This was the year I often chose life over blogging. So many things happened, but I didn't feel each one warranted its own blog post. The predominant highlight was theatre, but plenty of other things happened, many worth celebrating, some more somber. I certainly can't complain.

January

February

March

April

May 

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Of course, Christmas itself is a tradition: the tradition of thanking God for sending His Son to earth among us, of pausing to remember and celebrate His human birth. While a nativity set somewhere in our home reflects this, our tree does not. Until this year.



I received a stunning boxed set of Adorenaments® from Ever Thine Home, His Christmas Names pronouncing seven names of Jesus in gold metal form. I'm partial to this set and was thrilled to receive it, but Ever Thine does offer an additional two sets of Adorenaments®:  His Savior Names and His Royal Names, featuring additional names of Christ in different silver ornament designs.


I was especially thrilled with the presentation of each set as they come beautifully boxed (what can I say, I'm easy to please!) with a book highlighting the importance of each name.

Our tree had already been decorated, but I was thrilled to "prepare Him room," if you will, and add all 7 names. This set will definitely be part of our ornament tradition for years to come.

Ever Thine Home sent along an additional set to gift to one of you this season. Enter below!

Dear Mindy Kaling,

Last night, my husband and I caught up on season 4 of The Mindy Project from episode 11 through the mid-season finale.

As Sam Smith began to sing towards the finale's end, my husband reached for my hand, assuming I was sad. Maybe even crying. He didn't realize that despite looking somber, I was actually rejoicing.



When I was 18, I dated a boy. Everything was perfect: I'd never met someone so sweet and we were surely in love. Three months later, he drove me home from work while giving me the cold shoulder. He didn't say a word until he pulled into my driveway and then he exploded. My "offense"? I did my job.

No, really. I was in college and waiting tables. He showed up shortly after 7 to pick me up from a shift ending at 8 pm. When a table came in at 7:30, my boss assigned the table to me, I waited it, and I was off by 8. Nothing incomprehensible to me.

To him, I was a selfish, horrible, inconsiderate person. How dare I waste his time? I should grovel for his forgiveness. He shouldn't even consider giving me a second chance.

I'm not making any of this up or exaggerating. This was the start of a emotionally abusive relationship. He would frequently react this way if I did anything insane like make a trip to the grocery store or pick up an extra shift at work without calling and telling him first.

What's that? I dared to label the relationship "abuse" when he never violently touched me? Some people will call that exaggeration, and that is where we have a problem. Emotional abuse is real, and it's a devastating problem that can turn a competent, strong, independent woman into a passive, fearful shell of her formal self.

I was that former shell for nearly a year, and I've seen Dr. Mindy Lahiri become that shell throughout season 4. This season has been frustrating; I've wanted to reach through the TV and scream at Dr. L—even though I know she won't listen. Women in this situation rarely do. If they're lucky, they reach a point where they wake up and take the first step towards moving on.

I took that step 11 months into our so-called "relationship". 11 months too late, but better late than never. Seeing Dr. L take her first step in the mid-season finale was both relieving and empowering.

The comment threads on Facebook are filled with devastated fans who just want Mindy and Danny to "work it out," but this is more than just sitting down and having a talk. There are huge personal issues to tackle that may or may not ever be resolved. The romantic in me always loves a happy ending, but this ending, disappointing to some as it may be, is happy to me, and more importantly, could ultimately bring happiness to Mindy Lahiri. Whether or not they reconcile, I'm proud of her decision.

Thank you, Mindy Kaling. Emotionally abusive relationships are everywhere but rarely discussed and almost never represented in the media. Thank you for the truthful presentation of what these relationships are really like, and thank you for making Mindy Lahiri a role model. That's not a word I often use to describe the character, but the best example she can set in this situation is to get out of it. You've encouraged me through this very real writing, and more importantly, I hope you've encouraged other women who haven't yet woken up to do follow in Dr. L's lead.

This post is featured on Sverve today!

There are a plethora of blog posts giving advice to new and prospective bloggers. The tips may vary, but most every post will include "the golden rule" in some way, shape or form. You know the one: do unto others as you want done unto you. If you're serious about blogging, this is the #1 rule:

Want your blog to be read? Read other blogs.
Want to receive comments? Leave comments.
Want your blog to be noticed? Notice other blogs.

Starting a blog? Growing your blog? Involve other bloggers—blogging is a community!



It can be easy to get independent or competitive, but I've found blogging is best when done together. In fact, the person I text most these days (aside from my husband) is another blogger who I haven't even met in person.

