7 Quick Takes: Happy Easter!

1) Lent is over! Hallelujah! How did I celebrate? By buying more iDevices. What do you mean that isn't the spirit of Lenten sacrifice? Other people get candy - this is my candy, and it comes with a purpose. I've been talking about doing more writing, and after the last few weekends of conferences, the Hubbers may have finally convinced me to write my conversion story. (I'm not sold on the idea that there would be any takers on reading or publishing it, but that's a mountain to conquer another day.) Lugging out my laptop with the littles gets a bit cumbersome, and daytime honestly isn't even a good time to write. I'm a night owl, so putting the baby to sleep is when I'm at my most prolific. Having this iPad is making it much easier to get some writing done. Perhaps too much, as is evidenced by the increased volume of posts with the Easter Alphabet Challenge. As counterintuitive as it might seem, and as much as it may in the end be rationalizing our purchase of new toys, we are also hoping these purchases will help us to simplify. I told you it was counterintuitive.

2) Simplification número uno? We have finally taken the plunge and said sayonara to cable. With the upgrade to our Internet service to fuel some streaming (EWTN - I don't even kid!), we are saving around $50/Month. Perhaps as we detach, we will also in the future find we spend less time in front of the tube and more time reading or pursuing other interests. Working out might be a new adventure for me, or cleaning, but let's not get to crazy at once!
Simplification hope part deux: thrift more. This one really only involves me for now. I've decided that for the next year, as best as I can as old habits are hard to break, I am going to first attempt to find items for myself via thrift/resale shops. Depending on whether it is a need or a want (very little actually ever falls into the need category), I may allow myself leniency on the timeframe I have to find the object. This allows me to start small, but I am kind of excited! First item up - a new spring jacket, preferably of the cute trench variety. I have found a couple at Target that I really like as a measure, so we shall see what secondhand Sally has to offer me over the next weeks.

3) Our little princess is a bit of a Scrooge McDuck! She loves coins. She loves money. It made Easter egg hunting super easy, of course. Just a few pennies and assorted coins later, she was thrilled with the whole thing. As she exclaimed herself, "I love Easter eggs!!!" That's great, sugar pie - can mama borrow some money?" We had a lovely Easter minus the tantrums all in all (see #4). A walk to the local ice cream stand before our backyard hunt ended at Tim Hortons as it is apparently still too early for ice cream. Li'l G also loves her donuts. And tiaras. And pretty princess dresses she can twirl in while wearing her tiara. And money. Judah just loves to move. And chew. And smile. The boy is just happy as long as he is not restrained for long (also see #4).

4) Our grace period has run out. For two and a half years, we have enjoyed children who behaved at Mass. We are now the ones with the banshees. My apologies to any parent I may have ever looked at with judgment or pity. I am now that parent. Li'l G is a talker. She has a remarkable vocabulary and expressions which she is compelled to share at all waking hours. Oh, did I mention that if you try to tell her no or to be quiet, she lets out a shrill scream? It's really quite lovely. Is my sarcasm coming through? Her boisterousness then incites the grunting of Baby J, who though not yet talking, is not content if he is not moving. Our standard Catholic calisthenics at Mass have changed greatly - we've moved into the toddler edition. Maybe I should explore that whole working out thing some more lest my arms one day do actually fall off from restraining children...

5) We have a tooth!! It's finally popped through! Though not quite yet visible to the naked eye from a mouth that doesn't want to stay open to show off a pearly white tip, you can definitely feel it with every bite of the finger. Ouch. 

Bonus - Li'l G is learning to color inside the lines!
I'm pretty sure we have a prodigy on our hands. ;-)

6) Sleep has been hard to come by. I miss it. The one time the kids did sleep, our CO alarm went off in the middle of the night. It isn't that they aren't able to sleep through the night if all is well. Unfortunately, baby J has been having a rough battle with eczema or dermatitis or whatever he current diagnosis is. When he wakes up in the middle of the night, he is itchy and cannot be soothed no matter how much lotion I schlep onto him. It is frustrating on many levels. I hate watching him be miserable and not be able to soothe him. I hate that he doesn't sleep enough. I hate that I don't sleep enough. I hate all this so much that I dropped a pretty penny yesterday collecting all kinds of remedies to start working through them one by one to see what will finally work. Last night, Aveeno oatmeal soak with oatmeal based lotion. Better, but not perfect, and today seems more aggravated. Lovely. Do any of you know of a miracle cure?

7) I was going to write about my noble plans for Easter here. But life interrupted. Li'l G has what appears to be a splinter in her foot. How in the heck does one get a splinter out of their child's foot? I have no trouble torturing myself to get out a splinter, but I am no lancing expert. Trying to get the thing out was impossible, not to mention torturous on the both of us as I tried to gently coax it out. I bribed her with a Dora bandaid to let me keep trying which only worked so long...not to mention she wanted the bandaid on her finger. I'm offering a little Veggie Tales pirates as a peace offering for now and a bribe for the future. I'll let you know how it turns out....

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at Conversion Diary!