Fragile and Strong

It's been a difficult past few days. Saturday, which started out so bright and beautifully as you'll see below, ended up being a hard and frustrating and emotion-filled for the three oldest people in our house. As I told James that night after we went out to dinner for comfort food nachos and margaritas, I just feel so fragile. I feel fragile and sad and like I'm failing and I want an extra margarita and to get a little drunk and go to bed early. Except I made a decision many years ago that I don't get drunk anymore, so I had decaf green tea instead and snuggled in with Iron Gold and read until 1 a.m. while James slept beside me. That's comfort too.

It was a really difficult day.

Sunday dawned anew. I went to early morning yoga. We went on a family walk. Landon had his best buddy/partner over to work on their History Fair project for about 6 hours. They did an awesome job and we just found out they scored a 100 and moved on to the official school competition. I took the girls to see The Greatest Showman. While it obviously glossed over enormous aspects of PT Barnum's life, personality, and business model, we LOVED the movie. It was joyful and fun and exactly what we needed for 2 hours of pure escapism.

Cora felt strongly that tiaras were required; I was also wearing one

We'd been listening to the soundtrack all week, so it was so fun to finally understand what the songs were about and now we love them EVEN MORE. It is the only music that has played in our house since Sunday; Landon is pretty sure he now knows the whole plot (his assumptions and guesses have been cracking us up), though I think James might miss the Christmas music. But just watch this video. It's so wonderful. Hugh Jackman is such a delight.

So that was lovely. Except also on Sunday I woke up with a sore throat, but decided to ignore it through the day as it continued to get worse and worse. I ignored it more on Monday morning as I went in to work to find out what happens to us during a government shut down. A 90-minute meeting later and I realized I was no longer swallowing except under extreme duress. It was like swallowing liquid fire every time and I was content to just let spit pool in my mouth until my gag reflex forced me to take action. I canceled a highly-anticipated lunch I was supposed to eat with a partner I used to work for at V&E and instead headed to urgent care where I was diagnosed with Strep. Because OF COURSE. I get strep at least once a year, and we are in a new year.

Last night was quite bad and I felt very very terrible. James got home from swimming, took a look at me and said I should go lie down. He handled 100% of everything, coming to check on me on the couch, looked at my throat and jumped back exclaiming, "it's like raw hamburger back there!" It made me snort laugh and that hurt like fire and that was pretty much the highlight of the evening. Thanks to heavy drugs I got a good night's sleep until 2 a.m. when I woke up drenched in sweat- I guess my fever broke? I somehow managed to get James's swim bag and steal his towel he had packed for morning practice and stick it on top of my wet sheet and go back to sleep. I have no memory of this, and I'm sure he was surprised to find his towel missing at the pool this morning while also preferring that to me waking him up at 2.

But today is a little better. I stayed home, but the steroid shot and antibiotics are doing what they need to do. I can now swallow without visibly wincing in pain. I'm think I'm operating at about 80% mental capacity. Tomorrow should be even better, I hope. The government is back open and I have a lot of work to do that requires thinking and manual dexterity because of the typing I have to do while also thinking.

But before I close, let's go back to Saturday morning when I took the kids to the Women's March in Fort Worth. It was bright and beautiful and peaceful and powerful. It's hard to capture in words, and even the pictures don't do it justice- it's just such an amazing feeling to be surrounded by people who are WITH you. They are FOR something you are for and they are excited to be there, excited to see you here, excited this whole thing exists. In a time of daily frustration, national humiliation, and/or general horror for whatever is happening in the White House, it's just a positive, happy event.

James was super bummed to miss it, but he had to teach his first set of Saturday lessons at a new people he's leasing in addition to the other new pool he's using during the week. Another instructor of his will teach on future Saturdays, but this was the first one and he needed to be there, so it as just me and the party pack. I realized about 30 seconds in that we should have held on to that old umbrella stroller just a little while longer because Cora, while happy to be there in an abstract sense, also was not happy to be there in a very literal sense.

Luckily, the whims of the toddler were with us, and she did a 180 the other direction a few minutes after trying to yank my leg out of any group pictures and embraced the general mood of the morning and the sign I'd made her.

I ADORE this picture

Super Claire was THRILLED to be in attendance and loved our coordinating signs.

Landon loved reading everyone else's signs out loud and explaining them as needed to Claire. Cora still wasn't sure why we didn't have a stroller like so many other better prepared people, but we did manage a full marching family picture!

