Christmas

This year was our first Christmas in our new house, and now that we have the room, we decided to host our family and friends on the holiday! I've been beyond excited for a month for this to happen; my whole life we've always been visiting someone else on Christmas, so this year everyone came to me.

Everything was going really well the morning of Christmas. Everyone was due to arrive in just a few minutes, and all of a sudden we heard a big crash... We reluctantly opened the oven to find a baking dish had completely shattered. We began scraping glass shards and roasted vegetables from the bottom of the oven, but some of the glass got in the heating element. We put the ham in to heat up, and the oven started smoking. (remember, this is 15 minutes before 16 people are due to arrive at my house) We turned off the oven and ate the ham cold. This is what the bottom of my oven looks like now:

We haven't even attempted to turn it back on: partly because we're scared it may be completely dead/broken and partly because we just haven't had the energy to investigate it!

Aside from the oven incident, all went really well. Here are some pictures from the day:

Board Games!

Kiowa hovering in the kitchen for some water to drop!

Confessions

I know, I know...it's been a really long time since I posted something. Life seemed to take over, and I felt like I had nothing to say. When in fact, I had a lot to say. Sometimes I feel like I have to neatly package what I write; these posts go out into the public world after all. I think of something to write about, and then I over think it. I dissect it to the point that I find too much wrong with it (this part could offend someone, this part is too personal, etc), and then I just end up scrapping the whole thing. So I thought I'd start my next attempt at posting with a list of confessions/things on my mind.

I spend way too much time trying to live up to others' expectations/trying to fit in/worrying about what others think.

I do my best thinking while playing Spider Solitare. It gets my mind out of the way.

I wish I could read minds.

I still sleep with stuffed animals.

I wish my dog liked to cuddle...because that's why I got a dog in the first place.

I have no idea what I want to be when I grow up.

I focus a lot on flaws...my flaws, other peoples' flaws, flaws of things, flaws of places, etc.

I like sugar.

I feel a constant sense of urgency, although I don't know towards what.

Sometimes I think up very elaborate death senarios.

Driving makes me anxious.

When I read books, I'm always in a hurry to get to the end, and then am sad when it's over.

I don't like that it seems like everyone I know is getting married/having a baby. Sometimes I wish things would slow down.

I can only start things/go places on the quarter hour (i.e 12, 12:15, 12:30 or 12:45), which makes for a lot of waiting.

I am.

I created this as a tool to boost my manifesting power, and thought that maybe someone could use it too. Enjoy! :-)

I am happiness. I am abundance. I am exhilaration. I am sincerity. I am love. I am HU. I am wonder. I am beauty. I am curiosity. I am inspiration. I am acceptance.  I am power. I am security. I am stability. I am laughter. I am perseverance. I am smiles. I am sustainable. I am freedom. I am confidence. I am sound. I am growth.  I am individuality. I am gratitude. I am wealth. I am bliss. I am independence. I am spirituality. I am fulfillment. I am generosity. I am detachment. I am positivity. I am movement. I am change. I am adventure. I am surrender. I am wellness. I am stillness. I am imagination. I am purpose. I am clarity. I am self-realization. I am awe. I am energy. I am discipline. I am ambition. I am balance. I am courage. I am contentedness. I am desire. I am progress.  I am light. I am harmony. I am compassion. I am God-realization. I am worth. I am safety. I am Soul. I am ease. I am wisdom. I am health. I am awareness. I am achievement. I am encouragement. I am wholeness. I am motivation. I am boldness. I am life. I am liberty. I am quality. I am peacefulness. I am humility. I am ECK. I am honesty. I am elegance. I am patience. I am joy. I am intelligence. I am virtue. I am consistency. I am consciousness. I am success. I am tolerance. I am originality. I am creativity. I am trust. I am flow. I am humor. I am hope. I am intuition. I am opportunity. I am poise. I am recognition. I am service. I am simplicity. I am unity. I am strength. I am calm. I am challenge. I am innovation. I am matter. I am whole.  I am sacred. I can do, be, and have everything and anything.

Look How My Garden Grows!

One of Ryan and my ultimate goals is to grow 100% of our own produce from our backyard. This year we decided to start with one garden bed, and were given all of our plants from friends and family. We recieved so many seedlings, that we actually ended up digging out 2 garden beds. I have to say, I'm actually shocked by how well our garden grew! I was told to expect the worst, because the first year of a garden doesn't produce much, but we have been pleasantly surprised by our harvest!

Here is our garden the day we planted it:

Ryan and I hand dug this first bed, and the second bed I dug myself. All of the rocks that are outlining the beds we found in the ground while digging! We decided that this first year we would experiment and see what grew, what didn't, how much we needed to water (very little, actually) and how much we ate.















So with a little help from some great lobster compost we found and mother nature, here are our gardens now:

Our cherry tomato plant decided to spread out instead of up, but we have been getting a pretty constant stream of tomatoes from it!

                   Our bell peppers are just starting to form...they must be a later-in-the-season thing?

