Seven Quick Takes-- celebrating Pope Francis

Joining Jen for another round of 7QT.

I have a feeling this will all be about Pope Francis!  We love you, Papa!

{one}

Wednesday morning, Maura woke up crying, "IT CAN'T BE MORNING YET!  WHY ARE YOU WAKING ME UP SO EARLY?!?!"

She hardly ever cries (only if she's sick or injured or thinking about her great grandmothers in heaven), so even though the logical part of my brain said she's probably just overtired and having trouble adjusting to the recent time change, the protective mama in me suspected that she was sick.  She had a cold (nothing serious) for a week or so, and her little brother had a fever of 102 the day before.  Surely she had caught whatever Paul had.  

I took her temp and it read 99.5-- not serious, but it could be the start of something.  I gave her some ibuprofen and took her temp after breakfast-- 100.5.  No school for Maura.

{two}

Wednesday morning was great, especially because Maura wasn't too sick.  We enjoyed a lazy morning of breakfast, homework, cartoons, and general togetherness.  I contemplated again how I would love to try homeschooling.

Then I posted this pic on Facebook.

best sick day ever


{three}

While checking out the status updates of my Facebook peeps, I noticed that Dweej shared a link to live feed of the Vatican on You Tube.  I opened it up on my computer and turned the volume WAY up.  Then I continued with my housework stopping to look for smoke every time I passed the computer.  I did this about a billion times and started thinking that there wouldn't be smoke.

And then...

I HEARD SHOUTING coming from my computer.  

It sounded JOYFUL.  

Could it be?

WHITE SMOKE!!!

Then I started screaming, "WE HAVE A NEW POPE!  WE HAVE A NEW POPE!  WE HAVE A NEW PAPA!!!"

{four}

I called my husband who was at work to tell him about the white smoke.  I wish he could have been home with us.

We immediately turned on EWTN to watch the events unfold live.  I felt so joyful to have my oldest daughter, Maura, home with me this day to share this historic event with me.  I said a little prayer of thanksgiving and wondered if this was a sign that we should try the whole homeschooling thing that I have been praying about daily.

{five}

As we waited for the announcement of who our new pope would be, I decided to start taking pictures...of us...in our living room...watching TV...because this was historic whether we were celebrating in St. Peter's Square or in the comfort of our own home.  I wanted to treasure the moment forever.

Prepare yourself for photos.

home sick

Telling her brother that we have a new pope!

feeling joyful (love that I'm wearing an apron!)

tears of joy

trying to get a picture of the three of us

look closely-- the kids are waving tissues to celebrate!  LOVE

{six}

This whole time our youngest, Paul Francis, was napping.  I thought about waking him up but felt a little silly.  He's just a baby and wouldn't understand, right?

Then he woke up.

And he was thrilled to join our celebration even if he is only 15 months old.

{seven}

And then our new pope was announced.

And I thought...Cardinal Bergoglio took the name Pope Francis?  Sounds a lot like Paul Francis.

Surely, I was just an overly enthusiastic Catholic mama, and no one else would notice.

Nope.

Mike called and started yelling, "Did you hear he chose the name, Pope Francis?  and we have a Paul Francis?!?!"

I humored Mike, but surely no one else would think it was a big deal, right?  He was just being an overly enthusiastic Catholic father, right?


Then Mike's mom texted me.

no offense, Cardinal Dolan.  Paul is a baby, and this is his grandmother talking here.  She's biased.

And then my parents called too.  Lots of excitement over here.

Did I mention we live outside San Francisco?  Surely these are signs.

{eight}

I may have posed Paul in pictures with a rubber grippy on his head that kind of looks like a zucchetto and posted them on Facebook in all of my excitement.  

Don't judge me.


For more quick takes, click here.

Theme Thursday

I've been wanting to write a post all week, but I have just been so busy.  We're trying to buy a house (more on that in a future post) which will require us to downsize from the spacious 5 bedroom we are currently renting to a modest 3 bedroom (I assume).

When I saw that Cari decided this week's photography theme was piles, I thought, oh yeah, this will be my life in still photos.

All pics taken on my iPhone with no editing because I still need to clean these piles, go to Costco, and take care of two sick toddler boys.  I'm short on time, you know?

pile of papers in my kitchen to be sorted.  ugh. paper clutter.





pile of folded laundry to be put away

every NFP family can relate-- baby stuff.  what to keep?  what to donate?  decisions, decisions.

what's keeping my boys busy while I blog?  legos.

...and blueberries

love my little guys!


Go check out more cool photography at Clan Donaldson.  Thanks for stopping by!

