Rethinking the Automatic

I'm a big creature of habit. I thrive on routine. Little things, like taking a sip of water and putting chapstick on right before I lay down to sleep, to big things, like grocery shopping every Sunday, really make me feel comfortable in my life.

One place that has always been comforting to me, because of the routine of it, is church. You can walk into any Catholic church and hear the same prayers, the same mass.

Until now.

The church has released a new translation of the mass - one that is supposed to be closer to the original. For the last few weeks, the changes have been outlined, a couple at a time, in the bulletin. The first week or so, I was pretty okay with getting on board - it's really just a word or two changed here and there for the most part.

But as we've been getting more and more changes, I'm feeling more and more unsettled about the whole thing. For example, this week's bulletin outlines changes to the Eucharistic Prayer.

A sampling currently goes:

Priest: "The Lord be with you."
All: "And also with you."

It's being changed to:

Priest: "The Lord be with you."
All: "And with your spirit."

Changes like that feel so hard to get on board with. It's so ingrained in me that having to change what my automatic response is is going to take some doing. I feel that when these changes go into affect next year, I'm going to walk into church and feel lost - and that's nerve wracking to me.

I'm really going to miss the familiarity there.

Well, the weathermen were wrong

Today's weather forecast was calling for a rain changing over to sleet and then snow later in the day. The forecast was a colossal failure. By nine this morning, this is what our backyard looked like:

You can sort of see against the grill cover how fast the snow was coming down. It snowed continuously until about two this afternoon, and since then it's alternated between snow and sleet.

And, our snow total has been upped from 6-9" to 14+".

It's officially one week until Groundhog Day. If Phil sees his shadow, we're going to have words!

Spring Dreamin'

We're gearing up for yet another winter storm. So, what did Mark and I spend our evening doing?

Picking out seeds for our garden, of course!

I had some time yesterday to finally look through all of the seed catalogues I'd gotten in the last few weeks. I circled TONS of stuff in the Burpee catalogue so we went to Home Depot tonight to see what they had. They had a lot!



We got: Zinnias, Cilantro, Chives, Parsley, Basil, Rosemary, Dill, Oregano, Thyme, Pickler Cucumbers, Regular Cucumbers, Small Gourds, Bell Peppers, Hot Peppers, Zucchini, Spinach, Eggplant - and Catnip for the kitties.

There's a few more things that I'm planning to order - onions, garlic, mini watermelons, blueberry bush - but I'm already SO excited about this garden!

Now only if the weather would start cooperating...

The Disney Tapes

During dinner tonight, Mark and I were discussing the fact that two of our favorite TV shows have been moved to Friday nights. Apparently it's like the kiss of death of shows and they're usually cancelled not too long after. I'd hate to see either one go.

The fact that I care seems odd to me - I've never been much of a TV watcher. Growing up, my parents didn't really like us watching much and then when I got to college I didn't have the desire.

I double-majored in journalism and history - neither of them, individually, sound too bad but it meant four years of tons of reading and writing. By dumb luck, I always ended up in classes with heavy subjects. In journalism, I covered triple murders a few blocks off campus and spent a semester researching how prepared the state was for a nuclear disaster. In history, I ended up in classes about human sacrifices among early native cultures and the history of conflicts in the Middle East.

I loved every minute of it, but when it came time to relax I just couldn't bring myself to watch anything heavy - I needed mindless, happy entertainment. I needed the Disney Channel.

The cable company in the area didn't carry the Disney channel so everytime Mark would go home he'd tape hours of my favorite shows - Lizzie McGuire, Kim Possible and Phil of the Future. I watched those tapes over and over and over. I knew all of the words to the Go Figure movie. After a while, they'd get static-y from so much use.

I loved those tapes. I loved that Mark would make them for me. I loved having them to watch while I did homework. They were my happy place.

Today? I'm big on Fringe and CSI marathons. It's funny how fast tastes can change.

I can't wait to DIY re-do this!

At the family Christmas party last month, my Aunt asked me if I remembered the gumball machine she used to have at her apartment way back in the day. I didn't, but apparently I was enamoured by it when I was little. It's been sitting in her garage and she wanted to know if I wanted it.

Of course, I said yes. This baby came home with us this weekend:



My Aunt repainted it - the stand is an antique red and the machine itself is an off-white.

And, it doesn't work so it's currently filled with marbles.

We're going to see if we can't get it to work. How fun would it be filled with Skittles or M&Ms? Especially if you could change up the color based on the season. I'm also planning to repaint it - possibly a black base and hot pink machine. It's going to live in my office so I'm thinking those colors would go well.

I can't wait to see how it comes out!

Another Homey Touch

When we got the frames for the guest bedroom prints, we also got frames to hang on the staircase. The screws were already in the wall and we just happened to have three 8x10s around suitable for framing.


From left to right they are pictures from our engagement shoot, one we had take on the cruise this past fall and one from the wedding.

Adding stuff to the walls is making everything much more homey!