The blogging community is very large, yet can still feel small at times. Just like being the new kid in school, there are many groups to explore, and at least one is certain to "fit." I've found that in blogging terms, the best groups, or communities, are found on Facebook.

Facebook communities for bloggers tend to fall under 1 of 2 categories. Many do a bit of both:

1. Networking and advice. These groups are for bloggers to meet one another, bounce ideas around, ask questions, and troubleshoot. A great example of this is a group I'm in that's exclusively for bloggers who use the blogger platform (vs. WordPress). Having this in common ensures we are able to help one another.
2. Promotion and growth. These groups are full of threads with a "quid pro quo" attitude towards blog (and associated social media) growth. Want comments? Leave a blog post in the thread and you'll receive them—and return the favor to those who did. Threads can range from blog traffic to social media follows to increased interaction. The best groups regularly monitor activity and "clean up" members who don't follow rules to ensure fairness for participants.

My first "real" job was at age 15 at an Arby's in our local mall where most of my high school jobs would be. Restaurant and retail jobs mean evenings, weekends, and listening to the same loop of music over and over and over again (mercifully, the loop changed monthly). Aerosmith's Jaded still takes me back to my sophomore year of high school in the mall's food court.

It also means Christmas music in a loop...over and over and over again. I came to hate any and all Christmas music.

I've since gotten over that (except for The Christmas Song, which I'm pretty sure I'll hate for life. Why must everybody cover that song!?). Case in point? Chris Tomlin just released a Christmas CD-Adore: Christmas Songs Of Worship . It arrived in my office for review on November 18, a good week and a half before Thanksgiving.



You know what I did?

I ripped that sucker out of the bubble mailer and popped it into my work laptop. Thanks to headphones, no one need know I was listening to Christmas tunes so early.



It's an interesting album; the subtitle turns out to be perfectly fitting as the first few songs felt more like songs of worship than songs of Christmas, though those appear later in the track list. All the songs, of course, have Tomlin's mellow, soothing tone. If you love Christmas music, you'll appreciate the uniqueness of this album, If you hate it, you'll appreciate that this isn't another cliche collection of upbeat covers; this might be the one Christmas album you'll be willing to tolerate.

Either way, Flyby promotions kindly sent me this CD for review and agreed to let me give another copy away. Plus, I'm throwing in another $10 to Amazon for any last minute Christmas shopping! Simply enter below, then keep scrolling for a list of more giveaways!

When I moved from Virginia to Maryland, I began sending out Christmas cards each year. Mail can be such a day-brightener when it isn't bills or spam!

Each year since, I've noticed something interesting. I get the same feedback each year from at least one (different) person:

"Thanks for the card! I wish I had the time to send out cards. Maybe next year."

I'm certainly not offended at not receiving cards from everyone, but I am concerned at the idea that cards take a long time to send. I personally spend more time selecting Christmas cards than I do sending them. I set up a process the first year (that granted, is an time investment that pays off in future years) that has made sending cards each year after a breeze!


My secret? I have a hard time calling it a secret, but still, people are surprised:

Microsoft Office.

It really is that easy. If you can carve out some extra time one year to plop all your contacts into an Excel spreadsheet, mail merge does all the work for you in the years after. Just follow these steps, and you'll have cards ready to be send in no time:

1. Gather your contacts. I create a document in excel with the names and addresses of everyone I want to send cards to (make sure you set up fields; I use last name, first name, address, and city/state/zip, so that it can read properly in mail merge). The first time you do this, it will take some time, but in future years, this becomes a super short step of "scan your list of contacts for anyone who's moved, married, etc., and update their information"
2. Choose your cards. This is my favorite step and for me, often the longest. There are so many choices! I have done photo cards, but most years, I choose a variety of pretty boxed cards (like the pictured mini assortment I picked up at the Hallmark Store this year). Since you have all your contacts in the Excel file, you can easily see how many you need! I always allow for a few extras for any forgotten recipients or cards returned-to-sender (I catch most people who move, but always seem to miss at least one!)
3. Sign your cards. I usually keep this simple with a quick "Dear mom and dad," at the beginning then a "love, Sean and Bekah" at the end. 
4. Make your labels. This is the real time saver. I buy some blank mailing labels and do a mail merge into Word with the excel file (the software walks you through this, and I have a tutorial video below!). This sets up all your names and addresses in a format that you can print right on to the labels. I jazz it up with a pretty (but readable) font, and hit print! All those addresses that would have taken you a full morning to write on to envelopes will now take minutes. As a bonus, if you have your own return address stamp or labels, you've just cut down even more time!
5. Seal, stamp, and send. You're done! Seal those cards, put a stamp on each, and they're ready to send!

