Weekend Recap

We had a very nice weekend with lots of fun activities.

It started on Friday when Mr. Brown was able to take the day off and give me a chance to do something just for fun.  I could have done anything I wanted on my own and he would watch the kids.  Instead I decided to take Allison to see The Princess and the Frog.  We had so much fun.  She loved having popcorn and her own little treat bag of cheez-its and m&ms.  The movie was a little bit dark (voodoo) but a lot of fun and it held her attention the entire time.  She didn’t try to get out of her seat even once.  She seemed to love the whole experience of being at the movie theater.  I’m looking forward to lots more mommy-daughter movie dates.  After that we swung by the post office to mail the Christmas gifts – so if you are our relatives living in Minnesota, Michigan or California look for packages this Friday.  She was very well behaved at the post office for which I was very grateful.

Saturday was busy.  The morning started with the annual St. Nick party at our church.  The mothers group (of which I am one of the co-leaders) puts it on.  The kids get to do some crafts and then St. Nick comes.  He has all the kids remove their shoes and then they sit down while he tells them the story of his life.  They then go retrieve their shoes and find fun surprises left there.  Allison and Peter both LOVED the clemetines they got.  Finally, the kids have a chance to line up and sit on St. Nick’s lap for a picture. 

Allison didn’t want to wait in line so I waited for her.  But the whole time she was standing right in front of him trying to see what was going on.  She actually gave him her clementine which surprised me given how excited she was to have it.  Of course, when the time came to actually go see him herself she wanted to part of it.  Peter didn’t care though.  As he was leaving she did manage to give him a high-five.  So, who knows…. she wasn’t really scared of him but had no interest in getting too close.

After that I got to go to Christmas party of my own.  My cooking club had a cookie exchange for the holidays.  I always love getting together with these ladies.  We all met through a website for wedding planning and moved on to the “married ladies” board.  And now they are just some of my favorite people.  I no longer think of them as my “online friends”.  They are just friends.  We have been meeting monthly for dinner for a few years and have seen each other through babies and moves and job changes and illness and more babies.    And of course, I managed to come home with a  tub full of some of the best cookies ever.  If you ask nicely I *might* share with you – but I make no promises.

Delights of Summer

Generally enjoying the outdoors

Mr. Brown working in the yard

Playing in the sprinklers

Blueberries by the handful

Crazy Storms

I'm usually not scared of storms. Of course, most storms don't wake me up from a dead sleep. Last night we woke up to the worst sounds of wind and hail on our roof and windows. Along with consistent flashes of lightning.

It actually scared me. I was so nervous that a tornado was headed our way - the winds were that strong. I worried about whether we should wake up the kids and head downstairs. We learned on the radio that 50,000 people had already lost power. And there were tornadoes - but thankfully not too close to us.

In the end I was relieved when the winds died and we were able to go back to sleep.

Spring!

I know, there is still about a month until the beginning of the season Spring on our calendar. But today is the beginning of Spring in the Catholic Church.
Lent comes from the Anglo-saxon word lencten, meaning Spring (from Modern Catholic Dictionary).

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church this is why Lent is important:

Jesus' temptation reveals the way in which the Son of God is Messiah, contrary to the way Satan proposes to him and the way men wish to attribute to him.244 This is why Christ vanquished the Tempter for us: "For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sinning."245 By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert.

What does Lent mean to me? Advent is a time of preparation - of making ready our hearts for the coming of the King. I suppose Lent is also about preparation but in a more solemn way. It is more about refocusing on the only thing that is truly important. It is about learning to be vigilant and learning to live in the presence of Christ.

I won't share with you my lenten sacrifice. I rather like keeping that between myself and God. But I will tell you that as I work on drawing closer to Him I will be praying for my family and friends that your own Lenten journey will be fruitful and restorative.