Busy Bees!

Thought I'd steal Lillian's post title. We're keeping busy with house details (hoping to buy our first home this month, yes Lillian's house! So neat!), packing up our home (still needing to start that, but we do have boxes as of this morning), Steven's studying for finals, getting ready to start his new job, and we're getting ready for Christmas too!

I thought I'd share some highlights from this week! First of all, Steven completed his last weekend at the workplace where he's been the past (nearly) 3 years! No more freezer warehouse work at 3am! That was a huge relief and we're so excited to be entering back to "normal" family life with a regular workweek and weekends free! Friday evening mass (for the Immaculate Conception) was really special. One of the first Fridays he hasn't had to worry about getting up for work in the middle of the night. And a realization that we'll finally be able to attend Sunday morning Mass together without the stress of work before or after! Very exciting!

On Wednesday we celebrated St. Nicholas' feast day by filling the girls' stockings with some treats and little toys. They were very excited to get to have some candy after our pancake breakfast! Then we attended the area Catholic homeschool group's St. Nicholas party. Here are some pictures:

The girls with a St. Nicholas gift of animals:


The big kids at the St. Nick party, doing a read-aloud. You can see one of the kids dressed as St. Nick!


And the little kids hearing a story about St. Nicholas. Afterwards they did lots of fun crafts, had yummy snacks, then went to Mass!



Later in the week we spent some time with Lillian's family doing house stuff. Nearby I'd found a wonderful deal...FREE tables! Here's the pic of them. Great quality tables to fill up our new home. I love finding great deals!






We also celebrated my dad's big "Over the Hill" birthday. I won't give you the number, but he does look great for his age. We went to one of the best Mexican restaurants with some friends. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

Then I attended the memorial service for a friend's mother. She passed away last weekend after a 7 year battle with lung cancer. It was a beautiful service. I was inspired by stories of this woman's wonderful virtues of kindness, care, joy, and concern for others when she was suffering so much herself. Being the anxious complainer that I am, Bernice will be a model to me on how to deal with trials and illness in a positive way. May her soul rest in peace and may her family and friends be comforted by God in this time of sorrow.