Making Adjustments

Happy Wednesday!  Today is more of a "Thursday" for me because tomorrow is my "Friday" since I have Friday off in recognition of Veteran's Day.  This week is a-flying by.

I had an appointment with an ENT (Ear Nose & Throat doctor) on Monday.  That pesky sinus infection just refuses to go away.  I have been sick, off and on, since the last week of September.  This time I am going on a significantly stronger antibiotic for 2 weeks, and the doctor is confident it will do the trick - and I am, too.

As I said in a previous post, I think part of the reason I keep getting sick is because I am just plain worn down.  My life has been very full lately - and I am not complaining. I feel lucky to have been able to do and see as much as I have done and seen in the last 3-4 months. 

But I need to start listening to my body.  And that meant making some adjustments.  One is a situational adjustment and I don't know that the others will be permanent, but for now, they are changes I need to make so I can get back to full health!!

• Cancelling a trip.  It pained me to do this, but I ended up cancelling my trip to Des Moines to see Amber.  We had plans to see Wicked and I had already bought my ticket to the show...  But I looked at my calendar and knew that yet another out-of-town trip was probably not the best thing for me right now. I felt horrible backing out of this as I was so excited to see Amber, take in a musical, and check out more of Des Moines. 
• New bed time.  For months, I had been going to bed at 10-10:30 and getting up at 5:15-5:30.  Which meant I was getting 7-7.5 hours of sleep a night.  I know that is enough for some people, but it is not enough for me.  Now I force myself to shut the lights off at 9 pm each nights so that I can get at least 8 hours of sleep.  It has really helped!
• Social Butterfly Sabbatical.  After having only 2-3 free nights in the months of August, September, and October, I decided to cut way back on the planning for awhile and to leave some week nights free.  I have taken it to the extreme right now and rarely have social plans on week nights - I expect that to change in December, but right now, it is working really well for me.  I really enjoy having most week nights to myself.  I've been running, catching up on some knitting projects, and playing piano. 

I am a work in progress and am still figuring out what my limits are in terms of scheduling and hours of sleep. Again, I want to stress that this is not a 'woe is me' post.  I really, really love my life and enjoy having a full schedule!  I just need to take a step back right now and take a bit more time to myself!

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That said, I am excited to announce that tomorrow I kick off my Ten Days of Thanksgiving post series!  It's hard to believe it's already that time of year!  I am excited to spend 10 days focusing on the things in my life that I am thankful for!

When I was a Child - the Fall Edition

First things first, if you'd like to read about Julia Child night from my aunt's perspective, click over to her blog (yes, my aunt has a blog!  She's hip like that!) and check it out!  She included some fanstastic pictures!!

Remember when I did my summer "When I was a Child" post?  Well, it's time for the fall edition!!

When I was a child...

• We did not go to an apple orchard - instead we picked apples from the tree in our backyard!  Some years we would have boxes of Haralson apples.  Yum!
• The meals shifted from light summer fare to the comforting dishes of fall.  My favorite meal was pot roast with squash from our garden.  For dessert, my mom would often make apple crisps, using the apples from our tree!
• Friday nights were spent watching my brothers play football!  I must confess, I did not pay attention to the game at all.  Instead I socialized and enjoyed the hot cocoa and warm apple cider my mom would keep in the car for us! 
• Weekends were spent raking the leaves in our yard.  We have a huge yard, so most of the raking was done by our lawn mower, but us kids would help mom and dad rake up the leaves into bags. 
• We would carve pumpkins and roast the seeds.  Our pumpkins carving was far from sophisticated.  There were alot of triangle eyes and semi-circle mouths.  I see the pumpkins people carve these days and am blown away!
• As Thanksgiving would approach, the to do list seemed never ending!  We usually hosted my mom's side of the family each year and we would spend the weeks cleaning every single nook and cranny of our home.  I was kind of very snotty about it and whined a lot.  Now that I am an adult and have hosted others in my home, I understand why my mom worked so hard to get the house clean before the guests arrived.

