ooo la la...

i can hardly contain myself! tomorrow morning, bright and (hopefully not too) early we will be making the 8 hour trek to pittsburgh!!! there are not enough exclamation points in the world to contain my excitement.

although the trip will be quick, and the main purpose for making it is to attend danielle's baby shower on saturday it will bring wind to my sails and a much needed break from the south. being a northern girl it's hard to feel really comfy anywhere else.

lately, craziness has victoriously ensued around here. i've forgotten to document my outfits for the past handful of days - not because i haven't wanted to, but other things have taken over, and i've changed into my pjs before realizing my lack of photograph for the day.

we've undertaken quite a few new things recently in our little house. some of them are currently more aspirational than they are realities, but they're out there nonetheless.

one of my new aspirations is to make something for everyone for christmas. not all of every gift, but something for everyone. the tricky part is making something for people that they'll actually like and use.

i have a couple good ideas for a few people, but i'm far from inspired for everyone on our list. i've actually been debating about making it a rule just for the women we buy gifts for because some of the guys i can't think of anything to even buy for them, let alone something to make for them.

in any case...i've also wanted to try my hand at a few crafty things OUTSIDE of the making all the christmas gifts thing.

we have also embarked upon a 4 week journey of healthy eating. not crazy-healthy. more of a non-processed fruit-filled journey in which we try to get enough of the major food groups. this journey began at the beginning of november, and will continue up until but not through, thanksgiving.

i've already discovered something new through this challenge:

this is a persimmon.

prior to this week i had never actually seen a persimmon before, let alone, eaten one. however, trader joe's had 4 packs of them earlier this week, and given that they were fruit, and we are trying to eat more fruit i decided to give them a go.

they look like a yellowy-orange tomato, but you eat them like an apple. and they are SWEET. not apple-sweet or wine-sweet -- cookie sweet. the texture is similar to a plum, but the taste is like cinnamon-sugar.

i also started reading don miller's (blue like jazz author) newest book: a million miles in a thousand years. i'm not finished with it yet, but one of the themes is the essence of story. and that every life is a story. but in a good story a character wants something and has to overcome conflict to get it (this is how it's defined in the book). he says something in the book though that has stuck with me. he is talking to a friend, and he says "i tell good stories in books, i don't live a good story." as a writer he was so busy writing down the stories, that he wasn't actually living them.

how often do i get so caught up in the parts of my story, that i stop actually

...living it?