7 Quick Takes for September

1.  My brother and sister-in-law have some chickens.  I try to be brave around them.  Mostly that means not peeing my pants when one of them charges me.  But they are really awesome, because: EGGS!  Chickens are undoubtedly not demons, I just need to overcome my urge towards fight or flight when one of them stares at me with its beady eye.

 

 

2. Meet the new Quaker Oats spokesboy: 

 

 

3.  Evidence of little-girlhood travels with me in the back seat.  I might be one of those women who, when her children are grown, fills her vehicle with stuffed animals.  I always thought a rear dash full of beanie babies was proof of insanity, but now, I think I have the right of it: these are women who miss their children and all the toys they used to haul around with them.  That empty space must be filled.  Enter: beanie babies.  But you should feel free to tell me I'm being ridiculous when that day comes.  I'll just go home and play with my cats and birds and ferrets, so it won't hurt my feelings too badly.

 

 

 

 

4.  Meet the new Frying-pan-as-shower-accessory spokesboy:

 

(When I posted this photo to Facebook, my cousin Julie quipped: 'What in the world goes on at that house?!'  I still don't have an answer for her.)

 

5.  This is an iconic, end-of-summer, late-of-day photo, right?  Girls -- cousins -- chasing across fields, away from the lowering sun.  Can you hear them yelling?

 

 

 

6.  This man is my husband.  I know; I still can't believe it's true, either.  The charisma, the charm, the tenderness....all mine.  It's okay to be jealous.

 

 

 

 

7.  She reads.  I swoon.  The end. 

 

Conversion Diary has the Quick Takes -- but you know this, right?

Some Quickety Quick Takes for July

1.  A new blog friend, Julie, recently got some terrible news about her daughter, Taylor.  At her 18-month check-up, the doctor found a mass in her abdomen which turned out to be an inoperable spinal tumor.  There's a facebook page set up for her --  Praying for Taylor -- and if you've got a minute to add your prayers and thoughts (or donations), I know they'd appreciate it. 

On top of Taylor's new medical concerns and treatments, Julie delivered a sweet baby boy by (horrific) emergency c-section last week, the day before Taylor's first chemo treatment.  The baby is still in the NICU, waiting to be held for the first time.  I just can't imagine shouldering this kind of burden, and I want to shower Julie with love right now.  Let's pray, shall we?



2.  Right now, our house is clean, organized, and calm.  Except for the clean part.  And the calm.  But organized!  We've GOT THAT!  Because things are going in boxes with labels.  The house closing is in two weeks (ack!), and I figure that I've got to get started little by little or I'll be frantic trying to get us out of here in time.  Which makes me think Oh, gosh -- we won't be living HERE anymore.  Which makes me start to cry.  Packing is doing weird things to my emotions. 

Also, I know nothing about packing for a move.  Like, I'm sure there are some things I should keep unpacked until the very end, but I can't seem to think what those things would be...any tips?


3.  One thing we definitely aren't packing yet?  Landon's frying pan.

It's mandatory in his daily play schedule, even more so than the Barbie cars.



4.  And we won't pack the camera.  Because then, what would Landon race towards at baby-warp-speed?  I really think he'd offer me his binkie in return for sole custody of the camera lens.

5.  Dripping watermelon on the front porch steps.  This is where it's at for a long summer day.

6.  The cat thinks so, too.  (And I think this photo might be on my list of ALL TIME favorites. Right?)

7.  Yesterday, Yahoo ran a story about a British man who, irritated with his girlfriend's attraction to Fifty Shades of Grey, assaulted her with a bottle of 'A1' Steak Sauce.  While the story was odd and comical (probably not for the sauced girlfriend), it was the comments at the bottom of the page that had me rolling.  Here are a few of my favorites:

There's really nothing like a pun to make me happy.



More Quick Takes are hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary -- check 'em out!

7 Quick Takes for InstaFriday

1.  Now that summer is here, we are here: 

I think my parents like having a swimming pool because it allows them to have a house FILLED with kids and grandkids and nieces and nephews every weekend.  And telling myself that helps me feel better about loitering there all summer long. 

