Is it just me or do the days fly by??? For real. I have all of these ideas for blog posts/topics I've been reflecting on, and I'll think "Oh, I should write that up to publish it this in a couple days!" and I take a deep breath and...it's the end of the week. But rather than wait to post anything until I have a deep, thought-provoking reflection, why not join Kelly & Friends for some very random updates about life as of late?
Youtube dates are awesome. Earlier this week, Jacob and I had an evening at home when we decided to catch up on one of our favorite Youtube channels. And then, as often happens when watching one video, click click click! You wind up on an entirely different channel where you're sucked in by the amazing, hilarious, and totally awesome videos:
[disclaimer: there is a little bit of bad & inappropriate language in this one, but it's still worth watching]
No joke, while we were watching it, I was carrying Peter while walking back and forth, and I started laughing so hard that I almost fell down and dropped the baby (no worries-after that, I decided to sit and nurse him while we watched more Honest Trailers).
In my former wild and crazy life as a single person, my idea of a thrilling Friday night was dancing at the local nightclub with my friends (and watching live bullriding there, #KansasLife). But now that I'm married with a baby, my idea of "thrilling Friday night" involves peeling and chopping cooked beets with one hand while holding a screaming child in the other-and not turning the kitchen red/purple.
I just read about this really epic love story, and I just can't even handle how epic it is:
Melbourne Couple Waits for 50th Anniversary to Tell Children They Fell in Love at Nazi Concentration Camp. I get so tired of people saying, "Oh, we don't have enough money to get married," "Really, you have to date for ____ years before getting married so that you really know the other person," or "You need to test-drive your relationship by living together before you're married." Just tell that to the couple who met at a concentration camp and married less than three weeks later! Stepping off my soapbox now...
Why have I never made rice pudding on the stove before this week?!?!?! I love rice pudding, and make it every now and then. I always make an oven-baked recipe for no particular reason; I guess I've just always thought it'd be the most convenient since I wouldn't have to continually stir the pot. Anyways, this week I decided to make it on the stove for fun. Oh my goodness, NEVER GOING BACK! I've struggled to make the "oven" rice pudding creamy through and through, and it never seems to be the level of creaminess that I like. This stuff on the stove, though, was great. Perfectly creamy, which could be due to the fact that I-while cooking it-could add in more milk if needed. Bliss. I'm going to have to make this more often.
For any of y'all that missed it, author Elizabeth Hajek joined me for a Q&A session the other day, and it was pretty cool. Hajek is a Protestant, but she just wrote a Catholic novel. I found it really intriguing that she-not being a Catholic-did such an accurate, awesome portrayal of Catholicism. Let me tell you, it was so hard to keep the blog post in the "not too insanely long" length, because it seemed like she and I could have gone back and forth forever. She's a wonderful woman :)
I completed my Magical Postpartum Scarf! I started this thing just a few weeks before I gave birth, but barely got anything done on it (I have issues when knitting pieces that take more than an afternoon to complete). I brought it to the hospital when I gave birth, and worked on it a teensy bit, and then in the weeks after that I kind of forgot about it for a while. WELL, in the past couple weeks I've gotten a bit more done, and it's finished!
The interesting thing about making this scarf is that after knitting the entire thing, you're supposed to knit a row but drop every third stitch and unravel a bunch of your beautiful work. I know, it seems really counterproductive and counter-intuitive, but I'm happy with it. It's light enough for summertime wear, will work great with Fall Scarf Season coming in a couple months, and it used an entire skein of yarn that has been sitting around for the past few years!
In baby news, Peter is about 2 1/2 months old now, and at his 2-month check-up weighed in at 12 pounds even. I think he's huge since he more than doubled his birth weight, and it's been neat to see him become even more alert (he loves looking around, especially at ceiling fans). Because he's been growing, he is finally big enough to sit in a chair that two of my younger brothers used when they were babies. It's perfect timing, because Peter has gotten to the point where he likes to be able to look around, so for short periods of time (he doesn't last too long in it haha) he loves to sit in it while I cook or while we eat dinner. I'm pretty pumped about this.
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| Yes, our 2 1/2 month-old can still fit into a newborn onesie. I realize that he will soon be hugely gigantic, so we're getting as much wear out of his geeky onesies as possible. |
Well, I'm off to drink some coffee and eat a Beet Brownie. I hope that you all have an amazingly blessed and epic weekend!
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| This is what happens when you buy and cook beets on an impulse, and then search the internet for "recipes with cooked beets." And apparently beets have gobs of health benefits, so I'll feel really good while eating tons of chocolate ;) |
Your little guys is adorable! We've spent some time watching honest trailers over here too . . . ;-)
ReplyDeleteI honestly don't know if I'd be able to knit something that required unraveling.
