It's SUMMER.

Sorry, folks. I've been oddly absent lately. This is going to be a short post, but I wanted you to know that I'm alive and well.

Summer has started off with a bang. Today is my last day of work for my second week back to my old job. Wowza! Confused yet?

I used to work at The Coffee Company while I was in college. I had to take some time off while I worked for housing and then I worked during my last summer of college and during student teaching. Crazy enough, I'm back at it, after an almost 2 1/2 year hiatus!

It's so nice to be back. I love coming home from work and being physically exhausted instead of mentally exhausted. It's a change of pace and scenery...and I like it that way.

So--if you want some coffee or beans, stop in or order online/via phone (only beans can be shipped, it'd be weird to ship a latte)!

I also have finished planting my entire garden! Kyle might want me to plant a few more onions, which I'd be happy to do. I just counted 4-6 rows of onions, 4 rows of carrots, 3 rows of radishes, 15 tomato plants, 5 pepper plants, 9 potato plants, approx 15 feet of beans, 4 feet of peas, 7 cucumber plants, mesclun, swiss chard, and 4 hopeful watermelon plants.

Who knows what will actually be fruitful when we're all said and done. But if we get something, I'll be happy.

I know this is super short, but I just wanted to let you know that I'm still alive. And that I will be back to this space a little more often now that summer's routine is a little more predictable.

We have a few adventures to keep you posted on: Kyle is keeping bees & I'm going to be writing a sponsored post (my first!) for Wild Moon Salsa, see the deets over on their page.


Stay tuned and Happy Friday Eve!

A little switch up...

So, because we're terrible people at life, Aubrey and I realized that currently our Book Club discusses the same day as The Life of Bon. We cannot have that! We both love reading Bonnie's blog and would be so sad (the saddest of sad, really) if we made her mad by having our Book Club on the same day as hers. 

That being said, we are going to try things a little differently this time around. For February's discussion, we will be trying out a coffee shop vibe. On the last Saturday of February (which just so happens to be the very last day in February--the 28th) we will be having a coffee shop date. We want you to grab your coffee, tea, hot chocolate, iced tea, milk, orange juice and bagel, and join us as we discuss this month's book. 

During January, we didn't have much response in our book and discussion. So we are hoping that in making our time together more relaxed, that you'll feel more comfortable joining in.

Throughout the month, as you're reading Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie.

"Menagerie was Williams's first popular success and launched the brilliant, if somewhat controversial, career of our pre-eminent lyric playwright. Since its premiere in Chicago in 1944, with the legendary Laurette Taylor in the role of Amanda, the play has been the bravura piece for great actresses from Jessica Tandy to Joanne Woodward, and is studied and performed in classrooms and theatres around the world. The Glass Menagerie (in the reading text the author preferred) is now available only in its New Directions Paperbook edition. A new introduction by prominent Williams scholar Robert Bray, editor of The Tennessee Williams Annual Review, reappraises the play more than half a century after it won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award: "More than fifty years after telling his story of a family whose lives form a triangle of quiet desperation, Williams's mellifluous voice still resonates deeply and universally." This edition of The Glass Menagerie also includes Williams's essay on the impact of sudden fame on a struggling writer, "The Catastrophe of Success," as well as a short section of Williams's own "Production Notes." The cover features the classic line drawing by Alvin Lustig, originally done for the 1949 New Directions edition."  --Goodreads

Like before, we'll try to have the questions/points of interest/discussion/etc up that week before our coffee shop date. --It may be something like Monday or Tuesday before we discuss.  But we promise they'll be up.

Link up with us as you're reading and after you're done. Come back and leave comments and we'll go from there.

If any other changes surface, we will let you know with ample time. *Honest*

A reminder...book club starts soon!

Just a reminder! We are talking about Night next Thursday right here!

And it's not too late--in case you've not read it, take a look at the synopsis below and come back tomorrow to ch-ch-check out the questions we'll be discussing next week.

"Night is a work by Elie Wiesel about his experience with his father in the Nazi German concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald in 1944–1945, at the height of the Holocaust and toward the end of the Second World War. In just over 100 pages of sparse and fragmented narrative, Wiesel writes about the death of God and his own increasing disgust with humanity, reflected in the inversion of the father–child relationship as his father declines to a helpless state and Wiesel becomes his resentful teenage caregiver."  --Goodreads

What we're all about.

I just realized that I don't have an "About Us" section on this here space. And though many of you probably know us personally, I thought it would be a good idea to fill everyone else in.
*Plus, then it's here for future reference as well and I'll update it as needed.

This is me. From almost 5 years ago. 

It's one of my favorite pictures.

This is Kyle. On his birthday.

He hates pictures.

We are both Midwest born and raised who met at college and became friends. Seriously. 

Two and a half years later, we decided to try this dating thing. 

13 months after our first date, we got engaged. 

Less than four months later we were married. 

And now, five and half years after we met, almost three years after our first date, and 18 months after our wedding--we are in a home with a dog and real grown-up jobs.

We love Jesus, family, friends, our home, and the challenges life throws our way.

*I'm fairly confident that I can speak for Kyle when I say these things. 

I love to read, crochet, quilt, bake, and cook, and be busy almost all day long. 

Kyle loves music, reading, projects, and alone time.

We get along real well. :)

We plan out our meals based on silly names like "Taco Tuesday" or "Weftover Wednesday". Every Friday is our homemade pizza and a movie (or T.V. show...depends on the week) night.

We drink coffee like it's going out of style.

There's a Husky tool cart in our dining room...as our kitchen cart. The entire top drawer is filled with loose leaf and bags of tea.

I love my iPhone. Kyle forgets he has a mobile phone.

Butter and cream are staples in our home. *Thank you, Kyle*

We have so many cookbooks that they get their own bookshelf.

This is just a short snippet into our lives. Get to know us. We'd love to get to know you.

On that note, if you want to know more about us or have questions, feel free to leave comments below or contact me through this here blog. 

Book Club starts soon!

How in the world can it be December already?! It feels like this school year was just beginning. And not long after Kyle and I spent time in Duluth.

Just this last weekend we celebrated Thanksgiving with family. Now we've got both feet into December and there's no looking back. Before we know it, we will be ringing in the new year in a new house, hopefully!

I know you've been waiting for a house update. I don't want anything to fall through, so once it's finalized, you'll be the first to hear. Honest!

You may've noticed that I added a new tab to the top of my blog last week. Aubrey and I are teaming up to bring .... "The Second Chance Book Club"  to a computer/phone/tablet screen near you!

Take a look at it. We are really excited to have a "second chance" to read books that weren't taught in high school or we read but didn't fully appreciate the first time around. We'd love to have you join us. We've even created a button for you to put on your blog when you join up with us!

The plan is to take turns leading the discussion every month. Hopefully you won't get sick of either one of us by then!

Stay tuned, because we'll be posting more about it in the next month leading up to 2015!!! Crazy!