A lot has changed

Blogging was one of my favorite hobbies, for a very long time. I loved sharing about my day-to-day life and my adventures. I loved sharing about creative projects or books I read. I made some sweet friends. It felt good to get my thoughts out there.

In the age of Instagram, short form videos, and even shorter attention spans, I wonder if there is still a place for blogs. Sure, there are still blogs out there. I use recipes found on food blogs pretty regularly. But what about the kind of blogs that one follows and keeps up with. Does anyone still do that?

I don't know if anyone will read this, other than those who may be subscribed via email (so probably my family - hey guys!), but I thought it may be nice to do a little update on this space of the internet that used to mean so much to me.

I haven't posted on here for a long time. A lot has happened since then.

I had just graduated, last I posted. I felt pretty lost for a while, not knowing what I should do or where I should be. I worked as a nanny in Pasadena, CA for a while. It was the first time living on my own. Going from dorm life, always having friends around and too much to do, this was really different. When I was wasn't working, I explored the area, discovered new coffee shops, and started a little Etsy business where I sold upcycled thrifted items (like teacup candles). I found a really great church and got involved in the youth ministry. 

Then came the pandemic. So much changed due to that, for so many people. My nanny job fell through, and all of a sudden I was back at square one. I found myself back home in Ireland. That summer where I was unexpectedly back home, "quarantined" together with my family, was wonderful. I jumped into job searching. I wanted to find a ministry to get involved with, one where I could use my biblical counseling degree. 

There was one ministry that I couldn't get out of my mind. I had stumbled upon the job description years before while I was still at college, on a biblical counseling job board. It was internship at a Christian boarding school for teen girls in rural Washington state. Like, really rural. When I first heard about it, I went so far as to call them about my interest, but I kind of chickened out after the phone call and never followed up. But then - when I saw that the position was still open - I was ready to give it another shot. I applied, interviewed, and before I knew it I was flying to a place I had never been to, to live with people I'd never met. Somehow, I wasn't nervous. God had opened all the doors, and I knew it was where He wanted me to go. I arrived there on August 11, 2020.

Working at the school as a "dorm mom" and counselor, proved to be wonderful. It wasn't always easy, as a position like that takes a lot out of you. But I fell in love with the area, the people, and the ministry. Oh, and I also fell in love. 

I met Jeremiah, the son of the school's director, a few days after arriving at the ranch. I tried not to get distracted, but he proved very distracting. In December of that same year, we went on our first date. It was a very memorable first date, as all the restaurants were still shut down and we resorted to eating take-out in a Wal-Mart parking lot. I thought it was perfect. 

Thirteen months later, on January 15, 2022, we got married. We celebrated our first anniversary last month, both agreeing that it was our favorite year of our lives.

Between working at the school and trying to be a good homemaker (there have been mishaps), I've been keeping pretty busy. I've gotten into sourdough baking, cooking, and have been learning more about health/natural living and homesteading. 

It seems that there may be new adventures on our horizon, as we're looking into relocating. Even though we are a bit like hobbits, who consider adventures to be a bit nasty and uncomfortable, we know they are usually worth it in the end. We're looking forward to seeing where the Lord takes us. 

This evening, I was telling Jeremiah that I really missed blogging, and I was sad that nobody seemed to read blogs anymore. 

"Why not just write a blog post, just to see," he said.

Is there anybody still out there, in this vast, over-saturated blogsphere? Please drop a note if you are. 

gost-prad life

Post-grad life? More like...most-sad life.

Don't worry that was a joke, and one that literally came to me as I was typing. Sorry about that. I'll try to refrain myself from more jokes like that as we progress.

Actually, if I think of anything else that strikingly brilliant I'll probably need to write it down.

Do people blog anymore? Is that a thing people still do? Does anyone look at their blog subscriptions on bloglovin.com anymore? Maybe I just assume that nobody else looks at blogs because I stopped looking at blogs. Maybe if I start looking at blogs again the rest of the world will, too? Who knows.

If anyone is out there, let me know.

So, life-update. I graduated from university in May.

I got cuter pictures, too, no worries there. I just like this one better.

Nobody really prepared me for what graduation was going to feel like, or what it would be like to pack up my dorm room for good. Nobody really tried to prep me for what it would be like to hug your best friends and not know when you'd ever be able to do that again.

