Big Brood

In a hope to get our school days started on schedule I have been trying to make a huge batch of something every weekend to feed the ever hungry goslings.  Lately it has been my new favorite bread recipe.  It makes 4 loaves.  I have been making 1 loaf into raisin bread (to satisfy my finicky pregnant stomach), 1 cinnamon sugar and 2 regular.  This particular recipe makes great toast.  But this weekend I made a family favorite,  gingerbread waffles.  I found this recipe here several months ago and it joined our breakfast rotation.  I forgot how much this recipe actually makes and did my normal thing and doubled it.  YIKES!  I didn’t get all the waffles made and frozen as hoped last night!  I guess one morning this week will be fresh waffles.  Note to self: one batch is plenty for our crowd!

Have you noticed a trend in my posts.  Seems they all revolve around food!  I guess not much else is going on in my first trimester mind besides getting everyone fed, clothed, educated and loved.  I am looking forward to feeling better and getting the goslings out for some fun field trips.

Have a blessed day!

I just retrieved our last butternut squash from this past summers garden from our basement and made one of my favorite recipes. Thank you Heather for sharing this great recipe!

You can get the recipes at myrecipes.com under beef and butternut squash chili.  YUM!

Well we finally spilled the “beans” to all our family so we thought it was time to share with everyone else.  Pa goose, Ma goose and all the goslings are overjoyed to share that we are expecting another little gosling in late August! 

We lost our little John Mary last August so this is a wonderful gift and reminder that God is ever present and working in our lives!

I spent most of last year using freezer cooking as my main means of feeding our brood.  I was involved in a couple of freezer swaps where between 6 and 8 of us would cook 6 0r 8 of the same thing then swap to have 6-8 different meals.  I really enjoyed all aspects of this.  Especially pulling dinner ready made and nutritious out of the freezer each day.  But to use a cliche, all good things must come to an end.  My family requested that I start cooking again.  They said they missed my cooking and my dh wasn’t convinced this was the best way to spend our grocery money in a budget sense and I had to agree.  

I haven’t totally given up freezer cooking.  I am still making extra to freeze when I cook and also swapping/cooking with a friend and sister in law.  But I have had to spend the last couple of weeks reformatting my way of cooking again.  I must say while I miss the convenience I am enjoying cooking “fresh”

Tonight we are enjoying freshly made beef and bean burritos and spanish rice.  YUM!  Pa goose should be home soon, can’t wait to taste the first bite.

I AM READY FOR SPRING!!!  I am tired of germs! 

 We spent the whole week at home due to a yucky stomach virus that struck our house.  We had to miss both our co-ops and several other outings.  Yesterday we were all stir crazy and pretty much healthy so we made a trip to the library and the grocery store.  Everyone was so well behaved LOL!  So the secret is to keep the goslings cooped up and sick for a week and you will have very obedient, quiet children. 

I did spend some spare moments this week perusing this garden catalog and working on my current sewing project,  cloth napkins.  Here is were I got my idea from.

This a picture of the star cake gosling 2 made for our Epiphany celebration (a few days late).  We have yet to do our ephiphany blessing over the doorways.  Hopefully this weekend.

We usually have a full day of feasting and gifting on Epiphany but plans will be a little different this year :(  We have been struck with the stomach flu AGAIN!  I think we are trying to set the record for the number of times one family can get a stomach bug in one flu season.  This is our 4th bout since September!  YUCK!  Luckily these kinds of things usually move quickly so hopefully we will be ready to celebrate by tomorrow or thursday.  Have a blessed day.  I am going to try to get caught up on laundry in between cuddling sick goslings.

We have truly enjoyed our advent this year!  We spent the last month preparing our hearts and souls by learning more about our faith and traditions.  One way we have done this is using these faith folders.  I just saw on another favorite blog that Lindy now has a 12 days of Christmas faith folder.  I know what is on my list to buy today

Pa goose led the way on a wonderful craft project this year.  It was such a wonderful way to pass faith onto the children and really spend some quality time together this advent.

It started with a strange call from pa…”how much money can I spend at the craft store???”  To be honest I wasn’t quite sure who was on the other end of the line!!!  He had done some research and wanted to create a more elaborate nativity this year after a suggestion from a priest friend and several catechists. 

He came home with bags full of goodies and the crafting began!  We all had great fun painting,  creating paper mache mountains and getting messy.

The end result!

Well, it has been quite a while since I have blogged.  This seemed like as good as a time as ever

We had a wonderful day today spent with family and a neighbor.  The three youngest goslings are in bed and the rest are watching a movie with dad.  I pray that your day was filled with Christs love.  Enjoy a couple of pictures from our house to yours.

Goslings (except #6) dressed in their Christmas gift from ma and pa goose.

Gosling #1 as Mary at Christmas eve Mass.

Singing Christmas carols with pa.

Welcome back.  Sorry we’ve been out for quite a while now.  I’m going to start posting again and I hope we can reconnect.

I will give you many updates soon, and information about my new experiments.

Here are a couple of hints:

• I’ve been out of  the country.
• I’ve taken up a new hobby.
• I’m working to make our house more efficient.

See you soon!