Seven Quick Takes (23)

1. Well, this has been an exciting week. On Monday Michael tripped and split open his forehead on the corner of a wall. There was blood everywhere. I have a vivid image of him standing in the kitchen trying to wipe blood out of his eyes but not being able to keep up with it as it dripped off his chin onto the floor.

We were able to stop the bleeding pretty quickly, and my mom stayed with the babies while Michael and I rode in the ambulance--a trip he did NOT enjoy. Luckily Keith arrived just in time to help me restrain him while they cleaned and glued the wound. Ugh. :(

Then the next day he picked the glue off. So he's had a huge band-aid every since, and it bleeds a bit every time I change it, but according to the doctor there's not much more to be done about it.


2. The next day we said "bye-bye" to binky. Ever since then Michael refuses to nap, and "quiet time" has been ... not so quiet. I am not ready for this!! I already knew and appreciated how much sanity naptime gave to my day, so this week has been really frustrating. I've had so many projects I'm itching to start and now no time to do anything. Hopefully a new normal works itself out soon.


3. I've been letting him bring books into bed, but what Michael would really love to do is build things with his door shut. And I would totally let him, except that his palaces of blocks and magnetiles or long looping tracks inevitably crash on his wooden floor, waking up his brothers. He is really good at building and puzzles ... I think he's a very spatial thinker.

At my parent's house, and with a little help, but in his signature style.

4. I've been knitting a lot lately but in a very non-committal way, jumping between hexipuffs and crochet flowers and leaves for Michael's blanket. All little parts of larger projects.


5. I've also had some non-knitting projects in the works ... I bought lumber for this table (before naptime ended ...), written up a spring-cleaning to-do list, and hung up teal paint samples in various places ... But it's all mostly on hold until this naptime/quiet time thing is sorted out.

Apparently Keith and I had an agreement some time ago that our kitchen would be white with teal accents, maybe a backsplash. He reminded me of this in dismay when he saw those swatches up on the wall. But I've definitely developed a taste for more color and would like to experiment a little. I think he's right that anything except, perhaps, a very light teal on the walls would be too much. What I'd really like is painted cabinets ... but since ours are laminate, that doesn't make sense. (Well, 75% of them are laminate. This section is wood; another is metal.) Which makes me a little sad. I'm determined to paint something though. Maybe the door frames?


6. I forgot to post about what we ate last week. On Friday and Saturday we had this curry with homemade naan, and other nights we had frozen ravioli with pesto, a quiche with broccoli and carmelized onions, and mushroom soup.


7. This week's meals:

Monday: Honey Lime Sweet Potato Tacos
Tuesday: Clam chowder
Wendesday: Broccoli pizza and mushroom and carmelized onion pizza
Thursday: Out to dinner at Burgatory with my family ... not particularly Lenten ;)
Friday: Fish tacos

Too much paint!

1. Our dining room is no longer pink!

We definitely have more work to do, but oh, what a difference!Hopefully we'll get the new light installed sometime next week, then we'll work on finding new sconces. But we have our dining room back! No more plastic sheeting on the table, no more furniture pushed into the living room, and no more pink! The new color is called Martinique Morn. We're pretty happy with it.


2. I still want to paint a navy/indigo blue sideboard or china cabinet for this room, but Keith thinks if I put a big blue something in here that we'll be limited to palette of blue and green for the whole room because other colors won't go. I'm not sure that I agree ... what do you think?


3. Taking down wallpaper is addictive. I am repressing the urge to get wallpaper out of ALL THE ROOMS. (Blue checked in the twins's room. Dogs in Michael's room. Yellow in the kitchen. Varied shades of pink in the bathrooms). It's near-instant gratification, second only to putting that first coat of paint on a wall. (Least satisfying, to me at least, is that coat of primer. So anti-climactic!)


4. But ... it's also a lot of work. I think we could've knocked this out in a weekend, except we're limited to working while the kids are asleep. It took us a week and a half. When it comes time to paint the kitchen, we might just hire someone else. Our kitchen is HUGE, and there are a lot of nooks and crannies to get wallpaper off/paint on. It would take us at least a month.


5. Speaking of the kitchen. We really do need to redecorate the whole thing eventually, but where do you start? Cabinets? Floor?

Probably the floor, right? It's a bit Dr. Seussical for our tastes. But more importantly, when the previous owner built it in the old garage (which is why our ktichen's so big), she didn't put down any subflooring over the concrete. Which means the kitchen floor is hard, REALLY cold in the winter, and now there's a big crack down the middle of it. But that is a really big project--and definitely not DIY. So we can't just "redo" the floor without it being a huge thing.

And yet if we start to work on other parts of the kitchen first, that floor is still going be there. In a very not-passive way.

BUT. My mother-in-law pointed out that you can pain laminate and tile ... which might be a good temporary solution. It sounds like a lot of work in its own right though ... does anyone have experience with how well painted floors hold up in high-traffic areas?


6. Anyway, when buying paint for the dining room, I brought home a few chips of deep teal. I think I'm going to pain our kitchen block teal and stain the top. Which will make our pink-and-yellow-kitchen even more colorful. ;) But happy colors for the coming winter sounds okay to me.


7. Okay, I think that's enough of that. :) Head over to Jen's for more quick takes!

Geese, Pies, and Feast Days (SQT 21)

1. It feels so good to sit at a computer and type using a regular keyboard. My husband finally fixed some internet issues and set me up an account on the working desktop! No more trying to type on a tablet touch screen! (To those whom I've communicated with up til now, I apologize for the typos. Know that even the effort of typing is a sign of my regard for you. ;) )


2. Now for a very important question: has anyone ever bought a goose? I mean, a goose that's plucked and ready to stick in the oven. I am determined to roast one for Michaelmas this year. But I have a feeling it's not something one picks up at the local Giant Eagle. And I can't really imagine a local butcher having geese in stock either. So if you've ever bought a goose for roasting, let me know how you managed to find it please? :)


3. Speaking of feast days, it was this guy's on Wednesday:

We had buttermilk pie (because I had some I needed to use up in the fridge) and he got to taste it after his twin was in bed.


4. Normally I shower during the twins' morning nap. Dominic woke up yesterday before I had the chance, so I brought him downstairs to play with Michael. I took a three minute shower in the upstairs bathroom and when I got out this face was peering through the door at me.

A huge bruise on his forehead and I-have-no-idea above his lip.

Now he's up those stairs ten times a day. Rather than putting up a baby gate I am trying to teach him to come back down the stairs on his own. We'll see ... the gate may yet go up.


5. Gregory's still just sitting there. Sometimes he tries to will himself forward to no avail.


6. Remember our pink dining room? Now it looks like this.

Yes, that's plain old drywall. But it's glorious. The room is already so much brighter--that pink was eating up all the light!

