Lest I Forget

I finished Therese's sweater this morning! Here is a link to the pattern on Ravelry. She is in love with it, so all is good. I think the yarn pooled up too much, but she just thinks it is beautiful. I am mid-project on a baby gift too, but will not share pictures yet, because I am reasonably sure the mom reads this blog every now and again. I just started a new read aloud with the kids yesterday. Mr. Popper's Penguins. I have never read it, yet the reactions from the kids after the first two chapters lead me to believe that it is going to be a good one. Joining Ginny .

I was reasonably sure that there would be a Mass at 10:00 am down in the town, so we drove down the mountain and found a parking garage. Parking on the street was darn near impossible with a minivan. Then we walked to the church without much trouble thanks to being able to see the spires. The church was gorgeous inside and out, so it was quite a shock when the Mass began with a guitar and folk singers. Plus, a long sermon in any language is still a long sermon. After Mass, we wandered down to the waterfront. Tony went back to the car for something, and the kids and I browsed restaurant menus, which were posted outside every eatery. Pricy, and most did not look kid-friendly. I took lots of pictures. We wound our way to the train station to plan out the rest of our week's trips. Then we went back to the house and got ready to go on a hike mentioned in Rick Steve's book. It said we could walk to Portofino, the next town over and it mentioned some fun sights to find. Well, we had...

On my morning walk, I passed under a tall, old tree. The sidewalk underneath was littered with the detritus of a dead limb that had fallen. As I prayed the rosary's Glorious Mysteries, I began to reflect on that tree. I had noticed that even among all that debris, which looked dead and useless, there were plants with delicate, tiny flowers pushing their way upward, striving for the sun's light. It made me  think about all of us who, at times in our lives, have had suffering and hardships fall on us like that limb. We must not let that crushing feeling overwhelm us, but continue to seek the light that is Christ, our Savior and Comforter. My thoughts then took another path. That tree is like me. I have sinful parts. Parts that need to be pruned in order that I may continue to grow closer to God. When I am able to break free of a certain sin, it is like letting that dead branch crash to the ground. As that sinful branch breaks down, it no long...

This week's yarn along will be combined with my continuing story of our travels to Italy. Why? Because I did more knitting on this trip than I have in a good long while and because I can. Not having my international driver's license turned out to be very good for Therese's sweater. Tony ended up doing all the driving and I did a whole bunch of knitting. I was able to finish the body of the sweater and then I was ready to work on the sleeves. Except one thing. On our last trip (that awful trip to Portugal), someone sat on my knitting and broke one of my interchangeable needles. Let's just say that broken needle was needed to complete the sleeves. I also discovered that in Europe it is very rare to use 3.75mm needles. Sure, they use 3.5mm and 4mm and they will tell you that it is not much of a difference when trying to sell you some new needles. But my perfectionist self just could not do it. I tried using the Magic Loop to work on the sleeves, but found it very fru...

Trying to plan a trip while in Europe is daunting. The possibilities are endless. How does one choose? Well, we started by looking at all the destinations where Ryan Air has cheap flights. After all, we have to buy 7 tickets, so we don't want to blow the entire budget on getting there. Next, I consulted my bucket list of places we want to visit while we are here. There were a few matches. Finally, I wanted sunny and warm. Germany was beginning to get very depressing with its never ending grayness and cold. Italy seemed to be the place with the most possibilities. We narrowed it down to Rome or Sardinia. However, Rome is big and huge and busy and I had been extremely stressed and anxious. Just the thought of trying to keep everyone together and safe in such a big place made me panic. Sardinia, with its beautiful water and more laid back environment seemed perfect. Until. Tony was told he might have to go on a gig. We couldn't book the tickets until we knew what day we could l...

We embarked on a small excursion yesterday in search of signs of Spring's arrival. Armed with my camera, Therese with her backpack, and Peter with his purse, we set out on the trail entrance at the end of our street. The air still had a chill to it, but the sun was mostly out, and we did indeed find evidence that Spring is just around the corner. Puddle jumping This pretty much sums him up