Goodbye October

This month has been so intense, but very good. I realize this as I look over the month's pictures. We had Davy's baptism, which was amazingly beautiful, but kind of stressful. It was one of those almost out-of-body moments where you realize God is with you and your life is not that bad after all. You are actually very blessed. Like childbirth. Which is fitting because, as the priest said during the homily, baptism is not a birth in the flesh but a birth in the spirit, to be God's son.

Then four days later, barely recovered, we went back to the Algarve for four days to the same hotel... it was the third time this year. I feel like I know all the workers and they know us. My in-laws were supposed to come to help (because my husband was there for work), but they got sick and I was ...all.... alone. It went okay though. Tiring, but important.

And this week after getting back I decided to potty train the oldest kiddo (going really well) and sleep train the youngest kiddo (not going well at all) because... well, I guess I have massochistic tendencies. That is a cake with underwear and a bow on it, in case you can't tell.

I discovered how to make white frosting (see potty training cake) a week AFTER the baptism, which was super frustrating because I had imagined these nice white cakes which I wanted to make and got store-bought frosting, ran out of it, and they didn't turn out as I had wished. Oh well. NOW I can make a great white frosting!

And even though the little one isn't sleeping so well and hates pacifiers with a passion, I feel like I am really happy about our day-to-day and priorities. I have a little more peace. Last year I was soooo worried about our socialization and not having enough playgroups and playdates. My spiritual director was probably so tired about hearing me whine about not having any friends. He even introduced us to some really nice people who put up with us occasionally. ;) This year I was worried about what to choose as priorities. Worried as in, it was keeping me up at night. So we quit the government-run playgroup and I'm really happy about the friends and neighbors we have this year to cultivate. And I have a better idea what to invest in.