Category: Quicktakes

Seven Quick Takes-Friday March 22

1. In case you have not heard it is Spring. But I guess that is not something we have in Minnesota. So all of you who have Spring, please enjoy it for me. However, today is sunny and 31°F so I went for a walk once the kids were down for naps and M was doing some grading at home.

2. G had a well visit today up at the family clinic that we have been frequenting way too much this winter. The doctor suggested we do a food allergy and celiac panel on her. She was awesome through the blood draw (it kind of stinks for kids that they have to draw as much blood as they draw out of adults for these tests). She did not even cry. So, we should find out next week if she has any other food intolerances. Apparently asthma, allergies, and eczema are commonly linked in family genetics; all things which are common at least on my side of the family. I’d like to think that intellectual prowess us also included in the DNA.

New vacuum and L’s little foot.

3. Our vacuum died last week, and after the birthday festivities and relatives went home I started to search for a new one. Using the resources available to me I looked at Consumer Reports and asked the advice of my Facebook friends. There was a lot of pressure to buy the Shark Navigator Lift-Away, so I did some research and found out that I could get the professional model at Bed, Bath, and Beyond (with a 20% off coupon) for Amazon’s list price on the basic one. The professional has a hard floor attachment which I am excited to try in the new house. I tried it out as soon as I got it home and it picked up so much hair and dust that I am disgusted at the amount of filth we had been living in… well it was not that bad, but it was a lot.

4. The kids have been really into having a new pope. They have a duplo train that has a smoke stack and I overheard them the other day exclaiming that there was smoke coming out of it and that we had a new pope.

When G and I were driving to the doctor’s this morning she noticed a building with white smoke pouring out of it. She said: “White smoke! It is like having a new pope!” I then explained to her about the special chimney on the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican and that was the one that announced the new pope. So, we then talked about what the Vatican was and also the Vatican flag. When we were at our awesome Catholic doctor’s office there was a book with St. Peter’s Basilica on the cover. G saw it and said: “Look! It is where the pope lives!”

5. Tonight M and I are going to watch the last show of season three of Downton Abbey. We were using the awesome free PBS app to watch it until they took down all the episodes. Now we are spending 1.99 an episode to watch them from Amazon. I suppose that is not so bad considering how much money we save by not going out on Friday nights due to having kids. Unfortunately, my Facebook friends enthusiasm for the show already spoiled the main event in this last episode, but maybe I misread their status (M tells me that status is the plural of status) and it won’t be so bad after all?

6. The underwriter has approved us and we are set to close on April 22! Then we will officially be paying a bank to live in a house instead of paying a landlord, and in 30 years, no one! And to clarify my post about doing things on the house. We are not moving until the end of May since our lease in our current home will not be up yet.

7. Finally, if you have not done so yet and want to easily follow my blog on Facebook. Please “like” it by using the handy little box to the right. 🙂

Read more Quick Takes at Jen’s blog www.conversiondiary.com.

Seven Quicktakes Friday-March 15

1. Beware the Ides of March! G is four today (yesterday)! I have been a mother of an out of the womb child for four years. Can you believe it?

2. We went out for dinner on Sunday to celebrate the new house (which appraised properly and now we just have to wait for closing, yay!). M and I both ordered drinks, and we got carded. Us with our three kids got carded. I guess we still look young. Yay!

3. Yesterday (Thursday) was M’s birthday. This is the dinner he requested. He may or may not have eaten all of that pasta. That was the serving dish, but there was more in the pot and he had seconds… That is goat cheese. G says that she likes goat cheese because it is “soooo creamy.”

4. I also made this cake for M.

It has dark chocolate and coffee in it.


And almond crust with chocolate ganache on top.


And tofu. It was really good and almost vegan, except I used real butter and milk. It goes really well with breakfast, as breakfast, or as second breakfast. 

5. M said I could get this for the new house. 

From http://www.amazon.com/BISSELL-Natural-Sweep-Sweeper-92N0A/dp/B001GL1NXU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363376536&sr=8-1&keywords=bissell+natural+sweep+dual+brush+sweeper

I bet I could convince G to use it and her help would actually be effective.

