Goat Cheese Recipe: BLT Wraps (Go vote!)

Ile de France, importer and purveyor of fine French cheeses, likes to have contests for bloggers. I thought about entering their cheese platter contest awhile back, but never got around to it. This time, though, they actually provided the cheese for their holiday appetizer contest to the first 50 to request it, one of which was me. So I got some goat cheese, and perused the internet for recipes to get an idea of what ingredients one generally mixes with goat cheese. I thought that, since its a contest, I shouldn't just find some recipe on the internet and regurgitate it (figuratively). After doing my research, I invented this recipe. Now I am competing against 25 or so other recipes to win $1,000. You can help by clicking the link to my recipe and giving it 5 stars down at the bottom.

Here's a photo of my tangy, sophisticated twist on an old classic:

Advent

We had a good but noisy Thanksgiving with my family. I grew up around all that noise but I guess I've gotten used to the quiet of just Craig and I. We ate a lot, played some board games (which Craig and I dominated) and caught up on family news. Then, before I knew it, Thanksgiving was over and we were on our way home listening to Christmas music as we went. Ah, Christmas!

The Advent season started Sunday night although we didn't get around to it getting out of Christmas stuff until last night and we didn't have time to do the Advent devotional, but tonight it will happen for sure. Luckily the study we are doing is not 7 days a week so we should be able to catch up during the week.

I love Christmas time in general, but especially the season of Advent and the tradition of lighting the candles each night and doing our devotional. I remember doing it every year growing up and I love doing it together with Craig now. Our first year we missed a number of days but last year was much better and maybe this year we will actually get each one done.

I used to like it mostly because it was a tradition and I really like traditions in general but gradually I learned to like it because I began to see Advent as a season of preparation and I really did feel like my heart was more prepared for Christmas when I spent the time focusing on Christ. It is very hard to make Christmas about Christ when you spend 90% of your free time during December working on decorations, gifts, parties, etc. Spending my evenings refocusing on what is important does really prepare my heart for worship.

But this year, I've been seeing Advent mentioned a lot as a season of waiting and that has really spoken to me.

I feel like I've been waiting for a lot of things this year...waiting for God to bless us with a child, waiting for God to "fix" certain problems in my life or take them away, then waiting for the first trimester to finally end, and now waiting for God to reveal the answers to some big questions we have been asking him about our lives' direction. And while I'm not quite there yet, I have a feeling in a few months I will begin I will want to be done waiting for this baby to come out.

And most of the time, I'm not very good with waiting. I'm hoping this season God can show me more about the joy of waiting. Not just for Christmas morning, but waiting on his timing in all areas of my life.

Just think of how God's people waited and waited for his return. It was a long time, but I happen to think He was worth the wait. The little babe in the manger. And then they still had to wait for him to grow up. Now we wait for Him to return. I also like the how while the idea of preparation brings to mind all the things I need to do before it can happen, waiting is more passive. Not completely passive, God has given us things to do jobs to do while we wait, but we aren't responsible for causing anything to happen, we are just called to be ready when it is. Like
the bridal party, our having full or empty lamps didn't change when the groom came, just who was able to go into the party. I can't make Christmas come any faster by putting up my tree earlier (although many people seem to try) or making sure I have my 12 dozen cookies baked, nor can I slow it down just because it's Christmas eve and I haven't gotten everyone a present. Nope, it comes on December 25th, no matter what. And while I fight it sometimes, I think I
like not having that responsibility. Or at least I should. And that is what I hope to learn this Advent season, the joy of waiting.

And so it begins...

A couple months ago I purchased a cloth diaper for a friend's baby shower gift and somehow I got added to a baby mailing list. It was slowing down though until a few weeks ago when all of a sudden, the baby mailings increased with a vengeance. I'm not sure how they got my information, the only way I can think of them getting that information is my doctor but surely they couldn't give out my address, could they? I will give them the benefit of the doubt, especially since I was already getting some things but can the huge increase be just a coincidence?

Anyway, it's a bit much. Before it was just a flyer or random coupon every month or so, but not now. I came home a few days ago to this: a box with a baby feeding guide, two cans of formula and a reminder to ask for my free Similac sling pack at the hospital, complete with pre-filled bottles measured for a newborn. I don't want to use formula but even if I did, I don't really think I'm quite ready to get large cans in the mail. But I know what they want, they want to get me hooked on their product. Just like the Pampers and Huggies diapers I received last week.


I promise this isn't going to turn into an anti-formula post. I'm sure I'll talk later about my desire to breastfeed but this is more of anti-consumerism for babies post (that's an awkward phrase but it is better than anti-baby consumerism since that sounds like I'm anti-baby).

The amount of "buy this for your baby" propaganda is ridiculous. I read a couple of the mainstream baby magazines before I realized they are just 30 page advertisements for things you "need" to have. The article about how to prevent stretch marks is really just a list of the top 5 stretch mark creams (at least one of which was over $50). Ditto for the "how to deal with diaper rash" article.

