It's semi-official

As I start a weekend of writing (I'm hoping to complete a rough draft of my last chapter), I thought it appropriate to share a little update:

I applied for graduation this week. Eek!!!

You would think that applying for graduation is a bigger deal than hitting a submit button three times on the website. Nope - easy peasy. (also, for those wondering, I can apply to graduate as many times as I want so it doesn't mean it's a done deal quite yet)

Now, if only it would be that easy to finish chapters 4 and 5 and defend! :) If you have any to spare, I could use all the crossed fingers, and thoughts, and whatever else over the next 7 weeks or so! Thanks! :)

Compartmentalizing

Compartmentalizing is a counseling term that means separating ideas in your mind. It can be both positive and less-than-helpful. I like to think of it as taking thoughts and putting them in different 'boxes' in your mind so they might be more easily managed. However, it is what I tend to lean on when things are emotionally challenging - putting thoughts away that may bring up strong emotions. And is apparently what I did for the first couple of weeks after my grandfather died.

My 'boxes' have failed me recently though. Or maybe I'm more ready to grieve a little now that things have quieted a bit for me at home and in my heart and mind. Either way, I've found the last two weeks or so to be more challenging, and me more sad.

I ran out of tissues at work a few months ago but haven't bothered to bring in a new box. And so last week when I felt a bit sad and couldn't harness the tears, I had to reach for tissues in my purse. They were the tissues my mom gave me for the funeral. I don't use tissues frequently and so it seems that I've only used these tissues for Pa, once or twice a week, usually alone at work or in the car.

Then this past weekend we went to a wedding. Now most of you know I love a wedding. However, this wedding wasn't quite the same for me. It was the wedding of one of the husband's cousins and was the first time I had been a part of a family gathering (albeit my family by marriage). I was of course so very happy for the couple and their friends and family but also very sad. The last time I was with my family was when Pa died and the next time I will see my family will be my cousin's wedding in September. And then, as if my poor compartmentalizing skills weren't failing me enough, at the reception I was seated across the table from the only grandparents at the event - directly across from the groom's grandfather. I was surprised at how emotion this brought up. This grandfather was older and appeared to be experiencing some memory lapses along with some significant pain at times. In his discomfort and pain I could only see the discomfort and pain that Pa experienced his last day. In this world where we often strive for uniqueness and success, I am struck by how similar our lives all begin, and then end. 

There are of course times when I smile at the thought of Pa, sharing an encouraging word or, even more likely, giving Honey a hard time. He would say "Mother" in this way that could communicate more than any sentence. And though I do smile at these thoughts,  it doesn't seem to ease the sadness right now. But I suppose with time it will. And I hope it does for each of my dear family members as well.

What we've been eating

I love the spring and summer because of the abundance of good quality, in-season produce. We tend to eat a ton of veggies during this time, planning our meals around the various quality vegetables that we grow or purchase. Every once in awhile, I will pick a new interesting-looking recipe for a meat and throw that in too. Here's what we've been eating lately (including a dessert at the very bottom):

Lamb burgers with mint pesto and baked sweet potato fries.

Our take: The lamb burgers were fabulous (to us) and the mint pesto was terrific. We ground the lamb from a boneless leg of lamb we bought at Costco. We cut the oil down tremendously in the mint pesto to cut the fat and honestly, it didn't need it. The baked sweet potato fries are not magic like the blog post says but after cooking them twice as long as the recommended time, they turned out crispier than most.

Grilled zucchini tacos

Our take: I love these and they were so simple for us because we already had homemade roasted tomatillo salsa in the freezer. The corn succotash is really tasty and the leftovers work well on all kinds of tacos (we added it later to grilled fish tacos) and breakfast burritos.

 
Grilled cedar plank salmon

Our take: Easy and a great simple dish. The husband seasoned the salmon here with dill and lemon. We pair this with whatever vegetable we have on hand, and if the veggie is good grilled, even better!

Grilled Hawaiian chicken kebabs

Our take: A nice change of pace as we usually do not eat a lot of fruit and grilled pineapple is amazing. The marinade was pretty good but didn't leave a lasting flavor - we doubled it and I saved some to spoon over the brown rice and grilled veggies which definitely boosted the end flavor.

 

 Pesto Orzo with roasted tomatoes and grilled fish

Our take: This is one of our recent go-to's. Such an easy weekday dinner, made even easier by our stash of frozen homemade pesto. 

