Um,

I'm not doing a great job with my Lent commitment. I just felt like I should tell someone.

I think I'm going to fast from Facebook and from my Google Reader for the rest of this week so I can get my game face back on.

Pray for me and for some precious time with the Lord.

A New Hobby

I finished the scarf last night. Picture to come, I promise. This marks the celebration of my first knitted piece being complete! I have used this as an experiment to teach myself the basics. I sort of feel like an old lady, but you know, who cares?

On a related note, knitting is somewhat sweeping over the high school where I teach. A bunch of girls formed a new club, "The Knitwits," headed up by a guidance counselor and a couple of crafty teachers. They meet every couple of weeks, and sit around to knit and chat! How cool is that? And no, it's not just for the, um, dorks (I know what you're thinking...); this group is full of girls from all social circles at the school! The coolest thing is that they are working on a project to send knitted blankets to military hospitals. The girls knit squares of fabric and send them off to be sewn together into blankets. This article was in the town newspaper last week and gives better details if anyone is interested in participating. Pretty cool!

Happy Links and Thoughts

1. Lent starts today. I love this post which does a great job of explaining Lent. I'm Baptist, so this is not something we typically celebrate, but I learned long ago that setting aside time to focus on the upcoming Holy Week is good for me and my relationship with the Lord. I am often bad at spiritual disciplines and like having a time set aside to give to the Lord in order to grow.

2. So, for Lent, I'm taking on this. Actually, I've already started (and I'm already behind) but I want to commit to really sticking to this reading plan.

3. I really want to make this and this. I have the perfect spot to hang the family rules thing (in our dining area) but feel like I should hold off until...you know... I have a family. Keeping it in the back of my mind though.

4. I made this bread on one of my many snow days off last week. It is AWESOME! And good for sandwiches too, which I was having a a problem finding in terms of bread recipes. This recipe makes 2 loaves. I froze one and ate the other one. Like, by myself. It was that good.

5. I'm still doing this and up to Week 7, 2.5 miles!! Yes, I realize I have been doing this for longer than 7 weeks. A girl can take her time, you know. I've already started looking at training charts for 10k training. This may or may not take place.

6. I have been knitting a version of this scarf FOREVER. I'm about to call it quits and just wear the thing forgoodnessake. It's almost Springtime, so if I don't do it soon I may lose the opportunity! Even though it says "April Showers" the yarn I used definitely makes it a winter scarf. Although, we still have a hefty amount of snow on the ground so I think I'm good to go for at least a couple weeks.

7. Patrick let me buy this picture and this one for our house. We were looking for a couple prints for him for his new office so I was doing some browsing anyway. I think I caught him in a moment of weakness when he was too tired to tell me that I couldn't spend any money. I like them so much and think that they will make me happy to look at them.

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Happy to Share

Patrick and I were supposed to have a date night on Wednesday night (and by date night I mean a "we are trying to save to go to Australia so we'll cook at home just make something a little fancier and eat at the table...oh and maybe go to Starbucks afterward" sorta date night) since he was leaving me on Thursday to go to Indiana.

I made lasagna because that's his favorite.

Five minutes before we are supposed to eat, Patrick answers his cell phone. I hear him laughing and talking really excitedly to someone on the other end. "You didn't have to do that! Oh my gosh!" I kept hearing him say. Apparently he had lost his credit card at work that day (and didn't tell me). His wonderful co-worker and friend, Mike, had gone out to the dumpster and gone through all the trash to try to find it. What a man! Patrick couldn't believe that someone would care enough to do that. He himself certainly didn't do any dumpster diving looking for the thing!

So Patrick invited Mike to dinner. Mike doesn't live here. He's actually a consultant for Patrick's company and many other companies. He comes and goes. He travels a lot. His home is in Florida, but he hasn't been there in months. Have you seen Up in the Air?? That kind of traveling. So Mike was thrilled to have a real homemade dinner with real people at a real table. He immediately accepted the invitation. Patrick got off the phone and was afraid I would be mad that he had invited an impromptu guest for our supposed date night. I was thrilled!! I shoved the lasagna back into the oven and set it on "keep warm" until he could get here, dumped some bagged salad into a nice pretty bowl, and put out another place setting. We also happened to have cupcakes because I was making them for the cheerleading squad and had extras!

God calls us to practice hospitality, and I love opportunities to open our home. They don't come often enough. And it was wonderful to sit around the table and chat. Patrick and I made it to Starbucks later and did have some "date" time. But we wouldn't have traded dinner with Mike for the world.

(Incidentally, Mike is a runner and is the one heading up this "marathon" we are supposed to all be partcipating in in April. He is running the 12 mile up-hill portion while the rest of us get 4 mile stretches on the flat ground. I did threaten his life and tell him that if he breaks a leg dumpster diving for my husband we are all in trouble. Don't do that ever again!)

