7QT - #15

I should totally be doing something else right now.  Like taking a shower or something.  But it's cold out and I have to do pick up in about an hour.  So I will go out in public in my 10 year old sweats and stringy hair, and I will take my shower after so I don't have to go out in the cold with wet/damp hair.  Even with blow dryer I cannot get my hair dry to save my life. It will be at least damp.  I really should raise my standards slightly, but I will just be setting myself up for failure.  So 7 Quick Takes, shall we? We shall!

1- I know I seem to complain about exhaustion lately, but that's really all I have.  The mental effort to keep my eye lids open usually results in a headache.  I am pretty sure the first 12 weeks of all of my pregnancies have been survival mode....KEEP ALL THE KIDS ALIVE! So yeah, laundry is backed up for days. Toys everywhere!  Dinners are easy and mostly lacking in the nutritional value department.  And I have already expressed my standards for personal hygiene my the intro.

2-  I really miss Aria.  It's competition season now.  Guards are going to show after show trying to do better than the contest before.  Rehearsals are filled with changes and fine tuning details in preparation for Dayton that is just over a month away.  I miss the hard work, the sweat, the laughter, the blood (okay, I could live without that, but it happens), the inside jokes, the love, the determination, the family, and the common goal to create something that only lives within the moment of performance.  Most people don't get it.  Its hard to explain its value when on the surface it really is kind of illogical.

3- I love reading blogs.  Especially, ones by Catholic moms face with some of the same challenges as myself.  NEW FAVE is The Ain't the Lyceum SO SO SO funny!  I could read it all day.

4- Last night we put the kids to bed.  And they were a bit more stubborn than usually to go to sleep.  They had finally quieted down, though not asleep, so we figured it wouldn't be too long.  Chris and I began watch the disc of Game of Thrones we had just gotten in the mail.  Two hours with the kids occasionally coming out and swiftly taken back to bed.  Once the disc was over, we pathetically "cleaned up" the kitchen and living room.  As we headed to bed we noticed the light on in the kids bed room.  We were SHOCKED to find that Owen was sleeping and Amelia was not.  It is always the other way around.  We were even more shocked to she her face and hands covered in mascara.  No wonder they were so quiet.  She had slipped herself into our room to play with my stuff.  Luckily it she didn't stain anything up, and it easily came off her face and hands.  I should have snapped a picture...but I was tired and forgot.  Story of my life!

5- I mentioned that Chris is submitting a flight packet few updates for ya.  He took the SIFT test and did really well.  We are quite pleased with the results.  He saw his NCOER (evaluation) again great score, DA photo has been taken, PT test scheduled for Monday (praying for a 260 or better), flight physical scheduled for Tuesday, a meeting with a senior warrant officer for a letter of recommendation, and updating his ERB.  I know lots of Army jargon I'm sorry.  I do try to keep that to a minimum.  Anyway, lots of things falling into place with the deadline two weeks away.  The biggest set back is potentially the flight physical.  It has to be sent to Fort Rucker to receive a stamp or something.  It can take a week to two months to get it back.  Clearly, we're hoping for the former. Fingers crossed, salt thrown, and prayers said....and begging for you lovely people to do the same!

6- Owen's birthday is approaching.  The big 05!  My baby is not a baby as someone reminded me of such about Amelia.  I'm still bleeding Jenn ;)  Anyway, I don't have any plans.  Keeping it small.  I will make him a cake and maybe get pizza or something.  But no big party.  We still don't know what we are going to give him for his birthday.  We have Razor A Kick Scooter that we bought a couple of Black Fridays ago. It just stinks that he can't ride it with all the snow and freezing temperatures that don't seem to be melting or getting warmer anytime soon.  We'll wing it like we always do.

7- Go see Jen for other 7QT's...K?

Name Game

I know it's been a while.  Nearly two weeks since my last post.  I know my last few post have been anything but entertaining.  Sorry 'bout that.  Keeping things consistently inconsistent is the name of the game folks.  In short, the first trimester is kicking my butt.  So far I have been blessed with manageable pregnancies.   They all come with their own set of complaints, but manageable.  This one I have been exhausted and nauseated.  Thankfully, no vomiting, but still this crippling nausea that makes me want to do nothing more that lay on the couch and sleep it off.  Chris was on leave and bless him because that is what he let me do!

Anyway, let's talk about my favorite part about being pregnant: picking names.  Hands down.  I've heard other couples sometimes have a hard time agreeing, and though Chris and I don't agree on every suggestion we usually don't have a hard time.  Actually, we usually have several names we have agreed on and then have a hard time making a decision.  We are the most indecisive couple you will ever meet.  We are that degree of annoying.  Trust me.

