The last mile

Finals are finally over. I already felt like I really needed a few days of rest when they began, a few days to do what the 1950's housewife side of me wants to do: clean my house, bake something, craft something, attempt to make Sunday morning biscuits. Instead I studied and felt pretty much like these two ladies for the past week.

Now finals are over. It seems strange. I used to feel a release after my last final in undergrad, like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders. Dental school is different. Perhaps it's the seemingly insurmountable work load, especially during finals that always seems to leave me feeling like it's just another day at the office. I honestly felt as if I would wake up this morning and go to school and study. Instead, I choose to make Sunday morning biscuits, even though it isn't Sunday, which is when I usually make them. (Hence the nickname "Sunday morning biscuits.") They're really just buttermilk biscuits made from scratch.

I haven't always been able to make them either. I started making biscuits when Korey and I got married. Korey told me that no one could make biscuits like granny. It made me think that some day I want my grandchildren to say something like that about me. So, I took her recipe and kept trying to make it work. "Sift some flour into a bowl. Make a well in the center of the sifted flour. Pour in some buttermilk and add a handful of crisco. Mix it all together until it looks right, but don't over mix it. Then make them into biscuits and bake them." Simple enough. So I made the decision to make biscuits once a week when possible until I got it right. There were times that they were edible but not good and other times that they went straight into the trash. Then suddenly, one fateful Sunday morning, with my last bit of crisco and emptying my last bit of self rising flour into the sifter, it all came together. Korey ate three of them. Success! It only took me an entire tub of crisco, a few bags of self rising flour, countless little containers of buttermilk, and two years of Sunday morning biscuit making. Not too shabby I would say, not too shabby at all. 

So biscuits are baking. Finals are over and we're decking the halls....well not literally. We don't really have any to deck here, but I did manage to sneak in a few Christmas items. I needed something to pick me up during finals week.

First I took the leaves off my wreath and added some bling that used to encircle the candles on my mantle. 

Some hot chocolate in my favorite mug and my little plug in mosaic snowman that Korey bought me at Cracker Barrel last year.

My mom bought me this photo snow globe and it is my absolute favorite Christmas decoration. I only wish it played music.

Once my last final was over and I had taken a little nap, Korey took me out to dinner. I was content to be out on a date after not being able to spend much time together, but he had a surprise for me afterward. He took me to look at Christmas lights, one house in particular a schoolmate had told him about. They had a ton of Christmas lights that blinked and shimmered to the rhythm of songs on their very own radio station. It was magical. What a sweet man. I am so blessed to call him my family.