7QT: March Madness

1. Susan's Prom Planning Meeting

"Mom, you haven't blogged about me in a while. Are you going to blog about me soon?"

This email went out to all the seniors at Susan's school:

Hello Senior Board Members,
This Friday, February 27th, we are having a Prom planning meeting.  You hopefully saw the flier John and Emma handed out.  This is not mandatory, so if you cannot make it no worries.  If you are planning to be here, please RSVP to this email.
Its very important that you RSVP, so please reply to this if you are coming!
Thanks,
Mrs. S
Mrs. R
Mrs. C

This email from an unknown party followed soon after:

Change of plans the meeting will be changed from this Friday to this Thursday the 26th. Please try to make this change fit your schedules accordingly and sorry for the inconvenience. Thanks for all you do 

See, one of the email addresses was entered incorrectly, so Mrs. S had to clear up matters:

Ignore this last email.  It from a wrong email address for Emma.  Don't know who it went to...someone who is being obnoxious, that's for sure!!!!!!!!!!!

But she forgot to remove "Evan" from the email thread:

With the new material that was dropped on me this morning it is absolutely imperative that all of you are in attendance this Thursday. If you absolutely can not make it please email me and let me know. Again I apologize for the inconvenience... If it is any consolation Max has volunteered to bring in a lovely vegetable tray and deli platter for us to snack on as we will be in this meeting for the long haul Thursday night. Thanks again!

Personally, I think Susan should ask "Evan" to the Prom. Alas, the meeting was on Friday and he and his deli platter did not show.

2. Painting Furniture.

Is it still "in"?

Because I have a china cabinet that I loathe and rather than buy a new one, I think I could paint it to look like this one.

Or this one.

Or this.

I figure if Ethan Allen is still doing it, it's gotta be "on trend."


3. Springfield, where our governors make our license plates.

We're planning a day trip to Springfield this month.  We've done it before awhile back.

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum is incredible. You walk through Abe's parents' log cabin, Mary Todd Lincoln's White House, and you go into the Lincoln's box at Ford's Theater.

We haven't done the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library before, but I've heard the exhibits there are terrific as well.

We also need to visit Lincoln's tomb.  The one that was nearly robbed by carpet baggers who were trying to re-start the war. And his house from when he was an attorney.

4.

As usual, we are doing some larnin' to prep for this excursion. We've been reading lots of books about Lincoln including Abraham Lincoln by the D'Aulaires, and Russell Freedman's Lincoln: A Photobiography.

We are also going to watch Daniel Day Lewis's Lincoln movie as well as The History Channel documentary: Stealing Lincoln's Body.

5. When we get to Springfield, I surely hope to eat a horseshoe. Or at least a pony shoe.

That would be a hamburger on Texas toast covered with french fries and smothered in cheese sauce.

Don't be judging.

6.  Thorntons be hitting all the capitals this year. (Capitols are the buildings, capitals are the cities.)

Peter, Susan, and Lucy

We are very fortunate to have relatives who love us enough to take All of us into their home every now and then for Easter. We love all of them and always have a crazy-wonderful time.

I spoke with Mr. McFeely about the recent passing of Fred Rogers at this time. 

We did our nation's Capitol and egg rolling at the White House last time. It's one of the few things my older kids remember from our last trip in 2004.

Mt. Vernon with Lucy, Edmund, and Peter. Maybe I should go back to my Dharma haircut? 

We are making our lists and checking them twice. Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the monuments, and the dum-dum statue are all on the itinerary.

We're reading and watching reference materials for this odyssey too. Movies like Night at the Museum and National Treasure. High brow stuff, indeed. Yes, I'm open to suggestions here. Grasping at straws.

7.  This is so bad, it's good.

Let It Go - The Sacrament of Confession version

Hanging with Kelly's Crew for 7QT. 

12 in 2014 - A Photographic Year in Review

I was going to write about each of these photos but what can I say?  

Just listen for the sound of my heart stretching and breaking with each click of the shutter.

January

February 

March

April

May

June

July

 August

 September

October 

November

 December

Linking up with Dwija's 12 in 2014. 

Happy New Year!  

7QT: International Student, Graduation Party, and Boy Bait

1.

A big welcome to our latest addition, Maria!  Maria is from Seville, Spain and will be living with us for the entire school year. 

Maria's family and our family have known each other for some time now.  Peter stayed and traveled with Maria's family when he went to World Youth Day in Madrid and walked the Camino de Santiago.

Peter and my dad in 2012 holding Peter's certificate of completion for the Camino de Santiago.

We are very excited to have Maria here.  It's going to be a fun year!

2.

Saturday, we had a graduation/going away party for Peter.

It rained for two hours before the party.  Thank goodness we rented a tent!

The rain cooled things off, but left our yard a little soggy.

"diplomas"

3.

That didn't stop anyone from having a grand old time.

Maria and some new friends in the bounce house.

