40 bags in 40 days

Honestly, I wasn't sure I would ever get around to writing this post. I have been carrying the tally around in my head for 6 weeks now, though, and I need to get it down on paper. We haven't filled the equivalent of 40 bags yet, but I'm curious to see where we are. (A bag, I decided, is one tall, kitchen trash bag.)

• Clothing: 1 bag
• Hat box, hat, old purses and wallets: 1 bag
• Cassette tapes and computer game disks: 1 grocery bag
• Set of tires: 4 tires = 4 bags, I think
• Filing cabinets: 4 bags (although I'm not sure this counts, since we replaced the two, mismatched, two-drawer filing cabinets with one lovely, Korean-made 4-drawer one--a net of zero really...hmmm...I'm still counting it because it looks prettier now. ;-D)
• Bunk bed frame and padded boards - calling this 10 bags
• twin-size mattress and waterproof cover - 5 bags
• Sets of sheets: 6 twin-sized (calling this 2 bags)
• Random sheets that were not in sets: 3 queen-sized, plus a pillow case (calling this 1 bag)
• Twin-sized comforters: 2 (these went to people who are still in post-tsunami temporary housing)
• Small briefcase - 1/2 bag
• baby toys - 1 grocery bag

Okay, so we're at about 31.  Could be worse, but with only Holy Week to go, it could be better. When Katie and I go through the bins of hand-me-downs in the garage, I expect to easily hit 40. But it might not be until after Lent. :(


Other items slated for sale/disposal before we PCS:

• patio table
• 4 patio chairs
• gas grill
• Meghan's tiny, plastic slide
• Little Tykes car--I can't believe how long this little car has lasted--it was a hand-me-down to Tommy and Patrick when we lived in Turkey, so it has lived on two continents, just like us: )
• 2-3 kids' bikes, although one is going to be a fight. Matthew is too big for the bike he learned to ride (and named "Lance") last summer, and we'd like to hand Joseph's bike down to him. Joseph is going to be riding Tommy's old bike when we get it fixed up.
• refrigerator
• two satellite dishes (We mostly only use our TV to watch movies on DVD so it's crazy that we even have these. We took them off the house last fall and put them in the garage, but I haven't been able to sell them yet.)
• living room couch
• crib mattress
• vacuum cleaner--it's as if someone accidentally hit the self-destruct button on this thing; the motor still works great, but the rest of it is literally falling apart. We are relying on duct tape to keep it together for the next four months
• grass trimmer
• depending on where we move, possibly the
• lawn mower
• dishwasher
• outdoor play house
• hopefully, at least 1/3 of the baby and children's clothing that I have saved--there is much more than one child could ever wear in those bins now
• all the duplicates of the old photos that are out in the garage
• one set of matching Turkish grain-sack pillows ( I should probably get rid of more of these, but I'm not quite ready to do that yet)
•  board books (I'm ready to cull through these and only keep the ones I'd like to have around for the grandchildren to read when they visit)

I just pray that when all of this is gone, we will be under our weight limit. We have lived in this house for six years, and we've had a baby since then. Even though Tommy cleaned out his room pretty well last summer, it still feels like we have way too much stuff. We need to sell the refrigerator and couch, but we hope to give most everything else away.  There are so many people in need here, and my hope is imitate (in a very small way) the detachment of my Confirmation Saint.

"As for her charities, they will bring upon us a divine blessing. We shall not want, so long as we let her relieve the poor as she does."    
--Louis of Hungary, about his wife, St. Elizabeth 

Air travel

We're praying Patrick home today. I keep checking the weather info on the internet, and the airline flight information, and all appears to be well. I need to get to sleep, so I think I will leave him in the capable hands of St. Joseph of Cupertino, patron of airline travelers, and St. Christopher, patron of travelers, and just for good measure, Our Blessed Lady, his mother in heaven, who will watch over him with loving care while his eartly mother gets some much-needed rest.