Snow Day To Do List:

• Drink hot coffee in pjs
• Make broccoli soup
• Hang new blinds (attempt to use the drill without my husband's supervision!)
• Grade a few papers
• Read new book
• Take a nap

I have heard a lot of complaints about the weather this winter. I, for one, love it! I'm a winter baby at heart. I thrive on snow days and see them as little gifts of rest and peacefulness. I NEED them about this time of year to recharge. Yes, we will have to make up school on the teacher work-day in March, which pushes the work-day to a Saturday. But the good news is that I was already planning to work that Saturday (cheerleading tryouts are the same day). So really, this snow day IS a gift! I plan to enjoy it for all it's worth.

Thankful for the moment.

For a content, peaceful, quiet, and cozy house. At the moment, snow is falling quietly outside. Patrick is asleep and snoring quietly on the couch with the cat curled up at his feet. I'm snuggled into our oversized chair with my second cup of tea for the evening and finishing up my latest read, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. The dishwasher is purring in the background, cleaning up from the pizza dinner we had delivered earlier and ate in our PJs.

I love cozy Friday nights.

Some random things:

1. I went with Cinderella Man. Good choice. My students need to see a strong father figure like Jimmy Braddock and the images of the Great Depression are spot-on what I wanted them to see. So many connections that we can make to To Kill a Mockingbird!

2. I have not eaten carbs in 2 days.

3. It's supposed to snow this weekend and, while everyone else seems to be sick of the snow, I am thoroughly delighted. I guess I'm a winter baby. Bring on the coziness.

4. I'm actually looking forward to running today since I have not gone in 3 days. Also, I had one of my cheerleaders volunteer to run with me and train me. I do not know whether I should be embarrassed by this or flattered.

5. I survived 1st semester of teaching 9th grade for the 2nd time. Officially today.

It's a movie week.

The end of January.

Everyone seems tired. I'm tired. My students are tired. I've worked their little minds to the bones 1st semester and this week marks the transition to 2nd semester.

So, I'm giving them a break. End of semester projects are due today. Plenty of students do not have theirs. Typical of my 9th graders. I'm showing a movie today to finish up class, since presentations are only taking half the class. We're finishing up Stranger Than Fiction, a Will Ferrell movie where the main character, Harold Crick, hears a voice narrating his life and discovers that he's the main character in a tragedy and will soon die. Words like "dramatic irony," "third person narrator," and the like are thrown around. Plus, we recently read Romeo and Juliet and discussed the nature of a tragedy.

Thursday and Friday I would like to show a movie set during the Great Depression, because our next novel is To Kill a Mockingbird. Last year I showed Seabiscuit. I'm think of either showing that one again or maybe Cinderella Man. What do you think?

I think we just need a quiet week and a reward for working so hard first semester. Sometimes we could all just benefit from slowing down. Even at school.

A Good Day:

• a house full of praise music as we get ready for church
• strong, steaming coffee brewing to take with us
• a lesson on the will of God in Sunday School with good friends
• a convicting, gospel-centered sermon
• leftover homemade mac and cheese and a salad for lunch
• meeting a new friend at the gym and laughing through a tv show together on the treadmills
• an invigorating run where I wasn't out of breath after the first mile!
• reading and resting on the couch with a cup of tea
• family dinner at my granny's and talking with the girls around the kitchen table
• clean laundry folded and ready for the week
• not having to grade papers
• the cutest kitty in the world asleep at my feet

Last week I finished reading Wuthering Heights for the third time in my life. It was eery and thrilling and delicious.

I'm on to my next book from my Reading List, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Ironically, one of the characters talks about her love of Wuthering Heights:

"I don't believe that after reading such a fine writer as Emily Bronte, I will be happy to read again Miss Amanda Gillyflower's Ill-Used by Candlelight. Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books."
-Isola Pribby in a letter to Juliet


I couldn't agree more.

Here goes.

So, I call Patrick at work today to update him on various topics (I have a basketball game tonight, I will not be making dinner, my 6th period class was bad, you know, the usual). He responds with his usual listening voice, "Uh-huh, uh-huh... oh by the way, I signed you up for some run thing." Pause. "You what?" "This run thing. Like a race or something. Part of a marathon? I'm not sure..." "YOU DID WHAT?!?!" "Well, I don't know! You said you wanted to run and all! It's around 4 miles or something. It's like, you do part of a marathon, everyone runs a leg...to raise money. I thought you'd be happy!" Another pause. I am thinking about this. Continual pause. "Do you want me to cancel it???"

This is the part where all the excuses start going through my head:

I run slow.

Like, real slow.

What if I don't finish?

What if I am really really far behind everyone else and they just laugh at me?

What if I can't do it???

"No, don't cancel," I say. "I think it's good. It will make me do this. I'm going to do it. Thank you for thinking that I can!"

And so, that was that.

Even closer to 30...

Yesterday I celebrated my 27th birthday! I am one who happens to love my birthday and treat it as a holiday. My gracious husband knows this and began wishing me Happy Birthday on Monday! I told him it wasn't my birthday yet and he said, "Well, don't you celebrate, like, all week or something?" Yes, I do! Yesterday was a great day!

One of my cheerleaders brought me a birthday cupcake :) I heart cupcakes.
And it was chocolate. I especially heart chocolate cupcakes.

