Category: Musings

The year is HALFWAY over. Oh man! What a year this has been! 🙂

What’s Been Happening

Lots of unpacking! And yard work. Our yard is a jungle, for serious. We got most everything unpacked and put away this month. It feels SO goodto get our house in order. I also was a bachelorette for a week, as Ben flew to LA to visit his brother. The kitties kept me good company! 🙂 We also went to Indiana for Father’s Day weekend… it was great to see everyone, including my nephew, grandpa, and great aunt… and to spend Father’s Day with my Dad of course!

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One highlight of our weekend in Indiana was eating at allll my favorite local places, including the local ice cream shop. My photo [with my best high school pals] was STILL on the wall. So fun!

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Another highlight of the month has been the countless hours I’ve spent at the pool in our neighborhood. It’s been super hot, so of course I need to lay out and read, get in the pool, and repeat. Over and over again. 🙂 I took the past week [leading up to the 4th of July] off from work so it’s been awesome to hang out at the pool and relaxxxx.

What I’m Reading

This month I’ve gotten my reading going again. Yay!

Really, every book I read was good. Some better than others, but you’ll have that. You can see my reviews on Goodreads [follow me?]… but the best one was, by far, The Indifferent Stars Above. If you were an Oregon Trail junkie like me, or are fascinated by the Donner Party but want to know a more humanized version of the events, READ THIS! It’s non-fiction but more addictive than a novel. Seriously! I’m still a little short on my reading goal for the year but I think I’ll make it up at the pool over the next two months. 🙂

I’ve also made a point to save some of the great articles I read online to share here… so in no real order you should check out these articles:

• Why cursive mattered – interesting, especially since my husband taught computer programming to 5th graders this year at a charter school focused on science and programming. The kids’ handwriting was atrocious. Though my cursive is a bit rusty I think it was a valuable skill to learn.
• Why you hate Comcast – because it’s a necessary evil. So true! Read this!
• The internet can’t replace libraries – YES YES YES!
• 6 wrong reasons to check your phone in the morning – guilty! “What we want in our morning routine is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We want something that gives us a zeal for the glory of Christ for the day’s work. We want to be strengthened to face whatever the day may bring. We want something that gives us joyful courage to resolve to count others better than ourselves and pursue true greatness, like Jesus said, by becoming the servant of all (Matthew 20:26–28). That is our real agenda in the morning.”

What I’ve Been Cooking

Lots of blueberry stuff. I bought a ton early in June, and at the end of June, we went berry picking. So blueberry pancakes, blueberry muffins, and yogurt bowls with blueberries have been on constant rotation in our house. 🙂 I also made a big batch of black bean burgers. I hope to share the recipe soon! Other than that, summer means easy meals here! Like black beans and rice, breakfast sandwiches [bacon + fried egg + english muffin + avocado], baked potatoes, etc. Ha!

What’s On The Blog

My most popular new recipe of the month was Southwestern Cilantro Mac & Cheese. Can’t go wrong with that cheesy goodness!

My top three popular recipes from the archives were: Cinnamon Sugar Apple Cake, Buffalo Pretzels, and
Funfetti Cookies. Again! They are pretty good. 🙂

What were you into in June?

Linking up with Leigh Kramer to share what I’ve been into lately. 

It’s already June! Ahhh! I’m going to interrupt #HotSummerEats to update you on what I did in May. 🙂

What’s Been Happening

Well, we moved into our house in mid-May. So there’s that. 🙂 Hard to think of other updates, honestly!

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We love our neighborhood and have met some of the nice neighbors [and not a mean one in sight!]. That’s been fun. My parents also brought down some furniture and fun items [like an extra freezer!] which was super nice of them. Now, in addition to unpacking our normal belongings and hitting up Home Depot for everything on the planet, I’m also going through boxes of my memories. Time consuming to say the least! Fortunately, I have room to do this now so I’ve been able to do it a little at a time. Anyone want to come play American Girl dolls with me?! I have my Kirsten doll now. 🙂

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We also celebrated six years of marriage on Saturday, May 23. My parents were here and their anniversary is two days before ours, so we celebrated with a great cake and a delicious dinner. Here’s to many more! 🙂

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What I’m Reading

This month was PITIFUL for reading. I only read 6 books… and half of them were audiobooks. #fail

