12) – A Contest, The Hunger Games Movie & The Flu Edition

By bobbi
March 30, 2012
1 Comment

– 1 –

TTIF Already? – How can it possibly be Friday already? The days we were absent from school has thrown me off so in my mind it feels like it’s only Wednesday. On the one hand, that’s great news since it is the weekend already. On the other hand, I’m two days short with the things I had to get done this week. Oh, well. That means I better quickly get this done and get back to work.

– 2 –

BaSP Blog Contest – First things first, I have to tell you that you must go over to my sister’s blog Barefoot and Sometimes Pregnant and enter her Year 3 Blog Birthday contest. She is simply fabulous! Whereas I share with you my struggles to keep a clean house or get more crafty or not kill my garden within the first few weeks, EL is a Martha Stewart-like chica. She is the sister most likely to be in labor with her fourth child and in between contractions she’ll manage to bake a loaf of bread, can a jar of preserves, gather vegetable in her garden for a homemade stew, milk the cow, sew a new outfit for the baby and whittle a baby crib. I kid you not. She amazes me. Anyway… she says:

Since barefoot and sometime pregnant is all about homemaking, I am giving away the perfect gift for any homemaker or future homemaker. Enter to win a copy of Style, Sex and Substance by Hallie Lord (if you already have a copy, you can give this one away to a friend), an All-in-one Organizer from the company thirty-one, and a custom apron. Yes, I will sew you an apron of your choice! (I will give you some pattern types to choice from and fabric options.) The giveaway will close on Sunday and I will post the winner on Monday.

Click on over and tell her that I sent you! 😉

– 3 –

Call Me Aunt B. – Oh, and also keep my sister in your prayers because she is now 39 weeks pregnant and any day she could have baby #4 (although she tends to go late.) We are all excited to meet our new family member! I can’t wait to see if I’m an auntie to a little niece or nephew.

– 4 –

RoL – Speaking of Blog Birthdays, this year our original website Revolution of Love.com will be ten years old in November! Can you believe it?! We started it when we were newly married and only had Bella. I had a lot more time to write back then! Since I was still new to mommyhood I wrote more for newly married couples and Catholic singles. There are a few articles about dating/courtship and chastity that still get a lot of hits. That’s why we haven’t pulled the site off the web. Over the next few months I’ll be reposting some of those articles here since the blog gets a lot for traffic that the website does.

– 5 –

Man, I’m Old – As for this blog, next month I’ll have been blogging for nine years! My first post was back in 2003. That’s just crazy. Although I’ve been around awhile, some years I only posted a handful of times. In 2003 I have only 22 posts. (Although, I did delete a few that had dead links or outdated info.) I think 2011 is the first year that I posted consistently with over 100 posts. Okay, okay. Useless facts. I’ll celebrate next month and, inspired by my sis, I’ll put together a little contest too. 🙂

– 6 –

The Hunger Games vs The Flu – My mom called while I was typing and she asked me how the movie was last week. I forgot I was going to mention that. (Thanks for the reminder, mom.) As I mentioned last week, I had just finished reading The Hunger Games and planned to go see the movie on Saturday. That is a story in itself. Friday night my stomach was a little queasy but I didn’t think much of it. Matthew woke up at 6:30 AM but I was really feeling awful. Brian took the baby, I got sick and then went back to bed and slept until 10 AM. I woke up feeling a bit out of it but not too bad. I figured I must have gotten food poisoning. Brian said if I was up to it I could go ahead and go to the movies since I already bought my ticket and who knows when I’d get another afternoon off. True. I got ready and went. The movie was packed but luckily I found a secluded seat where I wouldn’t be touching anyone, in case I really was sick.
The movie started and from the get go it was amazing. I thought they did a great job making the book come alive on the screen, editing what they needed to but still keeping the tone of the book. I certainly think you’d get more out of the movie if you read it first because there are a lot of subtle things that you won’t pick up on unless you’ve read the book first. And although it was not gory-graphic it was still incredibly disturbing to see little kids get murdered like that. More disturbing was the fact that it was also viewed as reality tv/entertainment. With the current obsession with reality TV and the growing lack of disrespect for life, it does not seem too far fetched to think that we could one day return to the days of the martyrs in the Roman Coliseum.
As the movie continued we got to the part where Katniss was looking for the hurt Peeta and we lost our picture. We could hear it but not see it. We sat there as they tried to fix it. The manager came in and told us they were working on it but they couldn’t rewind what we missed because it would throw off the show times for the people behind us. The theater nearly had a District 11 riot (that was one of the last scenes we just saw) when he told us that. Finally they got the movie back on and they rewound it to the part where Rue and Katniss were together. We yelled, “NO!!!” We were not going to sit there and watch Rue’s death all over again. It was hard enough the first time when we could hear people in the theater quietly sobbing. Fifteen minutes later, they found the right spot and continued the movie. The end seemed a little rushed but I still loved the movie. Did you see it? What did you think?
After we were leaving the theater, the manager gave us all free passes so at least I got a free movie out of it! Plus, I got over my phobia of going to the movies alone, so I am ready to go! On a side note, however, I got home and by the end of the day I was much worse. I realized I had the flu and not food poisoning. As I lay on my bed dead to the world I kept praying I didn’t get anyone sick in the theater…from touching the seat or the handrail or the door handle. I kept picturing the movie Contagion. Sorry, my fellow movie goers!

