Category Archives: Creativity

7 Quick Takes: Things I’ll Be Doing This Weekend Instead of Going to See “50 Shades of Grey”

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7 Quick Takes

I’m pretty sure that dissing “50 Shades of Grey” is going to appear in most peoples’ Quick Takes this weekend. There are already some interesting posts on the subject here, here (warning: some swearing which makes it NSFW), here, and here.

— 1 —

Letting Kelly pick my Lenten discipline. I’ll be giving up Coke, doing some extra spiritual reading, doing some extra praying, and then one more thing that Kelly (our Quick Takes hostess-with-the-mostess) gets to pick. She has until 11:59 PST on the 17th to tell me what it is and get supplies for said discipline to me.

— 2 —

Trying to learn all the words to “Baba Yetu” (and how to pronouce them). The utterly amazing Peter Hollens and his friend Malukah covered Christopher Tin’s Grammy-winning composition “Baba Yetu” which is the theme to the computer game Civilization IV. It’s the Swahili translation of the Lord’s Prayer (or at least most of it). It’s amazing but I do have to work on how to pronounce some of the words. (I’ve learned from previous experience that Swahili is not a language that flows from my tongue well.)

— 3 —

Putting together valentine’s for Daniel’s class. I actually am almost done with these valentines from a free printable created by Amy of Living Locurto. (Go check her out. She is crazy talented!) My thanks go to Ann of House of Estrogen who featured them on her blog 4 years ago.

— 4 —

Reading Unvirtuous Abbey’s Twitter stream. If you haven’t read the Twitter stream of Unvirtuous Abbey, stop whatever you are doing and click on their name!!!! They are irreverent and funny in ways that only Canadians can be.

— 5 —

Listening to David Wesley. If you’re a fan of Peter Hollens, check out David Wesley. He does amazing acapella mixes of popular worship songs. My props to priest’s wife who introduced me to him.

— 6 —

Bonding with family. My sister-in-law Joanna, her son Patrick, and her mother-in-law Margie are coming up tomorrow to spend the afternoon with us for Valentine’s Day. I need to put together the Valentine’s Day present I have for Patrick — I’ve got some squeeze pouches of applesauce from Trader Joe’s and I’m going to put a wrap on them with his picture and some heart stickers. On his picture will be some text that says, “You are my main squeeze.”

— 7 —

Dreaming of the pedicure I’ll be getting with the present Jon gave me for Valentine’s Day. Jon has two weddings on Saturday (and probably turned down ten more) so we did “date tea” instead of doing a date night on Saturday. We went to $tarbux and Jon got lunch (a grilled cheese sandwich and passion tea lemonade) while I got my iced vanilla latté and some marshmallow dream bars. His present to me was a gift certificate for a mani-pedi which will probably be a pedicure with extras given that regular nail polish doesn’t stay on my fingers well. (My present to him was some special coffee and moscato from Trader Joe’s.) It will be nice to be able to have some pampering that isn’t usually in the budget these days.

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

#FiveFaves: Miscellanea (XXVIII)

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#5Faves

One

This offering from Peter Hollens and Malukah. It’s the Lord’s Prayer in Swahili which is used in the game Civilization IV.

Two

The fact that a school bus picks Daniel up each morning and brings him home. I had to drop some paperwork off for one of his therapists at his school and I managed to forget that Wednesday is a “Compact Day” for everyone else so pick-up time is around 12:45 p.m. Oh vey… I keep forgetting how much of a pain in the rear it is to do “drop-off” or “pick-up” and how I’m so incredibly lucky not to have that be a part of my day. I had to park a decent walk away from the school (well… a decent walk for someone with a bum foot) and it was definitely a painful walk!

Three

Marshmallow Dream Bars. These are the $tarbux equivalent of a Rice Krispies treat. In any case, it’s like kryptonite for me.

Four

Bible studies with my church ladies. The other woman at the Wednesday morning Bible study (with the exception of my priest) are old enough to be my mother or even my grandmother in some cases… but they are absolutely delightful and act happy to see me even if I’m sitting there crocheting through all of it. They tell me how wonderful it is to see me and when we had a combined service for the annual meeting, they complimented me on the choir music. (They’re all attenders of the 8:00 service and I’m at 10:00 with the choir.)

