— 1 —

I took a couple of days off this week, remember I said a few weeks ago that we were going to drive to Marfa? Well, the Patriarch had an RCIA team meeting on Tuesday and didn’t want to miss it, coupled with the fact that the Heir didn’t want to go out of town because he might want to spend the waning days of summer with his friends. So, staycation!

That means the Patriarch and the Heir took down the ceiling in what was our original bedroom at the back of the house. We expanded the attic a few years ago and put the boys up there, so we moved into their old bedroom, partly out of necessity. We have neighbors who, when the originally moved in, held 24 hour nude pool parties in their backyard, conveniently located a mere 30 feet from our bedroom windows. Yeah! The back room fell into that sort of no man’s land of dog crates, bikes, tools, whatever needed to move out of sight. So down came the ceiling and up went the sheetrock. Hopefully within the next week, the taping and floating will be completed, the crown molding will be installed and we can paint.

I love to watch a man work!

— 2 —

I’m trying to convince the Patriarch to let me paint the wood floors. They are in poor shape, although we refinished them 14 years ago. I’d love to paint a pattern like this:

I would love this

— 3 —

The Spare had an adventure this evening. For those of you who live in small towns or more rural areas, living in a large metropolitan area (population 2 million) is great but the kids have grown up differently than I did. We live in an area known as Oak Cliff, although technically Dallas, it still retains the name of the original city that was annexed in the 1960s. Downtown is only a couple of miles from our front door. Unfortunately, I’ve never felt it was possible to allow them to ride bikes around the neighborhood, so bike riding entails packing the bikes up and going to a park with trails. But his 20-year-old godbrother asked if they could ride over to Aunt Stelle’s for snow cones. So off they went and of course it promptly got dark, really quick. He came back a little scared (but way less scared than I was, I worry about crazy drivers). He commented on how “creepy” it is riding a bike in the dark on the sidewalk.

— 4 —

The Heir had his senior orientation today. His Catholic high school has officially given up trying to contain the use of cell phones and other electronics, so their new policy is bring all the technology you want. They are moving to e-books, although only about half of his books are available electronically. After pricing e-books and a reader versus hardback textbooks, it’s the same. The Spare loves his Kindle Fire so we got one for the Heir and ordered his e-books.

— 5 —

Trisha over at Crunchy Catholic Momma hosts a craft stash bash on Thursdays. I’ve decided to join in an attempt to utilize the thousands of needlework and quilting projects I have. I could never buy another thread or pattern and still have enough complete projects to last the rest of my life. I think the ideal situation would be to end up in prison in solitary confinement with a friendly warden who would let me sew all day. Then I might get everything done. Come join us, I’d love your feedback on my work and I would love to see what others are doing.

— 6 —

Part of my stash includes crochet patterns for altar laces from the 1940s and 1950s, as well as books on how to make vestments and altar linens. I would love to make vestments and I can’t think of anything better to sew. A couple of years ago the RCIA gave a set of custom made vestments to our priest. I wasn’t there when the decision was made, but my husband was. He came home with a stricken look on his face and said he couldn’t bring himself to object. The shiny polyester gold and silver set made to fit a man approximately 7’4″ was a sight to behold. He had to have them altered and he only wore them once. I kept expecting Capt. Kirk to show up during that Mass. I can sew but I can’t crochet. But my sister is very talented and she taught herself, and like lots of siblings I think that if she can learn to crochet well, then so can I.

Awesome!

— 7 —

Finally, my cousin Frank was on Wipeout Thursday evening. He won a couple of years ago and they brought him back for their “Winners and Losers” show. Alas, he and his partner didn’t win. But it’s exciting for the kids to see someone they know on TV, especially when the hosts make a big deal out of him. He can be seen here in his first appearance:

As always, thanks to Jen for hosting and go check out some other, better blogs!

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