7 Quick Takes

In honor of my first draggy week in forever, HAPPY FRIDAY!

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You ladies are seriously the best. The best! Know why? Because you all commented in droves about what a slacker you were with your wedding photos, and it made me feel so much better about my own slacker tendencies. This way, if my photos sit in a box until I'm 60, I can always tell myself it's ok because everyone else apparently sucks at making wedding albums, too! I actually really do enjoy scrapbooking and want to get it done... but life is going by so quickly! Instead of getting an album from our photographer, we opted to have the rights to all of our photos. The fact that I have 1000+ photos sitting waiting on me is probably not helping. If I had like 60 photos to scrapbook, it would probably be done right now. But it doesn't matter because post wedding slackerdom is totally accepted by my fabulous readers!!!

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I've been having some wicked heartburn lately, and not because I'm eating naughty (that's usually the culprit and it stops as soon I as resume normal eating). No matter what I eat, I'm getting heartburn daily or multiple times daily. I've had issues with it off and on, but never like this. I really don't like the idea of being on a heartburn medication daily, but also don't think a life time of popping Tums is the best option either. But I had to do something, because I know long term heartburn can cause esophageal cancer. If I was going to go on medicine, I wanted to know I tried some other things first. So I did a little research on natural heartburn cures and the first one I'm trying is coconut water. Hubs went off to Trader Joe's and picked me up some, and so far so good. You are supposed to drink it a few times a day, but I've just been taking a few sips any time I get heartburn. It does go away very quickly. I'll use it until it's gone and then re-evaluate if I want to try something else or continue with the coconut water.

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I started a PCOS facebook group for Catholic women this week! I had sort of been debating it, but I chickened out because you have to friend anyone who wants to join, then add them, then unfriend them (unless you want a wildly large friend list). It sounded like a lot of work. But after looking at existing PCOS groups and seeing that they were open and anyone on facebook could see your posts, and/or were rampant with things against Catholic teaching (IUI, IVF, etc) I felt like there really needed to be a place where Catholic women could talk about PCOS and treatments, all within the teaching of the church. We are small right now, but I like it that way. Of course, we will welcome new members with open arms!

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This week I made my best batch of granola bars yet. I had been leaving out a very important ingredient. Before, I was putting the honey on the stove, dumping in my mix of nuts/ingredients, spreading it on wax paper on a pan, and then letting it cool in the fridge. This time I still did all of that, but between the spreading and the fridge, I put it in the oven on 350 for 10-15 minutes. They are still way stickier than the store version (which is only bad because they are messy to eat at work!), but hold up better in the bar shape and are just all around more delicious, in my opinion! This week I used almond slivers, peanuts, and sunflower seeds.

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I mentioned before how I'm in the Women of Grace group. We had our second meeting this Wednesday and I am really enjoying it! There are all ages there which I love; I think I am the youngest and the oldest is probably in her 70's. There are about 12 of us which makes for nice, intimate conversation. We got into a discussion about new femininity (or rather, authentic femininity) and I loooved it! It's nice to talk about stuff in real life with like minded people instead of just online ;). My favorite thing about the study is that it is a study in SO many things... encyclicals, Vatican II documents, the Bible, Catechism, etc. It's pulled together to be really interesting without being too overwhelming.

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Did I ever post about the week of vacation at Christmas that the board of directors decided to take away from us? I know quite a few people know about it, but I'm not sure if I posted it here. Anyway, the squeaky wheel (ahem....moi) gets the grease because we have it back, at least for this year! That's a step!

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This weekend, we are headed to the wedding of Steven's best friend (also his best man). I'm really excited for them, and in a world where all of Steven's friends are single, it's nice to have a couple in the same phase of life as us! Please say a few prayers for the wedding and marriage! 

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Thoroughly Thankful Thursday!

