I can relate

how the size of your house has nothing to do with the size of your life » A Holy Experience
We've actually had several homes like this in the past lol. And I definitely let these kind of houses, among other things, hold me back from hospitality and friendship.  Will have to post about it another time, though...so tired after trip....

Favorite Things vol. 1

There's probably some better blogger out there w/ a better blog theme than this but same idea.  Anyhoo...first in a series of current favorite things I've experienced this week:

A Few of My Favorite Things...

(not like Oprah's list, fyi)

just 5 (or 6 in this case :p) things that you can think of or that happened THIS WEEK that are favorites...persons, places, things, etc :)

1. So many things about Mariam, but that she still runs to Mommy to comfort her boo-boo's or when she's scared.  She tries to be so independent already...4 going on 15 someone said this week :P  But she still likes to snuggle in bed w/ me, give me big wet kisses, put a band-aid on her boo-boo, etc :)  (she still really needs a nap each afternoon too! lol)


2. Learning to knit with my Sister-in-Law...well one of them...only got to see her briefly one afternoon on our trip, but she ever-so patiently explained knit and pearl stitches to me and I DID IT!  Woohoo.  Best way I learn is to DO.  And I did!  I'm ready to invest in some materials and a learner pattern, and try to start w/ Jillian....will post when I do.  No pics, wish I had thought of it...I did several rows of her new future prayer shawl she is making for herself w/ some pretty pink/white yarn.  I was gifted with one myself, when we lost Noah...and it is also one of my favorite things.....


3.  That prayer shawl was made for me and given to me by ladies we knew from Doug's first parish in El Paso...they made it together, praying for me, knowing I was very sick, had almost died, had lost Noah... means so much to me.  And I gave it to my mom to take in the hospital w/ her during surgery too.  I just got it back from her...she has her own from SIL and has gotten through the worst part of surgery and recovery, so time to give it back :)  


4. My laptop.  It was out of commission, as I waited for my new cord and battery.  I really like it...MUCH better than borrowing Doug's when I can or typing on my phone and using up over half of my 4G's LOL  Anyhoo...got my parts and it's back in business baby!  Woot!  Blog on!


5.  Good music, and Spotify.  I missed using it on my computer...It is just amazing to me that I can think of a tune or be in a certain mood and need a song, and do a little search and bam, there it is.  I think back to my very very very very skimpy record, then tape, then CD music collection....basically had to rely on the radio mix for whatever....so I missed out on a lot...just didn't ever get the chance much to buy or get music...my parents didn't spend much on frivolous things like that, and I didn't ever really have much money of my own...etc...But now....music of any kind is at my fingertips. :)  And I love so many different kinds.  Tonight, I went from hearing a song on tv by Regina Specktor, listening to it and a few of her other tunes, to Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jenson (don't ask lol) ....to Carly Simon (Best of, 1975 my birth year lol)....The Catholic Mass sung in Gregorian Chant :)  LOVE IT!!! :)  What a nifty invention...this whole internet/Facebook/Music and Picture Sharing, and so much more...may it be used more and more for GOOD rather than EVIL. 


and BONUS:
6.  HOME.  Ahhh, being home...especially after a long trip, far away and sleeping on a different bed and other various stressful or inconvenient things.  And when I say "home"...I mean wherever that is for us.  I'm not attached to one certain home/house/shelter.  Just "home" ...where we make our home...where my family and I can go to just "be."  Currently "home" is a rental home we love...but soon that will change.  Nothing big, don't worry, just a helpful change, indefinitely.  But...still, we can makfe a home wherever we are...because we are together, hubster, me and 3 amazing living kiddos.  





More to come, stay tuned.... What are some of  YOUR favorite things?

On the road again...

After killing another van (sigh)...we are now headed home again...in a rental....oh my...the diff a 2012 makes from a 2000 lol. We r soaking in the feel of a NEW car...cuz we know we won't get to experience it again anytime soon lol

What was it I was JUST saying????

Catholic Exchange Virtual 5K | Catholic Exchange

We are in ...we can do this!  Who else is in????  It seemed much scarier to me for some reason to train for a "real" one...commit to pay...etc.....but I feel like this is def something we can commit to.  I hope.  Gonna have to get to that track at the park and show the kids how far 3.1 miles is.....deep breaths...I think I can, I think I can....and lest you be deceived ...I am talking about walking it with my fam...hubs and the kiddos.  Now IF by then some of us feel ready to run it...that will be even better.  But I am not gonna add more pressure to this already public commitmetnt....yet.  :p. That is all.  :)

A List

Clean Eating Shopping List For Beginners | The Gracious Pantry


I love lists.  Making them.  Reading them.  Crossing items off of them.  I am my mother's daughter.  And I am not completely satisfied with this one, but it IS helpful for those health goals I mentioned.  So just thought I'd share it with you.  A more thorough "health/diet" post pending....

