Oliver Turns Two!

Today, my little baby nephew enters toddler-hood! I can't believe he was born two years ago. The saying "they grow up fast" couldn't be more true, but I love seeing him grow and develop his own little personality. Some of my favorite things about Oliver are the way he calls me "auntie' by saying "aunteeeee", how he scrunches up his nose when he smiles or gets excited, how much of an animal lover he is, how he melts hearts with his big blue eyes, and how he puts a smile on everyone's face. Jesse and Marianne, you have done a beautiful job of raising such an awesome little dude. I love him to pieces.

  

 A video of Ollie calling me Aunteeee

 

Friday Finds

(images via 1.  2.  3.)

If you have been following the blog for a while** you know that I used to do "Friday Finds to Inspire", which consisted of fun little articles, videos, photos, etc. that I found throughout the week that I wanted to share. Well, I'm bringing it back!

• 17 British slang terms that Americans should start using immediately(among my favorite: todger, miffed and legless)
• Dealing with street harassers
• Are you guys watching "Orange is the New Black"? Are you in love with Poussey as much as I am? Well here are 12 reasons to love her even more
• 17 facts that will change the way you look at celebrities. (Did you know Woody Harrelson's dad was a hit-man and that Ke$ha is 5 points short of having a genius IQ??! Mind Blown.)
• Some of you may not know that I am a biiiig Tegan and Sara fan. In fact, I even had a dream where I met Tegan and we discussed touring and bunnies (I'll leave that story for another time), but here is an interview of Tegan and Sara interviewing Tegan and Sara. You have to watch to get it, but it is among my favorites. Can we just be best friends already?? Also, to the right of the video are the other 3 parts to the interview....well worth your time.

**if you have been following this blog for a while, well you know that I am one of the least consistent bloggers ever and you should probably win a gold medal for putting up with me haha. Just know I am sending big mental hugs your way!

Chop Chop // What I'm Listening To

The past month and a half have been filled with non-stop travel, which don't get me wrong, is never a bad thing in my book. Someone told me recently that my time I spend home is a vacation from vacations because I am gone more than I am ever home. What can I say, I have a wanderer's soul. If I'm not constantly moving or changing things I go stir-crazy.

Speaking of changes, I chopped off more of my hair. This has been such a fun and freeing journey. I started back in December with cutting off over 12 inches.. Since then I have slowly been working my way shorter and adjusting to it. I love how free, choppy and flowy my hair feels. Anyways, here are some progression shots. 

Hair Inspo:

1. 2.

Would love to eventually be able to pull this off

Stay tuned for travel photo journals

Also, what I'm listening to (click to listen):
Sea of Love-Cat Power
Between the Bars-Elliot Smith
Twenty Seven-MS MR

Hocking Hills meets The Walking Dead

I spent the weekend in a cabin in Hocking Hills with friends. 

a little road trip selfie and an amazing sunset

On one of our hikes, I was talking with my friend about how I think it's so easy to focus on trivial distractions in life and how getting back to nature reminds us of what's important. I'm not going to lie when I tell you this conversation came up while discussing The Walking Dead (with which I am ridiculously obsessed).

Ash Cave and Cockles Hollow Gorge Trail

This might come off sounding a bit out there, but I told her how I'm obsessed with post-apocalyptic books and movies because I think it is so interesting how society deals and how people show their true colors. As we were walking through the forest on this hike I told her how it would be interesting to have to revert back to a more simplistic lifestyle and start over like they had to do in The Walking Dead. Minus the zombies of course. That would be a major downer.

For the Good Times!

Old Man's Cave

Anyways, now I'm rambling, My whole point to this post was to say that

getting back to the basics, sitting with friends around a fire, waking up in a cabin surrounded by trees and the birds chirping, and cooking your breakfast over a fire ain't so bad. In fact, I would recommend everyone take a break every now and then and reconnect...

Old Man's Cave

Lucille

Yesterday would have been my nana's Lucille's 84th birthday. She passed away a little over a year ago. Some things that will always stay with me are the memories. Memories of quiet mornings as a little girl, sitting in her lap in the rocking chair and drinking coffee with her (yes I owe my coffee addiction to her), to her insistence upon serving you food that believe it or not, you do need one more scoop of food on your plate for good measure, to her spunky attitude and letting people know what was on her mind. She lives on in me with these memories. I miss her every day.

Love you nana....

Vegan Curried Chickpea Protein Bowl

No your eyes are not deceiving you. This IS indeed a new post. Only 2 years after my previous post. As you may have noticed. this little blog of mine has been redesigned and revamped. I'm sort of smitten.

To start this new post off, I would love to share with you all one of my new favorite recipes. As a vegan, I am always being asked where I get my protein. I also just started working out and lifting weights recently, so this has become my go-to meal for quick protein before a workout. Oh, have I mentioned that it's delicious?

So without further ado....

Vegan Curried Chickpea  Protein Bowl

Ingredients:

quinoa

chickpeas

olive oil

cucumber

red pepper

zucchini

jicama 

celery

Guacamole:

2 avocados

1/4 juice of lime

diced jalapeno

1/4 red onion

2 TBS cilantro

salt & pepper to taste

Spices:

Cumin

curry powder

chipotle pepper

sea salt

Preheat oven to 400F. Prepare chickpeas by rinsing them in strainer and pour into mixing bowl. Coat with 1 TBS olive oil. Season with spices (as much or as little as you prefer). Bake for 15 minutes then toss around in sheet and bake for another 5-10 minutes or until golden brown. While baking the chickpeas, prepare your quinoa. While quinoa is cooking, dice veggies. I preferred mine raw, but you can always steam or stirfry them. The prep your guacamole. Combine it all in one big bowl and enjoy! 

I'm so excited to bring you all more recipes and fun posts, so keep an eye out!

Commitments

Pure Love - Colin Hay

Ok, I am going to be real with you guys. Commitments are really difficult for me. I get really enthusiastic, almost obsessive about committing to something and then the interest begins to wane.

Well 2 hours from now (May 5th) is my birthday, and while most people make New Years Resolutions, I think this time in my life is a great time to examine and re-examine some things. I am writing this down so I can commit to it, and to have a visual reminder to come back to when that interest wanes.

While these past 24 years have been full of ups and downs, of love and grief, and so many learning experiences, I feel that now is the time to take all that I have learned. Now that I have some years under my belt, and to really, truly honor myself.

Honor myself not just with words, but with actions. To follow through with my commitments.
More than anything I want to commit to being comfortable and confident with who I am. With my body, with my views, with my strength of spirit, with my actions and with my words.
I am committing right here, right now, to radical self love. To shamelessly and lovingly embracing myself.  To get there I plan on:

committing to enjoying the simple things
taking care of my body by first identifying the underlying causes to mistreating it (by starting here)
understanding and living by The Four Agreements (trust me, this stuff is gold)
living less online (in other words, creating my own experiences instead of reading about others' experiences online. It can be so addicting, yet so unfulfilling.) When I look back years from now I don't want to regret not making more experiences.
by never again sacrificing who I am at my core for another person. (lesson learned the hard way, but maybe it needed to be that way to really stick...)
to commit to living less in my head and being more in the present. Being mindful. (practice meditation).
To look within myself and trust myself for the answers.
Above all else, just love myself, radically, freely, shamelessly, without regrets.

P.S. Here are some great, easy steps to begin radically loving yourself
1. 2.