Sweet dreams

A particular someone has been invading my dreams lately and I'm still not sure how to react.

Emma in Child's Pose on my brother's "work out mat."

Surprise! You just ate vegetables. -- banana muffins... sort of

May 17th, 2012

(Warning. This is a lengthy post. I promise I tried to be as entertaining as possible, but I cannot guarantee anything. But if it helps, this is a rare glimpse into the inner workings of my mind.)

On my 17th birthday, my oldest brother took me out to go shopping before the family dinner at home. He said that I could pick out whatever I wanted and he would pay for it. Sweet deal, right? Anyway, after I finally decided on what I wanted and my brother paid for it, we passed by a pet store on the way back to his car. I pleaded with my brother asking if we go inside and pet the puppies. Without even checking his watch to make sure we wouldn't be late, he said, "Yeah, that sounds fun."

What was I thinking. I should have been suspicious. He is very impatient and never lets me near the puppies because I am indecisive and a browser which means I could easily spend an hour in a store and only buy two things. And yet he had no problem of going into the pet store even though he was getting hungry. But I didn't care. The puppies and guinea pigs called for my attention and I threw myself into the store.

Unbeknownst to me, my brother was actually stalling our homecoming because our family was throwing me a surprise birthday party and was waiting for all of my friends to get to our house. To summarize, we finally went home, I was completely shocked, started bawling (from... joy?) and running away from my friends, and was chased down and tackled to the ground. Needless to say, surprises are not exactly my most favorite thing in the world. However, that does not necessarily mean that I won't spring them on other people. In fact, I LOVE giving surprises!

I tend to leave notes or little gifts because I have this small hope that God will reveal my surprises when that person really needs to find my silly gesture. Chances are, if you've ever received a gift from me that has a compartment or is layered in some way, you'll find a message. I personally prefer these covert expressions of love. Much like lighting a candle in church or silently saying a prayer in your heart rather than on your lips, the quiet ways can sometimes mean so much more. It's not the theatrics or the way I display my affections that matter to me, but the fact that I love you.

I introduced these muffins as just banana muffins, but surprise! they're so much more than that. The muffins sound like they were randomly thrown together from an assortment of ingredients I had in my fridge. That's because they were. As I learned from my eighth grade ancient world history teacher, "Necessity is the mother of all invention." That statement pretty much sums up how the banana and zucchini yogurt muffins with a hint of cocoa came to be.

A brief hiatus.

Hey all!

I thought that I should stop by and reassure my (teeny, tiny, but still oh so loved) audience that I have not forgotten about the blog. I'm going through some transitions right now that are pulling away a lot of my attention so I haven't been able to sit down and dedicate a good couple of hours to writing here.

Homemade fresh spearmint ice cream drizzled with a semisweet ganache.