Kevin left to help a friend cut wood for the second day in a row after the game. We're trading work. Kevin helps cut and stack wood, and the other guy helps build Rory's room in the basement. We're hoping it'll be done by Christmas. It's a lot of work as far as moving everything and around and painting...there might be painting involved. Other than that, Saturday night we baked cupcakes. We had nothing to do. Cupcake Wars was blaring on TV, as we made homemade caramel sauce and cupcakes. They were good even though I'm not a big fan of caramel. Kevin is though, and he said he liked them, duh. It was nice not having anything to do. So.nice.
Sunday we tried out a new church. It wasn't our first time, but it was our first time scoping out the possibility of changing parishes. We have loved where we are, and we ended up there because of the home school group we were in, but we're not really with that group anymore. This other church is closer, which means friends made would be around the corner rather than a half hour away. It'll be sad, but we're praying and discerning, so there's nothing set in stone.
After Mass, we AGAIN had nothing we had to do. We ended up checking out a Good Will out by school. I wasn't impressed. It was the most expensive Good Will I've seen, and that just seemed like an oxymoron to me. Rory made some bad purchases (red hula,fringed-skirt,dancing girl) that we had to return. I tell ya...I need to supervise that child at all times! We got back in the afternoon and had a family dinner. It was the first time everyone (including Kaelyn) had gathered around our kitchen table in a long time. Dinner was great. We had some outside playing time, bubble baths, and then we finished up the story we were reading aloud. The kids, Kevin, and I got into it. It was The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare. I even caught Kevin trying to read ahead one time. That's what a good book it was. I even read ahead. We finished it tonight, and I'm looking into her other book The Witch of Blackbird Pond, but the kids are worried it sounds scary.
Here are particular times of joy:
-Snuggling up with the kids and watching Cupcake Wars
-All of us laughing at something that happened in the book and talking about it
-Family dinner with easy and funny conversation
-Hearing, "I thought for sure that when I asked to make cupcakes, you would say, 'Oh Rory, we don't have time for that this weekend. Maybe later.' But instead you went to the store and bought the stuff."
-Being able to wear
-Not having anything to do
I'm also discovering that when you're a negative person (which I am) it's harder to see joy. You have to look for it. It doesn't just happen to you. It's kind of like a choice. And when I say I'm a negative person, I mean that negativity of a situation is easier for me to see than the positive. I'm the exact opposite of Pollyanna. I can spot negative in the speed of light. I do think this is possible to change, and maybe that's what will happen on my joy search. I hope so.
Have you ever noticed that when Nora says it was a "quiet" or "relaxing" or "we had nothing to do", i come in to set the record straight? I wonder why that is? This weekend was PACKED with TONS of things. We run around like chickens with our heads cut off all weekend and Nora posts "oh it was quiet and "falxing."
ReplyDeleteLogan's first game was against the same boys as his last. They were the typical bigger kids than The Bulldogs but Logan and his teammates played their little hearts out. The other team played hard but fair. That was something I found lacking a lot with the other teams. They would hold, trip, face-mask, and just all around play dirty against us. Our couches and boys took it in stride, for the most part, and refused to sink to that level. I couldn't be happier for the kids on winning. Hopefully in Pony next year Logan will have as much fun as he had this year.
I didn't run the splitter with the wood. I "just" loaded the cart and stacked the wood. Our friend had a specific way he wanted it which was great. I would load up the yard tractor trailer with wood, drive it to the start of the stacking area, unload it, and repeat. I don't know exactly how much we went through but it was 4 hours of work for day one. Day two at it was cutting up felled trees with about a 48 inch diameter. They were some really big trees. Our friend would cut and I would roll the pieces out and put them into the truck. It was again a lot of lifting. We took two loads to his house and then started splitting and stacking again. We got into a little grove at points where he was tossing me the fire wood and I was walking them into place. We didn't need the tractor as I had stacked close enough to where we were splitting. I don't think he is going to have to worry about a long winter (after it dries) next year.
We'll see about the church. Things are missed when they aren't done the way we are used to and sometimes different is bad.
The book was good to hear and good for the kids. I am a little scared of the next book as well with a title like that. Hopefully it doesn't set off another round of nightmares.
I don't have any clothes of my own. Just ones that Nora loans me to wear every now and again. haha ...
I am really tired out from all this "not" doing anything. Hopefully we have a weekend where we truly aren't doing anything but I doubt that happening anytime soon.
I neglected to say anything about the title of the post. I have noted a shift in Nora demeanor as of late. She does seem happier than she has been the last month or so. Hopefully we can keep up this trend and keep moving forward. It would be nice for break from all the bad things happening and maybe looking at them a little differently is all we need.
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