Monday Musings--28 November 2011

Right now...nearly 7:00 a.m. and nasty and rainy...ick
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This weekend...was lovely.  We had a really nice Thanksgiving, the weather having turned mild and breezy just in time for my mom, sister, brother-inn-law, three nephews and one niece to come over.  The meal was wonderful and it was just nice to hang out together.

Friday was just a rather lazy day, except that I spent too much time on the laptop looking for some Black Friday deals.  Being very low-tech and not into electronics, nothing on my shopping list was on sale!  I did get a good bit of knitting on Adrian's sweater done, however.

On Saturday, Bret went to do some work on the new house and dropped Una off at the library.  It is rather a disappointing library; of the six or seven history books I asked her to look up, our library had none of them.  It's very frustrating for the home schooling mom!  I made butter, baked a couple of loaves of whole wheat bread and made two suppers--beef soup for Saturday's dinner and a noodle dish to bring to Mass on Sunday.  I spent some time doing a little crafting: since I keep the thermostat down at 55 degrees at night, it can be pretty chilly slipping between the covers, so I made each of the kids a big rice pack/heating pad.  I got one from a lovely Canadian artist during a swap some time ago, and I absolutely love using it to warm up the bed!  Yes, it took about 20 lbs of rice to make them all, but it was cheap rice and likely genetically modified, so I figure it was the best use for it!  Then I trimmed bangs on three boys and bathed a couple little ones and showered myself.

Sunday was chilly and rainy.  We went to the Latin Mass in Horse Cave, KY.  It isn't at a very good time--noon, and it takes an hour to get there.  Gemma usually is pretty much in need of a nap by the time Mass begins, and everyone is ravenous when Mass is over!  So we ate our meal in the parish hall and socialized a bit before heading home.  At home we celebrated the first Sunday of Advent with our usual lighting of the candle on our [yet undecorated] wreath and ate many cookies while listening to Christmas music.  I have such a large selection on CD, but the player is kaput, and so we made do with Pandora Radio on the computer!  Afterwards, I played a few rounds of Crazy Eights with Sebastian and Gabriel, and then we finished the evening with two episodes of The Waltons on DVD.

Some plans for the week:  Busy week!  We have school work to do, I've a birthday cake to bake and gifts to wrap for Gabriel's 9th birthday on Wednesday; I have some more covers to make for the rice pack/heating pads; I need to decorate our wreath before next Sunday, and I ought to get at least one or two batches of cookie dough into the freezer for the Great Christmas Baking Frenzy.

If I can find some time for myself, I would like to...well, it is unlikely that I'll have any time this week, but I would like to play around with some yarn and Kool-Aid dyes...this book is making me crazy!

I am grateful for...a really good sleep last night!

Some special prayer intentions for the week:  good weather and smooth sailing so that the new house can be framed this week!  An increase in the theological virtues and greater zeal for God and His kingdom during this Advent season (and a few more sales in the Etsy shop so that I can start saving for a new CD player would be very nice, too!).

Something that makes me smile:  a little bit of progress

This will be the view from my bedroom...one day!

   

Please feel free to join in with your own Monday Musings!  Just grab the header image for your own post and link back here; if you want, you can leave a link to your post in the comments.  Have a great week!