One more thing before we go...

Well, I am doing some last minute cleaning and packing stuff up...in just a couple of hours we are going to the big family reunion, and then we'll go to Mass, and THEN a Father's Day picnic after Mass...so I made several potluck items last night. Here's the one going to the family reunion (and it used up all our strawberries, YEAH!)

And here is the recipe. You're welcome!

Quick Takes Friday

1-
Eva finished up her swim lessons yesterday. She will be repeating level 1 again next year, as she is still a little scared of the water. After bribing and threatening, however, she did go down the big water slide with her teacher...not just once but 3 or 4 times! Of course, since I tend to be a bad mom, I didn't have my camera with me...oh well!

2-
I think I can officially say that I have zero children in diapers! YEAH!!! Since Charlotte is my stubborn "pick your battles" kid, the only battle I've been really fighting this week has been potty training. She is even making it through the night dry most of the time!

3-
Charlotte has been throwing a lot of fits recently...I'm not really sure if she is having the same number of fits, but it seems worse since I am counting down to our kid-free vacation, or if she really is throwing significantly more fits. Yesterday, I wouldn't let her have hand sanitizer (she had gone potty and we had washed our hands with soap, but she wanted the hand sanitizer, too...) she threw a horrible screaming fit. So, I called my MIL during it, and when she picked up the phone, she thought that Charlotte had been scalded with boiling water at the very least...nope, just couldn't have the hand sanitizer!

4-
Tuesday I had an adjustment and MIL had a doctor's appointment. So, my day went like this: run errands on the way to the library, take Eva to her summer reading program, leave Eva and hubby there, take Charlotte to go run more errands, count collection at church, meet hubby and Eva at swimming pool for Eva's swim lesson, get Eva changed, drive home, clean out car, and get into MILs car when she and our new SIL got there, drive to the city, drop me off at my appointment, drive MIL to hers, SIL dropped off hubby and the girls at the mall (originally to play at the play area for a while, but somehow that turn into hubby taking the girls to see Up! in 3-D without me...), SIL picked me up, we went shopping, then picked up MIL, then shopped some more, then picked up hubby and kids, then one more shopping stop, then dinner then headed home...

5-
For my shopping trip, there were several things I needed for our trip to Vegas and then Colorado Springs. First stop was ARC thrift store, where I hoped at the very least to find a blue blazer for hubby, and a Hawaiian shirt or dress for Eva. Not only did I find those two items, but I also found a pair of Capri pants for me, and a white dress shirt for hubby (his old one is stained, and I couldn't get the stain out...) So, I spent under $25 for 5 items there...of course, it just went up from there, since everything else I bought was new.

6-
I'm mostly packed for our trip, just a few things that need to be laundered then packed. We just have today (and I promised the girls we would do something fun, so hopefully hubby's schedule is one where we can go to the pool or something) and then tomorrow. Tomorrow is the family reunion, which is why Eva needed a Hawaiian style dress...the theme is a luau, and hubby has 4 Hawaiian shirts (all courtesy of my mother...) Charlotte has a fish dress that my parents brought back from Hawaii when Eva was Charlotte's size, and I have a sarong to wear, so Eva needed something festive (at a thrift store price, of course!) We'll be leaving the reunion in the evening so hubby can read at Mass, then the girls and the dog are going home with MIL, and we will finish up the cleaning and the packing.

7-
I've been thinking about this a lot recently. Growing up, I flew somewhere at least once a year (part of that has to do with my family being spread across the country), and in the time I have been married, I have traveled on planes 5 times in 10 years...and 4 of those times were in the first 3 years of being married. I haven't been on a plane since I was 7 months pregnant with Eva. I'm pretty excited to go, but since I haven't really dealt with much of the TSA stuff, it is a little stressful packing...particularly since we are just carrying on our luggage. I've been researching what is allowed and what is not allowed, and it turns out that hubby needs to take his Dr. Scholl's gel inserts out of his shoes before we head to the airport, because they are not allowed to be carried on the plane...

More quick takes over at Conversion Diary!

What Billy Elliot taught me about rebellion...and freedom

On Saturday afternoon, I noticed that one of the broadcast stations out of Denver was airing "Billy Elliot", so I DVR'd it so MM and I could watch it later without the kids (which we did later that evening). We had watched it in a theatre about 9 years earlier, when it first came out, and this was the first time either of us have seen it again since. We both really enjoyed it both times, but I think it amazed both of us how much our perspective has changed on the same "text" over the course of close to a decade of growing up and, during the last 5 years, becoming parents.

First, a quick sketch of what the movie is about: a pre-teen boy (Billy) and everyone else in his English coal-mining town are under great stress due to the long miners' strike of 1984-85 and, in his case, the death of his mother and the deteriorating health of his elderly "Nan." Gradually, he realizes that dance can be his artistic outlet and emotional well-spring, but in order to pursue this he must overcome small-town conventions and his father's preconceptions. Eventually, the town embraces his dream, he is able to pursue formal dance education, and-as the movie ends-we see the triumphant (adult) Billy performing the male lead of a major ballet production.

Now, as a (more or less) college-aged, childless man from a small, conservative town, I strongly identified with Billy the first time I saw this movie. I interpreted the story as an homage to teenage rebellion, and saw the father, Jackie, as an instrument of Billy's oppression. N0w that I'm older and have two kids who could both be described as "strong-willed," though, I notice some things about the father's role in Billy's life that I didn't notice before. First, it is clear that everything Jackie did concerning Billy's dancing was sincerely meant to guide and protect his son and, to be fair to him, the dancing appeared in the beginning to be rebellion for rebellion's sake: Billy lied to Jackie about where he was going and never really showed his father that the dancing was important to him in its own right. When Billy finally did show his father just how much the dancing meant to him (by performing for him), Jackie became his greatest supporter...and, amazingly, the rest of the town helped him, doors began to open, and Billy's future became brighter and bigger than anything his small town could provide. In reality, Billy became free not through his rebellion from his father and his town (that is, opting out), but through his efforts and will being joined to those of his family and community - an opting in.

This realization, and even the language with which I have shaped it, is definitely influenced by long reflection on an address to young adults by Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to the United States last April. The Pope discussed a common misunderstanding of freedom as the absence of rules and objective truth -i.e., relativism- and said:

Dear friends, truth is not an imposition. Nor is it simply a set of rules. It is a discovery of the One who never fails us; the One whom we can always trust. In seeking truth we come to live by belief because ultimately truth is a person: Jesus Christ. That is why authentic freedom is not an opting out. It is an opting in; nothing less than letting go of self and allowing oneself to be drawn into Christ’s very being for others.

