2014: Connect

I really have such good intentions when it comes to this blogging thing.  Even if no one ever reads what I write, for me it's about documenting the little and big moments in our lives.  But I seem to have a real problem finding a good way to work it into my life in a consistent manner.  And before I know it I've had an incredible year fly by with very little documentation.  Oh 2013, you were a good year.  I plan to play catch up in the next week or two with a wedding and honeymoon post.

I tend to go way over board with the New Years Resolutions each year.  To a point where I spend most of January trying to manage my lists and access how well I'm doing (I am a Virgo after all).  So I usually start my year off trying to measure myself against these unrealistic expectations and inevitably start the year off feeling more frustrated with myself and not at all 'clean slate'.  Couple this with short days, cold weather and too much time in front of the TV and it's no wonder this time of year is my least favorite.  This year I'm going to keep it simple.  This year I'm picking a word to try focus my energy on in the New Year, something simple that relates to many areas in my life.

For 2014 my word is Connect.  I like that the word connect can apply to so many aspects of my life.  Connecting with nature, strengthening the connections with my friends and family, reconnecting with those I've lost touch with, connecting my work and home life in a more effective way, connecting with my body and food... the possibilities are endless.  I'm excited to see what 2014 has up it's sleeve.

Day Fourteen

Day Fourteen

Today I am thankful for my neighborhood book club.  It allows me to spend a few hours with my amazing neighbors which I always enjoy.  I really love the experience of getting together with an eclectic group of women and discussing books.  It allows me to see the different life experiences we all carry with us in everything we do but more importantly it allows me to realize how incredibly similar we can all be, regardless of the paths we've walked.

Day Thirteen

Day Thirteen

Today I am thankful for my friends.  My friendships all seem to have evolved over the years.  Regardless of how or when I meet the friend, there always seems to be the same flow.  I make a new friend, spend tons of time together and then inevitably life gets in the way or takes us down different paths and we drift apart.  Sometime this drifting takes us so far apart it leaves one or both of us wondering if it's worth the work to re-establish the relationship.  But I am thankful that I am at a place in my life where all of my friendships have gone through this tough stage and come out stronger on the other side.  

It is a place where we can go months without seeing each other and pick up right where we left off.  It's also a place where we may manage to schedule a dinner date once a month.  It is a place where we are comfortable enough in our relationship that we can just stand back and let the natural flow of life take over. (Special shout out to Carla, so great to catch up tonight)

Day Twelve

Day Twelve

Today I am thankful for my husband.  Yesterday he stayed home from work because I thought school was closed for Veterans day.  He called me that morning to let me know I was in fact wrong and the bus had just passed our house.  He got Garrett ready and ran him up school without so much as a tardy slip to show my parenting fail.  

Today I was reminded that there is no one in the world I would rather walk through this parenting journey with.  He always has my back, although he doesn't hesitate to tell me when he thinks I am wrong behind closed doors.  He is always able to jump in and fill in where I fall short, especially when it comes to Garrett.  We work as a team and the house stays (somewhat) clean, dogs are taken care of and Garrett has his needs meet because of this team work.  I could truly never do it all on my own and I don't think I tell him how much I appreciate him enough.  He goes along with all of my crazy ideas and rolls with the punches with most things life has thrown our way.  I am excited to spend the rest of our life together as parents and partners, trying to navigates these waters.

Day Nine through Eleven

Day Nine

Saturday we spent the day at Garrett's soccer tournament.  His team struggled all season, only winning one game in spite of all the talent on the team.  Saturday morning was a single elimination tournament with Garrett's team starting at 10.  I was sure this would be a short day and the end of our season would come at 10:50 and many of the parents joked that we had 11:30 plans.  Saturday I was thankful to Garrett's team for reminding all of us adults to never count the underdog out.  Our team went on to win the first game in a shoot out in overtime and won the second game by 3 goals.  The lost the championship game by the same number of points but the boys were happy to have made it to that point and ready to go home after spending all day on the field.

Day Ten

Sunday I was thankful for the NCR being so close to us.  We have short 2 mile drive to a trail that runs 20 miles from Southern PA to Hunt Valley, MD.  Sundays in the fall always involve some sort of football on Mike's schedule so while he headed off the Ravens game early, Garrett and I took his bike and Mishka to the trail.  Garrett was able to ride almost three miles while I ran/walked behind them with Mishka to try to burn off some of her energy.

