Untangling

Posted on January 29, 2014June 23, 2017 by Amy

Just like when I was a little girl, visiting my Gram still makes me happy. She is a one-of-a-kind special lady. And even better now, I get to see my girls love her too.

Visits to my Grandma’s house always involve good food, some sort of craftiness, making music, and playing with unconventional toys. My Gram doesn’t throw anything away. Ever. So she has tons of fun stuff for my girls, much of it things they wouldn’t otherwise think to play with (or more accurately, things I wouldn’t normally think to give them to play with). Plastic easter eggs, golf balls, styrofoam egg cartons, a bucket of random lids. And of course her piano. They had a blast.

In her box of goodies for them, I found a God’s eye. I used to make them all the time with my Gram when I was a kid. Turns out the one in her box was one I had made as a girl. 30-ish years ago. Told you she saves everything.

Of course, my Gram got out her yarn and had me saw the pointed end off of some wooden skewers she dug up in her kitchen so she could make God’s eyes for my girls. I helped Miss make her own.

My heart nearly burst from the nostalgia.

As always, I learned a thing or two (or ten) from my Gram during our visit.

See I have a tendency to get somewhat stressed out when we are traveling. Especially when we’re staying at someone else’s home. This comes from a combination of worry about inconveniencing or messing up something for our host, not having the ease of our own super-toddler-proofed space at home, and everyone being extra tired and cranky from travel (I really try to just chill out about this, but it still gets me sometimes).

So. I was getting all freaked because my girls were going nuts with my Gram’s yarn supply, trying to make God’s eyes and then unravelling and playing with it and tangling it all up. I crabbed at them a little bit about messing up Gram’s yarn.

After I got them set up for their naps, I went out to help my Gram get the yarn untangled. I was all set with multiple apologies and offers to untangle the yarn for her by myself. I felt awful that it was such a mess.

But my Gram was already sitting in her chair, peacefully untangling and re-winding up her yarn. The yellow was all over the room. The orange was in knots. The purple and green were hopelessly tangled together. She didn’t even care. Before I even started in with my prepared apologies, she began chatting about how she likes to have things to do with her hands to keep her busy.

I stopped in my tracks and stared at her, all sweet and calm and happily untangling, and I thought, “What the heck was I so stressed out about?? This is how I need to be about tangled yarn and other relatively minor stuff that isn’t worth getting upset over.”

I sat down and gathered up a pile of the yellow yarn and started to untangle and wind it. And I proceeded to have one of the most enjoyable hours I’ve had on this trip. I sat with my Gram and we untangled together and talked.

She talked about her mother. She talked about my Papa. She talked about my Dad, her sister, other people she’s known, the church we went to when I was a little girl, and all sorts of other things. I was honestly sad when the yarn was all neatly wound up and ready to be put away.

I got a beautiful lesson in perspective from my Gram during that hour. I always leave a visit with her feeling amazed. She’s 91 years old and she usually gets more done in a day than I do in a week. But that hour of talking with her was extra special to me. We untangled her yarn, and she untangled me a little bit.

Thanks Gram.

Really Quick Takes – Seven of Them

Posted on January 24, 2014 by Amy

Linking up with Conversion Diary again. This is going to be extra short(ish), because I really need to be packing…

1. I just learned about the blog A Knotted Life yesterday. I love finding new blogs to read, and this one is very good. In addition to being a good read, Bonnie, who writes the blog, sponsors the Sheenazing Awards for (mostly Catholic) bloggers in several categories. Her post has a long list of new blogs to check out and I have been sucked into some sort of internet vortex looking through them.

2. I voted for some of my favorite blogs in several categories, including Conversion Diary, Camp Patton, Amongst Lovely Things, and Shower of Roses. But I also found (or re-found) several other blogs to read, like Clan Donaldson, Moxie Wife, Mama Knows, Honeychild, Like Mother, Like Daughter, and Catholic All Year. I know I will be checking out many more (I pinned the list so I can refer to it whenever I have a few minutes to look at a new one).

3. One of my favorite things about homeschooling is how close my kids are with each other. They miss each other when apart, since they are used to being together so much.

Our Golden Age (during which both of the older girls were able to be in the same gymnastics and swimming classes) is over. Miss has now moved up to the 5-year-old gymnastics class. I was able to find one time slot where both the 3-4-year-old and 5-year-old classes are held at the same time, so I don’t have to spend more time at the gymnastics center than what is absolutely necessary.

Since their classes are often going on very near each other, Miss constantly points out Lass to her teacher and classmates, “Look! That’s my sister over there!” This week when they were close to each other, Miss even ran over and gave her sister a quick hug. At the end of their classes they always hug each other and exclaim, “I missed you!” Then Baby Sis hugs both of them and says, “I luh loo!” I could just die from the cuteness.

