Somehow It's November

The husband and I have been taking lots of weekend walks lately. I'm a fan of this new habit. (We used to take walks from time to time, but I'd say it's becoming more routine.) Now that I am inside an office all day, instead of going from class to home to whatever else throughout the day, I really feel an urge to get outside on the weekends. We've been experiencing some gorgeous weather, which really helps with that. This weekend was the first it really started to get chilly. This area finally got the memo that it's fall! 

This was dinner tonight - a kale and soba noodle bowl adapted from the Spinach Soba Bowl over at Naturally Ella. Topped with sesame seeds, sriracha, and cilantro. I added some avocado for the lunch portion! Really looking forward to that tomorrow. 

Here are my planned meals for the rest of the week - 

Tuesday: Pumpkin and Black Bean Chili (Healthy Hungry Girl)

Wednesday: Nutty Noodles (Kath Eats Real Food)

Thursday: Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tacos (How Sweet Eats)

Friday: Steak and Kale and Goat Cheese Mashed Sweet Potatoes 

(Current themes: pumpkin, squash, sweet potatoes, kale, black beans, and soba noodle salads. I guess that's what's appealing lately - according to the season for some but not others. I started using soba noodles just recently and they're so quick and easy!) 

And, again

So, I was back. Then I was gone again. The bar exam happened, then a crazy move, and some "settling in" time post-move. Then, just other things going on, if I am being honest. But family members keep nagging and I keep thinking I do want to blog again - mostly about food! I am in a routine now - and I have no complaints. Work weeks on my own, predictable dayjob type hours, good work and coworkers. The weekends are for spending with the husband - one of us will drive the 90 miles to where the other spends most of the time. There is something about that schedule that makes the weekends extra special, even if it is a bit sad when we have to part ways for the work week.

The fitness routine I was going for in the summer never truly materialized. I need structure to be my best self, and the flexibility of structuring my own days ended up with not as much exercise as I'd have liked. It turns out I studied enough though - I found out recently that I passed the bar! It was a huge relief, of course. I know I might take a second one as soon as next summer, but having passed one makes me feel like I can do it again if necessary for life circumstances.

Now that I am here, I am recommitting to fitting healthy habits into my full time work schedule. During the work week it's just me, so there really isn't much excuse not to do good healthy things. I've been having fun cooking and making new recipes while trying to streamline the whole shopping/cooking process so that it takes an amount of time that is enjoyable and not too tiring. I look for many of the same types of recipes as I used to, but with more of an emphasis toward simplicity (and speed). I also look for things made with "whole foods" or "real food" or whatever you want to call it, try to get my veggies in one way or another, and so on and so forth. When I am cooking just for myself I tend to cook more meatless meals and more seafood. I haven't taken a ton of photos, but here is one of a shrimp dish I made -

Spicy Shrimp Salads from Kath Eats Real Food

I made that a couple times - there's greens, fresh pineapple, shrimp, soba noodles, sriracha, and a nice tangy sauce with it all. This was the first thing I think I've ever made with soba noodles and now I've got some plans to make more recipes that use them! 

One of my new favorite recipes is Slow Cooker Refried Beans from 100 Days of Real Food. I never thought to make refried beans in the slow cooker before, and it turns out it's super easy. I have renewed appreciation for the slow cooker these days, as it's pretty awesome to come home to some hot and good-smelling food. 

As I write this, I've got this caramelized onion and apple soup from Skinnytaste simmering on the stove. I obviously haven't tasted it yet, but it sure does smell good! (It is a rare exception to my "quick" criterion, but so far it smells like it'll be worth the wait.) I am enjoying finding any and all opportunities this fall to cook with butternut squash, pumpkin, brussels sprouts, and so on and so forth. 

So there's my update. It's short on details, but at the moment I feel like using my blog to share all the food I am eating as a way to avoid overloading my Instagram with food photos. :-) Maybe my next post will be sooner than in 3 months! We shall see! 

Still Here

It's officially bar exam crunch time over here, so there's that. But in the meantime, I've been intending to share some of the deliciousness that's been going on in my kitchen. Conveniently, cooking is a "happy place" for me so time spent making food is a nice break and usually isn't too much of a chore. That being said, I have found myself gravitating toward simpler food lately, and I've been putting some of my frozen food from June and early July to good use. Current Kate thanks Past Kate for that forethought, knowing I wouldn't have as much bandwidth for meal planning and cooking right about now.

So that being said - here's a sample of what I've been eating!

