Begin: Healthier Living

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***Originally posted 1/22/15***

So, I know I brag about him a lot but… my husband is pretty awesome at giving Christmas gifts. He likes to give me gifts that are all in one theme- it’s his way of giving something intangible in a tangible way. As Tom Stoppard might put it, he has a talent for the “poetry of practical gesture” and it’s one of the things I love about him! Our first year together, we were living in Virginia and, being a Phoenician through and through, I was woefully unprepared for winter. He gave me the gift of Warmth that year. He had already given me an electric heater and he added to that a wonderful winter coat and a pair of cozy and beautiful boots

That’s me… next to a pile of snow TALLER than my 5’2” self….

Sporting my warm winter coat and boots in DC with a classmate (husband not pictured)

(OK, I picked out the boots) and he also got me some of those instant hand warmer packs.

When I was pregnant last Christmas, he gave me the gift of Comfort: Continue reading →

Baking #4: 42 projects in 52 weeks- Hobbit Cake

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***Originally Published on 1/16/15***

I started today with a major case of the Mondays. Baby and I are both fighting off a cold so the weekend wasn’t much of a restful time and there just seems to be an extraordinarily overwhelming number of things  to do this week and to be honest, I was just in a bad mood from being sick.

Pretty much sums it up…

A shot of 1 of our 4 bookshelves. We love our nerdy book collection!

Then, I thought about my sweet husband who must be suffering an even worse case of the Mondays. Even though it’s a holiday, he volunteered to work because we have some big dental bills from this month, AND he woke up with the baby a few times last night to help me get some sleep since I’m sick AND I kept him up even more with tossing and turning and sniffling and blowing my nose at all hours because I’m sick. He is one of the hardest working, caring, thoughtful people I know. So today’s baking project is a recipe that I saw and immediately thought of him. The reason? A friend pinned it on pinterest and described it as “the sort of cake a hobbit would have at home for breakfast”  (in actuality, the cake is called Black Milk Tea and Honey cake and you can find the recipe over on this blog).

Continue reading →

On Being a Female Theatre Artist

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***Originally Published on 1/16/15***

If there are two pieces of advice I can’t stand to hear people give those pursuing theatre, it is “take every role” or the closely related “audition for everything”. This “guidance” is something I have heard several times throughout my journey as a theatre artist, and the more I hear it the more it makes my frustration level go from 0 to 60 in seconds. Now let me explain… I think there are silly, immature, and career damaging reasons not to take a role. I’d be happy to talk about them, but that’s not for this post. And since this post gets a little heated, let’s take a step back and start with a Ryan Gosling meme: Continue reading →

Baking #3- 42 projects in 52 weeks: The Hunger Games

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***This was originally posted on 1/12/15***

So… the last few days have been insane. Very busy with lots of good things, but very exhausting- mostly because we lost my son’s favorite pacifier and every other pacifier in the world seems inadequate to get him to sleep in a timely manner…

That little bear with the pacifier is called a Wubanub and the last we saw this one was Friday.. which was also the last time we saw very good sleep… We bought a new Wubs but to no avail, it’s just not blue bear…

but I figured it’s a new week and I feel good starting it with some baking.  I tried to be optimistic. I took the baby for a walk to calm him down as soon as it stopped raining, then I got us ready to go for a really nice coffee date, then he looked EXHAUSTED by the end of it and i thought YES! nap time is around the bend! let’s get him home! but of course he fell asleep in the five minute drive home and then woke up when the car stopped and would not go back to sleep again so I had a CRANKY baby the rest of the day.

Still determined to at least accomplish this one thing- I put the baby on my back- hoping he would fall asleep there and started looking for my recipe of the week. I knew I wanted it to come from this cookbook:

Awesome, right? I’ve had this book since 2011, but have never even tried a single recipe. It was more of a nerdy impulse by to be honest but I figured the time had come. They have a whole chapter on bread so I thought I’d try that and when I found one recipe called “Katniss’s CravedCheese Buns” I thought that has to be the one. Continue reading →

BLOGGING: On Blogging Past, Present, and Future

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****This was originally posted on 1/11/15***

So, I have to admit this is not my first blogging attempt. I think I’ve had 3 or 4 others that I abandoned at some point between graduating from Pepperdine and the present day. And I’m not even counting Newlywed Shakespeare and the long hiatus I took from that when I got pregnant and the first months after I had my baby.

I have, however, been very successful with journaling. I journaled faithfully from the last semester of high school through my first semester of grad school both in online journals and good old-fashioned physical journals. I love looking back at what I wrote and remembering things I might otherwise forget (or cringing at things I wish I could forget) and then marveling at the growth I have made or a piece of wisdom that I had no idea was so wise at the time (I’ll show my hand early, I tend to think that wisdom is NOT from me…)

A few of my journals from years past…

After I fell in love, the journaling kind of stopped. I think because I was focusing a little less on me for the first time in my life, but also because usually when I have something I want to work through or mull over, the things I’m not quite ready to share with friends that I would have put in personal journals… now I tell those things to my husband. And usually we work through them together. Or he suggests someone who might have better perspective than him to talk with on a given subject.

