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Not Our Average Weekend

Good morning! Similar to many of you, Bo and I have today off in honor of Martin Luther King Day. Unfortunately, this weekend continues to be one that is very different than what we envisioned.

Friday, Bo spent the day working from home as he was overcoming a 24-hour virus he caught Wednesday night. The virus included stomach pains, body aches, low fever and malaise. By Friday evening he was going stir crazy, so we enjoyed a date night.

Our evening started at the new Park Slope Orangetheory Fitness to celebrate their grand opening. My good friend, Heather, is the studio manager and has spent countless hours over the past few months getting the studio ready for business.

heather park slope orangetheory fitness park slope orangetheory fitness

After hanging out with Heather, her husband Scott and the Orangetheory team we headed to dinner at a new Fort Green restaurant, Lady’s. I discovered the new restaurant when searching for reservations on OpenTable and was delighted to give the Italian restaurant a try, especially since the initial reviews have been very strong. While the service was spotty, at best, the atmosphere was chic and inviting and the space was packed on Friday night. We started our dinner by sharing two appetizers, meatballs and beet salad, both of which were delicious. We continued the evening by trying their honey pizza, which was written up and celebrated in multiple reviews. Unfortunately, it was far too sweet for our taste, especially mid-dinner. We continued the night by sharing a pasta, as all their pasta is made fresh in-house. The chestnut campanelle, which was rich, creamy and flavorful, was the star of the meal.  We would definitely go back, though I think I’ll give them a month or so to improve their service as it took us 2.5 hours to enjoy dinner since the pasta course was served almost an hour after the previous course.

Ladys chestnut campanelle

Image courtesy of Grubstreet review.

Even though I thoroughly disinfected our home and slept in our spare bedroom, on Wednesday and Thursday night, by the end of our meal, I started to feel ill. I looked at Bo and asked if headache and sore throat were part of the virus. Unfortunately, he nodded, knowingly, and said that we should head home immediately.

I was in bed from 9:30 Friday night until 1pm Sunday. Over those 30 hours I experienced everything from low fever, headache, severe body aches, vomiting, and constant nausea. Moments like this make me so thankful for my mom and friends who are nurses as I was texting and calling them to ensure I was doing the right thing for myself and Baby Girl Diamond during the virus. I only took 2 doses of Tylenol during the time but made sure to force plenty of fluids and some basic foods, following the BRAT diet, down to give her sustenance.

brat diet

The time in bed provided me with time to catch up on my favorite television shows, watch a movie (Bridget Jones Baby), start a new series (Catastrophe) and make it halfway through the book, Present Over Perfect.

Giggle shopping

Yesterday afternoon, after holding down food and feeling much better, Bo and I headed out to do some nursery shopping at a few different baby stores including the new BuyBuyBaby at LibertyView in Brooklyn, Sprout, Giggles and finally Pottery Barn Kids. It was great to touch, feel and see some of the items we’d added to our online registry as well as finally make a decision on a few of our larger pieces, including stroller and crib.

Unfortunately, this morning, we woke up to find that half our building is without power which means that basically every other room has power. We do not have heat and we can’t use much of our kitchen. While we are lucky to have running water and internet, it still puts a burden on our final day of the three day weekend.  At this point, I’m just laughing off the long weekend and planning to spend the rest of today relaxing, reading and trying to enjoy as much of the day as possible.

How was your weekend? 

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2017 Word of The Year

Well friends, 2017 is off to a pretty strong start thus far. Bo and I enjoyed a thoroughly relaxing staycation in Brooklyn which included two seasons of House of Cards, reading, writing thank you notes, a few great workouts, lots of cooking and even more sleep.  I’m starting off this short, four day work week feeling refreshed and ready to conquer both my work and personal to-do lists.

As I spent time reflecting on 2016 and looking forward to 2017, I tried to think about what I want out of this year. This year is going to be one of great change, as we plan to welcome Baby Girl Diamond into our home in mid-June.  I know that the next few months will quickly become a whirlwind between work, travel, preparing our home for her arrival and finally becoming a family of three.

Keeping these things in mind, as well as everything I learned last year, my word or focus for the year is CONNECTED.

connected

Clearly this is not everyone who I want to build a deeper connection with in 2017. In fact, I realized that I took WAY too few pictures this year and can barely find pictures of some of my dearest friends and family.