(You'll notice that the outlets are painted pink ... and we also have to remove wallpaper from the plates.)


7. On that note--I'm off to prime some walls while my husband paints the ceiling!


Linking up at Conversion Diary.

Seven Quick Takes (20) and One Hot Mess (1)

1. I went to a bachelorette party yesterday. I didn't bring any babies. I wore a DRESS. And I stayed out until past 11! It was amazing. And it was one of the best bachelorette parties I've been too, planned with a lot of love and creativity by the bride's friends. Among other things, we all toasted her with whiskey in teacups. A few minutes later I looked down and, oh--my teacup was full of Jameson again. Huh. So I got to work on that. And then a bit later when I went to take the last sip ... it was full again. Apparently the waiter was going around refilling teacups with the bottle! I'm pretty sure that's the most whiskey I've ever drunk in one sitting ... which to be honest isn't saying all that much. ;) But it was a fun night out, whiskey included!


2. Michael has started biting his brothers. Specifically Dominic. I mean, the babies do have very pudgy legs that just look so nom-able, I agree. But leaving teeth marks on your brother's thigh is just not acceptable. We're working on it.


3. Our backyard looks like a wild meadow. Keith finally broke down and ordered a lawnmower from Amazon Prime (because that's how we roll), an electric lawnmower no less. He's kind of a nonconformist. :-P But he hasn't had time to do the whole thing. So, our front yard is mowed (but getting long again), plus it has a big muddy patch with grass seed sprouting here and there (because the rain washed away the rest), and then the backyard is this overgrown field with a few mown paths in it.

About a week ago Keith was talking to a neighbor about the previous owner of this house, and our neighbor said something like "Yeah, she let the landscaping get away from her." I'm not sure what that means they think about us.


4. I've been complaining to Keith that we have too many toys and should do a purge. He disagreed and said it was just a matter of organization. Well, I am glad to say he was right! I ordered some baskets that were on sale from the Land of Nod and reorganized everything, and it is so much better. I'm also hoping it will make it easier to teach Michael to clean up, since each basket has a "category" of toys (cars, stuffed animals, etc).


5. I also ordered some fabric for a few projects in the twin's room. I'm thinking some cloth bins, but I'm not sure what else ... maybe a pouf similar to Michael's?


6. I belong to a Facebook group for attachment parenting twins. I am not an "attachment parenting" parent by a long shot, but the group is helpful for questions about nursing and so on. This morning someone posted a story about a twin homebirth and it reminded me that I wanted to post some thoughts about birth sometime soon. Isn't that exciting?


7. Also I started writing a "day in the life" post three weeks ago and haven't finished it yet. So much changes in three weeks with babies, so I've contemplated abandoning it ... but ... I put a lot of work into it, dang it! If I can't get it up by next week I'll abandon it and maybe start a new one. :)


8. Bonus take. I had to share this picture for Blythe's One Hot Mess link-up. This is a week's worth of boxes for our household, obstructing the path into the kitchen. I honestly have no idea why they haven't been collapsed yet. I guess we've been too busy (ahem). Yes, that pile is taller than the counter. Yes, we shop on Amazon Prime kind of a lot.

Linking up with Jen at Conversion Diary and Blythe at The Fike Life.

SOTG and other bookish goodness (SQT 19)

1. I finished Something Other Than God 2.5 days after starting it. Considering I have three mouths to feed, three butts to diaper, three sets of voices to respond to when they cry out ... that's a dang fast read. I couldn't stop turning the pages! My copy is now in the hands the first friend I saw after finishing it; I imagine it will visit a few other people before finding its true home on my shelf. (Or maybe its true home is in the hands of people. :) )


2. Why isn't one of the categories in the release contest "Best Picture of the Book with Babies?" Because I would totally win that one, right?

3.The parts of the book that touched me the most were Jennifer's struggles with the idea that God would allow the suffering and death of children. There is a scene where she is walking through a cemetery she's visited her whole life and realizes, for the first time, how many of the graves belong to young ones; how families would lose four of their children in one year. I think it would speak to any mother, but it touched me especially because a family we know just lost their own little one, the age of our own Michael. Please pray for their family!


4. It was an awesome mail day today. The Desolation of Smaug came from Netflix. I have low expectations for many reasons but ... I'm still excited. Because Bilbo! And Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug!


5. Also we got a haul of used children's books that Keith ordered a week or two ago, including Rikki Tikki Tavi.


6. Last but certainly not least, I got an advanced review copy of a book soon to be released by Wiseblood Books. I am so excited to start reading it!


7. I've been nap training Dominic this week and it's been going really well ... except today. He woke up shortly into my time typing this post and he was screaming rather than his usual fussing (and of course keeping Michael awake ... grrr). Nothing I do will mollify him. So ... I might not be cracking open that new book until tomorrow. Sigh.

Seven Quick Takes (18): Baby Talk and Brotherly Affection

1 Today Keith left pretty early and Gregory woke up late and somehow that combination made me feel like it was an "up and at 'em" type day. So I thought we'd try an outing. Maybe to Babies'r'Us because I needed to buy a shower gift, and because I can really only go places that have carts with all three children. Michael was pretty excited about driving in the car. I'm glad, because that's all we ended up doing. I made a wrong turn somewhere, and while I wasn't exactly lost, all my guesses ended up being wrong ones, and we came back to the highway exactly one block where we'd left it. One great big squiggly circle! It was fun though. :)

The best part was that right before we got back to familiar  territory we passed a church with a sign that said, "Do you know where you're going?"

Apparently not!


2 Michael's been looking for ways to interact with his brothers. He occasionally likes to join them for tummy time, and a few times he's tried to pick them up. (One hand on the head, another grabbing a foot ... not very effective.) The funniest thing is he will look at them, stretch out a hand (and pat a head if he's close enough) and shout, "MIN!" (Or "men" or "mahn," depending.) I have no idea where he got this. I think he made it up on his own.


3 Unfortunately--predictably--affection sometimes turns violent. Getting up from tummy time=stumbling=sitting on a baby. "Showing" them a toy=hitting them on the head with it. Today he made Dominic cry by ... I'm not quite sure what it was, because I only saw it out of the corner of my eye. And after very sadly saying he was sorry he tried to make up for it by hitting his brother in the head with a camera. Sigh.


4 Anyway. I haven't been blogging much because I have no time. This week has been somewhat awful because "bedtime" has been more of an abstract concept than a concrete reality. Michael's had a fever/runny nose that keeps him waking up, Dominic's been gassy and won't sleep for more than half an hour unless he's in bed with me, and Gregory is always hard to put down. (Also I've taken up swearing after 8pm for Lent ... :-P Even little things seem SO HORRIBLE at night.) But last night Michael didn't wake up and we finally got Dominic to sleep on his belly so we actually had from 10pm-1am without any crying. Yay!


