So it’s the week before Easter, and you know what that means — one last shot at pigging out, Lenten-Style. Eric and his Massively Chaotic crew dropped in at St. Pius X for their Pasta Feed, so we got the mix of spaghetti and mostaccioli with a helping of beer cheese and marinara sauce here and there. Mostly, though, we played with our phones, salt and pepper shakers, innuendo, and plastic forks for a couple hours. No, it doesn’t take much to amuse us, especially when cards and gooey bake sale nut rolls are involved.

We had some unseasonable warmth on Saturday, so I went to Donna’s house to help her put up a new fence in the yard, designed mostly to keep Hannah inside when she comes over to play with dirt. I got a nice, healthy blister on my hand at the end of it, but the results looked acceptable.

On Palm Sunday, Hannah joined a bunch of the little ones at Twin Valley Church to take a few laps around the sanctuary with plastic palm branches before the service (and then got some sugar afterward). In the meantime, my Uncle Ben and Aunt Carol came by to visit my parents, which was now the halfway point between their home in Scottsbluff and their other family in Cedar Rapids. Hannah hadn’t met either of them before, and we hadn’t seen them ourselves since they stopped by with the Garcia Herd back in 2010. It was indescribably sweet to watch them sing Jesus Loves Me together on a spur of the moment.

Naturally, Nebraska’s manic-depressive weather went from unseasonably warm 80s to freaking snow literally overnight. That made for a frosty Monday, which meant a lunchtime romp with Hannah and a sled down at Stinson Park. It was just above freezing, but I got to slide our little girl around the frozen lawn for a few minutes before retreating inside for Godfather’s Pizza and cupcakes for lunch. That’s quality time!

Next stop: Easter!