Downton Obsession

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It's Friday, and I'm pumped for the weekend for a few reasons.

1. We got the keys to our new place today! We'll be taking E to visit the inside for the first time later today. He's seen the outside but has yet to lay eyes on his room. I am so ready for his excitement.

2. We're attending a gender reveal party for some friends on Saturday. I'll admit, I've been skeptical about the whole idea of gender reveal, but I am super-excited to see them find out if they're having a boy or girl.

3. I have a girl's night dinner with my friends, Anna and Melody, at Deejai! I love their Thai food. I am waiting patiently and skipping any kind of afternoon snack so I'll be fully hungry later.

4. Last, but certainly not least, I cannot wait for another chapter to unfold in Downton Abbey. My dad told us about the show after the first episode. As always, he was right, and we were immediately hooked. Many of our male friends picked on Tyler for his choice in TV shows saying he wasn't manly enough, but surprise, surprise, lately they are more obsessed with it than Tyler. Tyler does have impeccable taste.

Love this blazer and denim look

If I'm ever in Miami and have loads of money to spend, I may stay in this hotel for it's eccentric and chic decor.

Once we get moved in to the new place, I may make these scones as our Saturday morning treat.

I hope your weekend has rest and relaxation in-store.

Let's Be Honest - What does it mean to be ourselves?

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Dear Individualism,

Let me start off by saying I really loved you and clung to you for a long time. You changed me into who I thought I was. I thought of you moment by moment, cherished each mention of my name on your lips, and compared my every belonging, measuring it up to my reflection in your mirror.

But, You are the robber of the average American's heart. You trick us all into believing we can achieve our self-worth by holding fast to you and your promise. You fool us into thinking we choose individual, specific, customizable looks.

We Americans listen to all of your words, and spend all our time trying to fit together the puzzle pieces of our hopes, our preferences, our individual tastes. We build our own personal rendition of the American Dream, of success, of being "different," of choice, or finding ourselves.

But when it comes down to it, Individualism, you are just a facade - a seemingly unique one - to cover the same wants, desires, and longings in all human hearts and souls. You make people believe they are so unique, different, a true individual, that they fail to see the commonality behind the shallow surface of uniqueness each person portrays.

Oh, Individualism, do you mock us and laugh when we think we've finally found it? When we just know we've got our unique and soul-altering purpose, do you laugh because you know we've really become an image, a reflection of ourselves, flat, a face-like mask covering our human likeness?

We are sewn into our personalities, stuck on them, coveting their success, their noticeability, and their popularity or lack of it. All of these selves hide who we truly are.

We are humans.
We desire and need love, grace, nourishment.
We thrive on community.

You know what you've tricked us into, don't you?

Cliques, bands, groups, clubs, gangs. We judge those we try so hard to be different from and stick to those we find commonality with, meanwhile ignoring the cry of the outsider. We want to be so different, but we want to be the same.

We're missing out on everyone else. We're missing out on who we were created to be.

Loosen your grip on us. Let us be.

Sincerely,
A Human with a Face

Let's Get Ready

So far, 2013 has proven as mighty as a whirlwind. I'm not saying that we're drowning over here and need some help.

I'm saying it's moving quick and mightily, and while we're hanging on for the ride. I know from half a mile away, 2013 looks beautiful as clouds and earth form a perfect funnel. But up close, it's definitely sucked us in.

As I posted before, we're planning on moving out of our townhouse into a real one with a fenced-in yard in less than two weeks. Two weeks. We weren't even planning on moving as of December 1, 2012. A friend asked how we found the house the other night and our response was more of a "it kind of found us." While we're really excited about it, we have a lot to do before the un-rented-as-of-yet u-haul comes to pick all our junk up.

Tyler and E also started back full-force to work/school on January 2. I was really underwhelmed by the short length of E's Christmas break this year, but he seemed pretty excited for 11 days off. Meanwhile, I started nannying for a family in our church and preparing for the next semester.

But surprise of all surprises, the writing company I was interested in working for, as another friend of mine works there, e-mailed to see if I'd be interested in doing contract work for them for the next six weeks. I suddenly felt put in a stew. They often don't have opportunities for new writers and while I applied last spring/summer sometime, this is the first time they've needed extra writers. This is my opportunity to get my foot in the door. This is not the time to say no.

So I said yes. As of today, I officially have five jobs this semester.
FIVE.
five.
5.

It's a little unreal how I can shove five jobs together to equal full-time work, thanks to this lovely job economy. And while I could sit and complain all day about how much hassle it is to have so many jobs/paychecks/tax issues, we have an accountant-friend who helps us out with that. My hours are also flexible, and I'm able to pick E up from school and spend extra-important time with him in the afternoons. I would not trade it for the world.

So let's get ready for a new year of firsts. It's kind of exciting, the way things change. And while it's hectic, I'd be complaining if it all stayed the same.

What are you excited about this year?

In other news, I'm looking forward to making this bread some time soon.

Breakfast babka's anyone?

I love these scarves, particularly this one.

Let's Be Honest - Food and Holidays

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I'm a faux vegetarian.

I know some people will judge me for it, but it's true. I've accepted it. Here's how life works as a faux vegetarian.

From January until Thanksgiving, life is easy. Making and enjoying food as a veggie is casual, yummy, and convenient. It cuts back on grocery bills, encourages our family to eat healthy foods, and doesn't make my stomach feel like a brick every evening. This makes life happy for everyone in our household.

