SQTF 75: Feasts, Football, and Sweater-weather Fun

I

Oh, that warm weather spoiled us... I suppose it must be getting warmer again everywhere else, because we woke up to -5 F this morning. And it felt SO COLD, which is absurd, because on a typical year I'd be so happy that it was practically 0 instead of pushing -50 right now. We felt like such wimps this morning, shivering as we walked out to the car! Time to wear the heavier coats and mittens again.

II

The dip in temperature really could have waited a day; if it were the weekend, Matt would be home and we could take turns bringing Little Bear outside to go sliding on the snow hill. (These grownups are definitely bigger wimps than the toddler when it comes to spending time outside sledding.) Below zero, since I have yet to find a way to keep a scarf on him, I prefer to only let him play outside for short stretches of time; adding on the time it takes to get in and out of gear, I usually only want to do it once or twice a day! He would be so happy to spend hours on the hill, though, so when Matt is home tomorrow maybe we will each take him out a few times.

III

Happy feast of St John Bosco, apostle to youth! I'm so glad Little Bear and I made it to noon Mass today. To be honest, I didn't plan to; I had a meeting at 12:45, I needed Little Bear to be fed and happy at that point so I could send him with my mom, I didn't want to be in town for hours and hours, the timing was all wrong... But God must have really wanted me to be there for the rosary and Mass, because at 11 o'clock I looked around and realized the house was clean, supper was under control, and the child was fed and standing by the door holding his boots. It doesn't get much clearer than that!

IV

I need some new ideas for ways to keep Little Bear awake in the car when we are driving home around nap time. Okay, what I really need is a garage, so that I can let him stay asleep in his car seat and just leave the car windows and the door into the house open so I can hear when he wakes up. But absent that, I need ideas. It's a huge problem when Little Bear falls asleep on the way home, wakes up while I'm carrying him into the house, and decides that those ten minutes counted as his nap for the day.

V

Behold, the furthest extent of my arts and crafts skills. I'm so glad Little Bear isn't old enough to be disappointed yet... At least he has aunts and uncles who will have fun helping him make stuff as he gets older. Seriously, though, he has had so much fun with this "telephone," even though he doesn't really understand the point of it yet. And maybe he never will... how, in an age of wireless, am I going to explain to him that the voices go through the string? We don't have a landline at all, so he won't have any frame of reference for what a tin can telephone is imitating.

VI

Super Bowl Sunday is coming up! I'm not all that attached to either team, although Seattle is the team most adopted by Alaskans as "local," and I remember cheering for the Broncos in the last years of John Elway's career. The game was always a day for a party growing up, though, and this'll be the first year Matt and I are hosting. I'm sure that, by Super Bowl party standards, it will barely even count; my family is driving over during halftime to watch the second half of the game, so that Little Bear can nap through the first half, and most of my siblings who'll be present will probably spend most of the time in another room playing board games anyway. But it's still enough of an excuse to make guacamole and hummus and other fun food! And I really do enjoy watching football.

VII

This coming Sunday, February 2, is Candlemas; bring some candles to Mass to have them blessed! The day celebrates Christ the Light of the World: we will hear the Gospel reading containing Simeon's prophecy, calling Christ "a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel." In 638, Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, described the importance of Candlemas and the blessing of candles: "Our bright shining candles are a sign of divine splendor of the One who comes to expel the dark shadows of evil and to make the whole universe radiant with the brilliance of His eternal light. Our candles also show how bright our souls should be when we go to meet Christ." Candlemas falls forty days after Christmas, which is the length of time Mosaic Law proscribed that a women should wait and purify herself after giving birth before she presented herself in the temple---thus the day is also known as the Feast of the Presentation.

Have a great weekend! For more quick takes, visit Conversion Diary!

He Was Almost Too Sleepy To Think Anymore

Definitely my current favorite line from a children's book; every time we hit that page in Guess How Much I Love You, which Little Bear would listen to ten times before bed every night if we'd let him, I have to smile and nod because it's just so very accurate an image. You can tell so clearly when little kids hit that point, and more so recently, I can tell when I'm getting there. I've been having a world of trouble falling asleep and staying asleep again; my brain just won't shut down at night, and I keep discovering that I'm awake at all hours. Little Bear is actually sleeping well these days, darn it; why can't I?

If it wasn't bright and sunny all day long, I don't know how I'd be making it without napping. Fortunately, the skies have been clear and blue, and with the curtains open there is enough light coming in during the middle of the day that I can turn all of the lights off! I love when we reach that point in the year; goodbye horrendous midwinter electric bills! Not entirely, because we probably still have a few months of plugging the car in at night, but keeping it on a timer so that we are only feeding electricity to the engine heaters for a few hours helps. 

