Is it really that exciting?

Maybe I'm alone here. But does anybody else know those people who are super enthusiastic? About EVERYTHING? I feel like I know a disproportional amount of them. Maybe it's a Bible college thing. These are the people that everything is exciting and everyone is the greatest, and they must express this often. And then there is the word "epic." The whole "epic" trend is a personal pet peeve. I'm pretty sure there are not many things in my life I would describe as epic. Maybe nothing. My life is pretty quiet.

Anyway, maybe I'm just getting older. I'm kind of okay with being boring sometimes. And I just don't have the enthusiasm I notice amongst the facebook world. I wish I could come up with a good example, but it's more of a general wave of the same type of posts.

Plans.

With the end of Ben's school career in sight, we began to think about our next step. We prayed about it, and we think we have been shown our path for the next season in our life. It's a bit on the strange, bizarre, crazy side.

We, and our three cats, will be living in a motorhome in Ben's parents driveway.

Why would we do this, you ask. Let me tell you some reasons.

1. We want to. It's an adventure, it sounds fun and challenging.

2. This is probably the only time in our life that it is realistic to attempt something like this. We are young, no kids, etc.

3. To pay off debt. We have student loans that we want to pay off as quickly as possible, so that I will be able to stay home with kids, at least while they are not in school. Living this way will cut down our expenses SO much, that we think we will be able to pay down a good chunk of those loans fairly quickly.

I am not going into this idealistically, I definitely know it will be difficult and probably frustrating and painful in some ways. But I think it will be good for us, and will help us accomplish our goals. So I am pretty excited about it.

Stress/Terror.

It certainly does seem that bad news likes to multiply. You get one bit of bad news, and then more bits pop up. For example, few days after my mom called to tell me my grandpa has passed away (still can't write that without crying), Ben's mom called to tell us his grandma wasn't doing so well. And then she died within the same week.

Well...today we got some very vague news that may mean Ben didn't pass one of his classes, which would mean paying to $300 to retake it next semester, essentially just to turn in a paper he has already done. This is after he is already going to lose part of his scholarship for reasons I won't go into here. I think everything will be covered still with loans, but we had other plans and it stresses me out. Plus, he didn't do great grade-wise this semester, and if his GPA drops low enough he could get academic suspension, or probation and have to spend even more time and money on school.

Then, I went on to the website for my student loans to pay my monthly bill. As soon as it opened to my loan summary page, my stomach flipped and my heart dropped. I am on a "stair-step" plan with my loan. Which means I pay one amount for a while, and then after a certain amount of time, they increase the payment amount. I guess the length of time is two years. Guess how long I've been paying on my loans? Instead of paying my bill and having about $120 left in our account, we don't have enough in our checking account to cover it. We have some other money that will take care of it, and Ben just got paid $125 for preaching over the weekend. I suppose the fact that the those numbers are almost exactly the same should awe and encourage me, but I have to be honest, it doesn't. I am scared.

Now, I know we are a lot better off than so many people, but I am still scared. You know that annoying, hhhhmmpph, encouraging person who says, "God will take care of it," and seems to have ooodles of faith for these situations? I am not that person. Instead, I married that person. Ben has so much more faith in money matters than I do, and I really am thankful for that. I know I should do what he tells me, which is to trust and pray. It is so hard, but I am trying. I am praying.

It's definitely been a while...

And what's been happening you ask? Death, birth, and life.

My grandpa died. Ben's grandma died.

I attended two births. One I was at for 50 hours, one I was at for one hour (technically I was there longer, but I was only there an hour before the baby was born).

Ben and I are struggling to get him through this semester. He is very burnt out. I just want him to pass everything, with what doesn't matter at this point. Next semester is his last semester if all goes well, and I am SO ready. What comes next? We don't really know. Perhaps Colorado and Ben being an electrician, perhaps staying here. But I am looking forward to a new chapter.

I'm going to work more hours at my office job and I get to quit my cleaning job (hooray!).

Christmas will be in Moberly again, but we will be in Colorado for a week over New Years.

Ben is supposed to start supply preaching over Christmas break, which should be interesting. I think it will be an adventure.

Spiritually, emotionally, mentally...I don't know. In some ways I'm growing I think, but I often find myself in ruts.

