December, lately.

Lately, we have been ...

... ordering kitchen cabinets. and kitchen appliances. and trying to finalize what seems like a million other design decisions. i am beginning to realize that i am WAY out of my league on this one - this whole kitchen renovation is big, and involves things like contractors and custom cabinets, and i do not know the first real thing about a renovation process that isn't completely do-it-yourself, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants and make-a-million-trips-to-home-depot.  but i did update my idea board from August to try and get a better handle on what i might like the floors to look like. thoughts?

PS Mark is planning to start demo this week, so if you have an opinion, now is the time to voice it!

... squealing over every picture of Baby Levi. and over how very adorable and tiny the Christmas jammies are that we bought for him. its kind of hard to believe that he is really real and on the outside, even after spending all day Christmas just snuggling his perfect little self. so excited to see him again (along with the rest of the fam!) in just a couple weeks

... crafting Christmas presents. i have most of them done and wrapped, but believe it or not i still have three half-done at home, and i just thought up two more today to add to my list. that's the upside of celebrating Christmas late this year - a couple extra weeks to get everything done!

... wrapping Christmas presents. i spent an entire Sunday with wrapping paper and the Gilmore Girls. it was a good day, indeed.

... visiting Gram and Pap. we got our first tin of candy when we visited at Thanksgiving, and i left that one at Stasi's house. we got a second! tin of candy on this trip, but unfortunately forgot it on Gram's kitchen counter. major sadface. we are going back in a couple weeks, but i am not holding out hope that there will even be much candy left, let alone even the slimmest of chances that our tin will still be there waiting for us.

... wearing Christmas jammies.  i dont even care that they are mainstream and cliche and i am probably at least four years behind the trend, but i got myself and my husband (non-matching) holiday sleepwear this year and it was downright festive.

... celebrating Julie's wedding! everything was absolutely GORGEOUS - the bride, the venue, the weather (50 degrees and sunny in late December, what!) and i think the only real crises involved the bridesmaids earrings.  there were zero casualties and only minor bloodshed. Julie and Nate are currently on their honeymoon, and i honestly could not be more happy for them.  SO thankful that i got to be a part of their big day.

thankful 2014: december wrapup.

45. vacation days. long weekends are the best. thankful for a few days off work in the middle of a busy season.

46. in-laws.  thankful for the generous family that my husband comes from.  thankful for laughter and games and time spent together.

50. grandparents. thankful that Gram is willing and able to alter my bridesmaid dress for me. thankful that Pap pretends to know who i am. thankful for good memories around the kitchen table. thankful that gram still makes candy.

55. aunts and uncles and cousins. thankful that no one bats an eye when we rolled in just in time for lunch - in fact, we had pizza in hand and a seat at the table (or on the steps) almost before we even said hello. i am thankful for every single one of them.

81. my fat sister. and Balthazar who is making her fat. and her husband Micah who let Mark hang out with them all last weekend while i was bridal showering and bachelorette partying.

84. laser tag. part of Julie's bachelorette festivities was playing laser tag in fancy dresses. thankful that i had a fancy dress that fit me. thankful for an amazingly fun group of girls to spend the evening with.

93. Christmas decorations. we are keeping Christmas really low-key this year, since we are planning to start demo for the kitchen project right after the holiday. thankful that we already had a tree in the basement, and plenty of ornaments and lights and tinsel to make decorating for the season quick and painless.

 

98. online shopping. and two-day delivery. i have a feeling that these two things will constitute a large portion of my Christmas shopping this month. thankful for technology that facilitates my laziness.

100. traditions. thankful for the challenge of this thankful list every year. thankful that it directs my thoughts towards thankfulness, and away from whining. of course i can still be plenty whiny, but i am at least more aware of it.

not dead. just not feeling wordy lately.

so. sorry about the radio silence around these parts. i'm still here. still living life, eating regularly, going to work, doing all of the important things like laundry and dishes and i think i might have even cleaned the bathroom recently so yeah, i'm pretty much a rockstar. *brushes off shoulder* but as far as writing anything? sharing my stories? documenting the life i am living right now? eh, not so much. *shrugs* and i'm kind of ok with that.

winter is tough - it is cold and lonely and dark and lasts way too long after Christmas and i'm just now realizing that i'm really only about halfway through the season. gross. but what i'm trying to say is that i feel like as long as i am surviving, i'm doing ok - even if the documentation side of things is slipping.

so just in case you've been wondering, this is what i've been up to lately:
(and i even made my list alliterative! just because i can! Cope would be so proud!)

