Seven Quick Takes vol. 66

Joining the conference-craze-creating Jen for Seven Quick Takes!

{one}

Another week has flown by, but this one legitimately flew by because it was only four days long! We got home from a whirlwind weekend travelling to my best friend's beautiful wedding, visiting great friends along the way, and travelling with only two babies on Monday. It really was a great 5 days. The girls travelled really well, our friends were so generous in hosting us, the wedding was beautiful, the mountains missed me and were happy to see me again (or maybe it was just me!), the roads were passable and the weather free of blizzards, and we returned with the boys having not completely terrorized the in-laws! Successful on every level.

But it took me until yesterday to unpack. I'm an all-star.

{two}

Guess who should have taken more photos of the wedding? It's a difficult task when you're in the wedding party. But I made up for good photos in selfie photos on my phone. Which is both lame to admit to and makes for ridiculous memories I think. 

Actually since I've gotten back I've tried organizing my photos and its a huge mess. I used to be on top of things but this year I've really let them slide and now I have thousands of unedited photos which is making it difficult to get photos and things printed for my family for Christmas. Maybe this weekend I'll attack it? 

{three}

This weekend will prove busy however, because we're having a joint family party for the boys on Sunday. With Luke's birthday at the end of October and Dom's at the end of November we end up having two boys the same age for a little less than a month. Go Irish Twins! Just thinking about that fact makes me wonder why I didn't just have twins outright...but I know it turned out perfectly cause they're such sweeties. 

I haven't planned a thing for the party! A thing I tell you! But being a winter birthday, the plans are really quite limited anyway, and since we're just having cousins and a few friends we're going to keep things on the lowest of keys. Which would be like A minor in music speak. But I hope I can pull out a decorated cake?? Can I?? Expectations = low.

{four}

Snow is here and looks like its here to stay. The snow coupled with the ludicrous lack of daylight hours seems to be making me a little down. I think its mostly the seasonal issue, but there is something pretty demoralizing in it being dark before my husband is even home from work. And since this week was such a gong show in the kids getting back to routine/unpacking situation we didn't go anywhere at all other than my mom's and its feeling a bit low around here. That party is coming at a good time I think!

{five}

Have you tried this wine? Its cheap and gloriously good. Its called Apothic.Red, and its a blend which really should be frowned upon I'm sure, but it tastes too good. I feel like I'm getting a bit addicted, I regret not buying a case when it was on sale last month. 

{six}

I've been having the worst time fitting in any form of fitness/motion/exercise lately. It usually becomes a choice between working out or blogging. Working out or folding laundry. Working out or nursing the baby. There always feels like something should get done before the working out and I'm too exhausted both before the kids get up and late at night to accomplish anything more than just lying there. But the moral of this story is that my pants aren't fitting and I'm feeling like a blob. So not a good moral of the story. And lets not even pretend I've lost any baby weight...ANY! But whatever. I just wanted you to know/hear me whine.

{seven}

So the small baby boy around these parts has just expanded his vast vocabulary to include such important words as "Wa-wa" and "Soo-soo" (for his soother of course) and I'm lauding him for these efforts. Which seems unbelievable, but really, I know he's holding back all language skills so I've got to encourage what I can! The husband and I have a side bet as to whether Nora will speak in coherent sentences before Max. It could go either way really. But he's actually not even 2 yet, and I'm not even going to tell the internet how long it took another one of my children to begin talking because everyone would revoke my mom card. 

I'm off to go grocery shopping. It had to happen. I bribed the children to eat cashews for a "treat" yesterday. Have a great weekend everybody!

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Here's my bookshelf!

Joining what may be my most favourite linkup ever-What's on Your Bookshelf, with the always wonderful Modern Mrs. Darcy. 

I just love books. And bookshelves. I think I've got a board of Pinterest dedicated to beautiful bookshelves because they really are just one of the most wonderful things we can have in our homes. I have dreams of a whole library in my house with books on every wall, or putting shelving along the ceiling of a bedroom and filling with books, or making an old decrepit fireplace into a bookshelf floating around my head. But these things aren't quite fitting with our home as it is right now so I do the best I can with two bookshelves in our main living area. I've got more books than fit on these shelves right now, some are downstairs in boxes, there are growing piles in my bedroom, with homeschooling there has already been another influx of books, and every child's room as stacks of books here and there. But that's all fine with me as I think a house overflowing with books is just about perfect! 

