It's a Beautiful Life!

Ok, I wasn't sitting down expecting to do a Quick-Takes post, but there are so many things floating around in my head, that it just makes sense!

--- 1 ---

Today has been a beautiful day - and I don't mean in the "birds are singing, the sun is shining, the grass is green" sort of way, because - let's face it - it's a foggy, grey, melty, yucky sort of January day when you don't want to see your brown, bedraggled lawn poking up through the quickly diminishing snow.
The day started with morning Mass, followed by the first in a series of 6 classes on Dei Verbum.  Sound boring?  Potentially.  But not.  Did you know that Aristotle and Plato, with just their own powers of reasoning, determined the human soul to be immortal??  I didn't!  (And here's one of a bazillion online articles referencing it.)  It's so beautiful - God gives us so many opportunities and starting points to come to know Him!

--- 2 ---

After class I was pondering just how I was going to get the kids home and fed without having to resort to meat-eating at the local Mickey D's (something we try to avoid on Fridays - the meat-eating, not necessarily McD's) when a friend suggesting continuing conversations over a bagel at the cafe nearby.  Bagels, while not the most incredibly ideal nutritional food, work great for Fridays - and even better, my kids will actually eat them! 

(Awesome looking recipe I'd like to try at home - maybe then my little guy wouldn't be constantly begging me to buy more bagels!)

--- 3 ---

We got to talk about the impression that other people "have things together" (whether they do or not) and how each of us have things together in our own special way.  This is something I've been working on lately - with a book that was first introduced to me approximately 7 or 8 years ago, before marriage and children were even on the radar:

 I just wish it hadn't taken me so long to really go through and take this book seriously, working through each chapter - I'm buzzing with excitement about the potential this book has as a tool to take every facet of my life to the next level!  (And I have to say, that whole idea of peacefulness is really attractive with two toddlers around...)

--- 4 ---

After getting the rug-rats into bed for their afternoon nap (fingers crossed and prayers being said that they'll actually stay there and sleep) I jumped onto our new elliptical machine (Merry Christmas!) and survived my 9th workout of the year - and I didn't just survive it!  (Throughout this post you have been witnessing the post-workout adrenaline buzz.)  Now maybe that sounds slightly impressive when you consider it's only the 11th day of the year, but it's really not that incredibly amazing when I admit that each workout lasts all of 15 minutes - but my speed and endurance have substantially improved over these last 11 days, and of that, I am proud.

--- 5 ---

I know that part of this improvement is attributable simply to consistency and taking it slowly but surely.  But another part of this I can definitely say is the result of simply changing my mental activity during the workout.  I initially thought, hey, I'll watch a little TV while I exercise, take my mind off it.  But maybe it's better to transform something not incredibly enjoyable into something more, rather just distracting yourself from it until the terrible-ness is over. 

--- 6 ---

That transforming force was:

Five Iron Frenzy!

I've long known that jogging to this music is so much more fun than just slogging along in silence or to something with a more relaxed beat.  This stuff really makes you go!  And it's not just the tempo - for me the lyrics are really captivating and thought-provoking, not to mention empowering!  (How's that for big words and feel-good jargon?)

--- 7 ---

My two most favorite tracks:

Dandelions:  pretty much sums up for me how God sees us with all our imperfections and loves us anyway.  Don't know who came up with the animation, but it's perfect!

I don't care what others say, One Girl Army is about Mary!

Here are the lyrics: 

Here lies the old myth,
Breaking the mold with,
Truth to take away the trickery.
Twenty centuries of progress,
Suffer slowly as we regress,
Losing headway to ourselves.

Behold the covers, the sisters, the mothers,
The daughters, and spouses, on the magazines.
Truth has been abused.
How could she fill those shoes?
Propaganda meant to fuel their schemes.

She is strong but never silent,
Sure of where her truth comes from.
One day, one girl army will overcome.

Treading the current, issues at hand,
Shifting, we sway, from justice and then back again.
What we once broke, He has made right,
Lifting her up, giving birth to Jesus Christ.

She is strong but never silent,
Sure of where her strength comes from.
One day, one girl army will overcome.

She is strong but never silent,
Sure of where her strength comes from.
One day, one girl army will overcome.

She is strong but never silent,
Sure of where her strength comes from.
One day, one girl army will overcome. 

Not so much "Quick" - but what a beautiful day!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Naptime in the Jurassic Jungle

What is it about sleep that small children find so horribly... well, horrible?  I remember when I was really young, the rule was you don't come out of your room before 7 am.  These days, that would feel like quite the feat.  My whole life I've had a love/hate relationship with sleep - as in hate to go to bed, at night, then hate to get up in the morning.  Some people would chalk it up to a "night owl" personality.  I consider it a form of biological inertia:  an object in motion tends to stay in motion, and an object at rest (me) tends to stay at rest.  As a mom, it's become more of a love affair with sleep, complete with "absence makes the heart grow fonder."  Every morning as I hear the stirrings in the next room, I beg God for "just 5 more minutes!"  (Or 20?  An extra hour?  Please???)

And why is it when you have multiple young children, the naptimes ALWAYS overlap just enough to cause severe emotional stress - on the part of the mother??  Having noticed wake-up noises over the baby's monitor, I listen at the bottom of stairs to my 2-year old son "winding down" (a.k.a. decrying the atrocities of naptime), knowing he has probably already removed every article of clothing except (hopefully) his diaper and dumped all his stuffed animals out of the crib onto the floor.

I'm desperately trying to figure out how to make "the switch".  Every mother of two or more knows that touchy undertaking of retrieving a newly awakened napper from an adjacent upstairs room without further disturbing the other napper.  In our home, it typically ends up feeling like a scene out of Jurassic Park - clutching your 7-month old, you creep back out into the hallway, trying vainly to hush your own panicked breathing, praying she'll remain quiet in your arms until you can dodge back down the creaky stairs.  You pause with bated breath, listening...  Sudden and complete silence overwhelms you - he is aware of your presence on the 2nd floor!  Two options remain:  a) wait for the muttering/whimpering/bargaining to resume, thereby masking your whereabouts and allowing you to escape without further notice, or b) make a break for it, hoping against hope that he "won't notice."

 
I went with option b.  In my panic and hurry, I hit every creaky spot on the way down.  If my son were a velociraptor, I'd be a goner.