Recylcing Christmas Cards

When the Christmas un-decorating was done, I had a big pile of Christmas cards that had been hanging on the wreath:


I left them up longer than any other Christmas decoration because I love seeing the pictures and notes from friends - it makes me feel so loved! But, the season's over and they needed to go.

So I pulled out my craft scissors. My Dad got them for me a few years ago for Christmas. I pretty much have every decorative edge ever made.

And I use them to cut out the pictures from all of cards we received this year. It's an easy way to recycle the cards - I'll be using them as gift tags next year. I'd love to say this is my own, creative idea but it's something my Mom has always done.

We got a lot of photo cards this year too, so I cut out the pictures from them and put them on a photo board I had in my office. It's a nice way to keep the photos all year to enjoy. Next year I'll switch the pictures out for updated ones.

Of course, if you don't have time to cut up your cards - or don't want to put in the effort - you can still make sure they're recycled for a good cause. St. Jude's Ranch, a non-profit organization that works with abused and neglected children, collects used cards fronts and gives them a new life to raise money to support their operations. You can find out more about their Recycled Card Program and the address to mail them to on their website.

Guest Bedroom Re-Do

Our second finished room! Or, finished for now at least. This room is one of the three upstairs bedroom and the one that is currently dedicated as a guest bedroom.

When we moved in, it was a little boy's room. And, it screamed little boy:


We gave it a fresh, neutral coat of paint and got a new bedding set for the bed in there.

We also swapped out the colorful fan blades for white ones so it would blend into the ceiling.

For the one wall that was completely blank, we added some artwork. These are all prints of watercolors done by a Boston street artist of sights around Boston Common and the Boston Public Gardens. We picked up the prints when we were in Boston in October visiting friends and Mark did the framing.

Again, the room still needs some things - curtains, maybe something on the wall by the bed - but it's more us than the bright blue we started with!

Another Snow Day

As expected, we got more snow dumped on us last night. About eight inches worth. Mark and I both planned to work from home today because of it, so it was a fairly leisurely morning - with a pretty nice surprise.

Mark went out to shovel a little after seven this morning, just as the sun was coming up, and took some fun pictures of the house blanketed in snow.



Pretty, huh?

But, the surprise was hands-down the best part of our snow day. We woke up to this:

Someone had plowed our driveway! We hated on shovelling so bad last storm that this was an incredibly welcome sight. A bit of a mystery, though, since neither the street nor any of the neighbors were plowed out yet.

Later in the morning, while Mark was out cleaning off the cars, a blue truck stopped by and asked him if the plow job was good enough. Mark said yes, and the truck took off before he got a chance to ask the guy if he had plowed us and why.

Mark talked to one of the neighbors and they said the truck wasn't familiar to them and the previous owners never had the driveway plowed so we're still not sure what happened. Our best guess is that they plowed the wrong address - but hey, if that means we don't have to shovel we're not going to complain!

Our Dining Room Re-Do

Remember when I promised you pictures of the yard work we've done? Yeah, I never got around to taking the pictures before the snow got here so it looks like they'll have to wait for spring.

But, we do have two rooms redecorated and semi-done! First up, the dining room.

This is what it looked like on closing day:



The walls were a dark purple color - it didn't look bad when the previous owners had it set up, but it's not our style. And a very, very dirty light fixture. And, you can't totally tell but the curtain rod is covered in vines and fake flowers. Ugh.

And, here it is today:




We cleaned up the light fixture, took the funny stuff off the curtain rod, gave the room a nice, new grey color and added in our new furniture. I'm so loving the china cabinet. My wedding china finally has a home!



The painting was - by far - the worst. The purple paint was uber shiny so when we went to put on the first primer coat it just ran down the walls. Such a mess! Mark ended up having to buff the walls in spots to get the primer to stick.


I love the clean look of the gray with the wood. We still need some new curtains (I have no idea what I want) and some art for the walls (also not sure what exactly to do) but it looks so much better already!

Snow, Snow, Snow...

We got a few more inches of snow on Friday and Saturday. They're expecting more for Tuesday into Wednesday. It's safe to say that we're officially in that time of year where shovelling becomes your regular source of exercise.

It's my least favorite time of the year. I feel like everyone's cutting back because of holiday over-indulgences and - as a whole - nothing much is going on. And, everything is tentative: it depends on the snow.

Because of all this, a little excitement goes a long way.

Like, when the mail truck got stuck on our street Friday afternoon.

We had a few inches on the ground by then - and no plow to be seen. The mailman mis-judged where the drainage ditch was and got the right side of his truck stuck.

I'm the awful neighbor that sat in my front window taking pictures. A better neighbor than me went out with a shovel and got him un-stuck.

To be fair, he was stuck for less than five minutes. It was still the most exciting thing that happened all day.

My Favorite Christmas Tradition

As I was packing up the Christmas decorations today, I realized I totally forgot to blog what we got from our last CSN order!

