Celebrating Pentecost/Our Kitchen Renovation

I am sorry if you clicked here looking for some fun ideas from me about how to observe Pentecost, a.k.a. the day the Holy Spirit came down to the Apostles and Mary, a.k.a. "the birthday of the Church" with your kids.  Because I've got nothing right now!

I have had kind of a crazy week.  Our car has been out of commission for days, forcing me to reschedule most of this week's original plans; we had a family funeral [my uncle passed away over the weekend, prayers for his soul are appreciated] and its various events to find rides to every day; and I've had a guy working on a kitchen renovation for me (yay!!) all week, forcing us to be very "creative" (read: spartan) with our meals as I don't even have access to the kitchen for most of the day.  And we've been out of milk for three days now, which might not seem like a big deal, but to my kids it kind of feels like the end of the world.  

And because I'm a bad Catholic and pretty much haven't attempted daily Mass since I had my second kid, I needed Facebook to remind me that Pentecost is tomorrow*.

So I am looking to you, my kind readers, for any doable last-minute ideas that I could pull off to help the kids - or at least Sly, who is almost four - grasp a bit of what Pentecost is all about.  We can't make it to Mass, since the church-across-the-street that I can actually walk to has it at the same time I need to be home for something tomorrow.  And it can't involve food, unless it's something that needs no cooking.

Maybe some sort of craft involving a "tongue of fire" or a dove?  Actually the dove might be a bad idea, because I think I've finally convinced Sly that the Holy Spirit is not really a dove, but just like a dove, and I don't want to confuse him all over again :-)

Thanks in advance to anyone who shares an idea!

Every now and then, I actually remember to take a few photos of this little cutie.  I feel guilty, but that's just how it goes when you're the third child, and the least demanding one of the bunch.

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Kitchen Renovation!

Our compromise when we decided to go ahead and put an offer on our house was that we would make some changes to the kitchen so it would become more useable for me.  I had nixed many a house over the months of torturing our realtor house shopping, due mostly to their tiny and unworkable kitchens.  A kitchen is the most important room in the house for me, since I spend so much of the day there, cooking or cleaning (can.not. wait until the kids are old enough to help more with these things).

To show you what I'm currently working with, this here is the entirety of my counter space.

I can barely even fit a cutting board there.  I constantly have to walk back and forth across the room to the stovetop or the trash can while I'm cooking, because my little food prep area is separated from them.  Also, our kitchen has four doorways entering into it, which makes it really hard to fit much else in the room.

We came up with a few things that will help, though - some new cabinets, an extended countertop, and a nice big single-bowl sink are going in.  Our tiny kitchen is soon going to double in cabinet- and counter-space, yet still be "below average" size for both.  We won't be getting a dishwasher, a pretty modern oven, an island, taller cabinets, or many of those other items I could list for my "dream kitchen."  We will barely even have any wall space left for decorations.  But I'm excited!

And so are the kids!

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Oh, also! I recently got to meet Amelia, whose very enjoyable blog I've eagerly followed for a while now, knowing full well that she was the sister of a good friend from college, yet being too awkward to actually tell her that I knew her brother....anyways, I finally got the guts to send her an e-mail informing her that I intended to say "hi" to her at his wedding which we were both attending (thus giving myself no chance to continue being awkward and just dodge her the whole time), and we finally got the meet in real life :-)  She's the second person who I've met after first getting to know through a blog.  It was again an enjoyable yet surreal experience.


*No, Pentecost is on Sunday - I was just being careless before.  See comment below :-) At least it gives me a little more time to prepare!