it can wait

I don't normally blog about things like this, but I feel it too much not to share.

Last week I was at home and my parents were really pushing no texting and driving to Sam and me. I heard them but it wasn't until Friday, when my mom and I pulled into the driveway that I really heard it. We were pulling in and two little blonde boys - probably three and four - ran out in front of us. My mom braked and it was in that moment that it clicked for me. I try not to text and drive but have my "safe zones," where i feel like it's OK to look at my phone. The red lights, stop signs and that last ten feet before I'm home. Had I been pulling into our driveway texting, though, I would have hit those sweet kids.

I decided I had to fast - really fast - from it, because texting and driving really is an epidemic. I took the pledge and am promising myself that no matter how important the email, text or (shamefully) Instagram feels in to moment, it can definitely wait.

pesto. the besto! (three-ingredient recipe)

You guys. I promise I will stop blogging about my time at home soon. But not yet. There is just so much to share!

My uncle and aunt, Mikey and Betsy, have this awesome garden in their backyard. It produces beautiful, huge vegetables that make my mouth water just thinking about them. Tomatoes with crazy flavor - neither too tough, nor too soft. The kind you want to bite like an apple. 

And there's basil. So. Much. Basil.

I can still smell it.

Partially because they let me fill a grocery sack up with it, which I put in my suitcase. Total basil party in my bag. I opened it after the flight and let the herby goodness wash over me. 

Because it goes bad faster than spinach (which is really, really fast), I had to do something ASAP. This party of one can only eat so much basil. 

And so, I made pesto!

Because I didn't know how real people make pesto and because I only had so many things in my pantry, I made up my own recipe. And it worked! So, without further ado, healthy pesto, for you...

Ingredients:

3 T Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4 C. Basil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Yields about two servings of pesto

To make:

Put basil and olive oil in Food Processor
Add salt and pepper to taste
Blend until creamy

Enjoy. Freeze. Laugh because you're so happy you'll have basil all winter (assuming you made more than two servings...).

Happy eats!

on waiting.

Last week when I was home, it was just my parents and me Wednesday through Friday. And being there reminded me of when I first graduated college and got a job in Indy. I lived at home to save money (medium successful...) and it was just the three of us.

Together, we moved out our my childhood home into our new one. We broke it in together, learned the new neighborhood, developed new-house routines. 

It was fun - really fun. It was the first time I'd lived at home as a grown up. It had never been OK for us to have a glass of wine together. I'd never had job stuff to talk to them about instead of school stuff. It had never been just me and them - it had almost always been the seven of us, or at least always five of us. Never just three. 

I look back on it as a really sweet time I had with them and I'm so grateful for it. It changed my relationships with them and helped us see one another in a new light. 

But you know what? While I was living there, I was so stressed. I couldn't relax because I felt like I should have been living in my own apartment. Failure to launch. That's how I felt every day. Silly for living with my parents, when everyone else had houses in Broadripple and apartments in Indy. I was in the suburbs replacing high school framed pictures in my bedroom with college ones, while everyone else was hanging cool prints in their freshly painted kitchens. 

Comparing, comparing. I was so stressed.

I thought of that when I was up early Wednesday morning. I was brushing my teeth, so excited to go get some of my mom's coffee before work. And all of those feelings came rushing back. I was in my old routine and it felt like barely anything had changed - like I'd stepped back in time just for a moment. 

And I looked in the mirror and told myself what I wished I'd known then: calm down, Whitney. You'll get there. You aren't stuck - it's just not your time yet. Be grateful for the right now. Be grateful for what you're learning; what you're living. The next step will be taken, but right now is so important. And it's so sweet. Don't rush it. Take a deep breath and enjoy it. 

I write this as I sit in my house in Atlanta. Melissa is in the other room and I'm on the couch, blogging away. Our place is clean. It has cute decorations. It has wood floors and things I didn't even imagine having back then. 

Because the future is so often sweeter than we could have imagined. 

But we have to wait. We have to embrace the now in order to get to the future. So today, I'm not rushing. I'm not stressing. I'm enjoying it, carrying my head high, my heart filled to the brim with joy. Because the future is exciting, but the right now is so worth living. Every minute of it. 

amber waves of grain

I'll be the first to admit that one of the reasons I moved south was the weather. We Bibers grew up in the Midwest, but there's no doubt we have southern blood somewhere in our lineage. We have no interest in winter, no matter how you slice it. 

But as much as I love (love) this Georgia weather, every fall, Indiana calls me back. I ache for the crisp weather. The blue skies contrasted against the green grass and yellow corn. The brightly colored sunsets that make your heart melt. The smell of waking up in my at-home bedroom, dewy mornings pouring in my wide-open window. My mom's uber-strong coffee, my dad's homemade breakfasts. 

And although this year's trip came earlier than my typical go, Indiana was ready for me. Unseasonably fallish, it was. It was cool and crisp and sunny and filled me up to the brim with Hoosier love. 

There was dinner with friends at Napolese. 

There was a family party, where I got to meet my cousin Chris' baby. As well as my cousin Becca's baby. Yes. Two babies. Two! (Yes, I was in heaven. No, I didn't care that I got spit up on three times. Oh, and yes, I debated stealing them but didn't think I could get through TSA.)

There was apple picking with my parents and Sam.

  

There was sushi at Kona with my parents.

There were walks and sunsets and iced coffees and good conversations and rest. Oh! Lots of rest. There was happiness and joy. 

And there was corn. Lots of corn.

And it was wonderful.

Happy Monday!