I saw this link up over at Sarah's blog and just had to join in. I'm really awesome at whining and complaining, so here's to improving my skills of being grateful! (And also, my husband says I'm a pessimist. I say I'm a realist. A pessimist wouldn't write such an optomistic post, but a realist totally could! So there. Realist it is.) I won't list every single thing I'm thankful for because we would be here all day but here are some that come to mind.

• Our house. I still can't believe we have it. On that note, the weedeater my in laws gifted to us this week.
• A Catholic neighbor who is in my same women's group. We now ride together and I have a feeling we will be fast friends. 
• A super snuggly kitty.
• Time with my husband. Our schedules haven't been lining up a ton these past two weeks so we have really been savoring an hour here or there!
• Cooler weather! Love having the windows open!
• The upcoming marriage of Steven's best friend. They are getting married this Sunday evening!
• The cold side of the pillow. Seriously.
• Homemade goodies like granola bars and cookies. And the maple cream cookies from Trader Joe's. *drool*

Wanna join in? Link up over at Sarah's!

Learning to Be a Wife

I really, really wish I could remember where I heard this. I'm almost positive it was from someone in the blogging world and/or Cathsorority. If it was you, let me know and I will certainly give credit where credit is due! But anyway, I heard something early on in our marriage (ya know.... two months ago or so) that I think about all the time and has been really helpful. Someone said that when you get married, you are a wife and just think the role will come naturally and you know pretty much what you need to know. But you spend your whole life being a daughter or sibling or friend so there has been plenty of time to learn as you were raised in these roles. Being a wife is totally unique in that one day you go to bed not a wife, and the next day you are one. You certainly have probably prepped for the marriage, but you haven't already had years of experience in this role and certainly were not born into this role. It's a brand new role with a steep learning curve.

Maybe this is obvious to a lot of you, but I didn't really give a conscious thought to the fact that being a wife was somewhat of a learned role. I knew I wasn't going to go into marriage with all the answers and being the perfect wife, but I didn't think about all the learning that would happen. I have learned so, so much over just these past 5 months and I'm sure have a jaw dropping amount of learning left to do on what it is to be a wife. I have learned things about myself that I didn't want to know or didn't want to face, but I that I am so appreciative that I can work on. Marriage is really showing me who I am, what I'm made of, and leading me to who I want to be.

It's funny because I know a lot of people say the first year of marriage is the hardest. Well, we still have 7 months left to go but so far, it really hasn't been hard being married at all. I'm not saying life is all cherries, but we are really enjoying being married and having a wonderful time. I would say the hard part has been the introspective parts of marriage, seeing who I am as a wife and as half of this sacrament, and where I fall short. It's been eye opening and honestly caught me off guard. I thought I would learn all kinds of things about us, but mostly I have learned a whole lot about me and how I need to change and grow for the betterment of my marriage. And believe me when I tell you, I have got lots of learnin' to do in this wife business, but I am really enjoying it!

7 Quick Takes

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So um, this week we celebrated our 5 month anniversary. By 'celebrated', I mean we saw each other for about 5 minutes when I got home from work and Steven left,  and he remembered it all by himself, and we hugged. Anyway, then it hit me that I still never wrote about our honeymoon. I'm so lame! It was such an amazing trips and I have tons of pictures. So now my goal is to have that ready by our 6 month anniversary.

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Speaking of lameness, I haven't yet started our scrapbooks either. That's plural because I have shower pictures, rehearsal dinner, bridesmaid sleepover, getting ready, wedding, reception, AND honeymoon pictures. So I did print out all the pictures and buy some awesome sale scrapbooks, but that's as much as I've done. My goal is to have them done by our first anniversary, because I'm pretty sure it won't happen at all if I don't get it done by then. So far, it's looking like I will show everyone our wedding pictures on the computer for the rest of our life.

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This week I watched the entire season of "Bridalplasty" on Netflix. Yes, it's what it sounds like. Yes, I'm ashamed. Now that it's out in the open, I feel better.

