Quiet in the Night

I've written before about how meditative and relaxing cooking can be for me.



Especially when it's a familiar recipe or comforting meal, I find the process of purposefully not rushing through meal prep particularly soothing.

It's the simplicity of mindless tasks,

The combination of the simplest ingredients,

And the knowledge that all of these easy ingredients will come together into a delicious, nourishing meal for myself and people I love.

There's this cute little spice shop in Chestnut Hill called Penzeys, and it sells very high quality, very expensive stuff. They have a great slogan, one that I totally identify with:

I have this sticker hanging in my kitchen, and my class gave me a Penzeys starter kit that included a tea towel with this slogan. I'm so pleased to have this cropping up in my life, because cooking can be a worship for me, and I'm always glad for the opportunity to serve others with cooking and hospitality.


So, if you ever want some love, give me a call and join me for some probably simple, unembellished, but tasty food and companionship.

Christmas Snapshots

Better late than never!

MIL's lovely tree. 

Delightful cinnamon buns from TJ's pizza dough. Who'da thunk?

Christmas brunch with the Henrich+mine sister! Note the new Denby teapot, MIL's present. 

Just the in-law home. 

Mom & bro came to visit us! Bro is getting tall. And manly, don't let the punkish hoodie fool you!

My boy reading his present from my sister. Yes, a whole book about beer hops.

Currently...

Enjoying: the last few days of our little Christmas tree. I always enjoy the festivity and cheer of a tree, and even though this may have been my least-spirited Christmas to date, I'm still loving the twinkly lights and nostalgic ornaments.

This is my mother-in-law's tree, not mine, but we have similar ideas as far as trees. Mine are usually fatter, though!

And yes, I'm a kitschy-and-cutesy-and-not-at-all-themed Christmas tree. Ombre tree in pink? Sure, it's trendy and shiny, but just so not me.



Trying: to find a better balance between work and life. I was totally freaking by the end of December, and I want to remember that I have other goals and priorities in my life. You know, like my husband, my family, and my well-being...

Reading: well, technically re-reading, but The Hobbit. And heavens to betsy, there are so.many.freaking.songs. Really, Tolkien, your prose is lovely enough without having to stick all these random poems in there!! I'm also hoping to get to Life of Pi sometime soon.



Listening: the Les Miserables movie has re-ignited my unbelievable obsession with that music. It's been playing nonstop in my car and in my head ever since Christmas day, when we saw it.


By the way, if you haven't seen it, the movie was pretty good and a more accessible medium. Seriously, even $12 is less than what you'll pay to see it live, and wonderful as it is, most people are more willing to shell out twelve smackers than about forty-five.

(And, I'll take Hugh Jackman's performance over Russell Crowe's any day. Jackman's voice wasn't outstanding, but his acting was great. I believed him; Russell Crowe just looked really uncomfortable the whole time.)



So not ready for: tomorrow to be Monday!!!

As Usual

I'm a little late to the game.



I'm totally this kind of teacher, too, in case anyone is wondering. The kind who googles a craftivity at 7:45 AM and preps it to be completed by 9:30 the same morning.



Some things never change.




At any rate, I just celebrated my 25th birthday in addition to the New Year, so I feel compelled to write something about the New Year.



I'm keeping it pretty simple. A couple bests, a couple worsts, and those in-between but nonetheless important things.



3 Best Things in 2012

1. I graduated college!! After 5 1/2 years of effort, a changed major, a transfer from community college to Temple University, one semester from hell, I finally made it. Forgive my somewhat dispirited "woot," I wasn't much of a college gal and the piece of paper at the end of it all is really all I cared about. I didn't walk at either graduation ceremony and we never really celebrated, but I have my Bachelors of Science in Education, with dual certification in Elementary and Special Education. I even graduated Magna Cum Laude!


2. I was hired by the same school district in which I student taught. Upper Dublin has been good to me, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a long and successful career with them. Definite plus for the farthest school being about a 15 minute commute from our apartment.


3. This last one was kind of a struggle for me. If you put a gun to my head, I'm not really sure that I could pinpoint one last wonderful experience. I got to visit the West Coast and see the Grand Canyon...that was amazing...I'm in the midst of my first real teaching experience...my sister moved back to PA....(wait, that last one is a pretty strong contender for number 3).

