Quick Takes (33)

--- 1 ---

Lent 2013: I gave up sweet treats (desserts and snacks) for Lent and added reading a book on prayer by Henri Nouwen ("The Only Necessary Thing: Leading A Prayerful Life").  I always like to do both...give up something that will be a sacrifice but also add something that will deepen my spiritual walk.  Ever since before R was born, I've had a hard time with my eating habits and eating according to my emotions and not necessarily hunger.  It's gotten really bad lately since I'm home all day and around food all day.  I still have 20ish pounds to lose since pre-pregnancy.  And all the extra weight, along with clothes that don't fit well, really depresses me and just adds to the emotional funk I can get myself into at times.  Giving up sweets has already been really hard.  I just think about everything I can't eat, so I'm trying to focus on prayer and self-control.

--- 2 ---

Memory verses: I've been such a blog slacker I haven't posted my verses for Feb. 1st and 15th.  The one I memorized the first two weeks of the month was Psalm 90:14.  I loved waking up in the morning and reciting those words at the beginning of my day.  The one I'm working on now is 2 Timothy 1:7.  I chose that one at the start of Lent and for the self-discipline part (I'm still working on memorizing that verse and practicing self-discipline!) Note: I didn't link to the verses and type them out because I want you to check them out in your Bible.  I'm so mean, huh?

--- 3 ---

Our rental house is falling apart!  First it was the animal in the attic, then the dripping ceiling, the garage door broke, and now today the key didn't connect with the deadbolt in the main door to lock or unlock it!  My DH is so ready to find a house to buy and move.  I'm trying to be grateful that we have a place to live 1 mile from his work, and still feel like patience will prove beneficial for home buying.  I am getting rather tired of having to call/bug our landlord every time something goes wrong though.

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We've been here 6 weeks and we've already switched pediatricians.  Ah.  What a disaster.  We had R's 9 month appt. shortly after we arrived in town, so I was a little rushed to find a pediatrician for her, but I did ask around and get recommendations and tried to find someone that would be a little more open to stretching out the vaccines from what the AAP recommends (we're not opposed to vaccines by any means, I just prefer giving her less vaccines at a time).  I thought I had done all my research and was going to be fine with who we found, but I was wrong.  I nearly started crying at the appt and even DH agreed we should find another Dr. for her.  The good news is, I think I have found a really great one.  I found one off of Dr. Sears' website, talked with them to share my concerns, and they seem more than open to delaying vaccines a bit.  One of the doctors even came up with her own vaccine schedule!  I finally got all the paperwork transferred over, so we're good to go for her 12 month appt. or sooner if she needs a sick visit.  Ugh.  So stressful though. 

I'm again reminded of the importance of advocating for your own health and recall back to my pre-CrMs/Napro days where I had doctors tell me nothing was wrong with my health, etc.  What a blessing Creighton and Napro are.  The fight for good healthcare continues with R. 

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While the rest of the US seems to be frozen in, we seem to be floating away here.  Seriously, we feel as if we moved to Seattle (we didn't) with all the rain we've had since we arrived.  People assure us this is not normal, but I'm not sure about that.  I'm still not sure which I prefer...clouds and rain in the winter or sun and snow.  Hmm....the verdict is still out.

--- 6 ---

Consignment sale season has begun here.  Apparently, it is quite big and all the sales are starting for spring/summer items.  I've only been to one sale, and I definitely had a list of what I needed.  I came away with one item- an activity table for R.  Best timed purchase ever!  We cleaned that puppy up and she immediately crawled over to it, got up in a kneeling position, and began playing away with all the buttons, lights, and sounds.  She thinks she's so big because she can kneel at the table.  And now she's being braver and pulling to a standing position at it.  She's still unsteady and cautious because she has taken a bunch of falls, but she is so proud she can kneel and stand.  It's pretty cute.

--- 7 ---

I've been terrible replying to emails and blog posts lately.   I've been reading blogs and praying for concerns, just not letting too many people know.  And responding back to emails...I've been horrible.  I don't know what it is, but I feel like I have to wait until I have enough time to put together a well thought out response, and then it never happens.  Those of you that have emailed, I'm trying to get back to you...I promise!

