Monday Montage

Happy Monday!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!  We spent Thanksgiving Day with Dan's brother and his family in St. Augustine!  We don't often get together with them on holidays but it was a really nice change and we really enjoyed it.  I didn't take many pictures...but here are a few:

 

 

In addition to the turkey, my nephews marinated and grilled (and wrapped in bacon!) some venison.  It was delicious!

 

Later in our weekend, we were able to attend a Thanksgiving Family Retreat offered at our parish!  The adults were treated to 4 great talks related to the Year of Faith by 2 incredibly holy priests!  During the talks, the kids played games with the sisters.  We were also able to take advantage of confession, Holy Hour with Benediction, Holy Mass, and the best fellowship we've had in a long time.

 



And lastly, I was able to sneak away early Friday morning to go to the Christmas Made in the South annual holiday craft show at the convention center.  I buy a family ornament every year.  This is the one I chose for 2012:

Enjoy your week!

Quick Note

Happy Saturday after Thanksgiving!  We are still in the midst of a wonderful holiday but I wanted to pop in to say hello!

We spent a great Thanksgiving Day with Dan's brother and his family!  It was a nice change from our regular routine.  Although I missed the smell of a roasting turkey wafting through my house, it was nice not to have to worry about making sure everything was done at the same time...or facing a huge mess in my small kitchen!

Yesterday morning, Nathan and I (mom and son time) went to the Christmas Made in the South craft show that comes to Jacksonville every year!  It's always the weekend after Thanksgiving and I've managed to make it every year since I've been in Jax (15 years now!)...even during chemotherapy!

In addition to that, we are finally able to attend our parishes Thanksgiving Retreat sponsored by the Sisters and Brothers of the Home of the Mother!  We attended yesterday afternoon's festivities which included an adult formation talk on the writings of Pope Benedict XVI "Year of Faith", mass/confessions, a rosary walk, a pizza dinner and a family movie (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory).  The kids had a ball.  The retreat continues today and I will have pictures to share with you when we come home!

Tomorrow I will tackle the laundry that has been piling up since Tuesday!  Nathan serves mass at 6pm so we will have the entire day to get back to our routine.

I hope you all are enjoying your Thanksgiving weekend!  See you soon!

Plans!

This is the time of year when there is a whole lot of planning going on in our house!  I feel like I'm behind a little in this department though.  So much has been going on that I haven't really had a chance to think.  For me, if I write things down, I can plan and organize better. So, here's my list....

Thanksgiving:  We have been invited to spend Thanksgiving with Dan's brother and his family.  While the kids are very excited and looking forward to spending time with their cousins, I'm a little ambivalent.  Over the years, some relationships in Dan's family have been strained.  Things don't always go smoothly in the "let's all just get along" department.  As an observer for the past 15 years, it seems there is always an elephant in the room when we are together.  I'm not sure exactly what this elephant is, but it has been in this room for a long time...well before I appeared!  These relationships have gone through rough periods and times of relative peace.  This year, I'm hoping for peace...the keeping-your-mouth-shut-and-smiling kind of peace.  The bottom line is, we are family.  We are called to love and support each other.  ***We've been asked to bring a dish of our choosing!  You know, something our kids like and will eat.  I'm still trying to decide what to bring.  My kids are too darn picky!  Olivia doesn't like mashed potatoes....Amelia doesn't like stuffing...and Nathan doesn't like turkey!  None of them like sweet potatoes or green beans!  About the only thing they all can agree on is the dinner rolls!  Perhaps that's what we'll end up bringing.*****

Christmas Cards:  This year, I'm making our Christmas cards!  I'm excited yet, nervous.  This is a big undertaking and I don't want to mess it up.  My goal is to get them done in the next two weeks so I can have them in the mail early!  I've got to make time for this instead of playing Candy Cane Saga on Facebook!

