Four

Four Years.

We've been married for four years.

How on Earth can it only be four years?! At the same time... how have FOUR years gone by already? That's crazy!

Four years.
3 addresses.
2 kids. (Nearly.)
1 pretty swell guy.

Happy Anniversary Husband! I love you!

Genie, You're Free.

I remember watching Hook as a little girl.

I remember Maggie Smith looked SO OLD. And she probably wouldn't be around much longer. When Husband and I watch Hook even now, we marvel at the idea that Maggie Smith looked so old in 1991 and is still rocking it on Downton among other things. She's a force of nature.

So it is mind boggling to me that Maggie Smith is still around and thriving and Robin Williams of all people, is gone. It's sad. I think it goes to show that we don't know the demons other people are facing.

There's so much suffering in the world. So much. It makes me thankful that my biggest issues are that Husband didn't wash the dishes like I assumed he would. There is no reason I can't wash dishes. I just didn't want to. Tough life.

We quote Robin Williams in movies (or lines about Robin Williams) ALL THE TIME.

Sad.
Hug your people.
And pray for the world. We need a little more peace on Earth these days.

AMT: 8

It's time for another Answer Me This! The link up with Kendra where we answer some random questions and sneak a blog post in! 

1. What do you still want to do this summer?

Go on our zoo vacation. I have been planning a 3 day weekend trip to a zoo near us since LAST summer. And it still hasn't happened. But it is going to. We have it narrowed down to 2 weekends in the near future. And I am really excited. Really, really excited. 

It seems every time we've traveled at all in the entirety of our marriage besides our honeymoon it was to something. To see family, for work, a wedding etc. I am all kinds of excited for even 3 days with just my own little family doing our own thing. It's like a real and true vacation! 

PLUS this trip will be exciting because we are going to see a walrus. And my toddler is obsessed with walrus. It's why we picked this particular zoo in fact!

2. What's your favorite kind of pie?

Apple. Which works out pretty well since Husband's family owns an apple orchard and fall brings a boatload of free apples. (Really the perk of the family I appreciate most.) Husband of course, growing up with apples is usually less than impressed by apple things. But he does like my pie.

I'm not even trying to brag though. My pie isn't that special, I'm just not cranking out a lot of pies at once and I spend more time with my spice blend than his family. I also don't overcook my crust. Just saying. It's the love in my pie that makes it good.

3. How much sleep do you need each day? How much do you get?

I am a sleeper. If sleep was a love language that would be mine. I need as much sleep as possible. This translates to about 7 or 8ish hours at night and a mid-day nap. (C sleeps from 1-4 and I usually go from 1:30/2:00 depending on chores to 3:58.)

Of course in October the baby will mix things up again and I will have to find my new normal. C is definitely my child though, he is a good sleeper and needs his sleep or he is a grumpy pants. Like me.

4. Do you prefer to swim in a pool, lake, river, or ocean?

Pool. Lakes have fish/weeds/smells. Oceans have waves. Rivers are gross. Pools. 100% pools.

5. Do you know any poems by heart?

Not long ones. But yes. In elementary school we had "Poetry and Punch." A few times a year in second grade and fifth grade (Maybe third and fourth too but I distinctly remember second and fifth.) we would memorize a poem and recite it for all the parents. It was a big deal. The little portable microphone would be in the classroom and you'd say your poem. Then you got a glass of punch and a cookie. With your parents. I wonder if schools still do this? They should. (And all you homeschooling mama's, you should totally start a Poetry and Punch too.)

Hawaiian Punch in a giant food service can. With the little triangle openers.
Nothing but the classiest punch for school events.

I was that kid who refused to use a Shel Silverstein poem. Because they were overdone and everyone else used his work. And they were nonsensical. That says so much about who I am as a person. Madeline, refusing to conform to the popular opinion of art since 1993.

I can also do the first 2 chunks of  Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. That, funny enough, is also knowledge retained in fifth grade. Probably for "Poetry and Punch."


6. Do you use the public library?

Yep. I do. I have 3 library cards, one for my current town, one for my grad school town and one for my hometown. I use all 3 to find the ebooks I need/want and get on wait lists usually for all 3 for really popular books. I only go to my local library when I can't get the book I want on ebook. And I usually reserve it ahead of time. 

We always pick out a few children's books when we go and we always just do the spur of the moment picking with those. 

Theme Thursday: Panic

Life is hilarious.

 I have been in panic mode for weeks.

Weeks people.

