Things I Am Done Apologizing For

Have you seen the videos of the lady who says, "Welcome to the We Do Not Care Club"? 

She's a hoot. Look her up. 

Here is my own version with the 3 things I am no longer apologizing for caring or not caring about: 

1. Lucky Charms are delicious. If you had asked me what my favorite cereal was, I would have tried to say something fancy and adult. But why am I lying? I love Lucky Charms. I do. I like the oaty balanced with the marshmallows and milk. (But eating those marshmallows plain would not work for me.) So Lucky Charms is my favorite cereal. I am declaring it. And I am not sorry.

2. I don’t like basketball. I am so happy for all you March Madness fans. I know that this was your Super Bowl or whatever. And I did make a bracket, but only because my internet provider gives away a free month of internet to the winner; shockingly, I’ve never won. 

But I don’t care what team wins. I don’t care about upsets or even “underdogs.” (They’re already playing good collegiate basketball, which makes them better than all the players who didn’t even get to go to big universities to play ball. Show me a tiny D3 school win and we can talk about underdogs.) Please don’t make me watch the squeaky shoes and the back-and-forth. It gives me a headache. It’s just like an hour of the same thing over and over and over again. I do not want to go with you to a game or even go to a sports bar where the sport is on. No, thank you.

3. School Moon Journals are from the devil. I know that we don’t trust the internet. I get it. And I am a parent who backs up teachers 97% of the time. But we do a stupid moon journal in 1st grade. And 5th grade. And 7th grade. The moon. The internet can show you what the moon will look like for whatever specific date, years and years into the future. But let’s keep kids awake so they can jot down what the moon looks like tonight? Yeah no. 

The amount of stress this has caused my 5th and 7th-graders is insane.

"I can't write, it's too cloudy again." I cannot move the clouds for you. Go ahead and write that down.

"What do you mean the moon isn't visible until late?" That's what time the moonrise is. I can't solve it.

Why do I have 2 different moon journals going? Did you know the moonrise today isn’t until 1:38 am? But I am supposed to just “wake them up quick to look at the moon.” We will not be doing that. 

This morning, I found C wandering around the yard at 6:30 am trying to find the moon. I love that he cares, but I do not, and the whole thing is dumb. How is your teacher going to know if you actually observed the moon or just looked it up online?! Who cares?! Why do we keep doing moon journals?!

Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter! 

My Holy Thursday started with the middle school seder meal. I always go early and help with the setup. 

I am honestly only comfortable with this because it is so wildly unauthentic. I am not a fan of seders that feel too Jewish, as we are not Jewish, and I have read accounts where those of that faith background feel like it's appropriation. 

The middle school version feels much more like learning how the Seder became the Last Supper and how much it parallels the Mass. 

Then that afternoon, I went to the Live Stations of the Cross put on by the 6th grade. Jesus, is a family friend and actually is at my Seder Table. (The way it works is you get the same kids for all 3 years. I will miss my 8th-grade girls very much, but it was nice to get some fun 6th-grade boys.) 

Our Triduum started with a bang. It was severe thunderstorming and tornadoing all over our area. We left C's voice lesson with just a wall of black clouds behind us and sunshine ahead. Luckily, we drove towards the sun. 

Was I impatient at every red light? Yes. Yes, I was. I luckily got C to the theater safely and without incident. Then made it back across the bridge and to the church, where I planned to celebrate Holy Thursday before it started really getting going. I was so relieved. 

It was a very light crowd at that Mass because of the weather. We, M, Husband and I, were asked to bring up the gifts. I even said "oh we aren't parishioners" and they said "we know" and there it was. The Universal church churching. Community is community after all. 

M and Husband went home/to the theater to wait for C. 

I stayed and waited for my friend so we could 7 Churches. 

We actually just did 5 churches. I am sure Jesus isn't mad. I was very hungry since I never had dinner and knew if I didn't stop and go home to eat before it was Friday (and a fast day), the next day would be miserable indeed. 

We met our friend at the last church we were at. 

How blessed to pray with Jesus and see friends. 

Good Friday was good. In the way that it is. Quiet. 

Husband wasn't feeling well, he actually came home from work and went right to sleep so we decided not to venture out for a service as we had planned. Sometimes uniting our suffering to Jesus looks different every year. 

Saturday was also quiet. 

We made our traditional bunny butt cookies.

And took naps before the Vigil. Several hours later, we were waiting in darkness. I do not remember taking this picture... 

And several hours after that... it was Easter! 

Then we went home, put kids to bed, and got baskets set out. 

And then we crashed. 

Before waking up to look at baskets and eat a breakfast while watching "It's the Easter Beagle Charlie Brown" 

Then we headed off to do Mass again. (Because different readings and different music!) 

