Paul in a Basket -- A Review

When The Catholic Company put out a notice that they were looking for product reviewers, I jumped at the opportunity. What fun! My first item arrived the other day and the whole family has been enjoying it SO MUCH! It is a CD called "Paul in a Basket" by Rob Evans, the Donut Man. Through catchy, fun songs and intriguing dialog, we have learned everything about the wonderful Saint Paul. Certainly appropriate, since dear Pope Benedict has declared this Pauline year. Before listening to this CD, I didn't realize just how little I knew about St. Paul!! He is a truly wonderful hero in our Church's rich history.

But I digress . . . back to this marvelous CD. I have heard many great thing about "The Donut Man" in the past, but this was my first experience listening to him. He is wonderful! Immediately, my children were all dancing, hopping, and singing around the room. On listening to the words of the songs and dialog, they began asking all sorts of questions about St. Paul, the Fruits of the Holy Spirit, early Christian persecution, and on and on. Our new friend, the Donut Man does a beautiful job of teaching children (and Mama's!) about St. Paul in a fun and upbeat manner, while staying true to the reverence and sacredness deserved by all our Holy Saints.

Along with the CD, the Catholic Company also sent a directors guide, filled with instructions and ideas for putting the music and dialog on as a stage performance. The CD consists of 30 tracks -- the first 20 are songs (10), with dialog interspersed. The latter ten are just the songs. Therefore, children can dance and act out the songs, while performing the dialog portion themselves. This is geared for about 15 children. The handy director's guide gives great ideas for doing this, as well as all of the words to the songs (although my kids have already memorized most of them!). Although I have not done this, I can see how this would be a fun little project for a group of kids.

As a mother who tends towards a much less structured form of education, I found this CD to be a fabulous tool for teaching children in a fun, entertaining, and lasting way. My children made two new friends today -- The Donut Man and St. Paul!!

My life is a grocery list

I sat down at the kitchen table this afternoon to write my grocery list, surrounded by the normal chaos of our days. The kids were listening to music and dancing around the room, while Bella jumping back and forth between my lap and the floor. I pulled out my cute grocery list paper and started writing the items in neat handwriting. About to words in, Bella grabbed my pen and scribbled on the sheet of paper. So I set her down and grabbed a new pen, in a different color. Then Christopher wanted to help by writing a few items himself, so I let him write "Maple Seerp" in his finest six year old letters. After he got bored, I began again, only to have Isabella spill coffee all over the (cute) paper.

I finally finished my list, but on further reflection, I could see how this mundane item actually did a fantastic job of summing up my life. I try to be cute. I try to be neat and tidy. I try to match and have all things in their proper place and order. But my days get taken over by little hands. Small people want to "help" get the job finished. And more often than not, I am covered in something sticky and gross.

But in the end, everything gets accomplished and it was all the more exciting since we did it together. I have a feeling that when my kids grow up they will sum up their childhood by saying "It was messy, but we sure had fun!"

(I took a picture of said grocery list, but then I discovered that the SD card wasn't in my camera when I shot the picture . . . )

Just a little bit of everyday weirdness.

Household Tip O' The Day

A few weeks ago, we spent the day at my parents river cottage. Before we headed home, I bathed the kids, put them in their jammies, and shoved all of the dirty, damp clothes into a garbage bag. And then I promptly forgot about said clothing. A few days ago, I found the forgotten garbage bag and decided to clean its contents. Then I discovered Christopher's favorite shirt, one sleeve of which was covered in mildew. Now, considering that this was a bag filled with damp clothing that had been sitting for a rather long time, I figure I came out pretty lucky. Considering it had to be his favorite shirt . . . not so lucky.

So, I decided I had nothing to lose in trying to clean it. But everyone knows that mildew is incredibly hard to remove. In fact, when I looked up "removing mildew from fabric" in my favorite homemaker book it said "probably damaged beyond repair." Great.

But I remembered reading somewhere that hydrogen peroxide removes mildew (hey, it works for blood!). So I got out my giant bottle of peroxide, which it turned out had only about four drops left. I then found "Chlorox 2", which, it turns out, is mostly hydrogen peroxide anyway. I dumped the peroxide on the sleeve and then soaked it in the chlorox for about an hour. After a regular wash, the mildew is almost entirely gone! Hooray!