Sister Christmas. we travelled to Pennsylvania the weekend between Christmas and New Year's to celebrate with my family. i took zero pictures of our extended family celebration at Aunt Sara's house - i figured cousin Sarah had it covered - but did manage some pictures of our mini-Christmas with the sisters and our families.

we even had a tiny tree to put our presents under!

 

 Mark's present came in a Victoria's Secret bag...

 

  don't you love my sister's new hat?

Skiing. for the second year in a row, i survived the Shifflett family ski trip. and i liked it! we went to a different mountain this year - Showshoe, WV. the trails were tougher, and it took me a while to re-remember how to make it down the mountain upright (i ended the weekend with a grand total of 12 wipeouts and one giant hip bruise...apparently i always land on the same spot) but we had a really good time. my camera spent the weekend in my purse so i don't have any pictures, but my FIL took some good ones (and at least one terrible one that i couldn't convince him to delete) so if those ever actually make it off of their camera i might share a few.

Studying. the day we got back from our long skiing weekend, we also started an online review course for the PE Exam we're taking in April. ever since then, literally all of my free time has been spent with my giant review books; either reading theory, listening to lectures, working problems, or weeping in despair because right now it feels like there is no way i will ever re-learn all of this stuff in the next 79 days.

(not) Sewing. so i got that great sewing machine for Christmas. and i have some good ideas for sewing projects. and i have created a "sew fun!" pinerest board. and because of the aforementioned skiing and studying, i have had zero time to actually sew anything. sigh.

Shopping. mostly for groceries and other necessary but not necessarily fun things.  i feel like i have spent a lot of time at the grocery store, which probably isn't even true because Mark's new job is right across the street from the grocery store so he has been doing a lot of the shopping for me. but, it started with an S so it made the list. i have been to Walmart twice in the past week to buy exciting things like lint filters for my utility sink and mini saltines and a dishpan. and ok i also impulse bought the movie Tangled just because i wanted to watch it. maybe i'll watch it again tomorrow...

Singing. the Frozen soundtrack. constantly. all the time. obsessed. have you seen this movie? is it even still in theaters? we saw it on a date night on New Years, and you need to see it too. trust me.

Sparkles. ok so this isn't really a thing i've been doing, but it snowed yesterday and it's a little windy today and all of the blowing snow outside my office window looks like one massive glitter party and it makes me smile.

2014 non-resolutions.

is it true that the way you spend your New Years is the way you will spend the rest of the year?

for the sake of the rest of my year, i really hope this isn't true. because on my New Years, we left the party around 11 because we are old and lame and i was exhausted and there were harsh words and tears followed by several days of lingering frustration and other various emotions. not exactly an encouraging start for an entire year.

but we did go see Frozen on New Years, which was awesome, so I guess there's hope for the next 358 days.

this year, i want to survive. be happier. be a better adult. i don't know. enjoy? and maybe accomplish a few things while i'm at it? so i shortened up my non-resolution list for this year, to hopefully focus more on the bigger goals that have been languishing un-done on previous lists.

carry-overs from years past:

1. curtains. real curtains. really on my windows. i can do this.
2. read at least 3 non-fiction books. started my first one last night.
3. have pretty flowerbeds. a little tree removal, a little mulching, and then (hopefully) planting a lot of flowers.
4. budget. and then stick to it.
5. ride my bike. i don't think it got out of the shed at all last year.
6. read through my Bible. or maybe listen through it?
7. close my other bank account. this is just pathetic.
8. big book of everything. i have lost one too many passwords. time to get organized.

new for this year:

9. pass the PE. and feel no guilt for basically disappearing for the next 4 months while i study.
10. overcome my fear of the lawnmower. we got a riding lawn tractor. i want to be able to use it.
11. run. i think new shoes are in order.
12. sew a cushion for the entryway bench. top of the sewing list.
13. get the air ducts cleaned. this should just take a phone call.
14. yoga. just because.
15. start the kitchen renovation. it's the next major project on the major project list. kind of a long shot, but we'll see.

obviously there are other things i want to do this year that aren't on this list; like spend quality time with friends and family, and keep making my marriage a priority, and big overarching ideas and areas in which i would like to focus and improve like being a better adult-type person. but for right now, i need my list to be shorter, simpler, and full of things that i can legitimately accomplish and eventually cross off. so here we go.

my favorite gift of the year.

last year, i gave a lot of homemade Christmas gifts - wooden signs, soap dispensers, personalized mugs, large paintings, i was gettin' all pinteresty all over the place. and i loved every minute of the madness.

 

this year, i did more shopping than i did crafting, and i am thrilled with all of the gifts i am giving. but when it comes to homemade gifts, i have to say that i might have outdone myself this year on one of the most epic homemade gifts i have ever made: a personalized stationary bottle opener for my brother-in-law-in-law. 

 

i got the idea for a bottle opener from one of those lame gift guide lists that are all over the internet in December, and i knew it would make a perfect gift. but i also knew that instead of spending $34 plus shipping to buy the finished product, i could probably make a better version for less. so i did.

i found a stationary bottle opener online, and decided to add a cap catcher for good measure. i designed the sign in powerpoint, (with some inspiration found here) prepped and cut and stained the wood, then finally painted it over the weekend. i applied the third and final coat of poly around 10:30pm on Christmas Eve, and then finished putting it all together Christmas morning. considering i ordered all the parts on December 2, i didn't think it would wind up being so down to the wire, but i guess that's just how it goes sometimes.

all told, i invested $22 in the opener and the cap catcher, and several hours of quality time spent with some powertools and my paintbrushes. the finished product is so worth it. i am ridiculously happy with how it all turned out, and was even more thrilled that Russ liked it too! i'm not sure if people are supposed to have favorite gifts that they have given, but this is definitely mine for this year.

blessed holiday.

back at work today.

 

blessed with the sight of surprise snow falling outside my window.

 

blessed with a little time off work this week to spend with family.

 

 

blessed with a loving and encouraging husband.

 

 

blessed with a lazy Christmas morning at home.

 

 

blessed with a rare Santa sighting in Maryland.

 

 

blessed with so much.

 

 

consider them decked.

the halls, that is. my house has been decorated for Christmas since the weekend after Thanksgiving - its just taken me until Christmas Eve to take any pictures of it. i blame the lack of sunlight and an overabundance of craziness this holiday season. today was the first day all month i had time and sunlight on my side.

please note that all of these pictures are carefully framed because i have yet to actually clean the house today, and i figured if i waited until everything was clean i would have ran out of sunlight. again.

let's start this little tour in the dining room:

the dining room decor can mostly be attributed to my mom: she picked up the awesome oversize ornaments at a yardsale this summer, and then sent these three home with us in our carry-ons because they didn't match her color scheme. she also mailed us our advent wreath for our first married Christmas.

i decided to display Christmas cards on the big mirror this year. they are hung with command hooks, fishing line, and binder clips. because nothing says festive quite like office supplies. in years past, cards were displayed in the kitchen, or in a basket on the dining room table. if you don't see your card here, its probably because you didn't send us one. (or we haven't gotten it yet. haven't checked the mail today)

on the not-a-credenza in the front room, we have these happy snowmen. they are a cookie jar, but sadly there are no cookies inside. i did very little baking this year and gave most all of the cookies away, and the few that were deemed not good enough to gift didn't stick around long enough to make it into the jar. they were delicious.

you've already met Harold the Third, but he's just so good looking i had to show him to you again. plus: presents!

the clear glass lamps in the fireplace room are filled with ornaments, and our santa tray is patiently waiting for his big moment to shine tonight.

i love our nativity set, another gift from my parents. it lives on the mantel and did i mention how much i love it?

one thing we overlooked last year in the design and construction of our mantel was the matter of stockings. the old nails were removed from the brick, and a new solution was never implemented. we bought cup hooks this year, but ran out of time to install them, so for this year our stockings are hung on the empty firewood holder.

i am really bummed that i'm not going home to spend Christmas with my parents this year, but with so much sentimentality in my decor, (seriously, my mom either made or gifted us everything in these pictures) its almost like being home for Christmas. almost.

