Ten Months of Silence is Too Long

Hello blogging world!! With the exception of my recent Easter post, it's been a while. Like, ten months! You wouldn't know it, but I do think about this little blog of mine quite regularly. I keep wanting to write, keep getting distracted, and then nothing happens.

Quite a while ago I even questioned why I keep this blog going at all. Blogging certainly isn't what it used to be. With so many different social media outlets available now that allow everyone to create short content and get maximum exposure, I know many bloggers are no longer blogging as much and instead are making use of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (and whatever else is popular these days) to interact with readers and create communities.

As for me, I really do prefer this platform. So I want to continue this little bitty blog of mine and I do hope to be a bit more regular. Hopefully more than every ten months! Let's definitely hope for a bit more there.

So here we go!!

First, after looking over the last couple posts I did do (wow, those are old!!), a bit of an update is in order. [And I promise to stop using the word "bit" now.]

In one of my previous posts from spring 2016 I announced that I had submitted my resignation at my job of almost 16 years. In August I had my last day and I left with many wonderful memories and promises that I'd be back to visit (and I have). It was bittersweet. I loved that job for a long time; the last few years were starting to feel hard. I still liked aspects of it but my desire to be there had definitely started to fade. I miss the people, but I was definitely ready for something new.

Once I was no longer working, the boys and I had about 4 weeks at home together before they started school. We didn't do as much as I had hoped in that time period, but we got them set for school (uniforms, supplies, etc.) and we rested and had lazy days. We all just really needed some lazy days.

Since September we entered the world of school. But only partly. I am planning on blogging about this more so you'll have to wait for the details. But, we've really enjoyed this year! Homeschooling in a hybrid or collaborative environment is interesting and it really does feel like the best of both worlds. Like I said, more soon.

We had an unexpected development in our family early this year. Hubby hadn't been feeling well for over a year and had almost no energy most days. Finally in February he got a diagnosis of Celiac Disease. It hasn't been too difficult to transition to a gluten-free diet, but it does have it's challenges. I'll likely share more about this, too. The kids and I are not completely gluten-free, though more so than we were. I am considering going 100% along with Hubby for my own health too, I just haven't bit the bullet yet.

I have plenty of ideas in my head for upcoming blog posts. Let's hope I actually make them a reality. Hope you'll stick with me (whomever is still reading). I'll share more about what school things we're doing at home, other activities, homeschooling pre-school next year, and just whatever random things pop into my head. Oh, and I hope to also blog some on Benedictine Spirituality. If nothing else, it'll benefit me to write about the things that I should be living as a Benedictine oblate.

Blessings for this Easter season to you and yours!

{7QT} Final Oblation and Other Exciting News

It's been a long, long, long long time since I've done a 7QT post. As a matter of fact, I believe it's been a long time since I've done a post at all. I'm not even going to go look and see when the last post was. I'm just hoping my readers are still around. Yes??

If you are, I thought it was high time I posted again and let you know about the big things going on in our lives over here in the Bluegrass state. So let's get started!!

#1
Back in August of 2014, myself and 8 others were invested as Benedictine novice oblates for the Archabbey of St. Meinrad. I'm pleased to report that three of us made our final oblation on Saturday April 2. It was a very special day! We all headed up to Indiana that morning with five kids in tow. The kids got a chance to run around outside the guest house for a bit, I was finally able to go to confession (after a failed attempt on Good Friday), we had the oblation ceremony in the chapel of the guest house, and then lunch with the Oblate Director. A few pictures for you:

Oblation ceremony starts

Reading my promises, Silas supervises

Signing my promises

#2
As part of final oblation, we all also took on a new religious name. I thought very carefully about this decision because I have always felt like I did not choose my confirmation name very carefully (it's Mary, so really, it's an excellent choice). For this I really wanted to make sure I chose a patron saint who would be a good guide for me as a Benedictine. I ended up choosing St. Gertrude the Great. Read more about St. Gertrude here. I think she was a wise choice for me. So now I have three incredible patron saints: St. Ann, Mama Mary, and St. Gertrude. Interestingly, my grandmothers' names were Mary and Gertrude.

#3
More pictures!!

Fr. Meinrad, Oblate Director, and the three newest Oblates with our families

Three new Oblates with our Oblate Director

#4
One last word on Benedictine Oblates. We are similar to those who are part of a third order associated with the Dominicans or Carmelites or Franciscans. From what I understand of third orders, they are a part of that order as a lay person and can join a local third order group wherever they happen to live. Benedictine Oblates are actually associated with a specific monastery. So St. Meinrad's will always be my home monastery. That doesn't mean I can't attend a retreat at any other Benedictine monastery, I certainly can. But I'll always be considered a part of the St. Meinrad's community. Stability is one of the major components of Benedictine life and I believe this association with one monastery is a part of living out the virtue of stability as a lay member of the Benedictines.

#5
So, more exciting news!! Many people have already seen this news, but many probably don't know what this means for my future. For those that don't know, on April 1, 2016 I submitted my resignation to the University of Kentucky Libraries. The following Friday, April 8, my dean made it public on his blog. This came as quite a surprise to many, but I've gotten some very positive support ever since I've been able to speak more openly about it.

#6
So what does this mean?? That's been the most asked question I've gotten over the last month and a half. Well ... it means I'll be home with my boys. It's something I never thought I'd do, but started feeling a tug toward it about 3 years ago, and the time was finally right. It took a long time for us to get here and I'm sure I'll have moments of doubt, but overall I know this is what I am supposed to do next. I love my job, I think I'm pretty good at my job, and I've been doing it for 16 years (almost). I think sixteen years a nice long career. I've done a lot in those 16 years, so I have no regrets.

#7
So, what is next? Good question! The twins will be starting Kindergarten this coming fall. They will be attending a classical education school that also happens to be part-time. Not half-day Kindergarten, but a part-time school from Pre-K all the way through High School. They will attend 2 days a week through the 4th grade and 3 days from 5th through 12th grades. So it's a hybrid approach: part-time in school, part-time at home. The best of both worlds, really. While they are in school Silas and I can run errands, go the gym, and have some one-on-one time.

