Say Cheese?

I guess it's because I have a snide streak...

...but I just love how Pam and Tim Tebow totally confused and embarassed the pro-death crowd during the Superbowl yesterday.  Oh my goodness but those folks had their dukes up for a fight, didn't they? And there they were after the commercial aired -- standing there with their gloves in the air and nothing to punch at after all their noise and belly-aching.  I can't imagine a better strategy for winning the winnable hearts: a nonthreatening, loving look at a family whose side of the abortion debate is nonthreatening and loving. That'll throw 'em!

 Bravo, Focus on the Family!   Messing with abortionists heads Makes My Monday!

Go see Cheryl for more Makes My Monday posts!

Coffee Art

"Coffee"

by Camille Pisarro

(You can find a biography of Camille Pisarro at Biography.com)

Coffee Recipes

for the cheap connoisseur 

(Not as good as Starbux, but quick, easy, and cheap!)

Mocha Coffee

Ingredients :

•1 c Instant coffee crystals

•1 c Hot chocolate or cocoa mix

•1 c Non-dairy creamer

•½ c Sugar

How to Prepare :

1.Combine all ingredients; mix thoroughly.

2.Store in a tightly- covered jar.

3.To serve; put 1 ½ to 2 tablespoons into a cup or mug.

4.Stir in boiling water to fill cup.

5.Makes 3 ½ cups coffee mix or about 25 or more servings.

Vanilla Almond Coffee

Ingredients:

1/3 c Ground coffee

1 ts Vanilla extract

1/2 ts Almond extract

1/4 ts Anise seeds

Directions:

Place coffee in a blender or food processor fitted with a steel blade. In cup, combine

remaining ingredients. With processor running, add flavourings. Stop and scrape sides of

container with spatula. Process 10 seconds longer. Store in refrigerator Yields: mix for
eight 6 ounce servings.

Starbucks Frappuccino Recipe

Imitation Starbux Frappuccino

Ingredients:

2 shots espresso (approx. 3 oz) -

(You can alternate this with coffee that has been run through coffee maker twice.)

2 1/2 cups low-fat milk

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 Tbls. pectin OR 1 tsp. pectin + 1 tsp. arrowroot

Instructions:

1. Stir sugar into espresso. Cool mixture.

2. Stir milk and pectin into espresso mixture until pectin is dissolved.

3. Fill a glass with ice and either serve mixture over ice, or pour glass contents into blender and blend for 30-45 seconds. Enjoy!

Found these online here.

Do you have any favorite coffee or tea or cocoa recipes?

Feast of St. Agatha

Over at Gaudeamus today!

The Next Ten of the Last Twenty

Of the 100 Things I Learned the Hard Way

81. Even though the days when the babies are a) teething,  b) up all night with cholic, or c) endlessly squabbling with their siblings... seem like they will never end, oh-my-goodness, those children are gonna grow up much faster than you think they will.  First they're teething, then they're toddling, then all of a sudden they're climbing trees.  One minute they're throwing army guys out their bedroom window, the next minute they're getting married and joining the Marines. 

82.  It doesn't matter what you do to it, after two weeks in the refrigerator, nobody is going to eat that fish soup.  It is undisguisable.

83.  It's a bad idea to keep glue sticks and chapstick in the same drawer. (Or, hmm...  Maybe it's a good idea...)

84.  The modern day Merriam Webster Abridged dictionary is good for dictionary races or explaining cutting edge jargon, but it can never measure up to the 2,820 page, two-volume, 1931 edition of the New Century Dictionary I've been toting around with me since my college days.  If you play Scrabble, read 19th century novels, or need to boost a toddler higher in his chair, it is indespensible.

85.  It can be equally as damaging to praise a child undeservedly as to criticize him or her needlessly.

86.  Just because Mommy would never eat a tortilla fried with peach preserves in it, doesn't mean someone else wouldn't.  The kids don't like my vanilla yogurt with flax seed and walnuts, either, so I guess we're even.  And if they won't praise me, I won't criticize them.

87.  Until you need one, you will know exactly where to find several packages of:  AA batteries, birthday candles, or pinnochle cards.

88.  One of the most important gifts parents can give their children is to teach them by example what a loving marriage looks like -- in good times, in bad times, and in the ordinary ole day-to-day.  Like when a wife has to bite her tongue when her dear husband dresses a little funny...

89.  Because, seriously.  Even big, black clunky, dorky-looking sunglasses can look dashing if they're on the face of the man you love.  And if he buys you beer.  Beer goggles I call them.  Dashing.  (They really are, Dan!)

This shot taken at the famous Breckenridge Brewery, home of  Avanlanche Ale and Vanilla Porter.

90.  And, finally # 90, ten from the end.  I'm sitting here typing at 11:30 p.m. because there was so much on my agenda today.  It's amazing, though, how you can slip in one more chore (or fun thing) if you're on the ball.  It's the full-restaurant vs. the empty-restaurant rule:  The busier things are, the more you hustle to get everything done; the more slack things are, the more a slacker you are -- just like the waitresses with only one couple to serve.   It's good to be busy.  But it's even better when I'm working hard to be spiritually grounded, too.  Everything runs more smoothly -- or feels like it does -- when I've spent some good time in prayer, when I'm fitting in spiritual reading, when I've taken time with the children on their Catechism lessons and the lives of the Saints.   It's practically miraculous. 

