Helloooo friends! How are you doing?! It’s been a while since we’ve done one of these. Let’s see whats swirling around in my brain to share today– yes? Cool!

  • I currently have eggplant, tomatoes, and some garlic roasting in the oven. I’m making this recipe and it smells delicious. It’s one of the best ways to feed non-eggplant lovers a good serving of eggplant. But speaking of food, thank you guys so much for all your sweet messages and comments on my cookbook post. I really freaking appreciate it. You guys are the best– and pointed out so many things that were SO true. Thanks for that.
  • Speaking of food, one of you guys left a really smart idea on my cookbook post, suggesting that maybe I should do a post on how I adjust the recipes to fit my own dietary needs. Don’t hold me to it, but I feel like this would be an awesome series. Maybe I could take one recipe at a time and go through on how I re-create the recipe to fit a low-fat / high carb diet that has A LOT of allergies. I’m going to see how everything goes once we’re settled in the apartment, but I think this would be really smart.
  • Marlowe is homeschooling next to me. She’s working on some language arts. I know I have terrible grammar– I don’t follow the rules– I write just how I speak. And I’m totally okay with that. But I do want her to learn the rules before she decides how she’ll write for herself.
  • But speaking of homeschooling– we are actually touring a school tomorrow. I’m not sure she’ll end up going to said school since we’re tight on money since our newest big investment, but it’s worth checking out / looking into. It’s a newer school, but it seems pretty neat– something more up our style compared the other schools in the area. We’ll see what happens. You know: if she gets in and if it’s worth it. Then we’ll go from there. I’m perfectly content homeschooling her, so it’s no loss either way.
  • Our apartment is coming out SO good! I’m really happy with it. We finished most of the painting, the flooring, we even started bringing in the furniture. There’s not much else– we just have to wait on the mattresses (worth the wait) and then we can totally live there! So far my biggest problem with this decorating thing is the blue couch! Gah. I don’t love it the way I hoped I would. Alex does– which is obviously important, but it doesn’t blend as much as I thought it would with my color palette. Part of the problem is that the pink I chose for the main wall came out darker than I had intended it to come out. I like it A LOT, but it doesn’t match the couch as I thought it would. But whatever, it’s there, Alex and Marlowe love it, it’ll work!
  • Marlowe snuck an airhead candy into her mouth on easter– then hid the wrapper in her pocket. Sneaky sneaky. I guess her cousins had some? We had a talk about it later– because as some of you long time reading peeps may remember– lies are my absolute most despised thing. I truly hate lies. And for me, being sneaky sort of fits in the realm. I explained to her that she already had plenty of other less junky (but still junky obv) candy that day– and that she knew better. She said she knew and she was sorry. Then I went ahead and googled the ingredient list and told her what was in airheads and she said, “omg I’m never eating an airhead again.” I think I won that one haha.
  • Speaking of which.. have I shared this thought with you?… One day we were at the zoo and this little girl was eating a lollipop. And the zookeeper told her to not feed the lollipop to the bird because it “wasn’t part of its natural diet” UMMMMM when did we decide that lollipops were PART OF OUR NATURAL DIET?! Haha. I think about this ALL THE TIME, soo if I already shared this, forgive me! But I mean… I cannot get it out of my head. Just something to think about every time you eat something that comes out of plastic wrap.
  • About a year or so ago I had suggested to Alex that we should host dinners at our house. He was not into the idea. This week, out of the blue, he says, “maybe we should host a dinner.” (Umm, yeah Alex. I already told you that). I told him that would be a fun idea and I’m into it. I talked about it in stories and apparently, A LOT of you guys are super into it too! Some of you guys said you’d even fly in for it! It would be all vegan, gluten-free, and allergen-friendly of course. Alex would cook and I’d hang and *host* it. It sounds fun, right? The initial plan was to do them in our backyard, but now we’re debating maybe hosting the first one at an event space to keep the first one more hassle-free without needing to rent furniture and dishware and all the things. But we’ll see! Could be a lot of fun! Again, we have to get settled in the apartment before anything can happen, but maybe some vegan dinners with friends will be in our future 🙂

  • I’m sure most of you have but have you heard of Greta Thunberg? I can seriously cry thinking about how freaking awesome she is. Her mother must be wildly impressed with her. I know I am. We should all strive to care so much for our own home.
  • We learned about the digestive system in home school this week. It’s something we should all know, ya know? I thought it would be fun to look up a kids video that showed the process. We found a few videos (it’s called operation ouch, if you moms are interested) and I was SO excited when Marlowe found the footage of open internal body parts interesting. I know, I’m a super nerd. But I was nervous she’d be too grossed out to handle it– but no! She loved it! And I was SO EXCITED, haha. I don’t want to be the only science/body nerd in this house 😉
  • it’s not 9:30 at night. I feel like the time between I put Marlowe to bed (around 830 or so) until my bedtime always goes by faster than I would like it to. Every night I feel like I’ll accomplish so much more before I start crashing, then I look up and realize it’s almost ten and I panic, haha. Anyone else?
  • Maybe because tonight I put her to bed for some one on one time with a friend. I just got off a facetime with my bff Lisa– you know, when distance gets in the way, facetime works. You guys might remember her from such posts as, “Happy Photos From Patan Nepal” and “Two Days in Delhi” — yeah, we get around, haha. Anyway, she’s on this side of the world now (but 3,000 miles north or so) and I’m trying to convince her to fly down to Florida and do a 5-day juice fast with me. Because being hangry together just seems like the best way to get together in our thirties, right? We’ll see how that goes! I hope it happens!

Whoops— that was 12 things! Oh well! Life is good friends! I hope you’re happy, inspired, proactive, and living your dream! Cheers!

5 Comments

  1. Oh my goodness love the pictures of the new place! Definitely gonna copy for my future house! About Marlowe eating the candy, did you ever deal with her eating things you didn’t want her to when she was in public school? I find it’s so hard to keep the kids diets clean when they go to school and eat things there that aren’t the best for them. Love your blog and your cute family! Lots of love❤️

    • Thank you!

      So yes and no. We packed her lunch, so it was never too much of a problem unless the teachers or someone gave her candy. It’s a give and a take I find. Like, she’ll have a lollipop here and there if someone gives it to her (there’s been a lot of occasions of this recently), but she’ll say no to the cookie, cupcake, of the neon-colored shaved ice. I’ve always shared with her the importance of eating REAL food– but that being said, i’m an ex junk food junkie– so things like ice cream or brownies are not that uncommon– I’m just always really clear with her on what’s in her food and chemical ingredients and I think that helps her to say no most of the time.

      • What an amazing kid! Definitely want to raise my kids to be aware. I think that’s one of the most important things, is that people are informed. I think if more people knew what they were putting into their bodies their diets would change a lot. Will definitely do with my kids!

  2. I can’t believe you were upset about Marlowe about eating a “airhead” I get the lying but OMG it;s ok eating junk food once in awhile, shes just a child, and she eats better than any little girl I know. This may back fire on you when she gets older…….

    • I can’t tell if you’re kidding? Nowhere did I say I was upset or she was punished or scolded? I’ll assume you’re kidding– since wrote (in the same paragraph mind you) that she ate plenty of other junk that day– and literally has eaten a piece of candy every day since said event since it was leftover from easter. Please don’t go reading strangers personal blogs and assuming you know everything, especially when it was written within the same post that she’s eating junk otherwise. She eats plenty of. healthy and non-healthy things just like most kids.