This time I am going to switch it up and share what fall means to me now!

As an adult, fall is...

• Pumpkin spice latte season!  This is by far my most favorite seasonal drink!  I love buying one each Friday.
• A time when I consume a heck of a lot of honeycrisp apples!  I eat about one a day, sometimes more.  You all probably know this already, but in case you don't I will tell you once again that Honeycrisp apples were developed here in Minnesota! 
• Marathon and half-marathon season!  Both of my marathons and 2 of my half-marathons were ran in the fall!  My 3rd marathon will likely be ran next fall.  Fall is the time when all the sweat and hard work from summer training come to fruition - hopefully in the form of a PR!
• Football season.  I don't watch the game, but I do participate in a league at work where you pick one team each week that you think will win, and you can't pick the same team twice.  I am a competitive person, so this is a fun, competitive outlet for me!
• Skinny jeans, boots, and cardigans or sweaters!  I love the clothes associated with fall!
• My favorite season.  I love the cool, crisp temps.  I love the beauty of the changing leaves.  I love the different sunlight that we get during this time of year.  This year we have been blessed with beautiful weather!

What did fall mean to you as a child and what does it mean to you now?

Julia Child Night 2011!

Happy Monday, everyone!  My weekend really could not have been better!!  On Friday night I attended a dinner party with co-workers, which was so much fun.  I was up and at 'em early on Saturday morning as I had a lot to do before my parents arrived!  Before I knew it, it was noon and my parents were pulling up.  I was so excited to show them my condo, my piano, and neighborhood!  We had a light lunch of snacks, did some exploring in the neighborhood, and then my mom and I started to get to work.

I will let photos tell the story for the rest of this post!

This beautiful fruit (as well as haralson apples from my parents' tree) were made into a delicious pear & apple crisp!

My mom peeled & cored 16 apples and 4 pears!  She was a peeling machine!

Of course I had to wear a striped shirt with a French phase while we were preparing for Julia Child night!  We are starting to assemble the crisps in this photo!

Before we knew it, it was time to get ready to go.  Here I am all, wearing stripes (of course)!

My aunt Barb and I got a photo together in our Anthro aprons before we got busy serving the amazing meal!

Our guests feasted upon olives, olive tapenade, gluten free crackers, and an assortment of French cheeses!  We drank French 75's, which is a cocktails made from gin, champagne, lemon juice and simple syrup.  They are divine!!

The tables were all beautifully dressed!

Course number one was Julia Child's Beef Consomme, served with a gluten free bread stick.  I think this soup took over 12 hours for my aunt to prepare.  It was a true labor of love!

The salad course featured a Honey-Roasted Pear Salad with Thyme Verjus Dressing!  It was DELICIOUS!!

My aunt really knows how to cook for a crowd!  Here is the massive amount of Cassoulet that she prepared for our event!

The main course was delicious!  Our guested enjoyed the cassoulet, picked cabbage, and gluten free rolls!

While the crisps baked in the oven, we took a break between the main course and dessert to snap a photo of us ladies in our lovely aprons!!

Last, but not least, was the dessert course.  We served pear & apple crisp accompanied by a homemade ice cream made by my sister-in-law, Julie!  The crisp was warm and delicious - the perfect end to a perfect meal!

So there you have it!  Another successful event for the record books.  In addition to the food, there was much wine and much laughter.  The evening concluded with a rowdy game of Balderdash.  Everyone left with a full belly, but also with a full heart.  I feel very blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life.  It is a joy to come together each year and celebrate my love of all things French - and to share that love with family and friends. 

I am especially thankful for my aunt & uncle who hosted the event and prepared the majority of the food. I jokingly said that I feel like I sort of put on stripes and show up at this event!  Next year I want to take some of the workload off my aunt's shoulders, so I will hopefully tackle the main course (with some guidance from my aunt, most likely!).  I am already thinking about next year's menu!

