What Season are you?

You Belong in Spring

Optimistic, lively, and almost always happy with the world... You can truly appreciate the blooming nature of spring. Whether you're planting flowers or dyeing Easter eggs, spring is definitely your season!

What Season Are You?

Go and do the quiz and let me know what season you are.

Why parents drink.

A father passing by his son's bedroom was astonished to see that his bed was nicely made and everything was picked up. Then he saw an envelope, propped up prominently on the pillow that was addressed to "Dad." With the worst premonition he opened the envelope with trembling hands and read the letter. Dear Dad: It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm writing you. I had to elope with my new girlfriend because I wanted to avoid a scene with Mom and you. I have been finding real passion with Stacy and she is so nice. But I knew you would not approve of her because of all her piercings, tattoos, tight motorcycle clothes and the fact that she is much older than I am. But it's not only the passion...Dad she's pregnant. Stacy said that we will be very happy. She owns a trailer in the woods and has a stack of firewood for the whole winter. We share a dream of having many more children. Stacy has opened my eyes to the fact that marijuana doesn't really hurt anyone. We'll be growing it for ourselves and trading it with the other people that live nearby for cocaine and ecstasy. In the meantime we will pray that science will find a cure for AIDS so Stacy can get better. She deserves it. Don't worry Dad. I'm 15 and I know how to take care of myself. Someday I'm sure that we will be back to visit so that you can get to know your grandchildren. Love, Your Son John

P.S. Dad, none of the above is true. I'm over Tommy's house. I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than the report card that's in my center desk drawer. I love you. Please call me when it's safe to come home.

Nice Matters Award.

Thanks so much to Marie and Ginny for passing this award onto me. This is what I found about the nice matters award.

“This award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world. Once you’ve been awarded please pass on to seven others whom you feel are deserving of this award”.

So these are the people I pass this award onto.

1. Judy at A Mothers Love

2. Michelle at Dei Gracia, by the will of God

3. Marilena at Divine Mercy Blog

4. Rachel at Just another day

5. Leah at Lowdenclear

6. Louise at Purcell's Chicken Voluntary

and

7. Christine at More and More Dawson

I wish I could choose all my blog friends but had to stop at 7.

Wordless Wednesday

Tasty Tuesday. Pumpkin and choc chip muffins

Pumpkin and Choc chip muffins from Michelle.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins.
3 cups white sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
8 eggs
3 cups pumpkin
1 cup water
6 cups all purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 cups semisweet mini morsels

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400*. Grease and flour muffin pan or use paper liners. (I just PAM it)Mix sugar, oil, eggs. Add pumpkin and water. In separate bowl mix together the baking flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt. Add wet mixture and stir in chocolate chips.Fill Muffin cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

These muffins are so delicious. I made 120 mini muffins and they are all gone. I thought I would have enough for the week but I will have to make some more tomorrow.

I thought the fat content would be a bit to high for Tom (our diabetic child) but the dietician said it was fine. The sugar content is a bit high so we will be substituting a cup of choc chips for 1 cup of dates and putting in one cup of splenda and two cups of sugar with the next batch.

Mothers Rule on Monday

Well I had a talk with Steve this morning. We are going to change our weekends around. I think I may have to change food shopping to Friday afternoon rather than leaving it till Saturday. Then I will only have to take Christopher and will not be saying no no no to every other thing the children ask for.

Saturday will be my baking day. I will prepare all the main meals for the weekend and bake muffins, quiches and pasties to go in the lunch boxes for the following week.

Sunday we will walk to Mass. After Mass we will have lunch together and I think we will start playing some games, doing a scrapbook with a page for each family member or going down to the park. We may even have a picnic with another family.

Thanks to those that gave suggestions for making the day a Lords day. Suggestions are still welcome. I would love to hear about how other families spend their Sundays.

The Lords Day.

As a part of my mothers rule of life I have scheduled in a cooking day on Saturday. Each Saturday I cook muffins, mini quiches, lunch for Sunday and tea for Saturday and Sunday night. I have scheduled this in so that we can make Sunday more of a Lords day.

The reality though is it has become a Therese day rather than a Lords day. Most of the housework is organised so that there isn't any major jobs to be done. The only jobs I do are those that are scheduled in every day.

So I want your ideas. We generally go to Mass on Saturday night. I have to tidy the main living areas and our bedroom, fold washing and prepare meals (this usually means heating them up since I have made them the day before).

Do you think we should be doing family activities? Should we just be hanging out like we do now? Should we do some extra prayers as a family?

Any suggestions appreciated.

Therese

Some highlights from our week.

Everyone is over the flu that we had last week. Christopher had it the worse. He finally seemed over it on Thursday.

Last night we went to the school pasta night. It was a fun night.

