Robb + Jessie

Life

A Treasured Tradition

By Jessie on Friday, 19 December 2008 with no comments

Robb’s family has a cool tradition. Every Christmas, Robb’s parents would give him an ornament so that when he moved out and got married, he would have his own collection of ornaments for his first tree. We thought we’d share some of the ornaments with you.

I can’t get over how pretty our tree is. And next year, it will be different. My childhood handcrafted and gifted ornaments will eventually make the journey across the continental divide to join Robb’s ornaments.

What has happened in the past 30 days?

By Jessie on Friday, 22 August 2008 with 2 comments

Wow. August has been busy. The biggest event was going home for the first time since our wedding.

And, it was quite fitting to go home for our friends’ wedding. It is such a blessing to see our friends getting married, and it is quite nice to have more married friends to share this whole new phase of life with.

August in Seattle is what is known as “California Sucker Days” because the skies are blue, except the occassional day of showers, the Mountain is always “out” and the temperature never rises much above 75ºF. Lovely.

Except, we did get the more-than-usual rain showers, but I loved being able to sit outside as the sun set and not be bit my mosquitos. And what is a trip home without getting stuck on 520 West Bound at 5pm?

Did I mention how busy we were? Honestly, our trip home consisted of seeing all of our friends and family and driving in a huge triangle from Seattle to Ellensburg to Fish Lake and back home. When we got back to Madison, we slept. I have never taken quite so many naps.

We didn’t spend all of August in Seattle, although that would have been nice; the rest of the month has been rather low key. Work, coffee with friends, cooking, gardening, running, and such. We are now gearing up for school again. And planning our winter vacation (San Diego - here we come!).

I know we’ve left you hanging, waiting to hear what has been going on in our lives, but seriously? We have just been living. Oh yes, and watching the Olympics. That has entirely consumed our free time. Sorry. I hope you can forgive us. I’ll be posting some of our recent gardening-expeditions soon.

Stay tuned!

Sink Satisfaction

By Jessie on Friday, 30 May 2008 with 3 comments

Kitchen Sink

(No, this is not my sink, but I wish it was!)

I know this sounds very house-wife-ish, but I have come to stand by this way of thinking in the kitchen:

A sparkling sink becomes your kitchen’s benchmark for hygiene and tidiness, inspiring you to load the dishwasher immediately and keep counters, refrigerator doors, and the stove top spick-and-span, too.

- Real Simple

I suppose my desire to have a clean sink comes from the house I was raised in. Everything feels in order when the dishes are done and put away. I don’t mind making a mess in the kitchen. In fact, that is how I cook (especially, how I bake). But until the sink is clean, I am not satisfied.

I feel extremely messy, dirty, and disorganized when dishes (and food) are left in the sink. I take pride in my clean kitchen, so it becomes difficult when other people don’t see eye to eye with me on this issue. I think they just don’t understand how my brain works.

I didn’t really know that anyone else felt like this until I was reading How to Speed-Clean Your Kitchen on RealSimple.com. The article referred to the author of Sink Reflections and creator of the housekeeping website, FlyLady.net: “‘Keep it empty and shining,’ says Marla Cilley.” Why? Because it is a simple task, easy to accomplish and maintain. If you always have a starting point or a constant, everything else will fall into place. Plus, it keeps bacteria from forming layers of biofilm (yuck!).

While you may not find it necessary to always have an empty and clean sink, it is for me. And I can almost guarantee you will find my sink in order. Otherwise I will be slightly (to majorly) distracted until it is.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.