Seven Quick Takes Vol. 14

1.  I posted about Angelboy and my husband putting together a frame for a raised garden here.  Well here is a picture of the garden with the dirt in it just waiting for the plants to come and live there.  Hmm...I guess it depends on how fond of gardening you are as to whether or not you find this picture very interesting.

2.  There is a woman I know who just had her 9th child at the age of 42 and she had her first child at around the age of 30.  Isn't that amazing!  I love it when older women are able to have large families.  It's unorthodox to have nine chlidren in todays society, but it is even more unorthodox to do so beginning in your thirties and continuing on into your forties.  I can appreciate this as I had my second and third child at the ages of 37 and 39 and am hoping God gives me the strength I need to accept more if it be his will.

3.  I had a really bad attitude last week.  Then I saw the above mentioned woman with all her nine children and her new baby and my attitude changed.  If she can have her 9th baby at the age of forty-two with the oldest child being 12 how can I claim to be stressed out as a housewife with two little ones who gets mostly plenty of time to herself and has plenty of help.  (O.k...I don't have nine, but it is still hard to get it all done sometimes.)

4.  Speaking of older women having children...I had an ultrasound done of my ovaries on Tuesday.  It was kind of depressing as the ultrasound technician told me my ovaries were small.  She then said that this was good in that it is normal for your ovaries to get smaller as you get older, and then added, "unless you want more children."  Ugh. 

5.   We finally got an offer on our condo and the closing is scheduled for May 25.  I pray that it goes off without a hitch... or at least minimal hitches, anyway.  I dream of the day when we will be paying only one mortgage.

6.  We got a Brill reel lawn mower today (Those are the push lawn mowers without motors).  Our power lawnmower died and we had been thinking for a long time about getting a reel lawnmower.  Our grass hadn't been mowed yet this season so our grass was pretty long and we had even longer gone-to-seed Dandelions  sticking out of the grass.  The mower did great with the grass but it didn't mow the dandelions so we have a yard full of dandelion stems sticking up.  Very ugly.  We may have to power mow these some way and then start over again by mowing them with the reel lawnmower before they get very long again.  I guess you have to mow your grass pretty regularly as the manual lawn mower doesn't do as well with tall grass as the power lawnmower.  We'll give it a chance.

7.  Tomorrow is May 1st and the feast of St. Joseph the Worker.  Wow!  Goodbye April.

Thanks for reading!  You can read more qt's at conversiondiary.com.  Have a good weekend!

Small Successes Vol. 2

1.  I finally called about having a sump pump put in our window well.  I found out I need to send them the contract signed along with ten percent of the payment first but at least I know what I need to do now. 

2.  I have been eating healthier.  I have been following the guidelines from a brochure I have for pregnant women from the March of Dimes.  It gives recommended amounts from each of the five food groups (grains, vegetables, fruits, milk, and proteins) for each day.  It really helps me not to over-do it with portion sizes and it helps me to make sure I get enough dairy and vegetables.  Getting enough vegetables is probably the most challenging thing.  I am not pregnant but I am nursing so its probably about right.  Now I just need to stick with this if I should become pregnant as this is when I really over do my eating.

3.  I have been drinking only one 12 oz. cup of coffee per day as opposed to the two 12 oz. cups that I normally drink.

Focusing on Motherhood

My primary job as a wife and mother is to lead my family to Christ.  This idea gave me a great deal of comfort today as I was going about my duties.  Whether I am a mother who stays at home or works outside the home this should be my primary focus.  It's the same for career women or for those of us at home and everything in our lives should be about this purpose. 

If I am a stay-at-home mom and am constantly grouchy and impatient with my children, am I fulfilling my duty in leading my children to Christ?  The answer, of course, is a resounding "no."  If taking some time away from the kids would make me a more loving mother then this is what I should do since it would help me fulfill my purpose in leading my children to Christ. 

If, as a career woman, my job were keeping me from making this the first priority in my life then, as with the full time homemaker, I would need to consider what changes I may need to make, such as working less hours, getting a different job, etc. in order to put my priorities in line.

I struggle with what it means to be a wife, mother and homemaker sometimes; but keeping in mind that marriage is my number one vocation helps me to realize that this needs to be my primary focus no matter what my "job" is. 

