2013

2013 was a year full of changes.

The year I moved to Florida, started my first real job, and got married.

These new life events have brought about a lot of smaller changes. Naturally, transitioning from student life to working life brings about some lifestyle differences. Whether big or small, here are several aspects that were a prominent part of 2013 for me:

The Year of the Audio Book
One of my new loves of the year. I am now addicted to audio books. This started as entertainment for my long work drives, and now I listen to them when driving, exercising, and occasionally around the house. I download books directly to my phone so there is almost always a book to listen to close at hand. The final count (though a few might be missing) is 17 audio books.
Favorite: Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin
Runner Up: My Life in France by Julia Child
Least Favorite: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

The Year of the Blog
Before 2013 I did some blog reading through feeds, now it is a regular part of my day and I really look forward to blog reading.
Favorite Blog: Modern Mrs. Darcy. You've seen me do link-ups to her blog before, so this was probably obvious. She writes about interests that generally pertain to women, be it fashion, relationships, or entertainment, and always keeps a heavy emphasis on books.
Runner Up: Rage Against the Minivan. The blogger is a mom and you hear a lot about her children's lives and how their family deals with various situations. She regularly post's stories submitted by readers that give a new point of view of sensitive topics. Her writing style is often sarcastic and humorous. Always a good read.
Other Runner Up: The Art of Simple. Simple living blog, what I really love most is the Art of Simple Podcast. Check it out.
And always asking challenging questions to Christians are Rachel Held Evans and Elizabeth Esther.
Some Standout Blogs By Friends:
Candice (a friend from Virginia Tech) does a great job documenting her and Alex's lives, shares recipes, thoughts, and workout woes.
Sarah (a friend from Texas A&M) mainly writes about topics pertaining to Christianity. She is a gifted writer and offers well thought out insights. I'm waiting for her to take the Christian writing world by storm!

The Year of the Workout
Ever since I went to Costa Rica in January of 2012 I have been more intentional about exercise. That semester my friend Lynn and I attended at least 3 classes a week at the gym. Cycling and yoga were favorites. The next summer and following semester that fizzled off a little bit but I would still do something active periodically. End off March/Early April of 2013 is when I really got serious about exercise. I started with a month of Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred and that upped my endurance significantly and brought about quick changes in my body. My next project was running. Unfortunately, quickly into running workouts a disc in my back popped out of place, forcing me to stick to lower impact workouts for months. Finally, (knock on wood) I can do higher impact workouts again and I'm 5 weeks into the Couch to 5K running plan. Exercise has really become a part of my life now. The second I get home from work I exercise. I've been pretty good about getting this in 5 days a week most of the time. I feel better, look better, and have an excuse to splurge on desserts guilt free during the weekends.

What sticks out to you as a change in 2013? Big or small, what was new?

Christmas is Coming!

So, how are we doing Christmas this year?

We have the milestone of our first married Christmas, and I'm relishing decorating our home and celebrating the season with out going overboard.

First things, first. Our tree.

Please enjoy the look of this tree. I think Charlie Brown would be proud. The story here...we were debating about our tree. At the apartment there isn't really space to store an artificial tree (plus I don't want an artificial tree) and the real ones are expensive, and again the space situation. So when we saw this Norfolk Island Pine we thought it was a perfect compromise. And it's a live tree, David thinks we can use it next year, ha! 

This plan seemed all well and good until I put the tree in our apartment. Suddenly this pine did not look so much like a Christmas tree. Alas. We decorated the tree, covered it in lights, and put on our ornaments. This was a great lesson in why the varieties of trees use for Christmas have been selected. This one cannot hold up ornaments to save it's life. Please note the droop of the tree. I love it anyway. Even if it won't get me on the cover of Better Homes and Gardens. 

I think this nativity is my favorite Christmas decoration. Growing up, a friend of my mom's gave me a new piece for Christmas each year. Not pictured: the shepherds and wisemen. 

I got the supplies to make a memory wreath at my bridal shower. My mom always put one out at Christmas in our house. The idea is that you add little trinkets from vacations, major events, or whatever else. I was gifted with a few quilted yo-yos in fabrics that relate to our interests so we started with that and we'll add another item or two each year. 

Right now I'm knitting my Christmas stocking. It won't be done in time, but I'm okay with that. I was going for a candy cane look, but when I look at this all I can see is Cat in the Hat. 

A couple years ago I made David this stocking and have been gifting things in it ever since. The stocking is my favorite gift part of Christmas so I love to make luxuriously large ones. 

