7 Quick Takes–Zumba?

1.  So I finally went to zumba.  Everyone raves about the newest exercise sensation/fad, zumba.  I have to say I didn’t think I would like it, and I don’t. Here are a few quick takes about my zumba experience.

2.  I felt like a fool doing all those ridiculous dance moves and, in my humble opinion, everyone else looked foolish as well; including those who were doing the moves well.  What zumba lacks, that a good dance class provides, is proper and personal dance instruction and repetitive practice.  There is no mastery of the skills. You are simply thrust into the movement whether you are capable or not.

3.  Don’t accuse me of feeling like a fool just because I am a beginner.  By the end I was following along just fine and sweating like the rest of them.  I learn quickly, but it did not grow on me.

4. Seriously, this is your workout?  I mean, I got my heart rate up and was sweating, but the yoga class I took a few days earlier was more physically challenging than zumba.  And there is the whole looking like a fool problem.  I know I am insulting ALL of my friends right now.  It’s just not my thang.  I have become a huge fan of “step/strength.”  I get my heart rate up, there are lots of physically challenging moves, and there was lots of work on toning muscles. 

5.  There were about five guys in this class of 80 students. I call them “The High Five Crew”  after every song they went around high fiving everyone and chest bumping.  Ah yes, what would zumba be without “The High Five Crew.”  I needed the comic relief.

6. I felt like the moves I could do the best and liked the best were the really dynamic movements.  I also liked doing the bolly movements.  Which brings me back to “step,” which employs lots of dynamic movement.  I really did not like the more dancey movements, again because there was severe lack of instruction, and I did not really feel like I was getting exercise.

7.  All this being said, I may go a couple more times, because the fitness studio classes are closed for a week while they resurface the floor.  Zumba is in the gym because there are about 80 regular attendees.  I really like going to the group fitness classes because it provides me accountability.   When the going gets tough, I don’t stop because I am in front of everyone.  Fitness in the modern age is so ironic.  Our bodies labor so little we seek to labor our bodies in order to keep them in top working order.

Mademoiselle Butterfly

Bird Man

My friend sent me a link to this blog http://www.prudentbaby.com/2011/04/how-to-make-beautiful-dress-up-wings.html#more and voila – wings for Alex.  These wings provide perfect dress up fun. 

I could only vaguely remember the blog when I rushed off to the hobby store for fabric.  It’s been about a month since I last saw it.  However, this is simply how I operate.  I skim a recipe and then months later I happen to have some of the ingredients in the house and I slap something together that resembles the recipe I read.  It always turns out tasty ;-)   

I don’t have access to a sewing machine right now, so I bought fabric glue and some pretty (and cheap) fabric.  I free-hand drew a semi-circle on the fabric.  I made progressively smaller semi-circles on other colors.  Then I drew the “feather” shapes on the semi-circles and cut them out.  I positioned the feathers and glued them down.  Then I sewed on hand and shoulder straps.

Tomorrow I will post Kristiana’s wings.

7 Quick Takes: Y Not

1.  Our first week in Washington was busy! We had to settle in unpack and wash laundry.  The dogs got to know each other (in unmentionable ways :-/. We visited a couple of favorite restaurants (we started a top ten list).  We went to the library. We got a YMCA membership!

2.  I have been trying to go every day.  The Y nearby is really swanky.  I love it.  I took the kids swimming and went to a couple classes.  I was told the season 6 Biggest Loser winner is a member at this Y.  Hopefully, I will get back into shape.

3.  I saw a little tutu set at the store, lost my head and bought it.  When Kristiana saw it, she grabbed it and would not let it go. At the check out, I told her that she fooled me into buying her the dress.  She said, “No, you fooled you.”

“Ain’t it the truth, daughter.”

4.  Alex didn’t like Kristiana getting all the attention as the pretty princess.  So he came to me and said, “I’m the prince.”  Then he sweetly hugged Kristiana and I was already taking pictures, so I was able to capture it. :-) Adorable.  Kids, don’t ever forget to love each other.

