What I’m Into (December 2015)

What’s Been Happening

Ohh ya know… I can’t fake it anymore. Guess what? We made a little announcement on Facebook a few days before Christmas… Merry Christmas from our family of THREE! EEEEE!

 

 

I’m due in May [and can hardly believe I’ve kept it a secret online all this time, hence all the vague “it’s been a busy month” references this fall] and we just found out that the baby is a BOY!

In the midst of this excitement, we had a great Christmas with both our families and have had a nice nearly two weeks’ off from before Christmas to January 4th. So relaxing. After Christmas, I did some baby shopping/browsing… so fun! 🙂 I even found an ergobaby carrier for 50% off at Target. You better believe I snatched that up! I also did a lot of reading to meet my yearly reading goal [see below] but I realize that’s not nearly as exciting for most people. Hehehe!

https://www.instagram.com/p/_eyRjisCKd/?taken-by=thepajamachef

We also ran a 5k in downtown Nashville… there was even hot chocolate after the race! 🙂

What I’m Reading

In December, I read/listened to 10 books–just enough to meet my goal of reading 120 books for the year! You can, as always, find my reviews on Goodreads. 🙂

My favorite book was In The Woods–I think I’m going to like that series! The Distant Hours by Kate Morton was also good, but slow. A great audiobook was The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, about a murder in 1860 England. Kinda creepy at times though, so you may not want to listen late at night. 🙂

Some great articles I’ve read online this month include:

• How it Became so Easy to Ignore the Poor – so sad, so true. In high school and college I had several friends who were quite involved with homeless ministries, but it’s hard to do this quite as much in the post-college, full-time job life…
• The Myth of Easy Cooking – yes! I’ve been trying to simplify things for myself but it’s challenging for sure.
• Remember ebola? So sad to read about how some of the ebola workers in Liberia are being treated now…
• On hunger and homelessness for college students:Q. A lot of people might look at the issue of food insecurity among college students and say, “So what? I lived on ramen noodles during college — this isn’t a problem, it’s a rite of passage.” Is that a valid point, or does it misunderstand the issue?A. No! That shouldn’t even be something that someone says — “Well, everyone has to struggle.” No. You should not. That should not be the life.
• After college, I worked with the campus ministry Cru at Ohio University. This was a recent article in the student newspaper about a non-Christian visiting the weekly meeting. This is why I worked with Cru, for sure! I still miss it.
• What makes a Mexican restaurant good… mmm, now I’m hungry. 🙂
• Hallmark Christmas movies… guilty pleasures no more!
• I wouldn’t consider myself “insanely healthy” but I already do a lot of these, but some of them would be good to aspire to! 10 things insanely healthy people do before 9 am.
• Maternity leave policies in the US hurt working moms… ugh. There are so many articles like this… so depressing. America’s values are depressing! And I have a very flexible work schedule and a relatively family-friendly employer [I just say “relatively” because we don’t get some of the extra bonus maternity/paternity leave, or a daycare on site, etc. but truly, I probably couldn’t ask for a better work situation].

 

What I’ve Been Cooking

This year, we didn’t make tons of Christmas cookies. I made these awesome No-Bake Peanut Butter Marshmallow Bars, Sugar Cookies, and Cranberry Cookies. Other than that, I don’t think I cooked very much… lots of Christmas events and such. I plan to cook a lot more in January! 🙂

What’s on the Blog

My most new popular recipe in December was Cheesy Southwest Farro. This will be on our menu again soon!

Most popular recipes from the archive included: Cinnamon Sugar Apple Cake, Sausage, Apple, and Egg Casserole, and Buffalo Pretzels.

What were you into in December?

Linking up with Leigh Kramer to share what I’ve been into lately.