Waco Cupcake Tour

Visiting Waco, Texas?  Or perhaps you live here?  You want a sweet treat, but you don't want to bake and you don't want to bring home the whole cake?  A cupcake is what you need.  Come take the Waco Cupcake Tour and find your dream come true cupcake.

Magnolia Bakery ($$$$, $3.50 and up per cupcake)

https://www.magnoliabakery.com/

I must admit, my family's bakery tour began because of Magnolia Bakery.  My mother-in-law was visiting our family here in good ol' Waco, Texas, and she wanted to go see the Magnolia Silos just like every other red blooded American woman.  She also happens to love spoiling her grandchildren.  Thus, cupcakes.

As I sat on the faux, grassy quad at the Magnolia Silos, in downtown Waco, soaking up sun and watching my children play, my mother-in-law disappeared.  She came trotting back a while later with expensive perfume and a gloriously mysterious, black box filled with six enticing cupcakes.

At home, we decided to split them up into slivers so that everyone in the family could taste each flavor. We tried lemon lavender, chocolate espresso, strawberry, chocolate, vanilla, and verbena.

Magnolia's cupcakes are large and have artisan flavors.  I appreciated the sophisticated Magnolia flavors.   As an adult eating cupcakes, I have grown beyond the typical flavors one might choose for a birthday party (flavors that please everyone).  Give me something special.  Magnolia delivered.  Their most unique, delicious, artisan cupcake is the lemon lavender cupcake.  We also greatly enjoyed a chocolate espresso cupcake.  

If you are just in town for the Magnolia experience, you will not be disappointed with Magnolia Bakery cupcakes.  But, if you are a local and you want a great cupcake, and not pay an arm and a leg, keep reading!

HEB Bakery ($$$, $2.75)

The very next day while grocery shopping, my mother-in-law exclaimed that the kids enjoyed the cupcake tasting so much she wanted to try it again.  She bought six, big, fancy cupcakes from HEB, and the tour continued from there. When my mother-in-law wanted to get cupcakes two nights in a row, I was a little perturbed.  My husband and I are always trying to watch our weight.  It was fun and cute for one night, but two?  Certainly, I was not willing to fall off the wagon for a commercial joint like HEB.  But I was pleasantly, surprised.  HEB also delivered a quality cupcake in flavors that packed a punch. 

These cupcakes were the ones individually sold in the case, which are nicer than the pre-packaged cupcakes.  Honestly, I did not even know these cupcakes existed at my local grocer.  They were jumbo cupcakes, big enough for two people to share.  

We tried red velvet, coconut, carrot cake, chocolate, birthday cake, and oreo.  The best cupcake at HEB is birthday cake.  It had that overly-sweet, vanilla custard flavored cake that signifies "birthday cake."  It was a cupcake dream come true.  The rest of the flavors were pretty standard in flavor, but the quality was above average.  They had fluffy cake, smooth frosting and balanced flavor.  

If you are bedraggled and cannot find time to make a bakery order and pick them up, or are on a budget, but still want to make some occasion special, do not shy away from the fancier cupcakes at the HEB bakery.  You will not regret the experience.

What About Cupcakes? ($$, $2.50)
http://whataboutcupcakes.com/

They claim to be the original cupcake bakery in Waco, and they will tell you so as you shop their store.  The woman who tended the store front seemed to equate being around the longest with being the best.  However, that was not my experience.  In fact, this was my least enjoyable experience on the tour.  Sadly, their cupcakes were no better than cake mix out of a box.  I was disappointed we wasted cash and calories on this experience.  What About a Cupcake? has limited inventory and little imagination when it came to flavor.  We tried chocolate, reeses, oreo, strawberry, vanilla, and lemon-raspberry.  I tried to decide a "best in bakery" for each bakery so I could recommend something about each place.  What About a Cupcake? did have a good solid vanilla cupcake.  They were cute little cupcakes too.