5 I think Gregory suffers from reflux. I'm not positive and may change my theory in a day or two, but right now I believe that's what bothers him so much. Does anyone know of any natural remedies to help him out, especially when it comes to sleeping?


6 And while I'm asking for tips, we're thinking of starting the twins on a few ounces of formula at bedtime. Partly so they'll sleep longer; partly to give me the option of a break; and partly so they'll  take a bottle and I can go places without them. (And no, I'm not pumping. I've tried with very little output ... and frankly I just don't have it in me to try again.) But they are pretty resistant, particularly Dominic. I'm not sure if it's the bottle itself or just the taste of formula. Any advice about getting them to take it would be appreciated! (My husband offers it to them, we warm it up, and have tried two different brands.)


7 Blah blah blah. Sorry, I don't even have any pictures to include with this post. I'd make a horrible mommy blogger. I guess I kind of am half mommy blogger so I suppose that makes me horrible. ;)


Go and read many posts of much more interest at Jen's place!

Seven Quick Takes, aka Survival Mode Blogging (17)

1. Something about today struck me as a "mental health" sort of day and so I ended up eating an obscene amount of cookies. To make myself feel a little less guilty I gave part of every cookie to Michael. Go ahead and judge me. My kid thinks I'm awesome. :-P

2. I also watched too much Lark Rise to Candleford, until the speakers stopped working in the middle of an episode. Grrr.

3. My mom stopped by and treated us all to pizza which was fantastic. And Michael also ate grapes with lunch. So see, I'm not an entirely awful mother today.

4. While Michael napped the babies took turns falling asleep/staring at me mournfully from the bouncy chair until finally, finally, when Michael was stirring in his crib but not ready to really get up yet, Dominic was fast asleep and I figured Gregory and I could just cuddle on the couch for a sorely needed time-out. And then Dominic stirred, and started to fuss. And Gregory was pretty soundly asleep so I thought I could leave him on his own for a few minutes and ... well, I'm sure you can guess how that went. Don't get me wrong ... this is pretty much par for the course (one baby falls asleep, the other pops awake) and most days I can deal with it because (as I keep reminding myself) it is temporary. (I totally believe in sleep training.) But for some reason today it was just a bit much. Both boys started crying and I just couldn't. So I had to step away from them for a bit, and went to hide with Michael in his room for a few minutes.

5. Anyway, things have gotten a bit better in the hour since. And now Gregory is waking up, just as Dominic shows signs of drowsing off.

6. The upshot of all this is that Keith is bringing home thai food for dinner and I really hope he isn't late. Hopefully he will have left work precisely one minute ago. Not that I'm counting or anything.

7. Oh yeah. I'm also doing Jen's 7 posts in 7 days thing again. Or trying to. I don't plan for them to be posts like this. We'll see what happens!

In the meantime, linking up with her for these quick takes!

Seven Quick Takes (16)--Babies and Blessings

1. I have a list written out of 100 things I would like to do in 2014. (So far you haven't been subjected to it. ;) ) Two of the things were to get our house blessed, and to invite a priest over for dinner. So when a priest we know offered to do an Epiphany blessing for us we excitedly said yes and settled on a time "after dinner." I intended to invite him over for dinner, but between life being crazy and me being procrastinatory (that is definitely a word) it didn't happen. I had a pot roast but didn't make it and figured that we'd dive into our freezer stash for a meal. 

And then ... Keith called me five times in a row and I finally called him back and we realized that Father was coming over for dinner. So I had an hour and a half, an uncooked, 3 lb pot roast, and ... nothing else in the house except eggs ... and cheese ... and milk ... which thankfully I realized could make a quiche. Phew! I'm really glad he ate with us, but I'm hoping we can invite him back again for a nicer meal. 

Michael also decided that Father was such a good friend he would tell him every time his diaper was poopy. Which was at least twice. 

Definitely not identical!

2. Dominic and Gregory are two months old! They've officially outgrown their newborn clothes (it took Gregory a bit longer than Dominic) although we won't know how much they weigh until their appointment next week. As for personality, they couldn't be more different. I want to get around to typing up their birth story soon. The other day I was holding Dominic and getting teary-eyed thinking about his birth ... but I realized I want to type Michael's first. Not because I'm OCD about birth order or anything, but because I'm realizing that how I feel about the twins' birth and how I'm processing it relates strongly to my experience with Michael. (And indeed, writing the birth stories is another thing on my 2014 list.)

3. Yesterday I fed/nursed all the boys, got everyone dressed, put on a pair of earrings and french braided my hair, got everyone into the car and went shopping. We were back before noon, everyone all in one piece. The only hitch was that Dominic decided life was awful the minute we started driving, and was only soothed by me dancing around the aisles of Walmart while wearing him. (Gregory was in his carseat in the cart.) It was empowering but exhausting. I basically spent the rest of the day watching period dramas and nursing babies.

4. One thing that made yesterday possible was getting up a bit earlier than usual, which happened because Keith was up. Generally the babies dictate our schedule. But I know I need to be more disciplined. Eventually I want to have a morning routine where I get up at a certain time, hopefully have some of the morning to myself to shower etc, and make breakfast for Michael to eat while I nurse the babies. This may not happen until the twins have a more regular schedule, but hopefully that isn't too far in the future.

5. My friend Stephanie stopped by with her boys (ages 3.5, 2.5, and 4 months). The house was very full of boyhood--a sort of glimpse of my future in a year or two. There was screaming and running and laughter and tears and pizza and clementines. I have to laugh because who would have known four years ago that we'd soon have six boys between the two of us?? Life is so crazy. My babies are small and Stephanie's are huge; her not-yet-four-year-old can see and reach anything on my counters, whereas my almost-two-year-old is still wearing some 12 month size shirts!

6.  However. Stephanie has the easier babies. I'm not sure what it is about my closest friends (my cousin's babies are like this too), but they all seem to have babies that are content to lie or sit on the floor and watch what's going on and grin at you. Whereas my babies ... ha! You hold my babies for an hour and then when you try to put them down they start crying out of sheer indignance. (Well, Gregory is a bit easier than that. But not Dominic.)

7. It's snowing. That makes me happy. The weather out the window is no longer fooling me into feeling like it's spring, and the days are brighter with a little white on the ground. I wish I could take Michael out to play in it ... but right now Papa has to be the fun parent in that regard.

picture by Keith

Linking up with Jen at Conversion Diary!

Seven Quick Takes (15)

1. You know what's cute? A toddler resting his head on the couch with a cherubic grin so that he's eye-to-eye with his baby brother, then saying "Hi! Hi! Hi!"


