7 Quick Takes: A Week of Love

– 1 –

One of my favorite parts of the day (most of the time) is the short bit right before the kids go to bed. The house is a little darker, the dishes are washing and the kids smell so squeaky clean after baths. Scott has been the “bath man” since forever. Now that we have five, there’s a bit of divide and conquer during the bedtime routine. Last night, the bedtime routine was especially sweet. The girls gave me a back rub, we giggled while reading Clementine and we snuggled in for evening prayers. It was one of the sweetest bedtimes I’ve ever had with them. How fitting that it was on Valentine’s Day. I know I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating. I sure hope this chapter of life lingers a bit. It sure is fun.
Quote: “Jinx, you owe me a Coke.” The girls were cracking me up; I had forgotten people said that!

– 2 –

I enjoyed the 6:30am Ash Wednesday Mass by my lonesome while Scott and the bigs attended the school Mass. It was one of my Daily forays during Lent. The kids and I even participated in Busted Halo’s “Show Us Your Ash” contest. Voting is officially open. The kids’ cuteness factor should help, but if you feel so inclined, drop us your vote.
Quote: “My ashes are the bestest.” Clare, mightily proud that her daddy marked her forehead with ashes this year. I have to agree. They do rock.

– 3 –

Yesterday, my husband left me the sweetest note here on the blog. Joel, from The Practicing Catholic, hosted a “Why I Love My Wife” series. What better way to wake up on Valentine’s Day than to a love note? I’ve never really been the flower kinda gal. I’m more of a nice steak dinner and a date southern belle. But, since we gave up eating out for Lent, I whipped up dinner and we had a fantastic evening at home.

– 4 –

This is what we call a proud parenting moment. The ‘th’ sound? Pashaw. Doesn’t everyone know that’s the gig ‘em?

– 5 –

I’m addicted to Instagram (I’m kathryn74) – hard to tell via this post, I know. Social media confession here. I had been taking pics for months and had no idea, NO IDEA, that I had an Instagram feed other people could follow. Please tell me I am not the only here, y’all. My Aggie brain finally figured it out and I am hooked. The best part is seeing my nephews via my sister-in-law’s feed. It makes Dallas seem not so far away.

– 6 –

You know what’s cruel and unusual punishment? When you give up all unnecessary shopping for Lent and the following things happen: you get a phone call from White House Black Market reminding you of their “super awesome” sale going on this weekend; you get an email from The Container Store reminding you the elfa sale is ending; and, you see an ad on Facebook about one of your favorite shops, noVae Clothing, and all their great new clothes. It’s like they KNOW. Or, they just have really good marketing departments.

– 7 –

Proof that I’m not too old. Yet.

Scott and I enjoyed a Pub Crawl with Lino Rulli, The Catholic Guy, on Sirius XM. It was part of a series of events organized by Austin Catholic New Media. Great, great fun. The crawl was the night before the Pope resigned (hello, that is a whole blog post). I often look at this picture and think, “Man, we had no idea.” On the upside, I found a fun new place to visit in Austin: Rainey Street. It’s a street of houses that have been converted to bars. Crazy. It’s like a block off I-35. We had a blast and Scott and I loved the date night.

Make it a really fabulous weekend everyone! For more Quick Takes, visit Jen over at Conversion Diary.

Tagged as: 7QT, anna-laura, ash wednesday, clare, john paul, luke, scott, will