I
Earlier this week, it was cold enough outside that our unheated-but-insulated storage room off the kitchen dropped below freezing. We had to bring in the 7-gallon jugs that hold our drinking water because we started getting ice crystals from them... Fortunately it's back up to 20 F outside, so it's 40-ish in the storage room again.
II
It seems like I've seen a couple of stories over the past year or so showing (or at least trying to show) a firm connection between wedding or engagement ring spending and the length of marriages, but today's was the first that I can remember actually citing a study. Not that I am laboring under the delusion that the random pop news site somebody linked on Facebook is a reliable source of scientific information, but it made me quite happy to see, after all of the data about the horrendous amounts of money the average modern American couple spends on their wedding, that "for the best odds [of avoiding divorce], keep the festivities to less than $1,000." We win! :-)
III
I've been coteaching our parish's RCIA class this year, and I could not have foreseen how much I'm loving it. There were definitely Wednesdays last semester when shuffling the car and the kid and getting Matt to his night class on time before my class started made for a bit of grumbling, but I'm so happy that I'm doing it, and so enjoying the questions and conversations that we've had recently. We're using the Augustine Institute's Symbolon program, which is great, as well as Matthew Kelly's book Rediscover Catholicism. I'm not sure if/how I could make it work next year with an infant and a 3 year old, but I would like to continue teaching the class.
IV
In an effort to make bedtime easier on all of us, we've been letting Little Bear have an hour of "quiet time" in his bedroom instead of taking a nap on days that he isn't obviously in need of sleep, and cutting off his naps at an hour or so on the days he does take them. It has helped a lot with getting him to sleep quickly at night!
V
I've been seeing everyone's posts about New Years resolutions, words for the year, saints of the year, Kelly's mythical beast of the year, etc. and trying to decided whether to bother... maybe I have a touch of the "everyone's doing it so I don't want to" bug. Some folks have impressive litanies of resolutions—how do you even keep track of what all you've resolved to do? Do you post a list on the fridge? For humility's sake, I suppose I should at least share my one resolution this year: to brush my hair every morning.
VI
Now that I've appalled you, maybe I can make that sound a tiny bit less awful? I typically roll out of bed in the dark, get dressed in the dark, pull my hair up or back in a ponytail or bun, and most days don't even look in a mirror until at least the middle of the day. Anything more than that feels like I'm wasting time that should be spent getting Little Bear ready, helping Matt get out the door, doing any of a million other things that are always on the list. So I'm put together enough for around the house, certainly, and respectable enough for the grocery store, which is honestly pretty much the only place I ever see people all week while Matt's at work. But that whole "you can't take care of others if you aren't taking care of yourself" thing? It's kind of true. And when I at least take the extra handful of minutes to brush out my hair in the morning, for some reason it's easier for me to do everything else I need to throughout the day, and to be a more pleasant wife and mother.
VII
Little Bear came out from his nap to tell me that "Juan Diego flying airplane to top of moon!" I think that's my cue to be done here.
Have a good weekend, y'all.
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