If you could throw an annual event similar to our Julia Child night, what would be the theme of your event?

French Friday: Julia Child Night

Happy Friday, friends!  And what an extremely happy Friday it is, indeed!  Why, might you ask?  Well, because tomorrow is JULIA CHILD NIGHT! 

My aunt Barb and I at the inaugural Julia Child Night

Those who have read my blog for awhile are probably familiar with this tradition.  You can read about the 1st event here, and the 2nd event here. 


Voila!  Julia Child's Paella was a hit that first year!

And here we are - preparing to host our 3rd Annual Julia Child Night!  I am actually not quite sure how this tradition got started.  I think I made an aside comment about my desire to learn how to make some Julia Child recipes, and the event was born. 



My mom, me, and my aunt Barb at the 2nd Julia Child Night, wearing our beloved Anthropologie aprons

My aunt is the true maestro of this event.  She researches and plans and experiments with recipes.  She is an amazing cook and a mentor of sorts to me.  Through the planning and execution of this event, we have become incredibly close.  Our bond has truly transcended the typical aunt and niece relationship - the bond we have now can only be described as magical!  We share a love of French food and we love to share that love with family and friends.

The main course last year - Beef Bourguignon, puree de pommes de terre, and hericot vert

So tomorrow night, we will gather in her home.  We will don anthropologie aprons and cram into her kitchen, oo'ing and ah'ing over the smells coming from her stove and oven.  We will taste french cheeses, spread olive tapenade on gluten free crackers, and toast over French 75's.  We will enjoy a main course fit for kings!  We will toast to loved ones, both near and far, and we will embrace the joy de vivre that the French truly embody with their approach to living.  And we will toast to the Julia Child events of the past and the ones that have yet to unfold in the years to come.  Life is good, my friends!

Wine and Love v17

Greetings and Happy Thursday everyone!  It's almost the weekend!  Woo hip!  This post theme was thought up & is hosted by the lovely Nora!  Go tell her hi - she rocks!

Wine:
- I don't know what my deal is, but I have been feeling extremely tired lately.  Maybe my body is catching up on consecutive months of sleep deprivation?
- I feel like I no longer have an immune system.  I have been sick so much in the last 6 weeks (and have been on 3 rounds of antibiotics).  It's ridiculous.  I better get a couple of months of good health after being so sick for so long!

Love:
- Despite the fact that I coughed up a storm during my Chicago office visit, it apparently went very well, as the reps asked if I can come back on a quarterly basis.  This makes me very happy because a) it means they think I am competent and trust me to talk to their clients (which is very important) and b) I have lots of family and friends in the Chicago-area, so traveling to this city on a regular basis is a VERY good thing. 
- Saturday night is Julia Child night!!!  24 people will be attending this year and I am super duper excited.  I'll tell you more about it in tomorrow's French Friday post!!
- The weather has been absolutely gorgeous here lately.  I think this is the nicest fall that I can remember in a very, very long time.  I am savoring these beautiful fall days while they last as I know winter is just around the corner.
- My family will be in Minneapolis for Thanksgiving and there is talk of me possibly hosting dinner on Friday night!  I am really excited about this - it will give me an excuse to use both of the leaves of my huge dining room table.  See, I knew it was a good decision to buy that table!

What are your wine & love of the week?

And P.S. today I will be guest posting about tips for a first half marathon on my friend Heidi's blog.  Stop over later today and wish her luck - she runs her first half on Sunday!!!

Music, Books, Miles, and Looks of October

Whoa.  I am recapping October.  What?  I know I saw that time flies by every month, but it just seems to keep going faster instead of slowing down...  I really wish that would change!  Remember when you were a child and Christmas seemed to take forever to get here?  Now I feel like I will blink and it will be Christmas Eve.  I must be getting old....

