7 Quick Takes (Vol. 12), Epic "Fail" Edition

1. What? People with blogs are supposed to update them? Huh? I have to occasionally write stuff? That people might want to read? Who knew?

2. So, I've been busy. Doing what, you ask? Well, let's start with swim lessons for little C. Actually, she's not so little-- she's growing like a weed these days. The first 3 (of 8) swim lessons were roughly akin to having someone pull out all of my hair, strand by strand, then hot-glue each one back on. I know... it was THAT fun. To illustrate what I'm talking about, there was actually one day where my dear, sweet daughter ran out of the ENTIRE pool facility, through two gates, and across a bridge that goes to the parking lot, pursued by her swim instructor. Lessons 4-7 actually made moms ask me what I did to my child to inspire such a positive turn-around (I left H with a sitter, took C to the pool for an hour, and made her do everything her class had been learning in the first 3 lessons. Oh, and I bribed her with M&M's). I've chosen to block lesson 8 out of my memory, because we has a slight (ha!) regression in the progress we'd been making.

3. I should know by now, but if I'm going to get big expectations about how wonderful an anniversary dinner will be with my hubby (Happy 5 years several weeks ago, M!), I should probably not: bring the kids, who will try to crawl under the table; plan to use a gift card loaded with tons of money that apparently expired TWO years ago (how did I miss that? Oh yeah... I had a newborn BABY and a toddler); make the plans to go out over the phone with my hubby as he's driving home in terrible traffic after he's had a rough day; do this on a Friday after a rough week when I'm exhausted and cranky myself. We're planning a romantic do-over at some point soon, without the kiddos.

4. These "Quick Takes" are anything BUT quick. FAIL on my part. :-)

5. Suddenly, I'm having diaper rash issues with our cloth diapers. Out of nowhere. H's diet? Too much acid from orange juice (not that he's drinking any more than he used to)? His bladder control is increasing, so when he does pee, it's in greater quantities and therefore more soaking occurs? Gotta get a handle on this, because the past 10+ months of using these having been successful, and I'd like to continue with them for the next few months before I start potty-training with him.

6. I've started making homemade salsa on a regular basis. I'll have to type up the recipe because it's soooooo easy and delicious. The other day I was cleaning the fridge and threw out a few containers of old homemade marinara sauce (I went through a phrase where I experimented daily with making marinara sauce differently each time to find a perfect one, since M and I have different opinions on what a good marinara sauce tastes like). I dumped a HUGE container down the drain and then realized... what I was smelling wasn't basil and oregano, but cilantro. Yep, I tossed my best batch of salsa yet. Ugh. And since it's hubby's favorite snack when he gets home from work, and I have no cilantro or peppers in the fridge now, I can't make more until I hit the grocery store.

7. The biggest FAIL is that I've let these disappointments get me down-- I've focused on the things that have gone wrong lately and missed all of the amazing things going on. More about the good things next week! Back to playing with kids and cleaning for the weekend.

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 9)

1. This will likely get a post unto itself at some point, but if you smell dog mess, even if you can't see it, NEVER assume that it's a dog toot. You WILL step in it. With BOTH feet. On the 100% wool authentic ORIENTAL RUG.

2. I'm always surprised by the anti-Catholic hatred that is spewed around the time of papal visits. In this case, our Pope is in the UK now. Their newspaper comment sections are filled with absolute disgust for this man, and for our faith in general. I honestly can't comprehend the hatred of the Church and one of her servants.

3. My brother-in-law just clued us in to Arrested Development, which we're able to watch on our streaming Netflix. It's soooo funny! It's been a nice kids-are-in-bed-and-we-can-snuggle show to watch. Since it only lasts about 22 minutes, we can watch one or two easily without staying up too late.

4. This probably should have been #1, but... LAUREN AND HER HUSBAND HAVE A BABY! Welcome, Abigail Chiara! We all love you, precious girl! Please continue to pray for this new family and the birth family.

