Obstetrics, Cookies, and Some Soup

I'm not exactly rolling in today with a week's worth of insightful links, videos, or books.

While my radar is on, all it's reading is "Move. Move. Move," followed by "Organize. Organize. Organize," followed by "Purge. Purge. Purge."

So, thanks to the Move-Organize-Purge record playing constantly in my head, I'm not the Web's biggest browser this week.

But I did find and use a few links you all might find interesting.

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I am not a huge recipe follower. And this week's attempts are proof enough why.

Take, for instance, these lemon cookies I tried to bake for a play-date.

Because it's baking, I followed the directions. Mostly because when I don't, I end up with pastries that resemble and taste like lead pucks.

And, to be honest, these cookies were pretty good. They tasted like a sugar cookie. Which is awesome. Because I never make sugar cookies because I don't like the whole "roll-out-then-cut-out-then-roll-out-again-then-cut-out-again" process. Too much mess and flour and room for error.

But for a lemon cookie? These weren't that lemon-y. I wanted a more citrus-like punch, and honestly, they just didn't deliver. Next time, I'd add way more lemon juice and zest.

The next recipe I played with was a bean and barley soup, done up Southwest style.

It was tasty. But only after I added garlic - a lot of it - and doubled and tripled the spices used. Oh, and I added more barley. And more water. And I used the Crock-pot option.

Basically, I was two steps away from making this one up on my own. But hey, it was good.

Speaking of making things up, I used this Italian wedding soup with spinach as a jump-off point. As in I added spinach and sun-dried tomatoes to mine, too.

But that's where the similarities end.

Mine had onions and carrots and celery and more broth and more sun-dried tomatoes and entirely different kinds of meatballs.

And no fennel.

But it was splendid.

If you've not had it, I suggest you try this recipe. And then ad-lib along as you see fit.

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I get really excited when I see articles about birth in mainstream news outlets.

I read an article this week that was just that.

A lot of people don't understand a lot of the anger and disappointment I - and others like me - feel at our current medical community and how they handle obstetrics. This article high-lights it perfectly.

I want every woman to be made fully aware of her rights, as well as receive full support for what she chooses as a woman in labor, as a woman giving birth, and as a woman navigating life post-partum with newborn. Our country fails miserably at this.

We all deserve better; with articles like this shedding light on these issues, I hope, in my lifetime, we'll get it.

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I did this shoulder workout this week.

I have an obscene fear of my arms, as I worry they get quite flabby quite easily.

I felt this was a great workout to help that. And that's saying something because I'm not a big "magazine" workout girl.

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What's on your radar this week? Happy Friday, everyone!