Thursday, February 28, 2013

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 26)

-1-
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!


-2-
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)?


-3-
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.


-4-
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... ;-)


-5-
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


-6-
Saw this on Facebook...
 
The first time and the last
Pope Benedict XVI
19 April 2005 - 28 February 2013


-7-
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

7 comments:

  1. Whoa... I've been needing a new missal--that is an awesome price! I might just be buying one...

    Congrats on your student loans! :)

    My former coworker used to make blueberry-banana-spinach smoothies all the time, and said they were awesome. I agree that something like chocolate-peanut butter-spinach sounds really weird.

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  2. I like being creative with green smoothies but sometimes it can be taken a little too far - not long ago I saw a post for one with broccoli. Anyways - I like to use cilantro and cucumber and blend it with pineapple, ginger, and banana. And when I use spinach I pair it with something like cherries or blueberries, along with bananas and orange juice. The dark color of the fruits mask the bright green of the spinach.

    At Pure Fare I make one with avocado and lime and it tastes kinda like a margarita!

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  3. We just bought the Campion missal for ourselves. My kids are really quite taken with the pictures, which is great, because there is a lot of theology drawn into each of them. It is quite bulky, so I have a hard time holding it open with just one hand. It doesn't lay open very well (so you can't really set it down for a few seconds in the pew ahead of you while you try to prevent the toddler from grabbing the baby's face) and it doesn't come with any ribbons. I guess I don't see us bringing it to Mass much and I wouldn't recommend it for that purpose, at least not if you have kids. But it is nice to have at home to leaf through.

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    1. Oh, ok - good to know! We already ordered one last week. I was thinking the same, that it should be really nice for kids to look at. In the reviews I was reading, the lack of ribbons was the biggest complaint. You can find simple tutorials online about how to make your own ribbons - maybe something like that would help?

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    2. I did think of adding ribbons. I will need to look that up. I think most people would get used to this bigger missal; it's a larger font so many might prefer it. I'm just used to the smaller missals and using this was more difficult me. If our community could afford them for the pews it would keep the kids entertained, maybe in a positive way? We'll keep ours at home for now but maybe in the future we can get some more for church.
      And congratulations on paying off your loans. It's an accomplishment for sure.

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  4. Congrats on paying off your student loans! That must be such a good feeling. We're eagerly looking forward to it one day! Where will you be throwing all your extra money next?!

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