Day Eleven

Today I was thankful for my crockpot.  I had really gotten away from cooking in the two months leading up the wedding.  Most meals were eaten out and the few we did have in were made by Mike.  I knew as soon as we got back from the honeymoon that I needed to get our diets back on track by getting back by cooking good healthy foods at home.  Monday's are always tough in our house, the first day back to work and school brings little to look forward to and even less motivation to spend 45 minutes or more in the kitchen making dinner.  This particular Monday was even more busy because we know have basketball practice Monday night and I needed to be in to work early for a call with a client.  In comes the crockpot.  I try to use it once a week and it is almost always on the day we have practice.  It's so nice to come home to the smell of dinner cooking knowing we are only a few minutes away from a great meal.

Day Eight

Today I am thankful for a very active PTA at Garrett's school. We are lucky enough to have many great events throughout the year including Hula for Hopkins, ice cream social tonights movie night (and thats just the events through the beginning of November).  Tonight the kids all huddled together on gym mats with blankets and snacks and watched Monsters University.

Day Seven

Today I am thankful for the best want-to-be bridesmaids in the world.  (*I typed most of this last night before I feel asleep... at 7:30 so this really was my day 7)

Mike and I decided early on that we wanted to keep our bridal party small. There was no doubt that my maid of honor would be my best friend Abby and my two sisters would be my bridesmaids. I am lucky enough to have remained very close with my girlfriends from high school so it came down to either 3 or 8.

I sat each of them down (with a hefty amount of guilt on my side) and explained the situation. And of course, "don't worry, we understand" was the response of everyone.

We did a lot of DIY for the wedding which meant I needed a lot of help those last few weeks. With a maid of honor in North Carolina and two bridesmaids with small children, these 3 answered the call to action without hesitation (and they brought wine). 

Staining pallets

Apparently all Garrett and I did was supervise as Tori worked on my table numbers

I attempted to help but she thought I was terrible and quickly took the project back

Kathleen mostly just watched the football.  

Spray painting picture frames

I can't thank any of them enough for all of their help with these projects.  They helped leading up to the wedding and were busy right up to the rehearsal dinner the night before.  I had an amazing time planning my wedding and while I am glad it's over, I really think my stress level was manageable the whole time in no small part because of all the help I got from these three.  And I know they were standing up next to me in every sense but the physical one when Mike and I exchanged our vows.

Day Four, Five, and Six

Day four

I'm thankful that I work so close to home. I know that many people in and around Baltimore deal with an hour long commute everyday and I count myself very lucky to have a five mile commute. I forgot my lunch and was able to come home, eat said lunch and let the dogs run around for a few minutes. (I am not thankful that one of said dogs didn't want to come in and my 20 minute lunch break turned into chasing a dog for 30 minutes in heels)

Day five

I am thankful for good books (and more time for them). Leading up to the wedding I somehow managed get some reading done . Between that stolen time, the honeymoon and having more time on my hands now that the wedding is over, I've managed to put away more books in the last month and 1/2 then I had in the prior year.  And to top it off they were all fantastic books:

A Promise of Stardust

The Secret Life of Bees

Pride and Prejudice

A Thousand Splendid Suns - this one I read in one day

Currently working on The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Day six

Today I am thankful that I was able to drag my behind out of bed at 5:30 to get back into my am gym routine. I'm also thankful Wednesdays are yoga so it was a gentle way to ease back into things.

Day One, Two and Three

Alright, I'm bringing back the thankful November from last year a few days late so I have a few days to catch up on.  

Day One

Friday I was thankful for an extra day to catch up.  Mike and I were married on Friday 10/18 which gave us one day to get packed for our honeymoon.  We returned very late Monday night which gave us one day to rest before returning to work on Wednesday.  I had forgotten about school being closed on Friday and took the day off since I think the honeymoon has temporarily exhausted our pool of child watching grandparents.  

My brothers two dogs are temporarily staying with us while he is on his 3rd deployment with the Army.  I think his dog Pecan was thankful for my unpacked suitcase.

