7 quick takes

1 - I wanted to post a song to go with the heat.  Buster Poindexter's "Hot Hot Hot" is just a little too peppy.  So I went with Badly Drawn Boy's "The Shining" which is nice and slow and thick.  I thought it fit.

2 - Thursday was a pie baking day at my house.  Remember when I said I needed to make some money to pay for a trip so I could see my friend profess final vows with the Nashville Dominicans?  Well, my mom is often hired by local women to bake home made pies for certain events.  One such event (an ice cream social at the park) is tonight and we baked four apple pies and one blueberry pie for $8 each.  Every little bit helps!

3 - Here's what we did on the 4th of July:

We made red, white, and blue skewers.  The kids mostly ate marshmallows and complained about how they don't like blueberries.

I did all the prep work and made mine while they were still in quiet time.  By getting all my ridiculous perfectionist tendencies out of the way I was able to let the kids just enjoy themselves.

Thank you, Pinterest.

I tried to get a cute picture of my four awesome kids.  This is as good as it got.

I ate waaaaaay too many patriotic rice krispie treats.

Another thanks to Pinterest here.

Travis set off fireworks and the kids held hands while they watched.  I think it was one part excitement, one part fear, and one part safety.

Poor L momentarily forgot all the warnings and reminders and touched a recently extinguished sparkler. Here's a picture of our little burn victim holding her injured hand in ice water while her daddy holds her ice cream.  It's cute.

4 - One of my favorite sites to visit is Big Pulpit.  Every day Tito Edwards posts links to the best Catholic blog articles out there.  Along with National Catholic Register, I check out Big Pulpit almost every day.  I just wanted to share it in case you hadn't heard of it yet.  Enjoy! 

5 - Let's take a moment to appreciate how cute my little Resa is...

Six weeks and so, so sweet!

6 - Tomorrow our good friends, and Resa's godparents, are getting married.  Travis and I are so happy for them and we're so excited to share in their joyous day.  Yay for MVV and Liz!

We love you!



7 - This one's for R, who left a sympathetic message for Travis in my comment box.

today was a very good day

This morning the kids and I headed to B/N for a brunch celebrating the pregnant women in the Friday morning moms' group.  There was yummy food, well over 20 small children and each mom received a spiritual bouquet from the other women.  The moms who arranged it even invited a priest over to bless the four of us who are expecting.  It was chaotic, fun and beautiful. 

* This leads me to a tangent.  I am hugely blessed to be a part of the Friday morning group of Catholic moms.  I am an intruder and outsider - the rest lives in B/N and belongs to the same parish - yet they have welcomed me and my children.  The women are such role models to me and I am edified by the different virtues and strengths I see in all of them.  Seriously. 

The day got better after a stressful naptime when Travis came home.  The whole family went for a walk, L helping to push the stroller or riding on her dad's shoulders.  On our way home we bumped into MVV, who was also out enjoying the weather.  He walked home with us and played with L while Trav grilled venison brats and pork chops. 

Yes, we had our first family walk, and broke out the grill today.  It was great! 

Bring on Spring!

Ahhh... the money crisis

Travis told me I'm not allowed to pay the bills any more because of how they, along with Suze Orman on Oprah and the financial experts on the Today Show, are freakin' me out.

I just read the post a Conversion Diary about money and living beyond our means and I guess that needs to be added to the list of things freakin' me out. But I'm going to make a guess that many of my friends are in a pretty similar boat as Travis and I - living paycheck to paycheck and currently putting nothing into savings. The savings thing is what really scares me. But THANK GOD we have MVV living with us. With his awesome rent (and I mean, seriously - $200 a month for your own place and the best landlords ever!) and 1/3 of the utilities we are spending less than 50% of our monthly income on fixed expenses. This is good.

So now, instead of freaking out, I'm going to make a list of all the VERY GOOD things we are doing to be financially smart.

- cutting up extra credit cards and paying off all balances
- spending no more than $65 a week on groceries unless it is a stock up week.
- begin using only cash or debit cards
- finding more recipes for tuna
- making my own bread products (this includes wheat bread and tortillas)
- buying store brands
- using coupons

Along with those things we are also
- trying to be generous with what we do have
- working on increasing our tithing to a full 10%
- making a point to thank God every morning for everything we have: our home, insurance, our cars, our health, Travis' job and job security, my job, MVV, our friends and family. This last bit is the most important, I believe.

yummy yummy yummy yummy yummy

Tonight we introduced solids! By doing this I did not fulfill my original goal of exclusive breastfeeding through the 6th month, but I'm hoping it will help me reach my new goal of L sleeping through the night again. What can I say, I'm a better mom when I have a good night's sleep.

Look at her smile as her Daddy feeds her! She was actually laughing at the noises he was making.

By the end she was a little sloppy and had somehow lost a sock in the process. Also, when the bowl was basically empty we let her finally hold it and, of course, it went right to her mouth.

Side note: Many thanks to MVV for unknowingly letting us use his plastic bowl, of which we have none.

Side note #2: Please remember to ask me before you feed L anything!

We took video. I'm sorry that I say the word "yummy" so many times that it becomes incredibly annoying. Now I know not to do that. You'll notice a couple of things while you watch the videos, like that I'm more concerned with neatness and Travis is more concerned with fun. Consider this a good example of pretty much every aspect of our lives. :)