What a comfort it is to have faith and the Communion of Saints to pray for us to God!

We are also praying in thanksgiving for Tommy, Tara, and Anabel's safe arrival in Philadelphia. While we wish they could join us in Misawa for Christmas, we are happy that they are safe in the arms of Tara's loving family. And Anabel will get lots of hugs and cuddles from her mama's family in the coming weeks of Christmas break.

The fourth week of Advent is going to be a joyous one in both our households. : )

Prayers for our students, please

Please keep Tommy, Tara, and Patrick in your prayers as they go through final exams this week.

Patrick is midway through his drawing final as I write this, and he has a 10-page paper due in theology tomorrow morning, psychology exam on Thursday, calculus and physics both on Friday, just so you will know what to pray for. I'm sure he has lit a candle in The Grotto by now, so we can join our prayers with his. :)

Tommy and Tara, as you know are undergoing their first final exams since Anabel's birth, so keep all three of them ever in your prayers, please.

St. Joseph of Cupertino, pray for them and for all students taking exams this week. May the questions on the tests be the ones they know the answers to!

Baby Pictures

Surprise!  Here are some pictures of Tommy and his siblings...

Tommy (with John) - May 12, 1989

Tommy (with John) - May 12, 1989

Tommy - May 12, 1989

Tommy (with John) - May 15, 1989

Tommy, August 1989

Patrick - December 22, 1991

Patrick (with Tommy) - December 24, 1991

Patrick - December 25, 1991

Patrick (with Judy), February 1992

Katie, July 1997

Joseph, June 2001

Matthew (with Patrick) - January 4, 2005

Matthew (with Tommy) - January 4, 2005

Matthew (with Judy) - January 6, 2005

Matthew (with Katie) - January 7, 2005

Meghan - June 4, 2008

Meghan - June 8, 2008

So little time

I have so many blog posts in my head. Things keep happening that I want to write about, and I can't seem to find the time.

Here I go again with 8 things about us, just to keep you up to date:

1. Tommy and Tara have survived their exams and are back at her parents' home in Philadelphia for the summer.

2. Congratulations to Patrick, who scored a goal in the final soccer game of his senior year. He is with the Edgren Eagles at Iwakuni for the Far East soccer tournament. Go Eagles! 5th place at Far East. It was a mighty struggle, and we are proud that you never gave up!

3. Katie went with us to see Othello last night at the Mokuteki Theater on base. And I had thought Hamlet was a lesson in "the wages of sin is death." Katie and I have lots to talk about, but I am happy that the program notes included excerpts from Dr. Faustus and commentary from the director about Shakespeare's demonstration of the effects of sin on the characters. Context is everything.

4. Joseph continues to plug away at his schoolwork in the hope of finishing the year by July 4. That would give him a month of summer break before we leave for Philadelphia for Tommy and Tara's wedding. Swimming and soccer fill his free time, and he has asked to play baseball when the soccer season ends, so there is no end to my taxi service until at least mid-July.

5. Matthew is learning to read!

6. Meghan has successfully used the potty chair twice this week. But she is now back in diapers. So I am not sure whether her insistence that I retrieve the potty chair from the garage was a passing fancy or not. Next week will tell.

7. John has finished his term as the Troop Committee Chair of Boy Scout Troop 14 on base. He is now merely an Assistant Scoutmaster and the Misawa OA Chair. I think he will stay active in scouting in one way or another while we're here, at least as long as Patrick remains in the Venture Crew, which he joined after turning 18 this winter.

9. I took a walk by myself this morning. Thirty minutes of silence broken only by an occasional "ohio gozaimas" exchange of greeting with passing neighbors. It was foggy and cool as I passed their dewey gardens, paused to watch rushing streams of irrigation flooding the rice fields, and peeked into ghostly greenhouses now partially open to harden the tiny rice shoots for planting. The sun was fairly high at 6:45, but it didn't burn off the fog that rolled in waves over garden and field and road from the Pacific 2 km away. Our sunrise is now around 4 a.m.

