The Agony in the Garden

And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place he said to them, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation." Luke 22:39-40

And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, "Father, if you are willing, remove this chalice from me; nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done." Luke 22:41-42

And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. Luke 22:43

Santa Fe Chicken Salad Wrap

St. Joseph,

Pray for Us!

This is a great cold chicken recipe. If you want to make a bigger quantity, make sure to at least double the ranch dressing and salsa.

Santa Fe Grilled Chicken Salad Wrap

4 C torn romaine lettuce

1-2 C grilled chicken breasts cut in strips

1 lagre tomato chopped

1 can (11 oz) corn, drained

1/2 C mexican style shredded cheese

1/4 c Ranch dressing

1/4 c salsa

8 flour tortillas

Toss romaine, chicken breast strips, tomato and corn in a large bowl. Sprinkle with cheese. Combine dressing and salsa in a small bowl. Pour over romaine mixture and toss to coat. Spoon evenly onto tortillas and roll up.

The Plague of Today

My mom was telling me today about a report she heard on the news that they (whoever "they" is) have found a name for a problem that plagues mothers of this century. She told me they were saying something about moms now-a-days who can't seem to remember things. Remember things? Really? Why is that, I wonder? Could it possibly be because people are always interupting them, or asking them questions when they are trying to type their blog or think about important things like what they need at the grocery store? Or could it happen because we are constantly being put into the situation of having to multi-task, like when we are talking on the phone and trying to listen to the important information being told to us but, hey, it is snack time, one of those life or death situations that must be handled immediately, so we have five children making weird contortions with their bodies trying to get us to make eye contact with them to ask if they can have their snack before they die of hunger? I bet it has somtheing to do with the fact that we are forever in the middle of scenarios where we are trying to teach something meaningful to our older children while at the same time trying to reprimand the toddler for hitting his sister with a spoon, while our husband is asking a question about a work related issue, and the phone is ringing! Well, you know what I think???? It's about time! I finally feel validated! I am not going crazy! The scientific community has given a name to something that has plagued me for at least the last two children (which, in non-mommy time is about four years). The name of this disease: Momnesia! There it is; profess it proudly. "Hi, my name is Laura, and I suffer from Momnesia. Please forgive me if I suddenly forget my name, or what it was I was saying to you!"

God Bless!

The Spiritual Side

So why spend all this time talking about the kitchen? Well, I have found that the more organized I am in a certain area, the less I have to think about it and so therefore, I have more time to think about other things. The last thing I want to spend my entire day thinking about is what to have for dinner. I also don't want to spend more time in the grocery store than I absolutely have to. By making my life easier in this area, I can spend my precious brain power trying to keep up with everything else in my life.

Of course we know that there is a spiritual side to keeping an orderly and neat kitchen. As F. Fernandez states in "In Conversation with God", "There are no jobs that have nothing to do with the doctrine of Jesus Christ: even for very technical problems within a firm, or in the way a mother runs her house, a variety of solutions will offer themselves." And then later he states, "With God's help, the Christian will endeavour to turn each ordinary thing into something noble and of great value: he will try to turn everything he touches, not into gold, as in the legend of King Midas, but rather into grace and glory." So let us strive to turn our kitchens into portals of grace and glory. Doesn't that sound wonderful!!!

As an aside, I got to wondering if there was a title for Our Lady that had to do with kitchens so I Googled "Our Lady of the Kitchen" and I actually came up with this post from 2006 from a blog entitled "Our Lady of the Kitchen Sink". It was quite good, so I would recommend checking it out.

God Bless!

P.S. We are off to the final dress rehearsal for a performance of "The Seven Last Words of Christ" that our local Girls Club and Choir are performing. Please say a prayer for the success of the performances on Saturday and Tuesday. If you are interested in attending, check out this website for the location and information.

Meal Planning and Grocery Shopping

How about some ideas for streamlining your grocery shopping and meal planning? I don't want you to think that I think I have all the answers! I just know from experience that I learned a lot from seeing the way that other people do things. I'm the kind of person who learns visually. Don't spend a lot of time telling my the WHY of something, I like to know the HOW. For example, don't spend much time telling me WHY my body can't tolerate wheat, just tell me HOW to live my life without it!! Anyhow, that is why I would like to show you my method of shopping and planning. It is probably just one way in a hundred of how to do it, but maybe it will help you streamline your own method.


I began this whole process by taking a pen and paper with me to my favorite grocery store and writing down, in the order in which they appear in the store, the items that our family uses most often. For example, the first aisle I come to is the bread aisle, so in that section I have things like: bread, bagels, peanut butter, jelly, coffee. I did this for every aisle, as well as the dairy, produce and frozen food sections. The unfortunate thing is that I shop at Wal-Mart and they are FOREVER moving things around the store. Oh well, my list gives me a general idea of where everything is. I then took my notes home and typed all of this into an Excel spreadsheet. I print off a bunch of copies at once and put them into my binder on my desk. This way, throughout the week, whenever we realize we need something from the store, everyone knows to flip to the current grocery list and either circle or write in the necessary item.


