Answer Me This #1

I'm linking up with Kendra at Catholic All Year for the first time.  Actually, linked up with her about a year ago but this is the first time for Answer Me This.  I've thought it would be fun to participate in the past, planning to do so the next week, and then I would miss it again...story of my life!  But not this week baby!  I'm linking up.  So make sure you head over to Catholic All Year to read other's Answer Me This.

1. How did you get your name?

I'm not 100% sure where my parents found the name Nicole.  Maybe a baby name book.  I do know that they had a boy name ready to go, Ryan.  On the way to the hospital, my mom told my dad that she knows they are having a girl and they needed a name. She said, "I like Nicole." And my dad said "Okay".  I think that's the story anyway.  Marie is after my dad's grandmother.  My siblings and I all have middle names after someone.  Chris and I have continued that middle name tradition with our kids.  Owen Clarence (Chris's grandfather), Amelia Rose (my dear friend Julie), Simon Paul (my dad), and #4's middle name will be Roger (Chris's dad). Clarence is the only first name, the rest are middle names.  I think Marie was my great-grandmother's first name, but I could be completely wrong about that.

2. Do you have a set time for prayer in your day?

No, not really.  We manage to say prayers with the kids every night before bed.  We are improving saying the blessing before meals.  Dinnertime is becoming more frequent, but not every time. There have been a few times we pray after we have eaten because we forgot.   Breakfast and lunch get skipped more often, but it's getting there.  Neither Chris or I grew up praying before meals regularly, so trying to make this a priority and breaking habits is taking some work.

Most of the time my prayers are randomly said.  When something crosses my mind I will offer it up.  Our day to day living is going to change as we embark on homeschooling this year.  I have scheduled prayer into our day, but I'm not great with schedules.  My plan is to make a visual daily timeline, so the kids can help keep me on track.  They often remind us to pray before meals, so I think this will eventually work.  The visual reminder will likely help me, too.

3. Did your mom work, stay home, or both?

Mostly worked.  She was home for the first few years of my life, and then began to work.  For a while she would be off work around the time I was getting out of school.  And there was a summer where she was able to stay home with us.  Overall she worked.  I think she would have really liked to have been able to stay home with us, but it wasn't in God's plan for her.  

I'm really grateful that I get to stay home with our kids.  Most days, I enjoy having them around.  After an hour or two I start to miss them when we are separated.  I love that I'm available when Chris is off work.  Combating schedules in one of many reasons we are choosing to homeschool, and it is one of the reasons I am grateful to be home.

4. Do you vote?

YES! I even do the research that is necessary to vote in the right person for smaller titles. 

5. What is your favorite drink?

Diet Pepsi.  I know it's terrible for you, but I really like carbonated, aspartamey goodness.  I have stopped buying it for the house, but I will still order it if we are out to eat.  I have been known to drink a good amount of sweet tea, too.

Adult beverages...beer, wine, cocktails.  Middle of the road leaning toward sweet, but not too sweet and I prefer chilled.

6. How are your photography skills?

Ummm, mediocre at best.  Every so often I will snap a few gems, but mostly the ones I really love turn out blurry or dark.  I have a fancy-ish camera that I mostly keep on auto because I just don't know what I'm doing.  There are some people who are really talented with their trusty camera phone.  I specialize is dark grainy camera phone pictures that I just make worse with filters.  It's all good.  Even if my skills do not improve I will try to continue to capture our lives with low quality images.  Hopefully, my kids will appreciate it down the road. 

Here are some of the low quality images that I love! 

Weird flash

Blurry

Dingy weird lighting

Blurry and weird lighing

My finger!

Too dark.

My kids are weird :)

So don't forget to head over to Catholic All Year for others' answers to these 6 questions!