I guess I should be grateful that Meghan is still sleeping until 5.

Blessings all.

Apology and an update

I am sorry I haven't posted anything since Holy Saturday. Here's a quick update in words only because for some reason, I can't work with the photos on the laptop right now. Not sure what's going on there, but I will have to wait until my network administrator John can take a look at it this evening.

John: getting called in to work after hours a bit, but enjoying his work; at home: clearing out our garage We can park both vans in there again. (woo hoo!!!)

Judy: filled 30 bags during Lent with Katie, Patrick and John's help, working on 10 more in the Easter season. John's garage cleaning will be the biggest contributor there. :); co-directing 4 scenes (plus a little more) of Hamlet for the homeschool drama club; dealing with cold after cold in various family members since mid-March; working on getting the little ones truly healthy again; keeping my head above water--barely--with teaching, grading, turning in grades, for our homeschool; a couple of Japanese grocery-shopping successes to relate soon

Patrick: enjoying senior year; soccer season--playing mostly mid-field; prom coming up this weekend; finished his last scholarship application; waiting for Notre Dame to send him their financial aid offer; college decision d eadline is May 1

Katie: is 13!--photos of the party forthcoming; mother's help for a neighbor with a new baby and babysitting; soccer: first game was Saturday, they lost but she played well; playing Claudius in Hamlet; having fun with friends

Joseph: swim lessons continue; first soccer game was this weekend, he was playing forward when I saw him after giving the half-time treats to Katie's team and arranging with her coach to give out the after-game treats so I could see a little of Joseph's game before it ended and we hurried back to pick up Katie; playing Osric in Hamlet; honored to be chosen to serve Mass for Archbishop Broglio when he is at St. Jude's (the on-base chapel) for Confirmation in a few weeks

Matthew: has double pneumonia, if that's what they call it when it's in both lungs; it set off an asthma reaction--his first since November, and typical of his version of asthma that appears when he contracts another respiratory illness in the spring or fall; playing a guard in Hamlet; making up plays every day and begging others to be in them, today it is something about pirates--he made a flag for a prop a little earlier and is wearing a large white shirt, rolled up pants with a sword tucked into the belt, and a purple head scarf; Meghan is involved somehow, too.

Meghan: also has pneumonia, but only in one lung; we are grateful to God for the invention of antibiotics, which are resolving these health issues quickly; the pneumonia battle has only been a week for Meghan and 5 days for Matthew; both are much improved; enough to be working on a pirate play, anyway ;)

Tommy: UDallas production of P layboy of the Western World, in which he played one of the main characters: the father of Pegeen (the female character who gets engaged to the p layboy), went very well: awesome set, authentic, period top-hat for his costume; I'm hoping to post photos if we can have permission; classes are going well, he is especially enjoying Chinese history; wedding plans are progressing--hard to believe that is only three and a half months away now.

Tara: tired, but classes are going okay, Tommy tells us; in set-design class, they are working together on the design for someone's senior studio play, which sounds like a fun thing to do; I love that they share a passion for the arts.

Meghan is calling "Yunch-time. I hear it: bell. Yunch-time!!" I am needed in the kitchen.

I promise to write more regularly and get the photo problem fixed so I can add in some pictures.

Hope all is well in your parts of the world. :) Please comment and let us know.

Being Tommy's Mom

Photo credit: Patrick

One afternoon about a year ago, I was at the gas station. A woman I didn't recognize approached me as I was filling our van with fuel. "Are you Tommy's Mom?" she asked. "Yes," I replied. "Oh," she continued, "I just wanted to tell you how grateful I am that he was there to help my daughter." She then told me what a good influence Tommy had been in a challenging time.

"Are you Tommy's Mom?" I had been asked a few weeks earlier by a different woman. "Yes," I said. "Well," she said, "You probably already know this, but he is such a great kid." And she proceeded to tell me how my oldest son's actions had helped her and her family.