Five

Dave Barry. Dave Barry, whose writing I have loved for 25+ years, took on 50 Shades of Grey. It’s worth reading — go to it!

Go love up Jenna and the others.

Yarn Along: February 4, 2015

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I’m linking up with Ginny of Small Things to show what is in my yarn bag and what I am reading at the moment!

Book and blankie.

The crocheting: Still working on Daniel’s big boy blankie. I’ll probably have it on my hook for a few weeks to come unless I take a break to do some baby crocheting.

The book: Yarn Over Murder by Maggie Sefton. After this book, I’ll be caught up with the series.

Click here to see what others are doing.

7 Quick Takes: Car Buying, Sick Kids, and Jen Hating Planks

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Pick Jen’s Lenten Discipline 2015. The second annual “Pick Jen’s Lenten Discipline” giveaway starts today and goes for ~2 weeks. Click here for details.

— 2 —

Panic attack myths. If you get panic attacks or love someone who gets them, I highly recommend you read this.

— 3 —

Progress on the plank challenge. I accidentally abandoned it this weekend as I had too much going on and then was taking care of Daniel who decided to scare the pants off of me and spike a fever of 104F. Instead of going back and making up missed days, I decided to just do 4 60-second planks this morning… and found that being up for 60 seconds was a piece of cake… something that it hadn’t been at the beginning of the month.

— 4 —

Some interesting perspectives on the vaccination debate. There is an outbreak of measles stemming from an unvaccinated person and I’m seeing a lot of things left and right about it. There are parents writing letters to parents with unvaccinated children, someone on BuzzFeed showing what measles looks like, and someone talks about their kid having to be quarantined because someone brought a measles patient to the doctor and the kid was too young to vaccinate, forcing the parents to quarantine her for a month.

And as always, here’s the opposing viewpoint (who I do not endorse and think is seriously misguided).

— 5 —

Small world. I was my father-in-law’s “plus-one” for the Respect Life Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on Saturday and was walking with him to an accessible ramp for his walker when I hear the words, “Hello Jen!” I look up and it’s a seminary classmate of mine who is apparently representing the same pan-Lutheran group as my father-in-law. Once we found our assigned seats, he came back to where I was sitting and we caught up on the last 12 years since we have run into each other. It’s pretty pathetic that this is the first we’ve seen of each other because right now we live about 5 miles apart. Still, it was good to see him.

— 6 —

New Year’s resolution update. The read through the Bible is going well. I’ve gotten through Genesis and am in Exodus in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, I’m almost to the crucifixion scene in Matthew. I’ve also discovered some new Psalms (new to me, that is) that are really pretty.

— 7 —

Car-buying. Jon’s car decided to die on the 57 last Friday and repairs were going to be $3000. The car was only worth $1000 so we had to come up with another car for transportation. (The situation we’re in at the moment makes being a one-car family pretty impossible.) Thankfully, his mechanic had a used 2003 Volvo station wagon for sale and allowed us to purchase it for under the Kelly Blue Book value. (It is in impeccable condition.) Currently, I’m trying to get loan stuff done so I’d appreciate your prayers as I’m working on all of this over the weekend.

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

Yarn Along: January 28, 2015

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I’m linking up with Ginny of Small Things today and showing off what I’m reading and what I’m crocheting.

Big boy blankie and book.

The crocheting: I’m making a “big boy blankie” for Daniel because he is shredding his baby blanket. I’m hoping to get it done by his birthday in April. The yarn is Bernat Super Value in the Whirlpool colorway.

The book: Close Knit Killer by Maggie Sefton. It’s your basic cozy murder mystery but involving yarn.

Want to see what others are making and reading? Head on over!

7 Quick Takes: NFC Championship Game, Police Lip-Syncing, and

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

NFC Championship Game. I was watching the game in Seattle with my extended family which was pretty entertaining because Green Bay was shutting out Seattle until almost the 4th Quarter… and then came back to win in OT. I think it’s probably for the best that my long-suffering sister-in-law (she’s married to my evil twin) wasn’t watching the game with us — she’s a Green Bay fan and there would have been some good-natured abuse directed at her.