The actually ads are even more confusing. Especially for baby toys because, unlike commercials for toys for the 5-7 year old crowd, these ads are actually aimed at me. My kid is not old enough to by heartbroken if they don't receive a Zhu-Zhu pet for Christmas, "forcing" parents to search high and low for a plastic hamster. No, to sell a product for anybody under 3, you have to convince the parent it is worthwhile. But none of the ads I see are remotely applealing. Look! The faster your kid scribles, the faster the music plays. That sounds awful. Why can't I just give my kid some paper and crayons and put a CD on in the background? Am I the only one who feels this way? Have the "I want to buy lots of crap for my kids" hormones just not kicked in yet?

The Joys of Pregnancy: #1 - The snoogle

In an attempt to view and portray my pregnancy in a positive way (which in reality has been much harder than I anticipated), I am going to start posting about the wonderful aspects of pregnancy. Obviously, this list will be chronological and not in order of importance. Although I do love it, I sincerely hope that my Snoogle does not turn out to be my favorite part of pregnancy.

At this point many of you may be asking what the heck a Snoogle is? It's a pillow, a gigantic curvy body pillow. But the word pillow really fails to convey how amazing the Snoogle is. I started having trouble sleeping at about week 10. I was not expecting that to start so soon but as "not expecting" really seems to sum up my whole pregnancy experience, I should just get used to that. As soon as I did, I knew I needed a body pillow. I'm a weird sleeper when it comes to pillows, I don't normally like to use pillows under my head, but I love body pillows and slept with one religiously all through high school and college. I gave it up when I got married though as I didn't think Craig would appreciate my putting a large barrier between us. But desperate times call for desperate measures and when I needed a pillow, I knew just the one I wanted. I have heard wonderful things about this pillow from preggos and non-preggos alike. I ordered mine from Target and it said it would take 9-15 days to arrive, which was very depressing as was the fact that it cost $49.99 and free shipping starts at $50.00. (Only pregnancy would cause Craig to instantaneously hand over his credit card without even asking me if I thought $50 was a little much to be spending on a pillow even though I know he already feels like our apartment overfloweth with pillows). But Target did not do me wrong, my Snoogle arrived just three or four days later and my life has not been the same since.

When you lie down in it (and yes, in really is the best preposition to describe it), you become encased and magically all the joints from your shoulder blades to ankles that have been misaligned and achy all day, are lifted, lined up perfectly and just seem to disappear. Amy Beth actually describes it as like having a man wrapped around you and that would be pretty accurate except with the Snoogle you can move it and punch it to get it situated exactly how you want it and when I try to do that with Craig he gets grumpy. (He is such an unsympathetic husband sometimes :-)

And it's so versatile. I switch back and forth during the night between the back to back and tummy tuck positions but I also love using it in a modified swirl position while watching TV on the couch.

It's big, so it is a pain to move it back and forth between the bed and the couch but it is still worth the effort. In fact, I'm driving to visit family over the Thanksgiving break and the snoogle will definitely be coming with me even though it will occupy a whole seat.

Also, in an attempt to give a fair review, I've also heard if you are really short or really tall, it isn't quite as great but it's fairly flexible so I think you'd have to be on the extreme end to have that problem. And others have complained that the pillowcase it comes with is a bit scratchy. They sell others that are softer and colorful for $20 but I am pretty picky about textures and I don't mind it. It's not 300-count Egyptian cotton but it works. You could always just stick a normal pillowcase over the top where your face touches it if you are really bothered, but I'm not.

Overall, I love my Snoogle - a lot. But from what I've heard, husbands tend to demand their removal from the bed pretty soon post-pregnancy so I'd better enjoy it while it lasts.

Awesome phone conversations of the week

I'm not a big phone talker in general. I just don't really like talking on the phone all that much. I have a few close friends and family members that I like to keep up with by actually conversing but in general I do most of my long distance correspondence via the internet and I like it that way. But even I have to admit I had a couple pretty awesome phone conversations this week.

The first came a couple mornings ago at a little after 7am. It woke me up and when I looked to see who it was from, I saw my older brother's name. Now Rick is not much of a morning person at all and being a grad student, he can still pretty much get away with that so I immediately though that he was calling to tell me either 1) he was engaged ( a little birdie told me it might be happening soonish) or 2) someone was in the hospital. Now since the title of this post is about awesome phone conversations and not devastating phone conversations, you all can probably guess how this story is going to turn out. Yes, he is engaged!

(Photo stolen from my mom's facebook page)

It's very exciting and not just because none of my family members were dead. I can't wait until next week when I get to see them again and get to know her better since the last time we went to visit him and meet her, I spent most of the weekend napping or in the bathroom. Plus, I love me wedding planning news and most of my friends are married now so I don't get a chance to hear about it much. Fun times are coming!

The second awesome phone conversations happened yesterday when I got a call during the middle of the day from an unknown number. Turns out the driving study I did a few months ago had trouble getting enough people to participate so they raised the financial incentive. But to make things fair, they had to go back and paying everyone else the extra money too. Basically, she called and asked if I wanted to swing by her office and pick up $100. Why yes, yes I did. I don't know about you, but I don't often receive phone calls asking me to go pick up large amounts of cash, especially not just several weeks before Christmas, so that was way up there on awesome phone conversations.

So those were my awesome phone conversations of the week. I realize the title of this post makes it sound like it is going to be an recurring feature but I don't think it is, unless of course people just want to keep calling and offering me money!