Foggy Wednesday

I've had two of these today. 

London Fog

1/2 mug Earl Grey tea
1/2 mug milk 
1/4 t. vanilla extract
1/4 vanilla bean
1-1 1/2 t. maple syrup

While the tea is brewing, warm up milk in a saucepan on stove top. Add vanilla extract, vanilla bean, and maple syrup. Froth with a whisk, then add to tea when finished brewing. 

If Jane Austen went to Starbucks...

I love Pride and Prejudice. I love Starbucks. So it was only a matter of time before this was born.

Elizabeth: iced caffé latte

Jane: iced caramel macchiato

Darcy: flat white

Bingley: espresso

Miss Bingley: green tea latte

Mr. Bennet: chai latte

Mrs. Bennet: shaken sweet tea lemonade

Lydia: iced caffé mocha

Kitty: caramel frappucino

Mary: strawberry acai

Mrs. Hurst: coconut milk mocha macchiato

Charlotte: London fog tea latte

Lady Catherine: espresso macchiato

Wickham: iced caffé americano

Mr. Collins: espresso macchiato

Georgiana: strawberries and créme

Col. Fitzwilliam: Nariño cold brew

Aunt Gardiner: London fog tea latte

Uncle Gardiner: blonde roast

Aunt Phillips: PSL

Mr. Hurst: caffé americano.
Anne de Bourgh: shaken iced green tea

Miss Austen herself would probably be like, "Where the heck is my tea? Psssh, Americans."

Taking Stock, Vol. XII

Making: ~
Cooking: ~
Drinking: coffee. Miraculously, I suddenly started liking it two months ago.
Reading: not much. 
Wanting: ~
Looking: at Hillsdale College. THEY HAVE AN A. A. MILNE SOCIETY WHERE THEY PLAY POOH STICKS I MEAN WHAT THAT IS MY CHILDHOOD!!!
Wasting: ~
Sewing: ~
Wishing: ~
Enjoying: bragging about my brothers whenever I can. tee hee. 
Waiting: for the leaves to turn.
Liking: ~
Wondering: If I'll pass my driver's test next month. Parallel parking, here we come!
Loving: re-watching my favorite Avatar: the Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra episodes. :)
Hoping: to go see Fantastic Beasts, Dr. Strange (that's my favorite trailer just because of the cape, tee hee), and Rogue One  in theatres. (spellcheck is still idiotically insisting that "theatre" is not a word)
Marveling: ~
Needing: to get into a yoga routine. streeeetch
Smelling: jello in the fridge. My little brother needed to do an experiment a few days ago with jello (something about enzymes), but the little bowls are still sitting the the fridge. Except for the one he ate.
Wearing: dog hair covered socks. Stop shedding, Henry.
Following: ~
Noticing: how messy the kitchen gets when I am the only one who is trying to keep on top of it (the parents are on vacation). Grrrr, can people put away the bread and lunch meat please?
Knowing: ~
Thinking: that Iron man is my new favorite Marvel hero. Aren't you proud of me, Christen? :)
Feeling: amazing now that sweater-weather is here and it rained for like four days in a row. I feel "at home" on rainy days.
Bookmarking: ~

Links: tid bits

A post from my friend's blog: "The Principles of Love Apply." 

I made this chai latte recipe two days ago (we actually had all the spices, surprisingly). I only had two tablespoons of the tea left this morning, so I had the teeniest chai latte ever this morning. :)

A gorgeous Russian Orthodox church--in Antarctica! 

There's Polish painted pottery, and then there' Polish painted villages. Maybe I should try painting the chicken coop.

Taking Stock Vol. XI / Links

(oh, hi btw. I'm still alive.)