I know six books is a lot to some of you so I won’t lament too much but moving + packing truly got the best of me. Thank goodness for audiobooks! Drive time between our old apartment and new house is about 40 minutes so they were truly my savior during those drives. Haha. I listened to the first two books of the Callahan Garrity Mysteries by Kathy Hogan Trocheck and they were entertaining [albeit they have a bunch of bad language so beware!]. They’re set in the 90s so they are dated but that adds to the amusement, I thought. I also listened to Paris is the Place, set in 1980s Paris and dealing with the expat life, immigration, HIV/AIDS, family, and other tough topics. Kind of confusing to listen to but maybe it’d be better as a sit-down read.

Out of the other three books I read, Recipe for Disaster by Stacey Ballis was probably my favorite. Absolutely hilarious!! And timely as it was about, partially, remodeling a house. I’ve been meaning to read Liane Moriarty’s What Alice Forgot for years and finally did. I felt pretty so-so about it. Definitely good parts–like the ending–but also parts that dragged onnnn and onnn and on. A new book–The Residence–by Kate Andersen Brower was the last book I read in May. It’s about the private life of the White House and talks about the families who live there [mainly since Eisenhower] and the residence staff who make the world go round. I’m a bit of a nosy person [ask my former roomies/my husband! ha!] so this book was perfect for me… though I have read criticisms that it hinders the privacy of the First Families, so there’s that. I thought it was still respectful of them though–nothing absolutely earth-shattering and all in all, it’s very apolitical and leaves the families still looking good at the end. Read it if you like politics, or am nosy like me! I need to step up my reading in June so I meet my reading goal on Goodreads [follow me?]. It is 120 books this year and I’m behind! Sob!

I’ve also made a point to save some of the great articles I read online to share here… so in no real order you should check out these articles:

• Come Thou Fount – one of my favorite hymns seen through the lens of outrage… interesting stuff!
• Rituals: Reading to Sleep – yes! And it’s even written by the wife [that I’ve never met but randomly encountered on the internet] of some I know from my hometown… random!
• On scaling up – “Take your time. Don’t fill it up.” … thoughts on moving to a bigger space. Trying to take this to heart!
• 11 fresh menu substitutes – great tips from Ellie Krieger!
• On a simplified wardrobe – good thoughts. I wouldn’t do this but I have tried to pare down my wardrobe in recent years.
• Stats on how much stuff we actually own – ugh! These aren’t all true for me, but with our recent move I did see how much stuff I own and am trying to pare it down to things I actually use.
• The Last ‘Mad Men’ – I read quite a few Mad Men analysis pieces after the show ended [tear!] but this was one of my faves.
• We need our jobs to survive, but we need our hobbies to make a life – loved this! While I enjoy my job immensely, it isn’t the end all-be all that it could be, and while I can’t relate to all of the author’s experiences, her sentiment makes sense to me.
• Discover the kitchen style for your Myers-Briggs personality type – do you agree? I’m an ISFJ and I looove Farmhouse kitchens. But I also love about half the other kitchens on this list soooo yeah. Do I love kitchens? Or am I mix of personality styles? Or is this list just wacked out? Who knows but it’s fun!

What I’ve Been Cooking

The first half of May… lots of weird dishes to use up ingredients in our old pantry. The last half of May… eating out wayyy more than usual as we unpacked. However, after about a week I started to settle in and cook. So I made some yummy whole wheat peanut butter chocolate chip pancakes for a breakfast treat. My mom and I made Giada’s linguine with shrimp and lemon oil for our anniversary feast!

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I also had my Bible study over for an end of the year dinner. We had hoped to grill kebabs but a) we don’t have a grill yet and b) it was pouring [as it has been in Nashville for the past week+.] So I made enchiladas–my sister’s chicken enchiladas [try them! They are SOOO good.] and an adapted version of these sweet potato and black bean enchiladas.

https://www.instagram.com/p/3T8Ig0MCHT

I also have wanted chocolate chip muffins for like a MONTH but haven’t baked so I made these on Saturday morning instead of going running. It was glorious. 🙂

What’s On The Blog

My most popular new recipe of the month was Green Goddess Dressing. Definitely try it this summer!

