I'm going to lose sleep, and skip making a much-needed grocery list to write tonight. Today is All Soul's day. I'm felt very close to Dad today. We made it to Mass early this morning, and then went to the cemetery afterward. It was nice. Yes, nice. I love being up and about early in the morning. The sun rising, and shining so bright in the blue sky. Perfect compliment to the crisp, cool air and damp dew still on the grass at the cemetery. We didn't stay too long. We had flowers to put on the grave, and we said some prayers there. This is what Dad did so many years of our life. We would go to a cemetery after school, and pray for the dead. We would drive to North Star once my dad learned he had a relative buried up there. leaving around 4p, getting there near 5, sun setting, very chilly. We'd pray one cold decade of the rosary, and finish the rest in the car on the way home. It's so much nicer visiting a cemetery in the morning of this second day of Nov.

Of course, we couldn't leave the cemetery without visiting the infants. We found the ones we knew and asked for their prayers for us.

So what a nice thing Dad instilled in us. You visit a cemetery on All Soul's day. You bury the dead, and continue to pray for them. Not only is it such a comfort that the whole Church is recognizing a day to do this, it is such a neat thing that my dad gets to benefit from his example, by having his children and grandchildren come to his grave and do exactly as he taught us. That brings me great comfort.

Strange how I've been thinking of this day for quite some time. Setting it aside in my head and planning how I was going to commemorate it. In a way, it's almost as special to me as the anniversary of his death would be, just because he held in such high esteem.

After a terrible week last week, I'm so happy to be feeling like myself again. I had a very wicked head cold, combined with the usual grief issues, and then what I believe was a serious surge of pregnancy hormones. Sheesh! What a concoction! Things cleared up on Friday, and I just remember waking up feeling like a totally different person- in a good way. Feeling like myself again. I remember pregnancy hormones doing that to me before. I just wish there were some way I could see around that when I'm in the midst of it! Very hard for me.

Anyway, feeling better led to a very, very busy weekend of furious sewing. Soldier costumes for my boys for the All Saint's day party at Church, and then a lovely Rapunzel costume for my dear Rose on Monday. All done with a poor teething baby who would not sleep well at all. Isn't it always that way for me? Somehow, whenever the babe is teething, I'm supposed to stay up all night and finish some colossal project.

Well, we made it through, and, in fact, made it through quite well. I felt so good about the All Saint's party. It really was fun, and we had a lot of help, and I just love seeing all the kids dressed as different saints. For the record, my boys were St. Martin of Tours(Sam) and St. Florian (Dominic)- both Roman soldiers from the third century. Rose was St. Faustina. Next day for Halloween, my boys couldn't just wear the lovely soldier costumes that I slaved over. Instead Sam wore the famous tin man costume and looked great. Dominic decided he wanted to be a cowboy. Between a had of Dan's, some 'cowboy' boots of mine, a denim jacket of Rose's and leather gloves and rope, he was the coolest cowboy I've ever seen. With a hint of Indiana Jones. Rose insisted I make the renascence princess dress to be Rapunzel. It turned out lovely in the three hours it took to make it...starting at 3p on Monday, thanks to a baby that wouldn't nap (among other things). Her hair turned out great.

Exhausting as it all was, I really enjoyed seeing the kids all have such a good time. Along with that joy was a bit of relief, as if a bit of a burden had been lifted. Or a 'chore' checked off my list. I hate to look at it that way, but with things being so busy lately, and my mood and energy being so mysterious, I was really glad to accomplish some things for my family that I see as things I should be doing.

Pictures to come.