All Saints Day 2020

Because All Saints Day is on a Sunday this year, the kids' P-8 school had them dress as saints today, so may I introduce you to...

Pope Saint John Paul II, pray for us.

Saint Francis of Assisi, pray for us.

Saint Padre Pio, pray for us.

Saint Therese of Lisieux, pray for us.

Blessed Carlo Acutis, pray for us.

All you holy men and women of God, pray for us.  We need it!!

 Have a wonderful weekend everybody, it's the last one before the election and I can't wait for all of that to be over!  Just remember, we are all called to be saints and Jesus wins in the end :)

7QT: The Good Stuff

 It's easy to despair lately.  A pandemic that has been going on for seven months.  An upcoming election with two candidates who make me feel a little nervous and embarrassed for our country.  So much hatred and fighting on social media that makes me wonder what happened to social decency.  Canceled events, missed sports, increase in COVID testings, people out of work, depressed, lonely, and scared.  It's been too long and too much and I just need to link up with Kelly and keep focusing on the positives, such as...

1)

Watching Judge ACB during her senate hearings.  She's awesome and composed and this made me laugh a little too hard:

2)

Alexander started back up with piano lessons again, and his instructor pulled out his accordion and had Xander play a little song on the keyboard while he worked the rest of the accordion.  Xander seemed very interested in learning to play, but geesh that instrument is heavy and looks really complicated to learn!  Anyone have an old accordion laying around?

7QT: Forty, Foodie, Family

It's Friday!  Signing up with Kelly for Seven Quick Takes...

1) 

Phil turned FORTY last weekend!

I told him we were going out to dinner and then surprised him with a party at home.  He was indeed surprised...and I was happy to be done with the lies and deceit.  

I got food from a delicious barbecue restaurant near us, added a few homemade things, and we literally ate it for three dinners in a row.  If you come to our house, we will always have too much food, but hey it's better than too little!  Thanks be to God.

There is an upscale bakery where I ordered his Reese's cake from, as well as an assortment of cupcakes, and they were so tasty!  I'm not a big cake/cupcake fan, but this cake won me over.

He got some great gifts (even if they were wrapped in apple bags!) and the working boys bought him scratch tickets which he won a little moolah on.  All in all, it was a great covid birthday.  I realized that if these COVID rules go through March, everyone on the planet will have had a COVID birthday.  We will all have a lot of real celebrating to do once it (ever?) ends.

If A Clean Floor Thrills You As Much As It Does Me...

 ...then do I have 2 suggestions for you!

I saw that GoCleanCo had recommended this brand, and we have been dragging our feet too long on getting a vacuum that works well, so I took the plunge and added this guy to our family:

Guys, I vacuumed the carpets with our old vacuum that morning and then the new one was delivered, so I wanted to test it out.  Look what it pulled up from three rugs THAT HAD ALREADY BEEN VACUUMED A FEW HOURS EARLIER!!

Mind blown.  

We really needed a new vacuum.

Also, since it's a Prime Day lightning deal right now, and I love this mop with my whole heart (easy to wring out! no bending over! throw the mop head in the washer!) I also strongly recommend this bad guy:

Your floors (and family) will thank you!

7QT: Sweet Sixteen, A COVID Test, College Applications, and One More Birthday

1) 

Andrew turned SIXTEEN!  

He and his friend Caden went to the Seekonk Grand Prix a couple of weeks ago as his "party".  These are weird times, and Andrew is the type of kid who can't decide who not to invite to a party for fear of hurting their feelings, so he thought it would be easier to just go somewhere outside with one friend.  They had a blast and it was the right decision.

On his actual birthday, we were still awaiting results from a COVID test he had to take because he had left school with an upset stomach earlier that week.  Guys, every single ailment you could possibly have is a symptom for COVID and requires a test before you can come back to school.  So we got him tested on a Thursday and didn't find out it was negative until Sunday around 1pm.  The poor kid had to miss his first varsity soccer game of the year and Mass on his 16th birthday.  As soon as we found out it was negative, we gave him a gift...here he is practicing his gift opening face:

Here's his true reaction:

We gave him a Kohls gift card and I told him we were going shopping.  He was so happy because that kid loves buying new clothes and shoes.  I wonder where he gets that from? ;)  Before we left, we told him to go get his gift from Gammy and Grandpa, who also got him a Kohls gift card.  It's almost like it was planned or something. :)

What Dinner Looks Like In Our (Big) Family

 Dinner is such an important part of the day, don't you agree?  In our home, the most common questions asked by the kids are "What's for dinner?" and "What time is dinner?"  Phil and I also spend a lot of time talking about what to cook for dinner, what we need for dinner, when to start cooking, how to prep anything the day before, etc.  Dinner is definitely the highlight of the day in our house.  Because it takes up so much of our day to plan, shop for a last-minute ingredient, cook and serve a meal for nine each night, we try to make sure we all enjoy the meal together, and as slowly as possible.  

Growing up in a family of eight, I can remember my mom finally sitting down at the table, only to have the first couple of kids already finish their plates.  She or my dad would remind us that even though the meal could be eaten in a few minutes, a lot more time and love was spent creating it, and we needed to stay together at the table for a while.  I think all moms understand the sentiment.  On holidays, I can hear myself proclaim, "This took me all day to make, so you're going to slowly enjoy it!" 

Well, maybe not *that* slow.