I did it! I’m a few days in to 2022, but I did it. I finished listening to the Bible in a Year podcast from Fr. Mike Schmitz.
I’m 44 and this is the first time in my life I have gone through the entire Bible. I learned SO much and am extremely grateful to have been able to learn more about God’s word and my faith.
I got to celebrate my birthday with this great group of family and friends. Michelle and Angelo hosted us for dinner and an amazingly delicious pumpkin layered cake.
Gift opening (on the 24th) was full of fun surprises from Jake, the kids, my in-laws, and my aunt Deb, who made a cathedral pane lap quilt using pieces that my Grandma Fran had intended to use for quilting, but was unable to due to her failing eyesight.
Time flies.
Usually I say that when referring to my kids and how fast they’re growing and changing. This time though, I’m saying it about me. Six months ago today, I was in the middle of a life-changing (life-saving) surgery. A lot has happened in a short amount of time and every day when I wake up, I’m thankful for the gift of continued recovery.
✅ walking
✅ normal vision
✅ driving
✅ biking
Next goal: paddle boarding
We celebrated with 6-month post-op ice cream cones tonight!
I’m turning another year older in a few days – and it’s a “special” birthday.
My friend, Michelle, planned a get together at a local restaurant and a great group of friends showed up to help me celebrate! I wish I had had our server take a group picture of everyone, but one of my friends did capture these pictures for me. (The lone color one is of the ladies I know from our old parish – several who have known me since before we had kids.)
In the invite, Michelle offered to put together a spiritual bouquet for me. On the vase that held 40 roses are the prayers she collected. I can’t tell you how much the love, support, and friendship of the ladies who came tonight (and many others,) means to me – especially as I close in on the “T-2 months til surgery” mark, which coincidentally is my actual birthday. I am truly blessed to have so many beautiful women supporting me in the rough times and celebrating with me in the joyful times. ❤️
Today was the start of our Christmas celebrations. My parents went to Christmas Eve mass with us and then came over to the house for dinner. They left just before we put he Shecklets to bed so the house could get prepped for Christmas morning.
Our family has been privileged to journey with our friend, (now Fr. Joseph) for the last 2 1/2 years of his seminary formation. He has become part of our family and has impacted our lives in both large and small ways. He was present for Shecklet #2’s baptism and will hopefully be able to return in the fall to baptize our new baby. We have shared birthdays, daily life events, losses, and successes. Our boys have also had the opportunity to witness the joy of the call to the priesthood on a personal level. He is an amazing young man and we look forward to seeing where God takes him!
We took a trip to St. Louis over Memorial Day weekend to attend Fr. Joseph’s priestly ordination. Friday evening, my friend Jess and I (who are both preggo) took a short flight to the “Show-Me” state. Our husbands, friend Michelle, and the boys loaded into the suburban and headed south just a little bit before 7AM. Their trip was a tad more eventful than ours. They started the trip out with a delicious breakfast at Michelle’s parents’ house, a visit with Sonic the bunny, and then got back on the road. A few pit stops, books, movies & kid songs later, they arrived at our hotel in St. Louis right about the time Jess and I did. All in all, we heard the drive went very well. Jake and I are both so thankful for Brandon & Michelle’s willingness to travel with our two little guys. Michelle has traveled with our family before, but it was Brandon’s first time – hopefully we didn’t scare him off! I have no doubt that the kids did so well because of the care (and entertainment) they received while Jake manned the wheel.
Friday night we spent a little time walking around the area near our hotel, the Drury Inn, next to the St. Louis Arch. We had a partial view of the monument from our corner room on the 5th floor – it was amazing! The next time we visit, I hope we have a bit more time to explore the parks & fountains in the downtown area. Maybe we’ll even get to take in a Cardinal’s game. As we strolled by Busch Stadium, Shecklet #1 noticed the player banners hanging from the street lights. He immediately said, “There’s Joe Mauer!” We had to tell him that they probably weren’t Joe fans in St. Louis 🙂 After grabbing a bite to eat and eventually settling the kids down, we all crashed at about 11pm.
Saturday morning, we were up early to have breakfast at the hotel before heading to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. The ordination mass was beautiful! It is actually somewhat difficult to put into words what being in the congregation felt like. Being present to witness the transformation of the lives of the 8 newly ordained men was an experience I will never forget. There is something about the rich tradition and ritual of the Catholic Church that is quite overwhelming at times like these. (What I need to remember is that each Sunday I have the opportunity to experience that same overwhelming feeling when I attend mass…something for me to work on.)
