7 Quick Takes (Vol. 1): Monday's Musings, Mr. Brown Can Moo, and Zantangle

I'm linking up today!  It's like I'm turning into a real blogger.  Aren't you proud?

--- 1 ---

I am considering the idea of starting a blog series called "Monday's Musings" to clean out the random thoughts floating through my brain.  Part of the idea behind this is that I post pictures and updates on Facebook that a lot of you miss because you're not on Facebook (and I do not blame you for this).  And I don't want you to miss out on all the cuteness around here, but every post cannot be about Matthan.   Well...it could...but you occasionally want to hear about Tim and me too...right?  I'll pretend that I heard "Yes!  We'd love to hear about you guys too, but your kid is so cute!".  Awesome! ...and yes, he is, thank you.

--- 2 ---

So as I said, I'd like to clean out the random thoughts in my head, because it's starting to sound like this in there.

Lorelai: My brain is a wild jungle full of scary gibberish. I'm writing a letter, I can't write a letter, why can't I write a letter? I'm wearing a green dress, I wish I was wearing my blue dress, my blue dress is at the cleaners. The Germans wore gray, you wore blue, 'Casablanca' is such a good movie. Casablanca, the White House, Bush. Why don't I drive a hybrid car? I should really drive a hybrid car. I should really take my bicycle to work. Bicycle, unicycle, unitard. Hockey puck, rattlesnake, monkey, monkey, underpants!

Rory: Hockey puck, rattlesnake, monkey, monkey, underpants?

(From Gilmore Girls)

--- 3 ---

I pulled into the grocery store (well, parking spot, not the actual store...oh, you know what I mean) the other day and I angered...them

See, the space that I pulled into had some tasty morsel that they were chowing down on and when I got out of the car, the birds flew onto the carts (buggies, if you're in the South) and hovered, only four feet away, with its mouth open, ready to strike.  So as I'm pulling Matthan out of the car, I'm keeping an eye on this guy, trying to decide if he's going to attack me or not.  I'm not gonna lie, I was ready to go all kung fu on his birdie behind.

--- 4 ---

Have you ever heard Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? in a terrible Southern accent.  No?  Well, here ya go!

--- 5 ---

I've discovered drive through pharmacies.  This is just brilliant, people!  A mother's best friend.

--- 6 ---

We have a love/hate relationship with cooking shows.  We watched the finale of MasterChef (on the computer) last night.  On the one hand it inspires us to want to be creative in the kitchen, but on the other hand it makes us really. really. hungry. while making us crave some decadent dish and not food that we have in the pantry.  I may attempt a chocolate soufflé in the next month...seems doable, right?

--- 7 ---

My grandmother makes beautiful cards for her family and her Sunday School class at her church.  She is incredibly talented.  This was the birthday card that she made for Matthan's birthday.  The type of art the she did his name in is called Zentangle.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

A Year and A Little More

I have so many photos that I want to share with you but they don't always warrant their own post.  So here is a sampling along with tidbits about our Little Man.

Tipped upside down in stroller

*The Stats (from 9/5/2013 appointment): Weight - 21 lbs, 10 oz & Length 30in*

*He carries these little plastic balls around the house (unless he is carrying a piece of paper).  Therefore I always know where he is because of the click-clacking on the floors.*

*He loves to carry pieces of paper around.*

He carried that paint swatch around for most of the day.

*He can drink out of a straw cup.*

*He still loves water, whether it be the pool, the bathtub or the dirty water that drips on the dishwasher door (gross). *

*He loves his books.  He can spend about 30 minutes independently looking at his books.*

*He loves anything that makes a sound.  His favorite activity is dropping things on our hearth.*

*He loves swings.*

*He loves his Daddy, and shakes with excitement when he hears Tim coming through the door.  If he is crawling around he will crawl right over to him and yell "Daddy!!"*

*He is a good eater most of the time.  He eats almost anything.  Lately he has decided that he is anti-spoon.  He will feed himself or I can feed him with my hand.  The exception is of course, sweet potatoes, the still standing favorite food.  If you give him a bite of that first, he will sometimes take other food off the spoon.*

*He is pulling up, but hasn't figured out how to get back down.*

First day he pulled up ~ 9/4/2013

He plays "Where's Matthan" with the people in church (this is not something we encourage, but it's still funny).

He sleeps in funny positions.

Do you see the quasi-push-up position that he is in?

*He knows the sound of me opening the dishwasher.  He comes crawling INSTANTLY. every. time.  I let him close it when I'm done with it. *

*He gets himself into the funniest places.*

I lifted the door so he could more easily get the toy that was under there, but he pulled the door back down and crawled back under.

