Tag: winter

Faith,family, and Chinese New Year fun

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Hi, friends! How was your weekend? This weekend we were on the go quite a bit attending two events—Rite of Election and a Chinese New Year celebration.

On Saturday, Travis participated in the Rite of Election, reaching a special milestone in his faith journey.

In case you’re unfamiliar with what Rite of Election means, it’s when those preparing to enter the Catholic faith are formally welcomed and encouraged on their faith journey.

Rite of Election usually occurs on the first Sunday of Lent, but this year, there was a BIG group of people participating—over 1,400 people 😲 preparing for their baptisms/confirmations—so multiple services were scheduled for Saturday and Sunday!

According to this article I read, it’s the most in Detroit in 21 years! I think that’s just so beautiful and a wonderful blessing. Congratulations to everyone! 😊💜🙏🏽

We had Sunday morning plans to attend a Chinese New Year festival, but Travis and I were still recovering from attending Saturday’s evening church service and late night grocery shopping. 😴

So, we ended up having a slow morning with a homemade brunch and blueberry tea. Plus, it was snowing, and we wanted to wait it out just in case the roads got bad.

After brunch. Zechariah (10) handed me a dollar and said it was my tip for cooking such a delicious breakfast. Lol! 😄

Thankfully, the snowfall was light and didn’t last long, so we were able to still attend the event.

The kids loved the Lunar New Year celebration! We’ve been learning about Chinese New Year for world geography, so attending the local event helped the children make authentic connections to our mini unit study.

I brought my camera with me, and the kids took turns taking pictures. 📸😊

We enjoyed delicious food, browsing the market vendors, watching performances, and just spending time together as a family. 🥰

We loved learning more about the Chinese New Year! I love that we live in a culturally diverse city where we can connect with others and celebrate with them.

Happy Lunar New Year and Happy Year of the Horse!🐴❤️ Hope you find moments of joy this week.

💜XO

Happy Friday

Three things to reflect on in honor of September 11th.

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Cleaning the Winter Bird Feeders

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The snow is finally melting. The temps will be in the 30s – 40s this week. Is this a sign spring is on its way?

Doubt it! This is Michigan, after all. 😏😅

I bought new seeds for my patio birds, as I like to call them. This time I wanted to try a “no mess” seed mix because the squirrels have made such a mess on the patio with empty peanut and sunflower seed shells.

Also, the other day I discovered the birds don’t care much for wheat in their seed mix. When I upgraded the bird seeds to a higher-quality mix, they just left the wheat in the feeders. 😲 I also found quite a bit of wheat on the ground. These birds are fancy now! 🐦😂

Mourning Doves, Juncos, and Sparrows eating seeds during a snow storm.

This afternoon, Travis and I started clearing out some of the shells and wheat. I told him we should get started as soon as the snow starts melting. I don’t want any mold or pest issues.

I’m super paranoid after having a squirrel sneak into our basement. 🐿

Although, the squirrel getting into our basement is unrelated to the bird feeder. We’ve always had squirrels climbing our tree and scurrying across the patio fence.

The Starlings have discovered my winter bird feeders.

In January, we had a snow storm every week. This made cleaning the empty seed shells really challenging.

Trust me—I tried! Lol 😆

The below freezing temps caused the shells to freeze. The shells were basically just blocks of seeded ice cubes. 😲

But I have been diligent about regularly emptying the bird feeder trays. So, at least there’s that.

We’re going to keep working on cleaning up the patio each day as the ice and snow continue to melt.

A Blue Jay picking up a shelled-peanut.

BTW—this is my first time having winter bird feeders. I have loved feeding the birds so much! I get excited when I discover a new bird species has found my bird feeders.

Within the last two weeks, Cardinals, Red-breasted Nuthatches, and Starlings have joined the bird patio cafè.

And guess what?

I can now identify six types of birds when they are calling out a distance away. I think it’s safe to say I’m a backyard birder now. 😆😂🐦

💜 XO

P.S.— I’d love to know any tips on bird feeding if you know some! 🐦💗

Happy Friday!

Four fun things for Friday, including a new art exhibit I’m excited to see.

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📸 Feature image credit Melissa Burovac.

Notes from January

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January always feels like the longest month of the year, especially when you’re stuck in the house because of super cold weather and snowstorms!

