7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 26)

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Tax season is always exciting for me these days.  I don't have to do my own taxes anymore (my mother-in-law does them for a living, so takes care of filing for us!), and I can usually expect a pretty hefty refund.  This year, for the first time ever, we're even getting a refund from the state.  I've never even heard of that before (it probably means we're just especially poor.  haha..)

Since we've been married, we've been throwing all our "extra" money towards paying off my student loans.  All our wedding gift money (which was a lot, since we didn't create a registry), and most of our yearly tax refunds have gone towards the loans.  And finally, with this year's refund, I am ecstatic to say that my loans are COMPLETELY paid off!  It's an amazing feeling.  I never thought I'd see the end of them!

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So what's the deal with green smoothies?  I know they're trendy right now, and it sounds like a good way to get more fruits and vegetables in your diet.  Since I'm trying to do that, I thought, "ooh!  I'll just make one green smoothie a day, and I'm set!"  But then I looked up some recipes.  Ok...I don't know what I thought a green smoothie actually was, but...I guess I didn't realize that what most of them are is basically "delicious-sounding sweet drink with a handful of spinach thrown in."  I like spinach and all, but it doesn't seem like a food that could so seamlessly blend into anything.  Take for example the "chocolate peanut butter smoothie with spinach".  Does this sound gross to anyone else??  I do enjoy eating fresh strawberries on spinach salads, though...so I could see how *maybe* it tastes good in certain fruit smoothies.

Anyone have a recommended recipe that's beginner-friendly (and doesn't involve any ingredients that are too expensive/weird)?

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I can.not.WAIT. until daylight savings time.  The kids have been waking up with the sun each morning, and Mommy is just not capable of dragging herself out of bed that early.  Sly has hit a new level of annoyingness in the mornings in his attempts to wake me up.  Last night, I asked Tom to hide Sly's drum (the "real drum" we had naively given him as a Christmas gift) so he couldn't use it (again) to wake me up.  But this morning, I awoke to Sly sitting right next to my head and banging on the drum, which he must have purposely gone looking for.

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I've long been amused by lists of kids games to play while sitting/lying down.  Recently, in my attempts to milk out a few more minutes of rest in the morning, I've been inventing some of my own.  Sly's favorite so far is "scavenger hunt."  I'll give him an assignment: "find something red", "find something soft", "find a book about a bunny", and he happily carries it out.  Sometimes he's gone for a while... ;-)

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If anyone attends or is interested in attending the Tridentine Mass (in Latin), you might be looking for a traditional missal.  Tom recently became quite taken with one he saw online, the Campion Missal.  Many new illuminations and images were commissioned for this book, and it includes a large section of hymns and chants at the back.  It seems as if the intention is for it to be bulk-ordered by parishes to serve as pew missals, but at only $23 for one, we plan to get our own copy.  It's just too beautiful to pass up!

This picture "borrowed" from Fr. Z's very positive review of the missal

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Saw this on Facebook...

 

The first time and the last
Pope Benedict XVI
19 April 2005 - 28 February 2013

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Thanks to all who participated in my recent giveaway.  You can still get a discount of $10 on My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the My Memories store.
Promo code: STMMMS91714

Quick Takes is hosted at Conversion Diary