So, when I think of beets all I can think of is the nasty canned variety. That's the only type I had growing up. I've been told that they can be delicious, but I've yet to believe anyone about that. However, your BROWNIES make me curious. I *might* have to try that . . .
Thanks! He's pretty fun & precious :) Oh, let me tell you, it was hard to persevere in making that scarf with the knowledge that I would be unraveling a bunch. I'm glad that I was miraculously able to stick with it.
DeleteI have been the same way with beets! I had a bad encounter with pickled beets off a salad bar or something once as a kid, so I have always been grossed out by the thought. But, lately I've really been trying to branch out with food and try new things (the sanguine part of me, I guess!). The brownies taste like beets (sweet & earthy) combined with a fudgy flavor, and I liked them a lot. I tried some plain beets, too, and those were pretty tasty-much better than canned or pickled ones, in my opinion.
Honest Trailers can fill so many naptimes!
ReplyDeleteYour scarf turned out so pretty! Is there a pattern somewhere? I normally spend my pregnancies cross stitching their Christmas stocking and birth announcement, but it would be nice to work with yarn postpartum. I have an embarrassingly large yarn stash that should really get moving.
Yes! I am astonished that my husband and I had never come across Honest Trailers before this week, but I'm glad that we finally did. There's so much good stuff on there :)
DeleteThank you! Like you, I have a huge yarn stash so it's nice to use it on something pretty and useful. I can't remember what site I found the pattern on, but the thing I loved about making this is that it's very simple. From what I remember, this is the pattern: After casting on however many stitches (I can't remember how many, but it was an even number) you do a row of k2 yo for the whole row. After that, you just stockinette stitch the whole piece, and when you're ready to be done (or have run out of yarn, as happened to me) you do a row of k2 drop 1. And then you unravel all the dropped stitches to the bottom and bind off the scarf. I normally am way too lazy to block my knitting projects that aren't crazy shapes, but it is important with this one so that it will lay out properly, and so you can stretch it out really wide.
Hi Peter!
ReplyDeletePlease share the rice pudding recipe. Sounds yummy!
Also - I'd have to check out that novel. :)
Hi, Sarah! I hope you enjoy looking into the novel! I liked it a lot :) I unfortunately didn't save the recipe I used (why???) but this one looks pretty close to the pudding that I made: http://www.2fatguyscooking.com/recipe/stove-top-rice-pudding-using-leftover-rice/
DeleteWe just came into some beets as well! We made borscht, but I think I would have liked the brownies better. :)
ReplyDeleteThat's so neat, Alicia! I'm sure the borscht was tasty and very cozy-I thought about making borscht or a similar dish with my beets...but then I found the brownie recipe, and I'm a HUGE fan of brownies ;)
DeleteI love hearing your updates!
ReplyDeletePeter looks great! It appears he looks a lot like you. Is this what you see?
I'll have to check out those trailers. I think my husband would get a kick out of them. :-)
Thanks! I think Peter looks a bit like me, and pretty much every person who has ever commented on his appearance says that he looks like me. One of our friends thinks that Peter will have the mannerisms of Jacob, my husband, since he looks like me-I'm interested to see if that happens!
DeleteHaha. Oh goodness, now all I want to do is watch honest trailers! ;-)
ReplyDeleteIt's so hard to stop at just one, isn't it? My husband and I stay up way too late whenever we start watching them, because we have to keep watching one after the other. And then one of his coworkers recommended "Literal Trailers" to us, so we've fallen down the rabbit hole of watching altogether too many of those : P
DeleteLove your scarf! You did a great job!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteAw, Peter is adorable! :)
ReplyDeleteI saw that article about the couple who met at a concentration camp, too—what an incredible story!
Peter is so cute! I say use those tiny onesies as long as you possibly can! My husband and I got sucked into youtube the other night. We started out watching his new favorite thing, which is motorcycle drivers with go-pros on their helmets. He's dying to buy a motorcycle but this is the closest he will ever get! :) That led us to a channel with videos of people who have train horns installed in their cars, and then honk them at poor, unassuming people. I was laughing so hard I was crying!
ReplyDeleteThat's so neat that he gets that motorcycle-type experience without actually buying one. Haha oh my goodness, the horns sound hilarious! Could you please share that channel title with me if you remember it?
DeleteI love epic love stories like that one--I'm always drawn to the stories of couples who married quickly after meeting. We sure have a lot of fun just watching youtube together, too!
ReplyDeleteThat's so neat-I'm glad that you and Angel also enjoy the wonders of youtube dates :)
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