Hi friends! It's been a while since I did a life lately post since the last one of this kind was what we've been eating lately. . . which is basically 90% of our life anyway! The end of summer was lovely and the beginning of school was. . . rough! I love going back to school--the energy, the enthusiasm, the excuse to buy new school supplies and clothes, love it all! This year though I took on a lot of new responsibilities with 2 new stipend jobs and a new hire in our department plus planning an amazing field trip. So, I'm super happy that I made those freezer meals! The one of the last weekends before I returned to work, we had a weekend with David's sibblings where we hiked, hung out, ate, and I went to Ikea for the first time! I know, how had I never been before?! We ended up with this dining table and finally got these chairs from Target ( which we had been searching for for months because they're discontinuing this style. We basically found a unicorn! ). Aaaaand I'm dreaming of having one of these lights for above the dining table--some day! While we were visiting, we went on a super cool hike into a chasm--Purgatory Chasm to be exact. It was more challenging than I thought it would be and at some points trail became quite a relative term but it was great. My sister-in-law is THE BEST and made us some really wonderful healthy food--kale salad, pesto tofu--and had my favorite yogurt (Siggis!) and fruit on hand. It's the little things that are big y'all. She also made reaaaaaallyyyyy awesome sorbet and a super creamy chili chocolate ice cream. They were all amazing. That weekend we also finally found a rug (YAY!) and it fit perfectly in our living room. I had basically decided we were never going to find what we were looking for and then on a whim we stopped at a TJ Maxx and found exactly what we were looking for. That same night my aunt and cousin came to drop off my parents' dog so we could dog sit while they traveled and I made this awesome salad. We had SO MUCH FUN with my parents' dog. He is a white or European Golden Retriever for those who are curious. He's just the most adorable, calmest, sweetest dog and we love him. We took the week to explore local dog friendly walking places and had a blast ! We may have even let him up on the bed. . . not that anyone's telling! My mom wakes up, feeds, and walks him every day at 5am so he definitely got me on the teacher sleep schedule again. You can't sleep past a dog alarm, that's for sure! Once I finally got myself out of the house, it was really nice to watch the sun rise and have a quiet town to ourselves on our walks. I've been LOVING season two of Elizabeth Gilbert's Magic Lessons. If you haven't listened yet, DO IT. You're welcome. We almost didn't give him back! I started back at work! While getting up early to work out by 5:30 every morning has not been easy, I just feel better having done something (even 10 minutes!) before I start my day (and spend a solid half hour in the car). Fall is coming fast and I'm finally ready to give in. First PSL (pumpkin spice latte) of the season while shopping the Target dollar section (YASSS). Why hello fall! You're looking cute. I've been really into the blue buffalo plaid for fall. Can't stop, won't stop. I know it's officially fall because football has started and we've reached the time of year where I get flack about my choice of jersey and football team. YES, I like the Packers! We had my parents over for Labor Day and had a beautiful afternoon boating and then a fantastic meal, thanks to the recipes from Danielle Walker's new cookbook, Celebrations. We also made the blackened salmon and stone fruit salsa which was, as David and I agreed, life changing. David's birthday basically lasted for two months but we wrapped it up in the best way possible by having a boy's weekend. His friends came over and played video games while I made pasta + meat sauce + garlic bread for dinner plus chocolate peanut butter cookies from How Sweet Eats + amazing rice krispie treats with leftover red, white, and blue rice krispies (and frosted flakes since we were short!) + lucky charms marshmallows because obviously! Then I made brownies. Don't worry, I packed all the boys to-go bags so we wouldn't eat all the food. So, that's life lately, though rather delayed! Back to girl bossing it at work, working out before the sun rises, meal planning and prepping to try to eat healthy, some weekend (okay, and week day!) splurges, and lots of time with friends and family. My favorite part about having a house so far is that it's allowed us to spend a lot more time with people, especially in a comfortable space, than before. I truly feel so lucky every day to wake up in our house and get to share it with people whenever we are fortunate enough. I've been reading a lot ( and listening to a lot of podcasts on my drive! ) about the science of happiness and thinking about how gratitude affects our happiness. So, I'm thinking about starting a gratitude journal and maybe I'll share it in my next loving lately post. Stay tuned!
