What Is Love?

Sooner or later we begin to understand that love is more than verses on valentines and romance in the movies. We begin to know that love is here and now, real and true, the most important thing in our lives. For love is the creator of our favorite memories and the foundation of our fondest dreams. Love is a promise that is always kept, a fortune that can never be spent, a seed that can flourish in even the most unlikely of places. And this radiance that never fades, this mysterious and magical joy, is the greatest treasure of all – one known only by those who love.

-Unknown

Freshly Cut

Last Thursday I cut 5 inches of hair off and I couldn't be happier. I hadn't had it cut since April and, while I was loving it long, I was tired of the constant knots I got along my neck from collars and scarves taunting my fine hair. I sat in the chair asking for a trim and layer shape up and ended up making a chop. I'm not really a stranger to this but its always fun to leave with a new look.

Don't you love how a new hairdo can make you smile for days?

Reverb 11: Wrapping Up (Almost) #18-24

18. Ordinary Sparkling Moments

Reflect on the ordinary moments that bring you joy (e.g., the tea pot whistling, the sun setting). What moments would you like to relish in the coming year?

The leaves, in all of their fall beauty, clinging disparately to their branches and then giving way to the inevitable.
Riding in the car with a client when all of a sudden they start singing along to the song on the radio.
Those first few minutes of the day, before my alarm has gone off and I'm awake enjoying the comfort of our bed and the handsome man I get to wake up next to every morning.
That first sip of a peppermint mocha latte or a pumpkin spice latte when they are just in season. Same thing with shamrock shakes. 
A warm shower on a cold day.


I want to relish all of the small things. I get caught up in the future and hustle and bustle of busy days and forget, but when I do stop and notice the small wonders of life I thoroughly enjoy it. So no specifics. Just enjoying a slowed down life.

19. Joy

What does a joyful life look like for you?

Before the last few minutes I hadn't really spent much time thinking of joy. Sure I grew up in church singing the songs, one of my bosses signed every email with "keep the joy!", and I'd seen it often in blog land. Lately however I started thinking about what joy means for ME. I'm just exploring my joy and I'll tell you what, finding myself happy every day, not just most days and not for every minute of every day, but feeling happy a least once every day has been quite joyous. And that's what a joyful life looks like to me. Sure not every moment is beautiful, but every day has some happiness in it. And that is beautiful.

20. Community

Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2011? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2012? (Author: Cali Harris)

For the past 3 years, and really all of my years before that I have taken community for granted. I lived on campus for 7 years and worked for Residence Life for 6 of them. Community was our lifeblood. It's what we taught our student staff to strive for and what we hoped our residents felt a sense of. Through this I had a strong community ready-made, something I loved and thrived on. After moving our of the residence halls and into an apartment, I have realized that community is much more difficult to achieve. I have been wonderfully immersed into the community of blogging and have really enjoyed creating a home here for myself over the last few months. I'd also consider Pinterest to be a form of creative community. 
Our little hometown is full of friendly people but we don't really know anyone here and or neighbors that we most talked to moved into a house, so a sense of community in our actual living area is something I desire. I also would like to invest more time to my online community. Doing Reverb was my first parlay into some sort of shared blogging experience and I've been posting to link-ups, but I'd like to start having dialog with other bloggers also. Let me know if you have advice for starting that! 

21. Space
Where do you feel most safe, most free to be yourself—where you let down your guard?

In our apartment. Oskaloosa, Iowa. At my best friends house. 

22. Mischief
What can you do to add a spark of mischief into your life?

I think I probably have a healthy dose of mischief in my life. I love to be playful with Vince and we're always teasing each other. Other than that perhaps I can do a little risk taking in trying new activities..I'll have to think more about that though :)

23. Magic
What do you consider to be every day magic in your life?

I love the morning time lately. I find that I wake up before my alarm goes off most days and then take a few minutes to wake up slowly. This time is quite magical. 

24. Creativity

What was the most creative thing you did in 2011? How do you plan to use your creativity in 2012? (Note: creative does not always mean artistic. Think outside the box here. Get creative!)

I've become a domestic goddess in 2011. Okay, that may be a little much. But this year I have done more creative projects than probably ever before. I've painted all kinds of things, I've cut wine bottles in half with fire, I've wrapped letters in yarn...I've baked, and cooked, and pureed. I've stepped outside of my box and loved it. In 2012 I would love to take some sort of artsy class, namely wheel throwing. I'd also love to explore photography and actually print some of my pictures. 

The Recipe Everyone Loves: Guacamole

I don't know about you but when I see the pre-made guac at the store (not the bagged kind, but the kind in the deli) marked at NINE dollars minimum for a small container at Whole Foods and only a couple of bucks less at Kroger or when I pay 6 bucks for a tiny little bowl of it at a restaurant I just want to make it myself so that I can eat all of the deliciousness without the huge price tag. 