I mentioned during a Quick Take that I wasn't sure if I wanted to find out the sex this time.  Choosing the name is one of the reasons why I would want to find out again.  It's not the sticking to one gender so much, but once we choose a name we use it.  I like that aspect of finding out the gender of the baby.  I don't think it would work if we switched back and forth.  We're still not sure about finding out the gender, but the name and picking the coming home outfit are the two reasons I would want to find out.

Many people like to keep the name a secret so other people don't ruin it for them.  I know not everyone is going to love the name that we choose, so I try not to let other people's opinions bother me.  So far I have never felt like we needed to scrap a name.  We love it, we go with it.

So, we don't really have a system of any kind.  A friend of mine gave me the book The Baby Name Wizard, Revised 3rd Edition: A Magical Method for Finding the Perfect Name for Your Baby and that is how we stumbled upon our boy names.  Within the book it gives you brother and sister names of a particular name.  I loved the name Amelia before we even had kids, but in the book that is how we found Owen and Simon.


Middle names we try to use a family name.

With Owen we had four other names we were considering. Ian, Sawyer, Aiden, and Liam.   We decided to use the names rather than "the baby" to see what would fit.  Chris kept using Owen so I asked him if that was the name he preferred.  It was and we went with it!  We knew we were going to use the middle name Clarence, after Chris's grandfather, before we had the first name picked out.

Owen Clarence: March 3, 2009

When discussing names for Amelia, we had managed to narrow down our list to two boy names and two girl names before we found out the gender.  Jude and Gabriel if she were a boy.  Amelia Rose and Fiona Olive is she were a girl.  Once we found out she was a girl we opted to do the same thing we did with Owen, use the names.  Chris told me that he just thought she was an Amelia so that is what we chose.  Rose is after my best friend Julie.  I just love the name Rose!  I almost wish I had kept it to use as a first name one day.

Amelia Rose: October 23, 2010

And then there was Simon.  We toyed with the idea of not finding out the gender, but I was only looking at girl names even though I was pretty sure I was having a boy.  So we found out the gender so I could force myself to look at boy names...sad I know.  But nothing was appealing.  We even thought about stick with names that began with a vowel, but nothing came of it so we scratched it.  We reached for the baby name book again where we found Simon and Pierce attached to either Owen's or Amelia's name..I can't remember.  Chris said that he felt like he made the final call on the last two kids that he wanted me to do it this go 'round.  He liked both names and that I should make the final call.  Seriously, I was not trilled with this.  Mainly because when I would go back a forth he would not give me a definitive "ok, that's the name".  I felt like I did that for him, but maybe not.  I was drawn to Simon.  I just loved it. We chose Paul as his middle name after my dad.

Simon Paul: October 26, 2012

Ahhh...can't you just smell that new born smell right through the computer screen!!!  The best.  Chris and I have been throwing some names.  Here is what we have so far....

Boys:  Everett, Oliver, Jude, Augustine, Benedict, Emmett,

Girls:  Ruth, Jocelyn, Gianna, Magdalene, Cecilia, Bernadette

Actually, there is more to this list, but I have completely blanked.  Pregnancy Brain? Maybe? But doubtful. Once we really narrow down our list we will probably do an online poll.  It never sways our decision, but I like to know what everyone else thinks.  For fun, ya know?  So, how did you choose your kids' names?  Do you have any suggestions to add to our list?  We wouldn't mind hearing them since we indecisive and non-committal ;)  For real.  Let us know!

7 Quick Takes - #14

Oh my goodness, you may have seen on Facebook that I have been battling some nausea or a bug of some kind.  I will spare you the ugly details that have been my reality for the past 4 days.  After a bit of Googling, it is possible that it is morning sickness...but it can also be a bug.  And since I'm semi functions with Chris's help I will continue to avoid the doctor since they weren't much help on Tuesday.

So, the quickest of quick takes.  Whatduya say?

1 - Went to the doc on Tuesday so they can make a referral even though they already had a positive result.  Seems to be wasting resources to me, since someone who was actually sick could have had that appointment.

2 - Owen had two screenings on his hearing at school.  Both times said further evaluation should be done.  I'm not terribly worried, since I can hold a conversation with Owen.  It is quite possible that it is just fluid.  I am going to mention it at his 5 year old wellness check up.

3 - We took Amelia and Simon to the ER last weekend.  Simon was on Saturday.  His glands are so swollen.  And when we got there he had a 101.7 fever.  After tests it "just viral. Stay ahead of the fever."  The fever is gone and he seems completely fine, but his glands are still really swollen.  You can see them sticking out of his neck.  They are kinda hard too.  I emailed his doctor to see if I should bring him in again.

