Like Ordinary Life

Albion Fit Giveaway

Tue, 21 May 2013 06:01:12 -0400

I don’t know if you’ve heard, but this weekend is Memorial Day weekend and that means summer’s here. It’s sure beginning to feel like summer in these parts, at least (read: humid and muggy). Speaking of summer, I’m really bad with my beach wardrobe. In fact, I haven’t bought a swimsuit or beach cover-up since I gained my post-college weight nearly five years ago. It all still fits so I kind of leave it at that. Needless to say, I was pretty psyched when Albion Fit contacted me about reviewing something from their swimwear and fitness clothing line.

If you’ve never heard of Albion Fit before, let me clue you in. They’re the real, made in America, family owned, earth friendly deal. And they’re mission is to provide us ladies with flattering, comfortable workout apparel at a decent price. Winner.

Anyway, they sent me the awesome Balboa tunic dress and I think it’s pretty awesome. So does my beach wardrobe. The fabric couldn’t be any lighter and they airy feel is to die for. Plus, I’m kind of in love with the length. Shorties unite! Finally a beach cover-up that doesn’t swim on us!

Definitely enter to win this tunic for yourself in either white or black down below! We can be like beach cover-up twins and it will be great. Plus, use the code ordinary15 now through May 25th to receive 15% off any online order. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Business of Chasing Dreams

Mon, 20 May 2013 05:00:42 -0400

image source

My dad started giving money to William & Mary when I was in elementary school. The alumni magazine started to arrive quarterly in the mailbox stuffed between all of the bills, Cosmo Girl, and letters from my pen pal, Maggie Dougherty. The conversations started around then, too. It was a great school that would make me an even greater writer and wouldn’t I just love to go to school in Williamsburg?! Subtle, though. At least subtle enough that by the time my college hunt really went underway, the whole idea was off the radar.

I’m an idiot.

As I turned the midpoint at JMU, near the end of sophomore year, I remember sitting in my adviser’s office working through the next two years. His office was stuffed floor to ceiling with resources on journalism and public relations and the corporate media and Garfield. Everyone loves Garfield. That hole of an office was such a mess. But, anyway, it took us about two minutes to realize that I would be fulfilling my graduation requirements a semester early and wouldn’t that be wonderful? Mom and dad said no to turning my art history minor into a second major and so my second minor in writing was born.

It was fun while it lasted. No, I loved every moment of it. But who does anything with a degree in writing and rhetoric? I still don’t know. So here I am. Catching up to 27 years of forgetting to chase my dream with any serious pursuit or commitment while being occupied with all of these other, better ideas instead.

When you play tag, the whole point of the game is to run toward the other players. You run your little butt off until you’re huffing and puffing and your legs start to jiggle under the weight and the pressure. And then, when you have those kids within your reach, you stretch out as far as your little wingspan will take you, leaping, bounding, and tackling as you go. Nobody likes to be “it” but what’s even worse is to be “it” and never tag anyone else.

Dreams are just about the same. I don’t think anything could be worse than feeling them slip out of reach, racing exponentially faster in front of you while your heart rate rapidly increases and your knees begin to buckle under the weight. Especially when you are just starting to recognize them for what they really are.

So there you have it. I’m chasing 27-year-old dreams because I’ve been too stubborn and too busy to realize they’ve been right there, right in front of me my whole life. And it’s an exhausting, emotionally deadly struggle, let me tell you. But I kind of like to think that I’m only one or two giant leaps away from being within their reach. Well, it paints a nice picture at least. So here I go with giant strides and flailing arms. I can rest when the game is over.

The Sunday Currently {32}

Sun, 19 May 2013 15:49:00 -0400

& then the world lay still

reading some F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tender is the Night. My Coralie Bickford-Smith edition came in the mail yesterday and I just love reading a gorgeous hardback.

writing…. yes. I will be writing this week. I didn’t write much last week because of preparations for our big weekend. Everything should start to look more like normal here soon.

listening constantly to Janis Joplin these days. I’m on a kick. Don’t you get those from time to time?

thinking how incredibly lucky we are to have such great friends and family. We had one of those all play and no sleep sort of weekends. And it rocked.

smelling the mint, lemon and lime from my ice water. Detox, ya know?

feeling this hollow sense of calm that falls upon me after every busy, exciting, crazy time in my life. My mom and Jim just got back on the road for Michigan, the house is finally cleaned up from our barbecue yesterday and Alex is taking a nap upstairs. Quite a difference from only six hours ago.

hoping to spend the rest of the day with my cats and my book.

wearing an old Madewell tee and my Matchstick jeans.

loving this fat, grey furball that sits on my lap as I type away right now. Baci and Misha spent the majority of the weekend hiding underneath our bed from a white, cat-eating mini schnauzer and masses of humans they cared little to appease. I think they are happy to have their house back.

wishing for a visit from Mr. Golden Sun. Please shine down on me. These grey skies can move along now.

wanting a soft cross breeze, two trees and this. Wouldn’t that be perfect?

needing a nap. In fact…

Did you miss the other Sunday editions of Currently? No worries. You can find them all here.

