7 Quick Takes, Mostly About Wasting Time on the Internet

Posted on February 21, 2014February 21, 2014 by Amy

1. Here’s something I’ve learned about myself:

I do not like going to a salon for regular maintenance of any kind. This might be a somewhat new-ish development (maybe since having kids?), because I used to get my nails done every two weeks when I was in graduate school. But these days? Forget it. This is why I don’t color my hair. I even have a tiny bit of a mustache because I can’t be bothered to get it waxed on a regular basis.

This has never really been a problem for me. It wasn’t really too much of a big deal for me to regularly go at least six months between haircuts. But then I got bangs!

I did not foresee the problem of needing regular maintenance on bangs. They get long fast! I am not willing to go in for a $40 bang trim every three weeks of so. My solution? Cut them myself.

^^ See how long??

Well, now they’re short. Except I think I might have cut them a bit too short this last time. Good thing I invested in a few head bands for off hair days.

2. Speaking of learning things about myself, I am addicted to taking the ridiculous online “quizzes” everyone is posting on Facebook these days. I never seek them out, but when I see someone’s result from one of them on FB, like “I was meant to live in the 1950s. Which decade do you actually belong in?” or “I’m Burt! Which Sesame Street character are you?,” for some truly bizarre reason I can’t help but click on these just to see what I’ll get. Here’s what I’ve learned: I am a Hobbit Big Bird, who should have a career as a professor and live in Tennessee. Or Paris. In the 1920s.

See? Isn’t that interesting? Never mind the fact that my real answer to most of the items in these questionnaires is “None of these options,” or that I’m so unhip that the first time I took on of these quizzes (the one about “Which city should you actually live in?”) and it asked the question, “What’s your jam?,” the only one of the available responses that I had ever even heard of was “Sweet Child of Mine.” I must still be pretty glamorous though (see #1^^ for evidence of this), because I learned that I truly belong in Paris.

3. And speaking of silly internet wastes of time, my favorite of these quizzes was the one from the NY Times about “What does the way you speak say about where you’re from?” Unlike those in #2, this one was actually totally accurate. Calling the night before Halloween “Devil’s Night” and referring to a sugary carbonated beverage as “Pop” placed me squarely in Detroit, which really is the area where I did grow up.

One of the fun things about this particular quiz is that it showed the regional popularity of each individual answer given. Having lived in lots of states in the midwest and south, some of the things I say and ways I speak now no longer reflect my place of birth. Like “Frontage Road.” People don’t say that in Detroit, but I say it now. Fascinating.

4. Do these quick takes make me seem like all I ever do is waste time doing stupid stuff on the internet? Well, let me get all literary on you for a moment then. I recently came across a fun post (yes, on the internet) “What Your Book Crush Says About You.” My favorite literary gents from those included in the post are Gilbert Blythe and Rhett Butler. Though there’s nothing accurate in the post about what that actually says about me, it was still fun to read and think about some of my favorite male book characters. I wish she would have included Manly from the Little House books though. He’s a much better literary main man than Edward from Twilight, for pete’s sake.

So. I must know, which are your favorites?

5. I have discovered a love of the bento box for serving my kids lunch. I had gotten into such a lunch rut until I bought some of these containers and these silicone muffin things. Now it’s so much easier to get creative with lunch, and the girls seem to like it too. They refer to these as their “special” lunches.

^ Bacon, avocado, and lettuce, wrapped in a piece of turkey. In the muffin cup is some Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Nut Butter for dipping apple slices. They loved it!

It doesn’t really even seem to matter if they enjoy and eat what I put in these boxes for them. They almost never complain, because usually they have at least one thing in them that they like. Lunch is so much less of a drag.

And yes, I do realize that having a special box really isn’t necessary to serve lunch this way. But it seems more fun.

6. Miss started her piano lessons on Wednesday. Oh, the cuteness.

I wasn’t sure how it would go, but she loved it. And her teacher is a perfect fit for her. Now I just need to get a piano.

7. I said this before, but I’ll say it again. I am having a little bit of a hard time with five. All of a sudden my eldest is doing all sorts of super grown up stuff. She’s wielding scissors like a pro. She’s reading.

She no longer says, “lasterday” instead of “yesterday” or “with-about” instead of “without.” I don’t know exactly when she began pronouncing those words correctly (it’s probably been a while), but her sweet little mispronunciations are gone (except that Lass now says “lasterday”).

