The Books of April

Hello Friday! I am so glad you are here!

I am slowly plugging away at my 2018 reading goal. I think I'll make it but who knows? It's the weirdest thing. I've noticed lately that for me reading has been a feast or famine. I either don't have anything to read that I want to read or I have all the things that all got automatically checked out to me all on the same day. This week I have been doing a lot of reading in full on feast mode. 

In the Order I Read Them, R-L in the picture. 

Victoria by Daisy Goodwin. A friend in one of my bookclubs recommended this. I know there's a PBS show about her life right now. I am a huge fan of the royals and I just couldn't deal with this book. It took me well over a week to read it and I just did not care. Historical fiction is fine of course but this one didn't bring anything special to the table. 2 stars. 

The Stars are Fire by Anita Shreve. This book was a strange look at the historic fires in 1947 Maine. (The fire was historic but I had never heard of it before.) Anyway, our heroine Grace has to pull herself up and survive for the sake of her children. This is not a happy book but Grace does learn a lot about herself in the face of tragedy. 3 stars. 

Not Perfect by Elizabeth LaBan. Ironically, I started this book within minutes of finishing The Stars are Fire and it's practically the same book! A missing husband, no money, figuring out how to survive on her own and still provide for two kids. But instead of 1947 Maine, in this book, Tabitha is struggling in modern day NYC. I enjoyed this one more because it was less introspective and more relatable. 4 stars.

Do This for Me by Eliza Kennedy. I got this one from Penguin First to Read. It will be released on May 15. I loved this. I loved The Good Wife when it was on so this was right up my alley. Raney finds out her husband has been unfaithful and the book follows her reactions to it. I thought this book was going to be very predictable and it kinda was but not with the obvious choices. A fun read. (Not a PG read, however.) 4 stars. 

When Never Comes by Barbara Davis. This book was just solidly a meh. It wasn't bad. It wasn't good. It kept me interested enough to finish but I didn't particularly like the characters or the situation. Christy-Lynn's husband (a famous author) has died in a car crash with an unidentified woman in the car with him. So she takes off and starts a brand new life! The ending was a little too predictable and while I am glad Christy-Lynn was able to heal from her childhood of taking care of her addict mother and horrors of foster care, I find it highly suspect that she would decide to become a parent and fall in real, actual love, in such a short period of time. 2 stars. 

The rest of April was a bit more of a famine. 

Again R-L

Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibaziga. I wrote a little about this earlier in the month, but Immaculee was going to be visiting our area and speaking so a bunch of us read her book about surviving the Rwandan holocaust. Her faith in God and strength and love for the rosary could teach us all something! 4 stars. 

Flat Broke With Two Goats by Jennifer McGaHa. Do not read this book. Don't. Unless you are a goat farmer. And then you probably already know how to raise goats and how smelly they are so you don't even need to read this book. This was the Big Library Read and it is the dumbest book. It's a memoir where Jennifer and her husband don't communicate. Jennifer finds out they owe hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes, so they lose everything and learn no lessons. 1 star. (Because that's the lowest rating you're allowed to give on Goodreads.)

Flying at Night by Rebecca L. Brown. This book was really gorgeous read. It's a new release and it follows a family through three different voices (and generations). It touches on special needs parenting, abusive marriages, strong personalities, brain injuries and just doing the best you can. I really enjoyed this book and will definitely come back and reread this one. 4 stars. 

Made for This: The Catholic Mom's Guide to Birth by Mary Haseltine. You've probably heard about this because Mary is a blogger and so many bloggers have their voices heard. Including yours truly. Colleen is hosting a giveaway right now. If you know of a Catholic mom who is newly pregnant, this would be a lovely gift. 5 stars. (A super biased but honestly well-earned rating.)

Led by Faith by Immaculee Ilibaziga. Let's say that her first book was the broad brushstrokes version of her life and this one really digs into the heart of the matter. While you really need the first book for context, this one is so much more powerful and beautiful! 4 stars. 

So that is this month in books. I may squeeze a few more out this weekend, time will tell. Enjoy your weekends everyone!

April 25

Happy Wednesday Friends! Make it a perfect date today. 

And happy unofficial Miss Congeniality Day. (As it happens, it's sunny with a high of 64 so actually, it is exactly as she says.)

Rice Krispies

Everyone has those days, right? The ones where you feel like a failure even though, by the book, you've done everything to the best of your ability? Yesterday was one of those days. I felt really defeated but it was also Husband's birthday and that was reason enough to pull up my big girl pants and get it together.