And head on over to link up with Lauren.

I Married for Love

Thu, 16 May 2013 06:01:05 -0400

photo credit Jodi Miller Photography

I met my husband on April 28, 2007 at a mutual friend’s 21st birthday party. The next night, the dude actually called me. Two weeks later, the semester was over and he was stopping by my house five minutes before I hauled out of there for the summer “to pick up that extra box of spaghetti if you’re really going to just leave it on the shelf over the summer”. A month later, we were madly in love.

We spent our senior year hating each other. Two overachievers figuring out where our lives were going and trying to keep emotions out of the picture. We fought a lot to keep the annoying love thing to a minimum. Lessen the blow come May, you know? So he pretended like he would be going straight into his PhD in psychology somewhere, anywhere they would accept him. I pretended like I would be at some big wig pr firm in any city anywhere in the country except the south (because I hate the heat). We had the world’s best poker faces most days. And we were not going to pretend to do that whole long distance relationship thing.

Perhaps we sabotaged it all on purpose, or perhaps life just has a way of surprising you, but none of that really happened. And by mid-July we were moving furniture into our first apartment, back where I grew up in Annapolis. Life happened and here we are, five years later; still madly in love and not a penny to speak for it.

Jenni’s prompt today was to share something difficult about my “lot in life” and how I am working to overcome it. So there it is. I didn’t marry for money, I married for love. And these days it sure seems hard to have both.

To say we think about, worry about, stress about, and even fight about money would be an understatement. It’s not even that we can’t make ends meet, because we can, but it’s more so that we aren’t left with much wiggle room. And, really, it’s that we didn’t ever plan to be here, as underpaid teachers, in the first place. Things happen and my husband’s dreams of going back for his PhD are slim. My dreams of moving back into public relations in post-recession America diminish a wee bit more with each year that passes. Cost of living is high and our mobility right now is low. What are we doing about it, you ask?

My mom always told me that “if it happens to you, it’s your fault” and I grew up owning that idea. She also told me that you can’t help who you fall in love with. Together, those words of wisdom have shaped our marriage. We control our destiny. Things aren’t easy now, but when will they ever be easy? We could sit back and just complain about money some more. But we’re not. We’re making changes and making plans and it’s all going to be our fault.

It doesn’t really matter what “lot” your given in life. It matters what you do with it. If it happens to you, it’s your fault. So start making positive changes. I didn’t marry rich. Yeah, it sucks sometimes. But I married my best friend and love and together we can move mountains if we need to. And that’s a hell of a lot better than sitting back and blaming anything or anyone else.

Make it your fault. And be proud you did.

P.S. If you want to see more wedding pictures, because, you know, weddings make everyone happy, you can see more here.

One Day, Twelve Moments

Wed, 15 May 2013 06:56:00 -0400

We finished watching Silver Linings Playbook last night and it’s left me in the same sort of love story funk that I get after watching Garden State or Breakfast at Tiffany’s or really any movie that looks at love from a not-so-perfect angle. It’s raw and it’s real and it’s ugly I’m pretty sure these sort of movies are the closest Hollywood will ever get to truly documenting love.

So along those same lines, I found today’s prompt of documenting a day in my life to be rather cathartic. May is no man’s land in education. The kids are done. The teachers are done. June is still weeks away and the work still piles up. I find it to be terribly ugly and nothing to write home about.

But isn’t that the point? Wasn’t the point of this challenge to find beauty in the most mundane details of our daily lives? It was unseasonably cold today, the sky stuck in that grey awfulness that forces me to wear sunglasses like a fool because otherwise I’ll come down with a migraine, and I accomplished just about half of what I planned to do. But it was a day in my life.

And I found beauty. Whether it was in the fresh bunch of peonies I arranged for our guest bedroom or in the patterns of my grade book, I found it today. The trick, however, is to find it every day.

Friend Connect Blog Hop

Tue, 14 May 2013 22:41:00 -0400

So awhile back I teamed up with Melissa to co-host the Friend Connect Blog Hop. We’d love for you to add your blog to the list and for you to visit some new friends while you’re here! You can choose to follow the co-hosts in whatever way is best for you. The blog police won’t come after you so go ahead and choose your weapon of choice: GFC, BlogLovin’, HelloCotton, RSS, Twitter, Facebook.

Ok, so let’s get to the party, shall we?

RULES are simple:

1. Follow your host

The First link below

2. Follow your co-hosts

The Next 8 links below

3. Link up below using your main blog url not a specific post.

4. Make sure to visit some of the blogs in the link up and follow them

and if you want to leave them a comment, I’m sure they’d appreciate that as well.

5. Tweet about this blog hop

Project Green: Go Baby Grass, Go!

Mon, 13 May 2013 03:01:03 -0400

It has been an honor to sponsor The Home Depot Garden Club over the past two months. I feel truly blessed to have them finance and support my lawn project. As always, the words, pictures and video (!!!!) in this post are solely mine.

So, let’s summarize what Alex and I have been up to in our front yard. Here goes it then….

PROJECT GREEN from Tina Byland on Vimeo.

Aw. That was fun, right? I will be suggesting Baci and Misha for best supporting actor and actress to The Academy this year. I told them to start learning English so they could give their acceptance speeches when the time comes.

This has been an education. We knew our lawn was bad. In fact, we knew it was terribly bad. The truth is, we had no clue where to start. We’re still learning, for sure. I mean, you saw me using the seed spreader… that thing has a (very fun) learning curve.

So I thought I’d share with you the little things we know for certain on the other side of this project:

* Weed killer’s are fantastic. We used this one. But you’re still going to have to rake them out. And that still stinks. Bigtime.

* Fertilizer is also fantastic, but make sure not to overdo it. Many of you have been clued into our other lawn project via instagram. We dug up half of our front lawn last week and it got a bit muddy in the process. When went back to The Home Depot to pick up some more seed to lay down, we were wise enough to realize that this time we shouldn’t get another bag that included fertilizer. Our lawn already had fertilizer in it. We actually ended up buying a bag of Scotts Turf Builder Sunny Mix. You guys. This seed is baby blue!!!

* If you’re really nice to mother nature, she’ll give you rain every day for two whole weeks. Or just about. We’ve been extremely lucky with the weather since planting our seed. Especially because our spicket sprung a leak last weekend. How do we know, you might ask? Well, when I went to water our lawn, Alex went inside to see water gushing through the drywall on the other side of the wall! So, since then, it’s been either borrowing our neighbor’s hose (thank goodness for living in a townhouse) or using my watering can to keep the grass wet. But, seriously, never underestimate keeping your soil and seed wet. This happens to be key. And, as a side note, the plumber is coming next week.

* Like everything else, growing grass requires patience. I peeked out our bedroom window to see if our grass was growing every single morning. People say it takes about ten days. And it does. Now we have baby sprouts. They’re adorable.

So, there you have it. We’ve come a long way on this epic journey but it’s not over yet. We’re sort of at that point in The Lord of The Rings where Gollum falls into the Crack of Doom and you think the movie’s about over and then it goes on for another hour. Yeah. We’re like “done” but not really done. Once this week’s grass starts sprouting up, we’ll have a better idea of where our patches still lie and we’re going to have to fix those up. But, overall, I’m confident in saying that we sure look better than before!

Thanks again to The Home Depot for providing us with this amazing opportunity. It’s been fun.

Take a look back at our project here:

Project Green: The Introduction, Project Green: The Shopping Trip, Project Green: Manual Labor

It’s home improvement time, and The Home Depot has everything you need to #DigIn for Spring. No matter what projects you want to tackle, they have great values on all you need. They’re ready to help you with renovation ideas and expert advice, too.

Get over $300 in email exclusive savings each year, sneak peeks on new products, monthly lawn & garden ideas for your region and access to The Home Depot’s gardening experts. Click here to join the world’s largest garden community today! Or go to homedepot.com/gardenclub to see some of the many benefits of membership.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot.

The Sunday Currently {31}

Sun, 12 May 2013 12:55:00 -0400

madly in love with my new hanging wandering jews….

missing my family up in Michigan. Especially my mom on this Mother’s Day. This is my very first Mother’s Day away from my mom. It’s…. weird.

reading not a whole lot this weekend. It’s been a busy weekend filled with spring cleaning and gardening and bridal showers so I haven’t left much time for reading.

listening to the birds singing outside. The storms have finally passed, taking the heat and humidity with them, so the first thing I did this morning was open the windows.

smelling a clean house! Well, cleaner. I’ll be cleaning the rest of today, too.

loving how our terraced retaining wall turned out in our front yard. More on that to come later this week. If you follow me on instagram, you’ve surely taken note to what we’ve been up to!

thinking that it’s going to be hard to focus this week knowing that my mom will be here on Friday!

wanting a tan… or maybe I shoud’ve left that one for “needing” a tan…

wishing I had a maid so that I could spend all day digging in the dirt outside instead of inside cleaning the house.

feeling relaxed and calm. Even though I’ve been anything but lazy this weekend, I’m feeling good about how our house is coming together. Come to think of it, I never feel relaxed and calm if I’m being lazy. That just gives me anxiety!

writing a whole bunch of blog posts. Ohhh boy. So I knew I wouldn’t blog every day in May like Jenni’s challenge said. In fact, I already had a good idea I’d be skipping a couple prompts because last week was very busy for me. Still, I’m really excited to sit in front of this screen and type away. Plus, the last installment of Project Green with The Home Depot comes at you tomorrow! AND I MADE A VLOG!!!!!!

hoping you all love said vlog when I post it tomorrow. Eeeks!

wearing my Lucky shorts and an old t-shirt. I’m running a ton of errands after I finish this post. You know how Sunday’s go.

needing an iced hazelnut macchiato from Starbucks. Doesn’t that sound just divine this afternoon?

clicking through my favorite blogs. I haven’t been around much this week, but I refuse to miss out on any posts!

Did you miss the other Sunday editions of Currently? No worries. You can find them all here.

And head on over to link up with Lauren.

The Best Part of My Day

Thu, 09 May 2013 06:01:12 -0400

Within a week of bringing Misha home, her name changed three times and her size grew zero. She didn’t really want anything to do with humans, but at least she wasn’t hiding underneath the dresser any longer. When you least expected it, she’d hop up on your lap and kind of just sit there, looking at you. A few weeks later, she actually let you pet her. But she wouldn’t let us pick her up for the better part of a year. We thought she was such a dud. A gorgeous, perfect little siamese dud, but a dud nonetheless.

“Give her time.”… that’s what everyone told us.

And so, it all began the winter of the snowmageddon right after we bought our house. Baby girl already slept at the foot of our bed, but now she decided she deserved to sleep under the covers just like a human. She’s been there ever since. We snuggle all night long and she’s there, squished against me as close as she can get when that alarm sounds every morning. And those next few moments…. they are the best part of my day.

She usually comes to bed a few minutes after me, so she taps my face in the dark (three times, every time). That cat has me trained, it’s pathetic. I lift the sheets and under she goes for the night. My little teddy bear. We cuddle while Alex takes up the rest of the bed. And we like it that way. If I get up for a drink of water or to use the bathroom, she follows. We’re inseparable during that time and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Alex constantly reminds me that I’m going to be a wreck when she dies. And he’s right. I don’t know what what I’ll do without that little Mish’. We’ve grown rather inseparable and it’s incredibly therapeutic, having six pounds of fur love you the way she does.

I didn’t write a post yesterday. Sorry. I’m sure you’ll forgive me but I wasn’t in the mood to be doling out advice. But here’s some for you today…. own pets. Cats, dogs, birds, whatever. Share your life. The return on investment is priceless.

On Miracles and Moms and Babies

Tue, 07 May 2013 06:01:20 -0400

I’m about to tell you a story that will make you believe in miracles. It doesn’t matter who you pray to (or don’t). It doesn’t matter how skeptical you are of luck and chance and the serendipitous nature of things. All of that is about to change.

My mom calls me her miracle baby. And I am. After an entire decade wrought with constant pain and endless miscarriages, I stuck around through a full term. And then some, actually. I guess I needed a wee bit longer to bake. So I arrived, at noon on September 29th, 1986, as my mom and dad’s miracle. Over a dozen miscarriages and a number on Catholic Charities’ wait list later, I stuck it out and made it to the delivery room to meet them for the first time. My great uncle, Jack, claims he named me. Christina Marie Griffin. Plain enough for quite the miracle I was. But whatever.

Then there were more miscarriages. Twins that I was so proud to meet one day. But there were two other miracles, too. I call them Bud Mud Bud and Sister. They call me Ten Pen Ten. Together we make up the Griffin Trifecta Miracle (which I just coined right at this very moment in history). There’s over a dozen others of us that just weren’t strong enough to make it that we’ll never know. But I guess three miracles were really plenty for one lifetime, right?

This upcoming weekend we celebrate Mother’s Day and I’ll be celebrating not only because I love my mom, but because she’s the strongest woman I know and she fought tirelessly to be a mom at all.

Today Jenni prompted us to discuss the thing we are most afraid of. You know what I’m most afraid of? I’m ghastly terrified that I won’t have the same enduring strength and courage as my mom to fight for my own little miracles. The silliest part is that I may not have to wait a whole decade like my mom. Hopefully, at least. It doesn’t really matter. I’m afraid, so there.

But now you all believe in miracles and that’s all we ever really needed in life was to believe. We make our own destinies, but it surely doesn’t happen without a positive outlook. I know plenty of women who have already met their miracles. I also know plenty of women who are slowing dying a bit every time their miracle disappears yet again. And this all scares me so much.

Sometimes the scariest, toughest, most terrifying things are those things that are made up of the fibers and fabrics of what’s worth the most value.

Except snakes. I’m just plum out afraid of snakes.

Project Green: Manual Labor

Mon, 06 May 2013 21:00:00 -0400

I’m thrilled to be sponsoring The Home Depot Garden Club in this series of posts on spring lawn care and fertilizers. While they are financing and sponsoring this post, the rest was really up to me. If you’re new to this blog, I’d hate for you to be out of the loop as to what I’ve been up to with The Home Depot so be sure to catch up here.

After our shopping trip, we went to work at spreading our Scott’s Turf Builder 2 Plus Weed Control. Fortunately we were expecting rain that evening and into the majority of last week. I always say it’s best to let Mother Nature do work for you. You do have to lay the weed killer down on a damp lawn, anyways.

