Seven Quick Takes vol. 33

Adding my very quick takes to the great bloggers over at Jen's today!

{one}

Well, we had a fun Valentine's yesterday. Everyone was thrilled at the prospect of chocolates and pink hearts! Max is a sneaky one and managed to steal a couple Hershey Kisses from the big kids when they weren't looking, then he'd be smirking in a corner with a full mouth of chocolate. My mom got everyone a little stuffed animal and Gemma's turned out to be this tiny ridiculous looking pink toy poodle which she promptly named "Strudel the Poodle" and attached a leash to its little neck. She's been begging her daddy for an "inside" puppy and she thinks this guy is a pretty good substitute. Good luck Strudel.

{two}

The weather was so bad here on Wednesday I couldn't get to Mass. It was pretty much a full blown blizzard with terrible winds, and lots of snow, and my husband thought a pregnant woman with four babies in the back seat wasn't a recipe for driving success apparently. This winter feels like forever and it's had so many storms, or at least dangerous road conditions, that I feel I've missed every chance I've had to get to daily Mass. It makes me want to move to civilization and to within walking distance to Church. 

{three}

I just finished Quiet by Susan Cain this week. I find personality fascinating and this book does not fail to deliver interesting facts previously unexplored when it comes to understanding our personalities. I'm definitely not a classic introvert but I do have introvert tendencies you could say, and I'm married to an introvert, plus I'm sure I've got some introvert kids...or at least we'll see, so the whole book applies in a lot of different ways. I do think that because of the popularity of this book that there are going to be a whole swack of people instantly begin to identify themselves as "highly sensitive" which already annoys me. But I digress!

The point I picked up on the most from the book, however, is how there is such a history of the institutional school system crushing little introverted kids. Pretty much for the last hundred years the institutional school system has been completely orientated towards making children learn in specific ways and crushing the unique learning styles and confidence of introverted children. Its a good perspective that a lot of homeschooling parents will immediately pick up on. Just more evidence that a more personalized attitude towards childhood learning is needed. 

{four}

Ok, my cooler, hipper friends who actually see movies-who's seen Silver Linings Playbook and who thought it was worth sitting through?? I want to see it, for reasons I don't really understand myself, but as soon as my husband read the synopsis he immediately declared it a waste of his time. But he says that about most things I want to watch so we really can't take his word for it can we? 

{five}

I don't know if anyone's still looking for Lenten reading material but it only seems appropriate that some Benedict XVI should be on the menu. I've read both Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to The Resurrection and Journey to Easter in past Lents and they are really good at focusing our attention on the importance of Jesus and the mysteries of Easter. They're much more approachable than most people think as well, really worth a try!

{six}

I'm bringing up yet another book here-it really just speaks to my complete lack of energy so I've been reading like a fiend-but I picked up The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks this week and really had no clue what it was about even though this book has been around for a couple years now. Its a really unbelievable story of how the cancerous cells of one woman changed science and medicine completely starting in the 1950's. But so many moral and ethical tragedies happen in the development of this science that it really just proves that the Catholic Church's stance on human life has always been correct. I'm both really interested in how the story continues and hesitant because I find it all pretty freaky. I'll let you know.

{seven}

And glory hallelujah the Max has started to take a couple more steps by himself this week. I'm really crossing my fingers that I won't have to lug around two immobile babies in about a month but we'll see. I'm trying to not be pushy and/or make a huge deal about it when he does walk so I don't reverse psychology him somehow. He's also figured out that life changing strategy of pushing chairs around the house and climbing to where ever you're not allowed to go. Its so much fun am I right? Really, this age is kinda a lot of fun if you ignore all the mess they get into. They get so excited about crazy things and have so much fun figuring new things out for themselves. And he's so dang cute. 

Happy Weekend everybody-its a long weekend here but its supposed to - wait for it - snow and be cold the entire time!! Hurray!