The best part, besides seeing 5,000 Fort Worthians gather for the event, was running in to so many people we knew! One because I love feeling like we're part of the community here. We moved here without knowing a single person in all of Fort Worth. Not one. Our kids weren't in public school yet, we don't go to church, we didn't have any community at all. And yet, over 6 years of community involvement, school involvement, sports involvement, barre teaching, small business ownership, and lots of yoga attending, I rarely go anywhere without seeing someone I know. It is the warmest, most wonderful thing after several years of feeling very alone.

But more specifically, it was awesome to see who was with us! A family of swim school clients recognized the kids and ran over to say hi. A barre student I taught at an old studio waved from across the crowd. SEC colleagues, yoga instructors I know and love, neighbors, parents and classmates from the kids school... it was so awesome and purely accidental to have crossed paths in a crowd of 5,0000.

I loved very much being there with the kids. For Landon to see all the men there with their messages and support. For the girls to see all the people there just marching in support of Women. The energy was amazing and I loved that they'll have this memory. They'll read about the Donald Trump presidency one day and I want them to know their dad and I were not okay with it. Any of it. And we voted against it, donated to help those most harmed by it, and generally made our opposition known. This isn't about politics- they'll figure out what they think on actual political issues later, it's morality. It's right and wrong and the presidency and what it should stand for.

And I'm just really glad we were there, together, to soak it in on a gorgeous morning with a few thousand new friends.

My little girl and me, marching together.

It's a happy memory for me and I'm holding on to it with both hands.

A Few Days In The Life

It's 11:01 p.m. central time and the federal government is officially shut down, the first shut down with one party in control of both houses of Congress and the White House, right on the 1-year anniversary of Trump's inauguration. As a federal employee and primary breadwinner for my family, nothing about this is funny. Except this tweet, a little tiny bit.

But let's talk about the past week when I was a full-time employee who was paid for the hours I was willing and able (and needing!) to work. Because it was quite a week! And one in which there was much balancing of that full-time job, full-time motherhood, part-time yogi, super-part-time-barre-teacher, and frequent chef and book reader.

(Quick aside, Iron Gold came out this week!! Surprise #4 in what was previously the Red Rising trilogy which had one of the most satisfying endings I've ever enjoyed in a trilogy of books. It was so good I almost didn't want to read #4 except OF COURSE I did and I must say I'm enjoying it very much; the leap forward in time combined with new first-person character perspectives is working for me. Even more importantly book #6 of my beloved Arcana Chronicles by Kresley Cole comes out in 4 weeks and I'm DYING to read it. I will start it at midnight that Monday when it is released and finish it by 5 a.m. Tuesday morning and I will not regret it ONE BIT. But we're getting way off topic.)

Monday was a holiday for the kids and me. We started the day with a roller blading scooter ride to a friend's house for donuts and then splintered off so James could work and I could watch the kids run at full speed for 2 hours through our beautiful if currently dormant (and always FREE) nearby botanical gardens.

They can run so fast for SO long. I just meander behind, snapping a picture of their backs every now and then and cautioning everyone not to get wet anytime they're near a body of water. We came home for lunch, I went to yoga (I am doing SO much yoga - yoga every day! - and it is SO wonderful and makes me so happy), and then James left to coach when I got back. We had agreed that the big kids would go to his swim practice at 5:00 (usually they go on Tuesdays, but usually I'm not with them all day). Sometime around 3:30 Landon came wandering into the TV room where I had just sat down to get a few things done on my computer. He'd been outside playing tag with the girls and generally having too good a time and he needed to be upset about something so he picked swim practice. 45 minutes later and I finally broke and yelled. He snapped out of it immediately. I hate when I break as much as I hate that it seems to fix everything. In general, things are really good and going so much better, but every now and then they aren't and it's just the worst. I dropped the kids at the curb and drove home with Cora. We sang "From Now On" from the Greatest Showman soundtrack on repeat and then got to work on a delicious dinner. On the upside, Cora was adorable, racing into the house from the car because Giant Pua (Claire's much-adored Christmas gift from my brother) doesn't like thunder and Claire told her to take care of him. She took her duties very seriously.

“Mom, Big Pua is afraid of the storm. Cwaire told me to take GOOD CARE of him while she is at swimming. ... And sometimes Big Pua is just hungry mom. He’s Just Hungry. And still a little scared. But I will take GOOD CARE of him. Don’t WORRY.”

The storm that so frightened Pua brought with it freezing temperatures and a sprinkling of snow. Our schools and office shut down for the first two hours of the morning for ice, but I went to work on time because Landon was still stuck in difficult mode (just for me) and my office is my new sanctuary. Kind of literally. It was completely empty of human beings and for the first few hours, my Starbucks chai latte and I were very happy to hang out alone and do some drafting.