There are always enough hours in the day if you have enough Deo in the hours.

Where we've been and gone and what we've done...

So, we had a "field trip day" yesterday.  We packed a cooler, grabbed our coats, gloves, and boots and headed up to the mountains, where we stopped at our favorite playground in Georgetown. 

Here's the sandbox.

Where Theresa and William are trying to dig in the half-frozen sand...

The gazebo..

The lunch.

Michelle.

Theresa.

Cathy.

Anna.

Gabe.

William.

Then we hopped back in the car after everyone's noses were frozen and headed up to Breckenridge.

Where, as William says, "it's still Christmas."

And where the International Snow Sculpture Competition just took place last weekend.

Here are the kids in front of a bodacious dragon.

A bear we all particularly liked.

Some dancing notes.

A Geisha

 (who reminded us a little of Aunt Donna...)

(She's got that Welsh-Oriental look like you, Dons... We think she's pretty!)

A ten-foot tall violinist.

Two really nifty treefrogs.

And this amazingly intricate snow carving of deer and dancers,

 that we thought should have won first place.

But this one won.

Peace Out.

(That's for you, Nicole!)

Then, after we'd seen all the sculptures and toured the town museum for a little while -- when everyone was getting cold and tired and cranky again -- we loaded the troops back up in the car and headed down the valley...

Where we passed this sign in Frisco. 

(Check it out, Paul!)

And we passed some beautiful snow-capped mountains.

And some more.

(They're everywhere up there in the Rockies, you know.)

And after a bit, everyone was tired, but happy, and only a little bit cranky.

I think we only had to threaten to stop the car once.  Or twice maybe.

But it was a good day!  Especially since I got to have Dan along with me as a back-up referee.

When he didn't have his phone stuck to his ear.  Dear.

Just kidding.  He really wasn't on the phone all that long.  But, I have to ask the other wives out there...  Do you have rules about your husbands having their blackberries along on family outings or dates?

Wordy Wednesday

Things I want to remember
from Paul's Commissioning Ceremony

There will always be the pictures to look at and the bars on Paul's collar to remind us of Saturday's ceremony, such a pivotal one in the life of our first-born son -- but it's so easy with the passage of time and the buzz of all the million day-to-day details to lose those little things that made up the day...

...like how Nicole and I met  Paul for a few minutes between his PFTs (Physical Fitness Tests) and his ceremony rehearsal. Military men practice everything within an inch of its life; precision is life to a Marine. But because he was running late, Paul barely had time to shower and change into his camis before he had to leave again. He had to wear his camis instead of dress blues because his ceremony was moved up and he couldn't get the 'blues' ordered in time.  Nicole, knowing he had to be starving since he hadn't eaten for several hours, picked up a bouncing baby burrito for him at Chipolte's, so our last sight of him before the pinning ceremony was as he walked out the door, hat on, shoulders squared, swinging his burrito bag.

...like how everyone met in the lobby of the building in Fort Collins where the ceremony was taking place: my mom and dad, my sisters Nina and Donna, several of Paul and Nicole's longtime friends -- and then Dan, who brought the children up alone (since I'd gone on ahead of the family to hang out with Nicole earlier that morning, while Paul was otherwise occupied doing Marine stuff.).  The children were dressed in the clothes I'd left for them, but Anna's shirt was on backwards and she'd fixed her own hair... Remember how Anna fixes her own hair? It wasn't that bad, though; it was a doubled-under ponytail, only slightly sideways and dissheveled...Theresa was wearing a skirt that was two sizes too big (a recent charitable hand-me-down from Michelle that I said she could only wear if it fit), and Gabe's collar was stuck down in his sweater in such a way that he looked like a hunchback.  Makes a Mom sure feel needed.  But I got them all straightened out pretty quick...

...except for the cut which had suddenly turned up on William's nose.  I asked him where that came from since it hadn't been there in the morning when I left the house and he pointed up toward the ceiling and said, "I was climbing around on the roof and fell off."  I guess he gets points for creativity, but I still don't know how he got that booboo.

... and like how Gabe and William sat in awe watching all the Marines in their uniforms milling about the building.  We don't run into uniformed military very often in our normal day-to-day out on the prairie, donchaknow... Gabey, processing things in his gentle way, quietly wanted to know why they were "bringing the war here," but William, in his customarily loud. little-boy voice was thrilled to find out:  "So, when are they going to start fighting?" A little general in the making, the little dear. When I explained to the little boys about how Paul was becoming a soldier and what that meant, Gabe listened carefully and asked if that meant Paul would be going away soon -- and we explained that he wouldn't be leaving until the summer and then it was just to go to school -- and not to worry his tender little heart.  All William wanted to know was whether Paul was going to be a good guy or a bad guy. I said that of course he was going to be a good guy!  But then William wanted to know if that meant he was going to grow taller. (snickersnicker) Little boys, little boys...  Little minds all tangled up with plastic army guys and silly putty.

