Benedict’s Baptismal anniversary was April 11th. I didn’t have a chance to light his Baptismal candle, but we did light a candle and had a lovely treat to celebrate his anniversary.

My Confirmation anniversary [...]]]> I’m trying something new – writing what we did for feasts as opposed to what I wanted to do.

Benedict’s Baptismal anniversary was April 11th. I didn’t have a chance to light his Baptismal candle, but we did light a candle and had a lovely treat to celebrate his anniversary.

My Confirmation anniversary was on the 15th, as it was a Friday there wasn’t an awful lot of partying but rather gratefulness for my Confirmation, looking at pictures from then, and prayers that I can continue to be worthy of such great graces.

Triduum ran April 21 – 23, we managed to make it to the Good Friday Mass and that’s about it. Our Easter vigil began at 10pm and so I knew there was no way I was making it. Some day (as in, when the kids are adults) I’ll be able to. On each day of the Triduum I read to Elise from her children’s Bible what was going on. I think she really enjoyed having it read to her in Kid-Language. She spent the first part of Easter saying “It’s not Easter, it’s Lent!” We had to do some convincing to prove it was Easter – the white vestments, unveiling of statues, flowers everywhere.

Easter Sunday my parents came down. We had a nice dinner with Greg’s parents and mine, as well as Greg’s sister. Elise had a little Easter Egg Hunt with Greg’s parents, and treated my Dad to her version of a hunt later in the day. Dad also treated us to a pictoral tour of Israel (he did let me download all his Israel pics, so yay!).

There were also birthdays to be had (my aunt, my mom, Greg’s sister). We’re entering a birthday drought, at least until August.

We learned last Monday that one of Major Dad’s cousins died suddenly from diabetic complications. We are still shocked by this and at least once a day our thoughts to her and to her daughter (who is younger than me), who is devastated. Please pray for the [...]]]> That pretty much sums up last week.

We learned last Monday that one of Major Dad’s cousins died suddenly from diabetic complications. We are still shocked by this and at least once a day our thoughts to her and to her daughter (who is younger than me), who is devastated. Please pray for the repose of the soul of C, and consolations for her daughter S.

Monday – Thursday were House Working Days, since C’s funeral was over the weekend and therefore Major Dad would not be able to work on the house. The upstairs heating is finished, praise the Lord. So now we can finally get back to finishing up the drywall, then getting that inspected. The reason why we stopped drywalling was so that we could do heating for the mudder and tapers, to keep the place at a steady temperature. So, once the drywall is inspected we can bring in the pros for wall and ceiling work. Then it’s painting, flooring, fixtures, another inspection, MOVING. Greg and Major Dad are working whenever possible, which is Monday – Thursday this week.

I also have had my third migraine this year, which is absolutely not like me at all. I typically get them once a year, if that. Greg thinks they may be related to the completion of the house – stress building as the house building wraps up. I have weirdo things going on with my vision when they hit: I get flashes of light, zig-zags of light, arcs of light all in my right eye. I also ‘lose my vision’ in the sense of I can see some things out of it, but not everything. Kind of patchworky, if that makes sense. My eyeballs also get incredibly sensitive, and they tingle, kind of when your arm falls asleep or something similar. Thanks be to God I have my yearly eye exam with my ophthalmologist tomorrow morning, and I will be sure to bring all this up with him.

The Internet was also fruity last week, and it’s still somewhat fruity. We can do everything but watch online videos, and some sites are insanely slow. But, it’s an improvement over last week, which basically resulted in dial-up like speeds.

I did some rearranging in our little, teeny tiny living room and brought out my most amazing glider rocker we received from our next door neighbor, before he moved away. It is My Chair. I spend the afternoon nap there, with Benedict sleeping on me and Elise in her bed. I can sit and rock, read, pray, whatever. It. Is. Glorious. And I need to write more about that in its own post.

I can’t venture a guess as to how much I’ll post this week, since it is Holy Week; but please be assured of our prayers.

Since then, we’ve donated eight more grocery bags to the Thrift Store and I’ve gotten one (and half of another) bag of baby clothes together for a friend. We’ve also thrown out at least [...]]]> At the last check-in, we were up to four grocery bags of donations and one big garbage bag of trash.

