1. Last week we went Christmas Caroling at a nursing home with the homeschool kids. My kids were the oldest ones there – I don’t know what happened to that age group!! But we lead the singing and I think it was good for the younger kids to be with the older ones. I hope the senior citizen residents enjoyed it too.
Proof positive that if you tell the older kids that lunch will be immediately following – you can get them to come along and sing in public with little kids!
2. I have been dazzled by my oldest son. He is so much more confident and self-assured than I was at his age.
He believed that one of his employers was somehow not giving him his complete pay and that he was getting docked incorrectly for clean up. He started documenting his times with his phone and toll road receipts as well as documenting that he was doing his clean up. When he was confronted about it, he had his documentation and he stood his ground. My 22-year-old self would have folded like a house of cards. So he got his full pay and he is still working there as well as going to school. I’m pretty proud of him.
3. Lessons and carols was last week – and it was pretty successful with around 400 people attending. Izzy and Rosie as well as their friend T, did a great job. My older boys (who refused to be photographed for this blog post!!!) did great too.
4. I had two weddings this weekend and I was so nervous about them! To re-cap- my year as a wedding rehearsal/sexton has not been the best. (Two different moms yelling at me, uncooperative ushers, tight scheduling with three weddings in one weekend and no where to put the rehearsals, a couple that didn’t bring their license to the church!) So these weddings made me anxious. To the point that my stomach started hurting on Wednesday and by Friday morning I wasn’t sleeping. But we had the weddings today and I was complimented by several people about how smoothly everything went. No one yelled at me too so that’s a plus. If all of them went as well as these two that really would be a blessing!
5. Spent a lot of time this week congratulating President Obama and his administration for supporting the ban on Plan B back up birth control being available to minors. Long time readers know I’m not a big fan of this pregnancy – but when he gets one right, I will be the first one to say so.
For me the issue is this – I am legally responsible and liable for my teenage child. I can be arrested or sued for my child’s medical well-being. So how exactly am I supposed to uphold that responsibility of the kid can go into the Walgreen store and buy a potent hormonal contraceptive like this? It boggles the mind.
6. I also spent some time defending the Duggar’s decision to share beautiful photography of their stillborn daughter, Jubilee Shalom, at the memorial service. You can see the two photos here and they are not offensive, but very sweet and artistic. I know Michelle Duggar is not Catholic, but there was nothing she said in her letter to Jubilee that I didn’t think or feel 9 years ago when I lost my own baby. I think the way they handled the situation and the memorial was very well thought out and will serve as a template for other couples who go through this type of sorrow in the years ahead.
A framed picture of my stillborn son Raphael that I keep with other family pictures- here behind a framed photo of my grandparents who are also deceased.
7. We have never really celebrated St. Lucy’s feast day before, but this year I thought Rosie was old enough and she wanted to do it. So we made some sweet rolls, she got dressed up and delivered them to the household.
Rosie surprising her brother with fresh baked goods in the morning!
