7 Quick Takes - in which I reveal a SUPER BIG secret

1.  Okay, so if you are Facebook friends with me, you saw this the other day, and it wasn't really even a BIG SECRET before that. I just neglected to explicitly mention it here. ;) Supposedly August 3rd is the big day. If past history is an indicator, it will probably be more like August 10th with a forced eviction.

2. I find myself more worried about things going "differently" this time than I have before. You'd think by #4 I'd be a pro and anything that comes at me, I can handle... maybe? But as much as I'd love to go into labor spontaneously, since I've never done it, the thought of it kind of freaks me out! And the fact that I have pretty much NEVER had a *real* contraction until I'm in the hospital means that I know I'll be obsessing over every twinge. Oh, and the fact that my labors are fast & furious. I spent a lot of time agonizing over it with Andrew, too, and ended up being induced anyway. So I need to try to not stress over it and forget about the fact that my friend Martina delivered HER #4 in the front seat of her car. Cuz that will never happen to me!

Also, what in the world would I do with a baby girl!? (Not planning on finding out the gender til birth.)

3.

 

This was my favorite skirt. My blue skirt. I mentioned here that I wear it 6 or 7 days a week. It matches everything and is pretty much a substitute for jeans, since it's blue - if the shirt would match jeans, it would match this so-very-comfortable-and-forgiving skirt!... and, yeah. It got a giant tear in it, not on the seam, and a few other random little holes above it. I have NO idea how it happened, or when or where, I just noticed it when I took it off at night a few days ago, so now I'm obsessed with checking for tears in my clothing. I had been to the doctor's office and the store earlier that day, so hopefully it wasn't there then? I feel like it needs a funeral.

4. This is just a symptom of my larger problem. I need some clothes. I told myself that we would do no clothes-buying in February, and I would go on a spring shopping spree in March (both for me and the boys). I have my eye on some tops in super cute colors from Old Navy, and maybe a couple solid-colored knee-length jersey skirts for warmer days? I'm ALL about the daily uniform, and Hallie's post makes it look way cuter than "I have nothing to wear so I wear dark bottoms and a bright shirt every day."
(Side note, why are so many maternity tops SO super low? I usually wear a tank underneath, but it would be nice to have the option NOT to wear a tank without exposing way too much. Even a lot of the crew-necks sit too low for me.)

5. I just finished Little Women for the hundredth time last night. sigh. I know a lot of people don't like it, and think it's too sappy and the girls are too perfect, but it has always been one of my favorites - maybe because if you can see past the slightly loud moral message, they ARE real and relatable, I think. They aren't always happy with the hand they have been dealt, complain a lot, have tempers, argue with their husbands, get angry... but they are always trying to improve. I find myself relating to their struggles more than, oh, those of a girl who got picked to kill other people in a "game" in order to survive? :P

6. After some shenanigans at the grocery store today, I ordered some Hold-On Handles. I jokingly said I needed a leash, but this seems like a good compromise. I have a sweet, darling child who is totally absentminded and "hold on to the cart" means "hold on to the cart for 37 seconds and then get distracted by something delicious-looking", BUT he is a pretty good listener with constant reminders, and I think this being a tangible reminder rather than mom nagging will help. So I have high hopes for these.

7. No one is napping at our house today. That's cool, guys. It will be a fun party tonight that we're going to at 6, which means we won't be home til probably 9. Go ahead, just stay awake, and we can all melt down at the same time (I'll give them til 7?)

Time is Weird.

Today, we went back to our pre-holiday, pre-sickness routine. Just an ordinary morning, with no TV, no going anywhere. Just breakfast, playtime, books, "school", a few chores.

It was a good morning. A peaceful morning. But a slow morning.

Meanwhile, someone learned the art of climbing up on boxes.

Isn't it weird how some days seem to fly by? Afternoons fly. In general, time whizzes. It's February? Didn't we JUST have Christmas? Ash Wednesday is next week. How? I am already reaching my hand out to catch the first drops of spring. There is no more beautiful sight than sun streaming through the windows. We are hoping to be in a house by the summer - it's not set in stone, but the thought of having our own yard and my own little garden makes me giddy. A few more months of plugging along and hopefully it will become a reality.

The idea of this was to find the first letter of each word. Nate kept saying "g-g-grown-up drink!" Which is what we call anything in a can.

But sometimes, the day-to-day drags. Checking the clock and WOW, it's only 9:15... I dislike wanting to rush time. But sometimes, oh man, nap time is quite appealing.

I have this crazy thought that being able to spend some outside time every day would help on slow mornings. We could put on some jackets and run around for a little bit. There is something about being outside that makes time pass a little quicker. But on a 30* day, the thought of bundling everyone up and driving to the park is just a little exhausting. We could always go hang out on the deck, but the grass is greener in our own backyard that we don't have, I guess. (We do have a patch of grass in the front, but they are putting in Google Fiber and dug... the entire front yard up. A few weeks ago. Still a tunnel to China out there!)

