dream house

Just because I'm dying for some green landscapes! It's a rainy day here (but a little warm finally), and this house with the green trees is so perfect. (From Page Goolrick)

bests of the week

1. Best Ever: Daniel's mom had a successful triple-bypass heart surgery, and we are all so relieved. It will be a while before we get to talk with her, but for now, we're just happy she's doing very well and is being cared for by good doctors and nurses. Thanks to all who have had us on your minds.

2. Best reunion: I had an amazing reunion with my friends from Faith Academy in Chicago! Seeing familiar faces was wonderful and a bit dream-like. I'm still wondering if it actually happened. As soon as I get a chance, I'll post some pictures.

3. Best publication: "Eat Well" from catapult magazine (via *cino) is in editing and will soon be available. I helped Rob and Kirsten last night, and it's looking delicious!

4. Best headline: from the ny times: "Tibetan high school children scaled a brick wall surrounding the United Nations compound in Katmandu. They were served dumplings on the other side." Sounds like a happy ending to me.

unplugged

We made it! It's now March, and the sun is out. What a month, that old February. One day longer than usual and it feels like it lasted a decade.

Winter has been so hard on us this year. Daniel's mom has had heart troubles and is scheduled for open-heart surgery, so he went to visit but ran into visa trouble, so he's been stuck in Lima for an extra week. My Grandpa Crosswhite had a spill on the Maryland ice and is still recovering from hip-replacement surgery. Some close friends of ours decided to separate because their marriage has been crumbling. Life comes at you fast sometimes.

But with the sunshine, things seem to be looking better. Winter may last another month, but it can't last forever. There are little signs of hope in each part. I think Daniel is en route to Grand Rapids right now, next week is spring break at Calvin, so I am taking some time off to just be at home and enjoy my time. The butterfly exhibit is now at Meijer Gardens, and it's always a treat.


My book club is reading Eat, Love, Pray, so I started it last night and it's very good, so I plan to finish it as slow as I can. Over break, I have lots of plans to choose from. Like trying some new recipes. The latest Catapult issue is again about food, and I'm inspired to buy some new (well, used actually) cookbooks. For a while now I've had my eye on Extending the Table, the Alice Waters book, The Art of Simple Food, not to mention Michael Pollan's, In Defense of Food. So many books. Those are just a few on my FOOD list. Actually, Daniel and I are gathering a list of food movies (complete with appropriate snack suggestions for each) to contribute to the next Road Map from Catapult. So, we may have to spend some time watching movies. Tough life, I know.

Speaking of movies, my other plan for spring break is to try a little of this. A day without a phone/computer/TV/iPod and on and on. In small doses, sounds like peace.

On the days when I'm not taking vows of technological-silence, I will be here happy to share the little goings ons!

there's a first for everything

I'm smiling all over as I write this... and it may be silly to be so proud of a simple thing. But I'm very proud because I've been published in this issue of my coworker's online magazine, Catapult (part of the *Culture is Not Optional network). PLUS, someone from Calvin read my article and now they are publishing it in a Calvin publication called "Hearts and Minds"!

If you haven't read any Catapult articles yet, check their back issues. There's some really fantastic stuff on there, and it's very fun and flattering for me to be a contributor. You can read the newest issue called A Field In Winter here.

flickr + pet animals = happy

These animal polaroids make me smile.... (via Oh Happy Day)

Learning to Love your More

This website makes me so happy. How much fun would it be to work through all the assignments? The thing is, every time I discover something like this, I get super excited and happy, then someone comes along and is like, "oh, that. I discovered that like um, forever ago and it's so tired." I just have to say to anyone tempted to say this, I'm still super excited about the idea and I don't think ideas like this grow tired.

take a look for yourself... and notice the recently released book collecting assignments.

resolutions

One of my goals for this new year is to wake up earlier. Since I don't need to be at my job until 9 or 10 (usually), it's been easy for me to sleep in and rush myself. The other morning, I woke up at 7:20 and Daniel had built a fire. We sat and talked in the sunshine while drinking coffee, and it was such an amazing way to start the day. So, my "goal time" is 7:00 AM.

This website is my reminder and inspiration that this can be done and it's great. (but I'm not shooting for 4:30 AM like the writer)

move forward

The big news around our house is our new housemate... Peter! Peter is my little brother who just transfered from a school in Florida to Calvin. Despite the blizzard outside right now, he seems to be adjusting back to Michigan nooooo problem. He's going to be the best student at Calvin because the poor kid has to wait around ALL day (meaning, 9 am to at least 9 pm most days) for me and Daniel, so he's getting lots of homework done. Today was the first day of classes and he's already done all his homework through Thursday.