First off, I've been taking advantage of farmer's market tomatoes. Yum yum yum. I love a really good caprese salad with good quality ingredients. I made one with avocado and it was really delicious -

I'm loving the basil coming from my back porch container garden as well! It works out well for me that my favorite herb is also one of the easiest to grow.

Some of my tomatoes have come from the store, like those below. I made these salmon tacos with a simple fresh salsa one night. 

And to keep the caprese theme going, I made a caprese frittata! (Inspired by Cookin' Canuck) More fresh mozzarella, more tomatoes, more basil!

On a Trader Joe's trip (which doesn't happen often) before Husband got back, I couldn't resist picking up some frozen scallops. I love scallops but have not made them at home much. Happily that changed when I seared some scallops and put them over pasta. I used Alton Brown's method for searing, and they turned out fantastic. YUM. 

Next, you see food that was actually frozen for about a month! I previously made shrimp, avocado, and mango spring rolls by Annie's Eats. I liked them at the time, but I found the wrappers I got to be a bit chewy and that took away from the overall effect. When I more recently ate the ones I froze for later, I had the brilliant idea to saute them briefly, more like a pot sticker. It turned out really well! 

You can see above that I was really loading up on seafood. That was largely because Husband was still away, and he eats most food happily, but seafood is not his favorite. So I got my fill until the happy occasion of his return! We promptly made a homemade pizza, something that we love and a tradition taken from his family's Friday night pizza dinners. 

Keeping it tasty, easy, and healthy, I tried out this recipe by Kath Eats for bacon bean cheeseburgers. I know Husband was skeptical about a burger made up mostly of beans, but we both really enjoyed it! He had his as a sandwich and I had mine on a salad as you see below.

Also, I have to sing my praises for a pair of recipes we had just last night. I'd made this BLT chopped salad before, and last night I paired it with this basil yogurt dressing just posted on Annie's Eats yesterday. My good friend S came over for dinner (she's studying for the bar too) and she, Husband and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Much like the rest of the food above (most of it at least), the theme is that I am trying to focus on healthy food with lots of produce, that is also delicious. When I make things that give me pleasure, it's much easier to eat healthy, and that's why I put in so much effort. Believe me, I've bookmarked a few of these recipes to keep handy. I actually think I want to have the BLT chopped salad again next week! 

So there's your summary of my latest culinary adventures. Trust me, it's a LOT more interesting than studying for the bar exam. Which, sadly, is what I need to get to right about now... 

Checking In

Still alive over here, just keeping on with the bar studying grind. That, and taking a bit of a break to hang out with some friends and catch our local fireworks on America's birthday (aka the 4th of July. Though as a history nerd, it bears saying that it took a little more trial and error after that - Articles of Confederation anyone? But I digress...) 

Above is my blurry collage of iPhone photos. That's about the extent to which I documented the celebration. I was glad to be social and get my requisite yearly fireworks in! 

I still haven't uploaded my other vacation photos to my computer yet - sounds like a good idea for a study break this week, to relive that lovely week, now that it's already been two weeks since I got back (eep!). 

As for the bar, I just keep on trucking. I feel like I expected to maybe be more stressed than I actually am, but then again I am not questioning that too much. If I am not stressed, I feel like I should ride that wave (as long as I am doing at least some studying work - which I am). 

So that's life right now. Things are about to get a little crazy though - hubster comes back from his 10-week work trip soon (yay!), I'll be getting closer and closer to taking the bar, and then after that we are moving for the first time in three years! Maybe this is the calm before the storm... only time will tell!

Vacation: Things I Ate and Drank (as documented by iPhone photos)

I am back from vacation, and I have plenty of photographs to share! The things I was doing and seeing while away were, not shockingly, more interesting and shareable than my daily bar studying life. I am dividing my recap up, in part because I have enough food/drink photos to make one post, and because I could get all of these photos from my phone. The real camera photos are going to have to wait for another day because I haven't put those on my computer yet. 

By way of background and geography, this vacation was to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, located in Ashland, Oregon. I haven't been as much recently, but I used to go every year when I was a teenager. I flew into Portland, where I met up with my parents, who had also flown in from their home on the east coast, then we spent a full day in Portland seeing some sights before heading south to Ashland on Monday. We stayed in Ashland until Friday, seeing great plays, enjoying time with family and friends, and of course, eating and drinking. I couldn't resist snapping some quick photos of what we enjoyed, and this is only a sampling to boot! Places not covered by the photos include Olympic Provisions in Portland, Cucina Biazzi in Ashland, and others I am not remembering at the moment. 

