7 Quick Takes (vol. 30)

#1 - The problem with Conversion Diary is that Jennifer Fulwiler (the author of said blog and originator of 7 Quick Takes) is that she is, while thought-provoking and insightful can also be hysterically funny. This humor, in and of itself, is not so bad until you're trying to nurse to sleep your non-compliant seventh month old and you find yourself shaking, trying not to giggle (and thus wake up the finally-falling asleep little boy). For a giggle yourself, have a peruse of this 7 Quick Takes.

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#2 - We are on day 13 of 15, again. Fortunately, knowing we were going into another long shift, we scheduled some time together while we were off last. So we actually had a date. Without either one of my children! Baby Q did okay--his first time without mommy for more than a short period of time. Fortunately, he randomly decided that bottles are not so bad, not his favorite, but he'll take them at least somewhat. And since we started doing some food a few weeks ago, he made it through. Although he did immediately give a shrill cry the moment he saw me!

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#3 - On the topic of Baby Q, I now I have sitting up and very mobile little boy. He's combining crawling with army-crawling, and is, frankly, a menace. I leave him one place, turn around, and 15 seconds later, he's all the across the house. Finding the one piece of plastic that is floating on the floor. Or pulling the kitchen garbage can down on his head....minutes before we're heading out the door to an appointment....sigh. I foresee a lot of running in my future.

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#4 - Doctor appointment--Baby Q is now 19lbs 7oz. That makes him only eight pounds less than his sister. Who's betting he's going to beat her before his first birthday? On the other side though, Blueberry is now on the chart for her weight!! A whole 10th percentile! Miracles do happen. Doctor is finally off my back though and is agreeing with me that she's just inherited my family genes--short and small. Best kind.

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#5 - To make this shift even longer, this last week we had a doctor's appointment EVERY SINGLE DAY. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. And one of the girls was home sick Wednesday and Thursday. Sigh. I love my job, but my down time during the day throughout the school year is huge. And when we don't get it, I get really tired. And truthfully, during six days, eh, a shift like that is annoying but not killer. When it's days eight through twelve of 15, you start losing your mind a little bit.

I think I could have done with a little less of the introvert gene and a bit more infusion of extroversion in my personality. It would probably help matters greatly on weeks like these when, by the end, all I want to do is hide from the world for awhile. Not that I'm angry with anybody or upset really, I'm just drained and needing some space.

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#6 - My arms are sore. And surprisingly they're not from lugging around Baby Q (for once). No, this time they are sore from playing a video game on the Xbox Kinect. It's called Fruit Ninja and is much fun. Slashing fruit with your hands like you're a Ninja. Except then you wind up with sore arms. Oh well, I needed a workout.

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#7 - Last night I read something that really made my day. Uplifted me, in fact. Robin McKinley has been one of my favorite authors since I was young teenager (I'm pretty sure I was 12 or 13 when I first read a book of hers--Beauty). She writes fantasy, and is just a fabulous writer. Her worlds are so alive and her character development is inspiring. My only complaint is she has a thing against writing sequels, and so has left several worlds with no sequels that are screaming out for another book!

Any ways, I read her blog, well, I used to. Then over the last year I've really had a hard time keeping up with anybody's blogs. Just recently (as in the last month/few weeks), I've been changing that again, and enjoying getting back into that realm of reading.

One of my complaints about reading her blog in the past was she could be sometimes a little depressing. She's not a Christian, and it sometimes shows strongly. Not so much in her language but just in the hopeless tone that sometimes would creep into her writing on her blog. She has also spoken pretty strongly against religion/Christianity a few times.

Well, you can only imagine my delight upon reading a post of hers the other day that stated "...this time last year while Jesus was gripping me by the back of the neck (rather like Southdowner with a recalcitrant bullie) and saying, You’re MINE now, get used to it."

I was startled. Excuse me? Robin McKinley talking about Jesus? Talking about Jesus claiming her? What?! So I did a search on her site for "Jesus" (love search engines) and just around the time I quit reading last year--SHE BECAME A CHRISTIAN!

I'm thrilled. I needed an uplifting. I'm feeling tired and discouraged, and even though I have never met this woman, as a writer, she has been one of those people who I have followed my whole life (I've even emailed her a few times with writing questions) and to see the Lord work in her, bring her to a relationship with Him, is so encouraging.

Thanks Lord for some good timing.