7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 112)

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Get well soon! Kevin is finally on the mend after being sick and miserable with some sort of bronchial infection.  This morning when Sunshine was playing with one of their many toy cell phones, she informed me that she was calling Kevin to tell him that he’s feeling better.  Yesterday when she coughed a couple times, she said she was sick like Kevin.  I explained that sometimes we cough without being sick and that she wouldn’t want what Kevin has.

We still haven’t celebrated his 50th birthday with family or friends, yet, but hopefully that will happen this weekend!  At least Kevin was well enough we could have dinner at my sister and brother-in-law's house this evening.  We didn't exactly make it to dessert or singing happy birthday, but just having Kevin present for the family gathering was a major step after this past couple weeks.   

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A Moroccan Feast The evening before my mom’s birthday, which was this week, a dear family friend who is originally from Morocco had us over to her place for a delicious homemade meal.  It was so nice to catch up with her and her two kids.  The food was every bit as amazing as my mom and sisters had described.  There were three candles on the birthday cake my sister brought in, so our hostess’s son asked Mom how old she was.  He got quiet and looked at Mom very confused when she told him she’s turning three years old.  I was reminded of what a wonderful gift it is to invite people over and make them a delectable meal. 
Perhaps this weekend, we’ll finish hanging the photos on our Rochester wall, and I’ll finally clean off the dining room table, perchance to have people over for dinner, or at least have a clean flat surface on which to beat my husband at dominoes.        

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Ask, Seek, Knock The Lord knows the deepest desires we have into our hearts, because He put them there.  He knows what we long for and delights in giving what it is we want and need to fulfill those yearnings.  Far better than a genie in a lamp, our Lord wants to shower us with blessings which He knows will help us grow in love, compassion, and mercy towards others as well as ourselves.  Just as we take great joy in doing things for the people we love, the Lord trembles with jubilation as He satisfies the desires of our hearts, the ones He put there to bring us closer to Him…Click here to read the rest of this reflection I wrote on and in honor of the participants of the Men’s Cursillo Weekend taking place July 25-28, 2013.  Please also remember to pray for the participants of the weekend as they take time out of their busy schedules to grow closer to the Lord.   

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Remembering My Dad Yesterday was my father James Niermeyer’s birthday.  
He would have been 58 this year.  He passed away only 16 days after he turned 54 once my mom, sisters, and I all came to his side to say our goodbyes.  A woman named Marie who’s very active at St. Michael parish said this about my dad after saying that he was one of the ones who inspired her to start a Rosary Prayer Group: “At his funeral people spoke of his love and dedication to the Rosary. I was touched by that and I started praying it on a more regular basis. Then when Mo was ill, a group of us crammed in a class room before Mass and prayed it together. It was so moving and I knew I wanted to do that again. The homily Fr. Dan gave inspired me to ask if I could start a group. The rest is history!”  The blue beaded Rosary I carry with me every day is the one my dad used all the time.

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High Drama Ensues Scooter looks an awful lots like an Oompa Loompa when she smothers herself in Chef Boyardee spaghetti sauce.  I texted the girls’ mom that maybe we can work on a low-budget spin-off of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory using at least two Veggie Tales songs: one about working in a chocolate factory and another about eating too many chocolate bunnies and idol worship leading to trouble.  Skippy makes a very convincing bunny face.  Sunshine knows most of the words to both of the songs and is an avid fan of chocolate as well as Veggie Tales.  I think we could swing it.     

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Book-It! It does my heart good to see the girls sitting down engrossed in books like my sister and I did when we were little.  Both of their parents love to read, and I’m a book-lover, so the girls are picking up on some of those literary leanings. 

     You may recall the Book-It program that was such a hit when we were kids.  You read a certain number of books and get a special certificate for a free personal pan pizza at Pizza Hut.  I looked into it, and the Book-It program is alive and well.  To check it out, click here.  Perhaps they’d be willing to do some sort of program for adults at our favorite pizza place in town.  You never know.

    

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You probably need a nap...when you fail to do the three steps to make microwave mac ’n’ cheese in the proper order, you leave a dirty diaper under the couch, you put someone’s Onesie on backwards, you take one little one upstairs while another little one is downstairs unsupervised and free-ranging with the kitchen

gate and the bathroom door open, two young ones are in the stroller ready to go on a walk and the older one decides to take forever and a day going potty and putting her shoes on before having a full-out meltdown the second you step outside, you spend five minutes when all the kids are in bed making a cool train track since they never let you finish one when they’re awake, you recall that though the water table on the deck is in the shade before noon that the sandbox in the yard is not only later in the evening when noticing you're sunburned, you resort to using favorite foods as bargaining tools for good behavior…you can fill in the rest of the blanks, I need a nap.

                  

Check out Jen Fulwiler’s tradition of 7 Quick Takes Friday at her tremendously popular blog Conversion Diary.

Curtain Calls and Lights Out (My Nanny Diary)

 Bop Until You Drop

Lately, Vivi has often requested I play “Bop Until You Drop” song for us to sing and dance to.  Her sisters get into it as well.  They bounce dance to the music and find it thoroughly amusing when Vivi and I dance around, then suddenly drop to the ground. 

    
I couldn’t help but smile this week when the girls were playing with two of the Boppy pillows (typically used for nursing and later for propping babies up into a sitting position) while we were listening to “Bop Until You Drop.” 

    
All three girls love music and dancing.  Sophie tilts her head from side to side when she hears even the slightest hint of a melody.  It cracks me up when she really gets into it because she looks like she’s imitating the motions of Stevie Wonder.  What’s even funnier is when she is bee-bopping around and moving her head so much she tips over.

Curtain Calls 

In the past couple weeks, I’ve had some new experiences with household items and persistent, curious kids.  Vivi had her first "curtain call" the other day during her nap/rest time.  Clearly she was opting not to nap or rest.  I often hear her making noise in her room when she’s decided she’d rather play than rest, so I wasn’t alarmed when I heard her moving around. 

    
A number of times she’s removed all of her pillows, bedding, cuddly stuffed animals, books, (basically everything but the fitted sheet on her bed) to the floor or, on a couple different occasions, into her closet.  The first time she moved everything into her closet during naptime, I opened the door and had a brief moment of panic when I didn’t see her or any of her bedding.  I then remembered she has a closet she can get into.  I opened the door and there she lay sound asleep on top of her pillows, blankets, and furry friends. 

    
When I walked into her room the other day, of course, the first thing I noticed was that the purple drapes and the rod were on the floor.  I was not pleased, but I at least had the peace of mind to ask her if she’d gotten hurt when they came down and save the “we don’t pull on the curtains” talk for later.  She said the “candy cane” (aka curtain rod) hit the top of her head.

Lights Out

Livie’s walking around quite nimbly for a little squirt who’s only 10.5 months old.  Sophie was very determined to practice freestanding the other day.  She’s working on her balance and aspiring to be careening around the living room soon and very soon.  There are plenty of things for the girls to pull up on and play with, but they naturally are most interested in getting into areas and items that aren’t suitable for them to use at all and/or bang up on.  Sophie swiftly pulled the floor lamp down on herself last week.  Fortunately, it only got her leg, and Livie was far enough back, it didn’t knock her lights out, either.