I’m not ready for her, for them, to be getting so big. Sis will be two next month. I don’t have a baby anymore!! I’m very near the point of no longer having anyone’s diaper to change and this makes me sad. Probably that makes me weird too, but obviously it’s not the diapers I’ll miss, it’s having a teeny baby. I need another baby 🙂

Check out more quick takes here.

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!

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.

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!

How Christmas is Different Around Here This Year (And How It’s the Same)

Posted on December 6, 2013 by Amy

Linking up with Jen at Conversion Diary again.

Today I’m going to write 7 Quick Takes about celebrating Christmas as the birth of Jesus rather than just a fun magical time to take the kids to do fun things and look forward to Santa. Things are a little different around here this year. I am trying to figure out how to combine old traditions with new ones without going overboard and doing too much stuff. I think I’m doing a fairly decent job so far.

1. We still put up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. I refuse to have any Christmas-ing (music, decorations, etc.) in our house until Thanksgiving has been properly celebrated (in our house this year that involved lots of meat processing)

But once Thanksgiving is done, I’m all about getting the Christmas stuff going. Music, decor, wrapping, the works. And of course, the biggie is the Christmas tree. The big girls helped a lot this year.

Okay, they pulled lots of ornaments out of the box.

And Sis enjoyed the end result.

We used to keep the tree in the family room, but we moved it into the office this year. Sis is such a climber and a stinker that I knew I wouldn’t have a moment of peace for the next month if I didn’t. Now I get to enjoy it every morning while I have my coffee and every evening while I visit with my husband.

I love our tree. I could go on and on about how much I love it, but I have done that for the past two years (at least). If you care to read all about it again, you can look at the 2011 and 2012 posts about it.

2. I have added some true Advent activities this year. Last year, I didn’t even know what Advent really is. This year, we have our very own Advent wreath.

I’m ridiculously proud of the fact that I put it together for less than $15 with stuff from Hobby Lobby and the Dollar Tree (surprise, surprise, two of my favorite places to shop).

I also got some new Christmas books, added them to most of our old Christmas books, and wrapped them up for the girls to open, one each day of Advent.

I got the idea to wrap them in purple and pink from Shower of Roses (I got some book ideas there too, she has great book lists).

3. I am still doing our Advent calendar that we used last year, but this year it’s also our Jesse tree. I just put new ornaments in the pockets and the felt tree works just fine.

4. I debated putting the cards in the pockets with different fun things to do each day. I was afraid that would be overwhelming. But we really enjoyed it last year, so I’m doing it again. It hasn’t seemed like too much so far. I figured some of the things I put in the pockets will be activities on our Winter Fun List, so I’ll kill two birds and all that.

One thing has changed though, in that I’m adding the cards to the pockets only the night before or the morning that we pull them out. I don’t have it in me to plan too far ahead at this point. In this first week already on most days I’ve just written on the card something we were going to do that day anyway, like today’s, “Drop off presents for families at church and shop for Daddy’s birthday.” Not thrilling stuff, but having it written down and pulling it out of a little pocket with a flourish and a gasp makes it so much more exciting.

5. It’s working well to do it one day at a time. I knew I wanted to take the girls to Nutcracker in the Castle some time this week, but wasn’t sure which day. On Wednesday morning, I decided we’d do it. I put the card in the pocket while the girls were playing. They didn’t even notice me putting it in there. I didn’t even have to plan ahead. Win-win.

I’m so disappointed with the quality of my photos from our outing. This event was in a local art museum, housed in an old mansion. They decorate every room as part of the Nutcracker story (they have Clara’s bedroom, a Sugarplum Fairy room, Drosselmeyer’s workshop, etc.). On the website it said photography is not allowed in the museum, so I didn’t even bring my camera. Then I got there and they said you could take pictures in the first big drawing room, which was decked out like the family’s main room with their big Christmas tree and toys underneath that they were allowed to play with.

It was so amazing, and my photos stink. The room was pretty dim, and the flash on my phone is crummy.

They had beautiful trees and decorations all through the museum, but the girls loved this room the best. They played with the toys and danced to the Sugarplum Fairy music.

I practically had to drag them out of there.

6. Last night we had another first:

Saint Nicholas came to our house and put small goodies in the girls’ shoes. They are loving reading about him.

