Created to Mother: 11/01/2011

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Advent

We are preparing our home for the Advent season with 7 little girls by our side. I say “our” side because my husband likes to join in on almost everything we do. Advent means so much to me; it really is more than lights, gifts and food. We take the next 4 weeks to prepare our hearts and to really focus on preparation for the historical events preceding the birth of Christ. We will surround ourselves with lots of scripture and prayer, and lots of feast days. I love our family traditions for Advent and Christmas and I look forward to all of this every year. It is so much fun to watch my girls get so excited about Christ they love our Lord and know so much more than I ever did at their age.

Here is what are plans are for Advent 2011, it looks like a lot but it blends in to our daily life perfect. We celebrate feast days, do many crafts open many gifts, make and send many gifts, bake and cook a tonJ, pray a lot and learn a lot as a family. We have done Advent teas, work with the church, and we read many great books. Here is what it looks like in our home during Advent, season of life may change things from time to time but these are traditions we have grown to love.

**This year I added a little something for my husband and me to do alone. I found this Advent Christmas Candle and thought it would be nice to place this in are bedroom. Each night before bed we will light it and read part of the Nativity story, or anything out of the Bible that we may need to hear together as a couple. The Father at Mass today asked us to spend quite time this Advent with God even if it is only 10 min GIVE IT TO HIM! He reminded us how many people slept outside Black Friday waiting for the great deals. How you will most likely never find a Christian waiting outside the church doors on Sunday trying to get the best seat in church. This is all so true, people get priorities all mixed up and forget what really is most important. So even though I spend time each morning with my Holy Bible reading Gods word, I never take the time to do this with my husband. So Larry will be reading each evening for us because I love his voice, and I love to hear him speak the word of God to me.

**We also added a beautiful new wooden set of Jesse Tree ornaments, I bought these as an Advent gift for our family. We bought them from a Esty store called Jesse Tree Treasures and she did a wonderful job. Thank you Jessica for the great idea.

Starting Nov 27^th we will welcome the first week of Advent attending Mass and setting up are home. We will put our Nativity’s up, Yes we have more than one Nativity in our homeJ we also will hang our Jesse Tree up, and place our Advent wreath in our family dining room.

The first week of Advent we will also focus on Germany and Poland, learning about their traditions during Advent and Christmas. We may try new foods and will read many good books. The second week we will be focusing on Russia and Eastern Europe, The third week we will jump into learning about Mexico and the British Isles and the last week of Advent we will finish by focusing on the Holy Land.

Nov 30^th we will learn about Saint Andrew, Apostle. I need to make a note here that we teach our children not to pray to anyone other than Jesus Christ and our Father in heaven. We love the Saints in heaven and love the Godly examples they left us here on earth. In our family my husband is the head of his castle and his wishes are firm, no praying to the mother of Christ and please no praying to the Catholic Saints.

Dinner today will be fish of some kind with lentils and gluten free bread, and maybe a dessert.

December 3^rd Saint Francis Xavier, Priest, he had an amazing zeal for spreading the Gospel.
Dinner today will be a Xavier Soup, with flaky bread.

Dec 6^th Feast of St. Nicholas

We really take the day off for this; our children will wake up to slippers with Gold coins in them, along with each little girl receiving some type of Christmas book, and a small toy or movie.

We read and do many things today, in our family we look forward to this day very much.

All day we will have special treats and serve a nice dinner

Dec 7^th The feast of St. Ambrose, since he is the saint of candle makers we will normally make candles of some kind and make honey bee cookies for a snack.

Dec 8^th Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Today we explain to our children that we are remembering the wonderful gift the Lord gave us. Mary is now with child and the day is coming soon the savior of the world will be born. The King of Kings! We thank Mary for choosing such a task, a job sent to her from our Father. A message sent to Mary from a Heavenly Angel. Praise the Lord for this day!

We will be eating food that is white, normally Alfredo and Cauliflower salad. For dessert will be Hot- Water Chocolate cake with gingerbread spices. We will also make our gingerbread house today. In the Catholic Bible in the book of Sirach it talks about how Mary smelled of spices. This is way we thought it would be a good idea to work with the gingerbread spices today.

