sunshine.and.mike.

hello, you glorious and unrealistic weather!!!  thank you for being in the 80's today, and not bringing a snow storm (though, i'm sure with the way you've trained us in the past, we would just glump and say we'd expected no less)......i love your brightness!

read this verse a few weeks ago:


"...when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go..."

~Song of Solomon 3:4

i wish i could say that i saw myself in those words - i aspire to hold onto mike and not let him go.  but for now, today, i love him for how he doesn't let ME go......he loves me through my distractedness, my busy plans, my temper, and my foolish mistakes.

today isn't any special anniversary, and mike hasn't done anything unusually extraordinary - and that is why i am grateful today.  i am grateful for how he loves me on the regular days, how he involves himself in my life, and asks me to be part of his world.  i am grateful for how he serves me, constantly and constantly.  i am grateful that he is a Christian, and that he wants to glorify God as my husband.

mike, i'm so grateful that you love me, and you hold onto me.  i don't deserve you, my own dearest.

(picture taken on the steps of the library of congress)

colossians 2

"See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross."
~ Colossians 2:8,13-14


i want my to-do lists to flow from these truths.
i want to do because i am alive in God, and not because it's just the norm.
i want the truth of this to give me joy and hope even when i'm tired and tired and tired.

everything wrong i've ever done, has been forgiven - i want my mind to be obsessed with the happiness of this fact.

our nook

give me no such words as cramped, or crowded, or messy - and never breathe that you are claustrophobic!  instead, i love cosy, and homey, and comforting.......a subtle adjustment, but ohhhh, so important!

we're into the new little studio apartment....i have no pictures for you yet (though the one above was too tempting not to include!), as we are still unpacking.  but i was remembering this morning, how much i loved tight spaces when i was little - just big enough that i could barely fit - their smallness somehow made them more exciting and magical to me!  i'm so glad to remember, as that is the perspective i want to have of our little nest.

tight, but enough.
small, but exciting.
challenging, and needing imaginative solutions.

southwestern quinoa salad

"southwestern" quinoa salad

2 tsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic (peeled/chopped)
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup of well-rinsed quinoa

2 chicken breasts, cut into ~3/4" cubes
1 cup water
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp red-pepper flakes (lessen to 1/8 tsp if you want no "kick")

3/4 tsp thyme
1 1/2 cup frozen corn
1 cup black beans
romaine lettuce

- heat olive oil in medium pot; add garlic and onion, and saute until the onions are clear
- add the quinoa, water,  chicken, salt, red-pepper flakes, and thyme. bring the water to a boil, then cover and reduce heat. cook for ~15 minutes, or until quinoa is tender.
- stir in corn and black beans, continue to simmer ~5 minutes, until heated through.
- serve over bed of romaine lettuce

i served this for dinner last night, and we LOVED it.  mike scraped every last morsel off his plate, and immediately said that this one should be repeated - yay!!  :-)

but, there is always tweaking - below are some ideas i have for the next time:

- make over weekend, to serve cold during week - especially during the summer

- serve with lime slices

i combined this recipe and this recipe to create the one above - check them out!

tomorrow, tomorrow!!

closets packed?  *check*
pets taken to new apartment?  *check*
under bathroom sink packed?  *check*
kitchen packed?  *check*
bathroom/kitchen deep cleaning done?  *check*

*check*  *check*  *check*  *check*  *check*  *check*  *check*  *check*  *check*

tomorrow, we move to arlington!  the packing and planning haven't gone exactly as expected, but we are so very excited and so, so blessed to have the family and friends we do, to help us with our move!!!

and now, we wait.  til tomorrow.  TOMORROW.  wait.

i can't decide if i feel more like this:

just time between us and being moved in...

or this - if my complaining spirit is taking over ;-) :

miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike, this week takes forevvvver!!

happy friday, readers!  i hope you got to enjoy the warm weather this week, and that your weekend lasts as long as my weekdays have!  ;-)

phil.3

"So if there is any encouragement in Christ, 
any comfort from love, 
any participation in the Spirit, 
any affection and sympathy, 
complete my joy by being of the same mind, 
having the same love, 
being in full accord and of one mind. 
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, 
but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, 
but also to the interests of others. 
Have this mind among yourselves, 
which is yours in Christ Jesus, 
who, though he was in the form of God, 
did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 
but emptied himself, 
by taking the form of a servant, 
being born in the likeness of men. 
And being found in human form, 
he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, 
even death on a cross. 
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 
so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 
in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, 
to the glory of God the Father.
~Philippians 2:1-11


our pastor taught on sunday about the night of Jesus' betrayal on sunday, and how He washed His disciples feet.  eric exhorted us to look at how we serve, and who we serve - do we serve just those who "deserve" it and who can repay us?  or do we give to those who it makes no sense to serve....people who won't be grateful, who we hate / who hate us, or who won't ever do something in return?  the ones were there is no benefit to giving.