Here's my favourite bookshelf. I try to keep all the pretty books on it, as well as my personal favourites. I've made one of my hobbies/life goals to buy every book by my favourite authors in as old an edition as I can get my hands on. I'm not looking so much for first editions, but I do love the idea of a book with age and history so that I can imagine who read it before me and where they delved into its pages. I also think antique books are just beautiful. So far I've gotten quite a few Chesterton books from used book stores here and there as well as eBay. I hope to own every book by Agatha Christie one day and as she wrote more than 60 I think that's a good goal for my lifetime! I'm also a huge P.G. Wodehouse, Evelyn Waugh, Ngaio Marsh, and Dorothy Sayers fan so I scoop up editions whenever I can.

I'm also a lover of hardcover. I now almost refuse to buy paperback if there is an option. Hardcover just lasts better on a shelf, looks nicer, and brings such a great sensory experience while reading. I'm also allergic to the dust covers. I'm your basic book snob. 

All that book snobbery aside, I do make room for old paperbacks when they're the awesome Penguin variety! And I've found some really great old copies of Chesterton that are rare and hard to find in paperback that I really love a lot.

Here's a funny shelf that has classics, Catholic essays, books on detective fiction and Shakespeare, prayer books, a book about a saint, and Edith Head. I'm a sucker for good variety, what can I say!

And another look at a crazy mix of books. A shelf full of papal works with some coffee table reads and a children's Bible, followed by the kids shelf which includes what feels like hundreds of kids books, and any untold number of library books that should have been returned months ago!

Here's another shelf that describes most of my interests fairly well: you've got your parenting books, stay at home mom books, Catholic mom books, various spirituality books, a smattering of detective fiction, great literature like Mariette in Ecstasy and The Brothers Karamazov, a little Chesterton and Jane Austen. Its like my brain on a shelf!

Looking at these shelves up close I wonder if my interests are too focused? Can there be too much Chesterton? Is there a limit to how many different varieties of Catholic spirituality one should read about? Oh well, another problem for another day.

Here's a couple more shelves of what seems like a strange cocktail of books, yet I really love most of them!

I'm going to stop here before I really get carried away, but I've been having so much fun seeing others amazing bookshelves this week! 

So what about you? Any favourites of yours up on my shelves??

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Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear

I can't believe its been a couple weeks since I've written about something I've read so I thought I'd get back in the grove by writing about Maisie Dobbs and how much I loved it!

I should begin by coming out and admitting that I have a great love for mystery novels. It began in my youth with Nancy Drew, but once I graduated to the queens of the Golden Age of Mystery I was hooked both on the thrill and enjoyment of a good whodunnit and the great writing that has been a hallmark of this genre, even though many argue the fact!

Maisie Dobbs is a continuation of the tradition of Agatha Christie et al. and not only because Maisie is a great British female character. Maisie is a very intelligent, compassionate, insightful, and hardworking woman who has a gentle way of dealing with people whom she is both investigating and employed by. But it's also clear that Winspear has drawn Maisie to be a character with depth, and that we won't completely know her over the course of only one book, but will enjoy getting closer to Maisie over the course of multiple adventures. The plot, characterization, and respect for the reader's intelligence are also present in this book and these are qualities that most modern writers like to ignore to some degree in mystery series.

We're introduced to Maisie as she is beginning her own private investigation agency in 1929 London. She's just starting to break out on her own after an apprenticeship with a man of mystery and multiple talents, Maurice Blanche. She is unflappable, yet realistic about beginning her solo career and the first case she encounters becomes a personal one. When a young husband asks Maisie to investigate the activities of his wife Maisie quickly realizes the wife is not being unfaithful, but is still dealing with the grief over the death of her first love, a veteran of the Great War who returned home badly disfigured and has recently died. Maisie discovers odious clues pointing towards the abuse of disabled veterans in the form of a cult-like retreat centre, and as she investigates further her own time before and during the war is revealed, and it involves a dreamy doctor in the army!

I love this time period and the historic portrayal and details are spot-on. I really do enjoy Maisie as a character thus far as she seems determined yet not pushy, insightful, resourceful, but also humble and youthful. This time period is one of my favourites in literature and the descriptions of the Great War were realistic and riveting. The mystery itself, while not complicated, was an intriguing concept and was structured well which lent to easy yet enraptured reading. The only qualms I have are the hints at a new age-y type of understanding towards psychology and meditation in Maisie's training with Maurice, but only further reading into the series will indicate how prevalent those ideas are to Maisie and her investigative style. I'm hooked on the series, and look forward to enjoying the further adventures of Maisie Dobbs.

Joining the lovely Jessica and other literary ladies at Housewifespice today, under the wire, for What We're Reading Wednesday!

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S.O.S!

How today feels.

Ho, boy. Just thought I'd send a quick S.O.S to the outside world from the house of chaos and horror this morning. Well, not so much horror as screaming, but definitely heavy on the chaos.

