Chobani. You Did Well For Yourself.

today, i'm taking a little time out to do a plug for some darn good yogurt. i'm not usually one to act as a commercial, but this one is good. i promise. so here we go. a few years ago i began really watching my carb vs. protein intake and was on the look out for some really good...and quick...balanced snacks. that's when i found chobani. if you have never tried chobani, you really should. it an awesome, really thick greek yogurt which also comes with fruit, if that's your preference. the fruit at the bottom tastes really fresh and not of the gelatinous variety that it has been my previous experience to find at the bottom of a yogurt cup. it also has alot of protein and only between fifteen and twenty grams of carbs, depending on flavor. so yesterday it was on sale at giant and i thought i'd pick some up. i noticed there were a few flavors i had never seen before. one of those was strawberry banana. i had it for lunch today and OH MY WORD! it is quite possibly a little taste of heaven...and i don't feel guilty indulging in it either. so, if you're into really good yogurt i suggest trying one. you may now return to your regularly scheduled programming.

Planning...Not Really

i would start out this post with, "wow, it's been a really long time since i've posted anything." but, when you blog as sparsely as i have for the past year, well...that opening line gets to be a bit redundant. yes, the last year has been sparse around here. to anybody who is still actually here, i'm sorry about that. when we introduced a sixth member to our family last april i thought i would get back in the saddle again alot more quickly than i have. to be fair to myself, i also didn't anticipate the obstacles that would be in our way with this little guy either. i didn't know that adjustment to a new norm would be one that contained a few minor surgeries, trips to other states, occupational therapists and physical therapists. so, as we approach the end of the first year of this "new norm" i am turning my mind back to planning. planning to make up some school areas that have fallen a little behind where i would like them to be. planning some days of cleaning and decluttering of this house that sometimes drives me crazy with it's jumbled mess. and liturgical planning. i think that is probably the planning we have missed most as a family. we love to celebrate the liturgical year together and since our garden of the good shepherd celebration ended abruptly with a stomach bug and an unexpected birth last Divine Mercy Sunday, we haven't done much of it. we've mostly been operating in survival mode. but now, i would like to get back to some of those celebrations we love so much. so, we started with lent. i pulled out our ark and i began making some stations of the cross candle holders from baby food jars. they aren't done yet mind you. i'm going to be lucky if i have fourteen done by Good Friday so that we can use them to pray the stations of the cross. but let's not think too much about that. we had planned to celebrate st. joseph's feast day saturday but those plans got derailed. so, i will continue to gather ideas and we will resume our st. joseph altar tradition next year. for Easter i hope to start over with our garden of the good shepherd and really celebrate the entire fifty days this year. i've also been going through the rest of the year and trying to compile a list of the days that we would really like to celebrate (including baptismal dates and anniversaries of first holy communions) and accompany them with project/craft/outing and recipe ideas for those celebrations. so far i haven't gotten very far. but slow and steady wins the race right? i have also pulled this back out.this is a little planner i printed and bound for myself awhile back. i also managed to sell a few through the wonderful hillside education. i had thought about printing some more and trying to sell them but i'm always afraid they will just sit around in my basement like the canvas bagsand the t-shirts
that we took a chance on. isn't that always the way? you have some great ideas but without marketing potential they never become lucrative. oh, but don't even get me started on that. it's an entirely fresh can of worms. so anyway, i'm trying to plan. i'm usually an organizational mess so i hope the planner can help me keep some of that in line. at least maybe i won't forget quite so many things. i don't think there is anything this side of a miracle which can help me remember it all. :)