2. What else is cute? A toddler holding a toy in front of his baby brother while he's in the swing so that every time the baby comes forward his feet hit it and saying "Kick! Kick! Kick!"


3. So yes, Michael is adjusting to having two younger siblings. It is a slow process and in the beginning it was really difficult. I think this age (19-20 months) is probably one of the hardest to lost only-child status (although I'm sure I'm biased by my own experiences ...). And I KNOW it's hard to go from being the beloved only child/grandchild who is always the center of attention to having two younger siblings. Sometimes there are simply no arms available to hold you. Especially when Mama had a c-section and can't pick you up at all. (Oh man. That was really hard. On both of us.)

He still gets jealous, of course. But he is secure and knows he's loved, and he is starting to interact with his brothers every now and then as opposed to either pretending they don't exist or glaring balefully at them.


4. So, Christmas preparations. Postpartum with twins. Oy. Thank goodness for online shopping, especially Amazon Prime two day shipping. We're set on everyone except my brother, and Keith's presents at least are wrapped and ready to go under the tree on Christmas Eve. (Michael's presents are still in transit!)


5. As for Advent, well, I did manage to dig out the Advent ring (it has no wreath) and the stubs of last year's candles. We made sure to light the purple ones in reverse order, but even so I'm not sure that the second purple candle is going to make it to Christmas!


6. And I am also doing Christmas cards. Which ... was a bit more ambitious of an undertaking than I thought when I started ...? They may end up being Epiphany cards. :-P As long as it's within the twelve days of Christmas, right?


7. Thanks for your prayers for baby Gregory. We have another appointment in four months to reevaluate, but it seems that he will likely not need surgery, which is such a blessing.


And now I'm off to try and get some Christmas cookies started ... head over to Jen's blog for more quick takes!

Seven Quick Takes (14)

1. So the twins' birth story is half-written, and I've had this thing about not posting anything until it's finished and up on the blog. And then I decided that was silly because ... well, let's be realistic. Who knows when that novella will get finished. (And I've tried writing it in a more succinct fashion, but ... it just doesn't work that way with me. Never has, never will.) Not that I would have been hammering out anything special in the meantime, but the feeling of not being able to post until this is finished was stressing me out. So I am posting.

2. Happy Feast of St. Nicholas! I'm afraid there were no shoes left out last night, so the good old saint had no place to leave us treats. (Although he might have left some M&Ms for this mama in a drawer in the kitchen somewhere ...) Although we have no Nicholases in the family, we have an icon from Keith's grandmother, who was (for a time at least) Russian Orthodox, so I feel like he has (or should have) a special place in our family's devotions. There's always next year, I guess. In the meantime ...

3. On a similar note. I have the advent wreath on the table. But it has no wreath--just the brass ring, unadorned. More to the point, it has no candles. I half-heartedly looked for them in the boxes of Christmas stuff, but decided to order fresh ones a few days before Advent started, and ... they just shipped yesterday. So maybe we'll have our candles by Gaudete Sunday ...?

4. Nor have I set up the Nativity. Partly this is because there's not much of a place to put it. Our mantle is piled with homeless books and a few random other things, including a fire extinguisher. We're just not with it in terms of Advent this year. But I guess I get a pass.

5. Speaking of Advent, decorating, preparation, and etc, Kate wrote a really great post about such things a few days ago. I think it's wonderful that people are writing about focusing on Advent as Advent and saving Christmas for Christmas, and I really like Kate's take on it.

6. The twins are getting baptized this Sunday, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. When Michael was baptized, he wore a gown that had been passed down from my Grandmom and worn by all her children. Luckily, Grandmom's first pregnancy was twins--so there are two of them. None of the boys will be left out, and they both get to be worn again. How cool is that?

7. I have run out of takes. So ... go see some more over at Conversion Diary!

Seven Quick Takes (13)

1. I should be packing right now. Or at least taking a shower. But instead I am typing my (probably) last blog post ever from this apartment. We are so happy to be moving to our new home tomorrow, but just typing that out makes me feel a little emotional. (Hey, cut the pregnant lady a break. She's allowed to get teary-eyed.) This place has been good to us.

2. One of the best parts about living here has been our landlords. Last year they moved in downstairs, which could be potentially awkward, right? But it's been great. They're just good people. For example, my landlady the other day invited Michael downstairs to come see the kitty, which made him SO HAPPY. (Although now whenever he sees her, he starts crying to see the cat.) She's helped me carry groceries into the house more than once since I've gotten pregnant, offered to buy things for us from the farmer's market, and to top it all off last week she and her husband gave us a gift card to Babies'r'Us for the twins. How sweet is that?

3. I suspect Michael might have an ear infection, so I've been trying to call the doctor's office to make him an appointment. It took three tries. Try #1: I get to option 1 on the menu (making an appointment is option 3), when Michael starts crying. I turn around to see he has bitten a piece of plastic off the medal on a broken plastic rosary. (He is past that stage of putting things in his mouth, so I'm not sure exactly what he was thinking.) I hang up the phone and get the piece out of his mouth and decide that when he starts eating random crap it's time for a nap. (And I'm sorry, I really hope that rosary wasn't blessed because it's in the trash right now.)

4. Try #2: I wait a bit for Michael's nap to "take." When he settles and seems to be asleep, I call the doctor's office again. This time I get to option 2 on the menu before there's a knock on the door. I'm still in my pajamas. I hang up, get dressed quickly, and answer the door. It's my landlady, apologetically letting me know that some Italian guy is coming by to look at the house in the late afternoon. (Our landlords are selling this place.) We chat for a bit, and then ... Michael starts crying.

5. Fastforward to try #3: I finally get through the menu ... and have to leave a message. So, hopefully we will get him in for an appointment sometime this afternoon.

6. I have to say that this pregnancy has been kind of difficult. As a family we have dealt with a lot of stuff in the past few months that would have been challenging WITHOUT pregnancy hormones thrown in ... know what I mean? Between dealing with various crises, extended family drama, Keith working in overdrive to finish his degree a few months ago, house-hunting and moving, etc ... I feel like I've been in "survival mode" off and on for the past several months. As my due date gets closer, this has become harder for me to deal with, and it's taking its toll on me emotionally. I feel like any day the twins are just going to "show up" and I won't be prepared, at all. But I am trying to let go of things I can't control (including things that have happened in the past few months) and just live in the present and know that I am where God wills me to be at this moment.

7. Did you know that September 22nd is not only the first day of autumn ... but also Hobbit Day? Happy happy happiness!! It's also, sadly, the day after we move, so I'm afraid a day of feasting with friends hobbit-style is out of the question ... but I want us to celebrate it somehow! I'll think of something. :) Also, Michaelmas is a week from Sunday! So we will have to do something special then too.