Day Two

Speaking of my brother, I am thankful for the Viber app which allows us to text and call internationally for free.  It means staying in contact a  lot more than any of his previous deployments.

Day Three

Something about November has me feeling the pull to be inside despite the beautiful weather we've been having. I've felt a little guilty about not getting outside to enjoy the weather since we've been back but it felt good to spend the weekend cleaning the house to get ready for the hibernation that I know is right around the corner.  But I did get to enjoy the beautiful ride through horse country we make once a week to take Garrett to his indoor lacrosse game so today I am thankful for the breathtaking views we have so close to home.

30 before 30 list

I turned 29 about three weeks ago and the realization that this is my last year in my twenties was not nearly as scary as I thought it would be.  My twenties have been a great decade.  I've strengthened my friendships while weeding out those that were holding me back.  I've seen 8 amazing years with Garrett fly by in the blink of an eye.  I finished my degree and have gotten my professional life to a place that feels right for me, with enough responsibility to be meaningful without the long hours away from my family.  And in under 6 weeks my 20's will see me walk down the isle with Mike as husband and wife. 

I'm excited for what my 30's have in store for me but I'm happy to linger in this last year of my twenties and soak up as much of this year as I can.  A friend on Facebook made a post on her 29th birthday with the 30 things she wants to accomplish before she turns 30.  I loved everything about the idea so I sat right down and started making the list (while I probably should have been doing something like finalizing my wedding ceremony).  So here it is a list of things that I would like to accomplish or work on over the next 49 or so weeks.  My list has 31 things because I just can't bring myself to remove one of them.  I'm excited to check in over the next year and see how my progress comes along.

1. Take (and pass) 1 part of the CPA exam
2. Finish remaining credits needed for CPA license
3. Hit the gym 4x a week
4. Practice yoga twice a week
5. Run a 5k
6. Try acupuncture
7. Re-read "Omnivore's Dilemma" and realign our eating habits
8. Have Garrett help pick out and prepare dinner once a week
9. Have a dinner party with veggies completely from our garden
10. Knit myself a sweater
11. Sew something for me to wear
12. Try a ceramics class
13. Landscape the house
14. Stop using paper towels
15. Come up with a married life budget and stick to it
16. Make a loan to Kiva.com
17. Volunteer
18. Pick up a strangers tab
19. Scale back screen time
20. Read some classics
21. Read all book clubs books.  Even the ones that aren't my particular cup of tea.
22. Blog once a week
23. Take at least 3 picture with my real camera a week
24. Say yes more to Garrett's request
25. Take a date night once a month
26. Reconnect with our friends in the city
27. Vacation with girlfriends
28. Go to a music festival
29. Visit Asheville, NC
30. Go camping at least twice
31. Take Garrett to NYC

Thankful Thursday

Being present is something I've always struggled with. This is an exercise for me in taking the time to notice the things throughout the week that I am thankful for. Not the big things like my family but the little things it's easy to miss in the hustle and bustle that is life. Please join along if you'd like and leave a link in the comments.

We have a store near us called Greeting & Readings and it is our go to for gifts when we don't have specific idea. Five minutes of wandering around always results in plenty of ideas. This week we made a quick trip after dinner to pick up a gift for Mikes grandmother and Garrett went over to the children's book section and read a book for a bit while Mike and I paged through some magazines together. It was a simple quiet moment that I really enjoyed. 

end of a season

The end of lacrosse season is finally within our sights.  We have the Lax Splash tournament this weekend which will bring to end my first season as a lacrosse mom.  

Going into the spring, I knew nothing about lacrosse aside from the fact that you need a ball and stick and it involved way more running then I could ever handle. Maryland is huge into lacrosse but I had somehow managed to make it 28 years without watching an entire game.  That's not to say that I didn't go to a game or two in high school but it was certainly to watch the boys more than the sport.  Thankfully Mike grew up playing it and from what I can gather, was quite the lacrosse star.  

Garrett made the decision this year that he wanted to try lacrosse instead of baseball this year and secretly I knew that if he didn't get involved sometime soon, he might miss the boat considering most kids pick up a stick around 4 in these parts.  Mike didn't think his coordination and athleticism were really where they needed to be but ultimately the decision fell to Garrett.  We explained that in order for us to agree to buy all of the equipment (you know, instead of sending him to college), he had to commit to 2 years.  So naturally the first few practices came and he quickly decided that lacrosse was the hardest. sport. ever.  I can't say that I would disagree with him on that point and we had to talk him through a few "I hate lacrosse, I want to play baseball" tantrums.  

