I think I have about three half-finished posts on topics I promised I would write about, and one of them is clogging the works, so maybe I will just abandon it.
Here are a few quick takes that may amuse, and then I will move on with my life.
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The Road Scholar is musing about calories vs. portion size.
I am specifically trying to work on portion size, but the devil side of my subconscious plays with me saying, "But that is soooooo low cal. You can have two or three times that amount and you won't gain any weight." Or even better, "That was SOOOOO good. A little more won't hurt."
I had that struggle at lunch today. Trying to piece together a lunch from left overs, I mixed leftover veggies and Israeli couscous with chicken broth and a poached chicken breast. There were probably four cups of "soup", but I was convincing myself that since it was so low calorie, I could probably finish it all, totally forgetting that I am really working on portion control right now, not calorie counting.
I appear in the comments with a link back to an old post of mine. Road Scholar's post is timely for me, too. I am finding that even two years after reaching my goal weight — I passed the anniversary last week! — I still struggle with portion size. Not in the sense of constantly failing, but rather, I am constantly conscious of the internal struggle. I am beginning to wonder if I should start a viral "It Doesn't Get Much Better, So Suck It Up" video campaign.
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Leila has another one of those combination drill sergeant/grandma posts that is the reason why I love her writing so much. It's called "The Reasonably Clean Kitchen Starts With Rules For the Kids." There, don't you want to go read it right now? It's all about being able to enjoy meals with the children during the day — the work you have to put in to make it happen, and the rewards you can reap if you invest in it.
I am one of those moms who avoids eating lunch with the children. I want a break from the kids when I have my lunch. This introvert does need a mental break during the day — I am certain of it — but Leila almost has me wondering if maybe I could really do it at a time other than meals, without going crazy. But I take exception to her title a bit. It can't start with rules for the kids, because every rule for the kids (I find) always starts with a rule for the parents. All effective discipline starts with self-discipline. You can take that to the bank.
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Last week I had the opportunity to host an anti-Black-Friday get-together at my in-laws' home. (This was a major milestone for me, because as socially anxious as I am, trying to be a gracious guest and a gracious hostess at the SAME TIME is wayyyyyy up there on the stress-o-meter. But I did it anyway! And I didn't get either blacklisted off the Catholic "B" List or kicked out of the family!)
My guests were Darwin and MrsDarwin of DarwinCatholic, newly relocated from Texas to within spittin' distance of my in-laws:
Me (left) and the lovely MrsDarwin (right), along with our littlests.
I've been meaning to schedule this get together ever since I figured out that occasionally their family and our family swing within an hour's drive of one another at the holidays. I love meeting other bloggers in real life — it is always a little nerve-wracking (I like these people in blog form, will they like me in real life?) — but it is also a fascinating experience socially, as you put a literal voice with a figurative voice. Very cool. And I've been looking forward to meeting the Darwins (not their real name, of course) especially since I don't know any husband-and-wife blogging teams that seem to work so well on a single blog — and I actually felt that over the years I'd gotten to "know" both of them equally well. So it was really a treat to meet in person and feed their kids pizza.
The nightmare I had the day before — that the Darwins would not like my blueberry muffins, and that coyotes would chase their children through my in-laws' peach orchard — didn't even come close to coming true. Whew.
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I have written occasionally about how my husband's job takes him out of town a few times a month, mostly to the same two or three places — we know very well the airline schedules to all of them. There's a possibility that Mark may be traveling repeatedly to a new set of cities soon. One of them is Buffalo, NY, news that I took with dismay. When I think of "flying to Buffalo," I think of a wintry, blustery place with horrible snow and long delays while they de-ice the wings. When I think "Buffalo" I think "stuck in Buffalo." Yuck.
And then I thought to myself: This must be what my friends and family back in Ohio think about Minneapolis. No wonder people hardly ever visit us.
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Red Cardigan has a great post about Advent that has sparked a predictable controversy in her comments and required a subsequent post.
…the Advent Purists insist that Christmas trees, Christmas cookie baking, decking the halls (or singing about it) Christmas shopping, writing and sending Christmas cards, attending mandatory office "Holiday" parties one's absence from which will be noted with grave disapproval, or otherwise engaging in any Christmas-related activities prior to just before midnight on December 24 amounts to violating the proper liturgical season, which is Advent.
Yet somehow most people (and I excuse Bishop Wester from this, as he is a bishop and thus not a married person with children who has to think about these things) still expect there to be a decorated tree, wrapped presents below that tree, jars and tins full of Christmas cookies, homemade fudge, candy canes and other goodies, halls decked with holly and lights and a fully-staffed Nativity scene on the premises, filled stockings, softly-wafting Christmas tunes, and a delicious Christmas dinner served on Christmas dishes on a table festooned with red and green or silver and gold or whatever the family's taste might be–on Christmas Day.
So sometime between Midnight Mass and the earliest children's awakening the next day (somewhere between four and six a.m., if the child is younger than ten), someone is supposed to accomplish all or the vast majority of that, while retaining her good temper, sanity, and the cheerful gladness proper to the joyous day.
My take: If Advent is supposed to be a time of preparation, then that gives us permission to, y'know, prepare. I think a good balance is to try to finish up by December 17, the start of the O Antiphons, so that you can slide into Christmas with a little breathing room.
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Simcha has a fantastic post that is a breath of fresh air for those of us who are, shall we say, "prudent" as a matter of our natural constitution. ("We're rule people," my dear husband likes to say.) Yeah, we have to constantly work on stretching ourselves a bit in the "trust-in-providence" direction, but it is nice to see some acknowledgement that pure unbridled generosity is not the only way to authentic love.
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That's all I can manage for now. Baby seems better today, but we canceled our usual co-schooling as a precaution — which means that I want to do Something Different. Maybe I'll go Christmas shopping…
bearing blog 