Today I’m thankful for busyness slowing down into rest,
Bouts of sunshine and rain (so much better than the perpetual cold and cloudy),
A surprise package of cookies from home,
And friends to laugh and cook and eat with.
This week I’m giving myself a holiday, and although it’s taken me a few days to slow down enough to appreciate it, I am now thoroughly enjoying it. It’s nice to take a couple days to live without a schedule! Happy Easter Week!
I know I’ve abandoned you and owe you a much longer post than this, but trust me, this pasta is way better than a long blog post. As soon as I made this tonight I thought, “that’s what I can write about!” I’m choosing to think that the fact that a recipe is the only thing I could think to write about this month reflects on how good the recipe is, not on my blogging abilities. Also, if you have extra time I would definitely look around this blog – she has some amazing-looking food on there!
http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/05/asparagus-goat-cheese-and-lemon-pasta/
Caitlin visit this last week, and it was wonderful. It was wonderful to catch up in person, cook together, go grocery shopping together, in short, just do normal life together again. We found a few new restaurants, visited the museum, and spent a couple of afternoons drinking tea and getting past “catch up” chat. Alongside the wonderful was also the awkward. I’ve told a lot of people I’m a twin, but there are definitely a lot of people at church and school who do not know. This got confusing when Caitlin walked around campus without me, and needless to say, both of us had several conversations explaining that although we looked a lot like Caitlin/Bailey, we were really just their identical twin. My favorite quote of the week had to be: “There’s two of you?!”
Happy Valentines Day everyone! I know that most people love this day (or let’s be honest, hate this day) because of the date nights and romantic dinners and bouquets of flowers. But my love for Valentines Day goes a little farther back. I love it because it reminds me of elementary school parties where you hand out cheesy Disney valentines to everyone in the class and spend the day making crafts out of red and pink construction paper. At 8 years old, life doesn’t get much better. So in honor of my pro-Valentine stance, I feel like I need to write a blog post to celebrate today. This Valentine’s day I’m loving:
Having Caitlin here for the week
A surprise card in the mail (thanks Grandma Peggy!)
Adele playing in the background
Baking with Gwen
So despite the lack of cheesy valentines and red and pink crafts, I’m having a pretty good Valentines day.
We’re probably all thinking the same thing: it’s been wayyy too long since I blogged. Similarly, it’s been a long time since I took out my camera and took some pictures. So as much as I’d like to put up some of my favorite pictures from the last few months, my pictures are just about as outdated as my blog. But…I will do something else. I’m going to give a couple mental snapshots of the last few months, some of my favorite moments. That’s much better anyway, right? Right.
1) Walking with my parents through the airport after Caitlin and I got off the plane. It could have been days, not months, since they dropped us off, and it felt so so good to be with them again.
2) Holding baby Sheamus as he fell asleep on my shoulder. I’m in love! I know I’m probably a little biased, but he is a seriously cute baby.
3) Getting some way overdue hugs from Laura, Anna, and Lauren. So good.
4) Running through the airport to catch my flight back to Edinburgh. That’s one of those things that’s really funny after you make you get on the plane.
5) Multiple tea and scone dates with Gwen. I sense another good tradition in the making!
6) Sitting in my new home away from home, a cafe near my flat, forcing myself to read for class and feeling as if my reading comprehension is decreasing over time instead of increasing. This concerns me.
I don’t dislike writing papers. I even kind of enjoy it, especially when you reach the point in the writing process where you’re immersed enough that you stop taking study breaks every five minutes to check again if that not-so-important email has come through yet. I do dislike that around the end of the term/quarter/whatever you want to call it, I become so caught up in word counts and bibliographies that they start to seem more like real life than my real life. Granted, this usually happens because I put essays off until this kind of focus is needed, but I still think that when someone asks me how my week is going and all I can think to tell them is the status of my papers, there’s a perspective problem. So today, because my real life does not revolve around the 800 words still needed for an essay, I am going to share with you (and challenge myself to think of) pieces of this week that have been important and God-given.
Sister time: Caitlin came to Edinburgh Monday night to see the German Market and borrow a dress (I think we’re both having withdrawls from one another’s wardrobes). We went out to Indian food, wandered around the market, and talked until we remembered to stop talking at eachother and start talking with eachother.
Skype dates: It seems as if my internet senses when I am on skype and decides at that time to start having problems. Despite this, I am so incredibly grateful for the chance it gives me to see friends. This week I got to talk to both Sarah and Laura, and it was so so good to talk to both of them. I’m getting so excited for the chance to see both of them in person!
Donald Miller: I decided I’d been spending too much time on the internet and I needed some other form of entertainment for when I was procrastinating. I read Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz several years ago and loved it, so I decided to read another of his books, A Thousand Miles in a Million Years. I just love the way he writes; his honesty reminds me that it’s okay to be imperfect and struggle and ask God questions.
Flatmate time: Our schedules this week have worked out so that I’ve been spending afternoons with Gwen and dinnertime with Moira, and it’s been a nice treat to have one on one time with each of them. Just the process of writing this post and thinking through my week has reminded me what a gift it is to live with these girls.
So yes, it’s been a crazy to-do list week, but it’s also been a really rich week…I just needed to look up from my word count to see it.
Hello friends! I am so happy we have officially begun the holiday season. Although I was away from home this Thanksgiving, I still had a wonderful time celebrating with friends. Here’s pictures of some of the highlights:
Apple pie! Though I think my real highlight in the pie department had to be the pumpkin pie…
Awful picture, awesome people. The room was a little steamy from the oven…can you tell?
Gwen’s take on Thanksgiving decorations…pretty close.
This year I’m thankful for friends to spend Thanksgiving with, lovely flatmates, skype, a new second cousin, a great church, and a faithful, faithful God. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
And no, I’m not being sarcastic. I’ve been volunteering at a local high school for a couple months now, and I can honestly say it is one of the highlights of each week. This is a huge change from the stress of student teaching last year…let’s just say the high school wasn’t my favorite place to be during that span of time. I’m so glad I’m getting the chance to be around these students as a friend and not as a teacher. Here are a couple things I’m loving about teenagers these days.
1. First and foremost, I’m loving that I’m no longer in that life-stage. Just had to put that out there.
2. They’re insightful…way more insightful than people give them credit for.
3. They consider candy (British translation: sweets?) lunch. I’m sorry, but I don’t think I would be satisfied with a gobstopper for a meal.
4. They’re just about the only ones here that might consider being an American as an asset. I’ll take what I can get.
5. They’re in the middle of this difficult and exciting process of learning and embracing who they are. So hard, but so good.
Welcome to the world Sheamus Ryan Casey! We’re so very glad you’re here!
For the sake of transparency, I want to let you know that the last few days have been a little harder here. Several pieces of very sad news have me thinking about God and patience and prayer and suffering. My thoughts are still kind of a jumble. However, I’ve been finding encouragement in Romans 8. The very end of the chapter says the following:
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?…No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God this is in Christ our Lord.”
This verse, along with a great conversation with the lovely lady pictured above, have been encouraging me this week. What’s been encouraging you?