But in the life of a faux veggie, Thanksgiving and Christmas come around every year throwing a wrench into all of my little plans.

From Thanksgiving until January 1, it's hard to eat:
1. Healthy
2. Vegetarian
3. Self-cooked
and not alienate and destroy every relationship with family members and friends I possess or care to possess. I'm not being overly dramatic either. Let's say we go have an extended family dinner the weekend before Christmas. Great Aunt Sally is going to throw a fit or at least a few passive-aggressive comments if I don't eat her turkey gravy, because "I've always eaten it before and she went to so much hassle to make it." In truth, I don't have a Great Aunt Sally, but I'm sure if I did, this is how our early-Christmas interaction would work out.

When visiting family over holidays, I am often the recipient of food rather than the maker of it all. After all, I'm still considered one of the "children" in my family and have yet to inherit the responsibilities of head chef or pastry chef.

I'll be honest. I enjoy it. I love cooking and baking at home, but every now and then, especially during the holidays, I like to take some time off. Who doesn't?

So I ate meat.

I even enjoyed steak on Christmaseve-Eve. I prefer whole sliced meat to hamburger meat because it hasn't been ground and is more "clean." It was free and my father did an excellent job preparing it.

I've learned to be thankful for meals I don't purchase or prepare. This includes meat. While I was likely to make a scene about meat during my early years as a faux vegetarian, to me it isn't worth the hassle any more. Don't get me wrong, I prefer non-meat items. However, I'm an adult now and pay for my own food and manage my time, and being a full-time veggie isn't my top priority, especially from November until January.

But now that we are in a new year, and I am once again the queen of my kitchen, I probably won't be grilling out any steaks anytime soon.

I am happy to detox, appreciate veggies, and eat clean for the next few months.

So call me a faux veggie all you want. I've finally found a balance between what I prefer and what is prepared for me.

Hooray for steak! Hooray for salad!

Happy Weekend.

It's Official...

We're moving!

Our New Place

After almost two years on Willoughby St., we are saying goodbye to our current home, our kitchen, our neighborhood, and moving across Uptown to Biddleville!

10 Perks of Our New Place:
1. Star mounted on the front porch
2. Fenced in Yard with a deck
3. 3-bedrooms
4. Alarm System
5. Larger Kitchen with full-sized appliances
6. Larger Bathroom
7. Flat Screen TV Mount for our grande Christmas Present (we've just got to get Netflix hooked up!)
8. Driveway to park cars (No more street parking!)
9. E's bedroom is a refinished attic - he's got the lofted big-boy room. Tyler and I are both a little jealous
10. We've got friends next door, across the street, down the street, and down the street and around the corner - Insta-Community!

10 Things We'll Miss:
1. Our first home together as a married couple
2. Walking to Starbucks
3. The huge attic door in my closet
4. Our neighbor Ken, our neighbor Anna
5. Davidson, Mowbry, and Fisher - E's friends
6. TV Shows and movies on the iMac
7. Our mail slot
8. Tyler and E walking to work/school
9. Late night Laurel Market trips and their amazing breakfast/lunch deli
10. Linen Closet Space

Needless to say, we'll spend the next few weeks packing, taking pictures of Willoughby St, and enjoying final memories in one house while preparing for the next era of life.

2012 Insta-Recap

Our Year in Instagram Photos

2012 was a year of much blessing, delicious food, family, travel, friends, animals, and celebrations.

A song for the New Year.

Looking forward to more of this for the next 12 months.

All Things New

Happy 2013!

I was watching some of the old videos Tyler made the other day, when I came across a wedding video he did for some friends last year. I usually don't tear up at weddings. I'm not one to cry, but for some reason I always get a little misty when I watch this video. I think it's because of something the pastor says in the midst of the wedding ceremony (about the time they kiss in the video).

In one moment he says, "That's why your hopes and dreams can become a reality, because Jesus said I make all things new."

While these weren't the only words spoken, they are the only ones Tyler included other with the vows.

I'm not sure why these words penetrate my heart so much, but they do. Maybe it's because of their truth. I know for a fact I needed a new heart, a new start, a new soul in order to ever really consider what my hopes and dreams included, consisted of, tasted like, what color they were, what smell they had.

New.

We love new things. That's why we enjoy gifts, really let's admit it, because they haven't been known, used, or seen by us before. New toys work how they're supposed to and don't look old and shabby. The new gift is fresh, it's usable, it's admired, it's clean (or it's shabby chic and vintage and is supposed to look old and well-used). I love the term fresh because it reminds me of spring and flowers budding. It reminds me of lemon cleaner on the furniture and scrubbed sink.

Fresh, rejuvenated, reinvented. All of these things can be words to describe us as well. We can be new. As we're entering this new year, and everyone is creating their resolution, or as I like to call them, revolutions, we're keeping our minds on new things. Everything we want to accomplish, mostly losing weight, working out more, cleaning and organizing more, trying new things or getting rid of old things, has to do with something new and better. Rarely do we come up with resolutions that require us being "worse" people. We always want to be better, to be new, to be refreshed and more productive. We desire a new start to accomplish something we haven't done before or have failed in an attempt to complete.

I'm looking forward to 2013. We've got a lot of new things coming up in the next few months. But what I'm looking forward to this year is growth, learning, living, and loving those around me. I'm looking forward to my hopes and dreams becoming a reality because Jesus makes me new.