{enjoying this // a beautiful evening with friends, wine + cheese}
{celebrating this // our third anniversary}
{working this // long Shareholders week made bearable thanks to these ladies}
{indulging in this // amazing ice cream food truck}
{trying this // a new nail trend that I’m loving}
xo xo
We’ve officially caught up with the rest of the population and become OITNB fans. I actually think we did it the right way. We binged on the first season right when the second one came out, so we didn’t have to wait a year to see the fallout from the finale. We are SO CLOSE to finishing the second season I can hardly stand it.
I was skeptical at first, why would I want to watch a show about women in prison? Well if you’re still one of the ones asking, let me tell you why – it puts a whole new perspective on the prison system and the people in prison. Not just numbers in an orange jumpsuit, but faces and names and backstories. It shows you they’re real people who make mistakes, just like you and me.
Yes, just like you and me, who could go to prison, and if you do, remember these tips …
1. Never insult the cooking. Ever. Lesson learned day 1.
2. Make friends with everyone – the guards, the fast-talking hispanics, the born-again/crazy-again Christian, the one with crazy eyes, the ex-girlfriend – wait, don’t do that one. And if you do befriend the crazy eyes, just be prepared, dandelion.
3. If you have your choice in jobs, choose the library.
4. Take showers 30 seconds or less … you never know what might come out of the drain.
5. Speaking of the bathroom – get up EARLY to do your business. The bathrooms with the doors are the first to go.
6. Don’t assume anything of anyone, good or bad. You don’t know their story and what they’ve been through to get where they are.
7. Find out what everyone’s vices are. You will have to bribe, and if you have someone’s favorite candy, makeup or *cough*contraband*cough* it will come in handy.
8. Don’t say anything on the phone that can get you in trouble.
9. Inappropriate things happen in the chapel. Just stay out if not for a service.
10. One person can change the course of everything. Remember #2.
11. If you’re engaged when you go in, tell your fiance you will most likely {at least} kiss a girl in prison, so don’t get too riled up over it. When in Rome.
12. And lastly, very importantl, send in a check for commissary items WEEKS in advance. Otherwise you’ll be making shower shoes out of maxipads.
xo xo
You might also enjoy: 11 Reasons Pretty Little Liars Is My New Obsession, How To Survive a Zombie Apocalypse Part II
With our beautiful, new kitchen and the unboxing of all of our pots and pans and appliances, Husband and I have been spending more time in the kitchen cooking together, and we love it. It’s such a relaxing way to end the day – pour a glass of wine, cook together without the TV on or any distractions, and talk about our day at work.
As we’ve been cooking more, I’ve been trying out new recipes and the one I’m sharing today has been a HIT. We’ve already made it twice in the last month and it will now be a staple in my recipe repertoire. It’s easy, delicious and you can add or remove things to make it just for you. Oh, and it only takes one pan!! That’s my kind of cooking.
O N E – P A N E N C H I L A D A P A S T A
via
Ingredients
Instructions
xo xo
You might also enjoy: Pepperoni Rolls {recipe}, Labor Day Weekend Huevos Rancheros, Good ol’ Spaghetti {recipe}
Some days death just knocks the breath right out of you. The first day I experienced this was in 2006 when my grandfather died, and the second was in December when my Dad died.
But even though I haven’t felt that blunt force more than twice in my life, I’ve felt so much more, every day. Including today.
“If anywhere in your soul, you feel the desire to write, please write. Write as a gift to yourself and others. Everyone has a story to tell. Writing is not about creating tidy paragraphs that sound lovely or choosing the “right” words. It’s just about noticing who you are and noticing life and sharing what you notice. When you write your truth, it is a love offering to the world because it helps us feel braver and less alone.” – Carry On, Warrior
I’ve been sharing my story on my blog about life and grief and truth and I wanted to continue the story today. I cannot promise to write in tidy paragraphs that sound lovely, but I can promise to share what I notice and write my truth.
A family friend passed away today. I didn’t know him well. I’d only been around him twice. He was a friend of my parents while they were working in Ohio. He was there when my Dad passed away and he was this gentle, calming presence. Someone you know genuinely means what they say and will genuinely do anything to help you.
He got married to his fiance this week and while that may make you sad, it makes me so so happy. Just from the little I knew and saw, they were a beautiful couple and I’m so thankful they found each other and she will “always be his forever.”
But how is this fair, how?! I feel like I’ve learned so much about death this year and grown so much, then this happens and I feel like I’m stepping 10 steps back.
I’m crying. I’m crying because it brings up feelings about my Dad. I’m crying because now I can truly empathize with someone who loses a loved one. I’m crying because I can’t possibly understand how I will get through my life knowing I will have to go through this feeling again and again and again.
