1.) Rain
It has rained and rained and rained this past week.
On one hand, we desperately needed the rain. We've had a drought this summer, and the moisture will hopefully mean we get a decent crop from the fall garden.
On the other hand, my yard is now a smelly marsh full of standing water, and the mosquitoes have been... abundant, shall we say.
Oh well. Everything in life is a mixed bag. I will say the clouds and storms coming in have been beautiful and dramatic -- we've had some very pretty sunrises and sunsets.
2.) Unexpected Celebrity Interest
Did y'all hear about the new Padre Pio movie with Shia Lebouf that's coming out?
I've been casually following it since the first photos and videos came out of Mr. Lebouf researching for it by staying at a Capuchin friary (as I recall, I originally saw the first video with no context and thought, "huh. That guy kind of looks like Shia Lebouf"). I really loved Scorsese's Silence and it seemed like the research bit for this film was taking the subject just as seriously.
Well, then I saw an interview he did with Bishop Barron, and found out the man evidently had a major conversion experience while basically living in the friary parking lot for a few weeks. He's now a practicing Catholic, and he's apparently walking the walk and taking responsibility for his past life.
For whatever reason, and it kind of took me by surprise, I was really moved by this guy's story. I think maybe it's because I know so many people who have left the Church, and some who were hurt by the Church rather than healed. Seeing someone walk into a Church and meet God there, rather than a devil, and actually turn away from the cynical, hedonistic lifestyle I've seen seep in and steal so many...I almost cried.
May God bless him.
3.) A Very Large Brain Fart
It turns out that it's actually a very bad idea to fill a kiddie pool with dirty couch covers, water, and oxyclean in the middle of your bathroom floor.
As I stood there, showerhead in hand, filling the thing up, the thought occured to me "I could have done this in the bathtub."
And then I realized that I had no way to drain it (at that point, I stopped filling it. Maybe there's some hope for me).
To cut a long story short, the couch covers and some towels are now soaking in the washer, there's some water in the floor AC vent, and the bathroom floor is mopped.
I learned a lesson today.
4.) Storage (and Other Extreme Sports)
I've been cleaning out my closet and getting rid of a bunch of stuff, and Chris went through and got rid of a bunch of stuff too.
The other day, I found a detached kitchen cabinet at Goodwill for $10 and brought it home. It now sits on our closet floor, full of jam and jelly, and the top shelf above my husband's dress shirts is full of pickles.
Turns out our closet is the most temperature stable area in the house, and so the best for food storage. Maybe it's weird to get dressed for Sunday mass in the shadow of the pickle jars. We're a little weird anyway, so that's ok.
We're trying to clear out and find new homes for all the random stuff in what basically amounts to our junk room so that we can convert it into a workable bedroom for Little Boy. It'll be a year or two before we need the room, but it might honestly take that long to get it all sorted.
5.) Pillowcase Dresses
In the process of cleaning out said closet, I found out that we own an unusually high number of pillowcases.
So I decided at least one of them needed to become a little girl dress.
I added the teal ribbon on the neckline, but otherwise it was very simple to cut and sew. I'm not sure if it's quite nice enough for her to wear to church, but it's not far from that. Very sweet, simple sundress. (Link is to the directions I used).
6.) Sickness
We had a nasty cold rip through the house earlier this week.
Bitty Baby had the sniffles for a day, a fever and stuffy nose for a couple days after that, and then a couple hours of inconsolable nausea. She threw up once...and since then, she's been fine. She's had a bit of a runny nose with multicolor snot for the rest of the week, but otherwise she's her normal cheerful self.
I had a couple days of the crud, Little Girl had a runny nose for a day or two, and that was it. Neither of the boys got it.
All in all it was pretty mild, but still enough to have us playing catch-up with sleep (turns out it's very difficult for a toddler to sleep or nurse with a stuffy nose) and household stuff. All's well that ends well though.
7.) Christmas is Coming
I'm already on the prowl for gifts and gift ideas.
My SIL and I are both hoping to do something homemade for the adults in the family. In years past we made lemoncello with everclear, and I've done a jar of dry ingredients for soup that surprisingly went over pretty well. This year...I know homemade jam will likely be involved, but that's as far as I've got.
Kids are even more difficult. I've already started stockpiling Goodwill finds, but I'm having trouble figuring out what exactly I should be keeping an eye out for. I wish I could get away with just homemade gifts for kids, but they can be a slightly harder crowd to please.
And that's the news from around here.
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