4. Baby Sis is a climber. I know this. But I can still be surprised by some of the things she does. The other day she was in the kitchen with me. I walked away for a minute and then heard, “Mama! Down!” I rushed back into the kitchen to find her standing in the drawer next to our Learning Tower.

Heart attack. She’s not even two, and she’s trying to give me a heart attack.

5. Goldie Blox. My girls each got a set for Christmas. We love them.

I have to admit that I can’t stand Legos. But these are fun.

6. I made muffins this morning. It never fails that when I make muffins I always think I have too much batter to fill the muffin cups only “two-thirds full.” Every time, I fill the first row about the right amount. Then I get to the middle and start filling them too full because I just know I won’t be able to fit all the batter into 12 cups. Then I get to the last two cups, and I end up having to dip from the too-full ones to have enough.

They always come out well in the end, but I found myself wondering, after doing this again this morning, why don’t I ever remember that this always happens and just trust the amount? Maybe it’s because I only bake every six months or so.

7. Speaking of bone-headed moves on my part, a few weeks ago, I bought a new external flash for my camera. I was so excited to use it, I got it out of the box right away and hooked it up to my camera. It didn’t come with any instructions, but getting it hooked up was pretty straightforward. Except that I couldn’t get it to turn on. I looked for a charger and a plug and didn’t find one. I looked for something in the box to tell me how to get it going and there really wasn’t anything. Just a paper that said, “Press the On/Off switch…” Well I did that, repeatedly, and it didn’t work.

Finally, I got frustrated, deemed the thing defective, and put it back in the store bag with the receipt so I could return it at the first opportunity. I then had company one day and put the bag into a random cupboard to get it out of sight (you do this too, right?), which naturally led to it being out of mind. I forgot about it until yesterday and pulled it out, thinking I’d try to take it back today. I decided I would pull it out and try it one more time, just in case I missed something the last time.

As I was getting it out I happened to glance at that one piece of paper again. In addition to the brief comments about how to turn it on, it included a diagram with all of the parts labeled. One part, which I totally missed last time I tried it but was clearly labeled on the diagram was the “Battery compartment door.” *Sigh* Maybe I should start going to bed a little earlier.

For more quick takes, go here.

Happy weekend!

Princess vs. Barbie

Posted on January 22, 2014January 23, 2014 by Amy

We have lots of princess dolls at our house.

^^ Thank you to my Mother-in-law for that storage idea ^^

My girls ask for them as gifts. They save their allowances to buy them. They love their princess dolls.

Of course, they have lots of toys they enjoy, and they tend to go in cycles with them. Baby dolls, animals, building toys, etc.

Princesses are always in the rotation though, whether the big princess dolls or small ones or both. We’ve got lots of them.

In contrast, we have only one Barbie. She was given to Miss as a Christmas gift a couple of years ago.

The drastic difference in the number of princesses and Barbies on our house is deliberate. I don’t buy Barbies for my girls. I don’t take them in the Barbie aisle at the store. I’m just not a fan of Barbie.

I realize, those may be bordering on fightin’ words for someone who grew up in the 80s. I have heard lots of women around my age defend Barbie. Because we played with Barbies as kids and some ladies still love her and are excited to share her with their daughters/nieces/etc.

True, I played with Barbies. I loved playing with Barbies. I am not, not, not trying to criticize anyone who loves playing Barbies with or buying Barbies for their kids. My girls play with them when we go to the Farm or to their aunt’s house, and I don’t mind, of course. But. I still won’t buy them. Why?

I can specifically remember as a little girl, playing with my Barbies and thinking they were so pretty. I walked around on my tiptoes (like her) and wished that I had blonde hair and blue eyes and a super skinny waist (like hers). I just don’t want my girls to feel that way because of one of their toys. And maybe they wouldn’t. Maybe I was just particularly insecure about my brown hair and green eyes and normal-sized waist for some reason at that time and they wouldn’t be. But still…

I have some other beefs with B too. Like her clothes. My Barbies never came with clothes like these:

It is pretty hard to find a Barbie to purchase that is not dressed in a way that I find inappropriate for a little girl’s toy. I know this, because I stood in the Barbie aisle at Target staring at the array of dolls for way too long one day when buying gifts for some families at our church, trying to find a doll I felt comfortable purchasing for a little girl who requested one. It’s not impossible to find one, but not easy. Though recently I did come across this funny Homeschool Barbie.

In general, princesses just seem more innocent to me. Barbie is marketed as sexy much of the time. No thanks.