2.  I purposefully chose a filter that would make my golden, tanned legs look ghostly in this photo.  Honestly...

But the cat seems not to mind the perpetualwhiteness.  He circles my feet and trips me up no matter the pale.  (What IS that with cats?  The way they make you step all over them because they can't stand to be more than a whisker's-width away from your ankles?  I love the boy, but gah.  I need SPACE!)

3.  See?  Here again.  This day, Landon was the only boy in a pool full of 7 ladies.  He splashed them as little brothers should.  They adored it as big sisters of beautiful babies should.  But give it another two years, and I think his adorable splashing won't be quite so well-received. 

4.  There's a new ice cream parlor south of town on a winding, narrow highway.  It's attached to a family-owned chocolate shop.  They also bake sweet cinnamon rolls.  And sell fresh milk from a local dairy.  In short, I'd like my ashes scattered there when I die, because it stands for everything delicious in this cruel, cruel world. 

Oh, and their bubble-gum ice cream is like pink heaven on a spoon.

5.  The girls simply cannot get enough of Landon right now.  He's 8 months old, starting  to crawl, learning how to make us laugh, and smells like babies mixed with utopia smothered in perfection.  Really, we're all having trouble keeping our hands offa him. 

6.  When the sisters are naughty, I make them stand over a hot, soapy sink until they can either admit how wonderful their mother is for accomplishing this task daily, or they promise never to argue again. 

Just kidding.  (Although the arguing thing isn't a bad idea...)  Mia has started pleading with me to let her help wash the dishes.  Something about bubbles and splashing and boredom makes this a desirable task.  I really can't say no, right?  It's like a dream come true!

7.  Somehow, Mia ended up with a scratched cornea this week.  The eye doctor explained it as something closer to a divot, really -- a scoop of cornea damaged by...we don't know what.  But it was excruciating for my sweet girl, who screamed for me to make the pain stop.  She's better now after time and rest -- which is really the only thing to do for corneal abrasions -- but we're left with antibiotic eye drops.

And that's another struggle entirely.

Before I could get her into the doctor's office, I had no idea what was wrong and tried everything I could to help her.  Pain relief medicine, cold compresses, and finally eye drops.  I promised her that eye drops don't hurt, they only lubricate they eye and help flush out whatever's making her uncomfortable. 

Wouldn't you know it, as soon as the drops hit her eye she began screaming that they were burning.  I told her to keep crying and let her tears wash the burn away -- but it must have come out more like "Keep crying, child, let it buuuuurn!"   Because she shoved away from me and hid in her blankie.

Later, as she was sniffling, she looked at me reproachfully.  "You lied to me!  You told me it wouldn't hurt, but it did...why did you say that?  I trusted you!" 

And that's when I decided to go running face-first into a brick wall.  Because honestly, it would have hurt less.

It's been a weird week: swimming and ice cream and corneal abrasions.  One of these things is not like the other...but oh, well!  Because the weekend is here again, and we're ready to loiter at the pool!  Yay, swimming!  Yay, healed eyeballs!  Yay, summer! 

Linking up today with 7 Quick Takes Friday at Conversion Diary and InstaFriday at Life Rearranged.

7 Quick Photos

1.  I tried to get pictures of Landon planking (or whatever the baby approximation of that is), but the boy army crawls too quickly these days.  He was on me in a heartbeat.

2.  He's developed the affinity of babies everywhere for playing with mom and dad's high-priced technology rather than those juvenile, primary-colored baby toys.  Just the good stuff, man.

3.  Mia was browsing through pictures of friends, and sat down immediately to write a pen-pal letter.  But it had to be done outside, where she could enjoy both fresh air AND privacy.  Pen-pals are too important for mama to see what the letter is about; they are only required to write the address on the envelope.   

4.  In the girls' bedroom under the bunk bed beside the box of Barbies, there is a magical place which holds Landon's third greatest love (because my cell phone and camera take top honors): the Barbie cars.  These have the added benefit of being NOT off-limits, so he scoots across the house and into the girls' room whenever he gets a chance.  He grunts and squeals the entire time.  To reach the Barbie cars = baby nirvana. 

5.  On his way to nirvana, though, he usually has to watch out for dressing up girls. Their high heels are dangerous and not at all well-controlled.  But they do make a satisfactorily noisy clamor.