Without further ado - the photographic evidence. Get it? Evidence? Studying for the bar? I digress... 

Investigating Portland in advance, I had the great (in my opinion) idea that my parents and I should go to this Beer and Cheese Fest event happening the day we were touring the city. It doubled as my Father's Day gift, since it was conveniently Father's Day that day as well, and I got to spend the day with my dad for the first time in a while! There were 11 beer and cheese pairings, and because of my commitment to the experience and my beer and cheese prowess, I made it through all 11 pairings. It helped that we hung out there for about three hours though. 

For lunch on the way down from Portland to Ashland, we stopped at Marche in Eugene, Oregon. It was hopping and clearly popular, but we managed to get some seats. My main meal was these delicious cornmeal covered fried oysters. So good! I definitely found myself tending toward seafood throughout the entire week. 

This and the next few photos are from the phenomenal breakfast served at the Winchester Inn in Ashland. My grandparents have stayed there most of the years I've been to OSF with them, and though I stayed elsewhere with my parents this year, I was lucky enough to be able to join the Winchester crew for breakfast 3 out of my 4 mornings there. There are always three choices of the main breakfast entree, usually two are eggs and the third might be something more grain based, like pancakes or waffles. Often the egg dishes just end up sounding more appealing to me, as good as everything always sounds. Plus, breakfast potatoes. The prospect of breakfast potatoes has definitely shifted me toward egg dishes throughout my experiences of eating breakfast out. Anyway, what you see above is a poached egg dish over a goat cheese souffle, topped with a black pepper cream sauce. And breakfast potatoes!

Before you get your main breakfast entree, you even get a pastry plate with a different pastry each day and some fruit. On the day pictured above, there was a delicious scone with maple walnut butter.

This dish, which I ate my last morning in Ashland, was quite impressive. It is a poached egg dish - but the poached eggs are somehow coated in panko breadcrumbs and fried. There was some prosciutto under the eggs too. I say it was impressive because despite the fried aspect, the yolks inside were as luscious and runny as ever, like I look for in poached eggs. Anyway, it was delicious and I was curious how they did it! 

 

Pictured above is my dessert (shared with parents along with a few others) at Amuse. It was a delicious chocolate truffle cake with coffee ice cream, plated beautifully!

Thursday night we enjoyed some sushi and related fare at Kobe. To start I ordered this cocktail - called the St. Germain's Garden. It had St. Germain liqueur, some grapefruit juice, vodka, and muddled basil. Yes, my love for basil certainly extends to cocktails!

 And here is some of the delicious sushi! I had tastes of the rolls on the far plate (and plenty of other things), and ate most of the rolls on the near plate - and those duck spring rolls off to the side. Rarely am I so full after sushi - it was so good!

Right before we went to the airport to head home on Saturday morning, my parents and I visited Stumptown Coffee, which I understand is a Portland institution. My dad and I both got some slightly fancier coffee to start, but then to go I got a small cup of their regular brew as well. I have to say, I may have enjoyed it even more than the French press I got, which is a really good sign. I'm glad I got to try it out! 

And finally, to pat myself on the back a little bit, this photo from the trip home. We got to the airport in the middle of the day and grabbed some sandwiches right before my parents' flight left, and I ate my sandwich in the extra hour before my own flight left. I knew that I would be on the same plane for entire afternoon and into the evening, stopping in another city, but staying on that same plane. To minimize the risk that I'd get too hungry (yup, I have my priorities) I wanted to grab some things that could travel well and serve as dinner if necessary. After searching through a bunch of various snacks and all that, I came across those dried mango snacks to the right - happily with nothing added. The only thing in the ingredient list was mango! I also came across some prepared wraps and sandwiches, and while I am sometimes wary of those sorts of things I was intrigued by the quinoa spinach wrap pictured above. It sounded pretty good and healthy, so I grabbed it as well. I am happy to say it was good AND healthy, and I was proud of myself for choosing something on the lighter side. As the rest of this post illustrates, I didn't exactly hold back on vacation (I rarely do), though I did often eat a light lunch due to our meal/play schedules. It was thoroughly enjoyable, but now that I'm back home I am re-focusing on delicious healthy foods in moderation, and the food I found in the airport felt like a good step.