– 7 –

Tiny Bubbles – That’s it for now. I better get back to my boys. While I type I’ll often put the bubble machine on the bookshelf and they play happily trying to pop bubbles or catch them on their tongue. (Ew.) Here is a photo of them right now still in their pj’s. Although Matthew looks like he’s ignoring the bubbles and looking for a good book. Maybe he’ll have a little more Brian than Bobbi in him. 😉

Have a wonderful weekend!!

7 Quick Takes (3/29/12) – Motherhood, Fundraising, & The Hunger Games

By bobbi
March 23, 2012
1 Comment

Hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary.

– 1 –

I am sorry to say that I am only half awake this morning. I was up at 3:30 AM with Matthew, who was either teething or feeling sick. Whatever it was, he was not happy and not sleeping. I can’t say that I felt much different at the time. After two hours I was finally able to get him back to sleep so I could catch another 30 minutes before I had to get up with the rest of the kids. It’s times like these I think I should start drinking coffee.

– 2 –

The other day I met an acquaintance I haven’t seen in awhile. She remembered me when I was pregnant with Andrew. When I told her I had four kids now she actually gasped. She stared at me for a minute and said I don’t look like I have four kids, which got me to thinking… What is a mom with four kids supposed to look like?? I don’t know but if she saw me right now she’d be saying, “You look like this and you only have four kids?” Grr. (Okay, let’s think of something more upbeat…)

– 3 –

I am in the last month of our school fundraising and Brian and I were actually able to solicit some nice gifts to be auctioned off. It is surprising that I am on the committee because I am terrible at sales. I like helping people but when it comes to talking them into buying something (or giving me something for free) I can’t bring myself to push it. There is another mom on the committee that has the ability to walk into a business cold turkey and she walks out with a complimentary deluxe package worth $500. I walk into a business and say, “You don’t want to donate something, right? No, I didn’t think so. Okay, thanks anyway.” Every once in awhile I do get a positive response to which I say, “Oh, you do? Are you sure? I’ll understand if you don’t. I know money is tight so don’t worry if you can’t…” Yeah, I’m not a salesman. The other mom said I had a pleasant demeanor so they would donate. “Pleasant”? I don’t know. That sounds an awful lot like the blind date with the “great personality.” Oh, well. I’ll take what I can get.

– 4 –

At least the soliciting of donations has put my “mommy cards” to good use. What’s a mommy card? It’s like a business card but geared towards my business – mommyhood. It’s great for when I need to give people my contact info quickly. Above is the one I use, although my personal info like my last name and phone numbers are edited out. They have a lot of cute ones at Vista Print.com. They have an offer for 250 free cards but the selection is limited. You can also choose the $10 special (with the $5 off savings) and have a large selection. Just search “mommy card.”

– 5 –

Last Friday I was going to tell you about a book I read – Stealing Jenny by Ellen Gable – but I was so preoccupied with the my vomit shower and Matthew’s near death experience (how’s that for an upbeat topic?) that I never got to it. Here’s the summary, “After three heartbreaking miscarriages, Tom and Jenny Callahan are happily anticipating the birth of their sixth child. Their neighbor, however, is secretly hatching a sinister plot which will find Jenny and her unborn baby fighting for their lives.” The story is well written and although the kidnapping is a harrowing tale, the book is also touching as it explores the topics of love, courage, forgiveness and trust in God, both in the main plotline and the flashbacks of Jenny and Tom’s beginning friendship. I may not recommend this book if you are a pregnant woman prone to worry (especially if like me, you recently saw a documentary about real life women who were in similar situations. Scary!) However, to the others, I wholeheartedly recommend the book. You can get it in paperback or download it to your kindle for only $2.99.

