Short attention span + wanting to maintain a blog = 7 Quick Takes

 

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*unrelated photo of Daniel and I from our Senior Prom*

There’s a first time for everything-including a 7 Quick Takes post link-up with Jen Fulwiler (fellow awesome Catholic Redhead) at Conversion Diary

Lack of inspiration/motivation for writing in this blog. Why do I love love love reading blogs so much, but then feel lazy and super unmotivated to write in my own? Maybe because writing reminds me of school…and of that I am d-u-n. 

2.  Is it bad when you are trying to vacuum the tile in your kitchen in barefeet and then you keep stepping on crumbs so you have to wipe your feet on the nearest rug in order to get the crumb of your foot and into the vacuum? I think it’s a sign that I’m at least 20 days overdue on vacuuming.  PS vacuuming is the easiest way I’ve found to clean the kitchen tile. Try it sometime.

3. On the cleaning note (what do you expect–my days are full of blogs, tv, and sometimes/not a lot of times cleaning) I remembered that I bought some generic Cleaning Erasers (like Mr. Clean Magic Erasers) and thought I’d test ’em out on the ol’ tub.  Well, if you ever want to see how not-clean your bathtub is, give the Magic Eraser a whirl.  You’ll feel disgusted.  And then after that you’ll feel a bit satisfied that it’s now cleaner than you ever thought it could be because you thought it was already clean to begin with.

4. Lao food. My husband is Laotian (Laos is in between Thailand and Vietnam–now you’ve heard of it) and we wanted to make some traditional noodle soup called Kao Piak Sien. My mom never really cook growing up, much less made any type of anything from scratch. So, alas, Daniel and I made homemade noodles and I now have a greater appreciation for any kind of homemade noodle.  But they turned out delish, so it was worth it.

5. I’m sitting here watching my brand new Melon Colada candle flicker and soaking up/smelling up all the deliciousness I can get and dreaming of the beach. I love the beach. I think my soul was created from ocean water and sand, but then I’m a redhead and we definitely don’t come from the sunny shores of anywhere. If we did, our skin wouldn’t revolt every time it saw the sun.

6. I’ve been on this kick for about 2-3 months where I like to put Mio (that flavor stuff that you squirt into water to make it actually taste good) into my water (redundant? who cares). Supposedly zero calorie, zero carb, zero sugar, zero everything. When labels say 0 next to every ingredient I just wonder what IS in this stuff? Anyways, if I drink more water because of the stuff then it can’t be that bad for me.

7. I like this whole 7 quick takes thing because my mind can’t stay on one subject for long.  This format works well for this short attention span.

Procrastinating My Way through Grad School–Six blogs at a time

Maybe this is a little-know fact, but I love to read blogs way more than I love the write them. I started reading blogs about 2 years ago and during grad school it was a great way for me to procrastinate even longer. I found one blog that I liked and then started reading the blogs she was linked up with and it definitely snowballed/spiraled out of control from there. There are basically two categories of blogs that I like to follow: 1) musings from everyday life–especially from fellow married Catholic authors 2) musings about everyday life with a cultural spin

Blogs from Category 1/Catholic authors:
Grace at Camp Patton writes about her hilarious and stylish tots. I love her sense of humor and ability to look so so decent and stylish while raising 4 adorable children.
Stephanie over at Bluebird Songs writes about living out her Catholic faith all while moving *frequently* and raising the cutest Korean-Caucasian baby I ever did see.
Katie writes at The Rhodes Log which is one of my newest blog favorites. She and her husband keep bees which just speaks to their level of bravery and thrill for adventure.

Category 2/Cultural (Meaning Laotian-authored :)) Blogs:
Noony at From Laos with Love has become a fast friend through blogging. She is an excellent writer and writes about daily life as well as the history of Lao refugees. She, too, has an amazing sense of humor and bravery considering she is near spiders and snakes on a regular basis…on purpose.
Little Laos on the Prairie is a collection of authors who write about all things Lao. From highlighting the Lao Diaspora in Minnesota to 10 Things to Know for Lao New Year, this blog is Lao’trageously cool.
Theek from The Laotian Commotion writes frankly and hilariously about life with two toddlers. Her children are super-cute Caucasian-Lao entertainers (well, they keep me laughing anyway) and give me hope for my own half-Lao kids one day.

Check out these cool blogs that inspire me to write me and helped me procrastinate my way through grad school!

Eleven: in which one stands by one

Today is a wonderful day, indeed. Besides the fact that I woke up and the sun is shining, there are two more reasons why this day is fabulous.

1) I am officially done with graduate school and will “walk” in a week and a half. Can you say H-E-double hockey sticks Yea?!

2) Daniel and I celebrate 11 months of marriage today. How crazy is that?! (I know, I’m fond of the ‘?!’)

In honor of e-le-ven whole months of marriage I’d like to give a sort of “State of the Union” on our marriage so I can look back one day and see how easy we had it.

One of the biggest adjustments, personally, since I can’t necessarily speak for D is living with another person, sharing money, and keeping the guest room clean-ish. Knowing where my clothes versus his clothes would go was relatively simple–I got all the convenient space for clothes and he got what was leftover. Sharing money has been challenging in that our budgeting styles are different. And we only realized this about two weeks ago. Woops! We are both savers, but we splurge for different things. Me for a Gap sale and D for a nice sushi meal. The guest room has been probably THE biggest struggle of our marriage thus far. It should be called the dungeon because we have black-out curtains hanging in there so it’s always dark and we usually just open the door to throw something in.

I would describe these first 11 months as filled with joy, sacrifice, laughter, a few tears, and mostly the realization that we will probably never cook on a daily basis, but if we need to eat D can season the heck out of any meat known to man (in a good way) and I’m not too shabby with whipping up some frozen vegetables. In all seriousness, we comment unceasingly that we still feel like we’re dating. I pray God will sustain us in this bliss and lead us through the sacrificial road ahead. Cheers to many more!>