Progress, for Pete's sake

Praise God! Four new priests were ordained for our diocese this weekend! And thanks be to God for my dear friend, Fr. Brian. Cheers and blessings!! I was sad not to go and sing with the choir, and even sadder still not to be able to go to Fr. Brian's first Mass, but I know that all things happen the way they are supposed to......

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What a packed weekend! My Darling worked like mad so that we could see progress on the house. So on Saturday, he bought the materials to put actual roof on a very big portion of the addition. He and the Monkey went early Saturday morning to the home supply store (man stuff, you know), and came home with several rolls of tar paper, ice and water shield, flashing, drip edge, many bundles of shingles, a new roofing nail gun, a case of rolls of nails, one bag of circus peanuts, two sticky hands and a smiling, sticky little mouth.

The kids played outside much of the day on Saturday, and my Darling learned yet another aspect of building a home. Since he doesn't do this for a living, he's literally learning as he goes. He carefully researches the building codes and does a lot of watching and listening to people we know who do do this for a living. So far, so good.

We got a call from my mother-in-law on Saturday letting us know that my father-in-law was admitted to the hospital for an infection. Long story short: he's a stroke survivor, he's on blood thinners and he's diabetic. He cut the end of his finger while trimming his nails on the hand he can't feel. The cut became infected, and by Saturday morning, there was red streaking up his arm.....so he's on IV antibiotics at this point. Hopefully he's either coming home today or sometime soon. We visited him on Sunday after Mass, and he was in rather good spirits.

Sunday! Sunday was amazing! This Sunday was the Feast of Corpus Christi. (For more information on this awesome feast, check out the link at the end of this entry.) After Mass, which was a bit longer than usual, we had a Eucharistic procession that literally took my breath away. Lately it seems that no matter what I want to do, I just have no energy for it. I almost thought about not walking in the procession--just hitching a ride to the other Church where it ended with benediction--but in the end, I decided to walk. Several amazing things happened.

First of all, though it was taxing, I made it. It wasn't terribly long (probably less than 1/2 a mile), but it did take a long while because we were walking slowly. In a Eucharistic procession, there are priests, deacons, our dear bishop, seminarians, and many servers (one of whom was my Pickle!). The Eucharist is placed in a monstrance and carried underneath a canopy. There are candles surrounding the canopy, and there is incense the whole way. We had booklets full of hymns that we sang along the way as well. We stopped at one point, and Bishop spoke and prayed, and we had a reading, and everyone knelt in adoration for a while. Then we continued on to the Church where the procession was to end. All together, this makes for a very festive procession! I could not help but think of those in Jerusalem, when Jesus made His entrance into the city. It was a joyous occasion, with a spirit of celebration. This was very similar, and to have that thought running through my mind was an intense blessing.

Second of all, it seemed that God intended to bless me through this in other ways. Although my hips are screaming at this moment (aaaahhhhhhhh.......the chiropractor will see me this afternoon!), I actually had energy Sunday and yesterday, and I got tons of things done that have been overlooked for weeks. (Not to mention the feeling of peace in my heart for having been able to spend time with our Lord in that way.)

My Darling had gotten about half the roof done on the portion he needed to finish on Saturday. It was supposed to storm on Sunday, so when we got home, he got started. About two rows into it, our neighbor popped up on the ladder and said, "I just had to come over! Toss me some shingles!" He's done roofing before, so the same half a roof that had taken almost 5 hours on Saturday took only about an hour on Sunday! They had all but one row finished when it started to rain. They laid out the last row, and it began to pour. That ended Sunday.

Monday, My Darling had that last row finished rather quickly, and then put in a window, mowed the lawn, mowed the neighbor's lawn, grilled chicken for supper, and helped to move my Monkey's bed. (Um, that's another story.....) All this after beginning his day by walking the dogs (as he does every morning) with the Monkey, and making the Monkey's breakfast of scrambled eggs and hot chocolate. Say it with me, "Eggs and chocolate.....mmmmmmm..........."

Also on Monday, I cleaned the Pickle's room thoroughly, vacuumed up plaster mess (from my Darling's window replacement project, which had to be done to accommodate the new roof line--he had to re-plaster around the windows. Plaster is messy. I can see why people use drywall.), and made the Monkey's Big Boy Bed when it was brought in from our bedroom. I made everyone else leave the room while I was doing this. Oh, I was in tears. Nearly sobbing. Okay, I was sobbing. And because I wasn't stopping any time soon, I also changed the sheets on our bed, which may have involved flipping and turning the mattress. It's possible that the crying may have continued in the shower. (My Darling often says that I'm only emotional when I'm alone or with other people. I once tried to make him say that I'm only emotional when I'm awake, but he said that I'm often weepy in my sleep, too...so that didn't help.) Blast it, it's just so hard when they grow up! My dear friend reminded me, though, that soon and very soon I'll have another little baby to hold and snuggle. And I said that my Brain says that all the time and my Heart tells my Brain to shut up. :) As if to punctuate my Heart's sentiment, I just Did Not Sleep Well last night.

Hopefully this energy thing will continue. I'm just past 12 weeks now, which is reassuring (yet still nerve-wracking, and no help for it). The Nausea Bug continues to make a pest of himself, and Major Pukey has continued with his nasty (although infrequent, thanks be to God) little surprise attacks. (Apparently he doesn't think much of allowing one to brush one's teeth, for Pete's sake.) I do relish my afternoon naps, and hopefully I'll be able to keep taking them as needed. I think the summer will be good. I relish the thoughts of lots of outside time, mornings at the patio table with the umbrella up and the butterflies dancing around (we have lots of milkweed, which monarchs love!), afternoons on the big swing with a huge glass of water nearby, gallons of richly dark sun tea brewing with wedges of lemon floating on top, and the relaxed pace that summer imposes.

For more information on the beautiful feast of Corpus Christi, please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_Christi_(feast) . Although I generally send people to http://www.ewtn.com/ with questions about our Catholic faith, this seems to be a decent explanation. Enjoy!