I have crazy OCD-for-me nesting urges and anxiety. I have:

• Mowed the lawn (I don't do yard work. This is weird.) 
• Obsessed over when Husband would use the weed whacker
• Contemplated learning how to use the weed whacker because it wasn't happening fast enough
• Weeded the flower beds. All of them. Because they bothered me. 
• Stressed over the kitchen, which is also unusual. 
• Made a meal plan. Not a really great one, but a list of what we were/are going to eat. For 3 meals a day. Then made a shopping list to go with the meal plan. And actually followed the shopping list.  
• Started cleaning out the baby room. So, you know we can turn it into the baby room. 

And during all this cleaning and such I have been internally and externally panicking over whether or not the 2 year old was: 

• Learning enough
• Being engaged enough
• Eating enough vegetables
• Eating enough protein
• Getting too much screen time

And panicking about 

• Everything else you could imagine. Really. 

And I did this all week long. For weeks. Calming down only on Saturdays. And sometimes not even. 

Then yesterday Cari wrote about being panicked. And I was like "AH! A theme I've got in spades." Thursdays have been notoriously bad for me. Like in tears nearly all day. Barely holding it together when I talk to my family on Skype. The day I give up and just can't do it anymore. 

And by the Grace of God when Cari essentially gave me permission to panic and freak... I sat down to write this morning and I just had nothing. No panic in my heart. No stress. No freak out. No tears. And I can only attribute that to Cari. She somehow took the burden off of me. I don't know how but today has been a normal, productive not in the slightest upsetting day. 

I have accomplished plenty on the OCD list, but in a way that brought me peace. Not panic to DO.MORE.THINGS! 

Which is good. A very good thing. This boy deserves a calm mom. 

So does she. 

So Thanks Be to God (and Cari) because today has been one day with no panic. And even if all the stress and panic comes back tomorrow... I will be refreshed from my day off. 

Wednesday Happenings

Well book club was just fine. We discussed the book and didn't delve too deep into the cover up discussion points. For the most part we took the book as historical fiction. I was probably the most critical of the group but within the discussion people did seem to understand my points and we were able to dialogue about some of my issues.

Today I had my 30 week OB appointment where I also had an ultrasound to check on growth. I am in the clear on gestational diabetes, my blood pressure is normal and so we got a clean bill of health for the week. I am into the every 2 week visits before they turn into once a week visits. It's kind of crazy that I am already to this point!

And baby girl looks healthy and happy. She is head down (and I am hoping and praying she stays that way) and looks a lot like her big brother as an infant. 

In other news, did you know that painted cast iron reacts with bleach? I was cleaning bath toys and left the bleach water in the tub too long I guess because the tub turned kind of yellow. A quick google search told me that to counteract the bleach I needed to use hydrogen peroxide. Cue the Clorox 2. I found the humor in the Clorox vs. Clorox 2 thing. Who woulda known? 

Well the Clorox 2 worked, my tub has NEVER been whiter and as a bonus my bathroom smells like laundry. I love the smell of laundry so I am quite content with that. 

That's really all the interesting in my world. Just keeping on keeping on. Trying to stay ahead of the messes and keep C engaged and excited. Happy Wednesday friends!

Pre-Book Club Thought Sorting

I have book club tonight.

I would normally be super super excited about that. For real. But I am incredibly hesitant about tonight. I have some very negative feelings towards the book, and I'd like to say it's because the writing isn't good. That is true, but the fact of the matter is that tonight, assuming people have actually read the book (debatable, really.) is going to turn into a discussion about religion. I am not one to shy away from religious discussion. Nor do I have fears in doing so. But it's going to be intense.

The book we read was Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross.

Do you know about Pope Joan? The supposed female Pope The Church has been hiding since the Dark Ages? Woolfolk Cross states in the historical research bit at the end that she isn't Catholic and how great it is that she is not because she wouldn't have a bias. Never mind she thinks there is a massive cover up by The Church to hide Joan from us. I don't know whether that's true. I don't know that anyone could prove that one way or another. But I also know how to cherry pick my sources to get the research to say what I want it to say and I am quite certain that is what she did here. Thank goodness the book is labeled fiction. 

For the author to say she doesn't have a bias is of course only one part of the story. In this case I think the proof is in the pudding. Which is to say that in this thoroughly researched book we meet not one truly faithful individual. In a time where money spoke even more than words and education was based on whether it could be afforded, it isn't hard to imagine that some men of the cloth wouldn't necessarily want to be religious. Were there and are there corrupt religious authorities? Yep. Wouldn't you encounter someone who wasn't? Well, I didn't live in the Dark Ages but my gut instinct is to say yes. 

The most insulting part of the book is not that a female pretended to be a male and became Pope. That's almost besides the point even as that is supposed to be scandalous. Because we would be ignorant as to say that no female, seeking to educate herself, didn't pass herself off as a man. Woolfolk Cross is correct to say that the hygiene of the time would in fact permit that situation to occur.  

