Back home.

In the 7 years that Adam and I have known each other we have taken a ton of roadtrips together - at least 2 or 3 per year and I always love the range of emotions and events that happen when you are in a car with someone for hours on end. Sometimes it's silly, sometimes it's serious, maybe sleeping, coffee stops (Read: bathroom stops), snacks, sing-a-longs, life chats...its a unique way to spend time with anyone! But I love traveling together, one of my favorite kind of adventures.

So today, 40 hours of worth of roadtripping in the last week and our adventure has finally brought us back home. (Ironically I am writing this post from the car as we had to run out to a basketball game for work once we were back!) I love that home is so welcoming, even though tomorrow morning it will look a little less so as I consider the unpacking and laundry to be done. I'm not even super sure what day of the week it is, so I suppose tomorrow will be a day of adjustments all around :) For tonight though, the laundry  & everything else can wait. We are home.

Welcome.

New Year's Eve is one of my favorite nights of the year, mainly because of the fireworks & the excitement of what the fresh start of a new year holds but the champagne toast & midnight kiss aren't too bad either.

This year we rang in 2015 with Adam's parents, which after getting up at 3am that same day to drive 12 hours from his sister's house back  in time for church, the fact that we all were still awake at midnight to celebrate was an impressive feat!

As many friends on social media have been posting all the best moments from this past year and of course things they are resolving to do differently, I considered what I would include on our list and I just kept coming back to all of the people we get to share life with each day. In 2014 we got to minister to our church communities, share life with friends and see all of our family. For 2015 I am excited for more of the same. It may sound cheesy or overly simple but it's true. Whoever your people are, I hope that you focus on how great it is to get to spend any part of a year with them. 

Romans 15:13 is one of my favorite Bible verses and I think it is so appropriate to consider as a new year starts. It says: 

"I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit."

Whatever each day of this year brings, that's my prayer. That we all would be overflowing with hope, joy, and peace that can only come through God. So enjoy your people, love God. I think we can do that right?! :)

Happy 2015 everyone!

Motivation Monday

Just a little while ago I sent out a tweet with the sentiment that I could hardly believe today is only Monday. I feel like I have lived a week within this day. Now that is not to say today has been a bad day, it it just that today has seemed abnormally long. It is so nice to be home now and share life here. 

Trying a new recipe for dinner tonight. Since Adam and I got married, there are few recipes that I have made twice, not because we haven't liked recipes I have found, but because I just always find new meals I want to try out. I am thankful that Pinterest fuels this little hobby of sorts, since it is not hard to have access to more meal ideas than one person could possibly cook in a lifetime! 

Tonight I am trying a broccoli cheese soup recipe out! It's a good thing my husband will eat just about anything, because I will cook just about anything...once. I will admit that trying new recipes often has resulted in some less than stellar meals. (Tonight's meal success still TBD as it is currently cooking). For example, a few nights ago I made: Italian Chicken Baked in Foil. We have enjoyed tilapia meals cooked in foil, I had all of the ingredients for the recipe AND it looked tasty enough...all things lined up to at least try the recipe. Unfortunately, not as yummy of a meal as I had hoped. It took much longer to cook the chicken than the recipe stated and the chicken was kinda mushy (which I am not a huge chicken fan to begin with, but mushy chicken is even worse!). The veggies were tasty though...so was a plus! Again, thankfully Adam eats just about anything and is a willing participant in trying out new meals. 

As I think through my little cooking projects, they bring to life some wise and challenging words from President Roosevelt (FDR). "Above all, try something".  I came across this quote a few weeks ago and have been rolling the statement around on and off in my head ever since.  

     

I think that trying something is such an interesting little challenge. It's often so much easier to just do things we are most familiar with or use processes that have worked in the past, or to just give up when a plan or idea doesn't work out. The challenge to try something no matter what is hard because giving up or doing things the same way can be so much easier. So my motivation today to you {mostly myself, but you too!} is to keep trying something, even if it means a little extra work or time or the opportunity comes at the end of a long Monday kinda day :)

If you want to follow my meal projects check out my Pinterest meal planning board: 

Follow Kyla's board Meal Planning. on Pinterest.


Want to catch up on some of our weekend adventures lately? Keep reading...The last few weeks of life have been jammed packed for us!

I got to travel to South Florida to visit one of my oldest friends and share in the fun of her bridal shower. The trip flying down was a whole adventure in and of itself. My first plane of the day had 2 flat tires...so a huge departure delay, several missed connections, and subsequent standby attempts later, I eventually made it! Talk about exhausted. BUT overall it was such a fun weekend and always so special to spend time with good friends.

Adam and I successfully completed our 2nd Chicago Marathon. We had a strong race, raised over $1,600 for the health and fitness center at our alma mater and {my favorite} earned new medals, got 'free' t-shirts, and lots of yummy snacks & beer for our running efforts. Not to mention it was perfect running weather! It really was a surreal weekend. I barely believed we were actually going to run it again until we were in the start corral the morning of the race and despite marathons taking a huge amount of time to complete (if you aren't Kenyan) the whole day seemed like a blur the second we crossed the finish line together.

Last weekend aka just a few days ago, our adventures involved taking Adam's high school students to Six Flags for Fright Fest. We may or may not have waiting in line for 4 hours to ride ONE roller coaster, but it was kinda awesome...so we both agreed it was worth it (despite being freezing & starving haha).

Finally our turn!!!!

This upcoming weekend we are looking forward to Adam's birthday, one of my brothers and my grandparents visiting us, and my installation at work on Sunday. The adventures never slow down :)