Thoughts for Thursday (Kat)

What am I cooking tonight? Bowtie pasta with marinara sauce, broccoli, and leftover birthday cake for dessert. I’m loving Barilla Plus pasta lately – lots of protein for my meat-averse daughter, and tastes great!

What am I reading? Just finished Dearest Cousin Jane, and next on my list is Death of a Pope (I’ll give you my take when I’ve finished reading it). I’m also enjoying my new Everyday Food magazine…

What are my weekend plans? Swimming at the neighborhood pool, catechist training (I’ll be a Pre-K or K CCE teacher again this year), and doing some last-minute back-to-school organization for Christopher – can’t believe he’ll be in 1st grade this year!

What are my prayer intentions for the day? I’m praying for my mom’s health, our neighbors who have been without air conditioning all summer (we live in Texas!), and that my children will start sleeping normally again! The big kids have been waking up at all hours of the night for odd reasons (not to mention the baby), and have been up super-early in the morning, and it really messes with everyone’s ability to function during the daytime!

What is one product that is making my life a little easier? Homemade play-dough. Okay, I didn’t make it, but someone did and  my children and I have been the beneficiaries of their kindness 🙂 Mine never turns out this well – it gets hard very quickly and has a lumpier consistency. Does anyone have a recipe that they’d like to share? Play-dough is one of the few toys that both my 6 year-old and 2 year-old can enjoy together, and the homemade kind is much easier to get unstuck from the carpet than the store-bought kind (which I’ve completely given up on).

What am I grateful for? A great week of vacation with my husband and children. We all got to spend some much-needed time with daddy, and had lots of fun building sandcastles, jumping through the waves, catching lizards, and eating my mom’s yummy cooking. Oh, and Ed and I even got to go out for a belated 7th anniversary dinner!

What have I done for my marriage this week? The dishes 🙂 But I’ve prayed while doing them, which is the real benefit.

What’s challenging me lately? I have a lot of friends locally that are going through tough financial times. They struggle to make ends meet, and have to make some rough choices to make things work for their families. I have a hard time knowing how to support these friends, and feel like Our Lord is challenging me to confront the questions that have been running through my mind.

What is one task or project on my agenda for the week? Quite honestly, I need to deliver the laundry that has been sitting in a basket on my bedroom floor for the past three days, organize the pile of stuff that is sitting on the piano, and clean the grime off of our kitchen table place mats.

Something that made me think? Saying good-bye to my parents and sister (we were on a family vacation with them last week), and not knowing when I’ll see them again. It won’t be too long, just a few months I’m sure, but it’s hard to live far away from family.