~ THIRTEEN - Baker's Dozen ~

Happy Happy Day today!

Our Butterfly turned 13 this month!  She is one of the most beautiful, sweetest, thoughtful, virtuous girls I know...and she's one of the smartest! 

She's lovely!!  And she's ours...we are so very very blessed!

Thirteen or more friends

Thirteen Candles

Celebrate! With a Baker's Dozen

                                HAPPY 13th BIRTHDAY DARLING GIRL...
                              OUR LITTLE BUTTERFLY!!!

~ Three In One ~

Little-lamb:  "That would be funny if there were three of me;  then I could say:  I just want to play with me, myself and I ".  ~ March, 29, 2012

~ One Year, Today ~

Oh my!  I began this blog one year ago, today...wow, time sure does fly!  LOL!!  Seems like I just began blogging...and by the looks of my scanty entries, one might say that I have just begun! LOL!  I'm averaging less than, well, who's counting anyways!?
I have so many treasures that I want to share here, but no time to do so.  Oh well.  I'm living the moment and enjoying my children.  I'll continue to post when I can...

So a little post on our Rosebuds Girls club...

rosebuds for the Rosebuds

Butterfly gave the Virtue and Catechism Talks.  She did great!  The virtue was Charity and Kindness and the catechism was on Corporal and Spiritual Works.

And then we the girls had a cake decorating class...yummy fun!!

Butterfly's sweet creation

My favorite

Cupcakes, Cupcakes, Cupcakes!!!

~ Pajama Gardener ~

Teaching Textbooks is a program that covers math from about 2nd grade level up to pre-calculus.
My two older children use it as a supplement to their Saxon studies.  They really enjoy the TT program; it's kinda fun as they get to use it on the computer and they like that they can see their scores and achievements AND they have funny characters like, the Pajama Gardener...

Little Lamb with body guard - Fräulein Rosenheim

 Little Lamb

At 6:00AM on a very cold morning, Pajama Gardener Little Lamb was out pulling weeds and tending to the garden in her flip flops and pj's...

I was inside getting some hot chocolate ready...for our little pajama gardener.

~ The Giving Tree ~

 When I think of the Giving Tree...I think of my Grandfather. In his magnificent garden, there was a beautiful, tall, strong and "giving" avocado tree. It would produce perfectly delicious fruit - in abundance - a wonderful harvest for all the family. What a treasure. What a gift.

Growing up, we would climb this monsterous & beautiful avocado tree, playing around it's enormeous trunk and towering branches...fallen leaves to kick through and step on, in play ...
Over the many years, or rather decades, the strong tree continued to give - Oh, the wonderful and loving memories...almost every Sunday, after Mass, we would stop at the cemetery to visit and sometimes bring flowers to my maternal grandparents, and then off to visit my paternal grandparents...spending the afternoon playing in the garden that housed the big giving tree.

At 106 yrs, 8 mos, my grandfather passed into eternal rest. He was stong and giving to the end.
Four priests, a deacon, family from four states and many friends attended the Rosary, Vigil, Funeral Mass and Burial. He is survived by his six children, 21 grandchildren, 43 great-grandchildren, and 14 great-great grandchildren - his fruits - Blest Are They.

In Loving Memory...

"My life is in your hands, Lord.
In your hands is my whole existence.
One must die to live,
In trust, I place my whole self into your hands.
If the grain of wheat does not die,
it will only remain a grain of wheat,
But if it dies, it will give generously
A new fruit that will not die.
One must die to live,
In trust, I place my whole self into your hands."

~ Closing Song for Vigil:  Entre Tus Manos - Ray Repp (c) 1966, 2001

~ French Lentil Soup ~

Our Meal and Soupe du jour...I used what fresh ingredients I had and improvised some...as you will see (and as my family tasted) it turned out délicieux!  Or maybe we were all so very hungry from fasting? 

 Actually, I used one of my favorite cookbooks "Twelve Months of Monastery Soups" by Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette.  Everything in this cookbook comes out delicious; a must have.

A little bit of garlic and some onion gently sauteed in olive oil.  (Again with the sidways picture) *sigh*

 The recipe didn't call for zucchini, but I threw some in (because I had some).  Fresh spinach, carrots...

...Fingerling potatoes (love them!), etc...

 oh yes, and LENTILS!

Add some cooked rice (we used brown & wild rice) to complete the meal.

Ta da!  Française Soupe aux lentilles (aka French Lentil Soup)   Our Ash Wednesday ~ Soupe du jour ~ Soup of the Day!  Worth the Wait.

Joining Lenten Meal Plan Link-Up 2014

Co-Hosted by:

~ Shrove Tuesday ~

Shrove Tuesday...or Shrovetide;  It's not a party but it can sure feel like one...a week or two earlier, we start going through our pantry, refrigerator & freezer to use up items that will help us to keep our Lenten Commitments or Promises - as it relates to fasting or abstinence.

Butterfly's Raisin Oatmeal Cookies - mmm-good!

 I found some cookie dough in the freezer that Butterfly had made a few months ago...goodbye temptation.

Home-made Chili - yum!

Found all the items to make some delicious Chili - I've only made chili a few times...my children don't usually eat it...However, this was a HUGE HIT - they loved it!  Even my picky one...I'll be making this again.

King's Cake stand in

Making Pancakes for dinner on Shrove Tuesday is a tradition at our house.  This year I opted out from using the yellow, green and purple food coloring.  But we did use b.u.t.t.e.r. (oh yea!)  And we found a bag of chocolate chips, so we added some of those as well.

 We rarely, rarely use butter on our pancakes.  Yes, I realize they taste better with some butter, but I just got our kids used to the idea of no butter...so we were REALLY indulging here.


Little Lamb slathers on the b.u.t.t.e.r.

This is a Happy Shrove Tuesday!

Taken from NEW ADVENT: CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA

Shrovetide is the English equivalent of what is known in the greater part of Southern Europe as the "Carnival", a word which, in spite of wild suggestions to the contrary, is undoubtedly to be derived from the "taking away of flesh" (carne levare) which marked the beginning of Lent. The English term "shrovetide" (from "to shrive", or hear confessions) is sufficiently explained by a sentence in the Anglo-Saxon "Ecclesiastical Institutes" translated from Theodulphus by Abbot Aelfric about A.D. 1000: "In the week immediately before Lent everyone shall go to his confessor and confess his deeds and the confessor shall so shrive him as he then may hear by his deeds what he is to do [in the way of penance]". In this name shrovetide the religious idea is uppermost, and the same is true of the German Fastnacht (the eve of the fast). It is intelligible enough that before a long period of deprivations human nature should allow itself some exceptional licence in the way of frolic and good cheer. No appeal to vague and often inconsistent traces of earlier pagan customs seems needed to explain the general observance of a carnival celebration. The only clear fact which does not seem to be adequately accounted for is the widespread tendency to include the preceding Thursday (called in French Jeudi gras and in German fetter Donnerstag — just as Shrove Tuesday is respectively called Mardi gras and fetter Dienstag) with the Monday and Tuesday which follow Quinquagesima. The English custom of eating pancakes was undoubtedly suggested by the need of using up the eggs and fat which were, originally at least, prohibited articles of diet during the forty days of Lent.