Linking up with Jen for her Seven Quick Takes.

Science! Culture! Facebook! (Seven Quick Takes (12))

I told my husband several hours ago that I was going to bed early. So I don't really know why I'm sitting here typing after 11pm, thinking "Hey, it's still Friday! I can do seven quick takes!" I didn't sleep well last night and am feeling a bit delirious and probably shouldn't be blogging at all, so please forgive (or forget) any weirdness.


1. There have been a few evenings in the past month where I suddenly looked up from my computer screen and told Keith that Facebook was turning me into a stalker. One of those instances: I saw a friend tagged in a picture and thought, hold on, is he getting chubby, or is it just the angle of the photo? And I spent a good five or ten minutes scrolling through old pictures to see if he had gained weight. I know I have problem, I just really, really hope I'm not the only one.

2. I also maaaay have looked up the "real" Facebook profile of a popular Catholic blogger (as oppose to the blog's Facebook page) and then said to Keith, "Hey look! [Popular Catholic blogger] commented on [other popular Catholic blogger]'s post!" And then I realized I was acting like a stalker again.

3. Does it make it more or less creepy that I'm confessing these things on my blog? I don't know. I like to talk about the weird things Facebook does to people now and then.

4. Tonight we argued about whether science and culture had anything to do with each other. Mostly it went along the lines of me saying, "Wait, that is NOT what culture means," and him saying, "Hold on, that is NOT what I mean by science." The first definition of culture that Google brings up is "the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively." I like that definition, although if spent more time thinking about it I might find it incomplete. Hard to say at 11pm. Anyway, I think that definition provides plenty of fuel for my argument that science certainly IS a part of culture.

5. We were arguing because of this event, which I wish I had known about a little sooner. I'm hoping to go to the poetry reading tomorrow night, mostly because I would like to meet David Craig. I've interacted with him via email (not that I expect him to remember me!), and he teaches poetry at Steubenville.

6. Anyway, my friend Stephanie brought this event to my attention. Her brother is a priest who played a large role in organizing it. (He's also the godfather of my godson, which makes him my ... I don't know. Anyway, he also concelebrated our wedding Mass.) Stephanie is expecting her third baby and due THIS SUNDAY so when she called at 9pm I was certain she was in labor. Nope! Spare a prayer for her if you will; the waiting is always so hard!

7. I have a sinus infection and it is way past my bedtime. Goodnight. :)

Seven Quick Takes (11)

1. I am writing this post in a new (to me) blogging software called Windows Live Writer, thanks to a recommendation from Sheena. (Sorry for those of you who encountered a weird “test post” from me in your feeds … my husband accused me of spamming him. :-P) While so far it doesn’t strike me as amazingly better than writing the posts straight in Blogger (except for being more in control of the photos, which is a big deal!), I am glad to have a way to compose posts offline that doesn’t interact in weird ways with Blogger’s formatting. (That I know of  yet, at least. :) ) 

2. I missed the yarn along because I spent Wednesday out. It feels weird not to post about my knitting and reading! Bairn is finished except for … well, the finishing (weaving in ends, sewing the pieces together, adding the buttons). I also finished Sanditon last night—it was a quick read, since Jane Austen only wrote up to chapter 12 before she died.
 
3. Normally I wouldn’t write much about the whole Miley Cyrus thing, but I have two thoughts. 1) You could have turned off the television. In fact, you really should have. But there is a sort of deliciousness to being disgusted, isn’t there? I watched ten seconds total of her “We Can’t Stop” music video a few months ago to see what the fuss was about, and you know what? That was stupid. So I’ve been avoiding that this time around, but I’m not gonna lie, I’ve been tempted to ask people/Google, so what all EXACTLY HAPPENED???? It is so easy to condemn her. But we are the consumers of her actions. 2) What about the grown man who participated in this? Why is no one making a fuss about him? It reminds me of all the posts about modesty that inevitably crop up every summer and yes, women, we are responsible for how we dress; but men, YOU are the ones responsible for how you think about women, and ONLY YOU. (Not what you see of women—that can’t be helped sometimes, and I am sorry—but how you respond. And I am not talking about walking around with your eyes on the ground so you don’t catch a glimpse of cleavage, but rather looking on all women as made in the image of God.)

4. Tonight we went to dinner at P.F. Chang’s and then spent a little time in Barnes & Noble. Michael LOVES that store. He waves his hand around expansively and declares “Gook!” (book). And they have a table for trains in the kids’ section. We hung out there for a bit and found this:


I only flipped through it briefly, so I can’t speak to quality of the story itself, but seriously. Downton Abbey + knitted mice? It’s almost as good as the needle-felted Pride and Prejudice characters! I would buy the book just to admire their clothes. I love creativity like this; it always inspires a mixture of admiration and jealousy in me.

5. The reason we went to P.F. Chang’s was because we had a gift card. I know that gift cards often get a bad rap as less personal gifts, but they’ve been a real blessing to us lately. Because of gift cards from various people, we were able to buy birthday presents for a friend (Barnes & Noble), a MUCH needed maternity belt plus some clothes for Michael and the twins this winter (Babies’R’Us), lunch at Panera for Michael and I on the trip to Babies’R’Us, and some clothes for Keith and (again, much needed) new pajamas for me.

6. Ah yes, the maternity belt. I bought it last week, and just in time; it’s this week I’ve found myself really needing it. As I near the end of the 2nd trimester (27 weeks today), my hips have started hurting, and this belly is simply getting ridiculously heavy. I really can’t imagine what it will be like in another few weeks. I wore the belt today when we went out to dinner, and took it off in the car before we decided to walk to Barnes & Noble, and oh man, could I feel the difference.

7. Last but not least … you are reading the blog of a new assistant editor at Dappled Things! I am beyond excited about this! For a lot of reasons. I love the magazine as a reader, a writer, and someone who cares about Catholicism and the arts; working with them has been a hope of mine for a while. And I have been itching to get involved in the literary community again. It is on all accounts wonderful, and I am very grateful.

(Ok, that last take was typed in the brief moments I managed to get anything done between instances where Michael came and shut my laptop and shouted “CLOSED!” so I think it’s time to finish up.)
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Recuperating

I have very little voice today. As in sometimes I talk and there are holes in my sentences from where my vocal chords just go, "Nope, we aren't saying that word right now." That's what comes from too much coughing, I guess. Luckily one doesn't need vocal chords to blog, so ...!


