Saturday White Bread

These are the kind of weekends that I love. Friday I spent most of the day relaxing. Actually, I take that back, I had to go to the store because I was out of....tampons...it always seems like I run out of them all at the same time, so I went to the store and bought three huge boxes of light, regular, and super tampons. Thank goodness I'm WAY over being embarrassed about buying stuff like that. So yes, it was a day of relaxing, but part of the day was spent laying on the floor in pain...

Saturday and today were spent doing absolutely nothing. Seriously. I haven't even done laundry yet, and we probably have like four loads to do. I woke up early both days and was able to spend each morning by myself for about five hours before Tim woke up. I love mornings like that! I make myself a couple cups of tea and a breakfast of veggies and sunny-side-up eggs with toast. I then proceed to look at pinterest, blog, read books, and listen to music. I wish I could start every day like it!

One of my goals this year is to pursue my passion of baking. I enjoy so much those days when I know I've got something raising in the kitchen and when those smells start coming from the oven (delicious smells, of course), mmmmmmm...then seeing the finished product. I just take so much enjoyment out of baking, so why not do it more often?!

This is going to be my year to learn the terminology of baking and put my knowledge to use. I also want to bless people with my baking. I don't know how many times I've thought, "Oh! I should make this dinner for someone else, it's so good!" Or those recipes that make two loaves of bread, I should give one away. 

Especially this bread. With this jam. SO good.

I'd post this recipe; however, it's like three pages long in the book. It is definitely a bread that takes all day to make, but about 6 1/2 hours of it is rising time. It's so worth it. 

Found in "FLOUR WATER SALT YEAST", by Ken Forkish

Best feelings in the world.

A few days ago, Tim asked me to come into his music room and listen to him play a song. Now, this song has a few polyrhythms. Polyrhythms are two or more melodies being played at the same time, at the same tempo. It's amazing to watch him. My brain can't even comprehend what he's drumming. Like, I get the rhythm, but never in my life could I play it. After playing through it once, he looked at me and said, "You must be my lucky charm because that's the best I've played it". I just want to remember that :)

I thought after hearing that from him, that it'd be fun to make a list some of my favorite things :)

Some of my favorite things in the world:

1. Taking a loaf of bread out of the oven. Especially the kind that takes all day. Knowing that I made it and that it tastes awesome. It's such a great feeling. Like I'm providing for my little family.
2. That first bite of food when you're super hungry.
3. Tight hugs.
4. Crawling into bed after a long day.
5. Waking up and feeling refreshed.
6. Forehead kisses.
7. Baking something and having it turn out.
8. Watching someone else enjoy eating something I've made.
9. Coming home from work and immediately picking up where I left off in a really good book.
10. Finishing a really good book, especially if it makes me really emotional.
11. Popping a blackhead. Or white head. Especially when there's one on your knee and when you pop it, a BUNCH of white crap comes out. So gross. So awesome.
12. Hearing my nephew Micah say "Au E Eh!" (Auntie Em)
13. Finding dinners with vegetables that Tim actually likes.
14. Scratching itches.
15. Getting a whiff of my hair when I use good smelling conditioner.
16. When Tim calls me and the cat "his girls". He can't wait to get home and spend time with "his girls".
17. Checking off all the items on my "To Do" list.
18. Packing for a vacation.
19. Getting home from work and immediately taking my bra off and putting sweatpants on. 
20. Waking up to rain and not having to work that day.
21. Tea and a really good book.
22. When Tim dances with me in the kitchen and sings to me.
23. Buying something for someone else.
24. Organizing my pinterest. Gettin' those likes down to zero!
25. Giving someone else a compliment and having it make my day better knowing I made their day better.

If you're ever having a stressful or just not great day, or even if you're having a great day, I highly recommend making a list like this. I feel good every time I read this list. 

Gratitude.

Being thankful is something I've always struggled with. I'm trying so hard to get to the point where I thank people, truly thank them and truly appreciate them, whenever anything is done for me. Sometimes I feel like I just don't appreciate the little things. If it's something someone gave me that they thought I would like and I don't, I should sincerely be thanking them anyway for thinking of me! Sometimes I'm just not content in my life and don't realize how many great things go on around me and I don't notice, or I do but I don't say anything. I started this blog a few years ago to write about "Finding joy in everyday living", thinking it would help me appreciate life. It definitely has, but I just know it's possible to feel more thankful.

Thanking my parents for offering fresh fruits and vegetables from their garden with no thought of getting anything in return, thanking Tim's mom for scrubbing our kitchen sink and getting it cleaner than I ever could (I just texted her!), thanking my sister for letting me spend time with her and the kids on my day off, thanking her husband for thinking of organizing a family camping trip, thanking Tim for getting me water while I lazily don't move on the couch (actually, I just thanked him :D). Just little things. 

I just feel like I need to be more grateful, more thankful, and more aware. 

These things were partly done with the hope of my happiness as the result! Why is is so hard to be grateful?