I'll tell you, it straight up sucked. And hey, now you can't say no one ever warned you.

Honestly though, I know it's pretty cool that I had such a hard time leaving. Because that means I had a really great experience. You know, that cute Winnie the Pooh quote about being so lucky to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard, or something like that. These past four years were absolutely amazing, and that last day it just hit me all at once that it was all over.

I'm still recovering from my post-grad existential crisis, can you tell?

This summer, I'm traveling with my parents and brother around the States on furlough (that's when missionaries came back to there sending country and give ministry reports and such, in case you don't know). I'm looking for jobs and stuff. I am hoping to stay in Southern California for a while.

I realized that if I were filling out paperwork or something, I'd have to tick the "unemployed" box instead of the "student" box.

I don't like that thought, so I'm going to avoid paperwork.

love,
me

side-note: this has been the most all over the place blog post ever because I was just writing whatever came to my head with no plan in mind

listening to:
saturday sun by vance joy
the jonas brothers entire new album (oh my wooooord)
honeybee by the head and the heart

some twenty-eighteen memories

January

starting a new semester. adventuring in LA with romany and kaitlyn. flower market with my sweazy girls. being a third wheel at the california science center. working those early morning shifts at the library. 

February

making breakfast over a campfire at GO retreat. meeting kylo ren at disneyland. team malawi flower fundraiser. biblical interpretation with prof richards.

March

rainy days. mom visiting during spring break. burning brownies on st. patrick's day. ritz blitz. spending time with the thomas family. 

April

easter sunday at the laird's. korean food in LA with marie, joseph, katilyn, and megan. hikes with my wing. the monty's with my girl squad. clothing sale in my room. india night. little nephew tyler joseph born on april 26th. 

May

cat cafe with natalie. watching my friends graduate. traveling to malawi with my team. meeting the floreens, the kopps, the mccrackens. eating crocodile and sugarcane. singing in chichewa with the widows. being a homeschool mom with maddie. 

June

meeting gary and barbara and the phiri family. truth or dare with chisomo in the village. eating nsima and rice. wearing a chitingi. team malawi party in the living room. visiting the lake. saying goodbye to malawi and heading home to Ireland. getting to meet baby tyler for the first time. 

July

trip to the beach with mom and heather. visiting achill island with the fam. bike rides. babysitting. helping with holiday bible school at church.

August

ventura with the thomases. heading back to school early for RA retreat. meeting my amazing team. Being a WOW mom again. starting senior year. rooming with emma. 

September

hebrew class with victoria and sebastian. eating weird filipino food with kaitlyn, justin, jeff, and christian. cdub beach day. being goofy in philosophy class. ruth's birthday.

October

avacado festival in carpenteria with sami, beth, and mo. making thai tea with the best team during engage week. being reunited with the floreen family. the harvest blend. seeing the school play twice.

November

hanging out in the lounge till 1am with cdub fam. fall festival with micaiah. seeing twenty one pilots bandito tour. writing huge papers. thanksgiving break at the laird's.

December

spending hours in the library. christmas parties. celebrating my 22nd birthday. finals week. coming home for christmas break. early mornings with my nephew. laughing while playing quiplash on christmas eve eve.

Thankful for a great year, full of learning new things and meeting new people.

There are always hard things mixed in with the good things, but I think we wouldn't grow as much if there weren't.

Praying that in the coming year, I would remember that God uses the difficult things in life (even just small day-to-day problems) to make grow us and make us steadfast (James 1:2-4).  I want to respond properly to the hard things this year, as well as being thankful for good parts.

I'm ready for ya 2019.

love,
Hannah

are we ready for Africa yet? // pt .2

By far, the most stressful part of the entire trip were the days leading up to actually leaving.

Pre-trip anxiety. It's too real. There was a time or two when I just had to stop, take a short walk, and pray. That helped.