Of course, I do have a few issues with the Disney gals, mostly with the earlier princesses’ tendencies to fall in “love at first sight” and in general be rather helpless (not characteristics I want my girls to cultivate). But the later stories, of Belle, Mulan, and Merida for example, feature heroines who aren’t solely focused on finding true love (though they aren’t opposed to it when they do).

And even the princesses who are a bit overly dependent on Prince Charming or lacking in gumption still have some good qualities that I can talk to my girls about. When my girls say, “I like Snow White because she’s so pretty,” I can respond with something like, “Oh, I like Snow White too, but do you know why I really like her? Because she is so kind and thoughtful.” And if they say, “Cinderella is my favorite princess because she has a beautiful dress” I can say, “I like Cinderella too because she is a really hard worker.”

I like that the princess dolls don’t all look the same. They have different skin colors and different face shapes. I can even get into discussions with my girls about other cultures by talking about the stories of the princesses. I know some Barbies have different colored skin and hair, but they all seem to have the same face. Weird.

When my girls ask me who my favorite princess is, I say, “Belle, because she loves to read and she is very loyal and brave.” Sometimes I mention that I also really like Merida “because she’s also brave and strong and very protective of her family” or Anna “because she is a really good sister.”

What does Barbie have besides her looks and her clothes? A pink car, a mansion, and a boyfriend named Ken.

I’ve come a long way in the past three years. I can tolerate princesses, and sometimes I actually enjoy them (Brave and Frozen are really good movies!). I can even find some good in my girls’ love of princess stories and dolls. The princesses have decent clothes and some positive characteristics that I can discuss with my girls.

I won’t say I’ll never let my girls buy Barbies. But for now, the princesses win.

Saints, Statues, and Archery – 7 Quick Takes

Posted on January 17, 2014 by Amy

Linking up with Jen again.

This is actually one reaaalllly long take and three short ones, but I conveniently made it into seven. Enjoy.

1. I have mentioned in a previous post my utter lack of knowledge about Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular, yes? Here is yet another example. Bear with.

When planning the girls’ baptisms, I was thinking about how Super Friend’s kids all are named after a saint in some way. Super had mentioned once something about these saints being their patrons (as the time I probably didn’t know what that meant). Then I thought about how, on my application form for RCIA there was a space to write in my “baptismal name.” Also, the one time I had seen a baptism was during one of the first masses I ever attended last year. I was still in deer-in-the-headlights mode during mass at that time, and it was during a crowded mass so I couldn’t really see, and the people were on the other side of the church so I couldn’t really hear what they were saying, but I could have sworn that, when the priest asked them, “What name do you give your child?” they said, not just the name, but the name in the way you would say a saint’s name. I don’t remember what it was, but for example, instead of just saying “Catherine” I thought they said something like “Catherine of Sienna.” Looking back now, I’m sure they actually just said the baby’s first and middle name, “Catherine Anna,” or something like that, but deer-in-the-headlights and big church and all…

Getting to my point. As you might imagine considering my history, none of my children are named for a saint or Biblical person. I know I don’t use their real names here, but I’ll just let you know that we have no Mary. No Elizabeth, Theresa, or Anne. So. When I was preparing for their baptisms I thought that I needed to find a Biblical or saint name to announce when the priest asked “What name…?” We didn’t have our baptism class until two days before the baptism because of The Chicken Bone Incident, so I didn’t know any different.

I searched through tons and tons of saints to come up with the right ones to be each of the girls’ patronesses. I chose Saint Cecilia for Miss, Saint Therese of Lisieux for Lass, and Saint Brigid of Ireland for Sis. It wasn’t until after the fact that I learned that I had not needed to do this, and that I would just be announcing their actual names during the baptism, but whatever. By that point I was totally into the idea of each of them having a patron saint they could learn about, so I kept with the idea anyway, though the saints’ names didn’t play a role in the baptisms.

2. SO. The reason I just relayed that whole big long story of my lack of understanding about baptisms is to explain that I have told my girls about their patrons, and the older two each refer to them affectionately as “My saint.” We have books about their saints. We ask their saints to pray for us. On the feast days of the patronesses we have a little celebration, talk about the saints, get out a statue of them, have a special dessert in their honor, and make a donation to a charity of the kids’ choice as their gift (I totally stole this idea from Super Friend).

So we have statues of the girls’ patron saints.

^^ That’s Sis playing with Miss’s Saint Cecilia.

I had intended the statues to be something we would just get out on the feast days, but Lass wanted hers for a toy. She carries her Saint Therese with her everywhere. She sleeps with it too (along with two books of saints open to the pages of Saint Therese).

3. I always remind her to be careful with it. It’s amazing how well that statue has held up in spite of the fact that she drops it all the time.

Naturally, the one time she asks me to carry the statue downstairs for her in the morning, as I was setting it on the counter, I didn’t quite get it all the way over the edge and it fell to the floor and broke. She was heartbroken, and of course I felt awful. My husband glued it back together, and all is well.

