Why this blog? Why Me? Why now?

Recently, after a series of particularly stressful events, I had a day that was full of tiny moments that all seemed designed to push me towards God. As I've never been a regular churchgoer and certainly not a believer, this came as a bit of a shock. I have never felt that I was missing anything, but it was too strong of a feeling to ignore. It is possible that in a month or week or day that the compulsion will pass. It is also possible that it will not.

I started this blog to document the process. I am starting from scratch, more or less, so please forgive me if I get some fact about your church or your faith wrong. I'm a work in progress.

Friday, May 25, 2012

7 Quick Takes, vol. 5


--- 1 ---
I promise, this week I will return the blog to it's orginal purpose. I've had a lot of time to think about life, and family, and God, and faith this week. I just haven't had a lot of time to blog about it all.

--- 2 ---
And if you'll pardon me for yelling, MY HUSBAND DID NOT HAVE A SECOND HEART ATTACK. Whooooo!!!!   Ha ha, fooled you, false alarm.

--- 3 ---
On Tuesday we drove back to a bigger city, and saw an actual cardiologist. He was a bit perplexed by the facts of the event and decided that the safest path would be to do an angiogram to check things out.

--- 4 ---
The angiogram showed ALL CLEAR. "Fantastic" arteries.  The doctor only wished his were as good. He suspects the Mike got really dehydrated, causing the dizziness, and then started to panic with his history of high stess and prior heart attack, and then the doctor here was trying to CYA. The stress test was a false positive and there was no heart damage.

--- 5 ---
They now can do a heart cath through the wrist instead of the groin. Recovery is a billion times easier, the patient goes home the same evening. Highly recommended if you or a loved one find yourself in that position.

--- 6 ---
As soon as we returned home yesterday, I completely collapsed. I took a 3 hour nap and woke with with an awful cold.  I can't sleep, my head hurts, coughing, runny nose, etc.  A reaction to the stress, perhaps?

--- 7 ---
Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, I really really appreciate it.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Friday, May 18, 2012

7 Quick Takes, vol 4


--- 1 ---
I meant to write a real post this week. I even started drafting it. But then...

--- 2 ---
On Wednesday my husband tried to have a heart attack, literally. And I got a bit distracted.

--- 3 ---
He's been in the ICU for the last two days. He feels fine physically, and it wasn't a full blown heart attack, but it's close enough for them to keep him. He has to do a stress test today, and will hopefully come home tonight. Meanwhile he's bored and cranky and lonely (I have only been up once, for about 30 minutes, hard to find someone to watch your kids during the day.)

--- 4 ---
He had his first heart attack 7 years ago at age 35, so it's kind of a big deal. How many chances do you get?

--- 5 ---
I am tired and stressed and a bit worried. And a little angry (see #4). The kids are being crazier than normal, of course.

--- 6 ---
The moral of this story is, of course, if you're busy thinking you'll start your diet and exercise plan next week, maybe start today.  Now if you'll excuse me, I have some kitchen clean out to take care of, and an exercise bike to dig out of the garage.

--- 7 ---
(last year on Father's day)

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Friday, May 11, 2012

7 Quick Takes, vol 3


--- 1 ---
I have been remiss on this blog. Life has been so busy lately (with what I'm not sure) and it seems that I haven't had time to give this the attention I feel it deserves. I'm sure that says something about me, but that's deeper than I want to get into in a Quick Take.

--- 2 ---
One of the things we did recently to stay busy was go out of town. I was invited on a work trip with my husband and my beautiful sister-in-law (the best Catholic I know) volunteered to keep my kids for four days so I could go. My sister-in-law does not have children of her own.

--- 3 ---
The first thing she did, on the first day she was here, was take them to church. It did not go well.

--- 4 ---
We did not go to church this week.  I typically work every Saturday night until 11pm or later. Then my husband usually works the next morning, which leaves us with 8am mass. And it's not a good excuse, but it's just so hard to get us all up and out the door for that. *insert whine*

--- 5 ---
Did you read this absolutely terrific post on motherhood at Mama Needs Coffee? I'm sure you did, but I have to share it. I saved it to read again.

--- 6 ---
And contrast that with this post at Dooce about living with a three year old. For us, three has been a million times harder than two, with both boys. The girl isn't yet two, but we'll see how that shakes out. (If you don't read Dooce, there is a lot of Language. You've been warned.)

--- 7 ---
Last, this weekend is Mother's Day. I hope all the Mothers out there get treated like royalty. May you be as happy as a girl with a yard full of butterflies. And a Popsicle.

May 4. She found a bush full of flyflies! (butterflies)

Quick Takes is being hosted here this week, stop by to join the fun.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

A quick update

First, thanks for your prayers for my friend's baby. Ainsley had Group B strep and spent 10 days in the hospital. She's home now and doing fine.

Second, I've been sadly remiss on this blog. Life got too busy to think there for a while. I'm going to try to rectify that.

Third, I recently had the opportunity to travel to Colorado Springs with my husband. While he worked I was able to go on a tour of Glen Eyrie, which was built in the last 1800s and is now a Christian retreat center/ Bed and Breakfast owned by the Navigators. The Castle itself was fascinating and I highly recommend the tour. The giftshop is small and religiously oriented, as one would expect. I picked up a couple books there- The Message Promise Book , which is a book of scripture broken down by topic, and The Bible: Think for yourself about what's inside (TH1NK Reference Collection) which kind of breaks down each book of the Bible into themes and events. I haven't really had a chance to look at them, and I'm not sure how biased they are towards any given denomination (the website doesn't seem to claim any one in particular), but they looked interesting.

I hope you all are doing well, and special congratulations to Clan Donaldson on your new baby GIRL.