6.  If it's not one dressing up girl, it's another.  In fact, it's USUALLY this one.  Lauren of the I'm-a-princess-ladybug-ballerina-fairy-fighterfighter (firefighter. try to keep up.) and you have to be the evil queen-butterfly-prince-raccoon-bad guy.  She is four, and so must I be, if I am to keep her adequately entertained.

7.  And I just figured you NEEDED to see this sour-face.  The pears and blueberries gave him quite a pucker...

What have you been up to this week?  Any dressing up or sour-face-making?  And what are your weekend plans?

Some Quickety Quick Takes for January

1.  When Landon was born and placed in my arms, he immediately began to nurse.  He knew exactly what to do, and he didn't stop for over an hour.  An hour of sweet newborn baby suckles.  My good friend Jill was there with me and she knew right away that he was going to be my binkie-baby. 

I, however, had no idea.  Neither of the girls were interested in pacifiers in the least, so it just never occurred to me that Landon would need one.  Well, until his second night of life.  Even that early on, it seemed clear that he needed more sucking than I was physically able to provide.  Plus, he cried if he got even a drop of milk when all he wanted was comfort suckling.  Enter: binkie.

Now, I constantly find myself wondering: HOW ON EARTH did I raise two babies from infancy without the benefit of a pacifier?  I'm just not sure how we survived!  Landon is an easy baby, it's true, but the pacifier holds a special place in my heart for the times when he's not quite as satisfied as usual. 

What about you?  Did your babies like binkies? 

I realized he's binkie-less here...it's something I'm trying to ignore just so you can see a sweet picture!

2. Probably not surprisingly, Landon also found his thumb over the past week. What do you think: should I encourage one over the other? Let him have the binkie at-will, but gently remove his thumb? Let him suck his thumb, and slowly forget about the binkie? Or forget about it all, and just let him enjoy his favorite pastime however he finds it?



3. You know, for the last 8 months or so, I've dutifully IGNORED Pinterest because I simply CANNOT have one more thing distracting me from the laundry I'd rather not do and the writing I'm too intimidated to begin. I've turned up my nose at invites. Vowed eternal abstinence from the Pin-Empire. 

Wondered how much fun it could be....

Yesterday, I accidentally (accidentally!!) took a teensy, little, bitty, innocent look at a pin somebody linked to....

and ended up spending 15 minutes scrolling through some nonsense that was increasingly hard to ignore. Such pretty, sparkly, ingenious things there were to see. 

So anyway, I fell off of my own poorly constructed anti-Pinterest wagon. Mourn my demise if you care to. 

And follow me over there. Let's see if I can get this bad boy figured out.



4.  Mia's class celebrated their 100th day of school this week, and I found this in her folder:

What's that in her (rather large) hand?  No, not the cane.  The BLANKIE.  Apparently, she still fully intends to hold onto it (though I doubt it will still be pink as its current color resides somewhere between pale gray and pale Caucasian skin-tone) through graduations and weddings and childbirth and all that.

But I fully understand her compulsion: I had a beloved blankie up until I was a junior-higher at least.  Poor thing disintegrated after that.  I've never been the same since.


5.  I'm okay with her being attached to such an innocent thing as a blankie.  I don't mind her being young while she's young, you know?  Because I'm getting glimpses of grown-up Mia.  Here, for example was thirty seconds or so of dinner conversation the other night:

"Mommy, why do boys have big pee-pees?"

"Uh...that's just how their bodies were made.  Because everybody's different, you see."  Vague, much?

"Yeah.  But mommy?"  And here is where I started to break into a cold sweat, worried about the direction of the conversation.  "When will the world end?"

What the...?  Still cold sweats, but for entirely different reasons.

And then we went on to have a little bitty conversation that blew my socks off in its sweetness.  I'll have to tell you about it soon.



6.  But look!  Happy little girls! 

We finally got them into bunk beds, making their small room a little more habitable.  In fact, this is where you can find them any hour of the day, pretty much.  The top bunk is available for entrance only after you've passed the inspection of the tiny bouncers.  If you're not on the list -- no matter how cool you promise to be -- you're not allowed in.  Period.  You're doomed to the living room while the party rages.

7.  So, uh.  I need to go check something realquick on Pinterest.  I'll be right back.  Promise...

Some Quickety-Quick Takes for September

1.  I was rudely awakened yesterday morning by what appeared, by all accounts, to be labor.  Now, I've never had pre-labor before.  With both girls, things happened all at once, and there was no doubt as to whether or not labor had begun.  So when I felt contractions that hurt and came regularly before the crack of dawn Thursday, I was convinced.