This month we have been reading this devotional by Ann Voskamp most days. I tend to get swept up in all the other aspects of holiday cheer that sometimes I miss the fact that we are celebrating Christ's birth. The devotional has been helpful in keeping me a little more centered. As far as recommendations...this is written in a very poetic style. Sometimes it is difficult to process and challenging to read aloud. All the same, I am glad we are doing this together. 

This year I tried to get fancier with cookie decorating. I'm learning the in's and outs of royal icing. Be on the lookout for improved cookies next year.

Hope you enjoyed the tour of our celebrations and decorations this season. Have a very merry Christmas!

My Latest Month of Reading

Linking up again with Modern Mrs. Darcy Twitterature to share my reads from mid-Nov to now.


Lady Almina and The Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle, Fiona J.M. Aitken

Really interesting! Loved learning about the culture of the time and getting a bit of a history lesson. Recommended for Downton fans, you'll come across some familiar names and events.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman

Not a huge fan of this one. While I appreciated the fantasy world that was created in such a short book, I felt like it had some of the strangeness of a fairy tale without lighter happy moments. 

The Maze Runner, James Dashner

The Scorch Trials, James Dashner

The Death Cure, James Dashner

Review of the series- Each book was like one giant action scene. The chapters were short but it was almost impossible to read one at a time. While I did enjoy these this series wasn't my favorite. The first two books are almost all action, while the last book was action with some more background information about what was actually going on. Definitely an entertaining read, but I could have done with more character development. The books are almost completely moved forward by dialogue, I would have liked a few more descriptive, thoughtful moments. These were young adult books, and I wouldn't recommend to kids until the older middle school age.  

Divergent, Veronica Roth

I began another post apocalypic young adult series. I really enjoyed this one. The author did a wonderful job painting a picture of a new society and creating memorable characters even if they were only in a few scenes. I'm working my way up on the library holds list, and I can't wait to read the rest of the series. 

40 Chances: Finding Hope in a Hungry World, Howard G. Buffet

Great book. Anyone wanting to learn more about agriculture should give this a read. Howard Buffet goes through 40 different stories about agriculture around the world. I pretty much agreed with everything he said and I was very interested in all of his stories. 

Million Little Ways, Emily Freeman

Book club pick for the month. Emily Freeman expounded upon the ways that we are God's art and talked about the ways we can live that out in our lives. Whether we are teachers, bakers, writers, we've all got an art to live out. I thought the book was a little repetitive by the end, but did have a good overall message. The writing style is very poetic. Biggest take home point for me would be: If you are living your life like you are God's artwork, how would this change the way you carry out both the mundane and exhilarating tasks of everyday life?

Thankful

This Thanksgiving was the first that I did not spend with extended family. Normally Thanksgiving is hosted at my parents house and I'll spend the day before and day of Thanksgiving cooking and prepping food with my mom. The day of, we watch the parade and shortly after, family members start to arrive. Then we drink mulled cider, snack on pumpkin bread, and generally catch up. Thanksgiving with family is one of my favorite days of the year.

This time around it wasn't in the cards to fly up to Maryland. We did get to spend the day cooking, parade watching, and spending time with new friends. This was also our first married Thanksgiving. Somewhat of a bitter-sweet Thanksgiving with more emphasis on the sweet.

Oddly, I didn't take any pictures of the food, but David and I made macaroni and cheese, stuffing, candied sweet potatoes, an apple fig pie, and a pumpkin pie. Even though we weren't hosting, I also made a turkey breast specifically so we could have leftovers. We'll finally finish the thing off today.

Now, I have got to share what David was thankful for this year. We were invited to celebrate with one of David's co-workers. I've posted about the banana farming before and it's the same people. Recently for their farm they purchased a fire-weeder. If you are wondering exactly what this is, I didn't know either. But here are some pictures of David fire-weeding on Thanksgiving. He was definitely thankful for that.

Basically, it's a hose of fire that kills weeds

All the cars that passed by slowed down to see what we were doing. I suggested that they should sell tickets to let people use the fire-weeder

David with the assist

I love that he has a huge smile in every picture. Fire-weeding was definitely a Thanksgiving first for us.

Another family tradition is the annual Thanksgiving walk. We do a short stroll around the neighborhood between dinner and dessert. This year after dinner we walked through rows of banana trees. Keeping up family tradition with a bit of a Florida twist!