My top three popular recipes from the archives were: Cinnamon Sugar Apple Cake, Buffalo Pretzels, and
Funfetti Cookies. Again! They are pretty good. 🙂

What were you into in May?

Linking up with Leigh Kramer to share what I’ve been into lately. 

I can’t believe April is over. It was QUITE the month, let me tell you. But a good one, so don’t fret. 🙂

What’s Been Happening

I’ve been saying every month how busy things are…but I haven’t really said why. The last week of April was crazy! Well, our big news is that WE BOUGHT A HOUSE! Guys, I am so excited. I’ve been waiting for this day for a loooooong time. We closed last week and will move there shortly. We have a lot to do before then, such as packing, painting, etc. As you might have guessed, I’m super pumped for the kitchen. It’s gorgeous. We’ll have some work to do on other aspects of the house, but it’s not a fixer-upper by any stretch… there are just things we want to improve and tailor to our taste. We feel so blessed and are so excited. The neighborhood is great and we’re excited to be part of a community instead of living in transient apartment housing.

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The day after we closed, I ran the Country Music Marathon here in Nashville. One of my friends from Bloomington came down to run ahead of with me, so that was fun. 🙂

The race was HARD HARD HARD. SO many hills, and it got roasty toasty hot ‘n humid at the end! I’ve been having some knee/IT band pain this training cycle, so that was rough. And truth be told, I wasn’t all that impressed with the race itself. The first half of the race was great. Lots of water stops, a decent amount of music, and a good crowd. The second half? Not so much. There were long stretches without water, music, or even mile marker signs. Just a bit discouraging, but you’ll have that with races sometimes. I think I’m realizing I prefer smaller races like the Indianapolis Marathon that I ran in October 2013. But I’m still glad I ran it… now I can check marathon #5 off my list! 🙂

After I finished the race, Ben congratulated me and helped me sit down, then taunted me with “I know something you don’t know!” Turns out, our nephew was born during the race! How fun! My sister and brother-in-law are now parents. 🙂 He’s a cutie!

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And last but not least, the weekend rounded out with my 30th birthday! It was a week ago Monday, and I was still recovering from the marathon so I took it easy. I worked in the morning, but took the afternoon off to go out for lunch and do a little shopping. Then I headed home for an afternoon of baking, reading, and relaxing. When Ben got home, we made an epic Mexican feast [tacos, Mexican rice, refried beans, chips + salsa + guac] and watched a DVR’d episode of Mad Men. He made me cinnamon rolls for my birthday dessert, and they were amazing. I’ve been savoring them all week for breakfast. Yum! It was a great birthday and ended a crazy four-day stretch that included: buying a house, running a marathon, becoming an aunt for the first time, and turning 30! 🙂 What a fun month to remember!

What I’m Reading

Despite all the craziness, I managed to read a decent amount this month… nine books. My reading goal on Goodreads [follow me?] is 120 books this year and by the end of April, I had finished 41 books, so I’m well on the way for meeting my goal [2 ahead, according to Goodreads].

The best book I read in April was The Midwife of Hope River, a lovely look at Depression-era Appalachia. I was in LOVE with the characters, the plot, the prose… obviously it’s about a midwife, but it’s also about so much more. Survival. Life! Love. Worth the read, for sure. The Butterfly and the Violin was also wonderful and was another one from my favorite genre: World War II historical fiction mixed with the present day. I also read/listened to two popular thrillers-–The Girl on the Train and A Small Indiscretion.  You can read my complete reviews on Goodreads but basically I’m thinking I’m a bit… done with that genre. These “popular” thrillers like Gone Girl are entertaining and interesting, but are they good books, good stories? No. Usually I’m annoyed with some ridiculous aspect of the story and don’t like the characters because of their selfishness, stubbornness, or what have you. Let’s face it: I’ll probably keep reading books like these looking for the diamond in the rough, but maybe I’ll try to find them from more established authors rather than the debut novel let’s write a great thriller crowd. I’ve decided there’s no shame in not finishing a book you aren’t into… life’s too short to read bad books!