Seven Quick Takes (Vol. 13)

1.  This hasn't been the best week.  Does anyone else ever wonder if they should really be a stay at home mom?    Does anyone feel like they are missing out by not working outside the home?  Is it one of those green grass on the otherside things?  I think I will feel better when I start playing in the symphony again on a regular basis.  I also plan on getting out for a "Mother's Sabbath" tomorrow. 

2.  I'm naturally introverted so sometimes its just hard getting started with the ideas I have for doing things outside the home, which include:   Working up some music to play with my son (and husband?, and sister too?)at nursing homes, playing at church (I have inquired about this before but nothing ever seems to come of it), just picking up my bass and playing at home would be a good start. 

3.  I have mixed feelings about homeschooling.  As of today we are planning on sending Angelboy to the public highschool.  I feel a little sad about this and of course wonder if it is the right thing to do.  But I also wonder of continuting to homeschool would be the right thing to do.  When homeschooling goes well I really enjoy it (and maybe he does too), but at the same time sending him to highscool may quite possibly free up a lot of my time and I may have more time to spend with Angelboy doing things other than schooling.  He really likes the idea of going to highschool as I think he wants to know if he can handle the academic challenges of a more structured environment.

4.  Pumpkingirl no longer gets herself into a tither whenever I suggest she "goes potty."  Perhaps this is a sign that bigger things are to come. 

5.  Tonight is "date night" and I don't know where we are going as I insisted that it be a surprise.  I am looking forward to it.

6.  My current blogging goal is to get at least two posts a week in anyway that I can; the rest is gravy.  This is my third post this week so I'm doing fine.

7.  I haven't done any quick takes since before Lent so it feels good to be back...though I don't know how regularly I will be doing quick takes.  It seems like Friday isn't a very good blogging day for me and (as has been said before) quick takes aren't always so quick.

Have a good weekend and stop by to see Jen at conversion diary for more quick takes.

Small Successes Vol. 1

1.  We drove the 60 mile drive to visit my dad in the nursing home where he lives.  We had a very good visit.  His mind was better than it was when we saw him last.  I am very grateful for this.

2.  I got some prints made of some of my digital photos.  This mostly because my son needed some pictures our family for his project in Spanish Class.  I framed one to give to my mother-in-law too. 

3.  I made all the meals that I had planned on my menu so far this week.  The meals that I planned this week were some of my simpler dishes such as pizza and frozen burritos which I spruced up with some salads, like: mandarin beet salad with the pizza and Greek sald with the frozen burritos.  Lots of veggies served in a more interesting way!

Raising the Garden

Here's a picture of my husband and Angelboy doing some father/son bonding while building a raised garden (I hope the neighbors don't mind that I got them in the background).  Our soil has a high clay content in our back yard and we haven't had much luck growing anything for the past couple of years, so we decided to give the raised garden a try.  We are all excited about the prospect of growing things in our little patch of dirt.  We may divide it up three ways so we can grow anything we want as we all have different ideas of what we want to grow.  We better get a move on; it's only getting later and later in the growing season.

God's Will as Offering Opportunities to Love

I wrote this a few days ago.  It doesn't say anything that others haven't said before, but I thought it would help me retain it in my brain better if I wrote about it.  It seems like God has given me plenty of chances to put it into practice since then.  Whether I have responded well or not to these chances is another story.  Here it is:

I was just reading a short meditation in  My Daily Bread by Anthony J. Paone, S.J. entitled "Obstacles to Peace of Soul."  The only way to true and lasting peace is God's will.  The question is asked,"Am I trying to embrace God's holy will in all that happens to me each day?"  This calls to my mind the little daily annoyances that easily make me loose patience or can throw me into a blue mood.  For example, when the baby won't take a nap, thus interfering with my quiet time or, when I feel like my husband has been thoughtless which can throw me "out of joint." Perhaps if I changed my perspective about these things and saw them as God's will, I would be more patient and cheerful or at least try harder to be more patient and cheerful rather than allow myself to become downcast so easily.

On a retreat that I attended recently the presiding priest suggested that we look at the list of sins that we tell at confession as missed opportunities to love.  Perphaps these "little annoyances" that happen in every day life can be seen as opportunities to love.  In order to love more I can be kind and patient even when I feel like my husband isn't loving me in the way that I want to be loved; and I can accept and trust that God is giving me what I need even though I am not getting  what I want (i.e. the said quiet time) at a given moment.  In fact, it is almost certain that the opportunity to love more is why God allows these "little annoyances" in the first place.