Preparing for Vilia

.... and it begins! We finished the potica (pronounced "pu-teetsa")and the gnocchi (pronounced "no-key") late yesterday afternoon and today we'll focus on the perogi and kapusta. All will culminate in our Christmas Eve Feast we call 'Vilia'.

At any rate, Vilia is a European 7 course meatless meal eaten on Christmas Eve. Ours consists of perogi, gnocchi, smoked herring, pickled herring, kapusta, potica (sounds like pa-teetsa), and creamed corn or fruit. My family has celebrated Vilia since they came to this country (100 years ago). I don't EVER remember a Christmas without it.

Our Christmas Eve celebrations are so special. After the meal & Mass, we throw the kids into bed and head down to the barn with the sheep. Unfortunately, it's gonna be a dark one t'nite (no moon). It's SO incredibly quiet this time of year----no birds, no cars, no corn dryers buzzing in the distance :-)

Welp.... it's off to finish cleaning the house & start MORE FOOD and put up the Christmas tree!!

The 1st Sunday of Advent

I love our Advent Sunday meal traditions.... this Sunday was Advent stew (recipe at bottom)!!! I think it's my kids favorite as they get to eat it with their hands :-) I can remember the first time I served this meal a few years ago----the kids faces were hilarious when I dumped it on the table (the kids call the meal my 'dump dinner').

We begin with a meal blessing and then we break holy bread. We have so much to be thankful for this year, God has truly watched over our family. For all of the trials that surround us, there is so much good in our lives.

After much 'whooping & hollering', I drain the pot and DUMP the dinner on the table!! The only rule: eat it with your hands :-)

Advent Stew Recipe
Crab Legs
Shrimp
Langostina Lobster
Shallots
Craw Fish
Corn on the cob
Red Potatoes (halved)
Italian Sausage
Old Bay Seasoning to taste

Boil all ingredients until done. Drain and serve

Ryan caught it, Sean hawged it !!

Ryan caught a 5 lb./21.5 inch large mouth bass at the lake, THEN Sean got so excited he jumped in the water and hawged it out HAHAHA! They make one heckuva team. I'd have killed to be down there to see the two of them freaking out over this bass :-) Needless to say, we'll be having bass for dinner. The boyz crack me up..... they look and act like the 'Little Rascals' :-)

They've been fishing about every day this week and have only been catching the small fish. I finally told them to get up EARLY and go..... as usual, mom knows best !! Daddy said it's time to get this one mounted :-)

Tornado from the front porch....

I finally saw my first TORNADO......YIKES, hope I never see another one. We had no idea that anything was going on outside (the weather station is on all of the time and there were no warnings, either). Living in a log cabin, you don't hear SQUAT when the house is shut up.... nothing. A nuclear bomb could go off and we'd never know it. Our neighbors down the hill called to tell us we were about to get hit by a tornado!

We jammed the kids into the basement and went out on the porch just in time to see it form on the west side of our lake. We were so close that it was difficult to make out the tornado until the funnel dropped out of the sky and touched down. It moved completely around the perimeter of our property touching down a few times. After tearing up some trees, it moved up the road and took a big healthy bite out of someone's barn. It was really strange: The pieces of the structure seemed to be suspended high in the air for quite some time b4 flying out in all directions.

I don't think I'll be sleeping very soundly t'nite......

Shades of Purple

I think the Spring harvest is my favorite. After being 'screamed' at by the red color of cherries and early strawberries, the lavender calls softly from the distance. Harvesting the various shades of purple has a calming effect on all of us.... not sure if it's the scent or the color :-) Although we're not quite finished with the cherries, we needed to take a break and bury our faces in a more subtle scent.


I'm not quite sure what types of lavender we have... pink, bright purple, fuschia, on and on. They all smell wonderful and our clothing smells magnificent as we dry it in the laundry room. We were a little late with the dark purple, but the fuschia made up for it :-) Another week and we'll be blazing the trails to the mulberry trees!!

A day with friends :-)

We had a *wonderful* day!! The Gunnels came to visit and sure put smiles on all of our faces :-) We had SO many items on the 'to-do' list and they helped us make short & fun work out of it all!! We started off the day by planting a bag garden over by our asparagus bed. BLACK HANDS were had by all!! The kids planted rosemary, basil and peanuts.... yum!

Lilo and Agnes decided they'd had enuff of black dirt and headed for the cherry trees. We had a very productive conversation about the various colors of cherries----only pick & eat the BRIGHT RED cherries, not the YELLOW cherries hahaha! We picked and pitted a quart or so and then Lilo showed Agnes how to pit the cherries (and then eat them :-). Agnes couldn't be bothered with the pitting procedure..... she just ate the cherries, seeds and all AHHHHHH!

Just as I was about to ring the bell for the boyz to come in from hiking, Isaac came BOLTING through the front door hollering something about things poking him!!! After examining him, I realized he'd been hiking with my good friend Barb..... barbed wire to be exact. Ole Barbie made quick work of his pants and decided he should be wearing shorts. I told him that his mother was going to kill me..... little Isaac assured me that his mom would simply ' knit his pants back together' :-)

All of the kids were good and hot so I decided to throw out the sprinkler and water the lawn :-) The big kids got the hang of it...... the little ones thought I was trying to give them a shower and began disrobing hahaha----I'll keep the X-rated pics to myself hahaha!

"I've had enuff of kids" was written all over Lukes face, hence, I sent him out on the back 40 with a 4-wheeler and fishing pole...... I'll leave it at that haha! At some point during the day I found Brad & Luke absorbed in all of the Wii wiring..... good grief, I can't believe they got it hooked up haha!

What a day..... jumping on the hay rack, chasing chickens, smooching the bunnies, 4-wheeler rides, playing avatar down by the pond, staying AWAYYYYY from the ram.... I think the kids were all pooped, but we sure had a great time and made some wonderful memories :-)

A "Berry" Happy Lilo :-)

Lilo is all in his glory :-)-----the strawberries and cherries are ripe!! This week we should be able to harvest some. Liam has been beating the chickens to the punch in the strawberry patch haha! He gets up straight away in the morning to 'check for chickens' and KICK them out of the strawberries!! Right now, the strawberries are pretty small due to the final frost, but they'll continue to berry into the fall.

Those darn birds are already picking the cherries so I'm gonna pick some pink ones and let them ripen on the deck. I think the winds took alot of the flowers so we probably won't get too many.... maybey a gallon or so.

Pretty soon we'll hafta make a mad dash to the mulberry trees..... they usually ripen right in the middle of cherry picking. If you don't get them quick, they'll fall off. Usually we get 1-2 inch long berries from most of our trees. I have a GREAT mulberry jam recipe that I'll post during season.