7 Quick Takes - end of RSV edition!

This week is the last full week of RSV season where I live, which means that next week our family will be getting back to our normal schedule of outings! (We've been semi-quarantined, because RSV - which looks like the common cold in most people - can be very dangerous for the underdeveloped lungs of premature babies, like our twins. Their lung development lags behind normal babies' till about age two.) Except that it will be a new normal, because I've never had a springtime as the mother of two preschoolers and toddler twins. I suspect it might be a bit different. But oh-so-much fun.

So, for quick takes this Friday, here's a list of seven places I'm looking forward to going to, now that RSV season is almost over:

1) Sunday mass. We've been making due with the 8 a.m. Saturday mass, because it's so small we more than double the attendance just by attending. While it's been neat to sit in the choir loft right up next to the altar, and get to know the regulars there a bit better, I am looking forward to a SUNG mass with all of the hymns, and especially to getting to see all our fellow parishioners after the service again.

2) The park. We've taken the kids to the park this winter, but just to run around on the grass or to fly kites. I can't wait to see these little monkeys on the monkey bars again! I'm sure they'll still climb the rope we've hung up at home, but how cool for these climbing-happy kids to have a whole playground at their disposal again!

3) Our playgroup. I've missed you guys.

4) Sam's Club. Yep. I'm gonna put those double carts to GOOD USE. (Huge thanks to my folks, who've picked up the stuff on our Sam's Club list for us all winter long.)

5) The grocery store. Just like the park, we have been to the grocery store with the kids this winter, but only with them safely in the quad stroller. So this only happens on weekends, when Adam can push the quad stroller, and I can pull our sturdy wooden Red Flyer (for the groceries). It's a good walk there and back, pushing or pulling all that weight! But I'm looking forward to going all by myself with the four kids. Again - it might get interesting!

6) The Huntington. If you're ever in the Los Angeles area, you must go to the Huntington. Acres of gardens, room after room of gorgeous artwork, and books like you would not believe. They have the Ellesmere Canterbury Tales. A Gutenberg Bible. Original Donnes and Shakespeares and a huge Audubon Birds of America. An amazing rose garden, a Japanese garden, a jungle garden, a children's garden with interactive fountains and hedge tunnels and a mist grotto . . . just beautiful stuff.

7)Restaurants. Not that we went that often before, but some cashew chicken sounds really good right now!

So, there's the short list. :) For more quick takes, visit Conversion Diary.

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell