Category Archives: Life

Run Around

So far its been a crazy busy week, I cannot believe that we are already on day three of our visit home. I knew once we’d get home the hands on the clock would just spin forward ever so quickly. Today we did all sorts of fun little things. We baked raisin cookies, strolled around Giant, and grabbed a bite to eat at Panera Bread.

After baking cookies, we decided to go for a stroll around Giant. Yes, we are really odd and have enjoyed “strolling” around Wal-Mart, Target, Sam’s Club, Heimbach’s, and no trip would be complete without including our local Giant grocery store. Hmmm maybe we can squeeze in a Wegmans too?

Goodness, endless amounts of decisions and options. The experience was almost overwhelming! I found myself wanting to read every single item in the Organic section. It’s incredible how much we take for granted with the endless amounts of selections and sales on food in the US. We are so lucky to be able to just purchase endless amount of stuff. In the end it always leaves me with the thoughts of, do we really need all of this stuff?

We’ve been Panera Bread enthusiast for quite sometime now. The smell of freshly baked bread, the delicious soups, the free wifi, the bakery-cafe atmosphere. We were absolutely delighted to see that they had opened in our hometown while we had been away. I knew we’d have to stop in and grab some lunch sometime while running around. Today just happened to be that day!

Have you ever ate at Panera Bread? What is your favorite thing to order? I think mine is now the Vegetarian garden vegetable with pesto. In the mood for soup? You’ve got to try it out!

Heimbach’s Country Store

When we Bees lived in the area we always picked up candies and lunch meats from Heimbach’s country store. Nothing fancy here folks, just a quaint little country store packed with all sorts of fun foods and trinkets. We had to stop in when we near it, just for a stroll to reminisce. Clearly we are all about nostalgia here folks. Okay, okay, we ended up buying candy for the plane too. We couldn’t pass up the multi-colored black licorice candy and gummy bears.

Feel free to check out the photos. We didn’t even know they still made candy cigarettes anymore…

 


 

Day of Thanks

“To make bread or love, to dig in the earth, to feed an animal or cook for a stranger – these activities require no extensive commentary, no lucid theology. All they require is someone willing to bend, reach, chop, stir. Most of these tasks are so full of pleasure that there is no need to complicate things by calling them holy. And yet these are the same activities that change lives, sometimes all at once and sometimes more slowly, the way dripping water changes stone. In a world where faith is often construed as a way of thinking, bodily practices remind the willing that faith is a way of life”. ~ Barbara Brown Taylor

Today, I started my Thanksgiving morning off reading this quote. To me there was so much meaning in it. I couldn’t do anything but smile and ponder.

I continued my morning laying in bed much later than I typically do, smiling, pondering, enjoying blogs, news articles, photos, all of others sharing their gratitude for loved ones, delicious holiday feasts, health, family Thanksgiving traditions, you know…all the things we tend to get very mushy gushy over these times of the year. (Don’t worry, there is nothing wrong with that! I’m mushy gushy too!)

I always love working the days that lead up to the big holidays. I don’t know about you, but I feel like I boast and exhale so much positive energy during these times! I feel like it affects everyone. I see it in my co-workers as they inhale and exhale it too! This then affects the customers that we serve, they feed off all of the holiday buzz, even being so far away from loved ones here in South Korea. They are cheerful, more understanding, friendlier. What an incredibly intoxicating feeling! A holiday high! But why, why do we need the holidays to feel like this? To be reminded of the simple everyday things we take for granted? (Don’t worry, I’m guilty of this too, a work in progress).

Continuing my pondering from bed this Thanksgiving morning, I cant help but think of all the many whispered prayers on this day of thanks, including mine. These Prayers will consist of many thanks, personal pleas for guidance and help, prayers of recognition to a higher power, our inner cores, our dear loved ones (to include our pet companions), friends, and the planet that unites us all together in one way or another.

Family, friends, enjoy your day! Please remember, give thanks, take all that mushy gushing and make something of it! Give back! Pay it forward somehow and someway.

