Pandora Radio.
Create your own stations with whatever you like and listen to it streaming ... no downloads, no fees. I've got a station for Gregorian chant, one for classical, one for 80s, and the one I'm listening to now, which is trance/trip hop. Tomorrow I'll make something kid-friendly and listen with the boys.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Commitment to Loveliness!
I'm participating in the Commitment to Loveliness. According to Emma at Charming the Birds from the Trees, "This is a fun way to increase femininity and beauty in our lives each week without even trying! All you have to do is choose five things that you would like to work on or do during the week that will increase the loveliness in your life!"
Here is my list for this week:
1. Make and take a meal to a family in need.
2. Bake the cherry sour cream coffee cake from this month's Cooking Light and share it with neighbors.
3. Pray the Our Father, Glory Be and Hail Mary with my oldest every day.
4. Catch up on laundry.
5. Go to the gym four times and take one class I've never done before.
That's it! Click here to read about others' commitments!
For everything else ...
Rib-eye steaks: $12.47. Heirloom tomatoes for a salad with organic feta cheese and shallots: $4.99/lb plus $4.99 for the cheese. Fresh garlic-potato bread: $2.99. Italian red wine: $6.99.
Small hands tearing into dinner with gleeful abandon before we've even sat down to pray: priceless.
Small hands tearing into dinner with gleeful abandon before we've even sat down to pray: priceless.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Saturday, June 14, 2008
My baby is 4.
Four years ago, I was thrown headfirst into the churning sea of motherhood and told I had to learn to swim. Not only my life would depend on it, but his.
There is no better proof of the love and grace of God than that one as unprepared as I could, four years later, call herself the proud parent of this faithful, kind, intelligent, creative and inquisitive little boy:
Happy birthday, sweetheart. As long as I'm living, my BIG BOY you'll be.
Friday, June 13, 2008
I bought a $500 thermometer.
Actually, it was $509 after shipping. All I have to say is, this thing better work:
I've been eyeing the LadyComp for a while, because I fell out of charting when I was pregnant with my littlest guy and have yet to really get back into it, mostly because I don't have Ovusoft installed on my new laptop and don't feel like paying another $40 to get a new license (it's not the money, it's the principle of the thing). And even if I did pay the fee and reinstall the software, there remains the fact that I hate waking up at the crack of dawn to take my temperature, and then having to remember to enter the data in the computer sometime during the day. None of this is a hardship, but the truth of it is that I really can be that lazy, and this is one of those things I'm lazy about.
Since I'm terrible about recording things on paper and I don't even remember how to plot the coverline because the computer always did it for me before, I've been doing what I call "half-assed Creighton," just paying attention to my body and physical signs and avoiding relations when there's even the most remote chance of pregnancy. Obviously, there's a whole lotta abstaining going on at my house. (Obvious disclaimer: My husband I have discerned serious reasons to avoid pregnancy at this time. Your situation may differ, so please consult with your own spouse and spiritual director, if needed, before using LadyComp or any other form of NFP.)
We need a better solution than avoiding each other most of the month, and since a miraculous increase in my fortitude and diligence is a nice thought, but probably not likely (at least not quickly and without some effort on my part), my husband urged me to give the LadyComp a try. His reasoning is that A) I'm 27 and probably have decades of childbearing potential left and B) We are not in a position to accept the blessing of a new child every year or so for that span, so the average $50 a year the LadyComp averages out to over its estimated ten-year lifespan is totally worth not having to ever enter another number into a computer, write it on a piece of paper, plot another graph, or roll mucus between my fingers and figure out what kind it is.
Please understand, I don't mean to knock NFP. It has worked for us and we are thankful for it. But we are technological people who like technological solutions. And the easier a product makes my life, the better. So I sprung for the LadyComp. I sure hope it works as well as the reviews I've seen say it does. It's basically just a very precise thermometer, but it also contains and internal computer with a database of something like 7,000 womens' cycles, and it stores data on your own cycle as it goes, so it learns your body as time goes on and tailors its recommendations and calculations to your own cycle. And the makers claim it works well with people who get up at night or have irregular periods.