1. Happy Feast of the Assumption! (Yesterday, that is--I'm assuming y'all went to Mass, right? ;) ) We went to Mass with my parents at the Oratory. It had been a while since I'd been to daily Mass there; it was so peaceful, and I was glad. Then my parents came over and we had pizza for dinner. I made tiramisu for dessert, for no particular reason except that I had a container of mascarpone in the fridge and Caitlin posted a recipe on her blog, so it seemed meant to be. I'd been meaning to try my hand at it for a while. I didn't use proper ladyfingers, but these margherite cookies, since that was what our grocery store had, and the internet said they were an appropriate substitute. But they didn't soak in the coffee well enough, which made for a weird texture. It tasted good though!  


2. Christine hosted an Assumption playdate at her house, but Michael and I didn't go because we were(/are) sick. (My definition of what a sick day entails is very different than Michael's. Sigh.) It looks like it was beautiful and a lot of fun, so I'm pretty disappointed we weren't there. But I think the other moms wouldn't have appreciated us hacking up a lung around their kids ...


3. My friend Lucas has just launched his new website, Catholicism Has the Answer. It is a great resource and I highly encourage you to check it out! Lucas is one of the most knowledgeable people about the faith that I know; he's the one I email when faced with a thorny, confusing, or otherwise difficult question about liturgy or Tradition or Church history. And he has an intense love for Our Lord and and His Mother. So ... check out his site. :)


4. Colleen at Modern Catholic Momnma was super sweet and passed on a Liebster award for my little blog. That was almost two weeks ago ... and I still haven't posted for it! That post is coming up this weekend. Promise. Thank you Colleen!


5. I mentioned my trip to L&D in my last post. Yesterday I had a follow-up appointment with my OB and everything is okay with the twins. No signs of "irritable uterus" or anything like that. Good to know!


6. Things are moving apace on the house-buying front. Which means slowly. But still, moving. In the meantime we've been researching about our future neighborhood and finding out its history and interesting quirks. For example, when you call the borough for pest management, someone can come and shoot that rabid raccoon with a gun ... or, if you prefer, they will show up with a bow and arrow. Your choice.


7. After hearing several friends talk highly of it for a while now, Jen's post about Breaking Bad has finally pushed me over the edge. I started watching yesterday when I was feeling tired and congested and wanted to do nothing but lay around on the couch. And that's probably what I'll keep doing once I finish this blog post, since Michael is kindly napping and I feel icky and I really would rather not face the mountain of yesterday's dishes in the sink just yet.

For more quick takes, check out Conversion Diary!

Making and waiting, coffee and rain. (Seven Quick Takes (9))

1. God is already using these twins to make me grow and stretch as a person. I am super unorganized and I procrastinate horribly, and unless I get things done right away they can take me forever. Things like setting up doctor's appointments. And what do you have with a twin pregnancy? TONS of doctor's appointments, that's what. That need to be coordinated with tons of ultrasounds and earlier-than-average glucose tests and etc, not to mention trying to get medical records to transfer smoothly from one office to another and ... wowza. But God is good, and despite the fact I waited a week to try and call and make an ultrasound appointment that needs to be the same day that I visit the OB, it all worked out, and I got a very friendly and helpful receptionist to help me through it.


2. I made a thing.

In case you need help identifying it, that's a floor cushion, made from this tutorial. With awesome elephant fabric. Michael loves it, and he loves the elephants. He points at them and says "doo doo doo!" Which is his rendition of this song. I have no idea how other people on the internet have stuffed this with polyfill and had it come out looking so awesome and not-lumpy, though. I stuffed and stuffed until I couldn't fit any more in and still it has saggy spots. Am I missing something? Can anyone give me tips?


3. A friend recommended to me that I start out sewing things that only had straight lines. Obviously I ignored her advice, because I like to dive into the deep end when it comes to crafts. I think my lack of circular-sewing-skills shows, but. :-P I am looking forward to more sewing for the twins' room ... except that my nesting has to be put on hold until September 1, when I can start buying yarn and fabric again. SO FRUSTRATING. But I am pretty much set on a "theme" for the nursery, and it involves foxes and other woodsy creatures.



Seriously, how cute is that fabric?! And I love the colors.


4. Another way that God has been stretching me via this pregnancy? I don't even have the illusion of control over so many things. Their birth and when and how it happens; the amount of time I have to prepare for them (I am pretending that they are arriving at 36 weeks; everything must be ready by then!); the inability to even start preparing in some ways, since we are moving in a little more than a month, but in the meantime all I can do is sit and wait ... I can't even start packing. I am in a space of waiting, and I can't even fill that space with anything right now ... except trust.


5. It is rainy today and I love it. But it does effect my energy levels. All I want to do is curl up with a cup of coffee and look out the window and watch the rain falling. And maybe knit.


6. Yep, that does it, I am making myself a second cup of coffee. How decadent, right?


7. Speaking of decadence, I am going to be making a trip to Anthropologie with a friend this evening and I am so. excited. I could furnish my house and wardrobe from that store if I were a little richer. And yes, I can't spend money there right now anymore than I can spend it on yarn and fabric ... but you know ... that might be for the best. ;)

Seven Quick Takes (8)

1. I am pleased to announce that I am now the wife of a full-fledged PhD! I am so, so proud of my husband. His defense talk was amazing, and he has worked so hard at this for the past five years--as long as I've known him--and he is so deserving of having that work recognized and praised.

2. Like the bunting I made? Complete with letters that were traced using alphabet magnets from our fridge? ;) I know, I know, I should have taken pictures for a tutorial, including how I couldn't find the T or the E anywhere and had to get creative and flip the L around different directions to make those letters. Hehe. But I like how it turned out. I know it is not centered over the doorway and it drives me a little bonkers, so sorry if it bothers you too! We have SO MUCH cake in the house right now. I baked one (now eaten), and Keith's adviser bought two (one of which is in our freezer). There was a lot of champagne, too ... but that disappeared rather more quickly.

3. Knitting has been slow this week. The first sweater is all but finished--the second sleeve needs to be sewn on (and I might redo the first as I'm not too happy with it), and then it needs buttons, and then it will be done! I have also started a blanket because I spotted some Malabrigo in Azul Profundo, which is one of the most beautiful shades of blue I have ever seen, and there was simply no way not to buy it. It's been growing about two rows a day, a very slow pace for me, but I'm guessing this week I will move a bit faster.

4. Now that Keith has graduated, he no longer has to work the equivalent of two jobs!! We are really looking forward to settling in to the new normal around here ... at least until the twins arrive in a few short months. Of course, we also have to move in the next month and a half or so, which entails buying a house ... but we're hoping that will all be set in motion by the end of next week. Basically it's a huge time of change and readjustment for us. But these are all good things.