We got our dates for Tom to go to Adelaide and get his insulin pump. He will be getting it on the 12th of November. This is 11 weeks away. I know it sounds like a long way away but this should make his diabetes much easier to manage and it is good to know when it will be.

The weather is warming up and Steve is going to paint the front of the house today. I will get him to take a before and after photo.

I am going to try some pumpkin and choc chip muffins. I got the recipe from Michele's blog. Tune in Tuesday for the recipe and my children's critic of the recipe. I think it will be good for lunch boxes.

Friday Funnies

Yesterday one of the posters from dcf posted this ebay listing. It is so funny I had to post about it. I can really relate to all the things this mother of 6 says.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130144061675&ru=http

I have added her blog into my blogroll so be sure to check it out. She has had lots of comments left from this eBay listing. Her blog is Because I said so.

Happy Birthday Aussie Coffee Shop.

It is a year today since the Aussie Coffee Shop first opened it's doors.

So I want to take this oportunity to thank you all for your posts, prayers and support given to me through this blog. I look forward to many more happy years of blogging.

God bless you all
Therese

Wordless Wednesday.

Caption this picture.

Tasty Tuesday. Yummy Chicken Fettucine.

Tonight I cooked Chicken Fettucine for tea. Since everyone told me how yummy it was I thought I would share the recipe.

500 gms chicken.
1 large onion.
3 sticks of celery
1 tin of cream of chicken soup.
1 tin of cream of mushroom soup.
1 tin of light evaporated milk.
1 pack of dried French Onion Soup.
500 gms fettuchine.

Boil water for fettuchine
Spray frying pan with olive oil and cook onion.
Add chicken, celery and French onion soup.
Stir occasionally until chicken is cooked.
Add chicken soup, mushroom soup and evaporated milk. Bring to the boil stirring occasionally.
Cook fettuchine and when tender add to chicken mixture. Serve. A tossed salad would go well with this dish. Next time I will definitely have a salad to go with this.

Serves 8.

Mothers Rule on Mondays.

I have been following a mothers rule of life for about three years now. One thing I have wanted to do is start keeping a journal of things that work well with my rule and things that I know I need to change about it.

My rule this year has gone through many changes. New responsibilities come up regularly and new priorities need to be set.

Over the last 4 weeks of school I have been doing all the things I need to do but I have come to realize how much I rely on Christopher entertaining himself. He is such an independant little boy. If he wasn't in nappies I probably wouldn't see him all day. He would keep himself busy in the backyard and I would go about my own chores inside.

This has been really good but I realize that it needs to change. I should be spending lots of time with Christopher and taking him to do other activities. I think he would like to interact with other children and would also like going to do other things outside the home. With all this in mind I decided today to take Christopher to the park. We went down the slide, on the swings and on the little rocking horse. The rocking horse was a big hit.

He really enjoyed the time alone with me. In less than three years he will be going to school and the oportunities to do these things one on one will be hard to find. I am determined now that a part of my rule needs to include taking Christopher on little outings. I am going to try out the kindy gym on Wednesday and play group around the corner on Friday. On Tuesday and Thursday I will spend some time reading with him or doing some crafty activity.

Five Saints for Dinner.

Leah has tagged me back.

"If you could invite your five favourite saints to dinner, what would you serve them to eat, and why?"

First course would be soup.

I would do two different ones. First would be pumpkin soup and second Potato and Leek. I choose these two soups because everyone who tastes them tells me how yummy they are.

Second course Main meal.

Again I would do two dishes. I like to do casseroles when we are entertaining. They can be prepared ahead of time and just reheated on the day.

First main dish would be a Lasagna. I would serve this because there is not many people that I know of that don't like it.

Second dish would be some vegetarian meal because you never know if someone isn't going to eat meat. I woul probably make Tuna Mornay. Easy to make ahead and again something I cook well.

I would also serve potatoes in cream sauce, cooked peas, honey carrots and cheese broccoli.

For dessert I would serve homemade Honeycomb Icecream. This would have to be the yummiest icecream I have ever tasted. I would also make sure that we had plenty and that I was sure to have some left over.

So I tag

All the dcf ladies

Madeline for her first meme

and

Muddy Mama for tagging me first.

You know you're a big family if...

I got this from Confessions of a Hot Carmel Sundae .

