Boring and Uninspired and Faces {what I wore Sunday}

Do you ever have one of those days where acting natural just doesn't....come naturally?  Yeah, today is definitely one of those.  Oi/Oy (I truly don't know how you're supposed to spell it).  The collection of photos my poor daughter took was nothing short of ridiculous and so I just had to start making faces.  You know, like...

How To Take a Shower

Subtitle: For kids with sensory issues and their exhausted parents.

If you don't have a kid with sensory issues (you'd know it if you did!) this might still be a fun idea if you're a nicer, more patient mom than I am.  For me, the special stuff only happens when it has to.  Oh my gosh, I am working on it, okay?  It's just that when I do try and be fancy, I end up setting things on fire.  But that's a post for a different day.

Right now: showering.

Who put us in charge? {phfr} {wiwoc}

I've fallen through some kind of space-time something sci-fi sounding and woken up on a day that pretends to be Thursday.  But there is no way that it's ACTUALLY Thursday, right?  Because that would be crazy.  I mean, I'm lol-ing at the idea right now.   Just listen.... (***tee heeeeee heee heee heee!  hahahahaha!***).

Thursday.  Pfffffffffffft.

Wait.  What?

I mean...just....what????  Send help!

{pretty}

A bunch of pictures of decorations. You're welcome!

It's Christmas Eve!  We're drinking wine in the afternoon!  We're not going to the vigil Mass!  Hot-pepper pinconning from Moo-ville!  Flan for tomorrow's family Christmas party cooling on the counter!

Sorry.  I'm a little excited.

You know that thing about kids loving Christmas and grown-ups thinking it's a drag?  Yeah, I don't get it either! It is truly the moooooooooooooooost wonderful time of. the. yeeeeeeeeeeeeeear!

Dance MASTAH {what I wore Sunday}

It will shock you, I know, to discover that I have received ZERO FORMAL DANCE TRAINING.

scissors!

7 Quick Takes- I am Woman of Steel! Be Impressed!

(1)

WHEW!  Have you ever read "Little House in the Big Woods" "On the Banks of Plum Creek" (edited because I'm an idiot)?  You know that part with the huge blizzard and Pa is on his way back from town and then it turns to night and there is so much wind and snow that he loses his way and has to tunnel into a snow-drift to wait it out and then all he has to eat is the Christmas candy that he bought while he was in town and pretty much he could have died and stuff?  Well the Ingalls' ain't got nothin' on us.

Perfect Christmas Cookies: Black-and-White Chocolate Peppermint

I really should not be writing this. I mean, I just published a stinkin' post, like, seven seconds ago or something.  But I've been hollering at people to make these cookies all day and guess what?  They don't have the recipe.

I am so smart....S-M-R-T.

Way too many pictures, trust me {p.h.f.r.)

{pretty}

On Sunday we really enjoyed our annual parish Christmas pageant.

All I Can Do

There's a lot I don't know right now.  I don't know what or why or how things have happened or what or why or how to prevent them from happening again.  I don't know if it's right or wrong to start asking certain questions or to talk about laws and healthcare yet.  Lord knows I have a lot of opinions and ideas, sure.  But I don't know.  This internet is a big, big place filled with big, big hearts and big, big minds.  I'll let those big hearts and big minds do that talking.

But I'll tell you what I do know.

7 Quick Takes- Wailing Women and a Par-TAY

Because you do not want to hear any more, not even a little bit more, about the plague of horrible deathly death that befell our house over the last 6 days, I'll start with this song that's been stuck in my head all morning...

(1)

(2)

And now you know even more about my new-agey acousticy wailing-women musical preferences.  Paula Cole anyone?

A day trip- and we all survived! {p.h.f.r.}

I'm gettin' brave in my old age. In my two-vehicle havin' life.

Last Friday I loaded up all five of my darling offspring and drove the 1 hour and 22 minutes (not that I was counting) (fine, yes I was) to lovely- dovely Holland, Michigan.

I didn't take this photo.  source

We went to see my bloggy friend Rhonda's new casita, stroll the quaint streets, chat, hang out, give our kids a new adventure...you know, all those things that people do.

Yo dawg, I heard you read blogs

hysterical graphic courtesy of the lovely Cari

We were on our way to our friends' house the other day.  Good friends.  Like, husband and wife BOTH get along with BOTH husband and wife.  Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about.  And it struck me- without this blog, we might never have met.  Or rather, I don't know how we would have met.  Because clearly we were always meant to be friends- we just spent 30something years on our winding paths across America, through tie-died disasters and flannel shirts and tumultuous conversion and finally finding the joy we'd been looking for all along before we got here.  Got here to each other's inboxes and twitter feeds and facebook pages and living rooms.