Those days entailed:

- Staying on my empty university campus because almost everyone else had left.
- Trying to stay sane despite of the above fact.
- Trying to set up a team bank account with my co-leader. (adulting at it's worst)
- Running to Walgreen's for Malaria pills and mosquito repellent.
- Many stops at Wal-mart for last minute supplies/gifts for the missionaries.
- Paaackinggg alll offf thooose thiiingsss.
- Weighing the baggage.
- Waiting for my team to arrive.
- Saying, "Okay, NOW we are ready for Africa!" but then realizing we had ten more things to do.
- Hoping that my new phone would arrive before we left for the trip, because my previous one got RUN OVER BY A LITERAL CAR.
- (it did arrive)
- Being driven to the airport and remembering why I hate LAX.

It wasn't until we successfully had our baggage checked in that I felt a wave of relief, immediately followed by excitement.

Guys. We're, like, heading to Africa.

It took a while to get there.

Los Angeles ⟶ Dublin
Dublin ⟶ Ethiopia
Ethiopia ⟶  Malawi

The plane was comfortable, nobody got lost, and I got to watch Black Panther again. Can't complain.

I don't think I'll ever forget my first hour in Malawi. Walking off the plane, getting our Visas stamped and seeing a giant grasshopper thing on the wall that nobody seemed to care about, and meeting our hosts for the first time at baggage claim.

Oh, and then there was the drive to Lilongwe (the capital city, where we'd be staying).

First of all, it was beautiful. Second, everyone was in the road. 

I unfortunately don't have any pictures of the highways. Children, goats, bicyclists, chickens, women carrying things on their heads, and businessmen wearing suits were all just walking right along the roadside. Men were selling things right on the highway, hoping a car would pull over and make a purchase. They were selling things like roasted mice on sticks (a special treat over there), little puppies (those were alive, don't worry), and sugar cane.

I saw some villages for the first time, too. Communities of small thatched huts built with red brick, complete with outhouses, goat pens, and roaming chickens.

I don't know what I was expecting before I landed in Malawi. I knew it was a third-world country. Wikipedia had told me it was one of the least-developed countries in the world. But, even knowing that, I was still stunned by what I was seeing.

And then, we arrived at our host's home in the heart of Lilongwe. We fell in love with Matt, Rachel, and their two precious daughters right away - and we felt right at home after being nomads for 35 hours (give or take).

Jet lag soon hit us like a ton of bricks, but we managed to stay up until 7:30pm. Finally, we got to climb in under our mosquito nets and lay our weary heads on our pillows.

love,
me

Photo Credit: Mark B.

Malawi (not Maui) // pt.1

Muli Bwanji. 

This summer, I spent six weeks in Malawi, a country in southeastern Africa. 

It was quite an adventure.

Now, it's been a while since I've written on here. I'm certainly out of the blogsphere loop now. I'm not really sure if anyone will read this, outside of the handful of family members and friends I'll send a link to. But that's okay. I just want a little space to write about my time in Malawi. I need to write about it before the memories start fading and I start forgetting things that I'd do better to remember. I've been home just a little over a week, and that's already started happening to me. 

I want to remember the taste of nsima, the staple food of Malawi. The taste of locust that Dennis, a Malawian seminary student, brought to the library one day for us to try. The taste of Rachel F.'s cooking.

I want to remember the smell of hard-packed dirt that we sat on while playing games with children in the villages, and the smell of the pineapple sobo that we served them. The smell of Mama Rieben's brownies in the oven.

Then there's the feeling of cichlids (small, colorful freshwater fish) in Lake Malawi biting our toes. The feeling of riding truck-bed along the bumpy dirt roads, and the feeling of a Malawian handshake.The feeling of a chitengi tied around my waist.

The sound of women singing in Chichewa. Palibe ofana ndi yesu, palibe ofana naye. The sound of the call to prayer and roosters in the morning. The sound of children excitedly shouting "Mzungu!" (white foreigner). The sound of each of my team member's laugh.

I don't want to forget the sight of women carrying their mwana (baby) on their backs, tied on with a chitengi. The sight of a goat in his newly constructed goat pen. The children's smiles when we greeted them in Chichewa and asked for their names. 

At the time, I didn't realize those things were significant or even realize I was noticing them. But now, thinking of them bring me right back to Africa. Thinking of the taste Rachel's crocodile ravioli, the smell of the roads after it rained, or the sound of little Ammie's voice transports me right back to Lilongwe and Ntcheu, and reminds me of what I was doing and what I was learning.

