Seven Quick Takes (Vol. 3)

Wow. I can't believe this is already my third quick take. Time is flying by me this month.

1. I think time is flying by so fast because of all the holiday food and sickness in my house. This week we have had two Thanksgiving feasts, three colds, and two stomach viruses. (Mild tummy troubles, thank God.)

2. I had the best wedding cake of my life while I was pregnant with Maddy. I craved a lot of sweets with her and had the joy of attending Lindsay Bowie's wedding reception. I didn't know the bride at all so I wasn't very emotionally invested. As a result, I was LOVIN' the food at the reception. When it became cake time, I was so excited. My husband even let me have his cake so everyone wouldn't have to see the HUGELY pregnant woman go through the cake line twice. And, may I just say, that was the best cake I've ever had in my life. I understand that part of it was those crazy pregnancy hormones that make you crave stuff. But since that night, I have yet to put anything in my mouth that tastes so good and is so satisfying, all at the same time. The cravings and the hormones and the cake all came together for a strange kismet that I know will never again be recreated. And that makes me a little sad.

3. My three year old has strong tendencies toward hysteria. I have spent most of her life talking her down from emotional ledges. So a couple of weeks ago, when she was picked up from her Sunday school class in hysterics, I didn't get overly concerned. If you didn't know her well, you would assume she had been beaten or otherwise traumatized; but, knowing her as I do, I figured something set her off and she just hopped on the crazy train for a long ride. We finally got out of her that she had been put in time out and she didn't know why. Well, I figured that someone just told her to get in her seat and she interpretted that as time out. We did a little investigating and that was exactly what happened. Well, the following Sunday she tells me the same thing. So I facebooked her teacher and told her that if Maddy really got put in time out to let me know, otherwise I would just assume that she was told to get in her seat again. She facebooked me back to let me know that Maddy really did get put in time out that time. Sheesh. In Maddy's words, "Teacher just put me in time out, she didn't give me a smackin'." (She calls spankings "smackin's". It makes it sound much more brutal that the one swat she gets on her bottom for disobedience.) Three year olds can be so stinkin' crazy.

4. My one year old is allergic to air. She was born with a heinous milk allergy and was just super sensitive to everything. Thankfully, she has outgrown the milk allergy, but her current list of allergies includes avocado (Seriously, who is allergic to avocadoes? The chick at the pediatrician hadn't ever heard of a reaction to it at all. She was very interested to know what an allergic reaction to avocado looked like.), eggs (only if she eats a whole one, she can handle a few bites), and something in spaghetti sauce. I'm thinking maybe garlic? She also broke out when I made Chicken Helper fried rice. So garlic is the only thing I can think that those two things might have in common. I've gotten to the point where if we go somewhere out of the way, where someone else has cooked, I just keep the Benadryl in the diaper bag and look for the hives to start.

5. Two words that strike fear and dread into the utmost depths of my being: Christmas shopping. I've barely even begun.


6. We had this awesome writing spider that lived on our porch at the end of summer and on into fall. The girls and I would visit it every day and get excited if we got to see it sucking the life out of something. I kept thinking with the first frost it would shrivel up and die but it hung out with us until just a little before Thanksgiving. Just before Halloween it moved it's web from just outside the porch spindles to right beside the front door. My mom was so freaked by a spider that big by the front door, but it totally stayed in it's web. It was a gorgeous black and yellow spider. I miss it.

7. Ugh. I'm coughing. I have cold #2 of the week.

If you'd like to check out the others, visit Jen's blog at http://conversiondiary.com/.

Pinkapalooza!

Okay, I have two girls. I am okay with femininity in them and in me. Seriously. They wear dresses, bows in their hair, Maddy's first room was even painted pink. I am okay with pink. So I was at Toys R Us last night and for some reason all the pink toys enraged me. Not the stuff that is SUPPOSED to be pink. Dolls, and barbies, and things of that nature were fine. But have you noticed that now there has to be a pink version of everything? Your classic shape sorters are now available in bright basic colors and shades of pink. Snap beads, ball poppers, lego blocks even! All in pinks and purples. Even a freakin' pink Ouja board. Like you need just the right shade of pink so you feel all girly while you open your doorway into the demon realm. I'm not sure why it ran all over me so much. I guess because there's just no good reason for it. No research says pink is the best color for stimulating your baby. Everyone knows that bright colors and lots of contrast are best for baby. All this pink has nothing to do with the child it is intended for. That's what gets me. Because I know, out there somewhere, is some chick in a pink Mary Kay car, with a little dog wearing a pink collar in a pink pet carrier who will reproduce and her poor child will be subjected to a Pepto Bismal colored LIFE.

Seven Quick Takes (Vol.2)

And we're back to Seven Quick Takes on Friday. Here's the blog that started all this quick takes fun: http://conversiondiary.com. You can go there and link to bunches of quick takes from different bloggers. I've been a bit foggy, but my brain feels back on track today. (Could it be because my thirteen month old has, for the first time in her life, slept all night long with no random crying? For three nights in a row!) So here we go:


1. I now feel like a real blogger. Three people that I don't know in real life have read and commented on my blog. Why this gives me great joy, I'm not sure. And one of those people was Jen of Conversion Diary, which is a blog I love. I think I was more excited about her actually reading and commenting that I would have been to meet (insert celebrity here). I think it's because she's someone whom I respect and who writes well. Let's face it, you may have a fabulous message, but if I don't enjoy your writing style or can't get past your grammar, I'm just not going to be able to be a fan.


2. Do you ever read people's blogs and wish you were their friend in real life and then realize that you probably wouldn't be their friend in real life because they just don't walk up to total strangers and recite blog posts? For example, if I met you in the grocery store, I would not launch into a diatribe about my baby's poop. That would be just weird.