Anyway, we'll see how this goes. Here are some more pics of the LadyComp (it's a lot bigger than I expected!). I'll let y'all know how it works.
I've been eyeing the LadyComp for a while, because I fell out of charting when I was pregnant with my littlest guy and have yet to really get back into it, mostly because I don't have Ovusoft installed on my new laptop and don't feel like paying another $40 to get a new license (it's not the money, it's the principle of the thing). And even if I did pay the fee and reinstall the software, there remains the fact that I hate waking up at the crack of dawn to take my temperature, and then having to remember to enter the data in the computer sometime during the day. None of this is a hardship, but the truth of it is that I really can be that lazy, and this is one of those things I'm lazy about.
Since I'm terrible about recording things on paper and I don't even remember how to plot the coverline because the computer always did it for me before, I've been doing what I call "half-assed Creighton," just paying attention to my body and physical signs and avoiding relations when there's even the most remote chance of pregnancy. Obviously, there's a whole lotta abstaining going on at my house. (Obvious disclaimer: My husband I have discerned serious reasons to avoid pregnancy at this time. Your situation may differ, so please consult with your own spouse and spiritual director, if needed, before using LadyComp or any other form of NFP.)
We need a better solution than avoiding each other most of the month, and since a miraculous increase in my fortitude and diligence is a nice thought, but probably not likely (at least not quickly and without some effort on my part), my husband urged me to give the LadyComp a try. His reasoning is that A) I'm 27 and probably have decades of childbearing potential left and B) We are not in a position to accept the blessing of a new child every year or so for that span, so the average $50 a year the LadyComp averages out to over its estimated ten-year lifespan is totally worth not having to ever enter another number into a computer, write it on a piece of paper, plot another graph, or roll mucus between my fingers and figure out what kind it is.
Please understand, I don't mean to knock NFP. It has worked for us and we are thankful for it. But we are technological people who like technological solutions. And the easier a product makes my life, the better. So I sprung for the LadyComp. I sure hope it works as well as the reviews I've seen say it does. It's basically just a very precise thermometer, but it also contains and internal computer with a database of something like 7,000 womens' cycles, and it stores data on your own cycle as it goes, so it learns your body as time goes on and tailors its recommendations and calculations to your own cycle. And the makers claim it works well with people who get up at night or have irregular periods.
Anyway, we'll see how this goes. Here are some more pics of the LadyComp (it's a lot bigger than I expected!). I'll let y'all know how it works.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Side by Side
Today, I found hidden treasure. My old Photobucket account, which I use sporadically for things like creating avatars and blog headers, contains 111 pictures spread out over six pages. I never look at them. I use the account to host whatever image I need to use at that moment, and then forget about it.
So today, I decided to check out the earliest pictures and see what they were. How could I have forgotten?!
Before I tell you what I found, I first need to give some background. Part of the reason I started this blog was to help me sort my thoughts on homemaking. By the grace of God, and thanks to the advice and insight offered by the wonderful people I've linked to in my Resources and Inspiration list, my house is fairly well-run and looks pretty decent these days. Albeit, my version of "well-run" may look a bit different than some, and there are still a few rooms I keep closed up when company comes over, but they are finally the minority -- most rooms in my house are actually quite lovely. But it wasn't always this way ... much to the consternation of my husband, who in a fit of frustration sometime toward the end of my oldest child's first year, threw everything in my slovenly home office in the trash -- including my laptop computer.
In fairness, the screen was broken and I was not using it. But I had not removed the hard drive yet to put it in a safe place, and that drive contained all of the photographic evidence of Ian's first year. To say I was upset would obviously be an understatement. By the time I realized what had happened, my computer was long gone, and with it, my precious pictures.
