With Praise and Thanksgiving

Wednesday, Wednesday. What shall I say about Wednesday? Except that I was super duper crabby and we had a horrifically terrible day, mood-wise. We needed a break from the school volunteering we had been doing the past few nights, and the boys were a little crazy, so their dad took them on a neature walk, where they saw two deer and a cat, which kept them out of the playground. I spent my free time walking a the two blocks to Polar King for some ice cream and reading my book. I needed that! My arctic swirl hit the spot and I knocked out several chapters of the book, so it was a productive hour, in my opinion. So basically I'm grateful that our apartment is located within walking distance of ice cream. Win. Also, there's a new Neature Walk!  Nothing will beat the original, in my humble opinion.

I listened to this homily by Father Bryan on Tuesday. It blew my mind. I intended to write about it, but then...life, sick kids, volunteering at school, maybe online shopping. Anyway, I listened to it again today: The Logic of Mercy . Wow. Stop reading and go listen. I've never heard this parable approached in exactly that manner, and I love it. Jesus died for each one of us as if we were the only one. Kind of mind-blowing to think about, isn't it? I really miss getting to hear him preach every week. I'm so grateful that he podcasts his homilies because they are so good. Insightful. Convicting. I love the way he seems to approach each set of readings from a big picture standpoint, teaching us about how those little bits of the Bible fit in to the larger story of salvation, while also managing to find ways to apply them simply to our real, daily life circumstances. He really has been given a gift for preaching. The podcasts are fantastic, but if you can hear him prea...

Sunday was my sister's birthday. I still haven't sent a card, because adulting is hard. I did remember I ordered a part of her gift; it's just not here yet. So maybe I'm not a complete failure.  I love my sister dearly. I used to wonder how two people raised by the same parents in the same household could be so different. Then I discovered the temperaments. I'm melancholic choleric and she's phlegmatic sanguine (I think). She's spontaneous. I'm organized. She dresses cute and trendy. I wear jeans and a solid-colored t-shirt most days. She's a school counselor. I worked with spreadsheets. You get the idea.  Despite our differences, we've mostly gotten along, save those couple of teenage years when we were both living at home. She's been generous to me with her time and advice and her kids' old stuff. I'm endlessly grateful for her and I sometimes pity women who don't have a sister. It's a special thing, sisterhood.  I had inten...

Today we were a little hungover from our day of fun yesterday. We finally made it out of the house by about 5:00. We went on a little hike near the river and I'm calling it the high point of our day. We were experiencing a wind advisory, so we chose a trail that was pretty sheltered. We only hiked about a half hour, but it was the burst of exercise we all needed, and out of the wind it was actually a pretty nice day. Here's a picture of my finger. That's what I get for not actually stopping. I feel like it could have been legit if I'd tried at all. #nofilter Here's one with my finger cropped out. You're welcome.  I'm not into editing photos, as you well know. You can't really see the beautiful fall colors, but trust me: they were there.

They're in there somewhere.  Yesterday we loaded up ye olde minivan and headed west to Bismarck, where we realized our kids had never been. We visited Papa's Pumpkin Patch and the Dakota Zoo, and we give both a resounding thumb's up. Turns out we all love Bismarck!  Typically outings like this involve tons of fighting and whining and crying and general misery, but yesterday went 10 time better than I expected. We managed on very short naps, PB&Js, and favorable weather.  In almost 6 years of parenting, we've managed to successfully dodge all pumpkin patches. We are an introvert family, after all. This one was great and the kids didn't want to leave...except we also wanted to go to the zoo which was closing early.  The zoo had different animals than we're used to, and our Red River Zoo pass allowed us free admission, so wins all around. We all enjoyed the primates most. They had several different species. I can't find our favorite on thei...

I made pie. I love apple season. That is all.  No pictures. Pie is gone. 

Our day started when the toddler got up at 4 a.m. and joined us in our bed to scratch me and roll around. I finally got up with him, accompanied by a headache, around 5:15. I did get him back to sleep, mere minutes before #2 got up and wanted to snuggle. As the day progressed, my headache got worse. Whenever this happens, it seems to stay just barely on the edge of manageable until my spouse is in transit, at which point the throbbing and nausea kicks up a notch.  With only a couple of whiny sentences to warn him, my spouse walked in and immediately took over all the things. It's not super unusual for him to do that on any given day, but today I quickly quarantined myself in my bed and left him to manage baths, supper and bed time all by his lonesome. He did it all and managed to check on me and get me a bit of supper, too.  I couldn't really put thoughts together lying in bed, because my brain hurt too much, but I remember hearing all the teeth brushing nonsense and th...