Week in Review: One Thing Leads to Another & Kentucky Concerts & Answered Prayers

Happy Friday!

April Fool's ;)

It's only Wednesday but I figured I better get this week's post written out before the Holy Week activities start.

Last Friday night, Declan and Brendan participated in the Living Stations at our church.  There was one scene that had both Joseph (Declan) and Simeon (Brendan):

The next day we went to the Palm Sunday vigil, and I thought our church looked so nice and tastefully decorated:

Remember how Phil has been painting the baseboards and trim in our house?  Welp, as these things go, once that job was done, the doors looked a little dull and dingy, so those were his next project.  Luckily we still have a couple of kids he can Tom Sawyer into helping:

Maggie is always go, go, going (moms of seniors feel me on this) and over the weekend, she volunteered at her high school's gala, had a movie night with friends, hung out with a friend the next day, got her prom dress altered, went to the gym,  filled out scholarship applications, took her brothers to play pickleball, worked on a theology project...and then complained about how tired she was.  Umm yeah.

Maggie and Haley

Principal + Former Students

Maggie and Maggie

Prom preview!

Pickleball Pals

Her teacher (Dad) let her present at home, and I'm pretty sure she got an A

Andrew told me he was going to a Jon Pardi concert with some friends on Friday night.  When I went to text him on Friday, I could see from his location that he was in.......Kentucky.

Me: Andrew, are you in Kentucky??

Andrew: Yeah, I told you I was going to a concert!

Silly me, I thought the concert would be in Pittsburgh, not five hours away from campus.  

He said it was a great time, and that I was allowed to introduce my blog readers to Karolina, his beautiful girlfriend:

Aren't they so cute?  We love her already and haven't even met her in person!

JP took the weekend to visit his college friends in Michigan, which put three pieces of my heart in OH, MI and KY:

Let's see some of our eats this week:

Smashburger Bic Mac Tacos - these were sooooo good on low-carb wraps with thousand island dressing instead of making the sauce in the recipe.

Easy Chicken Stir Fry - I didn't eat this one but the kids did, then left it out and the dog got some too :(

Slow Cooker French Dip Sandwiches - another crowd pleaser, though some of the kids prefer American cheese over provolone.

I delivered Easter "baskets" to the big boys, done the easiest way by having groceries delivered to them.  Eamon took a picture of some of his treats (I was sad that the Easter chocolates I had picked out were out of stock at delivery time):

 

And finally, I have to give God the glory of some answered prayers.  

We had been stressing about a number of financial hardships that popped up all at once, and one by one they have been solved.  My van was able to be fixed so that we didn't have to buy another car. Declan's orthodontist offered him (actually insisted when we told him that we didn't think we qualified anymore) the same discounted braces rate that he gave our last two kids. And we just found out that Franciscan adjusted our FAFSA to show a lot more financial need after I had applied for a Professional Judgement.  Now the three college kids will be eligible for more grants and outside scholarship money. 

We are so incredibly thankful and a little embarrassed for the financial whining.  I can always look back and see how God has provided, sometimes very obviously, sometimes through an extra job offer, sometimes a "no" that leads to a better opportunity...so why don't I have 100% trust that it will keep happening in the future?  Mea culpa.  Practicing Catholic, indeed.