Grits in the City - Fitness. Family. Food.

Hope you enjoy all these as much as I do!

manhattan day trip

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We had to drive L in to Manhattan yesterday for a doctor’s appointment. Though bad weather threatened later in the day, it ended up being a nice start to the day. 

I’ve never driven in before so thankfully my dad went in with us for the adventure. Also, thankfully I learned all about SpotHero last week from my Tori Amos adventures so I was able to score us a decent buy for a parking spot for the day that was in a perfect spot. The doctor’s office was in Midtown West and we got there super early to ensure we’d miss all the crazy traffic, so we decided to walk around a bit until the appointment. Thankfully we found some coffee shops that opened nice and early (hello, Blue Bottle!) and we walked around until one of my favorite spaces in the city Bryant Park opened at 7AM. We ducked in to walk around a bit there, letting little L check it all out and even observe someone doing some yoga over by the Bryant Park Cafe and Grill.

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april faves

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Right now we are at a combo of how is it almost at May — yet thank goodness warmer temps are oh so close. I’m always over the cold by now — ready for sure from backyard inflatable pool time!

Before these April hours expire, wanted to share a quick roundup of some April faves. As always, drop some of yours in the comments!

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driveway gourmet with wonder

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When the team from the Wonder app reached out with an opportunity to try the service out right as it opened up in our area of New Jersey, I said yes without hesitation. A new food option that comes to our house? What’s there not to love?

I started looking into their restaurant options and the problem really became choosing what we would try first! They have regular area restaurants on there available for delivery but what really caught our eye were their “Wonder” restaurants, which aren’t otherwise available in the area. T loves sushi and we can’t really find anything around here that’s good enough. Blame NYC for spoiling us! We decided to make it a date night, complete with fresh sushi from Daisuke Nakazawa’s Bar Nakazawa.

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march faves

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Hi, friends. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I’m playing a bit of catch-up and have some new things to share in the coming weeks. But first, time to share a fond farewell to March, that month that somehow manages to somehow bring us winter’s final punches after spring has arrived.

Amazon Finds

Of course the Magicool Cami Hanger I purchased is already off the site, but this Zedodier version is almost identical. If you are like me and your sports bra collection has become a bit out of control, this is such a helpful way to get organized.

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january faves

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I know what’s not making my list — the weather. Ugh. Still quite a bit more to go and I’m very much over it already. Here’s a bit of what’s good this month that’s helping to get me through.

Cozy socks and sweatshirts

This is where working from home is getting dangerous because I have to force myself out of my thick sweatshirts on workdays. On the weekends though, I’ve been living in my Tyed With Love sweatshirt, complete with mama at the neckline and the kid’s name embroidered at the sleeve.

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5 steps to a festive pandemic birthday

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Birthdays have really been scaled back during the pandemic. We were thinking about this as we started to plan for L’s celebration, which was just going to be for those living under our roof. We went into it thinking how can we still make it extra special?

Choose a fun theme

We always do this for the bigger group parties but did less with it last year. Never again! The theme helps you set the decor, the cake, everything!! Just transforming your space to the theme will have an impact on your little ones feeling that birthday magic. This year’s theme for L? Unicorns!

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committing to 2022 resolutions

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Before starting these, I took a look back at the year before’s list. Blank. Totally blank. I always set some sort of resolutions or intentions for the year. Well, until 2021. Sounds about right though.

I’ve taken some time in setting these. Everything is still so crazy that the last thing I want to do is add some unnecessary pressure for resolutions. And I was definitely on team “tip toe into 2022,” since I’m not sold on a new year being any sort of magical change for us. But I do like the idea that it’s a good time to check in with yourself and what you need to motivate you. That being said, here’s what I’m thinking for 2022…

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2021, the wrap-up

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To be honest, this has been a crazy long year. It feels like it’s been the longest year ever. And for that, I’m thrilled we are turning a new chapter. The biggest event of the year was moving houses. It’s been a huge change for us all in so many ways — but one that’s been the move we needed. We celebrated Christmas this year with not one but *two* trees. And although we ended up with it just being us for Christmas, we got to enjoy our beautiful new space with a full table at Thanksgiving.


Even though we’ve been ordering in for the majority of the year, we still managed to enjoy some extra special moments along the way. We started the year with seeing the virtual version of Dan White’s amazing show. If you haven’t seen it yourself, highly recommend! We also had a lovely evening for Valentine’s thanks to Goldbelly which featured some NYC gems like Blue Ribbon Sushi and La Newyorkina. We enjoyed our only meal indoors this year to celebrate our anniversary at Summit House. We also dined outside at one of our faves, Stirling Hotel, to celebrate T’s birthday during the summer.

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