Author Archives: Jen

About Jen

Jen isn't quite sure when she lost her mind, but it is probably documented here on Meditatio. She blogs because the world needs her snark at all hours of the night... and she probably can't sleep anyway.

7 Quick Takes: Sad News, Grumpy Cats, and Spectacled Bears

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Some very sad news. Henry, a little Ukrainian boy adopted by the Dobrovits family in 2011, passed away yesterday after an infection developed in his back from recent surgery to put VEPTR rods in his back. He may have only lived two years but his adoption was the catalyst for a number of people to become involved with Reece’s Rainbow including the family adopting Brett. I’m so grateful for his parents taking the leap of faith to adopt him because many children have found families because of him. Leila of Orphan Report and Little Catholic Bubble wrote a beautiful piece about all of this. Please keep his family in your prayers and if you can, please go show them some love.

— 2 —

Reminder: iTunes giveaway. I wanted to remind people that the iTunes gift card giveaway is going on until Sunday at 11:59. Just donate and let me know how much — you get one entry per $5 donated. You also get one entry per mention on social media so leave me a comment and let me know that as well.

— 3 —

Rain, rain, rain, and thunder. We got slammed with one storm yesterday and we’ve got one coming in tonight and tomorrow morning that should be hit harder. We’ve got wind advisories and there are areas of northern California that could be getting 14 inches of rain… which is a huge percentage of our yearly rainfall. I usually love rain but this one has been triggering some nasty migraines.

— 4 —

A spectacled bear. Daniel’s glasses arrived last week and we finally got him to wear them full-time this week.

A spectacled bear

I didn’t know he could get any cuter… but he did.

— 5 —

Grumpy cat source. You know the meme with the cat with a sour look on its face? There is actually a site for her called The Original Grumpy Cat. She is a real cat and her human posts the Daily Grump. You can also get Christmas cards with her on them… when her human gets them reprinted for the third or fourth time. (Seriously… they’ve been swamped with orders.)

— 6 —

Daniel’s Advent calendar arrived. I’m trying to create meaningful Advent traditions with Daniel and one that I’ve had since I was old enough to remember was Advent calendars. My mom bought them for us growing up, sent them to me in college, and even sent them after I was married. I’m looking forward to opening the windows with him.

— 7 —

How did I not know about this site???? I just discovered ZooBorns.Com. This is not a good site for me to know about — I’m going to be looking at pictures of baby red pandas all night!

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

Giving Tuesday

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In the spirit of shopping and buying and days dubbed with monikers, non-profits have dubbed today “Giving Tuesday” and invite others to make donations on behalf of others as an alternative Christmas present. I thought I’d help out with this by giving you a list of some charities I love and to whom I would give away 90% of my income if I could.

Heifer International: This is an organization that gives farm animals, trees, bees, and resources to people in impoverished places and teaches them how to make a living from them. When the animal reproduces (or the tree produces fruit), the offspring is given to another person in order to “pass on the blessing”. They enable people to be self-sufficient, pay school fees, and pay for medication.

Kiva.Org: This organization uses the principle of microlending and allows you to make loans in increments of $25 to people in 3rd world countries (and I think, parts of the US) in order to fund their businesses. When the loan is paid back, you have the option of taking the cash or re-loaning it. I’ve made 14 loans, 11 of which are paid in full. Only one person has defaulted and of the 14 loans, I’ve maybe invested $125 total which means most of it has been re-loaned a few times.

RAINN: This is an essential organization considering that 1 in 3 women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime. They provide resources, phone numbers, and information for victims and most of all, they help them to know that they aren’t alone.

Reece’s Rainbow: They facilitate international adoptions for kids with Down’s Syndrome and other medical conditions. Adoption is incredibly expensive and they provide grants to help families manage it. I’m involved with them as a Guardian Angel and it has been BY FAR one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. My child Brett currently has his adoptive family in his country going through the legalities there to adopt him.

Project Linus: They provide blankets to kids in traumatic situations like children’s shelters and hospitals. I’ve made blankets for them and I was blessed enough to receive several for Daniel during his hospital stays.