5.  Annie is trying to crawl.  She can do it.  It’s just slow moving.  She is also always surrounded by people and toys and she lets everyone know she would prefer to be picked up.  She also likes to pull up on whatever she can.  She would much rather get up and walk away.  In due time, my little one.

6. LEGOS Fun! Are you jealous that I have spent whole mornings playing with legos this week?

7. This was a very uninteresting quick takes.  But we have a fun summer planned. We are going to see the Spokane sites, catch up with friends (BTW, if you are in Spokane and want to catch up, please don’t wait until the last week we are here to try to visit), barbeque with family, make s’mores.  It should be fun.  Next up, hopefully working on my very own Icon to be hung at our church here.  This summer is going to be busy.

Happy Mother’s Day - Rewind

I was a little pre-occupied organizing our cross-country car trip around Mother’s Day, so I did not get to say anything about Mother’s Day.  Mother’s Day is a very important day.  You would not be who you are today without your mother—the person who nurtured you.  And your mother sacrificed a lot for you, so that you might grow to adulthood. 

It is too bad that I had to become a mother to realize how important this day is.  I know it was good to be nice to your mom on Mother’s Day and you should probably make her a nice handmade card or craft.  But, it’s really a shame that I didn’t make it a special day for my mom growing up.  That being said, I know what it’s like to be a kid on Mother’s Day and a mom on Mother’s Day, therefore, I know that getting to spend time hugging and loving your kids on Mother’s Day is the Mother’s Day gift.  I know that if I want Mother’s Day to be more special than that I just need to go ahead and make it the special day I want it to be. :-)

Every year my husband asks what I want for Mother’s Day and I say, “I want you to get up with the kids and make me a cup of coffee.”  The coffee is because I know that peace for sleep will not last long and I will need the coffee about a half hour after my husband goes to care for the kids.  So far, my request for a few more moments of rest and coffee have not been fulfilled.  Each year there has been some reason that it has not happened.  This year my husband went to help the Knights of Columbus with their Mother’s Day breakfast at the crack of dawn.  However, he did make coffee before he left and that was wonderful.

I woke up had coffee, dressed the kids for church, loaded them up, took them to Liturgy, my husband joined us, and then we had breakfast made by the Knights of Columbus.  It was great!

After the Sunday festivities, I called my mom to wish her a good day.  She informed me that my sister beat me to the well wishes.  “Sure, it’s easy for her to be first.  She doesn’t have three kids to dress for church at seven in the morning.” Wink, wink.  I sent my mom a cook book for the second year in a row. Cooking is my mom’s great gift.  So it is now a tradition that I will send her a new cook book each Mother’s Day.

A couple days before Mother’s Day my mom’s group had a Mother’s Day morning mass with the kids, followed by lunch.  It was great to go to mass and everyone's kids were being noisy and no one was staring.  The priest asked the kids to come to the altar and offer a prayer for the mothers and then they sang, “Happy Mother’s Day to You.”  It was precious.  I will treasure this moment.

Happy Mother’s Day to you. It is a special day just because you are a mother and not because someone else made it special for you.

Pilgrimage 2011

For the second year we have journeyed from our home in Texas to our homeland of Washington where Claytonopolis began.  It was an interesting trip and also much better than I had expected with three young children and a puppy. 

We kicked off the trip with a speeding ticket while still in Texas.  It was silly ticket.  We did not realize the speed limit had changed because we were looking for the exit to our interchange. Oi vey.

We drove eleven hours the first day, which was the longest leg of our trip.  We ended the day in New Mexico.  We had reserved a room at a hotel there, but the “new” clerk gave it away.  He recommended that we go to the hotel across the way.  After Andrew chatted with the clerk there he talked her down on the price and this hotel offered a FULL breakfast.

The next day we only had a 5h30 drive to Cheyenne to visit with my parents.  As we crossed the border into Colorado from New Mexico we saw a big grizzly bear walking toward the road.  I was the first to see it.  It didn’t really register to me what I was seeing at first.  Then as soon as I realized I had to tell everyone all I could say was, “Bear, bear, bear.”  Alex saw the bear too and seemed unimpressed.  So I stopped and explained, “That this was very special thing we just saw.  It is very rare to see a grizzly bear.  Mommy and Daddy are adults and we have never seen anything like this in our lives.”