What I Wore Sunday--volume 10

Haven't linked up with the ladies at FLAP lately because I feel like I've been wearing the same tired outfits over and over.   Sigh.   I'm not the only one who feels that way sometimes, right?

Well today, I woke up and it was...wait for it...54 degrees! Holla! So I busted out a summer dress and a day glow sweater and went all summer brights with no tights to 8 am mass!  Because...you know...there's no better way to draw attention to my lack of parental control than wearing day glow colors to 8 am mass.  What almost three year old is singing "YOU...CAN USE...THE POTTY!" with his best outside voice in the middle of mass?  The one being wrangled by the mama dressed as Rainbow Bright...that one...right there!  See them?  Oh now the kid is yelling "JOE-SUS!" (Jesus) over and over again as they approach the altar for communion.  That woman with toddler dressed in bright orange and yellow.  You can't miss them! 

Awesome.

So here's my colorful apparel. Sorry for the poor photography and messy bedroom.  I'm hoping the poor quality of my cell's camera blurs everything juuuust enough.

 

411 on my rainbow brights--

orange shift dress-- Banana Republic (last summer)

day glow cardi-- J to the Crew (clearance!)

colorful beaded necklace-- IDK (but I like it)  :-)

 

 

Go check out all my peeps at FLAP.  Go. Now.

 

Happy Sunday.

 

 

Seven Quick Takes

Joining Jen for another edition of Seven Quick Takes.

 

{one}

 

 

This week two of my favorite bloggers reached the wow, you're famous now status in my book.  I was shocked (and then again not shocked at all because she has great style) when I saw Grace on Ain't No Mom Jeans, and then, I got all excited and realized I had no one to share the news with...because my friends don't blog...or follow blogs like I do.  Sigh. 

 

 

And then Jenny posted this.  I almost died from excitement and have read the post too many times to count.  Ridiculous amounts of Catholic awesomeness.  I bet that kiss goodbye made having to hand over all her US baby food at customs feel less awful.  I have a Catholic awesomeness permagrin that I hope never fades.  So happy for that family.

 

 

{two}

 

Talking about these two lovely ladies makes me feel the need to come right out and say, I need more Catholic friends.  Every time I get excited about something Catholic and share it on Facebook, it usually doesn't get a reaction (except from Dweej--thanks girl!) and that makes me feel...deflated?  I mean, doesn't anyone else think saint magnets are cool?  sigh.

 

 

Pity party moving on.

 

 

{three}

 

Updates on the kids.

 

Mike's mom has a friend who lives in Ireland who always sends the most amazing belated Christmas gifts.  The Christmas after Maura was born, she knit her this amazing sweater (shown below on Paul), and I'm so glad she chose a gender neutral color instead of pink because all three kids have gotten a lot of use out of it.  It is just lovely.

 

 

disregard the text-- this is from an old post

 

 

 

A few days ago, the doorbell rang, and I was pleasantly surprised (and a little jealous) when we opened the box and saw this gift.

 

 

 

 

 I am not embarrassed at all to admit that I tried the cape on myself, but sadly it didn't fit.  Total bummer because I was hoping to rock that cape with some skinnies in a future WIWS post.

 

 

{four}

 

Ever since this post, my family has been slightly obsessed with the Harlem Shake.  Not only do we love watching the videos online, but we've found it's the perfect get your butt out of bed and get ready for work/school/endless laundry and diaper changes song.  Griffin has even started singing his own version of the song which goes something like "da da E- TA!" and then he continues to make his best techno sounds.

 

 

{five}

I know I am biased, but Paul has been rocking the most adorable baby faux hawk-- so much curly, red hair on top and in the back and totally bald on the sides.

future punk rocker for sure

time for a haircut?

 

{six}

 

 

So Mike and I are rethinking Maura's school situation for next year, but I have lots of questions, concerns, anxieties.  Why can't this parenting thing be easy?  Her current Catholic school is nice but... doesn't seem academically challenging enough for her.  Maybe it will get better next year? 

We went to an open house last night at a Classical Christian school that we loved (curriculum & teachers seem great) but when we spoke to the director about the religious part of the program (which is about an hour every day), she described it as "Orthodox Protestant" stating that  they follow the Westminster catechism... so we have some concerns about whether learning about a different faith would be confusing at such a young age (5).  It's disappointing since we really liked the school. 

And then there's always homeschooling but... I'm scared to try it with two very little boys at home.  Decisions, decisions.  I'd love to hear your thoughts.  Leave me a comment?  What would you do?  help!

 

 

{seven}

 

 

Paul is crying gotta go.

 

 

Go check out more 7QT at Jen's.