Sunday, November 30, 2008

Welcome to Advent!

I love Advent and not because of all the Christmas preparations, lights, carols, cards, etc; though I love those, too. Advent is such a wonderful time to celebrate our Catholic faith and share it with our children. So, we're pulling out our Advent wreath and for the first time this year, we'll be doing a Jesse tree. I've always wanted to, but I've never gotten myself organized enough to prepare all the ornaments ahead of time. But, then I found these great downloadable ornaments that all I have to do is cut out (now that's a level of craftiness that I can handle!) and there are also reflections to go with each one.

Enjoy this time with your children. Less than four weeks are left until Christmas!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

New nephew

Here's our newest addition to the family, Payne Daniel, my brother's first born son. I was able to be there for the birth (via c-section) and it was a wonderful experience. This was the first time that I was the one in the waiting room rather than the one giving birth. I think being in the waiting room is more nerve wracking!


But, we are so thankful for little Payne. Our family has so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. We've had five new cousins born this year. Yes, it has been a very blessed year indeed!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

What do you eat for lunch?

I'm trying to improve my eating habits lately. Since Gustin is now weaned, it's even more important that I make some changes or the extra pounds that breastfeeding kept at bay will start to pile on. I think I do a good job at breakfast and supper. My weak spots are lunch and sweet snacks. I know how to fix the eating sweet snacks issue (just don't!) but lunch is tough. I'm so busy preparing the kids' lunch, changing out laundry, cleaning up the present that the dog left on the carpet, etc, during the lunch hour that what I eat becomes an afterthought. An unhealthy, grab-what's-easy afterthought.

So, any suggestions of easy and healthy lunch ideas? I could really use some help.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Incredulous

Last night Gustin slept through the night for about the fifth time in his 18 months of life. And, he did so in his crib and not in our bed. Ahhh... what a great night.

This morning when Gustin woke up, Elizabeth followed me in to get him.

"What is Gustin doing in his crib?"

"He slept in there last night," I replied.

"Jonathan, Jonathan! Come here and look!" Elizabeth calls to her brother. "Guess where Gustin slept last night?" she asks him as she points to the crib.

"In his crib?" he responds, obviously extremely impressed.

"Without crying!?!"

Yes, it was quite a feat.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Some of my favorite out of focus pictures

It happens a lot. I download my pictures to the computer and anxiously open them up to see how those shots I just took turned out. I find the thumbnail of the shot that I'm most excited to see and click on it. It pops up full size on my monitor and . . . it's blurry.


I usually learn from these botched photos. I probably forgot to fire a test shot first and make sure all my settings were right. ISO setting, white balance, aperture, one or more of them was probably off.


But, sometimes I can't help but love the blurry photos, too. Even though imperfect, they still capture little personalities with amazing accuracy.


And memories, too. How else am I going to remember that Gustin learned to correctly identify where his mouth is when he was 17 1/2 months old? (Doesn't he look proud of himself in the picture above?)

I guess pictures are kind of like people. Imperfect as they may be, they are still precious.

Friday, November 7, 2008

FOCA petition

Have you heard of the Freedom of Choice Act? It's legislation that Obama promised to sign as soon as he enters office that would lift all restrictions on abortion.

To sign a petition to fight it an find out more information, click here.

h/t: Mary's Aggies

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Meme time!

Sweet Christine tagged me for this Sweetheart Meme.

SWEETHEART TAG

The rules are posted at the beginning.Each person answers questions about their sweethearts.At the end of the post, the person then tags 6 people and posts their names; then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment, letting them know they have been tagged.

What is your husband's name? Eric

How long have you guys been married? 8 1/2 years. Wow!

How long did you date? Dated for about 2 years. Engaged for about 6 months.

How old is he? 33

Who is taller? Me! There's a rule in our house. If he is barefoot, I'm not allowed to have shoes on.

Who can sing best? Eric. But, that doesn't mean he's good.

Who is smarter? Eric. He amazes me. He has an amazing grasp of basic concepts and the ability to apply them. For instance, if he can't remember the equation for a particular engineering problem, he'll just derive it from scratch. He can derive it faster than I can look it up in a textbook. It's really obnoxious. (just kidding!) Just for the record, though, I made the better grades. :)

Who does laundry? Me me me!

Who pays the bills? Me

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Moi

Who mows the lawn? Eric

Who cooks dinner? Me unless it involves slabs of meat and an open flame.

Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Hmmm... Not sure about that one. But, the more I think about it, I don't know if Eric ever admits he is wrong. :)

Who kissed who first? He kissed me.

Who wears the pants? Eric.

I know a lot of my fellow bloggers are very busy right now. So, I won't tag anyone specifically, but if you do this meme, please let me know so I can read your responses!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

This will be a hard day

I've decided that I'm not going to watch the election coverage today. Too stressful. Instead, I'm going to pray and pray and pray. I pray that the Holy Spirit will move in the hearts of the voters. I pray that all the good people out there will stand up for the innocent who don't yet have a voice. I pray for the conversion of hearts. I pray that truth will not be stifled by hype and misdirected faith in a false hope. I pray that people will look to Christ as their savior and not to a mere man. I pray that all people will see evil for what it is and pursue good even if it isn't the easy or popular path.

I'm praying for a miracle.

Blessed Mother, pray for us!

O Lord, have mercy on us!