Whew! I'd say this fall has been one of my busiest ever. Every weekend had commitments of one kind or another. In September, I'd established a "wish list" for the season: all the things I hoped to complete before Thanksgiving next week. But let's be real: next week is, well, Thanksgiving, so anything I haven't completed certainly won't be next week, either.



How'd I do?

1. Visit a local winery:  Check. When our apple-picking plans were rained out (after we drove up, of course), we visited a winery in the same neighborhood.
2. Go apple picking. Nope, see above. We didn't have another free weekend together to do this. 
3. Make and can pasta sauce and applesauce/fried apples. Pasta sauce, check. Apple products, fail. Can't do it without apples.
4. Host dinner with friends at our house. Check. We had a great evening of conversation, puppy cuddling, and vegetarian baked ziti.
5. Host an Operation Christmas Child Packing Party. This was probably my biggest disappointment of the season. I planned the event (it's been an annual tradition) and sent an invite out over a month in advance. Not a single person would commit, then the day before, everyone suddenly had other plans. I'll be honest, it's been lonely in Baltimore since fewer people like to come out this way (I get it, I used to dread coming here, too), but this particular weekend was really hurtful to me. I ended up donating all the box-filling goods we'd already purchased to the church to stuff other shoeboxes, and look forward to my three upcoming volunteer shifts at the OCC Processing Center.
6. Have all family birthday gifts purchased (4 birthdays between Nov-Jan!). Check! I've been buying birthday/holiday gifts in spurts each pay period since September. Birthdays have been bought and wrapped (the first birthday is this weekend), and I've made a good dent in Christmas gifts as well.
7. Raise $1500 for Miles for Mothers. Not quite. This was my first time participating in the event and fundraising was a challenge for sure. I raised $200, but combined with all my participating colleagues, over $12,000 was raised to help our non-profit help others in times of urgent need.
8. Update decor and sort through more boxes. Done and done. We got some mums for the front porch and a pretty fall wreath.(We also brought in my jasmine plants and are trying to sustain them with a light over the winter) Knowing I had an overnight guest coming one weekend was motivation to sort through and empty some of the boxes we still had in our guest room.
9. Select Christmas cards and update mailing list. With the exception of last year, I usually send out boxed cards. I choose some pretties from Hallmark this  year, and thankfully I'm pretty good about updating the excel mailing list I keep for cards throughout the year.
10. Make decisions in our church search. I haven't really mentioned this on the blog, but Sean and I started exploring churches closer to our new home back in February. No church felt like "it". and while we found one church that seemed promising, I  couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right for us. We attended for a few months and I just didn't feel comfortable committing as a member. our Sunday-Sunday cruise vacation was just the thing we needed. Neither of us were in a rush to go back after being away which was just the freedom we needed to move on. We went back to our home church the next week and I teared up just being there. I'm thinking we're there to stay.

How was your fall? If you had a bucket list, how many items did you achieve?

Welcome to the ThankFULL for Giveaways Hop brought to you by The Hopping Bloggers!
Hosted By: Mama Smith's | Women and Their Pretties
Co-Hosted By: Comeback Momma | Better on a Budget | Our Mini Family | SassyGalBeauty
Many bloggers have come together to bring you a chance to win some amazing prizes! Go ahead and enter them all because there is no limit to how many you can win! Good luck!

I try not to watch much TV. I could be reading or exploring or doing something more productive. But, when Sean comes home from a 10-hour work day drained of all energy...that's about all the quality time I can get. Thanks to hulu (and the Roku 3 I bought him last Christmas), we've found a few agreed upon shows for some evening unwinding together. Some are quite popular while some have me rolling my eyes at myself, but I enjoy them just the same:

The Mindy Project

I was so excited to start watching this show...and so confused at the first few episodes of Season 1 . Of course, the show found it's sweet spot and I've been enjoying it since. I feel like this show is pretty popular and was suprised that it wasn't renewed after season 3. Praise to hulu for keeping Mindy and Danny in our living room!

The Last Man on Earth

I found Season 1 to be so frustrating...I really hoped the show would be canceled, and I felt that way up until the last five minutes of the finale when finally something of interest was sparked. I've enjoyed season two a lot more, but seriously, what's with Phil's brother? I feel like they teased us with that angle, then just dropped it.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Sean wanted to start watching this together and I had no interest whatsoever (I had no clue what the show was even about). I was kinda "meh" for the first episode or two, then quickly came to love it. As late comers, we were able to binge watch Seasons 1 and 2 on hulu...but now we're in real-time awaiting each episode like everyone else.