4 - We took Amelia in on Sunday.  She woke us up by coughing uncontrollably in the bathroom.  She crawled into bed with me and sounded wheezy.  We took her and just an upper respiratory infection, basically a cold. I know I should be thankful that my kids aren't really sick, but almost anytime I am concern it seems to be something we have to wait out.

5 - My phone...It's not even worthy of the name.  It's the most frustrating.

6 -
Me: Amelia, you look beautiful.
 Amelia: I know.

Me: You guys need to clean up your toys when we get home.
Amelia: I can clean it up by myself.
Owen: You can? Good job.  If you need me give me a call

Amelia: The baby is in your belly?
Me: Yea. Are you going to teach the baby anything?
Amelia: Yea.
Me: What are you going to teach the baby?
Amelia: The shake her booty.

7 - Happy St. Valentine's Day Folks.

Found at Catholic Memes.

For more Quick Takes head over to Jen at Conversion Diary

Theme Thrusday: Church Windows

One of my favorite blogs House Unseen (actually it could be my favorite blog...but it's at least top 5) participates in a link up called Theme Thursday hosted by Cari at Clan Donaldson...and now I have started reading this blog and it's inching it's way up to my fave list.  Seriously, I wouldn't hate you if you stopped reading this all together to start reading these other two...soooo funny and soooo good!

Anyway, I thought I would give it a go. 

We go to church on a military installation. And when the chapel is not in use it must be stripped of any kind of religious artifacts.  So our church does not have beautiful stained glass windows that one would find at a civilian parish.  The chapel does have this really cool sun roof.  And my intention had been to take a picture of that.  It brings tons of sun light into the church and sometimes it's covered in snow and sometimes its covered with droplets of rain.  It's always transforming the feel of the chapel, and I mean that in a beautiful way.

But I forgot to take my phone or camera with me into church to take a picture, and life right now is a little tough for daily mass (I know the excuses...).  Anyway, I'm not sure if it's cheating (and cheating my first time linking...yikes), but here is my domestic church window for your viewing pleasure!

Our Domestic Church

Missing beatutiful religious images, but wine glasses at arms reach. Shameful.

Not going to lie I have heard of this "domestic church" but didn't really know what value it held within the Church.  I mean, I know the Church values the vocations of marriage and parenting, but what it says about this "domestic church" I wasn't too sure.  So, I pulled out the trusty, and slightly dusty, Catechism...I really don't think I have ever done this on my own, people.  Let me just type these beautiful words that our Church give us!

"It is in the bosom of the family that parents are 'by word and example...the first heralds of the faith with regard to their children. They should encourage them in the vocation which is proper to each child, fostering with special care any religious vocation.' It is here that the father of the family, the mother, children, and all the members of the family exercise the priesthood of the baptized in a privileged way 'by the reception of the sacraments, prayer and thanksgiving, the witness of holy life, and self-denial and active charity.' Thus the home is the first school of Christian life and 'a school for human enrichment.' Here one learns endurance and the joy of work, fraternal love, generous--even repeated--forgiveness, and above all divine worship in prayer and the offering of one's life."                                                

 -Catechism of the Catholic Church (1656-1657)

Wow!  I often forget what our job is as parents, and makers of our domestic church.  Each domestic church should and will look different, but we should all be doing our best to create a rich domestic church of worship.

Anyway, here is my Thursday Theme.  Head over to Cari's to see other Church Windows.

Small, Slow Steps

I am full of excitement....I don't even know how to contain myself.  Things are going relatively good for us Lockharts.  Big changes and uncertainty are in the horizon, however.  It's causing emotions leaving me extremely unfocused and neglectful in some areas...including prayer.

This year I am purging not just things but bad habits too.  I am taking small steps.  Changing everything at once would leave me unmotivated and tired before I even start.  This may sound extremely silly to some people.  And maybe it is, but I have to start somewhere to be the wife and mother I want to be.  

So, over a week ago I have started making my bed.  Told you, small steps.  That is been my only goal.  In the past, I have made the bed and not made the bed.  There would be stretches of time it was made for nearly a month and other stretches of time that it was not.  Even though it takes less than a minute to do, and it cleans up the room almost rather quickly, I still neglect doing it most of the time.  This is a habit that I would like to instill in my children, but there is NO way I am going to get the results I want if my bed is not being made daily.  

Chris noticed.  My kids have noticed, too.  It has only been a week, and today I almost said to hell with it.  But I did it anyway.  Minutes after making the bed Amelia said, "Mommy, I like your bed."  In the end I was glad  the bed was made.

