It’s been awhile…
I have good intentions of blogging more regularly, honest! I think about blog posts all the time (it’s one of the drawbacks to having a job that involves blogging and such, I am doing it all day, so sometimes when I get home I don’t feel like being on the computer anymore). So here are some of the things I’ve been doing lately, and I’ll try to write more frequently:
We went to St Louis for a long weekend and visited my brother and aunts and uncles and cousins who live there and then my parents and Karen came down. It was a mini reunion. Adam, Kyle, and I went to a Cardinals game in the new-to-us Busch Stadium (the Cards won!)
The Schmidt clan! Outside the Art Museum.
Classic Karen and Kyle. Kyle’s being goofy and Karen’s laughing.
Listening to Ingrid Michaelson’s new CD Everything. She’s so happy and fresh. It makes me happy and want to do a little dance in my chair. I wish she were coming to Des Moines…
Reading Peace Like a River by Leif Enger. It’s one of those books I borrowed from my mom and finally picked up. It’s told through the eyes of Reuben an 11 year old boy with asthma and it’s about a family’s journey. So far I really like it. It’s set in the Midwest in the 60s which makes it wholesome in some way.
Planning for the next prison writing class with Lauren and Brianne. I love brainstorming with them. They are so creative and I think we have some great ideas for this session. Here are a few sneak peeks: we’re going to have the women pair up and write a conversation between 2 people (mother/daughter; bartender/regular; dentist/patient) we’re also going to write about what freedom is (I’m sure we’ll get some powerful responses on this one) and write about a body part.
Making bread! I have wanted to make this Irish Brown Bread for awhile and it was so cool this weekend I finally made it. If you are intimidated by kneading and waiting for dough to rise this is a good starter bread to try. It require minimal kneading and no yeast! Although I will say it’s pretty sticky when you knead it. I probably added 1/4 cup of flour. The best part is I think it’s healthy. It has whole wheat flour, oats, and wheat germ. Yum! I may have another piece right now. Although the Starbucks ice cream I got with a coupon is sounding equally tempting…
Watching the Isiserettes, a Des Moines Drill and Drum Corps, perform right in our neighborhood. Check it out, I posted a video here
Writing. I wrote 7 slideshows about everything from kitchens and bedrooms to budget decorating ideas and storage for Midwestliving.com. Some of them will be posted later in Sept if you want to check them out. I also wrote a feature on Jaci Velasquez for the fall/winter issue of Life:Beautiful magazine. I think it will also be out in September and you can find it at Christian bookstores and Barnes and Noble. It’s a really nice magazine. It was kind of crazy that I got Jaci’s cell phone number and called her up one day over my lunch break. She is pretty incredible. I remember listening to her in high school and she’s still singing as well as being a wife and mother to 2 little boys. She was really down-to-earth and easy to talk to. By the end of the conversation I felt encouraged by her. She said one thing that really stuck with me about how important it is that she loves her husband well as an example of marriage to her children. I just keep thinking about that and how I want to strive to do that with Adam when we have kids. She had a lot of other great things to say about balancing motherhood, marriage, and career.