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Hi friends! So, for the month of August, there's been a bit more excitement than usual around our house. Okay, with a new house and school starting, a lot more--BUT there's also been preparing for David's birthday. During the Christmas season, I do an advent "calendar" for him. I use some twine or string, decorate 25 paper bags, and make up 25 fun things to do or small gifts. I include things like small candies, cookie decorating night, Christmas movie night, board game night, etc. It's for him but I always find it a really fun way to celebrate the season. This year I decided to do the same thing for his birthday. Here are some of the things that made the list. . . Homemade milkshakes! I used the hot fudge recipe from Date Night In, strawberries, ice cream, milk, whipped cream, toasted marshmallow, and birthday sprinkles (DUH!). Olympics viewing party! Did you watch the Olympics? Are you a fan? We're like, what do we watch now that it's over? This one was SO FUN for me too even though it was a lot of work ( yay summer! ). Celebrating National S'mores Day with s'mores waffles! HECK YES. Taco Tuesday! Hiking / Adventuring--I had to keep you from thinking they were ALL about food! Peanut butter cookies--his favorite. In order to keep costs down, I also did a lot of "I'll do the annoying things so you don't have to" days--like that time we got that terrible valance in our living room taken down but then had to re-paint, after SO MUCH PAINTING. So, his advent that day was me doing the painting. Plus, things like doing the chores or dishes are always nice. One of the days that it was in the 90's, I wrote him a note with some clothes and his share of balloons that said I was lying in wait with my water balloons and to get ready. Water balloon fight on a hot day -- summer fun right there. I lost, obviously, but it was great. Since we live in Maine, about a day after our heat wave, we had a few cool days so I did a back yard fire & s'mores party. Choices are important so we had almond butter, milk chocolate caramel, dark chocolate with almonds, and white chocolate with strawberries--and the square marshmallows, obviously! If you haven't tried them, they are a game changer. Sometimes week nights can get boring so during advent I like to make them special by doing a themed night ( like the Olympics night or movie night ). David loves board games so we did that one night too. I don't love board games but I DO love snacks--we had salt & vinegar almonds, more of the patriotic gummy bears, the caramel cashew Target trail mix, and Chicago mix popcorn--YUM. We also did a burger night, which David admittedly cooked a lot of, but burgers are something we don't have often. I skipped the bun but had my burger with balsamic onions, goat & blue cheese, crispy prosciutto, and tomato. It was awesome. In the past I've also done gift cards to places like Dunkin, Tim Hortons, and / or Starbucks but since he isn't drinking coffee right now those options were out. I got creative and did things like David day ( he's king for a day, basically. What have I done? ha! ), tech free night, free hour of video games with drink service, and a total remote control coupon. The BEST advent day was when he opened Bantam Bagels. If you're a fan of Shark Tank then you know what I'm talking about. If not, they are like a bagel donut hole or a cream cheese stuffed bagel hole. It sounds weird and I wasn't sure what to expect but they were amazing. They're pretty pricey so this was definitely a treat and one of his gifts, but I want to have them in our freezer for ever and ever. The hot pretzel was our favorite--no surprise there! Like I said, I did birthday advent for David as a way to celebrate his birthday all month long BUT it was super fun for me, too. Since I had the time off, it was totally do-able and I think birthday advent made for a great birthday gift, don't you?
Happy birthday, David! Hi everyone! As I mentioned in the latest Recent Recap, we decided that the first week after our move in to get as many major projects done as we could and then move in our things. I'll just set the stage by saying that by the time we moved in, we had been living out of boxes and eating takeout / snack foods for 2+ weeks plus we'd also been traveling, I'd been taking a class, and we were generally worn out. Add to that a full day of moving on Saturday and the stress of closing and we were pretty cooked when we woke up on Sunday. I had made up my mind that come Sunday morning, we were starting our work and we did. We started with the "dining room"--we taped, we shopped, we painted the walls, and we painted the trim. It was our first room and it took us a long time to get in the rhythm of painting and working together. Plus, see previous details, tired. This is what the "dining room" looked like before. . . It wasn't a bad room at all before but it was kind of "blah" to us-- we wanted an impact. Here's the color and new trim. We really like the bold color and I think it looks great with the