Five on Friday...the Old and New edition

Wow. I am spent. It's a pity because my week is not done. I look so forward to sleeping in Sunday morning (and perhaps part of the afternoon). Whew.

1. Old friends, New Fun

The week started with hoagie making for Slovaks. Our friends were nice enough to purchase a few. We like to add "free delivery" to our patrons because it usually ends up a bonus for us. Like Monday. We went to drop off their order and ended up playing for quite a while, including spending some time marveling at their sweet new tree house. It helps when your dad is an engineer ;0)

  

2. Old routine, new people and new night

Tuesday is now our Catechesis of the Good Shepherd night. Sadly, there isn't a program nearby that will host all of our kids so, after dinner, we head North to get our religious booster for the week. It's such a wonderful program and having all of our children able to participate is fantastic (also because I get to read a book for 90 minutes straight!) Even the littlest two did wonderfully. Isn't he sweet? (minus the glowing eyes, of course)

That is the teacher on the floor...yes, her shirt does say "It's OK to be pro-life". Just another reason...

  3. Old, not fun routine

Wednesday my sweet left for Chicago on his yearly business trip. We did nothing but a little bit of school and generally hang out, missing our seventh family member. I did manage to get them to holy hour (ok 45 minutes and, although it wasn't stellar on our part, the grace was there. It got me to Thursday)

4. Old brain, new problems...

I blame my husband being out of town but, wow, Thursday was a complete non-starter. We had tickets to the afternoon ballgame. I bought five tickets a month ago, I guess thinking we would be leaving tiny behind with Terri. He was so pitiful I figured we'd all head down in the car after C's dance lesson (see below) and buy the other two tickets when we got there. Who knew it would be a beautiful day (I should have), thus spurring every person in the Pittsburgh area to want to see the game. After looking for parking for 20 min we handed the tickets to a random person in line and headed home to listen on the radio. They lost so it wasn't the worst game to miss and we spend a lot of fun playing our brand of baseball in the backyard.

Later that night, I bathed and fed everyone early so that we could head North of the city to hear Deacon Harold speak. He is a gifted homilist and speaks on "all the things we love" says #1...like marriage and family and pro-life issues. We made it through the traffic just in time to see a lot of older ladies praying the rosary. It was Christian Mothers this night...Deacon was Wednesday. Groan. Oh well, we said our rosary on the way up so it wasn't a total loss.

 PS...

I finally gave in and signed Blondie up for Jazz/Acro classes (it's more acro than jazz). She is a dancer, I see that, so she might as well get her shot for a while. I'm excited for what I see and she loves it.

5. A heavy dose of old and new

This morning was the first Little Flowers session of the year. #1, having finished all four wreaths, has moved on to helper. #4 is officially a LF this year! Again, so excited. It's also nice that her sister is there with her. They are so different but also support one another like sisters should.

      

After pickup, we headed down to Duquesne University, home of my undergraduate degree. We were donating some money to sponsor students on a trip to see the pope so we figured we'd head to Mass as well. I love that place. Even with all the drama, it still holds such good memories for me. I am blessed to be able to take my kids there and introduce them to good people in a good place.

So many fountains to explore

The "still pool" Holy Spirit fountain

The coolest new statue...a giant-sized Duquesne ring (it was sooo beautifully sunny, thus the squinting)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    After Mass, we headed East on the turnpike and arrived at Step Up, the first of the Fall session. Because I am insane, I signed them up for three one-hour classes, running from 2 PM to 5 PM. Little man has "pre-school" from 2 to 3:15 then we hang out around campus waiting for the others. This makes it impossible to get home for dinner so we're going to be brown bagging it a lot and looking for places to kill an hour or so before dance (also out East). Thankfully, tonight happened to be the festival of the parish that is overseen by our beloved Sister Dorothy (my friend from waaayyy back at Duquesne...see the previous paragraph.)

DH met up with us and we shared dinner, saw Sister for a bit, played some games (and won stuff...that #3 is too lucky for his own good). Even our current parish pastor and principal were on hand to say "hello" (he was at this parish before he came here and she is the same order as Sister Dorothy...I know, the Holy Spirit should be portrayed as a spider...the webs are amazing sometimes).

DH already holding #3's football from another game

a minion...of course

They were not successful in winning a hermit crab

With that I will bid you a fond farewell. I am beyond exhausted and tomorrow starts with worship aids, an 80th birthday party for my aunt, #1 serving a wedding, and back here after Mass for dinner. As I said, don't call on Sunday, I'm not answering.

I am so amazingly blessed with friends, family and fun!