Remembering Winter.

I appreciate the slowness of wintertime, long days cozied up inside provide time to think, rest with family, and pray. Thinking back on the past few months, I fondly remember…

quiet snowfalls. hot showers. pijama tea times.

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drinking lattes. Christmas decorating. cakes, cookies, and pies constantly filling our oven. reuniting with old friends. animal onesies! breakfast time with Mom. encouraging notes. Skype dates with Michael. freezing motor bike rides. late night movies. new kitchen countertops. Malaysian food. Sunday afternoons with friends.

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visiting Michael in HK. Asian desserts. training for a 1/2 marathon (still a long way to go!). Barbie movies with Megan. mittens and ear muffs. black coffee. Dad’s B-day. reading. spending time with Jesus. 

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Its been a long, cold, magical winter and I will surely miss it.

The month of March is now upon us…

While that means fickle weather patters for the present, springtime will soon sprout up spreading freshness wherever it goes.  A new chapter filled with pastel-tinted flowers, warm sunshine, and Easter-morning dresses is now beginning.  How thankful I am for season changes 🙂 I fully expect spring to be as blessed as winter was.

(most of the pictures shown above were used on connecting4’s instagram feed: connectingfour)

I’m Lovin’… Baked Bree

As I began to write this post on Baked Bree, a cooking blog, I discovered so much more about the author and her personal blog Bree Hester. I also found out that she has created her very own cookbook. As I learned more and more about this blog I believe that Baked Bree is one of my favorite sources to find new recipes. She explains things so well and her layout is super helpful for anyone who needs some helpful steps along the way. One of my personal favorite dishes from this particular blog are the chicken skewers, I’ve made them about 3 or 4 times and they have always turned out delicious! I definitely recommend this blog for any of you cookers out there needing a fresh recipe to try out. From the whole experience of  searching out this blog I learned a lesson, I need to research more about the backgrounds of blogs the author, their life, type of blog, etc.

 

Sources: Bakedbree.com

Dreaming of HK.

With Michael’s recent departure and the start of routine living again, I’m missing HongKong more than ever.

It was in this city where my life took a turn when I decided to take a step of faith and “not” jump right into college as previously expected. It was in this city that I re-united with my brother and old friends who encouraged me to open my mind to new ideas and to seek the Lord’s instruction. I will never forget the quiet, thoughtful days I spent in HongKong -although ironically it is known for its fast-paced society- in which my plans for the future were leveled and rebuilt. Furthermore, on top of all these things I have to mention my excitement over the new friends I was introduced to who made my time in HK so incredible! 

Here are some compiled images of photos that remind me of my recent visit to HK

-cannot wait to visit again!

As you can see, I played around with photoshop quite a bit while working on this post… the look is a bit “scattered” I think.

sticker pictures!

What cities are you day-dreaming about?

(seems like we’re dreaming A LOT over here at connecting4 🙂 –check out Maddie’s most recent dream house post.)

Spring Break is Finally HERE!

Over on this side of the planet Spring Break is finally here! I was planning to relax, but we’re moving, yes I said we’re moving. It was very short notice but the lease for our apartment is up and in a matter of a month we had to find a new apartment (not as easy as it sounds). This week will probably consist of more packing and less relaxing, but hey, at least the new, bigger apartment is worth it!  To add to this craziness, this Friday is my BIRTHDAY (yay!).  I love the date of my birthday because it always falls on some sort of holiday: spring break, easter weekend, teacher work days; it’s definitely nice to have a vacation on my special day.

 

Today Rachel leaves to visit Michael in Hong Kong, and even though I’m sad I couldn’t join her the fact that they are both coming back to TianJin on Thursday definitely makes up for it!   The best part of it all is that Michael will be here for my Birthday (Looking forward to those HK presents!)!

All that said I think this week will be a complete mess, but somehow I’ll find a way to have fun in the process :] Have an awesome weekend!