Seven Quick Takes...vol 41

Joining my postpartum hero Jen who is jogging 100% more than me!

{one}

Well this week has been up and down. I guess that's life with a new baby! Or life with toddlers...or, who am I kidding, its MY LIFE. 

We were off to a good start with lovely friends visiting Sunday and Monday, then I caught an annoying cold and have been down and out ever since! Its just annoying in that it makes me feel crumby enough to be crabby and exhausted, not bad enough to illicit real sympathy. Its a fine line!

Also; the weather has been wavering between winter winter winter and beautiful glorious above zero temperatures AGAIN! We had about 7 inches of snow again on Monday and it felt like January but 25 degrees this weekend...I may melt!

{two}

I really need to get on writing Nora's birth story. Pretty soon she'll be off to college and I'll have never gotten around to it! Its really fairly boring, but what's a blog for if not documenting in extreme detail one's major life events?? 

{three}

You know what takes waaay too much of my time?? Organizing kids clothes. Its getting to be extreme. I've spent a couple hours on it this week just transferring from winter-winter clothes, to the winter-that-passes-as-the-rest-of-the-seasons clothes. I've got plastic containers up the wazoo and a garbage bag full to give to the salvation army. And my kids don't really have that many clothes I swear! We also have next to nothing for clothes storage so I really have to be organized as to whats in circulation. Hence why I spend hours on it. But this is normal because I have five kids, right?? And live in a climate of varying seasons which require clothing in all sizes for all temperatures?? Sometimes I question my sanity on this issue. 

{four}

Can we talk about Call the Midwife for a minute?

Spoiler alert for those who didn't watch last weeks episode, which I believe was episode 5 in season 2, just jump to the next take.

It was such a difficult episode to watch, obviously. I thought the conversations between the husband and wife when they talked about "getting rid" of the baby were almost as awful as the scene with her legs spread on the table for the local witch doctor. Obviously, thinking about and planning an abortion is awful and horrific, so that came across accurately in the show. But the show lacked credibility when no real emphasis was given to the fact that the baby she was carrying was a little person. Would nuns and nurses who have served so many women and babies in so many difficult circumstances stand by and not actively try harder to help this woman, or at least make more mention of the humanity of the child? 

I guess there can be some argument that the nurses would then have looked to be in "judgement" of the woman, or to not be understanding the woman's plight had they been more forceful in making known how wrong a decision to abort a child was. But I think the difference comes in the fact that hardly any woman depicted on this show has it easy when it comes to her life circumstances. Everyone faces a certain level of poverty and hardship and yet the babies are still viewed and treated as persons. To make such a shift in attitude displays the cultural view towards life but is totally hypocritical in the storytelling of this series. 

I found the closing scene of the woman who aborted her child,  who almost died as the result, happily walking through a green field with her happy husband and nine other children with the voice over of how the greatness that is the birth control pill may not have happened soon enough for this woman but would go on to practically make the lives of her daughters and granddaughters perfect in every way. It was so heavy handed. 

Needless to say I'm fairly disappointed in this series for this episode. The greatness of this show, especially the first season, was that it subtly depicted babies, childbirth, and the struggles of women as an enriching and beautiful part of life no matter what the external circumstances of the characters. I hope the remaining episodes of the season aren't so disappointing.

{five}

You know what's a drag? When your newborn only wakes you up once during the night but your sixteen month old wakes you up every hour. This should be called #catholicproblems. 

Max was sick-ish this week and decided to give up sleep. Not only give up sleep but also to take up night-time shrieking. Only the baby could sleep through that mess. He better get over this soon! 

{six}

I'm totally loving Pope Francis of course.  (Not that I'm giving my review or something, or that my approval is somehow necessary...ok, I admit that previous sentence is simply really ditzy sounding.) If I'm ever able to rub a couple brain cells together I'll write about his great preaching, but everyday he's saying great things. Following in JPII's and B16's footsteps! I'm also in love with these photos that came out this week:

The picture of Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict kinda makes me want to cry. 

And the Swiss Guard Mass photo is...fab!

{seven}

Don't forget about my Shabby Apple giveaway-you can enter till Monday! I really want you to win!

And if you didn't get a chance yet, check out the NFP series at Carrots for Michaelmas.

And I've got a little Facebook page for you to like.

That's all the bossing around I have for you, I hope this is a beautiful May weekend for everyone!