In January, we had snowstorm after snowstorm, a week and a half of being sick, extra cozy reading days, and — just to keep things interesting — a squirrel somehow got into our basement. 🐿😂 (It took four days to get the squirrel out!)

January was a long winter month filled with quiet days, warm drinks, and small moments worth remembering. (Photo from one of the snowstorms we had in January.)

Here are a few blog highlights from the month of January.

How was your January?

💜 XO

“Every moment is a fresh beginning.”— T. S. Eliot

A cozy saturday at home

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I have been in my pajamas ALL DAY and it has been glorious! My energy is zapped from the busy week we had and the squirrel in my basement, so I desperately needed this day of cozy rest.

I went to bed a little early last night. That felt GOOD! I was surprisingly able to sleep 9½ hours straight through with NO alarms.

I woke up at 7:19 a.m. and decided to start my day—SLOW. I put the kettle on and then filled the bird feeders with the new seed mix I made for the birds (bluebird nuggets, peanuts, mealworms, and wild bird seed mix).

My bird feeders are gourmet! Lol 😆🐦

I was happy to discover I have two new visitors to my feeders—Red-breasted Nuthatch birds. These adorable blue and reddish birds are slightly smaller than a junco (about 4ish inches in length) and zip so fast in and out to the feeders that it’s hard to get a good photo of them.

Maybe next time.

Here’s what a Red-breasted Nuthatch bird looks like (thanks to this photographer’s great capture)!

Other cozy Saturday activities for today:

  • breakfast and tea while reading a chapter of Little Women 📖
  • watered my thirsty houseplants 🪴
  • caught up on washing laundry (but I’m leaving the dry clothes in baskets to take care of on Monday!) 🧺
  • watched two episodes of Grantchester

Dinner tonight will be simple—garlic chicken drumsticks and a chef salad.

Hope you are enjoying a cozy weekend, too!

Here are a few moments from today’s cozy Saturday.

💜 XO

Saturday’s cozy breakfast with tea and a good read.
Dried Lavender & Oak is my favorite Yankee candle. 😌 It has a soft lavender scent with a hint of warm wood.
One of my snake plants. I love snake plants because they’re so easy to care for.
We have five pothos plants in our home, and they have grown so long! I love wrapping the vines around bookshelves, similar to this one pictured on our kitchen pantry shelf. 🪴

“There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.”— Jane Austen

Tattoo collector

American traditional tattoos—I love the classic, vintage imagery and bold colors and lines.

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Feature image credit: Elise Kennemer.

Five fun things

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List five things you do for fun.

At my age of 45, I tend to gravitate towards the “grandma activities.” 😂👵🏽

My days are always so busy with homemaking, homeschooling, and just being a wife and mom to our six kids, so I like to keep it simple and focus on more quiet activities.

Here are a few things I do for fun throughout the seasons.

Winter Season

  • Visit the public library and checkout books.
  • Read the library books I checked out. 📚
  • Go to art galleries to view artwork, read in the cafés, or meetup with a friend.
  • Put together puzzles.
  • Crafting. Right now, I’ve been creating my own jewelry. I’ve also been learning how to do nature journal sketching and watercolor painting.
The DIA is one of my favorite art museums to visit throughout the year!

Spring, Summer, and Fall Seasons

Once the weather warms up again, I usually spend more time outside of the house. These are fun things I like to do in the spring, summer, and fall.

  • Gardening—I garden at my home and a community garden.
  • Attend local festivals.
  • Go to the lake with my family.
  • Nature walks on the trails. Last year, we discovered a microforest in our local area. The kids and I love going on nature walks in the forest!
  • Antiquing, thrifting, and vinyl shopping (I love collecting classic jazz records!)
  • Bonus: this daily blog and street photography. I also continue my nature journal sketching and watercolor painting in these seasons, too.
I love gardening! I’ve been learning how to grow my own food. Every garden season, I learn so many new gardening techniques and information about growing food.

And with that, here are a few moments from today!

