The Secret Cardinal by Tom Grace

Who's in the mood for a Tom Clancy-esque spy thriller with a Catholic plot line??!!

What's that you say?? Definitely not the crazy girl who writes this blog and reads books only written by women who lived two centuries ago? Or as my husband calls them "books about dresses".

Its called expanding my horizons people. I'm trying new things. Branching out. Reading contemporary thrillers. I'm growing.

I can't remember just where I saw a slight reference to The Secret Cardinal by Tom Grace, but I'm pretty sure it was a Catholic blog somewhere and before you knew it I had placed a hold on it from the library and was actually reading something written within the last 5 years! And for the most part I was more than pleasantly surprised. 

The book is quickly paced, has a clear line of action, with good simple prose that doesn't try too hard to be more than a thriller, but doesn't insult your knowledge of grammar either. The plot is based on the Vatican deploying a secret team of CIA-type operatives to China in order to break a bishop out of prison. This takes place while a papal election is happening, and in light of the previous pope making the imprisoned bishop a secret cardinal. The depiction of the Church is done expertly, and was obviously written by a Catholic because there are no glaring errors in basic Church practices and presents the Church in a positive light. The character of the Chinese cardinal is beautifully developed, and Grace's hero of his previous novels, Nolan Kilkenny, comes off as a likeable hero whose faith is portrayed fairly realistically.

I personally thought what better villain for spy novel than atheistic China. Grace gives a vivid description of life under a regime that wants to obliterate the outside influence of the Roman Catholic Church, and the lengths its government will go in stopping those who fight for religious freedom. The Vatican having the capability of launching such a covert operation was a little far fetched, but how awesome would it be if the Vatican could do such things? I've gotta say its nice to read a novel that successfully employs the Church into a novel of suspense and action without treating the Church with disrespect and complete disdain.

G.K. of the Day!

Baby Gemma and Baby Dom-circa 2009

"Babies need not to be taught a trade, but to be introduced to a world. To put the matter shortly, woman is generally shut up in a house with a human being at the time when he asks all the questions that there are, and some that there aren't."

- G.K. Chesterton "What's Wrong With the World". 

Seven Quick Takes-Rural Alberta Advantage Edition

Here's my Seven Quick Takes Rural Alberta Advantage(a real band name, pretty decent band!) Edition complete with Instagram pictures of Alberta roads.

Make sure you check out Hallie of course, and prayers for Jen!

{one}

So I got me to the city yesterday. I live about an hour and a half from a city-ya know a place with a starbucks and a costco? Otherwise known as civilization. I usually get to the city every couple of weeks, but I try to do most of my big grocery shopping in the city because of the price savings and the ability to buy Italian parsley. Then I shop my little small town groceries for all the stuff I need in between. Its a fairly workable system, except that when I get into the city, my very limited time is completely wasted on grocery shopping, major bummer.

{two}

In order to get to the city-espeically for a "quick" trip like yesterday (10 hours or so) I try to leave my 3 oldest babes with my mom or sister because it takes me about an hour to do up 4 car seats! So its a major time saver. But a nursing baby? Not a time saver. 

{three}

Having a nursing baby makes you live life on a 4 hour leash. I don't really complain, except when I want to get a million errands done and have to always be watching the clock so that I can get back to a nursing babe. Yesterday I was able to leave the little mister with my in-laws who mercifully live in the city so I could get to my spiritual direction appointment. It was sooo nice to be able to focus and not have to look at such a cute baby for a whole hour an a half! And then I proceeded to quickly hit another grocery store, and liquor store, and starbucks, and then boom-Times up Cinders and I gotta run! 

{four}

I'm really just explaining all this to show that I feel as though I don't get anything done in a 10 hour day in the city while I'm nursing a baby. I'm clearly a performance based person. I need to get things done! So only seeing the inside of grocery stores when I'm in close proximity to stores I want/need/sorta want to get to makes me a little crazy.

{five}

For the love of all that is good and holy could we please make a "coupon lane" at grocery stores?! I thought I was behind one lady in the checkout, she had quite a bit of stuff but all the other lanes had tons of people so I thought this was my best bet. Lo and behold she pulls out about 800 or so coupons that the cashier then proceeds to read individually and then scan through...and then phone the manager about. All while I've loaded all my groceries while at the same time rocking a tired/grumpy baby with one hand. I stood there and watched the small 5 minute window of possible starbucks in between shopping/nursing/rushing to my appointment evaporate. It was painful. Patience was exercised. Souls released from purgatory. Punches left unflown. But at the same time I'm not anti-coupon, I use them occasionally, I didn't want to be mad at the poor lady. And who knows what kind of boss the poor cashier has and his OCD-like control and emphasis on coupon checking. So just make a whole separate line. Wow, Holy First World Problem Batman! Ok, rant over.

