In Pursuit of Flexibility

This past week was CA-RAZY!  Between meetings, birthdays, group lessons, and a broken dryer, my normal household cleaning schedule was almost non-existent.  In the past, this would have driven me completely bonkers and I would have spent every day rushing to "catch up" on the previous day's chores.  Fortunately for me (and everyone else in my household), I decided about this time last year to choose grace over perfection.  Don't get me wrong, there is something very deep in me that loves perfection and wants to strive towards it.  It's a battle I frequently have to fight with myself. Occasionally, perfection wins.  More and more, however, it's grace that wins.

Eliot's First Ride on the Carousel!

While the desire for perfection has been in me for as long as I can remember, the true effects of striving towards it became very clear to me after we had been in our new home for about a year.  I would diligently clean all the floors by sweeping, vacuuming, and mopping them.  I would then sit back and just wait for someone to track something in from outside.  The anxiety that gripped me was crazy!  However, it was the anxiety that helped me see my idea of perfectionism was so out of wack: in my mind, if the floors were perfectly cleaned, then everyone would be happy because clean floors make everyone happy.  In reality, no one cared about the clean floors except for me and really it was just the idea of perfection that gave me the illusion of happiness.  What really made me happy was watching my children playing outside then welcoming them back inside with hugs and kisses.

Celebrating Fiona's Birthday at Mittie's Cafe on Main

So when our week turned topsy-turvy, I decided to embrace it along with all of the wonderful things the week brought.   I strongly believe that because I had firmly stuck to my cleaning schedule for several weeks, it really made the messes easier.  For instance, when our dryer broke towards the end of the week, we didn't run out of clean clothes!  I had stayed on top of our laundry schedule up until it broke, so pushing our next laundry day back until the dryer was fixed was no biggie.  Knowing that some weeks are going to be crazy and being flexible when those weeks come is so important to keeping a positive attitude and cheery spirit.  Sticking to your own chore schedule before and after those crazy weeks certainly helps as well.

SOOOO Excited for her Big-Girl Bike!

I would love to know- have you developed a chore schedule?  How to you handle crazy weeks?

ALWAYS make time for Gelato!

In Pursuit of Completion

I am generally pretty focused.  I tend to complete tasks set before me.  I also love to read and at any given time am reading at least 4 books.  Every January, one of my goals is to read more.  Beginning 2013, I started to record lists of books I read throughout the year.  I averaged about 12 books a year but was very disappointed when I looked back on last year's list and saw a mere 8.  I decided I needed to up my reading game and started another book immediately!  That was when I realized: I had actually started more than 8 books in 2015, but only actually finished 8...  I began to look around my house where I (and I'm sure everyone else) keep books (in my nightstand, the bookcase, my desk) and realized I had quite a few unfinished books.  They had not necessarily been abandoned because they were uninteresting but rather because I had started another book and the poor thing got left behind.  I gathered all of these books (there were 11, including the three I had started this year) and decided for 2016, before I ventured onto any more books, I would finish these.

I also thought it would be fun to go on Amazon and see when the books had been purchased.  Of course, not all of them were purchased on Amazon, but it was interesting to see just how long these books had been on my "To Finish Reading" list.  And I actually found not one... not two... but THREE additional books that I had forgotten I started... so, I added those to the list as well (and started to get a bit nervous that I may not finish them all... again.):

1. Joie De Vivre: Simple French Style of Everyday Living by Robert Arbor and Katherine Whiteside (purchased on Amazon, March 2006)

2. Her Mother's Hope by Francine Rivers

(received as a Christmas gift some time ago)

3. Women, Work, & the Art of Savoir Fair: Business Style & Sensibility by Mireille Guiliano

(this book was published in 2009, so I'm sure I picked it up somewhere soon thereafter)

4. Backyard Birding: Using Natural Gardening to Attract Birds by Julie Zickefoose 

and the editors and writers of Bird Watcher's Digest

(purchased at Scottsdale Farms, 2012)

5. Beautiful Ruins, a Novel by Jess Walter

(purchased on Amazon, December 2013)

6. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

(picked up at a second-hand store, 2014)

7. French Women Don't Get Facelifts: The Secret of Aging with Style & Grace by Mireille Guiliano

(purchased  on Amazon, July 2014)

8. The French Women Don't Get Fat Cookbook by Mireille Guiliano

(purchased on Amazon, September 2014)

9. One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

(borrowed from a friend Spring 2015 :-/)

10. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

(purchased from Goodwill, Summer 2015)

11. You Matter More Than You Think by Leslie Parrott

(purchased on Amazon, September 2015)

12. Madamoiselle: Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History by Rhonda K. Garelick

(received as a Christmas gift 2015)

13. Marrying Mozart, a Novel by Stephanie Cowell

(I cannot even remember when I purchased this one, but I started it a few weeks ago)

14. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo

(Purchased towards the end of 2015)

Whew.  I didn't really expect this list to grow as I was writing this post.  I just kept finding them... in a bathroom, on [yet another] shelf.  

I would love to know... am I the only person who starts books and doesn't always finish?  I am certain I am not... Please comment below and let me know what books are sitting in your "To Finish Reading" pile!

In Pursuit of the "Magical Breakfast"

One of the first (THE first, perhaps?) books I read on French lifestyle was French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating For Pleasure by Mireille Guiliano, former CEO of the luxurious Veuve Clicquot.  In this first of her six book, Ms. Guiliano introduces the simple secrets of the "French paradox" of how French women enjoy their food all the while staying slender and healthy.  

One of Ms. Guiliano's "secret weapons" in her arsenal of tricks and recipes is introduced in her fourth book, The French Women Don't Get Fat Cookbook .  The recipe is for her "Magical Breakfast Cream" and has come to be one of my breakfast staples as well as go-to snack.  There are many variations to this recipe- an entire page of tips and tricks to help you find your own favorite version is included with the original recipe!  The recipe below is the version that I make and have varied little from over the years:

Ingredients:

• About 1/2 Cup of plain, fat-free yogurt
• 1 teaspoon flaxseed oil
• Juice of half a lemon (I love Meyers but any yellow will do)
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 2 tablespoons raw rolled oats
• Half a dozen walnuts

Ok, so this definitely looks like more than 1/2 a cup of yogurt... which means I will make up for it by using more of the other ingredients.

Start by mixing the flaxseed oil into the yogurt.  Squeeze the juice from one lemon half and mix completely.  Add the honey and mix completely.  Ms. Guiliano states that "It is important to add each ingredient one at a time and mix well to obtain a homogeneous preparation."   

Next, prepare the oats and walnut mixture.  I add my 2-3 tablespoons of oats and half a dozen walnuts to my chopper and chop away.  I actually do this a few times and keep the mixture in a jar in my fridge.  This really helps save time!  Sprinkle a few tablespoons of the mixture over the top of your honey and enjoy!

So, why does Ms. Guiliano call this recipe "Magical?"  In addition to the benefits of detoxifying lemon juice and high-fiber flaxseed oil, it's a perfectly complete breakfast that will keep you from getting hungry until lunch.  Substitute this for a week after a more indulgent period of time (ahem, Christmas holidays, anyone?), along with omitting two other "offenders" (foods you tend to consume out of proportion) for the week and see if you don't say good-bye to pounds that accumulated during said time.  

All Photos ©Fiona Diaz, 2016