I read a book last year called Fifteen Minutes Outside: 365 Ways to Get Out of the House and Connect With Your Kids. It was good. Thought-provoking. Reasons to take your kids outside EVERY day. I am really feeling drawn towards trying something like that. I am becoming more and more of a firm believer in outdoor, unstructured play.

 

We are phasing out the morning nap, so this was post-lunch.

I love the routine of today. It's nice to be back into a normal, quiet morning without one of us having a fever, feeling like we're going to throw up, or being totally exhausted and not wanting to do anything. 

Also, I take a million pictures with my new phone and probably post too many of them on Facebook! Oh well.

What a rambling, slightly incoherent post. I just want to remember the sweetness of the day, and the feeling of "normal" again. :)

The Monday Review v. 2 - Pizza is my favorite food. ever.

What a week it has been in our house. When mom is sick, things are no fun. But I am slowly on the upswing. I would write blog posts in my head but didn't have the energy to actually type anything coherent. To be honest, there is NOT a lot I want to remember about last week, except the fact that I felt so awful so that I can appreciate good health when it is here! Amazing what you take for granted.

I decided to do a review of something we have had for dinner 3x in the past week, including tonight. It's not really a new product to us, but it deserves a blog post, I think.

See that buffet table in the top left corner? PILED HIGH with papers and kajunk for weeks and weeks now. I got it mostly cleaned off, finally, except for a few random things that belong upstairs. That's about the extent of "stuff I accomplished" recently.

Back to the pizza. We discovered this little box of deliciousness about a year ago, in the freezer section at Target. I am kind of a pizza purist - meaning, the sauce must be marinara and it really should only have meat & mozzarella, and maybe veggies, otherwise, it's not REALLY pizza. But I took the plunge here and I am so glad I did.

This stuff is AMAZING. The sauce is BBQ, and it has chicken, onions, cheese, and some spices. When Brian and I first tried it, we were hooked. Neither of us are the kind to gush over food incessantly, and we kind of gushed over this pizza. It's a little more spendy than some ($5-6 depending on the store), and it's not as filling as something like DiGiorno because the crust is thin, but so worth it. They also come in personal pan sizes now. In the picture, that's one of our regular dinner plates (which is stoneware from Target, and admittedly slightly bigger than a "standard" plate.) So, the pizza is not huge - I think 12". And it only takes 11 minutes to bake.

A few weeks ago, Brian surprised me with a date to the California Pizza Kitchen restaurant. We had to order the REAL BBQ chicken pizza, and it was even better than the frozen kind (obviously!). The crust was more of a hand-tossed/regular, not thin. So, so good.

This is probably something that can easily be recreated from scratch but we haven't tried it yet. Usually we keep one or two of these in the freezer for "crazy nights", but to be honest, they never last more than a week in there. I always seem to find an excuse not to cook when we have them on back-up. Oh, and Ben loves it! On a night like tonight, he has a piece and Nate just has yogurt and a banana (he doesn't really like pizza, sometimes I wonder if he's really my child.)

Check out the linky party here at The Champ Life - thanks, Andrea, for hosting!

Now I'm off to write a paper on epidemiology for my medical sociology class that I've been putting off and that's due in 3 hours, hooray! My instructions say "pick one of the listed health problems" (in another place it uses the word "disease"), and pregnancy is an option. Funny disease there... I think I'm going to write about that since that's what I have the most experience with (over lung cancer, HIV, obesity...)

The Monday Review v. 1 - Chocolate, mmm.

So Andrea @ The Champ Life does Monday reviews of products she has tried and loved (or not loved), and I thought it would be fun to do a review of a product I love! She usually reviews beauty products, and I... don't buy many of those lately. (I am planning a trip in my head to Sephora but, hasn't happened yet.) So I thought, I like food... I'll review a food product! I've seen a lot of bloggers try a recipe to review, but I haven't been cooking a lot lately, and besides, wouldn't it be fun to review a prepackaged processed product that probably isn't very good for you? Okay.

These are a new product that our grocery store is carrying. Actually, this is Brian's department. He went to a General Merchandise show for the company last year, where all the vendors peddle their new products, and ordered a bunch of these at the show (they get case discounts if they order them there.) He also brought home a BUNCH of samples and random stuff from the show (for his wife, of course!) which included a package of these. I love chocolate and caramel, so, perfect for me. I devoured them. This was several months ago. The other night we stopped by the store and they were stocked on the endcap. I got very excited and bought a box. Impulse shopper I am!

One package has 120 calories, and usually 6 little pieces (I had already eaten one before I took the picture.) There are 6 packages in a box. No, I'm not doing Weight Watchers, BUT I like the fact that they are portioned out and I feel guilty if I open a second package. Usually. Unlike the Milano cookies where they are all just stuffed into one bag and you could mindlessly consume the entire bag in one sitting (never done that. I just mean, you PROBABLY could...)

