the good life.

hey guys! i'm not sure why it's taken me so long to return to this space! it seems the longer it's been, the harder it is to jump back in because i just don't know where to begin. our new life in Portland has been pretty wonderful. i struggled with bouts of anxiety at the beginning (which i don't think was helped by our Breaking Bad marathons), but i feel like within the past month, i've started to find my rhythm and really start to settle in and feel like myself again. our house has started to feel more like a home (i wasn't really feeling it at first). there are so many amazing things about living in Portland, between all of the local farm stands/markets & amazing produce, endless mind-blowing (and reasonably priced) restaurants, gorgeous hikes, cheap/fun/unique entertainment options, the laid-back lifestyle, no sales tax(!).. and yea i could go on for awhile. yea, i would say it's a pretty incredible place to live & i get why Portlandians take so much pride in their city. i literally gasp every time i suddenly get a glimpse of majestic Mt. Hood. it's hard to believe it's real, that i get to live somewhere with so much natural beauty, and with such an appealing lifestyle.

i'm actually at 'home' (in Michigan) right now for the holidays. i get to stay a whole month because of my flexible work situation (i work remotely from Portland & am working in the office while i'm here). i'm learning to be more thankful for the flexibility, i think i generally take it for granted. i am a pretty bad complainer actually. anyway -- i am happy to get lots of time with my family and friends (and their cute babies). it's been so great being at my parents' house, especially with my brother here too. missing joel though, i will be very happy when he's back here next friday.. this is the longest we've been apart. need to get in lots of girl time in the meantime!

oh, hi.

wow, i don't know if i've ever gone this long without blogging! wanted to let you all know i am still alive and well. finding it hard to keep up with the blog world while i prepare for this enormous transition that is just around the corner. but i definitely miss it and feel very much out of the loop. come tomorrow, august 1st, it will be moving month {we leave august 24th}. i had to pause for a moment after typing that and stare blankly at my screen. you guys, it still doesn't seem real and i guess it just won't until we're there. i have lived here {in the mitten state} for nearly my entire life, and i am moving 2,400 miles away. i just can't wrap my head around it. but i will say that, though the moments of overwhelming sadness/shock/i feel like balling my eyes out are starting to hit, overall i am still feeling really excited for this new chapter. there is SO much to look forward to.

thought i'd share a few of my favorite instagrams of life since you last heard from me. it has been rather full. we have had a 4-day yard sale in the hot, hot heat and moved out of our house & into my parents. we've traveled to the Denver area for my friend's wedding {for which i was a bridesmaid & joel played music} & then to Manitou Springs for some majestic sight-seeing at Garden of the Gods & Pike's Peak. i finally figured out my work situation for after the move. we visited my sister & brother-in-law (and their new pup) across the state and spent a weekend up north with my in-laws. we sent out a bajillion emails to prospective rentals in Portland, filled out multiple applications, paid multiple fees, stressed the freak out, and THANK THE LORD, secured a place to live (woot woot - more on that later). with LOTS of time spent with family and friends in between, some good memories for sure. there has not been a dull moment during these last days in Michigan. hopefully the rest will be just as sweet.

Lately..

I know I've been pretty absent from this space lately, so I thought I'd fill you in on just a few tidbits from my life lately, via Instagram of course. My DSLR has been feeling ever so neglected. I'm thinking it might be fun to take a photography class at PSU once Joel's a professor there so that I can learn how to go beyond the Auto mode.

Spent Mother's Day in E. Lansing with all my family. Had a delicious authentic Mexican lunch followed by coffee & dessert, then moved my brother out of his apartment! He's done with college aside from one class he'll be taking this summer and is now living with my parents (10 minutes from us!), so I am excited to spend a lot more time with him before we move to Portland (which by the way, has totally not sunk in). We'll really get a lot of time together once we join him at my parents' house at the end of June.. we'll be living there July and August in order to save some money before our move. My parents are the best.

Been doing a whole lot of cooking lately to avoid going out to eat (we're working toward paying off our credit cards and this involves being very careful with our spending). On Cinco de Mayo, I made my favorite tacos - Chicken Tinga tacos. Was going to post the recipe but then decided that was sorta silly since it is verbatim what is on Nicole's blog. I highly recommend these, Joel and I go crazy over them. The chicken prep is rather time consuming, but pays out on flavor and usually lasts us much of the week, which means I get a few days off of cooking. It's great on quesadillas too.

Celebrates Magg's 5th birthday on Sunday, although I'll admit he was a little neglected with it being Mother's Day and is being out of town most of the day. But he did get some treats from Trader Joe's that he flipped out over, as well as lots of lovin'. Hard to believe out bubbers is 5 years old. I love him to pieces.

Got to spend lots more quality time with Joel while he was on break from teaching classes, which involved lots of long walks and picnics. It's been so refreshing. I am so looking forward to having way more time with him once he's a full-time professor. No more being he wife of a PhD student.. Woohoo!! Really hard to believe this chapter is coming to a close. Hoping our last summer in Michigan is filled with amazing memories. Between moving twice, standing up in a wedding in Denver and having something going on nearly every weekend, it's definitely going to be a busy one!

What have you guys been up to lately? Is your summer a packed one?

Maine - "The Way Life Should Be"

Portland Head Light in Portland, Maine

I've been off the blog/social media radar the last week, partly due to being exhausted from our family road trip to Maine (8 very packed but fun-filled days) and partly due to attempting to catch up on laundry, cleaning, work, emails, SLEEP. Finally feeling back to normal, though I'm already looking forward to my next trip (the U.P. - this weekend!) I've got wanderlust, for sure.