Eat a Sweet Potato: Cupcake Edition

As I mentioned before, last weekend was Susanna's birthday. Birthdays are great because it's an opportunity to bake. Not that an excuse is needed, but the event provides extra incentive. I have made these sweet potato cupcakes once before, I could not find the original recipe again, here is an updated one from Annie's Eats.

There are a couple extra steps involved with these cupcakes (pureeing the sweet potato, making the icing) so I wouldn't make these if pressed for time, but if you are in the mood to try something new and a little different go for this if you've got a slow afternoon. 

I do believe the toasted frosting makes the cupcake.

While the cupcakes are cooling make the frosting. This took me quite a while. You have to separate the yolks from whites and then heat the whites on the stove up to 160. If I make these again I'd just buy pasteurized egg whites to speed this step along. Then I whipped them up with some sugar, vanilla, and cream of tartar until I have fluffy marshmallow wonderfulness. 

I almost always use gallon sized ziploc bags to ice cupcakes and the work well to get a nice swirl on there.

Yum

If you are lucky enough to have a kitchen torch now is your big chance to use it. Have fun, and watch out for those cupcake papers, they burn. 

Cupcakes in full birthday glory. Along with whatever else was on the table at the grad student dorm. 

One more tip- definitely refrigerate over night because of the egg intensive frosting. Happy baking!

Florida Safari

This past weekend we went on a little adventure. Our friend Susanna (former grad student at David's station) was down and it ended up being her birthday weekend, so it was a perfect time to do something new. David, Susanna, other grad students, interns and I went to Lion Country Safari.

Lion Country Safari is one of those places where you could drive through and see different animals up close. The day was a little rainy and you had to keep windows closed, the pictures might not be the best, but we theorized that because it was a little rainy and hence cooler, the animals were a little more active than they might have been otherwise.

Water Buffalo

Some kind of large antelope

The Lions! I was hoping the wouldn't be behind a fence, but alas that was safest.

Two lions rolling around like little kitties. 

Gemsbok (I think)

Really cool cattle breed

This guy!

Could not miss the giraffe feeding opportunity

David of coarse did a little tug of war with his lettuce piece.

And who knew we would get to see an alpaca fight during the walk through part of the park?

WHAM

And finally, the ever popular strangle-you-with-my-own-neck technique. Don't worry about these guys, they survived and their fight cooled off by the time we left

Finally the sign for the park, probably would have made a great first picture. Ah well.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this place for a fun afternoon. The park was a little pricier than most activities we would do so it's probably not something we'll go to again, but for sure a fun one time thing. A season pass would be well worth it for families with kids. 

One time on vacation when I was younger (I think maybe Canada?) my family went to a safari park. Have you ever been to one of these? What did you think, cheesy? fun? better/worse than a zoo? 

Twitterature

Once again I'm  linking up with Modern Mrs. Darcy, this time to share short reviews of books I've read in the last month and a half. Thanks Candice for encouraging me to do this! Lately Candice and I have been comparing every book we read to the type of food it would be, so I'll put in their food counterparts too.

 

What Alice Forgot Liane Moriarty

A story about changing relationships throughout life and how different we might become in one decade. The story was meaningful without being too heavy. Great for a fun read. Highly recommend. Read this with my cross country book club of college friends. 

If this book were a food: Lemon Meringue Pie

Side note about the book club- there are 8 of us who participate, we all went to church together in college. We have members in Washington, Oklahoma, Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia. Such a perfect way to keep in touch.

Saving Ceecee Honeycutt Beth Hoffman

Southern story set in Georgia. Many colorful characters. Something that stuck out was the perfect food descriptions, I wanted to eat everything they described in any of the kitchen scenes. 

If this book were a food: Comfort food

Bread and Wine Shauna Niequist

I finally got on board and read this. The author shares life moments, and the meals that are associated with those times in life. Many recipes are included and I've already made the risotto which was amazing. The book read like a letter from a friend. 

If this book were a food: Duh, Bread and Wine

Gone Girl Gillian Flynn

Dark. The book became more disturbing the further I got into it. Wife goes missing, and we learn the story of her disappearance throughout the book. This one I got through in less than a week, certainly a page turner. I recommend this one for people who are looking for something that will bend their mind. Disclaimer: if you are turned off by foul language, this book isn't for you. 

If this book were a food: Black coffee that someone secretly added a shot of alcohol to. 

Are there any good books you have been reading lately that I should look into? If you have read any of these books, what did you think?