dripping with passion

from the time i was a small girl, i dreamed of studying abroad at the brigham young university jerusalem center for near-eastern studies . all of my older siblings, one by one, came home from semesters in the holy land beaming with new light and brimming with stories of epic adventures, both spiritual and fun. i distinctly remember one summer night, after my senior in high school, having a conversation with my sister saydi before we fell asleep while sharing a bed at bear lake. she was telling me, quite passionately, about her experiences at the jerusalem center. i recall a fire igniting within my heart as she explained the sheer joy she had experienced in her semester abroad, by then many years past. and i was determined to do all i could to make my dream a reality. at that time, the jerusalem center was closed for students, and had been for several years, due to security concerns. there was no indication when - or even if! - the center would reopen. but starting that summer n...

  when i lived in palo alto, my friends brittany, michelle and i gathered each wednesday night (for periods of time over several years) to watch episodes of downton abbey together. i love, love, loved these nights. they usually included enjoying takeout, catching up on life and having fun and/or supportive conversations, snuggling up with blankets on michelle's couch and all kinds of reactions and commentary while watching the adventures of the grantham/crawley family et al. i don't generally get into tv shows, but i really got into downton abbey , i think mostly because it was so fun to watch with my dear friends. i could have watched the final season months earlier than my friends in america since i now live in england, but i decided to wait and watch an episode online each week through the past couple of months, as they aired in the usa, so that michelle, brittany and i could have text conversations about the story and characters and drama (and definitely the dresses - wh...

this blog will likely be quite quiet over the next two weeks, while the boy and i are adventuring and learning in the holy land. in the meantime, i wanted to share a few tips for travel planning! we are very often asked for insights on how we prepare for our trips abroad. there's a bunch of information on this topic in the q&a posts i wrote after our epic journey around the world last year { here and here }. this post focuses more on the prep-work for shorter trips (like those we've been taking since we moved to the uk). we're no experts and recognize that there's lots of different preferences/styles when it comes to traveling, but i hope sharing some things that have worked for us is helpful for someone out there! 1. build a travel fund into your regular budgeting. we set aside a certain amount of money from every paycheck and flag it specifically for travel. additionally, when we are extra conscientious about spending or have some type of bonus income ...

happy holy week ! the boy and i are thrilled to be spending the week of easter in the holy land, where the saviour jesus christ lived, ministered, atoned, died and was resurrected two thousand years ago. while we are sure this experience walking where he walked will be deeply enriching and really wonderful (it certainly was for me during my time studying abroad in jerusalem nine years ago), we heartily believe that christ's love and power fill the whole earth, and we all can follow him and find new life through him no matter where we are geographically or in circumstance. our love for jesus christ and our faith in his reality and divinity, power and mastery is so very deep. we are immensely grateful for the tremendous hope, healing and joy that knowing him brings into our lives. hallelujah! he lives! here's a post i wrote about why my heart so earnestly beats with hallelujah each easter (and throughout the year). click here for another great video about followi...

wheatfields under thunderclouds  is among the last paintings that vincent van gogh created before his untimely death. i love how this piece of art depicts splendor among storms. the deep navy is foreboding, but the crisp white of the uncoiling clouds is whimsically reassuring. the sky is turbulent, but the meadow is pregnant with verdant vegetation and even a tiny, redeeming cluster of red blooms. all the rich contrast is what makes the painting striking and gorgeous. last week i jotted down a sentence that is printed on a wall at the van gogh museum in amsterdam: "even though his subjects are always simple, they convey just how deeply van gogh felt the essence of life, beauty and tragedy alike." and i was inspired to simplify yet simultaneously feel deeper, and to relish the contrast in life as i did while admiring wheatfields under thunderclouds .

  here's a few straggler pictures from last weekend in amsterdam... i'm still on a high that i got to experience a new looooovely city and spend time with a dear friend...! ^^ melinda & i shared the most gorgeous meal at rijks, the restaurant at the rijksmuseum. can you believe how pretty these plates of uniquely combined culinary delights are?! melinda is among my most preferred people to share a meal with because she appreciates so well and is such a delight to talk with. ^^ ^^ the narrowest canal house in all of amsterdam! and melinda caught a snap of me snapping away - amsterdam is really, really picturesque! ^^ ^^ i sent this photo to the boy - i was snuggling i for ian! love the other tourists in this photo. ^^ ^^ on our last morning together in amsterdam, we had the most amazing breakfast at a little cafe near dam square. everything was delicious, but the scones were to. die. for. because they were so perfectly fluffy and because we slathered them in cream and di...