I’ve also made a point to save some of the great articles I read online to share here… so in no real order you should check out these articles:

• 30 things to cook before you’re 30 – hey! I’ve done a lot of these. Yay!
• Thoughts on possessions… how do you keep your things from possessing you?
• 10 tips on becoming a better reader – LOVED this, especially #6, #7, #9
• Spring cleaning checklist – not doing this EXACTLY, but using it as a guide to get our new house in shape from the start
• Another chance to be afraid and trust God – thoughts specifically about the tragedy in Garissa, Kenya but really, these are truths that can be applied to anything we face, big or small
• OHIO can change your life – not the state, a great tip… though the state is pretty fab too!
• Go-to weeknight recipes – a great list, be sure to check out the comments
• 20 things I’ve learned for my birthday – love this, not just because Kristen and I share a birthday… knowing yourself is so wonderful

What I’m Watching

Ummm, nothing?! Call the Midwife and Mad Men are back, so those have been on my tv lately. Over Easter break I also started a “new” show on Netflix, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. It’s pretty clever and well made, and I l-o-v-e the accents. 🙂

What I’ve Been Cooking

This month has been so busy that I’ve been cooking the same stuff, over and over. You think I’m joking, but I’m not. Think: boxed mac & cheese, black beans and rice [or nachos], tacos, etc. On one particularly warm day, I stopped at Sam’s Club on my way home from work and bought a huggggge bag of frozen strawberries. Our dinner was smoothies and black bean nachos. Glorious!

Long time readers might remember my 30 before 30 challenge. Well, didn’t happen! But I have high hopes to finish this coming year. I really need to blog about some of the recipes I’ve made, so that list is kinda sorta incomplete.

What’s On The Blog

My most popular new recipe of the month was Cheesy Taco Muffins. Yum!

My top three popular recipes from the archives were: Cinnamon Sugar Apple Cake, Funfetti Cookies, and Buffalo Pretzels. I’m sensing a trend here. 🙂

What were you into in April?

Linking up with Leigh Kramer to share what I’ve been into lately. 

March… not quite winter and not quite spring. It wasn’t until the end of the month when trees really started to come alive. 🙂 I can’t wait til true spring comes!

What’s Been Happening

March 17th marked Ben’s 30th birthday so much of the first half of the month was spent celebrating! We had a nice birthday lunch at a Brazilian steakhouse downtown, Rodizio Grill. It was SO delicious–the salads especially in my opinion. 🙂 Ben was there for the meat! I also made him a pretty fab birthday dinner and cake… jalapeno popper chicken and white cake with honey buttercream icing. MMM!

We also spent a weekend in Indiana for my sister’s baby shower! I’ll be an aunt! This month! Well, April. 🙂 This is just one of many reasons I’m excited for April!

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What I’m Reading

This month I only read 9 books. I know… lots of people only read 1-2, but this was a low reading month for me! I’m not sure why, but what I did read was fabulous. I have a book review for Beyond All Dreams already up on the blog so check that out! The best three books I read were Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale, The Secrets of Midwives by Sally Hepworth, and Winter People by Jennifer McMahon. All three were new authors for me and I’d love to read more of what they have written! 🙂 I have complete reviews on Goodreads [follow me!] but here’s a quick take: if you love WWII and historical mysteries, read The Nightingale. The Secrets of Midwives is a great look at mother/daughter relationships… and secrets. 🙂 If you like ghost stories Winter People is for you! I listened to the audiobook and it was fabulous.

What I’m Watching

TV was pretty much last priority this month… partially because of busyness and partially because of March Madness. A LOT of basketball was watched in our house this month by Ben [and me too, by default]. Ben’s teams [Gonzaga and Ohio State] didn’t quite do as well as he hoped, but it was still fun to watch.

What I’ve Been Cooking

I’ve made a lot of old favorites in March. Things like Hawaiian Chicken, black beans and rice, and homemade pizza have all been on our dinner table. I found two new awesome muffins recipes as well–Cinnamon Banana Carrot Poppyseed Muffins and Chocolate Oat Breakfast Cakes. Both were DELISH. I also made a great batch of spaghetti sauce to power me through my long runs. #greatdecision

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Since I’m horribly behind on recipes to blog I might as well just share the links now, haha.

What’s On The Blog

The most popular new recipe was French Toast Casserole. Duh, that stuff is good. And now I want breakfast, haha.

My top three popular recipes from the archives were: Cinnamon Sugar Apple Cake, Buffalo Pretzels, and Funfetti Cookies.

What were you into in March?

Linking up with Leigh Kramer to share what I’ve been into lately. 

