7 Quick Takes - v.2

1. After a blogging hiatus, I get scared of jumping back in. So this is my "taking the easy way out" 7 quick takes post. It gives me a template and I just fill in the blanks. basically. Intimidated by my own blog? Is that weird?

2. Re-reading The Nester's posts on keeping a beautiful (but not perfect!) house. Very inspirational.

3. Also randomly came across a post about photographing newborns. I love it, and the photography is beautiful, but, but... WHO HAS HOUSES LIKE THIS!? Kristen shoots in people's own homes, so those gorgeous rooms in the background - those are people's real homes. I'm especially amazed by the what appears to be the master bedroom in the very last picture in the post. Beautiful. Stunning. Completely unrealistic, especially with a newborn.

4. My new love - Pinterest. Oh Pinterest, how inspiring and utterly creative you make me feel. It's basically just a giant design wall, and you can 'pin' other people's fantastic photos onto your boards. Here's mine.

5. ^^The top three things on my mind are things from three different websites. I'm apparently on the internet way too much.

6. We were supposed to go blueberry picking today but we woke up to pouring rain. Of course, the sun was out by noon, but too late for us to go by then. Maybe Tuesday will be our day?

7. Having a date night tomorrow night and I am QUITE excited. We've been doing that more lately and I love it! We have a steakhouse gift certificate to use - leftover from CHRISTMAS. We always take forever to use them.

Okay, now that I've got my foot back in the door, I'll do this more often.

Somehow My Toddler Picked Up The Word "Cool"...

and that's what he says whenever he puts on a pair of sunglasses. "Cool!" While it's not exactly my adjective of choice, it is still pretty stinkin' adorable. And really, it's the best adjective to describe a little guy with a smokin' pair of shades. "Cute" just wouldn't cut it.

"Cute" is one of his other favorites. Usually used to describe a baby in a picture or a dog we see on a walk. "Bad" is usually reserved for Ben when he is taking away toys. (and followed by "No, he's not bad! Can you help me find Ben a different toy?") But my favorite is "Silly." Usually used when we play "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and I take his hands into mine and make him do the motions. Other times it will come out during playtime, during peekaboo or whenever there is a funny picture in a book. It's funny how these little people are so quick to pick up on these abstract adjectives. Words like "red," "big," "happy," "sleepy" are somewhat easy to see. But "cool," "cute," "silly"? Very subjective, and yet he always seems to know the context in which to use them. My child, you amaze me.

Doing:

Making: a study guide for an exam
Cooking: steak for dinner
Drinking: a Coke because it's Sunday
Reading: "A Mother's Rule of Life" by Holly Pierlot
Wanting: this darling Easter wreath from Target
Looking: at my too-messy house

Marveling: at the beauty and innocence of children
Playing: at the park this week, hopefully!
Wasting: a beautiful afternoon by sitting inside
Sewing: a jersey-knit skirt - soooo comfy!
Wishing: it were Easter
Enjoying: the sunshine streaming through the windows
Waiting: for my hubby to get home from work
Liking: today's homily
Wondering: how to get completely caught up on housework
Loving: my children.
Hoping: for another bebe to cuddle
Needing: to have a long phone conversation with a friend
Smelling: Bath & Body Works Winter Candy Apple soap - mmmmmm
Wearing: Ann Taylor Loft blue shirt I got a steal on and a gray skirt
Noticing: our daffodils poking through the ground
Knowing: God's plan is better than mine
Thinking: I should be napping
Bookmarking: a novena to St Catherine of Siena
Opening: an envelope with our car registration fees that are due this month - ick
Giggling: about how Nate's new word is "cool" (!?!)
Feeling: sad...

Praying: for peace.

Fleeting Moments

What an absolutely incredible first day of spring. Sunny, breezy, and warm - we spent most of the evening outside, walking around the neighborhood and playing on the deck. I know there are many, many more relaxing, beautiful days like this to come; however, I couldn't help but think about how quickly time passes as I blew bubbles for Nathan and watched him laugh and jump and pop them, and as I continuously moved Ben away from the dirt clods he was eating from our gardening pots. Just one spring ago Nate was the one crawling around eating dirt clods. Two springs ago I was still pregnant with Nate, and three springs ago I was planning a wedding. I'm simply overcome at times at how truly blessed I am. And overcome by the fact that one day Nate won't be giggling over the bubbles anymore. Maybe not next spring, nor the spring after that, but it's going to come more quickly than I care to realize. So I'm trying to listen to that little voice in my head that's telling me to savor each moment, to relish in their innocence, and to simply enjoy their presence.

in midair catching the bubbles

"but mommy, I wanted to eat that dirt!"

