7 QT Pentecost Weekend

1.  One of my five little brothers is getting married tomorrow, in St. Louis.  I'm so happy for him and his fiancee.

Yes, that is the original Voltron series on dvd.  

 I am also so very happy that my in-laws are shouldering all of my parenting responsibilities this weekend and taking my five exterior children to the wedding.  Being two weeks from my due date, Patrick and I are making a prudent decision to stay home.

2.  Do you realize what this means?  

For the first time, since May, 1996, Patrick and I will be home alone!  No kids!  All weekend!  The messes I won't have to clean, the curfews I won't have to negotiate, the silence!  Oh, the sweet, sweet, sound of silence!

3.

Tonight is Korean BBQ Night.  Patrick is taking me into the big city for some fine dining Korean style.  Micaela from California to Korea has given me her best menu tips, and I have long been waiting for this day.

Nope.  It's not a Meat Friday, so we'll make some other sacrifice (like NO KIDS!  Bwah-ha-ha-ha!  I kid!  I kid!  Oops.  Horrible pun there.) so we can savor the grilled delicacies of the Far East.

4.

You can do that you know.  Make an alternate sacrifice like no caffeine, or bread, or make a donation to a charity, or some other act of penance in lieu of the meatless Friday.

But NOT during Fridays in Lent.

Susan had to explain this finer point of Canon Law to her classmates.  No, you cannot order carnitas at Chipotle on Friday in Lent if you give up the guac instead.  Fridays in Lent are no meat, no exceptions, unless you don't meet the age requirements, or have an illness, or are pregnant or nursing.  I'm guessing all of  you already knew all of this.

5.  Micaela (of the Korean BBQ wisdom) sent me some questions about St. Jude's School for Kids Who Want to Read Good and Do Other Things Good Too, aka our one student homeschool founded in October 2013.  She's running a new series/link-up, "How I Homeschool."

I went on and on and got all hormonal/emotional and she is still publishing it.

Read her own interview with herself for some good practical homeschooling advice from someone who knows what they're doing.  She's makes it look good.  I make it look messy.

6.  Other things I plan to do this weekend:  explore the better donut shops of the city.  Mary Bridget is due at about the same time as me, and she is always Instagramming donut temptations from donut boutiques around Chicagoland.

She should make a coffee table book of her beautiful donut pictures.  Which are all on IG, so I can't gank one for my blog.  So I took this one from the world wide web.

Dinkel's Maple Bacon Donut

I want.  I need.

7.  We are also going to an Ordination Anniversary party for our dear, dear friend Fr. Dan.

Fr. Dan is the man in black.

Fr. Dan is a former hog farmer, bluegrass mandolin player turned priest.  He has opened for Johnny Cash and played with Alison Krauss.  He was also president of the Illinois Pork Producers Association.

We went camping once.  Fr. Dan came and said Mass for us.  Those are my kids and they're all big now.

Then he heard The Call.  I'm so happy he did too, or we never would have met him.

Patrick and Fr. Dan on that singular camping trip.

Fr. Dan and I share a deep love for Jesus and bacon.  In that order.

Of course, all of the above weekend fun is made possible by Patrick's terrific parents.  I'm praying for their sanity this weekend, as well as praying that Thornton 6.0 doesn't decide to show up and spoil my plans. 

Though I suppose, Patrick could bring me Korean BBQ take-out and Dinkel's Donuts, and then we'd have to name the baby, Dan.

In the meantime, I am more than happy to offer congrats to Dwija and her family for the speedy delivery of their long-awaited son. Congratulations Borobia Family!

Linking up with Jen in City.