Grits in the City - discounts and faves

Hope you enjoy all these as much as I do!

all the sweets at bovella’s

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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.

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lazy dairy-free: getting started

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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:

  • Bread
  • Spices
  • Single serving oatmeal
  • Baking mixes (pancakes, cakes, breads, etc)
  • Deli meat
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date night at the south street seaport

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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.

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post-partum amazon faves

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After 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.

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welcome baby girl z

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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…

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resolutions, the 2019 edition

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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?

hello 2019

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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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holiday sugar cookies

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Last year, Christmas was a blur. We put up a tree, we made lots of the recipes we always made but it didn’t feel remotely like Christmas. And I didn’t honestly expect it to be, since it’ll never be the same again. Last year, it was about getting through somehow. So much of what I think of Christmas is wrapped up in my mom and always will be, as we lost her so close to the holiday last year.

This year, I wanted to do my best to make it more spirited, vowing to err on the side of too much Christmas to ensure that Q really got Christmas this year. We put up our first tall tree (bought on clearance after Christmas last year) and put up garland with lights on the banister. I spent hours watching holiday movies on Netflix and wrapping an extra tall stack of presents with sparkly paper.

And I planned to make lots of sweet Christmas treats. Last year, my friend Jocelyn came out to New Jersey and spent the day with me baking sugar cookies, trying to help me get into the Christmas spirit. This year, I decided to make some again – this time to serve at the family’s annual gingerbread house decorating gathering.

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netflix: the holiday list

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I found myself looking at a list to find I had a ton of vacation days I never took. There was only one solution — take off the week before Christmas (and then some) to wrap all the things, bake all the things, and take all the naps. I decided I was equal to the task. All those hours of baking and wrapping require something in background. Enter the Netflix holiday movie rotation!

Most of the below are from this year, but there are some older ones in the mix towards the bottom. There was only one rule for this post — to exclude all those bigger holiday movies from over the year. I think you’ll see I made good on following that rule.

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[giveaway] smile brilliant’s cariPRO

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I’m learning that nothing makes you scrutinize everything about yourself like being a parent. How you talk, how you react under pressure. Yes, even how you brush your teeth. We’ve begun emphasizing the importance of regular brushing with Q. I’m doing an okay job though, right?

I’ve never used an electronic toothbrush so when Smile Brilliant reached out with an opportunity to try their cariPRO toothbrush, I decided it was a good time to try — especially with the high volume of sweets I’ve been eating around the holidays! Over the last several weeks, I’ve been using just the cariPRO to see how it performs.

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