Cue the dark clouds...

...slowly rolling in and positioning themselves directly above me.

I hate to admit it, but I've been avoiding my blog. Writing is my therapy, but in order for it to be effective, you have to be willing to let the emotions flow. And I don't think I'm ready to do that just yet.

Friday morning I was in a pretty serious car accident caused by someone else's impatience and stupidity. Thank God I walked away without even a scratch, but it was very close to being much, much worse. Unfortunately, my car has definitely seen better days. But there was someone watching over me that morning and I'm so very grateful for that.

So even though I'm physically fine, emotionally I'm a mess. The accident, what could have been, and a few other unrelated issues are weighing heavily on my mind. I just don't feel like writing. In fact, I don't feel like doing much besides laying on the couch and watching tv.

I promise when I get myself together, I'll write and share more. But for right now, this is all I've got, and I thought I owed you that at least.

String of Pearls

Growing up, my sister and I always got a single pearl on our birthday or Christmas, from my parents and grandparents. Over the years, we got to know that tiny, rectangle box, so that before we even unwrapped it and saw the gold box underneath, or the pearl inside, we knew what it was.

It was never anything exciting. It was something we immediately put aside as soon as we opened it, and some responsible adult would scoop it up and put it some place safe, so it didn't end up thrown away with the wrapping paper. They ended up tucked away in my mom's cedar chest and never thought of again.

For our 18th birthday, our mom had all our single, insignificant little pearls strung into a necklace for us. I remember opening that gift on my 18th birthday and being overcome with emotion at what a lovely tradition that had been and what a beautiful product resulted. No matter how insignificant those single pearls were all those years, strung together, they were beautiful and so incredibly meaningful.

I remember being so incredibly proud the first time I wore that string of pearls. Still, I wear them often and always think of the beautiful story behind them when I do. Did you know it's important to wear your pearls often? The oils on your skin help them keep their luster! I'd wear them anyway though. I always feel so so blessed to have a mom who started such a beautiful tradition, and so classy and grown-up when I see them around my neck.

I hope I have a daughter someday, so that I can continue this tradition with her. I know I'll laugh all those years when she just tosses those pearls aside, not realizing what they will become some day. And I know I'll be so incredibly proud the first time I see that string of pearls around her neck on her 18th birthday.

Cannolis

Usually, I hate cannolis. Really, I think they're nasty. But these...

...are simply heavenly! They are unlike any other cannoli I've ever forced myself to try because they always look so good. Oh the joy of working at a spectacular bakery! :)

I know I ruined my 2 posts in a row streak last week by not posting again for 6 days, but that's all I've got enough energy for today!

New Favorite Outfit

My new job is pretty casual. I can basically wear whatever I want, as long as it looks nice and somewhat professional. No suits and heels - dress pants, capri's or a skirt, a nice shirt and ballet flats! It's pretty awesome!

But despite how casual it is, I find that as soon as I walk in the door lately, I immediately change into my new favorite outfit - Old Navy Fold-Over Yoga Capris and an AE Everyday Shelf Tank! SOOOO COMFY! And much, much cuter than my extra large sweatpants that I default to in the winter.

I might actually like this new outfit so much that I've gone a little bit overboard...

Buying the tank tops in white, grey, pink, purple & green, and pants in black & grey isn't obsessive is it...

;)

Grilled Pizza!

If you follow me on Twitter, you may remember that last week I mentioned that we were going to try to make pizza on the grill for dinner. I promised pictures of the whole process, but once it started, it went so quickly that it didn't seem possible! It was also pretty messy and I wasn't about to pick up my camera with olive oil all over my hands!

Anyway, I did get a picture of the final product!

Looks delicious, right?! TRUST ME, IT WAS!

It was super easy and super quick too! Heat your grill on high, then turn it down to medium low before you put the dough on. Stretch out your pizza dough (I bought a pound of fresh pizza dough at the deli in my supermarket) and put some olive oil on both sides. Be careful not to put too much on - when I flipped my first one onto the grill, the extra olive oil caused a flare up and completely charred one side on my pizza. (Luckily I had more dough!)

Anyway, put your dough right on the grill and close the lid. Keep your eye on it because it only takes a few minutes. When one side looks cooked, pop the air bubbles and flip the dough over. Have your toppings ready to go on the side of your grill and assemble them on the cooked side of the dough.

Close the lid to let the other side cook and your cheese melt. And voila! Grilled Pizza!

