Spring!

Spring is here! I was riding my bike home from work this afternoon, my rain jacket strapped to my saddlebag and my little red cardigan flapping in the wind. A feeling of peace, excitement, wonder, and freedom welled up in me. It's a feeling I used to get as a little girl riding my bike up and down quite Alder Road. It's the "spring" feeling. I am so excited for the start of a new season, everything is fresh, and I can smell the new buds and flowers when I start biking in the mornings.

Such a good girl, she runs ahead, but never out of site, and always waits for me to catch up. 

A little while ago I had a morning to myself-- well, almost. Daniel was at work, so it was just Cheza and I. It was beautiful and the warmest it's been all through the wet West Coast winter, so I decided a nice walk through Seal Bay (a lovely woodland park on the edge of a rocky ocean beach) was indeed necessary.

I never knew I could blur the edges on instagram until this photo! It makes me laugh, like something that would be on a 70's ad for pet food.

Once we started walking, I decided it was definitely something that needed to be documented, but I felt rather silly wandering around this beautiful forest looking at my iphone screen! Ha! I've become one of those.

We found a little hide out, with a view.

I climbed a tree.

Happy Spring!

Down on the beach, the sun was shining directly on us and I was (are you sitting down?) able to loose my wooly sweater and run around in my TANK TOP! Unheard of, I know. But it was glorious!

Blonde Thoughts

Once in awhile I get this itch I can't reach. It sits there on the edge of my brain begging, pleading to be scratched. Generally the itch is called "boredom", and the scratching is called "cut your hair". I'm not sure why it is that I go through phases of really, really wanting to cut my hair, but it might have something to do with not actually having loved any of my haircuts since two summers ago... when I cut it in a longish pixie cut. The problem comes when I get the hair-cut-itch, but simultaneously really want to grow my hair back to the long tresses I had in my teen years. So instead of cutting it, I did something crazy. I dyed it. Well actually I bleached it... twice... and then I dyed it. The picture is after the first bleaching, I had to go to work the next day with rather yellow hair. After work I bleached it again, and then dyed it an ash blonde. It is at a pretty nice blonde now, and not too overwhelmingly yellow (yay!).
Now, the moral of the story (because every story has to have one, right?) actually has nothing to do with hair dying, and everything to do with mind set. See, I am an analyzer... to be honest I am mostly just an over-analyzer. In the bleachy fumes of the moment, I wasn't really thinking about expectations of me, of whether dying my hair would make people think I was insecure, or whether it is sinful to change yousrelf from how God created you. No I wasn't thinking any of those things until today when I had nothing but my dog and my own thoughts to keep me company. Then the thoughts start rolling in like waves. I felt worried, I felt guilty, I felt insecure and strangely vulnerable. But the thing is... it's just hair. I can grow it, chop it off, color it, perm it (if I really wanted to), dread it, and it still is not changing who I am, what I believe, what I think of myself. It was just a scratch. It's just hair. It's just blonde hair.

Hummus, Epicure style!

I recently hosted an Epicure party at my little house, and decided to put some of my Epicure Hummus Dip Mix to good use! Simple yet delicious, hummus is one of those things you can feel good about eating.

You'll need:
- 1 (540 ml) can of chickpeas, drained (it took me ages to hunt these down in Superstore, but finally cornered them in the Ethnic Foods section)
- 3 Tbsp of each: olive oil, warm water, and lemon juice.
- 1/4 cup of tahini (I've been told this is optional... in my books it really isn't)
- 2 to 3 Tbsp of Epicures Hummus Dip Mix (I used two and added a single clove of garlic)


Simply combine all the ingredients in a blender, food processor, or Magic Bullet. Blend ingredients together until they reach the consistency you want, I don't like mine too smooth, so it takes only a couple minutes in my food processor.

 Remove your Hummus and let chill in the fridge for a couple hours. However this last step isn't entirely necessary, so if you can't help yourself: grab some naan bread or carrot stick and dig in!

*** Presentation Idea: For the Epicure party I hosted, I wanted a cute way to serve my hummus, so I cut the top off a red pepper, scooped out the seedy insides, filled it up with hummus, and plunked the "lid" back on the top. Super cute!