— 2 —

Crocheting. The yarn for Daniel’s big boy blanket arrived just as I was leaving on Friday so I stuffed a couple skeins into my laptop bag and started the blanket while flying to Seattle. I’m almost two skeins in and had to order more because I’m pretty sure that the 5 skeins I have are not enough. Oh well… I’ve got about 2.5 months to get this done and I can catch-up on all my TV stuff while I work on it.

— 3 —

Apparently, some people think I’m “sheenazing”. Click on the image to vote for me in the “Best Blog by a Non-Papist” category. Please and thank you. 🙂

I'm Sheenazing.

While you’re voting, I’d really appreciate your votes for Mary of Passionate Perseverance in the “Most Inspiring Blog” and the “Miss Congeniality” categories. She deserves to win both this year purely because of how much encouragement she gave to us other moms of special needs kids while she was watching her daughter Courtney slowly die. She is honestly a bright spot in the Catholic blogosphere.

— 4 —

Totes amused. I have relatives who are in law enforcement so I’m finding this pretty awesome. 🙂

I’m kind of embarrassed to admit that I know a Taylor Swift song…

— 5 —

This is pretty cool. A Massachusetts teacher won $150,000 and donated it all back to the school. Ellen had her on the show and gave her a few surprises. This video seriously restores some of my faith in humanity and it also makes me love Target even more.

— 6 —

Coming attractions. I tried writing the post on being a Titus 2 woman last night but fell asleep. I’m going to try and get it up this weekend.

— 7 —

New Year’s resolution updates. Today’s plank time was 3 minutes. I am having some bursitis issues so I’m having to do a modified version of it. I tried being up for the whole 3 minutes but had to quit halfway because Jon needed to get into our room to get ready for pastoral meetings. (I was doing the plank on the floor of our bedroom.) Oh well… I can try for the whole 3 minutes tomorrow!

The Bible reading is on track and I’m really enjoying it.

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: MLK Day 2015

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Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY MLK Day 2015

Outside my window… dark. It’s technically after midnight on January 20th but I’m doing a continuous day.

I am thinking… about various things from my weekend.

I am thankful… for an AMAZING weekend with extended family in Seattle — I’ve really missed this in the last couple of years because of the cost and because Daniel wasn’t ready for it yet. He definitely “showed” well and I’m looking forward to seeing the pictures.

In the kitchen… nothing at the moment. I cleaned everything up before I went online. I also haven’t really cooked today because it was a travel day.

I am wearing… light gray v-neck and black sweats.

I am praying for… Mary, a call for Jon, and some special intentions.

I am going… to sleep pretty soon.

I am wondering… if the Seahawks will win the Super Bowl.

I am reading… Murder with Peacocks by Donna Andrews. I’m also keeping steady on the Bible reading plan.

I am hoping… to at least keep up on the 30-day plank challenge. (I’m having to do a modified plank position because of a bursitis flare up in my foot.

I am looking forward to… sleep.

I am hearing… Jon’s CPAP machine.

Around the house… all dark and quiet. Again it’s 12:30 a.m. here.

A favorite quote for today…“Ninjas? In Oklahoma!?!?!?!?!?” (My parents have addicted me to “The Librarians”.)

One of my favorite things… quiet and sleep. (Can you tell I’ve been up since 4 a.m.?)

A few plans for the rest of the week: choir concert on Saturday, class for church on Wednesday night, and whatever else comes up.

A peek into my day… I’ve been nominated for a Sheenazing Award in the “Best Blog by a Non-Papist”. I’d *LOVE* votes. (Hint. Hint.) Click on the image to vote. I’m ::Meditatio::.

Sheenazing nominee.

If you want a list of the other nominees, click here. The only other vote-related request I have is to vote for Mary of Passionate Perseverance in the “Most Inspirational” category and the “Miss Congeniality” category. Girlfriend is awesome in every way (but especially those) and her awesomness needs some recognition.

Hosted by The Simple Woman.