7. I actually know the Christmas story now. I used to know that it was about Baby Jesus being born in a barn, and Mary and Joseph were there of course, and then there was something about a shepherd and a few wise men and a drummer boy…

This year, for the first time that I can remember, I actually know the story for real, from the Annunciation to the Epiphany (I can’t believe I just wrote “Annunciation” and “Epiphany” and that I know what they mean).

My kids even have a couple of nativities to play with and they act out the whole story too.

This year things are different and yet the same. It’s the most wonderful time of the year. I hope you’re enjoying it as much as we are!

What I’ve Learned About Waking Up Early – 7 Quick Takes

Posted on November 29, 2013 by Amy

Linking up with Jen at Conversion Diary again.

I’ve become a morning person. Amazingly. Incredibly. I’m sort of addicted to waking up at six every morning. I wrote about my plan to try getting up earlier than my kids every morning here. I wasn’t sure how it would work out when I started. I am happy to report it’s working out quite nicely.

Here are seven quick takes on what I’ve learned about waking up early:

1. Coffee tastes really awesome when it’s hot! How did I not know of this little luxury before? I always thought I didn’t care if my coffee got cold, as long as I was getting caffeine. Wrong, wrong, wrong. So much yummier when hot. And I usually only drink one cup now, because I enjoy that one so much more. Win/Win!

2. Getting up early makes me more likely to exercise during nap time. I really thought I would start exercising during my early mornings, and I do sometimes. But I don’t really have time for both a workout and a cup of coffee before the kids get up. And, well, see #1? Right. So working out is not happening much in the early hours. But, if I get up and have coffee and do some other things that I used to do during nap time, then I am much more likely to make the time to exercise when my kids are napping.

3. It works better to be in stealth mode when I’m downstairs. Sometimes Miss will get up really early to go to the bathroom. If she doesn’t see any lights on, she’ll often go back to bed. If she sees the lights, she comes downstairs, sometimes before I’ve even had a sip of my nice warm coffee. So I go stealth for at least the first 30-45 minutes. That means laptop open with screen brightness turned way down and no other lights on. And tiptoeing too. Sometimes I read by the light of my Kindle only. Yes, I am a grown woman who sneaks around my house in the mornings to enjoy a little quiet time and hot coffee.

4. Speaking of which, I really appreciate how quiet and still it is in the mornings. I never realized how much I crave quiet until embarking on this little experiment. Loud is wonderful, and kids, and family, and joy, and laughter. I love loud because it reminds me how full and festive my life is on a daily basis. But quiet is good too. Quiet reminds me to breathe and pray and cherish. Maybe not everyone needs quiet. But I now know that I do.

5. I know that I do because I am so much more cranky in the mornings if I don’t get it. I rarely sleep past six anymore, but when I do, I just feel kind of off all day. I also feel that way on the days when I do get up at six but so do my kids.

6. I like being awake when my girls get up. I used to sleep as long as possible, not waking until the first of my kids got up, sometimes ignoring little voices playing in beds for a bit so I could grab a few more minutes of sleep. Sometimes Miss would come in my room to wake me up and I’d tell her it wasn’t time to get up yet so she needed to go back to bed for a little while. I usually wasn’t much fun during the process of waking up for the day.

Now, when Miss comes down stairs or I go up to get one of the younger girls, I spend time savoring the moments of seeing them again after 10 or 11 hours apart. I say, “I’m so happy to see you this morning!” and I mean it. We have special morning snuggles and tickles and I am so much more ready to be present with them when I’ve had just a little time to be present with myself already.

7. So, you might be wondering what the heck do I do for 30-45 minutes every morning in the dark? Sometimes I write. Sometimes I just surf around the web and read interesting things. Sometimes I prepare homeschool lessons (but I don’t use the printer or laminator – too loud). Sometimes I read with my little Kindle light. I have even used this light to illuminate a paper book (it works just fine if you’re wondering). Often I pray. I have found that praying the rosary in the quiet and dark is very peaceful and centering. It’s a perfect way to begin my day.

I’m becoming a Catholic and a morning person. Wow.