💜 XO

“Stay where you are at.” Spotted this sticker on a light post at the hardware store.
Silly Sentences. Today, the kids played with DK Silly Sentences. It’s a fun way for children to learn how to create sentences.
Blue jay stopping by the patio for peanuts. With the weather being so cold in the single digits, the birds have been hanging out more at my bird feeders. 🐦
I’ve been teaching the kids how to do laundry. With homeschooling, I like to include learning essential life skills as part of their education experience.
Today’s Prayer. As part of a Christmas present, M (23) gifted her younger siblings prayer cards. Zechariah (10) likes to read a new prayer card each day.
Zaya (5) putting on her Hello Kitty makeup.
Zaya’s makeup bag. 🥹😊 Big sister M gave Zaya a makeup bag she no longer needed. Zaya was really excited about it!

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” John 14:27

Arctic blast is on the way!

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This arctic cold blast is on the way! The temps will drop late tonight to 16°F, and then by 8 a.m. tomorrow it will be ZERO DEGREES outside! 🥶

I’m proud of myself because I got all the grocery shopping done today so I don’t have to go out in the arctic weather this weekend (Oh, and I also made sure to get a full tank of gas!).

I usually do the weekly grocery shopping on Saturday mornings, so it feels great to not have to worry about it. 🙌🏾

Zaya (5) went with me to pick up the grocery order today, and she said she was proud of me for remembering to get chocolate pop tarts. 😂

Grocery shopping done before the arctic blast hits us tomorrow!

January — The Month to Go Slow and Rest

Next year, I am making sure I get all annual and biannual health/dental appointments completed BEFORE January. I’ve had to cancel a few appointments this month because of the weather.

A lot of activities and events also get canceled or postponed because it always snows in January and gets super cold.

Oh yeah—and then there’s the flu and other viral bugs. The kids and I were sick just two weeks ago.

I just need to make sure we focus on slowing down and resting in January.

Okay, maybe I should say I need to make sure I slow down and focus on rest since I’m the one who who struggles with it the most. 😏😆

Here are a few moments from today. 💜

Math lesson with Zephaniah (8).
Some of the kids’ bikes covered in snow. No worries—these bikes are older and we’ll probably get rid of them (donate or recycle) in the spring. Their newer bikes and scooters are stored in our basement.
Theo the squirrel eating a peanut on the patio. I named this squirrel Theo from Alvin and the Chipmunks because I originally thought she was a boy. 🐿😂 But I later found out Theo is a girl. We decided to just keep calling her Theo. Haha! 😆🤣
Bathroom art from the local market. I was looking at this wall art, and I thought to myself, “Does this art piece make me want to buy vegetables?” 🤔🥦🥕
Valentine’s Day treats at the market bakery. ❤️🧁
I ended up treating myself to a chocolate lava cake slice. 😍😋

“Plans fail when there is no counsel, but they succeed when advisers are many.” Proverbs 15:22

Happy Birthday, Mac Miller

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Today, I learned that yesterday was the late Mac Miller’s birthday. He would have been 34 years old.

How very fitting because as it turns out for about two weeks now, I’ve been listening to his album Circles almost daily.

It’s my favorite Mac Miller album, and a few times out of the year, I will listen to it over and over.

I’m still so sad he passed away. He was so young and incredibly talented. 🕊🙏🏽💜

RIP Mac Miller

Cooking Dinner in the Morning Saves Time

I started cooking dinner in the morning time. It makes a HUGE difference in my day. I feel less stressed when 4 p.m. rolls around and I know dinner is already prepared. BIG mom win! 💯

Today’s dinner: BBQ chicken, rice, and cream of corn for the kids, broccoli for me. I don’t know how they like cream of corn. I think it’s so gross. 😆

The weather forecast for this weekend!

Below Freezing Temps This Weekend

I’m worried about the weather for the weekend. The low is supposed to be between -7°F to -10°F. 😲

WHAT EVEN IS THAT?!! 😱🥶

So basically, we’ll be in the house all weekend. I hope we can make it to church. I’m going to go ahead and do the grocery shopping Thursday before the freezing temps hit us.

Here are a few moments from today.