Ben and I certainly have never been closer than we are now. Everything we've gone through the past six months or so have knit us much tighter. We've been lonely, we've had to grieve, we've been stressed and overwhelmed. But we have supported and loved each other through all of it. We've spent a lot of time together and have had a lot of fun with each other. He is a huge blessing in my life.

Two new buddies!

I'm well on my way to becoming a crazy cat lady. We adopted two little kittens, so now we have three...



This Darcy McTaggart, AKA Darcy.



And this is Solomon Greybeard, AKA Greybeard.

Scurvy was a bit wary at first, but he's starting to warm up to them. I think eventually he will be happy to have the company.

I have to say, if I am a crazy cat lady, Ben is a crazy cat man. Unfortunately the stigma is only attached to me. Oh well. We love our new little kitties, but how could you not love those little faces?

Crafty Time!

Ben mentioned that he wanted a basket or something to put the stuff he keeps on his dresser in. I checked at Goodwill the other day and didn't find what I wanted. Then I searched for DIY basket ideas, and still didn't find anything. As I was driving home from work today, it hit me! I'd seen bowls made out of old records, and that sounded like the perfect idea. We even had a record at home I could use. I googled how to do it. All the tutorials said to put it in the oven. I didn't really like the idea of putting plastic in the oven where I cook my food, so I tried to search out if it was unsafe, and wasn't satisfied that putting it in the oven was a good idea. I figured I would have to give up the idea, but I was disappointed. Then I thought, maybe I could use boiling water. The oven method only required heating it to 200 degrees. I thought it wouldn't hurt to try, so I did, and it worked!

This process was a little bit time consuming, but it wasn't difficult. If you try it you do need to be really careful so you don't burn yourself with the water or steam. I'm not sure about fumes being released into the air with this method, but I definitely didn't smell anything.

To do this project you need:

A record you don't care about.

Oven mitts.

A bowl.

A can (like a soup can. I used a can of chicken broth.).

Boiling water.

I had my kettle boiling and a pot of water boiling. I'm not sure how many times I ended up having to pour the water over it.

Put the bowl face down in your sink, with the record on top of it, and the can in the center of the record to keep it stable.


Pour the boiling water over it. I recommend concentrating on one side at a time. You will have a very few seconds after you pour the water where the record is pliable enough to bend. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR OVEN MITTS ON. This is very important. I don't want anyone to burn themselves. Bend the record down toward the side of the bowl.



Continue to boil, pour, and shape until you are satisfied with shape. I actually ended up switching to a smaller bowl so I could pinch the corners together more.





Here is it after I was finished shaping. It's not perfect, but I like how it came out.



I hot glued some fabric on the bottom of the bowl (although it's more like a tray really) to make it more stable, and I glued a piece inside so the stuff I put in it wouldn't slip and fall all the time.



I like how it turned out, and I like that I didn't fill my apartment with fumes or potentially poison anyone by tainting my oven with plastic.

Yummm.

When I heard Starbucks had a Mocha Coconut Frapuccino, I knew I had to try it. I love mocha and I love coconut. The town I live in doesn't have a Starbucks, so when I went to visit some friends at the beginning of summer, I made sure to swing by and pick one up. It was so delicious! Well, all summer I've wanted another one. But I rarely go places with a Starbucks, and even when I do I don't necessarily have a chance to get one. I've seen some recipes floating around the internets. None of them sounded exactly like something I wanted to try. So I decided to make up my own recipe, drawing a few elements from the other recipes. The first time I tried it, it was pretty good but needed some adjustments. The second time I made it, it was great! It's been a couple months since I tried the Starbucks version, so I can't vouch for how it matches up, but I do know it was delicious.

Here's what I used.


Toast your coconut on a baking sheet in the oven at 350 degrees for a couple of minutes. Make sure it's spread out in one layer, and I put foil on it so I don't have to wash it. Check it and stir it often, until it is golden. I toasted a good amount and put the extra in plastic bag so I didn't have to toast more every time.

Put about 5 ice cubes in your blender. Add 3/4 cup coconut milk, 1 tsp instant coffee, a good squeeze of chocolate syrup, and a splash of milk (I started without the milk, but it was little to thick without it). Blend until ice cubes are mostly blended in. I usually have a few little chunks left, but I don't have that great of a blender.

Pour into your glass, and top with whipped cream, chocolate drizzle, toasted coconut, and enjoy! It helps to have a straw to drink it.

Here is the finished product.


The picture is actually from my first attempt. The second time I didn't have that separation.