Much Too Young

I went through an extensive country music phase in middle school, sandwiched between my oldies and Stevie Wonder phases. While there is a large portion of country music I find veritably unnerving, I appreciate what a music connoisseur such as myself would consider “classic country.” This is one of those classics. I will never remember the name or the artist or that this song even exists, but whenever it pops up on the radio I find myself singing the chorus, missing nary a word.

At the age of young twenty-something, I find myself relating entirely too much to this song. Granted, part of it may be the cold that is robbing me of every ounce of energy, coupled with the fact that I ran [read: jogged] for the first time in months [read: a year] and my shins and quads are exacting revenge, but as this song twanged [?] from the radio, I felt so weary. Also I found another juicy gray hair today. At the age of young twenty-something.

I sat there and pondered what to do when you already feel old and tired at the age of young twenty-something. When you feel exhausted and weary and you’re not even old enough to rent a car. And then I thought about restoration and renewal and how the LORD promises to renew our youth like the eagle's (Psalm 103:5). 

“but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.”

Isaiah 40:31 

Some days I think we all feel old, weary, and sapped, no matter the state of our physical bodies. On those days, remember that hope, renewal, restoration, rejuvenation, [these words make me feel like I’m at a spa] – in their purest state – they came from the Lord.

-bRob 

TechniColor: Holidays and Colorful

Do you ever smile and feel a little lucky when you come across a great song that you just barely found? That's how I felt when I heard this song.

Florence and the Machine - Shake It Out (Acoustic) from Pick Up The Headphones on Vimeo.

via tomboy style

apartment therapy

peacock-inspired dinner table

via TOMBOYstyle

brown dress with white dots

J. Crew

source?

inhabitat via  the hairpin

"put a plant on your plant!"

School Portrait (2011) from Michael Berliner on Vimeo.

via buzzfeed

Kristian Schuller via a subtle revelry

"It works best if your name is Ainslay, but other names fit as well."
the hairpin

David Horvitz promises to do the most precious things for random amounts of money.
"If you give me $5 i will write down a memory I haven't thought about it a while and mail it to you. I will think really hard for this. I will only write down things I haven't thought about in over a year."

NieNie Dialogues


I love these homemade snow globes using old jam jars and glitter.

a wall on the kunsthof-passage  in dresden neustadt   via happiness is...

"a wall that plays music when it rains"

buzzfeed

my two favorite food things are cupcakes and holiday food. this must be some form of synergy, right??

reddit

Princess Vader

a view through my lens

Things You Probably Won't Hear Me Say

Old Love

Anthony Michael Hall & Molly Ringwald

booooooom via buzzfeed

Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow
Top: a remake by Katie Jackson
Bottom: Mondrian

Milk via French by Design

a kid's corner and cots 

martha stewart

milk shots with sprinkles

hello, friend

sweet notes from a wife to her boo

via buzzfeed

how to get around slow walkers - it even worked on the elevator! haha

roseytsp via buzzfeed

my favorite holiday food. way better than the homemade stuff.

 artist soon young lee via colossal

miniature rooms and photos thereof

? via buzzfeed

the best mash-up

wit & whistle

a DIY painted mug that looks so simple i could do even do it. i mean, i obviously won't because i'm lazy, but it does look lovely, doesn't it?

artist: lisa solomon

a series of  beautiful representations of toxins and viruses

joey roth via awwwards

felt mouse

miss moss

menno manheim via most interesting libraries of the world

i love libraries.
truth: i went to my hometown's library for the first time in years yesterday. it was closed. i felt the keenest sense of disappointment and bitterness.

artist: Darrin Zammit Lupi via the atlantic

a glass bauble Christmas tree



a "like" song
"I've liked a lot of girls in my day, baby. And you , you are definitely another one of them."
hahaha

via buzzfeed via facebook

have you guys heard of the new "girly" legos controversy?

my milk toof

The birth of Christ is the central event in the history of the earth -- the very thing the whole story has been about.


 -C.S. Lewis

Merry Christmas,

bRob

Orneriness and Candlelight Carol Sings

You'll see that it's hereditary.

arm wrestling with my father at Thanksgiving Dinner circa 2008.

