Friday, November 23, 2012

Thanks


Hope that everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving, that your bellies were full and your hearts were warm. We had a super small gathering at our home, which we rather quite enjoyed! I come from a super large family on my mom's side (which we'll be celebrating with for Christmas) so it was nice to have a quiet, more intimate dinner this year.  For appetizers we had cranberry cinnamon goat cheese with crackers, and Provençal garlic almonds. The big dinner we had herb roasted turkey (with sage, thyme, rosemary, & parsley) sausage and kale cornbread stuffing, roasted veggies (hakurei turnips, garlic, celery, onion, & carrot) creamy green bean casserole, honeyed orange peel cranberry sauce, herb mashed potatoes, rolls and gravy of course! Just when we thought we were going to burst, we had homemade pecan pie with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.

I think we were all in a trance for hours. It was surprisingly warm, warmest Thanksgiving I can ever remember. My dad suggested we take a quick hike through the nearby forest preserve to help digest and burn some of those extra calories we all just racked up. We luckily made the entire loop before it started to pour.  We all dozed and watched movies cozied up on the couch.  I was in a deep turkey induced coma until this morning, waking up to a forty degree temperature shift, it really feels like Winter has decided to settle in now. As for today, Jason and I are going to be super lazy & be thankful for every minute of it. xoxo

Monday, November 12, 2012

mia

Hello dear friends,

I have most certainly been m.i.a. for a couple weeks now, I apologize for my disappearance. I had a bout of unfortunate events all occurring in a row and I felt it best to isolate myself for a bit, get my head screwed back on straight. When times get rough, I try to think that without these " lows", we wouldn't know or appreciate the "highs" in life. That things are happening for a reason, and something better may be just over the horizon.

My family has been through a lot lately ( basically my whole life ) and I admire their strength and endless love. I admire my friends for always being there for me and knowing just the right thing to say to cheer me up. And my husband for his courage and his ability to always see the truth in things.

It's November! All the leaves have nearly left, leaving the trees barren and shaking in the wind. There is winter in the air. I loathed winter as a child, but I have somehow started to enjoy it as I get older. Soon there will be snow. I do love that blanketed quietness that comes with the first snow of the year. A sort of stillness that you hate to disrupt.  And its the month of thanks! And I am definitely grateful for many things. I think its healthy to make a list of all the things you are grateful for and count all your blessings this time of the year. Jason and I are hosting Thanksgiving this year, so I am scrambling with menu plans that I'm pretty excited about. I already started working on some handmade Christmas gifts, trying to get a head start before the Holiday sneaks up on me.

While digging through random craft and art supplies, I found one of my old moleskin notebooks. This particular one was from nearly six years ago, with random drawings, idea's, quotes... A particular quote of note that I found in it, "Our whole business therefore in this life is to restore to health the eye of the heart whereby God may be seen."  I like that.