Simply Delicious ($$$, $3.00)

 http://www.simplydeliciouswaco.com/

Simply Delicious has an unorthodox location amidst industrial distribution warehouses.  Even though this bakery is somewhat hidden it has a big reputation making Waco’s people’s choice list.  When we stopped by around the lunch hour, the parking lot was packed and it seemed folks were spending their lunch breaks consuming sweet treats.  

We tried vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, champagne, chocolate chip, and carrot cake.  They were good cupcakes, but I found the price tag a bit much.  They were not any bigger than an average cupcake, unlike Magnolia and HEB where they were more expensive, but also jumbo.

My favorite cupcake at Simply Delicious was the champagne.  Not only was it a lovely, delicate flavor I had never tried, but was also salted in such a way that enhanced the subtle champagne flavor.

Delightful Hearts Sweet Treats ($, $1 - $2.25)

 http://delightfulhearts.com/

Delightful Hearts is a perfect name for this bakery.  I found these cupcakes delightful!  But what is most delightful about Delightful Hearts is the baker/owner/shop keep, Tiffany Kosel.  She is a mom of four following her dreams.  I have made repeat visits to this shop in the last few months for several reasons: 1.) The cupcakes are exceptional.  I am guaranteed show stopping cupcakes every time I visit.  They taste great and are beautiful. 2.)  $1.00 Thursday cupcakes after 12:00 p.m. Thank you for this special!!! Our family lives on one income.  We rarely enjoy luxuries such as bakery confections.  This special makes it possible to celebrate the little things.  3.) Tiffany is a delight.  She always welcomes guests with joy.  This is a MUST visit bakery.

We tried strawberry, butterfinger, oreo, nutterbutter, boston cream pie, vanilla, chocolate fudge, cherry cordial, animal cookie, coconut, snickerdoodle and carrot cake.  We were able to try a lot due to $1 Thursday.  It was hard to pick a favorite.  They were all so good.  But if I were only allowed to have one, I would pick the cherry cordial.  My girls could not get enough of the coconut.  This bakery also makes gluten free cupcakes!

Lollipop's Sweet Treats ($, $1.75 - $2.25)
https://www.facebook.com/Pauladharn16/

Located in Robinson, on Hwy 77, minutes from Baylor University.  Honestly, the quality of this bakery is comparable to Delightful Hearts.  I appreciated the interesting flavors at this shop.  In particular, we tried a Dr. Pepper cupcake, which is a nostalgic, signature of Waco.  I have made repeat trips to this bakery as well.  The price is also right.

We tried chocolate, vanilla, Dr. Pepper, banana cream pie, almond joy, and red velvet.  The standout was the aforementioned Dr. Pepper.  

My one complaint of Lollipop's is that I wish they were prettier.  They were the most plain looking cupcakes on the tour aside from Magnolia.  The way they looked did not get me excited to eat a cupcake.  But when I took a bite, I did not care what they looked like (get in my face cupcake)!

Sweetness Desserts ($$, $2.25 - $2.50)
https://www.sweetnessdesserts.com/

This is Waco's finest--a cut above the rest--ambiance, presentation, flavor.  I died and went to heaven which was a patisserie in France.  

One word people, syrup! The cake has a light layer of flavored syrup on the top, between the cake and the frosting.  Omg! The intensity of cake flavor is an ultra-reality.  There is not a subtle flavor in all the store.  They all reach out and excite every taste bud.

The vanilla tastes like the way vanilla smells, except not overpowering, except totally overpowering, like I cannot control the groans of ecstasy as I eat it.  The chocolate fudge was a similar experience.  It was the most intense chocolate I have ever tasted.  

After trying each cupcake I sat there scraping the plate with my fork, hoping that I could get just one more crumb to taste.  Then I ate another cupcake even though I was already far too full.  I would skip meals all week if I knew that I would be rewarded with a cupcake from this bakery in the end.

We tried carrot cake, strawberry, coconut, vanilla, chocolate fudge, celebration, coffee toffee caramel crunch, and lemonade raspberry.  There was not a disappointing cupcake in the bunch.  

