2-fers

Two Things That Made Me Smile Today

 1 

This past June during Sr. Antonia's family visit, she joined her three youngest siblings and me on an eastern Iowa adventure. We had a good look around a couple of the cute little Mississippi towns on the way to our chief destination: the trails and caves at Maquoketa State Park (which we highly recommend as a go-to hike!), and of course, whenever we saw a historic old church, we stopped in  for a look around. Our Catholic heritage is just as rich here as it is in Europe; I think a lot of folks don't realize! Some of the great architecture of the world can be found in the tiniest towns in midwest America! I can't remember the name of this particular church, I'm afraid, though, or what town we found it in (I'll have to ask the kids if they remember) -- but it had stellar acoustics. Here you can hear Sister (soprano) with Gabriel (bass), Anna (alto), and William (tenor) joining their voices to the vibrations of over a century of praise and adoration sent heavenward in this beautiful church. 

I was looking for something else today and stumbled upon it -- and it made a dreary gray day here much brighter!

2

This photo of our beautiful daughter-in-law, Kevin's wife, Ina, and their first child, our granddaughter, Sophia Philomena. We haven't had the opportunity to go over to Germany yet to see our little sweetie in person (thanks to the absurdity of the plandemic), but we do get frequent photos over the internet and are able to be in almost constant contact. Say what you want about modern technology -- this is a major plus in its favor!  

Note the photo itself is totally grandmother smile material -- but Kevin sent it with this caption, which made it even better: "When Mom thinks you look really cute, but you've looked really cute for the past 10 minutes..." (Heehee!) Love these beautiful girls!