11 April 2012
04 April 2012
03 April 2012
Fridge Pics.
I love how Catholics worship saints and Mary and all that weird Catholic voodoo. You know how they all get together and invoke the spooky Catholic Saint Magic? And then there's the chanting and singing and praying and candles and graven images...whew. Those weirdo Catholics...you've heard of this, right?
Right?
No?
Yeah...me neither.
I'm going to say this once. Catholics do not worship saints. Okay, fine. I'll say it again. Catholics do not worship saints. Twice should be enough, right?
(I would like to take this moment to pause and tell you that I am blogging from my garage. I'm having major trouble concentrating because Andrew is cleaning the garage and I am keeping him company in my robe and fuzzy socks. It's probably because he's a dominating Catholic man who wants me off birth control and under his thumb 24/7, but I digress. Another topic for another day.)
Oh, right. Saints.
Okay, so imagine you have this family friend who is always SO kind and nice to everyone. She's just the best of the best, and is a really great example of what a person should be. Everyone's all, "That Nancy is just such a sweetheart. Always feeding the hungry, visiting the imprisoned, clothing the naked, what a gal. I'll bet she's headed straight to heaven when she dies!" (I know several people like this. Admirable. Maddening.)
So then your friend Nancy gets sick and everyone knows she's leaving her mortal coil. (Ha! Grandma Susie loved that phrase.) Everyone says to Nancy, "Hey girl, when you get up to the Pearly Gates, put in a good word for me with the Big Guy, okay?" (trust me, people say really insensitive and crazy things to dying people.) But of course Nancy just smiles serenely and says, "You're always in my prayers!" That Nancy...headed straight for Heaven.
So then Nancy goes to her eternal reward and everyone misses her very, very much. They put pictures of her on their refrigerators and when they need a little guidance, they think to themselves, What would Nancy do in this situation? What would Nancy say? Gosh I wish I could just talk to Nancy one more time. Maybe they even throw up a little, "Hey Nance, if you can hear me right now, maybe you could put in a word with the Big Guy for me?"
Gosh...admiring Nancy's virtues? Imitating her good behavior? Putting her picture on your fridge? Talking to her? Creeeeeeepyyyy....I mean, Nancy's dead. Get those pictures out of there! And for crying out loud, stop acting like her! Am I right or am I right?
.....aaaand that's basically a saint.
No, really, what else can I say? Saints are merely average people who have done extraordinary things in the face of adversity and modeled a true passion for the love of Christ and his Church. They're the Faithful who've gone before us, people we admire for their virtues, friends we've never met. We pray to them for guidance, for inspiration and for a good word with the Big Guy. We love them because we aspire to be like them. The saints were great thinkers, great writers, great warriors, great priests, great wives, great people.
And the graven images?
Fridge pics, y'all. Fridge pics.
Right?
No?
Yeah...me neither.
I'm going to say this once. Catholics do not worship saints. Okay, fine. I'll say it again. Catholics do not worship saints. Twice should be enough, right?
(I would like to take this moment to pause and tell you that I am blogging from my garage. I'm having major trouble concentrating because Andrew is cleaning the garage and I am keeping him company in my robe and fuzzy socks. It's probably because he's a dominating Catholic man who wants me off birth control and under his thumb 24/7, but I digress. Another topic for another day.)
Oh, right. Saints.
Okay, so imagine you have this family friend who is always SO kind and nice to everyone. She's just the best of the best, and is a really great example of what a person should be. Everyone's all, "That Nancy is just such a sweetheart. Always feeding the hungry, visiting the imprisoned, clothing the naked, what a gal. I'll bet she's headed straight to heaven when she dies!" (I know several people like this. Admirable. Maddening.)
So then your friend Nancy gets sick and everyone knows she's leaving her mortal coil. (Ha! Grandma Susie loved that phrase.) Everyone says to Nancy, "Hey girl, when you get up to the Pearly Gates, put in a good word for me with the Big Guy, okay?" (trust me, people say really insensitive and crazy things to dying people.) But of course Nancy just smiles serenely and says, "You're always in my prayers!" That Nancy...headed straight for Heaven.