Somewhere around the end of my time at St. Ambrose I learned from a fellow student the basics of making guacamole from scratch. Since then I have played with the recipe to make it mine-oh-mine and it always gets rave reviews whenever I take it anywhere. The best part is that it is: 1) EASY 2) quick and 3) you can modify it to suit your own tastes. 

Annndd since my wonderful boyfriend got me the best birthday gift ever the Ninja Kitchen System 1100 I have been experimenting with using it for things other than just my smoothies. Here's a picture of all of the goodies that come with the system:

Picture from ninjakitchen.com

For Thanksgiving 2011 (yes, this post originated more than a month and a half ago) Vince and I spent the day together, went to see the new Muppet's movie, and then his parents, brother, and uncle came over in the evening to visit. We wanted to have some munchies so we made our pretty much signature guacamole as well as a Velveeta-taco-delicious dip. 

I also thought since people are always asking for the recipe I'd just go ahead and put it here online so I can teach the masses (hehe, a girl can dream) how I make guac. So here goes nothing!

Gather your supplies! I'm going to be super vague here because it all depends on how much guac you'd like to have. I will tell you amounts I used for this batch, and you can judge from there.

1-2) I had seen these green avocados at Wal Mart several times and always meant to look them up because they seemed to have more bang for my buck than the black avocados I typically had seen. I decided to go ahead and grab three and try them. Luckily they are exactly the same and turned out to have more volume for less cash. 

3) Salsa. Any kind will do, but I have found that cheap salsa often=lack of flavor. Luckily this Great Value one is cost effective and tasty.

4) Salt, Garlic Powder, and Lemon (or Lime, I prefer Lemon) juice. You can also use fresh, but I just keep this on hand for all kinds of cooking needs. 

5) I didn't take pictures of these steps but I cut the avocados in half, scooped out the flesh and saved one of the pits. This keeps your guac from browning when you stash it in your fridge for later. This is where the ninja came into play, I put the flesh into the food processor and blended it until smooth. I put that in my Pyrex. Then I put about a cup of salsa in the mix.

6) I added about a 1/4 cup of lemon juice and 2-3 teaspoons of both salt and garlic. All of this is really to taste, start off light and add in unless you have extra avocados to add to balance out.

7) Mix it all up and taste test to see if anything is missing. Serve it up! This filled almost my entire 1.75 quart Pyrex bowl. 

Like I said, everyone always ask for the recipe for this and are amazed when I tell them it's as simple as this. I think they don't believe me that I made it at first, and probably still leave thinking I swung by a Mexican joint on my way to the party. 

All in all the cost really comes to about 5-6 bucks for significantly more guac than you'd get at the store or restaurant. 

An Open Letter to Drivers Everywhere

Dear Drivers of Michigan (and everywhere else too!),

Now that I am on the roads much more frequently than in the past I have noticed the terrible behavior going on between those sharing the road. I am quite certain that your Driver's Ed instructor did not teach you that the following are acceptable behaviors while driving:

1. Talking, texting, or singing to the point that you are unable to maintain your vehicle in it's current lane.
2. Honking while waiting at a stop light in the right turn lane. If  the sign says "no turn on red" you cannot expect someone to disobey the stated instructions.
3. Honking while trying to exit a parking lot because you think the person can make the turn when really they will be smashed by that semi truck that is going fast. Have some patience.
4. HONKING at all. The horn is for alerting others to danger or near accidents. It can occasionally be used to inform someone of a light changing, but please give them a reaction second. Nothing is so important to blare your horn behind someone because you're a jerk.
5. Limit hand gestures to signaling others to cross in front of you, signs indicating expletives are not friendly or appreciated.
6. Drive within an appropriate range of the speed limit. 10 below and 20 over are not great for the flow of traffic.
7. If you notice an accident, don't gawk, you'll never really know what happened in the pile up so why stare and nearly become an incidental accident yourself. Just keep moving, unless it's right in front of you and you need to call the authorities for assistance, you will not be helpful in staring.
8. Proceed with caution anytime inclement weather is a factor. Yes, yes, you do drive a huge truck with 4-wheel drive, but it's dark and I can't see you flying around in the left lane when my little Cobalt is slipping and sliding so be patient. Besides, slowing down is probably still a good idea for you.
9. Alternately, if the snow is not making the roads slick, don't drive like it's a blizzard.
10. Did I say not to honk or yell or have road rage? It's not becoming of you.

Sincerely,

Your Annoyed Fellow Driver

Great resolutions

Resolved

For a giggle and some truly wonderful new years resolutions check out Maggie's (from MightyGirl) list. Donuts, reading, and music. Sounds totally doable and fantastic.