Seven Quick Takes (no. 9)

This week I spent most of my time in pajama pants. Nothing else seems comfortable enough to wear. I know that I’m getting close to the end when my maternity shirts are getting too small and a bras seems like an instrument of torture. Since I don’t want to be seen wearing pajama pants, my husband’s shirt and no bra in public I opted to keep outings to a minimum this week.

Recently I met a lovely Slovakian lady that makes her own sausages, ham, and bacon from a live pig that she buys and butchers herself. We get our pork from a local farmer/butcher but I’m always curious about the butchering process. How much of the pig is used and how much is wasted? I just started reading Odd Bits and have become fascinated by all the odd bits of animals that can be eaten but that we never see in the supermarket. Things like check, tongue, tails, ears and yes even brain. From the sounds of it, this Slovakian lady that I met uses up most of her pig and that’s something I’d like to learn how to do.

It’s been a while since I’ve mentioned the rabbits. We still have our original four rabbits plus two more does (females). This last year we butchered and froze about forty or so rabbits. Not bad, but I still feel like there is a lot to learn. We’ve found that four does and two bucks is a good place to be for our rabbitry. Eventually, as our family grown we might expand or start raising chickens too.

Going to the library is a great way to find new favorite books. A few of Monkey’s (4) favorites right now are The Pirate Cruncher by Johnny Duddle, The Jewel Fish of Karnak by Graeme Base, and 365 Penguins. Sweetpea (almost 2) is obsessed with anything Sandra Boynton, especially the Going to Bed Book.

Meals around here have been very simple. Even though I make a weekly menu I have been finding it difficult to find the motivation to make even the simplest of things these days. It makes me sad actually since I do enjoy cooking for my family. We have been enjoying lots of smoothies though.

After watching a bunch of documentaries on Netflix I’ve moved on to Bollywood shows. There are a few that are fun to watch like Aisha, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Di Bole Hadippa!, and Band Baaja Baaraat. Some of them are long but the singing and dancing interspersed throughout make for good knitting background music.

Tomorrow we are going to celebrate the French winter festival. I can’t wait to eat lots of tire sur la neige (toffee on snow).