Week in Review: It's Gonna Be May

 Happy Friday!  Happy May 1!

I still have one or two Bermuda posts to put together for the blog book's sake, but life marches on and there's plenty of other things happening that I don't want to forget.

At Phil's high school, they had a department dress-alike day, so his theology department suggested dressing as The Cottage Crew:

Cottage Crew for Christ

JP has been very busy out in Pittsburgh, between wrapping up his first year of studies, his med school formal...

Handsome and young future docs

... and all of his volunteering opportunities, like giving eye exams through Eyes on Wheels (a free mobile health clinic) and at the Special Olympics:

He also has spent time helping at Red Door Ministries, which provides meals to the homeless and at the Neighborhood Resilience Project, which is a free primary care clinic.  Plus he got to spend a day volunteering with Envision Blind Sports, which he said was so cool and was thoroughly impressed with the athletes!

JP in light gray shirt

Bermuda Cruise: Bermuda Days!

When we arrived in Bermuda on Monday around lunchtime, we had to wait a little while to get off the boat as we were the first group to start the New York to Bermuda circuit (something about customs and clearing blah blah blah).  We were very eager to get off the ship because rain was due around 2pm and we wanted to explore as much as we could.  Around 1:30, we were able to leave the ship and walk around the wharf area, where there are some shops and restaurants.  We then continued walking for a mile to end up at Glass Beach, where there's tons of sea glass all over the shore.  Bermuda is very strict about not letting anyone remove sea glass or sand from their beaches, but otherwise we would have filled a jar with this stuff.  You can see the storm clouds rolling in, but we had a chance to look around for awhile and walk back to the ship as the showers started.

You can see trash buried under the trees as the shore erodes

All of the males enjoyed skipping rocks:

Bermuda Cruise: From New York to The Sea

Ahoy! 

 We are back on American soil after last week's cruise, and it was so much fun!  I have always been adamant that I would never go on a cruise - partly because I was afraid of getting seasick, partly because I have watched documentaries where terrible things have happened on cruise ships, and partly because I have a *touch* of claustrophobia/agoraphobia where being stuck on a ship makes me very anxious. 

But!  

Since I began working at my current job, I have a coworker who cruises multiple times a year and has slowly assuaged all of my fears through her experiences and tips.  

Also!  

Everytime I try to plan a vacation, even though it's great to get away, I have to assume the role (with Phil's help) of Entertainment Director, Head Chef, House Cleaner...which is not so much of a vacation for the parents.  An all-inclusive vacation was sounding better and better, my anxieties have only gotten better through prayer and exposure therapy, and we decided to use my supplemental income from this semester (teaching online courses) to splurge on a big family vacation.  

We had originally thought we would go next year for our 25th anniversary, but then realized that Maggie would be in college and wouldn't be able to go (we can only go on vacations during our school breaks, not the college breaks and not in the summer because of The Cottage) and we wanted to include her if we could, so we made it happen for this spring break.  I am so glad we did!

We booked a Norwegian cruise from New york to Bermuda on their one-year old ship, the Aqua.  Phil and I had a balcony room, and the kids shared an interior room, which was tight but we really only slept in the rooms so it was fine.  Phil and I woke up on Saturday morning, went to an early spin class at the gym, showered and grabbed everybody to head out to New York.  We had mostly packed the car the night before, and needed to drop off Lucy at the doggy daycare on the way.

We definitely overpacked because the weather looked cool

Lucy seemed to do great at the boarding place (a first for us!) and they posted daily photos on Facebook that we could check on her each day.

Is Lucy the alpha?

She hung out with this cute dog a lot

We arrived in Manhattan around 2pm, parked at our reserved spot at the pier, and headed out to explore the city on foot for a couple hours...

When we had been looking up cruise itineraries, we kept NOT choosing a particular cruise because we realized that we wouldn't be able to attend Mass on Sunday (typically a day at sea).  God provided this perfect cruise that was from Saturday to Saturday of our school vacation week AND it didn't leave port until 10pm at night, which seems unheard of in the cruising world, when ships leave port around 4pm typically.  This gave us time to go to a Saturday Vigil Mass in Manhattan and then catch an uber to the ship and board around 5:30pm.  There were no lines at all going through boarding, which I mentioned to one of the agents who replied "You came at just the right time!  It was chaos in here earlier."  It was a nice little God-wink that we did the right thing :)

Shrine of the Holy Innocents

The 16 minute Uber ride in NY was one of the scariest rides of our lives.  He was a great driver, but dang that New York traffic and people all over the place, with all the honking and aggressive driving was a real NY experience!  We may just walk next time.  

Week in Review: A Piano Competition, A Running Race and A Confirmation in Christ

Happy Friday!  

Last Saturday was a busy day for the Martins.  Brendan had his annual piano competition up near Boston, to which Phil brought him.  He played his song to his best ability in the Non-Classical 9 & 10 year old group...

... and he won FIRST PLACE!  We are still waiting for his trophy because it was a two-day event and the award ceremony didn't take place until the next day.  We will get it somehow!

While Phil and Brendan were piano-ing, the rest of us were either running or volunteering at the school's first 5k race:

Runner, Volunteer, Volunteer, Runner

The Ice Cream Cottage was a sponsor, so we showed up in full force :)

JP's Guatemala Fundraiser

JP has been chosen as a Walk it Forward Scholar and will participate in a mission to Guatemala in September 2026!  

We are so proud of him, as it was a competitive process to be selected, and he will be on a team that will help so many people in need.  The planned surgical schedule is as follows:

63 patients total - the biggest number in the program's history

87 hip and knee replacement surgeries, including:

15 bi-lateral knee replacements

32 unilateral knee replacements

9 bi-lateral hip replacements

7 unilateral hip replacements

JP needs to raise $1000 towards the cost of the mission trip.  

If you are able, you can click on this link to donate and please be sure to include JP Martin's name as the Scholar you are supporting.  He also very much appreciates if you can share the link and especially for your prayers for a safe and successful trip.  

Thank you!

Easter 2026

Good Friday in my house growing up meant we could not talk from 12-3, but EWTN was allowed to play on the tv.  In our house now, Good Fridays are spent cleaning walls and cabinets from 12-2ish before we get ready to go to the 3pm service at our church.  It's a much needed chore that everyone hates, so it's a perfect Good Friday event!  They put on smiles for the pictures, but just imagine lots of grumblings and whining while I kept reminding everyone that JESUS DIED ON THE CROSS AND THIS IS THE LEAST WE CAN DO in a very mindful, very demure way of course.

Phil was still in painting mode:

Maggie had some friends over on Friday night to watch the Passion of the Christ movie, and I felt weird not serving snacks because being hospitable is in my Irish DNA, but there's not much to serve on a fast day.  They were up really late which meant I was up really late, and that was a perfect last few hours of suffering for Lent WHICH IS THE LEAST I COULD DO SINCE JESUS DIED FOR ALL MY SINS, I kept reminding myself.  

I don't know what we did on Holy Saturday, besides a long run and a last piano lesson before this weekend's competition.  We picked out Easter outfits for the next day because we attended 8am Mass at our beautiful church:

Nobody liked how they looked, but we can't exactly go back and recreate it.

Maggie saw all of the pretty flowers and whispered "this is how I want the church to look on my wedding day" to which my money-saving brain replied "then you should get married right after Easter".