Where Did You Go???

I know, I know... it's been well over a year since my last post. In short, we moved houses and I moved my blogging efforts over to the FOCUS blog at focus.org/blog. If you want to keep up with me, you can find me there. For fun, here are some of my top posts:

Saints Are Still Being Made: Meet Chiara Corbella
What I Wish College Students Knew About Marriage
Wait, Do You Only Have Two Kids?
Can Men and Women Really Just Be Friends?

These and other posts have been featured in cool places like newadvent.org, National Catholic Register and Catholic Exchange. FOCUS also asked me to speak to 3,000 women at their SEEK2013 conference, it was a pretty amazing experience. Really, I attribute it to being in the right place (FOCUS) at the right time (my husband is the Director of the Web for FOCUS). So, seriously, I'm just along for this ride.

One day I may post here again, but for now God's been keeping my days full in other ways. I will however keep this blog live for the time being, so feel free to poke around and find some inspiration for living liturgically or get a glimpse into the life of a FOCUS family!

Be saints, it's worth it! Lisa

P.S. I have also teamed up with YDisciple for some video projects and will be in their upcoming Girl's Bundle with really cool people like Crystalina Evert, Sarah Swafford and Mary Bielski. And you can buy my talk Why Do Women Do That from Lighthouse Catholic Media. Youth ministers have been passing it out to their youth group kids and Pastors are selling them in the back of their church... um pretty cool too.

On the 12th Day of Christmas

Um, Merry Christmas!

I'm squeezing in the Christmas post at the last minute. Technically it is still Christmas season for a few more days, so I'm good.

This year we headed to KC for a very Cotter Christmas, followed by the flu and then a very Augustyn Christmas in Denver.

Kansas City brought train rides...

A visit with Nana...

Look at that joy on her face, I just love it.

MC's 1st piano debute... 

She played We Three Kings; it was a proud mom moment.

Lots of cousin time...

These are their "Leave us alone, we are eating" faces.

Stockings...

and lost teeth! Here's the connection. She lost her first tooth while going through her stocking. Then we found it...in her stocking. It was fun.

Then there was Denver, with presents...

Of course we had gifts in KC too.

A birthday cake for Jesus...

Girls only High Tea...

I've always wanted to wear a hat with a birdcage veil (I looked that one up). 

The girls tried on about 8 combinations of hats and boas. Surprisingly I only got pictures of us dressing up. There was tea and finger foods and they were very good.

The girls also got matching pajamas...

Finally, we hit Red Rocks...

My buddy was so proud that he could fit in this little hole.

We are looking forward to our Epiphany party tomorrow and wrapping up the Christmas Season!

St. Lucy's Day

We had a most exciting morning in the Cotter home. MC and I woke up early to prepare traditional treats for the Feast of St. Lucy, including Saffron Buns (above) and St. Lucia's Braided Bread (below).

I just use Pillsbury cans for both of them, you can get the details and history of this Feast from my post last year.

 After breakfast was ready we woke up the boys with our surprise!

Happy Feast Day!

Hot Chocolate Cones

Last week I was in charge of the craft for our Little Flowers Girls' Club meeting (think Catholic Girl Scouts). In the club the girls learn about a virtue and a saint at each meeting. This month was orderliness and St. Zita, who was a servant.

With Christmas around the corner I wanted to do something that could be a gift, and since St. Zita often worked in the kitchen, we made an edible one! The girls were given the instructions which they needed to follow in order (orderliness, check) for the craft to turn out right.

Introducing...

Hot Chocolate Cones.

We made a bunch of these and are giving them out this week to MC's various extra-curricular teachers. They are simple enough that she was almost able to make them entirely on her own, which made her very proud. BTW, I didn't invent them, familyfun.go.com did, maybe. But, they don't have pictures and I like pictures when doing a project, so I took some for you.

Here is what you will need:

• Hot Chocolate mix (I bought the individual packets because they were on sale)
• Marshmallows
• Chocolate chips
• Cone bags (Hobby Lobby has them)
• Clear rubberbands (we used the little clear hairbands)
• Scissors
• Items for tags (ribbon, glue, hole punch, card stock, directions)

Step 1: Empty 4 packets of cocoa mix into a cone bag

Step 2: Trim the bag down, rubberband it shut and put it into another cone bag.

Step 3: Layer in 1/4 c. chocolate chips and 3/4 c. marshmallows.

Step 4: Rubberband and trim again.

Looking good!

Step 5: Add a tag!

Here are the directions off the tag so you can copy and paste:

Heat 5 cups of milk and chocolate chips over medium heat until the chocolate chips have melted. Reduce heat to low and stir in the cocoa mix until the drink is smooth. Serve with marshmallows. Makes 4-6 servings.