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Couch to 5k update: So I went to the orthopaedist because of my ankle pain. He thinks it's not my ankle at all but a bone spur on each foot that I'm jamming when I run. He said no running for 2-3 weeks, and to walk instead during that time. Ice my feet after exercise, take an Aleve the days I exercise, and he recommended running light poles instead of Couch to 5k. Lightpoles are running to one lightpole, walking to the next, running to the next, etc. He said that he can run a 5k, but still thinks interval training is better instead of running the whole time. Who knows, but I guess I will try it. He said I can still follow C25k  if I want, but to take it a little slower. I want to know how much slower I can take it since we repeated 2 out of 4 weeks? But not complaining about a few weeks of walking!

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Are you the type of person who likes to taste individual ingredients as they go into a recipe? Maybe I'm weird, but I like to know the flavor of that one spice or ingredient so I see what flavors I can pick out at the end. Well, let me help you out, friends. DO NOT SAMPLE CLOVES. I use cloves a LOT in baking, especially in pumpkin muffins and sweet potato muffins. And I know it's in 'pumpkin pie spice'. So Wednesday when I was making said sweet potato muffins, I decided to take a tiny taste. Worst. Mistake. Ever. Have you ever imagined tasting fire? No? Me neither. But now I never have to.

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Do you have a Which Wich in your area? It has been one of my VERY favorite places to eat for at least 5 years now and Steven has loved it ever since I introduced him to it 2 years ago. Raleigh just opened a new location that is minutes from my work so I will probably be going more often! And because of their new location, they mailed out awesome coupons to local businesses. My agency got them AND Steven's store got them. And you can probably guess who snatched them right up. Yep, we have enough 2/$12 coupons to take us right through the end of the year! YAY!

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Did you check out my other two posts this week? I pondered my spiritual journey and made oatmeal that tastes like pumpkin pie! How's that for variety!? 

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

The Best Fall Oatmeal Ever

I've been eating cold oatmeal this summer and loving it. The idea is that you just put the oats in a bowl with milk (equal parts) and leave it overnight. The next morning you sweeten it and put anything you want in it, and eat away! It is DELISH. And to show my laziness, I find pouring milk and oatmeal in the bowl and sticking it in the fridge way easier than the whole boil water/microwave water/ get really hot water process that regular oatmeal takes. Especially because I've learned to say no to the packets and use the big container of oats. I would crave oatmeal and not make it simply because I didn't want to fuss with the water process. Oatmeal + milk and no need to heat?.... Heaven.

Then I discovered heating cold oatmeal! I know, it sounds crazy. And yes, I just made more work for myself. But I have been playing around with heating cold oatmeal because I had left over pumpkin puree to use, and don't like it cold. I'm pretty sure I found the perfect recipe! And I will tell you, the oatmeal definitely tastes different if you let it hang out with the milk overnight and then heat it, rather than just assembling and heating in the morning. You can only judge this recipe if you follow the annoying cold then hot instructions! Now, one reason I could never write a cookbook is because I like to just throw things in without measuring, so my entire cookbook would be approximations, and people would get angry with me. Plus there's that matter of needing enough recipes to fill the cookbook, and finding someone who wants to publish it, and having the money for all of that. Anyway, these really are approximations because it depends on your taste. I went a bit heavy with each (a few dashes of the spices and definitely a good helping of honey) and it tastes like pumpkin pie oatmeal deliciousness. I would share a picture to make this post a bit more exciting, but oatmeal is not exactly photogenic. Oh, and it's currently in my stomach.

Cold Yet Hot Pumpkin Oatmeal

1/2 c. milk

1/2 c. oats

1 tbsp of half and half if you're a bit naughty

dash(es) of cinnamon

dash(es) of nutmeg

1-2 tbsps of honey

Put the milk, oatmeal, and half and half (optional) in a bowl and mix. Place this in the fridge overnight. In the morning, mix in the cinnamon, nutmeg, and honey. Stir and microwave for 1 min 30 sec to 2 min. Stir again and enjoy!