Using the restroom didn't stop them, laying down didn't stop them.  They were real.  I'd mapped out who I'd call for help with the girls.  I'd decided how to break the news to my sleeping husband.  I'd begun picturing this baby boy in my arms within a few hours.

So, of course, they stopped an hour and a half into the excitement.  And I was mad. 

But yes, I have to admit, it's nice to know that something's happening, and that pre-labor is a step in the right direction.  Right?



2.  One of the things that occupied my swirling mind while I timed contractions was that I'd not yet compiled a labor playlist.  I've been meaning to ask you guys for help in this area, since I have a terrible time recalling what songs I might like in such a situation. 

What labor music do you recommend?  Keep in mind that I like soft and soothing and transporting and ethereal....Enya-esque.  But I kind of want to know the song, in case my head wants to sing along.  So, kind of mainstream?  Whadaya got?!



3.  Thank you so much for all of your birth story submissions so far!  If I've failed to contact you somehow, and you still want to share a birth story as a guest post while we have a Heavenly Babymoon, feel free to send it on over -- just email me!



4.  This weekend will be our second attempt at having a successful yard sale.  Here's how it went last weekend:

It rained.  Eternally.  Downpouringly.  Sale-stoppingly. 

But this Saturday's forecast calls for sunshine, so here we go again!



5.  Today is AUTUMN!!  And a no-school day!  I could do a jig of joy!  (Not really -- no jigging will be going on here until the baby arrives.  The body just can't handle such hijinks at this stage.  But maybe it would spur real labor...Hmmm...)  In celebration, the girls and I are planning on making the house smell fabulous with Pumpkin Bread.  Yay!



6.  My latest book obsession, which I need you all to read, is one I'm sure you've heard about by now since I never come in on the ground floor on these type of things. 

The Hunger Games Trilogy. 

Yes, it is a young adult series I believe, but that just adds to my ability to breeze through it speedily, ignoring my daily duties.  It's remarkably good -- entertaining and thrilling and thought-provoking, while moving along at a really quick pace.  It's definitely kept me happy.

What are you reading right now -- anything good?



7.  I'm done!  I have a book to read!  Pumpkin bread to make!  Enjoy your weekend, my friends!



More Quick Takes are at Conversion Diary.

Some Quickety Quick Takes for August

1.  Mia, while playing with her dolls, had quite a world adventure yesterday.  She recounted them to me, and I, being the ever-loving tattler that I am, shall recount them for you:

We ran all the way from Africa, so our feet are very tired, and we were chased by lots of animals (because Africa is FULL of animals) on our way to China.  But when we got there!  We realized that we were ALLERGIC to Indians!  And you know China is FULL of Indians.

We apparently have some work to do in both geography and politically correct assumptions.




2.  I know it seems really inconsequential, but one of the things that keeps me all bottled up and self-contained on my island comes in the form of not knowing how to find something.  So...can you help me? 

I want a good baby carrier and have no idea which type or brand or style to look at -- it's all so overwhelming.  Neither is an expensive carrier in our budget right now.  I have a pouch sling type thing that I got for free (excellent!) and it seems like a good one...but I know I'd like another option or two.  I've heard great things about Angelpacks, but can't afford to go that route. 

What do you think?  What baby carriers have been your favorite?  And how affordable are they?




3. While we're on the topic of help, here's another one:

I need to make a bunch of freezer meals sometime soon so we'll not starve once the baby arrives and I am no longer in possession of brain-power.  I have a small repertoire of recipes that work well frozen, but was hoping for some inspiration.  What do you stock your freezer with in preparation for a new baby?



4.  One of the only TV shows Justin and I have been watching this summer was Expedition Impossible on ABC -- did you see it?  There was a lot of mountain climbing and hiking and swimming and mind-puzzling, all in exotic Morocco.  Anyway, one team that continually impressed me consisted of one able-bodied-guy, a blind man, and another able-bodied-guy-turned-gimp halfway through the competition.  They blew me away with their ability to follow through on difficult adventures even though they had less manpower than other teams.  They were brave and encouraging of one-another and intelligent.  They'd done a lot of adventure-race-type things together and knew each other and trusted each other.  Really an awesome team.  They ended up in second place, which is amazing; a blind man and a man with a broken ankle STILL made second place.

