- 1 -

Thanks for the encouragement on Wednesday's post. The succulents I planted are still alive which is impressive in this house. I tend to kill succulents faster than they would die naturally if you dumped them out.

- 2 -

I've finally gotten my jog back on. I want to train for the Congress Avenue Mile in Austin, but I tend to get injured whenever I train for races. I can jog and jog and jog but as soon as I think the words "training plan," I swear an old injury will start twinging.

Kallah posted her injury proof running plan. For my runner readers (especially those with experience jumping back into running postpartum): what do you do to avoid injury?

- 3 -

Jake is seeming so much older to me. I suppose having a second baby will do that to a mother.

The other day he was outside arguing with his imaginary friend about who's turn it was.

When I hug him, he's taken to patting my head and saying: "You're a good girl, mama."

He fake laughs a lot, basically whenever we laugh about something he fake laughs and then asks, "Excuse me, Papa, why is that funny?"

I can't tell if this means he's destined for comedy or decidedly NOT destined for comedy.

- 4 -

But older seeming or not he still mispronounces things - and mispronunciations are among the best parts of parenting.

And though it's been a long time since we've used "bluebabies" or "strawbabies" in our fruit smoothies, and "roghut" may now be a more correct if laborious "yooohgerrt," no, Jake, this is Mass, this is not a "bathtizing."

- 5 -

Lucy June is ever still a mama's girl. This is still the best and worst thing about my life.

I suppose that's why God made every phase of parenting so temporary.

- 6 -

We're about to run out of my favorite diaper cream. 

I got outfitted with it via baby showers when Jake was born and I LOVE it, but now that I need to replace it, I'm royally balking at the price. $9.00 an ounce!?! That's like $4.50 per tablespoon!?

I'm a bit of a DIY for better or worse type, so I thought I'd give it a try.

The two main ingredients are olive oil and beeswax, and since my babies really aren't that rashy, I decided to make do with just those two and skip the fancy calendula-type stuff. I didn't intend to make very much of it, but my ratio was very off at the beginning, and as I attempted to save my efforts, my batch kept getting bigger and bigger until I had a cup and a half of the stuff.

My rookie efforts were pretty messy. Simply melting the ingredients together didn't get me the consistency I wanted, so I kept graduating my mixing tools from spoon to fork to whisk to immersion blender. Ultimately, I was left with a usable product that seems like it will work almost as well my beloved diaper cream...and enough of it to last until Lucy June turns 12.

- 7 -

The experience prompted the age old question:

Happy Fish Day! Visit Jen's for more takes.

5 Rambling Favorites w/a side of Clickables

Hello hello hello, and we have moved.

I'm sitting at the table at our new house staring out at our neighbors' houses and the street. Lucy June is cooing in her seat next to me (because she's perfect,) and Jake is being entirely too quiet for comfort, but dammit if I don't want to write a little something. This house needs some permanent marker on the walls anyway.

Moving. This move is taking forever. Jacob is working every day and most days he puts in over 12 hours, and just how much I can't do by myself stares me in the face day after day.

My Moving Food Diary

Day 1
Breakfast: Coffee & Homemade Lara Bars
Lunch: Homemade Lara Bars
Dinner: Trader Joe's Frozen Teryaki Chicken

Day 2
Breakfast: Coffee & Brownies
Lunch: Brownies
Dinner: Trader Joe's Frozen Teryaki Chicken

 

Day 3

Breakfast: Starbucks Drive Thru
Lunch: Where are the brownies?
Dinner: Take Out

But every day is a little bit better, a little more normal, a little more put together. So let's link up with Hallie and focus on some favorites today.

- 1 -

Cloth Diapers (and disposable diapers)

For the past month of traveling and holidays and moving, my kids have been in disposable diapers. I was both appalled by the waste and in love with not having to do diaper laundry.

Every time my newborn pooped immediately after I changed her diaper, I would suffer so much guilt over the 15 second life of this disposable that would now spend the REST of TIME in a landfill.

But every time I would run a massive toddler bomb to the garbage outside, I was thanking God I didn't have to rinse that sucker in the toilet.

