March is almost over and I ain't mad about it...

Actually March wasn't a bad month or anything but this right here is what has inspired the title of this post. While overall not a bad winter it seems like every storm came and went with a bang this winter. Instead of a little snow here, there and everywhere, we seemed to have nothing but a dump of 6-8 inches with terrible road conditions preceded by a nice acclimate day that made you question if calling off school/work was the right thing to do and then followed by a nice sunny day that melted everything away after all that hard work shoveling. Sigh. I guess I've lived in Michigan my whole life so nothing should surprise me but again, I'm glad this "miserable Michigan winter" is just about at it's end (cue my dad reminding us all that "there's always at least one last winter storm in April so don't get too cocky!")

Thanks to Mateo's social skills we not only got to experience the Boys Basketball season but also the Girls! We were able to go to a number of home games and thanks to a very generous mom, Mateo was able to attend both the JV and Varsity tournaments. While the Varsity (unfortunately) didn't do as well, Mateo got to be there to see his classmates get first place and Lucy and I got to go to St Thomas a few times, not only to drop him off but also to attend an evening talk and Adoration with Father Adam Maher. I was so happy to see this loving tribute to Maureen Galloway on the grounds of STA2. She was a mom at SSA who passed away but was the first person I saw at a communion service when the pandemic first started and she was kind enough to provide communion for the whole family even before OLGC set up their outdoor Masses. I'll never forget that kindness and I try to say a special prayer of thanksgiving every time we're out that way for Mass or an activity.

I have so much to be grateful for in life and one of the biggest things is an online community of other Catholic "natural-minded" moms who I've known for about 20ish years primarily online. If you were to view this blog from start to finish you'll see that from time to time I am lucky enough to meet some of them "IRL" as the kids say (in real life) from either them coming to visit us in Michigan or from the times I've been lucky enough to travel and make the effort to visit them while I'm in their "neck of the woods." Patty lives in Syracuse NY and you may recall that in December 2020 I was able to fly out to visit her and her crew and it was delightful. They live in an area called Tipp Hill that is very Irish and this year I was LUCKY (pun intended) enough to visit on the weekend sandwiched by the feasts of Saint Patrick and Saint Joseph! It was another quick trip Friday early evening to Sunday evening but so nice to catch up and to be SPOILED ROTTEN by my soul sister. Here we are with her youngest Paul (Pucky), one of her local besties Karra, and her oldest daughter Mary.

Of course my soul sister has her own Mikey and he got some new kicks so here's us posing with those. Pucky, who is almost 7, kept me entertained the whole weekend playing games. He was very kind and let me win at chess and almost win at Forbidden Bridge :) Mikey smoked us all at Spot It. I never had a chance so I had to buy it and play with Lucy so I could have a fighting chance to be a winner LOL

Mary, Patty's oldest daughter took this picture and said "can you guys at least act like you like each other?" I've never been in a sorority but apparently I am adept at posing like I'm in one? LOL This is Patty with her two IRL besties Karra and Mary and me. She is so sweet to share them and they are so sweet to always come out for a visit when I come to NY (ya know, all 2 times).

We DO like each other. Like A LOT.

Above: me and the Real Presence and me and 6 foot plush giant Jesus who had spend 3 weeks in 3rd Grade and I missed him at home. 

Below: is the NET Ministries kid who came to HVCS to spend time with the middle schoolers and mom and dad were kind enough to let us host them at the condo.

At least someone doesn't mind the snow :)

It's a terrible picture but I don't even try asking teenagers to pose (at least not my own anymore). Still I had to snap a pic to send to the besties b/c these two are practically indistinguishable on the field. In football I chalked it up to helmets and pads but even in bare minimum track attire from 100 feet away Tomas is just a slightly taller, stretched out version of Mikey.

As you can see Luciana is keeping the Denja fashionista style alive! She and Paulina are even kinda, sorta, almost getting to that stage of life where they actually enjoy each other instead of just competing for my attention. But make no mistake viewing these pics, life still remains mostly the latter.

Before I left for Syracuse all 5 of the younger kids had dentist appointments on St. Paddy's - here's to the "no cavity club"!!

We've been very blessed in our experience with FGRHS for Mikey and over the course of the last month Peter finished his 8th grade homeschool year and got accepted into FGRHS and we found out we'd be provided with enough aid to make it work for both boys. So even though Peter also got accepted into the EMU Early College Alliance, he decided he definitely wants to follow Mikey to FGR. Toward the end of March, myself and both boys were able to express our appreciation for so many donors who make it possible by volunteering for 5+ hours at a wine auction the school holds to help raise money for tuition assistance. I am so grateful for the people in this room and it was a special treat to hear my friend Arwen share what similar scholarship funding has done for her family. I nodded her entire speech because I could have written every word!!

In January we had planned to celebrate the afternoon of Lulu's birthday at Jungle Java with some HVCS friends. Well a snow day (and later her being sick) ruined that plan and I was finally able to get it together and reschedule 2 months later. So four of us moms brought together kiddos from 7 families (represented here) and an 8th family who had to leave before we got to pictures. It was only two hours but it was an absolutely delightful afternoon and the good folks at Jungle Java even donated almost $100 to our school (essentially they gave back half our admission costs).

Above is just a cute picture of one of Paulina's friends at HVCS Mass with her brand new baby brother. I love being able to go up to the school for Mass on Wednesdays on my lunch hour and see the kids. They don't have daily Mass but I'm grateful for the weekly Mass and the timing being something I can work out. On the right is a picture of me and my friend from grad school who just happened to be on the SAME FLIGHT to Syracuse...which of course we didn't realize until we had de-boarded. Oh well. 

Below is the "extras" from the HVCS auction quilts that the girls and I made into a floor quilt for our newest baby: baby Devries! Tyler and Maria gave us the news as our Christmas gift, in January we were able to start telling other people and now in March it became "social media" official and we found out these two are going to be the cutest aunts to the cutest niece/grand-daughter ever!!!

I thought about ending with the snow but I think ending it with this lovely picture of some OLGC kids in Adoration at the parish mission is a much better way to end the blog posting for March. Especially as we look to Holy Week and Easter just a little over a week away. The sun is coming and so is the Son! Lucky and blessed. That's for sure.