...people count the number of your children out loud when you're in public
...people ask, "Are they all yours?"
...you start counting your children when you're out in public
...you have at least three bunk beds set up in your home
...almost everyone you know has less children than you do
...people say, "Wow! How do you manage?"
...people ask you, out of the blue, if you are Mormon or Catholic
....you buy your pots and pans in the restaurant supply store
...supposed "family size" food portions seem awfully small
...you complain, "Doesn't anyone make large dining tables anymore?"
...you outgrow your mini-van
...you've heard "Don't you know what causes that?" more times than you'd care to remember
...you've forgotten what it's like to be alone anywhere else but in the bathroom
...your children never run out of playmates among their siblings
...everything you buy is in bulk
...people ask, "Don't you get overwhelmed?"
...you and your husband can no longer hold each child's hand while crossing the street
...it takes a wonderfully long time to hug and kiss everybody
...one of your children looks wistfully at the newborn and asks you, "Can't you have another baby really soon? I hardly get to hold this one because everybody else is taking turns."
...you realize that few houses are designed with your family in mind
...people ask you if you've ever accidentally left any of your children behind
...life around your family never seems boring or dull
...your tent is the largest one in any campground
...you feel sorry for people with only two children
...you sometimes wonder what on earth mothers with only two children do with all their spare time
...whenever you set your dining table, it looks like it used to look when you were expecting lots of company
...you read a cookbook and joke, "They call these meals? Sounds like a little snack to me."
...your gratitude at the abundance of God's blessing moves you to tears unexpectedly
...you start thinking of yourself as "rich in children"
...you secretly think that life in your family might possibly be a much more joyous adventure than life in smaller families
...you are vastly amused at much modern parenting advice, realizing that it is unnecessary, impossible, impractical, or simply silly to try to apply it in a large family setting
...it seems as if you pack more stuff going on a short trip than some people pack when moving their entire household
...you and your husband laugh, "And to think that when we got married, we wanted only four children!"
...your husband sighs happily, "I've finally got my dream car"
--and it's a used 15- passenger van.

Friday funnies.

Favorite Fruit Cake Recipe
Ingredients:
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs
2 cups dried fruit
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup brown sugar
lemon juice
nuts
bottle of whiskey

Procedure:
Sample the whiskey to check for quality. Take a large bowl. Check the whiskey again. To be sure it is the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink. Repeat.
Turn on the electric mixer, beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add one teaspoon of sugar and beat again. Make sure the whiskey is still okay. Cry another tup.
Turn off the mixer. Break two leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit. Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers pry it loose with a drewscriver. Sample the whiskey to check for tonsisticity.
Sift two cups of salt. Or something. Who cares? Check the whiskey.
Now sift the lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add one table. Spoon. Of sugar or something. Whatever you can find. Grease the oven. Turn the cake tin to 350 degrees. Don't forget to beat off the turner. Throw the bowl out of the window, check the whiskey again and go to bed.
We hope you enjoy the fruit cake jokes. If you know one please send it to us at info@CoffeeCakes.com. But please remember, our rich buttery fruit cakes are definitely not a joke.

This is one of my favourite jokes.

Wordless Wednesay.

This particular Wednesday won't be wordless though. Often I have trouble thinking about what I should blog about. I have decided that some days should have themes. So the first theme is going to be wordless Wednesday. I will post a photo and if you want to you can put a caption on it.



So here is todays photo:

Prayer Request.

Please pray for my son Tom. He is a diabetic and has the flu. It is always a great worry to us when he has this as he dehydrates so quickly when he cannot keep food down. His bsl go down too so any prayers would be appreciated.

God bless
Therese

A favourite song.

A taste of spring.

Today was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and it was warm enough to get out the shorts and t shirts.

The temperature got to 22 (that is 77 for you American people}.

It was so warm that the younger children pulled out the pool and went for a swim. They spent a lot of the day playing outside.

Steve went and bought 6 new fruit trees. We have a pear, cherry, plumcott, nectarine, plum and almond. I cannot wait for them all to fruit. We already have an apricot, peach, two orange trees, a lemon tree and 4 different grape vines.

Steve dug holes in the ground and then ran a watering system to water all the trees. He ran out of parts so he wasn't able to finish it of today.

Here are the trees waiting to be planted.

Other good things to do on a sunny Saturday is mow the lawn (that really looks more like weeds but still looks good once it is mowed):

And put a little two year old in big boy undies. No wet undies today. I wonder if I can get him completely trained now.

large families.

over at Louise's blog I read a post with this article about a large family.

Louise then linked to this. reading room .

I realized after reading these responses that I live an exceptionally sheltered life. I didn't think that people were really that awful. I did say to Louise that on the net many people use hyperbole more than they do in real life but still some of the comments about this family were really shocking. It made me wonder if people are saying simmilar things about Steve and I about our brood (of only 7).

It seems to me that as soon as you are not in the norm of having only two or three children that people think you are

a: sex crazed or

b: crazy.

Many of these people don't realize the good things they are missing out on by limiting their family size. They don't see what happens behind cloesed doors when you have a large family. They don't see the children playing with the two year old and enjoying it. They don't see everyone helping out with the chores so that the family can do something special together. They don't see the children learning to serve each other and then being willing to serve others.

Or maybe the truth of this is that they do realize that they are missing out on things so they feel a need to criticize so that they don't have to say to themselves that they have made a mistake contracepting and sterilizing. I really don't know.