Let me tell you. That little seed spreader is so much fun. It gets heavy, though. You can adjust the mouth of the opening based on what you are spreading. For the weed killer, we kept it right in the center width at 3. And then, after the better part of the week, we checked back in to pull out our weeds and lay down more seed.

Now would be a good time to remind you of just how many weeds our lawn actually had. To be honest, I didn’t even realize how ridiculous our weed situation had become. The great thing about the Scott’s Turf Builder 2 Plus Weed Control is that those weeds just shriveled right up. The bad thing about the weed killer is that you still have to dig them up. Want to know the best way to tell whether you’re dealing with grass or weeds? After you let your weed killer sit a few days, brush a rake through your lawn. The roots of the grass are deep enough that they don’t even budge. The weeds, on the other hand, come right up. In our case that practically meant our entire lawn. Two gigantic trash bags of weeds and dead grass later, it was time to lay our Scott’s Turf Builder EZ Seed.

The most difficult part of this lawn project was opening the bag of seed. Seriously. That bag looks like it has a ziploc on the top but it doesn’t and as far as we could tell, it wasn’t resealable. It turned out that didn’t matter and quickly after tearing into it the old-fashioned, hapless way, we figured out that there would be nothing to reseal, anyways. We started off using our seed spreader but after pulling all of the weeds, the lawn was rather patchy so we found it easier to dump handfuls around the patchy places.

The bag is filled with a combo of mulch, seed and fertilizer. Since our weeds were so bad, the store recommended that we throw the ez seed down after the weed killer. If your lawn isn’t in as bad of shape as ours, you may be able to get away with just Scott’s Turf Builder 2 Plus Weed Control, since it’s a fertilizer as well. Not us. We’re going heavy duty here. Immediately after we turned the hose on and wet down the lawn, we could tell a difference. What only moments ago looked like a barren desert of dust and clay, looked like an actual lawn. Even if we didn’t have grass growing yet!

Be sure to check in next Monday for (hopefully) pictures of our baby grass!

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot.

Becoming Me: I Do It Real

Mon, 06 May 2013 05:00:34 -0400

I am a teacher. It’s my job. But that’s about it. I don’t feel teacher like some people do. I work teacher rather well but not an ounce of my heart more. So… what do I do?

I do the best homemade chocolate chip cookies in the history of the world and I do not give out my recipe.

I do words on paper with pens and typewriters and keyboards and pencils and pretty much anything that will take ink or pixels.

I do a nice, rich stem of Meritage or a Jack and Ginger on the rocks.

I do art. I look at the world as if each moment were a frame. I do my best to choose the right angle and the right vantage point so that my world always finds the most beautiful frame. I don’t settle for okay frames.

I do the whole maternal instinct thing real well. And I can’t wait to do pregnant. And mom. More than anything in the world, I can’t wait to do mom.

I do wife and the missus pretty well for the time being.

I do a decent job at learning how to be better.

I do big sister- as long as your cool with the sort of big sister who tells it like it is. Keeps them in their places, you know?

I do lawyer real well, too.

I do friend okay. I do wish I was better at that one.

I do big and hard love for those I keep close to me. I do the sort of love that doesn’t need “I love you’s” and silly little hugs. It’s the sort of love that is so much deeper than the stuff you can fake. I don’t need to do words and hugs for those I keep close. I do it heavy and rich.

I do me a bit different as the day’s close and the year’s pass. I’m still working it all out. But what I do know is that I am doing a damn good job of getting there. And I do it real and I do it deep.

I do that the best.

The Sunday Currently {30}

Sun, 05 May 2013 11:20:00 -0400

slowly, slowly our deck is waking back up….

clicking on my blogger adoration, Natalie Holbrook. I do, truly, adore her. She’s the sweetest in-real-email-life (if only I could say I’ve met her in real life…. if only) and her blog is the first blog I read where I thought, wow, there are great writers out here in blogland and maybe one day I can be as great of a writer as her. When I’m uninspired, I visit her blog essays. They’re my soul food. So if you’re stopping by from Blog Every Day in May with Jenni and you haven’t heard of Nat the Fat Rat, you can thank me later for your new inspiration.

reading excerpts from some of my favorite, worn and torn books. Since I’m struggling to find the time to devour a book front to back (I think it may have been my marathon run through Les Miserables this winter), I’m just soaking in those little words that haunt me with inspiration.

listening to a whole lot of Alexi Murdoch on repeat. I’m waiting to grow tired of the Away We Go soundtrack, but it isn’t happening.

smelling lemongrass and lavender.

loving how alive the world feels around me. Spring’s awakening hasn’t ended and it’s fueling my energy these days.

thinking this week will be a fantastic adventure. I’m certain of it.

wanting the dress that Michelle Obama wore this morning on Sunday Morning. It’s gorgeous.

wishing our spring cleaning was finally over. But it’s not. And my mom’s visiting in a couple of weeks from Michigan (!!!!!!!!!!!) and it’s time to buckle down and finish it all!