5. Cloth diapering has, thus far, gone pretty well. H was soaking last night, though, at a 1 am feeding. I'm not sure what happened. The thing I have to remind myself when I get discouraged by leaks, is that they used to happen with disposable diapers, too. They've rarely happened with cloth diapers at night when I have a hemp insert in there with the regular insert, though, so I really have no idea what went wrong... it didn't even seem very soaked in the diaper itself! Maybe I didn't do a good job adjusting it just right???

6. While I would rather have been outside with my family under more pleasant circumstances, I had a great time last night on the driveway, washing the Oriental rug (see #1). I pressure-washed the driveway and garage, laid the rug on the driveway, shampooed the rug with Woolite and rinsed it, then laid it on the clean garage floor to dry. M finished building the gate for our fence (he's so handy, that husband of mine! He built an entire fence himself for our huge yard... 2/3 of an acre!), C skipped up and down the driveway, and H sat in his highchair and ate. It was fun to all be outside together, even if it meant the kids were up later than I would have liked.

7. I foresee a busy, outdoor weekend as we try to restore order to our backyard after havoc wreaked by the torrential rain and the broken water main (oh yes... adding insult to injury) that re-flooded our backyard. On a happy note, my tomatoes are finally turning red, and I even have a few new (very small) green ones on the bush. I may have enough for all of us to eat 1 pizza. Drat those deer!

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 8)

1. My beautiful, rock-lined, crushed granite walkways? Now they are not-so-beautiful, rock-lined, crushed granite washed-aways. Nearly 9 inches of rain in 2 days has frustrated my backyard beautification efforts nearly as much as those pesky deer did.

2. Not fun: a sick 2 1/2 year old. REALLY not fun: a sick 30-something mother of two. I thought it was bad when C got sick, but trying to keep an infant healthy AND get healthy myself AND take care of a sick toddler is proving tricky. It may be time for me to visit the doctor... I need to make sure I'm going at this with my guns fully-loaded. The sinus infection (or whatever it is) is sapping my energy to a frightening degree, and I need every bit of energy I can get to keep up with my turbo-crawler.

3. Speaking of guns... I don't know how long it's been since I shot a BB gun, but taking out innocent aluminum cans is fun!

4. I've learned that I can't keep up with blogging everyday, if I ever want to say anything of any significance. I need to figure out how to schedule time for blogging and then get OFF the Internet.

5. On my bookshelf: Hold on to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More than Peers. It's about how, since WWII, kids have been socialized by their peers and how this situation is only getting worse. I'm only at the beginning of the book, but find myself agreeing with the authors. One thing that saddens me, though, is how much I can see how I was very peer-oriented, to the detriment of my family life with my parents. Sorry, Mom and Dad!

6. Quote of the week: "Education makes me sick, Mommy." Seriously? Runner-up quote of the week: "I need ice cream for breakfast. It makes my nose feel better." I'm with you there, kid. (And no, she didn't get it for breakfast)

7. FINALLY little H will eat foods that have real texture to them. I've been concerned that I'd still be blending/mashing/grinding his food clear through college.

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 7)

1. We've seen real progress in the potty training department! C went three days with NO wet pull-ups! Maybe the Roman Empire would have lasted if they had just persisted with potty training in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds .

2. My mother-in-law has magical powers. Thankfully she uses them for good, such as helping me organize my bathroom (ok, doing it for me mostly). Everyone should have a fairy mother-in-law.

3. Taxxxxxxxxxxxxxxes.......... (Lisa writhes in agony on the floor). Every year I vow that I will have them done by February, and that I will keep monthly records for the next year so that taxes will be a cinch. And every year I end up writing in agony. But next year...

4. My birthday simply cannot come soon enough. I'm ready to be [30+]. It makes me feel powerful.

5. The elliptical machine and I are bonding, in hope that the fat currently bonded to me will take a hike.

6. Only 1-2 weeks left on Prednisone. Thank. You. Lord.

7. April showers bring May flowers, but March showers bring weeds. LOTS of them. And VERY tall grass. Time to break out the weed eater and get to work this weekend.

