Tag Archives: 7 Quick Takes

IMG_20160225_131946495

The XanderMan Can: A New Face in Politics

As far as I can tell from the recent Republican primaries/caucuses, voters are tired of the same-old career politicians.  They are looking for a new face, someone who is one of them.  Most of all they are looking for someone with crazy hair.

My friends I am here to tell you, I have found such a candidate!  No, it is not Donald Trump.

Its:

IMG_20160225_131850616

Alexander!

You may be skeptical.  You are probably wondering what qualifications he would bring to the office.  I, as his campaign manager (and mother), present his platform:

1. Committed to Growth- He has demonstrated exceptional growth, nearly doubling in size in just a few months!  No business has ever gone bankrupt under his leadership.  The same can not be said for Mr. Trump whose businesses have declared bankruptcy not once, not twice, but four times.  

2. Tireless-  Alexander is up at all hours of the night.

3. Flexible- Too many politicians refuse to bend, but not this kid!  He is so flexible he can eat his own toes!

Displaying IMG_20160224_142822047.jpgDisplaying IMG_20160224_142822047.jpgIMG_20160224_142822047

4. Unafraid of Demanding Changes- He works to eliminate all the crap- several times a day.

(I’ll spare you a picture of that one)

5. Not Sexist- He would never refer to women as a “beautiful piece of ass” , unlike his opponent Mr. Trump.  While Alexander may think of them as the “ones with the boobs” this isn’t due to sexism, but rather breastfeeding.

6. Non-Partisan- He won’t sign any bill that would come to his desk, he would rather eat the pen.  This will force lawmakers to work together to have a super majority to get anything passed.

IMG_20160225_131639261_HDR

Fun fact: His Aunt was Feel the Bern, before Sanders.  No joke.  Her twitter handle  is @feelthebern.  Everyday she gets tweets from Bernie Sanders fans, which is amusing since she works at a conservative think tank.

 

Photographic proof from 2010.  Its hard to see, but the back of her shirt says Feel the Bern.

7. Proven Ability in Conflict Resolution- Everyone looks at his smile and stops fighting.  If this tactic works on older siblings, it is sure to work in foreign policy.

IMG_2432

He has been flashing these huge smiles since he was 4 weeks old.

This is the face of integrity.

IMG_20160225_131946495

 

On election day vote for the one candidate who could bring true change to Washington: “the XanderMan can.”

Vote Alexander Scott.

Linking up  here with Kelly for:

For more Quick Takes, visit This Ain’t the Lyceum!

Laundry Woes

Laundry Woes

Happy Friday everyone!  I firmly believe that using the phrase TGIF constitutes a sincere act of prayer after experiencing this . . . interesting week. Because:

1. Our dryer broke.  While not an enjoyable experience it wouldn’t constitute a major problem except that it occurred during an intestinal bug for the kids.  I will spare you the details.

While starting a new load, it made a sound like a screaming banshee being subjected to the a poorly oiled rack.  Then came the pops and the smoke and the smell, as I ran to turn it off and unplug it from the wall.

2. For all of an hour I contemplated trying to fix the thing ourselves, but the reality was driven home once again that such things aren’t our strongest suit.  The machine isn’t that old from what we can tell (it came with the house), but apparently that type is know to break down after about seven years and the parts are more costly.

I figured, what the heck, I could try to take it apart myself.  How bad can it be?  What have I got to lose.  An hour later, I emerged covered in lint and grime with parts scattered on the floor, and began googling the best deals for a new dryer.  Clearly, I am not at all technical.

3.Several hours and many searches later, I had it narrowed down to a few suitable options after consulting consumer reports, home improvement bloggers, and taking an informal poll on facebook.

Later that night we went to the store, and selected a completely different model than the ones that I was leaning towards.  It met my criteria, though and is only costing us about $100 more than the used ones on craigslist since it was on sale.  Plus we are getting free delivery and set up.  Totally worth it.

4.  In other laundry room news, I purchased this  sorter:

Isn’t she beautiful?  Between a birthday gift card and amazon rewards points, it cost me $5.  It only took me two years of having laundry on the floor to finally bite the bullet and get it.  I think the following incident may have had something to do with it.

5.  Earlier in the week I found a slug.  In the washing machine.  It was horrible.  I screamed.  Loudly.  And ran in a panic to find my husband.  Because of my extreme reaction, he thought that something horrible had happened to one of the kids.  He was not amused and made me deal with the slug myself, which I did, albeit with great hesitancy.  It took many tries before its dead body came off of the shirt it had affixed itself to.

Apparently I have a slug phobia.

6.  I blame St. Francis for this.  He must have decided that my previous hostile reactions to the slugs meant I didn’t have a great enough appreciation for “brother slug” and needed to get to know him better.  It didn’t work.