And it was a delightful, low-key day with a ham dinner. And I love a ham dinner. 

And that was that. Happy Easter! 

Happy Holy Week

Popping in on Wednesday to wish you all a Happy Holy Week. 

Today is my friend's dad's funeral. It's at neighboring church A. As it happens, I was in the process of scheduling a meeting with that church and neighboring church B, and it was meant to be this morning at Church B. 

Once the funeral was scheduled, we moved the meeting to church A to directly follow the funeral. So two birds, one stone, and a bright spot after sadness. That's how the Lord works, surely. 

Here are some things that made me laugh this week: 

Some book humor for you. I have been back into reading a lot this year, and it has brought me a lot of peace. I think it's a sign of wellness for me: if I am not reading or have a desire to read, I need to take a good, hard look at myself. 

We've also been preparing for M's BizTown Mayoral election: 

The last name really lends itself to a campaign slogan. Her speech is written, and it's pretty good. Pretty much every single friend she has is running for mayor, so I don't know what her chances are. BUT, M has great pull with the boys because she's just one of those kids who's friends with everyone. It's also 4th and 5th grade, and she has been working the 4th-grade angle pretty hard. There are no 4th-grade girls running, so she's been talking with them during recess. Whatever the outcome, I am proud. 

We will know by next week! 

Spending a lot of time at the Theatre this week and next. They added the pit orchestra, and it sounds just lovely. Wish I could capture that... I will try. 

And as we prepare for the Triduum, I am holding true to what I said last year, and I am fully jumping ship on my own parish. 

Though we will be back for Easter Sunday. 

See you on the other side! 

Oh What a Week

This week was busy. 

It started with Monday rosary as it usually does. 

Tuesday, this made me laugh. 

Wednesday was exhausting as 51 second graders painted their chalices. Well, 50 second graders and our priest. 

Thursday brought a busy day with work, straight to voice lessons, straight to rehearsal. 

The show really seems to be coming together and it sounds lovely from the lobby. C is rocking it! We are so proud! 

Friday. Today. 

My friend J had her naturalization ceremony and is now a US Citizen! 

It was such a lovely time to see the whole ceremony, and I love those little boys of hers so much! 

And in another act of friendship, I met some friends of mine at the hospital. We prayed a Divine Mercy Chaplet, our other friend's favorite. 

And while we were in the hospital chapel praying, our sweet friend's dad was passing from this world. What Holy Spirit timing. I am so glad we were there to pray and give her a hug in person when she was ready. 

Life is really something. Joys and sorrows co-exsisting. 

Much like this Holy Week we are about to embark on. 

Back At It

So, because the weather couldn't make up its mind, we started Spring Break with an actual Blizzard warning and ended it with a record high 83-degree day on Saturday. (Yes, Sunday was still a break... but since it was a school night, I am not counting it.) 

We made the best of it by having a bonfire, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows for dinner. 

Truly... I took no other pictures of Spring Break. 

I had to work Thursday and Friday. M went to camp at the museum with Husband. C stayed home and ate a lot of Girl Scout Cookies didn't do much. 

Saturday we sort've tried to redeem the break a tiny bit. We went to Hobby Lobby to get a needle and thread, so Husband could hem a jumper for M. 

**M only has one quarter left of wearing jumpers as they switch to skirts in middle school. But her current jumpers are too small both in the waist AND length, and there was no way they were going to make it to May. So I bought a big jumper because I have friends who turn jumpers into skirts, and that works great. Only M lost her mind because the jumper was "too big," which means long. So we hemmed it. And she's going to live in the one jumper for a quarter because I sure as heck wasn't buying more than one.**

We got the hemming supplies quickly but stayed to browse until it started getting too crowded for my liking and giving me a rash. 

Too many people do that to me sometimes. 

Then we went next door to Dick's House of Sport to get M some new shorts. Nike shorts are the BIGGEST racket. And we were browsing there until a whole bunch of kids in uniforms started showing up from their fields, and then that also gave me a rash. 

Also at checkout, Dick's asked me if I wanted to "Round Up for Youth Sports" and I have literally never wanted to give money to something less. It's a $40 billion industry. They don't need my extra 17 cents. 

To be clear: I am all about sports in terms of teamwork, sportsmanship, and being healthy. I am less interested in sports in terms of competitions, travel games, $$$ equipment, and matching bags/shoes/hats/jackets. 

Then we went to lunch where Husband noticed a business called YinzBinz nearby. 

Apparently, it is a warehouse full of bins (hence the name) of people's random Amazon returns. So it's like a treasure hunt. 

On Saturday, it's restock day, and all items are $9, and the price goes down daily to 99 cents on Friday. 

