7 Quick Takes - Take 4

We're so behind on getting everything on the ol' blog. Giving it to you fast and linking up with Conversion Diary again.

1. Best Parenting Moment of the Year already occurred in our house. So who knows what that means about how the rest of the year will go...anyways, with Pepa's death, we have been talking about heaven a lot. A LOT. And it doesn't exactly make complete sense to our girls. Hence, the conversation:

Miriam: Mom, are there houses in heaven?
Mom: Yes, God made everyone a house in heaven. (He did. It's in the Bible.)
Vivian: I am going to have a big house. But I want it to be right next to sister's house.
Miriam: Yeah, Vivi and I will have our houses right next to each other in heaven.

We are not failing as parents after all.

2. And on that high note...a confession: our Christmas decorations are still up. Maybe this weekend we'll get them down?

Aunt Sue knows we're a mess. Or she's sleeping through this post.
 
3. We went to CANADA for a weekend! Tim pointed out many times during the trip that it was like going to Georgia or Northern Florida for a weekend. Only in the wrong direction. We went for Aunt Annette's bridal shower and got to surprise her! It was so fun to see her life in Ottawa with Tom...his seminary, her house, their friends, the famous sites of the city. 

We also experienced the Divine Liturgy (Ukrainian Catholic version of the Mass) as well as their annual water blessing to celebrate Christ's baptism. It was an especially awesome weekend to visit because this is the one time of year their church community gathers at the Museum of Civilization in Quebec. The first (we think) Ukrainian Catholic church (about the size of a chapel) was moved from western Canada to inside the museum! And each year Divine Liturgy is celebrated inside this old, tiny church in the museum on the feast of Christ's baptism (celebrated later than in the Roman Catholic Church).

That water blessing was outdoors after the liturgy and is about an hour long. In the crazy Canadian snow/cold. The big girls didn't mind too much - they spent the whole time playing in the snow.

More notable times from the trip: Bridget was of age to drink in the Great White North!

And if you're ever in Ottawa, go to The Works. Drink out of measuring cups, eat poutine, and marvel at the creativity of their burger selections.

4. Mommy joined Instagram. Because she obviously needed another social media blackhole in her life. Enjoy. @sashaandall awaits your admiration.

5. We're doing alphabet theme weeks. If you follow Pinterest, you've already guessed that. (However, looking at the boards it seems Mommy is pretty terrible at pinning the activities...paper and pencil scheduling still rules.) A Week. Lots of fun crafts about ants, aunts, apples, angles, angels, airplanes, etc. Favorite was our handprint angels which we took to Pepa in the hospital. A triangle for the angel body (talked about angles). Circle for the head (no angles!). Their closed handprints were the wings. Pipe cleaner halo.

6. B Week. Bees, bunnies, bears, buttons, etc. Favorite activity: writing their own little books! Storylines centered around Daniel Tiger, Dora, and Felicity...apparently those are a few of their favorite things. These little books were super simple: cut a few pages of paper in half (three is plenty, really) so that you have a pile of 8.5"x5.5" papers. Cut down a piece of fancy scrapbook paper to the same dimensions for the cover. Fold the cover around a few pages. Staple to secure. Ta. Da. While we were on the subject of books, Mommy also explained the basic parts of a book (author, illustrator, cover, title, etc.)

7. C Week. That's this week and we're talking about caterpillars, cows, cats, candy, cupcakes, cookies, cake, cars. Clearly this week is destined to be amazing with all those sweets. This cupcake activity was a HIT. When Vivian saw the shaving cream her eyes lit up and they were at their mess making best.

Whew! You made it! Happy weekend!!