2015 Goals Review

With 2016 nipping at our heels, it seems like a good time to look back on the goals I set for 2015....

+ Stay positive
I spent a lot of my younger years calling myself a "realist". This is the first year I can honestly say I felt like I looked at the world with a positive (albeit skeptical) eye. That's not to say I haven't always had a relatively positive outlook on life, but this year I really tried to see the good in every person and situation. I tend to be very quick to judge people, so whenever I caught myself doing that, I brought myself back around to a more positive way of thinking. I'd say this goal was a success! (Yes, I'm positive about that ;D)

+ Be more present, more aware
This is an constant struggle for me as I seem to go through life with my head in the clouds most of the time. I felt slightly more grounded this year though, which means I was more present, more aware. I think yoga has helped a lot with this; I've certainly been more aware of myself and how my thoughts and actions can affect everything else in my life... Being more aware of my immediate surroundings will always be a work in progress though.

+ Shop local
Hm, this could go either way. While I was definitely more conscious of where my food/clothes/materials were coming from, it didn't stop me from buying things that weren't local. I think I succeeded in the overall philosophy of the goal, but not the goal itself... does that make any sense?

+ Keep up a regular yoga practice
Heck yeah I did! I went to at least one class per week all year, but usually more like 2-3 classes per week. I tried to practice at home at least once on the weeks when I couldn't make it to class. And I attended two yoga workshops! Both for arm balances, both informative and so much fun. This is a goal I'm super proud of achieving after not having a regular yoga practice for the past four years.

+ Participate in an Instagram yoga challenge
Nope, didn't do this. I'm still a little camera shy, especially when it comes to social media!

+ Run another 5K
This did not happen. This wasn't even thought about; I think I ran consistently for about two months at the beginning of the year, and then not at all.

+ Post more recipes on the blog
I actually succeeded at doing this! Still not nearly as many as I would have liked to have posted. But here are a few favorites from this year: whole wheat banana chocolate chip muffins, browned butter espresso brownies, turkey stuffed peppers with poblano crema, roasted summer vegetable quiche, and iced key lime pie fossil cookies.

+ Keep reading
Well, I didn't read much, but I certainly did keep reading! I also read pretty much only books off of my bookshelf, which helped me pare down my books a bit. I would have liked to have read more, but hey, there's always next year!

Speaking of next year, I guess it's time to start thinking about my goals for 2016....

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B.Read List 2015

I've been slacking on posts lately; I just realized I have a bunch of drafted posts I completely forgot about. Mostly because I never ended up editing photos for them. Hm. Well, here's a quick one for ya!

Favorites: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams; Naked by David Sedaris
Least Favorites: The Master and Margherita by Mikhail Bulgakov; Blindness by Jose Saramago
Re-reads: The Books of Lost Things by John Connolly; Naked by David Sedaris; The Fuck-Up by Arthur Nersesian; 32 Stories by Adrien Tomine; Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman

To summarize: The list is short this year. My reading goals for this year were to read one book per month and to read only books from my bookshelf. While I didn't come close to accomplishing the one, I did accomplish the other (mostly)! The re-read list is long this year because most of the books I read were books I had read way back in high school and early college years. It felt good to re-read them and finally take them off the shelf for good. I cheated a little because I went out and bought the first three books from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, but I'm so happy I did because they were my favorite books to read this year! I'm currently part-way through the third book; once I finish I'll have to purchase the rest of them. I can't help but hear it in the actor's voices from the movie version... does that happen to anyone else? I just picture Mos Def and Martin Freeman the whole time I'm reading the books!

Just a note about the two books that were my least favorites - they were both gifted to me by friends long ago! The Master and Margherita shouldn't even be on this list because I did not finish it. I just couldn't bring myself to keep reading. And Blindness wasn't terrible, but it was terribly slow-moving. I don't feel any better off for having read it.

What did you read this year? Anything you'd recommend?

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Merry Christmas

Here's the holiday card we sent out this year; a virtual version for all of you!
Merry Christmas!

(Family photo by Rebecca Gudelunas)

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Project 365, 349-355

349/365: Our left-overs anniversary dinner! Pulled pork bacon burgers and fries. And beer. And whiskey.

