Gelato, the Super Bowl, and a Library Tragedy (7QT)

Hey there, everyone!

I don't have the brain space for anything too deep this week, so I'm joining Kelly and the other lovely bloggers for some quick takes.




1. This year, I am going to participate in 40 bags in 40 days challenge, and I'm pretty excited!
Each year, when Lent draws near, I come up with all sorts of excuses for not participating. But, after Kirby mentioned it the other day, I started thinking more. And since I've been on a minimalism kick for a little while, I decided that this is the year when I'm going to tackle this. I've been feeling quite giddy as I work on my cleaning/decluttering schedule for Lent! (it's also really nice to have some sort of plan for Lent already, since I've been drawing a blank so far)

2. There are far too many shampoo options in this world.
I spent nearly a year using all sorts of substances other than shampoo for washing my hair (lemon water, tea, and goat's milk soap, to name a few), and I just made the decision to go back to shampoo. Life without shampoo was pretty great, but I was not aware that having a baby can make one's hair very greasy. Plus, I could never figure out my favorite magical "no poo" solution, and figure that-since my occasional time to shower is limited anyways-I should go back to a quick n' easy shampoo. A few days ago I stopped by the shampoo aisle at the grocery store to pick up a bottle. Holy smokin' incense, there were way, way too many options. In my past life, I would have grabbed the cheapest bottle and called it quits, but I was feeling fancy, and wanted something nice but not too expensive. Lucky me, I could pick from at least 8 different varieties of shampoo that included varying levels of coconut milk, honey, essential oils, and who knows what else? After about 10 minutes of serious deliberation, I grabbed an on-sale bottle of shampoo+conditioner and called it good. But really, this experience was intense enough to make me consider going shampoo-free again (or at least avoid buying shampoo again for a very long time).

3. I enjoy ice cream, but I really love gelato-so I decided to learn how to make it. 

Peter and I spent our Wednesday morning stirring, mixing, and measuring ingredients. With hope in our hearts, we put a tub of liquidy, lime-flavored goop in the freezer, hoping that it'd become gelato. My husband and I tested it on Thursday evening, and we quite liked it! It was a little icy, so the texture wasn't quite right (I don't think I mixed it well enough during the freezing process, since it was hard to keep track of as I cared for a baby), but it tasted very limey and good, and was pretty fun. Plus, I didn't have to buy any special ingredients to make it, which is a plus :) I used this recipe, with the "no machine" directions from this recipe. I really want to try this again, especially if Jacob's around to help with Peter so I can be attentive to the blending process. 

4. This week, my little guy turned 8 months old, and it's been an adventure! 
It seems that in the past week and a half, Peter has aged a ton. Suddenly, he's sitting up straight for extended periods of time, experimenting with solid foods, and becoming much more playful! Over the past few days, I'll sit him upright in the living room while I make food or play with him, and it's so delightful to watch him smile, babble, and just be amused at sitting up. He is extremely obsessed with the tag of one of his plush bears, and he is growing more adorable each day. I think this developmental stage has been the most fun so far-while my days are exhausting as I keep up with him (since he doesn't regularly nap and won't nap on some days), I love playing with him and feeling his little hands pull on my face as he smooshes his head into mine. He's not crawling yet, but he sometimes pushes his bottom half up in the air, and he can hold his top half up really well if his legs are on the floor-so I know that once he figures out how to coordinate his upper and lower halves, he'll be all over the place. 

5. I normally don't watch the Super Bowl (I'm really not into professional sports or football), but I found myself watching quite a bit of it on Sunday. 
I wasn't rooting for one team in particular; I just wanted a good, exciting game...and was disappointed that it really wasn't that thrilling. Then, the stream we were watching cut off. It's all good, 'cause the Patriots only had a few points anyways and had no chance of making this game exciting, I thought. WELL, when the stream came back on, the teams were tied and suddenly, things were very, very exciting (and we missed the great comeback! Oh well). 

6. On the topic of the Super Bowl, did anyone else watch Lady Gaga at halftime?
I'll be perfectly honest: When I first heard that she was performing at halftime, I thought, Well, I'll just skip the halftime show, because who knows what kinds of things she'll do? And I prayed and prayed all day long that she'd not do anything too...interesting. With a little bit of trepidation, I began watching the halftime show. First off, aside from her outfit in the very last song, SHE WAS CLOTHED!!!!!!! Guys, I try to stay away from pop culture, but I know that some female celebrities have worn or done super-scandalous things onstage. So I was that much more excited that Lady Gaga wasn't baring it all (she was wearing more than the cheerleaders!), but was instead letting her incredible talent shine through as she sang. The musical selections totally hearkened back to my high school days, and while the halftime show didn't 100% meet my standards of propriety, I still enjoyed it.

7. On Wednesday night, I journeyed to the library and discovered something very terrible: 
For a solid two weeks, the library will be closed.
I have no idea what I'm going to do. 
Okay, I'll probably just go to another library and/or check out so many books before the library closes that I won't have a need to visit it during that sad fortnight. And apparently the library is closing so that all the books can be moved to a temporary location while the library is being rebuilt into a better library, so I guess it's acceptable. Still, 2 weeks without my beloved library. Also, I'm going to have to drive to the temporary location once that opens, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to do it, since I'm so used to driving to my local library. I've already checked and found that the temporary location is the exact same mileage from my apartment as the current location, but still. I guess I can make this disruption to my normal routine part of my Lenten sacrifice, right? 

As you can see, "ordinary life" has been very full and wonderful (although a bit sleep-deprived), and I thank God for His presence each and every day. I hope you all have a glorious beginning to your weekend! Oh-and if you have some free time, I highly recommend reading Amanda's amazing post about how we can support working moms. It's so, so, so good, and valuable to read even if you aren't a mom or a woman. Just read it.