Family & Friends – I want to focus on growing closer and more connected to the people who bring me joy and letting go of others.  Over the years, during multiple moves and life changes, I have worked tirelessly to keep every friendship strong when in reality, part of life is people flowing in and out of your life. Instead of forcing relationships which may naturally ebb and flow, I am focusing on staying connected and deepening my relationship with the people who made me happiest during 2016. I started doing this already this year by scheduling more intimate dates with friends versus only seeing them in larger group settings. In regards to family, these relationships can be complicated. Luckily, during 2016, I was able to build my relationship with my immediate family (mother, brother and father) last year and look forward to continuing to stay connected with them in an even more meaningful way this year. Since we live such different lives and so far apart, it was sometimes intimidating to stay connected but I’ve found – similar to some of my closest long distance friends, daily text messages and weekly phone calls go a long way.

Body – During my first trimester, I took things very easy, focusing on prenatal classes. While this was the right thing to do at that time, especially considering the fears I had during the first trimester of losing the baby, now that I am in week 16, I am trying to be better connected to my body’s needs. Over the past three days, I have felt more alive and energized than I have in weeks and I believe part of this is due to listening to what my body wants. My body has been craving sweat and cardio workouts versus the gentle workouts of the first trimester. This goal of being connected goes beyond workouts to food and rest. Some days, that may mean a homemade lasagna followed by hot chocolate and other days that may be a long walk/jog and acai bowl. Pregnancy has forced me to listen and I want to continue doing this throughout the next five months as well as post baby.

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Reflections on 2016

 

Over the course of 2016, I shared 179 blog posts with you all and 309 Instagram posts.  Similar to last year, as I review the pictures and posts, I see gaps. Of course I expected to see the smiles and joy of Baby Girl Diamond in the top posts but there was so much else that transpired this year.

healthyhappier_best-9

What a year it has been. While many people are ready to forget 2016 existed, I will look back on this year as one of growth. In fact, if I had chosen a word or mantra for this year, that would be it.  Sometimes purposefully and other times subconsciously, much of this year was spent preparing ourselves for the next journey – parenthood. Much of this preparation wasn’t shared on social media or the blog as it isn’t the type of content that drives traffic, clicks or likes.

But for today, let’s focus on the things that are at the forefront of my mind when I look back on the year.

Based on the numbers, it is clear that travel and training took a place on the back burner.

Travel:

Races:

  • United Airlines NYC Half
  • Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Miler
  • Flying Pig Half Marathon
  • Oakley New York Mini 10k
  • Rock’n’Roll Brooklyn Half Marathon
  • Prospect Park Track Club 5 Miler

Instead, during 2016 Bo and I spent a great deal of this year growing as a couple and focusing on creating a home for ourselves in Brooklyn. We spent countless hours painting and decorating our apartment as well as renovating and landscaping our backyard.  We explored our new borough, spending weekends tasting, sipping and shopping through Williamsburg, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Park Slope and the other surrounding neighborhoods.

We spent time in Savannah celebrating the marriage of Meg and Russell and spending time with loved ones. We traveled to Canada together, enjoying time in nature and disconnecting from the stress of our jobs and daily life. We did our best to further develop those friendships that are most important to us, though there are a few friends who we haven’t spent nearly enough time with this year.

But, as the year comes to a close, I am most thankful for the growth we’ve seen in our relationship. Even though we’ve grown up together over the years, even the best relationships need some TLC every now and then. Thanks to improved communication, our marriage is stronger than ever. Over the past five months, Bo and I have had the opportunity to focus on our relationship during weekly couples therapy sessions. We didn’t start seeing a therapist because our marriage was in crisis or going through a rough patch. Instead, we knew that as we both worked through the change we faced this year, we weren’t communicating very well.  Though I haven’t discussed it on the blog previously, I wish we had started these sessions years ago. I have learned so much about myself, our relationship and marriage during these hour long sessions. Instead of dreading the sessions, we look forward to our weekly 15 minute walk, pre-therapy coffee date and then therapy session before work.

As we look forward to welcoming a daughter into our life in less than six months, this focus on GROWTH could not have come at a better time.

What do you think about when you reflect on your 2016? 

 

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