Dec 13^th Feast of St. Lucy each year we make a Saint Lucia’s Bread for breakfast. Here is what we did last year on the feast of St. Lucy.

Dec 14^th Today we will be at a play this year with our HS group to see a Christmas Carol. We also will be making a stop at my husband’s work because St. Nick will be there with presents for all the Kids.

Dec 16^th -24^th we will start a Christmas Novena, this is a devotion to prepare our hearts. The Novena focuses intensely on our expectation of the Coming King. We will be leaving out the Hail Mary, and other prayers that may take our thoughts away from scripture alone. My husband reads through all of it and puts our family’s thoughts and prayers into it. To us it makes it more personal when you pray from your heart not from a typed up prayer.

Dec 17^th is the start of the “O” Antiphons using seven different names from Salvation History in the Old Testament. We start to impatiently beg God to come and save his people. The girls by this point have become increasingly impatient for Christmas, so we may say the “O” Antiphons at dinner each night to help them keep focus on what the meaning truly is the birth of our savior.

I give a new gift each night to go along with each prayer, an old Monastic custom was to provide treats, representing each of the “O Antiphons” leading up till Christmas. It makes it so much fun for the girls, and it does increase their excitement about the birth of Christ getting closer. I am not sure what I will be buying this year yet but the ideas are endless. You can see what we did last Year, I am sure we will come up with something great.

Dec 17^th O Wisdom we will be giving a book of Wisdom to our girls tonight

Dec 18^th O Lord and Ruler We will make our Gingerbread houses today, and have a pumpkin Trifle for dessert.

Dec 19^th O root of Jesse I will buy our family Poinsettia today

Dec 20^th O Key of David I will be making a Key Lime Pie

Dec 21^st O Rising Dawn

Dec 22^nd O King of the Gentiles

Dec 23^rd O Emmanuel

Dec 24^th we will turn our lights on in the home now. We wait to light the tree till Christmas Eve, well if the little ones can wait for it and mom and dadJ

Christmas Eve we will attend Mass and watch Nativity Story as a family.

Christmas Day we will go to Church and celabrate. We will be having a cake and party for our saviour. We do not open gifts in our home till Epiphany January 6th, but they will get to open the stockings from mom and dad. We will not be opening gifts on this day so we can focus on the true meaning of Christmas. The Christmas season starts today and does not end today like most of Americans believe. Most will start taking down Christmas things, we will now celebrate for the next 12 days of Christmas opening gifts from family and friends each day till January 6th. So Christmas is ONE day, but the Christmas season is much longer.

So this is a little look at what we will be doing this year in our home. I didn’t add every detail because that would take much to long for me to type out. From Christmas Lap bookmaking to Card making, gift exchanges, and lots of Baking I’m sure I could add much more to our list.

Each morning I thank God for a new day to worship him. I thank him every day for his Son, and I encourage you to place your heart in the reason for Advent, prepare your hearts for the birth of Christ. Yes I know he is alive in heaven and not a baby anymore, but we take this time to remember. I like to place myself back in time as if I were with the Holy family, as if I knew what was going to happen. What would I do during the days leading up to the birth of my savior. I put my heart and mind in that place during Advent and then Christmas, and I feel so much closer to Christ during this time because of these actions.

What will you and your family be doing this Advent?

Blessings,

Pamela

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Black Friday 2011

One word to say about Black Friday FUN! It is one of my favorite days of the year. I know I sound crazy, but I love to shop and I love great deals. This year I went shopping with my oldest daughter and she loved going and seeing all the people. I was told next year she wanted to go again and help plan out everything.

Planning really is the key for an evening of savings. You must plan out everything, and be okay if things don't always stay on path. Before I leave our home at 8pm Thursday evening I say a prayer for Gods guidance and protection. I know when I leave my house on Thursday I won’t be home till Friday late afternoon, so lots of prayers and plans are needed.

I am not one for being out and about without my husband close by late at night. Normally he would be out with me but this year he had to work so I took my German Sheppard for protection she had a great time I think.