But then there was the moment when I reached into the plastic bag and came up empty-handed while my toddler's naked bum grinned up at me - and well, Size 1 plus duct tape and a trip to the Grocery store later, we were mostly unscathed - but that was decidedly UNfun.

Anyhow, yesterday I unpacked my box of beautiful, soft Clotheez prefolds, and I knew I was home.

- 2 -

Running

Not my own running. Ha! (I do have a double jogger in the mail finally and a decent running neighborhood, so perhaps I'll kick into gear again soon. But recently, I've just been cursing the scale between my occasional half-hearted Jillian excursions.)

My Dad's running. Dad hatched a plan about ten years ago that involved qualifying for the Boston Marathon when he aged into the 60+  bracket.

And he did it! Here in Houston! Last weekend! I was more than proud. I cried. Like three times.



Post race pic of the runners: Dad and his oldest, Prefontaine.

So proud. So so proud.

- 3 -

Soul Gardening

This is a journal for Catholic mothers that I've been receiving for the past few years. I was introduced to it by a friend in Southern California. You can sign up to receive them for free because they operate on a donation-only basis. They put together each edition as soon as they have the funds, so you never quite know when you're going to get one, but when they come I get so excited. I read it in bits and pieces and stolen moments of quiet coffee drinking. The articles are so enriching and they have the most endearing illustrations.

Anyhoo. Go put yourself on their mailing list and enjoy yourself some printed word every few months. And after you decide that you love them, throw them a donation so they can keep the journal going.

- 4 -

This post at Early Bird and Night Owl

Jessie wrote the best post about dating her husband while the littles tag along, and I crack a smile every time I think about it.

"...we realllly like our pale ales and buffalo wings and plush booths and dimly lit locales. Therefore, we take the kids."





"There's an inevitable eye-lock between Sean and I at some point during every one of these "dates" that translates clearly to "why do we do this?" We do it because it is, ultimately, a good time."

I know. I know. It makes me happy too!

- 5 -

This post at Team Moore

Emily wrote a post about divorcing her two year old from her pacifier.

"...*Ryan would like me to edit this by saying he has been totally against the pacifier past age 1.5 (puhlease) and it’s only because of his wife’s weak will that we continually caved to Anna’s paci (!!!!!!) demands.  In summary: the entire situation is arguably my fault and he allowed it to continue because all of my extensive de-pacifier plans and theories on parenting this particular battle were mildly entertaining until recently when they started to cross over into the ridiculous."

Emily wrote this about the little victories in toddler parenting, and in the words of my son "Iss my FAVOrite!"

>><<

Alrighty, off I go to fold some towels. (Thanks for your recs on washer/dryers. We decided against buying the set of my dreams because that was too $tre$$ful for me, and instead bought some cheap clunkers off our new neighbors. The washer does an admirable job despite all her creaks and groans in the process. Her noises are actually a little alarming, but I listen to her. I listen to her, and we understand one another.)

Go see Hallie and the Favoriteers.

7 Quick Takes Saturday (with a GIVEAWAY!!!)

Joining Jen as I dust off the long forgotten blog today to pull some quick takes out of my magic bag of unproductivity.

-1 -

I just don't have any staying power anymore. I do things. I just don't finish things. So far I have about eight unfinished drafts in blogger. A half done baby bonnet and blanket for Lucy June. Four gifts for new moms in various stages of completeness (this one kills me...to those moms: when you have a nine month old and you get a target gift card in the mail from me, know that I had something much more personal in the works but it is still in three pieces and has unfortunately been consigned to the graveyard of my craft bag.)

- 2 -

Jacob just walked into our quiet house as I sit here blogging with a baby asleep on my chest and another asleep in a bedroom. He asked me how it was going, and I said that I felt badly that I hadn't blogged in so long.

"Yeah. Your readers are starving." And then he started cracking up.

He's always such an encouragement.

The other day I asked him to change a toddler diaper because I was a bit of an invalid after a kitchen mishap left me with an impressive gash on my left thumb.

He whisked the toddler away and said: "Remember when mama got an excuse on her finger?"

