7 Quicktakes- the Saturday Edition

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1. Really enjoyed our trip to upper Michigan last weekend. I’ve been basking in it all week long! The beautiful beaches on Lake Michigan, the perfect sunsets, the cool breeze, the long country roads. I think I could actually live there… until I start thinking about the winters!!

2. We stayed in a little cabin. We usually camp, but I figure since I only see my up-north relatives once a year, I would prefer they see me fresh and showered instead of scruffy with a funny smell. The shower was clean, but hot and very few electrical outlets. The shower wasn’t really a “shower;” more like a little stream coming from a pipe out of the wall with two temps- scalding and frigid. But it was an adventure and I think the kids will remember it.

3. My sister and I inherited a few acres up there when my mom died. It’s been in my family for a very long time. There use to be a little cottage on it but that deteriorated and disappeared a long time ago. So now there is nothing on it – except a property tax bill that soared upon transfer of the title during probate. I just think it’s ironic that in this country, land of the free, you never ever really get to own your land – not really. So as nice as it seems to have “inherited property” it’s more the case that I inherited the responsibility of paying the property taxes.

4. While we were there we caught up with my sister-in-law and her family. Back in 2002 my SIL and I were pregnant at the same time. At the age of 46, she gave birth to a lovely little girl. My baby, Raphael, was stillborn. For a long time it was hard for me to even see my little niece; seeing her made my loss so much more painful. But as time has gone by it has gotten easier. She is a delightful child and she has taken a liking to Rosie, who was born three years later – ironically when I was 46! So these two little girls are the youngest grandchildren and fast friends as well!

5. My niece will be making her first holy communion this year – which means this would have been a sacramental year for Raphael too. I’m going to have to think of a special way to honor what could have been but wasn’t.

6. While I was getting use to sleeping in the cabin, I listened to some of the talks from Cindy Rushton’s Online Homeschool set.
The main theme I got from the convention was similar to what I had heard this year at the CHEO convention – don’t do “school” at home – concentrate on natural learning and foster a love of learning and faith and family!  It was so much of what I really needed to hear! 

7. Yep – we go to church even on vacation. Here are the kids bright and early outside of Guardian Angels Catholic Church.

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