7 Quick Takes: Boo-less Edition

--1--

Yesterday, my husband and Boo left for a trip to Portland.  As in, Oregon.  As in, my husband took my tantruming-every-2 minutes-over-every-darn-thing two-year-old on a cross country trip.  Alone.  Leaving me with the other two, one of whom is in preschool all day.  Life is calm and peaceful right now.  I'm sure Boo will find some way to make me pay for my few days of peace and quiet when he returns, but for now, I'm enjoying it.

--2--

Piglet had a follow-up appointment with the audiologist yesterday, since he failed his last hearing tests in February.  He has since has tubes put in, and adenoids taken out, but I felt that his hearing wasn't as good as it should be.  And....his hearing is normal.  So it turns out that when it seems like he doesn't hear us, he is just not listening.  (And is basically a typical four-year-old in that way...)

--3--

Birdie has gotten quite good at sitting up, and is even starting to pull herself up to sitting now.  She wobbles around a bit, but mostly catches herself.  She did do a header onto my desk yesterday (I was holding her and she pitched herself forward and banged her forehead on my desk top, poor baby) and ran into the wooden chair leg in the living room this morning while getting herself up to a sit, but a few bumps and bruises are all par for the course in learning how to sit up and move around.  

--4--

And a card!  I made this one a while back, from a design by Jenny Peterson.  She does simple vintage very well and I get lots of great ideas from her.  I tweaked a thing or two, but mostly it is her design. Also, the new catalog is now live!  I love the new product suites this year, and I hope you do too!  Let me know if you want me to send you a catalog.

Supplies: River Rock, Cherry Cobbler, More Mustard (textured), Verry Vanilla, Early Espresso cs, Paisley petals dsp (retired) 4 Frames, Fabulous Phrases stamp sets, antique brads, blender pens, Early Espresso and More Mustard classic inks, crumb cake seam binding, scallop border punch

--5--

Piglet also had his end of the year parent-teacher conference--turns out that he is kind of good at math.  I know he doesn't get that from me! This is more my style:

--6--

I saw Snow White and the Huntsmen last Friday morning, and apart from the final scene, I enjoyed it thoroughly.  The last scene was a little high on the cheese factor, but overall, it was a great escapist type film.  Good special effects, interesting philosophical questions to ponder (the queen's search for immortality and ageless beauty by stealing it from others), some lovely eye candy (I'm looking at you, Chris Hemsworth!)  I also watched The Vow last night on Amazon.com streaming--what a great film!  It is definitely a tissue-worthy film, and I thought Channing Tatum was great.  The whole story was just lovely, and I thought it was even nicer that it was based on reality.  It raises the question of how much of what we love and value in our spouses is based on the person we are at the time we meet them, versus the person we have been, or will be.  An interesting question, to be sure.  I'm sure there's a novel in there somewhere.  

--7--

Speaking of novels, I have another one percolating in my brain.  I think some of my readers know I self-published a book on lulu.com a few years ago called Deliverance.  I lived with those characters in my head for over a decade, and once I finally worked out a few key plot details that were holding me up, the story literally just spun out of me, almost without effort.  A new protagonist popped in my head about two weeks ago, with a new story line, but I'm still waiting for him to tell me more about himself.  All I know is that his first name is Dmitri, he looks a lot like Max Brown, has Russian ancestry, and some serious moral conflicts. I think I might have to live with him in my head for a while before I'm ready to write.  In the meantime, I'm carrying my small writing notebook with me again, just in case details occur to me at odd moments.  

Go see Jen for more Quick Takes!

No Quick Takes today

I'm afraid I just don't have the mental energy to write seven things about my week.  I'll just say it has been long, stupidly hot, and that solo parenting is tough with sick kiddos.  (Hello, take-out?  It's me again.) I'm using some babysitting hours tomorrow to go see Snow White and the Huntsmen (and trying not to feel guilty about it...) I made a bunch of baby thank you card sets this week as several friends have all had babies recently.

