7 Quick Takes: Gratitude, a Movie and Music

It has been quite a busy week and after thinking Friday would never arrive it's here!

1

I received the nicest compliment, "I want my kids to be like yours when they grow up" followed with a question as to how you do it?  There's  no one thing to do in raising our children, it's many things, done over many years and adding lots of prayers and relying on grace.  But that's n ot what I told her, I told her that I let my children suffer the consequences of their actions and did not fix their problems.

When I mentioned this to my children they laughed and insulted each other.  Oh well.

2

  Each day in November I am posting on gratitude.  Today I am grateful for anniversary celebrations, especially going to Mass with my husband next to me and the roasted duck; my son living close by again; and that I am participating in his new business venture, The Plate and Table.   

3

Have you ever used PicMonkey for editing your photos?  Try it, it's free and easy!

4

This Saturday begins a new book club at Catholic Mom.  We are reading The Grace of Yes by Lisa Hendey.  Join us!

5

We watched a wonderful movie this week with my Thursday morning study group about Hildegard of Bingen, called Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen (this is a link to watch it on Hulu for free).  She is a Doctor of the Church and had a fascinating life.  

6

I am back to training at the gym.  I've been back to going regularly for two weeks. I knew I missed working out, but now that I am back into it, I realized how much I like it.  It helps so much with working off the stresses of life while giving me more energy. 

7

Great new song from Matt Maher

Go visit Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes.  Thanks Jen for hosting!

7 Quick Takes

1.  It's Friday night and I imagine most folks are either out having loads of fun or getting ready to crash on the couch after a long week.  I was going to have fun by crashing on the couch with my husband, watching some Netflix.  I know, we are W I L D.  Alas, he is ill.  But not from my cooking or I would be sick and I'm not, I'm having tea and writing my quick takes.

2.  Before I started writing I checked out some of the posts at Conversion Diary where we link up for these takes.  Lots of pictures of pregnant women this week, just saying. It makes me feel a bit old, that's all.  But then I met someone with the same name as me! Seriously, not usual for me at all.  Her blog is Life Out of the Boat.  I like that name.  It's a win/win, great name and great blog name.

3.  My son is moving so our garage is full of his things.  Technically it's only half full since the car still fits in the garage.  My daughter and I were looking at all of the stuff and she said, "This is all he has?"  in a sort of "that's not very much" tone.  I said, "I guess so, unless there's more in the house we didn't see."  Turns out, it's not all his stuff, more is coming this weekend!

If I do enough squats, will I look like her?

4.  I asked my trainer today if he stayed up nights thinking of ways to torture me.  He says he does not but I find that more frightening than reassuring.  I think I did at least five different types of squats this afternoon.  And not just one set of each, multiple sets of twenty five.  I estimate I did two hundred total and I am not exaggerating for story telling purposes.

5.  My legs are shaking all over again just thinking about those squats.

6.  Okay, I'll be serious.  I am reading a great book, Evangelical Catholicism by George Weigel.  It is a great book about what Catholicism looks like now.  I've just finished part one.  I will have a series of posts about it over at New Evangelizers starting this Monday.

7.  Shameless self-promotion, my reflection on today's Gospel over at CatholicMom.  IMHO, those reflections, written each day by a different person are awesome.  And not just moms, everyone.  Really.  Go see.

7 Quick Takes

An FYI, I am counting this as my post for today in the 7 posts in 7 days link up.  Unless my husband is reviewing for his comps tonight, then I may write again!

1.  If I had a smart phone and posted tweets about driving they would look like this: #hatebaddrivers all the bad drivers are out today and #gobackupnorth why are you stopping at a green light and #accidentwaitingtohappen you are so 8&^%*&!   Of course then all my nice Catholic followers would see the real me and that would be that!

2.  I have a terrible knot on the under my left shoulder.  No idea what it is from and can't get rid of it.  This morning I even tried 'mashing' with a softball under me.  If you could have heard me while I did this you might have thought I was giving birth or having a tooth pulled without Novocaine.   It hurts when I move which stinks since I am going to the gym today and I think we're doing upper body since we did legs yesterday.  Could be a problem.

3.  I have some photo boxes full of boxes (I'm clever like that) and would like to organize them.  I really would love to scan them into my computer but doing them one at a time is way too time consuming.  Are there any options for quick and easy scanning of photos?

4.  For a long time I've thought about going back to school for a doctorate. degree.  But the more I think about it, weighing the costs, return on investment and time I think it's not something I want to do.  John will be finished with school in May and it will be very nice for both of us.  Between us we have two undergrad degrees and four graduate degrees, that must be somewhat close to a doctorate, no?  I'd rather spend money and time on travelling.  I do reserve the right to change my mind though, especially if circumstances change or someone offers me a scholarship.

5.  Tomorrow is the walk for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.  Our team, Jack Jack Attack, has raised over $5,000.  It looks like it will be a beautiful day weather wise and I know it's going to be lots of fun being with everyone at the walk.  I just need to get over my dog issue.  If all the dogs who are there are service dogs I'll be fine but I'm not sure that's the case.  Maybe I can hold my mommy's hand?  Yea right, she's worse than me and my daughter is even worse.  

6.  If you are not reading Pope Francis' Joy of the Gospel you should be.  It is awesome.  And yes, I can be bossy at times :)

7.  Fitness tip I keep reminding myself of:

More Quick Takes at Conversion Diary!