white trim. I'm hoping to convince David that we need to make a gallery wall here. This room is far from being a true "after"-- we still need to hang pictures and, as I said, would love to make it a dining room so we also need a table that fits the room. For now, though, I'm working on this book case situation which will be a place for our cookbooks ( since it's right next to the kitchen! ) and a drink station with coffee and tea and of course some cute mugs. Once we finished this room, we moved on to the living room. For some reason, this was the only room in the house with a popcorn ceiling. David was having none of that so he watched a ton of videos on how to get rid of it and we went to work. Basically, you have to wet the "popcorn" so it detaches from the ceiling and then scrape it off. The first step was covering all of our surfaces, lights, speakers, etc. You can see the difference in the texture of the ceiling in the picture below. This was one project that really made me appreciate doing it while most of our things were in the basement. That ceiling got everywhere, especially after we got the popcorn off and then had to sand the ceiling to make sure it was an even surface. Then of course we had to paint it. Thankfully I did probably 10-20% of this project and David did the rest. Thank goodness for that because it was HARD physically. It was easy to do and understand but that much time with your arms above your head is exhausting. Finally, we taped the room and were ready for paint. This is the part where I tell you the naive, first time homeowner story. Are you ready? I had no idea what I wanted for paint. We tried a sample. We hated it. At this point though the idea of getting more samples (and spending more money) on paint sounded terrible so I spent way too long at the paint store trying to pick between these tiny samples and finally picked a color. I figured, we loved Smoky Blue ( which we didn't even get sample of! ) and we loved our trim color so we could do this. We had tried Krypton (bottom left) and it was too blue so I figured that Reflection would be better. It looks less blue, right? Here's the part where you cringe or possibly even put your head in your hands: We painted the whole room Reflection. I bought two gallons of paint. I hated it. It looked like it was supposed to be a baby boy's room. I cried; I'm not too proud to admit that. We painted that room that terrible color at 11 o'clock at night by the dim light of bedside table lamps because the lighting in that room is downright awful. We thought, it will get better. We'll paint the room and then it will look better. It didn't. I woke up that next morning, shook my head at it, worked out, and then researched paint colors online. I figured that I had picked Smoky Blue based on seeing another blogger's post on it in her dining room so maybe the internet could come through for me again. It was better than the stupid paint swatches. We ended up with Moonshine from Benjamin Moore. First, we primed the whole room ( so, we painted it a SECOND time ). Then, after that took 12 hours to dry, we painted the whole thing Moonshine ( yes, we got a sample and tested it first this time ). Can I tell you something? It still looked blue to me. All of the pictures online of this color online are like this. . . You see that it's gray too, right? It's not just me? Anyway, our living room is an odd shape and situation so parts of it are very well lit and parts of it have almost no natural light. When you look at the room, it almost looks like we painted the walls different colors. Uhm, we didn't. Sometimes it's got a green tint, often a blue tint, and rarely a gray tint. Ultimately I think it goes better with our brown furniture than a straight gray would have but it's also not the color I was expecting. Apparently lighting really is everything with paint. Here's a shot of the color on our walls. . . Here's the before around the fire place from the previous owner's Zillow post. . . Here's our after version . . . I think the fireplace does pop a bit more in our version, which is good because we re-painted that whole thing when we did the trim. The rest of the living room will have to be another post because we're still waiting on a TV Stand ( which was a very irritating experience with Target.com that I'm hoping ends well. . . ) and we need to find a rug and some dining chairs. Hopefully we'll get that all together soon! We also painted all of the kitchen cabinets to brighten the kitchen but that will have to be another post as well because we're still waiting for our new dishwasher. We had un-installed the old dishwasher a few days ago but the valve that shuts off the water to the dishwasher is so old that it wouldn't close all the way. The only way we could keep that water from streaming all over our kitchen floor was to hook the hose back up to the old dishwasher. So it's not ready for the after pictures yet. Here's the photo I took back in May of the kitchen before. You'll just have to check back soon to see what we've done with it!