I am just glad that God has given me the insight and grace to go against the popular cultural choices. I am sure the Dungars are too.

Free Catholic Audio mp3's.

this is so great that I wanted to put it as a post as well as in my links. A poster from DCF has put together a blog that has a heap of free audio mp3's to listen too. They can be found here.

http://catholicaudio.blogspot.com/

tagged again.

So Muddy Mama has tagged me. I have to list five reasons I love Jesus. This would have to be one of the hardest meme's going around the web. Why couldn't I get the 8 things you would never guess about me or 5 places you would like to visit and why.

Oh well here goes.

1. I love Jesus because he has died for me.

2> I love Jesus for giving me my husband and children. I also love Jesus because he has given me many online friends and a pretty great extended family irl.

3. I love Jesus because he started the Catholic church.

4. I love Jesus because he gives me grace.

5. I love Jesus because he loves me.

So now I tag Leah, Joakim, Marie and Ginny, Rachi and lilder to give us their 5 reasons they love Jesus.

Just when I had got a nice purple blog.

Your Blog Should Be Blue

Your blog is a peaceful, calming force in the blogosphere. You tend to avoid conflict - you're more likely to share than rant. From your social causes to cute pet photos, your life is a (mostly) open book.

What Color Should Your Blog or Journal Be?

Oh Well. I am staying with purple for now. I wonder if I could rig the answers to make it purple or pink even? I am just such a girly girl and blue isn't really a girly girl colour. thanks to Louise at Purcell's Chicken Voluntary for this quiz.

Which Disney princess are you?

Which Disney Princess Are You?
	You are part Cinderella. You are hard-working and never complain, however, your trust is sometimes misplaced and people sometimes take advantage of you. Still, you are beautiful inside and out, and one day you will realize it and find true love.
	You are part Pocahontas. You defy convention and sometimes do what is considered taboo. Unfortunately, others do not always appreciate your differences, so it's good that you are so strong-willed. You are loyal and you believe in fate. Your true love will find you one day.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

Time to start training.

I am going in the city to bay fun run. (I won't be running though). I am going to walk 12 km.

I will take Sam, Madeline, Brigette and Christopher down to Adelaide for the weekend. We will catch up with family and friends on the Saturday and do the walk on the Sunday. I am really looking forward to it. City to Bay fun run

today.

Steve helped with the shopping. Madeline and Brigette folded the washing for me. Steve also cooked lunch and tea, took Amelia to a birthday party and picked her up. I could have just sat down and played all day. But I didn't. I finished of the last set of curtains. After finishing of the lounge dining room ones yesterday I decided to finish of the kitchen ones today. So now I am really finished. (yesterday must have been a practice run post).

Finished at long last.

I just had to post this. I have been working on curtains for the lounge/dining room and kitchen. Tonight I finished of the third set. Only one set left for the double doors in the kitchen. I am glad to have them done. I usually like sewing but I haven't done curtains before and just haven't enjoyed doing them as much as I enjoy doing clothes. I suppose it is because no one gets really excited when they are finished like they do when I finish of a new outfit for them. Oh well. Now I can start some jeans and jackets for Christopher and Tom, and jackets for the girls and me.

Incorrupt bodies of the saints part two.

A favourite recipe.

Here is a recipe for some low fat muffins. This is one I do regularly. On Sunday I made 120 of these muffins and they were all gone by Wednesday.

So here is the recipe.

2 cups of dried fruit (I use mixed fruit, saltanas, dates or apricots).
2 cups of cold water.
2 teaspoons of bicarb soda
2 tblsp margarine
4 cups of self raising flour
2 cups of castor sugar
2 eggs.

Put the dried fruit and water into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Boil for 4 minutes and take of heat. Allow to cool slightly and add bicarb soda and margarine. Sift the flour into the fruit mixture and add the beaten eggs and sugar. Mix to combine. Place in greased muffin trays. I use small muffin trays for this and get about 60-70 muffins from this recipe.

Place in an oven that has been preheated to 180 degrees. Cook for 15 - 20 minutes. Allow to cool on a cooling tray.

Enjoy. These are really nice warm.

Parent Teacher interviews.

Tonight Steve and I went to the school for parent teacher interviews. We caught up with all the children's teachers except Amelia's as she is away sick this week. We will catch up with her next week. All our children are going well academically and the teachers all seem to be doing a good job educating them. I realized after that I do know a fair bit about what the children are doing. I am aware of the areas that they struggle in and aware of their strengths. All their teachers seem to realize their struggles and strengths too. After having the interviews today I realize that the school needs my support and I need their support in our children's education. I am thankful that we are able to send our children to a Catholic school and that the values we teach at home are being backed up.

Incorrupt bodies of the Saints Part one.

This is God getting our attention I think.