Hello, friend. It’s been a long while. I hope it will be a long while again before I type those words another time. It turns out I needed a breather from the internet, a breather which imposed itself when problems with our apartment (yes, the one I was finally settling into–isn’t that the way of things) incited us to move out in February. What we moved into I like to describe as our “cottage in the woods.” The truth is only slightly less romantic: no, we’re not truly in the woods, but we are renting what used to be the barn on the three acres which remain of an old, formerly expansive farm. And the view out our windows is trees and green (almost) as far as the eye can see. I love it. Oh, and one more thing–it doesn’t have the internet. Hence the imposed breather.

It’s amazing how many things you find to do when you don’t have the internet. Not that I have time on my hands all that often–I do work 40 hours a week, like a “normal person,” now. But when I do have time at home to myself, instead of imbibing from the spout of the web, I have to turn to things like books, or DVDs, or, God forbid, actually doing things. Like chores, or writing, or cooking, or gardening, or art. That’s when it gets really scary, and really wonderful, and really worth not being able to get online.

But the more settled I’ve gotten into our new routine at our new place, the more I’ve begun to feel the pull of this blog again. For better or worse, I can’t seem to kill it completely, so I’ve decided to try once more to breathe life into it instead. The problems I always run into, and doubtless will run into again are:

1. The fact that blogging on a regular basis is hard work.
2. Neuroses about who is or is not reading what I write and what they think about it inevitably worm their way into my brain and tell me it would be much safer to just not write anything.
3. Sometimes I just hate computers and don’t want anything to do with them.

The last one is the easiest to deal with–I already tend to draft on paper, so as long as I can make a regular practice of doing that, I should be able to minimize my computer time. The second is trickier–working with those demons is a very difficult, though not impossible task. They will quiet down if you try hard enough. Which brings us to the number one problem, and the most difficult of all: blogging, like all writing, is hard work. If you want to do it regularly and well, it requires time and energy and creativity–even at times when you don’t feel like you have any of those things to spare.

So here I go. Attempting to walk the tightrope–to balance a full-time job, my personal life, and blogging. I suspect I will need your patience and forgiveness, as always. But I am looking forward to the journey.

P.S. You probably have already noticed, but I’d like to draw your attention to my new library page and the fact that I am now on Twitter.

Hello there! Sorry for the long silence; the holiday season was for us, as I’m sure it was for many of you, a very busy time. Besides working tons (we both work retail or retail-affiliated jobs) and preparing Christmas gifts, we also had a few days to visit with my brother and sister-in-law and a week-long visit with Gil’s family in Missouri, both of which were lovely.

In the two weeks since we returned from that trip, we have both been trying to settle into healthier routines and work towards some of the goals we had been putting off. One of my main goals has been getting our little apartment and various aspects of our lives organized, so that I can spend my time on the things I really want to be doing without feeling constantly overwhelmed. I dove headfirst into this project and am still in the thick of it; I plan to tell you more about it and some of the solutions I’ve come up with soon.

Another goal we are both concerned with is eating nutritiously and conscientiously. To that end, Gil has been asking me for months to try the Paleo Diet, which he has been on quite happily for the last year or so. The diet cuts out sugar (other than in fruit), grains, legumes, and dairy. Robb Wolf explains it in detail, so if you want more I suggest browsing his site.

Long story short: I agreed to go Paleo (a.k.a. give up my beloved bread and cheese) for 30 days, beginning January 6th. I do believe that I dreamt about eating bread, cake, or cookies every night between January 6th and January 10th. Clearly, I was/am addicted. Or the Paleo diet is completely wrong and grains contain nutrients we all need that my body is clamoring for. Can you tell I am confused about what to eat these days?

I can say that I almost immediately felt a pronounced up-tick in my energy level. My first several days back at work I was amazed that I never reached the level of unbearable fatigue I was used to experiencing. Since then, I have had a few “down” days (probably days in which I didn’t eat enough, period), but mostly I have had the same steady energy level. This is, obviously, an unqualified “plus” to this diet.

