First Communion

This morning was J's First Communion. It seems like it was just yesterday when we had A's First Communion. I can hardly believe that it has been three years.


He was very excited and not nervous at all.




J was the front of the line with his godmother's niece.



He was so happy.



I made another bible cake.



It was a lovely day.

one down

Tonight we're hanging out. DH suddenly says, Wow, look at that moth! Then something large hits me in the neck. I jumped out of my chair waving my hands like a crazy person. We used a dishcloth to move the moth outside. I grabbed my camera to take pictures.

Polyphemus Silk Moth








You can see the hole in the cocoon in the last picture. I need to go print a picture of the moth so B can take it and the empty cocoon in for show and tell tomorrow.

Only one more cocoon to go. I never did figure out what kind of moth/butterfly it was. I wonder what will emerge.

garden 2011

• strawberries
  
• jalapenos, parsley, basil & flowers
  
• peas
  
• tomato plants growing
  
• green beans
  
• cucumbers
  
• carrot or weed?
  

Easter

Kids woke up early for the Easter Egg hunt followed by Easter Mass at 9am. ILs hosted everybody at their house for a fish fry and another egg hunt. It was a lovely day.

Room makeover - front room

Here are the final results of our paint job. Mom took the kids and I to a movie and DH stayed home to paint the mantel. Now all I have to do is buy new curtains, recover some chairs and the ottoman, find a new chair for my desk, look for new pillows, etc. It is a work in progress still.

another caterpiller

In the middle of our painting last night, DH looked out our front door window. He told me I had to come see this caterpillar. If it had been anything else, I would have told him no, I wanted to finish painting, but I couldn't pass up a caterpillar.

It was a cool one.






It is a giant leopard moth caterpillar. I really wanted to get a new jar and keep him, unfortunately, painting took precedence over caterpillar catching. I'll just have to live with the two I have

Almost painting disaster

Yesterday, I finally finished painting the fireplace. It only took me a month and 18 days. Not bad if you ask me. DH on the other hand wasn't looking forward to the three months it might take for me to finish painting the walls to match. He dared me to paint it last night, offering to roll if I cut in.

We didn't get started until after 4pm because I had to take the kids to the dentist. I finally got home and began painting. I had cut in one small wall to the right of the fireplace and I wanted to cry. It was totally the wrong color. It was blue and it looked awful. I kept holding the paint chip up trying to convince myself that it was going to dry to a nice light grey. I was wrong.

I called DH in the room and told him I hated it. He tried to convince me that it was the paint color and he should go to the store and choose something else. I said absolutely no to that option. I finally opened the other can of paint. It is the color I chose for the foyer and it was from the same strip. One quick blotch of the foyer paint and I knew absolutely that it was the wrong paint.



It was not grey at all, it was blue. DH took the paint back to the store. Store policy was to not take back tinted paint but they agreed that it was very wrong and gave us new paint.



Thank heavens! This color was much better.

By the time we got the paint color right it was after 6:00. I took a quick break for dinner and painted until 11:30.

Since we painted in the dark until the wee hours of the night (for me at least), today we are touching up. A LOT.

Final results to come soon.

spaetzle

I read a lot of blogs, my google reader is quite full. There are some other blogs that I purposely leave out of my reader. Every now and then I happen upon them and I'll find tons of new posts to read all at once. It's a happy post smorgasbord. Smitten Kitchen is one such blog. This afternoon I clicked a link and found Smitten Kitchen's spaetzle.

Spaetzle is one of S#2's favorite food. They have a ski condo in Kimberley, BC, Canada. The town doesn't have a whole lot but they do have a couple of German restaurants and they all serve spaetzle. S#2 doesn't even bother ordering schnitzel anymore, she just orders the spaetzle and enjoys every bit of it.

I knew when I saw this post I had to try it. The batter was easy to make but, as you read in Smitten's post, it's not that easy to make. The steam was hot, holding the colander was awkward and the batter was not easy to push through those little holes.









However the results were excellent. If it weren't so hard to make, I would definitely make it again. Maybe I'll get a spaetzle tool and I'll make spaetzle all the time

new "friend"

The kids took the dog and my mom for a walk yesterday. They came home with a caterpillar. It got deposited in a glass jar. I tried to figure out what kind of caterpillar it was but didn't have much luck.

I intended to identify it and then release it but since I didn't figure it out, I left on my desk last night. This morning I found this.



It's not the best picture but you can see the silhouette of the cocoon/chrysalis the caterpillar is building.

We still have our other caterpillar in a glass jar in the window. From what I've read it should hatch in May.

The boys are going to be excited to find the cocoon when they get home.

Tomatoes

I haven't had much luck with tomato plants the last few years. I think inconsistent watering was a big issue. I decided to try something different this year.

I followed these directions to make a self watering container for tomatoes.

Here is the process:

First bucket with bricks to create a reservoir.


Second bucket with glad container zip-tied in and hole for watering pole


Buckets stacked


Landscape fabric & watering pole added


Adding dirt in layers, watering in between


Planting with some fertilizer


Done


Water running out the weep holes so it doesn't overfill



I don't know if this will work or not but it is worth a try.