So what did I find today in my Photobucket account, but a page-and-a-half worth of baby photos of my oldest son -- all my favorites, no less! I guess I put them there to share on one forum or another back in the dark ages before Flickr and the Blog (is that a great name for a band or what?), and they sat there all this time waiting to be rediscovered! Better yet, my Dad says he has lots of pictures that I've e-mailed to him over the years and is going to burn them onto a CD for me. So I am a happy woman, indeed.
So, what's up with the title of this post? What does "Side by Side" have to do with anything?
Well, this is actually going to be more like "Over and Under," since I can't figure out how to get Blogger to let me put two images side by side. But in each of the next two sets, the top photo is my youngest, and the bottom is my oldest at about the same age. I'm in awe of both the similarities and the differences. God is an incredible artist.
Top photo: My youngest at about a week old (he was six weeks premature).
Bottom photo: My eldest at about a week old (he was full term).
Top photo: Youngest today, at seven months old.
Bottom photo: Eldest in March 2005, at nine months old.
As you can see, the little one overcame his prematurity very well and is now every bit as large and agile than his full-term brother was at the same age or older. God is good, and we are thankful for both of our babies' health and beauty.
So today, I decided to check out the earliest pictures and see what they were. How could I have forgotten?!
Before I tell you what I found, I first need to give some background. Part of the reason I started this blog was to help me sort my thoughts on homemaking. By the grace of God, and thanks to the advice and insight offered by the wonderful people I've linked to in my Resources and Inspiration list, my house is fairly well-run and looks pretty decent these days. Albeit, my version of "well-run" may look a bit different than some, and there are still a few rooms I keep closed up when company comes over, but they are finally the minority -- most rooms in my house are actually quite lovely. But it wasn't always this way ... much to the consternation of my husband, who in a fit of frustration sometime toward the end of my oldest child's first year, threw everything in my slovenly home office in the trash -- including my laptop computer.
In fairness, the screen was broken and I was not using it. But I had not removed the hard drive yet to put it in a safe place, and that drive contained all of the photographic evidence of Ian's first year. To say I was upset would obviously be an understatement. By the time I realized what had happened, my computer was long gone, and with it, my precious pictures.
So what did I find today in my Photobucket account, but a page-and-a-half worth of baby photos of my oldest son -- all my favorites, no less! I guess I put them there to share on one forum or another back in the dark ages before Flickr and the Blog (is that a great name for a band or what?), and they sat there all this time waiting to be rediscovered! Better yet, my Dad says he has lots of pictures that I've e-mailed to him over the years and is going to burn them onto a CD for me. So I am a happy woman, indeed.
So, what's up with the title of this post? What does "Side by Side" have to do with anything?
Well, this is actually going to be more like "Over and Under," since I can't figure out how to get Blogger to let me put two images side by side. But in each of the next two sets, the top photo is my youngest, and the bottom is my oldest at about the same age. I'm in awe of both the similarities and the differences. God is an incredible artist.
Top photo: My youngest at about a week old (he was six weeks premature).
Bottom photo: My eldest at about a week old (he was full term).
Top photo: Youngest today, at seven months old.
Bottom photo: Eldest in March 2005, at nine months old.
As you can see, the little one overcame his prematurity very well and is now every bit as large and agile than his full-term brother was at the same age or older. God is good, and we are thankful for both of our babies' health and beauty.
Shopping with Emeril
Of all the nights to have forgotten my phone, not to mention my digital camera ...
Monday night, I stopped at Whole Foods Market on my way home from running a few errands to grab something quick and healthy-ish for dinner. Our Whole Foods is fancier than most, party because it's new, partly because it's in a fairly posh part of town, and partly because it has to compete with nearby Wegmans, which in my neck of the woods is like a culinary Disneyland.
Anyway, I mention the fanciness factor because the store has five mini-restaurants in it that all serve beer and wine, plus there is a wine bar upstairs. So when I walked into the restaurant and heard some bombastic guy in the back of the store whooping it up, with a crowd egging him on, my first thought was, "Who is this drunk idiot in Whole Foods on a Monday night?" (So charitable of me, I know.)