The best cupcake at Sweetness Desserts was definitely the coffee toffee caramel crunch.  We were about to leave the store without this cupcake when the kind, exuberant baker/attendant insisted we take one.  We are so glad she did.  

These cupcakes inspired me to write up our cupcake tour experience.  I decided then that everyone had to know about these cupcakes.  

Final Word

We have some great bakeries in Waco of which most people are not aware.  Go try some cupcakes when it's not someone's birthday.  Live like there is no tomorrow.

-Definitely visit Tiffany at Delightful Hearts Sweet Treats. 

-Sweetness Desserts is my pick of all Waco.  The experience is worth every calorie and every penny.

-Or just visit the bakery nearest to you and support someone local.  It's good for your neighborhood.

Lastly, my favorite cake flavor is carrot cake.   I did not get to experience a lot of good carrot cake on our tour.  There were some contenders though.  People don't care about the carrot cake and do not put a lot of effort into making it--or maybe carrot cake is just hard to master.  When the right carrot cake comes a long it's like time stops as the shock and awe of all the complex spices, textures and flavors dance upon your senses.  It's a moment to remember.  I remember all the times I have had good carrot cake as though they were significant moments in my life.  Carrot cake is just my personality--a little healthy with that carrot, spicey, unusual, all topped with a heavy, creamy, vanilla cream cheese frosting; people underestimate the carrot cake.

Happy Cupcake Touring.  

P.S.  I want to thank my mother-in-law for starting us off, buying us a lot of cupcakes, spoiling us with her love and generosity.

May God grant you many more blessed years. 

Tot Talk - Five Husbands

I have not done one of these posts in a long time.  It's not that these zingers have stopped coming.  I just stopped recording them, which is such a shame.

This past Sunday was the Eastern Christian remembrance of the Samaritan woman at the well.  There are so many powerful messages in this Gospel.  It is celebrated during Easter season every year as a reminder that our sins are forgiven and if we follow Christ we shall not thirst but have eternal life.

The Samaritan woman has many sins.  Jesus points them out to her mainly as a means to prove to her that he is Christ.  Christ tells the Samaritan woman that she has had five husbands.  This proves to her that Jesus is the Messiah and she goes and brings many people to Him.  The name given to this saint is Photini - "enlightened one."

My eldest daughter's patron is St. Photini.  We reminded her of this as the Gospel was read.  She listened very carefully to the Gospel and sermon this day.  After church our daughter walks up to the priest and says,
     "My patron saint is Saint Photini. [pregnant pause] She had five husbands!"

My husband turns red and moves her along quickly.  This is so her personality.  She does not remember that Photini converted many and was martyred, but that she had many husbands. :-/

In a Good World/In a Fallen World

Family and Motherhood by Fr. Timothy Vaverek

Waco Catholic Moms Retreat

May 6, 2017

This is pieced together from notes I took during Fr. Timothy’s talk.

I have two parishes I head.  I am the pastor at Our Lady of Lourdes in Gatesville, and St. Thomas in Hamilton.  I have been a priest in this diocese since 1985 with a short 3-year stint in New York serving the bishop of the Maronite Church there in New York.

The relationship between us and God is not adversarial.  We are not in opposition to Him.  Rather He did not create us to benefit Himself.  God did not create us because he needed us.  He did not create us because He would gain some benefit.  He created us because it would benefit us.

Growing up I had to help with the family farm.  I had to help weed and harvest.  I remember harvesting beets down the line and it was a long field.  We would complain about the hard work and My Dad would say keep your head down and you will know when you get to the end of the field.   Over dinner my brother said that the teacher said people used to have large families because they needed laborers on the family farms. Then my brother exclaimed that he didn’t think that was true because kids are crumby workers.

Parents do not have children because it benefits the parents.  They eat up time and resources, and it is really hard to raise children.  We have children because it benefits them to be alive, experience love and know God—the true, the beautiful, the good.

