Visitor

 

Due to a moon cycle miscalculation, my monthly visitor is a little earlier than expected. Which means I should probably apologize to C for my teary you-didn’t-even-smile-when-I-told-you-my-awesome-craft-idea meltdown last night. Yeah, that happened.

So, today I took it easy. I went on a long, slow walk and then took a warm bath and read Les Mis. I’m making a healthy and balanced dinner for tonight (Butternut Squash Stew with Chai Spiced Rice Pudding for dessert). I’m also planning a good, relaxing evening with my sweet husband (who had no idea what to apologize for last night).

Any tips for better recognizing PMS-related angst and putting an end to it?

Glasses and Mugs

Thanks to an event filled Thanksgiving, our little apartment is stuffed with new toys. But here are just two of my favorite acquisitions.

C likes the new glasses for their sexy librarian feel. And nothing goes better with sexy librarian than feminist literature, no?

My awesome mom put her way through college by working for an optometrist. And then she helped put me through college by working for another optometrist! She’s phenomenal at her job and still learning (I love that about her). So, when I was home I made an appointment to get new glasses. Don’t you love them? They even fit my tall nose. And speaking of feminism, have you heard the Cleopatra Nose Theory? It’s been postulated that Cleopatra’s tall, regal schnoz was behind all her power and authority! Blaise Pascal said, “Had it been shorter, the whole face of the world would have been changed.”

And if you’re curious about those mugs then you should know that I didn’t pay a cent for them. Someone set them on the fire extinguisher case outside our door with a “Free” sign on them! I snatched them up, I love them so!

What’s In My Library Bag

I LOVE the Houston Public Library System. Now, I’ve loved nearly every other library I’ve been too, as well. So perhaps I’m just very bookish and biased. But the library here has an amazing inter-library loan system. It’s all free, you can just go online, search for the book you want, place a hold on it, and you get a phone call when it’s waiting for you on the loan bookshelf all wrapped up in white paper with your name on it! Aside from that, the library closest to me has an amazing selection, the cutest kid section and weird egg shaped chairs.

Here are some of my most recent picks:

Starting from the top, I picked up Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. There is a movie version coming out sometime near Christmas and the preview gave me chills – so I figure it is the perfect time to pick up this classic and work my way through the daunting 1,500 pages. I am 1/45th of the way through it already!

One of my favorite blogging mommas, Boho Baby Bump, recently recommended One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp and I couldn’t help getting it right away.

I love Young Adult lit (Inkheart and Peter Pan are two of my favorites + anything by Madeleine L’Engle) and I’ve heard good things about The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trent Lee Stewart. I think there are a couple other books in the series and that’s always a plus for me. I like to have lots of material to savor when I fall in love with a story.

The Surprising Power of Family Meals by Miriam Weinstein called to me from the shelves. I believe that eating good food together shapes individuals, families and societies. And I like when people agree with me on that – so I’m excited to read this one and see what the professionals have to say.

The bottom three are more “browsing books” than anything. I picked up the Newlywed Handbook to see if we’d missed anything in the last six months that I should cram into the next six. The cookbook is for seasonal recipes – because I have no idea what to cook in Winter except soup and pasta. And the last one from National Geographic is called Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom. I like women, bikes, and freedom. It went in the bag.

What are you guys reading? Any suggestions?

Grocery Bags

I made these re-usable grocery bags out of some of our old t-shirts recently. They’re the best. My top three reasons for loving them 1) We didn’t have to throw away weird fitting or old tees that we really loved. 2) They hold a ton which means less trips from the car to the apartment and 3) They’re environmentally friendly! Which means that Target gives you five cents back for every re-usable bag you use. That means we essentially get our Koolaid for free. (Yeah, we drink Koolaid..)

I won!

I won a giveaway from Cats & Cardigans! It’s been one of my favorite blogs for a long time because 1) we both lived in Rexburg, 2) we both love cardigans and 3) i like to pretend that Brandilyn is my best friend.

The giveaway is any one tote bag from Seeker of Happiness’ Etsy shop! I just have to decide which one! I’ve narrowed it down to these options:

Thanks so much to both Brandilyn and Carrie of Seeker of Happiness!

A Project in Pictures

The cat refused to move/be less frightening. Happy halloween?

Hunting for a dresser

We are still missing a few key pieces in our home – a dresser, dining room chairs, and a couch. We’re making do until we find just the right pieces at just the right price. Over the past few days I’ve been scouring Craigslist for a dresser – it’s the item closest to our price range right now and it would just be nice to have! We are tired of stacking all our t-shirts and … dainties.

Our main priorities are 1. $100 or less 2. Solid wood, 3. Waist height (more like a credenza or mid-century piece), and 4. Simple but interesting design. Here are a few of the options I have found. Some need more work than others.

I am head over heels in love with the middle dresser. It doesn’t suit our long term bedroom design plan (read: MY long term bedroom design plan!) but I think it would be just perfect in a living room.

If we can’t get any of these, we’ll spend this weekend in thrift shops and antique malls looking for something even better!

Better Together

One of my favorite things about marriage is working together to become better people – smarter, stronger, kinder, more loving.

Last week we picked up the old board game at the thrift store. We haven’t played it as a game, and don’t really plan on it – we mostly bought it for the cool map, pieces, and trivia cards. We’ve spent all weekend asking each other questions and learning more about geography. It’s pretty embarrassing how little we knew but we are already picking up some great facts!

For example, there are four oceans: the Indian, Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic. And Mount Logan is the tallest mountain in North America, but Denali is the tallest mountain in the United States.

Cole also taught me how to play chess and is helping me meet my running goals. I’m determined to teach him the basics of cooking. And in the meantime we are getting loads better at loving each other, forgiveness, and being patient.

Thanks C. You’re the best teacher I’ve ever had.

Free Day

I was super motivated this week and got all of the work for my three online classes done yesterday. So I decided to take the day off today and do a few things I enjoy.

I watched two documentaries while I worked on a little project. The first was The Human Experience - it follows two boys from New York to Peru to Ghana as they seek to gain hope and insight into life from those living in the most hopeless circumstances.

The second was Freakonomics - which discussed real life applications of the principles of economics. When I took Microeconomics, I was bored out of my mind. So this was a good documentary to get me asking questions about economics – an important factor in our society and the upcoming election!

While I watched the documentaries I worked on a mixed media piece of C & I in front of the Rexburg Temple, where we were married. I drew, used watercolors, and collage to complete the piece. I’m by no means an artist but I think it looks nice on my desk.

I used this picture from our wedding day (taken by Leslie Leavitt) for inspiration:

Pepperoni Rolls

Everybody loves my mom’s pepperoni rolls. They dough is sweet and soft and she isn’t stingy with the pepperoni. They’re good alone, they’re good with soup, they’re good fresh out of the oven, and they’re good after they’ve been frozen. I don’t know how many times my mom has wowed friends, guests, and even customers (when she had a brief stint with her own bakery). 

And yes, I love them. I can wolf down a half dozen. But what I have always envied was the perfection of the dough – light and fluffy and just the right texture. Anyone who bakes just knows that perfect texture of bread dough. It’s creepy to say, but it’s soft and smooth like a babies bottom. And her rolls always stayed closed! They never came unrolled while rising or baking, the pepperoni always stayed neatly wrapped inside. And the tops were smooth and golden. Oh, plus – each pepperoni roll was exactly the same size! I’m telling you, the uniformity was awe inspiring.

Well, yesterday I made my first batch of pepperoni rolls. All on my own. 

Not a one popped open. I am pleased.