This is My Winter Song to You

I was born to January, with its freeze your nose off frigid winds and crystal white blankets.

I was born to the month of rebirth, the starting of new, the clean slate with its promises and potential. Many of the people I love most in this world were introduced to the world in the cold winter months, my husband and brother both born in November, as well as my best friend, and my sister in October. These are some of the warmest people I know, the hardiest too, which makes sense, battling the frost of the world since their very start.

I love the winter like I love my people, a New England winter and no less. I sit here in the cool of Arizona with my people far away for longer than they have ever been from me before and memories have such a warm gleam. I like that though; being able to think of the cold harsh landscape, too thin gloves, trying to clear the foot of snow off your windshield so you can make it to school on time, with such positivity and love.

This will be my first complete year away from home ever, my first full winter without snow, and for that I don’t know how to feel. I understand that life is like this, that change happens and you must accept it, and I do, it is just a funny thing, something you don’t always realize until after it has already happened. This everlasting August, will it ever cease and break open like an egg being cracked, releasing all of the mess of winter upon us? Will we just slide through the seasons for the next two years we are here, only realizing we have lived all of that time once we are nestled in front of our fireplace of our future Vermont home. I see the latter yet I do not know; I am but a pendulum, swinging and swaying, suspended in space.

Foodie Booty, A Life of Conscious Consumption

I was lucky enough to be raised by health-oriented people; my parents both are very much into staying active and eating healthy. I really attribute my parent’s exotic pallets, and therefore mine, to my grandma and grandfather, my mother’s parents. My grandfather was ahead of his time with his ideas about organic clean eating and living a non-consumeristic lifestyle, and raised my mom with those ideals. My grandma came over from Korea shortly after her and my grandfather were married there and with her she brought a lifetime of exotic eats, an amazing cook, whom later started her own award winning restaurant. I was raised eating a salad with my dinner every night, and fruit with my breakfast every morning, no red meat, only turkey and chicken, and absolutely limited amounts of processed foods. 

I have been a vegetarian now for just about seven years and I’ve loved almost every minute of it. I decided to do it when I was about 14, on this save the world kick, as well as weighted with all of the middle school self consciousness of a hormonal girl of my age. One of my best friends had recently gone vegetarian and encouraged me to do the same, that I would feel way better, be able to keep weight off, and save the world at the same time. The first few months were the hardest, but my mom helped me experiment with new options and substitutes, and now here I am, with an extensive repertoire of meals, and appreciation for new foods I had previously never tried before. I see myself keeping this lifestyle for the rest of my life, and passing it on to my children, because it really is an amazing way to stay healthy, and just a little thing we can do to make the world a better, more humane place.

It can sometimes be hard to come up with ideas for meals, but in reality many meals you have been eating before you went vegetarian, you can continue eating with the meats substituted out with alternatives such as beans, texturized vegetable protein (TVP), cauliflower, eggs, tempeh, tofu, and all veggie products you can find in the vegetarian section of the freezer aisle at your local supermarket. I have had a bad experience with eating too much soy when I first became a vegetarian that involved hormone imbalance, plus soy is super processed, so it is the alternative I use the least. I prefer cauliflower, TVP, beans, eggs, and veggie frozen products when I am too busy for anything else. Here are a few good websites I have found that have had some delicious vegetarian recipes to get you started:

http://www.thekitchn.com/beautiful-beans-15-delicious-r-142106

http://spoonuniversity.com/cook/make-5-dinners-for-under-25-only-using-ingredients-from-trader-joes/

http://www.buzzfeed.com/spoonuniversity/i-hate-salad?utm_term=.bcdbykOl4#.bwQZgozVa

http://www.yummly.com/

And For This I Am Grateful

This week has let out into a tide pool of lovely times with beautiful people; my heart is full. Early Friday morning me and my hubby, dazed and glazed my lack of sleep and over excitement decided we would latch on to my two consecutive days off with vigor, and travel to Phoenix, a trip we hadn’t done in over a year. Us having corresponding time off from work is a pure eclipse, and definitely shouldn’t be passed away watching TV draped limp over limb on our faded green Goodwill couch. We got into Tempe a little after 1 pm and wandered around, the rain clouds that had darkened the morning breaking to a humid heat. I showed Jake a store I really like called Buffalo Exchange, where you can sell your old clothes and buy vintage finds and endlessly beautiful shoes. He picked up some shorts with the tags still attached, quite the score for $8, and a graphic tee and we moved along, grabbing some yummy lunch at a chill pizza place called the Mellow Mushroom. They have a pretty nice menu with an abundance of delicious sounding vegetarian foods, I got the marinated tempeh, and Jake got what he thought was a Rubin, but disappointed him with some vegetarian substitute.

Feeling a little more refreshed we got back in the car and headed down the avenue to Mesa where Jake’s aunt Roselyn lives. It was so lovely seeing her, being almost a year since we’ve gotten to visit; it feels a bit like going home which is comforting. She told us it was 10 years since she moved out to Arizona this past August and for that I congratulate her. I guess if I got to chose where we live in Arizona I wouldn’t mind Mesa, it seems pretty nice, I just can’t handle the lack of green in the desert. Eventually Roselyn had to leave for a job and somehow, amazingly, I talked Jake into going to Ikea with me! I love Ikea, maybe it’s the prices, maybe it is how everything is so adorable, maybe it’s the fact that it gets me excited about our someday house, orrr maybe it is the fact that you could literally sustain life within it’s walls with the cafeteria, grocery, plant nursery and house dioramas. Let’s just say I promised Jake it would be a quick in and out and we came out 3 hours later with a tub full of stuff. But hey, we didn’t spend that much and we have bought almost all of our things thus far, second hand. After returning to Mesa we chatted the night away with Roselyn, laughing about how ridiculous the news is these days, and the healing power of animals.