I am so thankful for Husband. I am glad that he picked me and I get to go through life with him. When we discussing his birthday plans somehow we decided on a Rice Krispie theme. He loves Rice Krispie Treats. The ones you make yourself and the store-bought kind.

Easy enough.

Here's his birthday banner. Yes, those are Rice Krispie Treats with the writeable wrappers. They are definitely still hanging in my kitchen too. We kicked off the day with a bowl of Rice Krispies for everyone. Nothing but fancy birthday breakfasts at our house!

Worst lighting ever for a birthday cake picture but I will go ahead and share it anyway:

Instead of a cake, I got a Rice Krispie Treat Sheet and stuck some candles in it. (That's 34 in candle math.) As it happens, our regular grocery store doesn't carry the Treat Sheets, so I ordered one from Amazon. But it got delayed and I had to go to a different grocery store to get it. Then today the Amazon one showed up. Good thing he likes Rice Krispies!

Today is a bright new day. It's going to be a good one. At least it's sunny and going to hit 70 I think so that's stellar.

My Girl

My girl is in the full throes of threenager let me tell you.

Yesterday was Wednesday. Which is the short school day so she doesn't have to take a nap. She decidedly loves "short" days and asks every morning "Is today a long day or a short day?"

Sunday is also not a rest day. And Monday was the spring program so she didn't have to take one. However what that meant was my girl was tired and she was cranky yesterday! Not all at once. The day started out great.

She wore her new hedgehog socks. Which was pretty exciting.

And while C was at school we did some of her last Koala Crate activities. She got to make a xylophone.

But round about dinner time. Woosh. She was at the stage of cranky that resulted in full on shrieking mode. And everything was wronging her. So she went to bed a little early last night and that was just fine.

Luckily for her (and me), I had a sense of humor about the whole thing. She was just so irrational it was funny.  And today she woke up with a smile on her face and a want to snuggle so that always helps too.

Have a lovely Thursday

Spring Program Day!

Today was the TK Spring Program! And we woke up and the yard looked like this: 

So not super springy, in fact, the cold killed my three daffodils but nevertheless it was program day. 

C was ready to go. Freshly showered. He vetoed his Easter tie but I still think he was super handsome. 

A little fun fact about me is that I hate being late. Immensely. As such, we were 25 minutes early for a program that lasted 6 minutes. But that's okay because I was able to score good seats and take pictures of all the art. And it was super duper cute. 

That sun has their little hands traced and cut out on paper. So cute!

My favorite is the kids blowing bubblegum! 

You can't really tell here, but C drew himself as a walrus superhero. Which basically means he's flying and there is a walrus on his shirt. So cute!

Then it was time for the program to begin. 

The class sang 5 songs and a poem: 

1. It's a Beautiful Day
2. I Hear Thunder (poem)
3. Special Me
4. If All the Raindrops
5. Let's All Sing
6. The TK Song

Afterward, we had some cookies and juice which was M's favorite part. She has been talking about the juice since breakfast I kid you not. What a funny kid. 

I got a picture of C and his teachers. It's so nice that they adore these kids and mine in particular. 

Also attending the program was Walrus. He sat in my bag and watched. He liked it. His favorite song was actually the poem, I Hear Thunder.

We as a family went to Red Robin for an early dinner to celebrate the program and make the day special. This is Red Robin Royalty Rewards freebie week with a different free thing every week and we got a free milkshake. Which is a real treat because we never get dessert when we are out. 

Oh, what a fun day!

Thank You Lord!

Thank you, Lord, for the sunshine and nice weather! Today I sent C to school without a coat for the first time since October!

It will be short-lived but I will take it!

Thank you, Lord, for beds! C has been on my mattress from grad school since he graduated to a "big-boy bed" and it had seen better days. My parents got him a new mattress when they were visiting for Easter and it was delivered yesterday.

It doesn't look like a whole lot but not much beats clean sheets on a new mattress.

Thank you, Lord, for friends. My table group from my CEW retreat had a get together last night. We are going to meet monthly or so and it's just wonderful. We somehow got incredibly lucky, with a really diverse, faithful, wonderful group who all bring uniqueness to our discussions.

We read Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza.

Immaculee will be speaking in our area next week. What a story she has to tell about trust, God and faith. She has so much to teach the world. Amazing.

Happy Thursday friends. I hope it finds you well.

Soccer Has Started!

