1. St. Patrick's Day=Soda Bread...right??
I love St. Patrick, and St. Patrick's Day celebrations can be really fun (especially for those of you who, like me, have spent any amount of time in Irish Dancing troupes). Since I no longer dance with a school, our March 17 celebrations are a bit more chill. But, every year, I make sure that Irish Soda Bread is involved. I love Irish Soda Bread. Love it. I love it fresh out the oven, at room temperature, or toasted. I love it smothered with butter and jam. I love small slices of it plain. Naturally, I had been looking forward to soda bread all week long. I made sure that we had milk in the fridge and softened butter on the table. I started curdling the milk with lemon (since I never have buttermilk around). But, I did not check the flour supply. Several weeks ago, someone gave us a ten pound bag of flour, so I have not purchased flour in a very long time. Every time I use flour, there is tons left-so of course there would be some for soda bread! Of course! Nope, not at all. We only had about half as much flour as the recipe called for, and I had already gotten the dough wet with flour. Plus, I stubbornly wanted soda bread with our dinner. We could not eat our potato soup by itself! My husband had the car and he was working extra time at work, so I couldn't just run out to the store or wait for him to come home. I needed to do something with this globby mess, so I began scrounging around the cupboards for any flour. I shoved it into the oven, and it came out several minutes later quite flat, but actually tasting pretty good! It's a soda bread-cornbread hybrid, with some self-rising flour thrown in. It's weird, but good.
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| Soda-cornbread and potato soup! |
2. Tomorrow, we will celebrate the Solemnity of St. Joseph, the husband of Mary, foster-father of Jesus, and carpenter extraordinaire by "building" things!
I love St. Joseph, and think he is awesome. And, since the day in March on which we celebrate him is a Solemnity, it makes tomorrow like a Sunday! Treats all around! Originally, my husband was planning on competing in a Super Smash Bros. tournament tomorrow, and I was planning on binging season 1 of Daredevil, since I haven't watched it in months. But...God has a way of turning things around. A few days ago, my husband and I both received e-mails that we each had won free entry into a Settlers of Catan tournament that is happening tomorrow!!! This is a huge, ginormous blessing, because entry fees are $75 a person-and courtesy of the kind folks at Hayes Electric, we are each getting in for free. So, we get to celebrate St. Joseph by "building" roads, settlements, and cities all day long with other Catan players! (Prayers, particularly through the intercession of St. Joseph, are most welcome and appreciated)
3. Daredevil!!!!
This day has been marked down on my calendar for several weeks as the premier of Daredevil season two. We won't be able to begin watching it until Saturday night or Sunday, most likely, but I'm really excited. I don't have Netflix, but I'm getting a month of it specifically for Daredevil. At some point, I'll also be re-watching season one for fun, so Matt Murdock & friends may be popping up here on the blog in the near future :)
[Need some reasons to watch Daredevil season one? Here's a few that I came up with a while back]
4. I've decided that chairs are overrated.
Our American culture is so sedentary, and I've finally decided that I've had enough of it. I like sitting in chairs or curling up on the couch, and in moderation, it's perfectly fine-but I think that too often, we spend an exorbitant amount of time sitting in furniture. I've always rather liked sitting on the floor, and in this pregnancy, I've rediscovered just how awesome it is (one of my pregnancy books stresses the importance of floor sitting while pregnant, to help with alignment of the pelvis & uterus and fun stuff like that). I've also been trying to squat more often throughout my day. There are many health benefits, but I won't get into all that now, because this "quick takes" is getting kind of rambly :P
5. In my quest to floor sit and squat more, I found a motivational, hilarious, and incredibly weird song.
I don't really have the words for this, so you can just watch it and let me know what you think.
6. The Oklahoma Catholic Women's Conference is coming up! (and you don't have to be from Oklahoma to attend)
There are some superb speakers, great vendors, and many fun, loving, joyful women who will all make this day awesome. Plus, Jesus will be there! And the Archbishop-and he's pretty cool, too. It will be a wonderful way to celebrate Easter together, grow in community, and grow in our Faith! I'll be blogging more about this event in the very near future, so stay tuned!
7. Holy Week is almost here! Let's make it awesome.
I love the final few days that lead up to Easter. The Triduum is my top-favorite liturgical season, and I get super excited for it every year. This year, I encourage you to do something for Holy Week that you have never done before. You can add in extra prayer time each day, read from a different book of meditations on the Passion, or attend a liturgy or service that you have never been to before (like Tenebrae-I had never heard of Tenebrae before I went to college, and I discovered that I love it). Let's ramp up our intensity as we finish off Lent!
I hope that you all have a spectacular beginning to your weekend!
I wanted to make soda bread, buuuut 37 weeks pregnant and finding some at Whole Foods for $3 made me change my decision :) Looks like yours was still delicious without the flour!
ReplyDeleteEva, congrats on being 37 weeks! That's super exciting :) I'm glad that Whole Foods could help you out so you didn't have to do it; I'm only 27 weeks, but I think that with every few weeks of pregnancy, I feel like doing less and less haha.
DeleteI spent most of my 4 pregnancies on the floor sitting cross-legged. 4 years later I don't do it so much anymore. My hips are always hurting. :)
ReplyDeleteOh no! That's too bad that your hips hurt too much now-it's good that you are in tune with your body like that, so you can take care of yourself. And, it's nice that you could take advantage of floor sitting at one point :) Thanks for stopping by, Kathleen!
DeleteThe only problem with the floor is getting.back.up ;). I am super impressed that you were able to make the soda bread work. I've never made it; I'll have to give it a try sometime. Have fun at your tournament!
ReplyDeleteI believe you, especially when the baby bump turns into a sideways mountain! As much as I love floor sitting, I don't know how well it will work once I'm very far into pregnancy with a big belly. If you give soda bread a try, I'd love to know what you think of it! I don't know why I only make it once or twice a year, because I think it's pretty tasty, and it's very simple to make (the recipe I use only calls for salt, buttermilk, baking soda, and flour). Thanks! We had a blast at the tournament! I didn't make it past the first day, but my husband made it all the way to the finals and got second, which was pretty cool. We both had a lot of fun, so it was a good way to spend the weekend :)
DeleteI like your baking creativity. I love pretty much any homemade bread--in the months before we moved, I was baking bread just about every week since I knew that would be what I missed most about not having an oven! I'm not the kind of person who loves chairs either--I find sitting in chairs usually pretty uncomfortable for my back--I have mild scoliosis, not sure if that's why, but possibly. I sit on a yoga ball when I'm at the computer because I can balance and roll around and it's just more comfortable for me.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Oh my, giving up homemade bread would be a huge sacrifice! I'm glad that you could make it a bunch before you moved. I'm sure you have an even greater appreciation for it now (I'm sure I would!). That's really cool that you sit on a ball instead of a chair! I never knew that people did that, until a few months ago when I visited one of my friends in her office, and saw her yoga ball sitting there. I think that's a really cool idea! Though I would probably distract myself a bit by bouncing or rolling around if I did that ;)
DeleteI find myself sitting on the floor almost constantly! I wish I could say that I was doing it in order to benefit my pregnancy, but in reality it's because my 17-month-old likes to have me down there so I can help her build towers and similar activities. ;-)
ReplyDeleteThat's so neat (and quite selfless of you)! I'm sure your 17-month-old loves to play with you on the floor. It's cool, too, that you have the physical benefits as a side effect :)
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