5. So, after ten posts in ten days (!!!) I haven't posted in a whole week. Understandable, what with PhD graduations and out of town company and whatnot, but. Posting each and every day is a bit much, but it felt good to blog regularly, and I'm hoping it's a habit I can keep up until the twins arrive. I've also been thinking (with Christine's encouragement) about posting a series about living on a single income as a family. This fascinates me especially as we prepare to move out of the city, because the strategies for living on one salary look so different when you live in the country vs the city vs the suburbs--and even from city to city. I have a lot of friends who own just one car and are able to take advantage of public transportation and/or walk where they need to go. But that isn't going to be an option for us in a few months. (We already own two cars, and are incredibly blessed because we got both of them for free, although they have both cost us money to maintain as they age. Keith's car is older than we are!) So it is something I would like to explore here at some point.

6. As I type this, I am watching the garbage men drive down our alley and pick up all the trash. Today they are not yelling at each other in angry voices. (Maybe they aren't angry. Maybe they're just yelling to be heard above the truck. But most weeks they sound pretty mad.) I really love trash day. Seriously. I love the feeling of purging our home of things that don't need to be there and then these wonderful men come and take them away forever. :-P (Plus, when you think about it, isn't it a blessing that we have people that dispose of our garbage for us? I mean, what would WE do with dirty diapers on our own? Maybe if we were responsible for disposing of our own trash we would make less of it ...) I'm looking forward to moving for the same reason--evaluating the clothes and books and other things that tend to accumulate on our shelves and in our closets and pruning our household of clutter. I already have a small Goodwill pile growing.

7. I am still feeling okay with this pregnancy, although I wake up in the morning and feel like I've been doing crunches all night because my stomach muscles are so tired. I think I need to invest in a maternity belt pretty quickly. Michael has taken to patting my belly at random intervals and saying "beebee," but I'm not sure if he is trying to say belly or affirming that yes, we have told him a hundred times that Mama has two babies in her belly. He also thinks that whenever I open my computer it is for the sole purpose of showing him pictures of beebees. I guess that's a good thing, right?

Head over to Jen's blog to see more Quick Takes!

Seven posts, seven takes, etc ...

1. I think this wraps it up for my 7 Posts in 7 Days challenge. I know I'm "cheating" because I started before everyone else, and because (cough) I missed a day and posted twice the following one. But I think it helped me overcome perfectionism and just post, and prove to myself that I can, in fact, blog regularly if I force myself to. (Even if the blogging happens after 11pm most nights.) Yay. :)

2. Have you watched the Lizzie Bennet Diaries? It's a modern adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, the premise being that Elizabeth Bennet keeps a vlog. I had my doubts when I watched the first few episodes, but it's actually really, really good, and I would recommend it to any Austen fans. One of the cool things about it is how it uses social media to create an entire world for the story. So Lydia Bennent and Gigi Darcy both have their own youtube channels (which become vitally important as the story progresses), the characters all have twitter accounts and interact with each other, Jane Bennet has a Pinterest board and Tumblr ... etc. Pemberley, instead of being an estate, is a company, which also has its own website.

Right now the creators are working on another (as yet unrevealed) adaptation, but in the meantime they are wrapping up a mini-series based on Austen's unfinished novel Sanditon. It's not as good as LBD, but I've come to appreciate what they're doing with it, and decided to read the novel so I can understand the adaptation a little better. I also realized they used social media (Twitter, Reddit, etc) much more heavily with this series to further plot and conflict, and I missed out on some of that.

So, watch LBD. But hold off on Sanditon unless LBD is something you really love.


3. Speaking of adaptations, the newest trailer for Catching Fire? AAAAAAAH. I am excited!! It looks really good. I'm debating whether I should reread the books before the movie comes out. The Hunger Games is such an addictive trilogy, and very good dystopia ... but to be honest I was incredibly disappointed in the third book. Katniss's character arc is so disappointing ... it's been a while since I read the books so I won't write about it too much lest I misremember something.

They're also filming The Maze Runner, another YA dystopian novel. Not as excited about this one. It keeps you turning pages and asking questions but it seems to me that that was its main draw. My guess is that the movie will boil down to little more than an action flick.


4. It might be kind of weird that I haven't discovered podcasts before now, but this week I started listening to Craft Lit. I like to put it on when Michael's down for his nap and do a little cleaning or (more often) baby knitting. Right now they're reading Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence, which I am enjoying, and I really appreciate Heather's commentary and insight before each chapter. She makes a great English teacher (which is/was her "real life" job, I believe)! :)


5. My knee seems to be doing better. I went out to run some errands today and aside from some mild cramping in that leg (I think because I've been holding my knee funny to avoid jarring it) everything seems to be okay. Thank goodness!


6. One of my errands was to the library. Oh my goodness. Trips to the library are so good for the soul, especially this library, with its beautiful trees and shaded cobblestones. I will miss that place so much when we move out of the city--in fact, I think I will still go there now and then. I don't get there often enough (as attested by my $15+ fine ... just doing my part to keep the library running!), but I'd like to go at least every other week.


7. Another errand was to the dry cleaners to have Keith's suit cleaned and pressed for his PhD defense next Tuesday. Pray for him please!! It is such a huge day for him! Pray for me this coming week too, if you would, for some personal intentions; I am in sore need of peace and strength. In fact, if you would say a quick prayer to Our Lady Undoer of Knots, I think she is the one to handle my situation. :)


Head over to Conversion Diary to see more quick takes!

Seven Quick(ish) Takes

Today's theme: babies. Or perhaps "offspring," since I am coming to realize that Michael isn't much of a baby any more. This makes me sad. But I guess with two more on the way I don't have much to complain about, do I??

1. I realized that when I posted yesterday about being huge I forgot to include a picture of my current bump for comparison. So here I am at about 18 weeks with twins.

2. Speaking of twins. With Michael I remember constantly having to push him back down away from my ribs so I could breathe. I don't remember when this started--maybe the end of the second trimester? I guess I just have a short torso! Anyway, I am sorry to say that these little ones are already trying to climb their way up into my diaphragm/stomach. Or something. Not comfortable.


3. I am a little disappointed because I wasn't able to schedule our ultrasound for next week, since they need to set aside extra time for twins. So we won't be finding out the genders until the week after next. I've been reassured that finding out the sex isn't any more difficult with twins than singletons, but the twins and I have been having some heart-to-heart conversations about cooperation, just in case.


4. I think that Michael has been going through an intellectual growth spurt lately. He is getting pretty good at communicating, and his list of words is growing pretty steadily. Because I am sure you are all dying to know, here is a convenient list of his most common words, complete with translations.

