I haven't joined the Friday Quick Takes link-up at
Conversion Diary in awhile, so let's see if I can give a few updates, albeit a day late!
~~1~~
The House
We're nearing four weeks since it went on the market and seem to have 1-3 showings each week. No offers yet, and we're getting worn out. We also feel we've exhausted our efforts at finding a house we like in our price range here in the Houston area. I pretty much have a once weekly breakdown where I feel like I cannot do this any longer! I love being here while Steven's working in town, but staying in a hotel with five children and trying to homeschool is VERY challenging, as is being in our Corpus home while trying to keep it show-ready. We didn't expect it to take very long to sell, considering we bought two days after it was listed, and there was another offer on the table!
God is giving us many opportunities to grow in all kind of virtues like patience, kindness, humility, charity, etc etc. We've had lots of challenging moments and the hotel has gone over and above to accommodate our big family and not offer even one complaint as I'm sure they've gotten many from the guests in neighboring rooms about crying babies and screaming children!
And so with all that said, we've decided to now throw in the towel with the house search for now and go back to our original plan to move back into the home we already own here in the area. The tenants have been so good, and we didn't want to move back with a plan of moving again in the near future, but at this point we need to just get back to the area and reevaluate once we have a home base again. Maybe we'll decide to stay there long-term after all. The location really can't be beat! And this will allow us to be more patient with selling our home in Corpus Christi. Please offer a prayer that things will fall into place quickly both for the tenant family and our family. Thank you!!!
~~2~~
St. Joseph
I met an online friend for the first time in person this week. She lives in the area where we'll be living and has one little boy between the ages of our two boys. She is also from Italy! We've had various online conversations about homeschooling, Catholicism, photography, jobs, and house hunting and it was so nice to finally get to talk to her face to face and meet her son. She has an incredible devotion to St. Joseph and shared so many stories of answered prayers through his intercession. She gave me a lovely prayer book to begin the 30 Day novena of the Holy Cloak of St. Joseph for the intention of our home selling and buying. I started it yesterday, and the prayers were beautiful. I am a total failure with novenas though, so I am hoping I can follow through on this one. It's very long and my focusing abilities during prayer right now are very lacking. We will see how I do.
~~3~~
The Race that Knows Joseph
Speaking of meeting new people and St. Joseph, I was thinking about Anne of Green Gables and how in the current book I'm reading, "Anne's House of Dreams" they talk about knowing if others are "from the race that knows Joseph."
“You’re young, and I’m old, but our souls are about the same age, I reckon. We both belong to the race that knows Joseph, as Cornelia Bryant would say.”
“‘The race that knows Joseph?’” puzzled Anne.
“Yes. Cornelia divides all the folks in the world into two kinds—the race that knows Joseph and the race that don’t. If a person sorter see eye to eye with you, and has pretty much the same ideas about things, and the same taste in jokes—why, then he belongs to the race that knows Joseph.”
“Oh, I understand,” exclaimed Anne, light breaking in upon her. “It’s what I used to call—still call in quotation marks—‘kindred spirits.’”
—Captain Jim and Anne defining ‘kindred spirits’ in Anne’s House of Dreams
Have you ever had that experience? I absolutely LOVE meeting new people, and I especially love it when there is that instant connection where you know that you can relate to them on a different level than most. I feel so blessed to have many friends who I would call "kindred spirits" and who encourage me in my vocation as a wife, mother, and homeschooler. It's nice to have Facebook and other online opportunities to make friendships with those who aren't in our community. There are so many of you lovely ladies who I just hope and pray I get to meet one day!
And I am definitely loving the "Anne" series. I have mostly been reading it while exercising on the elliptical at hotels over the past couple months. Yesterday I read while jogging on the treadmill, but that wasn't very easy! I can't wait to share these books with the girls. They are so rich with ideals of life, love, truth, humor, and beauty!
~~4~~
Keeping Busy
We've been good about staying "home" during the daytime and completing our schoolwork. But a few afternoons and evenings have been filled with fun things like grandparent visits, dance class, mom's nights out, park visits, and special outings with Daddy. I am so grateful that the ballet school here allowed us to register the girls and do some drop-in weeks while we are in town. They are taking classes in their previous levels as well as the level below, and they are catching up quickly with such dedicated teachers and good training. I am loving the time with those kindred spirit moms at the studio. It's definitely one of my favorite parts of the day when I can sit and visit and watch the girls dance! Thankfully we've had the help of my parents and sometimes Steven to help with the carpooling.
I made it to a Monday Mom's Night last week which was balm to my weary soul. I love these ladies so much, and it's beautiful to remember years in the past where exciting events like new pregnancies were shared. Now some of these moms are becoming grandmothers and every one of them has some poignant bit of wisdom to share each time. This will be another reason to enjoy being back in our old home, as it is very close to all the restaurants where my friends meet, it's right off the highway for Steven's commute, and it's only about 10 minutes to the ballet school. Hopefully we will find some nearby activities for the boys too.
~~5~~
Heart Anniversary
This week was the 3rd anniversary of
Steven's open heart surgery. Each year on the Memorial of St. Pio of Pietrelcina on September 23rd, I take some time to remember this life changing experience we went through. It was over two years of knowing the surgery would be happening, and then a couple months of preparation. The days leading up to the surgery were terrifying, and the actual day of the surgery is one I'd never want to relive. I remember the hours in the waiting room just imagining what was happening to my baby, and the fear that surrounded the whole experience. It was a true lesson in having hope, finding peace, and trusting God. I am so grateful for modern medicine and the fact that his heart defect and surgery were minor, comparatively speaking. One of my sweet friends did not have the same outcome with her baby boy who died at 5 weeks old of a very severe heart defect, and today on Facebook she shared a little of her heart and some gifts that she has kept all these years, including a picture colored by Mary Clare. Oh how it pains my heart to think of the mothers who have to endure a life without their babies! May Our Lady who knows the pain of a grieving mother hold them close.
~~6~~
Parent's Anniversary
Tomorrow my parents will celebrate 40 years of marriage! I hope and pray that Steven and I will follow in our parents' legacies of long marriages (I think his parents are at 52), and as is prayed during the wedding mass, that we will live to see our children's children! Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!
Here they are at the farm last weekend:
~~7~~
Home Again
Tomorrow we will head back home after a week in Houston. Once again I'm dreading leaving our family and friends here, and going back to the house with the stress of showings and the lack of social activities for my extroverted self. Hopefully we will be able to make some of the events of our homeschool group there; it seems we are always in town on the "off" weeks of events. But now we may be spending a longer stretch at home as we prepare to make the big move in about a month! Hope it's a blessed Sunday for all of you!
