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.