To use the example of Billy Elliot again, compare the success he eventually enjoyed to the path he nearly took by lashing out at his first and most influential supporter, his ballet teacher. At one point, he tries to assert his independence by saying she is just like everyone else in his life, trying to tell him what to do. Putting a strain on this relationship nearly puts an end to his life in the world of dance before it ever really gets started.

This, I think, really resonates with something I've been reading recently in Hold On to Your Kids (a book that I've simultaneously been really enjoying but also, to be honest, struggling to plow through). The authors describe a concept called "counterwill" as an "instinctive, automatic resistance to any sense of being forced." As seen in children my kids' age, it manifests itself in a general "contrariness," or a strong aversion to doing anything not believed to be their idea in the first place. The authors say counterwill is important in the psychological development of fully autonomous people, especially as a defense mechanism during the so-called "terrible twos" and the teenage years - times in which a person's sense of self is most fragile. While this "basic human resistance to coercion" stays with us all our lives (understood in Western theological thought, I think, as "free will"), a truly mature and free person can choose "to be independent but committed also to preserving the attachment relationship...he can afford to heed the other when it makes sense to do so, or to go his own way when it does not."

In contrast, a child in a state of rebellion is not truly free. In the authors' words:

The child's oppositionality is not an expression of will. What it denotes is the absence of will, which allows a person only to react, but not to act from a free and conscious process of choosing... What is strong is the defensive reaction, not the child. The weaker the will, the more powerful the counterwill. If the child was indeed strong in her own self, she would not be so threatened by the parent.

As a mental exercise, replace each instance of the word "child" in the above quote with "person" and replace the word "parent" with whatever you would like that represents those in power, whether it be bosses, the Church, or -in the language of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2234-46)- "legitimate authorities." How would the institutions in our country be different if our culture embraced this subtle distinction between rebellion, or "opting out," and what the Pope calls "authentic freedom" in which we are free, yet mature enough to "opt in" to our relationships and communities?

Quick Takes Friday

1-
Well, I am late with this edition because first, I forgot it was Friday (it's hard to keep track of any day but Sunday for me...) and second, because we took the girls to the pool. I didn't take the camera to the pool, but I did get a cute shot of them in their swimsuits once we got home. Now it is nap time YEAH!!!

2-
Eva is in swimming lessons right now. Level 1 - basically how to not be afraid of the water (in Eva's case) or how to fear the water (in the case of one little girl who was removed from the class by the teachers on Wednesday, and was much better behaved on Thursday). She has one more week of class, Monday to Thursday.

3-
Charlotte was supposed to be in a parent tot class next week, but it got cancelled because the pool was double booked...then I found out why...the city run daycare is using the pool. I get SO sick of preferential treatment for the city daycare everywhere in this town...story time at the library, the pool, etc. It's just annoying to me.

4-
The summer reading program is going on right now, and Eva is participating for her third year (she couldn't do the end of the program swim party the first year, because you have to be 3, but they let her participate in the rest of the stuff since her birthday is at the end of August.) and Charlotte still has to wait one more year (and she is NOT happy about that!) The 3-5 year old group has 63 participants, so it is being split into two groups, the 3 year olds, and the 4-5 year olds. I've been getting Eva audio books to listen to during nap time, and she has been mostly enjoying the "Hank the Cow Dog" books suggested to me.

5-
We've just been a little crazy around here recently. My little BIL decided on the way back from his honeymoon that he and his new bride would move two days later...I had a doctor's appointment (down just over 30 lbs!) and somehow MIL and I got suckered into helping them move too (not that I mind, but it was another hour drive up, then packing, driving, etc. while on a clear liquid diet...I didn't make it on that diet all day like I was supposed to!) Hubby had the day off, so it was FIL and hubby driving up in a pickup with large, mostly clean cattle trailer in the rain, BIL with his pickup and horse trailer packed, new SIL with her car packed (including their two cats), MIL, me and the girls with the rest of her SUV packed full of stuff. SIL went back up this week to clean and pack up the last few things.

6-
NINE DAYS TO GO until our Vegas vacation! YEAH!!!

7-
In those nine days, we have a housewarming BBQ, four days of swim lessons, 1 day with summer reading program, a trip up to the city for MILs infusion, a K of C meeting, and a family reunion...oh yeah, and all the normal cooking, cleaning laundry, plus trying to pack two carry on bags with everything we need for Vegas, and another suitcase for the things we'll need for the K of C meeting after Vegas, plus shopping for a few pieces of clothing that we need for above trips, plus potty training Charlotte (it's going well so far, YEAH!!!) PLUS figuring out how to pack all of our bags for our vacation and a large icon that we are supposed to take with us to the meeting and deciding whether we need to find somewhere to store the icon while our car is parked at the airport for several days...I'm getting tired already!


More quick takes at Jen's blog!

Strawberry Jam

Well, I have been missing for a little while again...but to make up for my lack of blogging, here's some great pictures I got the other night while making jam from our strawberry patch. Hubby thought I was crazy for ordering June-bearing strawberries instead of ever-bearing ones...but this was what I was hoping would happen someday!
The strawberries, hulled and ready to go
Canning supplies at the ready
Ready for the canner
The finished jam!

Why did God make you?

Here's a quick video (sadly, just at whatever quality level available from my phone) of the girls answering the questions mentioned in my previous post:

I, Object? I object!

Thanks to MM's hard work with our Seton homeschooling curriculum (plus some other resources), Eva knows her numbers well enough to count up to...well, a lot. And she knows the letters and their sounds well enough that she's darn near being able to read on her own. But she's also learned some other pretty important things, such as what we as Catholics believe to be the answers to about 29 questions, so far. One of the earliest ones asks why God made us, to which Eva replies, "God made me to show His goodness and to make me happy with Him in Heaven."

With this information, Eva could infer something profound about our nature and purpose as humans. Looking at the first part of her answer, is there anything we need to do to show God's goodness? Just to be. Our mere existence is a testament to God's love. How about the second part of the statement? What, if anything, is asked of us in order for us to be happy with God in Heaven? Well, that's the answer to the next question: "To be happy with God in Heaven, I must know Him, love Him, and serve Him in this world."

So, by God's design, our reason for being on Earth is to be and to perform actions, namely knowing Him, loving Him, and serving Him. In parts-of-speech language, we are meant to be subjects; that is, we are defined by our existence (for its own sake) and by our actions. Put another way, we are not meant to solely be objects - we can be described with, but not defined by the things that happen to us (whether it be outside forces physically acting upon us, or simply our being observed by others).

