Elusive Ink

Currently Listening
Ain't Gonna Lose You
Brett Dennen



My day today will be spent in Christmas preparations. While for most families Christmas has already passed for this year, ours is still yet to come. Today I plan to take advantage of the after-Christmas sales with Mom, as well as beginning an epic few days of cooking and baking. On the menu for our Christmas/New Years Eve festivities are the follow dishes, to be eaten in no specific order over the course of two days:

Spinach/Brie Quiche
Mini Gingerbread Muffins
Potato Chowder
Turkey Wreath
Green Bean/Tomato Salad
Deviled Eggs
Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread Muffins
Ham
Fudge
Pumpkin Pie
Apple Pie

Needless to say, I am very excited to create such an epic assortment of snack-foods. and have plans to post the several of the recipes here, along with the recipes for my cranberry jam, my apple butter, and my peppermint cake recipe that so many people have asked about. It will take me a while, but I will be glad to have some of these recipes out of my head, and written down.

A few weeks ago, I made it my very specific mission to compile a list of classic and essential Christmas movies. (Primarily so that I can begin to acquire them for my own DVD collection.) My first step in beginning this process was Google, because I saw no point in putting all this effort into a list like this if I could find a good one already. There was none to be found that met my very particular specifications, so then I started looking through TCM lineup for the month, just to be thorough and make sure that I had actually seen all of the essential holiday movies.

Now, after 3 weeks, I present to you my (almost) complete list of essential Christmas Movies. I feel certain that at some point I will need to add some, but this is it for this Christmas season.

Currently Listening
I Need A Silent Night
Amy Grant



Today was a really wonderful day, I had lunch with my dear friend Mary and really enjoyed the opportunity to catch up. We don't see each other often because we are both usually very busy, but it is always nice when we have a chance to grab lunch or coffee and get up-to-date on the events in each others lives.


About twenty minutes after publishing yesterday's post expressing my discouragement that my students canceled for the week, and that finances weren't as consistent as I want them to be, I received an email from a student saying she had her computer fixed and would be able to resume lessons. In addition to that, my Mom forwarded me an email from the Homeschool Science Academy, looking for postcard addressers as well as an artist to put together anatomical sketches. I sent an email out immediately for the postcard addressing opportunity, and furiously began revising my resume, writing a bio, and sketching some examples of anatomical sketches. I dropped my application packet in the mail first thing this morning. I am really praying that this opportunity works out, because the additional financial supplement would be a real blessing right now.



Just further proof that God provides, regardless of how insecure I am. Silly me.

Now I am anxious and hopeful for next week! In the meantime, I am looking forward to enjoying some quality "sister time" tomorrow afternoon. I bought Zoe, Sophie, and myself tickets to see The Nutcracker ballet live in Fredrick, MD. We have *amazing* seats and are going to grab some sushi before hand.


Oh, and possibly more snow on Sunday. It is so cold here. 31 days until I am with my sweetheart in California. I cannot wait!

-Lindsey

Currently Listening
All That I Want (All time favorite Christmas song.)
The Weepies



Oh my. Once again it's been far too long since I've posted, and I have an overwhelmingly large amount of things to post about. Especially because I absolutely adore the holidays, and have had a really wonderful few weeks. Although, this week has been a bit weird since both of my Turkish students canceled their English lessons with me for the entire week. All of this means, you can expect a rather spazzy post as always.


I often wonder if my mind is very much like that of Dr. Seuss. I adore children's books in general, and keep a running list of the library of children's books I intend to have in my house. I also tend to amuse myself by thinking of things in rhymes. Just a random thought.


The holidays have been kind to us thusfar, Thanksgiving was really enjoyable with my Grandparents and Cousin in to visit. The only not-so-great part involved picking them up from the airport in Baltimore. Typically it would take about 1.5 hours to drive to Baltimore from our home in VA, but the traffic was so terrible that we ended up stuck in the parking lot that they optimistically call a highway. We did not go above 15 mph. the entire drive there, and after 5 hours finally arrived. Fortunately, we were able to find a different route home, and the trip, in it's entirety lasted about 7.5 hours.


The rest of our holidays are looking to be pretty non-traditional this year, since three of my siblings will be gone over Christmas day. We are postponing our Christmas celebration for the 30th. Because of this, we decided just to let Christmas bleed into New Years Eve, and basically have a two-day long holiday party which I'm very excited about. Rather than making another "traditional" holiday feast, I've decided to make a variety of party/finger foods for the family to snack on over the 30th/31st. I'll post a list with recipes when the time gets a bit closer. :)


As far as fitness stuff goes, I was less rigorous for a while, and am now just really concentrating on portion control, and incorporating workouts into my life when I can. I was able to do a good strength training workout on Monday, and kickboxing/yoga yesterday. I haven't worked out yet today - but there's a bollywood dance workout in the free section of my cable on-demand that has piqued my curiosity. Might be a fun thing to mix it up.