Facebook:  I need to finish up cleaning out my friends list.  My Facebook account and I had a "come to Jesus" meeting the other day.  I deactivated my account with the full intention of it being permanent.  Then, however, I realized that I needed my Facebook account to log into Pinterest.  I NEED Pinterest! So, after a week long hiatus, I'm back on....but with several changes.  For one thing, I've learned that not every relationship I've ever had was meant to be kept active and current.  God sends some people into our lives for a short time...and some are meant to be with us for a lifetime.  Facebook made those lines very cloudy and I realized that some relationships were better left in the past.  I let go of well over 30 people and to tell you the truth, I feel much relief.    And I do mean RELIEF...physical relief.   This election was a stressful one and  the political lines were drawn.  I don't believe there has ever been an election as important as this one, and therefore the stakes were very high.  I've since seen some Facebook threads addressing me and my "judgemental and hateful" attitude.  It was eye opening and humbling to read what others think about me.  Because they did not know that I would read those posts, they were honest and open about how they felt.  I can't lie and say that some of those words weren't hurtful, but I suppose I deserved it...at least in their eyes.  I'm sure they felt justified.  I really don't mind anger, as a matter of fact, I prefer it over the "pity" many of them expressed.  Apparently, they feel badly for me...for my poor, misguided, intolerant and undeserved disdain for our current president and for my lack of filter in expressing myself.  They all agree that their world is much better without having to endure my endless political posts and judgements.  Perhaps they are correct.  In any case, I think everyone benefits from my decision to remove myself from the situation for awhile, get my bearings and clean house (so to speak).  They are happier and I am happier.  All in all, this is a win-win situation.  I can't promise that I will not offend someone with my posts in the future.  I can't guarantee that my ideas and opinions won't be perceived as judgemental or hateful at some point.  I can only promise that I will be honest with how I think and how I feel.  I will not beat around the bush or tiptoe through the tulips.  No one will ever have to wonder how I feel about something.  It is unlikely that anyone will call me "wishy-washy".  We will all have to stand before God someday to explain how and why we lived our lives the way we did.  We will all have to account for the things we did...the things we said, and maybe more importantly...the things we didn't do or didn't say.  While I have MUCH sin in my life and will be judged justly by God for EVERY.SINGLE.ONE.OF.THEM...I will also be able to stand before Him and know that I defended my faith, defended my Church and defended the lives and souls of unborn babies to the best of my ability. 

Gift Giving:  We've decided to scale way back in this area.   Dan and I always have a discussion about how we are going to be very frugal and how we will keep things to the very minimum for Christmas.  We rarely stick to our decision.  Keeping in mind that our budget is VERY limited, we still end up doing too much and I always feel guilty for over doing it.  I recently saw something on Pinterest about being better stewards of the resources that God has given us and helping our kids to not focus so much on the amount of gifts but on the quality.   I found this "Wish List For Santa" on Pinterest and I love it! 

 

On Thanksgiving morning, I will give each of the kids one of these for them to fill out.  Then we'll pop it into the mail so Santa is well aware of how we're going to roll this year!  I feel really good about this and I'm looking forward to implementing this!  I just don't feel comfortable anymore with letting them make this endless list of material nonsense that is a waste of money, a waste of time and is not in the best interest of their souls.  I'm hoping this change doesn't backfire on me!

 

Well, I think this post is long enough.....plus, it's 11:56pm and I can hardly keep my eyes open.  I keep having to use the backspace button because almost every word I type is spelled wrong!  It's definitely time to go to bed.

 

I will share more plans as the days go on!  Please feel free to share what your plans are!

 

 

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

I was up at 5:30 this morning!  It must be the excitement of the day because I hadn't planned on putting Tom Turkey in the oven until 10am!  But, since I was up.....I baked a dutch apple pie, made the stuffing, prepared the turkey...got him stuffed and buttered and in the oven at 8:00am!  The dishes are done and the mashed potatoes/gravy/green beans and rolls will be taken care of much later.  I still have to set the table, though....but I'm pacing myself! We'll eat earlier than I had planned, but that's OK...the day is ours.

Thankfully, the kids are in a good mood!  I think Amelia might be coming down with something.  She said her head hurts really bad and she has a stuffy nose.  She feels a little warm to me, but I haven't actually taken her temp yet.  Let's hope for the best.

