This Week's Update: January 9

I feel inspired.

Or perhaps the gauntlet has been thrown.  Either way, for at least a bit of time I'm hoping to blog more regularly and I'm starting with a simple system to do so thanks to PicMonkey and simple explanations.

1. Holiday events are over and it's really cold around here, so it's time to start working on Nick's quilt again.  After a marathon weekend quilting session, the hand quilting is done and the machine quilting is going to work really well with simple straight lines following the sashing.
2. The Epiphany Pageant is back at church.  This time though there are no rehearsals, no intimidating costumes, an insanely simple program, and everyone is involved.  It also helped that someone was motivated to handle all the details of this event from start to finish.  Jen, I could have saved the Star someone made for your Star Dance year, but it was huge and I wanted to clean the cabinet and I did not want to bring it home so ... let's just say that we'll have to rely on memories.
3. I've had a perfectly lovely time buying this and that for Baby Gerardi who's due in only 36 days.  36!  I don't know how I'm going to wait until mid-March to meet the little darling.
4. I'm reading the Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur for my Well-Read-Mom book club.  The book is interesting enough, but it was impossible to find a copy for loan or for sale so I ended up buying a Kindle version.  I'm glad it was an option, but I'm not much of a fan of the method.
5. Happy news of the day on Wednesday: the Archdiocesan Vocations Office likes Family Formation!
6. I was talking with someone at church about the general topic of nativity sets and ended up with her giving me a fairly extensive set with figures about 10 inches high.  It's set up in the bay window (a space big enough for all the livestock, the well, the feeding troth, etc.) with the Wise Guys peeking down from the corner of the bookshelf.
7. In Holly's "goals" post she mentioned her competitive tendencies being the motivation behind friending me in the FitBit app.  I'm glad to try to kick her butt in steps, but in all fairness I should probably tell her that my exercise plan involves drinking lots of water at my desk and taking the longer route to the bathroom.  Let's just say that there's not going to be a trophy for beating me.
8. A good, but mostly unremarkable Enchilada Soup recipe, except for one feature: one of the ingredients is chicken, but instead of cutting up raw chicken when I really wanted to get out the door, the whole breast is just dumped in the crock pot with the rest of the ingredients.  Before it's served, simply scoop out the whole thing, cut it cross grain in a few places, and it falls apart into a perfect soup meat.  It was a great method!