Quick Takes Vol.48

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The weather has been getting colder this week. On Tuesday it was an OK day at 40 degrees.  I sent Miss Anne outside not dressed for the weather. She wouldn't wear a winter coat but, insisted on a hat and gloves. She didn't stay out but, a few minutes. Turned out she peed outside which I imagine was cold. Peeing outside was the highlight of her day, she told her sisters all about it when they got home from school. The whole team thought it was very funny that she peed outside.

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Michael wiggles in his sleep.  I found him sideways with no blankets in the morning.  Look at his cute little socks sticking out. I just love all the cute socks that my cousin gave us. Strangely all the socks stay on. I don't know if it is because he is a boy and his foot is shaped different or what but, my girls never kept socks on.

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The team and I are trying to get Michael to like being on the floor for some playtime. He dosn't like to be alone so someone has to entertain him.

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I am not to ashamed to admit that I read two books cover to cover this week. In fact I read one on Tuesday and one on Wednesday. I started the books while nursing in the afternoon and kept on reading them throughout the day. The books were not even my normal romance novels that I usually read.

Book 1:    Pope Awesome and Other Stores by Cari Donaldson.  This was fun and easy read. It is her story finding Catholicism and having kids. I was able to relate to a lot of her story with kids. I enjoyed reading about how she came to find the Catholic Church as the one true church of Jesus. When I read peoples conversion stories I'm always thankful that I grew up in the Church.


Book 2:  The Kid's Guide to Washington, DC by Elieen Ogintz.  Since the book was written for kids it was a very easy read. I like all the sidebar stuff it had in it along with websites to check out about different places. There are some good tips like checking websites before a person goes to see if there will any special programs during a persons visit.  Now to to get my big girls to start reading the book so they can research some places in DC.  I told them we should each create a list of five places that we would like to visit then we can compare lists to develop a plan of our vacation.

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Yes, another Halloween picture, this one is from the National Guard party we attended. This is the only photo that I have of all five kids dressed for Halloween.

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Burrrr the temperature took a dip at the end of the week. On Thursday I took Michael and Anne into town to do some errands. It was 4 degrees on my phone when we got into town. I kept kicking myself for not going on Tuesday when it was 40.

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Michael is 8 weeks today!

 

 

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Quick Takes Vol. 47

 

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I got to watch my niece again this past week. It is so fun and interesting to have two babies to play with and compare what she can do compared to Michael.  She is 3 months older and it is amazing the difference she talks, rolls, and can scoot off a blanket.  It really helps me stop and savor how little Michael is knowing that in just a few months he will be doing the same thing.

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The Team has been battling some different illness the last week.  Theresa had fever and slept most of  Friday. I was glad it was a day off from school so she didn't miss, bummer for her sleeping the day away.  Saturday I ran her and Michael to clinic and found she had Strep.

Michael had a cough and I didn't know what do you do for a baby a few weeks old. Turns out not much unless it turns into something really bad. So it was a long week of coughing for him and me being worried about his breathing trying to decided if he needed to back in to be checked.

Eleanore was maybe sick on Tuesday, she stayed home with a sick tummy but, I don't know how sick she really was.  

Laura and Anne had the cough and runny noses. 

Talking with people and reading Facebook I found that it seems that maybe what we struggled with this past week and weekend wasn't so bad. 

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Theresa had to disguise a cutout turkey, the Team had lots of ideas of what the turkey could be.  I am proud to say that my idea of an astronaut won!  Isn't the turkey cute, it only took us four days to get it all done.

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Ring sling from SweetPea Ring Sling came this week.  Michael seems to like it he slept in it last Sunday for close to 2 hours while I helped Eleanore clean her room including running a vacuum cleaner. 

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Look at those eyes ~ 6 weeks old

 

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So I don't look all over the Internet in a few months I'm saving a link to two great articles about large families.  I think that I may have moved up into that category with Michael. I'm not sure since I live in North Dakota it seems that everyone has four or more kids so my team isn't strangely large.  Anyway onto the links:    Heather at Mama Knows or Dwija at House Unseen

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Eleanore celebrated her second Sacrament on Saturday the 16th.  She celebrated Reconciliation we are now moving on to prepare for First Communion in the spring.  When I say moving on she had me at a bridal shop in town to try on dresses Saturday afternoon. We had about 35 minutes before dance rehearsal so I asked what should we do and she says go to the dress shop.  We didn't buy anything but, she is ready to go back and try on more this week. What a difference between Theresa who tried on two or three dresses and bought one that day no shopping around for her. 

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Quick Takes Vol. 46

Halloween  

All the pictures came from National Guard Halloween Party

 

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My little Minion

 

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Theresa as a witch, she purchased the dress at a rummage sale this summer with her own money. Aunt Sara borrowed her the cape and hat.  

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Ella was a genie.  The costume came from my mom's house.

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Laura was a mermaid this costume also came from Amee's house.

 

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Anne as a dog. This is go to costume once my girls have grown into the coat.  The lion is cousin Ethan. 

 

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Laura wrapped as a mummy, the object of game was to hop around some cones and back to the start line. 

Ella and Theresa at the circus room 

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Bow hunting at Duck Dynasty room

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Quick Takes Vol. 45

 

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Thank You Jennifer Fulwiler for coming to Bismarck, North Dakota last weekend to speak at Thirst 2013.   I was able to make it to the talk about motherhood. It was great, everything Jennifer said was spot on.  I know that many people in the audience related to your stories and examples. 

 My take away was Limits, Urgency, Village (LUV).   I have been thinking of this urgency idea all week trying to figure out how I can apply it to my life. 

 

If you have a chance to enjoy a talk by Jennifer don't miss out figure out a way to attend. I did it with a last minute call to my cousins to babysit. I was some how under the impression that there was child care at the conference oops.  
 

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I stayed put in the room Jennifer talked in and attend a talk from Fr. Nathan Cromly.  He talked about knowing right from wrong.  His main point is that something can be right or wrong and that we shouldn't be afraid to say so.  I liked his examples of how Catholics today are often worried about political correctness or hurting other peoples feelings so we don't speak up for what we know is right. 

I know that this is often true in my own life that I figure it is easy and kinder to just keep quite about an issue then to provoke a fight with another person.

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On Sunday I went in for Dr.Edward Sri talk about Mary.  His talk was set around his book Walking with Mary: A Biblical Journey from Nazareth to the Cross. 

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Sunday afternoon I took Eleanore, Theresa and Michael to Mass. It was awesome celebrating the Eucharist with that many people.

Michael at Mass

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The Team had been after me about carving pumpkins, I am not going to lie I thought a lot about trying to just skip it. I was going to play the we are too busy to carve pumpkins card.  But, I stepped up Monday night and we cleaned  and carved three pumpkins.  It wasn't too bad, Eleanore and Laura were able to clean out the pumpkins. I was able to get started on the carving as soon as the first one was clean.

Theresa decided to paint her pumpkin, so no cleaning for her.

Even Michael had to help with the pumpkins

 

 

Anne didn't like cleaning pumpkins

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Finished Product:

 Laura with cat

 

 

Anne with bat

 

Eleanore with vampire

 

Theresa's

 

 

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Lined up on porch

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!