Right now, I’m at the halfway point of my Marine’s deployment. To celebrate making it thus far without having an emotional meltdown, I decided earlier in the week that today would be a day of pure indulgences. I think that I enjoy life a good deal, but an entire day devoted to only doing things I absolutely love (well, within reason… I still picked up Harley’s poop and obeyed traffic laws. Ok ok, most traffic laws.)? No work tasks, no errands, no cleaning, nothing that I do just because I feel like I have to? Yes please! Putting my plan into action, here is what my day looked like:
After sleeping in a bit, I had a date with my friend Jackie to go to the Little Italy Mercato, aka our new Saturday morning ritual whenever we can. It just so happened to have been gorgeous outside today, which made it even more enjoyable than usual. Instead of getting our food and scooting out of there, we actually sat down and listened to the live music for the first time ever. It was nice to just chill there for a bit, with a lavender lemonade ice pop to cool me off, a good friend to chat with, and plenty of people watching to do. Among my delicious purchases, I went a little nuts and bought not 1, not 2, but 3 different PB spreads from my favorite peanut butter-making man:
That’s right, dark chocolate, chocolate raspberry, and cinnamon flavored PB. To. die. for. You better believe that I ate some of the dark chocolate with banana on whole wheat toast this afternoon.
I also treated myself to some beautiful flowers – not that I need a reason to buy myself flowers, but I’m 50% done with this deployment damnit!! I obviously need these pretties to sit on my kitchen table and remind me of that:
When I got home from the farmer’s market, I took Harley for a long walk outside. Because a happy, well-exercised puppy makes my life better. Plus, that look she gives me when we’re outside that makes it seem like she’s smiling and saying, “Mom I’m having SO MUCH FUN!” cracks me up. And laughter is obviously necessary in my day of all things awesome.
Next, I had a massage scheduled. Since the last massage I had was in Thailand and entailed a tiny woman literally walking on my back, elbowing me as hard as she could, twisting me up like a pretzel, and crawling all over me in compromising positions (totally hilarious and painful experience btw), I had a feeling that today’s massage would be more relaxing. And I was right. After sipping on a mimosa, I got an hour-long sports massage. It felt amazing, and was especially nice for my achy hamstrings and calves. It was even better because I used a gift card that my father-in-law gave me last Christmas. Sweeeetness.
Post-massage, I felt nice and mellow and decided to lay on my couch and finally finish my book-club book that I started a few months ago (yes, I’m a little behind!), called On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. Typically, I’ll feel the need to be productive instead of sitting down and reading in the middle of the day, but today, I was all for it. It was nice to read for an hour, especially since I had the satisfaction of finishing the book and loving the ending.
Last weekend, I posted about being at the beach at sunset, and how I should go more often. Well once again this evening, Harley and I went to play at the dog beach. The sunset was so pretty tonight! This is the best my iPhone could capture it:
For tonight’s eats, I made breakfast for dinner. I got creative and made pancakes I’ve never made before. I didn’t even figure out the nutrition content for this, because although I pretty much always like to be conscious of exactly what I’m eating, tonight I didn’t feel like knowing the calories or fat. So just for today, I didn’t bother to find out! When creating these, I decided that a syrupy topping sounded good. This lead me to the discovery that I don’t hate maple syrup anymore (back to the idea of my mother being right about my taste buds changing). Good to know.
Oatmeal Cinnamon Raisin Pancakes
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup old fashioned oats
- 1/4 cup + 2 TBSPs almond flour
- 1/2 TSP cinnamon
- 1 TSP brown sugar
- 1/4 TSP vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- 1 mini box/14g of raisins
- Dash of nutmeg
- Dash of salt
For the topping:
- 2 TBSP chopped pecans
- 2 TBSP brown rice syrup
- 1 mini box/14 g of raisins
Easy breezy to make – just combine all the pancake ingredients in a bowl, then cook over medium heat. Meanwhile, warm up topping ingredients in a small saucepan. Top the cakes with the syrup mixture, and you’ve got yourself some awesome cinnamon raisin pancakes!
The rest of my Saturday is going to consist of me Skyping with my hubby and catching up on my DVR, because my day of awesomeness needs to include my man and Grey’s Anatomy. 😉
If you could devote an entire day to all fun and no stress, what would you do?
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