So I thought.

I dropped the statue a few weeks ago. About two days ago, as I was making breakfast and the girls were playing with their saint statues, I overheard Lass say, “We are sooo careful with statues. But I think Mama isn’t careful with statues. Mama drops statues.” Miss agreed, “No. Mama isn’t careful with statues.”

Clearly I’m never going to live down The Dropping of Therese.

4. Along those lines, I had no idea when I introduced these saint statues and our books of saints that the girls would get so into them. They love to “play saints.” They fight over our saint books. When they play dress up, they are as likely to get into some elaborate costume as Therese or Cecilia or Mary Magdalene as to dress up as Cinderella or Snow White.

They’ve already asked to dress as saints for Halloween next year. I love it. What better figures to emulate?

^^ One reaaallly long take made into four.

5. I have just realized that this weekend will be our last one home together as a family until March 8. We will be traveling or my husband will be working every weekend in between. It makes me tired just to think about it, but we have some really fun things coming up, like a trip to Florida (and Disney World) and a skiing trip with friends.

6. Miss is really into shooting her bow. She’s pretty good at it too.

^^ She is so proud of being able to get the arrow to stick to the target.

My husband loves teaching her too. He has bought a long bow for himself, partially because he wanted to have a bow similar to what she will be learning on, so they can shoot together.

7. We had family visit two weeks ago. The girls had their first experience of experimenting with make up with their Aunt. What are aunts for?

Miss looked at the picture below and said, about her sister, “She looks like a bad guy there.”

Have a great weekend!

For more quick takes, click here.

All Good Things Come to Those Who…

Posted on January 15, 2014 by Amy

Have you heard about the idea of choosing a word at the start of a new year that serves as “mantra” of sorts throughout the year? I came upon this idea shortly before New Year’s after reading what someone wrote about choosing the word “Joy” for 2013. Apparently lots of people do this instead of, or in addition to, making New Year’s resolutions. As I think of it, maybe I have heard of this idea before, but it clearly never resonated with me enough to put much thought into it. Until this year.

As I read what was written in the above linked post, I began to think about what it would mean and how it would work to choose one word to really focus on all year. One thing to work on. Or one thing to be inspired by. Or one thing to think to yourself when feeling discouraged. I wasn’t sure what my word would be, but I began to warm to the idea of choosing one for myself for 2014.

I decided if I could come up with a word that really felt right for me, then I’d go with it. If not, maybe next year. I had a few words come to mind in the first days after reading that article.

“Peace” seemed nice. I could picture myself whispering that word any time I felt rushed or frustrated. I though maybe it would come with a greater focus on prayer and meditation and maybe some yoga. It just didn’t quite seem right though. A little to hippy-dippy for me.

“Faith” was another word that came to mind early on. It seemed appropriate. I’m really working on developing mine, and there are some areas in my life where I really need to just have it. And this will, after all, be the year when I take the leap of faith into Catholicism, for real and truly, when I am baptized, receive first communion, and am confirmed all in one day at the Easter Vigil mass. But still this word just didn’t quite seem right either.

The third word that came to my mind was “Patience.” Lord knows I really need work on this one. I need more patience with my children on a daily basis, of course. And I work hard to do better at this all the time. But even more, there are some other areas in my personal life where my patience has been tested during the past year. Things I really-really-really want and have had to wait for. And wait. And wait some more.

So, the word “Patience” seemed to be a good possibility. But I wanted to be sure it was the right choice. I decided to wait a few days to just see what would happen or if any other words would come to mind. None did, and I ended up not thinking about it too much for a few days. Then last Wednesday (the worst day ever, ever, ever) I read this post in the morning about how Jen at Conversion Diary had picked her word for the year, “Go.”

That got me thinking about it again, and “Patience” popped back into my head. I was still pondering “Patience” when I took a trip to Target that morning (the first of three trips that day) to get my husband’s Tamiflu. During that trip, I became more confident that “Patience” was to be my word. First, the pharmacist didn’t have my order ready. No big deal really, except that it then took forever for it to get ready. And my husband was watching our kids from his quarantine on a video monitor while they watched a movie. I really needed to make it back before the movie was over (and most kids’ movies aren’t really that long).

Then I got the medicine and proceeded to the main checkout to pay for the items I had picked up around the store while waiting for the pharmacist (naturally, this is the real reason I use Target as our pharmacy, so I can shop while I wait). I stood in a non-moving line for an eternity before hearing the cashier say something about the card reader not working. So I looked for another open register with a short line, picked the one that looked the fastest (I knew the movie would be ending soon), and then proceeded to stand there while the woman in front of me searched and searched and searched and searched for something on her iPad that she needed to complete her checkout. I don’t know what it was, but it took her a reeeeaaally long time to find it.