hoping Whole Foods isn’t out of snappy sourdough loaves again. I am survived by sourdough bread and it’s surprisingly cheap. If anyone wants to send me a part of their sourdough starter, that could work, too. I just can’t live without sourdough bread in my life.

feeling very positive. Yesterday I completed Leadership Development Institute, we had our annual pre-k spring trip to the National Zoo on Friday, and our yearly barbecue is right around the corner. Great things are happening all around me.

writing tomorrow’s update on Project Green. We’ve been very busy with our front lawn this past week. I can’t wait to update you on how things are going!

wearing my trusty old Birks! It took three weeks of scrounging through piles of I-really-should-throw-this-all-away junk in our closets to find both of them. These black Birkenstocks are by far my favorite pair (don’t ask how many Birkenstocks I own, just blame it on childhood trips to Germany shaping my personal style….).

needing to find a better argument to convince Alex that we must install the leftover hardwood in our bedroom. Three years later and he’s still insisting this is a horrible idea. I’ve tried my allergies, tried an increase in our home’s value…. EVERYTHING!!! I’ve moved onto “For my birthday in September, I’m getting hardwood floors in our bedroom.” He says it’s not working…. I’m plum out of ideas, here!

Did you miss the other Sunday editions of Currently? No worries. You can find them all here.

And head on over to link up with Lauren.

Rest and Be Kind

Sat, 04 May 2013 08:05:00 -0400

image source

Jack Kerouac defined my college years. I devoured his paperbacks like a starved child devoid of nutrients in those years. Since that time in my life, it’s safe to say I’ve turned slightly more….. mainstream? conservative? prude? Nevertheless, this man really knows how to stop and make me think.

I wish I could plaster this to every billboard in every city across America. Slap it on the notification boards flashing on every major highway in our country. I wish I could send this little reminder how with every hardworking parent, every overbooked student, every husband and wife who are coming home late again tonight.

Rest and be kind.

The Neurotic House Guest

Fri, 03 May 2013 06:01:00 -0400

image source

I nearly bailed and it’s day three. People. I blame it on Jenni’s order choice for these prompts. “Things that make you uncomfortable”. On day three? This post makes me uncomfortable, Jenni. Thanks. It would’ve been totally fine to skip this prompt if it were on something like day 27, and even mildly acceptable for me to have bailed with this one on day 15. But day three? Really?

Okay. So here it goes. You know what makes me really uncomfortable? Like rapidly beating heart rate, awkwardly can no longer carry a conversation, melt into a human mess of anxiety?

Being a house guest…… Let me walk you through the utter terribleness that is being a house guest.

The Bathroom: What if I’m in their bathroom and I accidentally come across some prescription or some “shhhh I don’t use this” product that they’re trying to keep a secret? And their hairs are bound to be all over the place, even if it’s clean. And if it’s not clean, well, ew. It’s no better than being in a public restroom at that point.

The Bedroom: So I take multiple pictures of how the room is set up before I even put my overnight bag in the room. I hate the idea of leaving and not putting everything back where it rightfully belongs. And then, as I’m climbing into bed, I pay careful attention to how that bed is made. Okay. So we’re in bed. I need white noise. No, not waves crashing against a shoreline. Fans. Humming sounds. I’m done for if there’s no white noise.

The Morning: So now we can fast forward to when I’m awake and I have to sneak around. Are my hosts awake yet? If they are, do they need time to themselves? If they aren’t, I don’t want to wake them so I have to just lay there, frozen, making sure I don’t ruin anything. Ultimately I’ll hear movement, wake up and play “bathroom roulette”…. Do they need the bathroom? Is it clear to use? Am I taking too long? Oh, the mornings are worse than the evenings even if I didn’t have white noise to sleep with.

The Kitchen: What if I’m hungry still? What then? And I drink a tonnnnn of water so what happens when I use up their entire Brita and it’s still refilling when they go to fill their glass with water? And what if they don’t have the foods I like? I can be rather picky and brand loyal.

The Cleanup: Back to that bedroom. I pull out those pictures I took the night before and make sure to remake the bed and put everything back in its place. But then, if it’s my last night there, should I take the sheets down to the laundry room? Just take them off and fold them neatly on the bed? Put them in their laundry hamper?

Why does this have to be so difficult???

You’ve probably already picked up on what I’m like as a host of a house guest. And my poor husband. I am a mess before, during, and after a guest leaves. I will credit my cousin Dan for being our absolute best house guest ever. Way to go, Dan. You win the blue ribbon for putting Tina at ease and being the sweetest, most considerate house guest ever. High five.

Sheesh. So there you have it. Thanks, Jenni. My heart rate remained in the danger zone the entire time I wrote this post.

*disclaimer: This high level of uncomfort does not seem to manifest itself at my mom’s, my dad’s, my Grandma Lolipop’s, our lake cottage, or Katie’s parents house. No. In those places I know very well how to make myself feel rigghhht at home.