Sharing Dessert, Pig Slaughter, and Advent

Posted on November 15, 2013 by Amy

Linking up with Conversion Diary

1. This is something I have never really thought about before, but apparently sharing a dessert at a restaurant is an intimate act. I went out for dinner with Super Friend the other night. The waitress misunderstood our dessert order and brought us two decaf coffees but only one chocolate lava cake with ice cream on the side. Only one. Super had to get home, and the lava cake takes a bit to bake, so we couldn’t just order a second one. We had to share the one we got.

Unfortunately, the waitress also didn’t bring us extra plates for splitting the cake (I guess she never thought that sharing a dessert is an intimate thing either). The two of us sat there for a few beats, spoons hovering above the single dessert, just looking at it. We are very close friends, but it was kind of an awkward moment.

Finally Super Friend echoed my own thoughts as she said, “I can’t do this,” pulled her saucer out from under her coffee cup, and scooped half of the cake and ice cream onto her own little plate. Whew! I was relieved. And I was very bummed to only have half of a dessert to eat.

2. My hubby is going to get our pig this weekend (meaning slaughter and butcher it while telling dirty jokes with his cousin and friends). We have eaten almost all of the one we got last year, minus a couple of pork chops, a few brats, and a roast or two. Is it just me, or are pork chops the worst thing in the world to try to cook? I have almost never eaten one that wasn’t like eating leather, and I can’t seem to cook one properly to save my life. This year I asked my hubby to just grind the chops up into sausage or something. I love sausage. I’d be happy if I never had to look at another pork chop again.

3. I love fall crafting. Have I mentioned this before?

4. We will be using glitter tonight. Lord help me.

5. I have recently discovered Advent. How odd that I didn’t really even know what Advent meant until the past week or two as I’ve been looking into it. I mean, last year we had an “Advent” calendar. But it was purely for the purpose of counting down the days until Christmas and doing a little something fun each day.

A couple of weeks ago Super Friend mentioned something about an Advent wreath, and I just gave her the deer-in-the-headlights look. I didn’t know what that was. Well, now I do. And I have plans this year to make a paper-plate-and-toilet-paper-roll Advent wreath with the girls (idea courtesy of Super Friend), along with doing several other Advent activities like filling the girls’ shoes to celebrate St. Nicholas’s feast day and maybe having a Jesse tree too (last year at this time I had never even heard of a “feast day” or a Jesse tree). I’m in the process of figuring out how to integrate our traditions from years past with some new fun things to actually celebrate the true meaning of Christmas. It’s going to be good.

6. I want to share our solution to Sis learning to climb out of the Pack’n’Play. I had heard of tents for cribs, and thought I might be able to find something like that, but all of those have been recalled. I was panicking, until I found this:

It’s a tent bed! I had thought of getting one of these for travel a few years ago, but the old model had thin air mattress inside it, and that made me kind of nervous about suffocation. This model has a little mattress attached to the outside of the bed, so no worries.

I was afraid Sis would freak out about being put in this thing to go to bed, but I was not about to spend a week at the Farm with her climbing out of her Pack’n’Play repeatedly throughout every nap and bedtime. So, I just let her play in it with her sisters beforehand.

When it came time for her to go to bed in it, she rolled right over and did it with no fuss. Mom win.

7. I think I might watch a movie tonight. I never watch movies. Any suggestions?

See more quick takes here!

7 Quick Takes – Snow Flurries, Bad Housekeeping, and a High School Reality Show

Posted on October 25, 2013October 25, 2013 by Amy

Linking up with Jen at Conversion Diary again, this time at Clan Donaldson.

1. We went out for a family date night on Wednesday.

^ Baby Sis thinks it’s very funny to take her shirt off whenever possible.

On the way home, it was snowing. I am really and truly not ready for snow. Fortunately it was just brief flurries. But it was snow. We can’t have snow yet. I’m just not ready for winter.

2. On that note, I had to finally go in the basement and get out our big (overflowing) bin of winter weather clothing.

My girls got a kick out of putting on their heavy coats and hats to go outside yesterday. They even still fit (mostly) from last year.

3. Speaking of last year, I found a little leftover treasure from last Christmas yesterday. We have some shelves above our odd “wet bar” in our family room. I rarely pay any attention to them.

And when I say “I rarely pay attention to them” what I mean is “apparently I never dust them.”

Looky what I just noticed yesterday that got left out last Christmas:

I just noticed it yesterday. Think that shelf is a little bit dusty? I can’t see it, but yeah, I imagine so.