But that's not my point.  My point is this:

Justin and I are about to enter another baby adventure.  We're a little nervous.  Mostly about the lack of sleep headed our way.  Oh, and braving the terrible-twos again.  And just all the logistics of adding a child.  But we work well together and we trust each other and we've done adventures like this before, surviving intact. 

He counts as the one able-bodied man; I qualify myself as the blind and the lame all rolled into one.  But still!  We can do it!


5.  I'm curious: if you live on the East Coast, how are you feeling about the approaching hurricane?  How are you preparing?  Since living through the tornado, I find myself constantly wondering how others prepare for disasters.  Assuming this hurricane will be a disaster, which isn't a stretch of the imagination. 

What's your plan?



6.  Yesterday, Lauren made a very clinical observation about my burgeoning belly and its map of faint purple squiggles:

"Mama?  When the baby is ready to come out, I think those cracks on your belly will open up and that's how he'll be born.  Right?"

Sometimes it feels that way; I've never felt so stretched-out before, and I'm certain there are moments when I can actually feel my skin stretching.  Ouch.



7.  I was so excited about our first opportunity to take snacks to kindergarten this week!  I've been less-than pleased with all the sweet, crackery type of snacks the kids eat every day, so I brought bananas.  The teacher assured me that fruit always ends up being a big hit with the kids.  And I love to be loved...and healthy at the same time.  At the end of the day, Mia said everyone really liked the bananas, which made her happy!  They were a success!  And healthier than cookies, which made me happy!

The next day, she came home and told me that the snack for that day had been cupcakes and fruit snacks. 

Sigh.  No banana can compete with that.



I'm out!  Have a fabulous weekend!  Stop by Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes!

Some Quickety Quick Takes for July

1.  Do you know what this post is?  Yes, it's a random list of chatty nonsense.  Yes, it's a fairly regular feature here at Heavenly House.  But this post is special, because this post is my eight-hundred-and-FIRST post.  801.  I'm stunned that I actually have that much to say, but what I really want to know is this:

Is there anyone in the world who's actually read all 801 of my blog posts? 

Not even my mom can say that. (Sniff.)  Not even my husband.  (Sob.)  So, if you think you've mastered this most impressive of accomplishments, I hereby grant you 500 bonus points.  Don't spend them all at once, y'hear?


2.  There are a few skills I've realized that I will be useless at teaching my children: first, how to transfer towels to the dryer.  With invariable, unfailing certainty, I leave the towels in the washer for a day and a half, until the mildewy smell emanating from our laundry room serves to remind me of my foul.  A double hot-water wash does the trick, though, but yeesh.  How hard is this to master?  I never forget actual clothing, but towels seem to throw a wrench in my secret plans to obtain a Housewife of the Year award.


3.  Second, I will never be able to teach my children how to hold a sparkler.  I hate the things.  They shoot fiery sparks in all directions, and it's a wonder I'll even let Mia try to hold one.  This year at a 4th of July party we attended, Justin tried to teach her the joy of sparkling.

He helped her gain her grip. 

And he jumped back as she threw the burning stick haphazardly backwards when she realized how evil a game this was.

I'll remind you never to stand near Mia when she's sparkling in the future, okay?  She's a tosser.


4.  Third, I'll never be able to teach my children how to swim, because I'm no good at going under water.  I don't like the tickly invasion of my ears or nose, so how on earth will I ever prove that it's okay to go under if I can't model it for them without cringing?

Third-party swim lessons, that's how.

5.  Speaking of those lessons, they began this week for Mia.  

 

She's having the most stupendously bodacious time of her young life (so she says, but in less sarcastic terms) learning how to blow bubbles and kick effectively and dunk her head under water.

6.  Something I might be able to accidentally impart to my children?  A love of photography.  (But I hesitate to call any of my attempts photography -- that would imply knowledge and artistic ability and...whatever.)  Lauren is prone to picking up her camera/upside-down binoculars and snapping pretend photos of whatever project she's been working on.  In this case, she was entombing a hapless princess within a puddle of green goo. 

We're rough on our princesses around here...


