happy friday !

It has been a looooong week.

After school I am headed down to Baltimore to see Ben for the weekend and I am so excited.

I need some hugs and gelato in between the endless reading for my term papers. 

He is finally nearing the end of his two year Teach for America experience. And wow, it has been an experience. I would NEVER be able to handle what he deals with on a daily basis!!

It's hard to believe I'll only visit him in the city a couple more times before he moves closer to me!

It seemed like the end of these two years would never come.

And now that it's so close, I am realizing that I will maybe miss the endless restaurants, brick streets, and waterfront of Baltimore.

Strawberry Shortcake Oats: part 2 in a series

Strawberry Shortcake Oats

These are pretty self-explanatory.

Now let's see if I can remember what I put into them...

-1/2 cup oats

-1/2 cup water

-1/2 cup milk

-dash of salt

-cinnamon

-nutmeg

-vanilla

-sugar and almonds for topping

-chopped strawberries, frozen or fresh

Bring the water, milk, and dash of salt to a boil. Add oats, lots of cinnamon, a dash of nutmeg, and cook for 2-3 minutes.  Add the strawberries and finish cooking the oats.  Stir in about 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, and top with sugar, almonds, and milk.

I've been buying bags of frozen organic strawberries because they go on sale quite frequently, and are cheaper than fresh, for now.

narcissus sunset

When the sun sets it slants across my front yard and lets a tiny bit of light into my cozy cave apartment.

I like coming home to all the flowers glowing.  My landlords are from Alaska; when they moved here they let their suppressed inner-gardener selves go wild and planted up the whole front yard and backyard with vegetables, herbs, and flowers. I think I convinced them to string lights in the walnut tree over the picnic table in the front yard for amazing al fresco dinners. [Yes, I have the best landlords ever. Yes, we are probably "those" neighbors.]

I am so happy that things are starting to grow again!

The front yard is looking like a Breck's advertisement. The only thing missing is a Dutch flag flying in the background...

I like Wednesday nights because I finally have a chance to relax and breathe after the mad-dash stressful rush of the first part of the week.  I'm starting to get that spring-induced calm that everything will work out.  Even when there seems to be way too much work to fit into the last four weeks of the school year,

It will always all get done.

Keep that in mind if you feel like you are losing it :)

So I'm just trying to appreciate the blast of warm hot weather we've been living through lately.

Even if it is maybe a bit TOO hot and dry.

I love opening windows and smelling fresh air indoors.

And taking outdoor lunch breaks.

Hello, freckles!