350/365: Shutterfly offered me a free magnet with our holiday card order... of course I picked a photo from our wedding. I love it!!

351/365: I love how it looks as though the hop is blowing space dust on the succulent candles. Except it's more like real dust, honestly.

352/365: Speaking of candles, I've been remembering to light this one. It's starting to get interesting!

353/365: Shawn doesn't write grocery lists on paper like a normal person.

354/365: My friend Alina saw this in Sweden and thought of me! It's a tomte. Basically a Swedish Santa-gnome.

355/365: We joke that Lloyd likes to get his tan on. He's always seeking out the sun; Sylvester, not so much.

Just wanted to pop in and say, Hey! I'm still here. My work schedule has been different because of the holidays, and holiday parties, and all that jazz. I have two weeks worth of blogs to catch up on in my blog reader.... so if you're in the same boat as I am, here's another post to add to your feed that you won't look at until after the new year!

Merry Christmas-Eve!!!

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Second Year Reflections

On Monday Shawn and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary. And by celebrate I mean, I worked until 4:30pm then we spent an hour figuring out where we should go eat, walked over to the restaurant and found it too busy for our liking, so we walked around the block while weighing our other options. We finally decided to pick up a six-pack at the deli down the street and make the most of our left-overs at home. Of course it was lightly raining during this whole charade (the kind of misty rain that doesn't seem like much but then you realize you're soaked from head to toe and you've only been standing in it for a few minutes...), so we were drenched by the time we arrived back home and thoroughly pleased with our decision to choose the couch over a cold pair of bar chairs. We ended up putting on Netflix's Bill Murray Christmas special while making pulled pork bacon burgers and fries. Yes, you read that correctly... our leftovers consisted of a half pound of ground beef, a little over a cup of pulled pork, two strips of bacon, and a few whole wheat hamburger buns. There's nothing like starting our third year as a legal couple with some over-the-top indulgence, no?


The first few months after we got married pretty much everyone we know asked us "So what's it like being married?"... at the time, it didn't feel any different. Shawn and I have known each other for eleven years, and have been living together for over five of them, so getting married really didn't feel like any significant sort of change. But now that we're two years into this thing, I've changed my tune. Forgive me for this awful metaphor, but....


Marriage is kind of like two people on a row boat together. You can both coast along and hope to get somewhere eventually, or you can put in the effort together and enjoy the ride. Sure, one person can row the boat on their own, but that's a lot of weight to push without the help of the other person. And as anyone who has been in a row boat knows, it’s not always a fun ride, and one wrong move by either person can rock the boat and then you both get wet (although sometimes, falling into the water isn't such a bad thing because you're more determined to row that damn boat once you both climb back in). But if you can enjoy the scenery, and you're both willing to put in the effort, the ride is beautiful.


Was that awful? That was awful. But I think it gets my point across.... relationships take work. Not all the time, I mean, a lot of the time it's smooth sailing (see, there I go again!) and those are the times that make it all worth it. Being married is a whole different beast, because you're tied to that person for real. It shouldn't change how you feel about each other, and it certainly shouldn't make things more difficult. But it should change your perspective at least a little bit. Relationships can be a bit selfish and still work. But marriage isn't selfish. A marriage takes two people. I'm not saying you need to give up being yourself, (Please, don't ever do that. You are amazing!), but you have to figure out what it means to be your best self when you're with that other person. Most of the time, that means setting aside your ego. Most disagreements happen because one person is too proud to let the other person have their way. Marriage is a give and take, and sometimes you're the one doing the giving, and other times you're the one doing the taking. These past two years have been a journey in finding the balance between the two.


Dude, you can't row that boat on your own. But you can watch the sun set over the lake's horizon every evening and cherish those moments together, and the work it took to get there.

(All photos taken by the lovely Rebecca Gudelunas of Wide Eyed Studios. We wanted "Christmas-y photos" for this year's holiday card. Don't worry, you'll see that one once I know everyone has received theirs! Also, I realized Shawn and I haven't had any decent photos of the two of us together since our wedding! So forgive me for this schmoopie-heavy post.)

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