The secular world understands this, to some degree. After all, we are often (correctly) how wrong it is to objectify women. But American society, generally speaking, seems to glory in doing what it knows, on some level, to be wrong in this regard. However, the problem is not just with the objectification of women; rather, it (I believe) is fundamentally a problem of underestimation of the value of the human person.

Two "news" stories from this past week illustrate my point. Strangely, both deal with notorious "super-sized" families and reality television. First, Nadya Suleman (the "Octomom") "signed a deal with the British company Eyeworks to begin filming a reality TV show based on her life as an unemployed single mother of fourteen." Then (or rather, simultaneously), the family chronicled in the show "Jon and Kate Plus Eight" made headlines both because of alleged adultery committed by both parents, as well as accusations by close relatives that the children in the show "are being exploited and viewed as commodities, all in the name of ratings."

While the accusations made by Kate Gosselin's brother and sister-in-law seem to be patently true, the larger point to me is that the children were "being exploited and viewed as commodities" from the moment both Suleman and the Gosselins achieved pregnancies using artificial fertility-enhancement techniques. Children (and, for that matter, fetuses) are each singular masterpieces that have been made in God's image and should not be arbitrarily added...or subtracted. In addition, Suleman and both Gosselin parents have apparently all had cosmetic procedures of one variety or another, which -while not intrinsically wrong, in my view- seems to indicate that they may also view themselves as commodities.

As nuts as all these people seem, we're really to blame for it. Not only do we as a culture seem to be both voyeuristic and unable to differentiate between "noteworthy" and "notorious," but we also need to be more vigilant about defining people as subjects rather than objects. The good news is that we as Christians -and particularly we Christians who are Catholic- have all the tools we need to change the culture. The teachings of the Church on life issues ranging from abortion to IVF, and especially Pope John Paul II's "Theology of the Body," are tremendous gifts. We just need to go out and use them.

Our kids at the wedding

The light level in the entryway to the church played havoc with my little cameraphone, and the "auto-enhance" I tried really did more harm than good, but here's at least one pic of the girls and their buddy to get you started:

Quick Takes Friday

1-
The wedding went very well...we had enough food at the rehearsal dinner to cater the wedding, to be honest...but that's the way it goes in hubby's family! We don't want anyone to go hungry.

2-
For a very long time, Eva has been telling us that when she grows up she's going to marry B (a friend's son who is about 1 1/2 younger than her)...well, then she met the ring bearer at the wedding, L...now she's going to marry L instead...unfortunately, Charlotte has also decided that she's going to marry L.

3-
Naturally, I forgot to get my camera as we left for the wedding, so no pictures until I get some from someone who had a camera there...

4-
The cake...what can I say about the cake? Well, the very wonderful caterers were in charge of cutting the cake, and they cut normal wedding cake slices (maybe 1/2 to 1 inch wide?) when MIL planned on MUCH BIGGER slices, so there was a ridiculous amount of cake leftover. The head caterer was so impressed with MILs cakes, she said they were a joy to cut and offered her a job (it'd be a long commute, though...) MIL still wasn't quite satisfied with how the cakes looked (they looked great) but she hardly ever is satisfied and she usually should be (well, except for the collapsed house cake from Eva's last birthday, but she's still blaming that one on FILs driving...)

5-
The visit with my parents went relatively well. I was pretty worn out from wedding stuff (helping cook a zillion tons of food, helping with 17 cakes, etc.) and it was a pretty short visit, and that made it pretty good! Their neighbors gave us a big box of school materials that they no longer needed, so that was awesome. I can't wait to go through it all.

6-
After the tire incident a couple of weeks ago, our car has not really been the same (not that I particularly expected it to be the same after I rearranged the underside by running over the darn thing...) and when we came home on Monday, the tailpipe all but fell off...so we've been doing the one car thing all week. But today is payday (woo hoo!) so the car is at the shop right now. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for an inexpensive repair.

7-
Speaking of cars, a dealership from a couple of towns over had a tent sale this week at the grocery store parking lot. Hubby and I were sorely tempted by a 2000-something (I don't remember if it was an 05, 06, or 07...anyway you look at it, WAY newer than our vehicles) Saturn Vue with all wheel drive. Of course, since we don't have $15000 to spend on a car right now, it wasn't gonna happen, but it was an awesome looking car.

Well, that's about it for this week, more quick takes over at Conversion Diary!

A few thoughts on Sotomayor

With my brother's wedding - plus a visit to the in-laws - this weekend, I've been a little slow to get back into the swing of things as far as following current events and whatnot. But I thought I'd share a little bit of what I've gleaned so far about President Obama's nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the US Supreme Court.

As Catholics, I think we have good reason to be proud of the progress we have made: in a country that has gone through some periods of really widespread and ugly anti-Catholicism, it now appears that two-thirds of the nation's highest court will be made up of Catholic justices. Admittedly, some justices are more fervent believers than others (for example, Justice Scalia is in regular contact with his brother, the priest, while probable future-Justice Sotomayor is described as someone who "was raised as a Catholic and attends church for family celebrations and other important events"), but that's basically American Catholicism in a nutshell...and we all pretty much understand and accept it, to greater or lesser degrees.

What also often typifies American Catholics and - in my mind - is less acceptable both from the Right and the Left, is a tendency to place political ideology higher in the hierarchy of points of reference for decision-making than personal religious beliefs. This is where the pride of accomplishment mentioned above becomes pretty bittersweet: when it comes down to the fundamental issues on which all Catholics should agree (specifically and most importantly, the "life issues"), the Catholics on the Court are all over the place. In this regard, I'm afraid that Sotomayor will identify herself as liberal first, then "Catholic" somewhere down the list. To be fair, though, Steven Waldman's thesis in a piece for The Wall Street Journal bears repeating:

[T]here’s stunningly little information about her abortion views -– and what we do know hardly paints her as a pro-choice activist.
Judge Sotomayor has ruled on only three cases indirectly related to abortion, and in each instance she took the position preferred by the pro-life forces, albeit for reasons unrelated to the merits of abortion.

So, maybe there's some hope on that front. In any case, she'd be replacing a reliably pro-choice vote...so there's nothing much lost (at least on that level) either way.

An interesting side note spotted by the "Articles of Faith" section of The Boston Globe's website actually relates to my last post, at least a little. Commenting on "the language [President Obama] used to describe the role of Catholic schools in offering children a path out of poverty," Michael Paulson quotes the President as saying, "Sonia's mom...sent her children to a Catholic school called Cardinal Spellman out of the belief that with a good education here in America all things are possible." Interesting language for someone who just shut down many kids' escape route from the failed Washington, D.C. public school system, isn't it?