…

We are so blessed and thankful to have met the G family while living in South Korea. This marks our second year getting to carry on the Thanksgiving dinner tradition together. This year they so graciously opened up their home to us! We couldn’t imagine passing up the opportunity to spend time with them and enjoy their sweet little munchkins too.

Now bring on that homemade cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie! (You should know by now, I’ve always got my mind, and sweet-tooth, on the most important parts of the meal) Dessert!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Take Time

“Don’t forget to take time to smell the roses…”

When is the last time that you stopped and smelled the roses?

I don’t know about you, but for the most part I get so wrapped up here with living life and work that I forget to simply stop and smell the roses. Forgetting those things that make me happy because I feel I can get to them another time. Nine times out of ten I never take the time to loop back around to those things.

Why?

Do I feel guilty taking the time to enjoy those things? Yes.

Why?

Good question! I have every opportunity to, I am encouraged to… so why? Ugh…

We are told so often by our elders that life will slip right by you so quickly. That we need to seize all of the moments that we can. Take the time to enjoy ourselves a bit.

Where I am going with this?

Well, with Thanksgiving only a few days away it’s important not only to serve others and put them first, but also never forget to take a break from time to time and do a few things for yourself too.

This morning on my elevator ride to down to the parking garage with my husband, I too was reminded that sometimes a person just needs to stop and smell the roses from time to time. That person might have a non-stop crazy work schedule, a full course load with school, miss a night of sleep from time to time…If there is a will, there is a way… they figure out a way to keep enjoying the things that make them happy.

I think I really relate to Paul in Colossians 4:1-18. “Although I may be in chains my heart is free!”

Today after work, I bought myself some beautifully colored Fall flowers, Then I took a few minutes to stop and smell the roses…or mums in this case.

Oh, if you didn’t notice played around with some photo editing fun too!

Thanks beebs.

Walk in the Early Morning

Because it’s Sunday.

Because i’ve got two sleepy heads snoozing in the other room.

Because it was early.

Because it was raining.

Because there wasn’t a soul on the street.

Because I love any excuse to wear rain boots.

♥

Turkey Talk

How’s the weather where you are? Are you tuning in from the East coast? If you are, hopefully you are safe and sound in the comfort of your own home. We’ve been in contact with our friends and family checking in to make sure everyone is okay. Thankfully they are and didn’t even get a flake of the second storms snow. We only get to see the limited television broadcast of how much damage hurricane Sandy did. However seeing just that little bit makes our hearts ache. What damage…the amount of people that were affected…the loss…just the utter devastation. We keep you all in our prayers and thoughts.

Here? Well, mornings are lazy hazy and gray, not to be confused with the lazy, crazy, hazy days of summer. Once the morning fog rolls out the blueish-gray sky shines through. Then at nightfall the sky is so black but clear as glass. When the moon appears, it glows so brightly, it makes you feel like you can see endlessly into space. I cant help but stare up at it some nights when we are out walking. Maybe this is all the turkey season talk in me… making me all nostalgic, but I often think to myself how the moon makes me feel so small here on earth, how I live a small but beautiful life. It makes me appreciate so much of my life.

This will be my second Fall season spent in South Korea. I feel like this is just the way Fall gets all nestled in.

 

BTW, rakes… who needs them? Certainly not two determined elderly Korean ladies.

Wishing you all warmth, shelter, and sunshine!

Glistening

I feel like we’ve been saying this all year…

Where does the time go?

Where do the days go?

Goodness, November!

We are already into the first weekend of November and Brrr do the cold mornings and nights make sure we know it too.

Early November mornings here look like, one dreamy, cozy, fluffy goose-down, a cup of hot tea, frost covered rooftops glistening, abandoned farmers fields, and scarves to bundle up with before daring to brave the cold morning air.

 

There is nothing quite like breathing fresh morning air into your lungs. Even Miss Bean agrees.

Happy weekending!

Right Before the Trees Got Naked

Sharing a bit of Korea Autumn magic with you!

Hope you enjoy the colors and enjoy your weekend too!