7 Quick Takes

1.  I recently did some reading on the history of the Sign of the Cross and discovered that touching the left and right shoulders (as we pray 'Holy Spirit') represent the crucifixion (left=darkness) and resurrection (right= light, Christ seated at right hand) respectively.  As a "cradle Catholic" who has been making the Sign of the Cross for as long as I can remember, I feel really silly for never having known this!   I also read that beginning with 'The Father' on our forehead and lowering our hand to our breast as we say 'The Son' we physically represent the Father coming down for us--another thing I had never thought about!  And just to fully expose the extent of my cross-making ignorance--our 5 fingers facing upward represent the 5 wounds of Christ.  Again, had NO idea about that.  But this is totally awesome, and I will be thinking about this every time I make the sign of the cross in the future!  Color me informed. ;)

 photo source

2.  Inspired by this (seemingly!) simple chore chart over at Everyday Snapshots, I am working on my own version to ruthlessly enforce in the name of free labor   err...encourage my children to use!  The trouble is that I am hopelessly inconsistent when it comes to enforcing chores on a regular basis, so I feel the need to come up with a monetary denomination per chore that will actually allow the kids to save up more than 20 cents per month!  My other problem is that some chores (e.g. vacuuming) seem much longer than others (e.g. making bed), so to give the same amount for all of these things seems a little unfair to me.  So, who knows--I'll give it a whirl and just see! (And yes, I'm realize I'm probably putting waaaay too much thought into this.  Such is the way of my brain.  If I haven't managed to reign in the over-thinking in my 34 years here, then I'm probably stuck with it for life.)




3.  I feel exceedingly blessed to have had 3 wonderfully amazing conversations with 3 of my most favorite people in the whole world all in the course of the same week!  This NEVER happens!  Just feeling all warm and huggy inside at the amazingness of that. :)  If you haven't seen an old friend in awhile go call them/email them/text them and figure out a time to hang out.  Right now.  You won't regret it!

(Yes, this flower picture really has absolutely nothing to do with the text above, but I just thought it was puurty.  And I was a tad proud of snapping it with my plain old no frills point and shoot! *patting self on back.*)

4.  I'm in desperate need of finding a good "de-frizzing" hair product (is "de-frizzing" even a word?  The spell check doesn't seem to think so and I don't blame it one bit!) after a solid week of humidity here in Connecticut.  My hair is a puffy, fluffy, scraggly poof-bomb (now I know 'poof-bomb' is NOT a word.  I'm just goin' with it anyway) of badness.  Help me, please!!  I'd love your recommendations for thin ultra-fine hair that, under normal circumstances is straight!  (And, if you can throw me a bone here, Mother Nature, and send a little dry weather my way, I sure wouldn't mind!)

(not even the slightest exaggeration here!)

5.  My husband won a contest at a local hotdog joint for free dinner for 2 at an upscale steak house this weekend.  Woohoo!  And yes, the irony of a restaurant offering a prize of dinner at a different restaurant was not lost on us!  So funny!  But, heck, I'd rather eat a big ol' juicy hunk of fillet over a hotdog any day, and apparently the owner of the hotdog joint would, too!  The even funnier thing about the prize is that we're having dinner WITH THE OWNER of the hotdog joint!  Ummmm, a little awkward considering that Kevin and I are both fairly introverted and not so great at making small talk, but hey...pass up free steak?  No way!!  (But I do hope there's a glass of wine included! LOL!)

 mmmmmmmmmmm, steak. :)

6.  As I've mentioned in the past I have a slight problem when it comes to finishing books before starting on new ones.  I just can't seem to control myself when it comes to the allure of a new title I'm dying to dive into.  I've made absolutely NO progress in this area, as I've now added 2 more books to the mix: The Five Love Languages of Children and The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything.  I think my night stand my up and go on strike if I don't stop heaping more and more books on it!  But on a positive note I'm enjoying both so far!

7.  I've (finally!) bitten the proverbial bullet and started potty training my daughter (she'll be 3 in the Fall and I try to make sure my kiddos are trained up before they hit the 3 mark if possible!).  It's day 4 and she's doing great so far.  She seems to really have gotten the hang of keeping her pull-up dry over the past 2 days.  (But no real success on the um, "other end" just yet.)  Can I possibly be so lucky as to train her in less than a week?!  I'm too scared to trust that that could possibly ever actually be true.  So I'm holding onto cautious optimism at this point.  But so far this is really. pretty. awesome.

So all in all it's been a good week (humidity and Medusa hair notwithstanding!)!  Hope all of your weekend wanderings are great!  Have a lovely Memorial Day weekend everybody!