Week in Review: Michigan Fall Break, Pray While You Play, and the Never Ending Chess Game

Happy Friday from a week that felt very long and tiring, could it be the time change?  Or the full moon?  Or the windy nights that kept me awake?  How are you all handling it?

Last weekend, the college boys had their fall break and ended up in Michigan split up between friend houses and had so.much.fun.  I am so grateful to these families who just welcome in a bunch of their son's college friends for four days.  They sent me these photos:

Andrew said they went to the arcade, which I thought was an arcade, but was actually a casino.

JP was also in Michigan for the weekend, visiting his newlywed friends (he was in their wedding party back in August):

Some huge mall in Michigan!

On Halloween, we met up with friends and the dads and kids went trick-or-treating while the moms and Maggie stayed with the baby, and the teen boys built a fire and handed out candy.  Fun for all and all for fun!

Future Mama Extraordinaire

The next day included a Spin Class for Phil and I (we woke up at 7:48 am and the class started at 8 am...so we missed the first five minutes!) and Declan's last soccer game of the season (an undefeated season for him!) and Brendan's swim meet in the afternoon.  I brought a Box of Joe for concessions and then hid while they were looking for timers.  It worked.  We were able to rush to a different church to make it to the Vigil Mass, where Brendan's piano teacher plays, so that was fun!

On All Soul's Day, after much prompting from Brendan all week, we headed out to the local cemetery to walk/scooter around and pray for the dead, especially for the poor souls who have nobody to pray for them.  It is a very beautiful cemetery:

More playing then praying

Someone recently asked me if we made homecooked family dinners every night, to which I almost responded "uh duh" because my inner spirit is sassy, but honestly how else would we feed our family each night?  Martin Family Meals for Nine, Eight, Seven, Six are a daily occurrence because we all like to eat.  In all honesty, Phil has taken over the meal planning and most of the cooking this school year, partly because he's home from work an hour before I get home, and partly because he's the nicest and wanted to take something off my mentally burdened plate.  He tried a couple new recipes this week (we are currently  eating gluten-free and sugar-free after Halloween):

Coconut Lime Chicken with rice and roasted broccoli:

My favorite was these Mexican Shredded Beef tacos on homemade corn tortillas (finally using a Christmas gift from Phil's sister) with a side of mexican street corn:

In case you think we are always gourmet - nope!  This week was also pasta + meatballs, grilled chicken over salad, a leftover "smorgasbord" night, and tonight will be pizza!  

Maggie was selected to attend a Sportsmanship Summit at Gillette Stadium with a couple other "good sports" from her high school:

Declan and Brendan are in a Chess Club at their school, and Declan has been playing the same game against his friend for 3 weeks.  I don't play chess, so I don't know if they're both really good or both really bad, but they can't seem to wrap it up!

I can wrap up this post though!  Have a great weekend everyone!