in reading the verses above this week, i could see a similar message....

how can i count others as better than myself?

how am i failing to view this world in the way Jesus' does?

why do i not value humility for humility's sake?


why does it feel right that my goals, my agenda, my WANTS be higher than those of someone else?


i am no good at loving others as better than myself - in spite of wanting to be treated this way myself!!  but i know God forgives me for this, and i can get back up and try again.

first apartment

i wish i had a picture perfect memory, to store the sweet moments of life and to recall the hard times i came out of.  buuuuuuut, i don't - so please bear with me in this post!  below are pictures of our first apartment, which i'm hoping will trigger memories down the road when i want to remember this first year.

seeing these pictures is already a little bit of a remembrance, because as i type this post, our home has become piles and piles of boxes and broken down tables.  i'd post pictures of its current state, except no one really wants to see this "after"!

entering the apartment, on your left was bookshelves (which i forgot to take a picture of!), but in front of you is our living room:


between the windows are hanging the letters my bridesmaids made to decorate my bridal shower - M.K.D.  also, ahead are our beloved couches and a view out the windows we can only hope to improve on!  ;-)  though, the construction we can see from our home seems to be coming along nicely....maybe the next tenant will watch something new emerging, rather than the stages of mud we've enjoyed.


another shot directly into the living room, complete with the fire-hazard lamp (mike, whatever you say, i side with andrew on this one that this lamp should be left turned on for only short intervals!), and also one lamp of the set that the faherty's passed on to us......as well as the glass tables i love - i know they will have to go once we have kids, so i'm savoring them now!


walk in and turn right with me, focusing on the wine rack you could see in the first picture.  here is mike's MAN CORNER.  the scotch peter got him for christmas, his globe and our cigar box (mike says it's called a "humidor").  we didn't set out to build a man corner for mike, but his favorite items seems to congregate together here, so i thought it deserved a close-up.


and here is our dining room!  good, good memories here.....we've had so many people come to eat with us - admittedly, we sometimes ate in the living room (or on the floor, pre-furniture!)....but this dining room has seen lots of good conversations.


let's turn away from the windows to face the kitchen (behind those closed doors).  above the door is the little $3 picture i got from a lady on craig's list, which so perfectly fit in with the rest of the decor.  also, on the table is alexander - the little plant mike gave me for christmas.  he's not a bonzai, even though he looks like it, but rather a dwarf pine.  i'm hoping he'll have a long life and be in the pictures i take when we move out of our next apartment!

the kitchen - view to the left from the doorway....

and view to the right!  where i've laid the foundation of my own style of cooking, meal-planning, and stewarding food budget money.  ;-)  there have been plenty of frustrated moments here - trying recipes and budget-ideas that work for other people but weren't a good fit for me, recipes that seemed to triple in size before my eyes, and nights when all i wanted was to go to bed and leave the food in the oven to take care of itself - but i've loved learning to cook here.

table to the right, with the "D" cheese cutting board from jaime - we fell so much in love with it that it had to be hung and not just stored out of sight!  

view from the back of the kitchen, with all our glass containers holding pasta, beans, dried milk, etc.  NOT holding flour or rice, because we all know how the bug problem evolved!  speaking of tears and frustration, poor chris and reka had to witness my "breaking" point with the bug problem.... 

close-up of our industrial shelf holding appliances, etc.....and my colored bowls!!!!  i love these colored bowls.


and these - aren't they dear??

let's go back out, through the living room and towards the bathroom, stopping to look into the "shoes closet" on our left:

not just shoes, thankfully - this closet has also served as our general storage area!


but here are the shoes - thank you, little apartment, for having shoe shelves!!!  and thank you, mike, for allowing me to claim them as my own!

turning around, we go through the bedroom door.  of course, it isn't always this clean and tidy - but i'd like to skew the memories a little bit to omit the days when laundry was on the floor, or the bed wasn't made.  ;-)

the picture above the bed mike gave to me christmas 2010, when we were engaged.  i packed it away so that it would only be hung in "our" home rather than into my "single" home.


our first year "map", which i made for mike on our first year anniversary.  it already feels so long ago, and i already need to look at it to be reminded of all that we did during that first year.  life goes so fast.


last picture - our dresser with my eiffel tower lamp and earring hanger.  the black-and-white pictures in the mirror, ovie bobblehead on the dresser, necklace hanger.

thanks for staying with me!  we've loved our time in this apartment so much!