6. My mom is in town and is coloring with G. G is having my mom draw Noah’s Ark. 

G: “Draw people drowning!”
Mom: “It has been raining for so long there aren’t any other people around.”
L: “Draw people drowning!!!!”

My kids are entirely normal. I promise.

7. I am throwing a birthday party with friends for G. I think it is going to be pretty lame from the kids perspective. There is no theme or decorations. M is at the store right now getting a few balloons, but no helium. There has been speculation that Fr. Z does birthday parties among our friends in St. Paul, but we forgot to invite him. 

Head over to Jen’s for more Quick Takes.

Seven Quicktakes: March 1

1. IT IS MARCH ALREADY!?!??!?! This month we have two birthdays (back to back) and two name days… Also, Easter! But it is still Lent, so lets not forget to eat fish today.

2. I think I need to read this again and again and again and then stop being annoyed at myself for not doing “home school” with my almost four year old most days.

3. Today an insurance issue looks like it is going to finally be resolved. Last March (so it has been nearly a year!) L needed a nebulizer for some wheezing she was experiencing. It was the third time in her life she had needed it so we decided to go ahead and get one especially since our insurance was supposed to cover it. It turns out the one the doctors office provided was not covered and the company took it back at no cost even though we had used it for a week and had recycled the box it came in. So, the next time we went to the doctor for L I got a prescription for a new nebulizer  and called the insurance company to find out exactly who to get the machine from so that the cost of it was entirely covered (we had really nice state employee health insurance in NY). This was in June. I called the company and they had a guy deliver it. The thing is, he did not take the insurance information (this was my fault I suppose). A month later we got a bill for the full price. So we filled the insurance information in and mailed back the paper. But they continued to send us bills every two weeks or so. Finally I called them and explained that the insurance would cover it and they just needed to bill them. After months of exchanging phone calls and finally getting them to bill the insurance we got an EOB in the mail last week. Claim denied. Ugh. Today I got the time to make that important-phone-call-you-can’t-make-when-the-kids-are-around-because-they-yell-and-scream-if-they-know-you-are-making-an-important-call (M held down the fort and I hid in the basement). When I finally got the right person on the line I explained the situation that I had been told this would be covered. The lady put me on hold and looked over the information on the claim. Expecting to have to talk it out more, I waited… She came back and said that the claim had been wrongly denied and it would be reprocessed. What?!?!?!?!??! It made my day. I guess having insurance works out in our favor sometimes.

4. G has only seen one Disney Princess movie (Sleeping Beauty), but I can’t help but wonder if the movies are truer to what little girls are like than I first realized. She sneaks up the stairs multiple times daily from her downstairs quiet time. After the reason for coming up is addressed, she goes very slowly back down the stairs and she sings softly to herself, moving her arms gracefully about her, touching the walls as she goes along. All that is missing is the plethora of animals surrounding her. In fact, Sunday she asked to where her poofy white and green dress she wore on Christmas. Once it was on she decided that she was a princess and danced around until Mass singing, “I know you, I met with you once upon a dream!”

5. We are looking at another set of four houses tomorrow and I have great hopes for at least three of them. A friend is watching the kids so that should make it easier. It seems we prefer the 50s ranch style with a finished basement to the rest of the house styles available in our price range in the cities.

6. The baby went to bed the earliest she has yet! 9:15 PM! She slept until 3:30 AM in the cosleeper and nursed right back to sleep until I woke her for First Friday Mass at 7:20 AM. Then she fell back to sleep at church and I made a successful transfer (with a nursing session) to the cosleeper at 9:00 AM and she napped until 12:30 PM. What a good sleeper. She is just what I needed for a third baby. She will be four months old next week. And I have realized that it takes me a good four months to really feel healthy and strong after pregnancy. Well, on with life! I think I can take it on now.

7. My next post will be number 100. Over half of those were written last year, the year I decided to make this blog at least a weekly commitment. It has existed since 2008. Well, I hope to keep on going strong with it. Thanks for reading.

For more Quicktakes head on over to Jen at Conversion Diary.

Seven Quicktakes Friday-Feb. 1

I am going to link up today, so make sure you go visit Jen for all the quicktakes.

