Notes from the Lone Star State

Lots of new followers here since Simple Mom included 10 Books You Must Read to Your Daughter in the most recent Weekend Links (Thanks, Simple Mom)! Welcome! I am loving the wonderful conversation in the comments of that post. I must have the best readers ever. So many suggestions for books that I can’t wait to get my hands on and so much solidarity on the horribleness of Anne the Continuing Story. Love it!  Did you know I also have a 10 Books You Must Read to Your Son?  Check it out and add your suggestions in the comments!

And…..we’re back after a week in Texas! After a 16 hour drive with two kids in the car (our first big trip as a 4 person family) and a busy schedule during our stay in TX, (wedding! friends!) I’m exhausted. Not to mention completely overwhelmed with the task of unpacking, cleaning, and laundry.

This is the current state of my living room. See why I’m procrastinating by a writing a post? Whew.

So, some happenings during our trip:

I was a bridesmaid for the first time ever for my best friend Eleanor’s wedding! Such an honor to participate in such a special event.

Our whole family slept in one room for the duration of the trip. Our 3-year-old thought it was a GRAND arrangement, but I think Daniel and I are both glad to be home in our own beds.

Benjamin and Lucy got lots of special time with Daddy. I’m sure they’ll miss him extra today since he’s back at work.

I used disposable diapers and wipes on the trip. Now that I’m used to my wonderful cloth wipes and diapers, I notice such a difference. So many blowouts and leaks with the disposables! And cloth wipes work so much better! Confession: after one particularly bad blowout, instead of finding a washing machine to launder the poop-covered outfit, I just THREW IT AWAY. Don’t judge me!

We had the wonderful opportunity to attend Latin Mass at the church where we were confirmed. It’s such a beautiful church with incredible stained glass, just gorgeous. And it was a treat to experience the Latin Mass which we have missed so much since moving from Texas. We hope it will be available in our diocese soon because it’s just so amazing! And Benjamin, our 3-year-old wiggle worm, really did great even though the Latin Mass takes a little bit longer than he’s used to.

We had such special times with dear, dear friends and former professors that we haven’t seen in almost two years. And, of course, everybody was excited to meet our sweet smiley girl. Here she is being snuggled by her godfather, Luke:

Benjamin had so much fun that he told us that we wanted to stay a few more weeks because he liked “everybody being together.” Sweet boy. But he was excited to come home and see our chickens. “The chickens will be so glad when we get home! They’ve been saying ‘Where’s our little boy who feeds us?'” he told me.

And another exciting note: Benjamin made it two days in the car with NO DVDs on the trip out there and just 30 min. of Annie, the musical, on the way home. Hurray! But he did keep us fully-informed about every crane, cement mixer, or backhoe that he saw during the drive.

Coming up soon: series on breastfeeding, cloth diapering, backyard chickens, our conversion to Catholicism, and some of our favorite reads from March! What are you most interested in hearing about?

And now on to unpacking! Wish me luck!

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