Being constantly tired, I haven't been a very fun mom lately... All Little Bear wants is to sit on my lap on the floor and read story after story for hours, and he's just crushed when I finally lose patience with reading the same story five times in a row and plop him on the floor so I can go do something more fun, like folding laundry. I shouldn't complain--I wanted a reader, and I sure got one--but really? Shouldn't he want to play with toys at least part of the time? It's hard to get anything done when he's always grabbing my hand and crying for "One, one, one," more story.

At least going outside is a popular way to take a break from books: Yesterday I taught him about climbing the "mountains" out by the end of the driveway. The graders went through a couple days before our freezing rain last week, so the hills of already-hard snow are immovable. After helping him scramble to the top, I got him started scooting over the crest of the hill, then ran down to the bottom to catch him as he slid down. What a grin! I wish I'd had a camera.

It's not that he never wants anything other than stories, I just realized; that's just the only thing he wants to do with me. The minute Matt gets home from work, Little Bear forgets all about books and is ready to run around laughing and shrieking, tickling his Daddy and growling like a bear and wrestling all over the living room. I guess it's pretty clear which parent is more fun to play with! Maybe if I can get more sleep at night, I'll be able to come up with things to play during the day that'll be acceptable breaks from listening to stories.

January Spring

This is definitely going down as the most gorgeous January ever... Everyone else is suffering through our cold weather for us, while we have been enjoying beautiful double-digit positive temperatures for weeks now! We've had 20s and 30s these past few days, and it's been so great to be able to take Little Bear out to play in the snow all the time. The only thing that could make this weather undesirable would be rain, but that hasn't put in an appearance since Friday morning... Hopefully it stays gone!

Between working from home Friday due to ice and staying home Monday to watch Little Bear while I recovered from several nights of insomnia, Matt had a nice long weekend, which Little Bear sure enjoyed: Daddy is so much more fun to play with than Mama! The two of them wrestled, played ball, and took walks outside over the weekend, and Little Bear was very disappointed indeed to realize Daddy was going to work this morning. It'll be a rude transition back for Matt as well; all OIT has regular work as well as a mandatory playing-nicely-with-others training today and Thursday, and Matt has to stay until 8 tonight monitoring two conferences for the state library system.

But at least the sun is up! Goodness, it's strange; not that long ago we had hardly any light at all, but we've been gaining a quarter of an hour of daylight every couple days for a while now and the difference is tremendous. And not only are the days longer, but the light hours are lighter, as the sun climbs higher in the sky each day: in the dead of winter, it only barely scrapes above the horizon. It's still not high enough that we have to worry about it melting snow, but it's moving the right direction. Just a couple weeks ago we were getting great sunrise photos after Mass on Sundays, and this past weekend the sun was already too high as we drove up the hill on our way to Mass.

With the warmth and light, it's hard to believe we are still only in January. Will it just stay warm all the way through to spring? The warm weather came so late last year--my brother threw his snowmachine in the back of his truck and went down to the mountains after he got home from college in May--maybe this is making up for it. I've never seen a year like this, and while it's sure nice to be reveling in the March weather already, there's an uncomfortable niggling in the back of my mind warning against growing too attached to the warmth... I've seen too many sudden February cold snaps to trust that we won't be plunged into weeks of -40 F to compensate for this loveliness.

SQTF 74: Meltdown, Meals, and Mitten Memories

I

I take it back. Pleasantly-warm weather in January should still never exceed 30 degrees Fahrenheit. This morning it's 43, and sleeting. That's an April temperature, and in April there's enough sun to keep the rain a liquid! January? Not so much. Roads are horrible today, and pretty much everything is shut down; police are warning people to stay off the roads if possible. At least my meeting is cancelled! And Matt shouldn't have to go in to the office, although he's still waiting to confirm that with his boss because the campuses in other parts of the state obviously aren't shutting down just because we have bad weather.

II 

You could say that I'm not exactly a happy camper at the moment, because if we'd known ahead of time about the closures and cancellations, I could still be asleep. Given that Little Bear was up almost every hour last night, that sure sounds nice... but I got up and dressed before we found out, and now I'm too awake. Not that I have anything at all to complain about compared to all the people in the ditch this morning.

III

It's not exactly something you'd record in a baby book, but one thing I want to remember about this age is that Little Bear has picked up this hilarious fake laugh, and he only does it for one specific thing: when he pulls his mittens off while we are driving. Every single time we are in the car, roughly halfway to wherever we are going, we'll hear this self-satisfied little "Heh heh heh heh" from the back seat, and he'll be sitting there smirking and waving his mittens at us.

