Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Making Time

Recently I got sucked back into watching videos online, spending a lot of time on Twitter, blogs, and Google+. These are all okay things to do, there is nothing inherently wrong with them. In fact, there are times when all of these things can be edifying; they can give us the time that we need to calm down, relax, or give us the outlet that we need. But for me, my tendency to go all in with something, I struggle with finding a medium. I struggle with allowing these various things to be edifying and not taking away from my vocation as a Catholic mom. Backing away from some of these things gives me the time I need to focus on my boys and my faith life.

My biggest downfall as a mom is to allow the ease of television watching. I mean, we don't have any actual TV service, but we have a lot of DVDs and those of you who follow my blog know that SpongeBob is a huge hit over here. So I've been working on really being in the moment with the boys. Enjoying their silliness and craziness and just being there. Less SpongeBob and more momma. Even though this is what usually happens:

Dominic: Hi daddy!
Me: I'm momma!
D: daaaaddy...
M: moooommma..
D: Daddy!!!
M: Momma!!!
D: ::giggles:: Hi Momma!

It has been great though just enjoying the time together and the boys seem to be enjoying it as well.







And completely unrelated to these pictures and this post, but this was too funny not to share. Jason was telling Christopher over breakfast on Sunday that he has to grow up some time, that you can't be a kid forever. His breakfast? A large marshmallow, ripped in two with a chocolate donut between. ;-)


Friday, July 26, 2013

Quick Takes - Vol 12



How lame that the only time I've posted recently has been to do a link-up. Don't judge...I'm just a lame-o. Did you catch Jen's 7 posts in 7 days challenge? Clearly I didn't take her up on it. ;-) But, I'm really glad that she made the challenge because it was so awesome to see one of my favorite blogger, Anne, posting daily this week. We originally e-met on Catholic Answers Forums and later got to know each other better in a Facebook group. She is an awesome mom, so fun to read, and she's a great e-friend! (I'm sure she's a super awesome friend in real life too, but alas, I haven't met her yet) .


I haven't done a real update on my weight loss journey for a while, so I'm just going to do a mini-update here. I got to 267.5 last week. This is so amazing! I haven't seen lower than 270 since before I hit that when I was pregnant with Christopher on my way up. I'm really feeling great! My diet is kind of hard to stick to, but the trainer gives me one day a week to "cheat". I use Sunday generally and whether it's a breakfast that I don't normally eat, or we go out I splurge a little. But, I still try to keep it in moderation. A couple weeks ago we went out for our favorite breakfast, a breakfast burrito with hashbrowns and chocolate milk. Before I would have eaten all of my food plus 2 cups of milk. This time I didn't finish my food and only one cup of chocolate milk. I'm incredibly impressed with the changes that I've made and am still making. Oh, and the best moment of my work-out life happened last night. We were bike riding and Jason said that I was giving him a run for his money! I mean granted, he's pulling the boys in trailers on his bike, but still impressive if you ask me.


So my workout schedule is getting a bit more intense, but I also feel like I'm handling more. I do 45 minutes of cardio 6 days a week now and then I do weight lifting with the trainer 2 days a week. On top of that we've been riding our bikes to Mass this week in the morning. It's only 10 minutes one way, but it feels nice to be doing something more active. And this weekend I think we're going to drive to Garden City and ride their really nice trail through the city and maybe go to the (FREE!!!) zoo after. It's just so much more activity than I've ever done before, and I'm just really feeling so great about my progress. Don't get me wrong, I know I still have so much work to do, but I know that I'm on the right path and that's positive.


OK, enough of the bragging. ;-) At the risk of this being seen by tons of people who disagree, I'm going for it. This was NFP Awareness week and I'm soooo glad it's almost over. Lots of people did some great posts about NFP and you can check them out at Katie's because she had a link-up. Tons of great information. So why am I glad it's over? Well, if you follow my blog you might know that we don't use NFP. We have chosen to not try to avoid except for some certain, very extreme reasons (that haven't happened for us, but obviously could at some point); and you know that I think that in general we as a society are not as open to life as we could be. Yet, I really appreciate NFP and the knowledge that is available for people whether they want to use it to conceive or to avoid because they, as a couple, have prayerfully discerned that they need to avoid at this time in their lives. (I inserted that "as a couple" because it is a decision that couples make together and I make no judgements on why or if they should, in general I don't even think about it.) I'm mostly glad that NFP week is almost over because I'm so over this current trend to just prove that NFP is "as good, or better" than forms of contraception. Because what that does, and I even almost typed it, is present NFP as another form of contraception. This is how those posts come across and I think that it unfairly makes it seem to non-Catholics that NFP is just Catholic birth control. Also, I'm super sick of the implications that because I don't use NFP I don't understand my body and that my husband and I must not communicate as well or as often because we aren't charting together. I'm hopeful that is not the intention of most posts, because I know a lot of these women from online interactions and I don't believe them to think in that way; but it still rubs me the wrong way and has the tendency to make me feel defensive. For this reason I've avoided commenting on any tweets I've seen. So, anyway, NFP awareness week, definitely check out Katie's blog and look at some of the links and posts because they've been full of useful information.


The boys' birthdays are fast approaching! They are only 18 days apart but I'm going to do my best to keep them separate until and if they decide they would rather have their birthdays celebrated together (but really...birthday cake twice a month? who's going to argue with that?), so I'm working on plans. For Dominic, who has been obsessed with fish lately, I'm thinking I am going to make this cake. We'll get some ice cream and I think we'll have the family all come to the park where the kids can all play and everyone else can hang out comfortably. Christopher seems to just really like candy and frosting right now so I think I'm going to make cupcakes with mounds of frosting for him to eat and maybe some smarties or giant sprinkles.