{six}

My poor little Lukey is starting to realize he's the middle child. Because he's only 11 months younger than Dom he, very conveniently for me, simply starts wearing the clothes Dom outgrows as soon as Dom outgrows them. Yesterday when I gave Dom new very needed shoes and Dom became very excited! And Luke looked up at me with big sad eyes and said "I would like new green shoe." So I think its time to get him a little something new because I think he'll actually notice and appreciate it quite a bit. I want to do simple things that make him feel special, because I look at him and see the most special little boy. I'm getting sappy, it must be Mother's Day.

{seven}

And Happy Mother's day to all! I hope you all are showered in flowers, thanks, good food and a good wine! I don't really want/expect prezzies, but I do like the idea of wishing other Moms a happy Mother's Day, and of course my mum! 

On babies, schedules, and my parenting crutches...I mean secrets!

Its been almost 5 years since my little girl was born and I became a mommy. Which seems fairly ridiculous because time has flown by and suddenly my baby is out of babyhood! And my lovely friend asked last week how I approach baby scheduling etc so I thought I might write a little about it now. All non-mommy readers feel free to glaze right over ;)

I come from a fairly attachment parenting friendly family. My Mom was all about breastfeeding on demand, and child-led weaning (even after the age of two), and baby wearing, and natural home birth, the whole nine yards pretty much. So needless to say I'm very used to these ideas and I've seen them play out in our family and for the most part thought this would be the way I'd go in parenting as well, although I have to admit I really didn't have too many preconceived ideas of my parenting style before having my first baby-and that was probably a good thing.

When Gemma was born I had no intention to put her on a hard and fast routine/schedule or breastfeed on demand, I basically thought I'd roll with how she rolled. But things got a little rough pretty quickly. Her birth was fairly tough on me, to the point that I couldn't sit up or really walk comfortably for the first week at least, and it took about 3 weeks until I was up and sweeping my own floor-which I was oddly thrilled to do! Then she hopped on board the colic train. Which meant that for the next 8-9 weeks I hardly slept at night. I really only slept at night when my husband, mom, or sister took a shift with her. It was brutal. I was a complete mess, she cried almost all the time, sleeping didn't happen much during the day and wouldn't happen any time after 9 pm. While this was happening I was falling fairly hard into postpartum depression. I couldn't really distinguish the postpartum from the exhaustion at first, but as she improved and I didn't, I realized it wasn't just lack of sleep that was making me feel miserable.

I came to the conclusion, probably with more than a little help from my husband, that I needed to make some changes to my day that would positively impact how I was feeling and help me recover. I needed routine, the baby needed routine. Thankfully, because I was so laid up after the birth, Gemma was an all-star nurser. But with the colic nursing quickly became a try-any-time solution to the non-stop crying which created a super snacker! Anytime she would fuss I'd offer her the boob which was a bad habit. Whenever she'd fuss I'd feel obligated to sit and nurse her, people would hand her to me anytime she made a noise and I'd give in to her and she'd nurse for less than 5 minutes. It was a terrible cycle. I felt like my day was held hostage to the demanding little snacker, but at the same time I thought that this is what it meant to breastfeed on demand, which was wrong of course. And the snacking also led to 15 minute naps. I had no time to myself, or even to do the dishes and I thought that if this is what motherhood is all about I'm hooped!

To get all these snacking/sleep problems under control I looked into some books and decided to give The Baby Whisperer a try. And I'm not exaggerating when I say that this book has had such a positive impact on my parenting/family that I can't laud it enough. Basically the Baby Whisperer proposes that babies are best kept to a routine of Eating, Activity, Sleep throughout their day. Eating becomes a more scheduled every 3 hr, and then as the baby gets older every 4hr thing. Then the baby happily plays and is awake for a little while before its peacefully put to bed to fall asleep on its own and to nap for about two hours at a time. I know, to anyone who has had a baby this sounds completely impossible. I didn't believe it when I first read it, but thought what the heck, I might was well try out what she suggests because I need any help I can get! And over the course of a couple weeks, and lots of hard work on my part, it did work. I suddenly had a routine to my day. I knew the times I could devote to breastfeeding her and wouldn't feel like she was making me her milk slave, she'd be awake and happy! for a good couple hours, and she'd sleep for more than 15 minutes! It was a miracle!

