(not)Wasted Youth

So, one of our Bistro employees decided to help tackle hunger in America. This summer, Kelly has become a baker for Share Our Strength's Great American Bake Sale No Kid Hungry. She then hosts bake sales at different events/venues and sells her goods, raising money to help American kids receive nutritious meals that may not otherwise receive. This makes me proud, proud to know Kelly and her family and proud that a Salem County girl thinks nationally and makes it work locally. She is not the only young person at The Bistro that spends their time helping out our community. Rhyan has taught CCD at our local Catholic church, Ike has gone on missions in Camden and Texas, Christian and Tim have been on overseas missions, Peter, Ashley, Amber, Christian, Donnie, Jody, Daniel and Michael have all raised money for our local Relay for Life American Cancer Society event. They deserve a little boost from the community, they are giving of their time and attention should be paid!!

So, you go Kelly! Sell your baked goods wherever you can and THANKS from all of us for setting an example of...(not) wasted youth!!

Heaven is For Real

Heaven is For Real by Todd Burpo

First, I need to explain that I have always believed that heaven is for real. I grew up in a Roman Catholic home and have never questioned the existence and love of God, Jesus Christ or heaven. I have also always believed in the power of God to do amazing things in our lives. So as I began reading the book, I did not question “if this could happen,” I believe that it did.

A brief little timeline that made the book, Heaven is for Real, an amazing reading experience for me!

November 2004 – Positive Pregnancy Test!

December 2004 – Lots of spotting, Ultrasound reveals a 7 week old little baby with a little heartbeat! Ultrasound also reveals a 5.5 week old baby that has stopped growing – the cause of the spotting.

January 2005 – Doctor cannot find the heartbeat of the baby using the Doppler. Ultrasound reveals the baby has stopped growing.

An up and down, overwhelming three months capped off by a D & E, hemorrhaging and a weight of sadness and disappointment in myself. I clearly remember lying in the waiting area before I went in for surgery “talking” to a little baby that wasn’t there. I was so sad that they were going to have perform surgery, I felt like I was letting someone take the baby. It was a feeling of personal failure: miscarriage – I felt I had MISS carried my baby, I hadn’t done the best I could and the death of the baby was my fault.

All of this lead-up is bringing us to one of the most amazing revelations in Heaven is for Real for me.  As the book describes the little boy meeting his sister that his mother miscarried at eight weeks, I completely connected with Sonja and her response: the relief; the acknowledgement that although the miscarriage “seared her heart with grief” that “our baby is ok!”  The fact that the little girl is happy and “ok” and looking forward to the day her mommy and daddy come to heaven gave me a sense of peace. As Todd writes in the book, “We had wanted to believe our unborn child had gone to heaven. Even though the Bible is largely silent on this point, we had accepted it on faith. But now we had an eyewitness.”

And now I know that when I get to heaven I have two little babies waiting for me!

This is truly an amazing read. Please, please take the time to read it. 

Heaven is For Real by Todd Burpo

The Best Salad Ever :)

"Top Secret" Bistro on Broad Street House Salad

3-4 C. heaping  spring mixed greens

½ C shredded sharp cheese

¼ C grated carrots

½ C craisins

½ C chopped toffee pecans

1 C vegetable oil

½ C balsamic vinegar

¼ C sugar

1-2 minced garlic cloves

Mix the first five ingredients together. Mix the next four ingredients in a blender and pulse (or use an immersion blender) until ingredients are well blended. Pour about ¼ to ½ cup of the dressing over the salad. Enjoy!

Our Mother and Stress!!!

