7-Quick Takes

Join Jen and the other Quicktakers over at the Conversion Diary.

1. Busy weekend ahead – Mr. Pete and I do our annual Pre-Cana talk and this year we have a digital video recorder and I’ll be able to put it right here on my blog! Kind of excited about that although I have never done video before. Sam is going to come along and be our “video tech.”

2. Sunday I play for mass again. Debating about whether or not to have that recorded as well. Maybe just the audio.

3. Monday is the last confirmation preparation talk at church for Gabriel. He will be confirmed next month. This year our pastor and youth minister have taken over the preparation of the confirmation candidates and I think they have done the best job ever. This is my third kid to go through confirmation preparation and this is the first time that I have felt as if the meetings were actually helpful.

4. We have also been reading A Philadelphia Catholic in King James’s Court in preparation for confirmation. Since Noah is in 6th grade I’ve been having him read it with us too. It’s a Catholic novel about a teenager who goes to live in the bible belt for a few months after his father died. He learns his Catholic faith on a deeper level as he is challenged by his anti-Catholic relatives on issues like Mary and the papacy. It’s an engaging read.

5. Calvin is moving out next weekend. I dunno… I hate it but at the same time I think it’s time. He just seems bigger than the house and sometimes he speaks inappropriately in front of his younger siblings. I think if he gets on his own he’ll appreciate the home he had a little more. We have decided though that Sunday dinner is always going to be at 2 p.m. on Sunday and hopefully we can always touch base with each other then. He says he is looking forward to that. I hope it works out.

6. On the tail end of this estate stuff for my mom. It’s been very stressful but I have learned a lot as well. But I can’t believe how much was left up to chance. I just happened to find a copy of my mom’s will and my sister and I found out about her financial picture in a willy nilly way. I think we have both determined that we want to be more organized with our own stuff before we pass. It was interesting to me also that the probate courts really don’t want to work with you – they prefer working with attorneys. One of the clerks basically told me that if I didn’t want an attorney I would have to research and find out what forms I needed because she wasn’t going to tell me. I’ve been fortunate in that I have had two good attorneys but of course there were costs involved as well.

7. Need a cemetery plot in Michigan? My sister and I have 5 of them all next to each other. When my grandparents bought their plots they bought one for my mom and then two each for me and my sister. Since we have no intention of being buried there and since mom made other arrangements, we have these left over. I guess when this is all over with I’ll put them on eBay!

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