Realization No. 1

OMG. (That's ohmygoodness in MY head...the other omg is my biggest pet peeve...10 commandments people!)  I just had one of those not-so-funny but funny lightbulb moments while reading Dweej's blog ....its her 32nd birthday and other regular commenters are chiming in with similar ages.  I know I know ... 37 isn't that much more really.  But...its even worse IRL most of the time.  Any birthy mom meetings (birthnetwork, ICAN, breastfeeding, playgroups...) seem to be mostly moms in their 20s. (Except my dear, few, rare-breed Catholic homeschooling moms :) and my long-time email groups that grew out of ICAN...the "ol' timers" we call ourselves lol)  And...I knew this day was coming...but it feels like it went from far-off-in-the-future to here-and-now SUDDENLY.  Bam!  As well as more gray hair, bigger bags under the eyes, new things like age spots and wrinkles, etc.  Sigh. Which is a whole other blog post unto itself.  Sigh.  Vanity! 


So I thought I would embrace aging as a wonderful natural process...and gracefully.  But...I think I am starting to panic for a couple of reasons.  Firstly I am post-hysterectomy now going on about 3 years...and still avoiding getting my hormones checked out...but my point is...I want another baby ...and that decision is complicated in so many ways. It will have to be adoption obviously, but it will be either too expensive or fostering (which we don't feel ready to do or able currently) or it would be older children (which we don't feel ready to handle.)  Plus even if we don't go the expensive routes, we need to get more financially prepared.  Then, am I physically ready for the care of another baby?  No!  In my head I feel younger and fit.  Reality is that I am not just out of shape, but I am between 100 and 150lbs overweight. Sigh.  Obese.  Even when you grow up chubby and watching the likes of Oprah and so many other talk show hosts talk about it, interview depressed obese people or show "amazing transformations"... you never expect to become it.  I will save my whole sob-weight story for another post (and how I sqaundered the chance of a lifetime last year to get fit). And let me just add that I full-well know that there are some (even very dear-to-me) BBW who are fully comfortable in who they are and how healthy they are and don't struggle (as I do) with guilt over gluttony.  I totally respect that.  However for me, I am sooo uncomfortable (bending to try to paint your toenails should not make it impossible for you to breathe, if you can reach them at all) and my weight holds me back and keeps me shy.  And it makes me more and more unhealthy everyday.  But suffice it to say, I hope and pray everyday that I will finally make the lifestyle changes for myself and my family, to get us all fit for life. 

And so this issue is related, too, to approaching my 40s with some fear.  This is where a lot of the panic comes from.  I have seen so many people in my life close to me hit mid-40s and crash.  "Nervous breakdown" they call it.  "Holy terrors, batman!" I call it.  I know, I know..."be not afraid!"  And I am trying to hold on to that.  "Try you must not".  There's no trying in baseball...er, wait...  uh, anyhoo,.... I really feel that one thing that can go wrong in your 40s is a chemical and/or hormonal shift, that makes everything go haywire.  That is why I really want to get on top of this health stuff. 

I gather a few things from this post, as it has spewed forth lol. One:  I must increase my faith in God's plan...or just follow our VBS theme, which was "Trust God." :p. And Two: increase my daily prayer level.  Cha-ching! (Sorry for some reason I heard that sound in my head imagining somehow increasing my "level" lol) and three:  get in shape.  Follow through with my fitness goals and lifestyle changes.  Bam!  "Just do it" missy!   So I implore your prayers in this endeavor, whether you are 20 or 90 years young LOL.  In fact, just get ready to pray me through the next 10 years or so...as I further gray, and watch all my kiddos pass through their childhood at warp speed, and make so many big decisions (and deal with hormonal/attitudinal chilrens :P )  K thx bye! :)

P.S.  here's is a lovely pic of some of our brand new bikes we all got for Christmas in order to help with fitness goals...very much unused.  Sigh.

It's What We Do

First post in a series I will call "It's What We Do"....particularly thinking of things that seem uniquely "ours" to our family.  Things we do.  Silly or not.  Maybe bad habits.  Or not.  Like for instance, we sing a lot. LOL  In the car, on long or short trips, in the shower, in the house, in the kitchen, ...anywhere.... catchy tunes, broadway tunes, annoying tunes lol, hymns, praise and worship....and sometimes, just to play our little "game", where we TRY to get an annoying chorus or tune in each others' head.  You know, kinda like George described in Seinfeld,  "Co-stanza!" ("By Mennen!") LOL  (couldn't find the link I wanted, where he tries to get "inside" the head of a girl he likes by saying his name like the "By Mennen!" commerials of the 70's and 80's...."You know they way I work, I'm like a commercial jingle. First its a little irritating, then you hear it a few times, you hum it in the shower, by the third date its 'By Mennen'"! LOL)   Maybe a commercial's famous tune, like "Delta...we loooove to flyyy and it shows". Ok I am aging myself here...but anyhoo, the latest tunes stuck in our collective heads are the VBS songs :)  "I will SOARRRR, I will FLyyyy...NOthing IS IMpossiBLE with Godddd" and "I'll Fly Away Old Glory...I'll Fly Away..." over and over and over again, sometimes with hand gestures and dance :)  Or and oldie between Doug and me is any tune from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.  :)  It's fun.  We don't care how silly we sound or look.   Does your family do that?  As an aside but related, when Mariam was a baby, sometimes, especially on car rides, singing songs was the only thing that would calm her or help her go to sleep :)  She was very attuned to music from a very young age.  And she has such a natural feel for the beat.  I have got to get her in dance and gymnastics ASAP!  Anyhoo....long car ride tomorrow, what will we sing? Hmmm.... :)