the gift of long-term and long-distance friends

This past May marked five years since I graduated from college. If I stop to think, I can't even believe that it's been five years. Much has been accomplished, God has worked so amazingly...

I loved my college experience and feel it prepared me well to be a teacher, leader, and student.

Mostly, though, it gave me friends. 

The memories I shared with my college friends during those critical four years have provided a foundation I will cherish forever. We laughed so much, cried plenty, learned, struggled, prayed, adventured. Together. Side by side. In each others' rooms, on the college lawns, in each others' cars, and with each others' families. Through boyfriends, classes, internships, studies abroad, heartache, and joy. Skipping, giggling, watching chick flicks on repeat, eating long dinners together in Garlock, studying/cramming late into the night. 

Since graduation, we've gone separate ways and a lot of miles lie between us. This past year, though, we've grown together a lot. Trial by fire, as they say. We've been through a miscarriage, cross-country moves, job losses, a precious wedding, serious health troubles, and deaths of parents.

 

On Friday two of my favorites came to visit Joel and me for the weekend. As they drove away this morning I took a deep breath and praised the Lord for this precious gift.

Not everyone gets friends like these.

a dinner date downtown

We were unbelievably blessed by a date night downtown courtesy of some very generous friends. Joel and I got semi-dressed up [to pose for a blurry photo in our living room mirror, ha].

We ate delicious, fresh, light meals. Mine was steak and veggies in some green-but-not-pesto sauce. 

We tried new drinks like fall sangria and apricot wheat beer.

We also (awkwardly) posed for a picture at the bathroom sinks. ha.

The ambiance at Talula's Garden is awesome! On Saturday the weather was perfect for eating outside, so we did. I wanted to take pics sooooo badly but couldn't do it without disturbing the experience for other diners. The food was refreshing & we got to hold hands while we walked around Center City afterwards, too.

Being Beka's Guest

I'm so honored to be featured as a guest blogger on "a beautiful home" today. Beka is a college friend and an absolutely amazing photographer. She invited me to write about what a beautiful home means to me.

So head on over & read my post.

Let me know what you think & be sure to keep checking Beka's blog for a good read (or two. or two hundred!)

our slow start in budgeting

I mentioned a while back that we're trying a new system of keeping track of our money. I was really encouraged by a couple whose blog I read, as well as some of my friends who use a similar system (hi, Ash!).

It's taken almost a month to get this new budgeting thing off the ground. Here's why:

1. My computer AND our brand new external hard drive broke just before Labor Day! All the spreadsheets I'd started were saved in both of those places. Without them, I couldn't access our budget allocation or the place where we record spending. It was really frustrating, but now we're back in business with both electronics. So October will be a fresh start!

2. It's hard to delegate budget categories at places like Target & the grocery store. My receipt will include toiletries, cleaning products, food, school supplies, etc., all on one receipt. It would be a tedious process to separate all the items into their individual categories... so I don't do it. Laziness is a major roadblock to change!

3. The "groceries" category isn't enough to accommodate spontaneity! This week I'm going to make a meal for a family at our church because not enough meal makers signed up & I don't want the family to go hungry. I already used up my week's groceries budget, but then I got the supplies to make that extra meal. Additionally, we were invited to our new neighbors' football watching party on Sunday night & I can't show up empty-handed. SO, ingredients for peanut butter pie must be bought! Neither of these spontaneous purchases can really come out of another budget category, so I may need to add extra in our grocery column for things of this nature. We'll see how it goes in the weeks to come.

it's starting to feel like fall, so let's decorate!

I was inspired to actually make something I saw on Pinterest (instead of just re-pinning cool stuff all day long...) since I don't have to work today and tomorrow due to Jewish holidays.

Melissa had a bunch of burlap left over from her wedding, so I stopped by to pick it up. The only other supplies I needed were the wreath frame and fall-colored silk flowers. The twine is from a HUGE roll Joel has (& is the same stuff I used for our bedroom curtains and the photo board!) and I already had a hot glue gun.

I used the leftover flowers to spruce up the coffee filter wreath my Mom made, which stays on our living room wall all year long. I pulled off the wooden "A" and switched the white ribbon out for more twine. Festive, right?! Though I think a bigger bow might balance it out...

This is the first stage of another project I'm trying. I got the idea from this Pinterest post. I didn't remember that it used stickers, so I just bought a stencil. We'll see it turns out.

life while working part-time

My daily schedule is pretty relaxed right now. I get up at 5:50 to eat breakfast and get ready with Joel, like we did last year. I usually leave the house around 6:40 to be at work before 7. At 8 I take the 5th/6th graders to their auditorium and hang out with the elementary kids until 8:45. Then I come home, eat a snack (second breakfast, ha), and chill out or run errands. Usually I spend far too much time checking blogs and Twitter. Yesterday I had a meeting for work and the day before that I had an interview for subbing, so hopefully that will start within the next couple of weeks.

Today I made myself go running. This is an ongoing battle for me. I don't really like running but I know it's a good way to stay healthy so I make myself most days. On Wednesday I decided to try an experiment instead of pushing myself. I didn't look at my watch, just ran till I felt like it wasn't fun anymore. I only ran for 16 minutes. Ha. So lazy. Better push myself from now on...

Here are a few other things I've been doing to fill my time:

1. Laying on my bed admiring my new curtains. My mom's bringing me some insulating fabric to attach to the backs of these guys from Target. I was inspired by this post and decided to tie the curtains with twine since the green/white photo board has twine, too. [Unfortunately, I'm way too lazy to remove the window fan before taking photographs...]

2. I also busted out my sewing machine to hem some new pants I got at the Banana Republic outlet. Sadly, dress pants are almost always far too long for my legs.

3. Creating a Pinterest board for activities we can do with the kids at work. I'm pretty jazzed about it.

conversations at work 1

This morning:
me: S, those are cute shoes but they aren't the best for playing on the playground. Tomorrow you might want to wear something different.
S: Do y'all have any extra sneakers I could use?

[WHAT?! haha!]

Tuesday morning:
S: J, did you have a crush on D when you were in first grade?
J: Yes, be quiet!!!
S: It's okay. I liked him, too.
D: Yeah! Everyone liked me in first grade!

Wednesday afternoon:
B: Miss Kelly, why do you have your hair like that?
me: I was just trying something different today.
B: Well tomorrow can you do your old hairstyle? This hairstyle is creepy.

[see above for a similar hairstyle. maybe it's because my headband was black...?]