Blogging, Babies, Cars, and More

I missed Quick Takes this past Friday, but wanted to share a few things on this Sunday night. In the last week:

I wrote another post for Catholic Sistas and it got included in a "Best of Catholic Blogging" post at the National Catholic Register.  Totally blew my mind!  Catholic Sistas is being picked up fairly regularly now by  New Advent and by NCR and a few other Catholic sites.  It's very exciting to see it grow!  And I love being a part of it, all the ladies who are contributors are wonderful women that I love being able to call friends, even though I've never met any of them in person.

We have continued working with the boys on accepting eating rice cereal.  They don't spit it out as much as they did at first, but they aren't enjoying it much either.  The looks on their faces ... priceless!  It's still early, I don't mind taking my time.  It may be that they won't be ready until they are closer to 7 months old.

We bought a minivan.  I've driven it only 2 or 3 times now.  Just haven't had to go anywhere since we bought it and when we have gone somewhere, we were all together and my husband drove.  This is a big thing for me.  I love driving my small cars.  Luckily, the Honda Fit actually feels quite similar to the Honda Odyssey, so the transition isn't so bad.  But in 18 years, I'm going back to a small car!  I know, I know ... everyone tells me that I will love, love, LOVE my minivan and will never go back.  But I know myself, I will always like having a small car to zip around in.

You really can't "zip around" in a minivan.

We had Thanksgiving with a large group at my in-laws.  It was a good time.  And apparently everyone got assigned to bring desserts!  Luckily, Hubby decided to do something non-traditional: a sour cream-blackberry cake (very similar to a cheesecake) and macaroons (because he had lots of egg whites left over from the cake).  I think we may have been the only ones to not bring any of our dessert home with us.  If you were a pumpkin pie lover (which I'm really not) there was a feast of pumpkin pie there!

We also brought a cranberry sauce that Hubby made from real cranberries.  And then we brought most of it home.  So Hubby bought a small turkey on Friday and we had a small Thanksgiving feast ourselves.  When we sat down for dinner on Saturday night with turkey, potatoes, dressing, cranberry sauce, and green beans my husband commented that all this food was a result of wanting to use the cranberry sauce with something!!  Today he decided to make a corn casserole, so we repeated the feast again.

It's no wonder I need to lose weight!!  Has nothing to do with the babies anymore.   But I digress ...

I had hoped to do a Quick Takes on Friday and use it to share the things for which I am thankful.  Since I didn't get a chance to do that, I just wanted to say here how much I am thankful for my family this year.  It has been hard in the last few years to feel very thankful at this time of year.  This year was different!  I'm so thankful to have two little guys in my life and my wonderful husband.  Our lives are forever changed ... and it is a wonderful thing!

Speaking of the boys, we worked hard the last several days on trying to be on more of a schedule and have nap times.  I NEED nap times.  My sabbatical is just over a month away, if I can't get some nap times out of them I will never get any work done.  I think Peter will be easy to get on a schedule, he goes down for naps fairly well and sleeps well.  Ethan does not like naps.  But boy does he need them!!  By evening he becomes insufferable.  You'll probably see more posts on this topic in the future.  They have one more week of daycare and then we're full-throttle into getting into a schedule.

Finally ... Blessed New Year to you!!  Today we celebrate the beginning of a new Church year.  It's the First Sunday of Advent, the first Sunday in which we use the new translation of the Mass, and the first Sunday that my parish community moved back into our newly renovated space!  An exciting day all around.

Out of curiosity: How did using the new translation go for you at your parish today?  Would love to hear your comments, experiences, etc.

Not exactly a short update.  But if you made it this far, thanks for reading along!!  I hope everyone has a blessed and prayerful Advent.

Thoughts on the New Translation: Coming Soon to a Parish Near You

Today I have some thoughts on the new translation of the Mass up on Catholic Sistas.  Come on over and check it out.  I hope you'll give me some blog love over there as well and share any of your thoughts on the upcoming implementation of the third Roman Missal.

See you over there!!

7 Quick Takes Friday, vol. 32

~1~

We're getting to the end of my crazybusy week!  Phew, it's definitely been a full week!  I'm surprised at how well I've made it through.