Jonathan

If you haven't seen Dave Ramsey's Town Hall for Hope, I strongly recommend you watch the whole thing (which, thanks to the wonders of YouTube, you can do for free now!). Here is a segment at the very end, in which Dave describes a young man named Jonathan and provides a cautionary tale about not valuing people like him enough:



Expressed in these terms, one of the major problems we are going to have in getting back on our feet as a country is that, in many of our most important private and public institutions, we are systematically holding our "Jonathans" back in order to let the "non-Jonathans" keep up. In recent news, two decisions by the Obama administration highlight this mindset: the Chrysler bankruptcy and the discontinuation of the Washington, D.C. school voucher program.

In the case of Chrysler (and, more broadly, the entire American auto industry), many people point to the company's inability to adjust its labor costs to reflect actual market conditions as a major reason for its downfall. The labor unions involved, particularly the United Auto Workers (UAW), have fought against giving back anything gained for their members, even though many of those gains came during a completely different market reality for the company. Add to that the "legacy costs" to the company of health care and pensions for former workers, and one can see a large part of why the company fell on hard times. But when it became necessary to make sacrifices in order to keep the company alive, it was not the UAW who "took one for the the team." Rather, Chrysler announced plans to close nearly 25% of its dealerships across the country -a part of the industry full of entrepreneurs, family businesses and, generally, "Jonathans"- while the UAW had to settle for... 55% of the company!

Like the American auto industry, the American public education system is in bad, bad shape. Perhaps nowhere is this more apparent than in Washington, D.C., where fully half of the city's public schools receive a failing score for federal education standards. An innovative vouchers program -supported, among others, by the principal of the private school President Obama's own daughters attend-was created to serve as an institutional "Jonathan" of sorts: it sought to find out what parents and students wanted from an education, and figure out ways to make that happen. However, under much pressure from teachers' unions, the Obama administration announced earlier this month that no more students would be accepted into the program, which would then cease to exist when the current group of students completes school. This prompted Megan McCardle of The Atlantic to write:

I think that there is probably a special place in hell reserved for politicians who betray our nation's most helpless children for the benefit of a sullen and recalcitrant teacher's union. There they spend all eternity explaining to their victims why they couldn't possibly have risked their precious babies' future in the public school system, yet felt perfectly free to fling other peoples' children into it by the thousands.

As you can see, one common denominator between both of these examples, as well as in the Postal Service (where I work) is the dominance of labor unions. In my own experience, I've seen "Jonathans" who work hard and care deeply about their customers -as well as "anti-Jonathans" who are just the opposite- both receive the security of a guaranteed 40-hour work week and a set schedule, while those they work with take a cut in hours to balance the total allotted to each office. The point is, whether they are "Jonathans" or not is totally irrelevent: the only area of the Postal Service in which an individuals merit (or lack thereof) is either rewarded or punished is in management, outside the realm of the "craft" (union) jobs.

So, if Dave Ramsey's thesis is that our country needs more "Jonathans" to be able to regain prosperity, and labor unions are a hindrance to the discovery and nurturing of these people, what is the logical conclusion? For us, at least, it has been to short-circuit the system. Educationally, this is happening through our decision to home-school our kids. Occupationally, so far I've been limited to refusing to join the union (which I would do anyway, considering how much money it funnels to anti-life politicians). For now, that's all I can really afford to do...

But enough about me; how about you? I 100% guarantee that, if anyone reads this, at least some of you will disagree with my views. What are yours? I look forward to seeing them in the comments!

Quick Takes Friday

1-
I am still spring cleaning...the 10 day plan isn't going to quite cut it for our house...not because it is big, or anything...probably because it is so small that I have stuff stashed pretty much everywhere.

2-
Two of the places that I tackled this week are our front hall closet and our bedroom closet...both house an amazing array of stuff (we have about 10 paintings in the back of our closet that I forgot about...we don't have as much wall space in this house as we did in our last!), including my trigger trombone, which did live in the front hall closet, but is now in our room. I had fun taking it out and playing a little bit (it's been a LONG time...my lung power must be much less than it used to be!) and both girls got to try it out. Surprisingly, Charlotte did a much better job at moving her lips correctly than Eva did. Charlotte's been wondering around the house pretending to play a trombone since then.

3-
I seriously need to pack some stuff up and get it mailed soon...I have several things on ebay right now that I need to find packages for, I have a wedding gift to mail to a college friend whose wedding we missed last weekend, I have a little baby gift that I need to mail out (Christine R...send me your mailing address!), I have a book to mail, and I have another wedding present to wrap and deliver (to BIL and his fiancee, we'll probably take it up this weekend when we try to make it to their graduation.) That's a lot of packing things up to do!

4-
The room that is giving me the most problems with spring cleaning is our laundry room. It is pretty good sized, it has our washer and dryer, chest freezer, treadmill, a bookshelf (for my paperbackswap books), a utility sink that hasn't quite been installed, several shelves, lots of cabinets (holding all sorts of stuff I need to go through) and a small closet (also stuffed with stuff!) Not to mention my filing cabinet and a huge box of things to be filed...When I go in to tackle it, I may never come out.

5-
Hubby just got home from work...his coworker who has been out on maternity leave is back, so his paycheck is going to drop pretty substantially (just after I got used to the higher paychecks...bummer!) and our tomato plants came in the mail today, so I'm assuming that the box also contains our peppers, which means that we can finish planting our garden finally!

6-
I just discovered that it is easier for me to plan two weeks of school for Eva than planning one week at a time...before you say "well, Duh!", in my defense, when I was first getting into school with her, my plan for the week would change several times with her either going faster or slower at learning the concepts than I had expected. We finally seem to be in a groove, so I had planned two weeks ago the first two weeks of class (which went really well and ended today) because I figured that post-surgery, it was better to get more planning out of the way. Today I was about to go back to one week of planning, but then I realized with BILs wedding next weekend and a visit to my parents, I am not going to have much planning time available. So, I did two weeks worth of lesson plans and am looking forward to not having to think about lesson planning until June.

7-
From the spring cleaning, we have a ridiculous amount of stuff to take to thrift stores...the only problem is that we are about 3 hours from the nearest thrift store. That means that I am going to attempt to take a few bags with me every time I go up to the front range in hopes of getting all of our "we don't need it anymore, but it is still in decent shape" stuff out of our garage before the end of the year!

More quick takes at Jen's blog!

Spring Cleaning, Day 4!