Do you know that feeling you get in your chest and stomach when you are a little nervous about something, and you really want to be able to check on this something, but you can’t because there is some obstacle making you wait, and it seems like everything is in your way when all you want to do is check on your thing to reassure yourself that all is okay? No? Well, I do. I get this crazed feeling of fluttering, antsy, can’t stand still, slightly short of breath, my-kids’-movie-might-be-over-and-my-husband-is-sick-and-can’t-touch-them-or-even-talk-to-them-I-have-to-GO!!!

Yeah. “Patience” is probably a good word for me to focus on, huh?

The cool thing was that I performed a little experiment while in Target and beginning to get into my crazy lady mode. I smiled to myself and thought, “Hmmm, I’ve been wondering if ‘Patience’ is the right word for me. Maybe this is a little test as God’s way of telling me that it is.” And I, very deliberately, thought “Patience. Patience. Patience.” to myself while standing in that line.

And. It. Totally. Worked. I kid you not. My fluttery, freaky, short of breath feelings just kind of left me right there. Gone.

But for some reason, I still wasn’t completely convinced that “Patience” was my word. So later that night, while I was unwinding on my couch after my horrible day and just perusing some stuff on the internet, I came across an email in my inbox from a blog that I subscribe to, Everything Is Yours. The title of her post that day? Fruit of the Holy Spirit Spotlight: Patience Revisited (emphasis mine). Go ahead and click that link. It’s a great post.

I was convinced. Patience was my word.

Well, mostly convinced. There was a tiny, tiny part of me that wondered if it really was my word. For real. But it was such a tiny part, I was going with the it. Patience was it.

Until yesterday when it hit me. Like a ton of bricks, while I was changing a diaper of all things. I don’t know what I was thinking about or why it came to me, but all of a sudden I knew the right word.

Out of nowhere, I thought the word and then I immediately knew that it was the right one. I think that’s why I wasn’t so sure about “Patience,” because I had been hemming and hawing about it and waiting for over a week to see if something better came to me…

Well, it did. Wanna know what it is?

Open.

My word for 2014 is Open.

I have been so blessed in the past few years when I have allowed myself to be open to knew ideas or even to ideas that I had already flatly rejected. Homeschooling. Becoming Catholic. Becoming a morning person (in case you wondered how that experiment turned out, I now get up every morning at 5:30).

So, that’s where I will focus in 2014.

I need to be open to new ideas. Open to changes. Open to the possibility that things in my life won’t happen exactly when or how I want them to, but they will still be right.

Of course, I still need to work on being patient. I’ll continue to do that every day.

But this will be the year I will be open to possibility. I will be open to grace. I will be open to God’s plan for my life, whatever it may be.

All good things come to those who… are open to receiving them.

Flumageddon

Posted on January 13, 2014January 13, 2014 by Amy

This winter, I have heard of “Snowmageddon.” I have heard of “Srirachamageddon” (Wha??). I am going to jump on the “-mageddon” train and call the past week in my home “Flumageddon.” My husband woke with a high fever last Tuesday morning. By Tuesday night Lass had a fever. Sis woke with one on Wednesday morning. Somehow, some way, Miss and I have not gotten sick (though she did have a nasty stomach bug/puking reaction of some sort all day Wednesday, which was notawesome).

Yeah. Flumageddon.

Note: I do not mean to sound as though I’m making light of the flu. The flu is bad business, though I have at times been guilty of not taking it very seriously. I always worry about my kids getting the flu, but I never think of it as being too much of a big deal for a healthy adult like myself (except in 2009 when I was pregnant with Lass). This year with the H1N1 strain of flu being prevalent again, relatively young, healthy people are dying from the flu, like this man or this woman. Awful.

Not that this is any more tragic than when elderly people, sick people, or children, those typically at highest risk from the flu, die from it. It’s just scary because young healthy people often don’t get vaccinated because they think they aren’t at much risk of complications from the flu. And because of that they don’t recognize when they do have complications from the flu. It’s a reminder that the flu should be taken seriously.

Anyway, this is why my husband was quarantined in our bedroom, on the recommendation of his pulmonologist friend, to try to keep the girls and me from getting sick. Thank God we all got the flu vaccine (it contains the H1N1 strain this year) and the girls’ symptoms were relatively mild as a result (highest temp only 101.4). I’m sure this is also why Miss and I were able to resist the virus.

Unfortunately, my husband had already been battling a nasty cough for about a month. So after the flu hit, he developed pneumonia. Hello. Commence freak out. When I heard “pneumonia,” I started to panic a bit, worrying that he would end up being hospitalized or worse.