Spicy potato and black bean burritos

Our take: We made quite a bit of this a few weeks back and it was great. The husband even liked it (without the beans of course). We didn't make burritos with it but instead used it as a taco filler in whole wheat tortillas. It was an easy meal to reheat and tasted especially good with avocado on top.

Lemon blueberry cake loaf

Our take: This is a nice change of pace for dessert with a surprisingly light fresh taste. The husband and I were both concerned about the sweetness with the icing but the cake is not very sweet so it worked out well. Both the cake and icing are very easy to make and do not require a ton of ingredients. I substituted almond milk for the milk in the cake and in the icing without any issue.

She's so mine

Gracie is so my dog.

Why you ask? Picture this:

Last night she was comfortably laying on her bed. I noticed she was moving a little so I looked over to see what was going on. She was sniffing somewhat frantically around one corner of her bed.

Me: "I think there's a bug by Gracie's bed."

The husband: "Nooo, I don't think so."

But as a truly great husband and bug-killer, he got up to investigate (without me even having to ask).

Low and behold there was a bug and as soon as it was confirmed to Gracie she ran right over to me and sat next to me until the husband caught said bug.

In fact though, he did not catch the bug. He immobilized the bug (or so he thought) but was under-prepared and had to retrieve some tissue. While he was retrieving the tissue from the other room, here is what he heard:

"BUG ON THE LOOSE, BUG ON THE LOOSE, BUG ON THE LOOSE, BUG ON THE LOOSE, BUG ON THE LOOSE, BUG ON THE LOOSE, BUG ON THE LOOSE, BUG ON THE LOOSE!!!" and then a large slamming-of-a-shoe sound.

I was not about to let that bug go under the furniture or disappear right before we went to sleep. And since the husband did not respond quickly enough to the yelling, I bolted up, grabbed my shoe and smooshed it!

All the while, Gracie sat as far away as possible. She so got the bug-hating from me! :)

 
Sidenote: I guess when you get to be an adult you stop talking about cool things like concerts and drinking and whatever else we talked about before (but of course I can't remember now that I'm an adult). But you do talk about bugs and (furry) kids and other such nonsense. 

And it's all gone

(Warning! This post contains pictures of scary bugs.)

The garden, that is. The husband and I (mostly the husband) cleaned out the garden last weekend. We only had time to remove the plants and do some weeding and general maintenance. We have plans to work on the soil some but that will have to wait until we have a little more time.

Sometime later in the day the husband came inside and said he found a wicked spider in the garden. Of course my first question was "how big is this thing?" Growing up we had wolf spiders in our wood pile and that's always the first thing I think of when I hear about any kind of spider!

Although our little garden spider was by no means large, she was WAY scarier than a wolf spider.

Whoa hourglass! And yes, only a few hours earlier both the husband and I were hanging out with this guy and had no idea! Thankfully she was nothing a little ole hammer couldn't take care of! :)

Did I mention I hate bugs? (I really only mean bad bugs and bugs that fly/crawl anywhere in my vicinity)

Speaking of bad bugs, meet the largest caterpillar you've ever seen - darn thing has poop the size of a rabbit. Of course, that's only after its eaten half a Thai chili plant. You may think I'm being facetious here but in fact, I am not. I had an entire conversation with the husband about how a rabbit got in the backyard and pooped all over the place without the dogs noticing. :)

Yes, this box is more than 2 inches long.

Ok, enough of the freaky bug pictures! The gardening is on hiatus for awhile and honestly I'm a little relieved. Killing bugs is not all that much fun. But we'll be back at it soon enough and I'm sure with even more ridiculous bug pictures!

Olympics fun

I'm a huge fan of the Olympics. This year, our friends Jennifer and Brett hosted an Olympic opening ceremony party. This will likely be the last (and only year) I watch the opening ceremony. Despite the somewhat strange and overly long ceremony, we had a lot of fun hanging out.

In keeping with an American themed dinner, I made s'mores cupcakes! I searched the web for recipes and decided on a version from Eats Well With Others, who adapted a recipe from one of my favorite food bloggers, Annie's Eats.

I chose this recipe because it combined a graham cracker base with homemade chocolate cake and marshmallow icing! Yum!

 
The cupcakes turned out really well. I might add a tad more graham cracker to make the crust a little more substantial but other than that they were perfect. The recipe made extra batter and icing so I made a few additional cupcakes.