Election-Free 7 Quick Takes!

Happy Feast of St. Martin of Tours, everyone! No matter what your week was like, I hope that you're getting a chance today to pause and enjoy God's goodness. I'm joining Kelly & Friends with some quick takes, and I'm going to try and avoid talking about the election, so we'll see how this goes! ;) 



I acquired a tea kettle! 
And I'm really excited about it. For a long time, one of my relatives has been bugging me to get a tea kettle, but it hasn't been the highest priority on my "must purchase" list. Well, several months ago, one of my dear friends moved to Ecuador as a missionary, and as she was moving she texted me that she had left her teapot for me at the parish office. But, I forgot time after time, until I was standing in the office with a friend of mine, talking, and saw a beautifully shiny tea kettle-and it's the one she left for me! I'm very excited that my tea-drinking experience will include an epic kettle from now on :) 

I should just wear safety goggles everywhere. 
Peter went down for his nap the other day and I was so excited to clip my fingernails. It's the little things in life, isn't it? So I'm snipping and clipping away quite happily, when a fingernail shot into my eye! It just felt a bit uncomfortable and of course, I overreacted and flushed out my eyes with water a bajillion times before I could get on with my day (I really don't like things in or near my eyes; even putting on mascara is an intensely difficult experience for me). 

Remember how I spontaneously decided to stop using shampoo in my hair?
(for those of you who are new around this blog, you can read about it here)
I was relatively pleased with my hair, but when I begged asked my husband to chop it off in May, he asked that I wash it first with shampoo. So I did, but then went back to my carefree shampoo-less life. After I came home from giving birth, I had the gross-hospital-feeling all over me, so I washed my hair with shampoo. And then the day before Peter's Baptism, I washed my hair with shampoo so that it'd be super-squeaky clean for the festivities. Other than those few occasions, I've been shampoo free, and I love it. However, I found that after giving birth, my hair became extra-greasy, and some of my other mom-friends have been going through super greasy postpartum hair, too. I guess super-greasy hair postpartum is a thing? Anyways, I really wanted to stay shampoo free, so I ignored the wisdom of the internet and did the thing: I washed my hair with baking soda before doing my usual lemon rinse. 

Guys, I love it. My hair is so fluffy and clean and soft and wonderful, but I've read the blogs and articles about how baking soda destroys hair over an extended period of time. So, I'm kind of torn. Right now I'm washing my hair in baking soda once a week, and I'll see if I can stretch baking soda washes further apart-maybe it'll be okay and not destroy my hair then? I don't know. I've also thrown in a couple washes with Castile soap, which one of my friends has success with. I do  still own a wig from my competitive Irish dancing days, so I guess I still have a viable option if my hair goes crazy? 

Tuesday evening, my husband and I watched The Secret World of Arriety together, and it was delightful.
For those of you unfamiliar with Studio Ghibli films, I want you to know that you are missing out. The animation is great, the stories are so much fun, and the English voice actors are usually pretty famous people and do a great job. Arriety was really good, but I still think my favorite Studio Ghibli is The Cat Returns (Cary Elwes, who plays Westley, voices one of the main characters. So how can I not love it?). 

You know what one of the best parts of the election was? FREE PIZZA!
When the old gentleman at the polling booth gave me my sticker on Tuesday morning, he informed me that Marco's Pizza was giving away free food. I had never even heard of Marco's before, so I was intrigued. Wednesday evening, my husband and I feasted on pizza and thought about how great it was that we just got a $10 pizza for free because of the election. It was pretty fabulous. 

I think it's finally Fall over here?
Highs finally hit the sixties this week, and this morning it was cool enough for me to wear a sweatshirt. SO EXCITED! I love the nice end-of-summer-y weather we've been having, but I also really appreciate a change in seasons. I know that this part of the country doesn't get actual Fall (it's nothing like when I lived in New York or Ohio), but I still like some leaves on the ground and cooler temperatures-and now it seems like we may be getting those. Yay!!! 

I learned how to make mochi ice cream treats! 

It may look like just a ball of rice flour and water,
but there's tasty ice cream inside! 

If y'all have never eaten these bites of frozen delightfulness, you should really consider trying it sometime. I've always seen them in Asian stores, and finally splurged and bought a  box several weeks ago when my brother visited. I knew that I needed to learn to make them, so I did. It's actually a really super-simple process in theory, it's just difficult for me to wrap the balls of ice cream so that the ice cream doesn't seep out and that the mochi isn't too thick (in the first ones, I bunched up the mochi a bit too much and it was difficult to eat them when frozen). They are super tasty, and I like how they are much less messy to eat than, say, an ice cream sandwich.  

There ya go! Seven takes and I barely mentioned the election. Man, I feel accomplished. I'm off to make myself some coffee or tea with my brand-new kettle. Have a wonderful weekend!