Acadia National Park! (that's my brother :))

Have any of you been to Maine? I was there once before 7 years ago and liked it then, but this time I fell in love. It's definitely someplace I could picture myself living (Portland in particular). It is so full of beauty, between the rocky shoreline, historic lighthouses, hills and mountains galore, Acadia National Park, oh and the pretty wildflowers! And the food selections were right up my alley. People there seem to care about what they eat. The flatbread restaurant we ate at in Portland had all organic ingredients and they even milled their own wheat. And the salad was so fresh (with Maine blueberries, yum!) The farmers' market we went to in the little town of Union (where my grandpa grew up) was small but had so much variety, including a selection of flavored goat cheeses, yum! It was so charming, with live folk musicians and such a warm, invigorating community feel. And, again, everything was organic (there is only one organic vendor at our farmers market). I felt at home.

My grandpa's 80th birthday celebration/family reunion was a relaxed but memorable day. I got to meet so many extended family members and had some really great conversations. I met my great aunt Carol for the first time (my mom's middle-namesake) and I could have talked to her for hours! She is a brilliant lady, with a PhD in Genetics(!) She relived with me the ten years her and her hubby lived in a teepee when she was around my age(!) We talked nutrition lots, and I found out that her mother (my great-grandmother) got her degree in Nutrition at Cornell way back in the day.. amazing! As I mentioned in an earlier post, I hope to pursue a Masters degree in Nutrition once hubby is a professor :) SO neat to find this out about my great-grandmother.. It's like the passion got passed down. I felt an instant connection to this lady I had never had the chance to meet. I already knew my love for cooking was passed down through my grandma (who instilled it into my mom who instilled it in me), but turns out the roots are even deeper and richer.

Anyway, I did not expect to ramble so much in this post about such things but it was just too meaningful not to gush about. If you've thought about traveling to Maine, you should definitely go! I hope to return with Joel in the not-so-distant future, since he wasn't able to join us because of his summer teaching schedule (so sad). I'm SO looking forward to his incredibly crazy summer schedule to end.. this Fall should be pretty wonderful :)

blessings.

i seem to keep coming back to the same message in Scripture. the last time i wrote about it (post #1), it came out of Matthew. this time, it came out of Luke. Luke 11:9-10, to be precise:

”So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."

i knew it was by no accident that i stumbled upon this passage again, so i paused and pondered over it for a bit and asked God to reveal to me a specific area in my life that i need to be bringing to Him in prayer. and it was quickly apparent to me:

finances.

the terrifying 'f' word. something i often worry about and, moreover, feel completely helpless about. i realized that i have not at all been giving it to God. (Hellooooo.) i need to TRUST and have faith that God will provide for us, that he won't leave us hanging by a thread. this is no easy task, of course. it is SO hard to let go of financial worries. so i spent some time in prayer. this was just last week, and God has already responded in obvious ways. namely, i was asked today by my supervisor at work if i could work this thursday, which is typically my day off, because she is taking the day off, and there are only a few people in our department. heck yes, i'll work! adding to that, i have made four sales on Etsy in just the past few days :) i am reminded that God always responds to our needs, if we only ask Him. i am reminded of His faithfulness. i don't know how i forget these things, but i do. frequently. it is so easy to miss the ways God blesses us if we are not in tune with Him.


• • • • •

A quick glance at the past few days:

My wonderful mom-in-law, Connie, and bro-in-law, Gavin, stayed with us Friday and Saturday night :) I believe it was the first time Connie had been to our house since we got married. We had a fun, relaxing time. I made a special belated birthday dinner and dessert for Connie. It felt really good to serve her because she is always the one serving others. You could definitely tell she wasn't used to it. She kept asking if she could help and saying she felt bad for not helping. But I convinced her to remain seated and enjoy her book (for the most part. She couldn't quite keep herself from helping out with some post-dinner cleaning :))

Maggs is finally cone-free. And thanks to the warming temperatures, his daily walks have returned. And he is pumped. Realllly pumped. Pulling me on the leash, out-of-breath, sounds-like-he's-going-to-pass-out pumped. I realized that some serious leash training is in order. I'm hoping Joel is better equipped for this than I am. (I have no idea what I'm doing).

And, of course, I cannot end this post without a picture of food.



Chicken Tzimmers with Butternut Squash -- a meal traditionally served during the Jewish New Year :) Random, I know. I just love trying new recipes all the time. I don't imagine that I'll ever have a standard rotation of meals -- you know, meatloaf on Mondays, spaghetti on Tuesdays, hamburgers on Wednesdays, beef stroganoff () in Thursdays... Not gonna happen. I just gotta mix it up.

More Pretties for Your Ears

I added FOUR new pairs of earrings earlier tonight on my Etsy shop :) I don't know how I'd find time to keep up my shop, or this blog for that matter, without all the downtime I have here at work!!! Here's a little peak at my latest creations:






I was able to make/photograph all of these today, while still finding time to whip up some delicious shrimp scampi for Joel and me :)



We have dinner-like meals for lunch, since I am at work for actual dinnertime, and I just cannot bear not sharing a meal with/cooking for my husband on a daily basis. Double negatives, ick.


Tomorrow is my day off - YESSS. It will not be a day of relaxation, however. I have plenty to do to prepare for my mom-in-law and bro-in-law's visit this weekend :D They are staying Friday & Saturday night. It will be the first time Connie has stayed at our house since we've been married! I'm really excited to have them over. I'm going to make a special dinner/dessert for Connie on Saturday to celebrate her recent birthday :) Fun fun. I'm not sure what the plans are for the weekend, but I'm sure we'll find some fun things to do. Maybe even outside, considering it's going to be in the FORTIES!!! Thanks you JESUS!