I'll leave you with a card to prettify your weekend.  I'm sending it to a dear friend in Australia who just welcomed a second child, a son named Solomon.  I tweaked it from BadaBing Creations but used MDS to make the images as I don't own that stamp set.

Memory Eternal

I've written a few times over the last few years about a dear friend's struggles with pancreatic and liver cancer.  Yesterday, Kh. Lilijah Vernoica Vreeland went home to be with the Lord.  She leaves behind a grieving husband and tireless priest, Fr. Philip, two daughters and numerous grandchildren.  While expected, the end was quick and peaceful, and the fitting fulfillment of a life lived well if not always easy.  I'm grateful we had the chance to visit her one last time a year ago and to say our goodbyes.  We miss her sweet smile and love already.

Quick Takes: Early Morning Edition

--1--

I would like to state for the record that I am actually writing this post at 2:00 a.m. (well, 1:59 a.m., according to my computer clock).  That is because I have a sick baby who needs to be upright at all times apparently, and I'm the one to keep her in that position.  I was sitting with her in the rocking chair in the nursery, but kept dozing off and was worried she might roll off my lap or flip herself out of my arms because she is so restless and unhappy.  So we're sitting in my office chair with her in the ERGO while she fusses and squirms, trying to get comfortable in between coughing fits.  

--2--

All I can say is that I'm glad we have a pediatrician appointment scheduled for tomorrow.  Birdie has been sick since Saturday, but not seriously so; it started out with once-a-day vomiting and mild diarrhea and lots of night wakings, but has grown to include respiratory symptoms; she has gotten a lot worse in the last 12 hours.  So another CHOP stay maybe in our immediate future.  

--3--

Not that I'm bitter or anything, but I'm a teeny bit sick myself, having caught the GI bug currently torturing the house (the boys both had it on Tuesday night, plus Birdie's vomiting since Saturday).  I seem to have a lesser case, but feel none-so-good for all that, so this whole sitting up all night in a chair thing is just super.

--4--

And a card!  I made this one a while back, CASEing Ann Schach.  I just love this sailboat--it is so easy to work with and can be used as a line image or colored.  It is unfortunately retired, but I'm keeping mine for masculine cards.

--5--

Has anyone else been watching Scandal on ABC?  I've gotta say, Shondra Rhimes has done it again--I really like this show!  (Which is good, because I'm really quite fed up with Grey's Anatomy and gave up on Private Practice two seasons ago).  We don't have a TV, but I've been watching the episodes online. I'm super curious to see where the next season will take us.

--6--

We have no plans for this weekend.  Zip.  Zero.  Nada.  Most people around here go "down the Shore" for Memorial Day weekend, but we are boring and are sticking around. My husband just got another case, so he will be busy on the brief over the weekend, and will likely go to work on Monday morning as usual.  Life in the fast lane over here. Hey, at least parking will be easy until Tuesday!

--7--

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for a moment of pure unadulterated fluff.  

You're welcome!

Go see Jen for more Quick Takes.

Quick Takes Friday: Approaching Normal

--1--

This week was, dare I say it, a normal week.  Nothing extraordinary happened, I barely had to communicate with a medical professional (after months of having several on speed dial); the week just...was.  It is nice.

--2--

The downside of having the pressure off is that my body is screaming for my attention now.  All the months of stress, interrupted sleep, illness, etc. has taken a toll, and I'm finding that in addition to the night time sleep (interupted, but less than before), I need a 1-2 hour nap every day.   The one day this week I didn't take one, I literally collapsed on the couch during dinner. It was lay down or fall down.  I slept for about 20 minutes and then got up to finish washing the dishes and so forth.  Strange.  I'm hoping this passes soon, because I generally work in the afternoons, and sleeping all afternoon is just messing with my days.

