**Before I begin, I would like to announce a disclaimer: I am a horrible editor. I swear I look over what I write, but can't seem to see my own mistakes. Please ignore all my misspellings and horrible grammar. **
Recently, I have been making more of an effort to be productive and positive. While I am still, and what seems like will forever be, on the job search, I'd really like to stay positive and just chug along. A few interesting positions have been posted and I guess we'll see how they turn out in the coming weeks. However, as stated earlier, being productive is important to me and I believe staying busy and not basically giving up on life will help me stay positive.
Church:
Joining/Finding a church that is the "right" fit for Chase and I has proven to be...annoying. Chase has some weird obsession with only enjoying contemporary services (a VERY small portion of the available services are of this kind) and frankly, the Catholic in me is totally weirded-out by rock bands at church. Anyway, being the kind, thoughtful, flexible person I am :) , I scouted out some churches this summer and to my dismay, did not find anything promising (except for the Episcopalian church, which was not contemporary). So having no leads whatsoever, Chase and I decided to try out a new church a couple of weeks ago, it's called Charlottesville Community Church. Despite being held in an elementary school gym, we both really like it and everyone seems so friendly. The sermon/message/homily (whatever these people call it) has been not only easy to understand, but also applicable to our lives. I've only seen a handful of people raise their hands, literally, in praise and one "crier", so all in all we're doing OK and if we can keep the numbers low in the "making Erin extremely uncomfortable, why-is-everyone-walking-up-to-the-alter-to-get-"saved" arena", I think we will be in business!
Side note: Last week's sermon was great and about becoming complacent with your relationship with God being the most dangerous thing in your life. I even took notes, and enjoyed it. :)
One last thought: I will NEVER forget going to play volleyball with two friends one weekend at some college and not realizing what I was getting into, until we all went into some huge tent. I immediately realized it was some Christian-based college ( I swear I had NO idea and there was NO indication that this was the plan prior to the tent experience). There was lots of crying, lots of hand raising, and a chant of "Heads are down, no one's looking" in reference to coming up to get "saved". This is the sole experience that has most affected my outlook on contemporary churches, and look at me now, back in the saddle!
Crafts/Projects:
I'll be the first to admit I was on, I mean full-on, the Pinterest wagon, but I have fallen off (most of which could be because they blocked it at work...ugh). Any who, I now read blogs, and by that I mean I mostly skim through them trying to steal ideas, which has proven to be extremely useful. I mostly like recipes, gardening ideas, crafts, photography, and pretty much everything else. I found a great recipe for laundry soap and actually made it a couple weeks ago. Here's the recipe if anyone is interested (make it, it's cheap and works well!)
Powdered Laundry Detergent:
1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda (Arm & Hammer makes this)
1 bar of Fels Naptha, shredded.
Shred the Fels Naptha bar (a detergent bar, typically used for stains) and mix the borax and washing soda! It's that easy and you can use about 1/4 cup per load (big loads). It does not sud a lot, so it works well in High Efficiency washers and normal washers, as well. It is also eco-friendly!
*All the ingredients can be found in the laundry aisle (not ALL laundry aisles, but some stores do have all 3 ingredients for cheap cheap).
I have also found some great recipes. I will try to post some regularly that work out for us, and any modifications that we do to them, but here is one GREAT recipe (it sounds gross, but trust).
Crock Pot Chicken
1 whole chicken
2 cloves garlic
1 tbs olive oil/butter
1 tbs Italian seasoning (or any herbs you like: thyme, rosemary, sage, etc.)
Remove anything inside the chicken, the gross stuff. Rub all the ingredients all over the chicken. Put in a crock pot, turn on high, cook for 4 hours. This is a great recipe because it cooks the entire chicken without any work from you! You do NOT need to add any water. The chicken can be taken out of the broth and cooled before you serve it. We always reserve the broth in the crock pot, add some celery (no need to chop, just break it with your hands), carrots, and any bones or leftover chicken parts you have from dinner. Then add water to the crock pot until its full. Turn on low, cook over night. This makes tons of chicken broth (we store ours in mason jars and freeze them, so we can use them with other recipes).
**Chase was the one who found this, I thought it was going to be disgusting, but it's good!
I still trying to stay creative and have even began painting a little bit, i.e. cards and letters, but that's better than nothing and after reading about hobby farming, permaculture, and homesteading, I CANNOT wait until we find a perfect place to live! We just got a garden plot at a local park in Charlottesville and will begin the clearly process on President's Day. I am very excited to learn more about gardening and having an abundance of yummy produce this summer. Hopefully, this will lead to having animals one day and really getting to practice some permaculture on our own property.
Valentine's Day
I would not describe myself, or Chase as the "Valentine's Day-lovey-dovey-dinner-and-a-movie" type. However, this year we had LivingSocial deals for Legend Brewery in Richmond, and Chase twisted my arm and made me go! Just kidding, we decided to go and have dinner there, try some beers, and hang out. It was really fun, the brewery is pretty cool, and we will be going back before May 6, so we can spend our other LivingSocial voucher! I encourage anyone who would like to make plans to come with us (preferably when there's a concert on Brown's island), to contact my secretary, Chase. No, but really, let us know if you want to go!
Most of the reason I am writing about this trip is because we got on 195 (no, not I-95), but some weird expressway or something into/around Richmond, I'm not positive I know at all (and I was driving...ahhhhh), but point being it had TOLLS! And that would be great if 1.) I didn't totally freak out when merging, or "zippering" as Chase would call it (hahaha what a stupid word) and 2.) we had change. As we neared the toll we saw that it was 70 cents, an odd amount for a toll, but not outrageous. We pull up to this toll and we are rustling around looking for change, we threw all the change in my wallet (which had been their home for roughly two years) and assumed that the toll light automatically would turn green, having detected payment. No. it didn't. The toll not only slowly counted the change as is descended into the abyss of the change counter, but also prompted us to pay more. As Chase scrounged up coins lying under the car seats (the one time is had paid off for having a disgusting and messy car), I was growing increasingly frustrated that we were caught in the situation and that the person behind us might be upset. After the longest 45 seconds of my life, we were on our way, off to a "romantic" dinner at Legend Brewery :)
I'm planning on staying busy and the outlook is good for the next couple of months: new job (here's hoping), new house, new projects, gardening, KAYAKS, summer, warm weather, and seeing our friends and family.
