So Much For An Active Blog

I realized after posting on a cousins blog that I have not written in about a year. So maybe I should write something. Hmmmm what to write. I guess I will mention a few things about Advent, the schools and thoughts in general. Today is the feast Day of Juan Diego and My oldest( a long time ago) painted a picture of the Blessed Mother that appeared to Juan Diego. I encouraged her to take it to school and show her Spanish teacher. She did and what a response. I figured she would get detention, the teacher instead showcased it in the hall. Kinda cool. However in just a few short years I don't know if that would be the same response. Tully schools now observe a "day of silence", which I kept my high schoolers home that day and the year before last we didn't know about it and one teacher actually came in with duct tape on her mouth. My girls were outspoken that day and one even mentioned the fact that many have died due to their belief in Christ why don't the schools observe a day of silence for them? Well needless to say the schools are again doing their best to observe Santa and not the real meaning of this Advent or the coming Christmas season. I had almost 30 families show up to make Advent wreaths on the 29th of Nov, just to have one of our priests say "no" he would not bless them. That's right "No". I was busy cutting greens so I did not hear him, I am so sad when this rich tradition of our faith is dismissed. My Mother asks anyone with a collar on to bless something. Any way one wonderful thing is that as parents we still have the God given right to teach our kids our beliefs and this beautiful faith and I wonder sometimes if they hear me going on and on and on about it and I am encouraged because my son Leo was secretly making something in the garage. All I kept saying was "don't make a mess, I need to get the van in there when it snows", it snowed van is still outside. Well what my boy was making was a manger out of mud, sticks and black tape. I love it. When I read todays readings, I was amazed that the Responsorial Psalm was Psalm 103, my absolute favorite:

Psalm 103 vs 1-2,3-4,8,10

Bless the Lord, O my soul;

and all my being, bless his holy name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

and forget not all his benefits.

He pardons all your iniquities,

he heals all your ills.

He redeems your life from destruction,

he crowns you with kindness and compassion.

Merciful and gracious is the Lord,

slow to anger and abounding in kindness.

Not according to our sins does he deal with us,

nor does he requite us according to our crimes.

I love the message of hope and of course the Gospel today was just as comforting. My soul always finds rest in Christs yoke, if I just stay still enough to take his instead of mine. If anyone does read this(ha ha ha) cause I doubt it that whole exercise post well lets just say that I move just not for the sake of exercise, but for the sake of the family. As for those of you who are getting sucked up in the whole "holiday" spending thing, I leave you with this:

We well remember that He Himself came among us as one who was lowly, humble, poor and weary with toil. At the same time He was the Messiah who redeemed us from every moral misery as well as the prophet of hope of the Kingdom of heaven.

Pope Paul VI December 1, 1968

Fit Friday

It's Almost Naptime has started an exercise program called Fit Friday . What a great way to head into the holidays. I couldn't figure out the Mr. Linky thing, I will when I have more time. I'm just going to join in on the exercise idea. Just so you know you can also download power yoga programs onto you ipod, itunes, media player etc. . I did this the other day and got a free 25 min. program at yogadownload.com. Pretty cool so check it out. Here are my goals

• eat breakfast
• walk on nice days so I can get some sunshine in me
• use my free weights
• do the yoga because it really makes me feel better
• keep it in perspective, I can't do all of this on one day, but I can do something
• no eating after 7pm (this has worked for me in the past, and I suffer from the have a beer thing too.

Well there it is for now. I'll atleast try to update on Fridays. My blogging record stinks. But thanks for the idea and if you even visit my site you should check out It's Almost Naptime.

Blessings,
kate

Prom 2008

The Loss of a Friend to Breast Cancer

My community lost a Friend to Breast Cancer May 19, 2008. Patty was also a Wife and Mother of to young daughters. So I write this post to remind everyone including men(to remind the women in their lives) that it is important to pay attention to our bodies. Go get a mammogram, do self breast examinations, go to your Gyn. once a year. Mom's are a special people and take care of so many often at the expense of their own health. Here is a link to the Breast Cancer organization. Hopefully this post will help all of us to take care of ourselves too.

Improving your Blog

Last month was Improve your blog month at Frugal Upstate. Only I didn't get the chance to mess with it. Thats the thing about blogging unless your really swift on the computer there is a lot of messing around. So I tried to get the banner it didn't work for me cause where do I put that code thingy in the first place. But oh well I did change the background of the blog and I did try to figure out some things. I made it so I can be emailed and just spent some time "messing" with it. I need to figure out how to take the old post and just clear them and put them under some labels, but it seemed that nothing really was in plain talk for me. However I have decided not only to speak of frugal things, but life in general. I thought this might be a blog about well everything that can come under the label as dirt. You know dirt that muddles up the house, relationships, finances, etc. . Even some more posts about religion...mostly Catholicism. So there you have it a change....seems as though there has been a lot of talk about change. This isn't a big change just me trying to blog a bit more as you can see its not been since February that I wrote anything. So here's to blogging.

Menu Plan Monday(Posted Tuesday)

Monday: Son's Birthday Crockpot Pork w/BBQ sauce w/egg noodles & broccoli
nobody liked the way the pork came out this ones is a dud....on a birthday no less

Tuesday:Chicken fingers w/green beans and rice

Wednesday: Spinach sausage soup w/biscuits

Thursday: Mac-n-Cheese w/ carrots maybe something else but I don't know whhhat!

Friday: Baked Fish w/ veggie and rice

Saturday: Calzones w/ salad

Sunday: Herbed country chicken stew

I have all the ingredients for all these recipes no reason to buy a thing....no reason....no reason......

Frugal Organization

Last night my very organized sister in law commented on some clementine boxes that I have. These clementine boxes (the wooden ones you get when you buy clementines) stack very nicely. I let my 5 year old paint them one day and I use them for storage. I will post some pictures soon. But for now use your imagination. I have a set of three the top one I store all phone chargers, ipod earphones, gameboy charges etc. , the second one is currently being use to store all the college letters being sent to my seventeen year old, the bottom one for papers to be signed and sent back to school etc. . The nice thing about this system is at night when I want to finally sit down, I can just take the bottom box with me fill out the papers and put them back in the box. The kids know to ask about the papers or where to look for them in the morning.
My next tip is my favorite. I don't know if anyone else has done this but here it is. I have always had trouble keeping all my bill organized. One is here, there, everywhere. But I was checking out some online products to keep you organized and basically this was the system, except I couldn't afford it. I went to the Dollar General and purchased two coupon organizers for a $1.00. They had attachable sticker labels. I wrote all my bills due on the 1st-4th on the first one and so on and so forth. With a calendar folded up in the back with all the Names of the companies, phone #'s, amount due all placed on the respective date. This is a great way to stay organized because while I'm waiting to pick up kids or at games I can review it and it fits into my purse. The Dollar General brand is vinyl so if you spilled something chances are it would wreck. The other coupon organizer I think will be used for envelopes, stamps, and return labels. I'll post some pictures.