So there it is, the photographic account of my vacation in food and drink! Hopefully sometime this week I'll get around to posting some of the beautiful scenery and other sights I encountered while I was away. :-)

Vacation :-)

I am leaving for a vacation today! I am certainly excited. I am headed to a place I am very fond of, but haven't been to for 5 years. And I will be spending time with my parents, grandparents, and friends of my grandparents (some of whom have become friends of my own). I will write more about it upon my return. For now, a quick post with some photo updates! Let's be real, part of what I like about blogging is gratuitously sharing what I have been eating and cooking lately.

I hard boiled some eggs since I had so many on hand, and they came out great, even verging on soft boiled, which is fine by me!

Two of those eggs went into this "use stuff up" salad - it had kale, feta, the eggs, jarred roasted red peppers, some banana peppers, and a quick balsamic vinaigrette. I am not always a huge salad person, but I really enjoyed this and felt good about it eating it too. 

This was a yummy breakfast smoothie with lots of good fats and protein - a container of coconut Siggi's yogurt, almond milk, chia, wheat germ, chocolate protein powder, sunflower butter, and some frozen banana. Accented by bar review books in the background! 

This was a yummy "use stuff up" frittata. It's got two eggs, the equivalent of two egg whites (I use a product called "simply whites" that is basically egg whites in a carton), some grape tomatoes, shallots, garlic, parmesan, and feta. Topped with basil clipped from the pots on my back porch, which I love!

I also made these oatmeal blueberry flax muffins from a recipe at Pinch of Yum. I did modify it a bit - I used a combo of white whole wheat and regular whole wheat flour, I doubled the recipe, and I skipped making the glaze. These were really good and I am glad I still have 8 of them in the freezer!

Alright, I'd better work on the stuff that needs to happen before I leave for the airport. Until next time!

Another Week Gone

Already June 9? That is pretty crazy! Things are just fine around here. I had some really good social time the past few days, but the flip side of that was that I was not getting bar studying done at the pace I wanted to. On the one hand, it is not worth stressing about past the point where it will make me more productive, but on the other hand, I needed to use it to be more productive, especially since I am going on vacation for a week (next week!) and I don't plan to study much while I'm there. Luckily today was a good day for productivity. After NOT getting everything on my "to do" list done yesterday (the list provided by the bar prep company in the online course), I went ahead of the list today and made a plan as to how I can get a solid week of work in this week before I leave. I won't be that far ahead, but I won't be behind so much that I feel panic-stricken upon my return (I hope). Just tonight my big accomplishment was getting all of the various outlines onto my Kindle and downloading some lectures to my iPhone - I still really don't want to fit studying in while I'm in a lovely place with family and friends, but now I can use airport and airplane time to squeeze in some more work.

Other stuff happening - well for one, like I said, social time! One of my very very best friends from law school (who is also in a relationship with a military guy) got engaged on Thursday! It was so thrilling when she sent a photo of the ring. :-) Luckily we've had the chance to hang out in the past few days, and I just feel blessed to be able to experience such an exciting time with her after knowing that she and her fiance were ready to tell the world their plans to be together for the long haul! I also saw two other friends yesterday for a fun movie event (watching Gosford Park and drinking tea), and tomorrow I have a lunch and facials date with two friends for one of their birthdays! I have definitely been able to get myself out of the house a good amount, which is good for my sanity, less good for productivity. It is all about balance. Also, I am becoming increasingly aware of how close our move is, which makes me feel sadder and sadder about leaving all these lovely friends I've found. It is all very bittersweet, but I guess I would say I am really trying to savor the time I spend with them this summer.

Now a few phone photos from the past week or so -

Don't you just love when a recipe comes together easily and quickly, is delicious, and as a bonus might even be pretty good for you?  That was this pork dish for me. It's Pork Chops au Poivre from Eatingwell. I replaced light sour cream with Greek yogurt, and used some of my farmer's market shallots, which worked out well. A lot of the delicious flavor comes from the brandy in the sauce, which we just happened to have on hand, maybe from Thanksgiving gravies of the past few years. As you can see I paired this with some sauteed kale (with plenty of garlic).

Just a little experiment - confirming that yes indeed, oftentimes farmer's market eggs have differently colored yolks than grocery store eggs. I am not going to identify which is which, because if I have to do it for you, maybe they weren't as different as I thought. This is another iteration of my cheesy zucchini scrambled eggs, which I have eaten for breakfast about four times at this point.

