Seven Quick Takes, vol 9

 #1.  Time is flying and so much is happening! I have randomly been having moments of panic, when I just want to yell at time:  STOP! Things are good right now.  Can we have a pause right here??  Anyways, I'm going to do a Seven Quick Takes on this lovely Friday to catch my blog up on what's going on around here in our lives.

#2.  St. Therese of the Little Flower's feast day has been lovely so far.  Turtle chose peachy-orange roses at the store today and spent a long time arranging them in five vases (one for each of us) around the statue of the Little Saint that my husband bought me in Lisieux 6 years ago.

 Tonight we'll say the Litany of the Little Flower when Daddy is with us, but after lunch, we lit candles and sang songs.  Turtle wanted to sing a "St. Therese song" but I don't know any, so we sang songs about Love, and I told Turtle that St. Therese would like them.  We chose some of the girls' favorite ones and I thought they turned out to be very appropriate.

 ~We sang~

Jesus loves me, this I know

For the Bible tells me so

Little ones to Him belong

They are weak, but He is strong

Yes, Jesus loves me

Yes, Jesus loves me

Yes, Jesus loves me

The Bible tells me so.

~and~

Follow, children, follow Jesus

And He will show you His loving Heart

Follow, children, follow Jesus

And He will show you to Whom you belong.

#3.  Look at my baby  :(

I mean, seriously ??  Can we not have a baby a little bit longer around here?

#4.  So, Halloween is coming again, that holiday that Turtle has been dreading ALL year (since #6 here happened).  Recently, Rosebud and I were walking by a row of decorative (can I even use that word??) skulls on spikes outside of someones house and I tensed up, waiting for her to freak out like Turtle would have.  Except, Rosebud, quite matter of factly, squatted down to look a skull closely in the face, and then moved over to another skull to stare in its eyes as well.  Then, after a moment of study, she looked up at me, puzzled and said, "Why're they not bein' friend-a-ly?"

#5.  So, as a hamster owner, this page in one of our books really aggravates me

 Does anyone else see the problem? 

Speaking of hamsters, I should have said that we are former hamster owners.  Scratchy died on August 22, 2010 -- our moving day.  Maybe the stress of it all was too much for her old body.  We had had her for almost 2 years -- which I guess is close to the top of the life expectancy for hamsters.  Turtle was devestated.  When I brought the hamsters body over to show the girls and daddy that she was dead, she started sobbing "goodbye, hamsty, goodbye, I love you, I miss you" over and over.  She cried and cried.  It was heartwrenching.  We buried the body in a box in the backyard the next day.  The girls helped cover the box with dirt.  Rosebud said softly as we did so, "It's dark down dere."   She kept asking for days when we were going to go get him back out.   And even the other day, Turtle said sadly, mostly to herself, "Where's our hamsty?"  Death is so hard.  I felt at such a loss to help them understand and had such a pit in my stomach over the whole thing.  

#6.  I went to New York City for my cousin's wedding a few weeks ago.

We briefly saw the Statue of Liberty

 and the Brooklyn Bridge

 while my blue-eyed, travelin' baby was an angel the whole long drive there.

 The weather was gorgeous

 I wore cute shoes

  the happy couple were beautiful and in love

 and my little brother passed out from festivity-exhaustion before the night was over.

 It was a fun weekend!

#7.  THEN, we went to the beach!

We ate played in the sand.

 We built friendships.  (Rosebud told me today, "I like N., Mommy." So I guess she's missin' him! :)

 We fed ducks.

 We flew kites.

 We enjoyed beautiful weather.

 We watched ocean waves.

 We loved every minute.

Visit Jen at Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes.