birthday

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Thing #32 – I Turned 40

Remember when your parents turned 40? Didn’t that seem old? I remember being in middle school when my dad had a surprise party for his fortieth. I recall black decorations featuring the grim reaper and “over the hill” balloons.

Forty was adult. Forty-year-olds had their shit together. They had tax accountants and garages full of power tools. Also, my dad had a middle-school-aged daughter when he turned forty. I have a Meyer Lemon tree that might be dying and a dog that barfed unidentifiable blue pieces of plastic this morning. 

Regardless of whether you’re responsible for a fruit tree or a human, turning forty is an achievement. A good portion of my 30s was spent dreading the fact I was aging. And now I’m just thrilled to be here. To be healthy and strong. To have a smile lines. To turn a year older.

You only turn forty once and I wanted to be flashy, flossy and over the top. This is not my style. I’m more of a “save your pennies” kind of girl. … Read the rest

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Thing #30 – Decade in Review

Around New Year’s Eve, I perform a “Year in Review” with myself. It involves me going on a wine or coffee date with my journal and evaluating various buckets of my life. Work, love, travel, creativity, health, home, learning, etc…I reflect on highs, lows, surprises and lessons in each bucket. 

While it’s nice to recap the past 12 months, it’s also an illuminating way to reveal what I want to do more or less of in the new year. Through this process, I get clarity on the person I want to be in the year ahead and how to prioritize my time. It’s not so much about setting resolutions as it is creating a pie chart for how I want to spend my time.

As I closed out my 20s and peered into my 30s, I constructed a vision for how I wished to move through my new decade. Fresh from my trip to Europe and eager to conquer the next phase in my adulthood, I created a platform. I reviewed my 20s, sifted away … Read the rest

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My 39 Things

My bucket list includes writing a book. Not sure what the book will be about, or if it will end up in a format for anyone to actually read. But the only way to arrive there is by writing consistently. It requires the same discipline as getting totally sick triceps…which is also on my list. To keep me interested in and accountable to writing, I’m committing to a new idea. Follow me, real quick…

I started my blog almost exactly three years ago. And as I’ve twisted and turned, so has the regularity and focus of my writing. The initial spark that ignited this venture remains buried in my writing, and captured in my tagline: “Make the journey delicious.” It’s about making sure your eyes aren’t only set on your destination, but open to the oddities and surprises that find you on your way toward it. This has meant writing things about bakeries, but also the people, history and travels that surround my bakery visits.

During a recent spa-night splurge, I was reflecting on my … Read the rest

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Hermann – Ein wunderschönes Wochenende

I’m forever grateful for my German language education. Not only has it helped me successfully navigate visits to Germany, (including a pre-dawn conversation with a cab driver about where in Berlin my new Swedish friend and I could buy astronaut outfits), but it taught me the underrated art of verb conjugation. Learning languages has become a favorite pastime of mine, mostly because conjugating verbs brings me a level of satisfaction on par with a really big sneeze. You have a formula, some rules to follow and get a correct answer. It’s word math. But a useful math that gets you on the right train and makes you look cool buying eclairs.

Germany has a special place in my heart. Partially because of the years I spent learning the language, but also because it is a country dense with culture, gorgeous landscape and incomparable sausages. When I learned about Hermann, Missouri, I knew it had to be on the top of my to-visit list, and was a no-brainer for my birthday weekend getaway.

Hermann is … Read the rest