lovely little things

Lately there have been hints of joy weaved in and throughout my days, and sometimes I don't take the time to actually see them.  I let the hardships of life, the battles, and weaknesses overshadow the good.  Sometimes it's easy for our minds to focus on the negative versus the positive.  And it surprises me at times, how often the negative can just blur your vision-like a dark gray cloud.  Because behind that cloud is the brightest sun, shining bright, soaking up any drops of rain that are speckled on the ground-bringing newness to the day, awaking nature, and breathing in life.  The sunshine, the joy, should be my focus.  

Here are some of the little lovely things that have brought beauty to my life lately....

I walked into my classroom last week after staying home sick for a day to this.  Sweetest.  Class.  Ever!  

My niece is getting so big!  I watched her and my little nephew last Friday night to give my brother and sis in law a little night to themselves.  Calli made me laugh with all of the fun things she is saying, and we spent our evening finding the moon and spotting helicopters in the sky.  I wish I saw the world through her eyes sometimes.

Celebrating a birthday for my dear friend was so much fun, especially because we went to brunch.  Breakfast just may be my favorite meal of the day, and brunch-oh man-that just tops it all.  Delish!  

I love getting mail!!!  Especially cute little thank you cards from a friend.  Daniel thinks it is hilarious how excited i get about getting mail and said he should slip a note into the mail box to make my day. 

Top Know Tuesday!  Tuesdays are officially "top knot" days for my stellar second grade teaching partner and I.  After looking at this picture I realized just how giant of a head I have and why hats just don't fit...my friends love this fact and have a hay day having me try on hats.  I like to think that there is just a lot going on up there!

my fall bucket list

It may still be in the 90's here but I'm welcoming Fall with open arms.  I'm also praying really hard that the weather man will declare cooler temperatures (aka "boot weather").  

While I wait, ever so patiently, for that breaking news I've come up with some things I just have to do this Fall....

Saturday was my errand day, and I just had to make my semi-annual trip to Bath and Body Works to stock up on my fall and winter candles.  I've had a coupon burning a hole in my purse for the past month!  As soon as I came home I lit this beauty, and boy-does our house smell just lovely.  

currently...

I'm currently....

-ecstatic Parenthood is back on, even if I need a box of tissue to cry into every time....

-listening to the "Mumford & Sons" station on Pandora 24/7...

-really wishing the weather cools up a bit...

-itching to get my hands on the two cans of pumpkin I have waiting for me in my pantry...

-ready to wear outfits like this:

Source: celebritystyleguide.com via Jamie on Pinterest

-watching this YouTube video over and over again...you just get filled with warm fuzzies every time


-really looking forward to Sunday.  I get a full day with just the Mr!

-overwhelmed with joy and love when I walked into my classroom yesterday morning and saw this (best sub ever!)

-dying of laughter after watching my husband try a kale chip....don't worry, there's pictures of the experience I'll have to share with you

-daily falling more and more in love with my Savior (Thank you She Reads Truth!)

when your body says "I'm done"

My body has proudly proclaimed, "You're done".  And just to make sure that I got the picture it knocked me down with a cold.  

My days are getting longer and the nights are getting shorter.  Sometimes I just wish that I could add more hours into my day.  And so, I'm way behind on my sleep and exhausted.  Then let's add this past weekend into the mix.  Here's the stitch:

A dear friend from college is getting married next month and her bridal shower and bachelorette party was this past weekend up in San Francisco.  To make sure that I didn't miss work and had time to get back into the swing of things, the trip was super fast.  Like snap your fingers and don't blink twice, it's done!  I fly out of San Diego Friday night at 9:30pm and arrived in San Jose.  Kelly (aka: the cutest pregnant lady ever) so graciously let us stay with her and her sweet family.  

The next day I woke up at 8:45am and threw myself out of bed.  You know when you sleep in and realize that you're way behind on schedule?  That was the feeling I had.  Luckily everyone else was in the mood for a lazy morning and we enjoyed the rest of the morning sipping coffee, catching up on life, and oogling over Kelly's adorable daughter, Eva.  

We headed out to the bridal shower.  What a beautiful celebration for an amazing bride!  These girls really brighten my life and it was amazing to all be in the same place again.  

Once the shower was over, we all piled into cars with our over night bags and drove to San Francisco for the bachelorette party.  

Of course there were some grand shenanigans and games in the hotel room (which I'll spare you from seeing).  We headed out to a fun little bar by fisherman's wharf.  But before, I decided to see what I'd look like when I'm pregnant one day....

Kelly's 7 months pregnant and it looks like I'm ready to pop with twins!  

That night I got 4 hours of sleep, popped up wide away Sunday morning, and flew home at 9am. As much as I tried, I couldn't beat the fact that my body was exhausted.  I had officially run it ragged.  And Monday night the sniffles came on followed by the feeling like my head was going to explode.  Tuesday was a doozy as I made my way through the day.  Fortunately, my second graders were angels and made my day nice and easy. 

 And today I called in a sub and stayed home sick from work.  I'm always that girl that thinks she can do everything, including not missing work when you're sick.  But there's some things that I'm working on: taking care of my self is my top priority.  This means taking a day to rest, recuperate, and get better versus working and never feeling 100%.  This also means learning when to say "no" and not overcommit myself.  This also means not kicking yourself for missing your workout for the day.  Taking care of myself is my new top priority.  So I stayed in my jammies all day, watched too much TV until I was tired of it, drinking tea like it was going out of style...and throwing in a load of laundry because I just had to move.  And tonight as I write this I'm feeling so much better.  My body is thanking me for taking the day to rest. 

i tell myself...