– 6 –

After the suspense of that story I was looking for something else that would keep my interest. A number of people I know have been taking about The Hunger Games and there has been so much hype about the movie that I downloaded a free sample chapter onto my kindle. Let’s just say that I read the first chapter and was drawn in immediately and downloaded the rest of the book. That whole day I was sneaking my iPhone out and trying to read pages in between whatever I was doing. Finally after everyone was in bed I read well into the night and breathlessly finished the last page. There is a great Book Review and Parents’ Guide of The Hunger Games Trilogy from a Catholic perspective over at Catholic Lane.com. It begins:

“The Hunger Games is a futuristic, sci-fi series that draws heavily on themes of violence, war and power. It is set in the dystopia created by the Capitol, the ruling class that satiates its own pleasures at the expense and oppression of the 12 Districts. The Districts, which are made up of the working class, provide the Capitol population with everything it needs to continue its own survival and remain in power.
The story commences with Panem, the country that emerged from the civil war ruins of what was once North America, preparing for the annual Hunger Games. The Games are televised live and are mandatory viewing for every citizen in the nation. They were instituted as a punishment for the Districts’ attempted rebellion against the Capitol years ago. Every year each of the 12 Districts must provide one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen who will fight to the death on live television until only one child is still alive. The Games exist to remind the people in the Districts that not even children are beyond the reach of the Capitol’s power…” (Continue reading.)

The guide reviews all three books so Spoiler Alert if you haven’t read them already. There is also a list of topics and discussion starters for those parents with older children who will want to read these books.

– 7 –

To show you how much I loved reading The Hunger Games, Brian suggested that he watch the kids and I take an afternoon off since I’ve been so busy with household stuff and the school fundraiser ect. I told him I’d like to see the Hunger Games movie this weekend. He was surprised since I’ve never gone to the movies alone but he was more that happy to give me some time off. So I’ve bought my ticket and have my handkerchief and a bag of peanut M&M’s in my purse. Tomorrow afternoon this mama will be ready for 2 1/2 hours of action and drama. After that I’ll be ready to come home and kiss my husband and kids and hold them close!
In the meantime, have a great weekend and may the odds ever be in your favor.

7 Quick Takes (2/17/12): Downton, Love Letters, & Fave Kitchen Items

By bobbi
February 17, 2012
3 Comments

(Usually hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary.) This week hosted by Hailey at Betty Beguiles.com.

– 1 –

Until Next Year, Dear Downton – It’s been a busy week and these Quick Takes will be perfect to catch you up. For Valentine’s Day Brian got me the Downton Abbey Season 2 Blu-ray. We were so excited to finish the series. It was a Valentine treat! I won’t tell you what happens but if you don’t want even a hint then please skip to the next Quick Take. This episode wasn’t as emotional as others have been but there were two moments when I reached for a hankie – one was sad tears and one was happy tears. Brian thought this episode was a little anti-climatic but I think that was because one major storyline was resolved but a number of other storylines were not. After all, Season 3 needs drama too. The one thing I did not enjoy was the various Ouija board scenes. We could have done without that. But all in all it was a great season and I can’t wait for season 3!

– 2 –

That’s Amore – Speaking of Valentines, I was looking through a box of mementos looking for an old cassette tape of Dean Martin’s greatest hits. (Yes, I am so old I can remember when we used to have ghetto blasters and Walkmans!) I wanted to find it because when Brian and I were married for our honeymoon we went on a road trip to Northern California and we played that tape over and over again. (There are a number of greatest hits CD’s but none of them had the exact songs from that cassette.) Whenever I hear Return to Me or You Belong to Me or Memories Are Made of These I can’t help but think of our courtship, our long distance relationship, our honeymoon etc. (Music can be powerful like that – transporting you to the places that your memories hold!) I know he loved that tape and I wanted to find the list of songs from it so I could download them for him. I burned a CD that he could listen to in his car or download into his iPod. He was so touched and excited. 🙂