Making: BREAD. I've been using this fantabulous recipe from Nourished Kitchen. I replaced half the butter with oil because, as much as we love butter, this can become an expensive bread recipe (especially when you use Kerrygold butter) if it takes 1/2 cup every time.
Cooking: ~
Drinking: CHAI LATTES! Homemade or Starbucks (more on Starbucks later).
Reading: Nicholas and Alexandra for AP European History. A colorful and detailed history of the fall of the Romanov Dynasty and imperial Russia. Rasputin was evil.
Wanting: ~
Looking: ~
Playing: All Sons and Daughters and Ellie Holcomb. Apparently guitar music is my jam at the moment.
Wasting: time watching Youtube vidoes. heheheheh.
Sewing: ~
Wishing: ~
Enjoying: my new Pinterest board, "true beauty." It's a good reminder that I should "have courage and be kind" (as Disney put it) instead of stressing out about being skinny or fitting in or whatever. 
Waiting: ~ 
Liking: ~
Wondering: if I will EVER learn to park properly. I mean, seriously, how hard can it be???
Loving: our new scheme to get me to practice driving (yup, got my permit!). Dad shares my love for chai lattes, so we decided that we are going to visit every Starbucks in Lancaster and get some. But I have to drive. So I do, because chai lattes. Duh.
Hoping: one of our week old chicks (Fanny) will pull through. She's been weak since they arrived.
Marveling: ~
Needing: to get into some sort of workout schedule. I had a lot of plans concerning that this summer and poof! they blew out the window.
Smelling: ~
Wearing: lots of Gap. Their jean shorts are the bomb.
Following: Acadia National Park on instagram. My favorite things. 
Noticing: ~
Knowing: how much I love Bible reading once I finally get around to it and that I really should do it more often. 
Thinking: ~
Bookmarking: ~

Busy

I was a very busy little person. 

My imagination was my favorite toy as a child. I pretended pretty much everyday until I was twelve-ish. I thought it would be fun to write a post about the things I would pretend when I was little. It should (probably) be a funny read, and also a place to write things down that I might not remember when I'm old. 

When I was really little, my older brother (Matthew) and my little brother (Mark) would play cats. Matthew was our owner, I would be a tabby, and Mark would be a persian cat. He ate marshmallows. Another time, we three would be mice who tormented the mean (human) aunt who came to live at the house. We were some clever rodents. 

When I got older, I sometimes passed the day saving civil war soldiers as they suffered gangrene and scarlet fever. This particular game I played with one particular friend (most of my games had a specific playmate), and each time we did it, we ended up getting sick ourselves (but recovered after an extremely dire case) or marrying one of the soldiers, or both. 

Other days, I would content myself by being a squirrel (named Blossom, most of the time), who lived in our walnut tree with her little brother (who happened to be my little brother), named Bud. We would gather food to store for winter, make food, and eat food. We had one track minds. There might have been the trauma of a hunter invading our neck of the woods, but most of the time we climbed in and out of our tree house, carrying wild onions, dandelions, random leaves, and flowers to be hung upside down or stored in flower pots. 

Oh, and there were many (many, many) times I would get together with one particular friend (or two others who shared my love for this game) and play...orphans. The Wilhelm house has been an orphanage countless times, each one ruled by a cruel orphan-mistress, who beat us, made us clean through the night, and only provided us with scratchy cots and thin blankets. I'm not sure why every mistress had to be unbearably awful, but I guess it gave us opportunities to be patient martyrs of orphans. 

I was sometimes a tiny person, who rode ants and whose country was at war (it was always at war). My friend was my mother. My father had usually died years ago (so we didn't have to worry about playing him), and I usually had a couple younger siblings. My pretend mother participated in some sort of ladies aid thing, I was either terrible or amazing in school, and we owned a store at the front of our house. 

I was a nurse, a squirrel (or a mouse. That happened a lot, too), a poor orphan, or a patriotic person the size of a bread crumb. I was busy.

Taking Stock, Vol. X / Links

Making: coconut milk yogurt! I used The Kitchn's recipe (with a teaspoon of gelatin as the thickener). It's tasty. Also, these muffins. They're like baked oatmeal muffins.
Cooking: nothing, but wishing I had more time to do so.
Drinking: lemon water. In a mason jar. With a straw. Because making things special. 
Reading: Anne's House of Dreams. Also 1984, which is too gray and depressing.
Wanting: pigs! And more pigs!
Looking: ~
Playing: Mozart type pieces. I especially like Emperor Waltz. Also, songs by a Korean friend.
Wasting: ~
Sewing: nothing, but I want to finish a little felt doll for my niece.
Wishing: I could drive already so I could do more of last night; a friend and chai lattes (haha, don't I sound so hip).
Enjoying: doing some of my school outside. 
Waiting: ~
Liking: so many pretty food pictures from Earthly Taste's instagram. 
Wondering: ~
Loving: the sunshine, flowing trees, and the green of new leaves (one of my favorites).
Hoping: to get my permit soon.
Marveling: that God still loves me and helps me up when I'm a bumbling idiot (which has happened a LOT over the past couple months).
Needing: ~
Smelling: ~
Wearing: sweatpants and t-shirts. 
Following: Pine View Dairy's instagram (they have some pretty adorable cow pictures). I'm actually hoping to work there this summer, which will be exciting.
Noticing: what strange faces I make when I'm typing. I should take a video sometime.
Knowing: ~
Thinking: about all the things this school year has taught me. I should do a post about that.
Feeling: excited by all the warmer weather, because  I get to where aaaaall the cute clothes. Like this, these ones, and a couple of these shirts. 
Bookmarking: ~

