Seven Quick Takes on Friday--volume 73

One.

Last Friday I started to do Seven Sick Takes on Friday, because it seems like the whole winter, and the last few weeks in particular, have been dedicated to the idols Tylenol, Motrin and Kleenex.  Gemma's strep throat or whatever it was is gone, but she has a cold.  Mild, thanks be to God.  I am well, too, and have strains of "Walking on Sunshine" running through my head.  Una had a really sore throat and a temperature for two days, but I bombarded her with vitamin C, echinacea and colloidal silver, and it was nipped in the bud.  She is right as rain, thank You, Lord.  I am sick of sickness, but it is Lent, right?  Let us just hope that when Lent is over, it's over!

Two.

What do you do when two of your kids get into a knock-down, drag-out fight and one of them is holding a grudge?  My gosh, I didn't think my kids were capable of such vitriol towards one another, and it is a bit disheartening.  Not that my kids don't fight (in this house, there is always some sort of altercation between two of them it seems), but I was shocked at the viciousness of the fight.  I am praying to St. Joseph and the Holy Family that they will help us to have peace and kindness in this household.  

 Three.

All of this is all the more disturbing as Bret prepares to go away for the weekend.  It will be his first weekend Men's Retreat, and I really want him to enjoy it and come home refreshed.  I'm offering all my inevitable sufferings for the intention of his having a really great retreat and some spiritual growth.  We all need something to spur us on  in the spiritual life, for there is no standing still; if we do not move forward, we tend to slip backward.  Let's just hope that my sufferings this weekend don't include escaped cows, plumbing disasters or emergency rooms.

Four.

It is not worth staying up late to work on knitting--not if one is at the point of nodding off.  I was so determined to get to a certain point on the baby sweater last night that I bound off the whole row rather than 40 stitches, and so this morning I had spend an hour fixing things up (I had dropped stitches to contend with as I tried to unravel the bound-off row).  Another little something to offer up, eh?

Five.

I can hear a cacophony of birdsong outside the window.  The pasture is greening, and our neighbor's cattle have many young calves.  Things are really looking springlike at this point, and I, for one, couldn't be more eager for it.  I want it to come and to last for a year.  It is time to move from our studies of space to our nature studies.  I need to go through our books and pull out our nature guides and get some ideas for spring activities and crafts.

Six.

For our St. Joseph celebrations, we will place our statue of St. Joseph in the place of honor in our dining room and keep candles lit around him today.  For dinner--since I haven't the fennel for this delightful sounding dish--I will make some sort of pasta topped with ground walnuts and breadcrumbs (to represent sawdust from St. Joseph's workshop) and we will have cream puffs for dessert--although since I am not big on pastry cream, and since we have a cow, we will fill them with sweetened whipped cream.  And we will pray this litany tonight after our Rosary.

Seven.
Just this photo.  Isn't it sweet?

Visit Jennifer at Conversion Diary to read more Seven Quick Takes on Friday, and have a great weekend!