“Yeah, okay. It was great to see a bear.”

…We had a nice home cooked meal and a visit with my parents in Cheyenne. Then we moved on to Bozeman.  We had a swim at the hotel.  Then it was another short six hour drive to Spokane.  We were all very excited to arrive in Spokane.  It seems as though we are home again.  We went to our Spokane church and reconnected with church folks. 

On our way we read from Alexander Schmemman’s For the Life of the World.  It has brought to my attention things I did not know about the Liturgy.  It helped me to feel the living breath within the Liturgy once again. It was very good for our souls to read this.  But, it was too heavy to read at length on the road.  So we read Mother Teresa’s Come Be My Light as well.  We have not finished either.  But, this aspect of our trip made it more like our pilgrimage.  Our trip ended on the eve of the Sabbath and we were able to attend the Liturgy we read so much about.  It was very moving. 

Hopefully we will have some fun summer adventures to share.

Veni, Vidi, Vici–Catholic Moms Retreat

It is finished.  For months we planned a retreat for our Catholic Moms Group, and I am truly grateful.  It went well.  We had speakers, small groups, personal time, prayer, reconciliation, Mass and good food.  We could not have asked for more.

I had a great group of volunteers/leaders who helped plan and execute the retreat and gave of their many talents.  I was so amazed at the Lord’s work here.  As I shared with the mom’s at the retreat, I had no confidence in my own abilities and talents to bring forth a retreat.  I feared having to find speakers for the retreat, because approaching strangers is not my forte.  I do not really know of anyone in our area who would be interested in speaking at a retreat.  God had other plans.  As I prayed at the beginning of the journey, “Let us be pencils in the hand of God, ” and I believe this came to fruition.

There were a few personal prayers I lifted up to the Lord prior to the retreat.  One was that the retreat would go smoothly without a hitch; it did.  I also prayed that the ladies would be touched by the Holy Spirit.  This I will never really know how it was answered.  Lastly, I prayed that things would go smoothly for my husband as he took care of the children for the day.  It was his first day taking care of all three by himself.  I think he was really nervous about taking care of a nursing baby.  But everything went well. I came home to happy children and a tidy house.  All my prayers were answered.

I would like to summarize a little bit about what I learned.  The whole retreat was a Marian themed retreat.  Our goal was to look at various ways we live out our faith and how Mary could be our guide.

First Theme: Charity – “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.” Song of Songs 6:3 Here I learned that God calls us from all eternity as he had called Mary for all eternity to be the Mother of God the Son.  From the call, Mary submitted herself to God’s plan as we must submit to God’s plan for us.  The way we can do this is to give our hearts daily to the Lord.  Give ourselves completely in service to the Lord, in service to our families, in service to our communities.  Mary’s example showed us that only in the greatest purity comes the greatest humility and the greatest charity.

Second Theme: Forgiveness and Reconciliation – “Bear with one another and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you” Colossians 3:13.  Forgiveness is a process in which you seek to root out pain and harms in your heart either by seeking forgiveness or forgiving.  Our hearts are like wine skins, they can only hold so much before they tear. It is when we lay our burdens down and renew our hearts, that the channel of grace can flow easily into our hearts.  Edith Stein said, “Some things that are inflicted on others are so horrendous that they are only forgiven when the victim prays for the victimizer.”

Third Theme: Sacrifice and Suffering – “For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare, not woe! Plans to give you a future full of hope.” Jeremiah 29:11  Have courage and hope that God makes all things work for good.  Mary faced the greatest sacrifice and sufferings of all humanity and submitted herself to it with faith that what God desired of her would be good.  She willingly carried Christ even though a being a pregnant, unwed woman could have led to her death.  But she trusted God and Joseph took care of her.  Simeon, the priest, told her her heart would be pierced by her child. When Jesus was sentenced to death she stayed with him the whole way and stood at the foot of His cross.  She did not turn away from her suffering but embraced it, because there are good fruits in our suffering.