What I miss about Cross-fit

Back in July I began a quest to get healthy and fit.  It was recommended to me to try cross fit at a nearby gym.  I did and it changed many ideas I had about myself and exercise.  This gym was different from any other gym I'd ever tried.  They stressed commitment, a specific eating plan, team work and support.
I began a five week boot camp and in the first two weeks it was so difficult yet I was determined and stuck it out.  I hurt all over, had given up eating not only all dairy, grains, beans, sugar and soy but alcohol as well.  All I thought about was working out, when to eat so I didn't lose my food when working out and drinking water.  I couldn't wear heels, it hurt to do almost everything I normally did and yet I went every day, five days a week for weeks and weeks.
Then I hurt my shoulder.  And in my usual style, ignored it.  When I finally saw someone about it I started to modify my workouts and do some rehab on the shoulder.  It really was not healing so I sadly took a break form cross-fit and went to physical therapy hoping that would take care of the problem.
But when I do something, I do it well.  So well in fact the injury was not improving even with medication and therapy.  So I decided to leave cross fit and join a regular gym.
I go to the gym five or six days a week and have a trainer two times a week.  He's very good and we take extra special care of my stupid shoulder.  But I miss cross fit.  I miss the one class where we all work our butts off and all of us look like crap when we're done no matter how fit or not we are.  I miss hearing the coaches call out our names encouraging us and working with a partner to lift as much as possible.  I miss the great big hello when scan my card and the high fives after class.
I miss knowing that for one hour a day I could go, follow directions and just focus on doing what was asked.  I kinda liked not having to think for that time.
I need to keep working on my goals, using the tools I learned and moving forward in a new way.  Maybe someday I can go back to cross fit but for now I am in the right place.

Body and Soul

Have you ever experienced spiritual dryness in your soul?  You pray, go to Mass, read scripture and it all seems pointless.  St. Ignatius calls this desolation.  This has been my state for the last two weeks and somehow, it was triggered by my body.

In the past, my go to stress reliever or problem solver was food first and then God.  Since making a very conscious decision to stop and changing my habits it has been working.  Until I reached a weight loss plateau coupled with a shoulder injury and my will to keep moving forward left me.  My prayer now is simply asking to have the strength to continue on the right path and keep moving forward; knowing that if I do things will improve.  I know I do not want to go back to my old habits but they seem so comforting right now. It’s one thing to sacrifice and see rewards but to sacrifice and not see rewards is a bit depressing.

My body and soul are in sync which would be great if they were in consolation but I sit here in desolation. St. Ignatius advises that in desolation one should keep following whatever plan was made before desolation.  I am taking his advice knowing that consolation will come again.

7 Quick Takes

 My first chance to sit and write my quick takes and it's already afternoon.  If you are looking for more Quick Takes click on over to Conversion Diary and you'll get to see Jennifer's now blog design.

1.  I get home from running errands and grocery shopping to find chocolate chip cookies and some sort of chocolate chip filled cupcakes on my kitchen counter.  Daughter asks:  "Don't they look good?"  Me, "I am avoiding looking at them, it's torture. Did you try them?"  Daughter, "Yes, they are very good."  Me, "I'm sure; I hate you." (said lovingly, of course)

2.  My camera was misplaced for a month or so.  I found it but the battery was pretty much dead.  Couldn't find the charger, anywhere.  Prayed to St. Anthony, went through drawers, bags, purses; nothing!  Daughter says, "you should keep all your chargers in the same place so this doesn't happen."  My words are coming back to haunt me.  One more prayer, got it!  It was under my Bible in a basket.

3.  New favorite mug:

I am fairly certain that given a cape and a nice tiara I could save the world!

I showed it to my son and in typical kissing-up-to- mom style he says, "I don't think you'd even need the cape."  Every mom needs at least one child like him.

4.  And speaking of said son he is moving back in with us for the next month along with his, wait for it...ferrets!  If you knew me personally, you'd know how much I love him to allow this to happen.  It will be quite interesting to have both children, who are now adults, back at home and sharing the bathroom like they did in high school.  His sister will be laying down the rules right away.  I should video it!

5.  Tomorrow is a very special day.  It is the deaconate ordination of four men in our diocese.  My husband has been in school with them for the last four years and we have gotten to know them quite well.  We are so excited for them and know that they will be a great blessing to the people of our diocese and in their parishes. 

6.  It feels strange to enjoy working out every day.  But I really do.  My friend and I had a big discussion this morning about this whole going to the gym, why we are doing it and how we feel.  I'll sum it up:  they way we feel in 20 and 30 years from now is related to how well we take care of ourselves now; we want to mow the lawn when we are 80!  Of course I don't mow it now, but I want to be able to if I want to.  We are not doing it to be skinny but to be bad-asses.  Okay, that's why I'm doing it, not her.  Yes, we have pains from exercising hard, but at least now it's for a cool reason.  Yea, I hurt my shoulder doing push presses sounds so much cooler than I was washing my hair and pulled something, right?  

7.  This weekend is back to work on Sundays weekend for me.  When I first started this job I didn't have to work most Sundays and I loved having the day off.  That lasted for less than a year. Now my weekend is Friday and Saturday.  It's a trade off and let's face it Sunday is a busy day at church.  It's good for me to be there and see parishioners.

Teal Toes

 Teal, the color for ovarian cancer awareness.  September, the month to raise awareness.  Have you done your nails yet?  I used Sally Hansen Jungle Gem and it is a great teal color!  Why "Teal Toes" you ask?  Go find out here.