--3--

Okay, so I know I am extremely late to the Downtown Abbey fanwagon, but my husband and I just started series one and I love it!  I had tried it last spring, and got about half way through and gave up.  It is a lot more fun to watch it with someone else who enjoys that sort of thing.  I'm glad we have the rest of the series, plus the second one to keep us entertained this summer.  We've talked a lot about the loss of formality in modern society as we've watched.  I think it is a net loss, frankly.  I have a ton of thoughts about this show (and about life in general, now that my brain has generally come unstuck from the last nine months), so will probably be posting more often over at my other blog.

--4--

Birdie is doing extremely well lately.  She is rolling all over the place, tolerating lots of tummy time, even scooting backward a bit on her belly.  She is starting to sit up independently for short periods, and has found her voice.  She babbles a lot, and is quick to make her displeasure and pleasure known.  It is so good to see our girl coming along!  She still has a long way to go, but at least the arrow is heading the right direction now!  Oh, and she has tooth!

--5--

Boo has taken to wearing Piglet's bike helmet everywhere the last few days.  He would sleep in it if I let him.    The helmet is too big on him, but he is quite insistent.  I figure there's no harm, and if it prevents him from doing harm to his head during one of his many falls, all the better!

--6--

I made this card a while back with no particular thing in mind for it, but ended up giving it to my husband for our anniversary last week.  I think it was exactly the right thing in the end, and I'm happy with how it came out.  It is CASEd from the talented Ann Schach.

--7--

I made this card for that flower demonstration I did back in March.  It isn't a flower, but it does feature the owl punch in an unusual way--those little birds are made using the owl!  I really like how the card turned out.  It is based on a design by Valita.

7 Quick Takes: Anniversary Edition

Hallie at Betty Beguiles is hosting Quick Takes today, so thanks for that!

--1--

My husband and I celebrated our 7th anniversary on Tuesday.  It seems sort of incredible to me that it is seven years already!  (We've been together for nine years this August).  Since we had a fancy dinner out on Monday for a work function of his, we ordered in on Tuesday and had a nice quiet dinner after the children were in bed.

--2--

My boys had their 4- and 2-year old well child visits this morning.  Both are growing well, developing reasonably normally, and look to be tall.  Which is a good thing when you are a boy.  Boo is still giving us a run for our money on the behavior stuff, but our lovely pediatrician gave me some tips to deal with it better.  I'm tired just thinking about it, but it is worth a shot.

--3--

My husband told me to buy some dresses this week, so I splashed on two eShakti dresses I've had my eye on for a while.  Get this: they will customize the dress for your measurements for free!  They used to charge $7.95 (still a great bargain) but when I went to check out, it was free!  Yippie for that!  I'm super excited to get them in the mail!  I bought solid color dresses, but I'm noticing their novelty prints are very nice too, and will probably get another one at some point.

--4--

My husband teaches criminal law, and one of his students told him about a year ago that he should really watch The Wire.  We decided to give it a go together, and started in on season one.  About three episodes in, I was not interested, and so he went on to finish season one by himself.  (He said it improved remarkably just after I gave up on it).  So now he's ready for season two, and I decided to give it another chance, especially after watching Dominic West do such a brilliant job in The Hour.  I've got to say, season two is more engaging.  I'm interested to know where this one is going to go.  I'm a bit more invested in the characters and storyline.  And more importantly, it is something my husband and I can enjoy together!  Bonus all around.

(I also just noticed The Hour is coming back for another season this year, so even better!)

--5--

Oh yeah, it is Mother's Day this weekend.  This is not traditionally a day that is observed shall we say, well, at our household.  One year my husband planned a big brunch and invited a bunch of people over, who I then had to cook for.  Good times.  This year, my mother-in-law is coming for a visit, and I'm not sure what we are doing.  The bar of my expectations is so low, I'm tripping over it.  But that's okay.  Pretty soon the kids will be old enough to take matters into their own hands.

