Simple Woman Monday on the Ides of March

 What I'm hearing... I've discovered a whole world of YouTube videos ( sometimes eight or ten hours long  -- with no ads!) that are untouched soundtracks of locations like beaches, birdsong forests in the UK or the southeast coast of America, a windy mountaintop, etc. Right now it's a crackling campfire by a woodland stream with the sounds of birds -- perfect peaceful background noise while I'm making up my Monday morning list for the week -- and filling out a Simple Woman Monday blog post.

What I'm seeing outside the window... All the signs of early spring: a cloudy drizzly day, a muddy driveway - bulb shoots poking up all over the gardens -- and hayfever! (Yes, I declare I see it coming for me.)

What I'm planning... Another week of cleaning and organizing all around. Dan's half finished removing the carpet upstairs so Dominic can lay a new laminate flooring when they move in next week, so, yeah, Dan'll be doing that in the evenings. In the meantime I got all our closets and dresser drawers weeded out and organized neatly in new labeled bins (how satisfying a project!) last week -- and now I'm planning to get the pub cleaned and organized before the troops get here for Anna's ceremonies for her entrance to the convent on the 25th -- otherwise Gabe and William won't have anywhere to sleep. (grimace) The countertop and bunkbeds are covered in stuff the local progeny don't want, but I don't have the heart to give away to Goodwill, and haven't found a place for yet. Wish me luck; I'm going to have to pluck more storage space out of thin air like Houdini I think.

What I'm thinking... Wondering about signal graces -- and whether it's fair to jump to conclusions about them. (God must know we're going to, right?) Anyway, what spurred this train of thought? It's just that, after praying for so long to our St. Joseph, patron saint of laborers for answers to the dilemma of how to manage our retirement (which is coming faster than we really even want to acknowledge -- but which we'd be foolish to ignore the reality of),  we finally landed on what we think may be the ticket to the next twenty years, financially and otherwise. This thing being the practicality and overall security of buying an RV -- and the coincidence (or God-incidence?) of its delivery date just happening to be on the feast of St. Joseph. And just in time to serve as a "spare room" for Sr. Antonia who's coming for Anna's ceremonies in a couple weeks!  Nothing is sure, and we always keep out antennae up for any promptings from the Divine Will -- but it surely feels like a bit of signal (emphasis on 'signal?') grace to us. I guess we'll see!

In the kitchen... Deciding whether to have Guinness Stew or Corned beef and Colcannon for St. Patrick's Day on Wednesday. But, one thing is sure. We will definitely be having Irish Soda Bread!

Picture thoughts... with a few words...

Bowling on Laetare Sunday!

With my sis, Linda, and Dan, plus Ben and Michelle and their four: Daria, Ella, Claudia, and Quinn.

It's a long-held family tradition to go out to dinner on Laetare Sunday (pretty much the only day in the year we sprang for the whole crew to eat at a restaurant!), then we'd embark on some other family excursion. For many years we went to a favorite steak house that had great salad and dessert bars and then went hiking in the Colorado mountains. Now that we're in Iowa, though, where there aren't any mountains and there aren't any Sizzling Steakhouses (here or anywhere maybe?), we play every new year by ear -- and invite anyone who is near. This year Michelle and Ben were on the ball (haha!) before we could even suggest anything, and arranged for the day out. It's nice to allow these arrangements to fall into other hands finally! I am not in the least feeling bereft of the responsibility. :)

Quinn with Aunt Nina

Forming the spectator cheering section along with yours truly.

The lanes were packed -- and there were a bazillion small children -- who were
using all the smaller lighter balls, leaving only the heaviest balls -- too heavy
for Linda and Quinn (winkwink) to be able to use -- and  I wasn't wearing socks
 -- and just really didn't want to wear a pair of bowling shoes without socks... because...
Ew. So we just enjoyed watching the kids.

Daria Showing Her Style

"See? You just... push."

Check this out: not only bumpers that came up automatically when the children bowled, but this
super cool ball-slide for the children. Why didn't they have these when our kids were little?

Daria and Ella (who took turns) WON!

With the help of bumpers and the dino ball-slide
which the grownups are saying they're going to use next time.

It's a little fuzzy. The names in order, for posterity: Michelle (who did all her own bowling without the bumpers or the dino slide), Aunt N -- was actually a free-for-all slot. Anyone who wanted to bowl
that one just jumped in and bowled. Daria (with her winning 139) was really mostly Daria and Ella --
helped by a really good slide placer (Michelle!). And the last two were Ben and Dan. I think Michelle
may have ended up beating Ben by one point. 

But Claudia probably had the most fun!

No competing with the air-blowing thinga-majig!

* The best thing about this day out -- is that, once it got started, it was almost just like the old days. We began the day (after Mass, of course) by first trying out the Pirate Putt Putt place right down the hill, but the formerly very common sense establishment is now (at the tail end of covid) suddenly mandating mask wearing. So we took our business up to Thunderbowl Bowling Alley -- which, from day one, has not required masks. The crew behind the desk doesn't bother with them -- and we were thrilled to see that, in the whole bowling alley, only one couple was masking. Dan remarked that it was more than worth the price of admission just to be in a situation where you knew the mask-wearers might have felt a little silly. Bless them. Nice to have a fun afternoon, though, that felt just -- normal! 

(Great little restaurant attached to the alley, too, btw, for any locals who might enjoy a date night out.)