If you know me really, really well you know my downfalls.  And my biggest one is beating myself up far too often.  The past two weeks have been rough, hard, and at times I feel like it is all spinning out of control.  I stumbled upon this yesterday and I had to take a picture so I could remind myself everyday to say this.

"I love you and know that you are doing the best you can." 

Love yourself today, at least try just like I am :)

2 ingredient pancake

Are you ready for your mind to be blown?  

I made a pancake with 2 ingredients! YES, just two :)  Egg + banana.

Credit must be given to Carrots n' Cake's original recipe.  When I first read that she made a pancake using one banana and one egg saying I was intrigued would be an understatement.  I tried it out but it didn't hold together very well.  The next day I was on a mission to make it better so I added another egg and, my oh my, was it divine! 

In my food processor I blended the banana and eggs. 

Next, I heated 1 tsp. of coconut oil over medium heat.  Then I poured in my "batter". 

It definitely needs to cook on low-medium heat for at least 5 minutes before attempting to flip it.  I push in the edges first to see if it's ready.  Make sure the middle is bubbling, showing that it is cooked enough to be flipped.  When it's ready flip and cook for another 5 minutes. 

I know you might be skeptical at this point about how it must taste.  If you like bananas and pancakes you will love this!  I like to top mine with almond butter and a little bit of agave as "syrup".  The best part-it keeps me full for just about 4 hours and the taste is amazing! 

Enjoy :)

they call my crazy

Some people are offended when they're called "crazy".

Me on the other hand?

Well I just accept it.  One of my amazing friends refers to me as her "crazy best friend, Jamie".  

It wasn't until Sunday night that I stopped and thought to myself, "this is why they call me crazy".  

There I was in the kitchen, surrounded by over a dozen ingredients, four recipes, and sporting my apron while listening to some Civil Wars on Pandora.  For some reason I got the itch to cook, and I mean really cook.  In one night I made stuffed chicken, roasted red potatoes, and asparagus for dinner. 

 Then I whipped up some mexican quinoa (because it only takes like 20 minutes).  I've been wanting to make this meal for the past week and decided that I finally had to do it.  We will eat it for lunch this week, and the husband was happy to hear this news.  

Thanks to Pinterest I decided to make a meal for later this week that I could easily prep and throw in the freezer.  Now my freezer is filled with lasagna rolls ready to be thawed and baked in sauce.  

And then I looked over and I had two beautiful zucchinis looking over at me just begging to be baked into chocolate chip zucchini bread. 

It was a beautiful thing.  At one point I realized that this is what I love, to cook.  And then I realized that this is why they think I'm crazy.  To some I'm crazy, I have a hard time relaxing.  But to me cooking is relaxing. 

Tonight I think I proved even more why crazy fits me.  It was 7pm and I was just pulling into our garage.  And my feet were itching to be slipped into some running shoes and racing across the pavement.  I walked in the door, put all my bags down and headed straight for my closet to fulfill my footsies deepest desire.  The sky was already darkening so I made sure to wear my neon shirt to be safe.  And as I was un the middle of my run I told myself, "I'm crazy-it's completely dark outside, I'm all by myself, I'm starving, and yet here I am laying it all out on the concrete".  

So I may be crazy but my friends love me that way :)

finding balance

I don't quite know where to begin...

"I'm sorry I was gone so long."

"I'm alive!"

"Oh, hello there!  Welcome to my blog!"

Basically I took a nice break from blogging altogether.  I haven't read anyone else's blogs, have left zero comments, and honestly haven't even opened up blogger in over three weeks.  I was planning on my break being longer but to tell you the truth...I just couldn't stay away.  

I think every blog has a post like this at one point or another, and I think we all can basically agree we don't want to hear the same old story over and over again.  Basically, school and work were starting up again and I knew deep down inside that things needed to be different this year.  My stress level needed to lower greatly, I needed to have balance, Christ needed to be center, and my husband needed to by a top priority.  Over the summer I fell in love with She Read Truth, committed to daily devotionals, and felt my heart and mind changing and becoming a woman God wanted me to be.  As I approached the school year I knew I couldn't do it all.  Something had to give.  Add that to the phrase I tell myself all the time "It's not about the numbers" and the stress to reply to each comment in order to keep and gain followers.  I leaned over into the Mr.'s ear at church one Sunday morning and told him the blog had to go.  Immediately I knew it is what God wanted me to do.  

As weeks went by I actually felt freed.  I stayed balanced and had such a great first week with my adorable second graders.  But this past weekend everything I did made me think of the blog and my passion.  I know I need to stay balanced but blogging is also something that helps me find fulfillment and joy.  So I may not blog as much but I will stay true to myself, blog about what matters to me versus what I think will get more followers, and enjoy the ride!

Moving on....

I have THE most amazing husband ever!  He has been so incredibly supportive with me going back to work and school and has been cooking for me all week.  On Friday I woke up to coffee already made and the sweetest love note on our frame.  

That afternoon I got a text message letting me know that he had dinner already made for us and plans for us to play catch at the park and then go star gazing.  Sadly, my lack of sleep and change of schedule made me incredibly exhausted so we took a short walk and then settled on an 8pm bedtime.  Even though he had planned out a fun evening for us he was so willing to let me get my rest and never once made me feel bad.  That night I looked up at him as I was almost passed out on the couch and though to myself how lucky I am.  It is crazy to think that we have been together for almost nine years now and married for four in November.  When I look back on how I loved him then and where our love has grown now I become overwhelmed.  There's a song that Daniel likes to sing called "And I Thought I Loved You Then".  It is so true.  Each event that we go through, each year God gives us, we are learning more and more about one another and our love deepens beyond anything I ever imagined.  

Ta ta for now :)