A brief interlude for Kathryn Rose

Hey! I'm still on hiatus; but, I didn't want you all to miss out on the wicked prize pack my good friend and soon-to-be published author, Kathryn Rose, is giving away on her blog: click here to see how you can enter for a chance to win the perfect prize for your reading soul.

She's promoting her book, Camelot Burning (Metal & Lace #1), which is due out next summer. I'm so proud of her and extremely excited! If you don't already follow Kat, no is the time to do it so you don't miss out on all of the things! Also, because she's pretty awesome.

Hope all is well!
~C

Juggling

Last week, work put on a "fun day" where we had lunch off-site and learned how to juggle - literally and metaphorically. The man who spoke with us talked about balance and how to better manage all of the different facets of our lives. Then he taught us how to juggle - well, some more than others (present company not included).

But much like I struggled with juggling those three balls, so too am I struggling with juggling life's current demands.

I've had draft blog ideas saved for weeks, including the return of pizza Friday and the fact that Soup Sunday turned into Salad Sunday now that the weather is nicer. I wanted to tell you all about the champagne cupcake bouquets I made for my friend's bridal shower (pictured over on my Baking Therapy page). I have un-replied to emails taunting me in my inbox. I have continued to fall behind in Project 365 (aka photo a day challenge). I'm falling behind on my work to-do list now that we're into the busy season. I have unread books, unwatched TV shows and movies, untried recipes, unfinished projects. And on top of all of that, I am both a bride-to-be and a bridesmaid this year.

Sometimes, balls drop and sometimes we have to choose to drop them because we can tell they soon will. That's where I'm at. I can feel myself getting exhausted and burnt out and I can't afford to be, so some things need to drop until I'm in a more balanced state.

When T and I set out wedding planning last fall, I stated that I didn't want it to take over our life, and up until a couple of weeks ago, that held true. But now, it's less than 2 months away and all of the fine details that couldn't be done until now, are slowly taking over my life.

Initially I resisted because it seems so ridiculous to have something that is one day take up so much of your time. But sometimes, one or two things need to be a higher priority than others, and right now, for me, that's work and wedding planning and continuing to nurture the relationships I have with those who will be a part of our special day - including my fiancé!

Living in denial of this reality was just making me more stressed out, and as ridiculous as it may seem to some people, over one day, in fairness, it's a pretty important day for me and one I waited nearly 11 years for. And more than that, it's a day that's celebrating all of the years that got us to that point and looking forward to all of the years after that point. So in my opinion, it's not just one day.

So, I'm choosing instead to embrace it and focus my non-work time on that for the next 2 months because it IS important to me and because I don't want to keep feeling guilty that other things keep dropping from my juggling hands. Those things are important, too, but they can wait until August.

And so can you.

So until then, I'll be around reading your blogs when I can, and I am sure I'll have tons of draft posts ready to be written when I return from my honeymoon.

Best of luck in your own juggling acts - I hope you're succeeding more than I!
~C

Musings

There's a business in the city where I work that, like many others, put its flags at half-mast a month ago after a local police officer had fallen in the line of duty. They stayed that way for about a week or so, then went back to full-mast. I've noticed that there have been a couple of times since that the flags have returned to half-mast. Was it for those killed in the Boston marathon bombings? For those killed in the explosion in Texas or in the factory collapse in Bangladesh? Or was it for an employee's father or a local businessman?

I wonder how far reaching the half-mast flag respect goes. It seems like this particular business always has its flags at half-mast, which, when you think about the fact that people die every day, seems legit. But at the same time - can/should we mourn them all?

I mean no disrespect and certainly don't take lightly tragedies like those I've mentioned, but with tragedies in our own lives and people who leave us for another world, are we expected to take on the mourning of strangers, too? The human soul can only take so much sadness and worry and angst.

Cafe and Bakery Tour XII: Seven Shores Urban Market and Cafe

T and I had planned to visit a different cafe last weekend, but it didn't open until noon and we weren't about to wait for an hour. So, we drove a bit further down the road and had a sit-down breakfast at Seven Shores Urban Market and Cafe.

It was busy the Saturday morning we popped in, so I'd like to chock up the extremely slow service to that; but, at least the food was yummy. I think the "market" side was a bit skimpy the day we went because of the off-season aspect, but I can see it being neat in the summer - especially with the cool storefront patio and the laissez-faire, eco-friendly and fair trade mission of the place.

T's toasted western

As I'm still in the market for finding the best baked goods in the city, I went for the raspberry scone. T was hungrier and went for the toasted western sandwich. We both got coffee, which didn't come for nearly 45 minutes because they "ran out of mugs". Apparently, they are so eco-friendly that they couldn't offer us the take-out cups instead of a re-usable mug so we didn't have to wait so long. Oh well.

I got my scone right away, but T's sandwich came not long after our coffee, a bit ridiculous for a simple sandwich and for a breakfast joint, which, in my opinion, are based on cheap, fast food. Not so much this place.

Raspberry scone

The scone was very tasty - a good ratio of raspberry to fluffy scone, and surprisingly moist considering scones are usually dry. T's sandwich was worth the wait - the local ham was smokier than its usually salty counterpart, and the fresh, multigrain flax bread, I could have eaten a whole loaf of. The coffee was also amazing - some of the best we've had on our tour.

Though the scone was yummy, I wouldn't lump this place in my list of other cafes as it seems to me there are other focuses here. But the food was tasty and I'd like to return for lunch on a warm day to enjoy the earthy patio and some of the tasty-sounding lunch options. But I think I'll come before or after the rush, or eat a snack before so I'm not starving waiting for my food to arrive. Perhaps Seven Shores is a bit too laissez-faire.

Bevvy: 5/5 cups
Baked goods: 3/5 spatulas
Overall: 2.5/5

Musings

First world problem: having to reset all of my radio presets in my car because my battery died.

I hate when I have two glasses of red wine and wake up the next morning with a headache as if I had drank the whole bottle. And then I'm like, well frig, I should have just drank the whole bottle.