Seven Quick Takes vol. 43 - Let's Complain!

Joining Jen in the complain-a-thon! And I love it!
I'm sure everyone else has much worse things to complain about so go join the pity party!

{one}

In breaking news this week-all I do is take care of children!! 

I know. Totally not news. But I swear this week its been getting to me. Its the all night, all day of constantly doing stuff for them thats really starting to bring me down. And constantly is not even a stretch, not even one little bit. The past few days I feel as if its all kids, all the time - barely managing to get to the bathroom type stuff.
I've got the newborn who demands nourishment from my body every three hours, then I've got to get to the 16 month old who can't do anything for himself (lets face it) and who is constantly destroying something or making some kind of mess, then I bounce to the three year old who is constantly coming up with new and elaborate plans to involve as many siblings as possible in as many hair-brained ideas in a game of "lets see how much we can do until mom decides to discipline", add in the four year old who is constantly tattling on others, a five year old who never stops asking questions or for explanations for her imaginary world that only she really knows the answer to, and you've got me who didn't stand a chance from the start.

But it really is going from one situation to the next while simultaneously containing the others. All day. No breaks. Exhausting. Its mothering at a very low level of efficiency thats for sure. And I wonder why I can't even wash dishes for more than five straight minutes? Or how I can accomplish quite so little in the span of the twelve hours my husband's gone? 

And don't think I'm being all holy and offering up this type of sacrifice! I think my prayer life is at an all time zero. I'm basically praying at night in the 5.4 seconds it takes for me to fall asleep when I turn off the lights and my head hits the pillow. "Oh hey God please help me to pray a little more tomor....zzzzzzz." Its illuminating.

{two}

Next on the complain train: NFP.
There is still no progress in my getting a better handle on whats going on with my body via NFP doctors. I honestly think I'm going to have to go to medical school in order to get a medical professional to take me and my wacko reproductive system seriously. But by the time I'd finish medical school I'd be way past menopause so it would be useless.
Also; there needs to be a NFP pope. Someone to declare what science, or what method, or whatever, is legit and the real and true right way so there can be no more arguing and dismissing of each other. Because I am completely tired of people who supposedly have a lot of knowledge about NFP completely dismissing me when they learn I use one method. They hear I don't have an infertility problem and thus come up with the completely revolutionary idea that I don't have health issues I must be too stupid to chart properly and would be perfectly fine if I just switched to their method. Over seven years of experience charting diligently doesn't matter. Looking at my charts doesn't matter. The idea that I've had five kids in five years; no big deal, she wouldn't be interested or knowledgeable in both her own body or the science of NFP....Ooohhh nooooo this woman just needs to switch methods that'll fix everything! I seriously am going to start presenting my symptoms/charting before telling people I have five kids because it presents almost the same as many women experiencing infertility issues but no one seems to think it worth investigating when I experience the opposite problem.
Actually I'm just starting to believe maybe I am a complete dunce and have no idea how to chart and the past seven years have accumulated zero knowledge of my body or NFP. Maybe I should just call it quits and accept the idea God wants me to be the next Mrs. Dugger. I guess if I did that I'd at least be free of all this NFP aggro!
Ok...I'm making myself stop now.

{three}

My mom and siblings are gone for a week to New England to attend my other sister's college graduation from a fancy Catholic college. Which is fun for them, not fun for me who gets her only break from toddles by going over to their house just down the road and begging for babysitting! By some alignment of the stars however, instead of my husband having to work overtime the entire time they would be gone he's gotten an extra day off so this weekend has turned into a four day long weekend. WIN!

{four}

I did manage to get to the greenhouse this afternoon. My first time out of la casa all week-yay for another adult being around! Which is a favourite annual event for me. I love picking out colourful flowers to perk up things around the house. I also like complaining that my poor flowers are only going to last a couple of short months because we live in the sub-arctic. Seriously, I was pumped yesterday when I realized it hadn't froze at night for almost a week and could start thinking about planting a garden. These a low expectations people.

{five}

My little peanut is almost smiling! I think she may have a serious streak because she doesn't seem to into yet. I love the newborn first attempts at smiling. They smile with their eyes. Then try to form a smile with their mouths and lips. But doing both together at the same time looks like it takes them so much work! They're hilarious. She's almost two months old. How does this happen?! Why does life with a newborn feel like a blur of one long day put together?? This week I hardly knew what day of the week it was.

