New Year.

Well, somehow time seems to be getting away from me in the way it does; I laugh at myself when I look up wondering where life has gone, and how the days seem to move so much faster than they have before. I mean, I am only 30...

Without going into any gruesome details, N, myself, and our dog Sophie made a trip to and from Texas over the holidays. We were hit with about 10 inches of snow the day before we originally intended to leave, so we had a couple of extra days here at home for which we were both grateful. All-in-all it was a good trip, though it seems like ages ago (therein another comment about time-is it moving fast or slow??). I've posted some pics of our food adventures; the first of which sums up our trip to Texas, with ground beef simmering on the stove waiting to be added to chalupas. Much meat was consumed, capped off with a new year's day celebration (back in VA by then) with black eyed peas plus ham-hock and, well, bacon. We have since slipped back into fare that suits our stomachs a bit better. I was excited about a new rye starter, which grew beautifully (photo of the profile of the starter with all of the air holes), only to realize neither of us is a big fan of rye flour. Go figure...

All of this to say that we are both busier than we would like to be, but are glad to be back into the swing of things. We're finishing up a January term on the meaning of the death of Christ, which I will not even begin to go into here today; I'm exhausted and have reading to do and meetings this evening. But, yes, our home is filled with good smells of soup on the stove and the sunlight continues to do its magic as it comes through the leaves of the plants piled in the front window, all reaching toward the light as they stay warm through the winter...

Peace