Start Spreadin the news...

i'm leavin today....

Embracing the struggle

pausing for some love with my true love


It seems to me that it is always easier to post on here the good things. The outings we attend, the amazing cookies we baked, the cute things our husband does for us. And these things are all well and good. But what about the hard stuff? What about the real stuff that life is sometimes made of? The struggle. None of us goes through life without it. None of us is exempt from our times in the desert. None of us has a get-out-of-trials free pass. The Bible reminds us that, (Matthew 5:45)

45That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

There you have it. We will all experience rain in our lives and seasons of difficulty. No matter how good you are! Do we acknowledge these things, or simply pretend that they do not happen, and cover them up with our pictures of crafts, fun get togethers and adorable children? Last week for me was complete insanity. And although I realize that my life is an incredible blessing, and I am so fortunate in so many ways, I feel that sometimes life has just climbed on top of me and strangled the living daylights out of me. I cannot seem to be all things to all people, contrary to what I would like to be. I am a "yes" person and tend to say "yes" without thinking far too often. There seems to be an endless list of things to do, parties to plan, people to meet up with, food to prepare, cookies to bake, gifts to buy and the list goes on and on and on. Meanwhile, I have my normal life to carry on with, work Monday and Wed, tutoring on Tues, teaching college group on Thurs, music class with B on Friday, teaching Sunday school on Sunday YIKES! I find myself being burdened with these things, tied down and worrying about, well, pretty much everything. And for some reason, last week seemed to me to be the pinnacle of the struggle. I just simply ran out of time. Gone. And then suddenly, I was forced to do something extremely odd and contrary to my type A personality. I simply let go. I realized that it was necessary to my own health and mental sanity. Psalm 55:22 says,
"Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken"

We serve a real and living God. Love and I were talking about it over our Tues morning coffee together and devotion, and we both realized that God is preparing us for something big. He always is. But in the meantime, He doesn't want us to be so put together. He wants us to be reliant on Him. Hints the struggles. His purpose, His plan. Instead of fighting this struggle, we need to go with it. Allow it, count it as a blessing. This is Scott and my wish for you this Christmas season. No matter where you are in your journey, that you would cast your burden upon Him and embrace the struggle that you are in. It is His plan and His will for you, and really, you could not ask for a greater calling. God Bless you all this Christmas. xoxo-kk


pausing for some love with my bebe

For Real Friday (on Sunday this week)

A peek into my life based on random photos taken from my week. Enjoy!

miss b's first pigtails


at a friend's house for dinner with a couple families (seriously like 4 families, they all have a gazillion kids- so fun!!)


some of my students after singing their rewritten Christmas carols- as per their final assignment


visiting the Polar Express train with friends at Irvine Railroad Park




dinner at Farrell's with my family after pictures with Santa (where B screamed)

3 Chicks With Looks Who Cook and Read Books

a recent photo taken of the authors at a U2 concert last month.

IT'S OFFICIAL!! My friends and I have just published a cookbook. The idea was derived out of the monthly book club I started where a few of the besties get together at someone's house, discuss our book, and our hostess wows the rest of us with her amazing cuisine. The three of us that host these monthly soirees have experimented with dare I say hundreds of recipes. And so after many hours collaborating our favorites, we came up with about 40 and broke them down into actual meals, containing appetizers, salads, entrees and desserts. THEN, we separated them into categories, with our favorite book selections as the chapter headings and VOILA!! A book club cookbook. We chose to call it the very modest, "Three chicks with looks who cook and read books." Just in time for the holidays. Not to ruin everybody's surprises, but, well, Merry Christmas everyone. (hint, hint)

For Real Friday (a day late)

A peek into my life based on random photos from my week. Enjoy!

Miss B's first chocolate


Before Scott's work Christmas party


driving there


the gorgeous bouquet Scott had sent to my work to say "i love you to the hottest director ever"


pics from the women's tea at church- and the table I was in charge of decorating!!

Whatta man whatta man whatta man whatta mighty good man

I wanna take a minute or two, and give much respect due

To the man that's made a difference in my world



Just thought I would give a little shout out to my man, the one and only love of my life who was featured this week in the San Clemente Sun paper. Yes, you see it would appear that there was a nice little write up for this love of mine who got a promotion and became San Clemente's very own "regional private banker." He attended a lovely little promotion dinner at Club 33 and was officially initiated into the private banking club. And even though I knew he got a promotion, he did not even tell me about being in the paper- I found out from a parent at my school. That's how modest my man is. HOT HOT HOT. He' so crazy, I think I wanna have his baby.