Friday and all is well

Last night a huge storm blew through. DH was at Dad's Club. I was asleep in bed. It woke me up at 10:45 and suddenly remembered that I hadn't parked the car in the garage. The thudding of hail made me run, find the keys, race outside, park the car, calm down the dog, close the open kitchen window and worry.

I spent the next hour watching the radar, wondering where The Pines camp was, worrying if the storm was going to get worse and would it hit the camp. I am a pessimistic and imaginative person and could not stop thinking about the disaster that was about to occur. Lucky for me the local weather channel stopped covering the storm when it exited its viewing area, about 2 towns away from the camp. I couldn't watch the storm move across the state on the radar anymore so I finally fell asleep after 12:30. I woke up this morning and, although there was lots of talk of the storm and the hail, there was no talk of a camp full of kids being killed. I decided they must have survived okay.

Today I was scheduled to take a drop spindle class at the Shabby Sheep, a LYS. I've always wanted to spin yarn. Our family took a trip when I was about 8 years old. Mom took us girls and a cousin to San Antonio to visit the Five Missions. I don't remember much except the heat, S#4 throwing up, and the woman at one mission demonstrating spinning. I got to use old carders to clean wool. I think that must have been the inspiration for my current fiber enthusiasm.

I enjoyed the class today even through I wasn't very good at it. My yarn was very kinky. This little hank was about 1 1/2 hours worth of work and is about 3 inches long and 1 inch thick. I guess it isn't too bad for my very first try.



I came home from class to find A safe and sound. No problems. They had a little rain last night and she slept through it. I'm happy that they weren't frightened. She told me all about her trip. Now A & J helped mom make rolls for dinner tonight.



It is nice having my little family back home together.

Store clerks

Do you ever wonder what a store clerk thinks about the things you buy?

Yesterday I had to run into cvs to pick up a few things. Poise pads for my mother and lice remediation supplies for my niece.

Interesting combination, yes?

Camp update

A arrived safely at camp yesterday. I got this picture in a text from a friend who is chaperoning.



She looks like she is having fun!

Live in chef

Mom has been staying with us this week because of the deconstruction at S#2's house. It has been a lovely week. Mom came with a menu and groceries and she has been cooking all week long.

Sun: Chicken & rice, salad & vegetables
Mon: Meatloaf, mashed potato casserole, corn
Tues: Chicken pot pie, frozen fruit salad and upside down pear cake

The cake, despite containing cooked fruit, was delicious and beautiful.


I'm enjoying not having to think about dinner. A lot!

Pines

Every year the 5th grade class takes a trip to The Pines Catholic Camp. I remember a year ago wondering how A would do going away from home for 4 days/3 nights. At that time she still had trouble sleeping over at her cousin's house. Another sign of growing up, A started attending sleepover parties and spending the night out at her friends' houses this school year. She was extremely excited to go today. She woke up at 5am and had to wait for everyone else to go up so she could leave.



I thought I would stick around to see her onto the bus, but once we got there, she posed for goodbye picture and took off with her friends. I stayed for a few minutes talking to another mother. She came back up, gave me a hug & kiss goodbye and that was it. She was off.

It is going to be weird with only the boys around. I will enjoy making two lunches instead of three for a few days.

growing up

A couple of weeks ago my mother had her knee replaced. She is stuck at home recovering for another couple of weeks. S#2 is about to gut her kitchen and a bathroom for a total re-do. They will be tearing out wall and floors and concrete. It will be messy. Mom lives in the house while S#2 lives in Kazakhstan. Mom has bad allergies and asthma and doesn't need to be living in a house that is undergoing major destruction. Therefore Mom is moving in for a week or so.

Mom moving in means she gets A's room. Mom moving in means A has to clean said room. That is a major undertaking. It doesn't matter that she picks up her room at least weekly and we majorly overhaul her room almost quarterly, it is an unending pit of trinkets and baubles and bits of paper, fabric and string.

Mom is coming on Sunday. We started the cleaning tonight. Thankfully, she is getting older and more cooperative in the cleaning process. I took a chance and suggested cleaning up the girls (aka her 5 American girls) and all of their accessories. They have been stacked in various places in her room, piling up and growing since Kaya first joined our family when A turned 5. Wow, 6 years ago!

I know A is growing up because tonight she agreed to box up some of their things and put them in the closet.





Their beds are still safe and sound next to A's. All girls got to sort out the pillow and blanket situation and they are all very comfortable.



I remember the hours she spent playing with the girls. She took Kaya everywhere with her for years. She made toys and clothes and books and presents for them constantly. She spends way more time with her books and her itouch now. At least she still isn't ready to put the girls in the closet. She isn't all the way grown up yet.

Cub Scout Camping

After a long day in the hot sun at the ballpark, DH & J got up early on Saturday. J played an 8am soccer game and they headed out to cub scout camp out.

It was at the Collin County Adventure camp which is a great facility. They had archery, bb guns, rock climbing wall, canoeing, fishing and all kinds of other fun. DH said it was good but windy. He could hardly sleep because the wind was flapping the tent around. It was so noisy he ended up sleeping with earplugs.