*He likes to share with me and "says thank you" when he gives something to me.  (The thank you is more a mimic of the tone I use when teaching him thank you, but it's starting to really sound like the actual words).*

*He says "Daddy" and "Mamma" and a lot of gibberish.*

*His second favorite food is watermelon, which he will not let you feed him.  He feeds this to himself.*

*When we pray before dinner, Tim and I sit on either side of him and put our hands out for him to grab.  He places one hand in Daddy's hand and then the other hand in Mommy's hand and then grins.  This is really something you have to see in person to really grasp the cuteness.*

*He is still wary of large groups of people and clings to us when we go to a large gathering.*

*He is starting to assert his will (and he doesn't like hats)*

No sombrero!

I wouldn't let him play with the toilet

*He will eat Puffs off of his tray, but anything else he will try to wipe onto the floor.*

*He loves to open and close cabinets and doors.  He always makes sure that things are closed in the kitchen.  I get shut in the fridge door a lot.*

*Ever since he got sick, he has turned more snuggly.  Sometimes I can get him to snuggle with me for 5-10 minutes after I get him out of the crib.*

*He still LOVES his blankies.*

He still loves his mama

*He, once in a blue moon, wakes up on the wrong side of the bed.  That's why we have naps.*

*He signs (a rough version of) "more"

*He is still my sweet, peaceful, smiley, child.  He is such a blessing to us.*

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real}

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Every Thursday at Like Mother, Like Daughter

I have been really wanting to get back into blogging, and not just to silence those who have lovingly been bugging me telling me that they check my blog every day and are disappointed every day by the lack of new posts.  I have been reading a ton lately and growing so much personally and have so many thoughts going through my brain that I'm starting to feel very cluttered mentally (hmmm, I wonder if my house is a reflection of this....nah).  So, because I'm not ready to delve into the clutter quite yet (in my house or my brain),  I'm participating in Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real.  

{Pretty}

This weekend (*which will be a whole post at some point), we went hiking over by the Buford Dam.  We have hiked here before, but not with a one year old in the backpack.  While eating our picnic lunch, I noticed the detail on this lamppost, and I thought it was pretty.  I love details like this.   

{Happy}

A friend posted this on Facebook along with a thoughtful reflection.  It was supposed to be reflective and inspiring, but I'm sorry, it made me laugh.  I must explain.  I paint (pictures, not walls) occasionally, and when I do so, I tend to use very small paint brushes.  To me, I do so because I'm careful in painting details.  To my husband, this practice is wildly inefficient.  He teases me, sometimes relentlessly, about painting with my "one haired paint brush".  So when I saw this today, it made me laugh.

"It is with the smallest brushes that the Artist paints the best paintings"

I texted it to my husband with the message "HA!! There is a reason for my madness!"  :)

{Funny}

My son makes me laugh all day long.  He even cracks himself up.  I would love to be as easily amused as him.  He will often flirt with me while my husband is feeding him a bottle.  Or, I'll try to make him laugh because it's funny to see him try to drink his bottle and laugh at the same time; it produces some funny snorting sounds.  He seems to get funnier the more tired he is.  So the other day, when he was so tired he was practically falling asleep while Tim was giving him a bottle, he grabbed the blanket on Tim's lap and started playing "Where's Matthan?".

"Where's Matthan?"

"There he is!"

And as a bonus "funny":  Matthan dropped all of his toys out of the bath tub and then wondered where they had gone.  

{Real}

I have wanted to create a beautiful, peaceful sanctuary of sorts in our master bedroom for a long time.  I've now realized that doing so will not be a dramatic HGTV-like weekend makeover.  It will be a drawn out process.  But, progress is progress, right?  Right.  Here are some colors we're considering.  We currently have 5 colors painted on our wall, because I just wanted to make sure we got it right.  Bless my husband's patience. 

Now, anyone want to paint my bedroom for me?

Go check out more {Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} posts at Like Mother, Like Daughter.

__________________ *Update:  In case you missed this post about our weekend hiking, go here

Holy Sunday

(This turned into an unintentionally thoughtful post.  If you're just here for the abundance of pictures of my adorable child, click on the links in this post).

“Remember to keep holy the sabbath day. Six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord, your God. No work may be done then either by you, or your son or daughter, or your male or female slave, or your beast, or by the alien who lives with you. In six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord has blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.”  

(Exodus 20:8-11)

Fog rolling over the lake

One of the things that has been on my brain lately is the idea of keeping Sundays separate, or rather, holy.  I have stumbled upon this in my reading (examples of this here and here) and listening (*go listen here).  This particular musing has stemmed from pondering the place of technology in my life.  While technology can be a wonderful blessing, I've struggled in my own life to find the balance between blessing and burden.  I can be very attached to my iPhone.  My phone makes several activities in my life significantly easier:  driving to places with the GPS, keeping up with family members via phone, e-mail, and text, and looking up information when needed.