So, my poor husband has been terribly sick, confined to our bedroom, fearful that our kids will get this horrendous flu, and we’re both scared to death because pneumonia can be bad stuff. It’s been a heck of a week.

And as much as I have tried to be stoic and uncomplaining (heroic even?) in my caring for my family, I am not above an occasional bout of self-pity. On Wednesday in particular, when I had a very sick husband, two kids with fever and one puking up every bit of liquid I tried to give her, and I was worried about dehydration and pneumonia, and I was working on very little sleep (because of sleeping on the couch), and I had no help (though my dear Super Friend did offer to deliver supplies to my doorstep if needed), I was a mess. In my own head at least I was. I think I kept the frustration and worry from showing too much to my kids and hubby. But yeah. I was a mess.

I had lovely little battles in my mind between my “Oh-my-gosh-this-suuuucks!” self and my “This-isn’t-about-you-be-grateful-it-isn’t-worse” self. Fortunately the latter self typically won out, and honestly most of the time I was thankful to be able to care for my family, but I’ll admit to a few tears and a whiney phone call to my Mom Wednesday night.

***********

We’ve watched a lot of movies during Flumageddon. Wednesday the all-day movies were for them. They were too miserable to do anything else, and I was trying to minimize their interaction with each other anyway.

Thursday they were feeling much better, but the movies were for me to recover from Wednesday.

Though Wednesday was the toughest day, by far my worst moment came on Friday evening. My husband’s fever was gone on Friday morning (as were the girls’). I have always understood the sickness rule to be that after you are fever-free for 24 hours, it’s safe to go back amongst the healthy folks without contaminating anyone. He had assumed the same thing, so I was giddy thinking he would be out and with us on Saturday morning. He offered to let me go to the spa Saturday. I said (texted), “No thank you, but I would like a nap.” I was dreaming of sleeping in my own bed, having another adult to talk to, and having my usual level of support and help with regular stuff around the house and with the girls.

Friday was a pretty darn good day in spite of Flumageddon. We took our lemons and we made lemonade.

We made a fort.

The perfect little spot to read.

We played with PlayDoh.

I was so happy thinking about my husband being with us again on Saturday, I practically floated around the house.

Then he made a rare and brief appearance out of our bedroom (with antiviral mask on, hands clasped behind his back, and the girls safely gated in the family room) to tell me that he had been checking on things and had learned that 24 hours just wasn’t enough time to be considered safe around others with this flu. So he was not going to be released from quarantine on Saturday morning as we had been anticipating.

Kick. In. The. Gut.

I reacted like a big baby. At least at first. I grumbled. I cried.

Then I took a deep breath. I apologized to my hubby for grumbling. And I went and got ice cream (for both of us).

Now hubby is out of our bedroom, but still not going near the girls. It’s so sad to see Sis reach for him and say “I hode!” (hold) or “I hug!” Watching him play with them through our french doors is precious and heartbreaking. I feel so bad for him. He feels like crap and he can’t be around our kids, the best medicine I know of.

Some time tomorrow he will declare himself all-clear and we will (hopefully) get back to normal. He will need to take it easy for a bit to recover from the pneumonia. We will pray that the girls don’t develop it (it can begin after the flu symptoms are gone). Soon we will hopefully go back to interacting normally with the rest of the world (the girls haven’t left the house since last Tuesday).

Okay. So, after all that I’ve learned about the flu and pneumonia in the past couple of days, consider this my Public Service Announcement for the year: The flu is serious stuff. As a general rule, I never get into the vaccination debate here, and know lots of people think the flu vaccine is not effective or necessary. You can check what the CDC has to say about it if you’re so inclined. If you get the flu and you don’t start to feel better in a few days, call or go to the doctor. It’s hard for a non-medical person to know the difference between flu-cough/fever and pneumonia-cough/fever. Don’t assume that it’s “just the flu” and thus “no big deal.”

I don’t want to seem melodramatic, but seeing how sick my husband has been from this flu, when he is not even 40 and very healthy, has freaked me out. Reading about potential flu complications made me remember that the flu is a big deal. So there you have it. PSA complete.

Bonus PSA #2 – In case you ever thought it would be a good idea to allow your toddler to eat as many prunes as she wanted at lunch time? Just, don’t. Sis discovered a serious love for prunes yesterday. And now, just as we’re recovering from Flumageddon, I’m dealing with our very own little Poop-pocalypse. Geez.

Stay healthy 🙂

Three Kids, Two Different Viruses, One Day

Posted on January 8, 2014January 9, 2014 by Amy

Warning: This post is kind of lame, but I took the time to write it, so I’m posting it anyway. I couldn’t quite pull it together better, so here it is in all its glory.