Our Trip South: Part One

Andrew's Godson was confirmed this weekend, so we took a family road trip to Kentucky. (Also known as Chicken-Tucky if you happen to be a 2 year old boy.) It was a twelve hour (round trip) drive that was filled with adventure! My pictures here are actually in backwards order. We passed many Indiana fields that were covered in little purple flowers, so the entire field would appear to be purple. It was SO pretty!
On the trip back home, we stopped at the Lincoln Boyhood Memorial in Lincoln City, Indiana. Andrew's directions actually took us to Lincoln City, Nebraska, but luckily we noticed that mistake before it was to late! The kids have been reading and learning about Abraham Lincoln, so it was wonderful for them to be able to see the land where he lived, the original foundation and hearth stones of his cabin, and the burial site of his mother and sister.
We went to Mass Sunday morning at a Benedictine Monastery. The Church and grounds were beautiful. You could see for miles . . . but not on this rainy day! Actually, this is a neat story. It rained and rained all morning on Sunday, but when we got the the Lincoln Memorial, the rain stopped and the sun came out. The sun shined and everything was beautiful while we looked around. It didn't start raining again until we got into the car to go home! God is so great=)
This is the Hidden River Cave in Horse Cave Kentucky, where Andrew lived when he was a teenager. We toured the cave, which was pretty exciting. The kids thought it was a little scary. I thought the 900+ stairs might kill me. . . especially when PX was slung on my back on the way up!

Happy Easter Wednesday!!

Star Wars Adventures

The kids are on a big Star Wars kick these days. They even have costumes of their favorite characters (thanks Ooma!). Coincidentally, the Children's Museum (one of their favorite places in the world) just opened a new Star Wars exhibit. So on Saturday, we loaded out own little Jedi's into the car and headed to see this new exhibit.
Of course, this sign greeted us, Light Sabers in hand, at the door. Luckily no one took us up on this offer to check out weaponry, so we proceeded armed.

Celebration!

Isabella turns ONE on Wednesday!! But since her Daddy has class that night, we celebrated with family and cupcakes this evening. Her Grandparents, Aunt, Uncle (who are also her Godparents!), and her wonderful cousins came over to party with her.

She had SO MUCH fun eating her cupcake!! My dad had to give her a bath in the kitchen sink after she was finished! It was SO cute -- by far the best first birthday cake eater we've had. Apparently, my grandmother always said that babies need chocolate cake with chocolate icing on their first birthdays, because it shows up better in pictures -- so true!

Corn for Dessert

Since it is April Fool's Day, we had corn on the cob for dessert! Annie generously lent me her "Hello Cupcake!" book, so I made these cute corn cupcakes. I am still trying to decide what to make Isabella's birthday cupcakes . . . so many choices! But no koala's, which is what I was hoping for, since Bella is our little koala. But there are monkeys!! Or really cute sunflowers . . .I just can't decide!

And here are my adorable girlys, enjoying a nice spring day!

Hooray!!

Oh Happy Day! Andrew had a gift card to Best Buy that he has been saving to use on some fancy DVD thing-y. He was pretty excited about it. Our DVD player kicked the bucket and he was using that as an excuse to get this fancy-dancy item.

But tonight, he said he was taking me to Best Buy to get a new camera!! And it's pink!! Isn't he SWEET!?! I am SO EXCITED to have a new camera!! And I totally don't deserve it since I LOST the old one. But this one is so cute and wonderful. And he got me this new kind of SD card that gets rid of that annoy "delay" between pictures.

So long boring old picture-less blog. Now you all have to suffer through pictures of all my little sweeties!

Stolen Pictures!

Annie posted a bunch of pictures on Miss Greta on Facebook, so I stole a few (the ones with my adorable offspring!) to post here.

I think Isabella was trying to nose dive off of the chair in the first picture!

I love this one of Anja and Greta.

Christopher and Grace loved holding Greta. They were fighting over whose turn it was to snuggle with her. They were such baby-hogs that I hardly got a turn myself!

This evening I got a fantastic break. Sometimes, no matter how fabulous our children are, moms need a bit of time "off." Now I can breath and make it through the week.

As nerdy as this seems, grocery shopping has become my "me time" and is a very much anticipated evening of my week. This evening, my wonderful husnabd took us out to dinner and then took the kids home while I set off to do my shopping. After I hit the regular grocery and the natural foods store, I called home to check in. Andrew assured me that everyone was doing well (despite the wailing I heard in the background!) and told me to go do something fun. I had a coupon for Victoria's Nothing Left to be Secret (how does one get a coupon to a store were she never shops??) so I went and got my free undies and a free bottle of perfume (sweet deal!). As I was leaving the mall, my phone rang (or buzzed, rather. How do you get the darn thing to produce an audible ring?). I was certain I would hear "Come Home!! She's been crying for fifteen minutes!" But instead, my wonderful hubby told me he had put Bella to bed and that I should go get some coffee and relax! Hooray! So I went to Barnes and Noble and spent a quiet and relaxing hour reading a magazine and sipping coffee. It was great.

Sigh. Now I can survive the rest of my oh-so-busy week.

Girly, Girly!!

Greta Jane Schap was born, via C-section, at about 7:30 this evening.