Complacency in Faith

I've learned over this past year or so that one of my biggest spiritual challenges is becoming complacent in faith. Before my reversion, my complacency played out in the fact that I attended Mass every Sunday, and that was it. I felt like I was doing what was required (of course, I wasn't actually) and that was all I really needed to do. As I came back into the faith, I began to feel alive and on fire. My husband and I would add things to our days and to our life, like confession, praying before meals and bed, devotionals, daily readings, etc. I felt excited, inspired, and loved the journey we were on. But I eventually became complacent in that, too. I've realized that it's not realistic to expect to feel that 'on fire' feeling all the time, and that's ok. Sometimes I might not feel a huge connection, and sometimes I might feel like I am going through the motions. But that's different from complacency. Being complacent in my faith is when I don't challenge myself spiritually. Here I thought I was doing all these things in increase my faith, and I was. But after a while, that becomes normal, and it's up to me to change, adapt, and grow.

We've realized that we have to do different things to avoid complacency. We can't always do the same prayer/devotion before bed, I can't always do the same thing at the same time in a routine. I've learned that by mixing it up, I stay engaged. I don't have to feel on fire all the time, but I do have to be engaged. One thing that has helped a lot is reminding myself that I am seeing and receiving Jesus in the flesh in the Eucharist. I had honestly become complacent about communion, and to me that seemed like a little bit of dangerous territory. I'm just not one of those people who sits in awe every single Sunday, but I should! So the next best thing (for me) is to literally have a conversation with myself during the consecration about what is happening. It's hard to not feel moved when I look at Jesus!

On another note, I joined a Women of Grace group that started last week. I had NO IDEA who Johnette Benkovic was or that the program was national. I totally thought it was just a local group! The work load looks to be challenging, but I think it will be a good challenge. I actually love that there is so much to do at home. You read a chapter and do 5 exercises throughout the week (in our case, two) before the next class. I'm glad I can't just shut it out until the day of, because I'm a master compartmentalizer and need the push to make it a part of my daily life! I'm excited  for the spiritual challenge this will bring me, and also the fellowship!

Is complacency in your faith (not necessarily Catholic faith- whatever your faith is) something you struggle with? If so, what do you do to renew your faith?

7 Quick Takes

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Oh man, this week has been such a whirlwind! For those of you who don't know, my brother got married last Sunday. He told us about 6 weeks ahead of time, so we all scrambled to make it happen and I'm SO glad we did. It was a wonderful trip and a great excuse to spend time with the family, since we are very rarely all together. Here are some highlights!

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 Ok, so I'm a bit ashamed to admit this but.... I LOVED GAMBLING. I thought I was above the influence but no, I'm not. Though I did set a limit for myself and stick to it ($30 for the whole trip, which made me grimace until my brother's friend said he had a $2000 limit!!!! Then I felt like $30 wasn't so wasteful.). We had a blast trying out different machines and games, and it was just such a different experience from every day life! It was also fun seeing the different casino themes. We stayed at The Rio and went to The Paris, The Bellagio and one other that I can't recall. I lost the whole time, until my LAST go at the slots, literally 30 minutes before we left for the airport Monday night. I played the Ghostbusters machine in honor of the hubs, and won $20! Of course, that still makes a net loss of $10, but I was excited!

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And the best part of course was the wedding. My brother was so, so happy and I love seeing him that way. I got to know Jen more (I only met her once, at my wedding where I was obviously busy!), and really like her a lot. She seems to fit in our family seamlessly.

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The last day, we had red eye flights home and decided to be adventurous. We rented a car and went to Red Rock Canyons and the Hoover Dam for the day!