I wanted to write about something else today, but I’m just too tired. My husband woke up with the flu yesterday morning. I spent yesterday trying to help him as best I could while keeping the girls and myself from getting sick. No such luck with the girls. Lass was the first to go down with a fever last night.

Sis woke with one this morning.

I thought maybe Miss would pull through without getting sick. At lunch time today she still hadn’t spiked a fever and was acting fairly normal. Then while sitting at the table for lunch she got a strange look on her face. I had a passing thought of “Hmmm, she looks like she’s going to get sick. But she’s not going to get sick. This flu isn’t the throw up kind of flu…” Then she barfed her breakfast onto her lunch plate.

So yes, now we have three respiratory flus with fever and one stomach bug with no fever. I am just wondering when I”ll be going down for the count, and whether it will be with flu, pukes, or both. I’ve been washing my hands to the point that they are bleeding in hopes of keeping the craziness from spreading, so hopefully I might make it through (relatively) unscathed.

It breaks my heart to see my babies sick.

It also pains me to know my husband is sick upstairs and to not be able to help him very much. He has been quarantined, so our primary mode of communication has been texting with the occasional phone call or food hand-off. I haven’t seen him in the past two days without one or both of us wearing an anti-viral mask.

I’m sleeping on the couch even. Thus, tired.

So. I apologize for the somewhat whiney post. I just couldn’t get my thoughts together enough to write about something else. Here’s hoping your hump day was better than mine, and that we will be on the mend around here soon 🙂

Food for my Soul

Posted on January 6, 2014 by Amy

As I mentioned in Friday’s post, I love this time of year and enjoy taking time to reflect on the year gone by. So, I’ve been thinking about how much I learned in 2013. The year was full of plenty of deep, soul-shifting realizations and searching. I’ve realized a lot about myself, my spirit, my heart. I’ve discovered a lot about God and the Church too, much of it life-changing for me. I’m pondering these new insights and savoring them this week.

And I’ve also been thinking about some of the little things I’ve learned. Small facts about history and Christian faith. I enjoy thinking about these because it’s funny to me just how much I didn’t know. And humbling how much I still have to learn.

Just this week I learned a new fact when reading 150 Bible Verses Every Catholic Should Know. The author mentions the father of John the Apostle, Zebedee. I had to go back and read again, because I was shocked that his dad wasn’t Zechariah! I always thought that John the Apostle and John the Baptist were one and the same. Even after reading again I still wanted to check the information, so I asked my husband. Of course, he confirmed that they were two different people. Huh.

I don’t know why I thought they were the same. Simple mistake I suppose.

I’ve also learned some very elementary, essential, how-did-I-not-know-that? Christian information as well in the past four months.

For example, during one of my very first RCIA classes we split up into groups to discuss the readings for the week. When we got to the Gospel reading everyone started talking about “Gospel this” and “The Gospels that.”

Then there’s me: “Um, I have a question. What are the Gospels?”

Them: “Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.”

Me: “Okay thanks. But uh, what are they?”

I actually didn’t know why they are important. Now I do. So you can see that I really started at the beginning when RCIA began.

In the past few months I have sometimes wondered if some of the other folks in my RCIA class are amused when we do exercises in finding Bible verses and our instructor makes comments like “This is good practice for learning how to use your Bibles.” Most of the people in the class are Lutheran converts who are probably already know the Bible quite well. Me? Well, not so much. I did read the Bible some when I was younger and had a basic understanding of how to find things in it even before beginning RCIA, but that’s about it.

One time in RCIA when we were doing one of these exercises in looking up verses relevant to the lesson of the week, I was discussing these with my sponsor (who is just delightful, by the way) and we came across a passage mentioning the Ark of the Covenant. She began talking animatedly about the Ark of the Covenant, and I just drew a blank. I didn’t want to ask, because it seemed like a very basic thing that I ought to know, right? But I didn’t (know). So I did (ask). “Soooo, what exactly is the Ark of the Covenant?” If you don’t ask you don’t learn, I say. Now I know.

Just yesterday I Googled “What does Hosanna mean?” I always thought it was just a girl’s name, but since we sing it in a song every week during Mass I knew it had to be something else. Exclamation “used to express adoration, praise, or joy.” I love that.

I never knew that “Immaculate Conception” refers to Mary’s conception, not that of Jesus.

I could go on and on with examples of the little tidbits I’ve been learning. Small (and big) things that I’ve never thought about before. Just in three Bible study meetings I’ve learned a ton about the Mass.

And the wonderful thing is that I am finding this stuff fascinating. It’s like food for my soul and I can’t get enough of it.

I’m going to classes/meetings, reading, Googling, asking. With every piece of information that I come across and don’t understand, I want to find out. I’m thinking about things in new ways and it feels good.

