Photo Meme's

There's been several of these floating around facebook lately. I picked the ones I've seen that best described me.....

I found another one!! But I'm dedicating it to my hubby as it seems to fit him well too!!!

A Book Review

From the publisher Tribute Books:
The Priest and the Peaches (an ebook)
Historical fiction novel set in the Bronx in the mid-1960s

Take a seven day journey with the five, newly orphaned Peach kids, as they begin their struggle to remain a family while planning their dad's funeral.

They find an ally in the local parish priest, Father Tim Sullivan, who tries his best to guide them through the strange, unchartered and turbulent waters of "grown-up world." A story that is sad, funny, and inspiring as it shows how the power of family love and faith can overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles.


I would suggest this book to Catholic teens and young adults. The story showed a family with a strong bond trying to live through a difficult time and make sense of all the heartache they've endured. There are several places where key aspects of the Catholic Faith and traditions are explained in simple language. The underlying themes that God is always with you, and you should love your neighbor regardless of the circumstances are strongly reinforced in each chapter. While I found the book to be sad, it is also a story of strength and inspiration.


About the Author:



Larry Peterson was born and raised in the Bronx, New York. A former Metal Lather/Reinforcing Iron-worker, he left that business after coming down with MS. He, his wife and three kids moved to Florida 30 years ago. Larry began doing freelance newspaper commentary after graduating from Tampa College in 1984.

His first children's picture book, Slippery Willie's Stupid, Ugly Shoes was published in 2011. In 2012, his full length novel, The Priest and the Peaches was released and he is presently working on the sequel.

He also has a blog where he posts weekly commentary. He lives in Pinellas Park, Florida and his kids and six grandchildren all live within three miles of each other.

To purchase The Priest and the Peaches:

ISBN: 978-0-9837418-4-8
ISBN: 978-1-4658-6327-0
Pages: 285
Release: January 1, 2012

To purchase for Kindle click here

To purchase on Smashwords

To purchase the PDF version

Welcome to Lent

And here's the Lent curtain!

The back is a solid black, I will turn the curtain around and show just the black from Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday. (aka the Triduum)

I wanted this curtain to be intentionally simple. The only beauty in this curtain is the fabric. In other words it's not to be a source of pride for me, just a nice curtain to remind us to put Christ first during this season of Lent.

As we move into Lent and prepare for Jesus's Crucifixion and Resurrection, I encourage us all to set aside sources of personal pride. Focus on the fact that without the love of God we can do nothing.





Here's what the kids have decided to give up for Lent. Sonshine - his Woody, Gator - all his cars, Sugars - a dog and a firetruck.

what are you giving up as a reminder of what Christ gave for you?

A chicken story....

Scientists at NASA built a gun specifically to launch standard 4 pound dead chickens at the windshields of airliners, military jets and the space shuttle, all traveling at maximum velocity. The idea is to simulate the frequent incidents of collisions with airborne fowl to test the strength of the windshields.

British engineers heard about the gun and were eager to test it on the windshields of their new high speed trains. Arrangements were made, and a gun was sent to the British engineers.

When the gun was fired, the engineers stood shocked as the chicken hurled out of the barrel, crashed into the shatterproof shield, smashed it to smithereens, blasted through the control console, snapped the engineer's back- rest in two, and embedded itself in the back wall of the cabin, like an arrow shot from a bow.

The horrified Brits sent NASA the disastrous results of the experiment, along with the designs of the windshield and begged the U.S. scientists for suggestions.

NASA responded with a one-line memo,

"Defrost the chicken." (True story, or at least, so they say)

Spring is coming!!!

Somedays facebook really cracks me up! Read these ads that were on my sidebar the other day.....taken from top to bottom I do believe they're sending some kind of message.......

Then there's this one:

"Fresh step litter cat sweaters are hot! Create your own digital sweater at the Fresh Step litter page....."does this mean they're making sweaters with pictures of cat poop on them??? Just wondering...and if a sweater was hot, wouldn't you take it off and put on a tshirt?

Just wondering.

Winter is waving the white flag around here! The weather has been very nice, sometimes rainy, briefly cold for 1 or 2 days followed by sun and highs in the 60-70s :-) I can't wait for all the flowers to be in bloom!

Look at the signs of spring in my flowerbed!! at the top are my Hyacinths, the bottom are Easter Lillies!! These guys are always to first to show, often before the last frost, and I greet them warmly each year!!

These two don't really get along.....I've never in 8 years seen them be this close without someone growling!!! Yikes!!

I figured out it was because it had gotten so cold in the living room!! Turned up the heat and sure enough, no more snuggle kitties.

If it said cat hair it'd be exactly right!!

I hope that everyone had a terrific Valentine's Day!


Mine was REALLY sweet......

Make it a great week everybody! And when things get tough, remember what Grandma always said "You can get glad in the same shoes you got mad in."