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Remind me to never take another red eye flight again. I flew out at 10:50 Las Vegas time and got into Charlotte at 6 something am, then Raleigh 8:30 am. Losing a night's sleep AND 3 hours was really hard. I went ahead and worked Tuesday because I hated to waste a vacation day just sitting around. I ended up taking a 4 hour nap late that afternoon, STILL went to bed at 9:30 and slept past my alarm until 8 the next morning. Thankfully I'm feeling more like a human again.

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So this is kind of a long story, but it's cool. We closed on our house June 11th (I think) and the very next night there was a neighborhood co-op meeting. We are huge nerds, so we went to it even though we weren't moving for a month. There was a pretty low turn out, and only one other person there was from our phase of the neighborhood, so she introduced herself, told us which house she lives in, and said we could knock on her door for anything we needed. Fast forward about a month to when we moved in there. At that point, we were still attending the Cathedral, even though there is a church minutes away from us. Who did we see at the 5pm mass? Neighbor lady! Fast forward another two months. I joined the Women of Grace group at a church pretty far away, about a 25 minute drive, and this Wednesday was the first session. Yep, you guessed it, neighbor lady was there, which is crazy since there are only 12 women from a very large geographical area! We have decided to carpool and I'm pretty sure God wants us to be friends!

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Couch 2 5k update.... eek. So we haven't missed a day, even with me being gone. BUT, my runs have gotten progressively more painful. We are repeating week 4 and the first week, it hurt but I finished each run. This week, I haven't finished a single run. I have a searing pain across the front of my ankles (it was just my right, but now my left has joined the fun) when I get to about the 3-4 minute mark, and when I stop running and start walking for the 90 seconds or 2 minutes, the pain actually intensifies and I can't put my full weight on either foot for about a minute or so. I'm thinking I need to see an orthopedist, but I'm also frustrated because I don't want to quit until then and lose stamina. I'm thinking we might go back to week 3 until I get some answers? 

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes

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Last weekend was fantastic! We kicked off the weekend seeing The Amazing Spiderman at the cheapie theater, which actually was a really good movie. We did some grocery shopping, bought paint for the porch, and went to Mass. Afteward, we had our Cathsorority meetup, which was a blast. I was a bit nervous because I've never hosted that many people before! There were 10 of us and I think 6 was my previous record. Luckily it was potluck so I was off the hook trying to figure out how to cook a full meal for that many people! They all brought good food, but Caitlin's chocolate turtle cheesecake was TO DIE FOR. Yes, I'm still thinking about it. It was SO much fun to all hang out together, and those of us who hadn't met felt like we already knew each other since we all read each other's blogs. We'll definitely have to do it again!

The ladies

The guys- none of whom protested this photo! 

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Sunday, Steven and I headed to South Carolina to spend the day with my parents and a family friend, Jay. He is my dad's friend from work and they've known each other for a LONG time. He came to our wedding, which was really sweet because he has only met me a very few times and it was a 4 hour drive + overnight stay by himself! He has a breathtaking house on a lake with mountains as the backdrop, and invites my parents over each year for Labor Day. We spent time on his pontoon, sat out by the water talking, grilled out, and even made friends with a dog who swam across the lake and tried to adopt Jay. Hopefully she got home ok! It was a lot of driving (9 hours) for a relatively short visit (5 hours) but so worth it because we had a really amazing day, and actually had quite a bit of fun in the car ride, too!

I told my mom that in 20 years I will look at this photo and say "hmm.... wonder where mom was that year?".

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So I got some ideas for homemade detergents (thanks!), but what I ran out of this week was not detergent but all purpose cleaning spray. When I say run out, I mean I ran out of the green cleaner that I like, and couldn't bring myself to use the Target green cleaner that smells like death. So I googled around for different cleaner recipes with the ingredients I had (borax and vinegar) and found this super simple recipe. Well, after using it here's my review. It works WONDERFULLY and smells SO BAD. Steven has pretty much forbid me to use it again until I get some essential oil to put in it. I think it will be a winner once I do that!