We got home last night from our sojourn to the mountains for my best friend's wedding, all the kids are still in one piece, the boys didn't even harm any grandparents over the course of 5 days and 4 nights! There are suitcases and bags of random stuff all over, kids popping balloons (where did these balloons even come from?!), Max has spilt wet, milky, cheerios all over the floor, my dishwasher won't drain, and my coffee is sitting on the counter cold, we're also in desperate need of food but I'm too tired to even think about going to town, and I'm hoping dinner will just magically walk through the door. All this is accompanied to the not-so-dulcet tones of a child screaming. There's been one kid screaming since I woke up about 2 hours ago. They're taking shifts and screaming about different things just to mix things up. Dom is screaming because we're having cereal and not oatmeal (is it opposite day?!), Nora is screaming because that is what she does when everyone else needs me, Max is screaming because...well no one knows, but its loud.

Oh, and I forgot to mention Nora was up for hours because her schedule and routine was completely beat to hell with travelling and she's decided to wake up every two hours and be up for two hours. I'm pretty exhausted.

I've decided to unload a couple suitcases, turn on more cartoons, and worry about school tomorrow.

But what's really funny is that all the chaos and fifteen levels of crazy don't even feel that crazy to me. Maybe that's a serious sign. Or maybe I'm just getting a little more used to these days and try my best to just ride the wave without sinking to the depths of despair. Hopefully we make it through today with more coffee and cartoons and tomorrow will be markedly better! Thank goodness Hope is a supernatural grace!

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Upside down or right side up?

So I feel as if I've been a bit discombobulated lately. I can't quite put my finger on it but it's coming up in all sorts of strange ways. I'm being surprised by how I feel about random things that usually go unnoticed, or at the very least, un-freaked-out over. Usually I can blame these topsy-turvy emotional reactions to pregnancy but that's most definitely not the case now and so my default in dealing with things seems to be different. Or nonexistent. Geez, pregnancy hormones, you've become my default position in ignoring things!

For instance, we're going away this weekend to my best friend's wedding. About nine hours travel, and we're leaving the boys up here with my in-laws. We're taking the girls - so only two babies (and ok, I guess a six year old doesn't even qualify as a toddler anymore!) which definitely equates to mini-vacay! And usually when I leave even one kid at home to go grocery shopping I'm all, "Woo-hoo party time!" but for some reason the thought of leaving my little boys for four days has me totally anxious.

I feel as if I'm abandoning my little 22 month old baby Max. Which is funny because even though he really is still a baby he hasn't been the baby around here for the past seven months. This results in a more independent baby for the most part. Oh sure, he's still completely avoiding use of the English language and doesn't like to go downstairs without me,  nor leave my line of sight, but I guess I'd gotten used to assuming he somehow was much older than his age. Faced with leaving him for a couple days, which when I started to think about will be the longest I've left him for in his little life, makes me feel as if I'm abandoning a helpless newborn.

I'm just surprised by this reaction because you know me, I'm usually d-y-i-n-g for a break. Any break. Actually, I'm dying right at this moment. And anyone who knows Max knows that his noise level is too darn high for most of his waking hours. So a break of a couple days from a even a bit of my workload in the diaper changing/toddler tantrum enduring department should be a fun time. Heck, I can even drink at this wedding, I should be letting the good times a-roll! What does this mean? Dare I say maturity? Motherly experience? A heart made of stone melted?

Or maybe that I just love my trouble making, tantrum throwing, screeching, non-verbal, adorable, hilarious, blonde baby boy. I'm just using this as one of the examples of the strange things that are seemingly upside-down to me these days. Like it being dark at 5 pm and feeling a sense of anxiety about what I don't know. Fearing to pack one of the kids preferred pajamas which, of course, signals end times. Being a little too happy when certain characters succumb to zombies on The Walking Dead. No, that last one has been true for the whole of that show's existence.

I should really be packing right now, not opining about my lack of internal insight, but I guess what has come out of this introspection is that it's probably a good sign that I still love my kids ineffably enough to miss them over the course of 4 days. Even the kids who have a high degree parenting of difficulty as well as the kids with a much lower degree of difficulty. They probably won't notice I'm gone, I'll definitely have my share of drinks and I'm sure have a wonderful time, we'll get home again and realize a little break did us all good, that is after we're over the grandparent-time behaviour hangover and the mountains of dirty laundry!

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What I Wore Sunday - November edition

Hope you're all having a blessed couple of holy days!

This whole extra hour of sleep last night was also a pleasant little surprise...of course that is, if that extra hour involved sleeping by the small people in your home...but I digress.

I thought I'd just pop in with a little What I Wore Sunday contribution because I was wearing new boots. And basically that's all the impetus I need to get back on the bandwagon!

My husband said of my clothing: "Hey, I don't even mind that outfit."