A friend of mine who worked with Tommy last year reminds me every once in awhile how impressed she was with his level of responsibility in a challenging work situation.

In the wee hours of the morning on May 5, 1989, my first child was born. It happened in the usual way with an anxious phone call to a midwife followed by an anxious drive from Silver Spring, Maryland, down to Georgetown, John trying to drive both quickly and gently as we navigated the construction on the Beltway. Each bump set off another painful contraction.

We arrived safely, and about 3 hours later, so did Tommy. I was a night law student at the time while working full-time in a firm downtown. I was exhausted as I held that small, warm bundle. Exhausted and exhilarated. And frightened. And wondrous. "Hello, little baby, we love you," I had said before we even knew he was "he". I have continued to say it as we have gotten to know who "he" is.

He is a gentle young man with an open heart and a cheerful manner. He is a conscientious young man who is learning to make his own way in the world. He is a talkative young man who stops to listen to the difficulties of others. He is sometimes a slow mover, but takes immediate action when needed. He is a thoughtful young man with a lively sense of humor. He has had his share of hurts and troubles, but his spirit of perseverance keeps him looking up, his eyes on the eternal goal.


As a new mother, I was for a time uncomfortable with the name "Tommy's Mom". Influenced by the writing in popular women's magazines, I worried that it lessened my value, my dignity, to be labeled by the name of my child. I was young and ambitious and focused on worldly success. I wanted to be known by my own name for my own achievements. As time went on, I first accepted the inevitability of the name. Then I grew to understand that Tommy, and any of our children whose names have become part of mine, is a daily gift of grace and love to our family and to the world. In giving me this child to nurture and love, God did not limit my dignity. He increased it.

When I was first called "Tommy's Mom" I did not appreciate the honor that was being given to me. But I do now. When someone asks me if I am Tommy's Mom, I respond,"Yes," with a grateful, joyful heart.

Happy 20th birthday to my dear son. May God grant you many years.

Baptism of the Lord

In the new calendar of the Catholic Church, Christmas ends today. Our readings at Mass in the past several weeks have given us glimpses into the childhood of Jesus: little moments in His life with Mary and Joseph. Today the story takes a leap forward to the adult life of Jesus and the beginning of His public ministry.

This morning's Gospel reading (Mark 1:7-11) is the briefest account of Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River. Like the "hidden years" readings of the past several weeks, however, there is a lot to learn from the few words and actions we are given. Our pastor pointed out one lesson this morning by telling the story of the baptism of an adult who died unexpectedly the very next day.

Remembering the Baptism of the Lord reminds us of the importance of receiving the Sacraments. God has given us these avenues of grace in order to help us in our journey to heaven, and we do well to embrace them. We are reminded that Jesus, who is God, and therefore had no need of Baptism, received John's baptism anyway. And we know that we are to follow His example in all things.

To celebrate the Baptism of the Lord and our Baptisms, we lit all of our Baptismal candles at brunch this morning, along with the Christ candle we made during Advent and have been lighting throughout the Christmas season. We lit Tommy's candle for him, too, even though he is back in the U.S. now, visiting my sister and her family before returning to UD next week.


The light brought another table decoration to Joseph's mind. "Mom, when is Candlemas?" he asked. We are a people of feasts, after all, and Candlemas (Feb. 2) is the traditional end of the Christmas season. I like that he unconsciously made that connection. :-)

For some photos of the place of Jesus' Baptism in the Jordan, visit my friend Ammanmom and read her post about Bethany Beyond the Jordan. She and her family visited the site during Christmas break. Lucky!!

Tommy at school

John brought home some photos of Tommy moving in at UD.

His dorm: Madonna Hall

Tommy's desk

closet space

They bunked the beds to get more space.

So, there you have it--a typical college dorm room.

Before leaving, John also took some nice photos of the campus:

chapel

See you in December, Tommy! Don't forget to call and email. :-) We miss you and we love you!!

