Turning 14 in Quarantine

Yesterday, Lily Grace turned 14!  This birthday was unlike any other, but that didn't stop us from celebrating and having lots of fun.  
A very BIG thank you to all of our family and friends.  Thank you so much for making yesterday so very special for Lily Grace with calls, videos, texts, cards and lots of thoughtfulness.  She is so blessed to have all of you in her life. 
While this birthday was unlike any other, our wish for you Gracie, remains the same.  

"The Lord bless you and

keep you; the Lord make his

face shine on you and

be gracious to you; the Lord

turn his face toward

you and give you peace."

Numbers 6:24-26

Daddy and I love you so much that it is beyond measure!!!!!  We are so proud of the person you are and the person you are  growing up to be.  Peace be with you always sweetheart!

This year, LG requested homemade tiramisu for her birthday.  I got busy making homemade ladyfingers and putting everything together Friday morning.  

While I worked on tiramisu, Gracie got busy on cupcakes. (and dusting the kitchen with powdered sugar) Since she was unable to have a party on her birthday with friends, she made strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese icing for them to share together over zoom. 

Saturday morning she woke to gifts, cards and of course some love from her best buddy. 

A much wished for Apple Watch 5

This year she requested Chick-fil-A for her birthday.  Hey! It's her birthday and we are just grateful the drive thru is still open.  Matt went and picked up breakfast for her and Chick-fil-A it was. 

By mid-morning, all the excitement was taking a toll on Molly. ha!

We all loaded in the car and drove to each of her friends to drop off the cupcakes LG made for them and their family.  It was like a game of Ding, Dong, Ditch with Cupcakes as Lily Grace would place the container at the front door, ring the bell and then hurry off the porch.  Her best friend P however, met her (while maintaining social distancing of course) on the sidewalk to get her cupcakes and surprise Gracie with some colorful balloons and gift card.  So very sweet!  How blessed to have friends like that!

Once we made the rounds, her friends all zoomed , ate cupcakes together and shared laughs.

This week for her meal she planned Pasta Carbonara.  It's one of her favorites.  She even asked to make it on her birthday this week.  So, with the help of her sous chef (dad-aka: dishwasher) she served us homemade Pasta Carbonara with roasted sweet baby broccoli on the side.  It was delicious!

After dinner, we had a family FaceTime call.  We all sang Happy Birthday to Gracie as she blew out the candles.  We had fun just laughing and catching up.  

Definitely a birthday to remember.  Happy 14th Birthday Gracie Cakes!  We love you sooooooooooooo much! And then some...

Matt's New Stylist

Luckily, Gracie and I had our hair done right before out state went to a shelter in place, so we haven't really worried too much about our hair.  My next appointment is May 7 and I am hopeful that I will in fact be sitting in that chair.  
Matt on the other hand has been chomping at the bits about getting his hair cut.  He typically goes every three weeks.  He talked me into cutting it a couple of weeks ago but I don't like too.  For as little hair as Matt has, he drives me crazy.  
He was up for another cut this weekend and he talked Gracie into doing it for him.  She was excited and nervous and I was a little unsure and maybe a small part of me thought (ok maybe wished a little) that I might get myself a laugh out of this cut.  
We are actually having beautiful weather outside today so Gracie and Matt set up shop on the deck.  She read the manual for the clippers and watched a couple of videos.  
Long story short, she did great and Matt has himself a new stylist.  Even when quarantine is over, LG did such a good job that he's hired her to cut his hair for him.  They settled on a wage and Lily Grace is happy to be earning some extra cash.  
On a side note, my toes were in dire need of a pedicure.  Again, I got one right before the quarantine but it's way past time for another one.  Enter, my little entrepreneur.  Lily Grace pulled out the foot bath and gave me a pedicure right down to the heated towel last night and I have to say, my feet loved every second of it and they look quite good too.  Being her mama, LG has offered to give me pedicures going forward at a discount rate of $10 per, or I can do a "monthly subscription" of $20 which will afford me touch ups.  Too funny!  I'm not sure Gracie is ready for this quarantine to be over (come May 1) considering that she seems to have found the "value" in it and making a business out of it.  ha! ha! 

Oh yes! She even shaved the neck and that was her first time with a razor and Matt is a brave man

A little art from quarantine

While you likely won't be finding these pieces of art at any gallery showing, they were lots of fun to make and helped keep the boredom at bay.  Earlier in the week, Gracie and I followed an online tutorial and free handed these bird nests using watercolors.  Now I gotta say, I don't think they turned out too bad.  
We had so much fun that LG talked Matt into giving it a try on Saturday.  They sketched and painted trouts using watercolors.  Matt really surprised Gracie and I with how well he did.  I'm not sure what we expected, but we were both impressed.  

