Seven QTs - Lent Style

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Hello Friday! Papa has left for the Holy Land of Ukrainian Catholics in the United States otherwise known as Parma, OH. After Presanctified Liturgy and a fish fry with the Bishop and members of the cathedral parish he will be back on the road with 300 dozen pierogi for our church fundraiser. Yes the shipping on 300 dozen frozen items is worth the crazy 36 hours loop-de-loop to bring them back to a freezer at the residence of your's truly.

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Speaking of fundraiser. Next weekend we have the distinct pleasure of hosting our parish kielbasa aka sausage makers at our house. It will be a good time for all. After having lived through it last year with a toddler and infant and now I have a toddler and almost toddler (yes R is almost walking - well kinda she finally figured out pulling up the other day - GO R!!!) Anyway, I won't get into the stinky details about this sausage but I am clearing out everything from the dining area to the kitchen and laundry room back. The pork somehow ends up getting everywhere and the casing - well they are casings. If I could make a Yankee Candle Scent of "Sausage Making" I would totally do it so you all could smell the glory of what these sausage makers smell for 10 hours. BUT! I won't do that... You should know if you live in NC and you like kielbasa (or pierogi for that matter) and want to support a good cause - get some of the sausage it is pretty darn awesome. So leave a comment and I'll hook you up with the details.

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Now along the same line of church topics... I am coordinating our booth at a local Catholic conference. Nice. Except I found out this week that said conference has a 'no child 10 and under policy'. Now since we have a booth there I am not going to go into a rant mode. I will simply pose the question, IF the Catholic Church teaches the stuff it does about families, family size, babies etc etc AND since the conference is definitely geared toward a Catholic audience THEN what am I missing here? Okay enough said - no longer upset just slightly peaved. No I am not going to leave my kids all day and pay a babysitter so I can go to this conference. I know that Papa will be there because there is a speaker whom I know he wants to meet so he and other parishioners will have to hold down the fort.

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Moving on. R's bday.... Well the party was kind of a bust with the girls being sick. Grammy and Grandpa Joe braved the sick house and brought homemade soup and of course the cake!!! R had another birthday celebrating midweek at Jibbe's she was a (cup)cake eating pro at that point so the pics (which I need to post) are a bit more of what you would expect for a birthday cake smash. In total she raked in 4 babies (no live ones, thanks Auntie C for asking for clarification : ), 5 puzzles, 1 Dumbo Elephant (she loves his nose), Ernie (now she and E can be matching- I think E is more excited about it), 1 spring dress (and E has one too - matching again), 1 saving account (my pleas for practical things have been heard!!!!) and 1 insanely pleasant noise making toy (which R happens to love and dances to and everything - It is a sunny day, a perfect to play at the playground... yes I know all the words... already : )

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How about Valentine's Day??? I did not do heart shaped toast like last year but I squeaked out some cupcakes and frosting - all fast friendly/Lent legal - whatever you want. They weren't too bad either! E helped with the batter for both cupcakes and frosting which was mildly entertaining. This was after her little preschool class party which I got crafty and sent this little Chinese food takeout boxes (new and appropriately colors for Valentine's Day - along with this crazy messy glittery letters so the kids could stick their names on the boxes. It was way cute and I may or may not have spent a good 20 minutes spelling out the kids names so I just sent the necessary letters - the A and H were had to come by in the pink and purple and the N and A in the blue and red. I think you can see the box which E made on our frig. Crafty and baker in one day!!! Papa gave me flowers and a card and before we left for church the girls opened their cards and presents - books - because clearly we need more of those, right? Papa opened his card too!

                                           

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Speaking of church... last night. By the end of it while I was standing in the back with R who had been wailing for AT LEAST the last half of the service - I almost started laughing. There was nothing I could do for her. She was just mad and up past her bedtime - which I totally thought she could handle. Apparently I was very wrong and everyone at church knew about it. It did not help I thought it was going to be in the 1 hr range and not 1 hr and 45 minutes!!! The first hour she was pretty manageable. ALSO, she is teething and desperately wants to crawl on the icky dirty floor!!! I happen to have a special affection for Presanctified Liturgy as it was the first Eastern Catholic service I attended - and pretty much got me hooked. If you have never been I highly recommend going at least once to check it out!

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Finally I have no idea what happened on Downton Abbey this week and among other things it has been nice to be disconnect from Facebook and TV... not that I will get used to it but turning things/noise whatever down has been a much needed break. 

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