Missing Tommy

It isn't supposed to be so hard to let your children go, is it?

We are all missing Tommy so much this week. Last week, it was easier somehow. Maybe it felt like he was just away on a short trip and would be back soon. I don't know. But the last couple of days the reality has hit all of us.

His place at the table will be empty until Christmas break.

You would think we would be used to this, since Tommy already spent part of last year back in the States. Maybe it's harder because we can't all go with him to get him settled and see him in his dorm room and look around the campus with him. Thankfully, John will get to go, and he promises to bring back pictures. A hopeful and comforting promise, for which I am grateful.

Tonight Matthew prayed, "God bless Daddy and Mommy and Patrick and Tommy far away and bring him to heaven and home safely to see me because I miss him so much."

And Mommy's voice breaks during the Angel of God. "Please watch over him, take care of him, keep him close to you," I pray in my head before I kiss and cuddle little ones goodnight. Not so very long ago, he was the little golden-haired boy in this top bunk. Not so long ago, he was studying at our school table. Not so long ago, he was the high schooler who was excited about taking a class at school.

Always, I know they are all God's children lent to us for a short while to love and nurture, to teach and discipline, to prepare them to live for God in the world. Today, this short while just seems too short.

Heard from

Tommy.

He arrived safely in Yakima and is having a pleasant visit with Mark and his family. He'll get a chance to visit Mary, Jesse & Rachel and family, and other Yakima friends during the week.

Friday, he went to his eye doctor appointment and ordered new contacts. When he gets his watch battery replaced, he'll have done all the errands I assigned him, and he can just enjoy being in the USA.

What we're up to this week

John, Tommy, and Patrick are climbing Mt. Fuji with the scout troop at this very moment. They climb overnight and hopefully reach the summit near sunrise. John called from the 7th station mostly to see if his phone worked. I was grateful to hear from him. They are climbing well so far--keeping the group together.

This morning, Katie and Joseph tried out for the Missoula Children's Theater production of Robin Hood. They both made the play. Hooray! They prepare and perform the play in 6 days. The kids audition on Monday, practice daily all week to learn lines, songs, and dances and perform twice on Saturday.

Matthew, Meghan, and I get to take them to rehearsals and watch the play on Saturday. I think we will have to make several playground visits this week to compensate Matthew for his lack of Joseph's companionship. It will be nice to play with just the two littlest ones for a few days. Hopefully, I will be able to get some good photos of Saturday's performance.

He's ready to go

Yesterday, Tommy shipped his luggage to the airport via Kuro Neko (Black Cat), a package delivery service. They have a desk at Narita (Tokyo's international airport) where he will pick up the bags when he arrives there on Wednesday.



I hoped it wouldn't be so hard to let him go this time, and in some ways it isn't. He is so excited about starting college that the enthusiasm is contagious. And UD does a great job of getting kids enthused. He has received a letter from his orientation group leader and a new student newsletter. He has chosen his classes for the fall, found his roommate on Facebook, and opened a Facebook page himself, since most of UD seems to be there. The t-shirt from Constantin College arrived Thursday--just in time. It is nice to see him so happy to start school.

The orientation activities, Groundhog Days, last almost a week. He will not only have the chance to meet other students, move into his dorm room, and finalize his registration, but also to attend a play (it appears to be The Complete Works of Shakespeare: Abridged), a comedy show, a scavenger hunt, and daily Mass, see a minor league baseball game, and participate in a book and movie discussion group on the subject of whether virtue can be taught. That one got him upstairs looking for Plato on the bookshelf so he could pre-read Protagoras.


Whenever we say we'll miss him or mention how many days are left until he leaves, he says "Yeah," in a sad voice, but the look on his face, well, he looks like he does in the photo above. It's hard not to be happy for him when he is so happy.

And yet, I found myself in tears after Communion this morning. Something about the bittersweet moment when I looked down the row at all eight of us there together and knew that next Sunday, he won't be.