~2~

We tried giving the boys rice cereal last weekend.  It didn't go all that well.  We opted to wait a bit longer.  It was funny though.  We started with Ethan who had absolutely zero interest and did a lot of crying during the process.  But while I was working with him, Peter was sitting in his highchair nearby watching me.  I saw how interested he seemed and noticed him opening his mouth.  So I tried it with him.  I got the spoon close to his mouth, he opened up, and he let me put some in. One taste, however, and he was no longer interested.  We tried with both of them again on Sunday and decided that we needed to have more time, and the coming week wasn't going to give us the time we needed (see #1 above).  So we'll try again in another week or so.  It'll be easier when one of us is home every day and not rushing off to work and school.

~3~

I ordered Christmas stockings for the boys!!  They are so cute!! I can't wait to put them up.  As a matter of fact, we're going to be out of town for Christmas and I think I'm going to bring their stockings with us.

~4~

I have finally been able to successfully feed both babies at the same time!!  I can save myself about a half hour in the morning by feeding them together.  They are finally at a point where they have more control over their heads and they don't dribble formula while they are eating.  It makes it easier to feed two at once when they aren't so messy.  I love knowing that we have achieved one small step toward a bit of efficiency.

~5~

Catholic Sistas has been getting lots of attention this week.  Monday's post about the Duggar's got a TON of interest with over 3,000 hits!!  All the posts this week have been getting high marks!  In addition, some other sites have picked up on Catholic Sistas posts and have been linking back to the site.  On Wednesday, the front page of New Advent had links to two articles on Catholic Sistas and, on Thursday, the National Catholic Register had an article on the "Best of Catholic Blogging" linking to a variety of blog posts including, at the very top, a guest post on Catholic Sistas.  Also on Thursday was the interview on my local Catholic radio station about the Sistas.  It's been a big week!!

Makes me a little nervous, I'm supposed to post on Monday.  Still working on that.

~6~

Speaking of blog posting, I wrote an article for the Libraries' employee blog that got posted on Wednesday. It's the second article I've written in a serious of articles about what library staff are reading.  Check it out if you have the time: What We're Reading: Sociology, spies, and Wal-Mart.  It was actually a fun conversation and I hope that comes across in the article.

~7~

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at Conversion Diary.  Have a nice weekend!!

Tune in for Catholic Sistas

The founder of the Catholic Sistas blog will be doing a radio interview THIS WEEK!  And the best part: you can listen in, no matter where you are.

The interview will be on Thursday November 17 at 4:00pm Eastern time.  You can listen one of three ways.  If you are in the local area (Lexington, KY) you can tune in at either 1380 AM or 94.9 FM.

If you are not in the local area you can go to the website for Real Life Radio and click on the "Listen live" link.

The interview will last about 15 minutes.  We hope you'll tune in and hear more about the Catholic Sistas.  You can help us spread the word too by sharing the Facebook event with your friends list.

Thanks in advance for sharing this with others and for listening in if you can!!

Busy, Crazy, Crazy-busy

Last week went by way too fast.  I know I don't post on a regular basis, but I do usually try to get a Friday Quick Takes post in.  I like that it keeps me writing something, even when I have a busy week.  Last week was definitely busy!!  Suddenly it was Friday, I was walking to my office, and realized that Quick Takes was the last thing on my mind.

Oh well, it happens.  Moving on ...

I'm looking at another crazy-busy week this coming week.  Unfortunately that may mean no posts again.  But I hope that won't be the case.  I have so much I want to write about!!

I may be getting a very early start on my week.  The boys were a handful tonight.  They were obviously tired, but fighting it.  So we had to endure a lot of crying and unhappiness.  Suddenly during dinner they fell asleep.  Ethan was sitting in his highchair crying and suddenly he went silent.  It was so sudden I turned to look at him and was surprised to find him sound asleep.  Ah, to be able to fall asleep like that!!

Peter had been in his rocker chair and was being so fussy that Hubby finally picked him up and had him in his lap while he was eating.  Right after Ethan had zonked out, Peter's eyes started drooping.  He fell asleep on Hubby's lap!

We let them nap a bit, Ethan in his highchair and Peter was moved to a blanket on the floor.  They woke up about 30 minutes later.  A quick change, two bottles made, two babies fed, and they went right to bed.

I don't think we've ever put them down before 8pm.  But I couldn't deal with any more tonight.  So off they went.  I'm expecting them to wake me up at 6am tomorrow morning.