I imagine myself a year ago and am kind of blown away. What a difference a year makes.

Seven Quick Takes New Year’s Edition

Posted on January 3, 2014 by Amy

Linking up with Conversion Diary.

2013 was an interesting year here. We had some rough experiences. We had lots of changes, some good, some bad, some amazing. I think I will remember 2013 as a year of change and challenge.

I’m eagerly looking forward to 2014. I don’t make New Year’s resolutions as such, but I do like to think about the past year and the upcoming year. The good, the bad, what I want to modify, what I want to accomplish. I like to look forward to the new year and make goals. Here are a few of mine for 2014 (well, seven to be exact):

1. I haven’t completed any sort of race or other fitness event since running the Disney World Marathon six years ago. I am not sure which event I will do yet, but I will be training and getting back out there for some sort of race/event in 2014 (one thing I am sure of, it will not be a full marathon).

2. Currently, I can do two unassisted pull-ups (unassisted meaning without a resistance band), and eight straight-body (not on my knees) pushups, and I can back squat 135 pounds. By the end of the year my goal is to be able to do ten pull-ups, twenty pushups, and to back squat 185 pounds.

3. I read somewhere around 43 books in 2013. I really don’t need to make a goal to read more. Actually, I probably should make goals to read less and get more other things done in my free time. But that’s not going to happen.

With that in mind, here are some books on my “To-Read” list for 2014:

Catholicism for Dummies – I’m almost halfway through this one.

Divergent – I have a secret love of teen dystopian novels (Hunger Games, anyone?).

10 Gifts of Wisdom: What Every Child Must Know Before They Leave Home

Wool – My husband finished this audiobook recently. It sounds interesting, and when possible, I like reading the same things my husband has read/listened to so we can discuss. We’ve been talking about Screwtape Letters a lot recently, and I really enjoy our conversations (not that I expect this book to be on par with Screwtape, but maybe still fun to talk about)

The Sun Also Rises – This was on my Summer Reading List and I forgot about it. I’ll get to it this year.

Something Other Than God: How I Passionately Sought Happiness and Accidentally Found It – You know how much I enjoy Jennifer Fulwiler’s blog. I’m giddy about her upcoming book.

Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child

He Leadeth Me – Another one from the summer list that I forgot to read.

Things Pondered – I just saw a link to a ton of free Kindle books by this author. This one in particular is interesting to me, but I nabbed all of the free ones and hope to read them all this year.

That’s just a start. I also intend to start reading my Bible more this year now that I’m almost finished with 150 Bible Verses Every Catholic Should Know.

4. I will work on experimenting and using different settings of my camera. I almost always shoot in the “P” mode of my camera, which controls everything but the flash for me. I need to start learning how to shoot in the “A,” “S,” and “M” modes.

At least once a week I’ll be experimenting with different camera settings, lighting, etc. I have tried reading books. I’ve tried taking a class. I need to just do different things with my camera if I really want to learn.

5. I need to pick a Kindergarten curriculum (!!) I also really need to work on being more organized in my homeschool planning and scheduling. I haven’t yet found a system that I’m comfortable with. Suggestions would be welcome.

6. I’m instituting a Family Game Night. We had our first one tonight. I saw the game Cootie on Amazon the other day and remembered how much I loved playing it as a kid. I ordered it.

What was I thinking? It is not fun. But we have lots of other games too, and I think Super Friend has a bajilllion games for her kids, so I’ll ask her for some recommendations as well.

Unfortunately, I suspect my kids will be choosing Cootie as our game for a while.

7. I will be getting back into some cooking adventures. My husband and I used to have fun doing a little version of the Food Network show “Chopped” at home (I even have a whole category in the “Topics” drop-down dedicated to this). Then last year he got me some great books and I started some other fun cooking projects.

I cooked lots of egg recipes one week.

^^Homemade mayo

^^ Shirred eggs (yeah, I didn’t know what that was either) with cream and parmesan-reggiano

^^ Souffle !!

Another week I did Spanish dishes.

I like doing things to make food prep fun, but I’ve gotten away from doing this for a while and have been in a cooking rut (mini meatloaves, lettuce wrap tacos, chicken with mustard/maple sauce, repeat).

So. Back to fun stuff. My husband got me some gorgeous cookbooks for Christmas. Italian and French. I’m going to get closer to my roots and go Italian first. Then I think I’m going to go in depth with onions. Then French. Then, who knows? Sunday I’ll be making gnocchi in tomato butter sauce from scratch. Yum.

I love the feeling of beginning a new year. Reflecting and anticipating. 2014 is gonna to be good.

What are your goals for 2014?

See more quick takes here. Happy New Year!

Motherhood and Miscellany

Month: January 2014