7 Quick Takes

1. My silent retreat last weekend was AWESOME. James was a trooper and was pretty quiet the whole time so I was actually able to listen to most of the meditations (albeit from the back of the Chapel standing up with James in the Ergo).

2. A resolution from my retreat: rely more on God's grace than my own abilities, especially in the arena of patience. Left to my own devices, I inevitably react to situations rather than respond with patience and charity. This means that I need to pray expectantly,trusting that God desires me to respond with charity even more than I do and that He will grant me the grace to do so when I need it. When I pray for a virtue (patience) I have to act as though He's already given me the grace that I desire.

3. Have you ever noticed that whenever anyone begins a sentence with, "No offense..." or "With all due respect..." they usually proceed to say something that they know will give offense and often times lacks respect? Note: this is not a trend I've noticed personally, but it happens a lot in movies! :)

4. I was thankful that while Tom was in Japan and working 12 hours through the night our little James learned to fall asleep on me in the Ergo as I took care of the house and Clare. It made it sooooo much easier while I was on retreat because he was used to falling asleep with me moving around, not just at home in his bed with the lights off, etc. I'm trying to find the balance right now between a good routine and being flexible with the babies' (especially Clare) bed and nap times.

5. I've got strawberries - lots of them - thanks to our friends Steve & Rose. I'm so excited to find a good spot to plant them so they won't take over, and Clare enjoys taking care of them and watering them. I'm also on the lookout for a few low-bush blueberries that do well in our zone. I noticed that Fred Meyer has them on sale right now, but I'm not sure if they're low-bush or high-bush. I don't want a hedge of blueberries in our front yard! Home Depot has them on sale too, but they're not the best variety for our zone here. Hmmmm...

6. (Hopeful) Spring/Summer project for the Herring family: rebuild our deck. Our goals are: 1)replace the one that is falling apart, and 2)have access to the back yard. Seriously, who builds a house with a deck out the patio door and doesn't put STAIRS on the stupid thing so you can get to the yard???

7. Tom and I are changing insurance policies right now. This entails someone coming to our house tonight to do a short "physical exam" here in our living room. I'm not quite sure what to expect.