Banana Bread Memories

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I wish I was one of those people that could articulate their thoughts well enough to blog on a regular basis. You see, I often have thoughts that I think, "hmm...perhaps I'll write a blog about this..." but when I sit down and try to get started the words don't come or the subject matter doesn't appear in print as interesting as it did in my head.

No matter. Tonight I'm writing a blog.

On Sunday I was in the kitchen baking banana bread with my mom. I asked her where she got her banana bread recipe (because let's face it...I have yet to encounter better banana bread) and she told me she got it from her mom...who had gotten it from her mom. My mom told me that often on Tuesdays or Thursdays she would come home to freshly baked banana bread because my great grandmother would come over to help my grandma clean. I love trying to picture my mom coming home from school as a little girl. I sort of feel like an elementary student who is shocked to run into their teacher outside of the classroom. Teachers live at school, right? Strangely, it is still weird for me to picture my mom as anything but my mom.

All this talk got me thinking about the random memories I will one day share with my children. I will talk of Saturday morning cartoons and fruit snacks. I might mention the sleepovers I had almost every friday night at my friend best friend Brittany's house or the way our house always smelled of Jiffy muffins when we would return home from church on Sundays. I will tell them of weekend trips to my grandparents house-drinking cranberry juice, playing in the toy closet, and listening to the train lullabies in the basement. I might mention how when I first learned to ride my bike, my dad wouldn't let me go past the cul-de-sac until I could drive figure eights. That really pissed me off. I'll tell them of the time in sixth grade when I literally had NO friends and I was crying one Sunday night about returning to school and my mom filled the living room with candles so we could sit, and relax, and remember that life still has beauty. I will share with them how on hot summer nights my brother and I would sometimes talk to each other through our open windows. And there is the time during Christmas when we were baking sugar cookies. My mom told me not to the eat the dough but when she wasn't looking I grabbed an huge chunk, shoved it into my mouth, and ran to the bathroom to eat it. Sugar cookie dough no longer has the same appeal to me. Memories...countless memories. It makes me smile to think of such things. True, not all of my memories are pleasant...but for some reason I have been given a life where thus far, the good have outweighed the bad.

What a wonderful life I have been blessed with. I can only hope my children have a childhood half as beautiful as my own.

Makes my heart happy...

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This makes my heart happy. Like listen-to-on-repeat happy. It's okay if you don't feel the same way. But try humoring me...you never know...

Glorious Weekend

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I love weekends. They are wonderful, glorious, life saving inventions and I fully intend on living this weekend up. Tomorrow I am off on a fun (and secret) birthday adventure for Jamie's birthday and then I have a hot valentine's date with a five year old later in the afternoon. This weekend I plan on getting a little extra sleep, drinking a warm beverage out of my red heart mug, perhaps watching "Pride and Prejudice" which Katie sent me as a Valentine gift and just appreciating the down time. Life gets so crazy and busy and hectic that it doesn't take much before I'm exhausted and burnt out. This week was certainly one of those weeks. So hello weekend, you couldn't have come at a better time!

Before I Die.

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(I reserve the right to add to, delete, or change any of these goals...)

1. Pay off my students loans/live as debt-free as I can
2. Learn to speak Russian fluently
3. Skydive
4. Travel to India, Ireland, Greece, Africa, and Italy.
5. See Oleg again.
6. Run a half/full marathon.
7. Establish, work in, volunteer in, or financially support a post-orphanage transitional home.
8. Visit the East Coast during autumn.
9. Write/publish a children's book.
10. Read Pride and Prejudice.
11. Visit Auschwitz
12. Adopt.
13. Learn to Salsa dance

...more to come...

A New Week

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Life is a gift and I forget that too often. I have been blessed in countless ways and this week I will purposefully set out to be a blessing to others. I want my life to look differently. I want to live beyond myself. I want each day to matter. I want to start now.

They're Out!

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Support letters are out. Like my mom suggested, I sent them out with prayer and now it is a matter of waiting and trusting. $11-12,000 is a lot of money. Especially considering that many people are financially strapped or are a bit more cautious with their money due to our crazy economy. However, already I have been completely overwhelmed, encouraged and inspired by people's support and generosity. Family members who have chosen to support me beyond what I would have dared to hope-family friends...friends family...some who don't even know me have decided to help support me. I've received emails from people telling me that I will be in their prayers and I cannot tell you the peace and confidence that brings to me. I still have quite a ways to go in this process but already God has demonstrated his faithfulness and provision. God is good. I believe that.

Dictionary Knows Best

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blah 

 /blɑ/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [blah] Show IPA Pronunciation Slang.
–noun
1. nonsense; rubbish: What they say is blah.
2. the blahs, a feeling of physical uneasiness, general discomfort, or mild depression; malaise: After the long weekend many workers had the Monday-morning blahs. –adjective
3. insipid; dull; uninteresting.


Worthless nonsense; drivel.
blahs A general feeling of discomfort, dissatisfaction, or depression: "Monday morning Oscar woke up with the blahs" (New Yorker).
//-->adj.
Dull and uninteresting.
Low in spirit or health; down: sat around all day feeling blah.