Someone told me you have to schedule time to grieve. Just like you schedule coffee with a friend or time to go to the grocery store. It needs to be part of your week. Ever since I heard that I knew it was true, but I just haven’t been able to bring myself to do it. It’s like voluntarily scheduling myself to get a shot every week. Why would I put myself through the pain if I didn’t have to?
I’m still learning. I’m still crawling through this grief and life even though I’m 25 years old. This is my story I’m sharing with you. I don’t have any inspirational words to end with. I just want to tell my story. I want to be honest and real even though it’s scary and hard and messy. This is my forum, to tell my truth. Life is hard. Life is really, really hard. Every single day is hard. Some days are harder than others and today was one of those days.
But there’s one thing I do know – I know when my Dad saw Scott today, he had a big grin on his face, gave him a big hug and they started talking about football. And that, that does give me some joy.
xo xo
It’s not often you find a book you relate to so well that you vow to re-read it every year before you’ve even finished it.
Thanks to my wonderful friend Nicky, I was introduced to Glennon Doyle Melton, her blog momastery.com and her book Carry On, Warrior. I honestly don’t even have the words to express how much I love this book. Its heartwarming, its hilarious, its smart, its inspirational. As Nicky described it before I started reading – “Its part auto-biography, part beautiful essays, all about life and Jesus and being a human.” Pretty perfect description.
What’s interesting about this book is that I could see how one could read it at different times in their life and learn different lessons each time. There are a lot of chapters about being a parent, of which I’m not currently, but when I am, I’m sure I’ll go back and read it and relate so much more.
As I’m about halfway through the book, I’ve already bookmarked several pages of her words that have been so inspirational and fitting for the time of life I’m currently in, struggling through death and grief.
On helping her sister deal with a tragic situation: “I learned that in these disasters, all we can do is tell them that their grief is real, and if it lasts forever, then we will grieve with them forever. As far as I was able to tell during those two years, there was nothing else worth saying. It was not going to be all right, ever. Everything doesn’t happen for a decent reason. I couldn’t do anything at all except feed her, hold her when she cried, pray angry prayers, keep showing up and know that time, and my home and presence would offer healing.”
To her son, on the death of their fish: “When he asked me, ‘Why Mom? Why does God send us here, where things hurt so much? Why does he make us love things He knows we’re going to lose?’ I told him that we don’t love people and animals because we will have them forever; we love them because loving them changes us, makes us better, healthier, kinder, realer. Loving people and animals makes us stronger in the right ways and weaker in the right ways. Even if animals and people leave, even if they die, they leave us better. So we keep loving even though we might lose, because loving teaches us and changes us. And that’s what we’re here to do. God sends us here to learn how to be better lovers, and to learn how to be loved, so we’ll be better prepared for Heaven.”
Y’all. I just had to share those passages. When I read the first one, I literally just started crying because she’s SO right. I don’t want people to know that just so they can understand what I’m going through, but I want to know that and remember it for when I’m helping others through their grief. Then the second passage – whether it’s a 6-year-old struggling with the death of his fish, or a 25-year-old struggling with the death of her dad, we all ask the same questions and her answer gave me HOPE.
Now is the part where I tell all of you to stop what you’re doing and go buy this book right now. I want to buy a billion copies and give them to everyone I know. And even if you don’t, I’m sure I’ll be writing at least one more blog post about what I’ve read, but in the mean time,
Carry On, Warrior
xo xo
Like I said in my last book review, I’m on a reading binge, and I’m loving it! It slowed down for a while during a busy season at work and moving, but I’m back at it and already have my next 3 books lined up. This batch was a great batch of books, all very different, but all very good.
The Tipping Point – I feel like I totally missed the boat on this one because everyone else read it years ago, but I am now officially the biggest Malcolm Gladwell fan. His writing is simply superb, weaving in hard facts with anecdotes so perfectly that you believe everything he says without batting an eye. And the topic is F-A-S-C-I-N-A-T-I-N-G. It’s one of those books that seems like a boring book you’d read for a class, but then you secretly fall in love with it.
Grade: A+
Glitter and Glue – I’d read reviews of this one in magazines, then mom borrowed it from the library so I picked it up and could hardly put it down. It’s just a great, true-blue story of the relationships of mothers and daughters and how they change over time. It would be a great vacation read – easy, light-hearted and makes you shed a tear or two.