Uh. Guys. That is a picture of soccer practice. Because it was cold but they have a game on Saturday so probably they should have at least gathered once or twice prior to that. It's the first sign of spring!

And today it is going to actually be spring-y. In the 60s! Tomorrow and Friday should also be spring-like.

Because obviously winter is coming back Saturday. But whatever. There's some respite and I will take it. Happy Wednesday!

Oh My Weekend.

I just cannot even put into words about how great my weekend was. Oh gosh, it was good. I don't want to make you jealous so... fair warning. Friday night was a good night in and moderately early to bed. Which sounds lame but Holy Week right into Easter week meant we were sleepy.

Saturday we had a mostly normal day except we went to 4:30 Mass. It's funny, I was always a fan of the 4:30 (or Saturday night) Mass but now I am firmly in love with my 11:00 Mass. But anyway, it was nice to go and hear Fr. Nicholas who is new to our Parish.

After Mass and setting our precious children up with Happy Meals and Kathryn babysitting, Husband and I went out to the Blue and Gold Bash! Which is our Home and School Association Fundraising event. It was a lot of fun. We went last year but we didn't really know very many people yet. This year we knew more people so it was even more fun. I imagine it will just keep getting better every year.

I didn't take any pictures of the outing. (What a bad blogger and my hair looked cute too!) But I can show you what we bought from the silent auction. Every class makes a platter with their thumbprint and they are painted in fun ways. We bought C's class' platter.

Look at those cute bunnies! Each bunny is the thumbprint and their names are printed next to it. It's kind of hard to see I know. We can use the platter for Easter every year!

Anyway, it was a wonderful time spent doing actual adult things with other adults!

Then Sunday. Oh, guys. Sunday.

Well, let me backtrack to Thursday. I entered a twitter contest. And on Friday I found out I won! I won four tickets to see Raffi in concert in Chicago. From the Old Town School of Folk Music. (Have you heard their children's music? It's great!)

But Raffi! Like the real Baby Beluga/Down by the Bay children's singer/songwriter Raffi. My parents took me and my brother to see him in 1992, he was my favorite artist and that was my first concert ever! And I won tickets so that my kids could also have Raffi be their first concert. Poetic no?

It's kind of really crazy how the whole thing came about. A few weeks ago my mom and I were discussing Raffi and I was talking about how he really doesn't tour any longer. Husband chimed in that he had a show in Minneapolis on April 7. (If you're new, my parents live in the Mpls area.) But I couldn't justify the drive, the cost and we had the Blue and Gold Bash so it just wouldn't work.

I'm not going to say I prayed about a way to take my kids to see Raffi. But I am not saying I didn't. And oh my gosh. I saw the Twitter contest. Chicago is literally half the distance (like it's actually exactly half the miles) as my parent's house so we could day trip it. So I entered. And Husband was all "okay whatever" because who wins Twitter contests? And I agree. But I felt in my gut this was my way to get my kids to Raffi.

And it was. I won! So we woke up and drove to Chicago.

We saw the bean. (Cloud Gate.) I have been to Chicago many times and somehow have never made it to the bean. So that was great.

Then we got ready for the big show. And Holy Heck... Raffi retweeted me. Which means he knows we were there. And excited.

This was a new-to-me theater and it's so cool! It's underground. This lobby/ticket office is on floor 5. The actual theater lobby was floor one and then you still had to go down a lot of stairs to get to your seats. Super cool. 

We got to our seats. (After stopping by the merchandise table and buying two books.) And then Raffi retweeted me again!

C was wearing my 1992 Baby Beluga shirt from my concert. Because full circle! Our seats were great. No obstructions at all!

Pictures don't do this justice because it didn't seem far away at all. And then... he was there.

And he was just as fabulous as I remembered. The kids loved him. I loved him. It was so amazing. It was so wonderful. To share this concert and experience with my family? It was so special. He sang every song I wanted him to except "There Came a Girl From France" which is two-year-old Madeline's jam. But I could handle it.

For part of his encore, Raffi came out and sang the Beluga Grad verse of Baby Beluga.

I totally teared up a bit. It was so special. Then we went to Giordono's because one does not go to Chicago without getting a hot dog, pizza or Italian Beef. (I mean, sometimes all of them but that wasn't possible in one afternoon.)

We passed these pigeons on our walk and the kids loved them! It was kind of hilarious how much they delighted in the pigeons.

We are nothing if not Mo Willems and Pigeon fans. (And obviously Raffi fans too.) Ha.