Merry Christmas!

meal plan monday: july 8.

there are not enough words to describe all of the awesomeness that was crammed into the long holiday weekend.

 

 
but unfortunately, there are not enough hours in the upcoming week to contain all of the ongoing summertime excitement around here. so basically, we're not eating this week.

Monday: Mark plays softball. our lodger arrives with his cousin.
Tuesday: Mark plays softball. Amanda Jazzercises.
Wednesday: community group. the lodger's cousin leaves.
Thursday: Mark plays softball. Amanda Jazzercises.
Friday: birthday party for Aunt Denise.
Saturday: Amanda leaves town. Mark goes to the O's game.
Sunday: Amanda drives home. Mark starves.

long weekends are the best.

i love long weekends. i especially love sunshiney long weekends.  and then you throw in date nights, friends, yardsales, family, and fun parties and i am a firm believer that every weekend should be a long weekend.

i had all sorts of good intentions to thoroughly photo-document all of the fun that was had, but instead i just enjoyed the photobooth silliness at Grandma Lorraine's 80th birthday party, and the excitement of Pretty Big Jenga, and the first bonfire of the season, and i let other people take the pictures.

although i did manage to take about 10 different pictures of the fruit bowl i put together for the picnic on Monday. because obviously i have got my priorities nice and straight.

we're all sinking.

two Wednesdays ago, i got an idea. an idea for a project. a fun project. an art project. an epic-ly awesome Mother's Day present kind of project. so of course i immediately called my mom and asked for her opinion and told her all about it. because i am bad at keeping secrets. (its a piano bench!)

the next day (Thursday), i started the project. as the sun was going down, i hauled the circular saw and the miter saw out to the back deck with some random boards i found leftover in the basement and i was prepared to make some sawdust fly. and then the batteries died in the circular saw and i now fully understand why Mark wants to get a new one with a cord. but i eventually got all the pieces cut.

that Friday, i took those nice, pristine, freshly cut boards and i beat the crap out of them with a hammer and a screwdriver and some 60 grit sandpaper. once they were sufficiently beaten, i stained them to help them look more aged, and so that when i sanded everything again later, the wood would show through dark and old-looking instead of its fresh natural light color.

then that Saturday, i painted those boards. i used 4 sufficiently beachy colors of paint that i already owned from painting various rooms and things in my house: the accent wall in our master bedroom, the not-a-credenza, the guest bathroom, and the fireplace room. surprisingly, even though we have painted with all of these colors, i do not think our house has a particularly beachy aesthetic as a whole. but that's irrelevant.

i gave the paint a whole day to dry, but only because i had moved onto sanding the dresser and then taking myself to an "emergency" eye doctor appointment. 

on Sunday, once the paint was good and dry, i attached the boards together using some screws and more leftover boards from the basement. (the order of the colors is meant to approximate the beach, with the sand, surf, ocean, and sky) i used 4 screws to hold each board to the supports, which in hindsight might have been a bit overkill, but when they were each held on with only 2 screws the whole sign felt a little bit on the wobbly side. so better safe than sorry, right? (also, i dry-brushed the boards with some white paint at some point, just to add a little more ocean-y/cloud-y feel)

and then it was time for the words. because what good is a wordless sign? i picked a line from one of my newest favorite worship songs, designed the word art using Microsoft Publisher, and printed it using the "tiled" option with a 1 inch overlap. i transferred it to the sign using a big sheet of graphite paper (not carbon paper, and not transfer paper as i was not-so-kindly informed by the craft store ladies) and then it was time for paint. i used gray because of the varying shades of light and dark on the sign: i thought white could look too washed out, and black might have looked harsh.