At this point that little bell is just going to stay right there until after this Christmas. And I guess I’ll be working on remembering to look up when I dust.

4. Tomorrow I am participating in the Rite of Welcome at our parish. It’s the first rite of the RCIA process. I am kind of nervous. I have to stand up in front of everyone at the 5pm mass. My husband and my church sponsor will be with me, and they have more things to remember to do than I do, but I’m still nervous.

5. After mass my hubby and I are going out for dinner and a movie. We go out to dinner fairly frequently, but I can’t remember the last time we went out to a movie. In fact, I don’t know the last time I saw a movie in the theater. Avatar, maybe? Watching a movie in 3D seems to be the only thing that will prompt us to go to the theater. We aren’t huge movie watchers, and when we do want to see something we use Amazon to rent and watch from our comfy living room. We’re going to see Gravity. It’s a little silly how excited I am.

6. My brother sent me the link to a trailer for a show MTV is doing about my old high school called Wait ‘Til Next Year. My alma mater’s football team lost 66 games in a row before finally winning one this year. And according to the show’s website the cheerleaders were heckled for being “clumsy and forgetful.” Evidently, MTV thinks this makes for a good reality TV show (or app show? I didn’t know there was such a thing, but I guess this show will be on the MTV app). The trailer shows kids swearing (bleeped out f-bombs), talking about losing their virginity, etc. I have to be honest, it looks pretty disturbing to me. I remember high school, and what they’re showing in the trailer isn’t that far from what I recall, but it’s still kind of shocking to see a show made out of it. I made a lot of bad choices and said and did plenty of stupid things in high school, like plenty of kids do. But fortunately no one made a record of those choices for all the world to see forever and ever. I just wonder if these kids might wish this show didn’t exist when they’re 35. It makes me sad that a show that could have been about working hard to overcome adversity seems to have been turned into yet another exploitative reality show. Maybe (of course) the trailer was just intended to shock, and I’m just old. Maybe.

7. Today will be the first time I will take Lass somewhere and drop her off. She and Miss are going to a morning Halloween event at the place where they take gymnastics. They’ll have games and activities and crafts, and lots of gymnastic-ing, I’m sure. The girls are excited about it. They love gymnastics.

I’m feeling a little bit strange about leaving them though. I know this is so dumb. Miss went to preschool for a year and has done a few weeks of wee camp at the YMCA. I don’t know why I’m fretting about it. It makes me feel a little bit better that they’ll be doing the program with each other and with one of their Mini-Super-Friends (Super Friend’s oldest daughter). I’ve just never done this with Lass before. I know. It will be fine. She’ll love it.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Some Thrilling Stuff Here – 7 Quick Takes Friday

Posted on October 11, 2013 by Amy

I’m late to the party tonight, but linking up with Conversion Diary.

Seven Quick Takes:

1. Lass is fascinated by dead trees. She excitedly points out any dead or dying tree she sees, wherever we go, ever since the girls saw a huge dead cottonwood that had fallen over at the farm in the summer.

This is so consistent with her quirky little personality.

Lately, around here she’s been in heaven.

Driving down the road:

“Look! A dead tree!”

Ten seconds later:

“Anudda dead tree!”

No matter how many times I tell her the leaves have fallen off because it’s fall and the trees are dormant, not dead, she still gets all fired up every time she sees a tree without leaves. It might be an interesting winter.

2. I still have no idea what my kids are going to be for Halloween. Miss said she wanted to be Cinderella when I showed her some options from a Zulily sale one day (someone please save me from Zulily!). Then she decided that Rapunzel is “actually” her favorite princess, so she wants to be Rapunzel. And then other times she says she’s going to be St. Therese of Lisieux. I ordered her the Cinderella dress when that was what she wanted to be, so I think that’s what she’ll be going with. She at least knows I won’t be buying her another costume…

Lass has alternately said she wants to be an emu, a flying fish, a flying-fish unicorn, and now Pocahontas.

And I haven’t even put any thought toward Baby Sis yet. I’ll probably just put her in one of the dress-up outfits we already have, maybe Snow White or Tinker Bell or a chef or doctor. Batman maybe? Would that be wrong?

3. Speaking of Baby Sis, she is all kinds of funny and cute right about now. I have found myself enjoying this 18-ish months stage with her so much. More so probably that I did with my first two. She is just so stinking cute! And funny!