These are good. Quite delicious. Are they the best chocolate you will ever eat? No. Did I eat a whole package for breakfast? Yes. They are KIND of like Rolos but not as rich. If you like candy bars like I do, I would rate them a 7 on a 1-10 scale. Some people don't like candy bars and prefer richer, fancier chocolate (Ghirardelli or Godiva or something like that). If that's you, you probably won't care for these.

They are not 100% natural or anything close, but they are pretty low in sugar for candy (9g) and high in fiber (6g). The main sweetener is sugar, but they do have a tiny bit of sucralose, which I DON'T like, but I really could not taste it at all (and usually I can tell immediately and it ruins the food for me). They are good for if you are counting calories and struggle with impulse control. They are 3 WW points - I don't do WW, when I am trying to lose weight I use My Fitness Pal, but I'm pretty sure 3 points is not terrible for a dessert. And you could just eat one at a time instead of the whole package. If you were self-disciplined.

I also like that they look like something that could be considered "bon bons." So I can sit on the couch and eat them in front of the laptop and feel like I'm living a real life of luxury. When Brian calls and asks what I'm up to... "eating bon bons while the kids nap." yeah!

In short - I like them. :)

Check out the linky party here. I am kind of fascinated by her review today because my hairdresser suggested I try [that product] and I haven't yet.

Journal, v.4

:noticing God's glory: 

Just under a year ago, this sweet little guy came into our lives. How fast he's grown, and how lovable and happy he is. His birthday is on Friday and I can't believe it!

:listening to: not much of anything.

:clothing myself in: black athletic pants, several lounge-y days in a row. I need to wash those so badly. So I can lounge in them again this week. I am not much of a yoga pants person, I try to get more dressed up in the morning, but we didn't leave the house all week... and I don't think Nate has gotten fully dressed for 9 days. Even though I've gotten clothes out for him every day! (I have made him change his jammies daily.) ;)

:thinking: about how unfun it is to be sick. The big boys are fiiinally better (10 days for Nate!), Andrew has an awful case of croup and I came down with it suddenly this afternoon. I wish we could have all gotten it at the same time!

:pondering prayerfully: Abandonment. Really, really good. I need to work on this.

:cultivating rhythm: once again, no rhythm. Far from it. I was hoping for a return to it this week, but the sicks hit me hard today, so, we'll see about that.

:creating by hand: nothing. BUT my friend Lindsey @ Happier Than a Bird Quilts posted this lovely quilt on her Facebook page and I fell in love. Then she mentioned that she was planning on selling it and just like that, it became mine. Er, Andrew's. A pop of color in his otherwise white corner of the world. Which reminds me of my informal resolution to make 3 quilts this year... good thing there are still 11 months left.

:learning lessons in: joy? A friend just posted something about the Joy Dare and I am really considering doing it. With the fancy app, of course, even though I love the way the printable list looks, because I know that I will keep up with it better on my phone, not misplace my sheet, etc.

:encouraging learning: I have decided we do not read NEARLY enough. We are taking a full 20 minutes a day to read this week, no matter what. And longer if they are up for it. Ben would read forever; Nate is not as interested. Too bad. ;) We read for quite a while this evening. Love the I-Spy books!

:keeping house: Barely keeping my head above. By next Sunday I want to have things in decent order. That gives me 6 days for some progress. (On the plus side, since we've spent so many episodes in our bathroom with the steamy shower for Andrew, I've gotten the counters/mirror wiped off a bunch while I'm in there holding him! Silver lining.)

:in the kitchen: I have done very little there this week (I did frantically call Brian to bring home Chick-fil-a one night, so, yeah). This week - a birthday cake for Andrew.

:loving the moments:

8 years ago (yesterday), that cute Brian guy told me he liked me... and it turned into a pretty good thing. ;) He brought me this. Yes, that man knows me so very well. The Butterfinger is already gone.

:planning for the week ahead: Possible playdate with our friends, depending on the health of everyone here. I do NOT want to pass along germs! 1st birthday party for Andrew on Saturday.

:funny things: Our garage is full of stuff that needs to be moved to the basement, so my car has been parked in the driveway for a couple weeks (which hasn't really been a big deal because, did I mention our 10 day quarantine?) But last week, before the sickness, we were running a few errands, and went out to the car to find it covered in frost. Something I don't normally think about! Today I took Ben with me to Mass so he could get out, since we were keeping the others home. It had rained overnight and the car had giant droplets on it. He kept talking about where is the frosting on the car!?!? I could not figure out what he meant. Then it hit me. Frost = frosting.

I got a summons for jury duty. Is that funny? :P It's actually for a Tuesday (weird?) and Brian usually has Tuesdays off, so I figure I will go and see what's up. If it's a long trial I will ask to be let go because of childcare issues, obviously, but if it's only a day or two, I can snag a sitter... if I'm ever going to do it, now is a pretty good time, since I don't have a nursling. Brian has gotten called 2 or 3 times since we've lived in this county (almost 4 years) and has always gotten cancelled the evening before, so that's a big possibility, too.

One of the books we read tonight. H is for chicken, he says.