One thing I most enjoy about my job is mentoring staff and students, teaching and training new concepts, new ideas, and helping expand people's thought processes in solving problems. I taught a class in the Library and Information Science School for several semesters a few years back which I also really enjoyed. So I'll still be getting to do some of that with my own children. I've always preferred teaching college/graduate level students and older, and I always said I'd never want to teach anything younger than college. Haha!! God definitely has a sense of humor. I'm confident I'll do fine. We're starting with Kindergarten after all.

Wow!! This is quite the post! I had intended to make this two separate posts, but as I sat down to finally do this and realized that it was Thursday night I figured it would work for a #7QT post for Friday. Looking over this I realize that there is a theme to this post: vocation. Taking on the promises of an oblate is now part of my vocation as a Christian now tied to the Benedictines. My job has felt like a vocation at times (and maybe it has been) but my more important vocation is that of wife and mother. And now I'm finally getting the opportunity to make that my focus full-time. It's scary and exciting all at the same time.

The lesson here, though, is to always be open to God's will for your vocation. You never know where it'll take you! I certainly didn't.

Many thanks to Kelly for hosting the weekly 7QTs over at This Ain't The Lyceum. Go check out her post for many more 7QT posts.

7 Quick Takes, Vol. 55: Breastfeeding, Lactation Challenges, Work, and More

~1~

This week was my first week back at work. I can't say that I was looking forward to it, but it went better than I thought it would. I got back into the swing of things pretty quickly, even attending one meeting and providing an update on my unit's work from the last month. I took some time this week to ignore the administrative part of my job (mostly) and just focus on my main work, the day-to-day stuff that always gets overshadowed by the administrative stuff. It felt good to do those things and this was the perfect week for it.

My suggestion to anyone in a similar boat, when you return to work after a leave, especially a maternity leave, focus first on the part of your job that you love, the part that made you want to do this type of work in the first place. The other stuff can wait. Remember what it is you like about your job and then, once that is back under your fingers like old times, add in the must-do, not-so-fun things. You're welcome.

~2~

One of the challenges going back to work is how to deal with breastfeeding. I didn't have this challenge after the boys were born, so this is all new territory for me. I was worried the baby wouldn't take well to a bottle (because I was slack in taking the advise on how to introduce a bottle starting at 6 weeks) and I was worried about how I was going to have milk for him on my first day back. But it all has worked out. He's apparently taking a bottle fine and I had enough frozen milk for him for his first day. It was just so hard knowing how much to bring. I can't measure what he drinks from me, so how was I supposed to know what he would need? I brought 4 bags of frozen milk that first day and he drank three of them. I believe there were roughly 2-3 ounces in each bag. I had to throw one bag away. That was sad.

~3~

Silas and I have a good schedule though. I feed him first thing in the morning, then I go about getting myself and all our stuff ready for the day, eat breakfast, pack up the car, and then we all head to day care. Once the twins are settled in their room, I then feed Silas in his room before I leave. This has been great to be able to do!! It means that he really only needs two feedings while I'm gone. By the time I pick them all up, I usually take them home and feed Silas as soon as we get there. Thursday was the only day that I ended up feeding him partially at school before we headed home. Otherwise this seems to be working well.

~4~

Pumping at work is interesting. First of all, I do not have a private office. I have a cubicle that sits near the entrance of a heavily used study room and the entrance to a special temperature controlled room for rare or special collections in my library. Inside that room there is actually another door into a professor's office and instead of using the outside door into his office, he uses the Closed Stacks entrance and brings people through the staff area of the library when they come to see him. So, despite my desk being in a back corner where almost no one can see me, it's actually a fairly high traffic area.

All that to say, there is no way I can pump at my desk. I found that the university has four lactation rooms on campus, three on the medical side of campus and one on north campus (where I am). The one in my area is three buildings away. It's not like it's a long walk, but it's not the most convenient spot for me either.

I'm located in the building on the lower part of this map.
The Lactation Room is in the Office Tower on the upper part of the map.

Before I came back to work, I contacted the person who coordinates that room. There are a few people who use it so we had to work out times. I was guessing because I honestly didn't know when I would need to pump. I originally scheduled three slots in that room. At the same time, I asked about any open space in my building, but did not expect an option to be available. Well, much to my surprise something did come up.

~5~

I was so excited to have a place to pump right in my building. It was up on the third floor where another college is located, but they were very gracious in letting me use the space. And it worked beautifully. Until Wednesday. :(

Wednesday I got word that they needed the office I was using for a new faculty member. I could use the room through the end of the week, but they needed it back starting next week. 

Lucky for me, when I had cancelled my scheduled times in the room that was a short walk away, I told the person who coordinates it that if anything changed I would let her know. I just didn't expect to have to contact her so soon.

~6~

Even so, she must think I'm the biggest flake! I emailed her Wednesday afternoon, told her I needed times there again, and asked if I could come see where the room was so I wouldn't be searching for it on Monday. We worked out a schedule again and set up a time for me to meet her on Thursday. Thursday afternoon around 3:00 pm I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to meet her at 1:30 pm. ::sigh::

She was very nice about it though. I just feel like an idiot. Scheduling to use the room, cancelling that, asking to use it again, asking to come see it, forgetting to actually go. Like I said, she probably thinks I'm a flake. I'm almost embarrassed to run into her.

~7~

I think I have a good rhythm down though. Silas eats around 6 am in bed with me. Then around 8:30 am at the day care and then we part ways. I pump around noon and 3 pm and then pick him up around 5 or 5:30. Depending on when he's eaten last, he either eats then before we leave or I take him home and feed him once we get there. So far it's working out well and having two pumping sessions a day instead of three (which is what I originally thought I would need) is going to work well, especially for the various morning meetings I have.

This week has been interesting. I've learned a lot: like that I can get up before 6 am consistently and still function all day. That's been a big surprise! And Silas definitely breastfeeds much more than he eats from a bottle and that will ultimately be best for him, my milk supply, and delaying the return of fertility (hopefully).