Music:

Gravel Lines by Amy Seeley - I love Amy Seeley.  She is a really unknown artist, but I love her voice.  All of her music is wonderful, so if you like the sound of this, check her out.  As a piano-lover, I love how most of her music features her and the piano. 

Books:

Betweeen spending a lot of time on airplanes and being laid up sick at the end of the month, I got a lot of reading done this month!

The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard  - I would highly recommend this book.  It grabbed me from the get go and I had a hard time putting it down!  I love books like that.  I suppose you could say it is a bit of a mystery, but it doesn't read like your typical mystery.  Check it out.

Two Kisses for Maddy:  A Memoir of Loss and Love by Matt Logelin:  Lauren lent this to me on our marathon/half-marathon trip.  I have read Matt's blog since the early days after he lost his wife (27 hours after his daughter was born).  I knew his heart-breaking story, and I thought I could hold it together while reading this.  So not the case.  I cried a lot.  On an airplane.  Which was mortifying, but oh well.  It is what it is.  So check this one out, too, but don't read it in public...

Falling Together by Marisa de los Santos:  I loved de los Santos first two books, Love Walked In and Belong To Me, so I was thrilled to find she had released a 3rd book.  Unfortunately this one did not live up my expectations.  It was good, but not great... 

Every Last One by Anna Quindlen:  This was another amazing book that I had the hardest time putting down.  I have read other books by Quindlen and I just love her writing style.  This book deals with a pretty devastating topic, but it was so well done in my opinion. 

Husband and Wife by Leah Stewart:  After reading "The Myth of You and Me", which I reviewed over 3 years ago here, I was excited to read this book as her last book was so beautifully written.  This book was beautifully written as well, but I did not care for it as much, mostly because I vehemently disagreed with the decisions the main character made when she faced infidelity in her marriage.  And that sort of ruined the book for me.

Miles:

Aside from my huge half-marathon PR, which I am still very proud of, this was not a great running month for me.  I once again got hit by a really nasty sinus infection that laid me up for the last part of the month, and settled into my chest, making running out of the question. 

Next month will be a better month. 

Looks:

Excuse the lack of a hair style in this photo - it was taken at the end of a long day at work.  The weather turned colder for a week in October, which meant I could pull out a warmer coat.  This is the coat I purchased when the Ambers were visiting in August.  I absolutely love it.  I also love the outfit I am wearing under it, which is a plaid dress with black tights.  I actually like these cooler temps because I like wearing tights and coats and such.  I just don't want to deal with snow anytime soon!

My Newest Addition

Happy Friday!  I hope none of you thought that blog title was in reference to a pet...  I think you all know me well enough to know that I am NOT an animal person (no offense to all you animal lovers out there...  I just prefer children and books to pets). 

The new addition I am referring to is the piano I bought...

First off, let me say that it is not as expensive as it looks...  I was paranoid about posting a photo of this for fear that people would get the idea that I am well off - which is so not the case.  I don't know why I am so paranoid about this as the piano costs a fraction of the cost of a vehicle, and people go out and buy vehicles every weekend without feeling sheepish about it...  And I will have this piano for the rest of my life, so it's really more of an investment!

All that aside, I am incredibly happy to have a piano in my home.  I starting taking piano lessons at a young age and then in high school I had 10 students of my own (which was a pretty cool job!).  Playing piano has always been a big part of my life, but I have never had the space for a piano.  Until now! 

The piano was delivered last week and I played my heart out the first night it was in my home.  I am a little rusty as I have not played consistently for the last 8 years, but I know with time, I will get back to where I was before.  I am thrilled to have a piano in my home around the holidays - there is nothing better than playing Christmas carols in my opinion!  And then when CFA studying commences, this will be the best stress reliever out there!

Do you play the piano or any instrument?  Would you ever purchase a piano for your home?  I always thought I would purchase a piano when I had children but figured - why wait?  I might as well enjoy it now!