Friday Evening Dinner - Mediterranean Style

Here's what you can do with 5 minutes of instruction and the right ingredients. Makes abstaining on Friday something to look forward to...

It's a Greek salad, couscous, and white fish grilled in oil and lemon juice. Perfect for summer.

Summer reading for pre-teen boys

This topic came up at Faith and Family connect, and I thought I would copy my suggestions here, too, so I won't forget in a couple of years when Joseph is 10-13 and looking for good summer reading.

The Redwall series was big with our older boys at that age, too. They also enjoyed Fr. Finn's books--Percy Winn, Tom Playfair, Harry Dee (at TAN books). Also Narnia and the Hobbit. we waited until about 13 for LoTR, but it depends on the child.

I just ordered some George MacDonald fairy tales to read aloud this summer to our family, and have only just started the first one myself (The Princess and the Goblin), but so far I am enjoying it. I second the idea of reading "girls' books' aloud--or via mp3--great idea!--to boys. Our guys really enjoyed Little House books, Rebecca of Sunnybrook farm, and some of the Lousia May Alcott books--little Men and Jo's Boys come to mind--read aloud when they might not have gotten into reading them on their own. we do the same for Saint stories. The kids enjoy listening, but don't necessarily read on their own unless I assign them.

Do they like animal stories? Beautiul Joe, Greyfriars Bobby, and the Irish Red series are excellent dog stories. Horse stories about boys and horses: Misty of Chincoteague (a little easy) and the rest of that series, The Black Stallion and Island Stallion series'.

Hilda van Stockum's stories are all good reading--The Winged Watchman is an exciting story set during WWII in Holland. Our family--boys and g irl alike--loves her Mitchell Family stories. How about North to Freedom (the book behind the I am David movie)? Also, try Swallows and Amazons--kids living on an island for the summer, sailing. One use of "stupid" that was unnecessary and annoyed me, but otherwise a wonderful read. Just encourage them to stick it out past the first chapter; the story gets much more exciting.

For your 13-year old, maybe In the Shadow of His Wings? Read it yourself first and see. You might wait a year or two.

Small Successes

I have been feeling a serious lack of accomplishment lately. Inspired by Faith and Family Live, I thought I would step back and take a look at what is getting done around here, rather than focusing on what isn't getting done. So here are my small successes for this week:

1. Pet care: the guppy on my kitchen counter has a full jar of clean water and clean rocks at the bottom, as do the fish in the big tank in the living room. We did a 50% water change for them this week.

2. Tommy's birthday gift: the family/college cookbook is finally finished and emailed to him to print on his printer at school.

3. Thanks to my friend, Andrea, I found out where to buy cherry blossom honey! Now to get to the shop before they run out.

Okay, not so bad after all. We did accomplish something around here, even with John and Patrick away. Lifted my spirits a little, too, to write it down.

This week

I'm working on grades for the kids this week. It is a difficult and draining process for me, and one that I never enjoy. But Patrick's college applications will go much more smoothly next fall if he has grades on an official transcript. So I have to get them done for his sake, and for John's and mine, really. We will stress less during the application process if my part of the job is done.

And in the back of my mind, I'm pondering next year. Patrick's senior year with Meghan as a toddler who learned to climb stairs this week, even though she can't walk yet. It's going to be a challenging year all around. Matthew is ready for a bit more direction. Joseph is pretty independent, but only in third grade after all. And Katie starts junior high--7th grade.

And I wonder. Can I handle this again? I'm not getting any younger and I have been battling ear infections all winter that have drained my energy reserves. Granted, Meghan's personality is very different from Matthew's, just as Patrick's personality is very different from Tommy's. I'm dealing with a familiar situation, but differing needs all around. So it is hard for me to figure out how I'm going to make it all work so that we stay focused enough to finish well, but still enjoy our last year with Patrick at home.

Because we know how hard it is to get them back once they go away to school on another continent. Even if it is our home continent. :(

On my breaks, I've been reading, thinking, praying, pondering, looking for encouragement, ideas, solutions to this problem that is a bit of a cloud over my life right now. Then, this morning, I read this blog post, which inspired me to stop thinking and make a list. Which is an idea that if you know me, you will know appeals to me. :-) This weekend, I want to start brainstorming our most important needs and priorities. And then plan the coming year based on them. Not something I haven't done before, but something I haven't thought about in awhile.

I'm going to share the blog post with John when he and Patrick get home from Boy Scout camp. One thing I know for sure is that I don't want to leave his needs out of the equation. I am not meant to parent these little people he loves and helped create without him. But if I don't hear what he needs (and each of the older kids, too, for that matter), I will probably create some overly optimistic and highly demanding schedule for us all to follow next fall, and John's needs and priorities might easily be left out.

There's more, too. I can't forget the power of God's grace in our lives. I can't forget to trust that with prayer and discernment, He will lead us to His perfect plan for our year. The one that will help us achieve our highest priority for next year: getting our children one year closer to Heaven.

Maybe this is how I should spend my vacation: praying and talking, listening and planning, reconnecting and hoping.

Irony

It's the Feast of Corpus Christi, a Solemnity, but there's no priest at Misawa AB right now. So there was a Liturgy of the Word service, but no Mass. Therefore, no Holy Communion. On Corpus Christi.

It has been a sad and rather empty-feeling Sunday. Joseph commented this evening at dinner that it didn't feel like Sunday at all. We miss our Jesus.

Please pray for vocations to the priesthood, especially to the Military Archdiocese.

Vote for Meghan: Finals!

The votes are in, and Meghan is now officially one of the top 3 cutest babies in Misawa. Today's heavy rain and high winds have delayed the final voting until tomorrow (Sunday).

If you're headed to the American Day Festival, please be sure to Vote for Meghan!! (from the end of the parade until 3:00 p.m.; any amount donated to the American Day fund is accepted--winner is the one who receives the highest monetary contribution). Winners will be announced Sunday, at about 3:30 p.m. at American Park.

Cereal girl

Remember this Sesame Street song from the 80's?




Here's our version:

mmmmmmm...........