On a side note this speaker shared that she always does the “one” thing her husband asked her to do first.  Then no matter what else happens in her day it is done.  She knows that if he asks her to do something then it is on his mind and burdening him.  This way she can take this burden off of him immediately.  I thought this was great advice, because I never do the one thing my husband asked me to do first.  I do a bajillion other things in my day and a lot them benefit my husband, but what does it all matter if at the end of the day he has that one burden still on his mind.

Fourth Theme: Prayer – “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done unto me according to your word.” Luke 1:38  Pray, but pray for God’s will.  Be open to what God has planned.  It is difficult for the seeds of sadness to take root in a grateful heart.  The joys and sufferings of motherhood send us into the arms of the Lord to pray.  We need to “Pray when it rocks and pray when it’s rocky.”  And I’ll add pray just same when life is still.  Every prayer allows grace into our hearts.

This is all I remember from the talks.  I was a little groggy from allergies and medicine during the retreat.  Actually, I still am.  My ears are stuffed up, my nose is running and my lungs are weezing.  I am grateful for these times in which I am given perspective.  I am having a lot of sympathy for those with asthma and allergies right now.

It seems that all the speakers suffered some tragedies, like Blessed Theotokos, in order to bring us messages of God’s saving grace.  Even if no one else was touched at the retreat, I was.  This retreat has bore good fruit.

I also received a love letter from my husband as a part of the retreat.  I haven’t receive a letter like this from Andrew in a long time.  As I told Andrew when I returned home, “It was better than receiving a pair of diamond earrings.”

(The picture above is the rosary we gave to all the participants.  It was handmade by a relative of one of the ladies.  We all prayed the rosary together.  I am not sure this retreat can be topped. But I will be praying, for bigger and better retreats in the future.)

Princess and “Lady” Clayton

A couple of weeks ago I adopted a dog from the humane society.  I went to the humane society just to have a look with the kids.  I met this little gal and fell in love.  I called Andrew to tell him that he should come meet this dog.  It was a bust day, so he said that he approved if I liked her.  So I brought her home, but had buyers remorse that night.  We didn’t know each other and she was expensive.  I kept her under wraps until I was sure that I wasn’t going to change my mind.  Her paperwork said she was a Catahoula leopard hound, which are very big dogs.  I think they were confused because of her spotted merle coat.  They also said she was 4 months old, which I did not agree with and I don’t know anything about dogs.  But, the vet said she had all her adult teeth, so she’s probably 7 months old.  Everything has worked out great.  She was spayed, groomed and saw the veterinarian. She is really smart and good with the kids. We think she is a mix between heeler and Australian shepherd.  Half the time her ears stick up like a heeler.  I learned that she is what they call a Texas Heeler :-) (http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/texasheeler.htm) Her given name was “Lady.”  Alex liked the name.  He didn’t want to call her anything else. 

So please meet Lady Clayton

 

And here is a video for the grandparents of our littlest princess Annie jumping and laughing in her excer-saucer.

Speaking of princesses, Kristiana woke up early this morning and Andrew turned on the TV for her thinking he would go back to bed.  Of course the royal wedding was on TV.  Shortly thereafter, I got up to be with Kristiana.  We had a little Mommy-daughter bonding watching some clips of the wedding all by ourselves.  I told her that Kate Middleton was a real princess, to which she replied.

“Ooooh, I am a princess.”

Bright Week 2011

We spent four days traveling to and from church praying,  grieving, praising, opening our hearts to the Holy Spirit.  And then, “Christ is risen. Indeed he is risen. Alleluia! 

We had a lovely Easter celebration with friends and neighbors.  We had lots of delicious, cream filled, butter filled, sugar filled food.  We poured out the libations.  We hunted for Easter eggs.

Celebrating the Holy days would not be what they are without the feast.  Food cuts to the very core of our being.  Food is a part of our vitality.  I am proud to be the procurer of this feast—provided by God to celebrate His glory.  We are now nourished from within and without.  Here is our Easter basket. 