There you have it, another Quick Takes post from the slacker blogger. Have a great weekend!! And check out Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes.

Returning to Work

After three months of being off from work (a glorious time!) I had to return on this Monday morning. I wish I had known that I would be losing an hour of sleep the weekend right before I went back or I might have worked it out to be a different day. Oh well, what can you do!

Sunday night I made a list for myself of everything I needed to be sure I brought with me. For your amusement, here is the list:

• Boys' bag with their nap time blankets, the weekly check, and Silas' vaccination form
• The boys' lunch boxes (don't forget to pack food in it too)
• Silas' bag containing:
• diapers
• wipes
• diaper cream
• two changes of clothes
• three bottles
• An extra nursing cover (for me to nurse him there)
• Bags of frozen breast milk for Silas (stick in my lunch bag until we get to day care)
• My work bag
• My purse
• My lunch
• The breast pump
• My water bottle

If you're counting, that's 10 bags or groups of items.

I happened to acquire an extra nursing cover recently. I was going to give it away to one of the many people I know who are expecting and then I realized on Sunday evening that I could still use it. So I have one in my diaper bag that I can use when we are out and about. Now with this second one I can keep it with the stuff Silas needs at school each day and I can feed him there and have a nursing cover with me. I was worried about trying to keep up with my nursing cover and accidentally leaving it home one day or leaving it at school over the weekend. So having a second one ended up working out great!

Monday morning rolled around and I was ready. Or, I hoped I was. I had laid out clothes for myself and all three boys the night before. Plus all the stuff I needed to bring was piled up near the garage door. Here's how the morning went:

5:45 am: Phone alarm goes off. I reach over and turn it off, sit up and groggily look at the clock. Wonder if 5:45 is really necessary and then alarm clock alarm goes off. Decide that 5:45 is necessary. Get up, wake baby and change his diaper.

6:00 am: Bring baby into bed and start feeding him. Check iPod and see message from friend, read it, decide to respond later, bring up Morning Prayer to pray while baby eats.

6:20 am: Baby finishes on one side, burps, proceeds to poop, poop goes up his back due to my hand being right on his butt. Get up again and change his diaper and now also his clothes.

6:25 am: Back in bed and feeding baby on second side. Manage to finish up Morning Prayer.

6:35 am: Baby is done, put him back in bed, go downstairs to pump more milk.

6:45 am: Finish pumping, clean everything so I can take it to work, head back upstairs.

7:00 am: Shower, dress, dry hair, etc.

7:30 am: Join Hubby and the boys who are all already at the kitchen table eating breakfast. Realize that the goal of leaving the house at 7:45 am is probably not going to happen.

7:50 am: Finish up breakfast, go back upstairs to brush teeth and get baby from his crib.

8:00 am: Get baby in car seat, jackets on the boys, start loading all my bags into the car.

8:05 am: Finally pull out of the driveway, Hubby stops on the side of the road to bring the trash cans back around to the back of the house. I pull around him knowing that I'll now get to the day care long before him.

8:20 am (or thereabouts): Get to the day care, unload everybody and everything, get to the door and realize that I have forgotten the code again. Nice mom pulling out of the parking lot sees me and tells me what it is. Phew!

8:25 am: Drop off baby and his bag in his room, tell the teachers I'll be right back down, bring check and form to office, take boys upstairs to their room. Hubby shows up to say good bye to the boys.

8:30 am: Hubby and I are back in Silas' room, get everything squared away, say good bye to Hubby, I sit down to feed Silas one last time.

8:55 am: I leave the day care.

9:15 am: I finally find a parking spot and start walking to my building.

9:30 am: I walk into the library. Wonder if maybe 5:45 am isn't early enough. Can I do 5:30 am tomorrow?

By the time I got to work I had had a full day already!! I will say it hasn't been too bad yet. I've had one pumping session so far and I'm praying Silas has enough of my milk for the day. Feeding him when I dropped him off helps. I am hoping he will only need two feedings until I can pick him up again.

I have lots of catch up on. My desk kind of says it all:

Yes, somewhere back there is my desk. You can see the computer monitor off to the right. In front are two book trucks (with the breast pump sitting on top of one of them). Unfortunately, all that clutter, piles of papers, and other crap stuff is not a result of my being off the last three months. Sadly it often looks like this.

What you also don't see are the walls of bookshelves on two sides full of CDs, scores, dissertations and theses, books, and various cataloging tools and reference manuals. Obviously there is plenty to keep me busy.

With that said, I must get back to it. Hope you enjoyed the rundown of my first morning back to work. 

[This post was written in haste and for your amusement. If you are bothered by typos, misspellings, or grammatical failures, please keep them to yourself. Or, if you must say them aloud, share them with a friend as long as that friend is not me. My tired brain thanks you.]

7 Quick Takes Friday, v. 54

~1~

Once again, I have gone many months without doing a 7 Quick Takes post here. I've done a few over at Catholic Sistas, but not on my little humble blog. So I thought I'd have a crack at it again while I have a little time. By the way, there is a 7 Quick Takes post at Catholic Sistas today, but not by me. I'm working at trying to share the fun of these posts with the other writers. So one of my fellow ink slingers took a crack at this month's post and she put together a list of 7 meatless meals that do not include seafood or pasta. Love that idea! I'm definitely one who gravitates to seafood or pasta on meatless days. Go on over there and check it out!

~2~

My boys are getting so big and they are constantly surprising us with what they say and what they know and what they do. I love hearing them talk. First of all it is just too darn cute whether you can understand them or not. Not too long ago we were sitting down to eat, the boys were in their seats with their food already in front of them. I was still in the working part of the kitchen when the following conversation happened:

Peter: Bunnies [pointing at the kitchen counter]

Me: Bunnies?

Peter: No, bunnies! [very emphatic pointing at nothing I could see]

Me: Where are bunnies?

Peter: No, bunny. Bunnies!

Ethan [now apparently catching on]: Bunnies!