Where are Mommy's keys?

For Real Friday

A peek into my life based on random photos taken from my week. Enjoy!
Christmas Tree Lighting on Del Mar



Our wild child playing a game with her dad that Scott likes to call "Tales from the Crib"


Miss B's craft for her Mimi


Meeting up for some Starbucks before choosing the tree



The "One"

Working on These Today

"Owning little requires a practical approach – systematically decluttering your life and eliminating the unnecessary. Wanting little on the other hand is focused on the way in which we think, a far more blurred aspect of simplicity." - taken from ZenHabits

Super Easy Teething Biscuits

I like to know everything Miss B puts into her little system. I do NOT like processed foods or artificial ingredients. So to insure that she is only consuming stuff I want her to eat, I make her food. This includes teething biscuits. The recipe is so simple that I thought I might post it for anyone who wants to make them as well.
1 cup organic flour
1 cup baby's cereal (i use organic barley cereal)
1 cup organic fruit juice (i use the leftover juice from when I steam her fruit in my Beaba, or I use 100% organic pomegranite juice)
Mix all ingredients together and roll into a dough. cut out into shapes. I used a snowflake cookie cutter because I think that the shape is perfect for little teething gums, and it's festive too! Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Let your little sweetie chew away!

You and I are not so different Liv

I love my job. I love the kids, I love the parents, and I love being a mentor. But sometimes, in fact MOST times on my days off, I want to be left ALONE. I want to take off the teacher hat and put on the mommy hat. I want to walk down to the beach and play on the swings with my B. I want to go to Target without makeup on, or go to music class and talk with other moms, and NOT about how their kid can improve their grammar grade. I do not want to talk on the phone or feign interest in other people's kids. Though I really am interested in their kids on Mondays and Wednesdays, the rest of the week I WANT TO TALK ABOUT MY KID!!! This anonymity is becoming increasingly more difficult the more years that I teach. It seems I am always running into someone I know. And when I have the kid with me, FUGHETTABOUTIT. I stand there juggling my squirmy little B while I hear about recent soccer games, what dance class their kid is in, how they are doing in high school, what they are up to this weekend and on and on and I PRAY silently to God, that if my kid would just hold still for a minute and if she would just smile and act cute in front of my students and their families, and POSSIBLY let them hold her (seriously, people are always asking to hold her) that I would do MANY good deeds that upcoming week, including possibly answering my jury duty summit and not writing return to sender on the envelope any longer. And for the most part, Brinkster is her charming little self. But the stress that it causes is almost too much to bear. So all this to say, that sometimes, sometimes when I am just not feeling into it, I will occasionally put my sunglasses on, turn and walk in the other direction before I am bombarded with people. I know, I know. Evil right? Maybe not so. Last week I took Sprinkles to DIsneyland with my family. We were having a grand time, walking around the park, sharing in good times, eating a big fat churro and going on rides. We were in line for Peter Pan and Miss B was getting antsy. We waited in line for 45 minutes and this is a long time for a toddler. So to keep her busy I sang songs, tickled her, hung her upside down and did anything I could do to distract. When all of the sudden, I look two twists behind me in line and I see a student and her family. SO not in the mood at that point, and I knew that Miss B was not in a smiling giggling other people holding her kind of mood. So what did I do? I put on the Pradas. Yup. I stuck my sunglasses on, pulled my cute hat down and turned the other way. I hissed at my family members to not call my name out loud and we made it unnoticed through the whole line. Then an odd occurrence, well, occurred. We got to the front of the line, just about to get on the flying ship when the ride attendant put out her arm in front of us while a full ship stopped in front of us. A small party of 3 had apparently gotten on the exits. Miss B leaned back in my arms and giggled loudly while I tickled her, when I noticed the mom of the ship smiling at B, and then looking up at me. It was Liv Tyler. When I gave her that look of recognition after a moment of what I'm sure could have only looked like I was confused. (I always think I know famous people before I realize that they're famous, I sit there like an idiot thinking, did I go to high school with this person? did I teach their kid? did I serve them at RUby's back in the day?) As soon as the lightbulb went on she looked down and was off to the third star to the right and straight on until morning. I made sure to text my friends after this and even saw Liv (who is TINY by the way) walk off in her flannel shirt and jean shorts and fedora hat with her kid and husband, going around Disneyland unnoticed. When asked by everyone I knew WHY I didn't snap a photo with my phone or ask for her autograph, I simply told them, she just wanted to be with her family, put on the mommy hat and go unnoticed, just for one day.