I was fascinated by this SkinnyTaste recipe for vegan eggplant meatballs, so I made them just tonight (and promptly un-veganized them, because I heart cheese). They were pretty easy and I enjoyed the flavor. Much like many recipes to this effect, you wouldn't have fooled me into thinking they were meat of course, but if you accept that it was a tasty dish, and another one that I could feel good about eating.

Also after I went to a yoga class down south on Saturday, I couldn't resist stopping at Trader Joe's. I may have overdone it a bit on the frozen seafood, but hey, it lives in the freezer so using it up is not so super urgent! I also picked up some of their well-reviewed olive oil since I was running low, and decided to try some sunflower butter, which is fascinating stuff. So far I am a fan!

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend and a happy Monday!

Farmer's Market Fun

Getting food from a farmer's market always sounds like a good idea, at least in theory. Now that I have the time and mental space, I am actually turning that sentiment into action for the first time in a while. We have a nice little farmer's market here in our town, and I headed over this past Thursday. I got some zucchini, shallots, and eggs. 

And here are a couple things I've made -

Above, a yummy and healthy breakfast made with eggs, shallots, zucchini, and shredded cheddar in a scramble and some toast with coconut oil.

A roasted zucchini and ricotta sandwich. The recipe is from Annie's Eats and was posted recently, so I had this in mind when I headed to the market! I've eaten this sandwich twice so far and have supplies ready to have it twice more. :-) 

I definitely get a lot of pleasure out of knowing all this food was produced so close by, and that it's good for me. It is unrealistic for me (for a variety of reasons) to go 100% local, unprocessed, organic, vegetarian, or whatever else, but I figure doing some amount of all of those is good for me and hopefully the environment etc. too. 

And as a final word, just a note that I somewhat regret that my photos (all taken on my phone) will never be that amazing. Oftentimes, if a recipe is linked, like the sandwich above, you can see the food more artfully photographed at the original source. There are plenty of blogs out there with awesome photography, and this will not be one of them, at least until I find I want to invest resources in a better camera and some better skills! Never say never, but that time is not now.  

Summertime Freezer Cooking

So, I read a lot about freezer cooking online. There are a lot of ambitious people out there who do things like cook once for a whole month by using freezer cooking. But it can also be as simple as freezing some extra leftovers for later when you cook a regular meal, and everything in between. When I was thinking about how to set myself up for success in terms of healthy (and thrifty) eating during my bar-studying couple of months, I realized that freezer cooking might come in handy. From what I have heard, bar studying is pretty manageable for June (and late May) but can get a lot more stressful during July (the exam is at the very end of July). So I got the idea that I should find some recipes that freeze well, make them here and there throughout June, and thus have less cooking (and grocery shopping) to do in July. This is especially easy cooking for one - not only are there plenty of leftovers from cooking a single batch of a recipe, but if I double recipes I get even more.

So far I have cooked a couple of things that I've frozen for later. I made some shrimp spring rolls and froze about half of them in a freezer bag. Just this week I made Cincinnati Chili (recipe is linked). I doubled the recipe, which made 6 servings, ate one serving for dinner, refrigerated two, and froze nine servings! I put the nine servings in three separate freezer bags so I can spread them out over time. As you can see below, I froze the chili flat in the bags so they wouldn't take up much space. I don't have a chest freezer or anything like that, so I will have to be careful about how much space these meals take up. I will update from time to time on how freezing is going. Hoping that cooking all the time will be one less thing to worry about come July!

The chili I ate for dinner - on top of whole wheat spaghetti, with chopped onion and shredded cheddar cheese.

Chili in the freezer! Ready to be thawed and enjoyed later. 

If you happen to be reading this and have any (at least moderately) healthy recipes that freeze well, feel free to send them my way! 

Life These Days

Not a whole lot exciting happening over here - just working on keeping up with my study schedule and even trying to get a bit ahead (I am going on a week-long vacation in June and plan to not worry about studying at all). The blessing and the curse of my prep course is that it is basically self-directed - there is a recommended schedule but it will adjust if I don't stick to it. That being said, by the time one is studying for the bar exam, one should be able to take ownership of things like this, I suppose.