1. The major thing that happened to me this week was the realization that I have been having mild postpartum depression. Some days I have been totally fine, but other days I have felt completely overwhelmed at the thought of taking care of the kids and the house. I was attributing it to the adjustment to everything new in my life, but it turns out it is probably a hormonal imbalance. I was shot up with some progesterone yesterday and I am already noticing a difference. Hooray! So please keep me and the family in your prayers. And also please pray for someone else I am close to who has been diagnosed with depression (the non-postpartum version).

2. And here is an advertisement for the Creighton Model of Natural Family Planning and NaProtechnology. They only reason I went to the doctor about feeling not normal was because my charting (which I started dutifully at 56 days postpartum which is what they ask when one is totally breastfeeding) indicated that my hormones levels were not quite right. I had a follow-up with my practitioner and she told me to call my doctor which lead to me getting some more hormones which after 30 hours seem to be helping a lot. So, if you are thinking about charting; having a regular follow-up person and charting can help with a lot of things, not just for avoiding or achieving pregnancy. Such as helping you be a nice mom instead of a spastic yelling mom who can’t handle tantrums at all…

3. G gave this to me today and said: “This is to help you with your blog.” Here it is:

I think that is a “G”.

4. We went to the Mall of America on Saturday despite G’s pleas to go to the art museum. My kid is already geeky. We got some smelly soaps since I had a gift card from my birthday in June that I had not used. Now everytime G washes her hands she says, “Mmmm, this soap smells like flowers! Do you want to smell my hands mom?!”

5. Lent is coming up. I am going to adapt a Tenebrae service this week for a Lenten devotion for my family. Look for more on it at Truth and Charity this week. Also, don’t forget that tomorrow is Candlemas, the Presentation of our Lord, and the last day of the Christmas/Season after Epiphany. So, it is the last day for your nativity scene and tree.

6. Now that I am going to be feeling better, I am going to attempt to do potty training for real again soon. Typical potty training episode so far which is why I had given up:

L: “I have to go potty.”
Me: “Okay, let’s go!” I put her on the toliet.
Me: “Have you gone yet, L?” L grabs at the toliet paper and pulls off a piece.
Me: “If you go you can have a frozen blueberry!”
L: “Blueberry!”
Me: “Have you gone yet? I am going to count to ten and then you go. One, two, three, four, five…”
L: “A flag!” She waves the toliet paper in the air.
Me: “Are you going to go?”
L: “No. All done.” She drops in the toliet paper in the toliet and then flushes.

7. I have just started Sigrid Undset’s biography on Catherine of Sienna. What an incredible life. I will probably be blogging about sainthood in the future, but one thing I do know and I told M last week is that I am not living a life of heroic virtue. His response: “I could have told you that!” Thanks dear. 🙂

7 Quicktakes Friday–2012: The Year of Stress and Blessings

I never did a highlights of 2012, and since I still don’t have a lot of time to blog I am going to combine them with Friday Quicktakes:

Why 2012 was a stressful year:

1. Job Inteviews: A year ago at this time M and I were probably the most stressed we had ever been in our lives. He had finished his first round of interviews and was waiting for call backs for the second round. He was blessed with five on-campus interviews during February, which meant for me that he was traveling 14 of the 28 days. He had 21 flights (including connecting flights). While I was really happy he was getting interviews, when I heard about the last one (which had him gone for 3 nights and 4 full days) I called my mother-in-law for help with the kids. She was able to take the time and help me out which was awesome. All of the worrying proved to be worth it since he got offered his top choice of interviewing schools and accepted the offer.

2. Leaving the Awesome People of Buffalo: I could say that the thing I miss most about living in Buffalo was Wegmans, but that would be a lie and I do not morally agree with lying. So, I will get a little bit sentimental here and say that I really miss (we all miss) our friends from Buffalo. They accepted us foreigners from somewhere in the middle of the country to Western New York into their network of young Catholic families. I had my first babies with these people as our friends, learned about being a new wife and a new mom from them, shared my heart with them, prayed with them, and they were the best friends I could have asked for. If you are reading this, you better know I miss you!