I'm hoping to write an entry about each week we spent in Malawi. So - if you're reading this - stay tuned for those?

Zikomo <3

love,

me

Photo Credit: Mark B. 

Changes // announcement

Hey pretty peoples.

I have an announcement of sorts. Maybe it's an exciting one, maybe it's a sort of sad one - maybe it's just a sort of "meh whatever bruh" one. I dunno. To me it's a mix of those.

For the time being, The Daisy Tree is moving to Instagram.

In this stage of my life (college and boring things like that), I just can't seem to be able to fit blogging into the equation. It's been sad for me. I love blogging, and I've missed documenting my life, working on projects, and hearing from all of my lovely blogging buddies.

Without meaning it to, blogging has slowly faded out of my life during the last two years. I don't read blogs on the regular anymore, and it's pretty evident I haven't been keeping mine up very well. I tried and tried to get back into it, but I can't seem to.

I had to find a way from keeping my blog from dying a slow, painful death. 

I've been thinking lately that I shouldn't try to force myself to get back into blogging. Cuz that doesn't really work.  Maybe, instead, I should keep doing what I love doing - working on diy/baking projects, writing, documenting, and sharing it with friends - but on a platform that would be more natural to use in this time of my life. After thinking about the options that opened up, I realized that Instagram would be a good fit for me. Instagram is easy to use (as I can post directly from my phone), I can still do a lot of the things I've been doing on my blog, and a lot of you guys are on there.

I know this isn't good news for everyone - I know not everybody has an Instagram account. I'm super sorry about that :(

By the way, this is not me saying that I'm quitting this blog. 

An actual blog is obviously the best platform to - well - blog. Which is what I love doing. This is just me saying that for the time being, I'm moving the blog somewhere where I'll be able to keep it from tragically dying. I will be back.

(I still dream of someday being one of those cool homeschooler mom bloggers who makes green smoothies lol)

So, if possible - please join me over at my blog's Instagram! There will be fictional feasts, DIYs, bookish lists, too many photos of my cats, and other nice things. Don't leave me there all alone!

www.instagram.com/the.daisy.tree/

@the.daisy.tree


BYE FOR NOW, GUYS. I WUV U.

love,
me

In Which Jewish You Were Here

Fam. These past few weeks have been a whirlwind. 

On one hand, it feels like I just got here. But on the other hand, I'm so used to being here, it's like I've lived here my whole life.

Weird. 

Every day has been an adventure. Even those days when we literally just sit in class all day.

On Mondays and Tuesdays and Thursdays and Fridays, we just sit in class. The classes are pretty, rad, though. I love learning about the history and geography of the land of Israel and being like, dude: I'm currently sitting in the land of Israel.

I work in the little library here on the IBEX campus a couple evenings a week. I find books for people and clean up the mess they make trying to make instant coffee in the wood lounge. It's pretty fun.

Wednesdays are field trip days. Lots of walking. Lots of photo-taking. Lots of laughter on the bus. Lots of PB&J sandwiches. These days are tiring, but also the greatest part of being here.

 On Fridays, after classes, we have our Shabbat (Sabbath) meal. We dress up a little bit for it (meaning, we don't wear sweatpants and tshirts like we wear 99% of the time), and before we eat we have a little devotional and we sing "Shabbat Shalom". Afterwards, we have chapel.

On Shabbat, we go into Jerusalem to attend the congregation there. We attempt to sing in Hebrew but nobody does a very good job.

Afterwards, we split into groups and wander around the Old City in search of lunch. Guys, I'm sort of in love with the Old City streets.

 
Sunday is our day off. We usually do laundry and catch up on reading. Or have random dance parties in the miklat. Or watch anime.

Being here has been both better and harder than I expected. Better, because I had no idea how much I would grow to love this country and how much fun it would be to adventure every inch of it. I've learned so much already. But it's also a little harder than expected, because I really miss my family and I really miss my friends back at school. I feel really far away from them all. Cuz I sort of am, I guess.

I can't wait to post more about where we're actually going on our field trips and what we're learning. But for now, I'll just leave you with this little update post full of snapchat screenshots and pictures from my phone.

 

Let me know how you all are doing. And also, please let me know what kind of fruit or vegetable you would be if you were a fruit or vegetable. I'm curious.

love,
me