My students sang Happy Birthday to me all day long. I'm glad the majority of them are not in the choir. It was silly and funny! And really off key.


The department head, with whom I lunch (doesn't that sound sophisticated?), brought me more chocolate (<3) and a sweet card.

I went to the gym and ran. Even though I said I would take the day off, for once, I felt like running! I wanted to! And since that doesn't happen a lot, I thought I would seize the moment. Plus, I consumed an unspeakable amount of chocolate at various times throughout the day, as previously mentioned.

Patrick took me to dinner at my favorite pizza place, Grace's. We even splurged and ordered Spinach Artichoke Dip which was to die for! Then we came home, made coffee, and did lots of schoolwork like the nerds we are. This was my present from Patrick, as requested:
That's right. New running shoes. Purple, shiny, sparkly running shoes, which my husband did not understand. "I just don't understand you girls...with your sparkles and your complexities!" was his exact quote. I told him, if I'm going to get new running shoes, why not have them be pretty ones?! ::Sigh:: was his only response.

I've decided that the only way to stay on track with exercising is to bribe myself with little treats, like new shoes, along the way. Plus, I didn't want to spend my other birthday dough on them, but I needed them. So a gift! That was the best way. See how materialistic and conniving I am? I'm not proud of this.

He also got me new drawer and cabinet pulls for my kitchen! This present he understood. "What? I can use my drill? Yesssss...." I think I heard him say this as we picked them out. These are only half installed. I'll post a picture soon. They make my kitchen look instantly newer :) Apparently, I'm now officially a grown up.

A Year of Good Books

Because it's a new year...

because I'm an English teacher...

because I don't make enough time for it...

because I miss being nerdy at William and Mary...

I have pledged to read more books this year. Someone told me that it is better to have goals that are measureable, so, in an effort to make sure I meet my new goal, I've made myself a reading list for 2010. I tried to mix up my list with some new stuff and some good classic literature because, well, I'm just a nerd and like reading classic literature.

The list is long and I'm a slow reader. So no promises, ok? Ok.


1 The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis done!
2 Home by Marilynne Robinson
3 New Moon by Stephanie Meyer
4 Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer
5 Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer
6 The Prodical God by Tim Keller
7 How to Read Literature Like a Professor
8 Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis
9 The Known World by Edward P. Jones
10 Wuthering Heights (again) by Emily Bronte almost done!
11 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
12 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
13 Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
14 Glenn Beck's Common Sense
15 Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
16 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families by Steven Covey
17 A Sweet and Bitter Providence: Sex, Race, and the Sovereignty of God by John Piper
18 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer
19 A Prayer for Owen Meaney
20 Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
21 Possession by A.S. Byatt
22 Counterfeit Gods by Tim Keller
23 Prodical Summer by Barbara Kinglover

How we spent New Years:

• Watching our Vols play at Patrick's parents
• Laughing at our niece's funny faces and watching her dance in the middle of the living room
• Being impressed by my nephew's elaborate display of army men (they were taking over a football field...the game was cancelled because the war was on! Can he be any more BOY than that?!)
• Coming home and turning on the Christmas lights
• Dancing in the kitchen (Forever by Chris Brown and Say Hey by Michael Franti are good for this)
• Beating Patrick in Wii Tennis
• Him beating me in Wii Baseball
• Watching the ball drop
• Praying together and giving this new year over to the Lord
• Writing down our New Years' Goals and taping them to the bathroom mirror.

A good time was had by all.

Happy New Year!

Resolutions and such.

Goodbye 2009, hello 2010! Happy New Year's Eve to everyone! The neat thing about New Years is that my birthday is shortly after....yesssss more presents. I love presents! (That might sound shallow, but you know you love presents too. Everyone does. Stop judging me.) Anyways, what is neat about that is that I really feel, at the end of each year, that it is a brand new year of my life. New start. Another year older. It helps me to really feel the passage of time, which can be good and bad....I'm pretty nostalgic at times. So I do make resolutions each year, even though it is so incredibly cliche; it helps me to set the course for the next year of my life. I usually end up changing some, forgetting (literally) about some, and even chucking some out the window completely come February. Nevertheless, I think it is a good thing to have goals.

So...without further adieu, here are my 2010 goals:

1. Get up earlier to spend time with the Lord.
I did this every day in college and it was such a sweet time of communion and growth in my walk with the Lord. I NEED this time. Now more than ever.

2. Less TV, more books.
I will be posting my 2010 reading list soon!

3. Enter receipts into PearBudget immediately.
I've been slipping here. Not good. Especially when saving to go on a big trip!

4. Get back on track with my running.
I was doing so well! Then brochitis struck...dun dun dun... I miss it!

5. Put laundry away immediately.
Instead of letting it sit or pile up in the laundry room in the basement...a long way to walk for a clean shirt!

So there you go. No losing 10 pounds (although I'm desperately hoping that will happen with the help of Resolution #4). No huge life changes (though that might come with Resolution #1). Just some things I need to work on in areas that I've let go recently. I'll try to you keep you posted.

Here's to a happy, healthy New Year! God Bless!