We could not carry all of our Easter dinner in our basket, so we made selections to put in the basket: Wine, salt, butter, Pascha bread, horseradish beets, polish sausage, cheese, boiled eggs, chocolate. We also always make a basket for our priest.

Of course, we included the Pascha bread…

and lamb butter.

Check out my deviled eggs.  I thought putting red crosses on them was a pretty cool idea.

My girls had the same Easter dresses, but I forgot to take a pictures of them together, because Annie was soooo sleepy.  She came to the Easter vigil with us and stayed awake the whole time to 11:00 o’clock at night. 

The Egg Hunters

I spent Holy week cooking and cleaning as well.  I prepared all the food prior to Easter.  The house looked great too.  At the end of the celebration yesterday the house was destroyed, which means a fun time was had.  Today, we are just going to kick back a little and rest.

Christ is Risen. Happy Easter.

 

Icon Writing With Kids–By Death He Conquered Death…

…And to those in the graves He granted life.

I know it is early for Resurrection Icons, however, if we are preparing ourselves for Pascha, then we are preparing ourselves for the Resurrection.  After all, we are the Church of the Risen Lord.  Therefore, I am posting this so that requests may be made for the Resurrection Icon coloring page and you may prepare your home for the Risen Lord. (Post a comment if you would like the page. Does anyone know how to attach a PDF to a blog post?)  You can color the Icons and place them in your Easter basket to be blessed on Easter.

Description:  Christ’s clothing is to be white—representing His renewal of Eternal life.  Behind him is an ellipse representing Heaven.  Archangels Michael and Gabriel are above.  Christ is standing on the broken cross representing that He conquered death.  Below the cross is Hades.  This area should be colored black.  Christ is pulling Adam and Eve out of their graves.  He is granting life to those in the graves.  He pulls Adam out of the grave with such force his garments fly into the air.  Eve bows seeking forgiveness.  There are supposed to be a lot of others people in this icon, but I like to keep it simple for the kids.

I have been developing my small scale icon skills and have been creating coloring pages so that I can get Kristiana into helping write icons without ruining Alex’s work.

The Monster Prayer

While Alex was still three, I adapted this little prayer to help with his new fear of monsters.  Now Kristiana, 2 years, is afraid of monsters.  I think it is a phobia acquired from her brother.  She does not like to go into dimly lit areas of the house by herself.  Her little eyes stretch as wide as they go and she says, “Mon-ters! Carey!”

I tell my kids, “Whenever you are afraid of a monster say, ‘Lord Jesus Christ, I love you. Protect me.”  It is short and to the point and any toddler can remember it.  The Lord has saved many “Carey” bedtimes and turned them into sweet dreams.  Next time you have monsters in your house, try The Monster Prayer.

7 Quick Takes–I fixed Your Heart

1. This week I decided to jot down my thoughts about life as they occurred and thus I have some quick takes to share this week.  Well done, Renee, gold star.

2. My goodness, if I had a dollar for every time some one said to me, “[chuckle] You have your hands full,” this week, I could have taken my family out for a nice meal.  I do not know what it was about this week.  I went on the usual weekly errands, but everywhere I went at least two people let me know my hands were full.  I assume this was because my kids were exceptionally cute this week.  It might be because I am constantly reminding them how to behave in public.  Calling out, “Alex, Kristiana, stay with mommy, hold hands, don’t touch, keep your hands to yourself, say hello, say sorry” does tend to draw attention to one’s hoard.  They have become pretty good at falling into line.  Kristiana is also very gregarious too.  She always talks to adults as we go about our business. “Oh hey, I’m a princess. Are you a princess? Look at my boo-boo.”

3. Saturday we had a visit with our neighbors.  They have kids the same age as Alex and Kristiana.  They do not allow their children to watch T.V. They decided before they had kids that they did not want to use T.V. as a parenting crutch.  So they removed the temptation.  They have a T.V. in their bedroom, but the kids never watch.  We were amazed that their children never watch T.V.  I get it. I really do.  I can’t say anything bad about parents who play with and read to their kids all day long...We felt a little ashamed at letting our kids watch so much T.V.  It’s not more than the recommended amount, but still.  Our kids did not get to watch T.V. for another for three days afterward.  This mainly had to do with the fact that I told Alex he could not watch T.V. unless he cleaned his room.  It took him that long to get around to it.  However, now I have guilt when they watch T.V.