"poking the camera is fun!"

St. Patty's Day fun at the park

7 Quick Takes

7 Quick Takes Friday! I figured this would be a good re-jumping in point.

1. Good thing I don't treat my children like I treat my blog. As in, I pay attention to my kids... feed them, love on them, that kind of thing. My blog is more like my kitchen plant. I water it when I remember, which usually ends up being once a month or so, and miraculously, it still lives.

2. I really want a lightscoop so I can say goodbye to ugly flash photos!

3. I love spring.

4. I need to figure out how to fix our vacuum that won't suck. Our carpet is sort of crunchy... that sounds really gross!

5. We bought all of our container gardening stuff! Several new planters, plus the ones we have leftover from last year. We're planting tomatoes (for salsa), peas, green beans, green peppers, and onions. Hopefully I'll remember to water my veggies more than I remember to water my kitchen plant.

6. NCAA basketball? What is that? Why should I care?

7. I should have given up the internet for Lent.

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(Happy Saturday since even though I started this post at 11:39pm and it's now 12:32am. Reason #1 why I don't blog enough. It takes me forever to write a post because I am easily distracted.)

2011 Resolutions

^^ Boring title so that at the end of the year when I need to find this post I can search it and find it easily. ;)

The week between Christmas and New Years is usually insanely busy, and normally I start thinking about New Years resolutions around noon on the 31st of December. I start to feel the pressure to come up with the PERFECT resolutions and then don't come up with anything. So I decided to take the pressure off myself this year. My New Years resolution was "come up with a list of resolutions by January 31st." Procrastination to the extreme.

So, without further ado, my 2011 resolutions are:

1) Do the 30 Day Shred for 30 days.

STILL haven't done it from start to finish. I may regret this one.

2) Run a 5k.

On my own. There's no way I'm entering a real race. I may regret this one even more.

3) Make a quilt for Ben.

4) Make 3 skirts.

5) Grow a vegetable in a pot and eat it.

I have a brown thumb. I started out last spring with excellent intentions and even had some veggies-in-progress, but then Ben came along and I sort of neglected my green babies for my real baby.

6) Have a spend-free month.

Minus gas and a small amount for groceries. I'll have to stay out of Target.

7) Make an Advent calendar.

I decided a week before Thanksgiving that I was going to make an Advent calendar like Jill's. Bad plan. I think I'll start in July this year.

8) Do one "craft project" a week with Nate.

Even if it involves something as little as coloring or Play-doh. Just something.

9) Make one baked good a week.

From scratch. Pillsbury cookies don't count.

10) Take better pictures.

Or more pictures. I'm challenging myself to shoot in manual more and to really get comfortable with my camera. Take both the boys' 1- and 2-year-old pictures.

11) Go to adoration once a month.

Without my children.

12) Read a new book every month.

Are You My Mother? doesn't count.

13) Set goals.

Daily goals, weekly goals, monthly goals. Specific things I want and need to accomplish. More specific than this list.

14) Lighten up.

Yes, really. And not stress about little things so much.

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Some of them are a little more specific than others, but it gives me a starting point. I haven't included all the financial and spiritual goals in this list since I tend to be a bit more private about those, but I have some of those too! I'm excited. Go 2011.

(Keepin' it real: Today I did nothing that would even remotely make it on a to-do list. Not.even.joking.)

(Wait, I take that back. I bathed my children. And myself. That might make it on a list. Maybe. A chore chart, at least.)

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Something happened with my formatting and I'm not sure what. I really do know how to hyphenate but I can't figure out when new lines start and end. But I'm NOT GONNA SPEND 30 MINUTES TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO FIX IT. It's part of the not stressing about little things.

Mind Clutter

Even though I took a several-month hiatus from blogging (hrm... again...), I still kept up with reading my usual (approximately 24) blogs for the most part (but not commenting, I didn't have the mental energy for that...). I also discovered several new blogs with many pearls of great wisdom that begged to be bookmarked. As I stumbled across 3 more today, I finally had to compose myself, remember that there are many, many women in this world with lovely ideas and inspirational words, remind myself that all the inspirational words in the world cannot substitute for DOING, and close all my tabs.