The simple life

Thursday, I had a busy day. It was Tommy's last dinner at home, which we call the last supper. He chose Chicken Marbella for dinner and baklava for dessert. So after I nursed Meghan in the early morning, I got up, put a load of laundry in the washer, emptied the dishwasher, and started cooking. The chicken went into the marinade by 5:30 a.m. The baklava syrup was made and I had a chance to shower before Meghan's next feeding. There were a multitude of other things on my list: another load of laundry, kids at work, baklava to bake, kids to sports, a couple of emails to attend to, school book orders to finalize, a van to wash and gas up before trading with friends who needed a bigger one for a few days, and all the little things that don't ever go on the list but make my mommy days ones of joy.

When I got home from taking Katie to "mother's help" where she helps care for a friend's toddler and infant while the friend has a couple of hours to get things done around the house, I put the rice in the steamer and pre-heated the oven. I called John to be sure he could still handle the transfer of Katie from mother's help to baseball practice. He could. Meghan needed to eat, so I sat down to nurse. I was feeling very efficient. Everything on the list had been done--better yet, no one was late for anything today. Hooray!

30 minutes later, I realized that I didn't smell the dinner cooking. Aaaaakkkkk! I pre-heated the oven but never put the chicken in! Quickly, I put Meghan down and got the food into the oven. "Crisis averted," I thought, "dinner will be 30 minutes later, but I'll just have the kids
put their pjs on early and we'll still get them to bed at a reasonable hour."

7:30 p.m. Everyone is home for dinner. The table is set, drinks poured, food ready. I place the chicken on the table. Tommy asks, "It's a different color than usual. Did you change something?" Aaaaaakkkkkk! I forgot to add the brown sugar and wine to the marinade when I put the chicken in to bake! Okay, regroup. Someone took the baby. I added sugar and wine, raised the oven temp to 400, and set the timer for 15 minutes. On to night prayer, usually after dinner and before bed. Schedule rearranged again. The timer went off just as we began our petitions after prayer.

We finally did eat dinner, but the younger kids didn't get to bed until 9:30. Thank goodness it's summer and we can do that once in awhile. Meghan, who had slept beautifully all day, which helped me get through all my plans, decided that evening would be a good social time and stayed up until 12. When she finally slept, I crashed, too. Oblivious until she woke me at 5:30 a.m. to feed her.

And so began my Friday....

I tell you this not for sympathy, but because in the midst of the dinner crisis on Thursday, I felt very inadequate and especially crazy for trying to do what we do in this family. My husband and children all reassured me that it was not a big deal, and we did all get to eat dinner and sleep eventually. :-) But I felt a longing for a simpler life.

Elizabeth Foss has a lovely post on this topic today. She reminded me of the proper perspective. Give it a read.

His bags are packed

Tommy's boxes on their way down the road last Friday. He'll see them again in Dallas on or about August 28th.

The more things change....

...the more they stay the same ;)

April, 1989





May, 2008

Happy Birthday, Tommy!

Can you really be 19?!

You bring so much joy and laughter to our family. Dad and I are proud to see you using your many gifts to bring that joy to others, too.

May God grant you many years!

We love you!

Congratulations, Tommy!

He's one of ten winners (out of over 200 applicants) of Credit Union Foundation of Maryland and DC scholarships this year.

John and I truly appreciate his willingness to put in the work to apply for scholarships this spring. Every little bit helps. :-)

To read Tommy's 2nd place essay, click here and scroll down to "Voted #2 by our judges-".

Tommy update

Tommy was hired as the parish coordinator at our chapel on base. The job opened up about 2 weeks after he got home, when he was in the midst of a disheartening search for jobs he really wasn't interested in and putting in a lot of babysitting hours. So he is now a government contractor :-). He is still babysitting regularly and doing a little pet- and house-sitting as well. This gives him spending money while he saves his chapel job money to help pay for school next year.