Off topic, but something woth noting, in my state we have a wonderful Governor that took a stand for us and signed a bill that now allows me to feel much safer. I now can carry a gun on me for safety which I am thrilled about. This is a freedom we have in this country, a freedom we had stripped from us. I just want to say thank you Governor Scott Walker for making Wisconsin a much safer place to live.

Sorry, I just had to have a shout out for our Governor. We have a lot of people in our state that would rather live in fear, among other things and want him out. I say THANK YOU and press on don’t give up or give in you are doing great things for us in Wisconsin.

Back on topic, you can’t let it bother you if that last item is all sold out by the time you reach it. If God wants you to have something I believe it will be yours in his timing, you can’t say you didn’t try. Because of this thinking I have a blast, I have complete fun each year and I just enjoy every single minute of my evening/day.

This year I think was a record when it came to staying up. I woke up Thursday morning at 5am to start cooking and went back to bed 34 hours later at 8pm Friday evening. I did get a 1hr cat nap between stores opening which really did nothing except make me tired. I was able to get some great deals this year and I'm glad I went. We had great weather and people were just happy it seems this year; standing in line for hrs at a time you have a chance to meet some very nice people which is part of the fun.

I did do less shopping and more hanging out with my daughter which was the best part of it all. My savings were not as much as past years but I did save about $730, I made $45 an hr shopping this year better then a part time jobJ and much more fun. It makes my husband happy when he hears this; I make our family money stretch that much more.

Over all Black Friday this year was a success and I can’t wait to do it again next year.

Blessings,
Pamela

A little look at our Thanksgiving

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. We had such a wonderful time and we made it very easy and simple. Simple to us is just not having to do after dinner dishes like pots and pans. We used throw away cooking pans and nice paper plates which is big for me to do. I like to take out the nice china but then again I don’t do dishes in my home which I am thankful for this Thanksgiving. My husband and daughters always do this for me since I cook so much. Because we kept it simple this year we had more time for reading Thanksgiving stories and resting.

Here are a couple of pictures I took of our day, along with our treat ideas for Thanksgiving. I forgot to post this a couple of days ago so I thought I would just blend it in here.

We always make treats to go along with our Thanksgiving movie. One of the treats is called Blessing mix. I found this idea a few years ago over at Organized Christmas. You will find how to make them and the tags to go along with the treats. We have been making this each year since and my girls look forward to it each year. Before handing them out I do tie each bag with a pretty ribbon.

The other treat this year was new to us; it's called Edible Indian corn. Jessica over at Shower of Roses showed how to make these. I made mine as healthy and tasty as I could, the girls loved them and I think we just added some more yummy treats to our Thanksgiving evening. My oldest daughter and I saved our treats for Black Friday shopping this year. Again I forgot to show the finished treat. We put our edible corn in little treat bags and tired the bottoms with ribbon.

This is our dining room all set up for dinner, we always have crafts up in our home since we HS our kids. Our dining room is where we eat and school our children so we have just a few turkeys sitting around. These are some of our theme boards around our dining room. Thanks giving leaves and Thankful Turkeys made by our kids. I just love homemade decorations don't you?

This is our family table on a bright and sunny afternoon. We were blessed with great weather.

Daddy with his finished Turkey

And now pictures of all the yummy sides, notice the very elegant pans that we cooked and served our food in. I posted our Thanksgiving Menu if you would like to know everything I served. We did not make the hens this year maybe next year. I served am Apple Pie instead and a Pumpkin Cake as well with no pictures of either. I did manage to take a picture of a little left over cake though made up for my Husbands lunch the next day.

Mac and Cheese

Scalloped Potatoes

Some of the Homemade Cranberries

Kasha Mandarin Oranges and raisins

Polish potato bread

Corn Bread

Kielbasa Stuffing

I made Sweet Potato Soup

Turkey

Green Bean Casserole

Sweet Potato soup and potato bread to start.

A little Pumpkin cake with homemade Whipcream to finish.

When dinner was over

Some of us slept, and we could not pass up taking a picture of both.