So then Nancy goes to her eternal reward and everyone misses her very, very much. They put pictures of her on their refrigerators and when they need a little guidance, they think to themselves, What would Nancy do in this situation? What would Nancy say? Gosh I wish I could just talk to Nancy one more time. Maybe they even throw up a little, "Hey Nance, if you can hear me right now, maybe you could put in a word with the Big Guy for me?"
Gosh...admiring Nancy's virtues? Imitating her good behavior? Putting her picture on your fridge? Talking to her? Creeeeeeepyyyy....I mean, Nancy's dead. Get those pictures out of there! And for crying out loud, stop acting like her! Am I right or am I right?
.....aaaand that's basically a saint.
No, really, what else can I say? Saints are merely average people who have done extraordinary things in the face of adversity and modeled a true passion for the love of Christ and his Church. They're the Faithful who've gone before us, people we admire for their virtues, friends we've never met. We pray to them for guidance, for inspiration and for a good word with the Big Guy. We love them because we aspire to be like them. The saints were great thinkers, great writers, great warriors, great priests, great wives, great people.
And the graven images?
Fridge pics, y'all. Fridge pics.
02 April 2012
It's a good thing.
::)Our house is old. It smells old when you walk in from a week away. It has medium brown doors and old door handles. It has brass fixtures and outlets that only work half the time. It has wavy walls, cracked floors and stained carpets. There is old track lighting in the family room, sliding doors that could cut off a person's fingers and a floor safe that has no lid. There are so many things to hate about this house. Especially in Texas, where new homes are a dime a dozen, and every home is sparkling clean and freshly painted.
But this house has something we haven't found anywhere else. When I walk in the front door, every care and worry just fades into the background. The fireplace calls us to sit and chat, the kitchen begs us to bake a batch of cookies. We walk in and the house is asking us to live a rich, fun, exuberant life. All of these little girls, screaming around the house and running down the long hallway.
When you open the door and come out of the bathroom, you can see all the way across the house to the yard. A big, rolling, green lawn with creaking trees that shade the hottest day. You can't help but walk the entire length of the house to stare out the windows and think your thoughts. The tire swing is always swaying, teasing the kids and pulling them into the vast outdoors. The sliding door is always open, so that we can yell from the kitchen to the golf course and anywhere in-between.
The creek bed behind the house holds bugs, dirt, wildflowers and toddlers. Sometimes the water is running, sometimes it's just dry and dusty. Some days it's rushing and noisy, other days it's trickling and full of bare feet. The adventures in the creek bed trump any movie or video game. The girls gallop around the shady yard screaming about monsters and princesses, begging us to climb down and play.
We have a striped hammock that waits in the breeze, hoping to trick you into relaxing so that it can flip you out into the grass.
All good, here in this good old house.
01 April 2012
Update on the Kids.
Lucy:
At 4 years, 11 months old, Lucy is our funny friend. She is having a blast learning to read and is doing great with kindergarten. With all of the stuff we've had going on, kindergarten is sort of sporadic right now, but that's why we started a year early! If we can get through kindergarten by the end of August, she'll be a solid year ahead and I think she'll be very happy there. She is really loving religion and math, which is actually pretty surprising to me. I'm not one of those mothers who brags needlessly about her children, because I feel like sincere praise should be sincere and saved for big accomplishments. Lucy and math go hand in hand. I haven't explained a single concept yet, and she's counting money, reading graphs, adding on paper and really flying through her books. Reading is a little slower, but she clearly has her daddy's aptitude for math, so I'm just letting her dictate her days right now. I think we'll be back to hitting the books this week, as we have a handle on the dog situation and are in a pretty good routine.
Lucy has been loving the mild winter and spring, and we've been outside most of every day. She is very excited about planting our little garden, and I really hope we get to it soon. We've started our seeds and are hoping to see SOMETHING soon. Last week we bought some seed tape for our lettuce and as soon as we got home, Lucy asked, "Hey Mama, when are we going to plant the salad?"