I was breaking out the blazer and pants because we're beginning the great season of "Mass in the Dark" and things are getting chillier around here. 

I broke out cords, a jacket, and striped shirt. Hopefully an ok combo that doesn't quite say "job interview" or "mom who gets out once a week". Both things I'm trying not to project to the 15 people at Mass, but then again one of those statements is true. And the little boots are new and I still kinda feel like a dork wearing them.

We're off to enjoy the first snow of the season...and by enjoy I mean begrudgingly make the kids go outside. 

Enjoy your Sunday by visiting the fashionistas at Fine Linen and Purple!

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Seven Quick Takes - Halloween Edition

Halloween 'taking because all the cool kids are doing it! Go to Jen's to see those cooler peeps.

{one}

Nora is not down with this.

I remember when I used to like Halloween. It must have been more than 4 years ago.

 I have to admit I was completely uncreative, bought all my children the popular secular princess/superhero costume of their choice, and still came out of Halloween exhausted.

Halloween is also Luke's birthday though, so that makes it a double whammy when it comes to mommy-work. So I had wake up, have everything look special for Luke's birthday, special breakfast- yada yada, then bake a cake, make a soup so we would have supper ready when we got home from trick-or-treating, find everyone's costumes, build birthday Lego (which I'm terrible at), put costumes on four children, find winter clothes that fit under said costumes, feed babies so they could be ready to be left with my mom while I drove the kids into town for trick-or-treating, met Paul on his way home from work, trick-or-treated for about 45 minutes with the kids, drove home, fed everyone supper, opened presents, sang happy birthday, ate cake, while taking pictures of everything -of course, got all those sugar crazed kids in bed, ate half a bag of candy and one too many Tootsie Rolls, went to bed, woke up half an hour later to grumpy baby. Exhausted.  

{two}

Tired. Frazzled. I was a bit of a frazzled grump at times yesterday when the kids asked for the 5 millionth time if it was time to go trick or treating yet, but it still wasn't my most exhausting Halloween ever, because I gave birth on October 31, 2009.

And so I really love October 31 for it being the day our wonderful Luke was born. So far its a bit challenging trying to not make Halloween a bigger deal than Luke's birthday, and hopefully when the kids are a bit bigger Luke can have parties where everyone comes in costume or something and he'll still enjoy it. But as it stands now he thinks Halloween happens on his birthday and not the other way around. Which is a pretty good way to roll I think.

{three}

Here's my little superheroes. They were pretty adorable. And if you don't think that the Hulk costume is not 100% applicable to Max's personality, you'd be 100% wrong. It was really fitting and ridiculous. Just the way I like my costumes.

{four}

Gemma wore a brand spanking new princess dress and actually allowed her hair to be brushed and declared herself Rapunzel! Making the new dress and the combed hair the only changes necessary to make her everyday outfit Halloween approved!

{five}

And Nora.

She went as "Mildly unimpressed infant who turns into Screaming Baby every night" kinda like a werewolf. She didn't even need a costume. But she is only really scary at 3 am when you've only had 2 hours of sleep. 

{six}

We trick or treated in town and went for maybe 45 minutes. It was like summer compared to the -30 degrees Celsius it was last Halloween, but there was a bit of chilly rain and wind but still temperatures above zero which is amazing! That being said, everyone had coats on underneath their costumes, because its Canada dammit. Gemma had to wear a hat which was a fate worse than death and not princess approved, but they all categorically refused mitts. Thankfully they've still got all their digits contrary to their grandmother's warnings.

And here's the gigantic haul of candy three small children got from about 3 blocks worth of houses in a little more than half an hour. Its seriously incredible how much candy this town gives out! And these are the bags after we raided all the full size chocolate bars, bags of sour soothers, and most of the Reese's and Tootsie Rolls!

{seven}

With all this Halloween madness I'm a little, teeny, tiny bit thankful we don't have any Saints Day to-do. I mean, would I trade a lazier day for a nearby Catholic community with other children who celebrated the feast days with social events?! Hell, yeah. But I still feel exhausted just from yesterday. 

Since in Canada today is not a Holy Day of Obligation -I KNOW!!-and my husband's regular Friday off from work, he stayed home with the kids this morning and I got to go to Mass solo which was pretty darn amazing. Obviously a small All Saints Day miracle! 

We'll be celebrating by a small smattering of colouring of saints pages, reading some of our little saints books for kids, and eating some Oh St. Henry! bars. 

(Have I mentioned I'm in a wedding next weekend and shouldn't be eating pounds of chocolate bars? Oh, well I am. Thank goodness God created Spanx!)

Happy All Saints Day everyone, and here's to a blessed weekend as we pray for All Souls!

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