Category: Catholicmom.com

Small Success and Cupcakes Too!

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Small-Success-Thursday-400pxThursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

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I think I’m getting the hang of September. I’ve made it to the gym a couple of times a week (I’d like to increase that) and on the days when I’m not substitute teaching, I get to daily Mass. Life goes better when that happens.

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Yesterday I was the substitute for the incessantly-smiling second-grade class. I managed not to die from all the cuteness; I’m pretty sure there were only 2 or 3 kids in that class who weren’t missing front teeth. I’ve started keeping a tote bag all packed up and ready for school, with stickers, 2 water bottles, a few granola bars and other packaged snacks, and a hair tie or 3. That makes it really easy to get out of the house in the morning when I’m called in at 6:15.Cupcakes choc ganache Sept 2014 (1)

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We celebrate birthdays at folk-group practice. Last night we had chocolate cupcakes. From scratch, which really doesn’t take much longer than using a box mix–and they’re soooooooo much more delicious. Try my recipe! And check out my newly-spiffed-up recipe blog.

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Small Success Thursday: Sticking to the Plan

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Small-Success-Thursday-400pxThursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

Around here, it’s been a busy week, what with a playground injury Friday that kept Little Brother away from soccer for a week (and included a trip for an x-ray that showed no permanent damage to his foot), an appointment with Little Brother’s new endocrinologist, and TheDad’s 2-year cancer checkup (so far so good!)

So…a lot of running around happened. And I managed not to let it ruin my plan.

Either that, or I’ve learned to make the plan flexible enough so that it won’t be ruined when my kid gets kicked in the back of the ankle while playing soccer at recess.

IMG_0237-0What’s worked this week?

  • I stuck to the meal plan (how do you like my spiffy Catholic Sistas meal-planning calendar? I’ve even remembered to write down necessary ingredients when planning way ahead.) And yes, I definitely use pencil to plan. It’s easier to shuffle things around this way when life gets in the way of the calendar.
  • We tried a new recipe! And I wrote it up! I’ve got a new recipe on the calendar for next week too.
  • In a nonfood success, I found a great sale on golf shirts for TheDad (he wears them to work) and a few things Little Brother needed, and spent a total of $125 (thank you, coupon code and free shipping) on over $300 worth of clothing. Bargains for the win!
  • And I’m starting to put my calendar to work for me, little by little cleaning out my overflowing email inbox and saving items to my calendar rather than keeping them in the inbox where they get forgotten.

2014-09-11 18.23.01Speaking of meal planning, I’m all about Mary Ellen Barrett’s upcoming linkup, so I’ve got to get next week all figured out! I used to post my menu plans, but I got away from that. It’ll be fun to pick that up again.

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Small Success Thursday: One Week Down

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Small-Success-Thursday-400pxThursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

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I figured out that I can READ while I use the exercise bike at the gym. What with the blaring pop music, I can’t read nonfiction that requires thought, but it’s a great opportunity to get some “fun” reading done–and I don’t even notice the time going by.

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The first week of school is in the books! Little Brother seems to be settling in to a good morning and afternoon routine, despite constant interruptions from his friends who get home almost an hour before he does and can’t understand why he’s not finished his homework yet.

Play Later signI might have to hang the “Play Later” sign up if this continues. (The other side reads, “Friends Welcome.”)

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Last Friday I subbed in the fourth-grade class. I’ve known most of these kids since they were in kindergarten, and they are not without their quirks. I consider it a success that I got through the day without losing my mind, even with all of these roadblocks:

  • it was a beastly-hot day. My classroom was 88 degrees all afternoon.
  • I had lunch duty. Outside. And there were no “specials” so I had no prep period.
  • One child narrates her way through the day and insists on showing me EVERYTHING. Including her tin of 5 lip balms, which she wears layered.

Actual conversation with a fourth-grader:  “Is today Back-to-School Night?”
Me: “No, that’s Wednesday.”
Fourth-grader: “The other Wednesday?”
Me:  “Uh….”

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SCBS 50th cake 1The school celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, and on Tuesday the PTA brought in enough birthday cake for every student. I learned about this on Monday night, and within an hour I was put in touch with the Mom In Charge Of Cake, who graciously provided me with cake mix and frosting labels at school on Tuesday so I could calculate the carb count of Little Brother’s slice of cake. (They also had separate treats for gluten-free, dairy-free and food-coloring-free diets. WTG, PTA!)

And not a success but an observation:

13 years ago today I was teaching first- and second-grade Spanish at a local elementary school when the Twin Towers came crashing down during the 9/11 attack.

Today I will be substitute-teaching in a third-grade classroom so a teacher can attend a 9/11 memorial service with her family. And I am thankful that, since I work at a Catholic school, we’ll be able to openly pray today.

