You Like Me, You Really Like Me!: 7 Quick Takes XXXIV

So it was kind of a big week, blog-wise. Between guest posting for Haley at Carrots for Michaelmas, impressing Heather from Mama Knows, Honeychild with my (admittedly hilarious) moustache party food tags, and my wildly popular (for me) handmade Jesse Tree Set giveaway (I'm not one to name drop, except when I am and -- you guys, Simcha entered!), I now have about 25% more followers and likes on Facebook than I did a week ago.

Pretty cool.

It doesn't really matter. I don't have any ads because they seem like a lot of work, and the ones that pop-up at you on some blogs bug me, and I want to maintain my amateur status so I can blog in the Olympics. So it doesn't really make any difference how many "clicks" I get.

But I must admit to feeling a tiny bit like this:




And, I have every intention of being the kind of weirdo who tells Facebook when she goes into labor. So if you're the kind of weirdo who likes that sort of thing and you don't yet like Catholic All Year on Facebook, you might want to go ahead and jump on the bandwagon. All the cool kids are doing it.


In related news . . .



And speaking of the Jesse Tree Set giveaway . . . thanks to all of you who entered and for all your kind words. I am SO glad this set will go to someone who will be able to use and appreciate it. And that someone is . . .



RyAnne Carr! (Comment #60, which is the number the random number generator gave me.) Check your email, and send me your mailing address and I'll ship it out to you asap.




If you didn't win, you'll just have to make your own. I made a tutorial here. It includes an easy version, and a really easy version, so don't be scared.



I really enjoyed reading the recent posts by Dwija at House Unseen and Heather at Mama Knows on the concept of check-out-line evangelization.

I've written previously about the "You've really got your hands full" thing here, but it was interesting to read in both of the posts above about that moment of quiet after the exchange with strangers in a store or a parking lot in which the "regular" people are perhaps wondering what might have been . . .

Not immediately jumping to negative conclusions about people who say things like "Are they all yours" or "You've really got your hands full" has made a world of difference in my own life.




I'm unlikely to become a missionary in a foreign land or found a religious order, but THIS is what *I* do: I appear in public with many children. That's my evangelization. And it works better if I try to be nice while doing it.



If you were reading my blog back in the way back days, you'll know that Bonnie from a Knotted Life and I do not always agree on entertainment.

But you'll also know that we are now great friends and have met in real life and everything.

So, when she said Freaks and Geeks was the best, I decided to give it a try.




And . . . I loved it so so so much. It's funny and charming and kitschy and has amazing actors in it.

It addresses tough issues like divorce and adultery and even pornography in a very truthful way that shows how those things really affect kids. (How sweet is it when Coach Fredericks explains to Sam that what he found so disturbing in that film isn't what things are really like?)

As a former knucklehead teenager, I could really identify with Lindsay. A lot. As a mother, the show takes on a different, horrifying dimension. But I just tried to stay in the former place.

It's totally, totally great and you should be sure NOT to watch it, because it just . . . ends. After only one season. With nothing resolved. And at a moment of particularly disappointing decision-making by Lindsay.

And it's kinda-sorta-but not actually sequel, Undeclared, is just awful and celebrates immorality in a way that Freaks and Geeks absolutely does not, but you will be tempted to watch it because so many of the Freaks and Geeks actors make cameos in it.




More Netflix streaming . . .

Buffy.




What can you tell me? I've heard so much about it, and I know the director has done a bunch of stuff since that I really like.

But I watched three episodes of the first season and didn't really get it. It didn't seem particularly smart to me, like Doctor Who does, even though that's also an action show with a fairly ridiculous concept. Buffy just seemed like a Charmed/Zena Warrior Princess mash-up.

Does it get better?

And if it doesn't, what should I watch instead? I like nerdy shows like Doctor Who, Sherlock, Freaks and Geeks, and the Walking Dead. I am generally uncomfortable with shows that don't appear to present appropriate consequences for bad behavior or that don't have a good guy.

It's got to be on Netflix streaming. Once Upon a Time? Has anyone seen Land Girls?



And despite spending an inordinate amount of time blogging (even though I keep meaning not to) I am slowly but surely checking things off the "To Do Before Baby" list.

We've only got one week of school left before we take a very long semester/holiday/baby break.

I finished the baby blankets (one boy and one girl because we don't find out) and two little shirts with the baby names on them. I've got newborn diapers and feminine hygiene products in stock. I have a few meals in the freezer, and awesome friends to rely on for the rest.

I have my bag packed for the hospital, thanks to a particularly noticeable Braxton Hicks contraction.

hair cuts and suckers

I gave the kids haircuts that will hopefully last them for a while. We've done annual checkups at the pediatrician and the dentist.

I've still got one big sewing project not done, but I have high hopes for this weekend on getting that finished. What with not throwing any birthday parties at all -- I'm trying to think positively.

And then I'm looking forward to what will hopefully be a quiet week or two of "confinement" before baby arrives. But probably some stuff will come up.


Have a great weekend everyone!