If so, it will probably be a good thing.  I need an early start for this coming week.  It'll definitely be a busy, crazy, and crazy-busy week!!

7 Quick Takes Friday, vol. 31

~1~

I forgot to mention here that I had another post go up on Catholic Sistas.  My post, Saints for Life, was my contribution to the Sistas' big Respect Life promotion during the month of October.  I hope you've been following along, there were many excellent posts last month!

~2~

My babies are 5 months old already!!  Peter is rolling over onto his tummy now.  He can't roll back onto his back, but his arms and neck are getting stronger and he doesn't get nearly as upset anymore being on his tummy.  Ethan likes being on his back.  Every morning I find him sleeping with his hands behind his head like he's relaxing on the beach.  Silly baby!

Peter and Ethan, 5 months old

~3~

We've started calling Ethan "Thumper."  When he is in his crib, or really anywhere on his back (the floor, pack 'n' play, etc.) he brings his knees up to his chest and then throws his legs out in front of him, making a thumping noise when his legs hit the mattress.  Sometimes we listen to him doing this over and over and over again when we go to bed at night.  I find it hilarious.  The thumping also causes him to scoot down to the end of the crib every night!  So now I make sure to put his head near one end of the crib when he goes to bed at night.  In the morning, his feet will be at the other end.  Again, such a silly baby!

~4~

Halloween was Monday.  No Trick or Treating for us this year.  But we sat out in our garage and handed out candy.  Well, Hubby did, I was back and forth between there and the house with the boys as they got hungry and tired and needed changing.  But we still had to have fun with the boys and dress them up.  Luckily, I found these cute costumes, which were only worn for a couple of hours, on clearance:  

Our little pumpkins, Ethan and Peter with Daddy

~5~

Can I just vent for one little moment?  I have so much on my plate at work right now!!!  I'm feeling the pressure of putting things in order before I leave for my sabbatical.  I know I can't do everything, but I need to do what I can to not leave a whole bunch of loose ends everywhere for 6 months.  But it's more than that: 

• I'm in the middle of the hiring process (and praying I get someone who will start before I leave)
• It's that time of year when I have to read faculty promotion files and write letters (11 files this year)
• I realized today that I really need to work on staff evaluations this month if I plan on taking a lot of December as vacation
• I have data to collect for my 2012 article in my professional journal
• I am getting nervous about another contribution I had to an upcoming publication that has been delayed and they want the contributors to update there stuff (which I have no problem with, but I emailed my section editor and I still haven't heard back from her and I really want to do this BEFORE my sabbatical ... it'll probably end up becoming part of my sabbatical)
• And then there is just the normal work load ... well a bit more than normal since I'm short one cataloger.  

Okay, I feel better, moving on ....

~6~

Some good news!  We've had several house showings recently.  Got a call last Saturday for a showing that same afternoon that we had to turn down (we were in Indiana for a funeral and did not leave the house in any shape for a viewing).  We got a call Sunday afternoon for a showing that afternoon which we accepted, of course, even though we had one hour to quickly put everything in order and do a quick clean of the obvious stuff.  Then we had a showing Wednesday evening and, finally, got a request on Thursday for a showing on Saturday.  Turns out the showing for this coming Saturday is the person who had wanted to see the house last Saturday.  We had assumed that the Sunday showing was that person, but apparently not.  Our feedback is all positive, so really it's just a matter of the right person finding us.

~7~

Have I ever mentioned that I am a fan of the Food Network?  I've gotten addicted to watching the reality-type, competition style shows on that channel.  Chopped is one of my ongoing favorites.  I love seeing the odd ingredients they often require the chefs to cook with.  More recently I've been watching Sweet Genius, which is a little quirky, the host particularly.  He is very intense and a bit intimidating, but then at the very end of the show when he names the "sweet genius" his demeanor completely changes and it makes me smile!  But the best show that just started has got to be The Next Iron Chef.  Seeing all these chefs who I see as judges and hosts of their own shows now competing against each other to be the next Iron Chef is a lot of fun.  Unlike other reality, competition shows, these people all already know each other and work together for the same network.  So you have none of the weird, tiresome drama that you get when a bunch of strangers are thrown together for a couple months.  These shows are fun.

Do you have any favorite Food Network shows?  Or do you prefer another cable channel?  Any favorite reality shows?

For more Quick Takes, check out Conversion Diary.