DIY Catholic Christmas Gifts

Last year I posted some ideas for homemade Christmas gifts. I thought I'd put them into one post for you. Aren't I thoughtful.

So roll up your selves, get out your glue gun (wait, I don't think any of these crafts require a glue gun, but you get the idea) and start crafting!

Holy Medal Wine Charmers

It doesn't get much easier than this...

Saints Matching Game

You can do this one with family members too...

Christmas Coasters

A simple way to reuse those Christmas cards...

Family Board Game Pieces

Pair this with a fun Catholic board game and you are in...

Felt Bags

Throw in a few books on the Saints, virtues or the faith and it's all in the bag...

okay that was bad...

Flower Headbands

Yea, they aren't really Catholic themed, but they are so cute, cheap and fun...

I'm still recovering from making 2,400 chocolate covered pretzels, so I have nothing new to show for this year. Yet.

I hope.

Jesse Tree Ornaments

Does your family do a Jesse Tree? I love the tradition so much that when MC was 16 months old I handmade a set of ornaments for our family. Apparently I thought she was old enough to start comprehending the Bible. The next year some of my friends did a swap, but I'm still glad I have my own special set that is wholly unique.

I pulled out the ornaments today and did some replacing and repairs, as they tend to get beaten up each season. Our ornaments have evolved over the years and they don't follow the strict tradition. For us, it's turned into a time to walk through Salvation History in a chronological order, so our kids can understand the story of our family. 

When I was making mine it was helpful to have some examples to get ideas flowing, so I'm posting what we do, in hopes that it can helps those who are taking on the adventure... which I highly recommend you do! For the order we pulled out some main events from the Bible Timeline. The scripture verses for where you will find each section is listed, but please don't think we read all of what is included!

Creation - World (Genesis 1-2:3)

The Fall - Apple (Genesis 3)

Noah’s Ark - Rainbow (Genesis 6:9-9:17)

Tower of Babel - Tower (Genesis 11:1-9)

Blessing to Abraham - Stars and Sand (Genesis 12:1-3 and 15:4-5)

Sacrifice of Issac - Wood Bundle (Genesis 22:1-18)

Jacob Steals Esau’s Blessing - Lamb (Genesis 27:1-29)

Joseph and his Brothers - Coat of Many Colors (Genesis 37-45)

The Plagues and 1st Passover - Door with Blood (Exodus 6-13)

God Provides Manna - Bread (Exodus 16)

Ten Commandments - Tablet (Exodus 20)

The Promise Land - Grapes (Numbers 13)

Aaron becomes High Priest - Stick with Flower (Numbers 17)

Bronze Serpent Heals the Israelites - Serpent on Stick (Numbers 21:4-8)

Fall of Jericho - Crumbled Wall (Joshua 6)

Samson’s Strength - Pillar (Judges 14-16

David and Goliath - Sling Shot (1 Samuel 17)

King David - Crown (2 Samuel 7)

Kingdom Divides - Torn Kingdom (1 Kings 12)

Elijah and Elisha - Mantel (1 Kings 18-19 and 2 Kings 1-2)

Jonah - Whale (Jonah)

Exile and Persecution - Furnace (2 Kings 17)

Zerubbable is allowed to Lead the Jews - Scroll (Ezra 3)

Nehemiah Rebuilds Jerusalem - Wall (Nehemiah 2: 11-20)

Ezra Reads the Law to the Jews - Heart (Nehemiah 8)

Esther - Crown (Esther)

Maccabees Revolt - Shield (1 Maccabees 1-3)

Purification of the Temple - Candle (1 Maccabees 4)

The Annunciation - Mary (Luke 1:26-38)

Birth of Christ - Star (Matthew 2)

Let me know if you have any specific questions about materials or how I made a particular ornament! Happy Advent!

The Day We Made 2,400 Chocolate Covered Pretzels

MC has been working on sequences in Kindergarten lately, so I have one for you.

First, gather 10 bags of pretzels, 16 packages of candy coating and 100 Ziploc snack baggies for making chocolate covered pretzels to send to your 100 FOCUS anchor mission partners (people who give consistently to our our FOCUS mission) for Christmas.

Next, cover the pretzels with melted candy coating and let them dry on waxed paper.

Then, do this for 6 hours.

Next, do NOT microwave the candy coating with a fork in a glass bowl. It will explode the glass approximately 90 seconds after you take it out, if you cooked it for 1 minute and 50 seconds. You will then find chocolate splattered all over your kitchen in odd places for the rest of the day. (Amazingly the glass measuring cup was being held over the trashcan at said explosion, but glass still went everywhere. Yes, that is a donut box in our trashcan.)

Finally, place 24 pretzels in each baggy to prepare them for shipping with the rest of the mission partner Christmas package.

We love our mission partners, this is proof. Some Cotter love is coming their way!