{six}

This Girl-and her crazy hair-turns 6 on Sunday! (And check out the fly in my picture, weird no?)

My other little peanut is turning 6 on Sunday!!
That is ridiculous. I remember after she was born being completely unable to imagine having a child that old and that 6 years would be an eternity! And now its gone by so quickly. Six feels like she's not a baby anymore. She's just a kid. Good thing she's great. She only wants cupcakes, cookies, cake, ice cream, and fruit for her birthday dessert. French toast for her birthday breakfast and a request just came in for Kraft Dinner for lunch. A consummate gourmand.

{seven}

In addition, I'm turning 28 on Monday. When I have a baby at 21, I like to have it one day before turning 22....or that was what I thought at the time I'm sure.
Its a holiday Monday which is nice, so the husband will be home, I'm going to sleep in a little and then my plan for after that is to watch the whole of Season One of Veronica Mars while drinking ALL the margaritas! Come over and we'll party!

Happy weekend everyone-and everyone in Canada have an awesome Victoria Day loooonnnggg weekend!

Five Favourites For the First Time!

Joining dear Hallie for the first time! Hallie started this linkup when I was one million weeks pregnant, a time where literally nothing is your favourite. But I've recovered enough to jump on board!

(However, I'm definitely spelling 'favourite' the proper Canadian way.)

This is my Everyday Luxuries five favs!

But it can also be called my five favrourite buys from Homesense, otherwise known as Homegoods to you Americanos. I don't get out to shop often, obviously, but I have a deep abiding love for Homesense. It makes me happy just to walk down the aisles because everything is beautiful. I love finding treasures there too. Plus its five minutes away from my in-laws house where they're usually watching my children so I can almost always squeeze a quick five minute trip in while I'm in the city! I buy all these regularly from Homesense at what I think are great prices. Each of these is under $10 but our homes and ourselves are worth a little treat every once in a while, or everyday!

1.

My favourite bubble bath, Scottish Fine Soaps Au Lait. Its got a great scent that's clean yet not flowery yet not too too old lady. Actually my husband may have complained about old lady smell in the past...but I still love it! Its very creamy...I guess because its milky...and makes lots of great bubbles which I think is essential in bubble bath. Haven't you had a "bubble bath" product that made crap bubbles?? One of life's biggest disappointments.

2.

This is Pecksniff's Freesia and Poppy Fresh Linen Spray. I've talked about this before and I still love it a lot! It makes your bed smell like England...or how I think England would smell. Or at the very least what the sheets in Downton Abbey smell like. Its heavenly and makes getting into a fresh clean bed so much more satisfying! Or making old, sour breastmilk smelling sheets passable. Not going to lie.

3.

Flora and Fauna candles. These make the whole house smell wonderful, last a long time, and are soy candles so they aren't going to give you various forms of cancer...supposedly. I always buy these in the clearance candle section at Homesense and I've never had a scent I didn't like. They're exotic yet not perfume-y smelling. Everyone says that lighting a good candle enhances your home, you hear it everywhere, but I've really come to love it. I think its a complete girly thing because my husband totally doesn't get it, but lighting a beautiful candle at night while I drink a glass of wine while watching home improvement television after the children have been locked in bed is one of my few pleasures!  I also really love Paddywax candles which are also in the clearance section all the time as well.

4.

So something I refuse to compromise on is really good hand soap. I love this French soap so much. The best smell, leaves your hands feeling velvety and clean. I don't find it that expensive because it seems to last a long time. It lifts the spirits on those days when every child is sick and poops a million times warranting your hands being washed a billion times. And I have only freaked out occasionally when a certain boy decides he needs a gallon of soap to wash his hands.

5.

Homesense has the cheapest prices on this chocolate. I know because I've become chemically dependent on expensive chocolate and try to buy it everywhere I go. But you can pick up these bars for almost half the price at Homesense than even Wal-Mart. These are my two very favourites. The caramel and sea salt is one of God's greatest creations.

Now I want chocolate.

Go see Hallie and everyone else with the great favs!

Seven Quick Takes vol. 42

Joining Jen and all the great takers-like the ceiling can't hold us!

