7 Quick Takes (86)

1

You know how you always see these awesome blog posts of people who celebrate feast days with their families? I always pin them and think yes, I will do that next year. Well this week I finally got around to doing it! I made soul cakes (okay, mini pumpkin donuts) and we ate them for breakfast on Halloween, All Saints Day, and again this morning for All Souls Day. Miriam approved.

2

Speaking of Halloween, we had one beautiful butterfly fluttering around.

Thank you, Martha, for the wing pattern.

And in a successful effort to show children everywhere that women's costumes can indeed be unsexy, her mother went as a caterpillar.

Thank you, Pinterest, for the inspiration.

3

We handed out raisins, pretzels, and kit-kats. I'm pretty sure my husband had bought an extra bag of candy in case I had tried to fool him by not putting any chocolate in there. Miriam, on the other hand, was thrilled about the raisins and recommended them to the kids that came up. I think half the fun was opening and closing the tiny boxes. The other half was indeed eating the raisins. I'm pretty sure by this time next year she will have discovered what candy is (yes, she's still blissfully ignorant) and we won't be able to simply take her candy away and give her a measly box of raisins. But for now I'm reveling in it.

4

After thinking about it for months and months and months, this week I ordered my first bottle of fermented cod liver oil (actually a butter oil blend), a food-based prenatal vitamin (even though I can get generic prenatals free from the grocery store), and real salt. I also activated my first sourdough starter. I made chicken stock like it was no big deal and spent Halloween night watching Genetic Roulette. I think this means I'm finally on the real food train to crazytown bandwagon.

5

I thought this was going to be the week I finally got around to getting a blog post up, but it's looking dubious right now. Seven takes? Hm. 

Oh, I had an article in The Well, a website that supports Christian women in graduate school, about whether or not I'm wasting my education by being a stay-at-home mom.

6

We get to meet Miriam's first cousin in a week and a half, and we're so excited! It's hard to believe that my brother-in-law and his wife and baby have never met Miriam yet. They're flying back to the States for their 6 month old daughter's baptism. Now the question is, what in the world do we get for a baptism gift? My husband is the godfather, so it has to be something good. But I imagine she'll get plenty of little religious knick-knacks from the 50-75 other people that are coming (did I mention it's her American debut? yeah, big party), and her parents aren't really sentimental knick-knack people who will be eager to haul figurines back to Japan with them. So we're a bit stumped right now. What's the best baptism gift you've given or received?

7

Taking weekly pregnancy photos during my first pregnancy got old after, oh, the second week or so. But I persevered just because I knew in the future I would want to compare them! I decided this time I'll take one at the end of each trimester. I knew my belly would pop sooner this time than last, but I was surprised at just how much! My 13 week photo this time looks like me at 19 weeks last time! Hello, belly!

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