Grade: A
Uncommon Marriage – We read this autobiographical book with our community group about facing obstacles in marriage and how to deal with them. Of course being the non-sports fan I am I had no clue who the Dungys were and thus didn’t know how the story would turn out. As I read, I was so encouraged by their life story, their public display of faith and their continued spousal support. Also, I learned a little bit more about football.
Grade: A-
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore – This book recommendation came from an avid reader who had nothing but good things to say about it, so I knew it would be good. I picked it up in the airport on my way home from San Francisco and read half of it on the flight. (Come to find out it’s set in SF, which made it feel even more perfect) This book starts out so unassuming and normal about a boy in a bookstore, then slowly turns into a story with just enough magical whimsy to make you feel like a kid again believing in secret codes, immortality and clandestine underground meetings in NYC.
Grade: A-
xo xo
Dear Husband,
I love you. Do you know how much I love you, day in and day out?
On our last anniversary, we spent an evening at dinner discussing what the next year would hold for us. It was such an exciting, joyous thing to dream about the future.
Well, the future came, and it wasn’t quite what we expected, in good ways and in bad. We bought a house. We lost a parent. We got promotions. We dealt with an illness of a close friend.
We couldn’t anticipate what the next year held, but I could anticipate one thing. There’s no one else I would rather go through any of it with than you.
That’s what makes a marriage. Not just enjoying the good times, loving each other and laughing with each other. But holding each other in the hurt and pain. Reassuring each other. Listening to each other. Praying for each other. Not necessarily understanding each other, but being there no matter what.
I watch our wedding video below, for surely the thousandth time, and I can remember our day so well. What I remember most is not how perfect the day was, but how excited I was to bind myself to you for life. To start our life together.
Well, we’re three years in, love, and I think we’re doing just fine.
Always and forever,
M
Friday I blogged about the weekend ahead, sharing my to-do list of projects and expectations. Today I blog about the weekend behind, sharing my photos and memories.
My T O – D O L I S T for the weekend:
Set up our ping-pong table for our impending summer tournaments.
Done and Done. Photo evidence below.
Make these drool-inducing Lime-A-Rita Pops.
So they took way longer to freeze than expected and we ate Lime-A-Rita slushies,
but they were oh so delicious.
Hang photos – in our bedroom, entryway, living room, etc.Yes! Finally! It makes me so happy to have everything in it’s place.
Finish my latest read, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore.It was so, so good. Book reviews coming soon!
Familiarize ourselves with the neighborhood on a long walk with pup.
Sadly this did not happen … to-do list #3 took longer than anticipated, much to husband’s chagrin.
Catch up on Game of Thrones.
Okay, so we didn’t exactly catch up, but we DID finally watch the Red Wedding and OH.MY.GOSH.
Find our mailbox. (Seriously, this is a legitimate task)
After trying our key in every single mailbox with very very little hope, we found it. In the last box we tried.
And it was filled with magazines and birchboxes.
Sleep in, X3.
Go on a stock-up trip to Walmart to fill our new refrigerator and pantry.
Take a bath in our oversized tub catching up on my magazines.
Visit one of our favorite breweries for an afternoon of sipping and relaxing.We had an afternoon of beers and martinis. Perfect.
xo xo
Oh the glorious three-day weekends. Memorial Day weekend in particular holds a special place in my heart, since three years ago this weekend I married my high school sweetheart. Last year we celebrated with a weekend getaway to Kansas City; this year we’re celebrating by enjoying a weekend in our new HOME. Even though I am always full of wanderlust and several months ago had grand plans of going to Washington D.C. for Memorial Day weekend, I’m oh so content just staying home with my love.
My T O – D O L I S T for the weekend:
Set up our ping-pong table for our impending summer tournaments.
Make these drool-inducing Lime-A-Rita Pops.
Hang photos – in our bedroom, entryway, living room, etc.
Finish my latest read, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore.
Familiarize ourselves with the neighborhood on a long walk with pup.
Catch up on Game of Thrones.
Find our mailbox. (Seriously, this is a legitimate task)
Sleep in, X3.
Go on a stock-up trip to Walmart to fill our new refrigerator and pantry.
Take a bath in our oversized tub catching up on my magazines.
Visit one of our favorite breweries for an afternoon of sipping and relaxing.
xo xo
As stated previously, I am now a homeowner, which means I am also now an interior designer, and where else do homeowners/interior designers find inspiration, but on Pinterest?
Follow my inspiration below. xo xo
{absolutely need these}
{stunning doors}
{love how rustic chic this is}
{organization – I need more in my life}
{in love with mirrored furniture}
{this would make my mornings so much easier}
{gold, gold gold}
{beautiful mirror gallery}
{april showers bring may flowers}
m.davis xoxo 