She is as beautiful as can be! Mama and baby are both doing well, although all four Schaps were looking mighty tired! Anja had a looong day without her mama and is just too young to realize what a wonderful day it is for her!!

That is all I have for now. Annie was still in recovery when we were there this evening. And of course, my camera is still MIA, so I only have the pictures on Andrew's camera, but can't get to them . . . .

I did see a very proud Daddy Smith in the hall, but baby was eating, so I didn't get a peek!

The Latest...

Annie has buckled under the pressure (no pun intended:) and taken the epidural...stay tuned!

Weee!!!!

Keep Annie and her baby in your prayers today! She and Martin headed to the hospital today and we are all eagerly awaiting her happy news! My guess is a little boy . . . what is yours?

Learning Young

Grace has already developed her girly ability to "count calories." The other day, I was making hot dogs for lunch. I asked Grace how many she would be able to eat and she answered with a chipper "two!" I proceeded to make her two, as well as one for each of the boys. She scarfed hers down and quickly polished off the rejected hot dog on Christopher's plate.

Later that day, I enquires as to how many hot dogs she had for lunch. She adamantly insisted that she had only had two.

Did you eat Christopher's as well?

Yes! But I only had two!!!

Clearly. It's what women have been trying to prove since the beginning of time. If you only ask for two, all the rest don't count.

Fixed!

I finally fixed the image on my Catholic Mom Bloggers roll. Get this -- the mom that hosts the blogroll is part of my kids homeschool co-op. Weird! I had no idea! It really is a small world!

Anyway, I am happy to have my image back. You should join the growing number of Catholic blogging mamas!

Another Busy One

We survived another crazy week and weekend. What happened to relaxing on the weekend?? Sometimes I feel like all we ever do is run, run, run. But it was fun-filled, so I can't complain. Yesterday, we spent nine hours helping friends fix up and pack up their home in order to sell it. We actually had a super fun time. The kids all played, the moms chatted, worked, and chased kids and the men all acted manly -- grunting, wielding screwdrivers, and grilling burgers. The even made a trip to every mans favorite store. One dad returned with a big grim "Sigh. I love Menards!"

And today we went to the free matinee, Mass, the park, and my mom's house. Andrew added to our family the other day by getting the kids each a dwarf hamster. We are now the proud owners of "Wicket" "Rosie Serene" and "Super Jar-Jar Binx" I am sure you can guess who belongs to whom. My mom decided they needed to live in a hamster paradise, so today we took our little friends to meet their benefactor and picked up their penthouse apartment. Unfortunately, by the time we got their the little hamster owners were seriously crabby, so we didn't stick around to long. But our little friends are enjoying their new home immensely. And Grace is enjoying rearranging it. If I ever find my camera, I'll post pictures. Even this self-proclaimed pet hater can admit that these guys are pretty cute!

My father in law stopped by this evening and when he saw them, he said "OH! You got rats!"

Antics of a Teriffic Two Year Old

I know so many people refer to the "terrible twos", but I for one think two year olds are magnificent. They are in such a special time of their lives when they are learning so much and at such a rapid pace. Their little sponge-like brains are soaking up anything and everything. And they are just so darn cute! One of my favorite thing about terrific two year olds is their oh-so-adorable speaking ability.

Along these lines, I LOVE to here PeterXavier say his own name. "Pete-ya-yer Ben-e-nic Tonio" In fact, I laugh so much at this cuteness that I often pretend to have forgotten his name, just to get his ire up and make him yell it at me. (It's even cuter when shouted!) So today, I said to him: "What is your name? Is it George? John? Is it Sam?"

"No, Mama, Tar-Sam in the JUNGLE!!"

Birthdays, Play Dates, and SPRING!!

Yesterday was my mom's birthday, so we had a little shin-dig here at our house. Andrew made fish tacos -- his specialty and a favorite of my mom. Yumm-o. And Annie made a super pretty and delish cake. And mega limey, yummy guacamole. Mmm!

Cousins!! My kids think Anja is the cutest thing ever (cuz she is). They love to play with her!!

Christopher had a big a special day yesterday as well. His first solo "play date"!! (I hate that term . . . but what else do you say??) He was returned to me covered in mud and sporting a big ol' grin. I'd say it was a success. He is blessed to have fantastic friends. And they have a big woods filled with muddy hills. What more could you want in a friend?Christopher and his pal Will. You can't see the mud in the picture (although you can see the top of a wine bottle. hmm.), but it was there! This was at our house at drop off time when they decided to run away and steal a little more play time.

The kids have been outside all day! It's been great. Christopher even begged me to put Isabella in the little swing so that he could play with her. He pushed her while she giggled, gleefully flying through the air. Big brothers get a bit excited with their swinging ability, but she didn't seem to mind! She was thoroughly worn out and napping now. They others have no intention of coming back in and I plan to leave it that way!