A Solemnity, Bargain DVDs, and Books! (7 Quick Takes)

Happy Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God!!!!! I have to be honest: I always care way more about this solemnity than the fact that it's also apparently New Years Day. Nothing against the new calendar year or anything, but really. Mary being the Mother of God is way more legit than another year going by, in my opinion. But I'm just weird like that. So for the rest of y'all who happily party up the new calendar year, Happy New Year! I decided to link up with Kelly for some 7 Quick Takes today, because...why not? It's a great way to share random snippets from my life down here in in the land of red dirt & ice (I've been finding that Oklahoma apparently doesn't get snow, it just gets ice-which makes me feel like I'm living in Frozen, which is actually kind of exciting). 



1. I love the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God!!! It also happens to be a Holy Day of Obligation, so hop on over to Mass! I was very excited to see so many people crowding our wonderful parish this morning. and we proudly wore our Marian blue. And, in the time following Mass, I baked up some blueberry muffins, because it's a solemnity (and the blue-ness). Basically, a Church-mandated party today! 

2.  You never know what wonderfulness is on a DVD bargain shelf! On Wednesday, I blogged about the importance of flexibility and rolling with whatever situation we're thrown into. Naturally, my resolve to be flexible was tested that night! I was taking my older brother to one of my favorite stores, Vintage Stock, and got terribly lost. 

To give you an idea:
The red route, ending with the red X, is where we were supposed to go.
The route marked in green, ending in a green X, is where we ended up. 

The whole time, I kept telling myself, "Be flexible, it's not that big of a deal, just laugh and roll with it." I was able to keep my cool and laugh at myself, but I was still disappointed that what should have been a 15 minute trip took about 45 minutes. When we finally made it to the store, I decided to look on their "bargain" shelf of $0.99 DVDs. I figured that there wouldn't be anything good in there, but it doesn't hurt to check, right? Thank you, God, for brightening up my evening with the entire show Firefly (minus the last two unaired episodes) for $3!!!!! Merry Christmas to me!!!!!

3. Our Christmas has been going splendidly, and I am excited for several more days of this season! Today marks the end of the octave (it's a meat Friday!!!!), but the season of Christmas continues until the Baptism of the Lord (not until the Epiphany. Christmas is longer than 12 days, people!). Sometime in this season, I'm planning to make gingerbread cookies with my new Star Wars cookie cutters (thanks to my sister-in-law and her husband!). And I'll watch White Christmas, because I have shockingly never seen the whole thing. 

4. I don't really do "Best posts of X" lists, but I will reveal my most popular post of 2015-because if you've ever suffered, you should probably read this (it's an incredibly touching guest post written by one of my friends). "These scars will be the artwork etched into my soul" will make your life better when you read it. Yes, it's a somewhat lengthy interview, but Camille's words, experience, and work really grip one's heart. She really shows us what it means to let God bring beauty out of suffering. 

5. This week, I caught up on reading while my husband and brother played video games, and I must admit that Death to Pemberley, by P.D. James, is a lovely book. I don't know how or why I have never read this book before, but it has somehow evaded me until this time! I loved the writing style, the murder mystery aspect, and how several other Austen characters from different novels were referenced throughout the book. I also read Beuvallet, by Georgette Heyer, which was quite delightful. It's a swashbuckling tale about a pirate who captures a woman, falls in love with her, ships her back to her homeland, and promises that he will return to marry her. Of course, this means that Beuvallet is signing up for his death, but since he is basically a combination of the Scarlet Pimpernel and Captain Jack Sparrow, so he really doesn't care. Both of these books were enjoyable light reading, and I recommend both of them for those days when you are curled up inside! (I probably should mention that Beuvallet has some anti-Catholic sentiments, since the "good guys" are the English Protestant pirates, and the "bad guys" are the Spanish Catholics, especially those involved in the Inquisition. Anti-Catholicism aside, it's a great book)

6. Also on the entertainment vein...while he was spontaneously staying with us this week (courtesy of a cancelled flight), we showed my older brother Mario Warfare, and I realized just how much I love this show.  Mario Warfare is a live-action Youtube mini-series that depicts the battle between Bowser and the Mushroom Kingdom. It's very well done, extremely enjoyable, and quite hilarious in parts. My husband and I came to the consensus that this would be rated at least PG-13 due to violence (there's plenty of blood and guts, including a character who gets his arms ripped out) and language (there's a bit of profanity and some crude language as well), so keep that in mind if you want to show it to your children! 

7. Baby hit 16 weeks gestation this week (approximately 14 weeks old), and pregnancy is continuing to go well, I think! My next appointment is in a few weeks, so I'm excited to see how things are going down the ol' uterus. I find it quite ironic and funny that when I finally started puking around 10 weeks, I only (aside from one odd time) have thrown up on Wednesdays or Thursdays. Weird, right? It's like Baby is saying, "Happy new gestation week!" I haven't been that sick this pregnancy (mainly nausea and extreme fatigue), but I am finally starting to get my energy back! I have so much admiration for pregnant moms who work full-time, because having a baby grow in one's belly is exhausting, and I am so grateful that I work from home and volunteer on a very part-time basis, so that I can nap! Needless to say, I'm very excited to have more energy as I start off the new calendar year :) 

There's seven random life updates for y'all! I hope that your Friday Solemnity is awesome, thoroughly enjoyable, and full of meat, sugar, prayer, and joy!