Hi Friends! Are you as obsessed with the Olympics as we are? We've been staying up way too late watching because, well, olympics! I remember as a kid being so upset when my parents sent me to bed and I couldn't watch. I even (kind of) watched through my window on the neighbor's T.V. when I was supposed to be sleeping. My favorite events to watch are equestrian and gymnastics but swimming has been pretty exciting too. So, naturally, I decided I needed to add food! It took me a long time to figure out what to make. I saw a lot of recipes for things that were olympic colors--like ring cookies with colored frosting--and I was just like eh. It wasn't cool enough, you know? Then I decided to switch gears and started checking out Brazilian food. Whoa. I mean, I spent my 16th birthday there for a family wedding but I hadn't had most of these foods and they looked awesome. So, here's what I made for our Olympics food party (for two people, ha!). . . First, I knew I really wanted to make empanadas but they had to be good. Sometimes I find them lacking in flavor and therefore excitement. So, when I saw that Jenna had a recipe for empanadas I knew I'd scored. The only thing I changed was the filling for the above reasons. I added beans, corn, and chorizo--some of my favorite things. I'm super happy with how they turned out. I accidentally (or perhaps am unconsciously genius-ly) and made too much filling so I had to double the recipe and now have a batch in the freezer too. I'm not upset about it. Then, I found these. Cheese bread? My favorite! I remember when my mom used to buy a cheese bread loaf. We would toast it and then top with butter--the BEST. So, Brazilian + cheese bread = happening. When we baked them, it was like a thin layer of bread on the outside with a whole ton of doughy cheese on the inside. I made them from frozen so I'm not sure how they would have cooked if I hadn't frozen them first. Either way, if you like cheese, I highly recommend them! Next, I found these. Chocolate truffles? Yes. Chocolate truffles with sprinkles? Heck yes. Plus, I found a red, white, and blue sprinkle mixture at the store and knew I had a winner. How cute are these? They were easy and I think they look great. David says they're too sweet but is that a thing? I also made this acai chia pudding. I didn't let it set up long enough before freezing so, fail. But, I love the idea of basically making a smoothie and then turning it into chia pudding so I'm going to have to try this again for real. Okay, there is ONE thing I made olympics colored, which is obviously these fruit rings. Y'all know I'm a sucker for fruit and I wanted to make at least one thing that was somewhat healthy. I found vanilla marscapone at the store and knew I had the perfect fruit dip. Mad props to this blogger for making something delicious, healthy, and way more exciting than olympic colored cookies. Because I can't contain myself, I also made a Brazilian themed lunch the next day. I filmed all of this on Snapchat the other day and a friend was like uhhh how many people are coming for your food party? uhm, no one, ha! It was just for us but I love quality leftovers! So, for lunch I made this banana cake. Plus, I made this sandwich, which doesn't seem that Brazilian (then again, I know nothing about Brazilian food and the internet could be trolling me on all of this) but it was an easy and delicious lunch! Okay, I swear there's only one more thing. So, in my (obsessive) research, I kept coming across this soda. Apparently it's really popular in Brazil and the reviews were amazing. People were even like "yea, I order this soda online because I can't get it near me and it's amazing." Naturally, I had to order it on Amazon! (I just love Amazon.) We aren't really soda people (as you can probably tell) so we had just a bit and plan on sharing the rest with other people. As David said, I wouldn't say it was amazing but it did have a fun, unique flavor closest to cherry soda. That's a wrap! Are you making anything for your olympics viewing?
Hi everyone! It feels like a while since I've done a recent recap--a lot sure has happened! First, there was a lot of packing. Then, we headed to Nova Scotia for my husband's cousin's wedding, which I mentioned briefly in my review on American Born Chinese. My husband's family is from Canada so, though it was a long drive, it was really fun to see everyone and also to see more of Canada. It felt like a mini-vacation from all the packing and stress of preparing to move. Plus, we got donairs! If you don't know what a donair is, first, welcome, and, second, it is a sub ( kind of like a philly cheese steak ) that has shaved meat and a sauce. Unlike the cheese steak though, the sauce is tangy and sweet (and not, you know, cheese). The first time I had one I wasn't into it. It's a very unique food in my opinion and it took some getting used to but I love them now. We ended up getting donair sandwiches, pizzas, and fries throughout the trip. When we weren't eating donairs, we were eating at Tim Horton's for the most part. I was super happy to find an awesome farmer's market in the downtown of where were staying for the wedding, win! We ended up with some carrots, cherries, and vietnamese food and everything was delicious. We tried to make the carrots and cherries road snacks but they didn't last very long. Of course, we also enjoyed some Canadian candy which was really fun