Happy Feast of St. Lucy! I hope your day included fresh baked goods, whether from a can that explodes when you open it, or mixed from scratch. Maybe you had a daughter in a crown that served you, or maybe you munched down on St. Lucy cake piecemeal among school, sports, and family commitments like our family. And if you didn’t celebrate the feast day at all, hopefully you had a lucky Friday the 13th.
1.Only for the feast of St. Lucy could Addie roll out of bed before 8 a.m. and be ready for Mass with a smile. Tony took her to morning Mass at our parish and then out for donuts afterwards. Usually I try to have St. Lucy cake ready for breakfast, but last night we were visiting a nursing home with our scouting group, so I couldn’t make the dough in advance, and this morning with all the school prep, our usual breakfast had to become our dinner dessert. And then it got pushed back further, when dinner ran into when Addie and Edie needed to leave for fencing practice and I still had to finish baking and icing the cakes (three in all).
2.I might have had more time today if I wasn’t trying to find Christmas dresses for the girls and I, and allowing the older three to show me potential gift ideas at the local mall. Plus Byron needed to get dropped off late in the afternoon for an overnight camp. …and then the weekly grocery shopping.
Life with big kids is full, but just when I think all this running around (even with another driver in the house!) is going to drive me bonkers, I experience something like Wednesday night: Tony called because the train line that drops him within walking distance of our home wasn’t running, so the closest stop he could get to was 25 minutes away- could I pick him up? Sure, I said, and I drove and picked him up and we arrived home for dinner only slightly later than usual. On the way to the train stop I realized that it wasn’t that long ago that I’d have needed to load up all five kids on a cold, dark rainy night at dinner time to get him. His simple request would’ve required so much more than me jumping in the car to pick him up. We enjoyed a few peaceful minutes alone on the drive home. With every age and stage are challenges, and it only takes a bit of thought to find the highs to balance out or overshadow the lows while we adjust to this era of craziness.
3.In addition to all the things going on just TODAY we had other fun this week, most of which just required lots of coordinated planning and Tony and I hugging each other briefly before going somewhere else. Last Saturday, Tony took a group of scouts (which included Fulton and Teddy) into downtown Philly to see Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. I woke up in the middle of the night and started worrying about the logistics before remembering it wasn’t my trip to worry about. As they left that morning, I prayed the train ride would uneventful, and all the elevators would work. Beside someone parking their food truck at a curb cut (they moved) there were no accessibility issues with the days travels and Fulton and Teddy had a good time (despite getting frisked by security- that’s what happens when you can’t go through the metal detectors). Everything went as planned, so I’m thinking Tony needs to plan Fulton (and Teddy’s) NYC trips going forward.
4.Addie and I continue to visit colleges. I know most kids do this their junior year, but, we just weren’t worried about it then, and she’s not looking at any super exclusive schools, so we’re still shopping around until we find the right mix of fencing, scholarships/affordability, and access to a fun downtown, among other things. There’s a few more schools that are far away and I’m to the point where I’m like, just apply and if you get accepted we’ll go visit them.
5.Next week, between the usual therapy appointments, clinic follow ups, fencing, youth group, and school, I’m going to try to finish Christmas shopping. I’ve already decided against making limoncello this year (although I know I’ll regret that in mid-February when I really need limoncello), and mailing Christmas cards seems highly unlikely. But we’re doing a Jesse tree for the first time in forever so hopefully that counts for something in the grand theme of things (and will console me in February).
6.The attic might be finished by mid-January, and the library too. So all the things I hoped to finish over the summer will at least get completed within the first year of us living here. My plan is to do another video tour of the house to show the difference from last year to now. I might play some Whitesnake in the background to make it more exciting, otherwise you might notice we didn’t get around to installing the hardwood floors.
7.Everyday Teddy comes home from school and updates me on the progress of some wreath he’s making out of hundreds of plastic sandwich bags, and everyday, I try to act like this is going to be something I will actually enjoy hanging in my house. Most days, I’m still glad he’s in school, other days, homeschooling seems like a great option for future consideration.
And you week was??? Write it down then link it up below. Be sure to include a link back to this post so your readers can find the rest of the Quick Takes. I look forward to reading your posts!
Christmas cards can become New Year’s cards or MLK Day cards or St. Patrick’s Day cards. 😉