Molly:
Oh, Molly...is there anything we wouldn't do to listen to Molly's craziness? Molly is...150%, all day long, every single day. She's a pleasant, agreeable kid who pretends from dawn to dusk. I think she summed it up today when I asked, "Are you pretending to be Rapunzel?" She looked at me with a horrified expression and said, "What?! Mama, I AM Punzel!"
Molly spends the majority of her days in a 3-year-old dream land. She just sort of fades in and out of reality to tell us things or eat graham crackers. She talks in a high-pitched pretend voice all day long, chattering to her babies or whatever is in her hand. Let me think about the things she talked to today...a balloon, a rake, a bug, 2 baby dolls, a plastic giraffe and some beads. There were probably several things that we can't remember at the moment. She also spent about an hour today in the creek bed behind the house yelling, "Happy holidays, monsters!" One in a million. She's also very interested in "geebras." You know, the striped horses that live on the savannahs? We do the "what did you say?" over and over just to hear her say it.
Claire:
Claire is CUTE. There is nothing but chubby, yummy, adorable 11-month-old goo there. She smells like a powdery soft baby and she's just a cute little ball of squish. Love her.
Claire is now completely weaned, which took all of three days last week. I didn't want to do it, but my body just didn't agree with nursing anymore. I switched her over to whole milk and she seems just fine after a couple of rocky days of trying to distract her. I really didn't want to stop the sweet bonding, but I think we'll both be healthier and happier for it. It has really helped with her sleeping, and we now have a baby who is sleeping from 7pm to 5am, and then goes back down from 5 to 6:30/7.
Our little chubbers really isn't too interested in walking yet, still has little hair and is completely toothless. I think Lucy started walking around 11.5 months, and so far Claire is following Lucy's patterns almost exactly. She's still using pacifiers, but it's a small price to pay for a little pm peace!
Claire is by far the most pleasant, fun, kissable baby. She has a hot temper, but with two very even tempered big sisters, it adds a little variety. She's 0-60 in seconds, but we can overlook just about anything when it comes to the baby of the family. We know how quickly she'll be talking and running around, so we just let it all slide.
Stone:
Well, we're over a week in and Stone has been our biggest surprise yet. A week ago I would have said that I thought we were crazy and that he'd never fit in. On Wednesday morning, though, something just clicked and he just sort of fell into place. This giant 5-month-old puppy is suddenly the sweetest, most adorable creature we've ever met. He spends most of his day just lying in the living room and dining room, keeping an eye on things and keeping tabs on the family. He loves to lie in the grass while we play outside, and he is really just a low-key, easy-going guy. I would say that Stone is one of those answers to a prayer. We prayed to Saint Francis for the right dog, and now we have this dog who feels like he's been part of our family for years. He's truly a wonderful puppy and we look forward to a very fun future with our very big dog. It's very hard to believe he's only 5 months old, because he acts like an lazy old dog. His puppy zoomies come out about once a day and we just let him tear around and act silly. His size really hasn't been anything we've thought about. Right now he's about the size of a very large lab, and he'll grow much bigger in the next 7-12 months. The only thing I've really noticed about his size is that other dogs look very small to me when I see them. We're very lucky to have an open floorplan and a big yard. I'm guessing that he'd seem much bigger if we lived anywhere else.
Stone's trainer comes twice a week and Stone loves him. We are already learning quite a bit and Stone already shows a difference in his attentiveness. With any luck, he'll be a much more obedient puppy in a few weeks!
At 4 years, 11 months old, Lucy is our funny friend. She is having a blast learning to read and is doing great with kindergarten. With all of the stuff we've had going on, kindergarten is sort of sporadic right now, but that's why we started a year early! If we can get through kindergarten by the end of August, she'll be a solid year ahead and I think she'll be very happy there. She is really loving religion and math, which is actually pretty surprising to me. I'm not one of those mothers who brags needlessly about her children, because I feel like sincere praise should be sincere and saved for big accomplishments. Lucy and math go hand in hand. I haven't explained a single concept yet, and she's counting money, reading graphs, adding on paper and really flying through her books. Reading is a little slower, but she clearly has her daddy's aptitude for math, so I'm just letting her dictate her days right now. I think we'll be back to hitting the books this week, as we have a handle on the dog situation and are in a pretty good routine.