7.  You guys!  Do you remember when I lost my engagement ring?  Rather, do you remember when my princess-torturing preschooler lost my engagement ring for me? 

Guess what we found under her dresser when we combined the girls' bedrooms last weekend?

Yep.  I am whole again.




Thanks for visiting with me today!  Have a beautiful weekend, and stop by Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes!

Some Quickety-Quick Takes for June

1.  In what was perhaps a fit of pregnancy-enhanced tastebuds, I made delightfully fresh chicken salad sandwiches one night this week.  And I added loads and loads of fresh dill.  Oh, the crisp, light aroma.  Oh, the bright, airy flavor.  Oh, the seconds and thirds I consumed.

Oh, the husband who gagged on too much dill. 

The girls were fine: Lauren loved the chopped grapes and Mia loved the white-bread buns.  They tolerated the dill, and didn't complain too much.  But the husband, the pickle-hating husband, had one taste of dill and lost his appetite.  But what do you think?  Does dill remind you only of pickles?  Because I think I'd love it in lots of things, though I can't really place -- right now -- what those things might be.  Any ideas? 

Of course, I won't feed your suggestions to the husband. 


2. While driving in the car, we see a shirtless man walking near the river.  Botched discussion ensues.

Lauren: Heeeyyyy!!  That man was nakied!!
Mia: *after a momentary silence*  Mom?  Why can boys wear no shirts, but not girls?
Me:  Because boys don't have anything that needs to be covered up on their chests.  Girls wear shirts to keep our private parts covered.
Mia:  But...daddy has nipples, too, right?  Why aren't they private?
Me:  *Crap*  Um...well...yes, boys have nipples, too.  But it's different.
Mia:  Why? 
Me:  *Why me, God; Why?*  Well, girls' chests are curvier and...more private...and they're...you know...they're just...not for anybody else to see.  *Derrrr...also known as the definition of private...*
Mia:  Just for babies to get milk?
Me:  Yes!  Yes!  That's right!  Babies!  Hey you know what?  The baby just kicked!  Do you think he's ready to go swimming at Nana's house?!?  I am!  And then we can have POPSICLES!!  Who wants popsicles?!?


3.  Why am I never prepared for discussions like that one? 


4.  Oh, hey -- Kam at Nap Wars?  I've been trying to comment on your blog for a few weeks, and it's doing that awful thing Blogger has going on right now where it doesn't recognize my Google ID and since you don't allow anonymous comments (I think), and I can't find a way to email you...what I'm saying is, I have comments to leave!  I want to tell you that I was so BUMMED when your baby didn't play along at the gender-revealing ultrasound!  I want to tell you that you MUST go to one of those stand-alone ultrasound places, because I'm DYING to know your baby's gender!

(And I hope you don't mind a quick-take being devoted to you and the contents of your uterus!)



5.  Sisterly love and respect is rampant in our household this summer.  See?

6.  But in the end, I really do think they're best friends.

7.  Which works out perfectly, because they have the same goofy, camera-foiling smiles.  That's a best friend requirement -- didn't you know?

Have a beautiful weekend, friends!  More Quick Takes are at Conversion Diary.

7 Quick, Startling Discoveries

1.  Searching for Roly-Polies earlier this week accidentally unearthed a red and black snake, which my three-year-old gleefully described in minute detail before admitting that she lost it among the rocks.  She did wish, however, to try and find it one more time, making my eyebrows both rise and shiver simultaneously.



2.  Letting my responsible, crafty five-year-old keep a pair of scissors in her bedroom for quiet-time art projects led to an unfortunately shortened window-blind drawstring.  And an unfortunately lost temper.  And a new rule about where the scissors must be stored.



3.  The idea to take a few photos of the bubbles flying around us on a windy day only led to terrible frustration as those glorious spheres scattered away -- into bad light, before ugly backdrops, out of the focal point -- into the blue sky.  But a bubble is still cool when held stationary on the tip of the wand.

4.  Oh, but when that one bubble floats directly into focus, it might be worth the frustration of 30-minutes of attempted captures.  Even despite the dead-end signs in the background.  (Which somehow make the picture more interesting, I think; I tried cropping them out, but the effect was a little boring.)

5.  No matter how much I worried that this was inappropriate, I wasn't quite able to deny Mia her time amongst the mannequins.  I blame Old Navy. 