He is also in the chorus (as both a pirate and a policeman) of the community theater production of The Pirates of Penzance, which will be performed the last two weekends in April. It's Tommy's first experience in a musical, and I think he is having fun with it. He is definitely learning a lot about choreography and working as a group on the stage--something our star actor has never needed to learn before ;-)

And he is in the process of applying for a few college scholarships. Some of these require almost as much work as college applications! But I think he is working on his last one today. Then we just have to wait and see what happens. Every little bit helps, so we hope he gets at least one.

It is nice to have him home again for a little while. John and I (and definitely Patrick) enjoy his company. The younger children like having him around to play with, and I truly appreciate his help with the driving. Especially lately, when I've been a bit more tired than usual. Things are definitely busier with another person's schedule to accommodate, but it is worth it to have a bit more time together before he goes off to UD in August.

Technical Difficulties

We haven't been able to post any photos to the blog.

Noticed that, did you?

We're very sorry. For some reason, we're having a problem with Blogger and aren't able to upload photos. Sometimes we're not even able to save posts. So for now, I've been working on writing some posts in Word that I will copy over to the blog when the image uploading issue is resolved. Katie has written at least one post, too, and is waiting to add it until she can get the photos working.

In the meantime, I'm looking into a Shutterfly account or some other way of showing you some photos from our New Zealand trip.

So what are we doing with all the spare time now that we can't blog (it hardly seems worth it if we can't put photos on here)?

--Katie got her ears pierced Saturday. I forgot the camera, but her friend's mom took a couple of photos on her camera. Hopefully, Katie will be able to share these on her blog soon)

--She is in her last weeks as a mother's helper to dear friends who are PCS-ing (moving to another location) in a few weeks. She is really going to miss helping my friend, Lauren, with her 2 and 1 year olds each week. So we'll probably be looking for another mom to lend a hand to over the next few weeks.

--Tommy now has one regular daytime babysitting job, and the potential for two more (one interview today, another probable sometime this week). With all the deployed and TDY husbands on base, a lot of moms really need a break, even if just for a couple of hours one morning a week, so it's possible he'll become very busy with this new business.

--He's also thinking of applying for a paid job at the chapel. This only came up a couple of days ago and Fr. talked to him about it on Sunday. It's an administrative job, is part-time, and it would last until he leaves in the summer, just after our new priest arrives.

--Patrick and Tommy went night sledding on base with a group of Patrick's friends Sunday night. The ski hill, which is really only used as a sledding hill, is fairly well-lit at night, so they sledded and then went to the 24-hour cafe on base for breakfast food with the group before giving some rides home and finally rolling in here around 11:30. Thank goodness it wasn't a school night. And thanks be to God for cell phones.

--We took the younger kids sledding on the ski hill on Monday. We're too old and boring for night sledding ;-) Since last year's snow was so minimal, it was the first real use Matthew got out of the beautiful sled Grandmom and Papapa gave him for Christmas/birthday last year. He looked like a little king sitting in the sled as we pushed and pulled him down and up the slope. He loved having the sides to hold onto, and I loved how stable the sled was--nice and wide and very secure for him. He wasn't nervous at all, even going down the big hill by himself. It was so much fun to have John home for the day and to get out and play with him (I have a few photos on my phone, so if I can figure out how to get them off, and if the photo upload starts working again, I'll share).

--Thanks to the generosity of my husband and eldest son, I started back with the women's Bible study at church last night. It's on Mondays, which conflicts with Boy Scouts. But I asked Tommy if he would mind alternating weeks with me (he going to scouts one week, I going to Bible study the next), and as he was agreeing, John mentioned that he doesn't need to be at the scout meeting every week, so he could take a week, too. So now, I get to go to Bible study 2 out of 3 weeks, and John and Tommy each only miss 1 out of 3 weeks, and Patrick has a ride every week. Hooray! I'm really looking forward to the study--we're using the Ignatius Study Bible to read and discuss the Gospel of Matthew. Good stuff!