Hallelujah. {a grateful praise}

We are grateful I promise.

Just not often enough. But I'm sure you're guilty of the same crime.
So thank goodness we have this Thanksgiving holiday to set us all straight at least once a year!
I'm pretty sure that Thanksgiving, and right after a trial or hardship are the only times in life that I am ever as grateful as i should be for my many blessings.
Something to work on i suppose.
Just add it to the growing list.


But this year, our FIRST year being married for the "Holiday Season" (our first year even knowing each other for the holidays haha), B. and I decided to have an FHE that helped us remember all that we're thankful for, and would help us to CONTINUE to remember those blessings year round. day in and day out.
So...we invented the Gratitude Wreath! go us!

1. We opened up to page 1 of a novel

...and wrote on that page, as well as every other page in the book...
something that we are thankful for.

from showers

to eyeballs.

It was so glorious to sit and fill that little book with gratitude!
Joy i tell you. joy is what it brought us. In all it's simplicity, which is why i encourage you to do the same.

2. We cut those pages out, and rolled them up from bottom to top into little cones.

3. Then we glued them all to a styrafoam wreath. Oh roberts, you have just the right craft supplies at just the right time.(plus 40% off one of my items EVERYTIME!) I'm grateful for Roberts! too bad i didn't put that on a page eh.
next time.

It took awhile, but the end result now hangs on our humble little wall, and we love it!

I love life, and am definitely grateful for much.

Be grateful daily. That's my encouragement to.you to.day.
Happy holidays and a might wedding post to follow soon.
That's a promise.
Big love.
Hannah

Jimmy Jamin'

It's the time of the season for loving.

Which means it's also time for making jimmy jam! Which is really just regular, delicious jam with the word jimmy put in front of it .
We made jam, my mother and I. In her happy home with the prettiest peaches and most perfectly sweet strawberries. YUB! *hey grab, do you have any gub?

I was at work last monday (the day before our jimmy jam party) and telling a patient about our plans. She asked where we'd gotten our fruit and when i told her, she made a funny little old lady comment. I told her I'd picked the peaches from a tree at my new in-law's home and the strawberries were grown in my parent's garden (I'm so independent). She responded with, "Well isn't that lovely! You're uniting two very different families into one, better, sweeter, and newer family. Peaches from the him, and strawberries from the her. So symbolic!!!" It just reminded me of the dad on My Big Fat Greek Wedding with his apples and oranges speech.

But there is truth and beauty in it to some degree as well.

So back to our jam!

We started with this giant, {red bucket-0-peaches.}

Then we got 'em all hot and bothered in a bubbling pot of water so they'd peel with ease. 2 women are better than one when it comes to making jam, and while my mother was popping {peaches} out of their skins, i was smashing {strawberries.}

It's a pretty slimy business, all that fructose and water keeping your finger slippery (intelegent sentence), but great fun! and what better to listen to that my wedding playlist on the kitchen stereo while we worked?! Once the fruit was smashed, we mixed it together (new, happy family) and added oodles of sugar. if anyone out there thinks they're making a particularly healthy choice by eating jam, they're wrong.

"Well i've got these two slabs of white bread covered with peanut butter, but i think i'll make the healthy choice and add jam to the mix.
hah. don't be foolish. pb&j exists because it's easy and delicious. not because it's nutritious.
Anyway tangent what's up. We took these cute little {bell jars} *read the book. sad.
and filled them all clear to the brim with the most lovely jam i've ever made! When we were all finished mom says, "look how pretty our {jam} is!"

She said her mother had said the same thing to her before, and she hadn't understood. It's just jam. jam isn't pretty. but really and truly it is! I believe part of the beauty of it is knowing what you started with, and seeing that the end result is delicious and will bring happiness to toast and folks who eat the toast (or pancakes or scones or whatever). Creation is a beautiful thing. Whatever you create for whoever and whatever you please.. it is fulfilling. no question.