May Day in Annapolis

Thu, 02 May 2013 05:00:00 -0400

I can count the times I’ve been close to calling myself anything remotely close to a garden club member on two fingers. One when I watch Dennis the Menace and pretend like I’m an extra in the scene when that super rare, super old flower finally blooms for half a second. And, two, when one of my friends hosted a garden party, I baked my first pie, and then it rained so we sipped on our mint juleps inside. Needless to say, I’m still trying to grow grass, remember?

I do envy garden club members, though. It just looks like a jolly good time. In fact, the Garden Club of Old Annapolis started this tradition over half a century ago where residents, businesses and historic sites place baskets of flowers outside on May 1st and those garden club members take to the streets to pick out the best. It’s a beautiful tradition and it really does mark the turning of the year in town.

Yesterday I stole a few seconds of time (how, I still don’t know) to take some pictures. Really, you could (and should) spend an entire May Day in town, especially if you’ve never visited before. But, since May Day has come and gone and will be no more until next year, I figured it would only be fair of me to share some shots from around town this year.

You know what they say… April showers bring May flowers! (I know, I know….)

If you’d like to check out more from around Annapolis, head here!

Of Periwinkle Carpets and Fluffy Orange Cats

Wed, 01 May 2013 04:00:50 -0400

I’m thrilled to be participating in Jenni’s Blog Every Day in May challenge. I am certain to miss a day between now and the 31st, but for now I’m 1 for 1. Today’s prompt was to share the story of your life in 250 words or less. Now, I counted. That story down there… well, it’s 237 words so take that all of my lengthy posts (though I didn’t count this intro or post script, shhh). But first, let’s take a moment and appreciate the beauty of that outfit below. I mean, that’s one rockin’ pink collar. Okay. Moving on…

Our basement had this periwinkle blue carpet perfectly convenient for imaginary adventures on the deep sea with pirates and mermaids and buried treasures on sofa islands. Instead, I was, yet again, surrounded by an array of wooden blocks, sorting them. Free play, you know? Organizing at the ripe old age of three.

Ivan kept getting in my way- he always looked so fat until you put him in the bathtub and scrubbed that orange fur flat against his skin. But there he went, knocking down all of that glorious progress. The mastery of sorting by color, shape and size all at the same time and I had nothing to show for it but another stressful mess. So, I yanked that cat’s tail. Poor Ivan hissed and I knew I was in trouble but nobody was around to punish me.

I’ve blocked out the rest of the afternoon. I suppressed that mistake right away. But it’s on film: me, on a stool, facing the corner, crying of misery at my self-imposed punishment. Ivan could’ve cared less. But there I was, my parents trying to figure out where in the world I came up with such a humiliating consequence (Little Jack Horner, duh), stressed out over the silliest little hiccup in my afternoon’s plans. They told me I wasn’t in trouble and that Ivan would be jussssst fine, but I wasn’t having it. That afternoon… my goodness, that afternoon.

Sometimes I look back to that memory and remind myself that I will never be able to change who I really am. So much of what makes me me- the sorting and organizing so everything’s just so, the perfectionism and devastation at having something fall apart, the guilt and self-imposed stress and anxiety. It’s all still there. I laugh now, but it’s all there. And while there’s great celebrations, milestones, and themes that weave through my story, I like this moment the best. Perhaps it’s because I’m a teacher and I see it in the four and five year-old’s I teach every day. We grow, but we’re pretty predictable, us humans. :)

Project Green: The Shopping Trip

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 10:58:00 -0400

You might recall from last Monday that I’ve teamed up with The Home Depot to share my spring lawn care project with you this year. While they are financing and sponsoring this project, the rest is really up to me (as you are about to find out).

If you missed earlier posts on how I’m getting ready to dig in with my self-titled “Project Green”, you can catch up here.

Now, Maryland has this terrible weather pattern where we experience spring for no more than maybe an entire month if we are lucky. Then, much to my Seasonal Affective Disorder’s dismay, Mother Nature pumps out four to five months of extreme heat paired with humidity that will eventually cause my demise. I don’t go outside unless I have to. That being said, I gave myself a deadline for Project Green of, well, now. So off to The Home Depot we went!

Prior to heading to our local store, I glanced over The Home Depot’s page on buying lawn fertilizers. We weren’t entirely certain of what we’d be purchasing, but we did know we’d want to pick up some Scott’s Turf Builder 2 Plus Weed Control. It doesn’t just fertilize, but it kills all of our weeds. I suppose we could have called this project “Operation Kill Weeds”, too. Everyone needs a little weed control in their life.

But after picking up our turf building, weed killing bag of excitement, we were kind of lost puppies. We enlisted the help of an employee who helped us pick out some seed. We chose Scott’s Turf Builder EZ Seed to lay down after the weed control works for a few days. We have a few patches of dirt and he suggested waiting to see if the seed works before we jump on buying anything for the patches quite yet.

