Another Fun Tradition for the Season -- Building Candy Houses

Everyone has traditions that they repeat again and again over the years. One of ours is decorating graham cracker houses. We usually do it during the Christmas season, but if we miss it we can play catch up on Valentine's Day or have a Christmas in July event. One of our granddaughters is a tremendous artist and her houses are always exquisite. She's grown up now, but still enjoys the project when she's around for it.

It's the First Monday in June; What's on Your To-Do List?

As a Catholic mom rearing our five children, I always tried to spiritualize our daily life: morning prayer, prayers at meals, discussion of the meaning of holidays (holy days), planning a weekly family home night with prayer, activities, and a special treat. I tried to help my family look at everything we did through the eyes of faith. I continue that practice with our grandkids. I love the saying attributed to St. John Bosco: Love God and have as much as you can!

Making Memories: A Grandma's Pleasure

We love visiting our children and grandchildren. One of the things I like best is thinking about making memories for the children. On our latest visit to our son in Texas and his family we decided to celebrate their new home, (They moved in July.), with a housewarming party.

Tonight was the big night. I made my son's favorite dinner, also a favorite of the kids, parmesan chicken made with a white wine sauce instead of the traditional tomato-based sauce and served with alfredo noodles. Salad, warm bread, apple sauce, and cottage cheese accompanied the dinner. See more here.

Sunday Meditation: Celebrating the Lord's Day around the "Altar" of the Domestic Church

Grandchild generation experiencing the
Sunday brunch tradition.

Growing up, my mom always made dinner a family meal. She was sometimes frustrated that Daddy was slow to respond to the dinner bell when everyone else was seated and ready for prayers. In later years when he was commuting from Baltimore to Washington for work, Daddy was seldom home for meals and I think that was a sorrow to my mom that the younger of my siblings (There were ten of us.) didn't experience that evening celebration of our little domestic church. I was out of the house by then and on my own, but how well I remember those family dinners and the way it helped form my own family. Dinner together was not an option and nothing came to the table in those freshly-washed hands!

Several months ago my husband and I returned to the practice of the Sunday brunch which was a staple of our growing family. Often in the early years we spontaneously invited another family to join us when we chatted in the parking lot after Mass. The more the merrier!

Taking a Break from the Mad Mad World for the Sanity of Hearth and Home

We're making valentines today. Check it out here

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Ordinary Duties as we Approach Ordinary Time

The past few days I've found myself immersed in the ordinary duties of family life. After a week of a dozen house guests coming and going, I've been changing beds, doing laundry, putting away the punch bowl and party plates, cleaning out the refrigerator and making soup and freezer dishes from leftovers, picking up stray toys (I keep a stash for the grandchildren), and generally "redding up" as my West Virginia husband always says.

I actually like to fold laundry. Since my children were young I've made it a practice to pray for those who will wear the clothes, sleep in the beds, use the towels, etc. Today I've also been praying to St. Anthony that all the items in the Camp Kreitzer lost and found will return to their rightful owners.

 Read more....

Putting First Things First

I like to blog in defense of the faith and western culture, but it isn't a major priority in my life. That belongs to God and my family. I'll probably be blogging intermittently and shortly the next few days because we have four little granddaughters visiting at present and, when their parents return on Friday, they will bring four cousins who are staying through the weekend while their mom and dad travel to Massachusetts so mom can run in the Boston marathon.

To be honest I am never happier than when I'm surrounded by family and I always try to make things fun. So we are planning a princess tea party this week and today we made pine cone fairies as favors for the six little princesses who will participate. You can check out the fairies at Camp Kreitzer. But here's a preview. I call these the fairies with the crazy wings. We used some foam sea creatures to make coral and crab wings and a crab crown. The green "hands" started life as frog legs. But if you could see this fairy up close she looks like she has her hands on her hips, so she's the fairy with attitude.

Sunday Meditation: Focus on Families, Your Nuclear and Parish Families!

I love Sunday and today is a double dose of fantastic family fun. The Knights of Columbus just resumed their pancake breakfasts after the summer break and I enjoy going over after Mass to visit with friends while I enjoy a breakfast I didn't cook. Since Larry was working, I caught up with a few girlfriends I don't visit with that often. We talked about people who need prayers, our own health challenges (Don't old folks always end up there? LOL!), and what our kids are doing. It was a delight.

