back in the saddle

My favorite place in my house is my kitchen.  It isn't the perfect kitchen by any means.  I don't have the latest or greatest appliances, but I have cookbooks, ideas, and ingredients to make a lot of lovely meals.  What I haven't had, lately, is time.  Over the past few months, I have given in and passed the torch to my husband.  I've cast longing glances at my oven, Kitchen Aid mixer, and cast iron skillet as I headed upstairs to grade or study; it has been a while since I've put together a complete, home-cooked meal.

The other night I made some delicious rosemary cheeseburgers on garlic butter buns, but my husband helped with the side dish, so I don't feel like that counted.

Tonight I made Italian pork cutlets, baby carrots, acorn squash, and boiled potatoes.  It was soooo yummy.  While the the squash baked, I baked cupcake cones as well.  You should have seen how nicely my 5-year-old cleaned her plate when iced cupcake cones were within her field of vision!

My kitchen and I, we're back together. :)

of loss and love

We had to make a hard decision this week; we had to put our ten-year-old cat, Kramer, to sleep.  It was difficult and sad, and in the throws of grief I proclaimed that I would never get another pet.  As the week went on, our sadness lessened.  Yes, we still miss him a lot.  We still look for him in the sunshine or snuggled up on the back of the couch.  Lily Mae, our two-year-old cat has been looking for him and calling to him, which makes all of us sad.  Still, as our grief has ebbed away, we've enjoyed sharing our funny Kramer memories.  It became clear to all of us that although it is terribly hard to deal with his loss, we wouldn't trade our time with him for anything.  So while we adjust to the idea of being a one-cat-family, and get used to not seeing our Kramie around, we know that we will be able to open our hearts to another animal some day in the future.

Summer!

I could say that I've been ignoring this blog because of such a busy summer, but that would clearly be a lie.  I can't believe it's been almost a year since I posted last.  Bad blogger!

This summer has been busy, though.  My family went on our first trip to Myrtle Beach in June.  We've decided to make it an annual trip; we loved it that much!  With the end of June came the start of my first summer course.  Right after that started, we traveled to Pittsburgh to visit family.  As soon as I returned, I was immersed in the busy-ness created by taking two graduate level courses.  Not fun, but challenging.  I wrapped up the first course on July 12, and then scurried to finish the second course material early so that I could go on a weekend trip with my hubby to Shenandoah Valley.  I did it, and earned an A in both courses!

So now I have three weeks left of summer, and I can't wait to spend every minute with my family. I just need to fit in some blogging time, too!