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 6)

1. Welcome back to my computer! And may the force be with this hard drive. And may I be more vigilant about backing up ALL of my files. And may I catch up on my posts, since I have some great pics from the last few weeks.

2. C and I are geared up to watch the Aggies dominate in March Madness while I put away the laundry. Gig 'em, Ags! The first game starts soon!

3. Crystal, my next-door neighbor, got me hooked on Words With Friends on the iPhone. I love it! I'm getting to flex my brain throughout the day to score high points. It's like Scrabble, for anyone not familiar with what I'm talking about. OK, it's EXACTLY Scrabble, except that you and your opponent go back and forth on your own schedule.

4. It may be time to start H on solid food. He is feeding 'round the clock again, and I'm having trouble keeping up.

5. Potty training= why the Roman Empire fell, I'm sure. They just got so tired of taking the toddlers to the toilet every 15 minutes and of washing panties after accidents. C is a champ, but her mother is slowly losing steam.

6. I love toddlers in rain boots. Too cute.

7. I have so much around my house to clean/organize/put away, and I have NO MOTIVATION. Even though my in-laws will be here in a few hours. I am exhausted from life today. Sigh. (But don't get me wrong, I'm actually having a great day. I just need a few more hours of sleep.)

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 5)

1. Want to make a 2-year-old crack up? Go with this fashionable look:

It's guaranteed to make a toddler laugh. ALL. DAY. LONG.

2. I hate taking kids to the doctor, especially if they're barely sick or totally healthy. I'm convinced that C got pink eye because we went to the doctor last week, to make sure the ear infection had cleared up. She has a red spot on the white of her eye that worried me, given that I'm still putting drops in her eye and didn't want to be inflicting further pain/damage. Of course, it turned out to be no big deal. I feel better about that, but you can bet that I stuck my kids in the tub the second we walked in the door. No more sickness allowed in my home!

3. I want to be Ree, The Pioneer Woman. Or Sarah of Clover Lane, whose blog/photos/decorating/thoughts on family I absolutely adore. Or Rachel of Testosterhome, who has the 5 cutest boys in the world and is pregnant with a 6th child. Or Jennifer of Conversion Diary, who battles scorpions just like me (and has e-mailed with me, before I knew she was "famous"!) and writes so thought-provokingly. Fun note: 3 out of 4 of these women are practicing Catholics! I heart Catholic moms.

4. Want to see one reason I love The Pioneer Woman?

 

I made PW's Favorite Pizza yesterday. It was DELICIOUS. And I'm making another one tonight (yay for meatless Fridays-- an excuse to make something this yummy!)

5. I love them. C loves them. Thank you, God, for them. They make every bath 10 times more fun for both of us.

6. In the past week, our dogs have shed 4 times their combined body weight. This means they have lost 600 lbs of hair. This is likely not much of an exaggeration. My Dyson actually rolled its eyes at me when I vacuumed for the 4th time in the same day. Ok, that might be an exaggeration, since my Dyson has no eyes, just a voracious appetite for dirt and puppy hair.

7. My blog and I are both going through identity crises. Who are we? What are our goals? Stay tuned.

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 4)

1. I love Chai tea. We buy boxes of concentrate at Costco and then I mix 1 part concentrate with 1 part milk. It's absolutely delicious and gives me a bit of a caffeine fix. I must have been pretty tired this last week when I went to mix it one morning, though...

This is Chai tea concentrate.

This is not.

 This is what I mixed with my milk.

It was NOT absolutely delicious, and the only reason I didn't notice at first when I poured the concentrate was because my sense of smell (pre-Neti Pot) was missing. I had to make a new cup of tea. Sigh.

2. I am ridiculously obsessed with these two Sesame Street videos. I loved the Spin Doctors "Two Princes" song when I was in junior high, and Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours" song always makes me smile when it comes on the radio. So, when C and I saw these videos on Sesame Street in the last two weeks, I was thrilled! It's the little things in life, people.





