...sed noli modo.: Seven Quick Takes Friday, Vol. 38

Linking up with Jen on this beautiful Independence Day weekend!

Today is Little Bear's first birthday! It's crazy; there's no way he has been here for a whole year already. We are celebrating by going to the doctor and getting shots (aren't I a fun mom?), having his aunt over for dinner, and possibly being joined by the rest of my family for dessert and presents if they get back into town early enough. I have a cake in the oven, and am prepping peach-strawberry ice cream for the ice cream maker. Mmm...

Pope Francis' first encyclical was released today! Lumen fidei, The Light of Faith. You can download it in .pdf from the Vatican website, or I believe that Brandon Vogt has it in an ebook format. I haven't managed to read much yet, what with birthday preparations and general taking care of the house, but I'm looking forward to it!

III

I grew up with big Independence Day celebrations: 30+ people over, a big cookout, lots of pie and fireworks and games. Most of my family is down at the lake this year, though, so we had a quiet celebration with my one sister who is in town. She made pie and yogurt-filled strawberries, I made burgers, and Matt manned the grill while Little Bear crawled around having fun and getting under everyone's feet. We had planned to grill ears of corn, but when I husked them, big sections were mealy and rotting. That was a disappointment!

A disappointment for Mel and Matt, at least--I hadn't been planning on eating corn anyway. See, I've accidentally hit upon the most effective diet ever: having your wisdom teeth out. Because my oral surgeon's office closed for the entire week of the 4th, the nurse did an excellent job of scaring me into not eating anything that could possibly irritate or get stuck in my incisions. In the past week, I've really only eaten very small bites of soft foods... And since it takes so much longer to eat something when you are taking baby-sized bites, I just haven't been eating a lot quantity-wise; I think I've finally managed to stop losing weight as of this morning, but I dropped 10 pounds in less than a week and am lighter than I was when we got married!

And yes, I know that isn't healthy, especially while I'm still nursing Little Bear. It wasn't intentional, believe me. However, if I can maintain the weight I am now, eating well and exercising more, I would be thrilled. I'm still having trouble eating normal adult-sized quantities of food, though; any suggestions for nutrient- and calorie-dense soft foods?

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I rely on my rss reader too much. Feedly encountered some kind of problem when Google Reader was retired July 1, which only affected people who logged out and tried to log back in... But I finally got around to installing an update on July 2, and it logged me out of Feedly. The developers immediately fixed the problem when it was reported and submitted an update to the iOS App Store, but Apple still hasn't approved it because it's Independence Day weekend. When Matt came home from work the other day and asked if I'd heard about some current events, I petulantly replied that I didn't know anything because my rss reader was broken... and I definitely deserved it when he rolled his eyes and laughed.

VII

Where did the giant toddler sprawled across my lap come from? Has he really gone from this