I finally figured out that they meant vitamins. Don't ask me how I finally got "vitamins" out of "bunnies."

~3~

The boys also now have two favorite DVDs that they constantly want to watch. They would watch these two DVDs all day long if we let them (which we don't, just to clarify). I don't mind them watching since they are also educational. One is The Letter Factory and the other Numberland, both by Leap Frog. The boys ask for them as "ABCD" and "number." They are also learning some of their letters at day care. Between these DVDs, day care, and the little tiny bit of review we do with them, I'm amazed at how much they are retaining. They did the letter "H" at day care recently and will now tell us "Letter H, hu, hu." They'll point to an "S" and say "sssss" like a snake and they seem to have a special affinity for the letter "A." They aren't even three yet!

~4~

As for numbers, they can count to ten and usually stay in order. More often than not they skip the number 7, but everything else makes it in there.

~5~

Let me just add, we did not set out to have our kids learn their letters and numbers at such an early age. I bought the DVDs figuring they would enjoy them but not really pay a whole lot of attention quite yet. It really is amazing what little you can do for your kids to learn so much!

~6~

Baby Silas (or Baby Sassy, as the boys say) and I went for a walk today. My last weekday home alone with him and we finally manage to get out for a walk. There is still some ice in places and there are mounds of snow on the grass where it was shoveled into big piles, but it felt like spring. I think it was around 60 degrees when we were out. It felt so good!! 

~7~

So, yes, I go back to work on Monday. I'm really going to miss the time I had home with Silas. Especially now that the weather is finally warming up again. I already sent an email to my unit to cancel a meeting we have every Monday morning. I need time to get used to things again and not go right in for a meeting first thing. I've been out for long periods of time before, many longer than this one, but I think this one is going to be the hardest to come back from. Pray for me in this transition, please.

This 7 Quick Takes post is linked up at Conversion Diary in the 7 Quick Takes carnival. Check it out for more 7 Quick Takes from tons of other bloggers.

7 Quick Takes Friday, v. 53

~1~

I hadn't realized that I had been neglecting 7 Quick Takes. My last one was in March. This is July!! I've been doing some on Catholic Sistas once a month, but not here. Oh well, my brain only stretches so far.

~2~

We had a retreat at work on Thursday. As part of the day we had "lightning talks." Basically a series of talks by different presenters, each presentation being 5 minutes or less. When you hit your 5 minutes, you get gonged and your presentation is over. Whether you were done or not. I was one of the lucky ones to do a presentation. I was asked by my supervisor to organize one for the team I manage, which meant I was going to be doing the presenting. So I collected the info, made a PowerPoint, practiced, edited it down A LOT, and timed myself some more. I got it down to 4:30 or 4:45. But during the actual presentation, I must have slowed my speech down a little. I got gonged. Luckily I was only one slide from the end anyway, so I got most of my info in. 5 minutes goes by FAST!!

~3~

My boys are so cute! I love seeing their personalities coming out more and more. Peter has this thing with lining things up. And he's so proud of himself when he finishes. All the cars in the toy basket and anything else that he can get to work, all end up in a straight line across the floor or on the couch or wherever he finds a spot. He has even started lining up his food, plate, and cup when we're at the table. The funniest part is watching Ethan's reaction to all this. He either completely ignores it and does his own thing, which is nice, no arguments. Or he steals one item from Peter's line and Peter goes ballistic. I swear Ethan is purposely antagonizing his brother. Yet, on some occasions Ethan starts helping Peter out. At those times, Peter is good about it and lets him. I love watching them when Ethan helps Peter line up all the toys. It's so cute to watch them working together so well.

~4~

House update: The basement carpets have been cleaned and it looks like the second floor carpets will be replaced early next week. Yay!! I'm looking forward to a clean look. Now I just have to go over their sometime and clean the rest of the floors. There is so much dog hair and other crap all over those floors. Ugh, I hate it. 

~5~

It's been on my mind for a while now to write a post about the phases of our lives and how that impacts our ability to be more or less active in our parishes. This has been swirling around in my brain for a while after having conversations with two different friends at two different times. I've been thinking about it more tonight because Hubby and I recently started discussing whether or not we want to get more involved in something at our parish. The timing seems all wrong, but at the same time a lot of other things seem to be lining up in favor of this. So I'm not too sure yet. But it is getting me thinking again about that post idea. Maybe I'll try to make that my Saturday post. [Don't hold your breath.]

~6~

Can you believe I have posted 5 days in a row?? I haven't posted this much all year! It's been fun, not too stressful, but still a challenge to do. I don't think I'm a post-a-day kind of girl. The weekend is going to be my biggest challenge (maybe I can get two posts written on Friday night). So I've learned so far that I can post a little more frequently and it doesn't seem overly stressful to do so, but daily is not going to ever be my strong suit.I think 2-3 times a week is probably my max. But this has been fun as an experiment.

~7~

And speaking of the weekend, I hope everyone has a good one! We will be going to a birthday party on Saturday and then spending the rest of the day packing as much as we can and taking things over to the new house. Although Hubby may be ripping out carpet, so I may just be home with the boys and packing what I can. Next week is going to be the big push!

For more Quick Takes, check out Conversion Diary!

Random Updates for a Wednesday

Random Picture for a Random Post

I have a post in my head that I still need to flesh out a bit more. My goal is to get it down for a Thursday post.

Let's call that update number one.

More fun update: I'm 20 weeks today!!! Half way into the pregnancy! Does that mean my baby is half-baked? Just kidding!! I'm anxious to find out how things are going but I have another week to wait before the next ultrasound. Otherwise, still feeling good, no major issues.

We successfully closed on our new house on Monday. Yay! Before we can move in though we are having a few things done. Monday afternoon I met someone from a carpet place at the house so he could measure our whole second floor. We should have new carpet installed on the stairway and throughout the second story by early next week. I also got hold of a friend who owns a carpet cleaning company with her husband and he's coming over this afternoon to clean the carpet in the basement.