It’s hard to believe another month has come and gone! Though this is a few days later than I intended, better late than never, right? 🙂

What’s Been Happening

One of the best parts of this month: finding this ADORABLE kitten. We had a terrible [by Southern standards] ice storm that knocked out Nashville for a week. Ben had the week off from school, and my university closed for about 2 1/2 days. It was glorious!

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The Saturday afterwards, it was pouring rain so instead of running, Ben and I were walking/ice-skating to the gym to work out when we heard this incessant meowing/screeching noise coming from the pedestrian bridge at our apartment complex. In what was probably one of the greatest moments of communication in our marriage, we realized simultanoeously that this wasn’t an annoying bird, but rather a very tiny and very wet kitten. With zero hesitation or debate, Ben scooped the kitten up. After rushing her home, I dried her off while called the vet. They could see us right away and we were relieved to learn that she was remarkably healthy despite the weather that week, though she weighed just over a pound.

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We put up signs at our apartment complex but no one has contacted us so we assume she’s a stray… well, stray no more! She’s ours! We named her Isa, meaning ice in the old Germanic runes. Isa is pronounced E-sa. Her middle name is Marie and she already has an abundance of nicknames, including Isa Pizza, Little Pizza, Mini Fluff, etc. [Yes, the pizza thing is weird, but if you say Isa with a generic European accent, pizza just flows naturally after it. Yes, we are weird.] The other two kitties are curious about her, but we have to keep them separated for now to make sure she’s healthy. I took her to the vet again on Thursday and she had gained 6.5 ounces in just five days so she’s now a little ball of energy. She’s adorable and we are in love!

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Other fun happenings this month include my college friend Cathy visiting from South Korea, where she teaches English at a university. We always have a blast together and it was so fun to catch up. She was in the US for about 3 weeks and I got to pick her up/drop her off at the airport so I got to see her TWICE! Puppy chow is THE tradition of our little group of friends, so we had to make it together. One time, we made it in a hotel room the night of one of the girls’ weddings. So fun!!

I’m still keeping up with marathon training, though the ice storm put a damper in my training. I. HATE. the. treadmill. Ugh! And we are supposed to get more bad weather this week. Sigh… I can’t wait for spring!

What I’m Reading

This month I finished 10 books and am in process with several more. So far, I’ve read 21 books this year and am on track for my Goodreads goal [follow me!].

The best books I read this month was the third installment of Rebecca Cantrell’s Hannah Vogel series, A Game of Lies and the book I read for the reading challenge on Modern Mrs. Darcy, Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. My mom is an Agatha-aholic and that book fit the category of “a book my mom loves” for the reading challenge. I have to say… I get the Agatha love now!! And Then There Were None was fabulous. I was guessing the murderer til the end and the book was well written and relatable, even decades after it was published. I’ll have to read more of her books!

What I’m Watching

I am wayyyy behind on all my tv shows. Our DVR is constantly almost full and I keep deleting cooking shows I haven’t watched. 😦 Ben and I have been pretty good about keeping up with The Blacklist though. I’m so glad that show is back! When that show premiered, we still lived in Indiana. We actually watched the first episode in the midst of packing to move to Nashville. I still remember us cuddling on the couch, moving boxes out of the way so we could see the tv. Good times!

What I’ve Been Cooking

This month I’ve been cooking recipes out of Melissa d’Arabian’s Supermarket Healthy like it’s going out of style! Here’s my review, p.s. 🙂 The protein bars are my fave! I need to make them again and take some pictures for you! February has been a very busy month so I feel like I haven’t made anything new or interesting… just same old, same old black bean/lentil/pasta staples. I’m looking forward to spring cooking! Lots and lots of fresh veggies will be eaten in our little household!

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I almost forgot about the best new recipe I tried this month–orange tofu with veggies. SO good! My friend Cathy and I also made some Cinnabon knockoff cinnamon rolls. This was my second time using this recipe and they are amazing. Mmm!

What’s On The Blog

My most popular new recipe of the month was Falafel, Tzatziki, and Greek Lemon Rice. Yum!

My top three popular recipes from the archives were: Cinnamon Sugar Apple Cake, Buffalo Pretzels, and Funfetti Cookies.

What were you into in February?

Linking up with Leigh Kramer to share what I’ve been into lately.