Work is pretty calm for the moment, KitchenKids doesn't start up until February, and I'm not sure what the next step to take is in promoting Elusive. Pampered Chef isn't taking off like I'd hoped, which has been a bit disappointing. I've tried to host my "Grand Opening" open house twice now, and both times (a few weeks ago, and last weekend) the weather caused all of the guests to cancel. It's very discouraging, because I could really use the money right now. Despite that, it ended up being a great weekend because it dumped almost a foot of surprise snow on us! I adore snow. It's times like these I am very grateful to have my tutoring position, because that tends to be the only really reliable income I have at the moment.


I have been feeling particularly creative (*ehem*domestic?) lately. I've been working on several knitting projects, learning to crochet, getting back into sewing. I've also been doing a lot more sketching and painting, which makes me feel really good. I feel like my priorities are more balanced, and I'm very content, I get enough recharge/relaxation that I have the energy I need to put effort into work and getting my home businesses up and running. That can seem like a monumental task, but I'm very proud of how I am handling things. Another thing I've been very interested in lately is furniture restoration, reupholstering, refinishing, shellacking. I've been researching on different methods, and gathering lots of ideas from my favorite design site Design*Sponge. The nice thing about Design*Sponge is that they are realistic, the houses they feature don't look like something you'd see in better homes and gardens. The houses are lived in, and some of the furniture looks like it was picked up for free from Craigslist, but that's half the charm, there are tricks to restore "craigslist furniture", and ways to integrate a few good pieces, to really make a space beautiful in a realistic and live-able way.

Even though it's still a year or two away, I am so anxious to have my own home. :-) At least I have plenty of time to make and acquire lots of beautiful and useful things.

I also have a great number of things to be excited for in the meantime, the holidays, my trip to California in January, Tiffany's trip out here in March, Nathan's trip out here in late March, Family reunion in June, KitchenKids starting up, the list never ends.


I was going to try to participate in NaNoWriMo this year, but it always ends up being during a really inconvenient time, so Nathan, Bethany, and I decided we would wait until things slowed down mid-december and have our own mini WriMo amongst the three of us. I'm very excited, because as well has having the opportunity to participate in something that has always come at a bad time for me, I also feel like it will be a good opportunity for me to get to know Nathan's sister better before my trip out to meet her and his parents in January. I am so very nervous to meet them all, but also excited. They seem like really great people, with a lot of interesting experiences to share, and his sister and I have a lot in common.


Lately, I've been compelled to explore a bit more of my femininity. I am comfortable with the fact that I have a domestic, nurturing side, even though I avoided admitting it for so long. I've finally accepted and embraced that I was designed to be a wife, and mother, and am working to learn the skills I need to do that to the best of my ability, and maintain my passions of my photography and other artwork through working from home. But lately I've decided that it would be useful to me to at least be able to be comfortable in skirts and dresses. Not that I feel the need to wear them constantly, but they have always made me feel very self conscious, to the point that I avoid wearing them altogether. It has been an interesting adventure so far, and I have become more comfortable in skirts. It is fascinating how aware just the difference between wearing a skirt with leggings, and wearing a pair of jeans makes you. For me, it causes hyper awareness of how I am acting, treating people, I'm not sure it is a result of the discomfort and self-consciousness, or something else. It has been an interesting and enjoyable experience so far.


I continue to realize how different my life is than what I expected it would be at this point. I'm so content with my life and the direction it is going, and I am very at peace with my place in the world. It's a great feeling, and I'm thankful for all of the blessings and support God has provided me in getting to this point. It amuses me so greatly that just a few years ago I was so anti-domesticity, I was going to be an "independent woman" of the world, in a high-rise apartment, making my way in the world for myself. (I was miserable a few years ago...)

It took a great change of heart to get me to a point where I would be content being "taken care of" financially, to contribute in more abstract ways, and fulfill a nurturing role in a co-dependent relationship that reflects God's perfect plan, and perfect love. But honestly, I couldn't be happier. Not that I'm always content, or never restless - but there's nothing better than being positive that this is where God wants you to be. And until I am fulfilling that role, as a wife and mother, I'm thankful for the opportunity to grow and balance my home businesses, and acquire things for my future home, in the safe protected environment of my parents home. :-)


Well, I think that's all I have for now. I really want to try and keep up with posting from now on, though, because it helps to clear out my thoughts and make me a little less crazy during the day. We'll see if it actually happens, I'm not willing to really commit myself because it could end up becoming a stresser. Maybe after the first of the year, however, I'll set a concrete posting goal.

Bye for now,
Lindsey