Well, I'm still on the wagon with the Spring Cleaning party over at Simple Mom. Monday was a clean sweep, and I got that one done. Tuesday and Wednesday were the living room...I did a lot of organizing on Tuesday, and while I was out of town on Wednesday, hubby cleaned all the ceiling fans in our house for me (it's best to do when Eva, who has a horrible fan phobia, isn't home!). Thursday and Friday were the kitchen. Since our kitchen is so huge, and I'm a day behind anyway, I am continuing the cleaning today. So, for your amusement (and my embarrassment), here are some before and after photos: (although, in my defense, as of today I am 30 days past surgery...we don't normally live like these before pictures!)


I still have to clean off the piano, clean out the piano bench, put all the shoes on the "shoe mat" away, take the shoe mat, rug under dining table, and floor mats outside to beat them clean and dust, vacuum and mop in the living/dining room. In the kitchen, I need to clean out the fridge, clean off the bookcase things on the ends of my kitchen island, and vacuum and mop the floor...I guess I should also consider cleaning the microwave while I'm at it!


Monday I will be doing the bathroom (and whining the whole time, I don't doubt...I hate cleaning bathrooms!), and I am really looking forward to Tuesday and Wednesday when I do a good cleaning of the girl's room. There is an end in sight!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot about something I meant to put in my quick takes...hubby reminded me on Tuesday that today would be the "Stamp out Hunger" food drive by the letter carriers...I almost always forget things like that, but since I was traveling to the city where good grocery deals could be found, I decided to go shopping with my coupons and get as much food as I could for approximately our weekly grocery budget (pre-surgery...I haven't been cooking or shopping the same as I used to since my surgery.) of $45-50. When I walked into Safeway to do this, the first thing I came across was a deal for the smaller sized boxes of Cheerios (not the huge family sized ones), where if you bought 10 boxes, they were $1 a box (or $3.29 per individual box). I found really good deals throughout the store, matched up some coupons and for just under $40 (which was after I used my $10 catalina from the Living Well promotion that just ended) I sent 10 boxes of cereal, 10 cans of tuna, 10 boxes of macaroni, 6 cans of vegetables, 3 jars of peanut butter, 1 jar of jelly, 1 6-pack of applesauce cups, and about 6 jars of baby food to the post office this morning for the food drive. I was so impressed that I could get that much food for our town's food pantry in one inexpensive shopping trip! I just felt so bad when hubby told me that he had talked to someone who helps run the food pantry here in town who mentioned that at the moment the food pantry is almost empty. Just thinking of kids in a family who can't really afford to buy food right now made me really want to do something. I know how cranky my kids get if they don't eat every 3 1/2 minutes (okay, it feels that way, but they eat 5-6 times a day!) and that motivated me.

Quick Takes Friday

1-
I don't know if this spring cleaning binge was that great of an idea...maybe my bad attitude is because yesterday and today are in the kitchen. I love my kitchen...it's huge...but that means a LOT of stuff to go through. Our house is about 1500 sq ft, and I think that the addition (which is a large bathroom, large laundry room and a HUGE kitchen) must be about 500 sq ft by itself. My desk and computer are in the kitchen, so are the bookshelf and cabinet where I keep school stuff, and about four other cabinets where various things that we don't have another place to store are kept (sewing machine, scrap booking, some household tools, games, etc.) Yesterday I managed to clean out the class cabinet,the class bookshelf and my desk. Fortunately, I cleaned out the pantry a week or two ago...so that means today, all I have is cleaning out 17 cabinets, 15 drawers, 3 open spaces (bookshelf-type built-ins), 4 counter tops, the refrigerator, stove, oven, microwave and floors...So, here is one before shot, and several after shots of my cleaning binge so far.

2-
Yesterday we worked on the yard for most of the day. Hubby only had to work in the morning, so he prepped the front half of our extra lot to plant some grass seed, while I worked on prepping part of the back half of our extra lot for planting a garden. We went to Ace to get some tools and some grass seed...wow does yard stuff add up! Of course, the fact that we've been married almost 10 years, and have been homeowners at least 5 of those years makes it a little disturbing that we didn't have much in the way of decent yard tools. Hubby really wanted to plant Buffalo grass, but when we found out that they wanted $21.99 PER POUND for the seed, and figured that we would need about 15 lbs, we went with the cheaper ($2.79 lb) rye grass mix. The robins have been enjoying the buffet out there...but at least it'll probably keep them away from my vegetable garden!

3-
I had my first fill for my REALIZE band on Wednesday...it was about what I thought in terms of comfort...basically, they have you do a stomach crunch while they stick you with the needle so that they can hit the port and get the saline solution in. I have 3ccs in now, and I was just FINALLY able to have solid food again this morning (I have to do clear liquids for the remainder of the day after the adjustment, then full liquids the next day, then back to normal foods.) I also did two classes, one on basic nutrition after WLS, and another on emotional eating, which was very informative...but at the end, he had us practice a visualization technique. I think I may be very strange, but I cannot visualize things...I try, but I cannot get a picture in my head. I can visualize sounds or feelings (I could visualize standing in a summer's breeze, for instance, and I could hear birds chirping, but I cannot see the grass or flowers or birds...)

4-
Thank goodness I had appointments on Wednesday, because on Tuesday the girls were driving me so crazy that I texted hubby to let him know that I was contemplating listing them on Freecycle...he texted back that as long as someone picked them up, that was fine...then I told him I was about to offer free delivery. I almost went and dropped them off at MILs house one day early, but I couldn't find her...she left her cell phone at home and was gone all afternoon.

5-
I have an outfit for the wedding! Woo hoo! (I hate shopping for or buying clothes) MIL was ordering a dress for herself, and ordered a skirt and blouse combo for me, too. It is very pretty, dark brown, and I may actually post a picture of myself in it (may being the key word there...). Of course, I don't have very many shoes (anymore...I know what you are thinking Katie!) so the only dress shoe options I had are black almost flats that I bought for SILs wedding 3 years ago (hubby thinks I should throw them out because the toes are so scuffed up!) or brown ankle boots, which I think would look a little silly for a spring wedding. My other brown option is my crocs...but I think, again, that would look silly. I found a very cute pair of brown heels (I don't think I've worn heels in 5 years) on Wednesday, and other than learning how to walk in them again, I'm pretty happy with having clothes to wear. Bonus, I can wear them out to dinner on our Vegas vacation!

6-
Hubby drank the last of his beer last night, and for the second time in our beer making history (of 6 months or so) he is beerless because he didn't listen to my advice. Here is my advice...we have enough bottles to hold two batches of beer. My theory is that right after we bottle one batch, we should start a second batch fermenting. Then, when it is fermented in about 3 weeks or so, we can bottle it in the second bunch of bottles...that way, when he is done drinking the first batch, the second batch is ready to drink. But does he listen to this advice...NO! He always says something like "well, when I have a day off next week, I'll go ahead and start another batch!" He said that about 6 weeks in a row now, and never has a batch of beer gotten made...not to tell him I told you so, but...

