Gladdest Hours

Pentecost - Happy Birthday to Our Glorious Church!

We celebrated the last day of Easter today with the Feast of Pentecost, the birthday of the church!!  We all dressed in some form of red, orange or yellow for Mass, which is a pretty big stretch for Pete, since he's kind of a blue/green kind of guy.  Here are the girls with their Holy Spirit Flames over their heads: 

Fear of the Lord and Counsel are missing.  Fear was taking the picture and Counsel was locking up the house.  *grin*

Pete thought I was a nutball a couple years ago when I laminated these flames.  Laugh away, dear husband....they actually get a lot of use! 

And, yes, that IS a construction zone in the background.  Pete is on vacation this week, and he is enjoying his "time off" by building a new and improved and much larger front deck.  

And, here are our Holy Spirit Cupcakes with the cute little strawberry flames. Thank you Catholic Cuisine!

 

And, the table, waiting for us after Mass: 

Seven cupcakes for the 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit, with 12 candles for the 12 apostles and 12 Fruits of the Holy Spirit.  

Happy Feast of Pentecost!

Lots of Bedrooms. Yeah. Right.

My mother called a couple weeks ago and told me about a conversation she had with a woman after Mass at coffee-n-donuts.  My mom mentioned that her oldest daughter (me) was almost due with  her fifth baby. 

"Fifth baby!  Oh my!  They must have a very big house!"  she exclaimed.

"No not really, just average, I suppose," my mom said.

"Well, then they must have lots of bedrooms!"   

"Bedrooms?" questioned my mother.  "Oh no.....all the children are in one bedroom." 

"One bedroom? How do you do that?  It must be a very large bedroom," she said.

My mom likes to shock people, so of course, she let it all out.  "No, not large at all.  10 x 13’.  And, well….they have two sets of bunk beds and a crib in that room. And, to tell you the truth, most of the time there are actually a couple of beds empty."

The woman apparently couldn’t wrap her mind around that one, as the conversation ended right then and there. 

Next time my mom will be prepared.  I’m considering sending her this photo which says it all:

Look closely.  That's THREE heads you see.  And, it ain't in a twin bed!  IT'S IN THE CRIB, for crying out loud!!!!!!  The 7, 5, and 2-year-old (Madeleine, Erika and Caroline) SLEEPING IN THE CRIB together!   

Good thing we went through all that work to set up those TWO sets of bunk beds. 

Three empty beds!  Good grief. 

Life is Good

• I am actually ready for Lent.  It has not snuck up on me as in years past.
• We are getting a new linoleum floor tomorrow.  At this time tomorrow, THIS....

 

...will be a thing of the past.  Soon forgotten.  Long-gone.  Non-existent.  I have waited with bated breath for FIVE years for this day.  Both of our mothers and my friend, Michelle will be VERY glad to hear this. Maybe this will have to be another post all its own.  How exciting would that be?

In light of the fact that we are only two days away from FORTY days of reflection on the Passion and Death of the Savior of Mankind, perhaps this is really quite inconsequential.  But, I JUST cannot HELP but to get a BIT giddy about this.  What a thing to celebrate on Mardi Gras! 

• To go along with the new kitchen floor, I bought a couple of new kitchen towels.  Oooooooo, Aaaaaaaah!!!  It's the little things that make a gal just oh-so-happy.
• And, last, but certainly not least, Michael D. O'Brien has a blog.  Whoo-hoo!

I mean, REALLY……can it GET any better than this?

 

Nice Things

The other day, I pulled out the box of paint color samples, looking for a new color for the hallway walls.  After 30 minutes of admiring pretty colors and dreaming of something NICE and NEW, I came to my senses and put them all away.  Who was I kidding?  I can't even clean my toilet!!! Or keep piles of artwork, polly pockets and doll clothes from invading my kitchen countertops!!!!  Blaahhhh....I can't PAINT a HALLWAY!!!!  What was I thinking?   A couple of hours later I happened upon Danielle Bean's post about Nice Things.  Whoo-hoo!  Thank you, once again, Danielle Bean!

This is the ONLY reason.....

....that I like home improvement projects!  There is just something about a guy with a tool belt!