3. Moving 980 Miles with Two Small Children While Pregnant: I have to confess being pregnant while moving had its perks (read: I did not do any of the heavy lifting), but being pregnant means lots of hormones which means lots of emotions about lots of things that do not always require emotions… Also, when you are driving the car and your husband is driving the truck (when he has never driven a UHAUL before) makes you really stressed. All sorts of awful scenarios were running through my head.

4. Spending Five Weeks Between Buffalo and St. Paul Visiting Family:  This could look like that we do not enjoy spending time with our families, which is not true. Five weeks without a home of our own is a long time, and imagine the famous “grandparent effect” (see last week) built up over five weeks. I also missed my bed. My bed spent those five weeks propped up on its side in my in-laws garage, and we are very thankful to them for storing our stuff between cities. One of the ways I relieved my stress during this time was by going to Ted Drewes Frozen Custard four times during our week in St. Louis.

5. Moving to a New City in a State I Never Had Been in Before: My first time in Minnesota was the day we drove to our house (which we are renting). After we unpacked I had to figure out where all the stores were, directions from place to place, find new doctors (which I am still doing) and all the things one does to settle into a entirely new city…

6. New Job for M: We are so thankful for his job, but new jobs are an adjustment. He is the “new guy” and the young guy also. But we are blessed that he has an awesome job in an awesome philosophy department and through it we are making some awesome friends. 🙂

7. Having a Third Child: I have heard again and again that the transition from two kids to three kids is the most difficult. I believe it (until we have our next I suppose). While F has been the easiest baby so far, sometimes I stop and wonder if I am missing someone. I am pretty sure that this is a sign that I am stressed as I get used to three kids and not that I am ready for another.

The sunset in Iowa that my parents witnessed on their way to St. Paul on the day F was born.

I just want to say before I go (and cook dinner) that while all of these things are stressful, they are also ways that we have been blessed this year. God has been so good to us and we are so thankful (even if we are stressed)!

Home Again: Seven Quicktakes for Jan 11, 2013

So, I am back in town as of Sunday, but have been spending my normal blogging time (naptime) with Jillian Michaels and then my shower. This is my attempt to encourage the baby weight off. Since I am now experiencing normal life with three kids these will all be takes on the children:

1. Today F had her two month check up and with weight in the 96th percentile and height in the 80th I am going to say that she is more like my side than M’s. There are always big babies on my side. You should see my sister’s babies. 🙂 Her one year old weighs the same as my two year old and that is her smallest baby so far.

2. F had her first vaccines today.

When we came home from the doctor’s office this plastic baby had stolen her hat and her bouncy seat with a little help from G. I hope the vaccines do not affect her sleeping because I am really enjoying waking up after five to seven hours each night to a baby who nurses right back to sleep. I don’t mind nursing her 7 times between 7 pm and 11pm if that means she sleeps forever. Keep it up kiddo! L had a few long stretches at this age and then went to a waking every 3 hour schedule until she stopped night nursing at 15 months.
3. L’s potty training (which we attempted to start on Tuesday) is not really happening anymore, and no she is not using the toliet. She is just still wearing diapers. Not even the threat of no candy until she goes on the toliet is inspiring her. For now we are trying to get her to want to go on the toliet and figure out how her bladder works and so on. Maybe it will happen soon. My new goal is before the baby needs the size large cloth diapers that L uses.
4. L’s toddler bed arrived in the mail today. She figured how to get out of her crib this week (thanks to big sister G) and we decided it would be safer to have her in a toddler bed if this was the case. The reason we do not already have one is that we put G in a twin right away, but the bedroom they are in would be super cramped with two twins and all their toys. The plan is to get the “big girls” an Ikea bunk bed in a year when G turns FIVE?!?!??!?!

5. We call the strange moods the children experience after a road trip the “grandparent affect.” This is characterized by the desire for constant attention and extreme whiney-ness when the desired attention is not available. It usually wears off on its own after a week.

6. I think L is getting her two year molars. My only evidence however is the persistent biting of her older sister. At least she is not biting the baby?

7. All three kids really like the song “Away in a Manger.” F smiles at it and the other two dance. We are doing the Christmas season until Candlemas Day, which is February 2.

Seven Quicktakes-Dec. 28

Merry Christmas!