7-
My brother (who is 33 and lives with my parents) had a bad week last week. On Wednesday he was fired (for something he has been warned about a couple of times that he never really took care of, which was dumb in our current economy!), he didn't tell my parents, who didn't think anything of him not going to work on Thursday (his weekend was Thursday and Friday)...well, after my parents left for the weekend on Thursday evening, he had to call them and let them know that someone had slammed into his parked car and crushed the driver's side doors so badly that they couldn't be opened. Then he had to fess up that he had been fired, and THEN he had to let them know that he didn't have comprehensive insurance (on his 2004 car...we don't have anything other than liability, but our cars are a 95 and a 97, and both worth about $1500...so we could literally replace both tomorrow with cash if we needed to) and surprise, surprise, he has no money saved up, even though he moved in with my parents several years ago so that he could save money to buy a townhouse or something...so, once more, my parents are bailing him out and crippling him in the process...I don't know how a 33-year old can have so little sense, and take so little responsibility for his actions...and my mom keeps asking for my advice as to what she can do to help him...and I don't think my theory of "cut him off, throw him out on the street and make him live his own life on his own" is going to be one that she likes...

More quick takes at Jen's blog!

Spring Cleaning, day 2!

Okay, I think I will finally reveal my first before and after shots today. Day two is the living room, part 1.

I haven't done much dusting or washing or any vaccuming yet, but today I worked on the DVDs in the entertainment center, the book shelf in the dining room including the girl's puzzle cabinet. (I just had to add this picture, because so many of my pictures end up like this thanks to a short blonde child...)

I can't believe how much junk was in those areas! I also had the girls bring all of their books out of their room to consolidate them...I know that for the next 6 months they will migrate back to their room, but that's okay.

I also found out a disturbing fact about my bibliophile tendencies...just in the dining room bookshelf, we have 118 kids books and 129 adult books. Add to that our "school bookshelf" and I'm pretty sure kids books outnumber adults...as long as I don't count my special overflowing bookshelf for paperbackswap postings (currently 121 posted), the cabinet where I keep books we have listed on Amazon, and the small piles currently waiting to be donated to the church or the library.

So, here is some proof of my bad housekeeping skills and my temporarily organized bookshelves and DVDs.

Spring Cleaning!

Well, today we got to pick up my car after last week's tire incedent...all is better with it, and I am glad to have transportation. We had to drive down to get it with the four of us in our two door Saturn...it was nice to streach out.

Eva and I also started back up with school, and while I am sure that it will take a couple of weeks to get back into a good routine I think it went pretty well.

To add to my insanity, Simple Mom just HAD to have a Spring Cleaning Party this week and next...and of course, the totally nuts part of me decided that would be a great idea. (That same side of me went all around the house taking BEFORE pictures for this blog that I will not show until I have some good AFTER pictures!)

I have been working on day one today, which is a "clean sweep" where you just get rid of the clutter that is out and about. I think I've filled up our trash can at least twice today. I am proud to say that I finally gave up on some stuff...I subscribed to "Canticle" magazine for a year, and while I am sure it has great articles, I have to admit I never even finished my first issue...I found the layout of the magazine to be a big turn-off (I'm so vain!), and today I gave myself permission to throw out all of the issues (they were all at least 2 years old...) In retrospect, it might have been better to put them in a giveaway box, but then I would have had to take the giveaway box somewhere, and I've got enough boxes waiting to go "somewhere" out in our garage...

Tomorrow is the living room, part 1, and I'm pretty excited to get to some serious cleaning/de-junking!

Quick Takes Friday

1-
Well, my spending spree has not quite ended...On Wednesday hubby and I booked a trip to Las Vegas to celebrate our 10th anniversary. We are going a month early, as one of his co-workers has most of the month of July off, and since hubby has another Knights of Columbus meeting in Colorado Springs, we are flying out of Denver on Father's Day, staying 4 nights at the MGM Grand, flying back to Denver on Thursday, driving to Colorado Springs and staying at a Hilton down there (have I mentioned how very much I LOVE priceline??? I'm addicted, I have to admit. To stay one night at the three star hotel where hubby's meetings will be the hotel gave us a special rate of $147 a night. I spent $5 less than that for three nights through Priceline.

2-
In the "it's a good thing we already booked a trip to Vegas" category...yesterday I drove to a town about an hour from ours where my college roommate and her hubby live to visit. About 10 miles out of town (going 65 MPH) there was a tire in the road (I'm guessing pickup sized, my MIL thought it might be a semi tire) and all I had time to do was aim my wheels so they missed it by going over it...it launched us into the air, we landed, I started to lose control, got back in control pulled over, said a few things (which Charlotte repeated in the back seat) that I really didn't want my kids to hear me say, figured out how to use my hazard lights, called hubby. I checked my tires (all inflated) and looked for things hanging down from the car (nothing), so I proceeded into town, called roomie, asked her where her mechanic was located and if she could pick us up there...Well, the car is staying a few days down there (thank goodness MIL was willing to drive 2 hours to come get us...hubby was working in a town an hour in another direction!) I pushed back the part of the frame that is under the engine and holds it in by about a foot, and bent the part that connects the back driver's side wheel to the axle badly enough that it's pretty amazing that I didn't lose the wheel during the accident. So, my car looks about as good as the tire does (we stopped to take a picture on the way home...here's what I could remember...I saw the tire bounce off the road as I regained control, and it went down into a ditch next to a field with a fence. Not particularly the best description of something around here, because about 95% of the drive looks like that!)

3-
As I mentioned last week, we went up to the Knights of Columbus Colorado State Convention last weekend. We got there in time for Mass, and they do a really cool thing during the prayers of the faithful. They read the names of all of the Knights and Knight's wives (and some children if they are minor or unmarried)who have passed away in the last year, a candle is lit for each person, then they had 3 men, I military, one police, one fireman in uniform carry a bell to the front to ring three times while a bagpiper played "Amazing Grace". The girls didn't nap on the way up, but fell asleep during the reading of the names...and SLEPT THROUGH the bagpiper in the hotel ballroom where the Mass was held!

4-
After the Mass, we took the girls up to get dinner at the hospitality rooms, which were very crowded, but an interesting experience. Then we went back to our hotel (Priceline again...I'm so cheap) which was two hotels down, and hubby took the girls swimming, while I exercised in the fitness center (I have a few more days before I am cleared to swim and bathe, etc.) The fitness center was cool, it had a built in TV for every treadmill, bike, elliptical machine, etc. Very cool.