Swamp People

Mountain Men

Last week, I got an e-mail announcing limited time discounted tickets to The King and I on Broadway. I've been dying to see it, but a $200 play ticket isn't exactly in my budget. Thanks to LincTix, I found out I could see the show for $35 over the weekend...in a second row orchestra seat, no less!

Of course, the older you get, the harder it is to find people who can join in on such spontaneity (and Sean loathes musicals). I couldn't pass up the opportunity, though, so I went ahead and bought a ticket, opting to visit the Big Apple on my own.

The only un-perk: I suck at selfies.

This is my 4th NYC visit in my entire life and my first one alone. I was nervous, but this turned out to be my favorite trip yet! I told Sean when I arrived home that I'd be game for doing this more often, because:

• Pacing. I could walk as fast or as slow as I wanted to without worrying about losing another person. As someone who enjoys exploring, I could take a few seconds here and there to check out places of interest without inconveniencing someone else.
• Travel. I only used a taxi once and it was because I simply wouldn't have made it to the theatre in time otherwise (I took the bus to the city and back home in the same day). The rest of the day, I opted to walk (the weather was perfect for it). I'd say I walked around 3 miles that day, something not everyone is fond of doing.
• Decisions. A huge stressor for me is trying to make a decision in a large group when there's no formal itinerary in place. Suddenly, choosing where to eat lunch becomes a huge, dramatic conflict. I was crushed for time so I didn't eat at all until after the show, but I passed place after place without feeling the pressure of having to choose immediately.

• Participated in my first 5K (I walked with colleagues to raise funds for the non-profit
  we work for)
• Had lunch with a friend who moved out of the country nearly six years ago
• Did some DIY-ing around the house (posts with more pics to come...maybe)
• Wrapped birthday and Christmas presents (if you thought I was kidding here, you were wrong. I'm making good progress)
• Celebrated the marriage of our wedding photographer
• Visited with out of town family (and will visit with more out of town family this weekend)
• Discovered we need concrete in our basement (really, we don't have any...wow)
• Bought tickets to see Legally Blonde The Musical with another friend I rarely see next month

The past week of freezing weather means I can no longer deny that it's fall (it's been in the 50's, laugh if you must, but I'm freaking cold!) But, a new season means new makeup!



I'm still swooning over the return of a beloved 90's beauty trend, but fall has plenty of gorgeous colors to offer including the ones one winner will receive in a beauty grab bag this month! Winner is guaranteed cosmetics worth at least $50 USD! Enter and check out many other gruesome goodies to be won below!


Gruesome Goodies Giveaway Hop
Welcome to the Gruesome Goodies Giveaway Hop brought to you by The Hopping Bloggers! Many of your favorite bloggers have come together to bring you another great giveaway hop! Be sure to check out all of the giveaways below because there is no limit to how many you can win! GOOD LUCK and HAVE FUN!

Hosted By: Mama Smith's Blog & Women and Their Pretties Co-Hosted By: Paula MS' Giveaways Reviews and Freebies, Deliciously Savvy, Our Mini Family, & The Recipe Wench

I was in high school when I first discovered baked ziti. The melted cheese called out to me from behind the counter of Sbarro in the mall food court and I knew I had to try. I was sure it was just cheesy, differently-shaped spaghetti (the "traditional" dish of my childhood), but whatever it was, I had a new favorite comfort dish.

It never occured to me to try and make it myself until years later. Sean and I were married and we were having a dinner guest of the picky-eater variety. A quick google search later and I was trying the dish on my own. It seemed complicated at the time compared to the normal spaghetti I'd always cooked and grown up with, but the guest praise deemed it a success and a new recipe was thrown into our rotation.

I don't make it often, but traditionally I prepare it for dinner guests or as a covered dish for someone needing a meal. It's been adapted from the carbs-and-cheese Sbarro serving to a ground-beef laden casserole in my meat-eating days to today's vegetarian entree. All the while, the compliments came in.

It's just pasta, I would think. But it is different. Whether it's the extra time in the oven or all the richness-adding dairy, it's a simple,  yummy dish that easily pleases.

When I last made the ziti, I added zuchinni and bell peppers, but the veggies can be anything you wish! Other great additions are broccoli, spinach, mushroom, and onions. To keeps things healthy, I use whole-grain pasta and sneak even more veggies in with chunky garden-style sauces like Ragu that are loaded with farm-grown veggies. Plus, it's free of yucky things like high fructose corn syrup and artificial flavoring!

Just like baked ziti has developed a heritage in my home over time, Ragu has it's own story of tradition...and it's a girl power story. Read all about it here while your ziti bakes!