So, as soon as we all moved out of our parents home....they got an in-ground pool! The thirty years prior filled with us begging, cajoling, whining for a pool finally paid off. Honestly, it has worked out beautifully for us kids...we get all the benefits without any of the work! The one draw back is seeing the stress our poor Mother suffers because of the pool.  Our Mother is a doer, she loves to work, loves projects and loves making us happy! But this pool really kicks her butt, which just one of the things that stress her out!   Our bro has her stress mapped out....she is stress free in January, then tax season starts.  Since she is in charge of getting three different entities ready for the accountant, this causes stress until April 15th.  Then, without missing a beat...pool season starts, that lasts until September.  The she enjoys a stress free October. Next Thanksgiving into Christmas, that is the mother of all stress time!! So, basically she is stress free for two months of the year.  Sometimes she kids about moving with our Pops to The Villages  (at least I think she is kidding) but really what fun is a stress free life?  Here's hoping she never finds out!!! 

Shanty Suppers

We are linking up with  Shanty 2 Chic an awesome blog about crafting, DIY projects and saving money :) for their first Shanty Suppers Link Party. The idea is to link up quick, easy dinner ideas for week nights. So here we go...

Savory Pulled Pork
*Crock Pot Meal
Pork Loin (any size to feed your family)
Season with fennel, rosemary, salt and pepper
Add water to cover the bottom of your crockpot and cook on low all day, about 6 - 8 hours (can totally go longer). Prior to serving take two forks and shred the pork.
It is amazingly good with very little effort!
Can serve with cole slaw and chips or with crock-pot mac and cheese (recipe below)

Slow Cooked Mac 'n' Cheese
1 pkg. (16oz.) elbow macaroni
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 can evaporated milk (12 oz.)
1 can (10 3/4 oz.) condensed Cheddar Cheese Soup, undiluted
1 cup milk
4 cups Cheddar Cheese, divided
1/8t. paprika
Salt and Pepper to taste

Cook macaroni according to package directions, drain. Place in 5-quart slow cooker, add butter. In a bowl combine the evaporated milk, soup, milk and 3 cups of cheese (you could just mix it all up in the crock-pot) Pour over macaroni. Stir to combine.

Cook on low for four hours.

Sprinkle with remaining cheese, stir and cook a few minutes longer. Sprinkle with paprika and serve.

We use this Mac 'n' Cheese as a go to recipe for large family dinners or parties. You can let it sit in the crock-pot for longer than four hours and everyone loves it from kids to adults!
Enjoy!!

Haircuts, Toss-ups and Trust

 Trust — It is something we all work so hard to gain from others and it is something that we have tried to teach our children about. We ask them to trust us as their parents, to trust in each other, to trust in the family and friends who surround them, and to trust themselves. While we talk about trust and have disciplined our kids for little white lies and explained to them that such lies mean we have to rebuild that trust all over again, I think that the best way to teach trust is through living it. I trust my sisters and my brother to do the right thing, I trust my parents to always be there for me, I trust my husband to love and cherish me, and I trust my children and nieces and nephews to learn and grow into exceptional people. I don't know why I trust like this, I think it is just through living life. I think a life filled with trust is a better life so I hope all the children in my life end up living lives filled with trust. Maybe they can get started by trusting their cousin to toss them up in the air and catch them or by trusting their father to cut their hair (check out the op ed below).  It's all about trust …

All I Want For Christmas is a Pair of Clippers
by Joe Cardona

The difference between a good haircut and a bad one is just about a week, so I remind my five sons as I clip away. Although they occasionally complain about my technique, let alone my abilities, they know our sessions are something special.

I first raised a set of clippers and comb after taking my eldest son to Butch the Barber for his first cut. Butch’s shop is one of those “men only” domains where the talk is salty and the stories are more exaggerated with each visit. You gotta love it, though.

After all the tears and the wrestling I couldn’t help sit back and wonder, “That’s it?”  It took Butch less than 10 minutes!  I could certainly do that. The heck with the male bonding of the shop, I could save a few bucks.

From that day 16 years ago, none of my five sons have set foot in a barbershop or salon. And I believe it is one of the best decisions I have ever made.

It took a few cuts­­—my wife would say “a few years”—to get the knack for juggling clippers, combs and scissors, but today I consider myself a master barber. Well, maybe not a master, but I haven’t lost an ear yet.  Bloodied one or two, but have lost none.