– 3 –

Love “Letters” – I also found in my treasure box a collection of love letters – the traditional hand written ones but also old blank cassettes that were “letter tapes” that Brian and I made when we were dating. We lived 400 miles from each other and we tried a number of things to bring us closer. We each had small tape recorders and we’d leave them in our cars. Whenever we were in the car (at the time I was commuting to San Diego a few days a week) we’d turn the recorder on and just chat about how our day was going, what was on our mind etc. I found my old recorder and started listening to one of the tapes. It was recorded shortly after we made it “official” that we were in love and were thinking about marriage in the future. It was funny to hear him talk about a possible job opening at Pebble Beach. (He had just left the seminary before we met and was doing various temp work. He got his current job at PB two weeks before we were married. Talk about trusting in God to provide!) He shared about his hopes for the future and how much he loved me. It brought tears to my eyes because he has kept his promise to love me and take care of me and our future children. He has been a better husband and best friend than I could have ever imagined. I think now I’ll go back and listen to one of my letter tapes that I recorded and remind myself of the promises I made to him to be a good wife and mother to his children. 🙂

– 4 –

Free Kindle Giveaway -I know that many of us in this Catholic blogging mom community are eagerly awaiting the release of Hailey Lord’s (beloved blogging mom, fashionista and this week’s QT host) new book Style, Sex, and Substance: 10 Catholic Women Consider the Things that Really Matter. If that wasn’t exciting enough, if you preorder your book you can enter to win a new Kindle Touch. Fun! Just place your order and then head to Betty Beguiles.com to enter. I’ll be ordering and entering as soon as I’m done with this post!

– 5 –

Maria, my brother Rob, and Bella and the flower girl

Pampered Chef Online Party – My sister-in-law Maria is hosting a Pampered Chef online party. I found out about Pampered Chef a few years back through a friend. I bought a few products and still love using them today. So if you are looking for some kitchen items, please feel free to browse Maria’s Pampered Chef page. (Orders due 2/26.) These are some of my favorite products.

Easy Read Measuring Cups (#2175)

Easy Read Mini Measuring Cup (#2177)

Medium Scoop (#2540)

(Perfect for scooping even amounts of cookie dough. This time I am buying the Large Scoop for even amounts of cupcake batter.)

Garlic Peeler (#2577)

(I think I need to buy another one because Matthew keeps taking mine to chew on it.)

Can Strainer (#2495)

(I like to turn the strainer upside down and press it down in a can of tuna to get the excess water out.)

– 6 –

Sick of Spam – You may have noticed that a week or two ago I switched the comment box to allow people to comment without having to sign in. It did allow for people to comment more often but it also allowed the spambots to easily post spam comments. Normally it’s not too bad and I just delete them at the end of the day but the other night my inbox was filling up like crazy. It downloaded over a hundred spams in minutes and they kept coming. I had to turn the comment box to requiring you sign in first. Sorry about the inconvenience. By the way, why do they call it spam? Is it because they both are poor substitutes for the real thing?

– 7 –

That’s it for today. I was going to post about the boys speech therapy and preschool decisions but it became too long for a quick take so I’ll post about it later today if time allows.
Have a wonderful weekend!!

7 Quick Takes – (1/13/12): Resolutions & Downton Edition

By bobbi
January 13, 2012
No Comments

Hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary.

– 1 –

I’ve been reading a lot on other blogs about resolutions. I hate resolutions because I’ll do well for a day or two then go right back to where I started. Instead, I have a couple of work-in-process projects. I’ve been working on two areas specifically last year. One was to get my house more organized. For those who know me or have been reading my blog, you also know that my three sisters are neat and organized and I’m the one most likely to appears on “Hoarders: Buried Alive.” Okay, maybe I’m not that bad but I could appear on the show “My Desk Is Covered with So Much Junk I Can’t See My Computer Monitor” as seen here. That is why I started Operation Clean & Organize. I haven’t done much since autumn with all the holiday busyness but things have settled down now and I can refocus.

– 2 –

The second work-in-progress is to eat healthier and move more. (Do you ever watch Good Luck Charlie on Disney? As the overweight Bob Duncan was told – “Less bacon and more shakin!”) I already joined Weight Watchers and I’ve lost the baby weight but, again, once the holidays came everything stalled. I stopped keeping track. I kept what I lost off but I haven’t made any progress on the still long road ahead. So that, too, must be refocused.

UPDATE: For info on Bob Duncan’s weight loss, read this post.

– 3 –

The last two are more mini-goals than projects. And they are more “fun.” The first – don’t be afraid to try some “feminine touches” in how I dress. When I was younger my favorite colors were navy blue, army green and burgundy. I wore either converse of doc martins. However, as I’ve gotten older, I have finally let go of that more “tomboy” mentality. I still hate wearing dresses or skirts and run from any shoe that has a heel more than ½ an inch but I can now say my favorite colors are red, orange and yellow – bright and happy colors. I like wearing pink and buying things that are less boyish and more cute. I think I have also been influenced by Betty Beguiles and have learned to better embrace the feminine side of myself. For example, when I see my sisters wearing pretty flowers in their hair or a really pretty accessory I think to myself – that looks great on them but I couldn’t wear it. Well, Bobbi, why not? So I experimented with little things. For Christmas I wore a flower clip in my hair. I also love headbands so I wore this crocheted one I found that had a pretty crocheted flower on it.