Seven Takes On My Christmas This Year:

1. Apparently I contracted “walking pneumonia” during our family’s bought with the stomach flu. After going to the doctor, I took a Z-pack of antibiotics which lasted through Christmas. I started feeling a lot better by the time we got to Christmas, but the cough is still lingering so much so that I have pulled some muscles in my core from all the coughing. This has been a lot of fun I tell you. At least I am hanging out in St. Louis with very few responsibilities and not managing the home and children while M works all day.

2. If you want to know how to extend a 8.5 hours drive to 11 hours, let me tell you. First, make sure you need air in your cars tires and fill them as you are leaving town. Stop a two gas stations with unavailable air pumps before finding one which will pump your tires. Second, bring a three year old who is still feeling off from the stomach flu along and make sure she vomits four times along the way. If you are lucky like us it will be in a disposable coffee cup (that you bought full of coffee at the second gas station you stopped at for air) instead of all over the back seat. Third, make sure you bring a newborn who likes to nurse on both sides at a leisurely pace, ensuring that all of your stops take at least 30 minutes. Fourth, have the same newborn have an explosive outfit-soiling back poop just as you are about to get back on the road. Fifth, stop for dinner.

3. My parents bought a two bedroom ranch when I was one year old. My two older sisters and I shared the second bedroom until my brother was three (he shared with my parents) when we moved to a basement bedroom that my dad made wonderfully nice for us girls. We always talked about adding on to the house to make more space, and I believe my parents once had an intention of moving to a larger house. They never did. So this Christmas, we decided it would be fun to have 8 adults and 6 little girls share three bedrooms (plus a semi-finished second basement room) and one bathroom for three days and two nights. It was fun. We all made it to 9 am Christmas Mass EARLY, had a delicious brunch, and managed to open all our presents by 2pm so that the kids could get a little bit of napping.

4. I think we must be a strange family that does not open presents until late in the morning. My dad has always played music for Mass on Christmas morning, so we always had to wait for him to finish clean-up and come home before we opened our presents. As a kid it made Christmas morning take forever as we watched and waited for him to come back home. I am glad we always waited until we had time, because the time we had for presents ended up being nice and leisurely. This was again the case this Christmas.

5. Christmas this year really felt like Christmas to me. Maybe it was because we were in my childhood home with all the siblings together, plus our children and spouses. Another thing that made it nice was that I had seen everyone but my sister and her family just a few weeks earlier because of F’s birth and baptism. It is nice how seeing people more often makes you feel more in touch and closer to them even if you don’t live in the same town as them.

6. While we have been here we have had the traditional: Amighetti’s special sandwiches, Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, Cecil Whittaker’s Pizza, and toasted ravioli. Yum!

7. We still get to have Christmas in Michigan with the in-laws. Hopefully by next week I will be healthy and without any pulled muscles. I am supposed to do Jillian Michael’s 30-Day Shred during M’s J-term break to encourage my extra baby weight to go away…

Seven Quicktakes-Dec. 7

1.  I caught a nasty head cold over the weekend and it makes me feel like I am a week post-partum instead of four. It is kind of annoying, but is forcing me to take it easy when I might normally try to get lots of things done. The baby also caught the cold, poor girl, and has been fussier because of it; it is her second cold since birth. We should have a Spring or Summer baby next, because this is not nice to a newborn. I am sure we will find a few more colds over our Christmas travels.

2. Here is what we did for St. Nicholas Day:

Just chocolate. The presents we save to celebrate the birth of Christ. You know. 
St. Nick also made it into the center of our Advent wreath, until someone decides to eat him.
3. This meme made me really happy:
From CatholicMemes.com

4. Tomorrow is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, when Our Lady was conceived without original sin. Dom Gueranger in his The Liturgical Year on the topic:

“The intention of the Church, in this feast, is not only to celebrate the anniversary of the happy moment in which began, in the womb of the pious Anne, the life of the ever-glorious Virgin Mary; but also to honour the sublime privilege, by which Mary was preserved from the original stain, which, by a sovereign and universal decree, is contracted by all the children of Adam the very moment they are conceived in their mother’s womb. The faith of the Catholic Church on the subject of the Conception of Mary is this: that at the very instant when God united the soul of Mary, which He had created, to the body which it was to animate, this ever-blessed soul did not only contract the stain, which at that same instant defiles  every human soul, but was filled with an immeasurable grace which rendered her, from that moment, the mirror of the sanctity of God Himself, as far as this is possible to a creature.” (p. 377-378, Vol. 1)