Lucy has been loving the mild winter and spring, and we've been outside most of every day. She is very excited about planting our little garden, and I really hope we get to it soon. We've started our seeds and are hoping to see SOMETHING soon. Last week we bought some seed tape for our lettuce and as soon as we got home, Lucy asked, "Hey Mama, when are we going to plant the salad?"
Molly:
Oh, Molly...is there anything we wouldn't do to listen to Molly's craziness? Molly is...150%, all day long, every single day. She's a pleasant, agreeable kid who pretends from dawn to dusk. I think she summed it up today when I asked, "Are you pretending to be Rapunzel?" She looked at me with a horrified expression and said, "What?! Mama, I AM Punzel!"
Molly spends the majority of her days in a 3-year-old dream land. She just sort of fades in and out of reality to tell us things or eat graham crackers. She talks in a high-pitched pretend voice all day long, chattering to her babies or whatever is in her hand. Let me think about the things she talked to today...a balloon, a rake, a bug, 2 baby dolls, a plastic giraffe and some beads. There were probably several things that we can't remember at the moment. She also spent about an hour today in the creek bed behind the house yelling, "Happy holidays, monsters!" One in a million. She's also very interested in "geebras." You know, the striped horses that live on the savannahs? We do the "what did you say?" over and over just to hear her say it.
Claire:
Claire is CUTE. There is nothing but chubby, yummy, adorable 11-month-old goo there. She smells like a powdery soft baby and she's just a cute little ball of squish. Love her.
Claire is now completely weaned, which took all of three days last week. I didn't want to do it, but my body just didn't agree with nursing anymore. I switched her over to whole milk and she seems just fine after a couple of rocky days of trying to distract her. I really didn't want to stop the sweet bonding, but I think we'll both be healthier and happier for it. It has really helped with her sleeping, and we now have a baby who is sleeping from 7pm to 5am, and then goes back down from 5 to 6:30/7.
Our little chubbers really isn't too interested in walking yet, still has little hair and is completely toothless. I think Lucy started walking around 11.5 months, and so far Claire is following Lucy's patterns almost exactly. She's still using pacifiers, but it's a small price to pay for a little pm peace!
Claire is by far the most pleasant, fun, kissable baby. She has a hot temper, but with two very even tempered big sisters, it adds a little variety. She's 0-60 in seconds, but we can overlook just about anything when it comes to the baby of the family. We know how quickly she'll be talking and running around, so we just let it all slide.
Stone:
Well, we're over a week in and Stone has been our biggest surprise yet. A week ago I would have said that I thought we were crazy and that he'd never fit in. On Wednesday morning, though, something just clicked and he just sort of fell into place. This giant 5-month-old puppy is suddenly the sweetest, most adorable creature we've ever met. He spends most of his day just lying in the living room and dining room, keeping an eye on things and keeping tabs on the family. He loves to lie in the grass while we play outside, and he is really just a low-key, easy-going guy. I would say that Stone is one of those answers to a prayer. We prayed to Saint Francis for the right dog, and now we have this dog who feels like he's been part of our family for years. He's truly a wonderful puppy and we look forward to a very fun future with our very big dog. It's very hard to believe he's only 5 months old, because he acts like an lazy old dog. His puppy zoomies come out about once a day and we just let him tear around and act silly. His size really hasn't been anything we've thought about. Right now he's about the size of a very large lab, and he'll grow much bigger in the next 7-12 months. The only thing I've really noticed about his size is that other dogs look very small to me when I see them. We're very lucky to have an open floorplan and a big yard. I'm guessing that he'd seem much bigger if we lived anywhere else.
Stone's trainer comes twice a week and Stone loves him. We are already learning quite a bit and Stone already shows a difference in his attentiveness. With any luck, he'll be a much more obedient puppy in a few weeks!
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