Kids represent an expression of love.  For a moment, a mother and father came together in one flesh and made a child.  Then God creates a soul in that newly united body.  In a good world, this is how a person is created.

There were seven of us in my family.  I was the second.  We were all strong-willed children.  At one point, my older brother and I knew about a new baby coming before my dad did.  We were raising hell as usual and my mom muttered, “No, I can’t do this for another nine months.”  Of course, we immediately figured out that nine months means another baby.  She told us to go wait for her in the bathroom.  Then she came in and cried at us that we had to help her.  How was she going to tell our father that there was another one coming.

One year we lost a brother.  Donald was born early and he only lived two days.  We buried him on Christmas Eve.   When he was born he only had a 1% chance of survival.  He was born with cerebral palsy.  My sister before him was also born with cerebral palsy and had a low chance of survival, but she did.  She grew up to be just as stubborn as the rest.  Anyway, when Donald passed away, my Dad came home from the hospital to tell the family that Donald had passed. My younger sister said, “Isn’t this a wonderful Christmas gift?”  We all were stunned at what she had said and asked her how this could be a gift.  She said, “We have a brother in Heaven.”  Yes, they is the goal of all parents—to have children in heaven.

This is the goal.  We are raising children for eternal life.  This is not an easy thing in a fallen world.  We live in a world with birth control.  We want to prevent life because there are more important things that we want to define us.  “My career give meaning to my life.”  Your career does not define you.  Our culture sends us messages that we need to attain new material goods to be a part of this world.  Every couple of years we have to replace all our things because they are not new.  It makes it very difficult to raise children in this environment. 

How do you measure your own success?  How do you measure your children’s success? Families are endlessly traveling from soccer, football, ballet.  This is how they measure their own success.  How good they are at these activities, or how involved they are.  But why should we do these things?  Why do we play a game—to play, because we enjoy playing it; why does one dance—for the joy of it; why speak another language—to speak to others; why do we have a job—to live.  But these things should not be a measure of your success.

Know the goal. Raise the children to love God; to love thy neighbor.  It’s a simple goal.  It’s not easy to carry out.

God’s got a plan for mothers: seek Him and follow him.  Motherhood is not pretty.  It’s gritty.  So I recommend you read the lives of the saints.  I don’t mean the cute little nuggets about the lives of saints that give you some ultimate, beautiful, reality wrapped up in a nice package.  That’s part of their lives.  But I recommend you read full accounts of their lives where you learn about their hardships in detail.  That is where we can find Divine inspiration.

One of my favorite phrases is “Pray as you can, not as you can’t.”  You can’t pray like a monastic.  Also, be consistent.  One of the greatest keys to success is to be consistent.  You know this from disciplining the children.  One of the hardest things is to be consistent.

Do what works for your family.  There are many ways to raise a holy family.  Don’t try to do it someone else’s way because you see it working for them.  It might not work for you. 

Do you know what I hear a lot from mothers in confession? I was overwhelmed and lost it, I was angry, I was impatient, I’m not good enough.  Quit beating yourselves up. This is not necessarily all sin.  We’re going to have freak out moments.

Prayer, self-denial, works of mercy –these are trials I choose.  But my crosses, these are trials that comes to me from God for my perfection.  Life is going to hurt.  The crosses you bear are not sin.  They are for making you good.  God did not put your crosses into your life because you sinned.  Beating yourself up when bad stuff happens does no good. 

God knows you are flawed and He still put your kids in your care.  You can do this with God.  Ask for Good counsel. 

9 O'Clock Ketchup

So my husband was out of town and we were out of ketchup.  Gladly, I had a lot of cans of organic diced, canned tomatoes in the pantry and an instant pot pressure cooker.  Hey, why not make some ketchup, because running to the store with five kids (one who is a busy one year old) sounds like more work than cooking.