One of my favorite Christmas traditions growing up was my Mom's Christmas dishes. They were nothing fancy, but they were a sure sign Christmas was coming. I didn't realize how much I loved them until our first Christmas at the apartment - I really missed having Christmas dishes.

Mark and I had talked about it as something we'd do someday - something we'd like, but wasn't a priority. Just after that first Christmas, we ran across a set of Winterberry dishes on post-Christmas clearance. I was in love - and Mark indulged me.



When CSN offered up a code for the sake of a review, I knew it would be a great time to add to my Winterberry collection. We ended up with a salt & pepper shaker set and a cake plate:

(Pictures from CSN)

CSN's prices always impress me. The salt and pepper set was half the price on CSN that Amazon listed it for. And, the shipping was super fast - I got my package about two days later.

Apparently, the word's out about my collection, too. Both Moms got me a piece for Christmas. At some point, I've going to have everything Winterberry!

Do you have a special set of Christmas dishes?

One year ago today...

I was introducing you guys to Kali and Rocky. I can't believe it's been a year already.

Rocky's really come into his own this year. It's funny to think about those first days when he was too skittish to let us pet him and ran for cover constantly. Today, he pretty much owns the house. He loves wrestling (terrorizing?) Kali. He loves running up and down the stairs. He spends most of the day snoozing on our bed - and if I don't join him in the afternoon he gets disgruntled and will come downstairs and plop himself in my lap and demand to be cuddled. He hates missing nap time.

Kali's pretty much the same. In that first post, I said that Kali just hopped out of the cat carrier and was ready to go - she loved us instantly. That holds true today. If you're willing to play with her and cuddle, she's more than happy to be your best friend. She follows you around like a puppy and loves getting into everything. Even her surgery this summer didn't slow her down.

I really can't imagine life without them. They make home so much more homey!

We Joined the Church

I called the church yesterday and officially signed Mark and myself up as parishioners. It was something I'd been meaning to do since we moved in but just hadn't gotten to. It's the first thing we've done to cement ourselves into the community. It feels good.

We've been going to the church for months now - it's right around the corner, literally. We couldn't get any closer.

And the fact that it's nestled into our neighborhood makes it feel very intimate and homey. They collect food for the food bank continuously and did a angel tree for Christmas. They have pancake breakfasts and pie sales; bingo and basket raffles. It's exactly what you'd picture a small-town church to be.

It's also the first thing that's making me start thinking in terms of the current house. Up until this point, when I think of things, I'm still picturing the apartment. (Like, when I need to run for groceries, I still picture the old grocery store in my head. When I think of "the mall", I think of the one by the apartment - not the one 5 minutes away.) Now, when I think of church, I think of walking the two blocks over.

I can't wait to grow with this church. I'm excited to get to know the other members and am hopeful that some day I'll be able to name most of them as I sit in the pews - just like I could when I was growing up. And, it's fun to imagine walking over with our whole family someday to have our future kids baptized or receive first communion.

For the first time since the move, I can really picture our future here. And I like it.

New Years Resolutions

Even though I've dubbed this as "the year of nothing", I'm still making resolutions. It's nice to be able to focus on a few things just for me instead of having something big to prepare for. And, for the sake of accountability, I'm posting the resolutions here:

Take a vitamin daily. This is something I've tried to do a few times before and always fall off the wagon because a) I have a hard time swallowing pills and b) the chewable ones taste awful. I recently found out Target carries adult, gummy vitamins. I'm hoping they do the trick.

Find an exercise I like doing and stick with it. My biggest problem with exercising is I'm lazy and if something isn't exciting enough I don't feel the need to keep doing it. This year, I want to find something that won't get abandoned after two weeks.

Continue to eat less processed foods. The was something we started doing last year after I read In Defense of Food. We've come a long way since then but I still want to do better, which leads me to...

Start a garden. We've got the beds in place and tentative plans on what to plant. The ultimate goal (for some year down the line) is to be able to grow all of the produce we consume during the summer.

Read at least 50 books. I read 64 in 2010 and would like to keep my reading pace fairly consistent.

Cook at least one recipe from each cookbook I own. And, if I can't find a recipe I want to make, get rid of the cookbook. I currently have more than 70 cookbooks and very few ever get opened. I figure this will be a good push to use them more or clear them out. This one I'll be chronicling over at my food blog.

Have you made any resolutions for 2011?

Welcome to the Year of Nothing

Does that sound strange? Because it sounds glorious to me.

Since I graduated college, I've had at least one big thing every year - something that's a relatively big life change and takes a bit of adjusting.

2010 - Bought the House
2009 - Got Married
2008 - Got Engaged / Moved in Together
2007 - Graduated College / Got my current Job

And before that it was a parade of part-time jobs, school and extra-curricular activities to chew up my time. I've always been busy.

This year? We've got nothing planned. No big life changes. No big trips. No big events. Just a whole year of enjoying where we are in life. I can't wait.