Saturday was another day of loving on old friends; we met up with one of my oldest friends, Molly, whom is in her junior year at ASU. We started, catching up in the dusty stacks of a hodge-podge bookstore, while my hubby obsessed over a second hand BC Rich Warlock black electric guitar, aka something he has dreamed about since he was six years old. Needless to say we left without it, only to come rushing back a few hours later because of regrets and good deals. Once the rain cleared we ran around Mill Ave in Tempe, eating bowls of black rice and shrimp, sweet potato hash and beef, kale and some of the biggest crotons you have ever seen. After a bit of hectic driving and 89 cent cones we found ourselves in one of the best parks I have ever been to, something my inner child wished I were still small enough to climb up, slide down, and swing on. Then the time came to hug and say goodbye, we dropped Molly back off at her apartment, gassed up, and with the night as our cloak, crept back down to a little spark in the middle of a great desert known as Yuma.

On the Move: Tips for an Easy Journey

This week I will be sharing some tips on how to move into your first house/apartment cheaply and easily. Moving is exciting, but can be very stressful so being smart about your move is very important. I recently packed up all of my things into duffle bags and suitcases and moved into an empty four-bedroom house on the opposite side of the country, thousands of miles away from home. I had been planning the move for over six months with hours of research and emailing, and still had unexpected kinks arise. The key is to give yourself enough time in advance for these things to happen, and for you to be able to change your mind if better things come along. I had my heart set on about four different houses before I finally decided on the house we live in now, and I am happy with my decision.

It also really helps to have some sort of helper in the place you are moving to. I was very fortunate to have a wonderful friend (thanks Charity!) to help me with things I was not able to do myself in Arizona when I was still in New England. I also had some very nice people help me that I am still yet to meet, that I got in touch with on the military wives page here in Yuma. It is possible to do a move unseen, though a lot of landlords are hesitant to rent to someone that hasn’t seen the property until move-in.

When it comes to research and actually finding a home in the place you will be moving to I highly suggest utilizing more than one search engine in order to give yourself the most variety possible, and find which one has the best fitting housing for you. I used craigslist, Facebook renters and real estate pages, Zillow, Trulia, and Military By Owner, when I was looking for a house, and found our current house on a craigslist ad just a few weeks before I flew out to Arizona. You want to make sure that have an idea what you are looking for in a home, whether you want an apartment or a single family home, a condo, or even a home share. Think about home many bedrooms and baths you will need, if you want a yard, and if you want to be in a private neighborhood or just in a residential area. Your list can be extensive as you would like when it comes to specific preferences, mine was pretty long, though some things you will probably end up having to negotiate on, because let’s face it, everywhere has its faults. A lot of real estate search engines give you the option to narrow your search by preferences, for example, number of bedrooms or baths, square footage, swimming pool on site, or style of home (condo, apartment, house, trailer).

Once you have found a place you are interested in you can then go ahead and contact the assigned agent. Be specific and don’t hold back with your needs and abilities, you don’t want to waste your time if they aren’t willing to work with you. It is a great feeling when you find someone that has exactly what you are looking for, and is willing to help you find a comfortable rate and lease period.

At this point all of the long hours of research have finally paid off and you are ready to start the physical move. Downsizing is key when moving. I gave away many things, and sold a lot as well, which really was to my benefit, because I was freed from worrying about moving furniture, and I made a little money to buy new things for my new home. I am a very thrifty person so this was somewhat easy for me, but I can see how it can be hard for others. Once we were physically in our new home we began searching for new furnishings and supplies, but took our time doing so. This can be a really fun part, but you should take your time doing so, because it can get quite expensive. We either got our supplies and furnishings as gifts, or found them second hand (and quite cheap), at thrift shops, and it has been so fun! Both my husband and me are absolutely in love with second hand shops, something I will get into at a later date, but it has really helped us stay in our budget while making our house homey!

            I hope this was helpful! Leave a comment below with your experiences or tips on moving, I would love to hear from you! Have a wonderful week!

Time to Contemplate.

Hello my lovelies, this week has been the definition of busy, but I have somehow still found time between work and school to spend some time with my hubby. I promised myself I would give up working full time just to finish out the semester, but that was about two months ago now. Here I am, stressed all of the time, either standing for six plus hours at work without a break, at class, or working on homework, leaving little time to just be with my husband, not even mentioning cleaning the house. I thank the gods that I took a year off after high school just to be, with no major engagements, because if I hadn’t this would be year seven of constant stress.

In times like these I try to step back and assess my situation for what it really is, appreciating the things I am lucky to have and overlook daily. For this I have made a list.

                                      Rewards in My Life

Ø  A big, fat paycheck overtime put in literally paying off.

Ø  Days off and corresponding schedules with my husband.

Ø  Being recognized as employee of the month at work.

Ø  My hard work in school paying off with good grades.

Ø  Blessing of having a name dripping in vintage elegance.

That last one may sound a little random; I just decided when I moved out to Arizona for good, that I would start going by my full name for the first time in my life. I have been complimented many times, even if it is due to the fact that pop culture has suddenly been reawakened to my name with the release of the new movie Age of Adaline. I think that old names have a certain amount of aged charm to them though and thank my parents for their choice in naming me, the last of three, such a rich name. Someday we will endow our children with names so strong and deep that they will leave a sweet taste in the mouths of those that speak it, and for that I am eager.