I looked up a recipe for ketchup online (this one) which said ketchup must cook for 10-12 hours in a slow cooker.  Forget that.  I'm not going to wait that long.  I have things to do and people to see, five kids to raise.

Someone gifted me an instant pot a 6 months ago.  I've used it mostly for cooking recipes with beans, which is helpful during fasting seasons.  I found a recipe (on the internet. I do not know how I would do anything without the internet) that said to cook the ketchup in the instant pot for 5 minutes and then saute to reduce the liquid by half.  I did not like the ingredients in the second, instant pot recipe.  It was less traditional.  I used the first recipe in the instant pot. Then I blended the heck out of it in my nutri-ninja blender.

The results were splendid.  The ketchup is so delicious and old fashioned.  I might have to start making my own ketchup regularly.  I might try a low sugar recipe next time.

I call it 9 o'clock ketchup, because that is the time I started cooking it, when I was lonely because my husband was gone.

I made a few subs in the recipe, because I almost always adapt recipes to my taste, or ingredients I have available.  Below is my recipe:

·       2 (28 ounce) cans diced organic tomatoes

·       1/2 cup water

·       2/3 cup brown sugar

·       3/4 cup apple cider vinegar

·       1/4 onion

·       1 clove garlic

·       1 3/4 teaspoons sea salt

·       1/8 teaspoon celery salt

·       1/8 teaspoon mustard powder

·       1/4 teaspoon finely ground black pepper

Directions

1. Put all ingredients into a high power blender and blend for 1 minute on high.
2. Pour the mixture into the pressure cooker.  Cook high for 6 minutes.  Let it depressurize afterward.   
3. Then (saute simmer) in the instant pot until mixture is reduced by half and very thick. 10- 20 minutes.
4. Smooth the texture of the ketchup using an immersion blender or in a high powered blended for 2-3 minutes.
5. Transfer the ketchup to a clean glass container.
6. This ketchup will last 6 months.  

May God grant you many years!

Just Simple

Like I have said before.  I would like to eliminate a lot of my children’s things, especially clothing.  I cannot bring myself to do it.  However, I did recently give away several church dresses.  I replaced them with one simple dress per daughter.

I have one child who marches to the beat of her own drum.  She often complains about going to church, saying that is boring.  She needs to have something she can do at church.  I am sure that once she learns more about how to participate in liturgy, she will like it all better.  

In the last six months, when I ask her to get ready for church, she puts on everyday play clothes.  I explain to her that she needs to look nice for church because, “It is a way of showing respect for God and show Him how important you think He is.  Also, it is less distracting to others when we are all clean, neat and tidy.” 

I do not want to get into an argument with a child on Sunday morning.  We usually make some sort of compromise.  She wears play clothes under a dress and then gets to take off the dress as soon as liturgy is over.  Clever kid.  But, she looks like a mess with the dress over play clothes.  It is not my idea of a win-win.  I still lose and I feel like she does too.

One thing she expressed to me is that she was finding the church dresses itchy and uncomfortable.  The girls used to like getting dressed up, but now it seems unappealing to them all. 

I splurged and bought them each a soft, pretty dress in a favorite color from www.primary.com.  I am very happy with this solution.  I think the girls look nice.  I eliminated some stuff from our lives. The girls know exactly what they will wear on Sunday.  This is a relief not having to decide. They were also very happy with how comfortable the new dresses felt.  They thanked me for the new dresses.

Bonus! For Primary’s second anniversary they gave away free hoodies with a $50 purchase.  My oldest son scored a red hoodie.  He has not taken it off in three days.  He is very happy with the softness.  I like the jersey material a lot and the simple designs.  I can see our family buying a lot of the jersey products.

I previously tried out the flannel dresses.  I do not like the muted color and stiffness of the material.  The material is soft.  But, it does not have stretch in the seams, which one of my children dislikes.  It’s not a bad product.  It is just less desirable for my children.