Right now (8:15am), everyone is eating breakfast and the kids are watching an episode of Power Rangers Samurai (sigh).  We'll watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade later.  My plan is to eat at about 2pm...then we may take a ride out to the beach!  The weather is nice....50 degrees right now will most likely be in the 70's this afternoon.

Whatever your plans are....Have a Happy, Happy Thanksgiving!

Great Cranberry Recipe!

My sister-in-law makes the BEST cranberry relish/jello you have ever tasted!  Seriously!   Just in case you were looking for something a little different, I wanted to share the recipe so you would still have time to make it.  Here goes...

1 pound fresh cranberries
rind from one whole orange (grated)
1/2 cup orange juice
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin
3 tablespoons cold water
1 (3 1/2 oz) package lemon gelatin
1 cup boiling water
1 cup drained canned crushed pineapple

Put cranberries and orange rind through a good processor until finely ground.  In a large bowl, mix together the cranberries, orange rind, orange juice, lemon juice and sugar.  Refrigerate for 6 to 8 hours (I chill it overnight).  Soak 1 tbsp unflavored gelatin in 3 tbsp cold water.  Dissolve lemon gelatin in boiling water.  Add to the cranberry mixture along with the soaking unflavored gelatin.  Add crushed pineapple.  Refrigerate until firm.  Serve.

I usually allow two days for this.  I have also doubled the recipe in the past...especially if cooking for a crowd.  Instead of a mold...I just use a pretty glass bowl.  I've had many times where it didn't set up properly.  You can also add one more packet of the unflavored gelatin...just for good measure.

Enjoy!

My Menu!

This year, we will be having Thanksgiving dinner here at home with just the 5 of us!  Usually, we all go to my sister-in-law's house and I'm responsible for hors d'oeuvres and a relish tray.  Sometimes I would also contribute a pie.  It seems that we've gotten into a bit of a rut, and all of us wanted to change things up a bit.  If the truth be told, I really wanted to go AWAY for Thanksgiving!  My idea was to go someplace north of here....like Tennessee, Virginia or north of Atlanta.   However, there was no money in the piggy bank for such a trip (wouldn't ya know it!).  So...here we are.

The good news is that our house will smell wonderful on Thursday and we'll have lots of left overs!  Here's our menu....pretty darn traditional:

Roasted Turkey:  I debated about frying it....but I'm craving comfort food that's familiar.  I bought a 22 lb turkey this year!  It's BIG, I know, but I plan on making turkey pot pies and turkey soup to freeze!

Stuffing:  I use the Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix...it's easy and it was on sale (BOGO) at my local Winn Dixie!  I usually add sausage....just because everyone likes it!  I've been known to add craisins and/or apples...but this year, I'm sticking to the basics.  By the way, I do stuff the turkey (both ends) and bake some in a casserole dish too.

Mashed Potatoes:  I always make my mashed potatoes with half & half and real butter!  They are to die for!

Gravy:  Self explanatory!  I do not use the giblets.....those go to the cats!

Green Beans:  I steam the green beans first, then saute them with bacon and caramelized onions.  Love these!

Dinner Rolls:  Just your standard "brown and serve" rolls from the grocery store.

Pies:  I'm making one Pumpkin Pie, but, I bought two Marie Calendar frozen pies (pecan and dutch apple).  The MC pies were another BOGO deal at Winn Dixie!

I will serve wine for myself and Dan while the kids will get sparkling cider!

Hopefully, we'll spend the day watching the parade, some football, maybe a board game or two.  Then, after dinner....as many Christmas movies as we can stay awake for!

Friday will be my annual trip to the Christmas Made in the South craft show!  Then, it's time to gather all of our Advent supplies...candles, calendars and such.  Of course, we'll be waiting for Clive to arrive sometime this weekend!

What are your plans?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Father in Heaven, Creator of all and source of all goodness and love, please look kindly upon us and receive our heartfelt gratitude in this time of giving thanks.

Thank you for all the graces and blessings. You have bestowed upon us, spiritual and temporal: our faith and religious heritage. Our food and shelter, our health, the loves we have for one another, our family and friends.

