1 - You can make fun of me. It's okay. But I think that secretly you like this song, too.
2 - So the post from last night was pretty heavy so this will be light and cheery, okay? Okay.
3 - This is what I want it to look like outside my house:
I'd like it to be at least 10" deep. I'd like for my husband to have a snow day wherein we sleep in and make waffles for breakfast. I want to stand on my porch in the morning when the sun is up but the roads aren't cleared so everyone is inside and everything is still. And I want to listen to the silence that only comes when a deep snow is still fresh. Then later I want to build a snowman with the kids and pull them in the sled. I want to go in and make hot chocolate while Travis and L and Ben shovel and JF and Resa nap upstairs.
I want a snow day!
4 - Do you watch the show Ghost Hunters on Syfy? If you do, the Jan 30th episode will supposedly be about the Peoria Asylum, an abandoned facility that closed in the 1970's. It treated people with mental illness and locally it is well known for its supposed ghost stories. If you watch the show or if you ever visit the site, please remember this, which is something I shared on Facebook earlier this week:
I know people just want the fun of a thrilling, local ghost story, but as the granddaughter of one of its former inhabitants I am bothered. If you're interested in the history of Peoria Asylum that's one thing and I respect that. I'm interested in it too. But if all you're looking for is a thrill I'd like to remind you that real people suffered in there. Real people lived their lives in there and those people and their memories deserve our compassion and respect, not our morbid curiosity. The stories my mom has shared with me of visiting her own mother (who had suffered brain damage) at the Peoria Asylum are nothing but sad. No one should make money or have a good time at the expense of another person, even if those people have been dead for awhile and especially if those people suffered because of mental illness.
5 - Downton Abbey question: Why is everyone so mean about Lady Edith? Maybe I just identify with her too much and so I have a natural soft spot. But I don't think she's that bad.
6 - NFP question: Travis and I would like to switch to the Marquette Method of natural family planning but there are no instructors in our area. Has anyone else learned it via the website and emailing with a staff member? I'm concerned that I won't learn it as well but we're also running out of options for methods that will work for us.
7 - This is funny, eh?
I'm with you on Lady Edith. She's perfectly normal and pretty. She's definitely not the ugly, awkward middle sister they try to portray her as.
ReplyDeleteSometimes she does say things that aren't totally appropriate, and when she ratted on Mary in season 1 it was not good, but I just don't think she's that bad. Maybe it's because we are sooo lower class. ;)
DeleteLady Edith = middle child. Lisa Schmidt = middle child. I'm with you on this one. People, stop the Lady Edith hate!
DeleteGhost hunters scares me sometimes...when it is real stories and something evil happened there, I am always like--RUN AWAY! I don't think its right to play with evil. I had an uncle in an older institution and visited him when I was very small...it was not a nice place.
ReplyDeletesnow days can be pretty.
Agreed with the evil things!
DeleteAnd thanks for not calling me out that my #4 wasn't cheery.
Love the Galileo - the fb funnyman pater eddie dwyer had a hilarious bunch of Catholic memes awhile back and my fave was "I write a treatise on the faith sometimes, sayin ayyyyohhh, I'm St.Ambrose" - we sing it regularly with our 4.5 yo Catholic nerd-in-the-making.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh, I laughed out loud with your St. Ambrose one! I love that!
DeleteWe use the Marquette Model, and just followed the instructions on their website. We love it!
ReplyDeleteGood! Thanks.
DeleteI use Marquette based on the website instructions. I don't think it's very difficult at all!
ReplyDeleteHAHAHA!! I laughed out loud at the Galileo meme! Not to bring up last night's post, but do you feel like writing through your emotions took a weight off your shoulders? Just wondered, as it always makes me feel better.
ReplyDeletePS- Love this song! We should share iTunes libraries some day.
It does make me feel better as it helps me articulate things.
DeleteWe have great taste in music. I'd love to share.
I am so with you on Lady Edith. So much so that the more I think about it the more I think I'll name my next daughter Edith (husband objects, so maybe not). The thing is, what Mary did to her in season 1 was really really awful as well but everyone is still in love with Mary. I totally don't get it. But then everyone else thinks Bates is wonderful as well and I'm all like meh, I'd be fine if he went away. I must be weird.
ReplyDeleteI think I've talked to you about Marquette before. I'm trying to be better about using it now. I just learned from the website and use the mucus + monitor charts.