Ending the week with a true LOL moment!

What you see here is an actual, real, honest to goodness email exchange between Sonshine's 2nd grade teacher and myself about him. This makes me laugh so hard I can't breathe!

from yesterday

TEACHER:
Sonshine got his (discipline)card changed today because he drew and colored with his pencil on his Library book. He is now on chapter books and it takes him longer to read them so he can't take a test every day. Our procedure is that they read a certain number of picture books and pass tests over them and then
move on to the chapter books. He has done great on the picture books and the chapter books are on his reading level, just longer. Of course, this is a change for him, and it is going to take a few days for him to adjust. The library did take his book away since he wrote on it. He will be able to go get a new book tomorrow.

from this morning
ME:
well I think I put the fear of God in him. or at least fear of losing all his Tooth Fairy money to pay for a replacement if he draws in another Library book :-)

TEACHER:Ok...Here is the funny part. This happened after I wrote you about the book. He did take the book down to the library and returned to the room. About 30 minutes later I had to go to the library and return something. I asked the librarian what Sonshine said to her and she said that she had never seen him. I called him down and asked him what he did with the book. He stopped, dead in his tracks, said "Oh, here it is." and went out the door. He had laid the book down on the rug in front of the Library door. There is a colorful "picture" of boys and girls on it and he had fixed it so the book blended in and you didn't notice it. Yes, I had just walked by it and not seen it. (Oh, he is definately a smart one, don't ever let anyone tell you different) :) We did talk to him at that time about the fact that he can't cover things up and be untruthful about things. I was proud that he didn't have a melt down and that he said that he was sorry and would never do anything like that again. I honestly (when he headed back to the room) was laughing so hard that I couldn't do anything else about it.

By the way, I love your Son and he is such a joy to work with. My oldest daughter has subbed in his "social skills" class while his teacher was out on maternity leave and he definately won a place in her heart. I am so thankful that God blessed me with teaching him this year.



I am so grateful to the teachers who have loved my boys through every school adventure! This has been a really hard year for Sonshine, yet he continues to keep us on our toes...and in stitches!! This is no novice teacher either! She's the team leader with MANY years of experience teaching 2nd grade!

Honestly! Set the book **just so** on the carpet so it blended in!!! What a goofball!!! People, I really DO mean it when I say this:

AUTISM IS FUN!!!!

Fun Times

I've been eating a LOT of salads lately. Trying to exercise, but that hasn't always worked out for me. But the weight is starting to slowly drop. So I'm happy......

This is exactly how I felt after I put Feb and March up on our dry erase calendar. Suddenly realized that the surgery is a month away!! I'm so overwhelmed!! I did, however feel better after I sat and realized all that hubby WILL be able to help with even after his surgery. Sure does make me appreciate him even more though!!

Why yes, we are making a poster for school at 3:45AM. No, it's not due till Friday. Why now? Because we're both awake!!! That's what happens when Mom works nights from home and Sonshine is a very Early Bird! He's frequently up and ready to start the day at about 4am. I figured why not take advantage of it and get some stuff done! :-)

from left to right it says "A fox bat has big eyes. A warthog bat has big ears. A vampire bat has big eyes." The colors didn't come out right but the big upside down bat is on black felt, the other two are on a dark blue "sky" fabric. :-)

We may have seen this too many times--


Hubby tells the 6yr old to eat his dinner.
Son: no
Hubby: yes
Son: no.
Hubby: yes.
Son: yes.
Hubby: no. HEY WAIT A MIN!! You're gonna eat that.
Son: no.
Hubby: yes.
Son: yes.
Hubby: ----eat!!

Make it a great day folks!

A Beautiful Day!

So, I've been working on sprucing up the living room by way of new curtains. I had a couple of obstacles when wanting to make a curtain for our door. The large window in the door provides much of the natural light in the room during the day, we also have to raise the miniblinds every morning to watch for the schoolbus.

But, you gotta admit, this looks a bit drab!

What to do?

Make a light button-up curtain of course!

I put button holes at 2 levels so that the curtain can be raised either half way.....

or all the way up.....

I learned that if you want your buttonholes to be stronger then just sew them twice!!

I also learned this is a LOT easier to do BEFORE you cut the hole open.

There was a lot of "winging it" done on this curtain. I've never made a tab top curtain before....nor could I actually find a pattern for a button up curtain. It's the first time I've put gathered lace on top of a ruffle, which was tricky.....finally the decision to gather the bottom so that the curtain wouldn't flare out straight and cover the doorknob was completely spontaneous!

Sure am glad it all worked! Those big black buttons were my Grandmothers! I'm always glad to use something from my inheritance.....

I have to say, I find this to be one dang CUTE curtain!! :-)

Let's see who does a better job prediciting the weather.....


Make it a great day folks!