Dear Father, in Your infinite generosity, please grant us continued graces and blessing throughout the coming year.

This we ask in the Name of Jesus, Your Son and our Brother. Amen.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am thankful for so much in my life....my health, my husband, my children, close family and friends. We are so blessed! I pray that you spend this day thanking God for all that He's bestowed upon you....that's what I'll be doing!

This and That...

• I'm pretty sure I forgot to post an update on my skin cancer. The Mohs procedure went well...they only had to take one slice. However, I was surprised that the incision line and stitches ended up being about 3 inches long (the size of the cancer was smaller than a pencil eraser)...go figure. It's healing well and I go back in a month for a check up. Please do NOT neglect anything on your skin that changes or doesn't look right!
• I received the practice schedules for the soccer league that Nathan and Amelia are in this year! Nathan's are for Monday's at 3:00pm and Amelia's are Monday's at 5:00pm! Sigh. This is really going mess up my day! This will mean making sure Nathan takes his practice clothes with him to school.....or....I will have to bring them to him when I pick up the girls. I'm not sure how the logistics of it will work...I'll need to work that out. Dadgummit! The games are all on Fridays. I wonder how you get 6 Kindergartner's to remember what to do from the practice on Monday's...to the games on Friday's. This should be interesting.
• I got lots of stuff done this weekend. I organized all the kids' bookshelves and switched out all the book baskets from summer books to Halloween/Thanksgiving books! I was also able to get all the beds changed with clean linens and completed about 6 loads of laundry.
• Have you ever looked behind your dryer? I never had...until Dan and I decided it was time (it's been 11 years) to clean out the ducts and vacuum out all of the lint from around the dryer. You will not believe how fast my clothes dry now! What a huge difference this has made! I recommend it.
• Each year at Thanksgiving, I make a Thanksgiving Tree for our family. We use it to remind us of all the blessings that we have in our lives. Here is the post I did from last years tree. It really didn't look much like a tree. So this year, I'm cheating. I found the cutest tree from the Oriental Trading company. It's already made and it comes with the leaves already made too. I know it probably won't be as fun for the kids.....but hey, right now, time is of the essence! Click here to see a picture of the ready made Thanksgiving Tree.
• I also had my 3 month check up with the oncologist. My lab worked looked fine. I had my portacath flushed and that all went fine too. As it stands right now, I will have a PET Scan the week of 12/7/09 and then see the Oncologist for the results the week of 12/14/09....because, you know, finding out if your cancer has spread is best done right before Christmas! Sigh.

Soooo thankful!!!

We had a wonderful day!! The food was scrumptious (sorry, no pictures) and being with family is better than anything I know. We always have so much fun when we're together! After we ate and everyone was on the verge of falling asleep, it was decided that we would all go on a walk down to a public dock on the St. John's River. I stayed behind (my stamina is not what it once was) and cleaned the kitchen. Here are some pictures of their adventure and some random shots of the day...



***Question: Is three pieces of pie too much to have in one day? My excuse: I love Dutch Apple Pie!!

Our plans

I thought I'd share with you a few of our plans for tomorrow. It's usually a very quiet day for our family. We will go to Dan's sister's house. There are usually about 15 of us and my house is too small. She's is going to make the turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and I'm in charge of the green bean casserole, sweet potatoes and some appetizers!

I know that there are probably lots of variations on the traditional green bean casserole, but, I think I'll just stick to the normal recipe. The last time I made it with fresh green beans....I had complaints that they were too "squeaky" on their teeth!! Go figure! So this year...I'm going "extra" easy and using canned beans.

I've been searching for just the right sweet potato recipe for weeks! I finally found what I was looking for over at Recipe Zaar. I'm going to do a sweet potato casserole. It sounds really yummy!

I picked a couple of appetizers...

1. Crackers and a Seafood Salad
2. Pigs in a blanket
3. Nancy's Deli Spirals

As you can see....I raided Sam's Club the other day!! However, there is one appetizer that I am making myself....they're called Antipasto Kabobs and I found the recipe from http://www.tasteofhome.com/ . Here is a picture of them...