Zaya (5) placing Stitch and Pandy on my bed.
Reading practice with Zephaniah (8).
Little Junco at my patio bird feeder. The Blie Jays, Juncos, Mourning Doves, and Sparrows have been eating all throughout the day at my bird feeders to prepare for the upcoming freezing cold.
Writing practice with Zechariah (10). Ever since we started working on writing skills with Building Writers (from Handwriting Without Tears) and The Usborne Creative Writing Book, Zechariah’s and Zhen’s writing has improved so much! I love that the writing activities are engaging, fun, and brief.
For some creative time, Zechariah worked on making a stop motion video. We got him this film slate for Christmas because he’s always making mini movies.
Todays art activity was creating a design with diagonal, horizontal, and vertical lines using strips of construction paper.
The kids really loved this art activity, and they got creative with it creating their own designs.
This is the art book we’ve been using. We’re loving it so far!
Sunlight shining through the stained-glass windows at church. 🙏🏽
I’m getting closer to finishing my 1,000 piece Jane Austen puzzle!
“Get swept away by love.” ❤️

“There’s a lot of beauty in the world, so go hang out and go be a part of the solution rather than the problem.” — Mac Miller

Feature image from Spotify. Personal photos info here.

MLK, Jr. Day

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For the last few years, I have tried to take the kids to an MLK, Jr. Day event, but the weather was always too cold.

Today was no different—it was freezing cold just like it always is every MLK Day. We got hit by an arctic blast, and the temps were 18° for the high and about 7° for the low! 🥶

However, I was determined to make it happen this time, so we were able to attend an MLK, Jr. Day Mass at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

The Mass celebration and music were beautiful! I’m so glad we were able to brave the cold weather and attend the service.

Here are a few moments from our MLK, Jr. Day.

Once we got back home, I spent the rest of the afternoon working on my Jane Austen puzzle.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

French toast and a puzzle

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Today was peaceful and relaxing. 😌 I made a big batch of French Toast for breakfast before we headed out to church.

We were running a little behind schedule, though, (kids taking their sweet time getting ready 😏😆), so we ended up going to the 12 p.m. Mass.

That’s one of the plus sides about living in a big metropolitan — there are a lot of options for Mass times because there are so many Catholic churches here! 😄

I finally got to work on my 1,000-piece Jane Austen puzzle. 🙌🏾 Why is it so satisfying to put a puzzle together?

Once I finished connecting the edge pieces, I was in the zone and it was hard to stop working on my puzzle. 😄

Here are a few moments from today’s peaceful day.

Caught the sunrise this morning after dropping E off at work.
I made homemade French Toast for Sunday breakfast.
It started snowing again today. ❄️ We’re supposed to get more snow tomorrow. 😫
Corned beef sandwiches for lunch. 😋
My Jane Austen puzzle is finally starting to come together.
We finally took the Christmas tree down. 🙌🏾🎄

“May the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.” whom I trust.” 2 Thessalonians 3:16

Slushy snow day

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I could be wrong, but I think this is the most it has snowed in the winter out of all the winters I have lived in Michigan (10 years). It feels like it snows at least twice a week!

I used to love it when it snows, but now I dread the snow because I have to drive in it so much. Lol 😆☃️

While driving to pick up my daughter from work it snowed…again. 😏❄️

Please, no more snow! I’m ready for May to get here!

I would say I can’t wait for the spring, but the truth is, here in Michigan it can still snow in April! 😲❄️😭 Haha!

Everything is slushy outside—the sidewalks, parking lots, and the roads.

A lot of the neighborhood roads and store parking lots are still covered in snow because they haven’t been plowed yet.

Some of the main roads are clear, but not all of them. So, you still have to be cautious when driving on the roads.

But some people are so impatient and will still zip down the roads in the slush. Smh 🤦🏽‍♀️❄️ Couldn’t be me! You can honk your horn at me if you want to, but I’m not getting into a car accident.

Here are a few moments from today’s slushy snow day.

Snow-covered statue at church.
A black squirrel eating sunflower seeds at my patio bird feeder.
These green alien earrings I made were a great accessory for my thrifted green cardigan and green deer hunting shirt (no, I don’t hunt lol).
Keeping warm on this slushy snow day with a cup of Lavender Rose Black Tea. 🫖🍵
Zaya (5) pouring herself a cup of Mango Tango herbal tea.
Every morning, Zaya now asks for tea with her breakfast. Just like Mommy! 🫖🍵😊
I’m trying to take advantage of these cold, snow days and read more books!
Reading one of my library books while waiting for our pizza order.
M also reading her library book in the car while we wait on the pizza.
Here’s the book M is currently reading: Kill Switch.
My fortune from my fortune cookie. 🥠

“Better is the end of a thing than its beginning; better is a patient spirit than a lofty one.” Ecclesiastes 7:8

Photo credit info here.