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Guess who we're voting for in this year's election? And yes, my husband has  turned me into a total nerd. For those not in the nerdy know, Rogers is Captain America and Stark is Iron Man. While I do have a few concerns about Iron Man as VP, I am totally in support of Captain America as president.

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Running update: We're done with week 4 (as of this morning) but have decided to re-do it next week. Want to know what's totally frustrating? We have been running for 5 weeks now (because we repeated week 2) and I haven't lost ANY weight yet. When I've done weight watchers, I've lost weight steadily throughout, almost weekly for over a year. I'm not counting points now, but we eat generally healthy, save for maybe one naughty meal and/or one naughty dessert a week. We eat whole grains, fruits and veggies, watch portions etc. So for me to ADD this work out program to that and not lose anything is really frustrating! It almost makes me want to quit, but I won't. I see my doctor on the 13th so I will mention it then.

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If you read last week's quick takes and then my awkward announcement, you're probably wondering why I'm not blogging from my new domain. Well friends, that's because this week has FLOWN by and we decided we would rather spend the week doing fun things together than working on the site, especially since we're spending a long weekend apart. That included seeing two cheapie movies, going out for pizza, watching some B movies at home, going for a walk at the arboretum, and sharing some local NC ice cream. Note to self: never announce anything because then it won't happen for forever. Lesson learned!

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In a few short hours, I'm headed off to Vegas for my brother's wedding. He and his fiance have had a whirlwind romance (6 months from meeting til I do!) and I'm asking for prayers for them as they begin married life together! We are just finishing a novena for marriage, which we were so excited to be doing leading up to their nuptials! Sadly, Steven has to stay behind because we couldn't afford two last minute plane tickets, but he has been given the green light to eat all the fast food he wants this weekend, so I think he's ok with staying home. I fly back on the red eye Monday night/Tuesday morning and I'm SO excited for 3 days with family! 

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Well this is awkward.

So I made an announcement in my quick takes about a blog change coming soon. And then I got lots of comments about people excited about the redesign. And then the awesome Cari mentioned me in her quick takes and said how I would be redesigning. And since the entire world reads her blog, and she mentioned me in her quick takes, that probably means that like, a lot of the world read my blog and are now salivating at the thought of a redesign. Because apparently people love redesigns.

This is probably why I should keep my trap shut. As much as I know you are all begging for me to rid my blog of the massive amounts of purple and green wedding colors, it just ain't happenin'. In fact, I just changed my blog theme after the wedding and I change my blog theme like I change my underwear, kitty litter box, mind, wreath on my front door.... every six months to a year. More than that and I start to curl up in the fetal position because it takes me 2 weeks and multiple people to get my header looking halfway normal. I say halfway, because even after some awesome help, you'll notice that my chest is pixelated. Sorry to make you look at my chest. I swear it's not pixelated in real life. Oh, I was making a point, wasn't I?

No, no theme change, my friends. I'm not sure if I should take it as a hint that I need a theme change since you are all so excited about it, but I don't easily get hints, so I'm going to pretend you aren't hinting. Anyway, I'll announce the change, so you don't guess something else that makes me look at my blog and go "huh.... yeah I probably should change that", because the more changes my blog needs, the more chocolate I eat, and the tighter my pants get. Blog changes= tight pants. In case you missed that.

The change? I'm going to be blogging from catholicandcrunchy.com very soon. I'm super excited about it and have thought about it for MONTHS. I just had no idea how much it cost, no idea how to do it, and apparently no motivation to find out. Well, I finally researched it all recently and realized that it was super cheap and I could probably figure it out my husband could probably figure it out. So hopefully by next week, that pesky little 'blogspot' will be no longer. I'm super excited because I always wanted my very own website (even before I blogged.... like way back in the AOL homepage days). So there you have it. A change you probably wouldn't have noticed if I didn't tell you AND you are stuck with the purple and green!