Grits in the City - discounts and faves
Hope you enjoy all these as much as I do!
It has been a few weeks since we went, but I can’t stop thinking about our dinner at Summit House in Summit, New Jersey. A night out with just us two always feels like a treat but even more so when we are able to find a restaurant at Manhattan quality closer to home.
This is the first day I’m experiencing Earth Day from the comfort of my own home. Usually there’s an internal note as to what our offices are doing with some opting to celebrate Earth Hour by going lights off, others planting gardens either on or off property or volunteering locally with a park cleanup effort.
Nothing makes you think about waste than watching your household double in less than three years — meaning more trash along the way. Here are some easy things we have been doing that may help give you some ideas to consider.
[Read more…]Q was several weeks old (maybe a month or more) before I realized I’d never played him music. At all. Closest thing would have been the Gilmore Girls theme song due to the marathon I’d been doing in advance of the release of the new episodes. In the midst of those super sleep deprived early days, I hadn’t even thought about it. It was ironic, too, since music is so important to both myself and my husband.
I spent my early years in church musicals. I went to college on a music scholarship for flute and also play the piano and (once upon a time) the violin. T was in musicals over the years in both high school and college. We’ve gone to a number of musicals and concerts together over the years. I even worked doing social media promotions for concerts, both for several years as part of my day job. Music is clearly a big part of who we both are – and something that, if we had been more aware of it, we would have began introducing to Q starting with his time in the womb.
Once we became aware of it, we started to think about how we could add music into our routine with Q. We were super aware of avoiding screen time before he was born, so instead of turning on the TV for background noise, we started occasionally opting for Spotify or a CD instead. We even bought a record player so we can begin to make music more of a shared experience for our family. [Read more…]
It’s pretty obvious if you’ve been following this blog for a while, but I love desserts. Sweets are my weakness. When we moved out of New York City, I wasn’t sure I’d find anything at the same level of some of Manhattan’s gems. Thankfully I was wrong!
There are two different locations for Bovella’s – one in Westfield and one in Mountainside. The newest one is in Mountainside but I have a special soft spot for the Westfield location as it’s the one I used to visit with my mom when we wanted to get away for a sweet treat.
I never realized just how much I love milk until recently I found myself forced to go dairy-free. However, I love my daughter so much more so said let’s do this.
I started off with a trip to Whole Foods to see what sort of dairy-free options they have readily available (note the ghee in the photo above is not dairy free – someone led me astray on that one so ignore that!). And I learned just how many things have dairy in them. Who knew? Things like certain types of:
It had been ages since T and I had done a date night in the city, so when he proposed an evening down there and a bit of shopping for my Christmas present, I jumped at the opportunity. I was off that Friday, so went into the city by late afternoon so we could make the most of our time down at the South Street Seaport.
We started with a visit to the SJP boutique, the first US permanent location for Sarah Jessica Parker’s shoe line. It was a bit after 3PM so we had the store to ourselves for a bit. I was super pregnant at the time so hadn’t worn nice heels in quite some time, so it was so fun to peruse their options and feel fancy for a bit. I can’t say enough wonderful things about the staff. They patiently let me try on lots of different options and sizes (shoes get tricky post-pregnancy!) as I tried to narrow down my choice. I ended up with these beautiful slightly netted option with a touch of sparkle – wearable in the office yet just a touch of bling for my feet. Perfection.
read moreAfter returning from the hospital I was reminded of just how many different things I need in the post-partum period than during maternity. Thankfully I stashed some of my extras from Q, but I found myself scrambling to get a bunch of others. Thank goodness for Amazon, where I was able to quickly order a number of things I realized I needed. Below are some of my favorites. For the full list to easily peruse, visit here on Amazon.
Bassinet
Last time, we did a Pack ‘n Play which was useful for us to have in general (I think buying one of these would always be useful), but was less successful when it came to Q and sleeping. It made too much of a rustling sound as he tossed and turned in it. This time, we wanted something pretty simple and lightweight. This Fisher-Price bassinet has worked well for us and little L loves the soothing music it plays (use of it is optional) and I love that it has a soft nightlight that comes on when touched. And the material along the bottom is super easy to clean following those inevitable spit-ups.
[Read more…]Last Friday, I had quite the to-do list since my gut aligned with my doctor’s prediction — that Baby Girl wasn’t likely to wait until her February 8th due date to make her appearance. A handful were things I really wanted to accomplish for work and the others were miscellaneous things around the house I really wanted to knock out before she joined us. Friday definitely didn’t go to plan…
[Read more…]I really like the idea of resolutions and approach them more as goals than something I’ve outright failed if I don’t accomplish them all by year-end. This year, I picked four simple ones to help guide my 2019.
Another year of kind. This was my only resolution in 2018 and I plan to keep it on the list for 2019 – not only on the list, but right at the top. This helped me so much that it’ll continue to be my filter for the year ahead. It’s telling myself it’s ok to do less things, to say no when I really need to and to go easy on myself during another big year of change.
Write more. This is a biggie for me. I went to a writing retreat last year at Write Doe Bay and wasn’t able to get myself back into long-form writing last year. This year though, it’s going to happen. I learned just how hard it is to start a new novel and then take some considerable time away from it. I’m planning to do that, in addition to tackle some bigger writing projects to hopefully place with a few publications, throughout 2019.
Read more. I’ll be honest. This one isn’t going to be hard. With everything going on last year, I read 1.5 books. Yes. You read that right. I have a list of books I want to read while I’m on maternity and up and about at unusual pockets of time during the day. I’m looking forward to being still and reading more — even if it’s only in the end a very short stack of books.
Disconnect more. This is easier said than done. Social media is my living and a major distribution outlet for amplifying my writing is online. That doesn’t mean I can’t reign it in, too. Recently on the year anniversary of my mom’s death, I quietly unplugged for the day. It was refreshing the amount of clarity that comes with fully immersing yourself in and focusing on the world and people around you, removing all those other extraneous thoughts. I look forward to doing more of the same this year.
What’s on tap for you in 2019?
2018 was a challenging year. Probably one of the most challenging for me so far. It’s not a year where I look back and have tons of things to call out. It is a year where I focused on one thing – being kind to myself – and learned throughout the year just how wise a choice that was for me. It’s also a year I’m proud I was strong enough to endure. The below tweet from @IntrovertDoodle sort of summarizes my feelings on the year.
One of the biggest things in 2018 was finding out in May that we were expecting a baby girl, set to arrive in February 2019. Q wasn’t sure what to think but seems to (mostly) have come around to the idea of “Baby Sister” joining our little family. Exciting times as we are approaching these final impatient weeks. The post-holiday clean-up has also meant getting down to business to get things set-up for her arrival. I think we’re finally (well, mostly) ready to go!
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