Christmas is only 27 days away. I haven't done any shopping. None. Zip, zilch, nada.

Great.

Stayed up late talking to siblings #3, #4, and #5. #2 is always missing. Fraternity + girlfriend < family. I think he forgot.


Joseph (13, #5, bottom of the food chain) is one of my four favorites. Every time I come home, he acts like I'm returning from war. "Kaaaaaaylin! You're here!" Hello, stardom.

It's strange to think that four years ago I was ready to graduate high school. My heart hasn't changed. I feel like the same girl, just surrounded by different walls and people. 

Dad organized a meeting with a marketing firm that specializes in non-profit organizations. They host high profile events for huge charities. I think I could love that. I want to feel like I'm making the world a better place, one champagne flute at a time.

Anyway, I made oatmeal cookies after all. The normal kind, with flour and eggs and 8.8 grams of fat per serving. Baking them felt like some sick form of torture. They say 90% of taste is smell. So untrue.

It's Sunday morning in the Staub house. Biscuits are burning, Nathan is shouting "Shake Your Money Maker," and egg yolk is dripping down the cabinets. 


I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.


Thought about making gluten-free oatmeal cookies today, but all the recipes I found required flax seed, or brown rice flour, or a strange combination of both. Sick.

"Music and love. They're going to bring you joy."

Visited Trader Joes yesterday. I kinda like that place. Organic, gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free. 

Final shopping "spree:"

2 grapefruit

6 organic kiwis

1 bottle of apple cider

1 can of Joe's Best Coffee

Mom bought me a loaf of Nature Valley's Gluten-Free wheat bread. $7.99. It's the best kind, though. Tastes like flavored cardboard, instead of soggy computer paper. Yessss.

 I hate how high maintenance I sound ordering food. 

"Um, hello. Can I see your gluten-free menu? Oh, you don't have one. Okay. Well, I'll take the Cobb Salad, but no cheese. Or croutons. Or egg. Does your honey mustard dressing contain any milk protein? You don't know. Of course you don't know. I'll take the vinegarette. On the side, so I can sniff out any deadly contamination before pouring it over my rabbit food. Thanks."

What happened to the "I'll take a cheeseburger" girl?

Busy fall break: played follow-the-leader in a corn maze, set 10+ marshmallows on fire, stole covers, baked pumpkin pie, chocolate cake and ginger snaps (burnt nothing), sang "happy birthday," watched football, attended costume contest party (lost miserably), heard about Jesus, ate a jalapeño, went to the park, watched a movie, slept with the window open.

Loving the cold weather.

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Jim Elliot

Last night, I went on a tangent about the insignificance of the nuclear family and the tragedy we call the American dream.

This morning, I woke up wondering if I really believed anything I said. If Jesus really is the giver of good things, and if Hallmark really is right, and if love really is more important than everything else... if all that's true, then maybe waking up in a red brick house on the corner of Main Street isn't so bad. 

But what if a good thing, a really good thing, isn't your child's refrigerator art, or sharing a bed with your spouse, or occasionally volunteering at a local charity? Then millions of people are wasting their lives surrounded by floral wallpaper instead of a dirt floor and hurting people.

by now you should have somehow realized what you gotta do
well I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now


there are many things that I would like to say to you
but I don't know how


'cause maybe you're going to be the one that saves me
and after all
you're my wonderwall

Tonight's food experiment:
Pork tenderloin with a curry, basil dry rub and brown rice.


Cross your fingers.


Cotton Bouquets.

Jude 1:24

Yesterday was interesting. 

Thought a lot, read a lot, prayed a lot, wrote a lot, cried a lot, slept a lot.

Daddy would say days like that are good for the soul, like sweet cornbread or big, red ribbons on Christmas presents.


It's pouring rain in Athens today. Opted to catch the Orbit to Park Hall. Bad, bad idea. The only thing worse than crowded buses are buses crowded with soaking wet people. 


When I get home, I'm curling up in a warm blanket, drinking some coffee with forbidden cream, and watching I Love Lucy reruns. 

It's never too early for Christmas music. Seriously. 

Operation Christmas Child collection week is November 15 - 22.  Make a box. :) 

In keeping with my restaurant theme, here's another one for the records:

Veni Vidi Vici in Buckhead offers a Truffle Tasting Menu, featuring nine of the restaurant's top dishes. I can't pronounce half of the words, so it must be good.