last weekend i met my dear friend melinda in amsterdam for a long weekend girls’ trip! it was so good for my soul – to be with a kindred friend exploring a new, charming, fascinating place without any rush. we lucked out and got glorious sunny weather, thoroughly enjoyed some amazing food & treats, had excellent discussions and totally fell in love with amsterdam! i really enjoy and appreciate talking with people who have just returned from a travel destination and learning about how they spent their time and what they would suggest with the experience fresh in their mind. so, even though i’m  definitely  no expert on amsterdam after having spent just three days there, i thought i’d share eight things melinda & i did that i would absolutely recommend to any future visitor, along with some notes on my experience exploring this lovely, lovely city. if you’re headed to amsterdam, i hope this little recap of my weekend is helpful in your planning!

since we’ve moved across the pond, we have gotten in a habit of establishing some general travel plans for ~4-6 months out from any given time. we’ve budgeted time and money with the aim of leaving the uk to explore europe about once a month. we’re so so grateful for the ability we have to travel so plentifully at this time in our lives and feel like we’ve found a pretty good balance of settling in to a community, routine and dedicated work here in london while still taking good advantage of cheap flights and close-by amazing locales! these days, we can’t plan our travel adventures into our calendars in the same way we’ve gotten used to, because the start of our greatest adventure – becoming parents! – is fast approaching. we definitely plan to travel with our baby boy (and his siblings that will hopefully follow!) but we know everything will be different after july. so, we’ve planned some exciting pre-baby international jaunts. -->i just returned last night from a long weeken...

the timing of life worked out so that the first valentine’s day that the boy and i celebrated together was my first valentine’s day ever with a significant other. being the dramatic romantic that i am, i was a little overexcited about having a valentine! it was a weekday, and ian planned a date for that night, so i invited him over for breakfast before work. i had this brilliant plan to make heart-shaped cinnamon rolls (which, of course, i had seen on pinterest) for a cutsie and lovey valentine’s breakfast. cinnamon rolls are among the boy’s favourite treats, and we had a little inside joke about them, so i thought this would be perfect (especially with the heart-shaped twist)! i foolishly chose a recipe that called for the dough to rise twice, and so i woke up two different times in the wee hours of the morning to prepare our epic love-day breakfast. feeling pretty drowsy, i tried to follow the directions exactly and then unroll and re-roll the dough into heart shapes. kind of lo...

when i was about ten years old, my parents started working on a new project. their book teaching your children values  had become a celebrated bestseller, and they wanted to provide a fun, engaging way to help parents instill in their children the positive values outlined in the book. so, mom and dad worked with a team of really creative people to develop a series of audio stories about a boy named alexander who has some amazing learning adventures. i vividly remember listening to these fun, funny and quite gripping stories as a kid. we would often pop in an alexander tape (yep, back in the days of cassette tapes!) on a road trip or even just while we were out and about running errands - and i genuinely loved following along on the adventures. i was a lucky kid and also was able to get some peeks into the development of the series - i remember visiting the recording studio and marveling at the different sound effect props and amazing varied voices the actors could create....

we had a wonderful relaxed weekend – one of those where you spend a good, nice chunk of time just catching up on life -getting stuff done, but also just chilling out. one project that has been on my list for ages was getting our flat’s last totally blank wall filled. i had suuuuch a struggle trying to decide what to hang on that wall! which frames, which pictures, in what arrangement… and finally i just buckled down and made some choices during the week and then on saturday after lunch the boy helped me create a little gallery wall! this was the last thing we had on our list as far as completely moving in to our flat and it felt great to check that off (yep, just over seven months after we arrived in london…). i also did a nice spring deep clean of the flat while ian was studying for the cfa, and then i figured i should take some pictures of our little home while everything was tidy and organized :) we absolutely love where we live and how this small space has become so dear and...