4. Annie being adorable.

5.  I let Kristiana have a painting session this week.  She often asks and I usually say no.  But I decided to let the kids have a little free painting time.  I sat in the next room with my eyes on the kids as I did some shredding.  Kristiana painted a while and then became quiet and stepped out of view.  Then I heard her singing a made up song and she called me over to look.  I dropped my work and went into the kitchen.  She had finished her painting and put her hands and feet in the paint and proceeded to dance around the kitchen.  This was all very amusing until an HOUR later and I was still trying to scrub blue foot prints off my kitchen floor. Washable paint my @&$%$!  I can still see the foot prints. (Ssshhh, don’t tell my husband.)

6. One of the ladies in my mom’s group arranged a play date in the church nursery.  We took turns watching each other’s kids as we went to confession.  I thought that this was a brilliant idea.  The children got to have a little play time and we did not have to figure out how and when to go to reconciliation.  This is always a dilemma with little kids.  The usual confession times in this town are either the bewitching hour for kids or when the husbands are at work and unavailable.  Good, great, marvelous idea. I highly recommend it.

7. Over dinner Andrew and I briefly discussed a difficult moment in the past and my husband said, “That broke my heart.” After a few moments of silence Alex hugged Andrew and exclaimed,

“Daddy, I love you!” long pause, “I fixed your heart.”

Yes, it’s moments like those that melt your heart.  Andrew and I smiled at each other teary eyed.

 

Icon Writing With Kids: Christ’s Entrance Into Jerusalem–Palm Sunday

Here is a coloring page for you to share with your kids.  If you get a chance to write this one with your kids, let me know how it went. 

Instructions: Go slowly.  Tell them the story.  Talk about the image.  Notice how the branches of the tree form a cross.  Christ is always pictured with red inner garments, symbolizing His humanity and sacrifice, and blue outer garments, symbolizing His divinity. We always paint the background sky and halos golden yellow symbolizing this is a Heavenly image.  It is a doorway from Heaven to you.  Notice that Christ holds a scroll.  He was going to Jerusalem to teach.  Christ entered Jerusalem as a King—the Word Incarnate. (Email me if you want the pdf version: renee dot clayton82 at gmail dot com).

¹ As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, ² saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. ³ If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”

⁴ This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

⁵ “Say to Daughter Zion,
   ‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
   and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”

⁶ The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. ⁷ They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. ⁸ A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹ The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

   “Hosanna to the Son of David!”

   “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

   “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

¹⁰ When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”

¹¹ The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”  Matthew 21:1-11

Beans and Rice Shouldn’t Taste This Good

Here we are in the midst of Great Fast and we had beans and rice for dinner.  This time I made it with steamed kale.  I had never made steamed kale before and it was surprisingly good and way better than collard greens.  The next day I had leftover beans and rice for lunch.  The flavors had marinated and it was even better than the night before.  I feel bad, because I proceeded to break the fast and eat two more bowls. :-(

So here is my beans recipe, but don’t break your fast:

1 cup dry white beans
1 cup dry red beans
3 T of olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onions
4 minced garlic cloves
1 T Tony Chacheres Creole Seasoning
1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper
2 cans of rotel tomatoes with chiles
4 oz can of tomato sauce
1/2 cup of red wine or apple cider vinegar

Cover dry beans with 2” of water and bring to a boil.  Once boiling turn off heat and let them sit for one hour.  Then bring the beans to a simmer and cook until soft.  Drain and set aside.  Saute the onion and garlic in the oil; add the rotel tomatoes, tomato sauce, vinegar and spices and heat.  Then fold the beans into the sauce and simmer for 15 minutes.  Serve beans over brown rice with a side of steamed kale.