Making Communion Hosts

Katie is stirring the wheat flour and water

The batter is then placed in the middle of the press to be cooked

The finished product...unleavened bread

Cutting the unleavened bread with a host cutter to make individual hosts

Katie and Fr. John trying to free a cut host from the unleavened bread

Yesterday I went to watch the second graders make Communion Hosts. The press they used was found in the church basement. It is the press the nuns used when making Communion hosts many years ago. This is the third time I have gone, and still enjoyed it very much. Katie and her class are making their First Communion on Sunday, they are all very excited.

Life has been happening in this household, it has been so busy around here lately. Ted has been busy with Boy Scouts, he went on his first camping trip as a Boy Scout last week-end. He had a blast and is looking forward to the next one. The troop goes camping once a month! Helen has been busy reading, she loves it. Her group language teacher takes pictures while doing an activity and then makes it into a book. Helen's favorite book is the one where they carved a pumpkin. My favorite is when they played in the snow outside and Helen kept eating the snow! Robbie started a volleyball clinic a few weeks ago, he was a bit unsure about it. He had never really played outside of gym class, but now really likes the sport. When he reaches fifth grade, he will be able to join the school team, I'm hoping that's the goal. Katie has been getting ready for her First Communion. We have everything ready to go, dress, shoes, and veil. I had a friend of mine make her veil to match the dress...it turned out beautiful. I will post pictures next week. Grace has been busy talking on the phone! I don't allow her to make phone calls yet, it's her friends that call her. I heard her give the low down of what we were all up to one day! Noah has been busy attending birthday parties, he's getting so big! Getting out of the car the other day when dropping him off at school, he told me, "Get back in the car Mom, I can go in alone!" This coming from the little boy who wouldn't let me leave the classroom until after they said the Pledge of Allegiance last year!! I guess he's ready for Kindergarten!! Just in case your wondering...no, I didn't get back in the car, I had something to drop off with his teacher. Myself, I have been overseeing all the activities and also a few of my own. I recently went to the big fundraiser for the kid's school, it was very nice. They had it at a local banquet hall, it was dinner, dancing, silent and live auctions, and a raffle. I wasn't lucky enough to win any of the raffle prizes, two of them were a year's tuition...DARN!! We have a lot of activities coming up, a lot of end of the school year stuff. I will do my best to keep you all up to speed.

Until next time-

Take Care,

Sue

Twenty-Nine

I cannot believe Kate Gosselin is still on Dancing With The Stars...yep, that's right, I watch Dancing With The Stars!! I have watched since it first came on, and if I can't watch it, I DVR it, which sometimes is better because then I can fast forward through the commercials. I know I should be cheering her on since her claim to fame is being a mom, but come on, really!?!! She missed steps completely, it doesn't even look like she's dancing most of the time, and she looks stiff. I'm not saying I could do any better, I'm just saying there were other people who were voted off that shouldn't have went before she did. Hello...wake up...it's more about popularity than talent!! On The View, Sheri Shepard said she tweeted to all her peeps to vote for Kate. According to her, she has hundreds of thousands of followers...is that really fair? What I really want to know is...how does a person go about getting a show? She had a show because she had eight kids, that's only two more than me...I know, she had six of them at one time. Think about it though, widow with six kids, one of them being special needs...I think it could work. I need to provide for my kids, just like Kate. I would love to be able to travel more with them, and do more things locally with them. Everything costs money, something I don't have a lot of. We can really be entertaining at times, so anyone out there with connections....

The kids have been on Spring Break this week. I had so many plans of things I was going to get done around the house...it didn't happen. We had about two days worth of good weather, the kids were outside playing last Friday. Robbie decided to bring out the basketball hoop and play some ball. He threw the ball and instead of it going into the basket, it hit the window and broke it! What a way to start the holiday! I had my friend come and take a look, he suggested I replace the whole window. It is a good idea, the window is old, and very drafty. He is looking into prices for me, he and a friend would do the work for me. I don't know what I would do without him, thank goodness he has a wonderful wife who doesn't mind sharing him.

I took the girls for a haircut the other day, my hairdresser asked Helen how old she is now. Helen answered, straight faced, "29!" I said, "29! are you sure about that?" She shook her head yes. I keep asking her, and she still insists she is 29!

Until next time-
Take Care,
Sue

Happy Easter from It'll Fit'll

From our families to yours, Happy Easter!!:o) If you don't celebrate, have a wonderful Sunday...

Variety Show Acts

Here are the videos from the Variety Show last Friday. Katie is in the "Keep On" video, Robbie is in the "You Belong With Me" video, and Ted is in the "5th Grade Dance" video. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Until next time-
Take Care,
Sue

Variety Show

This has been one crazy week, but it's been a good one. Robbie and Katie are ready for their performances tonight in the school variety show. Robbie is performing with the girls in his class along with some of the fourth grade girls...yes, older women!! They are singing and dancing to Taylor Swift's song "You Belong With Me". If you have seen the video, Robbie is the boy next door. If you haven't, Taylor Swift is in love with her next door neighbor and is trying to tell him that his girlfriend is no good for him, but she is. In the end, the girlfriend dumps the boy for someone else, and Taylor Swift gets him. During the video, they hold up signs in order to communicate across the way. Robbie and the girls are holding up similar signs, it starts with the girls holding up, "Are you okay?" Robbie answers with, "Too much drama", and the girls answer with, "Sorry". Then they do their singing and dancing and end the show with a sign that reads, "I love you". Robbie then holds up a sign that reads, "I love my mom"! It is too cute! Katie is performing with the girls in her class, they are singing and dancing to the Brady Bunch's "Keep On, Keep On" song. They are wearing white shirts and blue pants that we have put white and blue tape on in order to resemble the costumes the Brady's wore. I think it's going to turn out cute also, I saw some of it yesterday when I went to pick her up from practice. I'm going to try and take pictures, I know for sure I'm going to record it. I will try and post something on here so you can see, but I'm not to computer smart, so I'm not promising.

