Hello, friends!

This is a post about me. No recipes, no projects, no book reviews. Just a plain ol' "this is what I've been up to lately" type of thing. I hope you're okay with that.

The photo above is from this past weekend. Robby was asked to perform a small marriage ceremony for one of his former college students. We drove out to the Central Coast on Friday morning, and I sat in Starbuck's while he married two sweet people in the presence of their families. I sat sipping coffee for nearly two hours, and it was wonderful. Just wonderful. I devoured my latest Real Simple magazine (thanks Chels!) and finished a book my friend Amanda loaned me. (A real good one...I'll share it later.) We stayed overnight, spending our time shopping a bit and visiting Avila Beach, where that photo was taken. It was beautiful and sunny but chilly and windy. I have another photo to show you just how windy it was:

I didn't know Robby was taking that photo, but I kinda like it. This may disgust you, but Robby really loves taking photos of me. I don't know why...

Last week we celebrated my mama's birthday at our house, and it was such a fun evening. We sat outside in our backyard which looked quite lovely, if I do say so myself. I made ATK's Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake and it was perfectly delicious, slathered with chocolate frosting and covered in chocolate curls. I enjoyed every single crumb on my plate.

Yes, I ate the chocolate cake. And yes, I'm still doing my diet. But I'm trying to find a balance in my life. There is no way I'll be able to pass up a slice of chocolate cake for the rest of my existence, so I eat carefully and thoughtfully most of the time and then indulge every now and then. Overall, I feel so much better, but I'm still figuring out what works.

School is going really well this year. I work three days a week at a charter school as an Independent Study teacher. I have only twelve students, and I meet with each one of them for an hour. During that time, I go over homework and assign new homework...and I share about my life and listen to them share about their lives. It's pretty neat.

On Mondays I don't work at school, but in a way, it still feels like a workday. Monday is the day Steph and I meet to work on our blog Citrus and Cream. This has turned out to be quite the job! I don't think either one of us knew what we were getting into, but we're having fun (most of the time) and learning a lot along the way. And it gives me and Steph a standing date every week, as well as incentive to have outings and parties. The photo below is from our Thanksgiving dinner. I love the red leaves creeping along the fence in the back.

On Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights, I work with our children at church preparing for our Christmas program. It's amazing--I can be absolutely drained from a busy morning or a long day of work, and yet I step in the room to teach them and I'm buzzing with energy again. Sweet funny kids can do that to you. I also get a workout doing the dance moves and hand motions, which is a plus.

Speaking of church, the craziest thing happened to me this past weekend at youth group. We were playing hide-and-go-seek in the pitch black education building (don't judge...you do what you have to do to keep kids interested!). I knew the seeker was coming and I had a terrible hiding spot in one of the rooms. Across the hallway was another room, so I darted out. At that exact moment, one of our middle school students was running full speed down the hallway, silently of course. He didn't see me. I didn't see him. He collided into me, knocking his hard head into my jaw and causing my body to fly--yes fly--through the air. I landed on my left elbow and hip and then my head smacked into the nearly-concrete floor. I blacked out! Quickly I came to but I was in major pain and the room was spinning. Someone turned on the lights and Robby ran over to me, helped me up and out of harm's way. Turned out there were no broken bones, but I am still incredibly sore.

And there you have it. I wear many hats these days, and each one of them somehow fits. I look forward to the next week of Thanksgiving break and will relish some rest and relaxation!