5-
Sunday, hubby was in business meetings all day...he had been told that there would be a kids room for kids activities...well, technically there was. They made breakfast, and my kids ate a ton, but they were the only kids (there was one other girl, but she was about 10, and after a while left to go hang out with her 14 year old brother) and they colored in the 10 year old's coloring books for a while. Charlotte threw a hissy fit so bad that I had to take her down from the 9th floor and out of the hotel to finish her fit. By the time I came back, it was basically Eva, a woman I know (who I left Eva with who was smart enough NOT to bring her two boys who are exactly a year older than each of my girls...) and two women who were cleaning up the room...so I ended up wandering around the hotel lobby for several HOURS with two small children bouncing off the walls...I was really ready for a nap by the time the men got done a half an hour late.

6-
For a fun family thing after hubby got done, we went to the Children's museum. The girls had a blast, but it was so crowded! Apparently, it is not a good idea to go on a Sunday...Charlotte LOVED the grocery store and restaurant play area, and Eva loved everything, but could have spent all day doing crafts in the arts and crafts area. She told everyone we've seen about the fire truck however, and they had a cool exhibit where she learned how to dial 911.

7-
My plans for today and tomorrow...not go anywhere or do anything...I'm tired and I don't want to get in a car for a while. I guess the fact that I'm car-less today while hubby works in the same town he was yesterday should help with that!

Of course, there are more quick takes over at Jen's blog!

On Whales and the K of C

I once read that whales -at least some of them- still have leg bones somewhere in their massive bodies, left over from another era when they lived on land. It's hard to imagine these graceful giants on land; even if they were significantly smaller, their movements must have been a lot more awkward than what they enjoy now.

In the same vein, the Knights of Columbus were at one time ungainly land animals, so to speak. My grandpa and his buddies used to typify the Knights, from what I can tell: good-hearted guys, but very much interested in the organization as something more like Fred Flintstone's Water Buffalo Lodge. Some priests to this day are pretty ambivalent about having the Knights in their parishes because they developed a reputation as a bunch of guys who like to hang around and drink (and sometimes wear funny hats).

Like the whales, though, the Knights have become more graceful and elegant. From the top down -and not in small part because of the leadership of our current Supreme Knight, Carl A. Anderson- we fall on a spectrum closer to lay movements like Opus Dei now, and further away from drinking clubs like the Water Buffaloes. Service to the community and to the Church has always been a part of what the Knights are all about; now it's the very essence of the organization.

Likewise, "family" has always been a part of the K of C's self-image. One of the primary reasons it was established over 125 years ago was to provide a support system for widows and orphans of Catholic men who often worked (and sometimes died) in the sweatshops and construction sites of a rapidly industrializing country. During the "Water Buffaloes" era, though, the organization's activities too often pulled fathers away from their families for events in which women and children were not welcome. Fortunately, many councils now have a great deal of participation from relatively young fathers, and the organization as a whole is focusing on fatherhood more (notably in its Fathers for Good initiative).

One area that is lagging somewhat behind these positive trends, though, is the state convention (at least here in Colorado, as far as I'm concerned). We just got back from attending it for the first time as a whole family, and it was overall a positive experience...but there were a few things about it that I view as a little off-message. First, there just wasn't enough for the rest of the family to do while the men's business meetings were taking place, especially for really young children like Eva and Charlotte. This may largely be because so many of the men who attend are at or past retirement age; however, if the convention targeted young families more, more young families would probably attend.

Second, the tradition of state officer candidates and other sub-groups wining and dining...and wining some more...the delegates in the hospitality rooms screams "Water Buffaloes" to me. Don't get me wrong: I enjoy sitting and talking with other Knights and their wives in an informal setting, and I don't even mind the alcohol. But the fact that you can hear the merry-making from nine floors down in the hotel strikes me as the wrong message to send to the employees and other guests of the hotel, many of whom are potential Knights -or, more importantly, potential Catholics. Also, it doesn't seem like the most family-friendly way of doing things: I felt pretty uncomfortable taking the girls through for food really early in the evening, even though there wasn't anyone who was any less than sweet to the girls. It was just too loud, too crowded, too...much. Maybe a less rowdy, but still fun, alternative would be to keep the free food, but set up a cash-bar system. I've always noticed that paying for my own booze keeps me from overindulging quite as much!

Now, let me emphasize that the state convention, like the K of C as a whole, is family and service oriented. You can see it in the people they choose to honor (last year's Family of the Year, for example, was a homeschooling-NFP teaching-domestic church-deluxe family) and the people they choose to lead them (next year's State Chaplain is one of the kindest and holiest priests I've ever met). But a lot of these guys have been attending state conventions since my grandpa and his buddies were living it up, and there are quite a few things in any organization that are done a certain way because "it's always been done this way."

But I think some of those vestigial legs are becoming less noticeable, and these whales are starting to show a lot of grace. In more ways than one.

Quick Takes Friday, the money edition

1. I am now two weeks post-op, down 31 lbs total (including my pre op weight loss) and on to the pureed foods diet, which includes finely chopped scrambled eggs...I've never been so happy to eat eggs in my life!

2. On Tuesday, I went up to the big city with MIL for one of her doctor's appointments. Every 28 days, she has an infusion for her MS which takes two hours. The girls and I spent the two hours at Wal Mart, where I did some serious coupon shopping...I was so proud of it that I took this picture. Two things are missing from the pic, 1 gallon of milk that I bought for MIL and one of those $1 cups of oreo cookies from the checkout area that Eva chose to buy with her dollar (I took the dollar and paid for it so we didn't drive the checker crazy!). Here's why I am so proud...even though I often see pictures where couponers pay $1 for $200 worth of groceries, I don't live close enough to anything with good sales to do that sort of thing...so my grand total for this transaction was $27.10 for 31 items. I roughly estimate that had I bought these things in our town (without coupons) it would have cost just over $90. Also, I thought it was pretty cool that my receipt is double sided...what a good idea!

3. Hubby rototilled our extra lot this week. He made a nice big garden plot in the back, and did much of the rest of the lot pretty lightly to break up the ragweed (which he is allergic to). We will probably plant some buffalo grass seed on the front part. I'm really looking forward to the garden part, and once my seeds and plants arrive it'll probably be about time to plant. I got all my seeds and plants from Gurney's this year, as I didn't feel like running all over creation getting seeds and starter plants. I ordered yellow onion sets, tomato plants, green pepper plants, hot pepper plants, carrot seeds, beet seeds, cucumber seeds, zucchini seeds, yellow squash seeds, cilantro seeds and basil seeds. Gurney's is a part of ebates, so I get money back on my orders...not tons, but I've gotten $40 something back from them so far, and have earned almost another $20.