Hubby also contacted a granite person who is coming out next Monday to check out our interesting sink situation and see if he can match up the granite. The current sink is massive (and ugly) so we know the hole cut in the granite is too big to do anything to it. We have pretty much decided that the whole section of granite there needs to be replaced. We'll see what the guy says on Monday. When we talked to him last week he agreed with us just based on how we described it. I think our experience in remodeling a kitchen in our previous house has come in handy with talking to a professional about this situation. We actually know what we're talking about.

The moving has also begun. Hubby took a load of stuff over to the house tonight. Once we get the basement carpets cleaned I'm ready to start bringing anything and everything we can over. The basement will be the best place to stack things for now and we have tons of storage space down there.

My parents are coming up next week to help out. I'm looking forward to it! They'll be here for my ultrasound as well which will be fun. Er mostly fun. It's not really a "fun" ultrasound, but usually they take some time to take a quick look at the baby before we do the "not-so-fun" ultrasound.

The boys have no clue what is going on. Everything we have done so far has been while they are sleeping or at school. We took them to the house on Sunday for the final walk through, but for them it was just a big empty house to run around in. Next week we'll pick them up from school and take them to the new house and they'll be rather confused. I'm curious how they are going to react. They were only 8 or 9 months old the last time we did this.

Final bit of randomness, I have a presentation to do on Thursday at an employee retreat for the entire library system I work for. Not sure how many people that is, but I'm guessing it's around 200?? Anyway, my talk is one of ten "lightening" talks. We get five minutes and no more. They will actually have someone timing the talks and they have a gong they'll hit when your time is up. I thought it would be easy since mine was going to be mostly pictures with just a few words from me. But I started practicing it today. Not easy! I set a timer on my iPod Touch and during the first run through the timer went off with 4-5 slides still to go. I had to cut it down more than I thought. I think I have it down now to around 4:30 to 4:45. In order to do that I have to stick to my script and not get distracted. I'm used to presenting, but not in such a short span of time. I always write out a script or a semblance of a script but I always practice with the idea that I can go off script at times or as needed. Can't do that this time, at all!!

Thursday should be interesting!

I really need to take more pictures. I really need a new iPod that comes with a camera. My current one is old ... no camera. If you don't mind, leave me a comment explaining to Hubby all the benefits of having an iPod with a camera feature on it. (Neither of us have smartphones nor do we have plans to get them; also remember there will be a new baby arriving in December, you don't want to have to wait until we get out of the hospital for pictures, do you?)

That's all the randomness for today. You can thank Jen's "7 posts in 7 days" challenge for bringing on this randomness.

Tuesday Ten: Truly Random

Another installment of a Tuesday Ten and I have to tell you that this is the first time I'm going into it completely blind. There was no thought given to this post at all until just about 10 seconds ago.

Ever want to know how a person's brain really works? This might give you some insight into mine.

Maybe. It might just prove once and for all that I have no thought process at all in regards to anything. Totally empty up there in the old noggin.

Sometimes it feels like nothing is going on up there. Especially when I sit down to write. I really do like writing, but I spend so much time using my brain for other things that writing becomes hard. It's an outlet for creativity but I have nothing left to give it.

I thought about that some on my drive home from work on Monday. I had a hair appointment Monday afternoon (rescheduled from Friday). So I had to leave work, go to the appointment, and then go back into work. I was half hoping that I'd have a little extra time and be able to stop at the grocery store after the appointment, grab a few things, run them by the house, and still make it back to work by 3:00 or so. But I've been going to the same hair dresser for like 6 or 7 years now, so my appointments are never short and sweet. We chat about our kids mostly and before I knew it, it was almost 3 when I walked out of there.

So I get back to work (and luckily found a parking spot--one of the dangers of leaving campus in the middle of the day with the plan to actually come back ... crazy, I know!) and it's about 3:15. I immediately dived into some tasks I was helping another librarian with. These are things I am not used to doing. I'm filling in on an as needed basis for a librarian who is on sabbatical (remember that sabbatical I took, yep, payback time!). So I'm working on her stuff and I was kind of getting into it. Plus emails still come in and other things pop up that I have to handle, but mostly it was this one task.

And here's the thing about that one task ... it was something different. I enjoyed it! I get kind of bogged down in doing the same thing in my job all the time, as much as I like my job, it is nice to do something I'm not used to doing.

But that wasn't the point (sorry, randomness ensuing), I got so into what I was doing that before I knew it, it was after 5. By the time I packed up and headed out the door it was 5:20. Get to the car, get to the daycare, get the boys into the car (that's always a task!!), get home, immediately start helping hubby with dinner, change a diaper, eat dinner and try to get the boys to eat their dinner, and then suddenly, because of the lateness that I left work which caused our arrival home and dinner to be late, it is now bath time and bedtime. Phew!! I felt like I did nothing but run, run, run from 3 o'clock on.

But that wasn't all. I felt the need to also do a load of laundry (okay, it actually did need to be done) and go to the grocery store.

And somehow I still decided to write a ten minute post for Tuesday before going to bed. Which, of course, took loner than ten minutes. Maybe I should change these posts to Friday Fifteen. Ha!

7 Quick Takes Friday, vol. 46

~1~

I still cannot believe what I saw on my way home from work Thursday evening. I stupidly took a wrong turn out of the boys' daycare and ended up circling around the nearby park to get back around to where I really wanted to be. This meant driving down a section of road that I'm not usually on. It's a nice area, lots of brick townhomes, several cottage style old houses, and plenty of big trees. It's pretty close to downtown, probably in walking distance to things on the east side of town. So as I turned onto this road, up ahead I could see what looked like a very large dog on a lease. It caught my attention because I thought it might be a Great Dane but wasn't quite sure. As I got closer I realized it wasn't a dog at all. No, it was either a small pony or a miniature horse. On a lease. Out for a walk. Um, what? I know this is KY, but who keeps a pet horse in downtown where there are tiny yards, if you even have a yard? I'm still stunned. And find it hilarious at the same time.

~2~

Okay, I had to go do some internet searching and apparently having miniature horses as pets is not that unusual. Who knew! There is even a book about owning these cool pets.