3. My kids have been a joy to be around today. I may have to mark it on the calendar. The pleasant self that they usually save for the general public has been bestowed on me today. I'm not sure why, but I am going to bask in it.


4. My husband and I took our real honeymoon about 4 months after we got married. I think that all newlyweds should do the same. We went to Yellowstone National Park, which entailed huge amounts of driving and encounters with wildlife while driving. After being startled by a mule deer that decided to cross the road at an inopportune moment, my husband decided the best way to continue was in the middle of road. For the rest of the trip. Had this been a few days after the wedding, my reaction probably would have been, in my head at least, "Whatever he thinks is best, after all God chose me for him and him for me. God is in control and I am going to be a good submissive wife." However, after living together for 4 months, the gloves were beginning to come off and my reaction was more like, "What are you DOING? Now we have to worry about both oncoming traffic AND suicidal deer! We're going to die! Get over get over get over!!!!" Not that God was any less in control. I had just had time to realize that my husband was all too human and deathly afraid of mule deer jumping out in front of the car. My point is, the honeymoon can be much more of an opportunity for growth in the relationship if the butterflies and googly eyes have had a chance to settle down. We really did learn a lot about each other on that trip and got better at working things out.

5. Do you think teaching babies sign language is weird? I didn't teach either of my girls any signs, but they both taught me a few. Beyond "poop face" and "Granny scares me", I mean. My oldest made up her own sign for "no". She would make a motion like the "safe" motion in baseball, but only using one arm. My second child pats her leg for "all done" or "all gone". Her Nanny once patted her leg twice as she told this child that someone who had been outside was "all gone". Now she uses it in the high chair when she wants down. Inspired by their use of signs, I tried with each to teach them some real signs, which they both totally ignored.

6. Have you signed a petition again the Freedom of Choice Act yet? I signed one online this week. While I have always been pro-life, I haven't been very active in defending the rights of the unborn. With the recent changes in government, those of us who have only thought about the victims of abortion are going to have to stand up and fight for these babies. It's not enough now to just vote pro-life.

7. I love cheese. I once heard Rachel Ray say she'd never met a cheese she didn't like. I couldn't agree more.

Trusting God

So lately I've been thinking more about people that trust God with their fertility. A la Catholic style. Perhaps because, thanks to Jen at Conversion Diary, I've been reading Catholic blogs? We Protestants don't really hit on this one much. I think it falls under a little known "none of your beeswax" verse. The only thing is, I've never read that verse. I have my reasons for only two children and they make sense. Out there in the world, even in my church. My husband and I have a decent age difference, he has hepatitis C so we're looking at a liver transplant in the next 10 years or so, my last pregnancy kept me a depressed weepy wreck for 8 1/2 months, etc. I could go on and everyone I know would nod their heads and totally agree with me. The thing is, I know that these people who do trust God with how many kids and when don't have a special certificate from Him stating that they will live long, prosperous lives. None of us have the promise of tomorrow. So I guess it comes down to the fact that my faith is weak. I really don't trust God enough to do that. (Even if I did, my husband would think it's the nuttiest thing I've ever come up with.) So I guess I say all that to say that I greatly admire the faith of people who do allow God to determine the size of their family. I know that there is a special blessing in store for them.

Seven quick takes (Vol. 1)

So I got this idea from one of my favorite blogs http://conversiondiary.com. (I hope I just did that right.) Anyway, she challenged her readers to do a seven quick takes blog entry on Fridays like she does and link back to her. So since I didn't have a decent entry, with any thought involved, I thought I'd give this a shot.

1. I have realized recently that a friend of mine is officially a Martha. Clean house, totally organized, lives to entertain, even has a blog about it. My questions are: (A) why does she even like me? Is it because she's never seen my house?, (B) How do people live that way? I couldn't take the pressure. My daily To Do list generally goes like this:
Keep the children alive.
Make sure the kitchen is neither on fire, nor growing anything gross.
Put the towels in the dryer before they get stinky.
And that's about it. Oh, and facebook obsessively.

2. I was inspired by this cleaning/organizing blog and while the kids were in the tub threw out some old hair/makeup stuff in the bathroom. Do you realize I still had banana clips? You know the hair clips that automatically gave you a faux mo, kind of like a horses mane down your back. Especially if your hair was rolled, a little teased and SERIOUSLY hairsprayed. Like mine was. These clips had to be 20 years old. No one, not even me thank goodness, has worn those since about 1988.

3. I love my Dyson vacuum cleaner. Some day I will write and post a poem to its awesome suction and genius in design.

4. Today my three year old started an annoying laugh. It sounds like "heh heh heh heh heh" along the lines of Beavis and Butthead, but not so nasal. How do I make this stop? It's driving me crazy. It's a full blown habit and I would feel guilty if I actually punished her for it.

5. I have to pee.

6. I copied this from the awesome blog I linked to, but have you seen the anti-God advertisements that some humanists are putting out? The big catch line is "Just be good for GOODNESS sake." Because the atheists were feeling a bit left out during the holidays. Seriously....these people say there is no absolute truth and then pick the term "good" to use in their catchphrase.

7. I LOVE the Veggie tales song about s'mores. We sing it in the car at the top of our lungs. Even the baby grins when it comes on.

Coffee day

So I started my day with coffee today. I'll let you guess why: (a) I always start with coffee. I'm that kind of person, (b) The nip of fall in the air gave me a craving, or (c) This cursed time change has ruined my thirteen month old. For those of you that guessed (c), you get the prize. (I'm too tired to come up with a witty prize yet. Give me time.) And I guess tonight we will return to the tried and trusted "cry it out" method for resetting my baby. It's so much easier with the clocks. And quieter. I wish Katie had a button for daylight savings time, too.