{one}

Well this week has felt like the first whole week of spring around here! Children frolic-ing out of doors with no clothing, not one day of snow, windows open, its like a dream! A dream where my kids can roam outside and not be within five feet of me for every waking hour, a dream where they're exhausted by 7:30 when we put them to bed. For the next four months life won't be too shabby! 

{two}

I just finished Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin this week. I feel somewhat underwhelmed by it. Somehow I thought it was going to have a little bit more dramatic tips and lessons for what one can do to create a happy home. Or maybe simply because there was so much hype around the book itself. It does give great ideas on cultivating one's happiness as it centers around the home, and its got me thinking in different ways about my own happiness, and the happiness level of the home does rely upon the happiness of those within it...so I guess I liked this book! 

I'm always in favour of books that try to reestablish the importance of the home. Our culture does everything it can to get us out of our homes, dissatisfied with our homes, and lazy about our homes, both physically and spiritually, so any mainstream book that tries to fix this error is a winner in my book.

{three}

I haven't read any fiction since Nora's been born and its starting to get to me! I almost never not have have a novel on the go, but for some reason postpartum brain makes my attention span so short I find that non-fiction is easier to come back to in the tiny moments I can get to read these days. I did however take The Betrothed out from the library because I read its Pope Francis' favourite book...but I didn't realize its so long...and so old. The copy I have from the library has the most itsy-bitsy print I've ever seen so I think I'm going to try for a better copy. Anyone read it have any advice? Should I leave it for a better time? Is it worth it no matter what time in life? Should I get a philosophy degree before cracking it open? 

{four}

This is the best thing I've read for Mother's Day yet...

"Mommy Juice" is a great gift any day of the year...

{five}

If you're in the mood for an article comparing the morality of HBO's Girls and Jane Austen this is the article for you. Its a terrific article about the philosophic divide between the morality of our culture today and the morality Jane Austen valued. Its excellent, read it to the end!

(I really, really, really geek out over articles about Jane Austen AND morality being compared with contemporary tv/books. Even though I've never watched Girls at all. Not because I'm on the moral high ground when it comes to tv watching, I mean who am I kidding, its mostly because I don't have HBO and do have ridiculously expensive internet service.)

{six}

The jury's out on this jacket I scooped up at Winners the other day. I buy things these days without trying things on in the story because a) I usually have a baby strapped to my body, b) no time, and c) I have no issues returning things. Sorry about the bad iphone pic, and use your imagination to picture me not in yoga pants. Thanks.
Its a bargain, its leather-ish plus blue tweed which I think makes for an interesting mix and makes it a little less completely leather which is probably good for me because I don't know if I could pull that off so well. I'm trying to buy only fashion items approved by The Evangelista...or at least thats one of my goals in life.
Yay? Nay? You can do better?

{seven}



I'm off to write some Mother's Day cards. I'm the worst celebrator of Mother's Day ever. Cards. Flowers. No originality around here. Or for my mom in this case.

I'll be happy with a little "mommy juice" come Sunday, maybe a bath?  Hope all you moms have the greatest of weekends!

Nora's Birth Story

Fresh from the womb

I think I've already forgotten parts of Nora's birth story and its only been 6 weeks! I need to write faster!

To begin with, I know that birth is an inherently spiritual experience for women. I just don't think you can get around that. Its a big deal and each and every birth experience effects a woman's soul differently and profoundly. I believe that completely with my whole heart. That being said, I feel like I'm too close to my experiences to really know how they've changed and altered me and what I've learned, so this post won't be too elaborative or beautifully deep like so many other great birth stories I've read. I think I'll be unpacking my birth experiences for a long, long while. 