The rest of the day was spent talking and just relaxing, we finished cleaning up and finished making our plans for Black Friday. Another wonderful blessed day from our father in Heaven.

Blessings,

Pamela

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!

As we share our day with family and friends, let’s not forget to give thanks to our father in heaven.

As we gather to celebrate Thanksgiving, let’s remember the meaning behind the word Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is a national Holiday in our country and not a religious holiday.

I see it as a day that should be more about God, and less about the food and the football.

Thanksgiving

= to give thanks.

Thanks for what?

Everything, thank the one and only creator in heaven for everything you have!

We should learn to pray daily, give thanks and be grateful for every breath we get to take.

Of course it's okay to eat all the yummy food today and fall asleep after eating way too much.

Just remember who provided the food you will be eating. Remember, to love those your with today, and give thanks above all things.

I pray that all my readers, family and friends have a very blessed Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Friday, November 18, 2011

Our Family Menu on Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving is next week I just can’t believe it, where did November go. Thanksgiving means lots of cooking for me and my family. My husband and my girls all cook together and it is such a blast for us to all be together cooking as a family. So we finished our last day of school today, and we will take off all of next week to enjoy family time, crafts, and get ready for the start of Advent/Christmas season. Each year is a little different in our home when it comes to this big feast day. I always cook or should I say we always cook, and we normally will not have any company since our family in either direction is over 2hrs away.

We have done so many different things over the years depending on what season of life were in. We have built so many memories with our children by making this day a family feast and day of thanks. We have gone out for wonderful buffets which are always a hit, and we have had many years of the traditional Thanksgiving, with prayer and Thanks around our family table.

So, this year we are trying something new in our home. Still keeping our thoughts and prayers on our great nation but also adding some of my husband’s heritage to our day. We will be cooking an American/Polish Thanksgiving. We will be reading some new books, and trying some new food and I can't wait.

Here I have a little of what our day will look like with food:) Did I say yet that I LOVE to cook and love food, Well I do I love both!

I will start cooking much of our sides and desserts early next week. Baking will be done on Wed and then off to Church service. Thanksgiving Day I am up at 3am for setting up our home and dressing our turkey and hens. I normally get up at 5am for mommy time so this is not much different.

Thanksgiving Day Menu 2011

Bagels and Cream Cheese ~ for breakfast- 7am

Vegetable tray ~ This is just for snacking on- This includes Peppers, cauliflower, broccolii, carrots, pickles, and olives. I will also be making a Ranch dip homemade.

Dinner will be at 1pm nice and early, we must rest up for Black Friday :)

To start our meal we will have a Pumpkin soup

Main dishes

Turkey ~ will be our main dish for dinner which is very popular in Eastern Europe and America.
I was thinking of adding a few Hens to our meal this year. I think the girls will love it, and this would be our first year having them.

Sides

Kielbasa stuffing ~ This stuffing is made with real Kielbasa sausage
(Not your local large store bought kind from the factory), Rye and Pumpernickel breads, onions, Apples, carrots and celery.

Kasha with Mandarin Oranges and Raisins

Brukiew z Ziemniak ~This is a Rutabaga Mash (a small amount not sure what will think of this yet).

Scalloped potatoes

Green Bean Casserole ~ Not Polish but a must have in our home

Homemade Mac and Cheese

Sos Zurawinowo-Porzeczkowy ~ This is a Polish Cranberry-Currant Sauce

Wild Cranberry Sauce Recipe ~ This a Gluten Free cranberry sauce (since mom is cutting most Gluten out of her diet).

A Cranberry Ginger Relish

Breads

Polish Potato Bread

Corn Bread ~ Because my daughters love it, and it is so easy to make.

Desserts

Maria's Apple Slices

Pumpkin Cheesecake

It looks like a lot of food for 7 kids and 3 adults I know, but it is Thanksgiving. I think leftovers are great, and I really don’t have to cook much at all for the next week.

So what is on your Thanksgiving table this year? What will your family be making? Are you going somewhere, are you cooking or just relaxing and having pizza?

Blessings,
Pamela