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Small Success: Summer’s Over!

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Small-Success-Thursday-400pxThursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

—I survived the longest day of summer vacation (the last day before school begins). My house was full of 12-year-old boys, and I confess that at one point I suggested:  “Why don’t you guys go kill each other OUTSIDE?”

—My menu plan is done for half the month (using Catholic Sistas planner page). I’m wondering, though, how long it’s going to take me to learn to cook for only 3?

—I’m almost all unpacked from last week’s vacation. There’s just one more small bag to deal with and I promise to get that done today.

Gratuitous vacation photo, because I never get tired of looking at this:

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On tap for today:  pack my tote bag for a full day of substitute-teaching tomorrow (yes, already!)

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Small Success Thursday: Fully Loaded

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Small-Success-Thursday-400pxThursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

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Two days ago we moved Middle Sister and all her stuff to her college dorm.LaSalle explorers

I told her that she could put things behind the front door as she got them ready, so she could have more room in her bedroom to organize what was left, and before the clothing and shoes and dorm refrigerator made it into the stack, the pile mirrored the dimensions of the front door–and was 18 inches deep.

I don’t drive a U-Haul, for the record. I did manage to get it into the van with enough room for us to sit and Hubs could see out the back window.

That’s a packing WIN right there.

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mexican_coca_colaLittle Brother and I navigated our way to the train station and then to Reading Terminal Market where we met up with Erin McCole-Cupp and her family. We did not get Tomato Pie, but there was a whole lot of feasting going on, and we meandered through the market letting the kids inspect everything they saw. Little Brother wanted me to buy a giant slab of bacon, but I thought better of carrying bacon home on a 30-minute train ride (and almost as long after that in the car) without benefit of a cooler. Next time we’ll come prepared.

Thanks to Little Brother’s eyes being bigger than his stomach, we made an emergency purchase of non-diet soda for him to cover the insulin he took for 2 slices of pizza he couldn’t come close to finishing. But it turned out to be a Good Thing, because we discovered that Flying Monkey Bakery sells Mexican Coca-Cola. The Real Thing. With real sugar. 

So we managed to stave off any diabetic issues, AND we correctly “wild-guessed” the carbs in the Chocolate-Dipped Chocolate Chip Cookie from Famous 4th Street Cookies that he bought to take home.

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termini pastryHow about this breakfast of champions? That’s a homemade “latte” and an almond horseshoe pastry from Termini Brothers. I saved it for today. Oh my, that was good.

That’ll give me the proper nourishment to make my third trip to Philly in 3 days–for the Freshman Convocation that will officially welcome Middle Sister as a college student. As I write this, she and the other students in the Signum Fidei service organization are helping to move in her fellow freshmen.

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Small Success Thursday: Take Two

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Small-Success-Thursday-400pxThursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

This is “take two” because WordPress ate my first version of this post. I’m still not sure how that happened. Be assured that Take One was much more clever than this edition.

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BEFORE
BEFORE

I’ve been kind of letting my kitchen table get away from me. It’s a work space, not an eating space, but there wasn’t even space to work on it anymore. And the more stuff that got piled on it, the more I put off the job of cleaning it.

But today I’m making the Big Batch of Spaghetti Sauce with Meatballs, and I need that work surface. In less than ten minutes, I’d removed all the extra stuff and placed it where it really belonged.

Why is it so hard to get that job done? Less than ten minutes, and the satisfaction is huge. I want to dress the table up with my favorite vintage tablecloth, but that’ll have to wait until I’m done rolling meatballs.

AFTER
AFTER

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Author Cynthia T. Toney shared one of my recipes at her book blog! Check it out here:  Teens, Create Some Kitchen Magic! I modified Big Brother’s recipe so Little Brother, who has significantly less kitchen experience, could cook it on his own. Try this one at home!

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Little Brother was in a show last week (he played the King in Once Upon a Mattress, which I guess makes me the Queen Mother) and I had to help with the sale of concessions. I found myself in one of those “nobody wants to be in charge” situations and wound up working the concession stand for all 4 performances. I saw more than my share of mompetition among Stage Mothers (especially Stage Mothers With Daughters, which made me glad that Middle Sister was the Stage Manager Extraoirdinaire for her theater pursuits.)

I did manage to get through 4 performances and 2 cast parties without too much social anxiety, but by the time Set Strike rolled around, I was done. After two hours of vacuuming the theater with a 50-pound commercial vacuum that lacked power steering, I pulled an Irish exit. That might not have been my classiest move ever, but at that point I’d had more than enough of sweetly-dueling Stage Mothers. I’m going to chalk it up in the Mental-Health Victory column.

