7 Quick Takes: Fall, Facebook and Pope Francis

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Hello?...yes, is fall available? I really thought fall weather was supposed to be here for the season, I must have misunderstood because it's been in the high 70s-low 80s all week! We sure have been enjoying this weather, getting outside to a park or for a walk every day.  Although I do love the cooler weather fall typically brings, it has been a treat to get a little extended summer!

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On Tuesday Silas dressed up in his little overalls and we headed to a friends house with some other babies and their mamas to take some fall photos! Here are a few of my favorites that I took, but there were so many cute ones that others took, as seen on facebook.

 

You can imagine how difficult it is to get 7 babies in one photo looking in the same general direction. I'm sure it would have been funny to get a picture facing the other direction, as all of us mom's are clapping and yelling and frequently jumping in to position babies.

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Our oven has been broken for a little over two weeks now, which means we've had to be pretty creative when it came to dinner.  Crock pot, stove top, grill. Tonight we decided to be uncreative and go out to eat! This is pretty rare for us so it was really nice to not have to cook or have any dishes in the sink. We went to a local place for Mexican food. Yummm.

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I've said it before, but I am way too addicted to checking facebook and have been reflecting a lot on how much time I waste. It really starts out innocently, I just check it from my phone as I nurse Silas.  I know, though, that there are about 1,001 other things I could be doing with that time! It's not enhancing my life like reading a book or saying a rosary or calling a friend would.
This morning another blogger (Hi Rosie!) mentioned that she was getting a smartphone for the first time and mentioned that she was going to avoid installing facebook because she'd spend too much time on her phone otherwise. This comment hit me--well, duh! SO I took the plunge and deleted it off of my phone. I can still access it if I absolutely need to from Safari (but in what circumstances does a person absolutely need to connect to FB via their cellular device?) I can feel the fresh liberation already.

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The latest interview with Pope Francis has made waves and been taken completely out of context and been the talk of the town for the last week. I read a few articles describing it and quoting it, and I decided I wanted to read it for myself.  So I am, and actually have been reading it aloud to Brandon the last few nights before bed.  We're about 3/4 of the way through and I'm super encouraged by his words and reflections. It's so interesting to me that the media is reporting on what Pope Francis has to say so frequently lately, and also that they so easily take his words out of context. I still have a little bit of reading and a lot of reflection to do before I can make any sort of comment on it.

Want to read it for yourself? Check it out here. Want to see what others have to say about it? (Note: Not all of these interpret the interview in context. It seems like a pretty important thing to do, doesn't it?) Check out what CNN says, what Fox News says, what Kendra says (with links to quite a few other articles on the topic), and what Calah says.

I do have to say that it's amazing how the Holy Spirit works, though. How incredible that Pope Francis can make such an impact on people in the short time since he's become Pope. So excited to see how he will be used to evangelize and change the world.

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Lately I've been getting this excited feeling because it's almost October which means it's getting closer to Christmas. I seriously love Advent and Christmas and the Christmas season.

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I'm missing my family lately.  It's been about a month and a half since we've been home, which is not super long...but it seems like a lot has happened both at home and developmentally with Silas. Fortunately I've been chatting a lot with my mom lately and I even got to talk to my youngest sister for about a half hour this week!! She's in her first semester of college, so she's pretty busy--so great to chat with her for a little bit, but I cannot believe she is old enough to go to college.
Time really doesn't seem to make sense lately. The days are long but the nights should be longer; he's growing up fast and I can't believe we've had him five months, but I can't imagine what life was like before him.

Have a great weekend and check out other quick takes over at Jen's!

~Danielle