After the ordination, we had lunch and went back to the hotel. We had a few hours between the ordination and the celebration reception, so we all crashed for about 2 hours. It would have been fun to check out more of the St. Louis area, (like others from our MN group) but I think our time was better spent catching zzzz’s. The reception for Fr. Joseph was very nice. Throughout the evening, there were several people who spoke of his character, maturity, devotion to his vocation, and genuine love for the people of God. We dined on a delicious tenderloin steak meal and enjoyed cupcakes from the Cupcakery. Yum! The boys also received steaks. And thanks to the fact that there were 3 adult men at our table, I’m happy to report that none of their meat went to waste.
Our final day in St. Louis began with breakfast (again) followed by attending Fr. Joseph’s first mass.
(Mass and family photos compliments of our friend, Rob Jensen.)
After the brunch reception after mass, we packed up our hotel room and spent a little time down by the Arch. (Or, as Shecklet #2 called it, “Big Arch!”) We strategically planned on letting the boys run around for a while before we strapped them into the suburban for the trek home. It was a muggy day, so we took advantage of the air conditioned museum/visitor center underneath the arch. While we were there, I learned something about animals – check out the pictures below.
Jess and I had dinner with our friends, Brad & Libby, before getting dropped off at the airport to fly home. Our suburban counterparts rolled back into town about 2:30 in the morning. Apparently Shecklet #2 had a couple of rough hours on the way home, but once home in their own beds, both boys slept soundly. Over the course of the 2 1/2 days they were gone, Shecklet #1 & Shecklet #2 spent a little over 20 hours in the car and close to 5 hours in the Cathedral Basilica. They were real troopers! I think we’ve probably maxed them out as far as road trips go for the summer though. I think we’ll be staying pretty close to home for a while.
Wednesday night we had to scrounge up some pj’s for Nolan. I was a tad behind on laundry, so his “normal” pajamas were still in the dirty laundry pile. We made due with sport pants and a Twins shirt. Not to be left out, Lincoln “requested” a t-shirt of his own. Actually, he requested one of Nolan’s and we put it over his sleeper. He was SO proud of the fact that he was wearing the Corn Dog shirt. It’s a Sheck boy favorite.
Thursday was Thanksgiving Day. Nolan and I worked on a special project Wednesday afternoon & Thursday morning. We made turkeys using an outline of his hand and finger paint prints of his fingers. He had a lot of fun gluing on the beaks, “gobblers,” googly-eyes, and feathers. After the glue dried, I had him decorate the place settings at the table. He was pretty proud!
We hosted my family and our friends Teri & Nate for Thanksgiving dinner. My parents brought the main course (turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing & gravy,) I put together a couple of side dishes (the token green bean casserole and squash & apple dish I made a couple of weeks ago,) Tony brought fruit salad, and Teri made two delicious desserts. We dined with a couple of pilgrims who gobbled up the food on their plates like old Turkey Day pros. It was really nice to spend the day with family.
Can you tell they’re brothers? Lincoln has started smiling the way his big brother does. Both of them really know how to ham it up for the camera.
After Thanksgiving dinner I made the mistake of drinking two cups of coffee (with lots of flavored creamer.) The kids went to bed at 7 & 9. Jake did the same around midnight or so and I was up until 3AM! When I laid my head down at 3, I laid awake for another hour. It was ridiculous. I don’t know what I was thinking putting that much caffeine into my body so late in the day. Lesson learned…the hard way.
Friday we spent some time at Larissa’s apartment. She had a group of us over to swim in her pool. It was a tad on the chilly side, so we didn’t stay in the water long. We gave the boys a warm bath to raise their body temps and then had pizza for lunch followed by ice cream sundaes. Yum! Jake then took the kids home for a nap while I went in to the office for a few hours. When I got home, we put the kids to bed and went out in the porch for a while. Not much was on TV on Friday night; somehow we ended up on QVC. I ended up making my first purchase thanks to the TV pitchpeople. (I didn’t call in though – I made the purchase online.) I’ve been looking for sleeping bags for the boys’ Santa presents and found the perfect ones on QVC. Who would have thought? And not only are they sleeping bags, but they’re sleeping bags with cots! So as the boys get bigger and we’re able to bring the cots with when we travel, the kids won’t have to make camp on the hard (and nasty) hotel floor. Thanks QVC!