3. I almost feel badly for the pro-choice people who spent a week shrieking about the Tebow "Choose Life" Superbowl ad. Almost. It makes me sad (sad? hmm... not actually sure if that's the right feeling here) when I think about how many of those people revealed their true colors-- choose abortion, not life. The ad was so restrained that it just made the furor all the more ridiculous.

4. Only in Austin would you see this car:

M and I actually saw this car driving around town. It's ridiculous. 

5. One of the reasons I love living in Hill Country/Austin area is all of the great kid-oriented festivals: Zilker Park Kite Festival, Buda Wiener Dog Races, Wimberley EmilyAnn Theatre Butterfly Festival, etc. These are all coming up in the next few months-- whoo hoo! Hopefully we'll be able to make it to at least 2 out of the 3 events again. Last year my parents, C, and I flew an Elmo kite at Zilker Park and Clare and I fed watermelon to butterflies. M had to miss out on both, unfortunately, so here's hoping that he can join us this year.

6. Another reason I love this area is the Big Blue Barn, which is owned by the Arnosky Family. They grow veggies, flowers, and other plants. Every Saturday they're open full-service, and during the week they're self-serve. I like that-- you can get some things and just leave the money in a lock-box. It makes me feel like we live in a great small town (which we do). I'm hoping to take the kids this weekend a get some anemones or ranunculus-- both look gorgeous now! Take a look at their anemones...

 

 I know. Pretty, right?

I may just buy Valentine flowers for our family. I've never been one to need my husband to buy me flowers, anyway. Flowers are for every day, not one day a year.

7. I bought a new humidifier for H, since C has one in her room, but H is the super-stuffy one right now. It's amazing, and thus far (2 nights) I completely recommend it. It puts out a lot of moisture and H and I were both breathing better in the morning. I may have to replace the one in C's room with another Safety First kind. It's filterless and easier to clean! I never thought I'd be one to wax on about humidifiers, but stuffy little sleepers do not a good night for Mama make. (I can't decide if that last bit sounds adorably literary or just awkward).

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 3)

1. Forget all about how amazing I thought Prednisone was. Yes, it's helped my ulcerative colitis flare. Yes, I had amazing energy for a while. BUT... I woke up yesterday feeling as if my knees were being crushed by a giant. I fell all over the house and could barely walk, as I'm being weaned off the meds. I can't wait to get back to normal (and for my puffy face to get back to normal!). I'd rather have less energy but more physical ability any day!

2. What would I do without my parents and in-laws? I am so blessed that they are able to help out. Mom showed up last night to help watch C while I take H with me to the doctor (for the whole Prednisone side-effect thing).

3. Double ear infection= no fun for Mommy or C. She's pushed every limit possible the last few days and has developed quite the daredevil nature... standing on EVERY chair/bed in the house and then cracking up. She's become well-acquainted with time-outs the past couple of days.

4. Thomas the Tank Engine is awesome. Especially when it comes to entertaining a 2-year-old. Especially when Mommy can barely walk. We watched LOTS of Thomas yesterday. And I don't feel the slightest bit guilty.

5. I always forget how good a fresh pear tastes. Why don't I buy them more often?

6. I love my new Petunia Pickle Bottom bag. It makes me happy. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

7. I'm enjoying working on the blog early in the morning while the kids are still in bed. It's nice to have something just for me.

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 2)

1. I am a proud iPhone owner! M has one, too, but he's incredibly jealous (seriously!) of my cool case. It's pink and black and cute all over! I didn't really see the need for me to own one of these at first, but wow... it's already worth it's weight in gold now (which I suppose is actually not a lot, since it's pretty light). C is tech-savvy and can already operate it-- flicking through pages and pics like a pro. It's ridiculous. I'm still trying to get used to the keypad, and she figured out how to turn the silly thing on and off.