Mama
Papa
Gaga (grandma)
Keek (Keith)
kaka (avocado)
nana (banana)
ba (ball)
ka or kak (car)
kak (clock)
kunk (klunk. As in banging his head against something.)
ig (egg)
eezh (cheese)
eezh (Jesus)
eezh (keys)
bap (beep; also his term for the microwave)
bubbo (bubbles)
na (no)
ee (eye--usually accompanied by a finger poke in mama's eyeball)
hm (home)
meetbo (meatball--he hasn't said this since but I put it on the list because I was pretty impressed.)

Also I think he sometimes says "poopy" when I change his diaper, but I could be imagining things.


5. I just realized that I forgot #5 when I originally posted this. Oops.


6. Because Mama is the boring parent, and because he no longer nurses, we hear "Papa" a lot more around these parts lately. One day he chatting to himself and I asked if he could say "Mama." He looked at me, smiled, and said "Mama papa papa." Back when he used to have trouble saying "Papa," he used to do the same thing only reversed: "papamama." It actually really touched me because I realized how closely we are tied together in his mind. Papa, Mama. Both of them. Separate but united. Of course. That's how it is, how it's supposed to be. That is his reality, his world, and I am so grateful.


7. I think I'm going to have to break down and buy some yarn for the babies. I just can't stand it! Only one nearly-finished shawl stands between me and baby knitting, and gosh darn it I need yarn.

7QT

1. Easter was lovely. My mother-in-law came out to visit, and my family joined us for dinner. There was lamb and Italian Easter pie and yes, chocolate. ;) (Please tell me I'm not the only one who finds myself thinking things like "Oh my gosh, I have to hurry up and eat all this so it will stop tempting me" ...?? Because that makes lots of sense, right?) I'm afraid I didn't take any pictures, but Michael had his first Easter basket (complete with a St. Michael softie!) and Keith "hid" his eggs around the living room--he actually found a few himself!

2. There is something that's just different about these feasts as as mother. It felt a bit odd in some ways because I was preparing for Easter during Holy Week. But it's a good kind of different; I think having children helps you enter into the spirit of the liturgical season. Even if it makes it harder to pay attention at Mass. :-P

3. I solicited opinions on Facebook but I will also solicit them here ... I am trying to decide whether to knit myself an Ink or a French Braid cardigan. I love them both. I think I like the look of Ink a bit more, but I like that French Braid is knitted in a heavier weight yarn. Any opinions?

4. Still no mobility, still no teeth ... I really do think Michael's decided he wants to remain a baby indefinitely. ;) Honestly, I'm not worried; but I do wish people would stop saying some version of "When he DOES start moving, you'll be sorry ...!" Believe me, I know that keeping up with a mobile little guy will be a lot of work, but seeing as he's practically a year old, I think I'm ready to deal with it!

5. Oh my gosh. Michael is going to be one year old. In ten days! I have so much I want to do before then--I want to write his birth story (which you all will probably be subjected to ;) ), get his baby photo album together, make him a birthday crown ... we'll see how realistic those goals are.

6. One area he has been REALLY growing in lately is his verbal skills. I keep finding new words that he understands. Mama, Papa, and milk, of course; but also ball, puffs, microwave (haha), kick, Jesus (well, he knows that the crucifix and Sacred Heart are both Jesus), "can I have ____," monkey (and relatedly, "oo-oo-oo") and more I'm sure I've forgotten. He can say Mama and Papa when he wants to, although he can only say Papa correctly if he whispers; most of the time he calls Keith "Bap." Which is really cute. :) And sometimes when we ask him to say Mama or Papa, he says the opposite, with enough frequency that we're pretty sure it's something he does on purpose. Is this a glimpse of his personality? Hehe.

7. In any case, he is definitely going to be a kid you need to be VERY careful what you say around. He imitates words all the time. He tries to say good and hello, and once he even tried to say Jesus, which was too cute. (It came out sort of as "shoosh," haha.) He also loves to imitate the dog downstairs when it barks; he growls at his stuffed bears; he loves to have coughing "conversations" with us and imitates our sneezes. Some of the inanimate noises he's imitated are the turn signal in the car, an aerosol can, and Keith clipping his toenails.

I guess a lot of babies do these kind of things, but obviously my baby does them most adorably. ;)

Go visit Jen's page for more Quick Takes!

Seven Quick Takes (4)

1. This morning I wiped down the outsides of the cupboards in the kitchen. I had noticed they needed it a little while ago, but I admit I put it off deliberately, not because I didn't want to do it per se, but because I knew they'd get dirty again so quickly. I kept thinking about my mother-in-law coming to visit over Christmas, and how I'll be deep cleaning the apartment right before she arrives anyway, so why not just wait til then? (I've been putting off cleaning the spots on the carpet because of this. Knowing me, I will drip more coffee on the floor before then. But maybe I'll do that next week.)

2. Yesterday I babysat for a friend while she went to an appointment. Her 2 1/2 year old, Bobby, is my godson, and he loves Michael. It's very sweet. :) As I mashed up an avocado in the kitchen for Michael to eat, I heard Bobby call from the living room: "Hey! My hat fits his head!"

Well I guess it does, technically. 

Bobby also informed me that I was the babysitter, and I was supposed to "sit and watch," not tickle him. 

3. Is anyone else reading the Catechism for the Year of Faith? I usually fall behind and the daily readings pile up in my email for a few days, then I sit and read them all at once, but overall I've been keeping up. I've also been rereading certain sections for a reading group that Keith and I are a part of. I think this is the first time in my life that I've read the Catechism prayerfully, and it's awesome. Also very challenging, on a personal level, because if you read it prayerfully and reflectively then you realize it really needs to make a difference in your life.

4. For example. The section I just (re)read--185-231--ends with "The Implications of Faith in One God." Believing in and loving God "means coming to know God's greatness and majesty ... It means living in thanksgiving ... It means knowing the unity and true dignity of all men ... It means making good use of created things ... It means trusting God in every circumstance." (223-227) This really resonated with me, that growing in faith means growing in these things. I know that I need a stronger faith, but have been struggling with knowing how to grow there, how to measure it; and here is a concrete answer I can wrap my mind around.

5. Yesterday I finished my 52nd book of the year. (If you recall, my goal was to read 50.) It was not The Brothers Karamazov. That may end up being the 53rd. Or 54th, if I need (yet another) break. ;)

6. Last night Keith and I ate pumpkin curry for dinner, and I had the leftovers for lunch. It was amazing. Someday I'll have to try making it. I made a korma for dinner a few weeks ago and it was pretty good, if I say so myself. Curry is such a great cold weather food.

7. Well, I should probably fold the laundry before Michael wakes up ... and maybe watch another episode of Call the Midwife, which I am now addicted to and thoroughly love. I highly recommend it. Although the last episode involved someone stealing a mother's baby and let me tell you, I cannot deal with that sort of thing anymore. I couldn't put Michael down for an hour afterwards.


Linking up over at Conversion Diary!