7 Quick Takes, Volume 31

{story of a soul, condensed}

Visit Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes!  Thanks, Jen, for hosting, and here's hoping I can get my hands on a copy of Something Other Than God soon!

{1} I entirely credit God's grace with getting us through Andrew's first year of his PhD.  As of this week, he's done with papers, classes, lesson plans, and grading until school starts again in August!  The last month or so of every semester is especially hard, as it becomes crunch time for all of his assignments as both a teacher and as a student.  Of course, having a baby has put more demands on both of our time than when it was just us, but I've been amazed at my husband's ability to get so much work done ahead of time and to really crank things out while still helping me out so much.  His first day off on Wednesday, I came home from nannying to find the laundry folded, Aaron's dipes washed and hanging to dry, the dishwasher whooshing away, the bed made, and the entire apartment swept.  He should be on break more often.  I'm excited for the next month or so we'll have together before his summer job starts!

{2} One of the things we're most looking forward to this summer is the watching one of Andrew's best, oldest friends get married at the end of the month!  It'll be Aaron's first wedding, and our first overnight wedding trip (we have been to 11 weddings together in about 4 years, but never one more than a day trip away).  So suffice it to say this should be a good, but pretty different, wedding experience.  I'm a little concerned that Andrew's in the wedding party, so I'll be taking care of Aaron on my own for about half the day (though my sister-in-law will also be there and we can herd the total of four chickadees around together).  And I have these conflicting desires that Aaron sleep for most of the 8 hour car ride,  and also that he wake up often enough that I'm not packing overstuffed boobs--ever since our hospital stay, when he didn't nurse for about 17 hours, I've had this irrational fear of mastitis.  So, hit me with your best tips for traveling with a baby.  Please?

{3}  I posted Captive the Heart's first-ever linkup earlier this week!  Share your somethings old, new, borrowed, and blue if you haven't yet, and check out other brides' traditions!

{4} Have you heard about Bare Minerals' new liquid foundation?  Through high school and college, I was blessed with even, clear skin, thanks to unhealthily large doses of Proactiv, though eventually I think my skin got too tolerant of the active ingredients and they didn't work as well.  A little after that I went on a crunchy bender and quit the Proactiv cold turkey (don't do it don't do it), leaving me with pores that basically purged out all the stuff the medicine had been suppressing all those years in the form of serious cysts and scars.  Bad news.  I was super foundation-phobic since my skin was so sensitive, but I started wearing the classic Bare Minerals powder foundation and still absolutely love it.  Liquids always seemed so thick and like a recipe for breakouts to me, but I'm really intrigued by this new version--apparently, it's formulated without oil, water, parabens, and other artificial toxins, and is meant to go on more like a serum to actually improve your skin.  I actually just replaced my powder version a few weeks ago, so I don't feel like I can justify a whole other foundation purchase right now, but I'm pretty interested to try it!  Tell me if you decide to!

Thanks Jenn for taking this!

{5} Now that it's warmed up we've loved being able to take Aaron outside every day, and now that the's a little bigger it's been fun doing things besides go for walks in his carrier.  We just broke out the jogging stroller (ours doesn't have an infant seat attachment so we had to wait to use it until little dude could sit up), he cracks up when we roll a ball to him, and he stuck his toes in the sand for the first time yesterday on a lakeside trip with his cousins.  Easily pleased, that one, and I couldn't be happier.   I took pictures, but didn't post them here since I haven't had a chance to unload my camera onto the computer yet.  That's because…

{6} …I need so much help storing and organizing my photos!  I got a new camera back in the fall, and it seems to store photos at a super-high resolution that take up a ton of space on my hard drive.  Andrew, who knows more about bytes and the mega and the giga and all that, took a look at the numbers and told me each photo is about equivalent to the memory occupied by one CD, so with literally thousands of photos it's easy to see why my computer has slowed down big time.  Admittedly, I should just look in the manual already and figure out how to change the settings for smaller files, but meantime I've been culling my collection like crazy and searching for an online storing and sharing device I like, which I figure will be good anyway because it'll back everything up.  So far Shutterfly seems to be winning, but I haven't had time for much uploading yet.  I'd love to know: how do you organize your photo files?

{7} A college acquaintance of mine recently got engaged, and she and her fiancé recently posted this video of their yearlong commitment to abstaining from sex for the year leading up to their wedding.  I totally dig their commitment to helping their marriage to make it before it even starts, and am super intrigued to hear more about their take on chastity as the year progresses.  Check it out.

Enjoy your weekend!  Tell me what you're up to and have a beautiful Mother's Day!