- 3 -
Update on Firstborn

Recently Jakeboy and I had the following conversation:

Jake (to me): "You don't have horns? You just have ears?"

Me: "No, I don't have horns."

Jake: "You're not a cow?"

Me: ...

- 4 -
Update on Secondborn

Lucy June has started smiling. It's the dearest thing ever and maybe we'll get a picture of it one of these days.

  

- 5 -

In an effort to tie some of the loose ends that probably only I care about in my little life. Here are the pictures from the Thanksgiving post I never wrote.

The carver and the vultures.

The gravy makers

Boston 2014

- 6 -

I did however get the lion's share of our Christmas shopping done by Advent. I'll just gloat about that for a second because it makes me feel like a rockstar. Admittedly, this has been a goal of mine every year since I got married, and I only managed to come close to the goal this year. So I probably should just get on down off that high horse, but I won't. Nope nopity nope. Because I've even started wrapping. Earlier this week I dusted off my crafty pants, and I tore apart and flattened some brown shopping bags and set the toddler to decorating them. Red white green paint + wine corks + potato stamp.

And here's how they turned out:

- 7 -

And finally. The giveaway. Today The Rhodes Log is hosting its first ever giveaway of some of Jacob's homegrown honey. I'm also throwing in some homemade chai tea mix because we're mildly obsessed with chai tea and it makes the honey seem more giftable.



A few months ago I had the charming idea to give some honey away on the blog, and then I thought -- like the good little Catholic that I am -- that we could give the honey away on the feast day for the patron saint of beekeepers. I discovered that the patron saint of beekeepers is the relatively well known St. Ambrose.

And his feast day is none other than today. The infamous December 7th. Which also happens to be the birthday of our very own beekeeper.

Happy Birthday, my love. I made you a pie.

I thought the coincidence was too good to pass up, so here I have pulled myself out of my diaper changing stupor to giveaway some honey. In honor of both St. Ambrose's feast day and my husband's birthday.

So if you want to win some of this magical honey and chai, just leave a comment on this post telling me how you would use it (put it in your tea, drizzle it in your yogurt, give it to your grandmother, etc). I even wrangled a Rafflecopter widget because I'm fancy like that.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Now go visit Jen to catch the more timely takers.

7 Quick Takes

I'm gleefully ignoring the queue of student papers that need feedback in favor of generating some of my own words. So off to the quicks with Jen we go.

- 1 -

What oh what shall I acquaint you with? The Gparents Ramsay were in town last weekend and it was marvelous. It was lovely and relaxing and lovely and relaxing. 

My folks do a lot of traveling to visit their various and distant beloveds, so they made it very clear that they had no expectations of elaborate schedules and merely wanted to be with their grandson. So that is what we did. We ate and drank and watched toddler antics all weekend. Seeing my son through their eyes made me realize how quickly he's growing and how little time I spend just...watching him.

- 2 -

Now that they are gone I have returned to the land of list-making and doing everything I can to get Jake interested in some game/toy/project long enough for me to feel productive. Productivity is kind of like a plague.

- 3 -

Jacob hosted a poker night with his Hollywood boys last night. They drank port and smoked cigars and argued about big and little blinds and talked about "their" (i.e. their bosses') movies. "We've got the rights to that book." "Congrats on Looper, dude." "We just signed Jake Gylenhaal." - How glamorous it all sounds, right?

I'd trade it all for a real yard and some chickens.

- 4 -

On both of those notes, now that Season 2 of The Walking Dead is on Netflix, we've been watching ourselves some wonderful post-apocalyptic (my fav and a half!) TV recently. Revolution gets a big fat lame-o in my book, but I'm probably gonna give it a few more episodes. 

Jacob and I have determined that we would kinda rock it sans electricity. We'd make a stand here in So Cal for a little while before we felt brave enough to tackle the desert and hike to Texas. However, Jacob says he couldn't choose that lifestyle if it were a choice - he wouldn't find value in merely forgoing electricity in order to embrace a more back to the earth existence. I see his point even with all my off-the-grid proclivities. But he's the one who made me look away from the ultra-sound screen so we could be "surprised" just like in the olden days, so I think that makes him rather inconsistent, and he should probably make up for it by getting me some chickens.