5. My second contribution to Truth and Charity was posted yesterday. Please support that great blog!

6. After going to story hour at the library today, I realize my almost four year old needs to learn classroom etiquette. They all thought it was cute, but she probably should not yell out in the middle of stories and wait for her turn in line. Oh the misfortunes of staying at home with mom… 😉

7. We have barely made a dent in our (20ish) freezer meals thanks to visitors after the baby and meals from friends. While I love to cook it is nice to not have to while the baby’s schedule is so unpredictable. I am really wanting her to be old enough to be on a regular sleep schedule, but I need to remember patience and appreciate the newborn qualities she has.

Head over to Jen for more quicktakes.

Seven Quicktakes Friday-Nov. 30

1. Tomorrow we will no longer have a heathen baby dripping in her original sin. Hooray! Because of this event we are having many family members coming to town and I am throwing our first “real” Baptism party where I planned it in advance. The past two babies I was taken by surprise that we are supposed to have a cake and food for people afterwards. It does not help that G was baptised on the octave of her birth and I was still in shock of what it is like to have a newborn and be post-partum.

2. Three weeks is again my point of feeling like a normal person after having a baby. And by normal person, I suppose I have put myself in the category of normal for a nursing mother of a baby.

3. St. Paul is starting to feel like “home.” You know that feeling you get when a place is familiar and comforting as you drive through it knowing where you are going? Moving is such a long transition. I expect that we will really know if it feels like home when we come back from our Christmas travels.

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4. M is complaining about my quicktakes being too short these days; these will be again. I wrote the first three on Friday and am finishing them Sunday, but backdating them to Friday because I discovered how to schedule posts this week.

5. I labeled all my posts this week and then added the gadget of a label cloud. My blog is all grown up now. Maybe some of the posts I wrote years ago before I shared it with people publicly might actually be read. 🙂 And you really should check out why Beatrix Potter is awesome if you haven’t yet. My children’s book reviews are my favorite…

6. I am about to do this workout video. And I know you are saying, workout video at 3 weeks post-partum? I am just going to say it is the best thing one can do for a post-partum body. It stretches everything and helps one’s core get back into being normal. Plus you do the whole thing laying on the floor…

7. We have ordered all of the Christmas gifts now and I just have to finish making the ones the girls are making for everyone… (I know, they did some fun artwork for them and I am laboring to make their artwork a gift…)

Seven Quick Takes-Thanksgiving Weekend

1. Thanksgiving was delicious! We have relatives that live only two hours away since we moved to St. Paul, which is something we are going to really have to get used to since we have become accustomed to living hours and hours away from relations. However, these relatives live close enough to visit for an afternoon or day, or holiday, and they are awesome enough for us to want to do so. 🙂 M’s uncle, aunt, and their three boys brought us a huge dinner yesterday (cooked and cleaned and had abundant leftovers for both families) plus pie. All we did was make sure the house was clean enough to satisfy my tastes. 🙂 It was a lot of fun and the older boys had fun entertaining G and L while playing on the iPads that were available.

2. I have a lot to be thankful for this year: a new baby, a new city, M getting a job the first time on the market, a good place to live for the first year, a new van, our new parish, a good delivery of the baby, new friends, supportive parents and in-laws, growing and happy children and so much more!

3. L turns two next week!

4. The family photo and birth announcements came in the mail today which means it is time to start the Christmas cards. If you want awesome cards check out these sold by the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priests. I love these cards because they are so focused on Christmas being about Jesus’ birth and they send you a list for you to fill out with all the names of those you send cards to and send back. They then include these people and their intentions in their annual Christmas novena.

5. Advent is coming! But for now we get to celebrate the Kingship of Christ! 🙂

6. So, while we can eat Turkey today, we still have to do some other penance.  What were those bishops thinking anway back in the 60s…

7. One last thing to be thankful for: F nursing almost every hour yesterday so that my Thanksgiving food consumption was appropriate to what the baby needed anyway. 🙂