St. Patrick's Day landed on our busiest day of the week, so I put the food in the crock pot to cook. It turned out okay, but prefer the way my mom cooked it. I hope everyone enjoyed their day of being Irish!! The kids have been busy learning their Greek poems, the girls know theirs by heart, thanks to Papou. Now they sound Greek, when I read them the way the teacher's wrote them...not so much! They have practice tomorrow morning while the parents decorate. I'm hoping to escape for just a bit to run to the store to buy Robbie pants for the occasion. The girls are dressing in costume that we borrowed when they were dancing. The boys don't have a costume so they have to wear white dress shirts with navy blue pants. They wear navy blue pants for their school uniform, so I knew they had some. What I didn't know was that Robbie has holes in almost every single pair of pants, and the ones that don't have them, are too big. When we are done at the Greek church we have to run home and eat lunch real quick because then family is coming over to celebrate Robbie's birthday. His actual birthday isn't until Wednesday. I usually celebrate birthdays after their actual birthday, but the following week-end I'm going to see REO in concert, and then it's the spaghetti dinner at the kid's school. So it was either tomorrow, or not one at all. I need to run to the store and get party supplies, and I need to do that before it's time to pick Noah up from school...so I better go!!

Until next time-
Take Care,
Sue

Busy Days Ahead

Lately I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed, there is too much paperwork in the world! Since Ted crossed over, there has been paperwork after paperwork emailed to me. The problem with that is, I open it on my computer, but the printer is connected to the kids computer, so I forget about it. He needed a permission slip for camping turned in on Tuesday whether you were going or not, and I completely forgot. I feel bad he can't go on the very first camping trip as a Boy Scout, but we have other commitments. The school variety show is on Friday, and his whole class is performing together. Saturday I'm having family over for Robbie's birthday and on Sunday the kids are performing in the Greek Independence Day program. There is no way he can miss that, he has been practicing very hard. I was told by the teachers on Wednesday that I need to work with all of them more. They even wrote out the poems phonetically so I could teach them...HA!! That doesn't always help, I still don't know what syllable to emphasize! Needless to say, we have a busy week ahead of us. We also have a Boy Scout meeting and a Cub Scout meeting, along with dress rehearsal for the variety show. Busy, busy, busy...

Helen has had awesome days at school, in fact, she now comes home and tells me how naughty Jack has been. The things she tells me he does, she used to do, that's the funny part. She explains how he got a sad face at recess because he pushed someone down and how the teacher told him not to touch his friends at school. Aaahhh...memories! I hope we have turned the corner, but I'm not holding my breath...she can really be a dickens at times.

I received an email the other day telling me now is the time to get Katie signed up for softball, and Grace was old enough to join the team. Grace right away said no, she doesn't want to play. I tried talking her into it, she's just not interested. Katie had to think about it, because she loves the practices just not the games! I don't know if you remember me talking about it last summer, but she was forever getting hit by the ball. She finally said one game, after she had been hit a couple times, "That ball just doesn't like me for some reason!" I guess it couldn't have been because she didn't keep her eye on it!! Hopefully this summer will be better for her.

Until next time-
Take Care,
Sue

Change

When logging on today, I noticed we have posted over 200 blogs...WOOHOO!!! (no wonder I have run out of things to talk about!! just kidding) I just got back from my parent/teacher conference with Helen's teachers...ugh! We didn't talk about her behavior, she has been doing pretty good lately. In fact, she is the student of the month for her class. We discussed the changes that are coming...I hate change! I'm sure we're not the first state, nor will we be the last, to make changes to the special education system. Here in Wisconsin they want all students to be included 100%, whether they can handle the classroom or not. Luckily, there is one classroom still in the district that is mostly self contained. I say lucky because Helen is not ready for full inclusion. I know there are kids out there who can do it, Helen just happens to be one of those who can't. I am hoping eventually she will be able to handle it, until then, we need to put her in a place where she is not overwhelmed. This program where she will be going next school year sounds perfect, and a good place for her to learn the skills she needs in order to function in the classroom. Eventually, she will be included 100%, I just want her to be able to handle it. One of her teachers has already been there to check it out. She thinks it's a perfect placement for Helen. Her other teacher, Helen, and myself are going to go and check it out soon. It sounds like a good fit for Helen, it will be interesting to see how she likes it. One of the activities they do is to plan, shop, and prepare either soup or salad for the staff at the school. I know Helen would love to do this, she loves to help in the kitchen. It will also help with her social skills, she sometimes behaves inappropriately in public. I'm both sad and excited about this new program. I will hate to see Helen leave the school she is at, she has been there for five years now. I think her teacher is a security blanket for me, we have been a team for so long, it will be hard to change partners. But...change is always good, and I think it will be a very good change for Helen. Hopefully we will be able to get her into the new school during the summer session, that way she can familiarize herself before the new school year starts. I will keep you posted.

Until next time-
Take Care,
Sue