 Hopefully, this is the beginning of helping my kids to live more simply.  I keep telling my kids that when I was a kid I had one pair of sneakers that I wore for every occasion.  I also had a pair of snow boots.  I did not have multiple pairs of shoes.  Every so often I would have a pair of dress shoes, but not always.  I had one week’s worth of clothing.  When summer came, we just cut the pants off and had shorts.  In times gone by people had even less.   I know life can be simpler.

 

I am trying to be brave enough to live simple with my family.  By no means am I succeeding at my goal.  But, I figure if I keep taking baby steps, eventually I will make some gains.

 May God grant you many years!

The Half

Well, folks.  I ran a half-marathon today.  10 years ago I recall running a 5 K and I came home destroyed. My muscles were so sore, I had to ice them.  I have come such a long way.  Today I came home and was tired.  But I took a bath, had a good meal and took a little rest.  Then I was fine again; cleaned the garage, visited with neighbors, tidied and vacuumed the house before bed.  Wow.  I feel really good about my current physical fitness.

I did well--as well as I expected I would do.  My husband could not believe I finished in precisely the time I expected.  The hills were much harder than I expected, but I hung in there.  This is where my husband thought I would crash and burn.

At 12.75 miles I just about lost all stamina.  I started to feel like all the stores were depleted and everything ached. Then I mustered enough strength to jog to the finish.  Part of this may have had to do with poor hydration.  I really hated picking up water because drinking it messed up the rhythm of my breathing.

When I finished I felt a little emotional, because I needed some nourishment.  But my stomach was in too much of a knot to eat.  I drank a sport drink and felt better.

I don't have plans to run further distances.  I feel running is really hard on the joints and I figure my joints and I have a lot of years left together.  I want them in good condition.  I do appreciate running, though.

My neighbor on the other hand, is a top athlete.  She finish fourth out of everyone (1200+ runners).  I think she was number one female.  However, she was pretty disappointed.  She's injured and felt she could do better.  I'm sorry she could not take full pleasure in her victory.  I understand that.  She knew she could do better.  But on the other hand, wow, take some pleasure in the fact that on a bad day, "you're still a winner."  She's so fast.  I'm in awe.

I was able to enjoy my new running pants from Lorna Jane this race.  It was cool this morning and these were perfect.  They also compressed a little so they were great support.  I also did not suffer chafing (except for my arm, where my phone armband rubbed).

I always wear one of my Adam Towler race shirts to the race and I started wearing my pineapple bandanna in honor of my brother.  This also makes me feel a little emotional at the end of a race.  Another thing about running is that since it can bring physical pain, I try to channel this into penance, say my prayers and give it to the glory of God.

11 miles. Home again.

A post shared by Renée Clayton (@claytonopolis) on Mar 19, 2017 at 7:05am PDT

May God grant you many blessed years!

2017 Peg Doll Saint Exchange

Every spring for the last three years I have participated in a peg doll saint exchange.  I love this practice for the same reason I paint and venerate icons.  As I paint the chosen saint, I meditate on the lives of saints, on the holiness of my family, or just my relationship with God.

Once I receive the other saints in the exchange, I divide them among my children and put them into their Easter baskets along with Easter treats.

For this year's saint I have chosen is St. Alexander of Jerusalem.  We have decided that this saint is our son's patron.  We decided upon Alexander's name based on many great Alexanders, as we did with our other son and many great, Thomas'.

I'm not quite done, but I am getting close.

May God grant you many years.

On Being Uniform

Sometimes I try to solve my problems with uniforms...

Homeschooling is a tough job for mom.  Not only do I spend most of the day directing the children in their studies, but I also keep house and cook, and serve as chief financial officer, among other responsibilities. I also play the part of every person employed at a school--principal, counselor, art teacher, computer teacher, librarian, and most importantly spiritual director.  This job is overwhelming.  It's worth it, but it is difficult.

Sometimes problems arise like, disobedient behavior, disrespectful behavior, slovenly behavior, messiness.  I think that requiring the children to wear uniforms helps them be a little more serious.  It also helps with the massive amounts of laundry.  The time saved on laundry and getting dressed is better used on discipline and leisure.  Therefore, all around uniforms take the pressure off me as the head mistress of this household. 