Mom and LG

Dad and LG

What's for dinner?

Lily Grace is becoming quite the cook.  While baking is her favorite,  she also needs to learn how to plan and prepare a meal as well.  After all, mama won't always be there to cook for her. (but full disclosure, I totally would)  
Starting this week and throughout the summer, LG will be responsible for planning a balanced meal for dinner, making a grocery list, making that meal and cleaning up afterwards.  Recipes can be old favorites, or something new. 
Tonight she made a delicious Spinach Artichoke Chicken casserole over rice. (This recipe was new to us and it's posted below.) She did an amazing job!  Matt and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  This recipe is definitely a keeper.  
Great job Gracie!  I look forward to what you will cook next.  

learning to clean and cut up chicken

getting started on dinner

Delicious!

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cooked skinless chicken breast, cubed
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup  whole milk cottage cheese
• 3/4 cup  sour cream
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 1/2 tsp garlic granules or garlic powder
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• Juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
• 2 cups fresh organic spinach
• 14 oz artichoke hearts, halved
• 1/3 c fresh grated Parmesan cheese

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 1 1/2 qt. casserole dish. 
2. In a large mixing bowl, add cooked cubed chicken, oil, cottage cheese and sour cream. Give it a quick stir to combine. Add 2 cups shredded cheese, parsley, sea salt, garlic, thyme, lemon juice and lemon zest. Stir until fully combined and evenly distributed. Gently fold in the spinach and artichoke hearts just until combined. Pour mixture into the greased casserole dish and sprinkle the parmesan cheese over the top of the casserole. Bake at 375 degrees F for 40-50 minutes, or until the cheesy top is lightly golden brown. Let the casserole sit for 10 minutes before serving.

*Recipe adapted from recipestonourish.com  *LG made changes to the original recipe.

Happy Easter

This year may be different from all the others, but hasn't been any less special and we aren't any less blessed.  
We love Father Larry Richards and this Easter has afforded us the opportunity to celebrate Holy Week with him in Erie, PA through live streaming.  We have such fond memories of when we visited his church a few years ago for Easter and it was great to use this opportunity to celebrate mass with him.  We celebrated the Easter Vigil last night and tuned in again this morning for his Easter homily. We've also spent the day having a putt off in the living room, watched a movie and grilled out. 
Thank you gracious God that even in the toughest of times, there are always blessings.  You are always with us. 

Christ has risen!  He has risen indeed!  

Lily Grace baked up some pretty pink coconut cream macarons for Easter.  

Easter Goodies

A new Harry Potter hoodie from her Easter basket

Molly enjoying her new Easter chew toy

Gracie's favorite part of today was a surprise visit from her best friend Pearl who stopped by to drop off some Easter candy for LG.  And while they observed social distancing, that didn't stop them from sharing smiles and laughs.  It was wonderful to see Pearl and Rebecca for the first time in weeks.  Gotta say, I too enjoyed chatting with Rebecca even it was across the yard. Ha!  Thanks friends for the welcomed surprise. 

Keeping Busy

Lily Grace continues school remotely and the governor announced this past week that she will in fact, finish the school year that way. When Gracie isn't working to complete and submit assignments, we are working to keep busy with all this time at home. The weather is still chilly and we are having a lot of rain so we take advantage of any pretty days we have. 

LG has been loving the extra time to get creative and concentrating on word art.

This year, with all the extra time on our hands and being bound to home, instead of having our mulch delivered and spread, we did it ourselves.  Matt paid Gracie to go out and measure all the flower beds and calculate the area so he knew how much mulch to order.  She took the job very seriously with pad, pencil and calculator in hand.  Too cute!

Let me just confirm that 10 cubic feet of mulch is A LOT.  

After LG worked the wheelbarrow a while, her daddy agreed to teach her how to drive the tractor.  I'm happy to report that the house is still standing and all the sprinkler heads are in tact.  

Counting our Blessings in the Chaos

Matt returned from a trip to Mexico and took off work on March 13th to help me prepare for Lily Grace's confirmation on Saturday the 14th.  My mom was flying in and we were having a dinner with friends on Saturday night to celebrate.  That's the day things really started to change around our house. 
We picked LG up from school with a notice that school was being closed due to the coronavirus.  
We also received notice that confirmation was being postponed.  My mom ended up staying in AL and well...here we are.  
It was announced last week that all churches would be closed.  All restaurants were ordered closed except for carry out and delivery.  Yesterday, the governor announced that Indiana is now under a stay at home order.  All nonessential businesses will close.  Matt will continue to go to the office and his plants will stay open since they perform essential manufacturing for transformers and face mask wire. 