So before I get to the nitty-gritty-get-ready-to-push part, I'll just explain that I was seriously battling anxiety towards the upcoming birth for about two months prior to Nora being born on March 25. I think my birth related anxiety is getting worse with each pregnancy which is weird and bizarre because each of my births have been getting progressively shorter and better overall. I've been blessed to have 5 natural births, three at home(or in the home of my in-laws), and these last two at a birth centre all with my fantastic midwife with no major complications! But I do think that simply being a mom longer, having more knowledge of childbirth, and maybe just being more aware of the importance and magnitude of pregnancy and birth can lead to a little more anxiety. Or it could just be me! But in a last ditch effort to combat my pregnancy cray-cray I ordered the hypnobirthing book at about 37 weeks and read it cover to cover as well as started to listen to some "birthing affirmations" on my iPod at night. Now I didn't expect the hypnobirthing book to completely make me have a pain free birth, I was more looking for help having a more relaxed attitude towards labour instead of immediately going into hyperventilation and general losing my mind at the thought or feeling of a contraction! I'd say the book helped reaffirm my feelings of how a natural birth is normal and that my body can do this thing, and the more I relax and let it happen the better it will be! I'm not sure if listening to the affirmations did much other than give my husband a break from telling me every five minutes that the labor would be fine, I'd do fine, everything would be taken care of, God was in control, etc, etc, etc.

How did you grow inside me??

Ok, onward!

I'd been having not-so-lovely contractions or "pre-labor" for a couple weeks at least, usually at night or in the evening when I was finally able to have a few minutes to myself and put my feet up. The couple days leading up to birth-day were no different. The Saturday night, or two days before she was born, I had had quite strong contractions fairly regularly from about 10pm, and I thought it was go time until about 2 am when they just stopped completely. Sunday night the same not-too-serious contractions started again as we were watching The Walking Dead, and I just ignored them and got ready for bed as usual. The contractions didn't feel too strong or regular but I couldn't sleep regardless. I tossed and turned till about 1am at which point I called my mom and asked if I was being a crazy person or if this was the real deal. Because calling your mom and asking her if your contractions are real is a completely scientific aproach to figureing out if you're really in labor or not. 

You see the problem with knowing if I was really in labor or not is important because we live two hours away from the birth centre where we wanted to have this baby, and with my last birth Max was born 20 minutes after we got there after a total of four hours of labor!! So we wanted to be on the ball with real labor, but I'd been having contractions for weeks, these didn't feel too strong plus I also didn't want to have to wake my poor sleeping husband to drive me into the city two hours away in the middle of the night, wake my mom to watch the kids, wake my midwife in the dead of night all for a false alarm! Also; when you're nine months pregnant all these things seem much more important and pressing and dire than I can adequately express!

After talking to my mom, who despite her usual best efforts isn't completely psychic and couldn't tell if my contractions were the real deal or not, I decided to wake up and freak out the sleeping spouse. He was pretty calm despite my mild freaking out and we timed the contractions for about half an hour and they turned out to be seven minutes apart at which point my husband decided we should leave. I had to have my early-labor-cry, which I always have(!), so I blubbered and tried to find everything I wanted to bring, then cried some more at the thought of having to leave my sleeping babies to have another baby.

We got in the car a little after 2 am on an absolutely freezing yet mercifully clear night. I had prayed frantically a couple days earlier when it was a full blown blizzard and the roads were dangerously covered in ice, snow, and a couple other deadly plagues, so a clear night and bare roads was a minor miracle. The contractions continued on not getting too much stronger or closer together on the drive, as I calmed down and tried my hypnobirthing relaxation and breathing while listening to The Lumineers and praying off and on.

That is one cute squishy crinkled face

While we were driving I could tell that this was really labor by those really strange baby movements, as you can feel the baby somehow moving lower...a completely weird and unique sensation, so that was a relief and we were no longer in false alarm territory. Finally-hurray!-we made it to the birth center and met the midwife. Oh yeah, my dear midwife happened to have to go out of town for only two days in the month of March for a course she was required to take and this was the new midwife who had just begun working with her who also turned out to be unbelievably kind furthering my supposition that midwifery is a vocation for extrodinary souls. But at this stage of the game I can honestly say that I didn't care who was there catching this baby because this baby was coming out! 

To say it was a relief to know we had gotten to the birth centre and not had this baby on the side of the highway in minus double digit temperatures would be a huge understatement! In light of this relief my husband fell fast asleep on the beautiful bed in the birthing room. Well, we both fell asleep, sort of. Since I was pretty tired from being up all night and the contractions still didn't feel that bad I thought I'd try and lie down and chill out. The midwife turned down the lights and left us to napping. The birth centre isn't as great as home for birth, but it still is wonderful to be able to lie on a huge bed next to your husband while you're in labor. I think I may have even slept between contractions although they were picking up by now, as it was about 4:30 am when we arrived at the birth centre, I was partly thinking how awesome I was for not completley freaking out this time, for taking things easy, for relaxing.