Loading the Pooter up in the backpack

But I can be unnecessarily attached to it when I mindlessly check Facebook for the twentieth time in an hour, or jump to checking messages immediately, or read a blog when I should be doing housework.  (Just so you know, the irony of being on a piece of technology and ignoring the laundry while writing this post is not lost on me).  And so I've been trying to find balance in my life.  So back to keeping Sunday holy and a day of rest.  Tim and I have been discussing how this should play out in our family life.  We want to start out small, i.e. reasonable, therefore encouraging follow-through.  We're just not prepared to go Jewish-Tradition-of-the-Sabbath (see first reading link above), which is beautiful as well as interesting.  

Love that smile!

So the first way that we've decided to keep Sundays holy, is to put up the iPhones.  What this means is, our phones will function as old house phones:  they'll be there, and we might hear them, or check for messages on occasion, but will not respond unless it is very important.  (I realize that as I'm writing this, I have only informed some of our family of this, so please don't be upset if you don't reach us right away or we don't respond until Monday).  Our goal with all of this is to reconnect as a family, to reconnect with God, and to refresh ourselves spiritually, mentally, and physically so as to be better prepared for the week ahead.

Lake Oconee near the Buford Dam

Tim and I have been discussing the concept of "making space".  By filling every moment - time standing in line, sitting at the doctor's office, waiting for church to start, eating lunch by yourself, etc -we miss those quiet moments for our thoughts to wonder and for God to fill those "spaces".  We may miss out on God whispering to our hearts, a creative idea popping into our heads, or the opportunity to have a great conversation with the interesting person behind us in line.  I've been working on having more moments of quiet and stillness in my life.  It has been hard.  

One of the ways we find rest and reconnection is through the outdoors, and we have been slackers in this department.  (*For an amusing podcast on the "Theology of Mountaineering", go here.  If you don't appreciate a good impression of a Mariokart gold mushroom booster, don't listen to the podcast :) )  So what better way to spend a Sunday sans iPhones than getting outside and going hiking  We have gone hiking here before, but this time we had a kiddo to take with us.

Tim and Matthan on the bridge overlooking the fog on the lake

There are several entrances and parks near the Buford Dam.  We drove to the entrance with the sign "lower overlook".  For anyone in our area, you don't have to pay for parking at this entrance.   

We then enjoyed a picnic lunch on some park benches overlooking the water.  Random story:  we saw a man in a military uniform walk down to the rocks by the water line and hunt around for a couple minutes before coming back up to his friend.  He told us he had lost a $200 ring (does the military give out commemorative rings?) the day before, and it luckily was still there!

I noticed the pretty detail on a lamppost near where we ate our lunch.  I love little details like this.  

Detail on lamppost

My boys

We drove around for a minute after hiking checking out a couple roads and park entrances in the area and we stumbled on this!

Mountain goats!

Do you have special ways that you set aside Sundays for your family?  What are ways that you "make space" in your life?  I'd love for you to share your ideas with me in the comments.

*Caveat:  I love this podcast Catholic Stuff You Should Know.  It reminds me of what it would be like to discuss faith and philosophy with Tim and his college roommates over a beer (or insert drink of choice here) on their back porch.  However, I feel like I should inform you, that they get kind of "ramble-y" just like a real informal conversation, and if you're looking for a more formal, to-the-point theological talk, this might not be the podcast for you.    

-Just to be clear, when I direct you to a site via one of my links, I'm not necessarily endorsing the whole site, but rather just referring you to the individual post in question (unless I state otherwise).-

Labor Day Weekend

What do you do when the weather foils your outdoor plans to go fishing?  Go to Walmart of course, and think about being outside.  Actually, we went there so Tim could buy a fishing license, but of course, this Walmart does not sell them. :/

Startin' 'em early

I have been planning a surprise birthday party for my hubby, and despite the several opportunities for him to find out about it, I pulled it off!  However, I always seem to slip up with gifts and he figures them out so it all balances out in the end.

After mass, before surprise party

Come to find out, my husband trusts what I say...which he should...except around his birthday and Christmas when I lie like a rug.

I texted one of our friends before arriving, that she should tell the waiter it is Tim's birthday in hopes of them making him do something embarrassing...like wear a sombrero while they sing "Happy Birthday".

We had several friends come out and help us celebrate.  From left to right:  Tim, Robert, Baby Bo, Bridget, Denise, Derek, Andrew, Andrew, Ashley, Matthan, and Austin. 

Daddy shared some whipped cream with Matthan :)

And this morning we made Daddy birthday pancakes.  Fun fact about Tim, he was born on Labor Day in the hospital parking lot.  Happy Birthday my Love!!  And happy Labor Day weekend everyone!

*Even though I'm way behind in posting events that have already occurred, I still publish the post on the date(s) on which the event occurred, so as to look back and see when things actually happened.  So in case you missed it, here is our visit to Savannah.