...and then, when the ceremony began, the national anthem was supposed to be played, but something was fouled up, so someone suggested we sing it, but the stern, unamused expressions on the Captain's and Paul's faces nixed that idea without any more discussion -- and the anthem was skipped. 

...but when my Dad's turn came to pin on Paul's bars, everyone's faces softened a little as my Dad cracked jokes the whole time, in an effort to put everyone at ease -- including himself.  Even though his hands trembled as he struggled to push the pins through Paul's stiff uniform collar,  he knew where those bars were supposed to go; the passing of time and the onset of dementia can't take that kind of thing away from a twenty-year veteran.  And they can't take the stinkinness of an officer's attitude, either: when my Dad saw that he'd gotten his bar on a little crooked, he waved absently in the direction of a couple enlisted guys and said, "Make them fix it later."

...and then,when we were standing there just after pinning Paul (Dad did one bar, Dan the other), there was a moment of decorous silence -- but just a moment -- before we started hearing strange noises from the gathering of friends and family behind us -- first a titter, than a giggle, followed by a poorly-suppressed burst of laughter.  What the heck?  We didn't know what was going on; Those of us "on deck" with Paul weren't aware of having done anything funny. Go figure this group to turn a formal affair into a comedy. ..We found out later that someone had given William a mint to suck on to keep him occupied and quiet -- and in that moment of quiet formality (though we didn't hear it up there where we were), William decided to bit down on his mint in what we are told was a roof-shaking, jaw breaking, reverberating CRUNCH! Apparently, just the noise made my sisters and children giggle, but Kevvy looked over at William, who,  realizing he was the center of attention, took advantage of the opportunity and startled his big brother with a self-satisfied, maniacal grin.  The absurdity, I am told, trumped any idea of composure.  I wish I'd seen that face -- but maybe it's good that I didn't.

... then, after everything was over, and Paul had signed signed on the dotted line -- and after the young people and Dan took a while to throw a football around in a nearby football field -- we all met at a nice Italian restaurant called Bisetti's for dinner.  My Mom and Dad and Paul and Nicole sat at the "Grown-ups Table" with my sis, Donna, and Cathy and Theresa.  Dan and I sat with my sis, Nina, at the "Kids Table" with the three Littles, Gabe, William, and Anna.  And the rest of the young people, including Kevvy and Michelle sat at what they called the "Cool Table"  -- the table where you are free to act either like a two-year old or an adult, as the mood strikes you, I guess.  We ate and we talked and talked and ate and laughed and ate and talked.  Then Paul presented my Dad with a commemorative silver dollar in the year of his birth (Paul's birth) to thank him for his part in his Commissioning Ceremony.  And then Dan and I gifted Paul and Nicole with a bottle of wine from a winery they visited on their honeymoon (Holy Cross Abbey Winery, in Canon City, Colo).  And we laughed and talked as we packed up our doggie bags. Then the old folks and the children went home, scattered amongst four different cars -- and there were a couple of cell phone calls to make absolutely sure everyone was accounted for.  And they were, thank goodness.  The Littles fell asleep almost as soon as they got into their car seats and us grown-up types were looking forward to getting home and konking out -- but, for the young people (the twenty and up crowd), the evening had just begun;  they stayed in Fort Collins to celebrate a little while longer.

...but they all showed up to Mass the next morning, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.  And Paul looked a little taller.

Candlemas Pancakes

 Coming from the Latin words "festa candelarum" or festival of candles, Candlemas replaced the  pagan holiday Lupercales that honoured the god Pan, during which rowdy revelers would run through the streets of Rome at night waving flaming torches.

Pope Gelasius I, whose generosity to pilgrims arriving in Rome was maked by his  provided pancakes, Christianized the pagan holiday in 472, renaming it the feast of the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the temple, symbolized by light. On Candlemas, candles brought to the church are blessed, to be lit later for  protection from storms, as well as for use during Extreme Unction and other ceremonies. Candles were also burned during the sowing season and carried in procession through fields and vineyards.

Today marks the official end of the Christmas season, so if you haven't gotten the lights down off your house yet, you have no excuse.  If you've long ago taken down all your red and green, but left up your mistletoe, today is the day to take it down.  Darn it.

This date also marks the halfway point of the winter season!  Woohoo!  A precursor to our modern day Groundhog Day prediction, an old English proverb held that "if Candlemas be fair and bright, winter has another flight. If Candlemas brings clouds and rain, winter will not come again."

I linked several customs and a coloring page for today in last year's post, including informatio on the European custom of preparing Crepe Suzettes for today's celebration.  We're not as fancy as all that around here, though.  We're just having pancakes for lunch.  Here's a good recipe for Crepes, though, if you're braver than I and here's the Candlemas site from Worldwide Gourmet which has links to several more recipes and a rundown of customs for the feast day from several countries.

Makes My Monday

It's Official

Meet Mrs. and Lieutenant Paul J. Davis.

(More Makes My Monday Posts over at Cheryl's!)