~3~

Dexterity game on a pendant

We have a very interesting collection of materials at my library. They are called Artists' books. They are works of art, but also considered books. In some cases the definition of book is rather loose. I've been working on cataloging these which gives me the opportunity to see them. I worked on one Thursday that is actually a dexterity game. You know those little plastic containers that had some sort of picture inside with little holes in it and some tiny little copper balls rolling around inside? The objective was to get all the balls into the various holes. This book opened up to show 12 of these little tiny dexterity games lined up together. Each had three balls inside to get into the little holes. Definitely doesn't look like a book, but very cool nonetheless. I love discovering these unique items. It's one of those things that makes my job cool.

~4~

And speaking of my job, something else that makes my job cool is seeing how very divergent fields can intersect with each other. I received a phone call Thursday from a librarian over in our Medical Center Library. Someone over in the College of Medicine was looking for a speaker for something they were doing who could speak on the healing powers of art and music as influenced by nature, or some such thing. She couldn't get hold of the music librarian, so she called me. We talked for a bit and then I was able to finally come up with a name of someone she could contact. [Surprised myself that I actually could even name someone on campus that could speak on that topic.] Got an email from her later in the day that the person I suggested was on board and was getting someone to speak with her about the art side of things. How cool is that! I love seeing how something like music and medicine can actually work well together. They seem so different, but they have much to learn from each other.

~5~

I don't know what was up with my drive home Thursday evening (see #1) but as I pulled into my neighborhood an ice cream truck pulled in just in front of me. He turned towards my street and proceeded to drive about 5 mph with me tailing behind him. I prayed that he would pass by my street and felt pretty confident that he didn't have a reason to turn down into my little cul-de-sac of 5 houses. But alas, he turned and I followed him at a painfully slow pace. And then he stopped, right in front of my driveway! Seriously?? I had to honk my horn to get him to move. And why is he even in my neighborhood? I think he'd get a bit more business in a neighborhood that had more children in it, which is currently not the case in my neighborhood.

~6~

We went to visit my family last weekend. It was so nice and the boys did well on the 6 hour drive down and back. They are still hesitant around strangers (and anyone they haven't seen in a long time is basically a stranger) but getting better. A few pictures from the weekend:

Cousin Caroline shows Peter how it's done

Ethan likes listening to his brother and cousins play the piano

Anna gets to meet her aunt for the first time

Ethan learns that Papa is a little crazy

~7~

Walking is in our future! I can see it. My boys are so funny! Peter took a couple steps at my parent's house this weekend. We got all excited and then that was it. He tried to walk a few more times but was so excited about doing it that he couldn't balance himself and kept falling forward. Ethan apparently had no interest. But once we were home, Peter tried a few more times, got a couple steps in once or twice, and then went back to falling over each time from over excitement. Silly boy! Then the other night, he tried again and Hubby and I burst into applause to encourage him. Ethan started clapping with us. After a few times of this I think Ethan realized why we were clapping so he started trying to stand up on his own. He didn't try taking any steps, it was just the standing up part that excited him. And oh my, the excitement on his face as he slowly balanced himself on those two little feet! Precious!

Finally, Thursday night Ethan actually took a few steps towards me. We clapped for him and he LOVED it! He immediately crawled back to where dad was sitting in the rocking chair, climbed up to a standing position, turned himself around to face me, and took a few steps before falling into my arms. We had such a good time cheering him on and he repeated the process a few more times. By the end his excitement had grown so much he couldn't even steady himself enough to stand up without falling over. 

Yes, walking is just around the corner! Any day now. 

For more Quick Takes posts, visit Jen at Conversion Diary.

Love Mondays!

Okay, I know. I'm crazy. But really, Mondays are much better days for me than Tuesdays. And I'm already guaranteeing that this Tuesday is going to get off to a less than desirable start because I'm up late writing this post. But what can you do!

This Monday was a superb day and let me tell you why:

First, I decided that lugging two babies into daycare in their infant carriers was just too much work. So I carried one in the carrier and took one in my arms and into the building we went. I think I saved a few minutes of time too!

Score one for me!

Second, I got some incredibly awesome, make-me-smile-all-day, happiest news ever shortly after I got into work this morning. Seriously it made my day and it was just past 9am.

Can't score that one, I didn't do anything. Just good news!

Third, I think I need long breaks from work on a more regular basis. I don't dread the "problem" piles on my desk as much, the problems get fixed and don't seem nearly as scary as they did when I had a lot more on my mind. I'm also more creative in some of my decision making and suggestions for future projects. So I think this means I need to get pregnant again!

Score two for me! [And no, I'm not pregnant.]

Fourth, we had a child actually use a sippy cup tonight! Did Hades freeze over? Are pigs actually flying in Cincinnati? Did the university actually put together a winning football team? [My apologies to the UK fans, but you know I'm right.] Finally the fifth type of sippy cup we bought clicked for one of them. Hallelujah! So Ethan may be able to handle a sippy cup or at least he knows what is in it. Peter on the other hand is at least starting to hold a bottle although only if he sits in your lap tilted back, lazy-boy style as Hubby calls it.

I'm taking two on this one. Score four for me!

How was your Monday?

Just a Cataloger

My first week back at work went really well.

I had only one meeting that ended up being only about 20 minutes, probably because it was a meeting I was in charge of and I had nothing to to talk about. Two people in my unit were also out last week so there were only three of us in the meeting.

I also made a couple decisions on some big projects and got quick agreement from others involved. I think the decisions came from a fresh perspective after being away for 6 months. I didn't have any of the every day stuff weighing on my mind and could more clearly see the problem and how to best tackle it. It felt good too. I need to do that more often with big decisions.

I also just did a lot of cataloging and not much else. My job is divided up into several components: x% for this, y% for that, z% for this other thing and so on. My percentages include things like professional development, research, administration, and primary assignment. [That's four, there should be five, but I can't think of the fifth right now.] My primary assignment is as a cataloger and my percentage is somewhere around 60% of my time. It's pretty high, but in reality I probably spend less than that on actual cataloging tasks. That percentage is more of an ideal than a reality. Sadly.