Every two months or so, not only do my five sons line up for their cuts, but also my two nephews and the occasional friend who has the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Although there are still the occasional tears, even from the 16 year old, I would like to believe that they understand that the haircut is our special bond. Yes, I have coached them in every sport possible, but there is nothing like having them put their full faith in you, to completely trust you to do the right thing with something as personal as a haircut. Trust me, it’s a special feeling for a father.

My third son, Collin, reaffirmed my feelings about the specialness of the father/son haircut when we recently talked about his curly rat’s nest. I joked with him about what he was going to do for a haircut in college. His response, I’m always coming home to you, dad.

Christmas came early for me. As you put your Christmas wish list together, be sure to ask for a set of clippers. It’ll be a gift that will reward you and your children for years to come.

The author, Joe Cardona, resides in Elmer, NJ, with his wife, Joellen Collins-Cardona, and their five sons.

Start of the work week!!!

So tomorrow starts the work week at The Bistro on Broad St.!!! Work....not really the best way to describe life at The Bistro..more like start of the fun week. Got to love the restaurant business, where else can you have such a great time working so hard!!!!?? I am a very lucky sister to have my family with me in this endeavor, sure beats living nine to five.

Dance, Wrestling and Just a Little Drama

Sunday was a day filled with family fun!
Caileigh's dance recital, Mary Poppins, was at 2:00 at Rowan University.

You can check out her fancy footwork here:

and here...

We then headed over to Masso's for the Pittsgrove Wresting Association's Annual Banquet. It is a wonderful event and everyone does such a great job organizing and honoring the coaches and kids. This is Thomas's 4th year of wrestling and Jackson's 1st. Jackson was psyched to get the small trophy for first year participation and was all smiles and cheering for all of the kids as they got their awards,

until....the special awards for each age group. For the tots, that meant super huge trophies given out to four kids for special accomplishments during the year. All of the wrestlers who earned the awards were very deserving and Jackson clapped for each one, until he realized he was NOT getting one of those super, huge trophies. That is when the drama set in and the tears filled his eyes and the "it's not fair" and "I just want to go home" began!

Thankfully, it was short-lived and after some alone time at the other side of the table he was able to pull himself together. Just in time for Thomas to earn his special award: the Coaches Award! Thomas's Coach gave a speech about how the wrestler who has earned this award is a good leader and can be counted on to work hard at practice and set a good example for his teammates. He went on to describe a wrestler who was sitting and taking notes at different tournaments about all the moves he wanted to learn and questions he wanted to ask - the coach quipped that he at first thought this wrestler must be writing love notes to his girlfriend during tournaments - and then he announced "Thomas Cardona." We were all very proud of Thomas, if not a little hesitant about Jackson's reaction as he had just recovered from the tots awards. We didn't need to worry because Jackson's only concern was, "Thomas has a girlfriend?"

Who We Are and Where We Come From

Three sisters and a bro is a group of very happy and close siblings. Of course, I guess it depends on your definition of happy and close. My brother thinks we are annoyingly involved in each others lives and my dad is constantly threatening to move to Florida to get away from our almost non-stop series of events and problems. But my mom and my sisters and I think we are a happy and close group of siblings. And isn’t that all that really matters?

We grew up on a small 3-acre farm in South Jersey. Our mom is of English descent and can trace her lineage back more than 300 years in America. Our dad is an Irish Catholic and that is how we were raised. We all lived perfectly normal lives, went off to college and then we all ended up coming back and purchasing our own homes. So now, I live the furthest away from my parents and that is about two miles away. Amongst us, we have a couple husbands, a girlfriend, a restaurant, a few careers, nine children and about 9 million adventures a week.


Like most people, we think our family is pretty great. We also think we have a lot of fun and a lot of things to share. So, we decided to start this blog to journal some of our adventures along with our thoughts on life and being part of a happy, healthy American family! Hope every once in awhile you get a good idea or even better have a good laugh at some of our life experiences — which we bet are a lot like yours!

Relay For Life ~ June 2010