Today.

It's the kind of day for wearing SmartWool socks, listening to Josh Garrels, and baking pear tarts.

How are you spending your weekend?

Costuming.

In my family, we like dressing up. My mom always made sure our lives were full of creativity and imagination, so it only made sense that we would pretend to be various characters from books we read or movies we watched or that we would just make up our own stories to act out.

Last year, Matt and I visited my grandparents and, while at their house, flipped through some family pictures for entertainment. He is now convinced that I spent my entire childhood in costume. There are pictures of me dressed as a ladybug, a baby chick, a cheerleader, an old woman, wearing various dance costumes, dressed in my brothers clothing, pretending to be pregnant before my younger siblings were born, sporting crazy hairstyles.

Years of dressing up have made my siblings and I pretty good at putting together a costume and our skills were put to work this week as Marc, my youngest brother, had Costume Day at school. Here are some pictures of Marc as Waldo from the Where's Waldo books. They would be perfect if only you had to pick him out in a crowd...

Missing.

I never thought I would say this but... I miss Ohio (and Indiana).

 I've always loved the south. And hated the cold winters of the north. And when my family moved to Georgia, I was thrilled with the prospect of no snow and possibly even sun at Christmas. I loved the thought of consistently hot weather and ice cold glasses of sweet tea and southern charm. After graduation, I expected to leave the north and never look back.

 And so, I hate admitting just how much I miss the midwest. But I do, especially this time of year. It's not yet fall in Georgia. The leaves have barely started to change colors and the weather is consistently warm and sunny. It makes me wish for the beautiful Fall of Ohio. I'm missing so many things about it.

 I miss changing leaves that are vibrant on the trees and make delightful crunching noises when they fall to the ground.

 I miss the necessity of wearing scarves (I tried to pretend it was scarf weather in Georgia one day by wearing a scarf with a short sleeve shirt. Eventually, I got too warm and had to take it off).

 I miss crackling fires in the evening and the desire for warm comfort foods and flannel shirts (and I miss the boy in the picture).

 I miss Fall desserts and Fall themed meals.

Eventually, it will be Fall here too. And I have a feeling that I'll be grateful for the temperate weather of the south in just a couple months. But, for now, it would be nice to be back home in the midwest. Thank goodness it's been possible to visit so often.

The communal experience of food.

I love baking. And cooking.

I love creating and then sharing. Seeing the joy that is brought to others through something so simple, like a cupcake or banana bread or chocolate chip cookies.

One of the things I miss most about school (or just living somewhere where I know people) is the communal experience of a meal or even a snack. Perhaps that is why I've recently been so enthralled with the idea of working at a bakery.

This afternoon, one of my roommates sent me a text that said "Today I have had coffee, tea and popcorn. It's like I am back in our house!" So many good memories can be built around sharing food.

I miss studying over coffee. Having friends over for a movie and popcorn. Making house dinner or just going to campus to eat together because we didn't have time to cook. Baking tons of apple pies in the fall, just to find our favorite recipe (and to have tons of apple pie to eat!). Inviting friends over to frost cookies in the winter.

Unfortunately, I also have a lot of food allergies. In the past, my way of dealing with them (or not dealing with them) was to ignore them. But, recently, I've decided that something needs to be done about it. Currently, I'm trying out an elimination/healing diet that gives me hope for being able to eat things like dairy in the future! At the moment, however, I just miss the creative outlet that baking provides. I think I'm just going to have to get even more creative, for the time being!

In the meantime, here is an adorable video that I recently discovered and love. I would absolutely love if this was my life!

And, I'm back.

I'm back in Georgia.
Left without a plan nearly a month ago and now I'm finally home.


Taking life one day at a time.