4. Also in my bargain shopping this week...I've been struggling with the issue of kids bowls for years now. We've gone through three sets of plastic bowls in Eva's lifetime (so, maybe 3 years of eating regularly out of bowls) and it was driving me crazy. Well, I finally got smart and copied Katie, who has these great bowls from pottery barn kids that have survived her 6 kiddos...and at $9.99 per 4 pack, they weren't too expensive, even shipped to my house! It looks like I may have bought them out, though...but a similar set of bowls (set of 4 for $14) are still available if you search bowls.

5. Our really cool 1997 Saturn SC2 has needed new tires for a while (okay, it WAS really cool in high school when my mom bought it...of course, getting the car as a gift 10 years later makes it a little less cool...) and because one of hubby's coworkers is on maternity leave added to the fact that next month is one of our three paycheck months, he has gotten more hours recently and we had money in the bank that wasn't already earmarked for something (okay, maybe emergency savings, but I want hubby to have a safe car to drive) so we had a new set of tires put on the car this week.

6. Last night we went to a nearby town to participate in Dave Ramsey's townhall for hope, which was being broadcast simultaneously at over 6,000 locations across the country (you know it is everywhere when we found a location near us!) It was pretty cool. Lots of good information, and since I am a dork, I found the whole discussion of economics to be fun. There was also a "fellowship time" afterwards, so we got to chat with some like-minded people (at least in the financial realm). Of course, I don't know if I will ever really get used to protestant churches...Our neighbor's kids (they attend the church that we were at) we climbing up and jumping off the front platform (I'd call it an altar, but it clearly isn't) and our girls wanted to play with them, too..but I spend too much time at our church trying to keep them off the altar, so they went outside to play instead. Anyhow, the townhall for hope is well worth watching if you missed it!


7. This weekend is the Knights of Columbus state conference in Denver...actually, it started on Thursday but with the shortage of people at hubby's work and my recent surgery, hubby wasn't going to take time off. His boss is going to cover for him on Saturday evening, though, so we are going up after he gets off work on Saturday, and will get there in time for the Mass and the business meeting on Sunday. The cost to stay at the conference hotel (even on hotel discounters) would have been about $125 after taxes...and I am just way too cheap for that, so in the end, I did the whole priceline thing, and got a 2 1/2 star hotel within 5 blocks of the conference for under $60 after taxes...much more my level.

More quick takes at Jen's blog!

Quick Takes Friday

Well, it's been a busy couple of weeks!

1-
Surgery went well last week...I was pretty nervous about it, and right before I went back to the OR, the OR nurse came out to talk with me. She told me that during the surgery they put a board at the end of the bed, and that they would ask me to stand on the board because partway through the surgery they stand you up a little to let gravity help move things out of the way...I don't remember anything from the OR besides a big light, so I think I may have twisted my ankle a little bit.

2-
The anesthesiologist came out to talk to me beforehand, too...and so I told him all about my anesthesia problems with Eva (couldn't get an epidural in, spinal only covered my legs, general anesthesia, couldn't intibate me, etc.) he checked out my throat, told me that I look like an easy case, and gave me plan A and plan B. Plan A was to put me out and intibate me...plan B was if he couldn't do plan A to wake me up and intibate me with a scope, then put me out again. Apparently plan A worked out. I'm a little bit bitter that he saw me as an easy case, since the quack nurse anesthetist from Eva's c-section told me I was too difficult and would probably need a scope anytime I was intibated...

3-
On Friday, we got to head home (well, not home...I stayed at MILs house) and did all the grocery shopping for the shower on the way home. The bridal shower went really well, although my attempt at having a better count of people by asking for regrets only didn't work any better than asking for RSVPs. Hubby says that RSVPing is just not part of the culture out here...I argue that anyone that is too lazy to RSVP is just rude. I understand that things happen, but I'd rather have a last minute RSVP than set up for 31 people and have 15 show up. Future SIL had a good time, so that's all that really mattered.

4-
Easter didn't quite go as originally planned. Hubby went to Holy Thursday and Good Friday...I stayed behind to get a nap (once in our room at the hospital outpatient house, and once at MILs house). We were originally all going to go to the vigil, but after spending all Saturday morning preparing food and all afternoon showering the bride-to-be, we were all a little tired, so we decided to go to the 1 PM Mass at MILs church (crossing our fingers that it wouldn't be a Spanish Mass...we lucked out, it wasn't!) So, we had a later Easter dinner than usual, but it was still a good day.

5-
I finally fessed up to my Bible Study friends about my surgery. I figured there wasn't much of an option, since we eat dinner together. So, I was either going to have to skip 2 or 3 sessions so they didn't ask why I wasn't eating...and let's face it, when I started measuring 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup onto my plate after that, they'd get suspicious. They are being very supportive...but of course, had a lot of questions. Unfortunately, I had to explain things 3 times...once on the car ride out, once for the hostess, and once more when another person arrived.

6-
My post op appointment was on Wednesday. I was cleared to drive and take my vitamins (they offered me a clearance letter to go back to work...I didn't think hubby needed that...now, if they had offered me a letter saying I couldn't clean for two weeks, I would have taken that!) and set up my appointment for my first adjustment. I was down 12 lbs from my pre op appointment (1 week before), but some of that might come back, since they decided I am slightly dehydrated. Everything looks good, and I am healing as expected. Between MIL and myself, we've had so many appointments up in the big city recently that when I was done with my appointment, we couldn't think of anywhere we needed to shop for anything. So, we went to Red Lobster (Eva's request...what a goof ball!) for lunch, and headed home. I'm getting very used to ordering strange things at restaurants now. We've been out to eat 3 times since my surgery (it's been one of those weeks!) and I ordered a small apple juice the first time, and mashed potatoes both other times (my full liquid diet says that mashed potatoes thinned with milk count as a full liquid, so I'm good with that!) I'm looking forward to the pureed diet in a week, when I can have finely chopped scrambled eggs.

7-
Yesterday was the grandparent's tea for Eva's story time. Every year, they host a tea party for the last library story time, and the kids get to invite a grandparent. They listen to a story, drink tea and eat cookies, and get folders with a paper from each story time the child attended throughout the year. Eva went to 22 this year, and we get to see how she answered questions, and whatever crafts they did all year. Eva took MIL again, and they had a great time. I told MIL that she's got at least 3 more years of grandparent's tea to attend, because Eva can do 1 more year of story time, and then Charlotte will be able to do 2 years (because of Eva's birthday she was able to do 3 years, but I'm not sure if Charlotte will, because she will turn 6 part way though the 3rd year.)

More quick takes, as always, at Jen's blog!