Goings on

Fourth of July party with the Queen of Apostles St. Joseph's Group. Our pastor is doing pin the tail on the donkey...what a good sport he is :)

David belongs to a family of girls, no way around it.  I couldn't stop laughing when they came upstairs from our coat closet like this.

It's been an eventful month. Dave has formally changed jobs from the organization he began working for right out of college to our local parish, of all places! We've become close to our pastor, Fr. Leopoldo Vives, since he and two other Disciples of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary arrived at Queen of Apostles last year, and since Dave organized a ministry for fathers in the parish called the St. Joseph's Group. Fr. Leopoldo asked Dave to help out interviewing candidates for a new job opportunity at the parish. Everyone involved in the interview process soon discerned that really Dave was the ideal candidate for the job. After some quick and intense discernment, Dave and I both came to see the job as very attractive on many levels: it would employ everything Dave had learned at YLF and business school, it would be an eight minute commute from our house, the salary and benefits are more than what we previously had, and the girls would be able to attend the parish school in the fall at no cost to us. It was dawning on us that this unforeseen job offer was God's answer to years of earnest prayer. No doubt this new job will present its own challenges and crosses, but all in all it looks like a beautiful fit for now!

In the meantime, Frankie and Teresa are excited about the prospect of school this fall, and I'm looking forward to a break from the pressure of homeschool for a season. We may very well return to homeschooling, which in theory I find preferable, but life the past year provided some significant obstacles to what I consider ideal execution.  Thank goodness Frankie is such a bright self-starter; I know she absorbed much despite our very basic curriculum. 

We've put moving on hold for now, since Dave's new commute is simply too good to be true, but we've still got our eye out for a neighborhood where car windows remain intact (we like to dream big around here). Two nights ago, for the second time in a year, someone bashed in a window of our minivan. Despite six years sprinkled with arrests, theft and vandalism, we've decided to stay on our street for another year or so (yeah, we're tough). Nonetheless, feel free to share any news of houses for sale in the Annandale area!