7 Quick Takes - New Vocabulary

1. My father-in-law set us onto watching the new Sherlock Holmes series from the BBC.  It was very good.  Once we finished watching the two seasons he had, I downloaded the complete Adventures of Sherlock Holmes onto my Kindle for $0.99.  I have been enjoying reading it very much.  I do not think I would have been prepared mentally to enjoy it so much as a youth.  I am glad I am reading it as an adult.  I have had to look up new words every other page.  Thus, I have been increasing my vocabulary.  If you wish to increase you vocabulary, simply pick up a copy of The Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 

2. I have been busy going to the gym and caring for my nieces.  The nieces have been coming over a couple days a week so their parents can take them to soccer practice after work.  They live out of town.  It has been good to spend extra time with them.  But, I will be honest, it is tiring having lots of extra children in the house.  I thought kids were supposed to get easier as they get older, but it's a whole different kind of difficulty and tiring.  

3.  The fitness instructor at the gym I have been going to has me feeling really insecure about my body.  She is way over the top about fitness.  She yells at the class telling us to work harder and gives details on how we ought to do it.  This should not make me feel insecure, but it does.  Supposedly, this would be the mark of a good instructor.  I mean she works us hard and gets us in shape.  But, could it be too much for the novice?  I expect a lot from myself.  The fact that I cannot achieve what she demands makes me feel very discouraged.  I have a long way to go, a lot of weight to lose to get back to a good weight.  I feel like there is great meaning in achieving this.  It would mean I would feel more comfortable not having to battle with the big belly just sitting, or stuffing big thighs into pants.  It would mean my clothes fit.  It would be good for my varicose vein problem.  It would mean that I am not doing something wrong.  I am working hard and finally seeing some results.  Hopefully, I can keep it up.  I put it all into the hands of God.  Nothing is achievable without Him.

4. Speaking of the gym, after a particularly hard workout and tears were wiped away from my eyes (emotional anguish, not physical), I exclaimed to myself and to Facebook the famous Nietzschian quote,"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." This is not always true, but we certainly do learn from our experiences and adapt to manage life's challenges better.  It is why captives can endure years of torture--they adapt to their situation.  Anyhow, all this to say, while I was pregnant, my husband and I determined that perhaps future pregnancy would be unwise, since the pregnancy was so difficult.  However, I will not fret over it if another pregnancy should come, because I have learnedfrom the last.  I will need to adapt to the situation and prepare our family better for it.  I am stronger now. 

5. Our little baby sleeps long stretches at night.  It was not by my design.  I just can not seem to wake her in the night.  Which makes me feel a little guilty since according to NFP protocol this does not cause extended infertility.  But, I think I will take the rest she has afforded me.  Finally, a baby who sleeps well.

6. Pudgey Wudgey was a baby.  Lucy with one of her cousins, her brother and sister. 

 

7. Alex was a slug giving slithering rides across the floor.  Kids do the darndest things. Earlier in the week, the kids turned on the hose in the backyard to make a river and a dam.  I told them to turn it off, because it wasted water.  So they filled up their sandbox with water and told me it was the ocean.  Then they made little islands in it.  The only problem is now they do not have a sandbox and they constantly come inside muddy and wet.  But I cannot be too upset.  I was a daily mudpie kind of kid.  I don't remember my parents ever fussing at me for it.