We are so excited to have him here. Now it's me and three boys... Daniel, Peter, and Conrad. I need Katy, Ellie, and Laura to come visit and revive girl time.

This semester is going to be a good one, I can just feel it. I'm responsible for WAY less weekends than any of my time at Calvin so far. That means I can actually have time to do other things than work at Calvin and work at home. All of Daniel's classes are at night, which may be a good thing... this way he can get a lot of work on his documentary done during the weekdays and weekends can take a break.

For now, it's a quiet beginning. I'm working on a baby blanket for my friend, Emily, who is expecting (for now, we're saying it's for "bean")!! Daniel set-up an office in the basement (our old office is now P's room). We've been eating our canned tomatoes, peaches, and pears and WOW... I'm so glad I did all that work! My favorite is a recipe for a crunchy almond topping over the fruit and you bake it for about 30 minutes... it's so good, someone usually eats the whole tray by breakfast the next day.

favorite things

oh I am dreaming of these blankets from Jacaranda! Each one is a work of art, taking 3 months to make. Maybe someday... if we EVER meet our savings goal, I'll get one. The yellow or orange? or maybe red? It would make our bedroom so bright and spring-like in this snowy white winter. (Thinking like this will never get me to my savings goal...)

bookin' it!

Ah yes... I've found my new preferred mode of transportation. Well, actually, I don't think it moves when someone is sitting in it. But isn't this the funniest chair? It can hold up to 80 books! If Daniel and I have kids we won't buy them jungle-gym sets (or zungoo sets, as Eddie used to called them). They'll get this for hours of reading adventures! :) I say now, not remembering how much energy 2 year-olds really have. (from Nils Holger Moormann)

coughing-in the new year

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! Daniel and I had such a great time. We went to Stevensville for Christmas, and it was amazing to have everyone back together this year. What a blessing. After the 25th we went to Chicago for 3 days just to have a little vacation. The weather was pretty cold and snowy, but we had a great time. Highlights included cajun food from Heaven on 7, a rock and roll exhibit at the Contemporary Museum of Art, and a wonderful used bookstore. It was great to just get away and rest. Our first afternoon there, we walked from the train station to our hotel (the Allerton - an old Chicago hotel), and ended up just watching a movie on TV and talking and sleeping. At one point Daniel said to me... "look around. There's nothing you need to do!" What a relief.

We spent New Year's eve at our friend's house here in Grand Rapids. For the first time I experienced the amazing taste of Oli Bolli (I have no idea how to spell that). It's sort-of a Dutch doughnut with currants and powdered sugar. Delicious!

But the last 3 days, I've been sick with a flu/cold. Now poor Daniel is sick too. so we've watched a lot of TV (NOTHING is on in the afternoon on basic cable), reading, and sleeping like hibernating bears. I totally missed the warm weather we've had here. To be honest, it's nice to have some time to just think and rest, even under the influence of TheraFlu and lots of tea. Plus, I've had a chance to read a bit... my friend Kirsten from work lent me the first book in the Cornish Trilogy called "The Rebel Angels". It's set in the context of a university and has only provoked my longing to go to graduate school.

so I will actually be happy to get back to work after the confines of our upstairs room. This weekend Katy has her Miss Stevensville pageant, so we will be cheering for her between coughs. She'll probably win, because she is the most beautiful, smart, and talented girl I know.

Christmas video

Merry Christmas!

This is my first attempt to upload a home video to the blog... does it work? We went to our favorite park for a little vacation celebration with Conrad. Speaking of vacation... yes! It's upon us! 2 blissful weeks of no work at Calvin. We went to a new Grand Rapids restaurant to rejoice... it's called The Green Well. We give it 4 yule-logs (out of 5). Especially because of the amazing cauliflower-coconut milk-curry soup. Not to mention, all food is locally raised/grown. In Michigan, that means duck is on the menu. It's not too bad.

In other news, Daniel's first batch of beer turned out really great! We were a little freaked to try it, but it's a good first time attempt. It's a bit on the flat side, but good nonetheless. I'm getting better and better at knitting too. I would post pictures of my accomplishments, but they may be under the Christmas tree of a few family members, so I don't want to tip my hand.