I did yoga at lunch, I ate my pre-packed lentil salad lunch at my desk, and I enjoyed speaking with other humans later on in the day when the office was officially open. I stayed late to finish the document I was drafting, raced home to relieve our brand new after school nanny on her first day on the job ("this is unusual, I swear"), grabbed Cora and a granola bar, and drove to my PTA Board Meeting.

It was a really good meeting. Our sweet Title I school is amazing, our teachers and principal and students are amazing, and our parent involvement increases every year. I will admit that I did not really want to go to a meeting after 3 minutes at home after being at work for 9.5 hours, but it's a really rewarding part of my day and I love my board members. I got home (for real this time) at 7:30 p.m. to the crockpot meal James had started midday at the same time he pulled up with the big kids from swim practice (the nanny drops them off, and then he was held up talking to parents), so we all got to eat a late dinner together. And before we ate dinner, I found this tucked under my place mat.

Inside was a drawing of penguins and a very sweet and genuine apology note from Landon and after hearing his words, and accepting his hedgehog and hugging him tight, my world felt a little more balanced again.

On Wednesday morning it was nine (9) degrees outside, so this is how everyone dressed to venture out to school.

We have maintained our position that Landon gets to pick his own clothes and make his own outerwear decisions, but I really wished I could attach a little post-it to his back that said "I tried. I have chosen to fight other battles." Luckily the girls take their cold protection very seriously. Cora, in particular, enjoys all the extras.

Adjusting her "ear gloves."

Thursday was a great day. Super busy, weaving together every role I have and a few extra outfits. The day started with a rare blow dry of my hair, answering some emails, and heading to the kids' school with James to use some vacation time to watch our second year of Battle of the Books!

The Battle is an awesome, local (I think?) competition for elementary school students in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade. Each grade gets a list of 6 varied and award-winning books to read. They take their usual AR tests and the 5 highest scores become that teacher's BOB team. The team practices together, making up questions for each other from the books, until they have the big school competition to determine which class will represent the school at the city-wide competition in May.

Each team gathers behind a table with cards for each book's name. The judges ask a question, something like, "in which book does the main character stain his hands purple" and the kids confer quietly for 30 seconds when a bell is run and the team captain (Landon!) picks up the card with the name of the book they think answers the question. The teams can't see each other, so while they'll know if they got the right answer or not once the judges announce it, they have no idea how the other teams are doing until the end.

It is just the best.

Last year Landon's team won after 3 rounds and an incredibly stressful bonus round of sudden death, but this year his all-girl team ("they're super smart mom") team emerged victorious after the first round, missing only the very last question!

They were so chill. They clearly had a plan for how they would communicate with one another and generally they seemed very certain of their answers. One time, Landon looked like he wasn't sure but was leaning towards one, when the girl next to him tapped one of the cards with complete authority and certainty and you could see him shrug his shoulders and mouth "okay" and pick that one up. They were the only team with that answer, so we were nervous, but they were the only one who got it right! Trust your team. Particularly when they're super smart girls.

Their smiles when they got the questions right and when they won were the best and we're so excited to cheer them on in May!

After the competition, I ran home to get some work done before driving to Texas A&M Law school downtown for a lunchtime panel, mandatory for all their 1Ls, on The Practice of Business Law. It was me, the general counsel of a large local hedge fund, and a real estate transactional attorney, so I think it was a good range of corporate law practice. I think it was a good conversation and lots of students came up afterward to ask more questions, so hopefully it was helpful! I love being back at law school and around law students, even if it shocks me to say things like "when I graduated 10 years ago..." I'm a real life lawyer you guys, sometimes I still find that surprising.

post-panel, wearing very pinchy shoes that are very cute and sadly unpictured

After the panel I finally got to my actual office where I worked until 5:00, changed quickly in a bathroom into my barre clothes and hoped I wouldn't run into anyone in my hot pink camouflaged leggings while I ran to the elevator because Thursday was also my first day back at TCU teaching my barre class for the spring semester.

It was a really full, really great day that ended with me coming home to check on our crockpot meal and pour a glass of wine that I sipped alone for 10 whole minutes before James pulled up with all the kids returning from their swim lessons. There was dinner and baths and bed and then a new Top Chef episode. It was just a really good day. That I finished by reading too many chapters of Iron Gold under my extra fuzzy blanket in bed until the wee hours. The back-lit Kindle app on my phone is probably one day going to kill me.

Today was more work, an Orangetheory class, other work, and then the making of signs with the children for the Women's March tomorrow (yay!) before drinking some extra wine and watching the shutdown clock wind down (less yay).

