feasts,  Life,  Liturgical Year,  news

7 Quick Takes Friday

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There’s nothing like greeting the New Year with a babe who decides it’s a great time to have a growth spurt. I’m sure every mom out there will agree. January 1st Cassia randomly said to me, ‘Hey, Mom, I’m much more hungry than I was when I was smaller. Your body needs to kick it up a notch to make more milk for me. How about I help you out by keeping you up all night eating? Believe me, this is going to hurt me more than you.’ Ugh. 3 month growth spurt = one tired Mama. I -think- we’re over that hump now, though I may have cheated a couple feeds and given her formula with milk to give me an *ahem* break of sorts.

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Taking down the stockings Christmas morning
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Kinder Surprise in the stocking

2.

Happy New Year! I’m not really one for resolutions per se, but things I’ll be working on this year are a) incorporating the liturgical year more into our daily lives (more on this in a later post) b) losing weight. I lost about 15lbs while carrying Cassia, and have now gained all that back. I miss fitting my clothes better, and I know it’s much more healthy for me. Andy has the same idea, so we’ll be working on primarily reducing our portion sizes, as well as trying to eat less. Which is really hard with all the Christmas baking still around. In fact, so far I’m failing this one.

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Showing off his chocolate to the kid who can’t have any
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Andy’s idea of funny

3.

We had a grand time on our trip to Regina to visit the grandparents after Christmas. Spencer thoroughly loved playing with his cousins, and also sustained a couple major hits to the head while playing. He’s fine, but they’ve left their mark. It was really nice to have so many other people wanting to hold Cassia; I was able to get some knitting done and learn some new stitches. Andy bought me a knitting book on my Christmas list and his sister, Heather, who had me for Christmas also bought me a knitting book. So I’ve been working away at things testing out stitches I’ve never done before. Hopefully I’ll have a project to post about soon!

IMG_0924The stocking I made Cassia; O Antipon poinsettia’s on the wall behind Andy

4.

As a gift for Andy’s mom this year, I vowed to bake & assemble a gingerbread lighthouse. I found the patter for it through Canadian Living. While I don’t claim that it looked anything great, it was big, so it made a statement (picture forthcoming). My sister-in-law challenged me to make a windmill for next year. I might just take up that challenge…

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Cassia’s gift from Santa – some nice clothes
IMG_0903Spencer’s gift from Santa: craft scissors

5.

Our car has had another ill run-in with fate. We brought it to a repair place (not our usual one, as it was closed until January) and thought it was fixed before we headed to Regina, but it turns out what we brought it in for seemed to still be un-fixed. It’s making an extra low noise when it’s turned on and when the gas is pressed. We’ll have to bring it back to the repair place and get them to look at it again. I really hope we didn’t pool out $300 for something that wasn’t necessary. Is there any specific protocol we should be following when we bring it back? On the other side of things, we might be purchasing a new vehicle 3 months sooner than we had been hoping for.

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Spencer’s gift to Andy: Train Massage Shirt, idea from Dating Divas.

6.

Speaking of said impending purchase, has anyone out there ever owned a Toyota Rav4? Or known people who have? This is our prime target for a new vehicle based on research mainly done at Consumer Reports. It turns out that the remodel in 2006 included a set of extra seats behind the back seats upping the number from 5 to 7 seats total. They might be small, but it would suffice us as a growing family for quite a few years to come, which would be great. It’s also extremely high on the reliability (not like, *ahem* our current Cavalier) and safety. We have to go test drive one to make sure that it’s what we’re looking for, but unless something direly shows up on our radar, I think we’ll likely go with a 2006 Rav4. Too bad they cost about $4-5000 more out West here than out East.

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The chocolate Earl Grey truffles I made. Delish! If anyone’s interested in the recipe, lemme know in the comments.
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Traditional Christmas orange in the stocking toe!

7.

It turns out that those jalapenos I thought I burned myself on on Christmas day were likely Serrano peppers instead. This explains why they burned so much more. Jalapenos are rated between 2,500 – 10,000 on the Scoville heat scale while Serranos are between 10,000 to 25,000. Ouch. 25, 000 apparently burns me pretty badly.

IMG_0914Merry Christmas morning!

Please keep Jen (Conversion Diary) in your prayers as she recovers from her hospital scare. Jen was in hospital with bilateral pulmonary embolisms.

Loving God through my family, friends, and interactions in my world.

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