Week in Review: St. Patty's Celebrating, Almost Dating, Game Winning and Grateful Healing

Happy St. Patty's Day to ye!  Our Bishop gave a dispensation to allow us to eat meat on this Friday in Lent and while I think that says a lot about how weak we are, I will indeed be indulging in the meats to celebrate my Irish heritage.  But not corned beef, nope, blech, ick.  

I wore my lucky sneakers to work today (dress down day!) that I wore when I ran my last half-marathon on St. Patty's Day.

We will be having homemade Shamrock Shakes for dessert, following this recipe:

And remember, even if you're not 100% Irish like me:

We are known for our hospitality after all!

JP has been home this week and it's so nice to chat with him each evening.  He's working 33 hours this week at the grocery store which has been great for his wallet.  I took this photo in the car on the way to the gym one morning.  It's so fun to have a bunch of kids to work out with.  I used to bring them to the gym daycare to play while I worked out and now they workout next to me.  Gosh I really like and love my kids.  Well, most of them, most of the time ;)  

Last Saturday night there was the Spring Fling dance at the high school.  Eamon asked the girl he's been "talking" with all school year to go with him.  He bought a tie to match her dress and we brought him over to her parent's house to take some photos and meet each other. 

 Eamon is verrrrrry close to getting his license and has had a job since the age of 14, so they will be dating soon.  I don't love the whole dating stage of teenage parenting, and we've been very lucky to not have to deal with it much so far.  JP dated a girl his senior year of high school that lived far away so that was perfect, and then is dating his current girlfriend in college.  Andrew had the pandemic through much of his high school career which made dating impossible (a bright side!) and decided for himself that he wanted to wait until college to date.  So Eamon will be our first highschooler to have a local girlfriend.  He is such a good kid and she seems like such a good kid so I think it will be okay, but if I could spare anyone the heartbreak that surely accompanies dating, I would.  This is the part where I have to remember that I am raising them to let them go.

Maggie did not attend the Spring Fling because she had to wake up at 5:30 the next morning (plus Daylight Savings!) to go to a volleyball tournament an hour away.  On their last game, they were behind 24-16 (25 points wins) and it was Maggie's turn to serve.  Phil looked at me and said "Well she just needs to serve ten aces" and we chuckled.

But then she served a few aces in a row, and we looked at each other like "what is happening?" because she is a very consistent server but why was the other team not able to return it all of a sudden?  She just kept serving and serving and boom they won 26-24!!  Everybody went nuts for that comeback!

We've had a sick feverish Brendan home all week which means missed days of school for him and missed days of work for us.  Times like these always make me wish I was a SAHM or at least a WAHM because the struggle to decide who will use a sick day is real.  I think he finally turned the corner this morning since being on antibiotics for bronchitis.

Sick but still shmizing for the camera.

Happy news for my brother-in-law posted on his GoFundMe:

Got some good news to share today...Will is coming home! He got his neck brace off and is cleared to rehab at home until his surgeries. He will continue with Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy. After almost a month of being in the hospital since the accident, Maura and the kids are so happy to have their family back together. Will still has a long road to recovery, including surgeries, but this is a great step in the right direction. The whole Manning family are so grateful for everyone's generosity during this difficult time.

 Have a wonderful St. Patrick's and St. Joseph's celebrating weekend everyone!!  

Gaelic and Garlic just like my kids :)