7.  After we had both calmed down, Nathan decided to try to help me brainstorm a solution to our slug problem.  My idea was to more thoroughly seal the hole that they were coming through.  He on the other hand likes to come up with innovative, non- traditional solutions.  His idea was to introduce a natural predator to their environment.

N: “What do you think about filling the laundry room up with frogs for a few days?”

Me: “Are you out of your mind?!  What are we trying to do re-enact the plagues in Egypt?!”

 

And thus ends my Friday ramble.  Never again will I take modern appliances for granted.  And never again do I want to see another slug in my life.

Linking up with Jen at Conversiondiary.com for 7 Quick Takes.

Anbody else’s spouse come up with . . .creative solutions to problems?  Or have irrational phobias?  Have a great weekend!

*At this time I don’t have affiliate links.  Just wanted to share a product I liked.

 

Slugs, Sacraments, and Smoochable Nephews, Oh My!

Slugs, Sacraments, and Smoochable Nephews, Oh My!

This weeks post is made possible by the letter “S” which starts such words as Slugs, Sacraments and Smoochable.

OK the last one isn’t a real word.  It should be. This is my attempt at lobbying for its inclusion in the English language.  Because it perfectly describes:

1. My smoochable new nephew!  He is a week old today.  And has red hair!  He is pretty much the cutest little thing.

2.  Said nephew will be receiving the Sacrament of baptism this Sunday!  We will be hosting the baptismal party.  The church is getting a new little member, time to paaaartaaay.  Anybody have any cool baptismal party tips to add to my growing repertoire?

3. This dovetails nicely with our School lesson for the week: B is for Baptism.  We just started doing a little bit of pre-school with Sammy.  I think he was bored and needing more intellectual stimulation.  Now he looks forward to doing the lessons everyday.  We are primarily using Catholic Icings curriculum, adding in a few things and dividing up the activities for throughout the week.  photo (7)

For this week: Monday we introduced the letter of the week and went through a grab bag of items that started with it.  Tuesday we read about the Saint of the week, Bernadette, talked about the healing waters of Lourdes, and compared this to Baptism waters which heal us from sin.  We were supposed to use some Lourdes water I had, but the kids were whacking each other with books so the lesson got cut short.  Wednesday, we were supposed to talk about creation which is the current unit study he is working on and color a page from a creation coloring book.  He wasn’t interested so we skipped it this week.  He did do a little music lesson and learned about the key of C; he was super into the music lesson.  Thursday we read the Bible Verse for the week and were going to read the passage about the Baptism of Jesus, but he wasn’t interested so we skipped it and instead did the lesson I scheduled for today.  That lesson involved looking at pictures of the baptism, holding baptismal candles, looking at the baptismal garments, etc.  They both loved looking at the pictures, and Sammy asked many good questions about his baptism.

In addition we use an online program called Reading Eggs for phonics.  For all aspects of the schooling we do as much or as little as Sammy wants.

4.  Instead of today’s lesson we took a social outing and went to the Children’s Museum in the town north of us.  Most of it was geared to kids older than Sammy, but he found plenty of things to hold his interest.  Ana had fun just wandering around taking in everything.

5.  Sunsets are food for my soul.  I caught one while popping outside to catch a little more vitamin D.  I need to do that more often.

6. Slugs.  

photo (9)

Ignore the really poorly done stenciling, this one falls behind the dryer.

I HATE THEM.

They are mocking me, spreading their slime all over the laundry room wall I finished stenciling.  But I will have my revenge.  I found how they are getting in and responded by covering the opening in salt.  St. Francis does not approve this message.

7.  Surprises.  In addition to being sponsored by the letter “S,” this post is brought to you by my husband, who has sent me to the office so that he may cook dinner for me.  I have no idea what he has planned, but I know it is going to be sooo good.  Seriously, when we got married, he taught me how to cook, not the other way around.  I am very blessed.

Linking up with Jen from Conversion Diary for Seven Quick Takes!

 

What are you all up to this weekend?  Are you homeschooling any toddlers?  Being tormented by slugs?  Do you agree that smoochable should be a word?  Tell me about it in the comments!

 

7_quick_takes_sm1

“Stayin Alive” A Soundtrack for the Late Work Nights

. . . or in my case, the husband’s late work nights.  Nathan expects to have put in sixteen hours at work today.

Sammy decided to celebrate this by making it his mission to dump out anything he could get his hands on in the kitchen while he was “helping” me make dinner.  Among other things, throughout the course of our meal prep he dumped out the container of popcorn kernels, the box of tea bags, the large shaker of garlic powder and for his grand finale, half a gallon of kefir water . . . all over his sister’s head.  Each time I was within a few feet of him.  This kid is talented.  In addition while cleaning up one of his messes, he decided to, in his words “practice potty training” in the kitchen . . . yeah.