But now?  I won't go as far to say that he's a lacrosse star but he has improved immensely.  And what boy doesn't like to opportunity to knock other boys around?  Am I the only one that finds it hilarious that we spend the first 5 years of their lives saying things like "don't swing that stick around", "we don't push our friends" and "share"?  Now I'm on the sidelines telling him to cradle the stick (fancy word for swing for all you non-lacrosse folks out there), knock the other team out of bounds and push through the pile of boys to get the ball.  And although I'm looking forward to not carting him to the field 3 days a week, I will miss the awesome group of boys we had this season.

Congrats to the Hereford Varsity Lacrosse Team for their sixth straight state championship.

Overextended

The past two weeks or so at our house has been hectic.  It's a manageable hectic and it's one that we've learned to expect each year as the looming tax deadline approaches but it's not a time we look forward to. I've spend more evenings than I'd like at work the last two weeks and Mike has spent a little too much time playing  the role of a single (soon to be) step-parent.  Although I probably don't articulate it enough to him, he really does a great job getting dinner on the table, homework done and wrangling the dogs and chickens when I need to stay late.  And he does this without complaining.  (Okay, without complaining too much.)  Things in our house are not running as smoothly or with the usual routines but we are getting by.  The necessary things are getting done, everyone is fed and healthy and even managing to get to lacrosse practice two nights a week (seriously, what was I thinking).  I'm trying to remind myself that sometimes just getting by is okay and I'm trying to let go of all the things that I just don't have time to worry about, like cleaning and healthy meals 5 nights a week.

A few pictures from the week.

Fail

I came home to chickens enjoying themselves in the backyard.  Chickens who were supposed to be in their run.  We were bad chicken owners this past week.  Friday I took the dogs out when I got home from work to find the door to the run open.   Another evening last week, Mike was so busy doing all the things I praised him for earlier, that he forgot to close the chickens back up.  I came out the next morning and almost jumped out of my skin when one of our Barred Rocks jumped out of a bush next to the coop.  It looks like the coop door blew shut before she was able to out herself away. She was not very happy with us.  I'm just thankful she was smart enough to hide in the bush.

Fail

It's hard to tell in this picture but Twig decided the house was such a mess that the best option for a place to lay was on top of a pillow that was quite literally hanging off the table.

Since clearly we are taking stellar care of our current pets, we decided to pick up a few chicks at the feed store this weekend.  I'm reasoning with myself that they don't take that much work and that the stress relieving ability of chicks offsets the work.

Thankful Thursday

Being present is something I've always struggled with. This is an exercise for me in taking the time to notice the things throughout the week that I am thankful for. Not the big things like my family but the little things it's easy to miss in the hustle and bustle that is life. Please join along if you'd like and leave a link in the comments.

This week I'm thankful for time to bake. Our weekends are currently a little too full with sports, home projects and working weekends. I stole some time Sunday evening to make two loafs of bread (which saved me a trip to the store). The bread turned out great and I think Garrett was a little too excited to get sandwiches on white bread for a change.

Thankful Thursday

Being present is something I've always struggled with. This is an exercise for me in taking the time to notice the things throughout the week that I am thankful for. Not the big things like my family but the little things it's easy to miss in the hustle and bustle that is life. Please join along if you'd like and leave a link in the comments.

This week was an easy choice.  It has been wet around here and our backyard looks a lot like a swamp.  The majority of our little plot of earth is a hill and we have a lot of trees/shade which results in a backyard that I often refer to as "soupy". 

Since the dogs need to go out and the chickens need to be feed regardless of how muddy our backyard is, this week I'm thankful for my coop boots.  I eyed up some pretty boots last fall but couldn't bring myself to spend much money on a pair of boots that would be used for little more than wading through mud and chicken poop.  So I found this pair for $12 at our area craft store and was sold.  They're worth their weight in gold.