At any rate, one of the things that has been a huge blessing to me over the course of 2012 is my wonderful husband. Watching Dan really grow up, become a deacon at our church, care for me and others, slowly (oh so slowly) acclimate to the idea of someday being a father...it's been great. I feel closer to him than ever, and I'm so thankful for him.



3 Worst Things in 2012

(Unfortunately, this part was a little easier to write.)


1. I experienced so much loss this year. You can read about the biggest one here. In addition, my best friend lost a close cousin, my father lost his mother,  a little girl who was a student of my friend is dying of leukemia, another friend lost her job...yep, it was that kind of year. The scariest part is, the older I get, the more typical this will become.


2. My parents separated, then divorced. Very quickly. Then remarried. Very quickly. Both of them.


3. It's been a difficult year as far as balance. Especially with my teaching position, I've really struggled with finding a balance between home and work, between striving and relaxing. Relaxing has never been my forte, and Dan has actually been very good for me in that respect. But it's definitely been rough.




2 Most In-Between Things in 2012

1. My parents' remarriages have definitely been in-between things. Being so far away, it's been really weird to adjust to such big changes in my parents' lives. However, I know they are both happy in ways they haven't been in a long time.


2. My teaching job has actually been an in-between thing for me. Much as I love this field, it's been quite a ride. It's unyieldingly stressful, thankless and overwhelming. Believe it or not, I really miss special ed. However, it's certainly been a huge learning experience, and I love those moments when things just click and whatever we're doing works. We'll see where this takes me next.



So that's 2012 for you. I don't think I could honestly say it was an awesome year, but it was definitely a year of growth. I'm much older than I was this time last year.


Bring on 2013!!

A Beautiful Grief

I was kind of surprised by how strongly the news from Connecticut affected me. Of course it was sad, horrifying, and shattering...but I'm usually pretty good at compartmentalizing my feelings, putting school murders in a quiet kind of "sympathy and gentle sadness without much demonstration" box.


Not this time.


I openly wept for these children, these families, and this school. Perhaps it's my own connection to children and school (and the sheer reality that this could have easily happened at my own elementary school). Perhaps it's the other overwhelming griefs that attended my life over the course of this year. Perhaps it's the otherwise stressful place in which I currently find myself.


At any rate, I found myself weeping deep, heaving sobs for these small ones. Kindergarteners. The most delightfully heartwarming age, when everything is new and fascinating and bad is a Big Wolf and nothing more.


There are no easy answers for this; gun control, support for the mentally ill, school preparedness...nothing adequately covers or solves the magnitude of this situation. Religion, atheism, the innocence of children or the evil of mankind...nothing answers why this happened.


A very smart man wrote this, and I think it's the best thing I've read so far. I'm trying to keep myself away from most of the media hubbub because it does no good, but when someone as wise and humble as Jared faces the topic of the Sandy Hook murders, I read it. It's worth the time.


There is a way to make this grief beautiful, and for me, that is simply to not despair at the hopelessness of humanity, but to make a concentrated effort to be a vessel of peace, grace and love for my God.


There's no denying that this sucks. Plain and simple. And the trite answers suck, and a part of me cringes at writing that "we can make beauty out of this tragedy." The truth is, we can't really make beauty out of this. We are too far gone. But we can try, with every ounce of our being, to carry on the work of someone who can.

Deep Breathing

Today I had an attack.



Panic attack, or sugar attack (low blood sugar), I couldn't tell.



So I ate some chocolate in the form of a granola bar.



And I stopped shaking and could breathe normally again.



That was the right thing to do, right?



This post is brought to you by Mrs. Henrich's first report card week experience. Thank you for your readership. 

In Which I Send You to a Marvelous Blog Post

I have quite the blogroll. There's a list of probably a dozen or so blogs I read as often as I can keep up with them. They range from food blogs, parenting and lifestyle blogs, teaching blogs, and blogs about the Christian life.



This particular blog touches my heart because Sarah is just so honest. Her writing is fresh and unapologetic, and it is so refreshing.


Here she talks about Christmas.



And I love it.