Budgeting and other ways to take the fun out of Christmas

The Love and I are going anti-consumerism for Christmas this year. As part of our focusing on the important things in life we have decided that Christmas should be a time to celebrate the more important things in life. Jesus, Love and family. We have come up with .....drumroll please.... a budget. Just the word alone puts a bad taste in my mouth. NO FUN my inner child yells inside me, I like to think of money as fluid, not an issue. It doesn't matter... and yet I know it is the right thing to do. And besides, what do I really need? my more logical side argues. I have everything a girl could want. But still, when I spend for others I like to be extravagant. In the spirit of giving the word BUDGET puts a damper on the whole situation. So, although I would technically like a million dollars for my many craft nights, dinner parties, Christmas luncheons, Christmas plays, brunches and gift exchanges that I host, I have agreed to stick to this foreign word, this budget. On the brighter side of things, I think that I actually began to enjoy things that are GASP! cheap or even free! I pulled together some great clothes out of our closets for our Christmas photos rather than running to Target or Forever 21 and purchasing new ones. please see below and vote for your favorite one:
Option #1

Option #2

Option #3

Option #4

My friend Megs and I even had a little craft night, where we went to the Dollar Tree and found adorable decorations and made home made wreaths instead of purchasing new ones this year. Please see below:

So although we don't have a big budget, we've turned a little resource decrease into an enormous heart-source increase.

For Real Friday

A peek into my life based on random photos taken from my week. Enjoy!
a day off

kisses with the Love

music class with my girl

drama practice for the Christmas play I direct

a little holiday baking

Give Thanks

Thanksgiving is the ONE time a year that most people set aside to actually put their focus on what they are grateful for. Usually it's the obligatory friends and family and roof over their head blah blah blah. Then on black friday they go out and forget to be thankful for what they HAVE and focus on what they WANT. How backwards is that, right? So, Scott and I have decided to express our gratitude for the every day things. The things we take for granted. What would it look like if we spent all year focused on our thankfulness and then only ONE day focusing on what we want? It's a pretty revolutionary thought, if I do say so myself. So I've decided to list a few things here that I'm thankful for. Scott and I have also decided that weekly (probably on our date night) we will verbalize to one another what we are thankful for.
-the coffee that Scott brings to my bed every morning and then takes Miss B out on a walk so I can have an extra 20 minutes of sleep
-the extra 20 minutes of sleep:)
-holiday socks
-snuggle nights with my Love
-hugs and kisses from my baby girl
-my parents living so close to us and getting to share in our child-raising
-having found my soulmate, my true love so young in life and experiencing everything with him
-my faith in God
-manicures and pedicures
-living on the beach and seeing the waves every day
-having a husband who's willing to fly away with me
-really good books
-having a job where I can use my creativity
-seeing the world through a new perspective in the eyes of my child
-chai lattes with soy from Starbucks
-Sunday night soup and Miercoles Mexican in our house and other "theme nights" we come up with
-craft nights with my girlfriends
-my book club friends
Once you start the thankfulness list, the possibilities are endless. What are you grateful for? Let's start a backwards thinking society.

One Year

Remember this?

How did that turn into this?

It seems that the year has FLOWN by. But our little B turned 1 on October 21st. (i know, i know. i'm late in posting this. read my blog hiatus and understand that i have been OVER IT. i wonder if blogs gather virtual dust? my friend Priscilla posed that question and if it is true, then my blog needs a serious dusting) Anywho. Sprinkles' first birthday was at Tanaka Farms in Irvine. It was a gorgeous day and the kids and the grownups all had a lot of fun. Because B turned one, The Love and I had a long talk about the precedent we would set if we spent hundreds of dollars on our oldest child's birthday. Unrealistic and unnecessary. B doesn't even know she turned one. Nor does she care about the amount of money we spent. Scotty and I are not about that anyways. We have had multiple discussions about Sweet 16 on MTV and gag at the thought that these poor girls grow up thinking that money is the most important thing in life. Porsche's do not show up at the front door of most people's homes on their birthday. Character is a huge focus in our family and so with that in mind I had a couple of girlfriends over the night before and we made most of the decorations. With a little help from Miss B of course. She fingerpainted a painting to match the theme- Hello Kitty Halloween. It was perfect. Everyone got to go on a tractor ride, through the corn maze (how ironic. corn is also known as maize but there really was a MAZE, you know like the labrynth. i'm a nerd sorry) and pick a pumpkin as their party favor. It couldn't have been a better day.