Our friend Joy let us borrow her bread machine for a little while. The first batch: herb bread with our wonderful dried home-grown oregano and basil. I made the bread (well, the machine made it) last night and the loaf is almost gone. This could be dangerous. :) No Atkins diet around here! Winter always becomes soup-season for us, so now we will have amazing bread for sandwiches and toast!

decking the halls

This looks like a really fun decoration. I have to be careful not to do too much because then the house looks really cluttered, but I think I could hang a couple of these in the window... click here for instructions.

joy joy joy

deck the halls of 1039 griswold!! we found a great family-owned and operated tree farm in Allendale - complete with hay-rides and popcorn balls! It was a little muddy, but we had a flurry of big snow flakes to make it feel more like a Midwest holiday season (oh, and not to mention a recently shot deer hanging from a tree... yikes. some Midwest traditions I could do without).

And look at what we came up with! Daniel found this beauty of a (douglas?) fir and we got a little carried away with the height, ... what a Christmas tree!!

happy thanksgiving!

gobble-gobble all the way through the weekend! Our wonderful friends Chris and Lisa shared the day with us, and what a day! Lisa is an amazing chef. and Chris shares my love for all things Christmas, so he snuck some Christmas music into dessert before we all watched "Elf". Conrad's cousins, Bella and Peanut, are visiting for the holiday, so we have a full house!! Daniel and I have so much to be thankful for, we are bursting.

granny erin

Just call me granny... I'm learning to knit. :) Yes, it's true. When you live in Michigan, and you know you have at least 5 months of nasty weather ahead, well... crazy things start happening. You develop a taste for the $7 red wine from the corner store (instead of opting for the lovely reds from the specialty store 7 blocks away), the tea-kettle becomes your best friend, the first 20-minutes of your day are spent looking for slippers, weekends revolve around movie times at the discount theater, and projects - particularly the crafty type - occupy your mind and hands.

I really love the changing of the seasons here. And I love the chance to do some different things like knitting in the winter and gardening (well, weeding really) in the summer. We've had a few fires in our fireplace, but this fall has been so mild, just now we are actually feeling the cold. The garlic I ordered from Seed Savers finally found its place in our backyard today... apparently this is the time for that, and it feels like an appropriate ending to a warm season. Seeing as I've never planted anything other than houseplants, I thought something with the name "hearty" and "German" might have the best chance of success. We'll see, I guess.

As far as knitting goes... I'm just beginning. Maybe I'll ask for some books for Christmas. For now, I hope my family is ready for all the scarves coming their way. If only I knew someone who was having a baby... baby blankets would be a good step-up.

autumn in GR

This past weekend through tomorrow (tuesday), Daniel's brother and sister in-law are visiting from Lima, Peru! We have had quite the busy time with them. First, it rained... actually, it poured, on Friday (their first day here) which wouldn't seem like much more than an inconvenience to us, but because it never rains in Lima, they were amazed by the weather. It was their first time experiencing rain in 5 years! We did some major shopping and went out to San Chez for tapas and sangria.

Saturday was so beautiful and 70 degrees out, so we took advantage of it by strolling the farmer's market and enjoying Meijer Gardens. I cannot believe I don't go there every weekend... well, it's $13 to enter, so maybe that's why. But what a lovely treat to visit that place. Sunday we took them to our church - which probably was very strange for them as they are not used to a liturgical service - and had lunch at our favorite Gaya Cafe. We walked through Plaster Creek park with Conrad and soaked-in some of the fall colors then shared a very "autumn" dinner of root vegetables, butternut squash, chicken, and apple pie with our friends Emily and Jeff.

so, it's been a very fun and invigorating time!! All of the seasons are so gorgeous here, but I really believe Fall is the very best. The food, the colors, the air... it all comes together. We've had a good time catching up and hearing funny stories about the family, very sad stories about the earthquake and the aftermath, and showing them our life here at Calvin and in Grand Rapids. It's been a nice little break in the midst of the semester to remember how to enjoy the place we live.

haircut time

These are some of my favorites... right now my hair is longish in the front and mulletish in the back due to lack of hair cuts for almost 3.5 months. yikes. so, the cuts that are shorter are more realistic... and the long red hair is just too cool not to put on here. If I had long hair and lots of money to keep up with dying it, that would be what I'd LOVE to do!

worker ants

Daniel and I are like worker ants, storing things up and preparing for the Michigan winter! We've canned peaches, pears, and beautiful heirloom tomatoes from Trillium Haven Farms (our CSA). We've chopped and frozen all the eggplant and peppers we couldn't eat now. Daniel built a beautiful fence in our back yard so we no longer have to chain Conrad up or shiver in our snowy slippers while waiting for him.

It's been fun and busy! I think we both feel like real homemakers now. All the little changes and improvements - from every day cleaning to new hand-built shelves in the office - make 1039 Griswold feel more like it's ours. Of course, for every project that we finish, we think-up about 12 new ideas for more we can do! That's where I'm actually really thankful for the four seasons here... we get breaks from taking care of the yard. yay!