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: November 26, 2012

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Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY November 26, 2012

Outside my window… dark. It was in the 60’s today though.

I am thinking… one of my library books should be available soon.

I am thankful… for the weekend with my family and that it did not include a hospital stay for Daniel like it did last year.

In the kitchen… leftover fungus risotto.

I am wearing… faded charcoal shirt and fleece pajama bottoms.

I am creating… crocheted snowflakes and Christmas stockings.

I am going… to get my massage tomorrow.

I am wondering… when the Advent calendar I ordered for Daniel will arrive.

I am reading… nothing — just finished The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling over the long weekend.

I am hoping… Brett’s family is able to do well with all the adoption-related stuff this week and that they’re able to come home soon.

I am looking forward to… my massage.

Around the house… lots to do.

I am pondering… Christmas crocheting.

A favorite quote for today… ??To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.?? — C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

One of my favorite things… Coca-Cola even though I know it’s bad for me.

A few plans for the rest of the week: blood work and massage tomorrow, Morning Prayer on Wednesday, and Christmas crocheting throughout.

Hosted by The Simple Woman’s Daybook

What I Wore On Sunday: November 25, 2012

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What I Wore Sunday

I was finally together enough to do this. Yay!!! OK… it also had to do with actually *making it* to church today. As Jon brings me Communion a fair amount of the time, I could theoretically put a picture of me in my jammies but that would not be in the spirit of this link-up.

I’m dressed in jeans and running shoes because I spend 99% of worship chasing Daniel around and with stress issues in my foot, running shoes are the only thing I can wear. I also decided to include a picture of Jon in his clericals as umm… ENCOURAGEMENT for the menfolk (ahem… Thomas!) to participate.

Daniel

Shirt: Circo (Target)
Blue courderoys: Oshkosh (thank God for adjustable waists!)
Socks: Target
Shoes: Disney’s “Cars” (Sears)

Jen

Blue Fleece: Jameson Distillery in Dublin (I kid you not — my parents got it there because one of them forgot a jacket and I ended up with it.)
Shirt: Lands’ End at Sears
Jeans: Lands’ End (too long because I have a 27-inch inseam and petite jeans only go down to 28-inches)
Shoes: Asics from Lady Foot Locker

Another reason I decided to take a pic of Jon in his clericals is that I have a lot of Catholic readers and I thought they might find it interesting.

Jon

Sport Jacket: Lands’ End
Clerical shirt and tab: Friar Tuck (Augsburg Fortress store)
Pants: from a suit given passed on by a friend
Belt: Kohl’s
Shoes: Kohl’s

7 Quick Takes: Turkey Pardons, iTunes Giveaway, and Thanksgiving for Health

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Ahem… iTunes giveaway to benefit Brett. You see the adorable little boy on my sidebar? His name is Brett and he finally has a mama. To help his mama bring him home, I’m doing an iTunes giveaway to raise some funds. Here are 7 reasons to participate in my iTunes giveaway. I haven’t had any takers yet and I’m getting a little depressed about it.

— 2 —

A prayer request. Huffle Mawson, one of the first cat bloggers I “met”, has passed away. Her humans Tracey and Kendall got a message while on vacation telling them that she was at the vet in liver failure. She passed on the next morning. They are still on vacation and coming home to a really emotionally devastating situation. Her mom, Tracey, was really supportive of me during my pregnancy and my heart is breaking for her right now. Please keep Tracey and Kendall in thoughts and prayers right now.

— 3 —

I finally have my laptop back after 5 days of waiting for a new hard disk and then getting it installed. The church’s data person was able to get all of it back though I’ll be deleting out duplicate files for a good month or so. (My hard disk was that bad.) He also managed to recover all my email and my Firefox bookmarks.

— 4 —

It’s Thanksgiving so here’s the Turkey Pardoning Ceremony from Wednesday. I’m linking this not because I like turkeys or President Obama. I’m linking it because of the Nate Silver joke.

