For those of you who don't know, I kind of have a food obsession. Or as Mr. TwentySomething would say, I am "a fat girl trapped in a skinny girl's body." Which is fairly accurate considering I used to be a fat girl. I have outgrown the baby fat, but have not outgrown my love of food. Baked goods to be exact.
It's not my fault really, food obsession runs in the family. I am genetically predisposed to salivate at the sound of the oven timer. You see, both my mom and my grandmother are foodies. Each important event is marked by a signature pastry. Easter is homemade cinnamon rolls and coconut cake...not at the same time, but I wouldn't put it past us. Birthday cakes are adorned with sugar flowers and sweet rolled fondant (both my mother and I have taken cake decorating classes). The Fourth of July calls for our family's Strawberry Shortcake recipe (which Mr. T is thinks is not sweet enough because he has been brainwashed by the cheap snack cakes that they sell in the supermarket). Thanksgiving, of course, means Pumpkin Pie. But not just any pumpkin pie, pie that has been developed through years of experimentation until the perfect crust emerged. Laced with vodka, it comes out of the oven all golden and flaky with specks of butter. Christmas has given us my grandmother's traditional Swiss cookie, Biberli.
I spend most of my time trying to suppress my food addiction, which I am fairly effective at. In general, I am a very healthy eater (ie. "fat girl trapped in a skinny girl's body"). Mr. T's comparison used to offend me a bit, but when a new cookbook comes in the mail, as it did yesterday, I feel the warm fuzzies rush over me and I can't help but blog about its amazingness and own up to my obsession.
The famed America's Test Kitchen has a book called Baking Illustrated. It is a 350 recipe Bible for pastries, breads, and the like. It gives scientific explanation for why particular recipes "work" and why some don't. It would probably bore most people, but it produces an indescribable feeling, to which Mr. T rolls his eyes in pitiful ignorance. It tests dozens of recipes, from apple turnovers to blueberry muffins, to present what they believe to be the absolute best of each confection.
I am contemplating creating one dessert a week. In attempts preserve my skinny-girl facade, I have a devious plan of dropping off all of the leftovers at work. Mwahaha! If that doesn't win you friends, I don't know what will!
Unfortunately, I stayed up an hour past my bedtime last night while reading my new cookbook, so I will have to survive the morning on coffee. But I don't fret much because I woke up in a surprisingly energetic mood. That's probably because I spent the night dreaming about Cinnamon Rolls. No lie. My mom and I were both making cinnamon rolls for Easter and I was extremely concerned that people would like hers better than mine. But she typically leaves that job up to me now, so I shall be Queen once again :)
hypertext markup...what?!
I haven't been posting a lot lately, because I'm in the process of figuring out a bit more about html so I can create a new....er, updated blog. I absolutely love the theme I have going for this blog, but I think my excitement got the best of me. I jumped in head first, without laying some of the ground work. Now, as I have been blogging and reading blogs a lot more lately, I see the necessity of better formatting and planning. The look of your blog is the first thing people notice, and I want to give the right impression! Therefore, between working and homemaking, I am attempting to do a little revamping. I have a lot to say, I'm just not sure that I want to waste good posts on a less than stellar page.
I will, however, give you a quick update on things. Work has been coming along as well as work ever does....punctuated with some good friend times and a wedding here and there. In more exciting news, we close on our house mid April and will start the massive repainting process. I will wait to share with you all of the decorating plans I have milling about in my brain. Stay tuned!!
I will, however, give you a quick update on things. Work has been coming along as well as work ever does....punctuated with some good friend times and a wedding here and there. In more exciting news, we close on our house mid April and will start the massive repainting process. I will wait to share with you all of the decorating plans I have milling about in my brain. Stay tuned!!
Simplicity
**I promised you a rant about simplicity...and here it is.
Humans were not made to sit at a desk for 40+ hours a week. People were not made to be separated from their families for 40+ hours a week. We were not made to eat processed foods and only have cyber-friendships. Humans were not made to live lives in which we must squeeze in five minutes for ourselves each day.
I believe that our purpose is to love God and love others. Humans were made for relationship...and not just the facebook kind, the real thing. Face-to-face, come-over-to-dinner, share-your-life kind of relationships. But the modern world, especially America, is so backwards. We value and reward working and individuality. The more time we put into a work week, the more of an asset we are. If we can climb the career ladder, then we will have really achieved something. Meanwhile, families are neglected, marriages end, and we become overburdened, bitter shells.
The effects of this problem are almost limitless. Because we have no time to ourselves, we eat fast food and our health takes a hit. Not only do we consume extra calories, but also an increasing number of fake, processed imitations of the real things. We spend most of our time sedentary, when our bodies were built for strength and movement, thus affecting our health even more. Magazine articles read, "Find Five Minutes of YOU Time!"
Social interactions have become alarmingly electronic. Text, e-mail, facebook, twitter, myspace, gaming over the net. Social competence has been de-emphasized and produced a generation of youth that no longer have deep, meaningful relationships. It is a self-serving system that demonstrates a persons value based on the number of "friends" they have and how many pictures are tagged.
