March 08, 2016

Spaghetti

March 08, 2016/ Hayley Kadaba

This week, we're preparing for some time away from New Haven, which means lots of laundry, packing, errands, and cleaning out the refrigerator. We're rationing the milk in our morning cereal so that we won't have to buy another half gallon that we inevitably won't finish, reheating soup from the freezer, and resisting the urge to open a new package of cookies.

My favorite chore was finishing off the jar of spaghetti sauce. Now I'm all for some handmade pasta and from-scratch tomato goodness, but I can also appreciate the humble box-noodle topped with a jarred sauce. When I was younger, those chunks of tomato would have been unwelcome, so my mother often pulsed jarred sauce in the blender before dinnertime, but now I don't mind it so much if one of those red blobs gets tangled up in my noodle twirl.

Spaghetti is one food that I can eat and eat and eat. And when I'm finished, I shockingly still feel hungry for more. (There might be a nutritional explanation for that phenomenon, but I prefer to blame it on sentiment.) My grandfather used to tell me to come to a pasta dinner with an empty leg--there's more room that way. It's great advice.

Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time for dinner. Black bean chili with a side of cornbread. I had to make the cornbread with applesauce because we're out of eggs. It might be weird. I think I'll keep my leg full for this one.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

March 01, 2016

Just an ordinary day

March 01, 2016/ Hayley Kadaba

This is how I imagined my Leap Day would be--a giant blue rooster perched on top of a building. Once every four years, we're granted an extra day. 24 hours perfectly suited to carpe diem. How would I spend them? Hike in the park? Go to a museum? Bake something new?

As it turns out, my February 29th was just another ordinary day.

February 23, 2016

Hibernating

February 23, 2016/ Hayley Kadaba

I've been hibernating.

January and the first weeks of February were quite reminiscent of our lives last winter. They were cold, sometimes snowy, and full of the stress and excitement of having to make important life and career decisions.

Thankfully, we've reached the next stop on our journey through business school, which means that things can relax for a little while. I can now officially say that we'll be back in Atlanta for several weeks over the summer for Amar's internship experience! I'm looking forward to central a/c (we currently live in a non-air conditioned, third floor apartment), Georgia peaches, and casual Saturday night card games with relatives.

February 02, 2016

Groundhog Day

February 02, 2016/ Hayley Kadaba

Today is Groundhog Day, which begs the question--Will there be a full Winter or an early Spring?

Truthfully, I've always thought that this was a silly holiday. Groundhogs, shadows, Inner Circles and weather predictions just didn't make sense to me. However, Groundhog Day happens to be a great example of traditions intertwining across cultures and centuries.

January 26, 2016

Serena

January 26, 2016/ Hayley Kadaba

She is a woman who is deeply tormented by her tragic past, and yet she maintains an inextricable hold on everyone and everything that intersects--or interferes--with her quest for power and wealth in the timber industry. If you've seen the film version, which twists the novel into a story about a woman whom tragedy has transformed into a dangerously obsessed and jealous person, you have not met the real Serena. Jealous and obsessed are words indicative of weakness. Ron Rash's Serena is powerful and ruthless from the very first chapter. She is not obsessed, but rather fiercely devoted to her pursuits. She is not jealous so much as she demands unwavering loyalty in love and in business. She inspires fear and awe as she commands nature as well as man.

January 24, 2016

Snow day!

January 24, 2016/ Hayley Kadaba

Yesterday's blizzard, which left us with a foot of powdery snow, gave me just enough time to (almost) finish my project for this month--transitioning this blog to its own website.

Ta da!

The layout is done, all of the posts have been imported and the photos updated. I'm not done updating the internal links between posts or the tags that organize the content, but the rest of the site should be up and running! Take a look at the About page to see what I'm thinking for this year.

January 08, 2016

Happy New Year

January 08, 2016/ Hayley

We're back from a nice, long holiday vacation with family and friends in Atlanta, and soon we'll be off to a wedding in New York City. While I take some time to figure out what to write about this month, here are a few of my favorite photos from our trip. We visited a light display at the Arboretum in Asheville, NC, and this was my favorite exhibit--

December 29, 2015

1 Full Day

December 29, 2015/ Hayley

Love is the 1 tradition that makes Christmastime. Love is the tradition that started it all--for God so loved the world. Love is the tradition that we should carry on throughout the year, in all things, and for all people.

December 25, 2015

2 Santas Claus

December 25, 2015/ Hayley

It's nearly midnight on Christmas Eve. Our gifts are wrapped and gathered under the tree, I've already eaten my fill of cookies, and we're back from our first celebration at my grandparents' house. And out there, somewhere, the jolly ol' St. Nick is flying about delivering gifts to children all over the world.

We've celebrated Christmas Eve at my grandparents' house for more than two decades. Here are two of the Santas I've seen at their house for every year that I can remember---

December 23, 2015

3 Red Bells

December 23, 2015/ Hayley

I know that my great grandmother (we called her GGma) loved Christmas and Bing Crosby. She had two trees--one downstairs and one up--which her grandkids would sleep under one night during the holiday season, and I'm told that the tradition of looking for Santa on Christmas Eve began at her house.

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