and reminded us both of trips to Canada from when we were younger. Coffee Crisp for life. The wedding was fabulous. The bride and groom are both teachers and so the wedding had a teacher theme to it which I obviously adored. Plus, they are just the nicest people who know how to throw a great party. We loved their photo booth setup, of course. I also made sure to get in a few good workouts where I could. Don't worry; we're just posing here but I really did get up early the morning of our long drive back to get in a 5k. Gotta do what you gotta do! About 14 hours after we got back from Nova Scotia, I had to be at my poetry class. At first, because of this, I was overwhelmed by the thought of taking this class but it actually become a super nice break from the packing, closing, moving, chaos and it was really nice to have time at my parents' and connect with them. Plus, a few days spent talking about and writing poetry was actually way more fun than I had imagined--and I put my wedding favor to good use! I prepped these Mediterranean salads to have for lunch the whole week so I could focus on my work. Three credits in three days? THE BEST. Plus, I ended up writing some poetry that I'm super proud of, so yay to that. A day and a half after I got home from my graduate class, we closed on our house! So, dinner looked like this most nights. . . #notcomplaining! Guess what the first thing I moved into our house was? We have this super awesome walk-in closet that is off of our master suite and I'm in love, obviously. We closed on a Friday, moved in two car loads that night and then, with the help of the world's best family and friends, packed up our uhaul and moved into our new place all day on Saturday. There was lots of pizza and water at the end of it and oh dear God were we tired. So. Much. Stuff. I'm thinking of becoming a minimalist. On the up side, we have a pizza place a mile from us that makes the best pizza I've ever had. Of course, not to slow down or anything, the next morning we woke up early and started working. We decided that the week following our move we would do all the major projects before moving our things in. So, all of our stuff is in boxes in the basement and in our bedroom/bathroom while we paint two rooms and all the kitchen cabinets. In hindsight, this is one of the worst ideas I've ever had. Did I really think moving ALL our stuff and the next day painting and working for a week was a good idea? Yes, yes I did. To be honest, the first room went great. We taped, picked out color, painted the walls and trim, and we were done in a day-- boom! It felt amazing and we're in love with that room. The paint is called Smoky Blue from Sherwin Williams and I'm pretty obsessed with it. It's going to be a dining room, we hope, but right now it's still just a room on the way to other rooms. A real "after" shot will come much later. After we were done our "dining room," it became our mobile kitchen. We are going on about 2+ weeks of not having a kitchen to cook in. So, dinner is still looking like this. I also had the genius idea to defrost some chicken breasts and throw them in a crockpot with some BBQ sauce so we had BBQ chicken cups for dinner one night. YES. Also, we only have silverware out at this point. Maybe some day I'll have a kitchen with plates and cups.. . . I'll write a post about the whole house reno project soon but for now, we're also painting the living room walls and trim and painting our kitchen cabinets. We're hoping to be done in just a few more days. . . . For now I'll be staring at the flowers the previous owners left us. I'm going to have to learn to garden soon. We are psyched to have a house and can't wait to have people over and have a real space that is ours and that we can host people in. Hope you're all having a great week!
Hi Friends! Today, I'm talking about things I've been loving lately. This article on 5 reasons we should all learn to do nothing - YES. Still loving it. Smoothie bowls, always. This recipe is the one pictured. These granola bars from Smitten Kitchen for summer road trip snacks. They're best in the fridge or freezer. SO GOOD. Dying to make these healthier Klondike bars. Yes, please. Banana bread has been on repeat recently since we've been trying to a) use up what we have around the house and b) not spend too much money. We made this one the other day and all I can say is chocolate chip banana bread is never wrong. Also really want to try this "jacked up banana bread" and adapting this almond butter banana bread sometime when almond butter is back in the budget ! I've been loving peach ginger tea, cold, with a ton of almond milk and some chia pudding. Snack perfection. I've been taking a poetry grad class and needed a journal for it. This one had been lonely and was the perfect solution. I love the smooth leather and the feather design. Perfect for poetry, which I'm slowly learning to love. My favorite recent read. . . review coming in August ! Recent and forever favorite place. Swoon. Have you guys heard of Prisma? It's an iPhone app that uses artwork filters to turn your photos into, well, artwork. I swear this isn't an ad but seriously, check this out. Isn't he just the cutest? Such handsome men! I'm obsessed. . . if you can't tell ! I'm also trying Free Prints ( also an iPhone app ) for the first time to print some of these as artwork for our house; I'll let you know how they turn out !