We're an obnoxious crew.  I get ten times worse as soon as I get home. Trust me - being home is perfect fodder for therapy.

We all went to the Candlelight Carol Sing on Sunday eve [I'm only using the word "eve" because I feel like that's something you have to do on the holidays. amIrite?]

We go every year, and it's something to which I look forward. However, I feel like my family gets snarkier every year, or perhaps the Sing just becomes increasingly formulaic...

Each year:

The church's most beautiful family, with all 7 children, sings a perfectly tuned Christmas melody.

I always snicker when I imagine my family trying to sing a song on stage in harmony.

An adorable four-year-old comes on stage and sings a really weird and endearing version of "Happy Birthday, Jesus."
Exploiting child cuteness for mass appeal? Check.

Dad falls asleep.

Try throwing something at him.

The sixty-year-old pastor's wife with crazy insane vibrato sings a song that lasts for approximately forever 

minutes.

My family has perfected a synchronized eye roll when she walks onto the stage.

Then I begin praying for forgiveness on behalf of my whole family.

Mom and my little sister get into a pinching war.

I whisper-yell at them to hush.

A high-schooler solos in the next song with the adult choir.

She sings extra loudly, drowning out the entire adult choir and inhaling a bit of microphone with every note.

We sing Christmas Carols.

We light our candles.

Everyone [and by everyone, I just mean the members of my family] makes an obligatory "don't burn the hair of the person in front of you" joke.

Is that obligatory or just something weird my family does?

The best part of the whole night is blowing out the candle and playing with the wax.

My sister blows my candle out when I'm not looking.

Night. Ruined.

We then spend the rest of the evening re-running our commentary from the Candlelight Carol Sing. 

We may just be the slightest bit ornery.

How are the holidays with your family? What obnoxious traditions herald the holidays in your crazy house?

Blogumentary

Song: Tiny Tree Christmas

Artist: Guster

Well, I am finally done with that whole school schtick and am back at home with the family for the semester. Which means, of course, exciting times for this little blog.

Not nearly as exciting as gallivanting through Europe or attempting to cook, of course, but it will be a good chance for you to see my family's hilarious hijinkery. This blog, then, will become sort of a documentary: an inside look in bRob's family life. A blogumentary. 

Coming up soon: the yearly candlelight carol sing. My family is embarrassing and loud and ornery, as per usual. More on that later.

-bRob

well, then

I saw in my stats that someone came upon my blog by googling the phrase "food baby", and I had to see which of my posts had the word food baby in it.

I sure am glad I have a blog, so I can reread Grumpy bRob's rants whenever I want.
Now you can reread it too. Also my life hasn't been nearly as exciting as that one time I was in Germany, so I don't have anything super thrilling to post.

Man, I just out-lamed myself.

I had the greatest intentions of thinking about possibly beginning my Prague post.

I took a nap instead.

So I'll just tell you a story. I went to the grocery store today.

They didn't have my spinach in stock. Nor the pretzels I and my food baby wanted to buy for breakfast. But I am a really understanding and adaptable person, so I let it slide.
I worked around it and bought cookies instead, which is kind of the same thing except better tasting.

Once I had all of my groceries in order, I went to check out. I got stuck behind some broseph buying two super fancy bottles of beer. I was trying to figure out if this hipster was American or German. I stared at him both rudely and intently, and then decided he must be American because I have yet to see a German hipster.
And then I re-decided that I really didn't care.

Fortunately for me and the mental debate going on in my head, the cash register man took approximately 55 minutes to up each person and had to call customer service twice - once to ring up bananas, and also because he didn't know how to use coupons.
I thought about getting really aggravated, and I almost asked him, "Ist heute deine erste Tag bei der Rewe?" in a snotty voice, too, but then I remembered that I actually did not have anything better to do than wait on Boss here to figure out how to work a cash register.

Sometimes it is very convenient to have no life.

Anyways, here is a Prague teaser picture:

Maybe that's not much of a tease...I don't know how exciting stained glass really is...

-bRob