7 Quick Takes Friday... 2

-1-

Last Thursday, Friday and Saturday we enjoyed a beautiful Easter Triduum.  I thought that it might be a little much with a 23month old and being so pregnant but it was really joyous.  I especially loved the Easter Vigil mass at our new parish (we moved in December).  We missed it last year because we didn't think Luke would last through the whole Mass last year. But this year we knew he could make it.  It is by far the best Mass of the year.  And now we are still celebrating Easter and the Risen Lord.

-2-

My in-laws came over for Easter.  We had a fantastic Ham dinner that I made along with deviled eggs and fruit salad.  My Mother in law made fantastic potatoes au gratin and two cakes... one a flourless chocolate cake which was out of this world, and the other was a daffodil cake her mom used to make.  My sister in law brought a salad with a great avocado dressing that I'm just going to have to make soon because I'm really craving it.  She also brought her two kids so the kids played the whole day and we all, obviously, enjoyed the food.  I really enjoyed the company of my in-laws.  It seemed that everyone had such a good time.  And I'm excited because we said we'd like Easter to be at our house.  I love Easter and it's a good holiday to host!

-3-

I finally checked in on facebook.  I had a lot of birthday messages.  But in this last week I have decided to weed out some of my friends list.  I think I've almost got it to where I like it.  

I feel refreshed.  And I don't really even care about it too much any more, this year was different than last year.  Very hard to explain.

I did miss several things though.  3 friends had babies, my cousin got engaged (though I probably would have heard that through the grapevine), and a few other things. 

-4-

This week has been tiring.  My son has had a bit of an ear infection.  His sleeping has been way off.  My poor husband hasn't gotten too much sleep and is really busy at work.  And I am in those last few tiring weeks of pregnancy. I'm so looking forward to relaxing a little with my husband and son this weekend.

 

-5-

Usa, my best friend, finally had a day off from work and came to visit us Wednesday for dinner.  She's been having to work a lot lately so we haven't really gotten to see too much of each other.  Oh, and the fact that I'm really too pregnant (tired and lazy) to drive to her house which is about 40 minutes away.  She's always so nice to come down here because she knows its easier for me.  I just can't believe we haven't been hanging out very much lately.  She used to live with us, I really miss her around all the time and I miss not living as close.   I don't recommend going a long time with out seeing close friends.  Oh, and my son is crazy about her.

-6-

Luke got his first water colors for Easter.  His grandma knows he likes to draw.  Anyway, he can't get enough of the water colors already.  He's been painting almost non-stop from the time I got them out... well non-stop in between playing guitar with his daddy.  He even ran out of the paint.  So last night I bought him some more water colors with more colors so he's having fun with that today.  I can't believe how much he loves to color and paint.  And he is really getting good control now.

 

 

-7-

I always try to pray when I first wake up.  Sometimes this leads me off into trailed thoughts.  Well anyway this morning I remembered I have been trying to contact this Priest friend of ours who we met while he was serving as a deacon at our Parish.  After our parish he went back to Rome to study then got ordained as a priest.  He went to Rome again for a year before coming back to work here again.  He went to a parish in another part of our state so we haven't seen or talked to him recently.

Anyway, I looked his name up and found out where he was.  I contacted the parish and he wrote me an email today.  I just am so excited that we can talk to him again... he even asked us if we could catch up on the phone next week!  Yay!  My husband and I just had the best time getting to know him when he was a deacon, we even named Luke's middle name after him.  The news of getting back in contact with him was the highlight of my day!  (at least so far)  

I love doing things like this because I can actually come up with things to talk about.  Then I also get to write down and remember my week.  See you next Friday!

Check out more at Conversion Diary!

First Time 7 quick takes

-1-

My spring time allergies have been pretty terrible lately.  I have been taking local raw honey in hopes that it helps a little.  I've heard that a teaspoon of local honey helps, if you start early enough.  But sometimes a spoonful of honey is a little, well, sweet.  So my new concoction, yogurt, frozen blueberries, sometimes almond and a big spoonful of honey.  Mmm is that good, who cares if it helps my allergies!