{last little thought.}

Fall is the best season. You knew that right? I didn't until this year, but it's totally true!

Crisp morning air and wakes up my lungs.

Incredible bursts of color crawling across the mountainside.

Cooling nights that cause cuddling up under a homemade quilt.

Sunsets that bring a peace and calm with their stillness just as we all sit down to dinner.

Scrump-didilly-umptious pumpkin treats (preferably with chocolate or cream cheese included).

The best season is ironically the seemingly shortest of them all, so every breath and leaf and sunset better be put to good use!

I for one have made myself quite proud with my unwasted fall season so far. Follow suit before it's gone my dears!

Big love and another post soon to follow.

Learing from the Loving

I've said before how important i believe it is that we learn to love the life we're living.

But i woke up this morning not so in love with my life... which is a most unfortunate spot to find oneself in!

To remedy this little hiccup in my journey for daily joy, I think I'll share with ya'll (ha like i'm from texas) the things I've come to better understand because B. is gone -primarily because his absence is the reason my life loving was in short supply this morning.

*EVERY moment spent with someone you love so much as I love that sweet boy, is a fleeting one and should not be wasted in anger or contention.

Obviously the full spectrum of emotions will exist in any healthy relationship, but things should mostly be positive and happy oui? mos def!

*To my very core of tiniest cores I know he is the rightest (not a word. i know) man for me, because no thing and no one else my whole life long has been worth sacrificing and enduring so much for.

*That real and raw meaning of sacrifice is much better understood on my part now because of this whole ridiculous situation.

*As any two people complete a difficult task with each other's help, not only does it make both individuals stronger... it strengthens the bond between those souls as well!

*I freakin hate talking on the phone! But when that's all you've got, you learn to make it work. I'll be the first to admit that my communication skills are sub-par, but I've learned to better relay my ideas and feelings through words-only over these past few months.

* Absence truly does make the heart grow fonder, but not without tears and prayers. I mean I still would never wish it upon my worst person.

*You've heard about how whoever you decide to marry is going to have flaws and habits that make you crazy, and I'm positive that B. and I will be no different. But this long distance business has helped me understand that his flaws are minor compared to how great he'll be in real life!

you know..beyond a voice over the phone or a picture or a text. To embrace those flaws that come from a person who is physically tangible is something I want above all else!

I know that this entry proves just how young and naive our love is...but that just makes it all the more beautiful!

And one day i promise that I'll stop writing about love and wedding junk and junk, but mostly it's all I do these days.

Except for the glitter sexy roller derby bachelorette party last night for my one Lindsey K.

Happy times. and tif can totally skate!!!

I feel better. I think I love the life I'm living. I mean just look at the things I'm learning! Toot sweet and farewell for today.

oh what a world

It has been yet another LENGTHY day of work and wedding.

All of you out there who have already done this wedding planning business, I'm sorry.

I had no clue what you were going through or I would have offered you a few tylenol out of my purse every time I saw you. That or starbursts.

no no, It really isn't that bad. It's just insane how much there is to be done!

Anyway...to get to why I'm writing tonight...

I was looking for wedding stuff online.

You just never mind about what exactly I was looking for that brought me to this fine, feathered friend, but please, is this not the most bizarre thing you've seen today?

*it actually may not be if you saw oprah this afternoon with the brothers used to be brother and sister but now both have beards and the boy who was always a boy is anorexic. oprah, she's so dramatic.

It's actually a mascot for some sports team somewhere.

Emmm-barassing!

bah haha I chuckle every time.

Not a lie.

Wink you heroic man wink! And please keep the knife clenched tightly in your jaws.

It's quite menacing.

Anyway, that ended my day with a good little giggle and I thought I'd share.

Giggles are good.

(Unless they're produced by foolish school-girls who should be out playing in the dirt.)

Humorous? I hope you'll agree.

Happy sleeps and even happier days to you my friends!