7 quick takes
Oh it’s been a wonderful and wild week. Linking up with the one and only Kelly! 1// we saw friends and friends and no one is sick yet so that is a HUGE WIN! 2// I took the three youngest kids to the grocery store which is a first in my long recovery! It felt so nice to wear the baby (who was happy, thankfully), push the tot in the cart, and be helped in the steering by my big girl. It felt good to be back to some normal activities. 3// Wrapped up your custom legging orders. These ones took me a little longer than expected but I am mailing the last ones out the door tomorrow! On to a special swaddle batch next! My sewing machine is my happy place so thanks for being part of getting me there, friends. 4// Read this. Then laughed and sent to my kid’s teacher. 5// I’ve been burning the midnight oil working on editing a series for Blessed is She for women’s groups. It’s been fantastic to work with seven talented writers and to be part of the process of building community! 6// Eating lots of this. 7// Wishing Madame Secretary wasn’t done for the season but I loved the last episode so very very much.
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Oh these quick takes are some of my favorite ways to follow what my blogging friends have been up to. Thanks for hosting, as always, Kelly! This lil gallery above is basically my life right now. In a very small nutshell. The past month has been a lot of airports, speaking, wearing the big babe all day, and connecting. I do love to connect with people and this month was no exception! 1// Blessed is She retreats. I got to go to both Phoenix’s and Austin’s! I got to stay with my friends and co-ministry-sisters. The baby was spoiled by lots of other adults holding and loving on her. Erica, you in particular! Emily, you too! Many women shared their hearts and I feel warm and special to have heard what was stirring in them. Thank you for your trust and openness, sisters! Thank you, Jenna, for starting and enabling this ministry. It’s such a blessing for so many of us. Follow the hashtag #bisretreat on insta if you want to see what it was like! 2// Catholic women blogging conference in the Twin Cities. Already blerged it, so hop here if you missed it. 3// My house is a shipwreck. You may experience this too. You are torn. Do I spend time with my kids, laughing, reading, actually playing? Or do I tidy up? And while it’s not one or the other all the time, I am gravitating toward living with more clutter and mess than usual because I have…
Read MoreI’m hopping over with Kelly and her gang for seven quick takes from the week. Is it Friday already? My brain is so mushy I can’t even stay on task over here. I absent mindedly put my chai tea in the dishwasher with a full mug, wiped my nose with the baby’s socks, and told the kids they could play with perler beads–unsupervised. #mombrain 1) Laundry has multiplied. Like by a million. I know babies poop and spit up their way through many outfits in one day, but I could do the laundry twice a week and be fine before. Now there are mounds everywhere. EVERYWHERE. It’s making me a little crazy. I’m finally well enough with my pelvis issues that I can carry laundry baskets around so I have no excuse to not get on it. But how can adding one tiny person to the family make this big of a difference? I’m amazed and agog. 2) I vascillate between wanting to do nothing but stare at the baby and do everything in the house at once. Probably normal postpartum hormones. Sometimes I want to do everything and then in an instant, I realize how tired I am and that I should just lay down with the baby snuggled in. She’s so big that she can easily side-nurse and snuggles like a little snuggle bug. The kids want to crowd in anytime she’s on me so sometimes when it’s nap time for the middle kids, it’s dedicated solo snuggles…
Read MoreKelly and co have the best wrap-up of their weeks so I’m hopping over to add my very small $.02. //1// Our oldest started school! I survived! He loved it! I stopped crying! I almost remembered everything (signed slips, lunches, water bottle) every day. And we all hoofed it over there each morning, full dressed. The dressed part felt like a real accomplishment. He said he had a “great” time at pickup each day so I think it’s a good start to the year. //2// The younger two are trying to figure out the meaning of life without their captain around telling them what to do. It’s been tricky. So far they’ve emptied the garbage, filled the garbage, cut up lots of little pieces of paper, made weapons out of thin air, and waxed poetic about their tyrannical missing sibling. Suddenly no one remembers the summer of bickering and instead hold only sweet sweet memories. Oh, to be a kid. //3// I’m bursting with home improvement ideas I want to do before it’s winter and the baby comes. I’m not so sure AA wants to do any of them. I keep adding to the list. We’ll see what actually gets accomplished. Making my closet into a nursery (hey, it has a window and door, so . . . ), painting the bathroom that I painted lavender the last pregnancy and suddenly have a severe aversion to, all the closets! The attic! everything! //4// Which do you like better? These? Or…
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a few new things up in the shop this week. My mind has been so preoccupied with the suffering of my dear friends Laura and Franco and the loss of their twin baby girls. Please keep this beautiful family in your thoughts and prayers as they navigate this breathtaking landscape of love and loss. So the whole week has been a bit of a wandering. SuperBoy also has had a persistent cough/phlegm attack so he hasn’t been to his three times a week afternoon nature school. BabyLoves was up a few nights coughing (is there anything more sad than a toddler’s coughing?) so everything felt sideways. 1) Day in the Life linkup at Simple Homeschool. Link here. I LOVE reading how other at home homeschooling mamas’ days go. I’m kinda a faker as he’ll go to Catholic school next year, but I’m still in the category technically! One of the big perks of blogger life is that your days are exposed in an intimate way (can be intimidating) that connects your hearts with other moms sharing those burdens and joys. 2) Inheritance. I’ve NEVER ever ever listened to Christian music. Sorry, bad Catholic here. Just not my thing. Ever. But this album by Audrey Assad, whom I’m privileged to work with at Blessed is She (Catholic women’s daily devotional ministry): wow. It’s called Inheritance and it’s on repeat. The kids love it and my heart throbs along with How can I keep from singing? especially. Buy // download // support a mama…
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How was your week? Was it busy, rushed, and filled with forgettable moments slushing around in your momivan in the fresh snow? Or was it calm, relaxed, spent wiping your kids’ noses, and calibrating how much longer this cold could conceivably survive? 1) It was a blend of both for me. I showered today, flossed, and tweezed my eyebrows while my sister played with the kids. So that was incredibly humanizing. She’s a saint and bought a new house in the neighborhood so we’re in full-scrubbing-and-cleaning mode. The kids are devastated she won’t be bunked up with us anymore but really excited for sleepovers and afternoons of Sudoku (the newest craze) over there. 2) AA has been in litigation which means I urge him to stay at the office til 9 or 10 so he can just pound out these briefs and he does, though he doesn’t like to miss bedtime and seeing the kids, and I make breakfast for dinner for the kids. I’m familiar with AA’s work; I can harken back to my lawyering days and remember that burning taste of stress in the back of your mouth when the deadlines are hard and recalcitrant. I’m so grateful it’s him and not me going through that heavy press of practicing law. 3) I’m on my own for long days and usually it’s ok but today I kinda ran out of tricks by 1:45 in the afternoon. We had already visited Dada at the office (well, he runs down to…
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