Special thanks to my favorite camera guy

Spring Treaser

This weekend was a nice reminder that Spring really is right around the corner.  We had two beautiful days and although we didn't spend all weekend outside, we did get a good bit of Vitamin D into our system.  I also got to test out a few recipes for things I've been wanting to make at home instead of buying at the store. It really is frustrating how many simple things we buy at the grocery store with ingredient lists far longer than what is necessary.  The organic yogurt we buy at the grocery store?  Fish bones are listed on the list of ingredients.  Really Wegman's?

So we started out the weekend with a quick dinner and then movie and popcorn night.  The boys watched Wreck it Ralph while I made homemade yogurt and granola.  This was my second attempt at yogurt after hearing how easy it was.  The first batch turned out good but it was more of a drinkable yogurt and we were looking for a nice solid yogurt that Garrett can take in his school lunch.  My second attempt was a complete success and all it really involved was getting the milk a bit hotter on the stove.  I stored them in mason jars and when the batch was done, I could turn the jar on it's side and the yogurt stayed in place.

The granola recipe was the one posted on Soulemama.  We were attempting to replicate Michelle's Granola which is the first granola I've gotten Garrett to actually eat.  While this one was good, it wasn't really sweet enough for our taste.  When we used Michelle's Granola, it was sweet enough that we didn't need any other sweetener in the yogurt.  But this was still good and probably a great granola for families who don't like their granola very sweet. 

Next up on my list of things to make was English muffins.  Since we eat eggs most mornings for breakfast, I'm constantly looking for ways to change them up.  After eating a 3 egg omelet for almost the entire school year this year, Garrett has decided that he is completely done with omelets.  In order to keep him from begging for the sugary cereal at the store, I've started making him egg sandwiches on English muffins.  The ingredient list is a little better than some of the store bought breads with closer to 15 ingredients rather than 30 but still way more than what I think is necessary   So I found an easy, no knead English muffin recipe that turned out fantastic.  There was some rising in between but I was able to make 15 English muffins Sunday morning while doing lots of other chores during the process.

Then Sunday afternoon Garrett and I headed off to his first lacrosse practice.  I would be lying if I said I didn't tear up seeing him all suited up playing catch with Mike in the front yard. I kept staring at him completely covered in pads and helmets and remembering watching him toddle around when he was first learning to walk.  I felt like he needed a helmet and pad then.  

(Don't worry, he didn't wear his chucks to practice)

Thankful Thursday

Being present is something I've always struggled with. This is an exercise for me in taking the time to notice the things throughout the week that I am thankful for. Not the big things like my family but the little things it's easy to miss in the hustle and bustle that is life. Please join along if you'd like and leave a link in the comments.

Today I am thankful for a random snow day.  It was a pretty sorry excuse for a snow day, in our area we got mostly just rain and the little snow we got didn't even stick to the ground.  We were promised 8/12 inches so Garrett was pretty disappointed.  But we did some baking, and lots of reading and knitting by the fire place.

And completely random but I had to share this.  These crazy chickens of our love one nesting box in the coop.  Apparently Blanche was taking too long and Rose decided to stand over her and wait.  There are two empty nesting boxes to the left but I guess they just aren't as cozy.  They will seriously lay eggs under the favorite nesting box before they will resort to using another box.

Weekend Review

This weekend was a busy one for us.  It was kicked off with a happy hour to celebrate the promotion of a good friend.  We celebrated at Mt. Washington Tavern which is a great little restaurant/bar in an even cuter neighborhood.  Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures but hope to get back there with Mike sometime soon.

Garrett had his indoor soccer game Saturday and spent the 2nd half of the game defending the goal.  He did great and the score ended at a very hard earned 0-0.  We headed to Wegman's for a quick grocery run, kicked off with lunch in their cafe.  I usually do my grocery shopping alone but it was fun to bring him along on this quick trip/lunch date.

Saturday evening we celebrated my future father-in-laws birthday with ribs and crab cakes.  Garrett ordered a desert that was almost as big as his face.

Sunday was filled with church, Sunday school, some work for me and our first football game of the Spring season.  It was freezing outside, especially for those of us who couldn't stay bundled up on the side lines.  But it was great to be outside running around with friends again.