What is truly scandalous within this book is that she wrote a Pope who values science over faith, idolize Norse gods and attempted an abortion. Whether a Pope is male or female is meaningless here when these come to light as she wrote the POPE as someone who rarely celebrated Mass or prayed at all. I think we can all agree that even in a time of corruption like the Dark Ages the Pope would still pray and not worship other Gods. Just thinking out loud. Joan is a secular feminist in the most modern version of the word. In her reign as Pope she instituted modern court room procedures (witnesses and defense) as well inventing intinction to help not spread germs during communion. 

Just no. 

No. 

I can get past the whole female Pope thing. I can. It's historical fiction and certainly worse things have been written about The Church. But the characterization of this secularist feminist who argues for women's rights at the age of 4, that's where I tuned out. The character of Joan values logic above all else and has very little faith at all. She is educated oh yes but she uses her knowledge, like Woolfolk Cross to cherry pick lines of scripture to prove her radical ideas. 

Let's not even get me started on the cheap romance novel part of the book, where our leading lady falls for a man old enough to be her father, lusts after him for the greater part of the book even though time separates them for many many years. Gerold has the depth of a Ken doll which makes this whole aspect book read a bit like a free Kindle book. They discover each other, they can't be together even though they want to and there is one brief moment of passion. Time passes. They accidentally bump into each other and all their love burns brighter than ever but now they really cannot be together for Joan is John. They finally get together and they die before their secret is exposed. 

Those are my problems with the book. And if our discussion tonight could stick to that, I would be very content. But in a group of women, who are all active in their churches but not a lot of Catholics I fear we are going to delve more into the cover up historical discussion. I am especially burdened because the other Catholic is the one who picked the book. One woman teaches history at the local community college and she is very nice but a little intense. She of course actually believes wholeheartedly that Pope Joan is a historical figure the world has forgotten about. 

Wish me luck. 

Have you read Pope Joan? I probably didn't convince you to but if you have or you do I would LOVE to talk to you about it! 

Quick Takes: All the Things

1. Theme Thursday: BBQ

I don't know where my head was, but apparently I forgot that yesterday was Thursday. Here are the pictures for Theme Thursday. The Theme of the week is BBQ and because EVERYONE knows that guys take BBQ more seriously than girls in many many cases, I assigned this week to Husband. (Cari says there's no rules for Theme Thursday so... I can assign a week out here and there yeah?)

In the interest of full disclosure, these are pictures Husband took for work but they still fit the theme and I am not making pulled pork until tomorrow or Sunday. So... there's that. 

2. Edel

I have referenced it before but when we got married we had to take a temperament retreat and then spend all day discussing the results. Everyone likes those Meyers-Briggs descriptions of themselves and I have a heck of a time with those. I always switch between 2 results depending on my mood when I take the quiz thing. But THIS profile was spot on. For both of us.

My profile basically says that I want to be invited to the party but I don't want to go. I like to do things on my own terms. So I admit, that when I first heard about Edel I was kinda... whatever about it. Pay all that money to go to Texas. In July. And have to socialize? Yeah I was perfectly content following the hashtags and reading the recap blog posts. And, okay. I'm going to say it. I don't like Tex/Mex food often, so while I am thrilled there was enough sour cream so no tears were shed and the breakfast tacos (what does that even mean?!) were plentiful, it wouldn't have done it for me.

But I may gear up and go sometime. I'm hoping for Edel Chicago. Hot Dogs and Pizza. I'm SOLD!

3. Toddler Activities 

How is it possible that when I plan a whole day's worth of fun activities they are done in 20 minutes but if I plan nothing we somehow make it through the day just fine? That seems backwards.

4. 30 Weeks

I will be 30 weeks along on Sunday. That's crazy! I have the nesting as far as the clean allthethings goes but not in the actually have anything for the baby yet way. I should probably get on that.

5. Big Boy Bed

We transitioned to the Big Boy Bed this week. It's going really well. The crib is still in his room and is serving as the threat of not staying put. So far so good. Only getting out once a night.

Double bed on the box spring on the floor, so pretty low to the ground.
There is a side rail now as well.

Next is getting rid of the nuki but one step at a time. I can only take major life changes in small doses.

6. It's August 

August is my very favorite month of the year. Though I will admit, July was not nearly as painful as expected, probably because there was only ONE day above 90!

7. Book Club

I have book club on Tuesday. I finished the book Wednesday and I have a lot to say. I am sure my book club won't want to get into the discussion I want to so you're all going to get lucky and have to hear about it. So stay tuned for that post.

Linking up with Conversion Diary and Clan Donaldson.