PS- forgive the typos.  I'm too lazy and tired to go back and read through the post today.  At least I'm posting, right?

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Happy Heart Day!

Happy Valentine's Day from our little love bug!  (Photo taken last weekend at her 9 month shoot.)

Photo credit: C.H. Photography

5 Weeks In

Today is 5 weeks since I first arrived in our new state with R in tow and DH driving the cross-country trek alone.  That means it's been just about one month in our rental house.  In some ways, it seems and feels as if we've been here longer, but then I look around and see all of the boxes in the garage that are still waiting to be unpacked and remind myself that we have only been here a month and it's ok to still have all those boxes untouched.

We are all settling into the new place fairly well.  I'm actually surprised at how well the adjustment is going.  I still have good days and bad days as far as things that frustrate me here and things that I miss about our old place.  I expect those bad days to continue to creep up for awhile, but overall, I'm happy and content.  I have so much less stress not working and just staying home with R.  However, I am tired all the time and wondering how whacked out my hormones are and if I should start seeing a Napro Dr. here, but that all seems too overwhelming for now.

I've also settled into being alone in the house and neighborhood.  I've learned of which neighbors are home during the day (several!) and feel better about the overall safety of our location.  That doesn't mean, however, that I don't get creeped out when sketchy guys come to the door asking if I want an estimate on cutting down trees.  And I do have my limits- I won't shower if I'm here alone, which means I'm up and ready early before DH goes to work (bonus for getting things done!).  And I have my booby traps set on/near the doors.  I'm really ok being at home now, but it's when I go out and have to come back home alone to the house that I'm still not comfortable with.

I did go to a seminar in our county put on by the police department.  It was geared towards women and safety around town...perfect timing for me, huh?  Some of the info I already knew (be confident walking in a parking lot, have your keys ready, etc.)  But I did learn two new things.  1. The police said you want to make it difficult, noisy, time consuming, and visible to break into your home.  Therefore, keep your outside lights on overnight, illuminate all exterior entryways from dusk until dawn.  The energy saver in me used to keep all lights off overnight.  Plus, my thinking was, why would I want to illuminate a door, so that it would be easier for a thief to break in.  This is not the case, according to the police.  2. Instead of just not answering your door when you're home alone, acknowledge someone is there without opening the door by just saying, "I'm not interested" through the door.  Interesting, huh?  That way the person at the door knows someone is home and won't try to break in thinking the home is vacant.  Plus, you don't have to open the door if you don't feel safe.  Anyways, thought that was interesting and wanted to pass it along.

DH is settling into his new job fairly well and living up to the challenge of meeting so many new people.  He comes home most days for lunch since his work is one mile away.  I think we are all enjoying that new aspect as he's never done that with such regularity before.  He does have night commitments twice a week or more, so it is nice to have him home for a bit over lunch.

I survived a visit from my FIL, MIL, and SIL as they came to check out our new place a week after we arrived.  FIL ended up in the ER Sunday morning as he fainted during church.  It was quite the lively weekend.  Never a dull moment around us, I guess.  Thankfully, he was only dehydrated and checked out fine.  I now know how to get to the closest ER!  Overall though, it was nice to have them here visiting and helping a bit.

My car finally arrived Jan. 21st (we dropped it off to be shipped Jan. 2nd).  So now we just need to find our 2nd car seat base, and we're back to being a 2 car family again.  But we could really almost function with one car given how close we are to DH's work!

We closed on our house and everything went off without a hitch!  We seriously got spoiled selling the house as it was the easiest process for us.  I fully recognize God's hand in all of it because I know that is not the norm when you sell a house.  The final bills are paid and the checks are in the bank from the proceeds and refunds relating to the house.  We are officially done with our 1st home...sniff, sniff.