- 5 -

I'm thinking about doing a sugar detox now that the lovely Mrs. Patton is rocking the 21 day challenge. Don't tell Jacob it was Grace's idea because I've almost sold him on it and I think he'll balk if I'm doing it to "be like Grace." He thinks my long time dependence on the old CP is unhealthy. But you know what I say to that? There are plenty of others just like me.

- 6 -

My dad and I ran the Catholic Exchange Virtual 5K last weekend - my first and last run of the month of September. We clocked in at a tepid 26:56. Perhaps it would've been more impressive if I weren't half dead and dry heaving for a solid five minutes afterwards. Dad was positively chipper throughout the whole ordeal.

It didn't quite have the fanfare of other 5Ks I've run: sorely lacking in the sponsored snacks department. But I was accosted by a naked toddler upon my return and that was most definitely a first.

- 7 -

Last but not least I suppose I shall tell you about...

...hmmm...

Oh yes!! Homemade soda!!! My kefir water is the awesomest of the awesome, and I feel like a crunchy diva. The flavor you are about to witness is Probiotic Peach Vanilla. See it to believe it.

(Be warned: If you follow the above link, know that you'll most certainly run into a video of Jake's newest trick: putting two words together while completely naked.) 

- 7.5 -

And just to clarify.

My toddler does - on occasion - wear clothes.

Where were we?

Oh that's right:

In Seattle, getting our shoes wet and freezing our glutes off waiting for the boys to finish. 

Which they all did. Brothers 2, 1, and 3 (respectively).

 

 And good ole dad with ole time friend/brother #3 namesake/teeth-straightener of all the Ramsay children Robert. 

Not pictured: the 90+ pounds lost collectively by the men in the above 4 photos.

Travel Tableau pt. 1

I emerge from the blogging desert with a record of our travels over the last few weeks. At 11pm Sunday night we found ourselves in LAX exhausted from foreign festivities. Over the past three weeks we've been on a glorious jaunt about the country involving relatives and friends and races and breweries and babes and Icelandic chickens and weddings and rainstorms. Below are a few anecdotes from our adventures and much more than a few photos.

Our first leg took the Cub and me to the Ramsay homestead where we reunited with our goat Beatrice and played with puppies and hatched baby guineas and met my Icelandic grandmother's Icelandic chickens. Collectively we were only bit by about 12 mosquitoes and had but one run in with a scorpion.

Soon we found ourselves in the grand Dallas Metroplex where we me up with the Pops, so he and I could become Godparents to the adorable Emma Grace

 

Jake made his Aunt Lily follow him all around the foyer for the entirety of the baptism, but he enjoyed the after party thoroughly.

as did I

And Jacob got to chill with most of his sibs + offspring.

 

After Dallas we parted ways with Jacob and made our way with my family to Seattle for some sightseeing before our Rock'n'Roll run.

The race was great.

Four years ago we ran a marathon in Rome together and decided we liked this whole family reunion/race thing, and Seattle became destination dos. I've been fighting off a running injury, so I scratched as a marathon hopeful and joined up with my sister and the lovely Jordan to do the half. Here is the whole troop at the beginning.

Some of us at mile 6:

 

I wasn't sure I would even finish, but thanks to a little persistence and a lot of 12 minute miles the race was conquered and the old hip seems no worse for the wear. We were only beat by one pregnant woman and were thus riding pretty high.

Alas, photos were not taken of the half marathon finishers, but here's a picture of me nursing five minutes after the race. My kid is patient like that.

Then we went to watch the 26.2ers finish up with Jacob's Aunt Mary and Uncle Steve - some Seattlans who came out to cheer.

Nana and Lily win the trooper awards. Nana for weathering the weather and Lily for finishing her first half marathon with a blood blister the size of Louisiana.

We were stalwart even as the winds blew and the rain came and the temperature dropped way below summer-appropriate levels.

I will unceremoniously leave you on the edges of your seats - and Jordan shivering in the cold - since my blogger is being glitchy. Tune in for some photo finishes soon.