BLOGTOBER

Joining up with The Daily Tay and Helene in Between

So I've been thinking lately that I wanted to blog more. Except sometimes it's so hard to motivate myself. I think sometimes people see the constant go go go in my life and assume this is never a problem for me - but it is a constant daily problem. When I saw The Daily Tay say that she would be doing BLOGTOBER I thought, perfect. Except that now it's the 2nd and I didn't manage to blog yesterday. So yeah, there's that. 

I don't have any real goal for the blogging aside from blogging more than I am now. With pregnancy, a full time job, ministry involvement (here's looking at you womens ministry and lifegroup!) and feeding a house with 4 students living with us all being part of daily life it seems unwise to make a set goal that I'll only disappoint myself with. A goal of "more" works for me. 

All that being said, I feel like I'm finally hitting a groove. The month of September seemed to race by without letting me catch my breath. 3 new students (who are all around! They eat here, they hang out here, it's lovely...and more work) and 1 continued Duncan, it has been full time at home trying to keep on top of lunches, dinners, and organization. Work has been busy as well - meaning there isn't much free time in the day and this month there was a lifegroup all day event we ran (by ran I mean hosted, provided hot lunch for and prepped/taught) and a few evenings up at SFU attending the outreach our campus ministry put on. Family is as usual - tonight Paul and I are going to read to my Mom, we celebrated my Dad's birthday, I hung out with Connor for a day, and Paul's mom was here for 5 days visiting. It's been non stop going!

But thanks to the magic of the crockpot I feel like I'm finally catching up! Monday I did the thing I keep falling prey to - trying to cook a whole meal after I get home and it finally hit home, don't do this to yourself! You don't have the time! I made tuna and chicken melts and it still took an hour! Finally the reminder that crockpot meals can taste good was needed. So for Tuesday I made Crockpot Spinach Lasagne - Oh man is this dish good! It took 20 minutes and was soooo tasty. It was met with great reviews. (I had a salad that night since I can't eat the noodles). Then last night I made Crockpot Creamy Potato Soup - instead of using 2 packages of hashbrowns (which I didn't have) I used 3 cans of diced potatoes with 1 whole chopped cauliflower and blended it before serving. So so so good. Last night was so easy with that crockpot soup (and we had enough left over for lunches) that I had all sorts of energy - I watched Nashville and prepped the food for todays crockpot adventure Slow Cooker Bacon Corn Chowder. It felt so good to throw it in the crockpot so easily this morning. 

When my home is running smoothly I feel like I'm running smoothly. Right now my pantry is a mess - no one seems to care where things belong so they just shove things in, which means it's chaos in there. It feels like there is chaos in the pantry of my heart. Cheesy? Yes. But true. I keep making the choice to rest rather than deal with it and I do think that has been the right choice but Friday in the day, Friday I will deal with you pantry. You will be pretty and organized and chaos-free. Just you see. 

I just found a folder I haven't blogged through - some outfits from this year...

And as I reviewed these I noticed a trend - cardigans, button ups, boots & stripes. It's also worth noting that I actually only wear boots at work like twice a month because they are a pain to pack on my bike ride. So apparently I only take a photo when I wear boots because I like them so much. I actually do look nice the other days, self! 

But oh, that black and white plaid...I love it! I wore it a lot all winter and just rediscovered it now that cooler days are upon us and am reloving it! I wore the above Plaid & Orange outfit again this past week (first time since winter) without the boots and got so many compliments. Wait until boot season, it'll be even better!

Also I found this picture of Paul and myself at Crystal's wedding during our speech and it made me smile...classic us. Dang, I love public speaking with that man. 

Also that reminds me that I still haven't blogged about this wedding! At this point it seems way to late but hey, we're coming up on their 1 year anniversary, might it seem less weird if I make it a one year later post? And that uses up a day in BLOGTOBER. That's for sure a plan now. 

Since I'm apparently just talking about whatever comes to mind this seems like a perfect opportunity to tell you that I've just discovered Dry Cleaning. My dresses are so clean now! And smell so great! I love seeing them in the closet all clean and such. There is a dry cleaner one block from our house - so helpful! And it's not too expensive there, $14 for a dress! Decent price. It makes me feel like SUCH AN ADULT to pick up clothes at the dry cleaner. When I would see people on movies or tv shows do it I always thought they were so special and fancy. 

Well admitting my strange thoughts on the "people who use dry cleaning" seems like a good time to leave before I start to spout even more about "the things I think fancy people do." Spoiler a few examples are: drive onto ferries, order delivery food, use dry cleaning, start a tab at a pub with a credit card, drive downtown to work and pay to park there!!, serve appies before a meal, know which glass to serve which beer or wine with (Nate, I'm looking at you, and you're most definitely not reading this), and lastly, enjoy and eat caviar**. 

**It seems important to note that this is the only item in the list that I'm not jealous of.