Friday, February 3, 2012

7 Quick Takes


--- 1 ---

I am so excited to introduce my godson, Vincent Alexander Marie!  I have not met him yet, but he's going to be baptized on Sunday after Mass.  Isn't he adorable?  There are a few more pictures over at his mama's blog, My Song of Joy.  Congratulations, Emily!



--- 2 ---

If you would be so kind, please take a prayer request:  My Aunt Marge, my godmother and great-aunt, died rather suddenly.  She collapsed vomiting in her driveway after clearing snow off of her car.  Thankfully it had snowed, otherwise this may have happened while she was driving!  A neighbor saw it happen and called 911.  They soon found that she was suffering from a massive brain tumor and kidney cancer.  She died a few days later.  My Aunt Marge was a good woman.  I think she was at peace with the manner of her death.  For many years she loving cared for her mentally ill sister, for her mother who lived well into her 90's, and up until now for her husband who has had various health problems.  She would have never called any of them a burden, but she didn't pretend it was easy, either.  Knowing her, she would have been glad her family had been spared the suffering of seeing her suffer a long time.  And I know she was very thankful to have enjoyed good health for 80 years so she could care for her family.

--- 3 ---

I mentioned briefly in my last post that naptime hasn't been happening of late.  All of a sudden about a week ago Anthony has been refusing to go to sleep until he's just so tired he can't stay awake anymore.  It was pretty miserable.  Zero to meltdown in 5 seconds flat. Well, it's naptime now, for the third day in a row!  I was beginning to think we weren't going to have naptime ever again.  I've started laying down with Anthony on my bed for stories and snuggles, as recommended by Auntie Leila, after lunch.  Before I had been unwittingly making it into a battle of wills. I was trying to discipline him into staying in bed because I said to.  He still fights going to bed at night.  I tried taking him to bed with me last night, too and that was better than the waiting in the hall and putting back to bed every two minutes method we had been using.  I still am not sure what caused the sudden change, probably just being almost two.  But I definitely think he's not physically ready to give up the nap yet.  I do like the special quiet time together, and I think that will be especially good for him once the new baby is born.

--- 4 ---

Here is our lettuce two weeks after sprouting:


It's looking kind of leggy.  I think I need to thin it but I hate doing that.  I did give it fertilizer, so I don't think that's the problem.  It didn't need thinning when it was outdoors.  Anyone do indoor lettuce before?

--- 5 ---

French lessons with Rosetta Stone are progressing.  I'm finishing Unit 1, and Ryan is a little ahead.  Ryan is definitely better at it than I am, but it's really fun that we're learning it together.  Last night we were making up songs with our present limited vocabulary:  "Le soleil est jaune et le ciel est bleu.  L'herbe est vert et les fleurs sont rouges.  J'ai un sandwich. La vie est belle."  ("The sun is yellow and the sky is blue.  The grass is green and the flowers are red.  I have a sandwich.  Life is good.")

--- 6 ---

Christine wrote an awesome post about skirt-wearing.  I agree with everything she has to say about the feminity and the increased formality perceived when a woman wears a skirt.  I also appreciate her charitable attitude towards us pantsers.  However, after much internal guilt-tripping about how I agree with the ideal of the beskirted woman, I have decided that finding new clothes yet again is just not how I should be spending my limited energy at the moment.  I will be looking out for cute and practical fuller skirts on future thrifting trips, however!  Seems like it's tough to find not-a-denim-sack ones in my size.  I have been skirts-only before for almost two years, and it became this big overblown horrible thing, partly for reasons I could not control, and partly because I'm stubborn and prideful.  Then I went back to mostly pants and then kind of forgot about the whole affair.  I don't think it would be a problem now, necessarily, but organic change is probably preferable, and certainly more affordable.  Changing sizes constantly is also a concern.  Now that I've overshared,  go read Christine's piece.


--- 7 ---

While we're on the subject of clothes,  I'm excited that I've received a huge binful of maternity clothes from a friend of a friend.  They all fit, and are all in great shape!  I've been wanting skinny jeans to wear with long tops/short dresses and boots, (an indecisive "dress or pants?" outfit haha) and there were THREE pairs in there!  Good things come to she who puts off spending money?

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4 comments:

  1. LOVE free maternity clothes! I've bought one dress since getting pregnant; the rest of my maternity wardrobe came to me in two batches: one bag of nice-quality hand-me-downs that fit perfectly, and some clothes that my mother-in-law got me around Christmas. And they are all very good quality, which means they'll last for future pregnancies, I hope. :)

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  2. Legginess in indoor seedlings usually means they're not getting enough light. I can't tell from the photo what type of lighting you're using, but the little plants need it a lot stronger and closer than most people realize. Type of lightbulb also matters, as ordinary bulbs don't have all the right wavelengths. I use fluorescent grow-lights, no more than 4 or 6 inches above the plants, and the ones on the edges still sometimes straggle.

    Good luck!

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  3. Thanks, Stitchwort. I will try lowering the bulb. I am using grow-lights, but they are about a foot above the plants.

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  4. A foot above is way too far for seedlings, so lowering it should make them a lot happier.

    I'd probably start out 2 to 4 inches above the soil, and move it up by about 2 inch increments as they start to touch the lightbulbs.

    There's an "inverse square law" of some sort that comes into play here. (I was never very good at physics!) If I have it right, the amount of light received is inversely the square of the distance from the source. So if they're 2 inches away, they receive 1/4 the light, at 6 inches 1/36th; at 10 inches 1/100th, and so on. It adds up fast! Our eyes don't notice the difference, but the plants which would normally grow in full sun sure do.

    (I've been growing seedlings indoors for about 20 years now.)

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