I hope to continue posting here occasionally, but if you want to know what’s going on in my life, check out Ever After Blueprint!

If you love to read, you will enjoy this book. I guess I don’t really stop to think about why I love to read. I know the standard answer is that you love to be transported into places and times you wouldn’t know otherwise, and I do enjoy that. But I also love how comfortable I feel when reading. I love words, and how a carefully crafted phrase can so eloquently express exactly what you are feeling. I don’t feel that I am always able to express myself well verbally, so maybe I retreat to books to see how others do it.

I have underlined and dog-eared many pages in the book already, about how a writer has an unspoken contract with the reader and that readers are endlessly curious – I definitely fit that description.

I’ll leave you with this line about fiction “Every fairy tale offers the potential to surpass present limits, so in a sense the fairy tale offers you freedoms that reality denies.”

Trader Joe’s is a specialty grocery store, but it’s affordable. Here’s my pitch: The thing that makes TJ’s unique is that they are committed to providing the best products at the lowest prices. Almost everything on their shelves is TJ branded, eliminating the middle man. Many of their products feature natural or organic ingredients and don’t have high-fructose corn syrup.

I think the first TJ’s I went to was in LA, and I definitely loaded up my suitcase with goodies to bring home. Maybe even a bottle of wine (back when you could bring liquids through security). Now whenever Adam and I go to Chicago or St. Louis, or really any where, we always look to find the closest TJ’s. I don’t know what we’ll do when we can buy our favorite granola bars and peanut butter and salad dressing and cookies any time. I’m sure the novelty will wear off, but it’s definitely going to change my grocery shopping! The only downfall is that the store is in West Des Moines, where I rarely go, but I’ll be heading there more often now!

I can’t wait to try some of their frozen foods. That’s the one thing I’ve never been able to buy. Any recommendations?

This trip was to San Francisco and the Bay area where we now have two sets of friends living (and where the company Adam works for is based). We were spoiled with a sailboat ride from Sausalito under the Golden Gate Bridge and back. Everyone said it was the nicest weekend they’d had all summer. 80 degrees and sunny. Pretty perfect if you ask me. (the photo above was taken from the boat, I didn’t have to zoom in at all!)

After sailing under the bridge, we decided to walk across it. It’s quite the engineering masterpiece. Our friend (who is a mechanical engineer) told us that because it was built in the ’30s (1937 to be exact), it was actually over-engineered, which made me feel safer as we walked across it while 6-lanes of constant traffic whizzed by.

Now that we’ve walked across the bridge, I’m curious to learn more. Our friends tell us there’s a good documentary about the building of it. I will say, that we had no idea how long it was until we were about half way across it with the wind whipping around us and realized we still had a long ways to go. Someone said it was 1.2 miles (which is farther than I thought), but Wikipedia says it’s 1.7 miles. Maybe it’s 1.2 across the water and the other .5 is leading up to it. Either way, we were glad we didn’t have to walk back over it. Our friends met us with the car on the other side.

Like I’ve said before, I love the mountains, but I think if I had to choose, I’d have to go with the water as my favorite natural environment. There’s something about being out on it, even in the bay like we were, surrounded by this huge, bustling city, that makes me feel calm. I take deeper breaths and just enjoy.

I love driving through the redwood forests! We ended the weekend at Half Moon Bay, walking along the beach, sitting on a patio with glasses of wine and good conversations with friends.

The first day of fall was last week, and the days are noticeably shorter but summer temperatures are lingering. That means I can still wear skirts to work with close-toed shoes (no tights yet) and run outside in shorts and a t-shirt without humidity.

Most of the trees on our street are oak, so their leaves haven’t started turning yet, but around the corner a maple tree is in fully glory. I think it’s showing off, its branches aflame in crimson and burnt orange, dropping its leaves slowly creating a crunchy quilt below. The rest of the trees will turn soon, turning the streets into a sea of color, but for now this is the lone star.

As much as I talk about moving somewhere warmer, closer to the mountains or the ocean, I do love the changing seasons. The smell of dry leaves mingling with smoke from bonfires. Hot apple cider and pumpkin spice. It’s a season of comfort.

Part of owning a house and having a yard is mowing the lawn. This is Adam’s job in our house. He likes doing yardwork and I’m happy to let him do it. The garden and flowers are my thing, the grass is his. It’s that simple. That said, he isn’t always here when the grass gets long. So this week, I took it on myself to do the mowing.

Really it wasn’t that hard, so I can’t take too much credit (I’ll remember this next time Adam makes a big deal about it!). I have no idea what kind of mower we have, but all I had to do was pull the cord to start the motor, then be sure to hold a lever back to keep it going.

I will admit it’s kind of awkward maneuvering it around our little back yard. For some reason I had it in my mind that it would be more like vacuuming, but instead of dust and dirt to pick up it was grass. I also have a new found respect for people who mow designs in their yard or baseball fields, but I’m guessing they use a riding mower for that.

I love to read. It is a love that my mom instilled in me at a young age and I hope to share with my children. I always have multiple books going at once and look forward to finishing one so I can start the next.

So of course when I saw a link today about the Modern Library’s list of 100 best novels I had to check it out (and see what I’d read). Surprisingly, I’ve read very few from either the Board or Reader’s list. The Great Gatsby, Sophie’s Choice, and Fahrenheit 451 are ones I can check off, but it looks like I need to add some Ayn Rand and Henry James to my list.

What have you read from the list? Any recommedations?

Picking flowers from your garden and bringing them inside to enjoy.

I have always loved zinnias. They are so cheerful and colorful, so of course, they were one of the flowers I knew I had to plant the first year we had a garden. They took a while to bloom, but they were worth the wait. The only thing I’ll change next year is getting a larger variety.

Canoeing with friends

Over Labor Day weekend we visited our dear friends Brad and Kelsey who live in Coralville and went to Lake MacBride. If you are in Eastern Iowa, it’s a great place to visit!

Picking grapes!

For the 4th year, Adam and I headed to Summerset Winery to pick and stomp grapes. These bunches were almost too pretty to prune. It’s one of the highlights of our year! We ended up with a case of wine (what can I say, my husband, loves his wine) and had a great time.

All in all, life is good. We are very blessed!

I don’t have to be told that I’m apathetic. It’s so easy in our society to care one minute, read some news stories, maybe even say a prayer for those suffering, and then go on with our daily life. I’m not saying that everyone needs to drop what they’re doing and run to the nearest disaster to lend a hand, but sometimes I wish it weren’t so easy to go on with my life like nothing happened. I wish I could do more.

The cover story of the July/August issue of Relevant asked the question, can Haiti be saved? It will take more than money to rebuild the country with its history of corruption and devastation. I learned that there is no free public education in Haiti. Less than half the population can read. If its young people, the future, aren’t educated, all the money in the world won’t be able to save them.

Relevant is partnering with Convoy of Hope to rebuild 3 schools that were destroyed in Haiti. Learn more about the project and pledge to make a difference. My hope and prayer is that in the coming years we will see how God used this tragedy to transform this country.

Technically we had a front door at the condo, but it opened to a hallway. Some people hung wreaths, but I didn’t see the point. So a few weeks ago when I was at Hobby Lobby and I saw the fall wreaths, I had to get one (and they were 50% off). I made myself wait ’til September to hang it, and I love it! I’m not going to be the lady with wreaths for every season, but there is something about a nice wreath to welcome guests into your home.

I’m afraid the glass door will squish it a little, but it will be fine.

Also, I love our old wood front door with its leaded glass window. It creaks and stink with the humid weather, but that’s just part of its charm.