But blogging… is different. I mean, you CAN set blogs to private settings but that seems kind of antithetical to the whole blog thing. And the public aspect of the blog is part of why I’m making myself do this. I spent a lot of time a few years ago giving way too much care to what others thought about me. I am still vigilant about what goes on Facebook and am constantly re-evaluating how I use social media. On the one hand, I think it will be good to make myself a bit vulnerable. Whether I ever hear from them or not, I have no doubt that some people might disagree or judge me for what I write about. On the other, I kind of feel like this is the next step in realizing that I am responsible for my life and my decisions and I like it that way.  There’s an anonymous quote that is ALL OVER PINTEREST that says:

That’s what I think blogging is going to do for me: Make me realize which decisions I love, and which decisions I’m pretty lukewarm about and which I feel passionate about but still need some bravery to share. I have ideas for posts that are intimidating and I think those posts are going to be good for me when I finally work up the courage to publish them.

When thinking about what I wanted this year and this blogging project to be, I thought maybe I shouldn’t include the “baby” aspect and instead stay completely private about family life and save that for a private journal. But you know what? I LOVE the decision I’ve made to start a family and in a world that can be overwhelmingly cynical about marriage and parenthood, I think part of the brilliance I’m aiming for in 2015 is showing that family can still be a shining light. Even if they sometimes make you crazy and won’t let you sleep.

Yup, talking about this guy… he’s not always the cute bundle of smiles I usually post…

So there you go. A little bit of background on my blogging past and why it is now part of my present. I’m not sure where all this will go, but it feels good to be writing again.

BABIES: In Praise of Babywearing

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***This was originally posted on 1/9/15***

*Note: I mention specific brands of baby carriers in this post. This does not mean I’m endorsing them above other brands. (No one is paying me to write this blog so I really have no motivation to do that. If you know some brands who would like me to try them however….) Anyway, these are simply the carriers we have used and have worked for us. There is no universal perfect carrier.*

Those of you who follow me on Facebook have probably seen me post pictures of my son in his baby carrier. When he was a newborn we used the Moby Wrap

Well… I used it. Dan was totally thrown by how long it was and was just not that into it…

This potential side effect of baby wearing is known as sleepy dust

Around three months, we started using the Ergo, and I am not exaggerating when I say it has been a SANITY SAVER. When my little guy is having a bad teething day, I put him in the front carrying position and he can snuggle up close while I continue to get some work done, or get a workout by going for a walk or doing a few squats and lunges since he loves the up and down movement.

When he’s  having a good day I can back carry or hip carry. I have recently preferred the back carry because it’s like a little baby backpack of magical productivity. It’s the easiest carry to cook or bake in since I don’t have to navigate around little hands trying to reach out and grab the dough to eat or to work around having him in front of me and trying not to bump him on the counter.  I can even get directing prep done as long as I keep a little movement going while I work on prepping my script! Continue reading →

Bardolatry: Othello Act 3

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***This was originally posted on 1/8/15***

After a long (or… several long) break(s) from my Newlywed Shakespeare blog, I have finally written another post and hopefully will be more regular after this. Click on the hyperlink and you can check out the new post HERE.

Hopefully it makes sense because I’m still recovering from four hours of dental work yesterday which left me pretty out of it. (yup, FOUR HOURS. that’s as long as one of my rehearsals. guess which I’d MUCH rather be doing…) I’m just THANKFUL it’s OVER. Only one more major appointment to go.

Much happier post coming tomorrow or Saturday on Babywearing!

Baking #2: 42 projects in 52 weeks- “Easy Peasy French Bread”

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***This was originally posted on 1/5/15***

OK, so those of you who know me from school at some level or another will know that I like to front load my work whenever possible. I’d rather work really hard and get some extra time to rest and recover at the end of the week/month/semester/etc. than get stressed from the pressure of letting things build up. So unless things really fall apart, I try to be extra productive and positive on Mondays. I have a lot on my to-do list today, and this baking project didn’t derail that to do list at all! (though the painful teething times of my little guy did…)

When I first started thinking about this project/ New Year’s Resolution, I figured where better to get ideas of what to bake than good ol’ Pinterest?! I spent some time searching and I have about 20 recipes pinned or liked that I’m keeping my eye on and hope to try at some point. The recipe for this week’s loaf was on my list. It seems to be the darling of the Pinterest bread baking world and came up several times in my searches. Seriously, it was everywhere, you may recognize it by this image:

It wasn’t until a friend messaged me, however, that I decided I needed to bump it up the list and try it ASAP. This is what her message said: “Literally the easiest bread I’ve made and one of the easiest things I’ve ever baked. I make it at least once a week!”

Well, that recommendation was good enough for me. And she was right. It was SO EASY! It took a lot less time than the last bread batch (Only 15 minutes for it to rise?! That’s perfect timing for me to feed my son and start him on some independent playtime and get 30 minutes to myself while it bakes!) You can find the recipe for yourself here but I will post the ingredients to give you an idea of just how easy it is:

Continue reading →

Beginnings- How I Learned to Drive

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***This was originally posted on 1/3/15***

Today was the first rehearsal for the play I’m directing that opens in February: How I Learned to Drive. It was exciting and exhausting and wonderful to be back in the rehearsal room. Last night I could barely sleep it almost felt like Christmas all over again.

Of course, having rehearsals added to our family schedule requires quite a bit of juggling and sacrifice from Dan and I, and those we have helping with childcare, so we agreed before having the baby that 1. We would wait until our little one was 6 months old before attempting to jump back into the theatre world and 2. We would only work on projects we felt really strongly about. How I Learned to Drive fit perfectly. Our son is now 7 months and …Drive is a dream project. Continue reading →