We picked up some absolutely necessary tools for the job, as well. We picked out a nice hose and, oh, I love this little handheld spreader! I played with it the whole car ride home, too. It’s pretty awesome. I can’t wait until I show you all how it works in action!

Stay tuned! We spread the weed killer yesterday (perfect timing because the rain’s settled in for a few days) and we’ll be spreading the seed later this week. I can’t believe how daunting I used to think lawn care was. I mean, seriously, give me an awesome little spreader like that and I’ll personally come to each of your homes and plant new grass for you!

Get over $300 in email exclusive savings each year, sneak peeks on new products, monthly lawn & garden ideas for your region and access to The Home Depot’s gardening experts. Click here (http://thd.co/ZNbhDj) to join the world’s largest garden community today! Or go to homedepot.com/gardenclub to see some of the many benefits of membership.This is a sponsor post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot.

The Sunday Currently {29}

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 16:36:44 -0400

…. in which we finally get around to our annual spring yard work day….

reading nothing particularly at this moment. I haven’t had much time to sit down and devour a good hardback recently but that’s about to change thanks to the fact that I can feel myself not allowing any time to just relax.

Listening Van Morrison. Talk about a way to bring back my childhood. Love him.

smelling sweat, soil and dirt. We’ve been outside all day cleaning up our front and back yards.

loving how productive we’ve been today. Besides yardwork, I also cleared out our desk and, trust me, that was one bear of a project in itself!

thinking we should try to be productive like this every day. Scratch that. It was so nice to come in from yard work at 3 this afternoon and think “wow, we’ve still got an afternoon left!”. I love it.

wanting a personal week. Yes, this has expanded from last week’s personal day. You know you want a personal week, too.

wishing the weather stayed this mild, calm temperature all summer around here. It’s bound to get dreadfully hot and humid in t-minus a few weeks. And my Seasonal Affective Disorder will be t-minus a couple days behind that.

hoping that the cat scratch below my eye doesn’t get infected. Little Misha sleeps under the covers with me each night and she wakes me to let her in by tapping my cheek with her paw. Well, she accidentally caught her nail in my skin and… well, it’s pretty nasty. I’ve got a little bit of a black eye from it, too.

feeling sick again. I have a soar throat and my voice sounds like a frog. Not Kermit… a croaky frog voice.

writing some drafts for Jenni’s Blog Every Day in May challenge. I love the prompts.

wearing some old running shorts and a my bright green Lululemon tee that Alex says makes me look like a neon green highlighter.

needing a nice, long run. Didn’t happen yet today. Maybe that will change before the rain rolls in.

clicking back over Lauren’s important post from earlier this week. We were talking at work the other day about how this etiquette seems to have been long thrown out the window. Be it a death, a new baby, an illness, or even just a move… whatever happened to these guidelines? I think it’s good to keep her post in your back pocket. And I am so glad her family saw so much love (and continues to see so much love).

Did you miss the other Sunday editions of Currently? No worries. You can find them all here.

And head on over to link up with Lauren.

Old Rag

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 07:00:46 -0400

I must have been somewhere in those awkward preteen years where I wanted to be a tomboy just like Amanda on It Takes Two (Mary Kate? Ashley? Whichever one it was….). Probably nine years old, but that’s just a guesstimate. We stayed in this amazingly rustic little cabin with our family friends and played Uno all night long. Looking back, I sure hope Alex and I have family friends like them so that the kids can all play Uno together while us parents do our adult things that float over the kids heads just like half of the jokes in Shrek.

Moving on….

This cabin was in Wolftown, Virginia. I bought this enormous t-shirt as a souvenir that had a wolf on the front. It would still fit me today if I had it. And goodness, I could probably rock an awesome hipster outfit with that shirt if I did find it. But after a late night by the crackling fire playing Uno way too long, we went out hiking.

Old Rag.

I think I heard our dads say “Old Rag” a million times on that trip. I guess they were excited. Thirty minutes into that hike- what seemed like an eternity back then- we were all a worn out disaster. Uphill, switchbacks. And, oh, the worst part was that everyone we passed kept telling us “you’re almost there!” and then smile at us with their “I just climbed a mountain” smile.

We never made it to Old Rag. Shoot. We never made it out of the forest. My memory is hazy but I remember my brother and dad hiking on while we sat on a boulder and ate our lunch. They didn’t make it either.

Wimps.

To date, I’ve hiked Old Rag six times. Aborted the mission once. Completed it five. Every time I hike that mountain and see parents with their nine-ish year old kids, I think back to that forfeited adventure the weekend we stayed in Wolftown. I purposely do not tell them “you’re almost there!” because the truth is, really, you’re never almost there. In five hour, ten mile hike terms, at least.

Now would be a good time for you to visit my favorite hiking website and plan your trip out to Old Rag.

In other news, I’ve grown rather fond of the Dallas filter on Afterlight (so sad it’s no longer Afterglow and I couldn’t tell you why). But I’m sure you could already tell that by the look of these pictures.

Need more Old Rag?