-2-

Tomorrow, April 16th, is officially one month until my due date, May 16th.  Can you believe it?  One month left.  Time to start nesting.  I have a nice little list of things to do before the baby comes.  Every once and a while I freak out a little with the amount of things we need to accomplish.  Yesterday I had a small breakdown when my husband came home from work.  He helped me (he did a lot of it) clean up the house, mop the floors, clean the bathrooms, and finish cleaning the kitchen.  Later on in the day when I apologized for freaking out right when he got home from work, he told me that he remembered last time, with Luke, we did the same thing at about the same time.  So maybe it's normal?

I also got all the baby clothes washed and ready in the 'kids room' closet.  Which really isn't a kids room, since we co-sleep... and all the rest of the stuff (toys) is out in our living room.  We just basically use the closet for clothes and we have a diaper table in there.  But the closet looks pretty good.  I put our folding shelf in there and found enough of these blue boxes to store the clothes in.  Now I want to make some cloth baskets for their socks... maybe someday.  Oh, and I need some more hangers- I'll put that on the to-do list.

-3-

Next week is Holy Week!  I can't believe Palm Sunday is in two days.   And I can't believe Lent is almost over.  I gave up facebook.  I am still liking not being on there.  I can't pinpoint why exactly.  But one of the reasons is that I feel like I have stayed in closer contact with my good and close friends.  My close friends are the ones that text me every day, call me, and email me.  I just feel better being personal with a few and not having so many 'acquaintances'.  Though, I did miss pictures of a few old friends that had babies.  I would like to see those.

As far as what I have done in the time I normally check facebook.  Well, I probably could do more.  But I have tried really hard to read the daily readings everyday.  I have felt that it has strengthened me in my prayer life.  Sometimes I lack the right things to say but after reading the daily readings I have something to reflect upon.  That has really helped me.  Especially in these last few tiring weeks of pregnancy.   I have also learned about the Angelus prayer and prayed it a few times.  As a mother I feel especially close to Mary and how she gave her life to God.  Those words, 'let it be done to me according to your word'.  Oh, how I love reflecting upon that.  She is such a good example of what it means to love the Lord. 

-4-

My old Neighbor's and their two kids came over to visit us in our new house this morning.  It was so fun, I miss living in our old neighborhood.  But I like our new house better.  And I like that my husband is closer to his job.  The drive was miserable.  But I miss my two stay at home mom friends and how we used to walk up to the park with them any chance we got.  I know I'll miss going to Lisa's backyard in the summer while our kids played in the kiddie pool and we sat and absorbed the vitamin D, and got to eat their fresh berries. Now we're an hour away :*(

 

-5-

My son watches this cartoon called Kipper.  The cartoons talk in a British accent.  I think he's starting to pick up on it a little.  Some of the things he says sound like it.  He also says 'yes' now instead of 'yeah' or 'yep' which he used to do.  Sometimes it just sounds so proper.  I don't know why, I guess it could be from Kipper too. 

-6-

Sometimes I want to be natural but I just can't find the right thing.  I've been weaning off shampoo for a while.  Mostly because I ran out of my 2-in-1 kids shampoo that I know is toxic but smells oh so good.  I've used Dr Bronners sometimes and then baking soda followed by apple cider vinegar.  I'm not really a fan of either one, but they work ok.  But now that I'm starting to get allergies, I've been trying to shower more and wash my hair on a regular basis so I'm not laying in pollen when I sleep.  I haven't used real shampoo in probably almost a month now until last night.  And oh man does my hair feel silky and nice.  So now I'm in search of what shampoo I will buy next.  I want something inexpensive and natural.... those two things hardly exist.  The thing is that I can stand using baking soda and vinegar, but I don't love it.  Any suggestions?