I love blogging.  I never knew I would love it and I didn't even know people could start blogs with the intention of Being Bloggers.  Honestly I don't even like the word "blogging".  It feels weird to say it out loud.  Definitely didn't know what a "link-up" was or a "blog button" and especially I didn't know that people who started blogs could form real friendships.  REAL friendships.  

And then after I started this blog but I was still brand new to it, I read about people being thankful for the friendships and community and you know what?  I thought they were full of crap.  I really did!  Oh no, I can't tell you why a person might make such an outlandish claim unless it were true.  Nope.  No idea what their motivation would have been.  But still.  I thought it was a little bit pretend.

Lo, dear readers, I was wrong!  Wrong a thousand times.  Do you know how hard it is to admit I was wrong?
Veryveryveryveryvery.
Probably because it doesn't happen that often so I don't get much practice.

But yes, I was so horribly wrong.

Oh, the beautiful friendships I have made.  Oh, the way they've lifted me up in times of sorrow and rejoiced with me in times of joy.  Oh how they've helped me cultivate a deeper love for my vocation and a deeper relationship with my Church.  Oh, they are real.

This blog brought us through those horrible days of unemployment, through the birth of sweet baby Mary, and gave me the courage to try homeschooling.  Without it I may never have considered cloth diapering or renovating three bedrooms while I was pregnant or having a Jesse Tree in our house for the very first time.  I would not know about twitter and how a bunch of people all over the country can watch the same movie at the same time and enjoy each other's company and humor and insight and support.  Maybe not all of those while the movie is going on, but one thing leads to another in bloggy land, dear readers.  One beautiful thing leads to another.

So there it is.  This blogging thing, this social media thing, it can be so much more than just a journal or a photo album.  It can be the little unassuming door that leads to a better every day.  It can be your fur coat-filled wardrobe in the spare room.  Walk on through.  There's always room for one more.

'Cause it's only the funnestest Christmas movie EVER!

Oh, I had plans. Big plans!  Because the two year old is feeling better (yay).

But then things went south in the health-of-other-children department and also in the water-not-leaking-out-of-the-bottom-of-my-washing-machine department (if you have an Amana front-loader and have experience in this regard, feel free to wax helpful in the combox) and I can't seem to write about the stuff I was going to write about.

Now two people who don't even know how to play checkers are fighting over checkers.   Better make this not-post even quicker!

I Am a Vomit Hating Heathen (w.i.w.s)

I feel guilty even writing this. Truly, I do. Do you know why? I never actually wore this outfit to Mass. Oh, I was going to.  I really, really was.  But then I didn't.  You wanna know why?  No?  Oops, here I go anyway...

Put Your Laughing Pants On.

Holy moley. moly.  What the heck?  Is "moley" not a word?  "Moly"?  Whatever.  It's been a crazy two days.  More crazy in store.  So watch this and laugh.  Laugh like a rabid hyena.  But do NOT watch it while holding or sitting near a sleeping baby.  Because your shrieks of hysterical laughter will surely wake her.

Prayer and Fasting for Two Sweet Boys

There are two loving families, two sweet baby boys, I'm praying for today.  Prayer and fasting.  And I'm asking if you'll join me. 

I don't know how else to help or what else to say, so I'll just tell you what I know and hope it's enough.

It's Beginning to Look a lot like my Favorite Time of Year! {p.h.f.r.}

{pretty}

I love this wreathe.  I love this door.  I love this wreath on this door.  The rustic and red, the happy welcome home.  While the world around us turns drab and grey and then covered in white, this is my beacon of warmth and happiness.

A Procrastinator and her Jesse Tree

Confession time.

Until this year, I had no idea what a Jesse Tree was.  Oh yes, vague notion of it having something to do with Jesus and Advent, but that's about it.  Are you sobbing for my children and their thus-far deprived childhoods?  Me too.

But then Jessica at Housewifespice decided to host a Jesse Tree ornament exchange and I signed up.  Hey, everyone else seemed REALLY excited, okay?  And I'm nothing if not a follow-the-cool-crowd-er.  So I signed up and we made our ornaments and sent them and I was feeling all proud of us and stuff and then...well, then I realized that we do not have a Jesse Tree.  Because, of course, I didn't even know what a Jesse tree was.

Help orphans AND win prizes? Yes please!

I wasn't planning on writing anything today, but then Charlotte from Waltzing Matilda mentioned this wonderful fundraiser she's hosting to benefit orphaned children in Costa Rica.  She talks about her custom designed Quiltie blankets, which my sweet Mare Bare is lucky enough to have and which YOU could win for your baby!

Remember this hilarious photo from the summer?

What I Wore Sunday, vol. 7

The other day, I had a startling realization.  I, mother of 5, homeschooler, chicken wrangler, did not own a single ankle-length denim skirt.  Impostor!

So I got one.

Rocked it out Advent Style this morning.  Why yes, the priest and I did match perfectly.  Thanks for asking.