So yeah ... why do we have a backlog? Um, yeah.

Anyway, I spent the majority of my time during my first week back just cataloging. It felt good to be just a cataloger. That is the work I like. No meetings, no timesheets, no statistics, no reports to write, and no training, teaching, or reviewing other's work; just cataloging.

It was the best way to get back into the swing of things. Already on Monday of week two I spent my entire morning in a meeting, gathering timesheets, and tracking down statistics sheets. I only spent my last hour and a half, maybe two hours, doing any cataloging.

But I'm glad my first week was the way it was. And it is a good reminder of why I really do like my job. Even if I spend a lot of time doing other things. I like those times when I am just a cataloger.

Image source morgueFile

Unproductive Day, Might as well Blog

After my radio interview on Friday I was going to write up a post about a thought I had during and after the interview.  Still planning on that (hopefully later this week) but right now I feel the need to share about my unproductive day instead.

That sounds boring, doesn't it?  But stick with me, hear me out a little ...

We had a rough weekend, the boys have been sick.  Actually, back up, *I* was sick last week, Ethan started to seem a little down on Friday, by Saturday it was obvious he was sick as well.  Peter has a runny nose and was a little fussy over the weekend, but mostly in a good mood.

Which brings us to Monday.  I finally feel well for the first time in 5 days.  Yay!!  Despite my sickness last week I took advantage of the boys being in daycare to work on my sabbatical project.  I did pretty well, despite the sickness.  Monday should have been productive as well.

"Should" being the operative word!  And so the story goes ...

Have to remind myself what my
healthy, happy boys look like.
So cute!

I know when I go to get the boys up Monday morning that they are not going to daycare.  Ethan continues to be fussy, gets upset at the slightest things, and once he starts crying he seems bothered by everything around him.  Poor guy, he makes me so sad.

Lots of crying during breakfast, clinging to mom during the morning, crying anytime Peter touches him ... I find it exhausting.  Both boys are in their cribs for a morning nap BEFORE 10 am.

That was probably partly because they needed it and partly because *I* needed it.  Sometimes you got to do what you got to do.

They slept for an hour ... better than nothing.

More play time, lunch (which means more crying), back to playtime (and crying), and then the doorbell rang.

With two boys crying down in the playroom someone from the electric company is here to install the conservation stuff on our air conditioners.  Not a big deal, it's outside, thankyouverymuch, and goodbye.

More clinging to mom, wiping noses, throw in a load of laundry, start looking at the clock to see if another nap time is in order.  It's only 12:30.

Doorbell rings again.  Apparently the breaker switch on one AC unit is now broken.  This means the AC is not working until someone can come out to fix it.  Greeeeeeeeeeeeat!

Finally just before 2pm, I put the boys down for another nap.  There's more whining going on from two obviously sleepy boys when the doorbell rings again.  At least I know the AC will be fixed!!  With the boys cries carrying through the house via the strategically placed baby monitor in our front hall, the electrician comes in and I take him to the electrical box where he discovers that the circuits aren't all labeled, but he tries one anyway and heads outside.

I run upstairs knowing that there are probably four pacifiers scattered across the boys' room and just as I get them both settled again I hear the electrician come in and call for me.  I just want to yell "Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!"  Luckily I don't.

Anyway, he gets the circuits worked out, labels them for the next guy that will need them, and heads back outside.  By 2:30 he is done, ACs are all working, and the boys are finally asleep.

Work on sabbatical project or give up for the day??  That is the question.

My answer: give up.  

Procrastination wins again!

Thankfully, the boys are starting to seem a bit better and my hope is that they will be well enough to go back to daycare on Tuesday.  I should also feel back to 100% and then I can dive back in.  That gives me four days to make some good headway on this project before I go back to working in my office.  Once I am back at work I can continue to work on this project, but it will be along with all my other responsibilities.

Oh responsibility, how I have not missed thee.

Another Week+ in the Books

It has been busy in our household lately.  LOTS going on these days.

First off, last week the boys had a birthday and got to have a cupcake for the first time:

Not quite sure what to do with it

They also got a red wagon from Nanny and Papa:

Enjoying the new wagon with Papa

And little ride-on trains from Grandma and Grandpa:

Checking out the new trains, they make lots of fun noises!

Birthday parties are fun.  But try having one with 40 extra people in your house and two babies who are in a "stranger anxiety" phase.  Phew!!  Those poor boys didn't know what was going on.  (It was fun though, for us!)

Then over last weekend my brother and his girlfriend got engaged!!  Add another wedding to our family calendar!  Right now my sister is getting married next May and now we'll have a second wedding sometime after that.  We are all excited and happy for them!

Monday I spent all morning with the phone by my side waiting to hear the news that I had a new niece or nephew.  My other sister was having her third c-section that morning.  It was the first of her three kids where I wasn't sitting in the waiting room with everyone else.  I'm used to missing things like this because of the distance I live away from them, but this one I had really wanted to be there.  So it made me kind of sad that I couldn't be.  I finally got the call around noon or so and learned I had a new niece.  And she's so cute!!  Looks just like her older sister.

On top of an engagement and a new baby, my dad officially retired (for the second time) on Tuesday.

It was a big few days for my family!

On Wednesday the boys went for their 12 month appointment.  Overall they are healthy, got one shot, got some medication for eczema, and mom got a boost of reassurance that she's still doing this mothering thing okay.

(And really, that reassurance is the most important part of why we take our kids to the doctor, right?  Or is that just me?  Don't answer that.)

Quick stats: Peter is 19 pounds (b/t 10th-25th percentile) and 29 inches (25th percentile).  Ethan is 19 pounds 6 ounces (25th percentile) and 28 1/8 inches (10th percentile).  My small kids have big heads though (not surprising given my family genes).  At 47 cm (Ethan) and 46 1/2 cm (Peter), they are both in the 75th percentile.  LOL!!!