From there I came home to wait for two little granddaughters to come over and play. Our youngest and her husband just celebrated their seventh wedding anniversary and didn't have a chance to go out yet, so we offered to babysit while they spend an afternoon doing whatever they like. The girls and I did a puzzle,

And Here's What We're Doing on the Second Day of Christmas

Snowed in with kids and grandkids. 

Anticipation

We have a three-year-old grandchild with us today and the plan is to go to the Shenandoah County Fair. She is so excited she can hardly eat her breakfast. What a great gift anticipation is. It extends the joy of an event and sometimes is more exciting than the event anticipated. One of our children and her family are going to Disney World in the fall. Her four children are already talking about it and excited even though it's two months away. They visited for four days last week and what fun it was to see their excited anticipation.

And we can share in it. We are taking a cross country camping trip soon visiting 17 or 18 states most of which we've never set a toe in before. What anticipation! We'll be visiting the Shrine of Our Lady of Help in Wisconsin, the only approved apparition site in the United States.

Since we like to go to daily Mass we'll be meeting Jesus in many places we've never been, celebrating the unity of our Catholic faith with people all over the country, strangers in a worldly sense but, nevertheless, brothers and sisters in the faith. My heart is as full of anticipation as my little grandchildren. How I love this great country of ours from the blue ridge in the east which we greet every morning from our deck to the purple mountain majesties of the west with their snowcapped peaks -- mountains I've mostly just seen in photos.

I'll be blogging about the trip at my Gramma blog, The View from Camp Kreitzer, starting next week.

Despite so much bad news in our culture, there are still enough blessings to fill an ocean. God is so good and He loves us so much; He pours blessings into our laps like water over a falls during flood season. Do you look forward to them? It's easy to keep our faces turned to the bad news and despair. Don't do it! Despite everything, God wants us to to rejoice in all things and to be ready, as St. Peter says, to give "a reason for this hope of yours." (1 Peter 3:15)

What sends a thrill of anticipation up your spine?

Rejoicing in Family!

I love holidays because they always bring family visitors. Not everybody, of course; we have to share with the other grandparents...but we are rarely celebrating alone. This July 4th brings our Texas daughter and her family which includes five little princesses including one not-so-little sweet sixteen. We plan on a special outing to celebrate her being on the cusp of Catholic womanhood.

We won't be able to see the youngest member of our family party because she is still in her own little watery world of Mama's womb. But we'll see the evidence of her presence. And we've already seen her first photos through the wonderful technology of ultrasound. If you'd like to be introduced, check her out on my gramma blog. Hope your 4th of July is as full of family and fun as ours.

God bless America!

Sometimes you need a normalcy check - Hurrah for good, wholesome fun!

Today I saw lots of families having a good time. You know -- "families" -- moms and dads hanging out with their kids and loving it.

My husband and I were up on the Skyline Drive at Skyland where they were having a summer fest complete with pony rides, face painting, watermelon seed spitting contests, and one of my favorite pasttimes -- square dancing.

Our caller and club were invited to participate with a square dancing demo and so we rounded up two squares worth of dancers, donned our petticoats or western shirts and dancing shoes and squared up outside under the trees. It was hot but that didn't keep us from kicking up our heels with enthusiasm as we "bowed to our partners and circled left."

A demo is lots more fun if you get the audience involved and we did with some line dances and basic square dancing instruction. I had one little boy as a partner who looked about eight who was eager to get in on the fun. He told me had done it at school and really liked it. He was there for the morning demo and turned up later in the afternoon for our second show eager to dance again. Lots of folks came back.

We all had a great time, but the best part was seeing all these FAMILIES together enjoying each other's company. One dad told me they'd taken a five mile hike, but they still had the energy to get up and line dance with us. I didn't see any Heathers with two mommies, but watched moms and dads making plans together for their afternoon. One mother said they were supposed to be at a Navy graduation but their young officer friend didn't pass one of his exams. So they took off for a weekend camping trip instead and were having a great time tent camping in the park and taking advantage of the summer fest!

I danced with one little gal named Michaela. Her sister was on the opposite side of the square with their mom while another sister stood in the background smiling. What a happy group!

The day reminded me of how much joy there is in the simple things of life and that many parents are engaging in wholesome activities with their kids. There's a lot of goofy stuff out there, but that's only part of the story. Do something fun with your kids or grandkids as a family -- even if it's just throwing rocks in the river. And pray for the family. It's under such an assault today!