Then we drove back and managed to make it home before the snow. And that tells you how wonderful of a weekend it was because the snow can't even rain on my parade! So much goodness. I am so thankful for time spent with my love, our church, our school people and our family. I think I am failing to fully express how lucky I feel right now, but it's getting really close to having to say #blessed. Oops, I just went and said it. Ah well, it's true.

What's Up Wednesday?

Really? Is it April? Are you sure? Because there is definitely snow on the edges of my yard. Not a lot. (Thank goodness.) But really. However, this meme floating around on the interwebs certainly makes me chuckle.

I'm just going to sit over here and wait for spring to show up.

I never really talked about my Lenten plans, but now that it's over I do feel compelled to share. This year we gave up secular music in the car, which C especially wasn't a fan of for the first few days. But as it happens, we are already to Wednesday after Easter and I haven't switched back. I have found I enjoy hearing my kids sing songs about God and Jesus over some of the other lyrics they know. This also translated inside to Alexa, where we found ourselves choosing my Lent playlist over some of the other stuff.

We also added in praying before dinner as a family. We had been SO bad at that. But we got better and again haven't let that go yet. I think that both Lenten changes, (they aren't sacrifices exactly) are pleasing to Him and ultimately improve our relationship with Him.

I also did the Blessed is She Lenten Devotional Journal.

I had never actually done a devotional before. I found I actually quite enjoyed it... except for Holy Week actually. The devotional was written by Laura Fanucci and I love her blog. I think she is just a phenomenal writer, but I guess I was let down by holy week. Every prompt was basically the same and I didn't have much to add. The prompts really helped me to internalize the prayers and readings typically.

Anyway, I found myself for the first time in a long time, not hating Lent. Like, I really have hated Lent in the past. I genuinely love Ordinary Time because everything is there! The Gloria, Alleluias etc. But I felt surprisingly un-jaded and grateful for Lent this year.

In completely unrelated to Lent or Jesus, I saw this online and it made me laugh.

And then also this: 

So so true. 

Have a good Wednesday!

Tuesday Thoughts

It is another rainy and cold (maybe even snowy later?!) Tuesday. Which means another soccer practice has been canceled. Hopefully, they can practice next week before their first game on the 14th! Our bag chairs have now been delivered (thanks Dad!) and so we are prepared for practices and games. M likes her little chair.

In real life news, I have been battling a cough for over a week now and it is driving me mad! Also driving me mad is the fact I broke my thumbnail yesterday. I am now acutely aware of how often I use my thumbnail for everyday life. (It's a lot.) Luckily, coughs don't last forever and nails grow back.

I am feeling this on a deep level right now:

But I will persevere. I think. We'll see.

I leave you with the one semi-decent picture of the kids together from this weekend.

Happy Tuesday! 

Alleluia!

Oh, guys. It was a good weekend. Triduum really. Let's start there.

Holy Thursday Mass was good. I got all teary during the Gloria as I do every year. It's just so special to sing it out! Behavior was a solid B for the both of them so... we will take that and run with it. We had told the kids that if they did a good job they could have a pudding party when we got home. I am going to pretend like the loud crying over stickers didn't happen because they were, for the most part really great. Husband had his feet washed. I did M's hair in a new style and it was super cute.

Good Friday. My parents came to town and we had a cheese pizza party. Husband went to the Good Friday service.

Saturday we waited for Vigil. We dyed eggs.

We made bunny butt cookies.

We bought a mattress. I didn't take pictures of that though. It will come next week.
And then it was time to get ready for Vigil. And so we did.

C wrote a letter to the Easter Bunny with his plate of cookies and a carrot before bed too.

It was a beautiful Vigil. I totally teared up when Mitch and Kelly were baptized. Then Husband and Josh went up to proclaim Catholicism and I cried. Not like sobbing. But more than just a glistening tear. It was incredibly emotional for me to be honest. I have literally prayed for him to be Catholic since we started dating. Twelve years. I mean miracles happen every day and here I was watching my own little miracle. It's not on the same level as like a medical miracle, but I'll take it. I held it together during the confirmation portion of the evening. I was just beaming with pride. Gah. It was so special!

3 Candidates and 2 Catechumens and their sponsors. (And one of the RCIA coordinators.) 

Sunday morning we hauled our tired tushes out of bed to find baskets and eggs. Then we kind of lollygagged before late Mass.

The afternoon was spent pilfering candy, reading books and playing. There was also a very nice dinner.

It was a wonderful weekend. I am blessed. We are blessed. I hope you had a phenomenal Easter!