Yea, yea I'm sure I can get a few tips from you perfect OCD perfectionist ;)

The house is still a wreck.  Lego blocks everywhere, laundry baskets full of clothes, dishes in the sink, and stacks of things throughout the house needing to be sorted and thrown away.  It's overwhelming.  It's much easier to ignore it all by refreshing my news feed or shopping for maternity clothes to my trusty Hewlett-Packard.  So, I instead of ignoring it I'm trying one step at a time.

The next step I have made is bedtime for yours truly.  I'm a night owl, that will never change.  As of last night though I'm going to make the responsible decision to go to bed by 11.  Stop whatever I'm doing, reading, watching, and go to bed.  Even going to bed can leave me laying there for hours, I must try to make morning more bearable by getting to bed earlier.  Pregnancy will make this difficult, but those nights that I just can't fall to sleep that time will be filled with extra prayers.

I haven't decided what will be my next step.  Hopefully it will come to me.  It still needs to remain small since these new changes are not quite habits yet.  Maybe more spiritually focused?  That's probably where I should have started.  

I may desire showroom home free of all clutter; I will probably never have it.  But, with some effort, I hope to create a peaceful environment with controlled chaos in our home even if it is "lived in".  

The Boys Got Their Hair Did.

Simon's new 'do

Owen's new 'do too

Amelia's is still a mess. Just wanting some camera time.

We bit the bullet and took the boys to get their hair done.  We should have know before we even took one step out the door that it was going to be a pain...I guess we kinda knew, but we were optimistic that the boys would sit there nicely and as their precious locks hit the floor.  Not even close.  

Simon started crying as soon as they put the gown around his neck.  It ended up falling off.  I said to hell with it let's just get this done.  Owen whined all the way up into the chair with his head scrunched as far into his shoulders as physically possible. Simon proceeded to scream and cry and his golden hair began to stick to his face, hands, and clothing.  It ended up in his mouth.  Owen eventually calmed down when they stopped using the clippers and then said "It's only a hair cut, Simon."  Now you're mister tough man!  Simon did not care one bit about what his brother had to say he wanted out of my lap ASAP.  Amelia chimed in with her word of encouragement also "Mom, Mom....Mom....Moooooooom."--she had nothing to say.  She just wanted to remind me that she can both speak and  knows my name.

Hair was everywhere.  All over Simon, me, the floor.  I put Simon on the floor and he bolted to Chris where he gave me the cold shoulder for at least 30 minutes after the torturous act of a haircut.  How dare I ask someone to remove that mullet.  I actually wanted their hair shorter, but we had to get out of there.  There was a big sigh of relief by all once we finally left the establishment.  I'm sure they would appreciate it if we never return.

So now we are home and everyone is happy as a clam about their new hair.  Oh, the drama of it all.  

My Super, Awesome Save

These are some of the items in my order.

I am usually not up to date on the latest trends or awesome websites.  Even though I love trolling the interwebs,  I often just use it to figure out the latest acronym *smh*. I really stick with the same basic sites over and over.  Facebook, Pinterest, Blogger, Bloglovin, and Amazon....in no particular order of course. I most recently stumbled upon this gem of a site...(actually I think I "found" it via a blog I regular on Bloglovin).  Any who, you may have seen my post on Facebook about thredUP.  

For real, I just saved a ton of money!  According to thredUP I save 79% of retail value.  I NEVER pay retail value, but I was able to save on 13 items for the kids and mostly me.  Owen got a shirt, Amelia a shirt, a dress, and a skirt, Simon a sweater and two vest, Me two pairs of maternity jeans, a maternity skort, a maternity dress (with tags...my most expensive item at $11!!!), and two shirts for under $70.  Name brand items to boot.  Lands End, Gymboree, Motherhood, and Carters were a few of the brands in my order.

thredUP will take your clothes, examine them, and give you credit for the items they plan to sell too.  Then you can use that credit to buy clothes for your kids in the next size...or yourself :) I just ordered a bag to see what kind of credit I can gets for the clothes we have stashed around the house.  They did say they are extremely picky about the items they select.  They usually select less than 50% of what is sent in a bag.  Clearly, they are taking the time to make sure it's worth selling.  Which is great for a buyer.

If you use any of the thredUP links you will receive a $10 credit on your first order...applied at check out.  I will too, but really I just wanted to share this awesome store and help you save some money...so no pressure.  My only complaint is that I wish there was a men's section.  And that is hardly a complaint since it is worth ever penny I save on kids clothes.  And I hope you find it as awesome and me! 

Until next time peeps!