Sharing Some News and A Story About Grandpa

I haven't talked about this yet, because it's hard and it's not my story to share, but with permission here it goes...

My wonderful dad, 81 years young, was diagnosed with Pulmonary Fibrosis earlier this fall.  You can read more about the disease here.  Sadly, his brother, Tom, and my mom's brother, Jack, both died of this same disease a few years ago and although my dad doesn't have a specific prognosis yet, he has started needing oxygen and gets out of breath quickly just doing normal activities.  The doctors have put him on an immunosuppressant because his symptoms seems to be progressing quickly and they are hoping that maybe this can slow the progress.  Because of the immunosuppressant, neither he nor my mom are able to leave the house, for fear of catching any viruses, and visitors need to be masked and stay socially distanced.  Luckily, we live above my parents condo and can help them with errands and visit with them often.  My siblings all do likewise and it certainly shows the blessings of having a large family in times like these.  I'm sharing this to ask for prayers for my dad and also because I recalled an essay that JP had submitted last year for a college scholarship.  The essay was to be written about an Irish American Who Made a Difference and to be honest, we wrote it together because he didn't know the full story (I would have felt slightly guilty if he had won the scholarship but he didn't) so without further ado...the story of our favorite Irish American...

What My Irish-American Grandpa Has Taught Me

By: John-Paul Martin

My grandfather, John Sweeney, immigrated to America from Letterkenny, Donegal in 1960.  As he likes to tell the story, he had $50 in his pocket, hopes of a better future in his mind, and the love of a girl in his heart.  

John was born the twelfth child to Andrew and Jeannie Sweeney on July 9, 1940.  Andrew was a gardener and Jeannie stayed home to take care of all the children.  Money was always tight, food was simple, and personal space was scarce.  John grew up sharing a bed with three of his brothers and attended trade school in order to start working young.  When John was 17 he left Ireland and moved to Scotland hoping to apprentice with a ship building company but was unsuccessful.  Instead, he worked as a conductor on a double decker bus before moving back home where he was able to find work as a welder in a foundry.

One evening, John attended a dance and saw the most beautiful girl in the world, Maggie Kane.  Maggie’s parents had lived in Donegal, moved to America where she was born, and then back to Ireland.  Maggie had stayed in America to live with an Aunt and finish her schooling as a nurse.  She was back in Ireland to visit with her family for the summer.  John couldn’t take his eyes off of her and asked her to dance multiple times before she finally agreed.  He fell in love with Maggie but learned she was already spoken for, having an American fiancé back in Massachusetts.  Maggie returned home to her life, and John quickly decided he was going to move to America to start building homes with his brother Tom, who had already immigrated a few years earlier.

John and Tom Sweeney

Counting Down and Counting My Blessings

 Happy St. Lucy's Feast Day!  

Five years ago today, Phil met our puppy for the first time.  She was a 4 month old Goldendoodle named Lady and we had been searching for almost a year to find her.  We were not allowed to rescue a dog because at the time we had a baby, a cat and a backyard not fenced in.  Yes, better to leave a dog in a shelter without a loving home than to give it to a family that *gasps* has to walk the dog on a leash instead of opening their back door.  

Much better than a fenced-in backyard.

I shouldn't be bitter that we were denied a rescue, because we ended up with the bestest purebred doggy in all the land, renamed her Lucy Doodle Martin, and surprised the kids on Christmas Eve.  Lucy's the kind of dog that makes you never want to get another dog because it would only be downhill.

****************

At my new job (how long can one consider a job "new"? Is it as long as losing the baby weight - Nine months on, nine years off?) we have been playing the 10 Days of Christmas, where every workday between last week and this week, there has been a fun activity planned, such as a cookie swap, a wine exchange, a crazy sock day, etc.  We also are each assigned a day to bring in a small gift for our coworkers' stockings...so every day I get a gift added to my stocking and we will open them at the Christmas Luncheon at the end of this week.  We don't have to participate, because every holiday party has a Scrooge, but why wouldn't I?  So fun!

****************

This weekend, I made Hawaiian Fried Chicken, after catching an episode of Cook's Country.  Instead of flour, you use Potato Starch so it's gluten free and super crispy and delish!  I sang Mele Kalikimaka while cooking, of course.  We doubled the recipe and used 2 lbs. of chicken breasts and 2 lbs. of chicken thighs and the breasts won in my family's taste preferences.  I guess we know what kind of men I am raising.

****************

And finally, JP is home for Christmas break!  We are all under one roof again and it truly is the most wonderful time of the year.  I hope you all are feeling it too.

Seven Christmas Songs I Will Always Love and Two I Will Always Hate

First up, my favorite Christmas songs of all time, in order:

 

And I will change the station if these songs come on.  

They should be called "Mary Did You...NO!" and "The Christmas BLUES"

Hey, every Christmas needs a Grinch :)

Week (and Weekend) in Review: Scratch Tickets, St. Francis and St. Nick, and Christmasy Things

Phil made me this unique Christmas Countdown Calendar...with a scratch ticket and a biblical quote for each day in December leading up to Christmas!

You know what they say, a scratch ticket a day keeps me merry and gay!  But like, the old-fashioned Christmas-song meaning of gay.

 Friday was the Feast of St. Francis Xavier which happens to be the patron saint of our children's Pre-8 school.  This year they debuted a new mascot named Frankie the Rebel!  

The school's team name has always been The Rebels...and they are using it in a positive Catholic way.  To be a rebel means to become a saint by rebelling against the world's temptations to focus on heaven's wonders.  So yeah, Go Rebels!

The 14th Birthday of Maggie Rose and the 1st Reconciliation of Declan Kolbe

Maggie in the Middle turned FOURTEEN!  She also had her first basketball game of the season at 8pm that night, hence the outfit choice :)

We started the day with a birthday donut, then she arrived at school to find her best friend's mom had decorated her locker.  Her best friend was home quarantining but her mom is the principal of their school, and I just think it's so sweet that she went in early to decorate Maggie's locker for her.

For her birthday dinner, she chose Thai peanut chicken over coconut rice and mint brownies and peppermint ice cream for dessert.

I specialize in ugly but tasty birthday desserts - ha!

Turkey Talk and Other Tidbits

I forgot to even talk about Thanksgiving break - whoops!  

On Thanksgiving morning, I took JP and Maggie to a Boot Camp class that we love and the instructor had us do a fun Thanksgiving workout.  There were parts of a turkey (made from construction paper, not from a real turkey, that would be gross) lined up on the floor on one side of the gym.  We were put in groups on the other side of the huge gym and each group had to build a turkey using a body, ten feathers, two feet, two eyes, a nose and a gizzard.  You built the turkey by having one teammate sprint across the gym, pick up a piece, sprint back and then the whole team performed 10 of the exercises written on the paper.  While said teammate was sprinting across the gym, the other teammates were either planking or wall-sitting.  Once you performed the exercise 10 times, a different teammate would sprint and get a new paper while the others planked or wall-sat...and on and on until you built a turkey.

That took about 18 minutes, so then we had to do the same thing to build another turkey except this time we would sprint across the gym, pick a piece of paper, and give it to another team who had to complete the exercise.  That round was a lot more fun and I thoroughly enjoyed handing out burpees and pushups to the opposing teams.  Delivered with an evil cackle of course :)

The littles were thrilled when we brought home turkey bits for them to craft together - a win win.

Phil worked the chains at our Catholic high school's football game that morning, and our team got killed.  BUT!  The opposing Catholic high school literally has ex-Patriots players (hello Teddy Bruschi!) as coaches.  So, to be expected.