As I type this, I am marinating my tortellini's. I'm going to use cubes of cheese instead of the black olives though. I bought some really cute decorative toothpicks at Hobby Lobby. I'll post some pictures of our feast tomorrow.

In the meantime, I wish all of you the most blessed Thanksgiving you've ever had!

Chemo #3.....75% done!!

Well, I'm almost done. Three treatments down and one to go! This one went just as smoothly as all the others. It was quiet and peaceful. The nurses were all great! My nurse even got a "blood return" on my portacath!!! Something no one has been able to do since my first treatment...including 2 port studies.

The only symptoms I'm experiencing tonight are....bad heartburn, rapid heartbeat and hot flashes. The steroids have a lot to do with it. I'm trying to drink as much water as possible to help flush all of these chemicals out. Tomorrow I have my Neulasta shot. I'm convinced this is the true culprit of some of my pain. I know that the chemo kills the bone marrow and the Neulasta stimulates it to rebuild itself at a rapid pace. This causes bone pain...and boy do I feel it. It mostly shows up in my lower back and hips. I'm NOT looking forward to that again.

I met a couple of really nice ladies today during chemo. One was suffering from colon/bladder and vaginal cancer. The other was suffering from breast cancer that had metastasized to her bone and liver. Both of them are suffering with a lot of physical issues but are very upbeat and positive even though their respective prognosis' are not the best. I admire women like that.

I'm so excited about the upcoming holidays! Thanksgiving and Christmas are my favorite time of the year. We're planning some fun activities for the kids for both holidays. I'm just hoping and praying that the chemo issues come and go quickly so we can get on with the celebrations.
I'd like to recommend two websites to you where you can find lots of fun activities, recipes and information for Christmas. The first is the St. Nicholas Center. Our family has made the spice cookies for two years in a row and they are a real hit! We make enough for ourselves and we end up delivering some to friends and family. This year, I bought a bishops miter cookie cutter to use. I also bought a St. Nicholas ornament and some prayer cards. I think celebrating St. Nicholas Day (Dec 6) is a great thing for the kids.
The second site is O Night Divine. Although this site is not in full swing yet for the season...it is packed filled with all things Advent/Christmas. You will find some great ideas here. Let me know what you think of these websites....and....if you have any others you would like to share...let me know and I'll be glad to post about them.

I'll keep you posted over the next few days about the how my "second to last" chemotherapy session is coming along. I guess you could say that the worse I feel....the more dead the cancer cells are!

Pictures from Halloween

The girls were cheerleaders (obviously). Their favorite part was getting to wear some lipstick and eye make up. Nathan had gone to his cousins right after school so I never did get a picture of him in his costume....he was Indian Jones. The picture of him above is from the pumpkin patch.

They got more candy than they could eat in a lifetime! I will slowly remove it from the house until by Thanksgiving...it will be all gone!!

Now we get to focus on Thanksgiving and all that we're thankful for. I plan on doing a Thanksgiving tree this year. I will have to work around my next chemo treatment (which is the 6th). Hopefully I will feel well enough to follow through, but, I know I'm better off with a plan.

As an extended family, we have not talked about what we plan to do for Thanksgiving. Last year, Dan and I were in Rome celebrating our 10th anniversary. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at Cardinal Levada's home. We had all the traditional American dishes as well as some awesome home made pumpkin ravioli!

I know that whatever we do...we will be together...thanking God for all of our blessings!

No words...

There really are no words to describe the love, kindness and support that friends and family have shown to Dan and I over the last few weeks. We have received cards and emails from as far away as New Zealand. We've received flowers, meals and some specialized clothing items (ahem, unmentionables....) as well as babysitting and furniture moving!! I've even had an offer from a dear friend in California to send a laptop she's not using 3,000 miles to me. I can't even begin to express to you how much you are all loved and how much I appreciate your friendships. I am overwhelmed. Today, I can't express myself in words....only tears. They are tears of true joy for the love you have shown us.
All I can do is to thank you from the depths of my being for....everything.