One of the things I am reluctant to share here are my thoughts on style. I am not the most stylish person. I have not often given thought to style. In the past year or so I have started to genuinely make an effort. I started to find what works for me. I am still working out what my sense of style looks like and finding myself in fashion. As I look through the past I can see items that were and some that still are important to me. One of the more recent items that I love is this belt. I found that where I previously felt shapeless the belt adds enough structure for me to appreciate the way I look. I find simply wearing it gives me confidence. I like to add it to any outfit and I just feel more like me. This belt was purchased at Marshalls many years ago, and I still wear it. I do not wear it with the zeal I used to, I have toned it down a bit, but I do find this belt to be a staple in my wardrobe. It seems to fix dresses that do not fit just right, it helps add shape to flowing garments. I honestly love this belt. As I wear it more, it wears, and not the best. I have yet to find another to replace it and so it remains, fairly well worn and fairly old. Yet, I find that the belt was the beginning. The belt helped me find myself in clothes, helped me to make choices that started me down a path to looking a way I want, to being less like the crowd and listening to my own sense of style instead. Do you have any items that do that? Any pieces of clothing that give you confidence or that make you feel like you? If so share about them below I would love to know what makes you come alive.
0 Comments
This past month I have felt my reading slump come back. I abandoned a number of books and finished nothing remarkable. I have decided to update my reading challenge and rather than doing the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge-with specific categories that honestly I did not want to read books about. I have gone back to the tried and true Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge. I have to say I am impressed with how much I have already completed and all I have left is a book in translation. Any suggestions for books in translation please leave below.
I have decided to use this slump as motivation for a new perspective and to start again with books I love. I find that reframe to be helpful and encourage me to keep going. Also any suggestions in general because I want to read more this year and it is just not happening. One of the things I struggle with doing is recognizing what I have accomplished. I do not tend to celebrate what I have done, I am typically more forward thinking. In an effort to remediate that I am sharing 100 accomplishments in no particular order that range from big to small. Some of these are more recent habits and some of these are older. I think it is important to see value in all parts of life not only the big but the small and daily too.
In writing this list, I was struck by how it captures some of the what I did, but not always why or how it mattered. In the past few years I think more than many of the things listed here I have learned who I am and how to best be myself and show up in the world. That more than any single accomplishment has made me feel like myself. I think yes, it is important to explore and get out of your comfort zone, but it is also important to know yourself and know what has actually been meaningful for you.
This week is quite a busy and exciting week for me personally. I am glad for this post to slow down and appreciate what the abundance of this week offers me. KnittingOne of the things I am loving lately is knitting. Knitting, like running is one of those activities I oddly pick up in the summer, when it seems weird and or it is way too hot. I am not running lately, because I have noticed my hips being sore when I sleep, but I have been knitting and I am currently working on creating a scarf, which has been a joy to work on in the air conditioning. Strawberry ShortcakeI have not been loving sweets lately, but this weekend I made some strawberry shortcake, or an approximation of it with unsweetened strawberries, whipped cream on a biscuit and I thoroughly enjoy the refreshing taste. Trader Joe's Ciabotta BaguetteI have been on a bread kick to such a degree that I almost refuse to buy regular bread from the grocery store. One of the bread that I still love, and have yet to learn how to make is a good baguette. I feel I need to tell you, this is not a crusty baguette, it is soft and chewy. I like it because I find for my needs it works quite well and around me at local stores all of the crust ones are dry and powdery on the interior which is not a trade off I am willing to make. I would rather have a nice chew than a crispy exterior, but maybe if I learn to make my own I will have both. FansI have found that in the summer anything that gets the air moving is quite appreciated. I am loving the fans to circulate air overhead and tower fans that keep it cool and to make it feel more enjoyable. Exercise Ball as Desk ChairI switched out my office chair for an exercise ball and I have to say I have notice my back feels better and I am forced to have better posture. I am thoroughly enjoying it and I am glad to have made the switch. I also love how minimalist it makes my office and it can be hidden underneath my desk without adding clutter or furniture. What are you loving this week? What is making your life better or what small things are you grateful for?