IV

So far this week our shift in eating habits has gone better than expected. I know they say it takes 30 days to form a habit, and we definitely aren't at habit-stage yet, but not eating between meals and eating salads for lunch every day has actually been manageable, which is better than I expected. It definitely helps that Matt has been putting together the salads, because he puts more thought into them than I would. For example, yesterday's:

Leftover bourbon-glazed chicken, a bit of smoked Gouda, dried currants and balsamic vinegar. Not vinaigrette--I just put straight vinegar on my salads. Don't worry; Matt does a good job of reminding me of how weird I am.

V

Our kid, the inverse picky eater: Little Bear happily eats things like pickles, olives, pesto, and beets. Offer him something normal little kids like, though, like fish sticks or mashed potatoes, and he turns up his nose. And cheese! Sharp cheddar, smoked Gouda, Swiss? He can't get enough of it. Medium cheddar? Won't touch it.

VI

When I think about shopping at Sam's Club, I generally just think of the usual grocery items. Food, paper products, etc. This past week, though, we re-discovered that they can have incredible deals on good brands of clothing as well, and you never know what you'll find: we found heavy Eddie Bauer plaid flannel shirts for less than $7.00! I need to remember to run through their clothing selection each time I'm in there.

VII

After spending a half hour in a video meeting with the rest of his coworkers--because they're the video conferencing department, so of course the boss can't just call them on the telephone--the verdict is: Matt is staying home. I'm so glad. He's working from home this morning or as long as it takes to finish up some projects, then burning a couple hours of annual leave to round out the day. It would be so nice if his boss have them the option to work from home more often--they really can accomplish most of their work from anywhere with an internet connection--but I'm grateful that it's an option today.

Have a wonderful, safe weekend! Check out more Quick Takes at Conversion Diary, and don't forget to vote in the Sheenazing Awards, for Catholic bloggers who follow the example of Ven. Fulton Sheen in evangelizing through the media, over at A Knotted Life.

Chinook

My calendar seems to be on the wrong page. It says "January," but clearly that's not right; if it were January it would be 33 degrees below zero, not 33 above. Maybe it's March. Or maybe global warming/climate change is actually pretty amazing and wonderful. For Alaskans. Sorry to everyone shivering in the Lower 48, but we'd be perfectly happy to keep your weather instead of trading back. This is beautiful.

Little Bear and I have been loving the balmy weather these past few days. He loves running around in the snow, stomping his boots down the driveway, pushing his mittens into the snowbanks and shaking them at me with the biggest, goofiest, happiest grin imaginable spread across his face. Once we get through the hassle of getting into snow gear and heading out the door, it's impossible to lure him back inside!

Yesterday morning we were visiting my family and interrupting their school day, so the kids took Little Bear out for recess with them. He wasn't too sure about the whole sledding business at first, but as long as he wasn't the only one in the sled he seemed to enjoy it.

We really couldn't have asked for better weather for last night's prayer chain, either, and the impressive turnout was surely in part thanks to the warmth. We got there halfway through--I'm not at all unhappy that we share one vehicle, but scheduling can be frustrating--and Little Bear had so much fun running and crawling through the snow while I tried to keep ahold of the Y at the back of his snowpants. Can we just pretend that I was planning ahead and being well-prepared when I put them on him on top of his coat instead of under it? Thanks.

Late this morning there was a burst of freezing rain, but Matt was already at work when it happened, and by the time we ventured out to pick him up the roads were fine. I hear that people had trouble with them in the middle of the day, but putting another layer of gravel down seems to have taken care of it. (We will see if I'm this dismissive of it tomorrow if we get any more, when I have a midday meeting in town... praying for no more rain for the next three months!)

My only real quibble with the warm weather (please no rain tomorrow! Other than rain) is this:

That's the light above the front seat in the jeep, and a water droplet falling from the button. It seems that melting snow is seeping into the roof of the jeep somewhere, freezing, then thawing in the warm weather and running on down through the only opening it can find: the lights. Every time we go from reasonable temperatures to cold to super warm, the interior lights all start dripping. It's not bad, a mechanic friend tells us, just odd... but it's still unsettling, because water just doesn't belong around wiring.

But if that's the only thing I have to complain about? This warmth can definitely stick around. As long as it doesn't keep raining!

Feast of St Agnes

If I had anything resembling a handle on the liturgical calendar, maybe we would be having lamb tonight. Or something lamb-shaped, like the Eastern traditional butter lamb. Or even the mulled drink, lambswool, that Matt was so enthusiastic about finding a recipe for the other week. Nope; bourbon-glazed chicken, spiced carrots, and rice will have to cut it. Don't lambs eat carrots? Carrot tops? Oh well... at least I can try to find something in Little Bear's book of saints about St. Agnes, and set it out to read tonight after supper.

