy last Oct, he sounded the same--unable to articulate "r" in any position. By November he had learned to carefully articulate them all. And tomorrow (ie, last week)--only 27 visits later--he'll be done! 







Cecilia
Cecilia has been working on preparing for her First Holy Communion. In May, Uncle Chrysostom will arrive to be a part of the big day!


James
Oh my gosh, there is something so satisfying about teaching a child to read.  He's getting very close to being independent with very easy books.


Joseph
Joseph has become enamored of coloring. He spends hours very carefully coloring pictures with perfect side by side lines. As he usually uses only one color, the effect isn't the most aesthetic, but it's impressive nonetheless. 

Dominic has started eating solids

Bill


In a few weeks Bill is going to be promoted!  I'm sure that he'll tell me when and where before it happens.


Me


I recently won 2 major awards.  One was for the "Best Traditional Red" chili which is really Michelle Reitemeyer's amazing, 6-qt crock pot fillin', people licking the bottom of the bowl chili. It is my most shared recipe, so naturally she deleted the blog where she had posted it.  Fortunately, it is still cached on google and I'm putting it below so I can just share this post with everyone who eat this yummyness.




Michelle's Cowboy Chili
3 1/2 pounds boneless round roast, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 medium bell peppers, diced
2 medium onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
two 28 ounce cans tomatoes
12 ounce can tomato paste
1/3 cup chili powder
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons dried oregano
3/4 teaspoon cracked black pepper
2 cups water
shredded Monterey Jack cheese and sliced green onions for garnish

Pat beef dry with paper towels. In an 8 quart Dutch oven, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add beef, one-third at a time; cook until browned. Transfer beef to bowl as it browns.

Add bell peppers, onions and garlic to drippings; cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.

Return beef to Dutch oven; stir in tomatoes with their juice, tomato paste, chili powder, sugar, salt, oregano, and black pepper, breaking up tomatoes with the spoon.

Stir in water; heat to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, 1 1/2 hours, or until beef is tender.


Rachel's Notes: I cut the tomatoes with scissors before adding them in. Once everything is in the pot, I just throw it in the crockpot and let it finish the cooking. 
To serve, spoon into bowls and garnish with cheese and green onions. Serves 12. Fills a 6 qt crockpot


The second award was a Liebster Blog Award from my friend Maryan. As soon as I got it, I started this post--3 weeks ago.  Yep, that's got awesome blogging has been lately.  But I still love it!


 About the award:  the award is for those of use who love to blog because we love the art form, not because we have a lot of followers. Here is the description:

“Liebster is a German word, meaning dearest or beloved, but it can also mean favorite. The idea behind the Liebster Blog Award is that it is given to bloggers who have less than 200 followers in order to create new connections and bring attention to these wonderful blogs!”

What to do:

• Add the award to your blog. (Let's just see if I can make that happen, hmmm?)
• Thank the giver with a link back to them.
• List your top 5 picks and let them know they’ve been given an award by leaving a comment on their blog.
• Hope that your followers will spread the love to the blogs you’ve spotlighted.