With the arrival of October, we have to just hit the road running! With this the big birthday month for Karl, Anton, My Dad's Birthday, and Karl's Dad's Birthday. However, this year Anton turns 13! Yes, we are now the parents of a teenage boy! God Help Us!
OK, so we have a big "Big Boys Only" party planned for next weekend. In the past we have invited families to come, but this year, Anton was specific, only the boys because it's going to be an all out war, Nerf that is! The boys will be divided into two teams with tasks, missions, to complete against each other. They will have 4 acres of untamed wildness for these escapades. Parents have been advised to send changes of clothes since it has been rainy, the fields are probably muddy. We are all gearing up for this one, it should be memorable.
So why not this past weekend? For starters, Anton's birthday fell on Columbus Day this year, and for the past two years, the schools have held classes, thus severely limiting the available boys to attend. Secondly, I went on retreat this year. It was something I debated on and after Karl and I weighed out the pro's and con's, he told me to go. It was wonderful to unplug from my normal everyday life to spend it with God; a time to center and refocus on what is important. It was good to break from and see the bad habits I had been accumulating, like spending too much time following politics and not enough time trusting that God has the master plan. The retreat focus was different aspects to the Charism of Mother Theresa; God first/Mission Work Second/World third, poverty, obedience, etc. The Retreat Master gave the talks and shed new light on those topics along with deeply theological quotes from Mother not immediately noticed before. For example, a secular reporter once told Mother he could not go into the streets of Calcutta and bathe the dying for a million dollars. Mother's response was very serious, "I wouldn't do it for a million dollars either." The meaning was totally lost to the reporter as he did not see that she was purely motivated by love and the ability to see Jesus within each of the people she ever encountered. To her, the chance to serve God disguised as a humble dying man, to show this individual they are loved and wanted, to give them back their dignity as a child of God is not something one could buy with secular currency but priceless in the eyes of God.
So, on Columbus Day, and Anton's actual birthday, we did a family celebration for both of the men in the house. Karl declared they had to get some work done first though as he was home and felt the need with the temperature dropping to start winterizing. The vegetable garden was cleared and the chickens herded into to do bug and weed control. Anton sawed off a long stick from a tree to make into a walking stick for Scouts. Bella did some laundry and bouncy from each of us to help while I proceeded to a day of baking muffins and sweet breads from a gluten free/ dairy free Amish Starter I had been nursing along for the days prior. But before I placed a single bread or muffin tray in the oven, I had to bake the boys' birthday brownies. Cake is not Anton's favorite, but brownies are a weakness especially served with ice cream. At lunchtime, we had guests as Aileen who rode with me to the retreat needed to pick up her phone she had left in my truck. It was not very long, but enough time with friends to make it festive for the non-party day. A little later I started on the steak dinners so loved by my men. We also watched The Avengers while the meal was being prepared and the boys received phone calls from relatives with well wishes.
It was a good week! The only downsides was Karl receiving a phone call from his parents that they would not be able to attend the Christening of the USS Minnesota in a few weeks as Karl's dad's health is very weak. It is hard to watch Karl try to not show his thoughts and emotions through our family dinner. I knew not to push, I have known this man for some time and there are little signs I can read that say this is not the time. Then I woke this morning to Bella vomiting in her bathroom. She is resting now, and she did calm her system enough to take some Tylenol. My unofficial diagnosis, a virus from her escapades while I was on retreat with her fiends. She has riding lessons, a long play date, a sleepover, soccer game, serve at mass, CCD, and lots of running during one of her high pollen allergy seasons. She will probably be fine after 24 hours.