What are you loving lately? Send me all the good things! Hi everyone! You may have noticed that I changed the header image on the main page of my blog. It used to picture the river near where we live but now is from my favorite place on earth: Hiram Blake Camps. Ever since I was little, my parents have been taking me to the coast for the best kind of Maine vacation. Over the years, this tradition has adapted as our lives have changed. They first went to Hiram Blake before I was born. Then they took me as a baby ( they're brave ! ) and then as a kid--once even shuttling back and forth for half day kindergarten. In my childhood, we spent time here with my cousins. It's truly a place that represents family to me. I have so many fond memories of camp fires, s'mores, cooking meals together, dancing, going for walks, swimming, exploring islands, looking for treasure and sea glass, playing at the playground, watching fireflies, and having the best summer vacations here as a kid with cousins and then friends who were more like family. There are nearby trails my family would hike and parts of the woods my friends and I would build fairy houses on. What's even better is that about 11 years ago ( has it really been that long?! ) we had our family reunion there. My family came from other states, across the country, and even foreign countries just to see each other. We had t-shirts made and cooked dinners in teams for each other. Even though it rained for most of the week ( thanks, Maine! ) we watched movies together, read books, and some of them played soccer in the mud and rain! The most important part was that we had a place to be together. It's one of my all time favorite memories in my all time favorite place, and it's what HBC means to me: A place and time to be together and remember how important family is in our lives. In the last few years, my family has started to go during the 4th of July week to accommodate my teacher schedule. At first we weren't sure how to celebrate the 4th on the coast ( drive to the fireworks? just do sparklers? ) but then a few years ago we got our boat stuck on some rocks ( oops! ) and had to come back late at night--on the 4th--to get it when the tide came back up, and a tradition was born. It's so fun to see multiple towns' fireworks, whether from the comfort of the cabin ( I don't mix that well with boats ) or the boat. One of the fun parts of going to HBC in the summer is that your stay includes your breakfast and dinner, which is like being back in college but with good food ! We were pretty pumped that we were there for donuts and chocolate mouse pie. In order to help you get to know other campers, you are seated with different cabins throughout the week and it's fun to get to know people who've also found themselves at HBC and share a meal together. The farmhouse dining room, where we all meet for meals, is a book lover's dream: It has a ceiling literally full of books. If my house looked like this someday I could die a happy woman. The best of the best though, for me, is the peace I feel being by the water. My favorite thing to do is to sit on the porch by the water and either just look, listen, and be present or read a book. I am never as relaxed as I am at HBC reading a book ( or three, which I got to do in the few days I spent there this year!). Later, my dad took us out on his boat to nearby Spectacle Island ( named by its spectacle-like appearance, but at high tide you can actually boat between the two sides of the island ! ). It's our tradition to visit the island at least once a vacation to search for sand dollars, sea glass, sea urchins, or other fun finds. Since we got there by boat, I didn't bring a camera, but we found beautiful, deep red sand dollars and watched sea gulls dive bomb a bald eagle. I did manage to snap the sunset when we got back. It's a whole new world when you can just listen to the waves and truly unplug--the reception is limited and there's no internet, hallelujah! It takes a while but after a few hours I no longer miss my phone, social media, or the internet and I remember how to read, how to focus, how fun it is to just sit and talk or even just look around and notice, how to read a book or imagine, and best of all how to be present with other people. My family spent a lot of internet-free time working on an intense puzzle while I read. I also love to wake up, listen to the quiet morning sounds, and head out on a walk to a nearby beach, which is exactly what we did the last morning we were there. Without the noise of social media, television, and even music, I started to hear my own voice again. It's amazing how it can be drowned out by everything and everyone else. Sometimes, especially as an introvert, I need that quiet so badly in order to recharge. Recently there's been so much happening in the world and it's been making me think about the need to rest. This article really struck me when it talked about the importance of doing nothing and what happens when we allow ourselves to rest. Our gifts, energy, and creativity take work but that's the most important work we can do -- bring our own light and gifts into the world; in order to do so, we need to let ourselves be. So, even though I'm not at HBC anymore, I'm reminding myself that life doesn't happen in front of or behind a screen but with other people and with ourselves. I'm remembering to let myself rest, notice, and listen to the waves I can still hear if I try. Let yourself rest, friends; it's good for the soul. Hi guys! We've had quite a busy and fun few weeks. We celebrated the beginning of summer with Govenor's lobster rolls, yesssss. I've enjoyed spending more time in the kitchen since school's been out. First I made granola, which is one of my favorites--so easy and delicious! I made these cookies for my dad's birthday; peanut butter + chocolate is his favorite. I've been super into french toast recently, especially with peaches which just represent summer to me. Here I added coconut whipped cream, from Real Food Whole Life. I've been loving banana bread and made two kinds in one week! First I made this one from Smitten Kitchen, just subbing oat flour for the regular flour and quinoa for the millet, and then this one from Ambitious Kitchen because hello, chocolate chips. I added walnuts to both of them because you just can't have banana bread without walnuts, in my humble opinion. We made these amazing #meatlessmonday tacos the other day with corn tortillas, black bean burgers, and avocado-mango salsa. Holy yum. It's so simple but seriously one of the best meals we've had recently. I was super happy to have the chance to visit my horse, Benn, who my mom lovingly cares for since I live far away from him now. I just love him. We've been loving nightly summer walks. The cooler air + quality time with my husband to talk and connect + summer sunsets = something I look forward to all year and cherish all summer. It's one of my favorite summer things. I mean, can you even with this sunset? In case you didn't hear, we celebrated our anniversary! When we left our wedding, we took our bridal party to Sweet Frog to celebrate so we thought it was fitting to go there for our 2nd anniversary. And y'all know ice cream is one of my favorite foods. Plus I'm obsessed with toppings. I always get fruity flavors and toppings and David always goes chocolate--it's the opposite of our usual dessert preferences! Really though, I've been burying the lead: My dad and I ran a 5k together ! It was my first road "race" and I was SO HAPPY when we finished! Plus, we got finisher medals so I really couldn't have been happier, if you couldn't tell! It was in Portland by the water so we had a fantastic ocean breeze and a lovely view! Afterwards we went out for my first gelato of the summer--sea salt caramel, swoon. I've also been reading a lot--three books this week!--so keep your eye out for some book reviews on the Books page soon. What have you been up to recently?
