zach n kali

I'm in the perfect place to write at the moment. It's raining outside, and I'm sitting in a big comfy couch, a fire roaring, the Christmas lights and ornaments twinkling on the tree. I have a hot cup of coffee on my mind, but not really any interest in making it myself. If only elves came to visit me on their days off. Speaking of make-believe, I think there is a little ghost who lives in my fireplace. All of a sudden, for no reason at all, the fire will shut off, only to start up again a few minutes later. At this time of year I choose to believe it is the Ghost of Christmas Giving. I love love love giving gifts. There is nothing that excites me more than finding the perfect gift for someone. I love hearing stories about the perfect gift. I love being at the store and spotting it from the other end of the aisle, or stumbling across it in a magazine. The Ghost of Christmas Giving encourages me not to settle; the right gift will come along. He encourages me to o...

I've been dealing with a severe case of writers block over the last few months. And trust me, it is not because life has been boring. A planner by nature, I have had a pretty good idea of what the next five years will look like. I'll finish my master's degree and earn my ASHA CCCs, Zach will find a job teaching math or social studies, and we'll be thinking about starting a family at age 27. I have a theory that we present such plan to God, he asks whether or not he has a place in them. And usually we're too busy trying to make these plans happen to hear him. And then a situation comes up where we become challenged or stretched. At this time, we look to God and asks him what he has for us, and we may not be prepared for the answer... This situation for me came up three months ago. It was during this stretching time that God began to place the idea of foster parenting on my heart. I know that it could only have come form him because it was nowhere in my “...

I have been wanting to learn Spanish for quite some time now. Since it is not feasible at this time (or probably ever) to move to Barcelona and fully immerse myself in the language and culture (and food and wine, who are we kidding?), it would probably be better for me to take a class. But as a full-time speech therapist/part time grad student/full time kitty momma/full time wife, I just haven't found the time. So I have decided to try an experimental language learning method. From now on, I will only watch the TV show Friends in Spanish. Since I have virtually every line memorized all ready, the translation part should be there, right? So this is, in a sense, an immersion-style learning experience. I will let you know how it goes.

Further evidence as to why I loved Babycakes so much: However, I will note that these ugly ducklings are really good crumbled on top of vanilla ice cream with hot fudge sauce :)

Discovered a new gluten free treasure today! Babycakes NYC in downtown LA makes vegan gluten-free cookies (and other pastries) that are to die for! I have had the biggest cravings for things like flour tortillas and doughnuts lately, and this took care of them all! The cookies were chewy and chocolately and everything that a chocolate chip cookie should be! I highly recommend them!

I am having trouble falling asleep. My normal solution is to count sheep, which is in effect so boring that I fall asleep. But even this is failing me. My mind races with the stressors of the day or with depression at not being where I want to be. The other night my solution was to think about cupcakes. I recently watched an episode of Master Chef where the contestants were challenged to create the most amazing cupcakes. Sharone created a chocolate cupcake with cream-cheese nutella frosting – I was salivating. Nutella is amazing. Cream cheese frosting provides a reason to eat cake. Put them together and you have the food of heaven. I was inspired. So I began thinking of other cupcakes I could create. Almond Bark... peanut butter cup... tiramisu... cheesecake... Last weekend I decided to take on the first one. I confess that I am stealing this idea from Sharone – it is brilliant, and it combines several of my favorite things. It is important to remember that my goal is ...

As much as I don't want to sacrifice the good in life (in my world that can mainly be summed up with chocolate, fresh french bread, and a good strong latte), I have been thinking a lot about the sacrificial living that God has called us to. Life is full of sacrifice; this is how God has called us to live. Living with our hands held open, knowing that what we have is on loan to us for the time being. We are called to sacrifice the things of the world so that we may live the way of Jesus. As followers of Christ, we are given the ultimate model of sacrificial living – Jesus, who gave up heaven in order to save us from eternal damnation. Does this mean that we are called to give up all of our possessions, move to deepest darkest Africa and minister to the poorest of the poor? Maybe. But that is for each person to prayerfully decide. What I believe it does mean, is that we are to give up our claim to our life. We are not our own – someone paid the dearest price for my life. ...

For some strange reason, making life changing decisions are relatively easy for me. I can decide to move to Arizona or apply to graduate school on a whim. It's the little every day decisions with which I struggle. In college, my then-boyfriend and I would get ready to go on a romantic date by settling down on the couch and having a conversation that went something like this: “Where do you want to eat?” “Oh, I'm easy – where do you want to eat?” “It doesn't really matter to me – whatever makes you happy”. “I don't care”. “Me neither”. “So where should we go?” At this point my exasperated roommate would storm into the room and say “You both want Chinese! Go to Panda! Good grief”. My boyfriend and I would look at each other, shrug, and say, “sounds good to me!” This pattern of behavior somewhat explains why I have been struggling about whether or not to paint our bathroom. Not the whole room, mind you, just a small wall above the bathtub. I have asked countle...

We are Zach and Kali - just your average young couple trying to thrive our way through life. Zach is a credentialed secondary history teacher and I (Kali) work as a speech therapist while working on my masters in Speech Language Pathology. We met in college, married our senior year, and soon welcomed our first baby into our home- our little kitty Baby Belle! Two and a half years after our wedding, I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease, and thus began our adventure into living without making sacrifices, especially when it comes to eating and traveling. It has become our new goal to maintain a gluten-free lifestyle without giving up taste, texture, and time with family and friends. It is our hope that as we learn, we can share tips and tricks of the trade and hopefully provide a little entertainment as we learn to live life to the fullest without sacrifice.  For the record, this is Kali's blog with Zach's stereotypical male insights.  For example:  this is (in theory) my blog...