Super Friend pointed out that she had the same experience with her third child at this phase. Both of us agree that our third children probably aren’t actually any cuter or funnier than their older sibs were at the same age. But she reminded me that when our older two (four?) were at this stage, we were in the throes of new-baby shock. Oh yeah.

Of course Miss and Lass were just as adorable and hilarious. I just couldn’t appreciate it quite as much when in the midst of newborn-induced sleep deprivation and constant feeding. Either that or I appreciated it just as much but don’t remember it. Whichever, I’m loving 18 months right now.

4. I am also in a glorious golden phase with my older two. It’s a small window in time, but one that I am savoring wholeheartedly. The Both-Girls-in-the-Same-Class phase.

Insert contented *sigh* here.

Not just for swimming, but also gymnastics, both Miss and Lass are in the same class. It’s a beautiful thing, which I know will only last until January when Miss will need to move to the next level of gymnastics. I’ll miss these days.

5. I was slightly disturbed this morning to find that I was jealous of my 18-month-old’s bed-head hairdo.

Is it just me or does that look like some super cute short cut that I could never in a million years get my hair to do? I should probably get a hair cut.

6. I have had about five RCIA classes so far. I love it. Just wanted to give an update on the Catholic Conversion front.

7. I don’t really have anything for this one. Some thoughts that popped into my head were, “My husband is working this weekend,” “I might take the kids to church by myself on Sunday,” and “I want ice cream.” Blah, blah, blah. Oh! Here’s something! I had acupuncture today. It was kind of cool. Didn’t hurt (much). I’ll let you know if it works.

Have a great weekend.

The Labor Day Party – Part 3 and Final

Posted on September 13, 2013August 29, 2014 by Amy

It’s Friday! Linking up with Conversion Diary.

Here is Part 3 and Final in my series on the Labor Day Party. Sorry it’s a bit belated, but I got distracted by the girls’ baptisms over the weekend and my parents’ visit this week.

Here are some random observations about the weekend, the Farm, the family, and The Party.

A perfect illustration of The Party in a Walmart shopping cart:

I can’t think of any problem that could come up during the Labor Day Party Weekend that couldn’t be fixed with hand wipes, coffee, toilet paper, and/or a fire extinguisher. Probably should have some beer in there to truly complete the picture, but someone else was in charge of buying that.

Families need to eat together.

My husband’s family is huge. And they love to eat.

My Mother- and Father-in-law are the absolute masters of feeding very large groups of people with maximum efficiency.

There are lots of good ways to do it. Weenie roast and lots of wings/fries are two that are employed every year during The Weekend.

My favorite though, is the shrimp boil.

I don’t know exactly how it works, but it involves boiling lots of corn on the cob, potatoes, hot dogs, sausages, onions, garlic, and shrimp with spice packets in huge pots.

Sometimes it includes lobster. Yum.

The tables get covered with plastic and paper and when the food is done, well, it goes on the table. Literally.

Food. On table.

What could be more fun than grabbing food off the table, eating it with your hands, squirting ketchup and ranch directly onto the paper…? No plates, no utensils, easy clean up. I love it.

Talk about family togetherness.

I love how much stuff there is to do at the Farm. The bigger kids and grown ups do lots of boating, knee-boarding, and playing volleyball. There’s tons of fun for the littles too.

When a family reunion lasts a whole weekend, there has to be plenty to do.

Or not.

Costumes make a party more fun.

The theme of The Party this year was “Jobs.”

After much deliberation, my older girls both decided to be marine biologists. Lass was going to be a zookeeper, but when she saw the wetsuit outfit I was going to order for her sister, she had to have the same one.

A cousin was also a marine biologist.

Baby Sis was a mommy.

The Band (L-R): Fast food worker, rogue accountant, blacksmith, Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs, trucker, and me, a tattoo artist.

Some of my other favorites:

The clown, complete with balloon animals for the kids

“Mechanic Man”

And, yes, The Lunchlady (complete with the full Chris Farley dance performed during the party)

One of my favorite lines of the night was overheard from my sister-in-law regarding a comment my niece had made about her dad (The Lunchlady), “This is my Daddy’s fake butt that he wears under his dress.” Nice.

Families that rock together, stay together.

Father and son: