on the bright side

Kayla is hosting another challenge with daily outfit creation prompts; I thought about trying to participate in the first week of it while we were on vacation - or at least do a post about outfits from my mix-and-match suitcase wardrobe I was quite pleased with myself for cleverly packing - but it turned out vacationing on a sunny Caribbean island provides very little occasion for wearing actual clothes: it was straight from workout clothes to bathing suit most days; just needed an outfit for a couple hours over the dinner hour.

But now that I'm reluctantly back to reality (which also involves getting dressed), I can join in, and today's prompt is perfect timing: bright colors. An excuse to keep my sunny and colorful Caribbean mindset and avoid the usual drab colors of winter for another day, and an opportunity to wear one of the tops I had packed for the trip but hardly wore. In Punta Cana I was able to wear this blouse in its sleeveless state and with white jeans; it became a little more January (albeit a very warm January day, wooo!) in Cincinnati appropriate paired with black jeans and a cardigan:

jeans: Loft; blouse: Target (super clearance at the end of last summer); 
cardigan: JCrew Outlet; flats: Steve Madden via DSW

Punta Cana

We're back from our week in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic... I'm not sure what we were thinking with doing only 5 nights on our trip to Mexico last year; this time we definitely went for the 7 nights at an all-inclusive resort and were treated to a week of fabulous sunshine with perfect daytime temperatures right around 80, super relaxing days, very friendly staff, great food, lots of time for reading - oh, and a whole week together! We like that.

 
Peter decided at some point during the trip that I should learn Spanish, as it would be handy in travels like this. I said I'd certainly do it if he promised a yearly trip. I think we've come to an agreement.

Our new favorite Spanish word in the meantime: excellente. We learned early on that there's no "muy bien" around there. There were a few small complaints here and there (the workout room could have been better; the beach was much to windy for actually sitting on - but we had the same in Mexico last year), but it pretty much was just plain excellente.

Read on for more photos...

five things friday: warming trend edition

I'm not at all a fan of winter, but I really can't do any complaining about it this year. In fact, I've been doing some gratitude on the subject lately, since basically the weather around here has skipped more than a month of it - which means I've hardly dealt with any winter, and we're already in mid-January! Other good things: I've dealt with snow only once (missed the second Cincinnati bout of it while I was away for work last weekend), we had almost a week straight of 50 degrees and sunny in January, I keep thinking I'm having my last outdoor run for a while - but then it keeps being great outdoor running weather.

But still. I am cold kind of all the time. Mild winter weather is great (while it lasted - seems to be over at the moment, for a few days anyway), but it doesn't make a difference for the interior temperature of my house! This week I have 5 excellent ways that things are heating up around here though:

1. Warm weather vacation: We're headed to an all-inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic and I cannot wait to be muy caliente (I'm sure that's incorrect usage, but my Spanish is quite rudimentary...). And spend a whole week with Peter. And read a bunch of books.

2. An updated sweater collection: A combination of clearance sales and coupons got me 4 tops for $13 the other day, including two sweaters to keep me cozy until beach time.

3. Chili: One one of the actual cold days around here recently, I made a huge pot of chili, which gives us good hot meals for days. I used to make only 3-ingredient no alarm chili, but I've expanded my horizons (and length of ingredient list!) to a recipe with a lot more spice and zing, another good way to warm up...

4. New appliances: Speaking of cooking, we've got a few new appliances to get the job done. Our old microwave was in nearly impossible to use condition (a result of its cheap off-brandness), so Peter's parents gifted us with a new one for Christmas. We decided to replace our stove at the same time to match, and as of this week they've both been delivered and installed. Fancy! And I used them both, for cooking my chili and reheating it for dinner the next, um, 3 nights.

5. Australian Open: Watching the Australian Open is always a great method for vicarious warmth, with all the players sweating it out in 90 degree weather... But tennis is also my favorite thing to watch at the gym, so I've been staying warmer for longer by working out a lot this week - and there's nothing like watching tennis players still giving it all 4 hours into a match to get me motivated to keep moving on my treadmill.

PD James + Pemberley

Last weekend, I had to travel to a meeting for work, and on the plane, I read P.D. James' Death Comes to Pemberley - as the author's name and the title indicate, it's a mystery novel starring the characters of Pride & Prejudice, set at Mr. Darcy's Pemberley estate 5-6 years after his marriage to Lizzie Bennet. As someone who loves a good British mystery and Jane Austen, I thought it would be a fun read (which my mom of course knew, and she gave me the book for Christmas). And despite the fact that the book didn't do either of these genres particularly well, I did think it was fun to read. Then again, I'm a sucker for all things Pride & Prejudice.

I was a bit disappointed with the characters of Lizzie and Mr. Darcy - just didn't quite live up to my love of them - and much of the dialogue felt stilted and awkward. Overall though, I was quite happy to read another story with all these characters, and some of them were just perfect. Letters arrive from both Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Mr. Collins at one point in the book, and the characterizations were so perfect they cracked me up. Same for the appearances Mr. and Mrs. Bennet make; their lines could almost be straight out of P&P. Also, if you watch for it, a few characters from other Austen novels make cameo appearances - perhaps a little cheesy, but also kind of enjoyable tidbits if you're a Jane Austen nerd.

There were definitely a few real Jane Austen-worthy pithy lines and descriptions that I thought displayed P.D. James' love of and tribute to her: speaking of Charlotte's approach to her husband, the ever-annoying Mr. Collins, the narrator says she "consistently congratulated him on qualities he did not possess in the hope that, flattered by her praise and approval, he would acquire them." Or regarding the Bennet sisters: "A family of five unmarried daughters is sure of attracting the sympathetic concern of their neighbours, particularly where other diversions are few." And I just enjoyed this line, as Elizabeth reflects on Mr. Darcy's first (and very insulting) marriage proposal and how it eventually all worked out: "If this were fiction, could even the most brilliant novelist contrive to make credible so short a period in which pride had been subdued and prejudice overcome?"

The Happiness Project

[I don't usually write such long book reviews, but this one got me thinking a lot! It was a great book club discussion book too since it seemed to inspire personal action and application from all of us, in one way or another.]

The Happiness Project is one of those one-year experiment books; in this one, the author, Gretchen Rubin, starts with a moment in which she wonders if she's really happy, or if she's just letting life pass by - and it spurs her year-long project of research and resolutions to build happiness. She keeps a resolution chart to stay on track and have a constant reminder of her goals, and she chooses a different category to work on each month, such as marriage, parenthood, money, leisure, work, attitude, and pursuing a passion.

Some of the tasks she works on each month are fairly simple and practical - "go to sleep earlier" in the vitality month, "remember birthdays" in the friendship month, "keep a gratitude journal" in the eternity month - and others are more lofty goals or real attempts at behavioral change - "quit nagging" in the marriage month, "don't gossip" in the friendship month, "stimulate the mind in new ways" in the mindfulness month. The resolutions are partly dos (doing things that she enjoys, broadening her horizons) and partly don'ts (stopping doing things that make her feel bad like nagging or criticizing), leading to her main definition/truth of happiness: "To be happier, you have to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth."

And for her, it works. There are pitfalls along the way, but overall, through the tasks and the resolutions, she feels happier (of course, she doesn't have any scientific measure of this, but as Rubin says, it doesn't really matter: in part, you're happy if you think you're happy).

five things friday: resolve edition

The first week of the new year is all about fresh starts and resolutions... And coincidentally I've been reading The Happiness Project for one of my book clubs this week - full review to come, but it's a great book to be reading at the start of a fresh year, prompting me to think about happiness and the things that really matter. As the author says: "The days are long, but the years are short" (and we've started another already!).

So for the first Friday of 2012, five resolve-related items:

 1. In a month with many Christmas parties, along with a week of family get togethers, I ate many very delicious things - and then came home and resolved to fill myself with many fruits and vegetables. I feel like grocery store cashiers probably notice a big uptick in produce going by their scanners in the first week of January.

2. On Wednesday I went to Target, where it seemed they were cleaning out for the new year - I think at least three quarters of the shoe section was on clearance... These ones, all cute and all under $10 (!), rode around in my cart for a while before I exercised some serious willpower and put (almost) all of them back.

3. I decided if I'm going to be a real runner, I should make sure I'm being a safe runner, so I ordered this ID bracelet to wear while I'm out, starting today. Next up I should probably work on my water intake and stretching...

4. This week I decided to adopt a daily habit inspired in combination by my mom and Gretchen Rubin (author of The Happiness Project), one of whose ideas includes: act like you have energy, and you'll feel like you have energy. So at 5pm when I'm feeling tired, hungry, and cold, I've started blasting a version of my mom's dance off playlist and dancing around the house while I do a chore like emptying the dishwasher or sorting through the mail - and by the end I'm feeling a little more peppy, warmer, and distracted from the fact that it'll be a while before Peter's home for dinner.

5. And as for a different kind of "resolution": I've got the dvr all lined up for the start of Downton Abbey season 2 on PBS this weekend. I've been waiting months to find out how these story lines will turn out (and may be re-watching season 1 on Netflix in excitement/preparation...).

camp Christmas

My family had so many organized family events and did so many activities together over Christmas that we started joking that we were having "camp Christmas" - there were game times (bunco party, Family Feud on the iPad, bowling) and exercise times (cardio tennis, walks with Ginger, dance offs), lots of meals together, and even swim time (hot tub!). Sometimes there was free time when the activities coordinator (mom) declared it. We were busy, but it was fun to do things with the whole family - calling it "camp Christmas" kept us amused, anyway - except the day I started to come down with a cold and decided I was in the infirmary for a while as I needed a little break...

One of our activities was hunting for geocaches around town. We probably looked funny as a group of 7 puffy-jacketed people poking around parks and store exteriors, but we (or probably I should really say "they"...) located everything we set out to find. I was the iPhone photographer and liked the part where we stopped for lunch at the Good Earth best. Ha.

found one! | examining the contents

filling out the log in another find | bundled-up chicks

a micro-size cache - good eye, Joe! | the photographer reaches her limit and starts messing around

this one thwarted the crew last time | but Clayre found it

2011 in review

2010 was a year of big firsts and transitions, and so 2011 was much more of a settling in year (which is nice too!):

• Peter began his 2nd year of residency.
• I started my second year of working from home and just reached 5 years of being at this job.
• We celebrated our 5th year of marriage. 
• We reached one year of being a family with a dog.
• We started our second year of living in Cincinnati and explored lots of new restaurants, museums, theaters, and landmarks.

Best trip:

--We (and I) did some great travel this year, but our 5th anniversary trip to Mexico wins - getting away to a warm place in the winter is an excellent idea, and getting to relax together with no computers and no responsibilities is quite a treat.

Best books:

--Fiction: The History of Love. Or maybe Let the Great World Spin. Or Okay for Now (young adult). This is impossible to choose - I'm not sure why I even try to make myself do so!

--Non-fiction: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks probably sparked the most discussion of any book I read in 2011.

--Classic: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn or East of Eden.

Best movie:

--This was the year of BBC miniseries on Netflix instant. My absolute favorite was Downton Abbey (I watched all 7 episodes over the course of about 2 days); I also enjoyed the Sherlock miniseries.

--It's pretty rare for us to actually get around to watching movies at home (limited free time + always a lot of dvr shows to catch up on), much less go to the theater, but we were really glad we made time for True Grit and The King's Speech.

Big achievements:

--Peter took the last round of medical licensing exams (and passed with flying colors).

--I ran a half marathon and still can't believe I started the year with a resolution to run a 5k race and ended up there!

--We bought our first car - that feels like a quite grown-up thing to do, and I am loving those heated seats.

--I sewed my first wearable item. Hope to continue to work on this in 2012...

Big events/happenings:

--Losing my great grandma was a big and difficult change for my family; we miss her but remembered special things about her at the holidays (snowflake ornaments and peanut butter balls).

--We hosted Thanksgiving for the first time and had lots of other great family visits.

insta-Christmas #2

I've returned from my week-long visit home for the holidays... it was quite a whirlwind: Christmas eve with my mom's extended family; Christmas morning stockings and church; Christmas dinner at Grandma Vange and Puppa's; brunch with Meenum and Grandma Judy; present exchange, dinner, and games with the Hoekman side; sibling present exchange & family dinner when Clayre and Joe arrived; bunco night with cousins, grandparents, aunts & uncles. Plus dinner/coffee visits with two college friends and two high school friends, and lots more family games/activities and hanging out. A great trip home to see lots of great people and have lots of great celebrations!

Christmas morning stockings | a totally Dirk-appropriate gift

remnants of our Christmas cinnamon bread breakfast tradition | stocking loot 

mimosas (the extent of my bar-tending skills) | Meenum heads up the brunch table 

 present-opening spectators | the pirate patches and foam swords were a hit

Grandma Vange's holiday table | a felted wool ball demonstration

family bunco party | prize table

girl cousins lined up | part of Dirk's gift to me