There’s no Place Like Home…

Home. What is home? Is it a place? A feeling? A word? I found myself thinking a few times this week, “I need to get home!” In this sense I am referring to “home” as in, “where I grew up”. My dad underwent knee surgery, tomorrow is my mom’s birthday, and I haven’t been “home” since August. Did I mention it has been under ZERO degrees “feel like” temperature in DC this week. Yeah, I am dreaming of warmer weather too for sure!

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This “home” (where I grew up), is a place that I haven’t lived since I was 18– that is over 13 years ago. As an adult, will I always refer to it as “home”? What if my parents move, will it still be home? I hear people all the time say, “I’m going home for the holidays”, or “I can’t wait to go home to see my family”. These are all adults, people with their own “homes” and their own families. Which makes me wonder- where is “home” for people who traveled their whole life? Or my friends from other countries who are now US citizens. Do they consider both their home country and the US their home?

While traveling on our honeymoon adventure for 2 months through Asia, I had many people ask me if I got homesick. The answer is easily- no. I never once got homesick. I enjoyed every minute and was so enthralled with what we were doing and experiencing.

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I also feel very “at home” whenever and wherever I am with my husband. Moving to DC from FL made us find a new “home” together. I love where we live, the friends we have made, and I do indeed consider it “home” also. I can also find the feeling of “home” in a phone call, emailing convo, or dinner date with one of my best friends.

There is something comforting about the word and the feeling “home”. When I work PRN at the nursing home, all the patients want to do is “get home”. People in their 80’s , 90’s who could care less about current events or the latest fashions- they just want to go home! My active duty patients who are going to be deployed, just want to return home!

So I suppose “home” has many meanings- a place, a time, a person or people. I suppose one can have many “homes” at once.  Perhaps home really is “where the heart is”.

Okay, that is enough of my philosophical side for this blog post. Speaking of home though, I made a delicious and “homey” recipe this week- perfect for cold winter days. Hubby loved it! Link to recipe below. Yum!! Tip: make sure to really let the grits cook for awhile and simmer so they aren’t clumpy.

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http://www.blueapron.com/recipes/seared-hanger-steak-with-black-eyed-pea-collard-green-stew-cheddar-serrano-grits

Looking forward to the weekend and seeing our friends’ new “home”. Also, looking forward to seeing my family at my other “home” in FL next week. That means warm weather- which means bathing suits and shorts! Definitely working out tomorrow 🙂  Here is another workout I love- great 10 minute shoulder routine!

And now I am going to enjoy staying ” home” with hubs and the cats tonight, enjoying some wine and dateline 🙂

-<3 Kinz

New Year, New Adventures!!

Happy New Year!! Welcome to my new blog! This is my second blog and I am super excited about it! After our “Honeymoon Adventures” blog I had many requests to keep blogging! I am flattered that people like to read what I have to say! So here I am again! 2014 was the most amazing year- I married my love, we traveled to 5 countries and many cities in Asia, and made great memories with family and friends! I feel very fortunate, and I am so excited to see what this year has in store! We already have many fun and exciting things planned!!

I spent hours and hours in the year leading up to our wedding planning everything. I was so incredibly happy with the way things turned out! After the wedding though I experienced what many girls do- ” wedding withdrawals”. Of course I was so happy to be a newlywed, but I felt sad that my dream day , and all the planning was over. I decided to really delve into my hobbies! I have always loved cooking, working out/ fitness, traveling, playing with cosmetics, reading and wine! I also love helping people, and I am fortunate to have a career where I can do so daily!

On this blog I will talk about some of my favorite things- review recipes, workouts, cosmetics and beauty products etc. About 2 years ago a friend in DC referred me to Blue Apron. If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend it! It is ingredients for 3 healthy meals a week delivered to your home with recipe cards. It is really fun to try new ingredients and recipes that I would have never even thought to try! Plus, it’s nice to have fresh products delivered, so you don’t have to think about what to make, or go to the store as often! When I find something I like, I tend to tell the whole world. They give me multiple free weeks to give people to try it out, and I am not exaggerating when I say I probably got over 100 people to join! They should be giving me some sort of kickback! I will have to look more into that…

Anyways, last week I made this delicious recipe- ” Acorn squash tacos”. They were absolutely delicious!!! The squash just melted in my mouth, and avocado only makes things better!

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Here is the link to the recipe- www.blueapron.com/recipes/acorn-squash-tempura-tacos-with-spanish-paprika (copy & paste into browser)

I definitely recommend trying these!! They took under 30 minutes to make and they go really nicely with this delish wine we got at Trader Joe’s for under $8 (I think it was $5.99)

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Speaking of Trader Joe’s wine selection, let’s just say WOW! I was talking to a cashier there the other day and she said that many of their imported wines from Italy & France are super expensive over there! She gets Italian customers who can’t believe how inexpensive they are here! Trader Joe’s is one of those places you have to get used to. I am from Florida and there is no place like Publix! However, Trader Joe’s cheese, wine, nuts, speciality foods are unmatched!

I’m all about nice and good quality things, but I am also all about BARGAINS! I will probably talk a lot about “good finds” and bargains on this blog as well! Speaking of which, everyone should know there is a day of the week that is better to book plane tickets. NEVER book a ticket on Friday or Saturday. Also, check out bing flight predictions. They can actually tell you if the prices will go up or down based on statistics! How cool is that??

As I’m typing this I must admit my triceps are pretty sore.. so here is my fitness tip for today. Don’t use the “I don’t have time to workout” as an excuse. There is always time. If you are reading this blog, you have time! Even a 10 or 20 minute workout is better than nothing! Even on days when I don’t feel like it, or I’m tired I will put on a couple 10 minute quick workouts to do. Ladies ( & gents ), I LOVE this one for a quick biceps/ triceps toning workout…and increase your weights based on your level.

Well, as you can see I tend to go off on tangents…I promise I will try to be focussed on my topics as I move on with this blog. As an introduction though, you get an idea  🙂

With all this talk of food I got hungry …hubby is watching the FSU game with some friends, so I think I will pop this guy in the oven..looks semi- healthy with all the veggies…I’ll give you my review next time 🙂

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Until then– have a fabulous beginning to 2015 :)) #YOLO

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