The internet can be a dangerous thing, especially for a stay-at-home mom who craves connection with the "outside world" and who loves the eye candy that craft and decorating blogs deliver. I find myself spending hours scouring blogs and reading friends' Facebook updates, and while I may leave my computer chock-full of bright ideas and completely up-to-date on my friends' comings and goings of the day, I have not DONE anything. I find myself wishing to "be like them," the moms who write the blogs who do a sewing project every day, or who cook 93 gourmet meals for under $150 a month (coupons!), or who take fantastic pictures of their adorable blonde children that are magazine-worthy. But by reading about their lives, I AM NOT BEING LIKE THEM. I am simply unconsciously tearing myself down because I'm not as creative, or as thrifty, or as talented as they are, or as they appear to be on their blog.

I am filling my mind with clutter. It's not bad clutter - it's usually good, useful clutter - but still, clutter. Just like my closet might have 50 shirts that are too small for me now - the shirts aren't bad in themselves, and I may even be able to wear some of them again someday, but right now, they're just taking up space and making me feel bad about my post-pregnancy belly. And so the blogs take up time and energy to read and make me feel bad about my lack of productivity.

I will admit it. I'm not going to stop reading blogs, nor am I going to stop being on Facebook. I AM going to be more mindful of how much time I spend online, and how I spend that time. I want to be more reflective, to nourish my real-life relationships with my children and my husband, to cook more, to craft more, to pray more, to LIVE more. In the words of Pope Benedict XVI, I want to be "more present to those whom I encounter in my everyday life."

(I still haven't posted my New Years' Resolution list. My goal was to have it finished by January 31. That's tomorrow... eep. Gotta get crackin'! I have a very good explanation for why I am compiling it a month late. It sort of involves a little word spelled "y-z-a-l". backwards.)

Time Flies When You're Having Fun...

So the saying goes.

I've been having trouble taming the flurry of thoughts in my head and organizing them into a somewhat coherent, succinct post, so of course, I abandoned my blog once again. Good thing my blog can't abandon ME - it's always here when I decide to come back. (Unless Blogger decides to pull it for inactivity. I don't think they do that, though?)

We FLEW through Advent and Christmas, and I felt like I couldn't catch my breath, and then, it was all over. I hate that feeling. I struggle with wanting to celebrate the season of Advent solemnly, ignoring the secular world which tells us that the Christmas season begins on Black Friday and ends at 10pm on Christmas Day. So we don't decorate for Christmas until well into the month of December, and that just seems to make it zip by even faster. And my goal to celebrate Advent more this year failed pretty miserably. I felt like I had my head in the clouds the whole month. Ah well, there's always next year...

I have decided to finally finish the ol' bachelor's degree. I really should have continued going to school when we got married, but at the time I was perfectly content with my nice little Liberal Arts AA degree diploma framed on our wall, and had no further plans to continue my education after I found out we were expecting Nate, who was due in May, which would make it impractical for me to take spring classes since HE MIGHT BE BORN EARLY AND I WOULD MISS FINALS! (The babe was born 4 days late on May 28th. Finals were well over at that point.) But something has been tugging at me recently, and I finally feel that desire again to finish up those last few classes and to have the degree COMPLETE. Granted, it won't happen in just a semester or two, since I am only going part-time, but I am hoping to complete it by December 2012 (which really is technically NEXT YEAR!) The classes are online and completely doable while the kids are napping or in bed.

Because the classes in my major were already full, I am taking upper-level electives this semester since I need BUNCHES of them. Two art classes - an art history class and a photography class (the technical aspects of photography, not so much the "putting into practice" aspects, although this will certainly help with that as well.) I am already surprised at the very little amount of coursework we have for the semester and sort of wishing I had decided to take another class or two, but now I know for next time. I forget that the last time I was in college I was also working 55 hours a week and taking a full course load, along 90 minute round-trip commutes each day. Compared to that, having a baby and a toddler seems like a piece of cake (in terms of having free time!)

I'm hoping this will challenge me, stimulate my mind, help me to budget my time better and stick to more of a routine, and blah blah blah (all the other things people say when they talk about doing something that is supposed to be "self-fulfilling.") But really, I just want to learn something new.

Oh yeah, we have snow now! We got our first REAL snowfall of the year last week (the half-inch on Christmas Eve didn't count according to the meteorologists) and an additional 6 inches fell last night. We are way behind the rest of the country in our snowfall accumulation this year, but I personally am fine with that. (Come on, Spring!) Nate went out to play in the snow for the first time today. Sledding at my parents' house with Brian & my siblings - he wasn't exactly sure what to think about the cold, but he didn't cry, and that's always a good thing!

and my cute little Ben-Ben in the boys' bedroom - sitting up and growing fast!

Time to write this blog post: 1 hour 15 minutes
Interruptions by crying children who are in bed for the night: 6

Number of children still awake in their beds: 1

My analysis: This could be a long night...