Another good thing about trying this diet (although it often feels like a bad thing when I am short on time or just want something fast) is that it is forcing me to be more creative about my food. When you are limited to pretty much meat, eggs, fish, vegetables, and fruit, all of your old standby meals fly out the window (or at least mine did)–sandwiches, quesadillas, pasta, pizza, burritos… even rice bowls! None of them are “allowed” on the Paleo diet. So in order to not get bored, I have had to think outside the box of food I’m used to eating.

Here is an example. In the last few days, I had been enjoying warming up some frozen berries and eating them with coconut milk for breakfast. I knew I wanted to somehow add an egg or two to this meal to get some good protein in there, but for some reason fried and scrambled eggs have become unappetizing to me. Last night as I was falling asleep I had a brainstorm: what if I made the egg into a thin crepe that I could top with the berries and coconut milk?

So today, I tried it.

I beat one egg and about a tablespoon of coconut milk together.

I poured this thin layer of crepe-batter into a greased, non-stick skillet and cooked it for just a minute or two on one side and an even shorter time on the other. Until it looked, you know, “crepe-like.” (Technical term.)

At the same time, I warmed up my berries.

Finally, I plated the crepe, topped it with the berries, drizzled it liberally with coconut milk and finished it off with some dried coconut on top. Yum yum yum!

I am not ashamed to admit that I ate two of these this morning. Never have two eggs been more painlessly eaten.

Anyway, I’m sure many of you have better techniques for making crepes, and I’d love to hear them in the comments if you do, but I am nonetheless proud to have successfully created something delicious (and Paleo!) to eat for breakfast. Of course… I can’t eat the same thing every day, so… I guess I’ll need to put my creativity to work again on finding another Paleo breakfast I love. Let me know if you have any ideas.

Today I took one look at the state of my house and knew I must get out of it. (I will clean it before the weekend is over; but I had to get the week out of my system a bit before I was ready to tackle it).

While Gil worked on his finals for school (Finals! Ha, I vaguely remember those.), I went down to Alton Baker Park and captured things I found beautiful with my iPhone:

Then I went to a local craft store and picked up the supplies to make my first stamps/prints. So fun! (Thanks to Geninne for the inspiration and instructions on her blog.)

Gil and I went to catch the end of the Oregon/Oregon State civil war game at my parents’ house, and I worked on my project:

I’d say it was a success! I look forward to finding more ways to use these stamps and making many more. (I also got an 8×10-ish linoleum block, but that feels a bit more daunting. We’ll see how long it takes me to work up the courage/inspiration to carve it.)

Here we are, at the verge of fall becoming winter. The days, it seems, rush by just as quickly now that I am working as they did when I was in school. I tricked myself into thinking that there would, at some point, be a respite–a point at which I could step back, relax, breathe, and perhaps even achieve that apparently mythical feeling called “being caught up.” But no, time has continued to slip right away underneath me, leaving behind many unfinished projects around our house and inside my head, not to mention our wedding thank you’s (!).

It’s tempting to despair at this state of things, as there is little in this life that I long for more than that “caught-up” feeling. And I often do despair. (And by that I mean: pout, whine, tell myself stories about how my life is terrible, etc.) But sometimes, by the grace of God, I instead take off my frustrated blinders and realize how abundantly blessed I am and how comparatively little most of the things I spend my days worrying about matter.

And so, in this week set aside for giving thanks, I find that I am truly thankful. I am thankful for my family and friends, without whom I know I would be completely adrift. I am thankful for my work, even when I find it hard to enjoy (but especially when I don’t). I am thankful for moments of beauty, like the ones above, that step quietly into the middle of everyday tasks and lift my spirits. But most of all, I am thankful for the Creator who has given all of this to us, and who has pointed us toward a place where our desires will no longer be thwarted.

I apologize for not posting last week; I have been busy as usual and sick on top of it. But I am still here, and I have more photos I hope to share with you soon.