And roared

“Aslan, who seemed larger than before, lifted his head, shook his mane, and roared. 

     The sound, deep and throbbing at first like an organ beginning on a low note, rose and became louder, and then far louder again, till the earth and air were shaking with it. It rose up from the hill and floated across all Narnia. Down in Miraz’s camp men woke, stared palely in one another’s faces, and grasped their weapons. Down below that in the Great River, now at its coldest hour, the heads and shoulders of the nymphs, and the great weedy-bearded head of the river-god, rose from the water. Beyond it, in every field and wood, the alert ears of rabbits rose from their holes, the sleepy heads of birds came out from under wings, owls hooted, vixens barked, hedgehogs grunted, the trees stirred. In towns and villages mothers pressed babies close to their breasts, staring with wild eyes, dogs whimpered, and men leaped up groping for lights. Far away on the northern frontier the mountain giants peered from the dark gateways of their castles.”

—Prince Caspian, by C.S. Lewis

on being an introvert (part 1)

I'm an introvert. Oftentimes I want to curl up in a corner after being with a lot of people for a long amount of time. Or I just don't want to be with people from the start. For a while there, I would feel quite sorry for myself, because I thought no one wanted to include me in the conversation. The fact is, I didn't want to include myself in the conversation, but it got so I thought it was everyone else's fault. Unfortunately, I only realized it this school year and am only just now starting to work on that.

Here's an excerpt from my journal that shows what I mean (with some changes where they were needed):

{some people had suggested a group of us go to Prince Street after an activity}...I wanted to go, but after thinking about it, I was sure I couldn't go. Transportation just wasn't happening, plus I didn't have any clothes to change into {I was in a costume}. I thought about it on the way home. I think I probably wouldn't have had the best time if I had gone, because I don't feel "in". I wanted to go, though, because I wish I had a group of friends I was close to, shared memories with, and was appreciated by {by the way, I do have friends, but things aren't always just the way I imagine they should be. Plus, when I'm all woe-is-me, things don't look quite the same :)}. I want to have friendships where I feel comfortable, relaxed, and don't need to say anything. I feel like I'm not very good with relationships. I want to get better at being more open and vulnerable, but I just can't. I want to have a place where I feel welcomed, safe, and...oh, I dunno. I guess I wish I was more extroverted and gushy, even. It's confusing {tell me about it}. I want to be better at giving, and not just receiving. I have felt like a loner this year, since I stay at home doing school so much. Unfortunately, that's pretty much who I am. It's weird, I'm like an introvert who wants to be an extrovert. I want more people and relationships in my life, but I don't like more people and relationships. I want to like them! I want to hang out with people and laugh and share. I don't like it though. I want to hang out with people at cafés, but I don't like it. Ugh. I'm afraid I want relationships where people appreciate me and where I feel comfortable, but don't have to step over my comfort zone and actually contribute (which is supposed to happen in friendships). I've got these two parts of myself fighting against each other. I want friendships, but somehow expect them to come waltzing along with no effort from me. That's not right.

So this is what I've been working on: being an intentional friend, actually trying to connect to people (not just blaming things on them, which they usually don't deserve). And I have (slowly) gotten better at it.

To continue....