Photo by Anne Schmidt Today is my second wedding anniversary with my husband, David. So I thought I'd take a minute to talk about him, our story, and what two years means to me. Photo by Anne Schmidt . David and I met my sophomore year of high school, which I think was 2004 ( that seems like a really long time ago all of a sudden! ). We were both on the Civil Rights Team and had a few mutual friends. David is the kind of person whose personality fills the room. He can captivate an audience and make a room full of people laugh. I have always admired him for that and think it's a kind of magic power. Let's just get it out there: I was smitten from the moment we met. However, at the time, he was dating someone else. This worked out in the end because ultimately I don't think things would have worked out that well if we had dated in high school. For one thing, it gave us the chance to be friends and build a great relationship. Over the years I discovered that David wasn't just the funny persona I had come to know but also a true friend. I confided in him about personal struggles and he really listened and wanted to help. I could tell that he really cared and he made me feel important. Over the years, he's only continued to show me how important I am to him, whether it's a text during a busy day or going all out for my birthday. David is a year older than me ( or really a year and a half ) but we stayed friends even while he started college and I was in high school -- something I really wasn't sure would happen. I thought, maybe, he'd have too many other things on his plate and our friendship would fade, but he made sure that never happened. In fact, he and one of our best friends visited me in college, 6 hours away from them, during the spring of my freshman year. so young! Just before their visit, David and his girlfriend broke up, leaving us in a place we'd never been before--friends and both single. We grew even closer over the few days they visited and then I came home on my break the following week. We realized that not only was there something there but the timing was right too. We spent a long time talking about how we were risking a great friendship but that if things worked out we'd be getting a great life together. Even then, when we had been dating for just a few days, we hinted at wanting this to be the real thing and thinking that it could be. The same week we had our first kiss, David met most of my family, but he still wasn't deterred. He's pretty unflappable, that one. Of course, at the end of that week, I had to drive the 6 hours back to college. We had been together for a week but then were long distance for months before the summer started and we could be together for more than a few days at a time. People have a lot of opinions about long distance relationships but I'll just say this: Being together long distance was better than not being together at all. In a lot of ways, it helped us: We had our own lives, we learned to communicate better, we learned to balance our relationship with our friendships and other activities, we had time to focus on our classes, and we learned the value of being present--when we were together we truly valued that and didn't take it for granted. Over the next three years of college, we made it work. Every few weeks one of us would drive the 12 hours round trip to see the other. Our friends were great about coming with us or putting up with one of us crashing, and they could see how important our relationship was to us. When we graduated, we were happy to have a chance to start a life together, but it wasn't quite that simple. It turns out that in 2011 not many people wanted to hire brand new graduates.. I applied to 17 schools before getting a call and, when I did, I wasn't sure if I should take an offer -- it was an hour away from where David was working at the time and I really wanted to be done with long distance. I had no idea if he could even find a job there if I got a job there. In the end, he was the amazing, supportive partner I've come to know him as. He knew how excited I was that the school offered me a job and told me to take it. I did but it would be years before he could find a job in the same location. So, we spent almost two more years "long" distance--we'd shortened the distance by 5 hours but we were still not living together or even near each other. Much like being long distance in college, I think it worked out: In my first year of teaching I worked until 5 most nights then came home, made dinner, and pretty much went to bed. I think being short distance allowed me more time to get my feet wet in teaching and find a work-life balance. Even though he ended up getting the raw end of that deal--me picking where we lived and him continuing to travel a lot and not getting much attention since I was so focused on surviving my first year--he stayed patient and loyal through it all, always supporting me and cheering me on. Finally in 2013, David and I moved in together. It had been a very long time coming and we were so happy to be able to start our lives together. After being apart for so long, it really made me appreciate us being able to be together, all the time. That December, David proposed in front of our high