So I headed back in that direction, not to see the drunk guy, but because whole organic chicken was $1.99 a pound and that's usually where they keep it, and at that price I wasn't leaving without some.
As I approached the refrigerated sale bin, this big blond guy rushes up to me and physically blocks my way like we're in a basketball game and he's my defender. Bewildered, I gave him an "are you kidding me" look and tried to get around him. It was then that I noticed that there was a huge crowd of people over by the fish, not a soul near the chicken, and a huge flank of television cameras pointed right at me. Oops. Minus one for lack of observation.
I asked what was going on, and the blond gentleman turned into a living, breathing promotional spot for Emeril Green, celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse's new show on Discovery's "Planet Green" channel. I turned around in disbelief and saw that, indeed, Emeril Lagasse was standing twenty feet away from me, cooking and hollering and carrying on.
It was very cool. But I didn't have my phone to call home, so I couldn't stay and watch, and I didn't have my camera, so I didn't get a photo. However, I did find this photo, which is a close approximation of what I witnessed:
Anyway, if you watch the show, you might see me -- I'll be the disheveled girl wearing a lavender tunic and khaki walking shorts, standing by the chicken with a very surprised look on my face.
Monday night, I stopped at Whole Foods Market on my way home from running a few errands to grab something quick and healthy-ish for dinner. Our Whole Foods is fancier than most, party because it's new, partly because it's in a fairly posh part of town, and partly because it has to compete with nearby Wegmans, which in my neck of the woods is like a culinary Disneyland.
Anyway, I mention the fanciness factor because the store has five mini-restaurants in it that all serve beer and wine, plus there is a wine bar upstairs. So when I walked into the restaurant and heard some bombastic guy in the back of the store whooping it up, with a crowd egging him on, my first thought was, "Who is this drunk idiot in Whole Foods on a Monday night?" (So charitable of me, I know.)
So I headed back in that direction, not to see the drunk guy, but because whole organic chicken was $1.99 a pound and that's usually where they keep it, and at that price I wasn't leaving without some.
As I approached the refrigerated sale bin, this big blond guy rushes up to me and physically blocks my way like we're in a basketball game and he's my defender. Bewildered, I gave him an "are you kidding me" look and tried to get around him. It was then that I noticed that there was a huge crowd of people over by the fish, not a soul near the chicken, and a huge flank of television cameras pointed right at me. Oops. Minus one for lack of observation.
I asked what was going on, and the blond gentleman turned into a living, breathing promotional spot for Emeril Green, celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse's new show on Discovery's "Planet Green" channel. I turned around in disbelief and saw that, indeed, Emeril Lagasse was standing twenty feet away from me, cooking and hollering and carrying on.
It was very cool. But I didn't have my phone to call home, so I couldn't stay and watch, and I didn't have my camera, so I didn't get a photo. However, I did find this photo, which is a close approximation of what I witnessed:
Anyway, if you watch the show, you might see me -- I'll be the disheveled girl wearing a lavender tunic and khaki walking shorts, standing by the chicken with a very surprised look on my face.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Chocolate makes everything better.
Yes, that's a cast on my three year old's arm. He fell down the concrete stairs in front of the neighbor's house. I was spared the horror of watching it happen. I was inside, cleaning the boys' bedrooms while my husband watched them outside ... and then I heard that scream. You know, THE scream that can only mean the next stop is the nearest E.R..
Thank God he was wearing a bike helmet at the time, because he landed on his head. We'll take a broken elbow over a broken skull. We have a follow up appointment June 17 to see whether it's healed ... they don't like to keep casts on little guys longer than three weeks. Which is a good thing, because it's SUMMER! Sandboxes, swimming pools, sprinklers, water fights ... all a bit hard to do with a cast on your arm.
He's been quite a trooper. I think he's braver than I am. And we'll soon have lots and lots of pictures of him in his little blue cast, because his birthday is the 14th, and so is the party! My little guy is turning 4. Amazing.
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