7 Quick-Takes Friday

Head over to Conversion Diary for more quick-takes!

** 1 **

Chicago was fun, though we didn’t get to see everyone we wanted to, and it rained most of the weekend. But, I did get to go to the HUGE Gap on Michigan Ave. that has a whole maternity section! Though I’m still in that stage where it looks like I had five too many burritos for lunch, rather than being pregnant, I was able to get a long-sleeve wrap dress for 15$, a really cute top for 20$ and a nice black drapey, hooded sweater that will be great in the fall over a long sleeve t. I’m holding out on pants for as long as I can, and given that the dress dare is still going on (for six more days!) it’ll be at least a week before I go shopping for maternity pants.

I tried a few pairs on at Target not that long ago, but, how shall I say this, they’re not really my style. I loved the Gap maternity jeans I saw when I was there, but would really rather not spend 50$ on a pair of pants I’ll wear for six months, and then who knows when again? If I was some fertile myrtle who could get pregnant every 18 months if I so desired (and was planning on it) then, heck yeah, bring on the Gap jeans! But as such…

Basically, I’m asking any of you ladies out there where you get your maternity pants? I’m thinking I’d like some kind of capris (to go through summer into fall) and some boot-cut dark denim jeans (to go through fall into winter and post partum). Any help is appreciated!

** 2 **

So I just saw the trailer for the next installment of the Chronicles of Narnia — The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which comes out around Christmas this year. It’s going to be a great fall movie-wise, and as I’m going to have reached epic proportions myself by November, what better enjoyment than to watch two great epic films!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part I) comes out November 19, and Voyage of the Dawn Treader comes out December 10.

So exciting!

** 3 **

Jen posted today about Simca being back after a blog hiatus. I hadn’t read Simca before, so I had to check her out. Oh gosh! Her post today on Baby Shower games made me burst out laughing in several places. You have to see for yourself.

My favorite part was:

“There was one game that I felt ought to be flagged in some way, or possibly passed on to the local law enforcement’s tip line:  you take a bunch of those miniature plastic babies, and you freeze them.  In ice cubes.  I guess this kind of thing seems normal enough if you’ve spent any time near a fertility clinic lately, but to the rest of us, I would think the sight of those little ones suspended in ice would make me feel sad, even panicked. Yes, I know they’re just plastic, but still! I guess the maternal instinct has been sufficiently shouted down so that little newborn-cubes seems like a cute gimmick.”

So great!

** 4 **

There is one thing Chicago has that Indy does not (ok there is probably more than one thing, but only one I care a whole lot about), and that is a place that sells frozen Kefir yogurt. There are like five in Chicago, and I’ve yet to find one in Indy.

Kefir is so darn good, and even better when frozen with fresh fruit, chocolate, or nuts (or dry cereal) on top! This is a market which someone needs to jump onto. I mean, I’m a pregnant lady with cravings, and if I *want* some, that’d probably be enough business right there to keep them open for a month. 😉

** 5 **

I don’t know if any of your ladies have read Mothering magazine, but I recently found a few copies at the library where I work, and it’s really interesting.

It seems like most of the people who write for them are pretty hippie-dippy, but they’re pro-breastfeeding, pro-home-birth (for those of you into that sort of thing), pro-cloth diapers, and generally crunchy. There was a really interesting article in the one I read yesterday about how newborns bond through smell, and shortly after birth can recognize their mother by the smell of the breast-milk, which is apparently very appealing to babies.

I don’t think I’d actually buy issues of the magazine (it’s somewhat pricey) but if you ever see one around, its a pretty neat read.

** 6 **

I get a daily email from National Catholic Register with a selection of their stories of the day. Today’s had a piece from Mark Shea which I just had to share. They recently did a piece on Biblical evidence that Obama is not the Anti-Christ, to which many Catholic readers responded with…disappointment. Huh? I’ve never really understood the tendency on the part of some to want to paint the leaders they do not agree with (who may be very. very wrong on many things, as the President is) as being madmen, evil, or Hitler-esque. Especially when it comes from Christians. It baffles the mind. I’d be willing to bet Glenn Beck has something to do with it. (If you listen to Mr. Beck on a regular basis all I can say is please, please, turn off your radio or t.v., and run, don’t walk away from it).

Anyway, this article from Mark Shea is awesome.

“The numerous comments expressing disappointment that Obama might not be the Antichrist, or hoping to find some other way to cling to the utterly ridiculous notion that he is, or firmly asserting that, even if he isn’t the Antichrist (which he still might be!  Hope Hope!) we can all agree that he is the most evil politician in American history, just short of Hitler and Stalin, is a sort of silly suburban cowardice that seems to have no real appreciation of what real martyrs who have suffered under real tyrants have gone through.

It is an insult to the memory of millions of suffering human beings around the world and down through time to watch this absurd combox thread unspool and serious comparison be made between this timid and tepid politician and Hitler(!) and/or Stalin(!!).  It’s every bit as ridiculous as the Bushitler rhetoric of the Left.  Get a grip, people.

When Obama orders you and your loved ones and millions upon millions of other Christians to be horsewhipped, machine-gunned, used for torches in his gardens, roasted on spits, gassed to death, flayed alive, drawn and quartered, or hung upside down and slowly lowered into vats of excrement to drown like the Japanese martyrs, then we can start talking about him as “the Antichrist”.”

Thank you.

** 7 **

Have a great weekend and Happy Father’s Day to all you dad’s out there!