I have been blogging for over a year now and I feel like it is good to look back and reflect on what has changed since I have started and what I have learned. Yes, I have blogged before, but this has been different I have been fairly consistent blogging at least once a month if not more. Hopefully some of this will be helpful to you if not just interesting. Recipes Take TimeWhen I started blogging, I assumed I would only write about food. I still love food and in fact I plan to continue to blog about food and recipes. What I did not fundamentally understand is that for me to be satisfied with a recipe it often takes time and effort to create and test to ensure I am happy with the product. I am not sure why I believed initially I would be a recipe savant, but no I have many a flops and I work to shift and change them. As I continue to blog, I will include recipes, but I am not sure of the frequency which depends to a greater degree on how they test and how many trials it takes to get them to taste the way they are in my mind. Change is InevitableThis goes hand in hand with the prior lesson, but I have shifted my blog to include more things of interest and that change was not intentionally planned, but occurred because I love this medium. I love being able to reflect and write and share my thoughts. I find blogging to be a way to process the world and I then have concrete evidence of who I was and what I thought a year ago or more. For me the key to continuing blogging has been to accept change and embrace it as an opportunity. Ideas Continue to ComeI also thought I would run out of ideas, even in terms of food. In reality I have more ideas now that I did when I started and I thought that my writing would be limiting. I would run out of words and ideas, but as I continue to learn and grow I have new ideas and new things to share that will continue to come out via blog. I thought creativity was something I had in limited supply, but the more I tap into it the more I realize it is fairly infinite. Blogging Helps Me GrowI did not realize all the skills that went into blogging. Photography, recipe development, writing, finding a voice and even editing. I am slowly growing and learning to improve these skills in a way that helps me grow in general. I find when you are working to develop new skills it influences the way you see the world around you and gives you a greater understanding of life in general. Here is to another year or more of blogging. If you blog, what have you learned along the way? What tools, tips, or advice have been most helpful? If not, what have you learned through consistent practice in one area?
I am not sure how you are when you are sick, but I do not like it. I want it to end as soon as possible. I also have a tendency to use myself as a human test subject. I try out remedies to see which ones work for me and which do not. Here is my current list of things that help me when I am sick and hopefully they will help you too! Sometimes we feel when we are sick we are climbing an impossible mountain, but hopefully some of these will help you cope with a bit more ease.
What are your sick remedies? I am always looking for new ones to test. Anything you find particularly helpful would be much appreciated.
My dad has taught me many lessons in life. When I was in college, I called my family frequently. Since I spent most of my college years on the West Coast, I mostly called my dad, who was also located on the West Coast. I would discuss the daily and the mundane and things I was thinking. Mostly I would call on the walk from my college to my off campus housing. One of my common phrases I used, as I shared last week, was the phrase I know. Any comment or suggestion I would respond with I know. At times my dad would express his frustration, he would say, "do not say you know when you don't." As I reflect on that time and that phrase, I realize that I know was a shield. I did not know but I could not handle more information. I know alleviated responsibility, alleviated having to learn more and adjust my actions accordingly. I thought since I was technically an adult, part of being an adult was knowing everything there is to know. I felt shame about what I did not know. Hearing more that I was unaware of made me feel like a failure. I am more intentional with my discussions lately. I do not share topics I am still working through and sensitive about. I also am less likely to say I know when I truly don't. I have started being willing to ask questions to learn, to treat others as experts and gain advice from them. Being willing to acknowledge that you do not in fact know everything is an opportunity to learn and grow. I have notice we often expect more from ourselves than is reasonable and at least in my case it comes from a place of pride. I learned this over time and through experience. I struggled with being uninformed and learned over time that there truly is no shame in not knowing. We all start as beginners and knowing what you do not know can be a valuable lesson. Today I suggest we embrace ourselves and acknowledge we do not know and we cannot know everything, rather than being a failing, it simply is a sign we are human.