Now it is nearly 1 a.m. and I must go to bed so I can squeeze in at least a little ill-advised reading under the covers before that becomes completely unreasonable.

Apparently It's Mid-January

Thanks to some backward and forward looking posts, I haven't actually written about much of 2018 yet, so brace yourselves. We have pictures and a video and a lot of food to discuss. Though we have to go backwards first because I realized I never posted this video of James swimming in snow in Colorado.

Because yes, apparently, if you're an insane person, you can SWIM through snow. There's just a patio beneath him there. I thought he'd dive in, get stuck, and splash around a little, but nope- he swam his way through to the wall. He did discover that your lungs don't work when you dive mostly naked into a snow drift and then try to flutter kick your way through it, but otherwise, considered the attempt a great success.

Moving on. James was home with the kids for the first week of the year and wished he had an office while I worked in my office and wished I was home (I mean, like 50% of the time... my office is very quiet and orderly and I like that). One of the great things about the swim school is that his schedule precisely matches the kids so we don't have to scramble for childcare over school breaks.

Rock climbing at the TCU gym

Bear rocking her new roller blades

It went fine - he's always full or errands and activities, but by Thursday evening he greeted me with wide eyes full of soundless screaming, so I took a half day on Friday for us all.

game night!

Also, one night I took the kids out for a margarita (and queso and guacamole) at our favorite happy hour place to celebrate me being a grown-up and going to work all day while James took a break from child interaction and went swimming. It was 22 degrees outside, but the frozen margarita just felt right. Our bill was $7.50 and then we got home at the same time as James to make our tamales for dinner. We should do this two-parter more often.

On Saturday morning we left for San Antonio to celebrate my grandparents' 65th wedding anniversary (dad's parents; formerly of Florida and a Captain in the Navy). We weren't exactly excited for another road trip, but this one is much shorter (8 hours round trip) and we got to stop in Austin on the way to see one of my elementary school best friends and her new baby AND my other grandparents (mom's parents; Swedish; Air Force Colonel; heart attack in August) were guests at the anniversary party AND my parents were coming, so we got a lot of bang for our buck. Plus, 65 is a pretty amazing thing.

They look great, don't they?

We stopped in north Austin at our favorite taco place to see my friend Meg. Somehow I hadn't seen her since her wedding, at which I was 6 months pregnant with Cora, and now she had a 14-month old baby and my baby is a giant 4-year-old. We became friends in 2nd grade. That's Claire's grade now. By 4th (Landon's current grade), we were besties. Those years seem like yesterday- running around on the green belt behind my house, having countless sleepovers at hers, and I can't believe I have children that old now. It was so lovely to steal an hour together and see my kids loving on hers. I enjoy that we coordinated our outfits. She doesn't post pictures of her baby, but you should know that baby C had a shirt with white and navy blue stripes, so our coordination was on point.

The party was at my grandparents' retirement community, in the sky lounge on the top floor, which the kids found to be VERY fancy. Landon got to try his first chicken wing and promptly ate 12 and asked for some to go "to put in my lunch tomorrow." Cora ate all the decorative cucumbers (her current favorite food) and Claire enjoyed all the attention from the senior citizens in her beautiful new dress along with at least 4 plain rolls meant to be used for baked ham sandwiches.

We got a picture of the whole crew - Papa and Gigi and all four great-grandparents.

It was a great party - everyone was so happy to be there and my dad gave a very sweet toast to his parents. My cousin Jordan who I hadn't seen in many years was there with his fiance, so it was great to meet her and see him. My grandparents (all four of them) were so tickled we were there and of course the kids love being the center of everyone's attention.

After the party, we took the kids to the River Walk which still had up all its Christmas lights.

It was beautiful. We ate another dinner and roamed around before coming back to the retirement community where my grandparents' had booked us a room. We had a queen bed and three roll-aways and it worked great.

We met my mom's parents for brunch the next morning. Their dining room has a GREAT Sunday brunch buffet and Landon ate 2 giant omelettes, a waffle, a ton of fruit, sausage, bacon, a bowl of ice cream, and a brownie. It was intense. James ate about 6 eggs benedict along with all the other things. We're a good bargain at a buffet.

We drove back in time to do our grocery shopping and prepare for our first week back in the routine. Cora went back to school Monday (she was THRILLED to return; she'd been asking daily for a countdown of when she can "go back to my school and do my hard work," James's lessons started Monday afternoon, and the big kids went back Tuesday. Tara has graduated (sob) so I'm in the middle of an after-school nanny search, but TCU (the university we live right next to) doesn't start back until this Tuesday, so no one was in town. Luckily we have generous friends who picked up our kids each day.

