Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

C, our Macy's aficionado, delighted in the parade. 

And we all enjoyed Zootopia 2! 

I hope you celebrated however best suits you! 

All the Other Stuff

There was still a lot of other stuff that went down before and after I went to Indianapolis. Let me tell you about it! 

The Holy Spirit was moving in a big way. Last Monday, I had a board meeting and then a study date with my friend to help her prepare for her citizenship test. My friend has been obsessing over her Brumate cup for months. And I got home, and my board member's gift was a BRUMATE! 

Also, my friend went to Des Moines on Thursday and passed her test with flying colors! I am so happy for her. Her naturalization ceremony will be sometime in January, they said. She is married with 4 little boys, and while she is absolutely in the country legally with a green card, it will be a relief to have her as a citizen! The studying paid off!

M was also featured online for "Wear Your Camp Gray shirt day" 

So, of course, she participated the next day! 

Summer Camp signups were on Wednesday and luckily we got both kids into the week I was aiming for. The other good news is that I got a text message from one of M's friends' moms from camp last summer. (If you recall, we sent her for the first time without a hometown friend.) M had written Elise a letter telling her what week she was planning to go to camp but we hadn't heard back. 

But via text messages (and boy am I glad I had M include the "you can have your mom text my mom" line in the letter) we got the girls signed up for the same week and written down for buddy requests so they can be together again. That makes me so happy! 

Wednesday night we had tickets to a preview of Wicked: For Good. 

I will be very honest when I tell you that if I hadn't already had these preview tickets, I very likely would not have gone to NCYC and missed the opening weekend. That sounds ridiculous, but it's true. 

Our fellow audience was dreadful. They talked through the ENTIRE movie. The entire movie. But the movie itself is a solid second act. 

Girly-pop had every piece of Wicked merch she owns on. Pants. Shirt. Sweatshirt. 2 different socks. (One for Glinda and one for Elphaba.) I myself wore a pink sock and a green sock and called it good. 

While I was gone life marched on. The school had its senior thanksgiving dinner, where the 5th grade served the meal. M got assigned coffee. 

I truly had people at NCYC praying that she didn't spill hot coffee on a senior citizen. 

Photo evidence that she didn't. Praise the Lord! 

Saturday was the Festival of Trees Parade. Which is very important to C. I tuned into the live stream as I went between activities at NCYC, got a screenshot of Husband and C, and called it good. 

Later, C's choir performed. 

And I was happy to hear it went well, and his lines as narrator were clear, crisp, and got the appropriate laughs. 

And that's a pretty solid recap of what else went on last week. Now we're just trying to make it to Thanksgiving! See you on the other side of Turkey Day! 

NCYC!

 I am back from NCYC. 

And yes. NCYC is a pilgrimage, not a retreat. 

But still. It was my third retreat in November, and to say I am spiritually edified is not an understatement. 

Spending time with 16,000 people on fire for the Lord will do that. 

And truly it was such a good conference. It was weird though. Because I wasn't meant to be at NCYC. My parish went. And they took a great group. But I didn't go with them. 

Remember in September when Fr. Thom became Bishop Hennen? Well, he was supposed to go to NCYC with his parish. And the way that works in our diocese is once you claim a slot, you're on the hook for paying for that slot if something changes. So they asked me if I would come and chaperone for them. 

So I did. And we had a good time. I Catholic fangirled in the hardest way. I got a selfie with everyone on my "Catholic celebrity list." 

Pope Leo. Meg Hunter-Kilmer. Katie Prejean McGrady. Sr. Miriam James. Ashley David from Pink Salt Riot. And I had a meaningful encounter with all of them. Okay, Pope Leo absolutely has no clue who I am or what face I was in the crowd. But I was able to let each of the other fabulous women know what their work means to me.

We had lunch with our Bishop too, and that was lovely. 

It was a really wonderful and powerful weekend, and I am so thankful for the opportunity to have experienced it.

A Weekend Retreat

Wait a second, Madeline? Didn't you have a retreat last weekend? 

Why, my friend, you're right! Yet again, I had one this weekend. 

It was the First Reconciliation Retreat, and you know what? It went pretty well. 

Husband had been out of town last week, which was so busy, and adds a different dynamic to everything, doesn't it? 

This was the only picture I took of the retreat. 

Luckily my friend took a few! It is always hard for me to know how a retreat goes but it went about as well as it could. 

Saturday, we also went to Mass and then to see The Sound of Music. I didn't take pictures of that. 

And yesterday, also a day with no picture, was GLORIOUS. 

I slept in. 

I wrote my review. 

But otherwise did a lot of nothing. 

And it was GLORIOUS. 

And now here we are on Monday! Let's make it a good one! 

The Sky's Awake, So I'm Awake

Like everyone in the Midwest last night it seems... we could see the Northern Lights! 

Now I live in town. On a road my mother calls a highway. (It's not. I swear.) But with street lights aplenty. And even still, this was the view of the aurora borealis last night from that well-lit house.

This is just regular camera mode. These others are in night mode. 

This was after bedtime but C was still awake so I had him come out to see. And then about an hour later, I felt bad, so I woke M up for a minute and had her come out to see. It wasn't as vibrant at that point, but still visible, and she liked it. And then ran right back upstairs to sleep.  

My parents' house had a nice view too. 

But my bestie, who lives in the country (Like it kind of scares me to try and find her house in the dark kind of country), absolutely won! 

I said to my friends who know me and my general lack of interest in nature that this definitely counts as my allotment for nature appreciation this month. 

It also counted as some time with God. I am so grateful to be on an Earth that surprises us from time to time with goodness. There are plenty of bad weather surprises. (It sn*wed on Saturday. I was unhappy. It has since melted, but it was there and I saw it.) So the good ones are worth appreciating. 

Retreat Weekend

So the first full week of November flew by. 

It was actually a short week for conferences, which I enjoyed! We spent all day Thursday doing yard work, and then we went to see a show. 

That was good and fun. 

Friday, I cranked my review out early in between deep cleaning the house before my parents got to town. They came because Husband and I were on a retreat team. 

It was a really wonderful weekend with some great teens in grades 8-10. And I am glad we were able to help out. 

The best part was that we got to sleep at home and not there! 

While we were gone, the kids had a great time with my parents. They went to Costco. They swam at the hotel. They ate out. 

They say that they missed us, but I am not convinced. 

I am kinda bummed it's Monday. And that the retreat is over. It was a big commitment, but I am going to miss the weekly team meetings, and honestly, the kids I spent the weekend with were delightful. 

And here's November

I know. We're all thinking it, how is it November already? 

Halloween was truly wonderful. As promised, they looked much the same.

We went around from 5:30-7:00, and then everyone was glad to be home, eating pizza and ready for a good sleep. 

Their pumpkins could literally not hold another thing. Please excuse the playroom mess. 

Saturday brought a pumpkin smashing. 

We waited in a very long line to smash C's pumpkin. (M didn't want to bring hers and later had regret about that.) But the wait wasn't so bad because every minute there was another pumpkin launched and it was fun to watch. Big ones went splat. Small ones blasted out like a bullet. Then the goldilocks of pumpkins soared and landed dramatically. 

After a little prodding from his mom, C made a few adjustments to his pumpkin to help it weigh a little less to get it right in that sweet spot. It totally paid off! 

And wouldn't you know Husband was recording his news spot at the exact moment we made it through the line? Murphy's Law!! 

All in all, a fun way to spend the afternoon! We are looking forward to next year already. Really!