{SQT} Reveals

If you don’t follow me anywhere but here, then you might have missed the announcement on Saturday night that my apostolate Accepting the Gift was named one of the 25 semi-finalists in the OSV Challenge. It’s a HUGE deal. I’m going to get a mentor, spiritual direction, business guidance, and funding to help grow the ministry. If I’m lucky, I’ll be named one of the 12 finalists and get to give my pitch to a panel of judges at the OSV Summit in September and maybe win one of three $100,000 grand prizes (!!!). I’m equal parts excited and overwhelmed, but mostly I can’t wait to get started and do some of the things I didn’t have the knowledge or resources to do before. If you’re not already, you can follow Accepting the Gift via newsletter, on IG, FB, and at the website.

As I was preparing to take Edie and Addie shopping on Saturday afternoon when Byron called me. Considering he never calls, and the first words out of his mouth were, “Don’t worry, I’m not hurt.” I knew it wasn’t good news. Unfortunately, he’d been hit by a car while on his bike. Thankfully, everyone was going slow and the only damage was to Byron’s bike. He was shook up more than anything. I made him call out of work for the day and my father in law tried to bend the bike back into shape to no avail. For now, Byron is back to walking or driving (with me) to work. There’s a bike shop in town, I just need to make the time to get the bike there and see if it can be saved or junked. Between this and his dislocated elbow, I think Byron and his guardian angel have had enough excitement for this year thankyouverymuch!

Fulton turned 13 on Monday! THIRTEEN! He requested homemade Chick-Fil-A sandwiches (which I make with this recipe-THE.BEST.) and he got games (including this cool looking one affiliate link), books, and a Funko Pop figure we have no room for. I think (I KNOW) he and Teddy only ask for them because it annoys me to acquire things just to stick them on a shelf for display.

On Tuesday, which was the hottest day of the whole year (I imagine) I sat outside and tried to sell used homeschooling curriculum. It was as profitable and sweaty as you can imagine. I had several boxes of $1 items that were popular, but I couldn’t convince anyone to purchase the many, many Latin sets I’m trying to sell (Latin for Children A,B,C and The Latin Road to English Grammar in case anyone is looking) or the recorders (but no surprise there).

I came home, showered and then met up with my college roomates for dinner. It was the first we’d seen each other since before COVID hit, and the first any of them had seen my new house. After giving them the tour and making them touch the wallpaper in our hallway for an uncomfortably long time, we walked to one of my favorite Italian places for dinner. It’s nice to have the kinds of friends that you can just pick up conversations with, even after a long absence. We all live within a couple hours of one another, but between jobs, kids, and life the most we seem to manage is dinner once or twice a year. We managed a weekend getaway once through a strange aligning of the stars that hasn’t happened since.

Now it’s just non-stop party prep for our annual Nativity of St. John the Baptist party, held slightly later than usual. The weather forecast does not look ideal, but this party is RAIN OR SHINE. I really don’t want to relive this year, but I’m just so happy to be able to have people over and eat food and talk that I’ll pack everyone in my house for as long as they want if that’s what it takes! We’re getting a whole roast pig, shooting off fireworks, burning a bonfire, and Tony bought a speaker called the ‘Block Rocker’ so, we’re going to get crazy by alternating loud Gregorian chant and Dean Martin music before the town’s noise ordinance kicks in at 10 p.m.

Oh, and newsletter subscribers saw it this morning but here’s my book’s cover!

No idea about preordering yet, but I’ll keep you posted! In the mean time, link up your hot Takes 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!