 

-7-

We've spent a lot of time outside the last couple of weeks.  Luke and I have been outside for walks or in the yard everyday in the last two weeks.  He's been digging in the dirt in our yard and he can't get enough.  He always asks to go dig with his shovel everyday.  Today was the first day we didn't really go outside to do anything.   I feel pretty good that since I've been pretty lazy about getting out of the house, that we're able to play outside.  I think he really enjoys it.   We've also really been lucky to catch a little sun in between rain storms.  I saw that the weather looks sunny next week.  Thankgoodness.  I'm getting tired of the rain here.

We are also getting ready to plant a garden in the next couple weeks, I say 'next couple of weeks' that hoping that my loving husband will do it this weekend.  I know that Luke will enjoy to help us plant.  And we still need to plant the raspberries and blueberries I bought.  I will post pictures of these later.

This was my first "7 quick takes Friday".  I love doing things like this because I can actually come up with things to talk about.  Then I also get to write down and remember my week.  See you next Friday!

Check out more at Conversion Diary!

Pregnancy update and Lent

I am 32 1/2 weeks pregnant.  I had another midwife appointment today, at home again.  I am having appointments every other week now, can you believe it?  I can't.  So there's just 7 weeks left, but I'm thinking more like 8 or 9 since Luke was so late.  That's ok by me, she can come when she comes.

I'm having a few issues right now.  One is that my pelvis hurts like crazy.  And then I twisted it getting into bed the  other night.  Nothing serious, just really uncomfortable.  So my midwife suggested getting a chiropractic appointment.  Then, my father in law, who is a physical therapist gave me a few exercises to do and told me to ice.  I guess I should have been doing that all along.   Next thing is I've had some bowel issues (tmi?)  and my stomach has been hurting.  I found out that I am taking to much magnesium.  I take calcium magnesium and I think I am sensitive to the magnesium.  I need the calcium though for obvious reasons and for leg cramps.  So I have to find just a calcium supplement.  Going tomorrow for one.
But I have to wait until Wednesday for the chiro appointment... sigh.

Good news is that the baby is healthy and moving around just nicely!  And I really LOVE my midwife, there was the back up one that came today, and I love her too.  They both have a lot of knowlage. They both are naturopaths.  And I am learning so much this time around that I didn't know before.  I just feel really comfortable and I feel like they have the same goal in mind, a healthy natural birth.

Luke is still nursing away.  I am making colostrum now and I think he's liking that.  His nursing isn't changing except that I think he is starting to get his molars so he feels uncomfortable. I sometimes think about the transition that will take place with Luke once we have a new baby, but I don't want to think about it too hard because I don't know what will happen.  He might be really happy, he might have some getting used to baby moments, but I don't want to dwell on the situations because they are what they will be and I can't control it.  I have too much else to think about anyway.

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Next is Lent.  I gave up facebook.  I feel a little different than I did last year.  Last year, I was really excited to get back on and see what was going on.  This year I have almost contemplated deleting facebook.  I like the break, I like not thinking about what everyone else is doing.  Especially since I have a lot of friends that I don't really talk to anymore, or people that I just look at their status but never actually see in real life.  I don't know if I want that.  I have a few ideas about it.  I might just decide to delete it.  I might just decide to get rid of anyone that I don't know, know... like people I don't call or text on a regular basis.  Though, my parents and Grammy do check to see pictures of Luke.  But there's email for that.

Another thing is that  I know I'm judgemental about what people write or post on there.  Its really nice to get rid of those thoughts.  I also have less urges to get worked up over posts people make that I don't agree with.

I also have have had more time to write countless emails to my friend Lisa about parenting, food, and other randoms.  I have also been emailing my best friend Usa in the morning on occasion telling her to call when she has free time and she emails me late at night when she is up late.  We have completely opposite schedules, oh and she works.  I also have been trying to email my parents and grandparents and texting my inlaws pictures of Luke.  But the point is that it's been really nice to be on a personal level with people I care about... not just posting pictures on facebook  into the black hole of the internet.  Does that make sense?

I'm not sure what I'll do, but I really like the break.

That's pretty much it for now.  I want to update my blog more and I had planned on updating more through out pregnancy but I'm just so tired that laying down sounds so much better than typing.  And on that note, I'm going to lay down in my nice warm bed :)  good night.