Seven Quick Takes

1.  Only in the Arizona desert can one quick take consist of happiness for rain.  It rained and everything smells like creosote.  Desert rain is really the best.

2.  The kids have been sick with strep throat all week.  Thomas went back to school today after missing the last four days.  Rose is a few days behind him in recovery.  A sick toddler is a very sad thing.

3.  Last weekend, we went on a trip to Tucson to attend a wedding.  Tucson's desert is so beautiful and the perfect setting for a ceremony.  Unfortunately, the night's sleep at the hotel was one of the worst of my life.  I had a splitting headache and couldn't sleep more than a few hours.  We got up and went home before 9am.  There really isn't any place better than home.

4.  Speaking of our trip last weekend, we stopped at the ostrich farm off the 10. This was a first for us.  The kids were enjoying the animals until an ostrich nipped Thomas's hand.  Now he hates ostriches.

5.  I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving next week.  Our new plans consist of driving to my MIL's house and having dinner with her, her husband, and my BIL's family.  None of Levi's sisters will be there this year.  Last Christmas, we had five of the six siblings and their families together and had quite the crowd.  This year will be a bit quieter.  Better for me because I always get stressed during large family gatherings.

6.  Well, Advent comes on the heels of Thanksgiving and lo and behold I'm prepared this year.  I bought a wreath and calendar last week.

7.  Catching Fire comes out today.  We wanted to go see it this weekend, but we'll have to put if off another week due to too many illnesses in our family.  I hear it is spectacular.

That's it.  Have a great week.

Seven Quick Takes

1.  I had intended to write more on this blog.  Maybe someday I'll actually do it.  Quick takes seems to work for me right now.

2.  Even though I don't go to work, I'm happy to have Veteran's Day weekend because it means my husband will be home an extra day.  He has been working so hard recently.  I feel a little bad because staying home with my kids is pretty easy.

I know, I know.  Being a SAHM is the hardest job in the world...blah, blah, blah.....  I think people who say that really have never had a mentally taxing job.  Now, I only have two kids, so having more might be much harder than what I deal with.

But, I've had a extremely stressful job in the past and staying home with kids is a piece of cake in comparison.  The hours are longer now, but the joy in parenting my kids is through the roof.

3.  I started to do Leslie Sansone videos this week.  If I have to leave my house to exercise, I'm not going to do it.  Why am I just figuring this out?

4.  My son has been going to speech therapy for about six weeks and is making great progress.  We were worried about not having started sooner.  It appears waiting until he was ready was the right call.

5.  Fall in Arizona is great.  I won't be complaining about the weather for another 5-6 months.

6.  I need to get an Advent wreath before the season sneaks up on me.

7.  Our trip to Utah for Thanksgiving has been cancelled due to my husband's work schedule.  Not traveling sounds so nice.  We have always gone out of town for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Seven Quick Takes

1.  November is here already.  The time is passing so quickly it seems.  I need to get it together this year before Advent starts.  It has been hit or miss the last few years.  Now that Thomas is five and going to CCD, I feel like I need to pay more attention to the details.

2.  Our first ever door to door trick or treating happened last night.  We've had sick kids the last two Halloweens.  We had to drive to another neighborhood because ours is almost exclusively snowbirds.

3.  So, Halloween candy is not the best thing to have around when you are trying to lose weight.

4.  Speaking of losing weight and fitness, I did a Leslie Sansone walking video at home yesterday.  This seems much more realistic because I'm out of shape and going to the gym while juggling schedules just isn't working.

5.  I'm having a weird cycle.  I'm not sure I ovulated this month.  If I didn't, I'll probably get my period on day 42.  That has happened in the past.

6.  Try for 3rd baby or not.  The pressure is on to lose weight and get into better shape so I don't have as much anxiety over pregnancy at 39.  There are some risk factors I can control, so I need to get on it or I'll just say no.  I think we both want another child, but the pregnancy and c-section makes me really nervous.  Ugh.

7.  I was just offered a teaching position for next semester to teach Family Law to paralegal students.  I did this last year and with some tweaking it might just be a better experience.  I do like working.

Seven Quick Takes

1.  This is my very first quick takes.  I've been reading other's posts for months now.  Let's see if anyone reads mine.

2.  Our family went to Legoland in CA last weekend.  It was a blast.  My son is five and just the perfect age for the park.  My daughter is two and a bit small for it, but she was free so I didn't worry about it.  We met up with an old friend and her family.  It has been almost a year since we had seen each other.  This was the first time we had seen her new baby.  I wish we lived a bit closer.

3.  I haven't lived in San Diego for about eight years, and I realize after each trip how much Arizona has become my home.

4.  Tonight Thomas's school has a Halloween Carnival.  Though, I think it is called a Fall Festival.  I really don't understand why Halloween has been replaced with other festivities.  Back in my day, Halloween was universally celebrated by going trick or treating.  That was it.  Nothing more and nothing less.  I long for the days when you could just celebrate a holiday without having to make a statement.

5.  I bought Simcha Fisher's new book.  I should have realized it was written for people who are in the NFP club.  I don't belong to the club.  I don't use hormonal bc or IUDs, but I'm more from the FAM camp.  I haven't been able to make the leap to NFP for a few reasons.  Oh well, maybe someday.  And that may just be the point about the chapter about the future you.

6. Last week, I read a book called "Escape from Camp 14".  It is the story of a man who escaped from the North Korean prison camp in which he was born.  Everyone speaks about the human rights violations by the Chinese government, but North Korea is so much worse.  Please read the book and pray for those living in those inhumane conditions.  They are largely forgotten.

7.  Can you believe October is rapidly coming to a close?  I can't.  Time really passes so quickly now.

Have a great week!

Tuesday's Thoughts

When did Catholics cease celebrating Halloween and substitute All Saints Day in its place?

I grew up in the '80s.  Catholics were normal back then.  We didn't do weird things like the protestants with their fall festivals in lieu of Halloween.  Yet, the past few weeks I've seen these posts about celebrating All Saints Day with costumes in lieu of Halloween.  What?

Back in the normal '80s, the Catholic schools threw Halloween carnivals.  On November 1, you would go to mass because it was a day of obligation.  End of story.

I really don't understand how much of the protestant culture has seeped into American Catholic culture.

Paying the babysitter

My SIL posted an article about how much to pay a babysitter.  The premise of said article was that teens should be thankful to receive $5 per hour for babysitting three children.  Both my sister and I disagreed with the premise and laughed about it because we were making that much back in the late '80s.

You'd would have thought we were committing blasphemy with the responses going back and forth.  Do normal people (unlike the cheap author of the original article) really pay their babysitters that little? My husband and I agree that $10 per hour for two kids is an honest wage for a babysitter.  I think the vitriol coming from the "babysitters should be grateful" crowd was more of a testament to the particular religious culture of the Utah based author.  My husband comes from that same culture and after so many years married into that family, I still don't quite understand them.

The name of my blog

I thought for sometime about what to name this blog.  The name needed to have significance for me without defining it as any specific blog type.  The idea of being a ger (stranger in hebrew) always resonated with me.  I've usually found myself on the periphery of any group or association I've had.  Rarely am I in the middle of a group.  Even in the rare times when I'm in the middle of a group, I usually gravitate back to the edges.