6.  It would appear that weeds, when tugged from the earth so carefully as to keep their roots intact, will last nearly forever in a water-filled vase.  It makes sense.  But something about those dangling roots in the bottom of the vase seems either heartless or cruel.  It was a good thing the flowers on top were sweetly distracting with their purple petals.

7.  The return of the pregnancy-induced afternoon nap is back, folks.  It took a long vacation from weeks 8 to 15, but now, in week 17 (holy moly), it's back with a vengeance.  So off I go with it....I really have to choice....to fight against it would be futile....

szzzzzsszzzz

(I hope your weekend is lovely!)

(See?  I talk in my sleep sometimes.)


More Quick Takes are at Conversion Diary.

7 Quick Pre-Fab Takes

1.  This is a 100% pre-published post; right now, the girls and I are away visiting friends on our very first solo road trip.  Solo, meaning, I have to navigate, drive, check-in, entertain, check-out, and maintain control all without the assistance of my husband.  You know him, right?  The one who owns the majority of our combined navigational and directional skills?  The one who's the most entertaining and capable of the two of us?  

But I'm excited!  Wish us luck!



2.  Despite my grandly simple, lovely plans for a tangled flower garden, I did, indeed, plant actual food.  Again.  In my defense, it's only two varieties of tomatoes, and a few watermelon seeds.  Probably some pumpkins.  Definitely some strawberries.  See?  All easy things, right? 

I can't help it; spring means gardening!  To be truthful, the prospect of planning and planting a flower garden was beginning to stress me out more than just doing what I know, or sort of know, which is: plant a few veggies -- mismatched as they may be -- water them when you remember, weed them but never, and see what happens.



3.  Proof that flowers might not be the best option for me:
Mia: We have a thornbush at our house that sometimes grows roses.
Me: *snort*



4.  Here's my happy discovery of the week: Berry-Berry Kix are healthy!  Well, at least they're not as worthless as I suspected (although the assumption of worthlessness wasn't enough to stop me from giving in to my 3-year-old's grocery store request)  Instead of being colored with red dye and whatever else, they're colored with fruit and veggie juices, plus their air-puffed simplicity actually includes a couple of grams of fiber.  Oh!  And only 7 grams of sugar (which is comparable to Multi-Grain Cheerios)!  See?  Healthy!

The bigger issue for me, though, is the way it tints the milk in the cereal bowl to a sweet shade of pink.  This means my milk-hating Lauren begs to drink her milk -- something that's never happened before to my reckoning.  Is it completely ridiculous to filter all her milk through Berry-Berry Kix?  Sure, I could buy strawberry milk mix, but...that's got to have a ton of sugar, right? 

Kix it is.



5.  It only took 8 weeks of procrastination and slow-stitching, but I finally finished a baby blanket for my friend Lenae's sweet Quinn!  I followed this tutorial for making chenille, and if I were any kind of seamstress at all, it would have been a snap.  As it was, it's highly imperfect, but still totally cool-looking.  And crooked.  And soft.  (I still can't believe I forgot to photograph the finished chenille...sigh.)  Lenae posted a photo of Quinn and her big brother snuggling up on it, and I feel...blessed.  That the blanket will be loved.

And as for the gorgeous binding, I did not actually do that; my talented and generous Aunt Linda did, and I owe her a pan of cinnamon rolls or something extravagant in thanks.  What would you suggest?



6.  Do you like getting pedicures?  I don't -- well, I haven't.  Because I'd never had one until a few days ago.  I'm 28, and a first-time pedi-chair user.  I know.  But I have this issue with people touching my feet.  As in, they're not allowed to.  But my sister-in-law offered to share a pedicure with me, and I couldn't say no.  My winter feet needed a pedicure; knowing I didn't have the energy to do it myself, I swallowed my fears and ticklish tendencies (kind of) with a giggling sister-in-law at my side, and had my first pedi. 

Look!  So pretty!  I actually enjoyed it, too.  Which means (of course) that a mere 12 hours after the appointment, I stubbed my big toe so badly that the cuticle is bruised and bleeding.  Nevertheless, thank you Emily! 



7.  Happy Easter, everyone!  I hope your weekend is full of blessings!



More Quick Takes are at Conversion Diary.