I hate this system. The world is backwards in so many ways. I will never be a person who works more than forty hours a week. We were made to love people. We long for unconditional acceptance and support from others. How can this be accomplished when the main priority is to make more money and work more? We care more about living up to employers expectations than we do about really caring for people. What would it look like if Americans worked a little less and cared a little more. What if, instead of going into the office on a Saturday morning, we invited a new neighbor over to our house for breakfast? What if we spent time with our children in the evening instead of working late? What if we invested some of that hard earned money into charity rather than buying a new car? What if we were selfless?
It is a difficult task in America, but I believe we are called to simplicity. Lives filled with people and the Gospel. Things that are best in their simplest form. We should work hard, but it should be directed towards those things that point back to God and people, especially our families. Jesus said, "I have come so that you might have life, and have it abundantly." Are you living an abundant life?
**photo is from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/34657321@N02/3780881873/
BIG NEWS!!
The TwentySomethings bought a house!
The build is absolutely beautiful. Only problem is, the previous owner painted it some horrific colors. The outside is a baby blue and the inside is all, yes all, lemon yellow. It looks like summer puked. We have a lot of changes to make!
It's also a liiiitle guy...not even a full 1000 square feet. I've been looking at decorating ideas and ways to maximize small spaces. I'm leaning towards fresh, earthy colors like sage green, dusty blue, and creams. There will definitely be some before and after pics.
We close April 15th and will spend two weeks painting before we move in on the first of May.
Give me your ideas! I'm a little overwhelmed....but excited :)
The build is absolutely beautiful. Only problem is, the previous owner painted it some horrific colors. The outside is a baby blue and the inside is all, yes all, lemon yellow. It looks like summer puked. We have a lot of changes to make!
It's also a liiiitle guy...not even a full 1000 square feet. I've been looking at decorating ideas and ways to maximize small spaces. I'm leaning towards fresh, earthy colors like sage green, dusty blue, and creams. There will definitely be some before and after pics.
We close April 15th and will spend two weeks painting before we move in on the first of May.
Give me your ideas! I'm a little overwhelmed....but excited :)
Advice from a Kindergartener
My first day of kindergarten was not a good experience. You're probably thinking it is because I had separation anxiety or maybe there was a little mini-bully. Good guesses, but no. The real reason is because I didn't learn how to read on the first day. Apparently, what I had picked up on over the weeks leading up to the beginning of my education was that kindergarten is where you learn to read. Obviously I missed the memo that it takes longer than one day. I have always had the tendency to be an overdramatic, need-to-have-all-my-ducks-in-a-row kind of girl.
I still feel this irritation begin to emerge as I am trying to learn to be an adult. I want to be the "good" kind of adult that is selfless and responsible. The kind that effortlessly blends childlike zest for life with a mature sense of self and the world. And the six year old inside of me WANTS IT NOW!!!
I need to learn a lesson from my kindergarten self: one doesn't learn to read in a day and neither does one learn to be an adult overnight. If I were already perfectly responsible there would be no "quarter-life crisis." The key is to keep the good parts of being a kid (catching fireflies, sleeping in and watching cartoons on saturdays, dreaming) and cut out the bad (avoiding veggies, throwing tantrums because you didn't learn how to read, sticking silly putty up your nose). I think if we master that, we're better off than a lot of "adults."
In the words of our good friends from Scrubs, "I thought growing up was something that happened automatically as you got older. But it turns out it's something you have to choose to do."*
*borrowed from the blog Playing Grown Up
I still feel this irritation begin to emerge as I am trying to learn to be an adult. I want to be the "good" kind of adult that is selfless and responsible. The kind that effortlessly blends childlike zest for life with a mature sense of self and the world. And the six year old inside of me WANTS IT NOW!!!
I need to learn a lesson from my kindergarten self: one doesn't learn to read in a day and neither does one learn to be an adult overnight. If I were already perfectly responsible there would be no "quarter-life crisis." The key is to keep the good parts of being a kid (catching fireflies, sleeping in and watching cartoons on saturdays, dreaming) and cut out the bad (avoiding veggies, throwing tantrums because you didn't learn how to read, sticking silly putty up your nose). I think if we master that, we're better off than a lot of "adults."
In the words of our good friends from Scrubs, "I thought growing up was something that happened automatically as you got older. But it turns out it's something you have to choose to do."*
*borrowed from the blog Playing Grown Up
Introducing....Antoinette!
In the end, we didn't end up getting any of those pets. Three of the Four (all except Putnam) had already been adopted! I guess that's what we get for going on Valentine's Day!
We ended up getting a cat named Antoinette. She is a gorgeous, midnight black. As her name implies, she is a diva. And we have catered to that by getting her a sparkly pink collar. The whole reason we got her was because we didn't want a "stand-offish" cat. She was the friendliest and snuggled into our necks. It was adorable.
But don't be fooled. She is an affection whore. She must be receving attention and chin scratching 24/7 or she'll walk on your head until you do.
I've been doing some research on how to fix the problem. Any suggestions??
We ended up getting a cat named Antoinette. She is a gorgeous, midnight black. As her name implies, she is a diva. And we have catered to that by getting her a sparkly pink collar. The whole reason we got her was because we didn't want a "stand-offish" cat. She was the friendliest and snuggled into our necks. It was adorable.
But don't be fooled. She is an affection whore. She must be receving attention and chin scratching 24/7 or she'll walk on your head until you do.
I've been doing some research on how to fix the problem. Any suggestions??