How do you get to that point where thanking someone and being truly grateful just comes naturally? And a little off topic, but how do you get to the point where you ask someone how their day is and truly care? I know there's a couple of people in my life that talk about the same issues every time we're together, and it gets old. How do I stay interested in their current problems? I think I need to start praying.

"Cultivating a thankful heart is a safeguard against becoming bitter, prickly, and sour. A grateful child of God can't help but be a joyful, peaceful, radiant person." -Nancy Leigh DeMoss

I want to be that person. I want people, if they're talking about me behind my back, to have absolutely nothing bad to say about me, but that I am a joyful, peaceful, and radiant person. Caring too. That's the kind of person I'd like to be around, so what a great type of person to strive to become.

i think i love my cat too much...

I've thought for a long time about what my first tattoo would be. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine what I actually got haha! 

Tim is very much anti popular tattoos-SO many people have the same tattoo, or at least a variation of one. For example: eternity symbols, skulls, hummingbirds, semicolons,...etc. He really encouraged me to get something that is meaningful to me. Something I will never regret getting. Well, I may never regret what I got; however, I do get annoyed now that I have to explain why I got what I did haha :)

Background: Every morning after I shower and am blow-drying my hair, my cat comes in the bathroom and sits and stares at me, just waiting. As soon as I'm done blow-drying my hair, she immediately whines and falls over, and I have to rub her down with the dryer. Never fails. Every time. It may seem like such a silly thing for someone who doesn't have a cat, but it's a favorite moment of my day. 

yes, that is one antique toilet haha

Fast forward to me thinking up a tattoo: Hmmm....what's meaningful and unique to me that absolutely no one else in the world would have...hmmmmmm, we have a cat (aka our spoiled, only child)-what the heck kind of tattoo would I get that has a cat on it??? Ahh, my kitty looking up at my blow dryer. 

This was the picture I gave of my blowdryer,

and this is the inspiration of the cat.

We did a lot of research in finding the perfect tattoo artist for both of us. Tim's getting two full-sleeve tattoos done, so obviously we needed to really trust the artist. Collective Ink in Traverse City was the place, and Jeremiah was our guy. 

He had me send him pictures of our cat, so the cat in the tattoo is our cat, not my inspiration picture.

Here's me in the beginning with the stencil on, smiling and excited. That smile didn't last for long haha-this tattoo was so painful in certain areas, especially where that blowdryer is. It really felt like he was scraping my skin. I mean, he was. It was definitely not pleasant, so it was really nice when he was done! It took about two hours, and he only charged $100! I was surprised; for something that size, I was thinking around $200.

Can you see my freckle in the blow dryer plug-in? :) I had actually asked for the flowers in the cat to be purple because I don't care for roses, especially red ones, but Jeremiah misread what I wrote. I didn't have him change it to purple though purely because I didn't want him to have to redo it! I wasn't 100% sure I liked it, but it's kinda grown on me.

This is what my tattoo looked like four days after it was done-SO INSANELY itchy and peeling.

I made the mistake of using too much Neosporin on my tattoo-I didn't even know it was possible! I started getting these red lookin' pimples where I used the most Neosporin, and they were very itchy. Thankfully, Jeremiah had seen it before and told me to stop and only apply it once a day with a light amount.

I would say it was fully healed after about 3 weeks.

She's my little girl. Always watching me, doing what I do. And destroying my yoga mat...

I'm okay with people thinking it's stupid. I didn't get it for anyone else. Just me, and I love it :) I may feel slightly stupid when I tell people what my tattoo is of (you should see the first two seconds of a person's face when I say what it's of haha), but it's okay. 

I will say I didn't think at all what my tattoo would look like whenever I get pregnant-that's going to be one fat cat hahahahahahahahahaha!!!

My something old and blue

My grandmother passed away in 2005. It was the weekend of my birthday. I remember because I spent my birthday alone that year; my parents went to see my grandma a lot that week at the nursing home, and I went later that night. Now don't feel sorry for me, I was fine. A friend that went to Romania with me mailed me a pan of homemade brownies :) I had rented movies and ate a bunch of junk food besides the brownies, and I think I stayed up super late watching a scary movie. By myself.  That was dumb. Anyway, going TOTALLY off topic :). The summer after she died, one of her kids brought a bunch of her belongings to our yearly family reunion, and everyone was able to choose something to remember her by. 

This was before I was engaged. I think Tim and I had only been dating for a few months. But when I saw this brooch, I immediately knew that I wanted to somehow wear this in my hair at my future wedding. It was going to be my something old. My something blue. 

I turned her brooch into a barrette. It was so easy. I just bought some jewelry glue, a plain flat barrette, and glued the barrette onto the pin. Bada-bing! Bada-boom!

I loved having something in memory of her at our wedding. I'm sure my mom thought about her at the wedding, missing her. I wanted to make sure my mom knew I didn't forget about her.