My Calendar

This week is a busy one, but it will also be, we hope, a very, very good one.

The yellow-haired child turns four on Thursday. Ugh. Man, knocked on my ass again by the progression of time. Having kids will do that to you. It's one thing to turn 36, it's another thing entirely to have the near-preemie you were just rocking in your arms be nearly as tall as your wife. Or to have your little one with the shock of fuzzy orange hair - that became yellow - be old enough to start Kindergarten next year. (Not that that will happen - not sure she'll be ready.)

My parents are coming on Saturday because Sunday all four of the kids will be baptized. Now while we've talked with the potential screamers about what they will be doing so they will not appear to be demon possessed on such an important day, we're still praying, crossing fingers, and tossing salt - generally covering our bases. Please do likewise.

So we have our regular schedule of Crazy Wednesday (choir and faith formation after school, which with the giant drive home and homework means no free/family time on Wednesday.) Added to that mid-week madness is (1) mowing the lawn, because if I wait much longer I'll have picketers protesting the destruction of an old-growth forest; (2) cleaning the house - I'm thinking of putting a burn barrel in the yard to handle this project, and (3) sewing the girls' baptismal gowns (this last one is Laura's job).

Laura finished Sophie's dress yesterday and it looks beautiful. She wanted to do this project - I was ready to buy some simple dresses. So it'll be special. She has this week to work on the other two dresses, but she never has much extra time anyway. And she's already always tired. Will she make it? I've started a kitty - let me know if you want in.

We also need to call our sponsors and try to meet with them this week. It's difficult becoming Catholic without knowing anyone Catholic - you need other Catholics to stand up for you for certain things - a role generally filled by family and friends. But when your family and friends are Protestants, that becomes problematic. So the church eeny-meeny-miny-moes a couple of people to stand in. It's well-intentioned, but kinda funny/quirky regardless.

I don't know these people, they don't know our legion of children and they're making commitments toward them. Now the local body does this sort of thing for every baptism (same as Protestants will do in a dedication service) in a general way, but the specificity of it in our situation is been a source of some chuckles for me.

Stay tuned.