Christopher's speech therapy is....progressing. It seems like we're getting a few more sounds, but nothing major. His sedated auditory exam is scheduled for August 14th which is smack dab in the middle of Jason's vacation. :-/


Yes! We have vacation scheduled! We aren't going anywhere major, as obviously Christopher has surgery scheduled for the middle of it. But we are going to do a couple days in the Denver area doing some things that we haven't done at all or in a while. We'll be visiting the museum with the boys' cousins and hopefully make a trip to one of Denver's Little Monkey Bizness. The boys had a blast the last time! And the rest of the time we hope to just enjoy being together as a family. Maybe some trips to the swimming pool and lots of playing!
 
For more Quick Takes, head over to Jen's!

Friday, July 12, 2013

Quick Takes - Vol 11



Jason bought a new Surface that came with Windows 8 and the new Office. Because he works on computers and teaches Windows programs he has to have hands on knowledge of the equipment. I have to say it's pretty nice, I'm not using it right now, but I've used it a few times and I like it. It works as a tablet and you can connect the keyboard, it is basically a laptop. It uses the full operating system not just a tablet OS. My biggest complaint is that Google isn't going to support any Windows tablets :( so using some of my favorite Google apps is a pain.
 

Christopher's Speech Therapy seems to be going well, except that he seems to be getting even more frustrated with his lack of communication. The past few days he's been pinching and biting a ton when I can't figure out what he wants. I'm seriously anxious about getting this stupid hearing test done so we can figure out if he's hearing us well enough.


What time do your toddlers take naps? I'm pushing for late morning, early afternoon because otherwise they are up so late and I just can't take it. Also, do you ever wake them up? I've always left sleeping babies alone, but I'm starting to think maybe I should only let them nap an hour or so. What do you think? Begging for trouble?


Lately Dominic hasn't been too interested in eating when we sit down at the table. But, I've found that if we sit at the table with his food in front of him for a while (he might get up and run around or something), he will eventually pick up whatever it was we were eating and finish almost all of his food. He ate 3 whole pancakes this morning, which is a big deal around here lately.


I discussed with my trainer this week what my biggest struggle with eating appropriately is. When I'm trying to get snacks or food for the boys, I have something in my mouth before I even realize it. She suggested chewing gum throughout the whole day, so that I can stop to think about it before sticking something in my mouth. And also suggested getting the boys' snacks made up ahead of time so that I don't have to worry about it at the time.
 

I'm going to try to get my mom to the water aerobics class. She's so scared of water, but she has weight problems, circulation problems, and some neuropathy so I really think that doing some water aerobics will be the best for her. We made the attempt twice this week, but couldn't get our act together. Next week hopefully!
 

Our Friday night meal has become soft pretzels. It is so yummy! Not that I'm getting to eat it lately of course...it is definitely not a part of my regularly scheduled diet.


For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Theme Thursday- Rooms

I'm linking up with Cari again, it's been a while but today's was perfect! We just had our carpets cleaned today and I even have before and after pictures!
I was determined to not put the same "restrictions" on my kids as my parents had for me and allow eating and drinking in the living room. This was a mistake. The carpet was gross.
Bedroom before
 
Living room before
 
Living room from other side before
Living room after
Living room other side after
Bedroom after


Needless to say it made a big difference and we won't be allowing drinks (except plain water) or food in the living room.

Monday, July 8, 2013

All The Things

Okay, wow, I was so excited to move my blog over here and get some regular blogging done. Ha! That's what happens when you plan things. A lot has happened since my last post, so this will be a quick rundown of life at the Spano house.


We love dressing up all the same...well as you can see the boys are not completely impressed. This was a little late, we did it on Sunday, but I'm certain nobody minded. :)

I took some drastic measures with regards to my weight loss. I hired a personal trainer. She's given me a diet to follow and I have a workout regimen. I just finished my first week, and what do you know? I'm down 4 pounds!! That's right, I'm at 270 pounds. I'm feeling really good about that, and I'm working out 6 days a week. I go to the gym Mon-Sat at 5AM and do cardio for 30 minutes. Two nights a week I meet with the trainer and do weight lifting, which totally kicked my butt last week! Then 2 days a week on top of my cardio I am going to water aerobics. I feel really great about myself and how things are going.


Christopher's speech therapy has been going well, he now signs "gimme" or "please" depending on who teaches you the signs. We're still trying to get some different sounds in, but it is slow going. We are unsure how much he is hearing, and after meeting with the ENT, there is some concern. His right ear lost the tube before his follow-up visit after the surgery, and they aren't sure if the left tube is still where it should be. All of this means that he has to have a sedated auditory test. I'm pretty nervous about this, but we don't have a date yet, I will update when I can.


 Dominic's vocabulary is seriously skyrocketing. It is so fun! He's started saying "what happened?" when something random happens that he doesn't understand. He likes to say "hi Church/chocolate/bear/Gary/Larry/SpongeBob/anything that he is looking at or playing with" and when he's done with it he will say bye to whatever it was. He has a balance bicycle that he loves riding all over the house, and he's even getting the hang of the keeping his feet up and balancing.

I'd say that's enough of an update for this post...well, you know, it's long enough already anyway. ;-)