Our rental home has been quite eventful, on the other hand.  I sort of wish we were officially done with it already.  It started with scratching in the attic above our bed one night.  DH repaired a hole in the attic and in the process of having to go up in the attic, found droppings everywhere.  We're not just talking a few turds here and there....oh, no.  We are talking enough poo to fill a space between two beams and one inch deep, he said!  Gross!  Since the home had been vacant for awhile, it looks as if a cat or small raccoon had taken up residence there.  The homeowners got someone to shovel all of that out (yes, they needed a shovel and bucket!) and added three shingles to the roof that had been chewed away!  We've had them replace a light fixture that stopped working, repair a leak in the attic (water was dripping from the ceiling in R's room during a storm!), replace springs on the garage door, and more.  All in the first 3 weeks!  I think they probably get nervous when they see my number come up on caller ID.  DH has done a few repair things around here as far as tightening/fixing faucets, knobs, and toilets.

It's pretty sad that DH has been up in this attic more in one month than he had been the whole 10 years in our previous home.  Granted, this home is 20 years older than our previous home, but still.  There is no question we are not interested in buying this house (Did I tell you that was an option?).  There is so much updating that would need to be done (we have carpet in all our bathrooms...have you ever tried to vacuum around a toilet...not fun) and we are just not looking for a fixer upper.  The neighborhood is beautiful and established, but the home is not on our house hunting radar.

Speaking of house hunting....we have started the process already (see above comments about attic, DH, etc.)  It's a little earlier than we had anticipated, but things got so bad here one day, DH was just like...let's start looking to move.  I don't care if we're not here the full 6 months we had planned on!)  We've already been pre-approved on a loan and have gone out looking at homes one day with our realtor.  We wanted to get a feel for what is available in our price range (lots of short sales and foreclosures) and what our realtor wanted us to look for in a home purchase.  We stumbled upon an amazing foreclosure that was not on the market yet, and had it not been our first day of looking, we may have seriously considered putting an offer in.  We've driven by that house twice to check it out again. Hmm...it was definitely intriguing (built in 2000, cheap, perfect size house and yard that we're looking for, but would need work done before moving in- new carpets and paint, new appliances and master bath, and it's more of a starter neighborhood than an established one).

I think I've been feeling like God is asking me to be patient....like so many other times and areas in my life (dating, career, marriage, IF, pregnancy, etc.)....and it's still not what I want to do!  I've noticed a lot more homes coming on the market since Feb. 1 (I'm getting new listings via email every day), and feel like our "perfect" home is yet to be seen.  Hopefully we're in our own home by the summer time.  That would be my plan.  We'll see what God's plan is!  More updates on the babe and Lent coming soon.

My New Favorite Recipe

I have lots of updates to share and a few crazy stories as we continue to adjust to this new place.  But everything still seems to overwhelm me, so I'm just going to share my new favorite recipe with you.  We had this recently at the home of someone who invited us over and we just made it again this week.  Here are the instructions she gave me (it had been adapted from one she found at allrecipes.com called "Amazing Pork Tenderloin in Slow Cooker").

Here's what you need:

1 5-lb pork loin (this was not a tenderloin, just the loin.)
2 envelopes of dry onion soup mix (we used Lipton's brand)
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups red wine
3-5 tablespoons minced garlic (we used fresh garlic)
3-5 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
fresh ground pepper to taste

Put the pork in a slow cooker and pour the water, wine and soy sauce over it.  Then turn the pork over to coat.  Sprinkle garlic, onion soup mix, and pepper on top. Cook on low for about 8 hours.  Serve the cooking liquid on the side.

We saw pork loin was on sale this week for 1.99 a pound at Kroger, so we thought it would be a good time to try out the recipe (it's usually 3.49).  Plus, I was craving meat and couldn't stop thinking about that yummy pork we had had 2 weeks ago.  The loin was pretty fatty on the outside, but we didn't trim it before cooking.  We mixed in one of the onion soup packets with the water, wine, and soy sauce mixture so it would dissolve.  The other one we sprinkled on top like the recipe said.  We let it cook overnight for about 9 hours, and then this morning I was able to just peel the fat off and scoop it out.  The meat fell apart it was so tender and DH and I each had huge servings of meat for lunch.  Yummy!  The best part is it's easy-peasy, just like this short blog post;-)

I'll try to be back soon with more stories.  For now, I'm off to Kroger to stock up on more pork loin for the freezer:-)