Arius's Revenge, Drawers, and a (Really) Stuffed Mailbox

 1.) A Small Harvest 

I know I've mentioned this before, but gardening in South Texas is really weird. 

For example, this is my beet patch today, the 9th of December... 

And this is the fistful of green beans I harvested the other day. 

I also just planted turnips and spinach on the first of December, and they're cheerfully sprouting. 

This sort of thing is why I can't relate to a lot of Advent materials though. "The cold, weary world cloaked in snow, awaiting the warmth of hope in a saviour..." 

As I look outside at the grass that needs mowing for the second time in as many weeks, adjust the air conditioner, and slap a mosquito, I struggle to relate. 

2.) A 1980s Craft Project 

I purchased a 36 year old iron-on decal from a parish rummage sale awhile back, and decided to use it this week to create my very own tacky Christmas sweater. (Occasionally the weather is appropriate for them). 

The instructions were... interesting. "Turn up the iron to the highest possible setting, without steam, and then WITH ALL YOUR BODY WEIGHT press down in one spot for fifteen seconds. Repeat until you have done this across the whole image." 

The paper did not peel off of the transfer very easily, especially on the littlest parts. I ended up using some glittery fabric paint to cover up some lines that just wouldn't take, no matter how much of my body weight I used. 

I'm thinking of sourcing some ribbon scraps somewhere, or maybe some little jingle bells, and making this thing truly spectacular. It works for now though. There's no rule that says I can't do this over the span of a couple years. 

3.) The Plague of St. Nick's Day, 2022

It started on a Friday night. 

Bitty Baby was having trouble settling, lots of tossing and turning. Around 10pm, she threw up. 

And she didn't stop until 3 or 4 the next morning. 

Needless to say, neither of us got much sleep that night. Thankfully she was much improved the next day, though still tired. I thought the drama was over. 

Ha. 

Monday, I get a call midmorning. "Little Boy says he doesn't feel well, do you want to come get him?"I went and got him, brought him home, and he threw up a few hours later. I relegated him to bed. 

Then my stomach started feeling sour. I somehow made it through dinner and bedtime, but then had to make a dash for the bathroom. And keep making dashes. Then we heard a horrible sound from the kids' bedroom. 

Little Girl's stomach had decided to join the fray. 

Little Boy thankfully just had the one episode, but Little Girl and I weren't as lucky. As the night drug on, so did our digestive woes. 

Then, at three in the morning, my husband, up until this point strong, caring for the rest of us, and confident that he would pull through, fell to the ravages of the digestive beast. He pulled out his phone, emailed his boss that he wouldn't be coming in, then staggered off to the bathroom. 

Nobody went to work or school the next day. We pretty much just sat around with dehydration headaches and tried to recover (and to at least get a start cleaning the rather impressive mess and mountain of laundry the night had produced). The kids had their St. Nick's day stockings, but no one wanted to eat anything inside of them except the navel oranges. 

Bitty Baby, who (mercifully) had had a great night's sleep, cheerfully puttered around and wondered why no one else wanted to play. 

As I'm writing this, it occurs to me that St. Nicholas is well known for punching Arius, and it's said that Arius died after experiencing extreme digestive issues. Maybe instead of the St. Nick's day plague, it ought to be called Arius's revenge.  

4.) Mail Woes 

I went down our long driveway to get the mail, and brought this back. 

The postman, for reasons unknown to me, evidently decided to wedge a large box into our mailbox. In trying to pull the box out of the mailbox, I ended up pulling it off of its post. I figured that I may as well try to pull this thing out in my kitchen as on the side of the road and hauled it inside. 

Chris ended up bringing the entire thing to our post office and asking them to pull it out. They ended up having to cut the box to do so. 

Hopefully that doesn't happen again. 

5.) Adventures in Mass-Going 

Due to the potentially perilous nature of attending an evening vigil mass with small children, combined with two members of the family being beholden to the school schedule, we adopted a divide and conquer attitude with mass for the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Chris and Little Boy attended evening vigil, and I flew solo with the girls at noon mass. 

Father kept it mercifully short (I think he figured a lot of people were there on their lunch hour), and despite an unfortunate incident involving spit and crasins, we managed the actual mass relatively well. 

It was after the mass that things got interesting. I had the thought, for some half-formulated reason, that I should bring the girls up to the big statue of Mary and let them light a candle there. 

The first complication to this was that the little area in front of the statue was connected to the sanctuary, which was elevated above the rest of the Church. You could either climb stairs directly to the statue or walk up a ramp/hallway that connected to it . The girls decided the ramp was the coolest thing ever...but also wanted to try the stairs. 

The second problem was that an older lady had beaten us to the kneeler in front of the candles and was deeply invested in a book of prayers in front of her. She was gonna be there awhile. 

The third issue is that I had already given the girls 50¢ to pay for the candle. 

The girls ended up running laps up and down the stairs and ramp while I followed them around trying to keep them quiet and half heartedly suggesting we leave. This was always met with protests because they didn't want to give up their quarters and they were really enjoying using those ramp and stairs. 

We eventually managed to get to the statue, light a candle, and say a Hail Mary, but I'm not sure we'll be making a return to that particular statue. That was definitely more than I'd bargained for. 

6.) Homemade Furniture Upgrade 

The term "upgrade" may be a little generous, but I think it's an improvement nonetheless. 

We were missing two of the plastic drawers to this combination trash-picked and scavenged from classroom junk dresser we keep baby clothes in. Chris made new ones out of cardboard and scrap wood he had lying around. They've lasted for a couple years at this point, but the unpainted grey weathered scrap was really ugly. 

We finally got both painted today, with Little Girl's help. It's not fancy by any means, but it's at least more cheerful.