You can put whatever toppings on that you like. You can see in the photo that my hubby likes a lot of toppings, but I just put slices of fresh mozzarella, slices of tomatoes (that I grew!) and some fresh basil (that I also grew!) on mine. We both agreed that it was by far the best pizza we had ever had! And we'll definitely be making it a lot more often!

Happy grilling! :)

Sex Sara and the City

I'm the type of person that loves the city, but can't live in the city. I absolutely love where we live now because I can come home to a quiet street, with a yard and trees, but we're close enough to the city that it's not a hassle to get my fix when I need it!

Boston is by far one of my favorite cities. The energy here is unlike anywhere in the world. I was thinking about this today and remembered this photo I took last November, when I spent the day in Boston with my mom, sister and hubby.

I don't know this girl or her friends, but I just think this photo captures the energy, fun, adventure and loyalty of Boston perfectly!

An afternoon at the movies...

The hubs and I actually had a day off together today and we decided to take advantage of it and go see a movie. He knew I wanted to see Julie & Julia and was a really good sport about going to see it with me.

Don't believe I have such an amazing husband?? I have proof:

See! Two tickets! And I think he actually liked it! It was sweet, and charming, and FUNNY! It was a perfectly relaxing afternoon together and best of all it was FREE! I had a gift card that was given to me for my birthday a year and a half ago that we just never got around to using. So we saw a movie, got popcorn and a drink for $0! Awesome!

You want me to make what for dinner?!?

Every Sunday night, I come up with dinner ideas for the week ahead and make my grocery list. And every Monday morning, I go to the store for the week. If it's not bought on Monday, you have to wait until next week. That's just how I roll.

Last week, I was struggling to come up with dinner ideas as usual and, as usual, my hubby was not helping. So I came up with 6 ideas and begged him to, "Pleeeeease! Just come up with one more dinner idea!" And what comes out of his mouth but,
"grilled PB & J."

Say what?! I have no idea where he came up with this folks. But unbelievably, the words that came out of my mouth were, "Sure. Sounds great." Can you tell I was desperate?!

Needless to say, I let this gem of an idea linger all week, until we got to tonight and I had no other options. And this is what resulted:

It was gooey, melty, messy, and sticky. But it was also absolutely DELICIOUS! I would highly recommend making this for your kids and feeding it to them while they are sitting directly in the bath tub!! ;)

And now I'm off to wrestle with this week's menu and grocery list. I'm wondering whether I dare ask hubby for help...

Faith

In my recent, and seemingly constant, struggle for balance between responsibility and pleasure, I have found myself reading A LOT! I love to read and no matter how tired I am from the day, I'm never too tired to read. So if I only read for half an hour, it helps me find at least some small amount of balance each day. My hope is that by doing this small thing every day, I can eventually built upon it and include more activities that make me happy in my every day life.

Anyway, I cleaned and ran errands this morning, so I decided to spend my afternoon reading. Right now, I'm reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. It's a really insightful book about the author's journey to find balance in her life and I feel like I'm reading it at the perfect time in my life. But all of that is not why I decided to write a blog post. I just read this one section and it not only relates to a recent post of mine, but it is so beautifully written that I just felt like I had to share it. So here are her thoughts on faith:

The devout of this world perform their rituals without guarantee that anything good will ever come of it. Of course there are plenty of scriptures and plenty of priests who make plenty of promises as to what your good works will yield (or threats as to the punishments awaiting you if you lapse), but to even believe all this is an act of faith, because nobody amongst us is shown the endgame. Devotion is diligence without assurance. Faith is a way of saying, "Yes, I accept the terms of the universe and I embracein advance what I am presently incapable of understanding." There'sa reaction we refer to "leaps of faith" - because the decision to consent to any notion of divinity is a mighty jump from the rational over to the unknowable, and I don't care how diligently scholars of every religion will try to sityou down with their stacks of books to prove to you through scripture that their faith is indeed rational; it isn't. If faith were rational, it wouldn't be - by definition - faith. Faith is belief in what you cannot see or prove or touch. Faith is walking face-first and full-speed into the dark. If we truly knew all the answers in advance as to the meaning of life and the nature of God and the destiny of our souls, our belief would not be a leap of faith and it would not be a courageous act of humanity; it would just be...a prudent insurance policy.

I don't have anything else to really add to that. I just thought the words were beautiful and meaningful and I felt compelled to share them with whoever might be reading my blog today.