It seems a cruel coincidence that we celebrate St. Agnes, a Roman virgin martyred at 13 and a patroness of innocents, on the day before the anniversary of the legalization of murdering innocent children in America. I suppose the juxtaposition is a good reminder to ask for her intercession, though: for the children, for the mothers who feel like they don't have any other choice, for conversion of heart in all those who do not find abortion reprehensible.

Will seeing the many people attending the March for Life in D.C., or participating in local prayer vigils or rallies, suddenly convict legislators of the evil of abortion? Probably not---although we know better than to limit what God can do! But there's always a chance that some passers-by will wind up wondering why these people care enough about the issue to stand out in the cold, find themselves looking for answers, and experience a change of heart. And, too, we know that "Where two or three are gathered in My Name, there am I in their midst." Coming together to pray for an end to abortion is certainly valuable, even when we can't see visible results.

Whatever you to do mark tomorrow, don't forget: "In all the dioceses of the United States of America, January 22 shall be observed as a particular day of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person through acts of abortion, and of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life." GIRM, no 373. 

And, parents: Don't miss Simcha Fisher's  Ten Ways to Raise Pro-Life Children over at the National Catholic Register!

Our Latest Experiment

Earlier this month, Matt and I sat down to figure out what we should do to get back in shape. It's been on his "meaning to do that eventually" list for a while, and the twelve days of Christmas saw me lose pretty much all of the progress I'd made recently. Cookies are evil... okay, not really. But I've always had a weakness for sweet carbs, and with a toddler who's been giving us an exclusive preview of his starring role in the upcoming Terrible Twos, I've been stressed and much more susceptible to the siren call of the cookie jar.

We agreed to get a membership at the university gym. It's a lot of money, but it's convenient for Matt after work, and Little Bear and I could go walk their track or swim while he used the equipment he wants to. We need exercise, and this seemed like a way to ensure that we got it: buying a membership would guilt us into going regularly so that we weren't wasting the money.

But then we thought about it for a few days. When would we actually be able to go? After Matt got off work was the only time; that would push dinner back, and cut out the relatively small time Matt and Little Bear get to play together before bed. Was it worth the whole cost? The only membership we could at all afford is the student one; I'd have to take a (distance ed) class so that we could get that rate. Because I'm Matt's dependent the school would waive the tuition, but we'd still be paying for fees and the book. And when would I have time to do the classwork?

We do have a gazelle elliptical machine, and a weight bench, and a perfectly good floor for doing sit-ups and push-ups on. If guilt over having spent so much money for the membership was the only reason we would spend time exercising at the gym when we don't at home, we didn't need a gym membership; we needed to take more responsibility for actually getting in shape.

So what does it take to get in shape? Everyone knows the simple answer, even if we don't like it: getting enough exercise and eating right. In that spirit, our plan is simple: we will each do some kind of exercising every day. Vague? Yes, but it'll keep us from saying "I forgot, and it's too late; better luck tomorrow"... We can always pick up a jump rope for five minutes before bed, if we really haven't done anything else. As for eating right? Farewell to my sugary carbs... We aren't dieting---we're being very clear on that point---but we are trying to change how we eat.

Dry cereal with milk is simple and convenient, but doesn't actually fill us and we wind up hungry and snacking on less healthy foods in a couple of hours. Instead, we're making sure breakfasts are filling but healthy: things like eggs, oatmeal, or yogurt with fruit. For lunches we are trying to have salads with vegetables and proteins: meat left over from the previous supper, cooked beans, hard boiled eggs, or maybe a little cheese. Suppers aren't changing much; I'm just trying to make sure the meat and vegetable components together take up more of the plate than the starch.

And because the best way to kill an attempt at eating better is to completely cut yourself off from things you really like, we fully plan to bend the rules occasionally. As long as we are both in it together, I think it'll go well... and hopefully there will be positive reinforcement from the bathroom scale to help as well!

Being the one who does the shopping and keeps the budget, I initially hesitated out of concern for what it would do to the monthly grocery bill for us to buy more meat and fresh produce... they are so expensive here! It's easy to make one chicken breast into dinner for the three of us when I'm cooking a pound of pasta to go with it. But if the meat isn't supposed to be dwarfed by the grain, and actually supply enough extra for our lunch salads the next day? There's no way. Matt reminded me that we'd been prepared to pay a lot for the gym membership, though; if we divide up what we would have spent on that and add it to the monthly grocery allowance, he thinks it will all work out. I hope so! We will see.