it took me most of the afternoon, but i'm kind of in love with the end result. i ran over the edges again with some 60 grit sandpaper just to bring out a little more of the dark wood under the paint, and then i hit it with a couple coats of clear coat before calling it finished.

because i realized there was still a chance i could get this sign in the mail in time for it to get to Dodge City for Mother's Day, i stayed up way too late on Sunday night hacking together a box from our old tv box and getting the sign all packed and ready to go in the mail on Monday. and then by the time i got to the post office on Monday i was 4 minutes too late. post office fail. so i ended up mailing it on Tuesday afternoon, and by some post office miracle it arrived in Dodge City the Friday before Mother's Day! post office win!

the best part is that Mom loves it, and says she is excited to hang it in either her newly renovated bathroom or bedroom, but she can't decide which will let her look at it the most often. i hope she is able to decide soon so i can't wait to see where it ended up when i go out to visit at the end of the summer!

meal plan monday: april 1.

in a most surprising turn of events, in the middle of a weekend that i had planned to fill with as much sleep and relaxation and rainy afternoons on the couch as physically possible, i found myself awake at 8am on Saturday morning, responding to a text from my mother-in-law. i had been planning to text her at some point later on Saturday to see what i could bring to Easter dinner on Sunday, but she beat me to the punch by asking me if i could bring a side dish. at 8 am on a Saturday morning.

 

i will forgive her this one time, because i think that she honestly forgets that not everyone works the same hours as an accountant during tax season, and that there are people in the world whose weekend plans involve staying cocooned in their comfortable world of pillows and blankets until at least 9'oclock.

 

but since i at least try to keep up the appearance of being a wonderful daughter-in-law, i wracked my still-sleepy brain for a possible side dish that would compliment a dinner menu of ham, potatoes, and no less than three types of vegetables without being repetitive. not exactly a simple task. but i think i did alright, and even though i had sworn to myself that i would stay far far away from the grocery store (and its inevitable accompanying fistfights over the discounted hams) on the day before Easter, i added a stop to my Saturday errands and came home with a metric ton of fruit. which i then arranged in an almost Pinterest-worthy spread:

 

sometimes i impress myself. 

i wish i could say that the only sugar i consumed all weekend came from that giant bowl of fruit, but that would be one of the most outrageous falsehoods to ever cross my lips. i'm thinking that i might need to put myself back on a no-artificial-sugar-diet to combat the reese's peanut butter eggs and delicious fudge brownies and that whole bag of hershey's milk chocolate nuggets that i inhaled this past week, but i'm thinking that's not going to happen until after i finish this bag of jellybeans...

aside from the jellybeans, here's what i'm thinking we'll be munching on this week:

Monday: grilled chicken on spinach salad.
Tuesday: frozen raviolis in jar sauce.
Wednesday: crock pot chicken noodle soup. (recipe)
Thursday: grilled cheese and tomato soup.
Friday: let's eat out.
Saturday: angel hair with zuchinnin and tomatoes. (recipe)
Sunday: baked fish with roasted potatoes.

just a thought for this weekend.

"At that time Jesus declared, 'I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and i will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.'"

Matthew 11: 25-30

early morning light

 

this passage shows a beautiful picture of my Jesus: blessed with Almighty power and authority from his Almighty Father, yet at the same time gentle and lowly in heart. all-powerful arms stretched out to the weak, burdened, and lowly, saying 'come here, i've got this covered.' forever the supreme ruler and authority in this world regardless of what we do or say or think about it.

willing to take the fullness of his Father's wrath against sins that he never commited, dying an unimaginable death so that you and i and that guy down the street can have life. rising to life again three days later, displaying his absolute authority over all things: even death. he is the perfect blend of power and meekness, justice and grace, wrath and love.

Jesus is why i celebrate this weekend, and why i love it so much. Jesus is my hope and my salvation.

happy Easter weekend!

gonna get down on pi day!

ugh. curse you Rebecca Black and your earworm.

lots of things to say. lots of good things to say. absolutely no time to sit down, think them through, and say them. i'm working on it.

but until i get it all together, enjoy some pi(e) on this most deliciously awesome of holidays!

source

sine cosine cosine sine! 3.14159!