People partied like rock stars.  In fact, as I type this on Sunday morning, some of the rock stars are still here, asleep.

4.  This chocolate cake was the flavor favorite.

But our heartfelt sentiments on the vanilla one were enjoyed by all.

5.  Speaking of cake, Lucy and a friend whipped up not one but TWO pans of Blueberry Boy Bait for me this week.

She used the fresh blueberries we picked at Uncle Bill's place in Michigan, and she used coconut oil, the kind that smells like coconut.

The smell while the Boy Bait was baking was out-of-this-world, but I can't really taste the coconut in the finished product.

Wait.

Let me taste it again.

I'm not sure, maybe a hint.

Better taste it one more time to be sure.

Nope.  I don't think so.  I will keep researching this for more data.

We used this recipe, because it uses lot more blueberries than the America's Test Kitchen one.

6.  Overheard:

Patrick:  Wash both of your hands.

Anonymous:  I only got poop on one of my hands.

Patrick:  Wash both of your hands.

7.

Overheard:

Jill:  I got chocolate on my underpants.

Patrick: It's okay, Jessica, it's really chocolate.  Here, smell.

I didn't smell it, but it was chocolate. And That my Friends is why I discourage eating in the bathroom.

Until next week, visit Jen.  TTFN.

7QT: Such a long to-do list, I think I'll blog.

We are leaving for Michigan in the am.  The laundry isn't done.  There are still groceries to buy (Hello Aldi cheap beach snacks!).  The house is a mess.  But I think I'll cough up seven quick takes and tell the big kids to make brownies, because these things are important.

1.

Those people down there are my people.

Michigan.  It's just like this.  On a lake with a beer and a baby.

2.

We have a new Christian in the house!

Many, many thanks to Fr. Steve Grunow of Word on Fire for coming down to our neck of the woods to baptize Polly and to the many family members who journeyed far and cut vacations short to be with us on this great occasion!

3.  Here are some examples of how Old Scratch tried to spoil the day interspersed with photos that are not related to the text.

My dishwasher broke the night before.  Patrick duct taped it so the tape was barely noticeable and the dishwasher still functioned.

The morning of, in a group effort to get beverages in the coolers, Lucy picked up a 12 pack of beer on the back porch and the box broke!  Broken glass and beer everywhere!

Then after cleaning up that mess, Susan was stirring a glass pitcher of OJ RIGHT BEFORE WE WERE TO WALK OUT THE DOOR, AND THE PITCHER BROKE!  Glass and OJ all over my clean kitchen.

At this point, Patrick, Polly, Jill, and I took off for the church, leaving the oldest four to clean and make their own way.

Polly was a perfect baby for the entire ceremony except for some serious fussiness and squirming during the prayer of exorcism.  But then Fr. Steve called the Holy Spirit down on her, and she settled right down.

4.  The rest of the day was just lovely.  There was no Bacon Cake left.  No ham.  None of the four egg casseroles.  No Prosecco.  It was a great feast!

Then we napped.

My hair looked pretty good too.  Washed it the day before.  Curly friends, you got to get educated in Ouidad.  I read about this nursing friendly dress on this blog.  Thanks, Tess.  Sorry not sorry I got the same print as she did.  It's the prettiest one.

5.  Some of the male party guests were complaining about our gorgeous vegetable garden. I think they were afraid their wives would get ideas.

I'm linking up with Cari's Garden Post. Our harvest has been small so far.  Some lettuce, Swiss Chard, basil, and a total of 2 cucumbers and 9 green beans.  This is our first attempt at vegetable gardening.

Each of those cucumbers cost us about $175.

There are zillions of green tomatoes too.  I'm certain everything will ripen while we are away.  If you live locally, swing by my back yard and help yourselves.  I have a good gazpacho recipe here.

The pepper plants look good, but no peppers.  The watermelon was about the size of a golf ball, but squirrels got it somehow.  It looks like we will do well with pumpkins.  That will save me about $8 this fall.

Next year, I'm growing zucchini and arugula.

Mixing the compost.

BTW, the vegetable garden is all the work of Patrick, Edmund, and Peter.  Any and all flowers are my domain, and they are all dead or mostly dead, which is why they are not pictured.

6.

On Monday, we took our Houston family members to the zoo.  They left from the zoo for the airport, but we stayed and went to the Butterfly House.

Patrick is SKEERED of butterflies, so we have never been there before.

It was gorgeous and magical and I want to live there.  Or at least spend a couple of hours in there with a large iced tea.

7.

Jill is talking about this moment when she says she touched a pig at the zoo.

I suppose that's enough procrastinating.

I will try to keep up with the WWRW posts, but there is a serious lack of internet and even cell coverage where we're going.  Don't you ever think that I'd skip a What We're Reading Wednesday post because I haven't read any books.  Jill would never let that happen.

Linking up with Jennifer @ Conversion Diary and Cari @ Clan Donaldson.