Quick Take Friday

I'm going to try hard this week to keep my Quick Takes, well, Quick.

Here we go!

1. The biggest thing I have to mention is the newest addition to our extended family.
Our nephew and his wife brought baby Maria Lynn into the world early Monday morning. At only 6 lbs. she is a precious sight and a beautiful little girl. I can't wait to have sweet Maria around to watch her grow. Her birth has also sparked the song from Sound of Music with the line, "how do you solve a problem like Maria?" to repeat and repeat in my head! It's hard to believe at 30 years old, I am great-auntie for the second time. I have another little great-niece, Olivia, who is 10 months old. That's just crazy to me, especially since we're still hoping to keep having more of our own little additions yet in our home. Of course, Miss Lily is thrilled to have another little girl around!

2. Last Friday, I decided to have the kids work on collages. I pulled out stray craft materials out of the bottom of the crafting drawers and then added feathers, buttons, pom poms, foamies, stickers and whatever else my hands could carry. I put them on the counter and let the kids go crazy and create their own collages. They did great! We're always doing projects and crafts around here, but it had been awhile since we had done collages. They were some pretty neat projects when they were all finished. They enjoyed it and I loved their finished projects so much that I decided to declare 'Collage Fridays' every week. We'll see what they come up with today!

3. We have this children's music CD in our home and somehow it just managed to get lost under a pile of stuff. I recently discovered it again and we've been listening to it these last couple weeks and the kids love it. I like to listen to the cute little Catholic songs too! It's cute to see my kids jumping around dancing and after only hearing the disk once or twice they were already singing parts of the songs while playing around the house. I love it when I find a CD that's good for the little ears in my home, but isn't annoying for mommy (like some children's music Cd's tend to be). I strongly recommend this one if you have little ones in your home!

4. We're trying to plan a Winter Getaway. I better explain, before you're thinking we're going to Mexico to escape this cold weather (I wish!). Last year, hubby had a hip surgery in February and prior to it we decided to take the kids to a local hotel that had a huge indoor water park. We found an inexpensive winter rate was available, including water park tickets and we went for it. We ate pizza in our room and just stayed one night, but the kids thought it was wonderful. We called it our Winter Getaway and it kind of stuck. We assured the little ones this winter, back in December, that we'd once again continue the tradition. Well, March is next week and we still haven't settled on a date to go. It's kind of been one thing or another that comes up and it keeps getting pushed back. We're really looking forward to doing it, but we better get on it soon or we'll have to call it our Spring Getaway. And who really needs a Spring Getaway in Minnesota? Not me. I'm all for Spring and no snow. I'd rather have something to look forward to (even if it's not Mexico) in the winter, even if it is local and only for an overnight.

5. Did you see this picture yesterday?
I did and boy did it make me upset! Ok, so the picture was one thing, but somewhere above it I read the headline 'Faithful Catholics around the world celebrate Ash Wednesday' and that probably irked me even more. I mean, really?! We're talking about faithful Catholics and a picture of VP Joe Biden in the same article? UGH. Who wrote this? Oh wait, biased media. All I can say is that they could've found thousands of Catholics around the world to take pictures of that would've actually fit the 'faithful Catholic' stereotype, who are not the Vice President. But, it's Lent and I don't even want to get into it any further, just had to mention it though.

6. We're trying to keep our household focused during this season of Lent on prayer, fasting and repentance. I put together a Lenten Mantle. Ok, we don't have a mantle, but we're using the top of our entertainment center instead. Below is a picture of it. Simple to put together, but very effective. After only 2 days of it being there, it's already taken on meaning for me every time I enter the living room.



7. To finish today, I have a little story from in my home this week. I have to preface it by mentioning that almost 5 years ago, at 8 weeks pregnant I miscarried. We named our little one Natalie Noel. Lily & Jonah know of our little one and quite often conversation drifts toward Natalie and the angel in Heaven she is to both of them. With that, here's the story that the kids told me the other day. I wasn't present when it happened, but they told me the whole conversation later. Lily & Jonah were out playing in the snow and trying to climb a tree. Jonah was stuck at the base of the tree and couldn't get down because there was ice below. Lily reminded him that Natalie always helps and that she was right there watching them. Jonah then asked her where Natalie was and Lily told him Natalie is an angel and that they couldn't see her, but angels are always helping us. Later on, Lily got stuck up higher in the tree and was afraid, Jonah kindly reminded her "Don't worry Lily. Natalie's here." This story was precious to hear from my little children. I would've liked to have been there to hear it as it happened...Maybe not, it may have caused some heart break...


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