We have more chocolate mint than we know what to do with! I think I'm just going to throw a bunch of it into a pitcher of water this weekend and see what happens! I've been really happy with the amount of basil we've gotten: enough for a couple of pestos and a LOT of tomato and mozzarella salad! Next year we are going to plant an entire bed of just herbs, because we use them so much, and there's nothing like fresh, organic herbs!

These are the tomato plants from the second garden bed. They have literally taken over and need bigger cages, because they keep falling over! Next year we are going to do a bed of just tomatoes as well, because we eat a lot of them and they take over everything!

The Ugly Tomatoes are absolutely blowing me away this year: they're huge! They're already bigger than my fist and not even turning red yet. So excited to eat these!

This was my harvest this afternoon! Our beets are finally done growing and I can't wait to eat them! In the middle are purple green beans. I'd never had them before this summer, but they are delicious!

I'm sad that the raspberries are coming to the end of their crop. Most of the perimeter of our property is covered in wild raspberry bushes that we enjoyed very much! And towards the end of them we noticed some black raspberries! They're so yummy!

I'm so glad we did a garden this year! It was a lot of work at first, but once it got established, it took off and needed little maintenance! After we composted, we threw hay over the dirt in the beds to control the weeds, which really did help! I haven't watered it with the hose in over 2 months; the rain is taking care of all of the watering. Next year, we are going to dig out 3 more beds for a total of 5, and I can't wait to eat even more yummy vegetables! We're also considering planting some fruit trees! :-)

Night Driving

I love to drive at night. There’s something amazing about driving past a stranger’s home, a yellow-orange glow coming from the windows, and a scene is captured. As you drive by a single moment is there, but for most it happens to quickly to notice. But it is a moment that will never happen in the same way again, and you are the only witness. Everything in that moment, from the outside looking in, is perfect. All is in harmony and all is well. They are home, in their element. No guarded walls or social fronts are put forth, and they are relaxed and pure. Sometimes you see a family gathered around the dinner table, or playing a game, or cleaning up from their meal. Sometimes you see a husband and wife, the years of their life visible on their faces, reading in their favorite chairs in their library. Or sometimes you see a woman lovingly playing with her dog. When I hear a car drive by, I wonder what moment they are seeing from my home, and if they paused to appreciate it. Whatever is depicted in these moments, it’s perfect. There can be no conflict, no tension, and no hardship in that one single scene.

Don't Judge a Paint Color by Its First Coat

My next project in the house was to paint the dining room. Ryan and I are both earth signs (Taurus and Capricorn) so we tend to pick a lot of earthy things for the house: furniture, paint colors, etc. And when you have too many earth things in your house (as I learned from a feng shui book I read a while ago) the energy in the house starts to feel very heavy, making it hard to get motivated and be productive. So, I decided that I would add a little fire element to our home by painting the dining room a deep red. For those of you painting a dramatic color, like red, here is what I learned. Read this before you decide anything and I hope you will be better prepared!

We went to Home Depot and picked out the color. A nice, deep red. They mixed a gallon of it for us, and then he opened the lid for us to see the color: it was fuschia! I about had a heart attack! He then explained that with red paint, the color, when it's wet, is much different than when it dries, and it will be much darker when it's on the wall. He dried a sample for us, and I felt a little more at ease, but still really nervous. I knew that if it was a disaster, it would take a lot of work (and money!) to get it back to the way it was.

The next day, I painted the first coat onto the walls. And again, was horrified. I was using a brush, not a roller, to paint, and it looked like I had murdered a large animal. The color was blood red. When Ryan got home, he calmed me down and told me to paint another coat the next day. He said it would deepen with the next coat. I decided to trust his judgment, because there was no turning back at this point!

 So, the next day I held my breath (figuratively, of course) as I painted the second coat. And much to my surprise, Ryan was right. It did deepen with the second coat. It ended up needing three coats in all to get a smooth finish, but now I'm really happy with the results and grateful that I trusted my partners decision. :-) I also learned a very valuable lesson: don't judge a paint color by its first coat!

Stuff I Love

About a year a half ago, Ryan and I made a commitment to cut down our use of plastics. Plastics actually break down into your food/water and you then ingest the chemicals - yuck! So, we decided to get rid of all of our plastic tupperware and replace it with glass Pyrex, and to replace our water bottles. We tried the metal water bottles, but didn't like the metallic taste it left behind, so I began on my search for a glass water bottle. We tried the Aquasana ones, which served their purpose, but were too big. They didn't fit comfortably into a bag, were very heavy, hard to clean with their small opening and broke easily if dropped.

One day, I ventured into a local health food store and found the LifeFactory Glass water bottles. I immediately bought a few of them and put them to use. They have become our go-to bottles, because they fit easily in the car cup holders and into a bag, are easy to hold with their outside grip, dishwasher safe, and have a wide opening (easy to clean!). I definitely recommend this over any other that we've tried if you are looking for a good, portable glass water bottle. They also come in a lot of cute colors! :-) And, the same company makes baby bottles which is really neat! Check it out and let me know what you think!