The Pope's on Twitter!

Just had to comment on how sweet and wonderful it is that the Pope is now tweeting! He used his ipad to set up a new Vatican news portal, news.va. (You can even watch the youtube video of his cardinals teaching him how to use the ipad.) The more accessible the Church is the better I always say! I may even have to join Twitter and actually follow him!

Pope Benedict XVI also celebrates his 60th anniversary in the priesthood today. Its amazing a future Pope was ordained on the Feast day of Sts. Peter and Paul. It must be astonishing for him to look back and see how the Church and the world has changed in those 60 years.   Pray for continued good health and protection for our great Pope today!

Kiernan Shipka's beautiful, girlish style!

She's a scene stealer in Mad Men and I have to now say Kiernan Shipka has the best sense of personal style of the entire cast. The style prodigy has brought feminine and girlish style back from the 50's with beautiful colours and accessories. What's so refreshing is her love of beautiful girlish frocks that are actually age-appropriate! I would love to dress my daughter in these dresses when she's 11!

* All images from The Coveteur.

Home Again

We hiked here.

Tried to look like we weren't being rained on. And I can't believe I'm putting bad picture up!

And ate this!

We had a lovely two nights away in the mountains! I really love getting away even for a night, it changes your perspective on everything it seems. Not only do I feel great having a little time with just my husband to do crazy things like go out for a fancy dinner and just walk and talk together but hotel rooms have a rejuvenating effect on me. And of course the babies seem to want to hug me more once we get home! 


I know I don't get off the ranch much, but this time travelling to tourist-y locations and great restaurants I couldn't help but be left with a little feeling of what I guess would be envy. I couldn't help looking around at people our age seeming to not have a care in the world. Then I would think about how we are in the middle of doing some seriously hard work of raising a family. Not only raising a family, but purposefully trying to live out God's plan. I guess that these feelings of envy, which I don't usually have, stem from how I feel tried and tested lately. I know God is doing some serious testing of me right now, and I know that the other side will be more than worth it, but its the feeling of being tested that I'm not a big fan of. 


On the bright side, I'm so thankful to get a little time away and to be able to come home to my lovey babies and happy home.  

Be back soon!

 we've escaped for a few days sans bambinos to Banff! If I'm really ambitious we might do a little hiking, but more than likely we're going to be eating our way through the great restaurants, sleeping in, and enjoying having time with each other which won't be interrupted by requests to go to the potty, more cookies, or who really had what toy first! It'll be bliss!



*images via here, here, here.

The Language of Bees by Laurie R. King

The Language of Bees by Laurie R. King is a mystery novel based on her character Mary Russell who happens to be married to Sherlock Holmes. I picked up this book because the idea sounds intriguing to me-Sherlock Holmes married? How's that work? But with also a healthy dose of skepticism as to whether or not a married Sherlock Holmes, or his wife for that matter, would work in comparison to Conan Doyle's character. This individual novel did not answer all my curiosity but gave interesting glimpses into such an unusual marriage.


Although the novel does have Sherlock Holmes as a character he is not the main character and can be removed directly from the storyline for chapters at a time. That being said, I found Mary Russell to be a remarkably likable character. I usually have a bias towards female detectives as they always come off as trying too hard, or uppity, by Mary had the right amount of smarts, gumption, and realism that it was easy to get hooked into the story and follow Mary as she does a lot of the legwork in helping Holmes solve the case. This is the first book I've read by Laurie R. King and her writing is succinct, which makes for good detective fiction, but also attentive to the historical context of Mary and Holmes which adds depth to the story.  The Language of Bees is the ninth in a series of eleven books featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, but standing by itself it holds up as a entertaining detective novel while inviting the reader to enjoy the rest of the series. 

I spent the morning without blogs!

Source: clusterpile.wordpress.com via Christy on Pinterest

Monday already and my long weekend with the family flew by again! The kids had a great time at Fort Edmonton Park and rode trains and carousels to their little hearts content. We   spent the rest of the weekend visiting the grandparents and seeing more baby cousins which is always a good time. I even took my darling husband suit shopping which is an almost once in a lifetime experience but lots of fun!


Also; my internet hub died which is the only way of getting internet out here in the boonies so I'm quickly writing from my mom's house! I went a whole morning without blogs and news and accomplished almost triple my usual work around the house. Is that sad or what? But I felt horribly out of the loop and behind! 


And aren't these bathing beauties fabulous?? Everyone should spend their summer basking against surfboards! 

We're Here!

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We're visiting Fort Edmonton today with the kids! I think the train will be the biggest hit but we'll soon find out! We're going to be out in the rain as well, which is odd because we've hardly had a rainy day all spring but we won't let that bring down our excitement, hopefully!