Thursday I finished my annual column for my professional journal and submitted it to my editor.  DONE!!!  I always hesitate pushing that "send" button in my email.  Is it really done?  Did I proof it enough?  Should I go back and check all my numbers and math again for the eleventybillionth time?  (And yes, that is a word, don't go looking it up.)

Also on Thursday we had new cabinets put in our kitchen on a few blank wall spaces.  I have a few before and after pictures, but they are still on my camera.  So I'll save those for another post.

Thursday night and into the early hours of Friday morning I banged my head furiously against the keyboard published another submission on Catholic Sistas.  Check it out, our debut post into the 7 Quick Takes fun.  Our creator wanted to join the 7 Quick Takes series but didn't have a clear vision for it, so I threw out some ideas and ended up with the assignment.  It was fun.  I took a poll of all the contributors and posted the results.  A fun way to get to know the blog's writers.  And watch for more (not every Friday though).

Friday was an important day!  It was the day of the Stand up for Religious Freedom Rallies held all across this great nation.  The boys and I attended the one in our town and we had a great turnout.  I heard later that day that there were approximately 275 people there.  I saw lots of people I knew and heard some great speakers.  The boys did great for the hour and a half we stood downtown in the sun.  They were comfy in their stroller with the shade up, but it was still hot.  I fed them cheerios and then rolled the stroller back and forth and they eventually fell asleep.  Very proud of my sons for attending their first political protest rally at just a year old!

The boys chilling out at the rally.
*Photo courtesy of Cindy Olson (c) 2012*

Following the rally and the walk back to the car (I was parked several blocks away in a University employee lot I located on a map that morning, the closest one I could find to downtown) I was HOT!  The boys were sleeping and I wanted to listen to a radio interview that was going to start in about 15 minutes.  Solution: pack everyone into the car, drive to Dairy Queen, hope the boys fall asleep, and listen to the interview in the car.

And that's what I did.  I went through the drive-thru and then sat in the car in their parking lot, AC on full blast, and listened to a friend do an interview on a nationally broadcast program on Relevant Radio.  It was a good interview too.  The creator of the blog Catholic Sistas was being interviewed.  It was fun to listen and I laughed at the callers who called in with questions.  Their names and places they were from clued me in that they were all contributors as well.  You can still listen to the interview by clicking here and choosing one of the links for June 8.  Martina did great!  Go listen if you have time.  No, not "if", I take that back: find time and listen!  That's an order!

Some friends I hadn't seen in a while were back in town for a short visit.  So they stopped by on Friday afternoon and visited for a bit.  It was fun to see them and to see how much their three boys have grown!

That pretty much concluded our busy week.  The boys are home with me one more week and then they start daycare the following week.  I go back to working full-time in the office two weeks later.  Which means two weeks of working full-time at home with no interruptions.  Hopefully I can concentrate on work and not get distracted by running an errand or cleaning something I know needs cleaning or folding a load of laundry that I had done the night before, etc.

If you've made it all the way to the end of this novel of a post, thanks for reading!  Have a great weekend!

7 Quick Takes Friday, vol. 42

~1~

I finally finished revising a project that has been hanging over my head for 7 or 8 months.

Finally!!

~2~

No, it is not my sabbatical project.

Unfortunately.  ::sigh::

~3~

I have a small contribution to a larger reference book that was supposed to be published in 2009 or 10.

It's been so long, I've forgotten when the original publication date was!

~4~

It got delayed so long it was really hard to go back to edit, revise, and remember how and why things were set up the way they were.  

And searching in databases!!  I forgot how frustrating that can be!!

~5~

Thankfully my section editor had her assistant go over a portion of my list for me.

I wouldn't be done now otherwise!  Thank goodness for assistants!! ::happydance::

~6~

But ... I had to torture myself go look and I see that the publication date is now Spring 2012.

Hmmmm ...

~7~

Regardless, I'm done with my part!!  I hope no one asks me to revisit this list again any time soon.

Must. Get. Back. To. Sabbatical. Project.

For more Quick Takes with maybe a bit more substance to them than this one, and probably far more interesting too, check out Conversion Diary by Jen Fulwiler, Quick Takes hostess extraordinaire!

7 Quick Takes Friday, vol. 37, The Late Edition

-- 1 --

So much has been going on and thus I haven't posted on my blog in almost a month!!  Here is one of the reasons why:

We sold our house!!

-- 2 --

We are now renters!  We closed on our house, but are still living here.  We were given 30 days from the closing to move which worked out great for us. We close on the new house a week from today and then we will start the moving process.  Let the packing begin!!

-- 3 --

In a January Quick Takes post I shared how Ethan was pushing himself up on his toes but I had no pictures at the time.  I do now!!

Ethan doing his push ups.

A floor view.

-- 4 --

We have had such a mild winter, as I imagine many people around the country have had.  We have flowers already blooming in our yard.  These were from a few days ago when it was still February:

-- 5 --

A midst the packing and house closings and taking pictures of my boys, I also have a sabbatical project I'm working on.  Yesterday I posted an update at the two month mark on the blog I set up for the project.  If you're interested in what I'm working on and how it is going you can check it out here: Two Months Gone, Four To Go.  (And feel free to look around at the different pages I have there and "Follow" the blog if you are so inclined.)

-- 6 --

Also written yesterday but posted today was a bit about the challenges I have while working on this sabbatical project.  I have several purposes for why I have a sabbatical blog.  One of those is to journal about the project so I have a record of things for when I need to produce something later: an article, presentation, report, whatever.  So that's why I have a post that seems a bit more about my life than it does about the project.  For readers of this blog, this post may also explain why I haven't been posting much here lately: Sabbatical Challenges.

-- 7 --

Finally, the boys are nine months old now!!  A couple pictures for your amusement:

Feb. 29, close enough to being 9 months old!
Peter on left, Ethan on right.

Peter has discovered that he can climb things.  Ethan isn't quite sure what to make of it.

Peter's climbing antics include over his brother.  He knows no bounds.

Enjoy the weekend!!  For more Quick Takes visit Conversion Diary!