--6--

I finished Bringing up Bebe this week, and the book did redeem itself in the end.  My basic take on the book is that the nice thing about the French approach is that it is a coherent, cohesive approach that everyone subscribes to.  In France.  With subsidized government support.  I'm not sure that Druckerman is so enamoured of the French way particularly as she is of having a cohesive culture in which to raise children.  She doesn't exactly address this aspect in her book, but I think it is the underlying issue, and the reason for so much uproar.  Personally, I think having a cohesive culture is a great and necessary thing, and its lack in America it is one of the difficulties of being an American.  Every generation must reinvent the wheel, and we must do so in small isolated bubbles of our own making.  It is easy to parent when everyone is doing it the same way, at the same time.  Thank goodness for the internets, I guess.

--7--

...and a card!  I tweaked this from a design by Diana Gibbs.  I love the clean lines of it, and the soft colors.  

Have a great week!

7 Quick Takes: Early Edition

--1--

It is 6:57 a.m., and I've been awake since before 5:00 a.m.  This sounds worse than it is, because for the first time in approximately 15 years, my body apparently has remembered how to sleep through the night.  No bathroom breaks every two hours starting at 2:00 a.m., nothing.  Just uninterrupted sleep.  This happened twice in the last week, and while it was nice, it was also strange.  It also meant that my husband was getting up three times with the baby.  I'm feeling only slightly guilty about it.

--2--

Now that I can eat soy again, I've developed a rather unhealthy addiction to soynut butter.  I think the I.M. Healthy people have reformulated their butter since I last was able to eat it, and it is much better!  No more oil separation, or the complete inability to stir it together.  Now it is just lovely creamy goodness.  It is even better eaten off a spoon topped with chocolate chips.  Never mind that my mother once described it as tasting "like the inside of a barn smells." 

--3--

Boo turned two on Tuesday.  I keep hoping that he is going to grow out of the current frustrating stage he is in. On the upside, he received the absolute perfect gift this year--a wooden shopping cart.  If there is one thing that kid loves, it is push toys.  We got him some play pots and pans, and that was also a hit.  He has been pretending to cook all week, and asking me to cool down the hot things in his pot, either by blowing on it, or sticking it in the freezer.  I know if ever we are missing one of the pots, I will know where to look!  

--4--

Last week a professional organizer came over to help me tackle my ridiculous linen closet and the cabinets under the bathroom sinks.  I'm a fairly organized person on my own, but I have a few spaces in my house that I just can't seem to organize myself.  I take everything out, look at it, try to put it back in in a better order, space, etc., and nothing seems to help.  I've spent five years staring at our linen closet (which isn't even a normal geometric shape, by the way), completely unable to sort it out.  Rebekah just rolled up her sleeves and dug in, completely undaunted.  I sort of can't believe I paid money to have someone help me with this task, but she was great, and I feel so much better about those spaces now.  The bonus was that after watching her work, and thinking through those spaces a little more clearly, I'm better able to think through a few of our other problem spots in the house.  I may still have her come over to help me organize the toys, but I'm feeling less frazzled about our storage.

--5--

Birdie is on the verge of getting a tooth!  I can feel it just below the gum line, and she is chomping on everything.  She's also doing quite well these days--her breathing has gotten much quieter, and she is stronger than a month ago.  She's rolling over pretty well, starting to be able to sit up with assistance, is tolerating the Bumbo very well, and even will consent to be in the Johnny Jump Up for short periods.  Since we are at the end of the cold/flu season, I'm hopeful that this summer will be a good time of developmental progress for her.  Her physical therapist said she has come a long way this past month, despite the hospital stay.

--6--

After Birdie has PT this morning, we're off to Target to check out their itso line.  Rebekah recommended it for the space next to my desk, which is admittedly an inefficient catch-all.  I've had a tray table sitting there for several years, but frankly, it hasn't ever worked well for me, and I really need some compartmentalized shelves for the space.  I'm hoping that the itso line will work.  

--7--

This is my May swap--our meeting isn't for another week or so, but I just had so share it because I think it is so neat.  I tweaked it from a design I saw on splitcoast.  I'm so glad this set is sticking around!  (By the way, the new catalog will be live on June 1st--if you want one, just let me know and I'll send you one).

Go see Jen for more Quick Takes!