In an effort to distract him and maintain my sanity I created the following playlist.  There was much dancing and singing, and less dumping out of foodstuffs.  We’re calling it a win.

For your listening pleasure I present my late work night desperation playlist:

1.  Eye of the Tiger- Survivor

Because its awesome.

2.  Livin on a Prayer- Bon Jovi

We were totally “livin on a prayer” tonight, begging God for the grace to keep my cool.  Also Ana looked at me in awe as I belted out this song.  Sammy looked at me like I was insane.

3.  I will Survive- Gloria Gaynor

So hypothetically, my young little college freshman self ran around in circles belting out this song during my first finals week hyped up on waaaaay too much sugar and caffeine.  That is only hypothetically mind you.

4.  Stayin’ Alive- Bee Gees

The title says it all.

5.  I Need a Hero- Bonnie Tyler

Fortunately I found my hero in my husband.  I don’t know how he finds the strength to work these insane hours for our family.

6. The Final Countdown- Europe

With any luck we are in the home stretch now . . .

7.  We Are the Champions- Queen

Because “Weeee’ll keep on fighting till the end . . .”

Quick disclaimer: I did not watch every second of the footage in the videos.  From what I skimmed I didn’t see anything terribly inappropriate, other than lots of men impersonating women with long hair and very skinny jeans.

Linking up with Jen at Conversion Diary for her Seven Quick Takes linkup.

Do you have a playlist that helps you get through the crazy long days?  Are any of your favorites on this list?

7_quick_takes_sm1

7 Quick Takes- Colds, Whole 30, and Camping, Oh My!

7_quick_takes_sm1I am officially joining up with Jen at Conversion Diary for my first ever Seven Quick Takes Posts.  To any first time visitors, I apologize.  You aren’t catching me at my best because:

1.  My whole family has had a nasty head cold for over 11 days now.  This cold is a ninja.  You think you have it under control and you are on the mend, and then it rebounds and you find yourself walking around with a roll of toilet paper.  And you foolishly take the toilet paper to Mass, where your toddlers attempt to tp the pew with it while you pray.

2.  After returning from vacation, Nathan decided to join me in a Whole 30.  For those of you unfamiliar with the concept you basically only eat whole foods like fruits, vegetables, and meat for a whole 30 days.  The list of banned foods includes: anything with gluten; anything with dairy; all grains (rice, oats, quinoa, etc); chocolate; alcohol; potatoes; beans; peanuts; honey; stevia; any baked good, even if it isn’t made with any of the aforementioned ingredients.  Its like Lent, but only for 30 days.

We were doing it primarily because we felt we needed a nutritional “reset” and that our bodies were craving super nourishing foods.  As an added bonus, he has lost 15 lbs.  I lost 3, because that’s how my body rolls when breastfeeding.

3. To compensate I have been binging on books.  I have read about 2,000 pages in the past two weeks . . . and the vast majority of it has been Harry Potter.  I never read it as a kid, so I thought I would give it a try.  Thus far I have mixed feelings, but will withhold final judgement till I am finished with the series.

4.  My son is obsessed with the piano guys CD.  Fortunately I approve of it, and find it enjoyable to listen to.  My favorite track is this one:


Sam’s favorite track is of course this one:

In order to listen to the entire CD and not just track 6 on repeat, I told him all of the songs were about Darth Vader.  Now as we listen to the CD, he will narrate the life of Darth Vader to Ana: “This is where Dark Vader fell in love.  He had two babies, Luke and Leia. Oh, now R2D2 is falling in love!”

5.  I am remodeling the laundry room!  So excited!  No more will that room be the domain of spiders and the occasional banana slug.  I started painting last night and met my goal of finishing one wall.  Nathan was not thrilled when he walked in, at 10:00 P.M. to find me gleefully dancing on my step ladder with a loaded paint brush.  Nevertheless, he lovingly offered to help me.  After we had finished, I offered to play video games with him.  We both went to bed happy.

6.  Nathan and I are on a Stargate Atlantis kick right now.  At least once a week, one of us sneaks up on the other and pretends to suck the life out of the other like a wraith.  We may or may not have done this in the basement of the library before we were dating.  It was one of the first times he thought he loved me, haha.

7.  We are going on our first family camping trip this weekend.  I have visions of Sam trying to re-enact Curious George Goes Camping by running away into the woods and getting sprayed by a skunk. Fun fact: Nathan wanted to go camping for our honeymoon.  I refused.

Have a great holiday weekend everyone! Any big plans for how you are going to spend it?