What a week and it is only Wednesday! I have good news to report though - we have an apartment, and we can move in this weekend. Matt’s working on Saturday, so I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to be moving in, but I’m sure I’ll figure out something. :-)

The guys we hired and Matt are making excellent progress on the house - as of last night they had the 1st floor of the north, west, and part of the south wall up. It is really neat to see the house come together like this, and I really can’t imagine how we could have gotten it done without hiring a crew.

Matt and I also met with some midwives yesterday and we decided we’d go ahead and work with them. They are both very nice women and we like their model of practice. They are very much in the “we’ll give you the information and you get to decide what to do with it” sort of mindset, and that works well for us. They seem quite laid back and knowledgeable, without being controlling or know-it-all. (And yes, I’ve seen that kind of midwife too - that was my first experience with midwives, unfortunately, when I had Emma)

Matt’s grandparents have been moving this week (we moved stuff yesterday, and furniture movers are there today) so that has been very busy and chaotic. The kids are about to come unglued from all this change and uncertainty (and I think I’m not far behind) but hopefully everything well have a chance to settle again into some routines once we are in the apartment. We got up this morning, stripped the beds and packed up the bathroom stuff then headed to IHOP for a gigantic breakfast. The kids were a little strung out this morning (Gregory wasn’t certain he wanted to let his blankie or me get out of his sight, and Emma felt the same way, I think) but after being sated they seemed much better. It also helped get us all out of the way. :-) We’re currently hanging out at the office, making calls, playing computer games, and scattering stuff all over the floor of the office. I’ll let you guess who’s doing what.

Thanks, everyone, for your encouraging words on the last post. I very much appreciate it.

Oh, and I don’t know how I forgot to mention this when I was writing this post… I had the most fantastic experience at Mass on Sunday. You know how I mentioned we were going to the 11am Mass in my last post? Well, it is a new Mass time at my favorite little church in the parish (there are three churches in my parish, btw) and we hadn’t been to it before. Imagine my surprise when after the entrance song (a good, solid hymn rather than something like the Marty Haugen and David Haas fluff we are frequently subjected to) the priest did the Sign of the Cross and said, “In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.” My mouth literally dropped open and I was barely able to do the Sign of the Cross myself. I had mostly recovered my wits enough to stumble out, as proper, “Et cum spititu tuo.” at the appropriate time. I was immediately filled with such an indescribable rush of joy that I all could do was just blink back the tears and whisper, “Thank you, Lord!” I’m sure to many/most/all of you out there who might be reading this that this makes no sense whatsoever - why should the language matter - and why should Latin (a dead language, right? :-P ) make such a difference and make me so happy? I really can’t explain it, actually, and I’m not going to try at the moment. Suffice to say, I was thrilled. Emma caught on at the Gloria and whispered to me as she looked at the missal “Mom, look, it is in Latin! See, Deus, Domini, nomine, I know these words!” (Yay, Prima Latina, btw) and she was very pleased as well. It turned out to be sort of a hybrid Latin Mass because the Eucharistic prayer was in English but he used the longer version (which I think I’ve only heard a couple times before) and there were some additional prayers as well. It was a very wonderful, reverent, and contemplative Mass and I think perhaps the best part was that the choir didn’t sing during Communion. Now, I like the choir and a good choir is very important, but being able to focus on Communion and being able to pray without distraction (ok, well, as close as I get when holding a squirmy almost 2-yr old while kneeling) was beautiful. The priest’s homily was also very good - as Mrs. Lynde would say, his theology was sound. *grin* I left the Mass feeling renewed and fed in a way that was more than what I usually feel when leaving Mass - and that’s saying a lot! There was no announcement in the bulletin or anything about this, and the priest who was there is from another parish, but from some of the things he said in his homily I think he’s been assigned this Mass. I’m going to go again this week to the same Mass, and I’m hoping it will be similar. I don’t know why nothing was said in the bulletin or anything… but that’s one thing I’ve noticed about churches (and not just Catholic ones), they just seem to assume that everyone knows everything that’s going on already. Just one more reason for joy in my life right now - life is full of blessings, isn’t it?