Here's how I describe it: 

• 45% horrifying
• 45% facinating
• 5% thrill of the hunt
• 5% gross 

We had no idea what we were doing. We needed an app just to walk in. There were so many random things. One could score a really good deal there, though. And the re-seller people were loading like actual wagons full of stuff out of there. We got one item for Husband at work that he was truly going to be buying anyway because $9 was cheaper by a lot. And then they gave me a bonus $5 for using the app for the first time so it was actually $4. 

Anyway... that was Saturday. (Followed by the bonfire at night of course.) 

It was a less-than-remarkable Spring Break on many levels. Ah well. That happens. 

And here we are back at it! 

Like a Phoenix...

On Friday night, after the show, we went to the opening of the Kalidescope Exhibit. 

And by Saturday in the wee hours of the morning, the 5th-grade tummy bug finally caught up with us. 

Sunday came in with a new victim falling. 

Monday, the remaining two were taken down. And we got a blizzard. So that's cool. 

Here's the thing: Husband was meant to be on a business trip this week. And then they decided not to go because of the blizzard. Did we get an extra few days of fun? No. Because we were dying. 

But we are rising from the ashes as better people with a lot of clean laundry and a very clean bathroom, so... there's that. Has it been the LAMEST spring break on record? 

Yes. Yes it has. I was meant to take 3 days off to do fun things with the kids. Ha. Well... good thing it's Spring Break anyway, and we didn't miss school or even work. Convenient. 

Anyway... that's been our start to the week! 

A Full Week!

It has been a long and busy week. Last Friday night, we went to see the High School production of Grease, the School Edition. Which means it's shorter and the lyrics have all been Kids Bop-ped. 

It was fun! And I am glad for that! 

Saturday morning brought the piano festival, and we made it just fine. God and his little sense of humor, however, my car dinged at like exactly the same spot on the road. It was the "It's cold outside, so drive carefully" warning. But I think all of our hearts stopped for a second. 

This is M in the warm up room. She had consistently played worse all week. 

She earned a Superior rating, which I was honestly a little shocked by, and I am now convinced that they just give everyone a Superior rating. Admittedly, it is a good moral boost for small pianists. So... there's that. 

Saturday also brought news of the new Nuncio. Not a surprise but it was kind of weird to get the news on a Saturday. 

C sang at Mass. 

Look, since this is the blog I look back on for memories, I am going to write the unedited version here. C was in full, horrible teenager mode all afternoon. 

We, me and him, got into an argument as we were going to leave the house. It escalated in church, and then C couldn't stop crying. He sort of got it together as he was rehearsing in the basement rehearsal room, but when he came back up he was worse. 

At the same time, M, who I fully believe was all worked up all week about her piano festival, finally had the adrenaline crash and didn't feel great. She kept saying she was going to throw up. So I sent her to the car. 

I stayed long enough to hear C sing. He did okay. Not great and definitely not what he was capable of. And then he came back to the pew and got mad at me again. Luckily, I had an out by taking "sick" M home. And then I went back to get the boys after Mass, and we were all grumpy with each other for the rest of the day. 

M and I went back to Mass on Sunday morning. She was not sick. 

Everything seemed better in the morning. But it was a rough afternoon and evening. 

Sunday, Husband and I went to see a show with some friends. Before they arrived we watched these two ladies park. If you look closely you can see how poorly they did. 

What you can't see from this picture is that BOTH ladies pulled through the spots, then reversed and corrected themselves several times, opening the door to see where they were in the lines. AND then decided this was good enough. In fact, they almost hit each other doing this at one point. 

It was bad. And SO funny. Like I was crying laughing. 

We also got C's headshot for his show. 

Monday, I got a lot of work done. Especially for our Wednesday night Family Formation activity. Stations in a Sack: A Touch and Pray Stations of the Cross Kit!

Tuesday, during the day, I made all the kits. 

I spent some time in prayer before school Mass. 

And we had severe weather, and it hailed during dinner. Luckily no damage!

Wednesday was a long and busy day. We had our event. 

It was a small but mighty group, and truly, I enjoyed it. There really was something to praying in a kid-friendly way, with hands on items to meditate on. 

Had some flashbacks to 6 years ago too. 

Yesterday was the kids' show Madagascar Jr. 

My kids and all the cast were lovely. The directors did a nice job. And the actual material and script are boring. I kinda don't want to go back and watch it again today. I will because I am supportive, and I am taking the money at the show. But I am not that excited about it, except for seeing my kids. That is fun. 

So kind of them to put the kids right next to each other for the finale. 

And the best part is that if we make it to 3:00 PM today... and even though it's crazy crazy windy right now I cannot imagine the world will end before then, we will have made it to Spring Break! And we are READY FOR IT!