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Small Success Thursday: Movin’ On Out

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Small-Success-Thursday-400pxThursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

In less than three weeks, my household is going to shrink to only 3 as Big Brother moves to a townhouse near his new job and Middle Sister relocates to a college dorm.

We’re drowning in milk crates, foot lockers and boxes around here. This week’s successes are all moving-related.

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Big Brother wants to take an armoire and bookcase that are located in the basement, holding Important Things like my sewing machine, the stash of school supplies, and spare blankets. This week, I got both pieces of furniture cleared out for him.

(Just don’t ask me where I’m going to put all that stuff.)

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I put together a little surprise treat for Big Brother:  there’s a big tub of pretzels with his name on it. Right now it’s sitting on my parents’ my his kitchen table in my basement. (Can you tell I’m still attached to that table?)

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We’re going to miss the Big Kids, but there will be a considerable savings on the grocery bill. I’m seeing that happen already, since I’ve been purchasing fewer pantry staples than I used to when I knew I’d be feeding 5 people. In the last two weeks, our total grocery bill was under $250, and that included some school supplies!

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Small Success Thursday: Retail Therapy WIN

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Small-Success-Thursday-400pxThursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

Yesterday was a rough day and I was having trouble getting my mind off things. With an hour to go before I had to pick up Little Brother at theater camp, I had to get out of here and do something completely different. (My waistline–or lack thereof–can’t handle too much more Chocolate Therapy. Even if I did go to the gym early yesterday morning.)

So I headed over to the local shopping center where there’s a Staples and a HomeGoods:  2 out of my 3 favorite places to browse (add a bookstore and we’ve got a hat trick.)

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Clearance Sale FTW! I found a terrific new bathmat at HomeGoods for only $9. The regular price was $30, and I refuse to spend that much on a bathmat. At Staples, I picked up a few sets of earbuds for $3 each. My kids are very hard on earbuds, and the expensive ones don’t last any longer than the cheap ones, so cheap it is!

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One of my kids used one of my favorite kitchen tools and left it too close to the flame on our gas stove. I found a replacement at HomeGoods–even nicer than the ruined ones–for only $5. BONUS:  the new ones are blue, which matches my kitchen. These tongs are workhorses around here.

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I repackaged Little Brother’s “diabetes carry-on” in a large pencil organizer I found at Staples for $5. This is much less bulky than the multiple small pouches and huge Ziplock bag he had been using.

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One side holds his care plan, Glucagon and book to look up carbs.

The other side holds testing supplies and an insulin pen.

 

 

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Small Success Thursday: Exhilarating!

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Small-Success-Thursday-400pxThursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

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Little Brother spent last week at soccer camp, so he got a bit of sunburn on his nose. The other night, he was rubbing the spot that was starting to peel, and I offered to let him use one of the very few Actual Cosmetic Items I happen to own:  exfoliating facial wipes.

“Go upstairs and get the pack of exfoliating wipes off my dresser,” I told him. “It’s green. Take one out and rub it on your nose.”

He tried it, then came downstairs to tell me that the “exhilarating wipes” really worked!

(Those things really do work for peeling post-sunburn skin. They leave it nice and smooth! And that’s why it’s a success, because I figured that out all by myself. Repurposing FTW!)

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dunkin iced coffeeI stopped at Dunkin’ Donuts yesterday to get an iced coffee. (My name is Barb, and I’m a Butter-Pecan-aholic.) While I was standing in line, I heard someone yelling my name across the store. It was a group of eighth-grade girls, who came over to give me a big hug and asked me if I’m having a good summer. Substitute teachers get hugs–who knew?!

That was sweeter than the butter pecan in my coffee.

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Little Brother’s theater camp schedule is perfect:  I can sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiide into church for the 9 AM Mass at just about 9:02. But I can get there. And I am grateful for that. My day goes so much better when Mass is part of it.

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Small Success Thursday: Pencil-Pushing Edition

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Small-Success-Thursday-400pxThursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

While Little Brother’s been playing soccer to his heart’s content at camp this week (and, by the way, really hanging in there with his diabetes care) it hasn’t all been soap operas and bonbons around here. I’ve gotten a lot of writing and even some editing done!

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bird faceI’ve joined the My Light book review team. My Light is a Catholic online magazine for children. My first review:  Bird Face by Cynthia T. Toney. Good stuff for your middle-school or early high-school student.

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Symbaloo bookmarkerWant an easy way to organize your computer bookmarks or to make a list of “safe places” for your kids to use online? Try the tool I review in today’s Tech Talk at CatholicMom.com:  Symbaloo!

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spiffy penI’ve been editing a nonfiction manuscript for an author who wants to submit it for publication. It’s challenging, and I’m enjoying it! I hope this leads to more editing and/or proofreading opportunities in the future.

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