I actually don't think that the Baby Whisperer is contrary to attachment parenting ideals. She never promotes the cry it out method, but gives great tips to encouraging an independent sleeper. And I think independent sleeping is such a valuable skill!! Especially if you want to parent/attachment parent more than one child per decade! And I like to think that the principles behind attachment parenting motivates whatever other techniques I use, like independent sleep. I don't follow the book to the letter of course, but I've used lots of different tips with different babies and they've all worked in different situations. I've continued to use to the book's ideas of scheduling/routine right from birth with my following three kids and I can't tell you how awesome it is to be able to put a baby in his bed awake and know that he's going to fall asleep and stay asleep. With the way our family has grown and how close in age our babies are, I'm pretty confident that I would have lost my mind if my kids didn't nap!

It also has really suited my personality. I think that that's an important part of motherhood; following what works for your personality. Obviously motherhood forms you to holiness in everyday life and wears away at our selfishness, but we've also got to acknowledge our personalities. My crazy control-oriented personality deals better with knowing how my day is going to play out. I wish I was more easy going, lived more in the moment, and didn't worry about getting things done quite so much. I also still want to have a small slice of time to have to do what interests me apart from babies. You know, important stuff like Facebook, drinking wine, and sitting in the bathtub for hours at a time!  I love knowing that I will be able to give my full attention to my baby at the times he's supposed to nurse and while he's awake, AND get time to get things done around the house. We have bad days where the kids need more loving and snuggling, and of course my schedule and what I wanted to get done flies out the window, but for the most part having a daily routine from babyhood has been great for me. But the schedule/routine idea has served me well through all their ages thus far. Nap times have turned into quiet times for the older babies and as they've always been used to regular times for naps, its easy to keep up the habit of a least a little quiet time during the day. I could go on but basically naps are gold.

I could go on for about a 500 page or so book about the intricacies of babies and their schedules...because lets face it...when you have 4 in 4 year you become kinda an expert, but I'll save some to tempt you to come back! Am I a mommy quitter for admitting I love that I make my kids nap everyday?

Its the small thrill of it all...

via

Ever have a week begin with a burst of ambition, energy and good intentions? 

The kind of feeling that motivates you to start off the week with such lofty ideals like staying on top of the laundry?

Well, whenever this strange mood strikes me I can usually contribute it to the fact that I changed my sheets on Sunday. Somehow going to bed on Sunday in crisp, clean sheets seems to start me off on the right foot for the week-how long that feeling lasts I cannot guarantee!

Here's a pic I took yesterday to document the fact! Note the wrinkly sheets, etc. I do however, have a little  luxury item that I love:

Its this Pecksniff's Fresh Linen Spray in Freesia and Poppy. It makes your sheets smell like an English garden. Actually, I'm pretty sure its how Jane Austen's bedroom smelled. I found it for about $5 bucks at Homesense and it is definitely worth it! 

Fridays deserve a pretty scarf...

I saw this scarf yesterday and I can't get it out of my head! 

I've been trying to figure out why I like it so much, and I really have no rational explanation other than its orange, has giraffes on it (which can never be a bad thing), and would express a certain whimsy to any outfit. I think most outfits are sadly lacking in whimsy. As is life. 

Anyways, I'm drinking my coffee while eating some prosciotto for breakfast as I try to make a new flatbread recipe. Theres a chilly drizzle outside, two babies having "naps", and one hubby reading Winnie-the-Pooh to his daughter. I'm still debating what really needs to get done today. I'm leaning towards eating my fresh flatbread while reading copious amounts, but I have a basket of laundry taller than my oldest child and a floor that hasn't seen a mop for much more than fortnight. We'll see what happens-have a wonderful first weekend of May!

Baby stages

This munchkin is 4 months old. Its already time to start shifting his schedule to a 4 hour feeding schedule instead of three-I'm a devotee to the Baby Whisperer...I feed my babies on a schedule....I admit it....call the mom police.

Although it seems as if one of my babies is passing from one stage to another almost constantly, its always both surprising and sad when their stages end and begin. I think I'm getting better at enjoying each present stage a bit more as I get a little more mom experience under my belt. I definitely don't feel the urge to propel Max to walking, I am over the moon in love with having even one child immobile! The prospect of 4 mobile children is a daunting one!

I love this squishy, immobile, chubby baby stage between 3 and 6 months where their little faces light up as soon as you come into their sight line and they thrive on being held for hours and hours on end...oh wait that last part??