On Saturday we made the annual trip to Menards to pick up our Christmas tree. We thought about going to a tree farm to cut one down this year, but I think we’ll wait a bit longer before we go on that adventure. At this point, the kids are more excited about just getting the tree inside the house and decorating it. Down the road when they’re able to enjoy seeking out the “perfect” tree, we’ll head to the tree farm. Until then, Menards will bring the tree selection to us. We convinced the kids to take a nap after we got the tree home, telling them we’d decorate it if they napped. It worked perfectly. We all got some much needed sleep and then later in the evening, enjoyed hanging lights and decorations. We put the tree in the porch so little fingers can’t get to it unless they’re monitored. Thanks to the former owners of our house, some of the outlets in the porch are on a switch that is in the toy room. So even though they can’t get up close to the tree without mom or dad, the boys can turn the lights on and off by themselves – it’s perfect.
Having two little boys in the house means we build a lot of forts. Sunday afternoon was no different. The card table we used on Thursday was still in the living room, so we covered it with a sheet and then placed the kids’ hut next to it to extend the width of the fort. Jake crawled in to see if he would fit. 😉 His feet stuck out one end and his head peered out the other. Being the helpful toddler, Lincoln checked on his daddy and then proceeded to try to rescue him by pulling on Jake’s head.
Nolan had his first preschool conference this morning. From the sounds of it, he’s doing pretty well 🙂 I’m glad he is enjoying it as much as he is. I catch him singing things he learns in class from time to time. Those moments really make me smile.
After conferences, I took the boys to MG to swim. We picked up Nana and headed for the pool. Both boys had a blast going down the kid slide and playing in the zero depth area. I wish I had brought my camera to capture the excitement on their faces when the fountains and waterfalls came on.
Tonight we celebrated my birthday for the 3rd time. How’s that for a three day party? My parents and brother came over for cake (Angel Food this time) and ice cream. Afterward, we hung out in the porch with a nice warm fire and Nana read to the boys. I love that my kids have opportunities to spend time with their grandparents, aunts & uncles. They are loved by so many people. What a gift that is to me as their mom.
Today’s randoms from Nolan:
For some reason he wanted to attach balloons to his pockets. I don’t ask why anymore, I just roll with it. (See the last picture above)
While in the porch this evening, he told Nana & Papa the “mometer” (thermometer) on the wall “measures the number of colds outside.” Papa then asked if it measures the “number of hots” outside in the summer. Good question, Dad 🙂
My view of birthdays changed a few years ago. I’ve reached a point where I really don’t keep track of how old I am, but still enjoy having a birthday. (As I’ve mentioned before, I love cake! Especially birthday cake!) I’ve come to realize that once you’ve hit the “milestone birthdays” – 16 (driver’s license); 18 (voting); 21 (legal consumption); 25 (insurance rates go down) you don’t need to necessarily make as big of a deal about your specific age. Birthdays become more about celebrating with family & friends and reflecting back on the year God has given you, with thanksgiving.
Today, I’m specifically thankful for the disappearance of the migraine that plagued me most of the day today. I was hoping to get out of the house with the boys this morning, but instead, laid on Nolan’s bed while the kids played in their room. We only had one casualty in the form of the barnyard lamp that was on their dresser. Jake came home at lunch armed with Tylenol and a Coke so I could try and combat the pain while resting. It seemed to work. When I woke from my nap 3 1/2 hours later, most of the migraine was gone. Unfortunately, so was most of the day. But we made the most of the few hours we had left before the boys went to bed. The kids had been waiting since Saturday to give me the presents they wrapped, so I had them help me open them . Before I could open my 3rd gift, Nolan said, “It’s an iPod!” He actually slipped up and mentioned something about it a while ago, but I had forgotten until that moment. He was SO excited for me to remove it from its packaging. I think it’s crazy how at 3 1/2 he knows what an iPod is. Maybe I should have him teach me how to use it.
After we opened presents, we had dinner as a family and had birthday cake again. Thanks, Larissa! Nolan even sang the Happy Birthday song to me 🙂 Here’s to another year of good times with family & friends!