My abs* are shaking.

*abs, referring to the spot where abdominal muscles are SUPPOSED to be.

I thought I would write a little self congratulating post, perhaps it will keep me motivated! This year one of my resolutions was to get fit, specifically to do a 15 km run.  Now, I started out having great enthusiasm for this goal, but after injuring my tailbone at the start of January, walking was uncomfortable and running was just plain painful! So today was my first real 'run' of the year, and it didn't go too badly. It was just a short 1km and I ran nearly all of it, Cheza managed to slip out of her leash on the highway and I almost had a heart attack, but we both survived. After I got home I decided I should do some sort of workout and found this extra-cheese workout on youtube: (don't judge me!)

 

Lets just say I didn't quite complete any of the exercises. I also laughed aloud when she says to do the whole work out two more times at the end of the video. You've GOT to be kidding me!  

What healthy resolutions have you made for this year?

Fear not.

I've always been good at having good ideas. Often those good ideas develop into plans-- I draw a sketch, write a journal entry, jot it down on a calender. But then... nothing. The plans never take any sort of physical form. I always scolded myself for this, writing myself off as unmotivated, or just plain lazy! Other times I'd blame it on the depression with which I have struggled for a number of years. But the truth is, it's fear. It's all the negative "what if's" that surface right before that leap of faith. What if it doesn't work out? What if no one likes it? What if I fail?
The problems with living this way is that you are always disappointed in yourself, you become painfully indecisive, and you spend your life waiting for the day you become brave-- the day you finally let go of the fear!
I'm not going to make some cheesy statement here like "Today is that day!" and hold my fist up as I charge through a bunch of men in kilts yelling "FREEDOM!" ...rabbit trail... sorry.
Instead I want to remind myself and anyone reading who struggles with fear, that love is bigger than fear. In fact this pretty rad dude wrote that "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear."



Perfect Love.



When I was four or five I sat with my mom at the top of our stairs next to a bookshelf that was covered in flowery macktack. She told me about Perfect Love, and that was the day I chose to believe in and live in Perfect Love. 
So I suppose this is my (less holly-wood-ized) way of crying out "freedom."  Freedom from fear, because there is no room for fear when one is filled with the love of God. The Perfect Love.

When I started this blog, it really was just another one of my grand ideas. I figured I'd become a mega-blogger and eventually be able to work from home so I could raise my kids and still contribute income. Not to mention I'd be doing what I love-- writing, creating, and connecting with new people! I'm not saying that dream is out of the picture, but for now I really want to use this blog as a way to push myself to live, not just without fear, but to live filled with God's Perfect Love.

Patients and Pretties

I just ordered my Christmas present from Daniel.... yes, from, and yes, Christmas! As it turned out, both Daniel and my sister-in-law Stephanie ordered me the EXACT same dress from Modcloth! The one they ordered is above, the "Meadow Relaxation Dress". It's absolutely lovely, and I have worn it a few times with cardigans and shirts underneath (it's still far too cold to wear it as-is).
   Obviously I had to send one of the packages back, and it just happened to be Daniels (I hadn't actually opened that package yet). Since then I have just been waiting for Modcloth to receive the return so I can order another dress. Finally it did-- just a few days ago-- and since I have been scrolling through the pages and pages of pretties on their site.  I finally made my decision today and am so excited since it was the last dress of it's kind, and just happened to be my size! Pretty pretty pretty, now I just need to be patient and wait the 7 to 21 days delivery!

Spring is in the air!

Although it snowed today (just a dusting), it was certainly feeling like Spring was starting stir from her wintery sleep. Daniel and I discovered this lovely little road that goes behind our yard. I hadn't walked down it before because I didn't realize the "road" continued past our neighbor's place, technically it does, it just happens to be totally grown over with grass, which makes for great walking, and a perfect place for Cheza to run around leash-less. The road also is the enterance to all the little fields behind our house, again, great for off leash running running. I have a feeling we'll be taking lots of little walks there in 2012.