A Snapshot of May
The month of May always feels like a whirlwind! This year we promised ourselves that we were not going to schedule concerts and planned to be visiting family the entire month. We did not succeed in relaxing. Here is a quick snapshot of what happened:
We took on a construction project that was pretty ambitious for the time that we had allotted. This was not on the bus, but at my mom's house. She has been overly supportive by letting us base out of her home and use her garage for all of our renovations on the Airstream. Michael and I both knew this bathroom project would take the whole 3 weeks we were home, but we were secretly hoping that things would go smoothly and we would get done early. Of course that did not happen. We made great progress, but left things a bit unfinished.
We played a concert in our hometown. This is always fun! The more time we spend in Effingham, the more we find that people support what we are doing, even if they don't really know what that is. It was time to show them. The last time we played a concert there was in November of 2013.
Michael's birthday fell on a Sunday, and after all the manual labor he had been doing, he was due for a day of rest. Mother's day was the same day. The night before, we had a nice dinner with Michael's parents. In the morning, the older girls made us breakfast in bed. I think they had an argument over setting their alarm at 5 AM or 6 AM. They actually made us french toast - which turned out decent, and didn't wake us up until about 7:15. (I think they had to go to the library to look up a recipe.) Michael decided to have a little daughter/dad bonding by assembling a guitar effects pedal with them. I took the younger kids to lunch with my mom's side of the family. We finished the evening with a little sushi dinner. My birthday was one week later. I went to lunch with my mom and grandma, while Michael and the kids prepared a "fancy dessert" and special dinner that I requested.
Charity made her first confession on Saturday night. We are so thankful for the parish being flexible in scheduling this! Then she celebrated her first Communion on Monday morning at daily Mass. All of the attendees signed a special card for her and came up to shake her hand. She was not used to all of the attention. We celebrated with breakfast at Cracker Barrel. She requested an outdoor movie that night as her "treat", so Michael set up the big screen and sound system for her.
We built some shelves in the bus. "We" in this instance, means "Michael's dad". Michael and I were pretty burned out on construction projects by then, but we really needed this to happen before we left town again. Thanks to Bob for his hard work.
Truman cut 2 teeth. It was not the best timing, but he did pretty good.
We left Effingham and got to visit a few friends in St. Louis. Wow...we toured new houses and met new babies. Time seems to have flown past. It was great to relax before heading to Kansas.
We got settled in at camp. We decided to accept a 9-week position at Camp Tekakwitha this summer. We arrived May 25th and are learning the ropes. Michael is music and media coordinator and the kids and I get to enjoy all of the outdoor activities and great company.
There it is! The month of May is in the books! Whew!