Our homeschool co-op instituted the wearing of uniforms at co-op 4 years ago.  The parents decided any uniform would do.  This gave parents the options of buying uniforms at secondhand stores or inexpensive bargain store uniforms.  This was the catalyst for our whole family.

I was not wanting to do this in the beginning.  I had my reasons.  Mainly, I just couldn't be bothered.  My husband has always wanted our homeschooling children to wear uniforms.  He wanted them to look nice and be serious.  I protested because I had one kindergartner, two toddlers, and a baby. I exclaimed, "To what effect is he being uniform if there are no other children in uniform?"  Fair enough.  But when the co-op started wearing uniforms, and now we have a whole troop of our own, it now makes sense.  

I should have just listened to my husband with our one kindergarten aged child.  Wearing the uniform does send the message to a child that it is business time.  It's not time for sleeping (pajamas).  It's not time for church.  It's not time for play (soft tees and shorts).  It's time for learning.  We do not wear something distracting.  The clothing is nice yet plain.  

Last spring, I took away all my girls cloths except for the uniform, because they constantly left clothing all over the floor.  It remained this way for three months.  With good behavior, they could earn a couple play outfits.  Then I gave them all back in the summer.

My kids have too many clothes and toys.  One of our problems and blessings is that people give us bags of hand-me-down clothing.  We so appreciate this blessing!  The children enjoy the clothing people give them, and the receive so much.  It’s just hard because they have a hard time then paring down to only what they need.  

I want to take it all away and start over with just a few important things.  At the moment, I have neither the time nor the fortitude to do this.  The idea lingers in my head though and I am very tempted to do this over the summer.

But uniforms…Yes, we are always happier when we choose uniforms.

I bought these things on primary.com.  I thought this would be an expensive alternative to uniforms.  After I bought undershorts and sweaters, it was really about the same as more expensive uniforms.  I mainly just wanted to try out the brand.  I do like the brand, but it's not as cheap as the secondhand ones we get.  I will definitely try out a couple more styles from this brand.  I'm just not that into buying kids clothes considering we have been gifted so many wonderful second-hands.

In Memory

We visited a Civil War reenactment. The families there told us all about life during those times.

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Piglet

I love this little baby piglet. These are glory days I want to remember.
Mno Hya Lyta!

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Sister Fun Day in Fairy Land

It's Sister Fun Day today. Kristiana invented sister fun day back in January to cheer up Annie. Annie never thinks she is getting her due. Kristiana organized all sorts of events including a trip to Starbucks. 

Today Annie organized the day. But first mom dragged them to story time. This turned out to be a fun time because the Tooth Fairy came and handed out books and tooth brushes and cups.

Then off to the store for a toy, candy, chips and juice.  Then a movie at home. Sounds like fun to me.

Mno hya Lyta!

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Sister Fun Day in Fairy Land

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Christ is Risen 2016

We're on the road to go to Divine Liturgy at a Byzantine Catholic Church.

We've come to a point in life where our tastes are more defined. We cannot celebrate the Resurrection of Christ in any other manner than the Eastern way. It's too beautiful, it's too magnificent, it's too appropriate--fitting.

So we've packed up our village and our Easter baskets and we our on the road. We are pilgrims.

The children are digging into their Easter baskets and getting chocolate on their church clothes. (Gasp!) Before church! Normally we make them wait until after Liturgy, but we had some little ones who did not understand and they wouldn't have seen their baskets until 8 hours later. It was not a great parent move.  We will figure this one out for next year. 

And Confession - I may have forgotten one bar on the three bar cross I put on the Pascha bread. Life's a little messy right now.  But we're still in the game.

Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!
By death He conquered death and to those in the graves He granted life...(even to those who are messy and imperfect, so long as they LOVE God, and repent, and have hope.)

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