Some thoughts on my exercise routine:

Particularly since there is absolutely no reason not to, I have also been trying to be good about exercise. Right now the name of the game is free stuff to do at home or close to home. As is usually the case with me, my best chance of working out is if I do it first thing in the morning. There is a sense of satisfaction with that and throughout the day it gets easier for excuses to pop up. At first I was thinking I'd alternate between doing a video yoga routine some days and going on walk/jogs other days (yeah I am pretty out of shape). I am slowly discovering that YouTube has more to offer than just yoga - there are cardio workouts, interval and otherwise, and dance workouts as well! I did a cardio workout this morning. It did work up a sweat and felt good, but as I was doing it, it occurred to me that dance workouts might work better in terms of keeping up with things. I took dance classes for 15 years growing up. I love doing it, and it's FUN. Way more fun (for me) than doing jumping jacks and planks and lunges. I think right now the key is finding things that I will continue to do, instead of obsessing over the best thing to do. During habit forming time, something is better than nothing. Similarly, I am trying to stay positive and patting myself on the back when I actually get moving, instead of focusing on how out of shape I feel or how little I have been exercising the past couple of months. I will probably keep writing about exercise here so have an added incentive to keep up with it. :-)

Thinking about my next living situation: 

Right after graduation and before I really started studying, I got in touch with a promising property management company at the next place I will be living. I ended up going ahead with committing to an apartment because I couldn't really find a reason not to. I will be living separately from husband during the week, so I just needed a small place, super close to work. The apartment has nice finishes and (critically) an included washer and dryer, but the price is pretty reasonable (low cost of living area helps). Now that I know the floor plan it is fun to daydream about how to decorate! We will see how it all pans out, but I am thinking for sure I would like to get 1-2 area rugs, one for the living room and one for the bedroom. I have been perusing the interwebs lately trying to find rugs that won't break the bank!

Congratulations are in order!

Congratulations to Kristen, who reads the blog and nicely left a comment on my post from the other day. She just got engaged to a wonderful guy, and I am so thrilled for her! Beautiful story, beautiful ring, and more importantly, plans for a beautiful marriage! Since she has so long to plan, I told her to just enjoy all the thrills, the congratulations, and the glow of this newly engaged time. :-)

I'll wrap it up here for now and get to my afternoon study session I think. We'll see how this whole "exercise I truly enjoy" thing goes in the coming week or so!

*Tap Tap*

... is this thing on? Haha, super cliche, but it seems appropriate anyway.

I blogged exactly once last year, it turns out. AND it was more than a year ago, almost a year and a half. Friends and family (especially family) urged me to start up again. Husband would ask a lot when I was going to blog again, until he stopped, because I hadn't yet (why he needs to follow my blog to keep up with my life is beyond me). The blog was on my mind and sometimes I meant to start writing again, but that never happened and here we are.

Why now? Well, to be honest part of it is that now that I have officially entered the 9-10 weeks known as "studying for the bar" (congratulations, you graduated from law school, now you get to do this!), I have realized that I have a lot of flexible time on my hands and less social interaction than has been normal. Don't get me wrong, I am going to hopefully see a lot of my friends this summer, but at the same time, I live a decent drive away from most of them and I don't have the structure of seeing people at school every day. I set my own schedule, and all of my "work" for these two months will take place in my home office. Some days, including today, I don't drive anywhere and I barely interact with other humans in person. Hence, the desire to start up this outlet again.

Also, I am moving at the end of the summer, for the first time in three years. It will be a change in situation and I might want to chronicle aspects of it. Thinking it through though, I am thinking I am going to restrict the blog to the personal side of my life, and even by that I mean leisure, hobbies, trips, that sort of thing. I am lucky enough to be starting a wonderful job in August, but discussing it online wouldn't really be appropriate for a few reasons. Friends and family, just ask me how it's going if you want to know! And I try to keep truly personal things off of forums like public blogs for pretty obvious reasons as well. So what will be here? I still meal plan and try to eat well, so I'll probably share some of that. I am gardening again. Improving my exercise habits is a constant struggle so some of that might get thrown in too. And who knows, maybe I will share articles and links I find interesting too - sometimes I feel like I overdo it with links on a certain book of faces.

I am not going to try to catch up on everything I didn't record here. I am just going to start again, because the beauty of a personal blog is that I can do that. I will say though, that now I am here on the other side of law school (as opposed to when I started this blog, and it was on the horizon). It wasn't always exactly fun, but I would say that overall I thrived. I met some wonderful friends and had more than a few great opportunities. I will miss many aspects of the student lifestyle, but I am excited to have a "big girl job" for the first time in my life and see the investment start to pay off (obviously with a good chunk of it going to pay for the investment...).

So, we'll see what happens! Until next time. Maybe it will be sometime this year, who knows?