In the midst of it all, we have found so many blessings.  

This June, we have plane tickets and hotel reservations to visit Rome and London.  We have been looking so forward to it.  Lily Grace and I are suppose to attend a cooking class in Rome and she is super excited to visit the original Harry Potter set at Warner Brothers in London.  We were super excited to finally receive our letter from the Vatican notifying us that they would be holding tickets for us to attend a Papal Mass.  On a side note, you actually have to send a snail mail letter to the Vatican requesting tickets months ahead of your visit.  Will we still go?  Well, we aren't sure.  We are holding out to see what June brings.  We certainly hope so but know there's a very good chance we won't be able to this year.  The bright side, Matt's travel has been on hold so he's been leaving the office at 5:00 and home for dinner every night.  We also know that we have options.   A trip here in the states.  Perhaps a staycation trip to the cabin in Michigan, either way there are people dealing with so much more and we are blessed.  

Gracie is on her second week of remote learning.  She's been doing great and the teachers are working so hard.  While she misses her friends and teachers, she's gotten in a lot of art and reading time.  She and I have gotten to hang out and do some things we enjoy.  She's also gotten to FaceTime and hang with friends and teachers.  Her Fidelis sisters have also been meeting and holding a Bible study via zoom each week and it's been pretty special. With Gracie off to high school soon, I see this as such a blessing to have this extra time with her.  

Gracie's new classmate joined her for one of her zoom meetings.  Pretty sure Molly slept right through the Algebra discussion.

We are doing a lot of this.

And like everyone, we've seen a lot of this.  Yep, it's the toilet paper isle and Nope, I don't get it.

This past Sunday was our first with the church closed.  Our priests are still performing mass on Sundays, it's just not open to the public.  Instead, the mass is being live streamed.  I have to tell you, while we couldn't be there, it was still one of the best masses we've attended.  It was heartfelt and meaningful.  Our priests did an amazing job.  We were there at 9:30 (online) just like every Sunday, we responded, sang, gender flexed, prayed, gave peace and took spiritual communion.  However, this time we enjoyed and celebrated mass as snow fell outside (yes, even in March) a fire was going inside and again, it was a special time and blessing.

(This picture is from Spring Break 2019)This weekend my grandmother will celebrate her 90th birthday.  Gracie and I were supposed to be on a plane to help her celebrate along with family.  Unfortunately, we won't be able to go.  Her retirement facility is also on lockdown and she can't leave or receive visitors.  She's been looking so forward to this birthday.  While I'm sad for her, I know that it's a blessing that she is still here.  She's lived through so much in her life and we are be able to pick up the phone and call her on Friday to wish her a Happy Birthday.  

*Through this chaotic time, it's important for all of us to remember to look for the blessings.  Peace be with all of you!*

Blessed Beyond Measure

Enjoying dinner downtown: Family Day! 13 Years

Trading for Trendy

After almost 20 years of wearing rimless glasses, Gracie and I managed to talk Matt into trading them in for something bold and trendy. 
It’s been quite different for Matt. And while we love the man behind the glasses, Gracie and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE his new look!  

She did it!

Back at the beginning of December, Lily Grace, along with a lot of other 8th graders took the Merit Exam at Bishop Dwenger for a chance at one of 8 Merit Scholarships they award incoming freshman each year.  These scholarships are awarded solely on academic achievement.  The scholarship goes towards your Freshman tuition.  With only eight scholarships being given and so many taking the test, Matt told Gracie he'd give her a $100 if she placed.  
Yesterday, we received a letter from Bishop Dwenger letting us know that Lily Grace had won one of the scholarships.  You can't imagine the excitement around here yesterday afternoon!  
Matt and I were beyond happy for Gracie and so very proud.  She works so hard and never complains.  With a lot of after school activities, clubs and advanced classes, she still holds high honors each and every nine weeks.  She's held on to those straight A's since starting school. 
I can't tell you the joy it brings Matt and I to see her earn this special recognition for her hard work.
Congratulations Gracie!  We are sooooo proud of you and love you even more!

Reading the letter that brought the good news.

Pure joy and excitement all over her face.  And yes, a $100 in hand from daddy as promised.