Sometimes, I find breakfast to be the hardest meal to plan. In part, I struggle with knowing if I will even be hungry enough for breakfast. I also don't want to plan anything complicated if I want to eat and get out the door quickly. I typically go in breakfast ruts where I want the same thing everyday for a while, but eventually I get bored and look for a new breakfast thing, to get inspiration I search the web and test out meals only to find them lacking, eventually though if all goes well I stumble onto a breakfast that I love and want to eat everyday. Consider the following to be a log of my breakfast ruts. Scrambled eggs and fruit. Simple and easy, it keeps me full and I love the sweetness of fresh fruit. Toast (or honestly sometimes just a piece of bread) topped with crunchy peanut butter and banana slices. Toast or English Muffin topped with avocado, salt, pepper, and everything bagel seasoning. Kick it up a notch by adding a fried egg, alfalfa sprouts to the toast (before the seasoning), or by using flakey sea salt, I love the crunch it provides. Plain yogurt with fruit, nuts and honey or maple syrup and maybe granola if we have it is another go to breakfast I enjoy. What are your breakfast ruts? I am always on the lookout for new ideas that are simple and tasty.
Happy Fourth of July! I am glad to be spending this July 4th in the United States this year. I want to share with you things I am grateful for. Living in a Place of FamiliarityNice Walking PathsThis week we found a nice walking path and I was surprised by how at home having a place to walk outside makes me feel. We were blessed by the many great paths in Des Moines and we are slowly finding some new ones here in New Hampshire. A RainbowThe weather here has been a mix of hot and rain. I saw the glimpse of a rainbow and then went to the window and was able to see most of the rainbow. I am glad at how nature can be so beautiful. Air ConditioningWe live in a third floor apartment and lately we have had a couple of 90 degree days. I have finally determined turning on the air conditioning is necessary. One thing I do miss is central air conditioning. We are adjusting, but some day we will be back for central air conditioning in our living space. Overnight OatsAs it has heated up, I have been looking for cooler breakfasts. The one I am loving is just leaving some oats in a jar with milk to soften overnight and eating them with additional milk and nuts in the morning. I love this simple breakfast and how cool and refreshing it is.
Having moved all over one of the things I have noticed in an immediate sense is the way my language is affected by those around me. I know we all have unique ways of speaking, the way we structure sentences are unique to us and our thought patterns. Even the way we speak can be unique, I know that I over annunciate. My speech habits though change. I find speech to be one of the more flexible things in my life, when I am around or listening to someone who curses more I pick up that language, even as I try not to. Sometimes I can pinpoint where a phrase came from, other times they seem to appear out of thin air and I struggle to lose the phrase from my vocabulary. Most of the time, my patterns have to be pointed out to be because I do not notice them. In college I learned from my dad, my phrase was I know. I would respond to anyone I know. In Florida, I picked up the occasional and intentional use of y'all, which I still love. I also picked up the phrase same same, which I use to this day. The other word I found in Florida was sesquipedalian, meaning characterized by using long words. I heard from my husband on his word of the day calendar and for some reason I use that to this day. In Iowa, my dad informed me that I was using well or because to pause in a conversation but maintain control of the conversation. I also shifted talking about our church leader from minister to pastor. Now I cannot imagine saying anything other than pastor, although I am sure based on location that is likely to change as well. My most embarrassing speech patterns have shown themselves recently towards the end of being in Iowa and here in New Hampshire. I started sarcastically saying you're welcome, which if you know me is odd because I rarely if ever use sarcasm. The reality that I did that was one of those that as soon as I heard it come out of my mouth it made me cringe. I struggled to stop saying it and it was a real effort to take that out of my daily language. That pattern was replaced with the even more cringeworthy verbal statement hashtag followed by some larger theme. I have slowly worked that out of my daily usage. I find though language to be a part of me that changes the most quickly and the one that is also hard to undo. Have you noticed changes in your speech based on location or even who you surround yourself with? Any phrases I should try to intentionally incorporate?
|
About MeI'm Sarah; a wife, traveler, foodie, and adventurer. Archives
October 2019
Categories
All
|