school where we first met. Obviously I said yes! We had a long ( 18 month! ) engagement and were finally married in June of 2014. It really was one of the best days of my life -- I married my best friend and was surrounded by the love of all of my family and friends. There is no greater gift than all that love squeezed into one place. Photo by Anne Schmidt After all of the obstacles we had to overcome during the almost 5 years of long distance and our 7 year relationship, I ( super naively! ) thought that our first year of marriage wouldn't be as hard as everyone says -- after all, we had lived together, planned a wedding together, and dealt with long distance and other challenges-- but I was wrong. In February of 2015, seven months after we got married, David's father suddenly passed away. Being David's wife had never felt more important and at the same time I was trying to deal with the loss of someone who had become a father to me as well. I didn't know if we would ever feel like ourselves again, but as I said in Thoughts on Year 5, people are more resilient than we dare to believe. In a time when relationships were strained with stress and loss, David always made family a priority--whether it was phone call or finding a time to be together. I've gained two brothers, two sisters, three parents, and more family that have become friends than I could have hoped for--and that's in no small part because of David. He takes care of his family and he helps us all make each other a priority. Even from the very beginning, I knew that if nothing else, no matter what happened in life, he could always make me laugh. One time in college, I was trying to find something to wear for a Halloween party and we couldn't find anything-- it had been hours. I was exhausted and frustrated and cranky and we sat on a bench in the middle of the mall and David pretended to be popcorn ( mainly by yelling pop and springing up ) and it was so unexpected and brazen that I just burst out laughing. He didn't care if he embarrassed himself-- he wanted to make me feel better. I don't often tell him, but I love that he's goofy and fun. It's endearing and it makes life fun, too. There's so much more that's happened in the last 12 years of our lives knowing each other, the 8 years of being together, and the 2 years of marriage we've shared, but what's important is this: There's no one else I'd rather spend it with. David is the type of person who is becoming rare in our society now: He is dependable, thoughtful, kind, really smart, strong, brave, sincere, honest, and trustworthy. David is the kind of friend who will pick you up in the middle of the night when your car breaks down or bring you dinner because you're going through a hard time. It doesn't hurt that he can make just about anything from soufflé to beef bourguignon to waffles or that he's totally handsome, and I mean those blue eyes? Stop it. Happy two years, my love! Hopefully you won't blush too much reading this!
It's been a little while since I've done a recap post, so I thought I'd jump in with another one. Some highlights: I finished teaching for the year! Did you read my thoughts on 5 years of teaching? I made the best cookies of my life ( by adapting this recipe slightly ) for the end of the year awards -- lucky kids! I finished this book, which is one of my new favorites. Review coming soon! ( P.S. Did you see my summer reading list? Can't wait to get started! ) Obviously, I ate some food. We'll talk more about that, soon! I went on this amazing sunset walk with David. We are really loving the trails in our area. WE MADE PIZZA CONES. If you don't know what these are, Google them. We used a kit from Little Caesar's and they were really good. I mean, I know I don't have food like this very often, but seriously good. We brought them to a neighborhood party and the kids loved them. They were gone in about 5 minutes. I've started my summer organizing spree where I feel the need to go through and organize places no one will ever see, like all of our drawers, while leaving clutter on every surface. At least something is getting organized? I finally got a haircut after two months, and it feels so good! We celebrated Father's Day with my father and my husband's step-father and ate a lot of amazing summer food, like this caprese panzanella -- recipe details coming soon! We also went boating and, even though I don't love the motion of the boat ( I get so motion sick easily ), I love being out on the water, especially with these two and my parents. Our best friends' baby turned two! She was born right before our wedding and is just THE CUTEST. My husband and his best friend are attempting to macgiver a piñata solution here. Of course, I meal planned and prepped--what makes me happier? Probably the best thing I've done in a long time was teach my parents Snapchat. Yes, I'm on Snapchat and it makes me feel really old but I also love it. They got a kick out of it and have been snapping me and each other ever since. It's the cutest. Plus, I wanted to send them a video of something that I'm hoping to announce soon -- when it becomes official! What have you been up to? Any great summer plans I should steal?
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