Taking Stock, Vol. IX

Making: soaked oats from Honestly Nourished. 
Cooking: ~
Drinking: this peach melba smoothie. Okay, so it was more like mango and cherry melba, but it was fantabulous. 
Reading: Anne of Windy Poplars. It's the fourth book in the Anne of Green Gables series. 
Wanting: ~
Looking: through all the delicious smoothie recipes over at Nutrition Stripped. The pictures are so pretty! Saundra, the Stripped Green Smoothie you recommended is looming in my future.
Playing: my Joe Hisaishi station on Pandora.
Wasting: kombucha. There was too much tea for too little SCOBY to ferment, so it grew some mold.
Sewing: nothing yet, but I need to sew button eyes on Matthew's fox scarf as he requested.
Wishing: ~
Enjoying: the extra free time floating about lately. It's amazing how much my day opens up when I don't have chapters upon chapters of reading to do for Omnibus.
Waiting: ~
Liking: the single serving nut butter packets my sister brought us from BB's (the wonderful Amish discount store).
Wondering: when the tradition of sending flowers to girls (before balls and things) stopped.
Loving: the warmer weather! I cleaned the chicken coop, weeded the raised beds, and got some sunshine on my face.
Hoping: I get to do at least half of the summer plans I've been concocting.
Marveling: how much older my nieces look every time I see them! 
Needing: ~
Smelling: ~
Wearing: Under Armour leggings. I'm sort of obsessed....
Following: ~
Noticing: how much better my day feels by getting up an hour earlier. I've been getting up at 7:15ish all school year, and it's fun to see what more I can get done by getting up at 6:15 (for one, breakfast isn't as rushed).
Knowing: ~
Thinking: how strange it is that in a year and a half I will be a senior. :o
Feeling: happy that I have almost four pages of my ten page paper written and I only started yesterday. hip hip hip hooray!
Bookmarking: ~

Homestead Dreamin'

I have lots of spare time today, so here go my homestead hopes tumbling out onto my blog. :) Yes, I'm only sixteen, but I can daydream about a lovely white farmhouse (with a wrap-around porch) in Maine, complete with chickens, heritage hogs, and maybe some sheep or goats. Not to mention the orchard, vegetable garden, and beehives.

source

source

source

source

source

source

source

source

source

source

The end. Hope you enjoyed a ramble through my thoughts! :)

Taking Stock, Vol. VIII

Making: lots of bread. LOTS of bread. I started a pinterest board (for the foodie in me that doesn't care about "the glutens") full of fancy bread recipes. The boys are quite happy about this latest baking spree.
Cooking: this soup recipe (we left out the ginger). It's real tasty. 
Drinking: kombucha and Lady Grey Tea (my favorite).
Reading: Tale of Two Cities. My, how gory. 
Wanting: SPRING! Yes, yes, it's only January, but sunshine! Bright green! 
Looking: forward to our vacation this summer. Maine and New Hampshire, here we come!
Playing: Celtic music. I've learned that this stuff makes me feel better (which is a good thing to know, since my moods have been out of control recently--at least it seems like it). 
Wasting: ~
Sewing: ~
Wishing: it would either snow enough to sled, or warm up enough to spend some time outside.
Enjoying: exam week. That sounds really weird, but I only had two exams this week, and I finished them yesterday. I didn't have much school to do at all, so instead I've been baking, coloring, listening to Odyssey (I don't think I'll ever stop), and sleeeeeeping.
Waiting: ~
Liking: working out with Mommy. It's fun to work out with someone else, and Mom's been wanting to work out regularly for a while and now I'll be bugging her about it. :)
Wondering: if we'll really get a dog this summer. My brother and Mom have finally convinced Dad that it would be okay. Any breed suggestions? We're thinking a collie.
Loving: my bedroom. I don't have a "theme color", just gray walls and white furniture. That way I can add all the little knick knacks and mementos I want. I have a lot of pretty rocks, cool jars and bottles, postcards, quotes and verses, and dried flowers. It's so cozy and...me. :)
Hoping: we won't have a power outage this weekend because of the snow. Last year (or the year before) we didn't have power for about three days. 
Marveling: ~
Needing: to practice some of these this summer. Dad wants meat pies for his birthday this year.
Smelling: ~
Wearing: socks, which I never wear. It is pretty chilly in my bedroom and downstairs. Our coal stove only keeps about three rooms warm, heheh.
Following: Mewsings London.
Noticing: ~
Knowing: ~
Thinking: ~
Feeling: like I need a movie break. Mark and I have been watching Pirates of the Caribbean (ridiculously, stupidly funny), but I think I've had enough of movies for a bit (like, I've been averaging three movies a week for a while).
Bookmarking: ~