I usually go to the grocery store on the same night each week. So, that afternoon, I sit down with my current grocery list and the copy of my calendar for the month that I keep hanging on the refridgerator. I then decide what dinners I will be making for the following week. I write each dinner on the corresponding day of the calendar and then enter any items I may need to make it onto my grocery list. After I do that for all of the dinners, I take a walk around the kitchen to see what type of breakfast, lunch or staple items I may need to add to my list. This does a pretty good job of making sure that I do not forget anything - although not a foolproof job. I can only imagine the number of things I would forget if I didn't have this system in place!


When I am really on a roll, I am able to plan an entire month's worth of meals at one time. More often than not, however, I work on a week by week basis. And, just because I can't stand spending half an hour arguing about what is for breakfast and lunch, we have implemented a set breakfast and lunch schedule for each day of the week (although our lunches have been off this Lent since we gave up wheat and, as you know, there is basically NOTHING to eat for lunch that doesn't have wheat in it. So, each day of Lent, lunch time has been true penance!). For example, on Monday's for breakfast we have muffins and yogurt, Tuesday is waffles, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday are cereal, Thursday is oatmeal and Saturday is baked oatmeal.


Hopefully all this talk of food has not made you hungry, but eager to get in there and streamline your own system. Or, maybe it has made you sit back with a smile on your face knowing that you already have a system that works well for you!



God Bless!

Keeping the kitchen clean

Like I mentioned yesterday, the kitchen is probably the most frequented room in our house. That fact has its good points and its bad points. We can all gather together and enjoy the fragrant aromas that are wafting out of the oven (except during Lent, when I can't bake). We can learn new things together, like how to cook and what makes a healthy meal. We can explore cookbooks together and ooh and aahh over all of the delicious looking desserts. However, I have also noticed that we can all walk through the kitchen and set down our school books, our keys and purses, our jackets, our shoes, our socks, other various items of clothing, our papers, our colored pencils, the latest novel that we are reading, our birthday cards.......So, how have I come to grips with the kitchen being a dumping ground? A friend of mine told me that she had a small bin in her kitchen for each one of her kids so that they could put their small miscellaneous items in there. Since there are nine of us, I decided to go with those medium-sized, three drawer stackable bins. This way everyone has a drawer to put a bunch of their papers or books into and it doesn't really take up that much counter space. If it doesn't fit in your bin, then it is not allowed to stay in the kitchen. The person who is assigned to straightening up the kitchen has the job of distributing all of the rest of the stuff to the correct person's room.

Another thing that I try hard not to let pile up is the mail. I make a point of dealing with it as soon as it comes in, or, at the latest, by the very next day. I file my bills in the order in which they will be coming due, I throw away any sort of junk mail immediately, and most of the time I throw away any catalogs that come in. This way I'm not tempted to buy things I probably don't need and then my counter is not cluttered with catalogs I hope to get around to looking at. If there is a catalog that I think I might need, I have another spot on a shelf in the den that I put it on.

A big morale buster is letting the dishes pile up. Nothing brings me down faster than walking into the kitchen and seeing a pile of dirty dishes staring back at me. About two years ago our dishwasher broke. At the time we didn't have the money to get a new one, so we started assigning people to dishwashing, drying and putting away duties. Do you know what I discovered? I discovered that my kitchen stays much neater now that I don't have a dishwasher. Before I used to have to wait all day before someone would remember to empty the clean dishes. That meant that the breakfast and lunch dishes would be piling up. Here is how it works now: I am in charge of washing the breakfast dishes since I would rather have everyone else finish getting ready to start school. One of the girls is then assigned as lunch and dinner dishwasher for the month. One girl is assigned to clearing the table, one is assigned to drying the dishes and another is assigned to putting them away. My son sets the table for dinner, and the final girl sweeps the floors. Of course, a set up like this only works if you have older children. If you don't, then try to enlist the help of your younger children as much as you can. Start them young and make it seem like fun and you'll raise willing helpers that can take over in a few years.

Don't you just love the outfit?

God Bless!

The Heart of the Home

I would like to spend some time writing about what I think is the heart of the home - the kitchen. I don't know about you, but some days we spend so much time in our kitchen that I wonder why we have other rooms in our house. When people come over, there are many times that we never even leave the kitchen. By the time we prepare, eat and clean up three meals I would have to guess that almost half the day has been spent there. Now add in those times when it is too cold in the basement to do school so we do it in the kitchen, it is no wonder that I become disoriented when I walk into other parts of the house.

I firmly maintain that my kitchen is the window into the state of my mind. If you want to know how I am doing, don't ask me, just come and look at my kitchen. If I am uptight or anxious, then my kitchen tends to be super organized and clean. If I have not been home much or my mind is a-whirl with too many things, then you will notice that my kitchen is very cluttered and disorganized. If I seem to be functioning on a fairly normal level then my kitchen is neat and tidy, but you will notice a few things out of place here or there.

I remember when we moved into our first home, my mother asked me how I was going to organize my kitchen. I looked at her as if she had spoken to me in French. I had no children, so I did not concern myself with such trivial things as being efficient and organized. I think my mother organized the first two kitchens I ever had. By the third one, I think I had it figured out and she left me on my own. Now my kitchen is one of my favorite rooms to reorganize. I'm always on the lookout for ways to make it more efficient and more pleasant to be in.

What about your kitchen? Do you enjoy spending a lot of time in it? Hopefully over the next few days I will be able to share some ideas and tips that will help make spending time there much more enjoyable.