Answer me this. First Attempt.

This has nothing to do with the post's content. I just love this series of her dancing at Disneyland more than life. 

Today I'm doing a new (to me, not in general) Sunday linkup with Kendra. Here we go!

1. Do you hate happy clappy church music?
The only kind of church music I hate with the fire of a thousand suns (too much?) is kumbaya 70's church music (is this the same category?). One of the parishes near us has a mass that is well known for its 70's mass (there is a tambourine) and I just cannot. 
I can really get behind some praise and worship from the 90s,/2000s though. It reminds me of the old days. It's not my preference, but I actually enjoy it on a nostalgic level. 

2. What is your priority: eating or sleeping?
Eating. I love sleep, but I gladly forgo it for any number of things. The same cannot be said for my favorite foods. I will list the first few I can think of (there are many, many more):
-homemade chocolate chip cookies
-pretzel bark (listen, if you didn't know about this already, maybe don't click on the link. For your own good.)
-popcorn
-this chicken salad on the Costco chia pockets (do people know about the chia pockets? I'm totally obsessed.)
-Waffle Cone ice cream
-White Cheddar Popcorners -A Dairy Queen blizzard with M&Ms
I think my health nut status is apparent to all at this point.
If there is an opportunity for one of those items, I am there with zero hesitation. 

3. What type of milk do you drink in your house?

This is a weirdly complicated question for our household. So, all the residents here prefer 1% (now that Sammy is out of the whole milk age), and all of the adults prefer the prices at Costco, but none of the Costcos around here carry 1% milk, so we usually buy 2% unless we go to the far Costco (the devotion to Costco is strong). 

4. What is a book that changed your perspective on something?

Love this question.  This could be a very long list, but I'll control myself. 

Four Three come immediately to mind:

-He Leadeth Me - Father Walter J. Ciszek - Jen recommended this many times before I finally purchased it, and then it sat on/in my bedside table for two years before I finally read it. It, quite literally,  completely changed my understanding of what following God's will means. I am still processing and praying over it, but it was a game-changer for me.

-Evangelical is Not Enough - Thomas Howard -  I read this book with a deep feeling of "uh oh."* It is one of the first books I read on Catholicism and it made me feel a bit like the earth was dropping from under my feet. It was, shall we say, quite instrumental in my conversion. He clarified some ideas that I had been poking around, but couldn't quite grasp until he articulated them. 

-The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis - I know I'm not alone in having my mind blown by this book. It is eye-opening in a way only great fiction can be. I love C.S. Lewis. 

5. Who is your favorite saint?

Two: 

St. Maximillian Kolbe. I can't remember where I first read his story, but it is an amazing gift of sacrificial, joyful love. Amazing man. 

St. Teresa of Avila.  She was just so. dang. awesome. 

6. Introvert or extrovert?

 Is it possible to be exactly on the line between them? Some days the idea of talking to new people sounds fun and easy. Some days it sounds like the worst idea in the world. I love quiet time, but I need to talk to people to really process my thoughts and emotions.  I think I probably would be considered an extrovert in the classical sense. 

*My expression may have been somewhat more colorful.

Toddlers are Weird

Taking a page from Jen's obsession, I started using Evernote to record funny things Juliana says (Samuel only says things like "no!" and "pirate" and "plane!" so I haven't made a note for him yet).  The list was getting long, so I decided to share some highlights (a la Grace):

This morning as Stephen was leaving for work, Juliana asked to wave to him from the door.  As he got to his car door she called out "Have fun! I love you! Adios!"

After putting my sunglasses on top of her head (like I usually do): "Wook! I wook wike Wacey!"

We've been working on letters for a while now and I thought she had a pretty firm grasp on most of them until I put a foam letter H on the wall in the tub. "What letter is this baby?"

J: "I!"

Me: nope

J: "It's a puff!"

Me: That's not a letter

J: "oh, I know, it's an Elmo!"

Me: no, it's an H

J: "No, that's not an H"

So we have some reviewing to do.

In the car leaving my mom's house (whom we normally refer to as "Gaga"):

J: "bye Patti!"

J: (to me) "I say 'bye Patti!'"

Me: why do you say "bye Patti?"

J: "because I wuv her"

While eating scrambled eggs the other day:

"This wecipe is good! I wike this wecipe!"

Eating grits Stephen decided to try (they're less common in California):

"Oh, this a wittle bit doesn't taste good."

To Stephen, while we were driving home the other day:

"oh! I want to go home and play wike Mommy is gone!"

I need to practice my fun mom skills.

Alright and a Samuel video. I know all kids do this, but his expression cracks me up:

Seven Quick Takes

1. Might I be the least consistent blogger on the planet? Perhaps. Onward!

2. Grace requested a mascara recommendation, so I told her about my new favorite mascara (there is one every quarter or so, so don't get too excited until at least three months have elapsed and I'm still using it), Revlon Lash Potion. I like big lashes (not spidery, but emphatic, let's say), and this one delivers for me. It also stayed on through a pool session with my crazy water babies without running and -- get this-- it's not waterproof. Amazing! It also supposedly makes lashes healthier? Which I can't really speak to at this point, but sounds good.

3. Yesterday was crazy. We ran a million errands in the morning and I started dinner early (miracle!) because we teach the baptism class at our parish once every other month and last night was the night.  I put up the baby gate to keep the kids in the dining/play area so I could see them (is this good parenting? Shouldn't they obey obediently when I ask them to stay where mommy can see them for the 12th time?) while I cooked dinner, but! The gate was around corner down the hall about three feet, and in that nefarious, unseen three feet of hallway, Juliana managed to get a hold of a Costco-sized bottle of hand lotion and pump it all over Samuel's head. I'm going to guess at least 15 pumps of extra-rich moisturizing hand lotion. When I found him she had styled it into very fashionable spikes while he sat happily enjoying all the attention.

4. Oh, and this was her outfit yesterday. She doesn't like to wear clothes during and after naps (in the morning it's fine; we don't run into a problem until naptime when she strips herself naked every day). Sometimes we make compromises to get her into clothes. Any clothes:

Princess dress: check.

Crown and apron: check.

All taken within 10 seconds of each other.

Vamping while cooking.

5. We got a little vacation in before the madness of the school year descends, and it was wonderful. We spent two mornings at the zoo and two afternoons in the hotel pool. Both kids were in absolute heaven. I even managed to get one whole picture of the kids and me.

Sammy gets his deadpan from his daddy. 

6. In case anyone is keeping score, I'm still totally addicted to these (Costco size, obvs.). As far as I can tell, they're health food. Antioxidants, right?

7. Is anyone watching Project Runway anymore, or is it just me and Tom and Lorenzo (lots of salty language at that link!)? This Timothy kid, am I right? This week got gnarly and I'm not sure who came off looking worse: Tiny Tim, his crazy mean partner, or the Russian guy. I think probably the Russian guy. 

Go see Jen for lots more takes!