2. I can't wait to get this stamp on August 26th:

Reading this blog post by Patrick Madrid is also well-worth your time-- it talks about the furor over this particular stamp being issued by the Postal Service.

3. Following that last note, stamps make me happy! Maybe it's because I'm the daughter of a postal employee, but I've always loved cute stamps. Mom and Dad occasionally still send me some stamps, which just makes my entire week. I recently bought some Simpsons stamps and some kelp forest stamps. They even make my bills look cuter. I buy the boring Forever stamps, too, but seriously-- it's not like I'm going to stock up on those because I'm pretty sure my money is making WAY more in the bank or savings account than in my letter drawer. I heard from the local postmaster that someone bought $1,000+ of forever stamps because he wanted to beat the system. Methinks that guy needs to rethink his own system...

4. "Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody."

Farewell to J.D. Salinger, whose Catcher in the Rye I somehow managed not to read until last year. How did I miss this book?? It's part of pop culture just as much as it is fine literature! Annie Hall, Jerry Maguire, The Good Girl, Billy Joel, the Jonas Brothers, Rick Springfield, and Spandau Ballet (among many, many others) all reference that work.

I'm linking a video that reminds me of why I love teaching-- I love to get students invested in the stories of the authors and the times that books were written, like Craig Ferguson does here.

5. Bring on the Olympics! I've been pleasantly surprised to discover that my hubby loves the Winter Olympics, especially (wait for it...) ICE SKATING! C skates around the living room and does little jumps and spins, so this will be fun. Yay for our TV! Yay for the Olympics!

6. Again about TV... loving the fact that we can watch Netflix movies/TV via the PS3 on our TV. M and I finished Season 3 of Dexter and now we've started back at Season 1 to see everything we missed. C likes to watch Thomas and Friends and I've found other cute shows (The Muppets, Bob the Builder, Dora the Explorer, etc) that I can turn on no matter what time it is, TV show-wise. Since we don't have cable, it's been nice to expose her to more learning shows besides the morning PBS ones (she often is still asleep for Sesame Street!).

7. M makes the best White Russian drinks ever. That's all I have on that. Mmmm.

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 1)

1. So, my brother-in-law lent us Season 3 of the Showtime TV series "Dexter." It's CREEPY. And even though M and I can't figure out if we like it (um, crazy psychopathic guy kills bad people in scary, crazy, and creepy ways... see why we aren't sure what we think?), we're oddly addicted. Particularly me, because I just want to get to the bottom of the season's mysteries. Creepy mysteries.

2. I'm teaching C how to count to ten in French. She already does it in English and is learning it in Spanish, so I figure ma petite fille needs to speak MY favorite foreign language. Plus, she's been to Quebec, but never Mexico, so French has already been far more practical. "Huit" (eight) is her favorite number, so she sometimes shouts it out randomly in the car. It sounds like she's screaming for "wheat."

3. M and I have TV as of this week! C is loving Sesame Street and Thomas and Friends, which I am totally ok with. It's nice to have a few minutes to get myself ready while she's learning something. Abby Cadabby is now almost as near-and-dear to her as Tinkerbell. Plus, now we can watch 24 and Modern Family (best comedy ensemble on TV EVER).

4. When I was in junior high, I used to make fun of moms who had their children attached to kid-leashes. Now, I totally get it. Velcro-ing C to my leg may also be an option when I'm trying to wrangle her and the stroller around in public places. Time for a double stroller!

5. I want one of these:

It's a Bugatti Veyron Mouse, and I think it looks like fun. And it's an affordable $1.5 million. Perhaps I'll just attach ears, a tail, and whiskers to the Ford F150.

6. Scrapblog is fun. I'm working on making a few pages for a scrapbook. Anyone want to take bets as to whether I can make even ONE album without abandoning it like I did blogging??

7. I have found that I like to clean now. Maybe it's the Prednisone I'm taking for the colitis, but I'm like Superwoman around the house these days. Whoo-hoo for crazy steroid-driven energy!