Willing Spring

I really don't love Winter.  I try, I really do.  I know there are people who are able to focus on Winter's ability to slow our internal clocks and allow us to rest and spend quite time together indoors.  I've read plenty of blog posts this winter to this affect and every time I walk away thinking about the positives I can be focusing on.  And there are times when I appreciate the slow, dark pace of the winter months. But most of the time?  Most of the time I am willing the sun to stay up later, the cold weather to leave and wishing it was time to dig my hands into the dirt.

Ordering this years seeds was a needed reprieve from the bitter cold that has been keeping us inside with much more screen time than I would care to admit.  Mike and I spent many nights dog earring pages and comparing varieties to compile an impressive list of seeds for our garden this year.  I can't think of anything I would have rather done to pull me out of the winter slump that hits this time of year.

Thankful Thursday

Being present is something I've always struggled with.  This is an exercise for me in taking the time to notice the things throughout the week that I am thankful for.  Not the big things like my family but the little things it's easy to miss in the hustle and bustle that is life.  Please join along if you'd like and leave a link in the comments.

This week I am thankful for this little corner of my desk that reminds me of my favorite people, even when I can't be with them.  As February fades away and March begins, the craziness of tax season is here.  I'm lucky enough to have a schedule that doesn't require the 65 hour weeks that I use to work and that in itself is something I'm extremely thankful for.  But I do work more and my workload increases significantly.  

I have a love/hate relationship with this time of year, as outside everything starts to wake up from the sleepy winter but inside my office, hours and stress increase for everyone.  This little area of my desk helps me get through the longer days and increased workload a bit easier.

Engaged

So rather than start this post with my excuses of why I haven't posted in a while, I think I'll just get down to the posting.  We had an amazing Christmas holiday this year, topped off by an engagement on Christmas night.

Mike and I have talked a lot about getting married over the last few years.  A lot of the talk was very general and there was always this unspoken knowledge that eventually it would happen.  However, as laid back as I tried to be about it, after a few major events this summer (anniversaries, both of our birthdays, a long weekend in Cape May) my patience was starting to wear thin.  This lead to some frustration and tears in the fall when I finally decided I would give it a few more months before we sat down to have the "what the heck is going on here, we own a house together, you're already stuck with me for 28 more years" conversation.

So when Christmas day rolled around, I jokingly made a comment about my ring being under the tree even though I knew that Mike is not the ring-under-the-tree kind of guys.  I expected that it would be something more along the lines of sitting on the couch watching some ridiculous tv show.  Christmas day went off perfectly, with snow covering the ground from a little Christmas Eve storm.  We spend the morning at home before heading to my dads and then Mike's family dinner.  We went back to my dads in the evening for a few more hours and Garrett decided to spend the night.  Mike and I got home pretty late and I promptly went to bed while he took the dogs out.  At least an hour later Mike came upstairs and asked me to come down and look at something for him.  To say I'm grouchy when I'm tired is probably a big understatement.  I told him to leave me alone and rolled back over.  At this point, he bent over and tried to pick me up.  My grumpy response to this was to make my body completely stiff and impossible to carry.  At this point Mike was losing his patience with my antics and told me in no uncertain terms that he was picking me up and taking me downstairs whether I liked it or not.  I believe he may have also made a frustrated comment about not letting me ruin this but in my 1/2 sleeping state, I didn't pick up on this at the time.  He carried me downstairs, sat me on the ground and swung the door to our backyard open.

 

 

I froze instantly as I quickly connected the dots and realized what was going on.  I believe the first words I uttered were "Oh my God, I'm such a jerk".  Mike pushed me farther out the door where I could really see how much effort he had put into the set up.  There were literally candles everywhere and a heart made out of candles in mason jars on top of the table with a little pouch in the middle.  He ushered me to open the pouch and then got down on one knee.  But before he could actually ask the question, I collapsed onto his knee kissing and crying with lots of "Oh my Gods" at which point Mike asked "is that a yes".  There was one of my favorite wines and one of Mike's nice bottles of bourbon to help us celebrate and it easily goes down as one of my favorite days.  And now the countdown begins to October when I will be lucky enough to marry my best friend and the most amazing step-parent I could have ever picked for Garrett.  Speaking of Garrett, when we picked him up the next morning his response was "Oh my goodness Mike, that is just crazy".