ReplyDeleteI always stay away from shows like that. I could be wrong, but I thought that as Catholics, we aren't supposed to try to conjure up the dead/spirits anyhow. So, just another good reason, I guess :)
ReplyDeleteI love Edith. She's my favorite - mostly because she reminds me of me...a little too much.
ReplyDeleteI have never watched Ghost Hunters but agree that it is an insensitive way to portray a place where many people suffered.
ReplyDeleteLady Edith..... I think she is pretty and smart and capable. But she has a hard time thinking of herself that way, I guess, which sometimes leads her to do dumb things (like try to marry an old dude so she could make him her personal project. I was slapping my forehead over that one). But overall I don't have anything against her. I hope she'll find a lovely, handsome guy before the series ends.
I chart CM signs in conjunction with a fertility monitor. I call it the Marquette method but I have never actually read anything on the Marquette method specifically! I got the Ovacue monitor instead of the Clearblue b/c it has a method to confirm ovulation at 98% accuracy. It is more $ upfront but you don't have to buy strips or anything else so it will save you money in the long run. I think the Ovacue company (Fairview Health?) is doing a study with Marquette University right now. Even with all of this info we are still super conservative and there is lots of abstinence but it is working well for us.
ReplyDeleteHope this helps.
Hahahaha I love #7! :) I want a snow day too!
ReplyDeleteHi! I'm Maria. Just started reading. Anyway, are you a middle child? I'm the 2nd of 3 sisters and I really sympathize with Edith. I've done super-mean stuff to my older sister...maybe unwarranted...but I mean, Mary is gratuitously mean sometimes. And really hits Edith where it hurts ("poor old Stralon.") My heart when out to her when she says to Sir Anthony, "If you think I'm going to give up on someone who calls me lovely..." - as if that one comment just meant the world to her, like no one ever said anything like that to her! And she has a huge capacity to care - like she did caring for the officers. I don't think they're trying to make her into an awkward middle child, I think they do a good job of making the characters complicated (except Sybil - why is there nothing bad about her? :-)) Also, I love Edith's clothes the best.
ReplyDeleteLove that song! Can't help but dance when it comes on!!
ReplyDeleteOh my! Does the fact that you have been in a funk since November and the fact that you are saying you need to find a NFP method that will work mean that you are pregnant again?
ReplyDeleteWe also use the Marquette Method without an instructor. i actually emailed Dr. Fehrig about the instructor thing, even offering to drive up to Marquette for a class (we live in Chicagoland so its not that far) but he reassured me that the method is really designed to work without lessons from an instructor. I began the MM right after my fertility returned after baby #4 and I spent several evenings reading through the special circumstances forums, particularly for postparthm, breastfeeding moms.
ReplyDeleteWe also use the Marquette Method without an instructor. i actually emailed Dr. Fehrig about the instructor thing, even offering to drive up to Marquette for a class (we live in Chicagoland so its not that far) but he reassured me that the method is really designed to work without lessons from an instructor. I began the MM right after my fertility returned after baby #4 and I spent several evenings reading through the special circumstances forums, particularly for postparthm, breastfeeding moms.
ReplyDeleteHi!
ReplyDeleteI use the Marquette Method (I was even in the study). I just read the info on the website and have since modifed how I test because I was using more than 10 sticks a cycle. I just test and then put the info on a chart in my phone (i'm going to transfer to paper charts, since they're easier to read). I've been lax and haven't really analyzed my data to find the earliest P day... I'm working on it!
I do like the MM because my 'symptoms' are most of my cycle and my temps were always messed up because of my weird sleep schedules so we could NEVER get the hang of the CCL method.
I found you via the Lyceum... I like your blog!
~Beth
Yes, I watched Ghost Hunters tonight. I found it sad; I often do. I also find it fascinating, and so I watch, wondering about how the universe is constructed in such a way that only a few remain after death. But ... who pretty clearly do remain.
ReplyDeleteI like to think (I hope) that others go in after an episode to deal kindly with loose ends!
I did NOT like tonight that the cast were pretending to be doctors threatening shock-therapy to get a response (though it was effective, yikes!). Still, I think that the GH cast is the best of the bunch, a (relatively speaking, at least) principled bunch of people. And it's one of my favorite shows.
Patrice