The midwife had popped in a couple times to ask me how I was feeling and to listen to baby's heartbeat but I was still feeling decent and lying down felt good and my husband seemed to be sleeping well so  things were rolling along pleasantly it seemed. But I looked at the clock at 6:30 and thought this is starting to take too long and I don't want to be in labor forever! So I got up, went to the bathroom, prayed that this birthing train moving, and basically told my body to get going! After that things picked up really quickly. Within twenty minutes I was in "transition" (one of the worst words ever in the English language!), contractions were starting to really, really, really hurt and I wanted to be in the shower. I always go for the shower at this stage of labor...I always think I'm going to choose the peaceful looking tub and go for one of those zen water births but I always turn out heading for the hot shower and getting really intense with profanity use. I have no idea how long I ended up being in the shower or what was going on otherwise but I decided I was done with that and headed for the bed again. At this point I was at that ridiculous point where everything is hurting all the time and who knows when a contraction begins or ends! I also have no idea what to do with myself physically. I don't want to lie, crouch, walk, kneel, I just want the baby out! Somehow this led to pushing within a couple minutes...its really a blur. I pushed for about 15 minutes, trying to not push too hard if that makes any sense, and then completely miraculously a baby comes from all that pain! The midwife handed her right up to me and I was completely shocked by the amount of beautiful dark hair, even though my husband had said she'd have lots the entire time! We also knew she was a girl but didn't tell anyone! Selfishly I wanted to keep that to ourselves and it practically killed my husband not to say anything, and I was a little shocked that the ultrasound was right and it was a girl.

Her lips and cheeks are still this sweet and adorable

Of course I completely burst into really blubbery tears as soon as I got her in my arms. Blubbery, adrenaline laced tears of joy and relief. Really, the best feeling in all the world! The marathon pregnancy, and all the long weeks leading up to birth made the relief of finally having the baby in my arms so sweet. Birth is so strange in that you're hugely pregnant then in a matter of hours a whole perfect little person is here to look and hold! Its really an amazing miracle...requiring a lot of pain...but worth it.

Nora was born at 8:04 am at a perfect 6 lbs, 15 oz, and healthy-I'm not nearly thankful enough for 5 healthy babies but I'm working on it. It took us till the afternoon to realize that it was the feast of the Annunciation, except that this year it was Holy Monday. I sort of love that I had a baby on the feast of the beautiful Annunciation to Mary that she had conceived the Son of God by the Holy Spirit, its some nice spiritual/baby irony. We gave her the middle name Marie in honor of the Blessed Mother, and after the scads of grandmas and aunts who share it as well. It fits perfectly for our little sweet pea.

Now, more than six weeks later I'm still so happy birth is over and she's here! Going through pregnancy and birth five times doesn't seem to have increased my enjoyment of either, but it has increased my thankfulness after a beautiful new child is in my arms each time!

Where are all the pictures of me in labor and looking awesome two minutes after pushing out a person, you ask?? I was up all night and just gave birth-all photos of my face shall not be seen for a good twenty years.

Shabby Apple Winner!

And the winner of the lovely $50 gift card to Shabby Apple is....

Lady Ithildin!

Please send me an email and I can reward your good luck!

Thanks for entering everyone-maybe I'll have more real giveaways-how exciting!

(And I've decided this bathing suit is awesome!)

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!

Theme Thursday-Play Pictures!

I think its been forever since I linked up with Cari and her Theme Thursdays, so I need to get things together!

Taking pictures of the kids playing is one of my favourite ways to photograph them. And I think they'll be the pictures I treasure most as they grow. 

I know watching them play is one of the most rewarding things in being their mom, it makes me feel as if somehow I'm doing something right if their imaginations are allowed to wander where they wish. And usually their sweet joy and innocence, or their creativity and personality really come through in pictures of them playing. 

I've got lots of pictures of them playing, but this picture of Luke playing in the hose last summer makes me laugh. Plus the water looks kinda cool!

See you at Clan Donaldson!

And I've also just started a Facebook Page for this little blog, come say hi!