7 Quick Takes 66: Acrobats, Planners, and Polaroids

Hi there! Happy Friday . . . at least I think it’s Friday, right? I’ve spent the time between Christmas and New Years wondering what day it is, what time it is, and whether I should be eating more vegetables than holiday cookies.

After a beautiful holiday season, Joseph and I are back to work and our regular routines throughout the week. But we’re excited for this weekend, when we’ll be headed to a friend’s wedding and getting together with family. But before we take our Langr wedding selfies, here’s a quick look back on the adventures the Langrs had together over the past few weeks.

1. Dinner is under pressure

Joseph gave me an instant pot for Christmas, and even though it wasn’t a surprise to see it underneath the Christmas tree, I was still incredibly excited. During the week after Christmas, almost all of our meals were instant pot meals so we could get a handle on this brand new kitchen gadget.

Joseph and I have two very different approaches to cooking with an instant pot. I like to pull up multiple recipes, decide what I’d like to include in the meal, and carefully make sure everything is put in the pot just right before frying my brain with math equations concerning how long the chicken should cook if there’s also rice in the pot.

Joseph, on the other hand, chucks everything in the pot, closes the lid, and looks at a chart we printed off to tell him what minute marker everything will cook at.

I like Joseph’s method better.

Without a doubt, our favorite feature of the instant pot is that it can cook rice in 4 minutes with no mess. It’s a beautiful alternative to my normal method of making rice: on the stove, boiling over the pot, spending more time cleaning up after the rice mess than actually eat the rice itself. Yes, this instant pot is here to stay.

2. I’m dreaming of a sloth Christmas

Without a doubt, my favorite animal is the sloth. Yes, even more than golden-doodles, which is hard to believe.

This year for Christmas, everyone picked up on that love of sloths when it came to gift giving. Joseph gave me a skirt with sloths printed on it, and my parents gave me a huggable sloth that also massages your back. My little sister gave us a set of clothes for the littlest Langr, decorated with little sloths.

I probably took my love of sloths too far over the week between Christmas and New Years and imitated their behavior a little too much, too.

3. Giving birth to an acrobat

We got to see the littlest Langr on a sonogram a few weeks ago. Since it was a longer scan to measure how he or she is growing, we got to spend quite a bit of quality time with our little baby. It wasn’t easy to take measurements or pictures though, since the baby decided to show of acrobat skills that he/she had been practicing.

Needless to say, all of the pictures our sonogram tech printed off for us are of our baby with his/her feet over his/her head, totally bent in half. It doesn’t look super comfortable!

4. Ringing in the New Year

We had friends over to our house for New Year’s drinks and deep meaningful conversations. We chatted about what we were looking forward to in 2019, and then some of our guests gave quick presentations about something they were passionate about and we discussed it together.

From Mumford and Son lyrics, to beauty, to moral ethics, it was a beautiful night.

One of our friends brought along a Polaroid camera, and the pictures have a great 1970s vibe to them, which this Old Fashioned Girl is a big fan of.

5. Getting my fluids

One of my 2019 resolutions is to drink more water. I realized that too quickly I’d reach for a Dr. Pepper more than I would a water, and the littlest Langr needs his/her fluids! To kickstart the habit, I downloaded an app that reminds me every hour to go and get a drink of water.

Unfortunately, the notification alert on my phone sounds like someone is running water. This is inconvenient for two reasons. The first is that I spent too much time yesterday looking to see where water was running in the house, only to discover it was the app notification. The second is that the sound of running water isn’t particularly soothing for a pregnant woman, whose bladder can’t hold that much water at once.

But I met my water drinking goal for yesterday, so I’m going to call it a win.

6. What sparks joy?

We’ve been watching “Tidying up with Marie Kondo” on Netflix. I’ve read Marie’s book when it first came out a few years ago, and was excited to see her principles put into practice on a television show. Joseph hadn’t heard much about her, and was a bit skeptical.

However, the past few days, I’ve come home from meetings or small groups to find that Joseph has totally tidied up different parts of our house. Whether it’s the closet, the kitchen, or a corner of our bedroom that seems to draw clutter to it like a magnet, everything is getting organized and tidied up.

Thank you, Marie Kondo.

7. Bring it on, 2019

I decided to by a Blessed is She planner for 2019 with some Christmas money - and I’m so excited. I’ve tried paper planners in the past, but haven’t fully integrated them with my digital planners.

But after missing a holiday party due to my pregnant brain and not writing some details down when I heard them, I’m resolving to get more organized in the coming year.

Originally, the planner wasn’t supposed to get here until next week, but I just checked and it’s going to be delivered today! Check out my Instagram this weekend to see what I think of it.