I
We are officially slacking at our parental role of photographing every aspect of our firstborn's life to pieces. Yesterday was Halloween, and we dressed him up and ran all over the place--played with friends at the ice rink, had supper with my family, visited our landlords--and we did not take a single photo of our little construction worker.
II
We're really just fortunate that he had a costume at all, because somehow Halloween snuck up on me this year. He received a bright orange vest as a gift a few weeks ago, and several days later I was walking through Michaels and stumbled upon a bright yellow foam hard hat. Voila, Bob the Builder! Matt outgrew dressing up at least a decade ago; I still enjoy it, and am convinced that having a little one makes that acceptable, but this year I didn't come up with anything. Maybe next year, when he's old enough to trick-or-treat.
III
Fortunately for my didn't-plan-well self, Little Bear's construction costume transitioned easily to a saint costume for today: take normally dressed child with vest and hard hat, discard vest, add head lamp to hat. St Parin, patron of tin miners. Parin wasn't technically a miner himself, but he did legendarily discover veins of tin in the bedrock of Cornwall, so I thought the miner getup was okay.
IV
It was a good bet that there would be other adults in saintly attire at the homeschoolers' All Saints party after Mass today, but I didn't really have the time or inclination to put a lot of effort into a costume (plus I wanted to look normal for Mass), so I spent spare moments this morning browsing Wikipedia articles on 20th century female saints. Gianna Molla is the obvious choice, but it was too obvious--plus, my sister did a much better job than I ever could last night, wearing scrubs and a lab coat. I'm glad I kept reading, because I came across a married couple I'd never heard of before: Blessed Luigi Quattrocchi and Blessed Maria Corsini.
V
The Quattrocchis were the first married couple ever to be beatified together! They had four kids, and lived in Italy in the late 1800s to mid-1900s. When they were beatified, the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints described them as truly living the domestic church, being open to life, to solidarity with the poor, to reaching out to others through friendship... I'm paraphrasing badly here. But they sound like great role models for married couples, and I definitely need to go read more about them. For today, I didn't exactly have a closet full of turn-of-the-(last)-century Italian high fashion (Maria was Florentine nobility), so I just went with a sweater and conservative skirt in a cut hopefully reminiscent of the latter years of Marie's life.
VI
Matt usually doesn't get lunch until after 1pm, and has had to work late all week, so we weren't sure how he was going to make it to Mass for the holy day. I know, the Church doesn't oblige us to do what's impossible, but it's still important to make our best effort! One of his coworkers was willing to switch lunches with him today, so Little Bear and I met him for the noon Mass at the chapel on campus. I'm glad we were able to go together! Little Bear behaved very well, much better than he would have if I was trying to wrangle him on my own.
VII
I had a lovely dinner planned for tonight to celebrate the solemnity, but just now, I'm starting to wonder if we won't just be celebrating with a frozen pizza. World's greatest housewife I'm not. Since it's finally (finally!!!) November, I rounded up all of our groceries this morning before Mass... except for diapers. Little Bear is consistently...overfilling...his diapers at night, but he's too small for the next size up. I've been having to wake him up in the middle of the night each night to change him in order to avoid wet sheets. My sister-in-law suggested I look for overnight diapers, and I've been counting days until the new budget-month so I could get them! So this morning I went to pick some up, and they were out. I popped into the store across the street, and they were out too. After the All Saints party at my parents' parish I hauled the sleepy little man over to Walmart... and they were out too! Little Bear refused to go back in his car seat without eating, and fell asleep nursing. First real nap of the day at 3pm? I couldn't bring myself to wake him by sticking him in the car seat. I have to pick Matt up from work across town in about a half hour; what are the chances Little Bear will wake up in time for us to try another store on our way to the university?
Have a blessed All Souls Day tomorrow! I always forget, so remember: even if attending Mass isn't an option (there won't even be any Masses celebrated for All Souls here that I know of), stopping in to a church on All Souls Day and praying for the souls in purgatory can merit an indulgence for them! Little Bear probably won't be quiet long, but if I can find an unlocked church in town I'm hoping to stop in briefly.
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