— 5 —

Link-Up Love! Grace at Camp Patton has a Thanksgiving link-up. I haven’t posted mine yet because my clothes are already in the washer on account of the mysterious sweet potato stains up and down my left arm. *looks suspiciously at the sleeping toddler*

— 6 —

LOL Cat in training. After we got back from our walk at 9:30 p.m., we were gathered around my mom’s computer looking at pictures from a family gathering in Washington when my sister-in-law told me that I might have to fight to get my laptop back. I looked behind me and my mom’s grey kitty Homer was curled up next to it. My dad took a picture but I doubt my parents would give it to me if they knew I would possibly make it into a LOL Cat.

— 7 —

Something to be thankful for this year. Last year, my Quick Takes on Thanksgiving were written from the PICU at Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose where Daniel was admitted after waking up with a fever of 103F… just as dinner was going on the table. So seriously, I’m thankful for health this year, especially Daniel’s health as it meant that we were all able to have dinner together and not have to worry about him or be thrown up on. (My mom needs to be thanked because she was so nice about that one…)

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

Two Announcements

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Two announcements:

1.) I’m going to be hard to find this week because the hard disk on my laptop failed and I lost everything. Please pray that the church’s tech guru can get my files off of it and that the new one can successfully be installed. I’m sharing a Netbook with Jon and it’s been an adjustment to learn to type on it.

2.) I’m doing a giveaway over at Blogging for Brett to raise the extra $4000-$5000 that his family needs for his adoption.

Go check out the giveaway! Do it now!

7 Quick Takes: Brett Has A Family, Cringe Worthy Thanksgiving Songs, and Lots of NaNoWriMo

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

A cringe worthy Thanksgiving song. It’s about two weeks to early to be hearing Christmas music. Seriously… it’s not even Thanksgiving yet — let’s celebrate The Day of the Bird and then we can ponder the presence of Christmas carols. In the meantime, here’s the KLOVE Thanksgiving Song which was composed and sung on the spot by Matthew West last year when Scott and Kelli had him on the show. Warning: this song is seriously facepalm worthy.

— 2 —

BRETT HAS A MAMA!!!! Do you see the adorable child on my sidebar? His name is Brett and he just got a mama!!! His family needs to raise an additional $4000 to bring him home with his sister Delilah who they are also adopting. Click here for the post on his adoption blog to share with others. If you want to cut to the chase and kick a few bucks toward the cause, click here.

— 3 —

I’m almost halfway through NaNoWriMo and I’m slowly getting caught up. There are days when I have written more than 2000 words and other days when it is less. At present, I am about 1 day behind in word counts. If I can catch up and get a bit ahead, I’ll be able to finish strong on November 30 and have my novel certified. If that happens, the NaNoWriMo graphic on my sidebar will change to say “Winner”.

— 4 —

Speaking of NaNoWriMo, my friend Anita is fundraising for NaNoWriMo to be able to attend Night of Writing Dangerously. Anita has been involved with NaNoWriMo for years and she has organized write-ins this year to support those who are participating in the East Bay. Could you maybe kick $5 toward her? (As I’m compiling these takes on 11/15, she is $115 away from her goal.)

— 5 —

My car is in the shop. I finally got the fuse for the automatic locks replaced two weeks ago and the next day, the rear passenger door decided it didn’t want to unlock. I finally took it in to be looked at and they told me this morning that the actuator needs to be replaced. They’ll hopefully have it replaced by tomorrow at 5 p.m. because I’ll be headed to a write-in for my area for NaNoWriMo. *crosses fingers*

— 6 —

We’ve got a few storms coming in. It’s been a gray day today and we supposedly have a storm system coming in. This would be lovely but my migraines are frequently triggered by weather changes. Oh well… I can enjoy reading on a rainy day and I can hopefully introduce the bear child to new and cool cartoons or something.

— 7 —

I wasn’t all that enthralled by the second part of the NCIS: Los Angeles that aired on Tuesday. I recognize that they’re trying to create material for later in the season but it would have been more interesting if they had discovered the arms dealer and the nukes. Oh well… the original NCIS is my favorite anyway.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.