I liked it and no one laughed at me. (Do we ever get over those negative junior high feelings that sometimes creep up on us?) And who knows, in the future I may even be blogging about the day I wore one of those cute dresses I pinned on Pinterest. After all, I do believe in miracles.

– 4 –

The other mini-goal is to watch a little less TV. Having cable TV and a DVR, I can pretty much record whatever I want and just watch it later, especially when I am up with the baby. However, it has gotten a bit out of hand. I have had to delete some shows that have just become time wasters. (Sorry, Mom, if I can’t discuss the latest person voted off Biggest Loser or why I voted for so-and-so on American Idol.) I will still watch favorites with Brian in the evening and I will certainly still obsess over Downton Abbey (See, Mom, we can still discuss how much we can’t stand Vera Bates and how we long for Mary and Matthew to finally get together.) but paring down on TV in general will give me more time to read a few of those books I wanted to get into and read some of the mom blogs I’ve wanted to follow.

– 5 –

Speaking of reading more, I have already started reading more on my new Kindle Fire. Yes, as I mentioned in last week’s quick takes, I finally decided to use my Christmas money to buy one and I don’t regret it! I love my iphone but reading on the kindle is so much easier. Plus, I can also read my magazines (did you see that the National Catholic Register is available on the Kindle?) and my Google Reader is a lot easier than on my phone. It is perfect for the evenings when I am trying to get the baby to sleep and have extra time to myself.

– 6 –

And speaking of mom blogs, I first came across By Sun and Candlelight when I was reading a post about Downton Abbey. (Great comments in the com box. btw!) I started browsing around and I am really enjoying Dawn’s posts. You should check it out.

– 7 –

Lastly, Dawn (from above) also mentioned that she got the book The World of Downton Abbey for her birthday. I browsed through the pages they had on Amazon and it looks so pretty and informative. It’s the kind of book a Downton geek would love. (It is available on Kindle but a book like that, you have to hold it in your hands and feel the paper.)

And I do happen to have a few dollars of my Christmas money left…and it is burning a hole in my pocket…and who wants to bet that for next week’s {pretty, happy, funny, real} you are going to see a photo of that book sitting on my desk. I’m just saying… 😉

LOL! Have a great weekend!
xoxo,
b.

Coming Soon: “Style, Sex, and Substance: 10 Catholic Women Consider the Things that Really Matter”

By bobbi
November 3, 2011
No Comments

I was so excited to hear that one of my favorite bloggers, Hailey at Betty Beguiles, has a new book coming out in spring. It is titled Style, Sex, and Substance: 10 Catholic Women Consider the Things that Really Matter and features many of my favorite Catholic female writers, including Simcha Fisher, Danielle Bean, Rachel Balducci, Betty Duffy, Jennifer Fulwiler, Rebecca Teti, Karen Edmisten, Anna Mitchell and Barbara Nicolosi. How cool is that?
Here is a summary of the book.

In Style, Sex, and Substance: 10 Catholic Women Consider the Things that Really Matter, ten of the top Catholic female writers come together to offer tips, encouragement, and a bit of humor for their sisters in the trenches of daily life. From the difficulties of fitting in prayer time to the impact that lots of babies have on intimacy to the unique challenges of the single life, each author digs deep into the issues that real Catholic women think about. With the tone of a group of gals gathered around a bottle of wine, it is sure to be a hit with all Catholic women, whether they need practical tips in areas in which they struggle, words of encouragement, or just a bit of entertainment after a long day.

Although the book will be released in March, preorders are available at Amazon today. You can get in line after me. 😉

Revolution of Love

Do small things with great love.

Category Archives: books

7 Quick Takes (3/30/12) – A Contest, The Hunger Games Movie & The Flu Edition

7 Quick Takes (3/29/12) – Motherhood, Fundraising, & The Hunger Games

7 Quick Takes (2/17/12): Downton, Love Letters, & Fave Kitchen Items

7 Quick Takes – (1/13/12): Resolutions & Downton Edition

Coming Soon: “Style, Sex, and Substance: 10 Catholic Women Consider the Things that Really Matter”