Since then, we’ve donated eight more grocery bags to the Thrift Store and I’ve gotten one (and half of another) bag of baby clothes together for a friend. We’ve also thrown out at least 2 more grocery sized bags of trash, as well as one kitchen garbage can sized bag.

Our current total is:
Donations: 13 bags
Trash: 4 bags
Total: 17 bags

Clearly, we’re probably not going to get 40 bags in 40 days, but I was aiming to clear out at least 20 bags by the end of Lent. Greg and I have basically gone through all the “hot spots” (the last was the closet under the stairs). We’re making awesome progress and I’m just stoked how much of it is sent off to the thrift store, hopefully where other people can use it.

(It’s also a little embarrassing to have that much stuff, but I am just grateful we won’t have to haul it when we move – we’ll probably purge even more stuff then…)

I wanted to make paper shamrocks with Elise but that did not happen, due to the broken washing machine. But, I did get the food done!  We didn’t do corned [...]]]> I like to think we had fun, despite overtired babies and a broken washing machine (which has been upgraded to a shiny new MAYTAG).

I wanted to make paper shamrocks with Elise but that did not happen, due to the broken washing machine. But, I did get the food done!  We didn’t do corned beef and cabbage, but we did include hamburger pie (with green food coloring) and Good News Popcorn in our eats. It was all so delicious, although we did have to cut ourselves off of the Good News Popcorn, lest we have a massive sugar high. We’re going to scale back the sugar next time, but it was still absolutely delicious.

We also had a brief story of who St. Patrick is (and why our food is green).

St. Patrick, pray for us!

Overall, I’m pretty thrilled. Okay, I’m stoked. We attacked an area of the bedroom that is probably the biggest clutter catcher in [...]]]> So, we’re … one week into Lent, and we’ve already cleared out four bags of donations. And one kitchen trash can sized bag of trash. And that was just from the bedroom.

Overall, I’m pretty thrilled. Okay, I’m stoked. We attacked an area of the bedroom that is probably the biggest clutter catcher in our entire apartment and cleared it OUT. It’s so refreshing, I’ve walked into the room a couple times just to check out the clutter-free zone.

The most of our clutter is stuff that’s been tailing me and Greg (well, mainly me) from college and pre-college years. We found papers from when I was in Wyoming. Wyoming! It’s been over a decade since I was in Wyoming! And it’s followed me here and moved more (mainly from dorm to dorm). Thank God it’s not following us to The New House.

Something I’m really looking forward to attacking is baby clothes. I want to store most of it but I do plan on going through the little newborn girl clothes and thinning down significantly. If we are blessed with another girl in the future, I want to have a reasonable newborn/infant wardrobe for her.

So we’re off to a good start. We just have to keep our momentum up and keep on PURGING!

14 – Greg’s birthday. It’s entirely up to him what he wants to do, so I’m not going to put anything here!

15 – Benedictus turns ONE! Since my Dad is overseas, we’re not even thinking of a party until he returns. But, I’ll whip [...]]]> 9 - Ash Wednesday. We’ll be receiving our ashes.

14 – Greg’s birthday. It’s entirely up to him what he wants to do, so I’m not going to put anything here!

15 – Benedictus turns ONE! Since my Dad is overseas, we’re not even thinking of a party until he returns. But, I’ll whip up some cupcakes for his birthday!

17 – St. Patrick’s Day. Still looking to see what we can do.

19 – St. Joseph: Greg and Major Dad’s nameday. We’ll most likely be working on the house this day, but I’m going to try and set up a small St. Joseph’s Altar with Elise. I need to ask Greg what he wants for food this day.

21 – The Death of St. Benedict: Also still looking for ideas. This day is a Solemnity for Benedictines, and it’s also Benedict’s nameday (which is why we named him Benedict instead of Dominic). I was thinking of a cake, but I know from all the birthdays I am going to be cake-d out.

25 – The Annunciation. Our statue of Our Lady will be relocated to the table. I kind of want to do an Annunciation candle, but I don’t see that happening. I think what we will do though, is collect baby items and donate them to our local Crisis Pregnancy Centers. (I also like this A is for Angel craft over at Catholic Icing*, perfect!).

I think our Lenten plans deserve their own post, no?

* = Lacy is a finalist over at the About.com’s Reader Choice Awards and if you’re like me and think her site is awesome, please go vote for her! No registration is needed and I was not paid to endorse her. I just think that her site should be recognized – it’s one of my “go to” sites for ideas.