James had a swim meet on Friday morning. For reasons I honestly struggle to understand, he's been training like a maniac and his end of season meets are as big a deal to him now as they were in college. When we were in Disney he got up at 4:50 a.m. each day to take an Uber to a local YMCA to do a practice before coming back to the hotel and starting our very full days at the parks. He swam the 100 fly on Friday and called, ecstatic, saying he face-planted into his third wall but still went the best time he's had in years. He felt great. He canceled his lessons (gasp!) and went back for finals that night, going a lifetime best at the age of 36, winning the final, qualifying for the pro-am series, and earning this very plastic medal.

I was super proud of him. Meanwhile I was on my own with the kids, something that never happens, so I prepared.

Costco pizza for them, Mexican martini for me; Captain Underpants movie for them, laptop with work to do facing away from the TV for me. It was smooth sailing.

James swam on Saturday morning too - going a near-best time in the 100 breast. I was so happy for him. He has a (long) history of psyching himself out at meets, so this was quite a triumph. He made it back with one second to spare for me to run off to yoga. I'd spent the morning organizing the girls' closets and yoga seemed a more positive outlet than finding more things in my house the other humans I live with insist on ruining. Post-yoga we headed to Landon's first basketball game!

Cheering Section

He was so upset when we signed him up (the first activity we've ever forced), but it's all his best friends on the team with one of our good friends coaching and we decided he needed to know the rules of such a social and universal sport.

He loves it.

We closed out the day with more organizing and then a flaunting of the planned menu for a dinner out at Gloria's. I wanted a margarita and we all just needed something fun. Partway through dinner I looked at Claire and her little lip was trembling and her eyes were so big and sad. I held out my arms and the crawled in my lap, just barely fitting, and sobbed, "I didn't know Doug really died."

Doug is from The Everest movie, a movie Claire has not seen, but Landon must have described in some detail after his viewing. Somehow it came up again at dinner and Claire was deeply distressed to learn the movie was true and that people really died. I can't remember if I blogged about it, but I also found The Everest story to be traumatic. I didn't know people died on the 1996 expedition when we watched it. I knew about the Dallas doctor and the author of the Into Thin Air book, but I knew they'd survived, so I just assumed everyone else did. I was watching the movie with James one night when Doug walks off that ledge to his death and I yelled - yelled - "WHAT THE FUCK?!!" at James and made him pause the movie and explain to me what he knew of the story. Within minutes I had the wikipedia page up and was sobbing when Rob Marshall didn't make it. I don't know why this story hit me so hard, I think because I somehow thought it had a happy ending so I let myself get attached and then it did NOT and I stayed up that entire night reading every story on the internet about the 1996 climbers and download Krakauer's book and read it to the end just to find some closure. My eyes were bloodshot and my heart was sore. Which is to say, I understood my sweet middle-child's moment at Gloria's.

We stopped for cake on the way home and today there was supposed to be a family walk, but our day broke with Landon losing his shit over the phrase "have you had breakfast" (had HAD NOT) and so Claire and I ended up at Trader Joe's an hour later so I could get a Chai Tea Latte on the way and James could manage Landon because apparently my whole general existence is a trigger for him. I then went to Orangetheory where I ran out my feelings. James had some chores for Landon that he was now cheerfully doing when I got home, Claire had a friend over, and Cora yelled at me with extreme prejudice and then had to take a nap. At some point later Claire came to me sobbing because Landon something something something a prize for her school set.

in happier times

So I texted our former nanny's younger sister and asked if she was free. She was. My night ended like this.

Actually, like this.

Tomorrow Landon has promised to eat a granola bar within 15 minutes of waking and I feel very sure it's going to be a brighter day. And if it's not, I'm sending the big kids to swim lessons with James in the afternoon and Cora and I are watching princess movies all by ourselves until they get back. I win either way.

In closing (sorry, this is long), a bit on food.

First, reviews from this week's menu:

- Pea Soup: SO GOOD. Pea Soup is one of my favorite meals but I've never found a recipe as good as I remember my mom's tasting (including the recipe my mom uses), but after combining two recipes and adding a crock pot, this got a thumb's up from all five LL family members, even those initially skeptical of green soup:

1 large onion, diced (2 cups)
4 carrots, diced (2 cups)
3-4 red potatoes, peeled and diced (or 1 russet potato)
1 ham bone (and/or ~ 1 cup cooked, cubed ham)
1 bag (1 lb.) split peas (I soaked them for ~ 3 hours, but that's probably not necessary)
4 c. (1 carton) chicken stock
2 c. water
2 tsp. onion powder
2 bay leaves
2 tsp. garlic powder (or minced fresh garlic)
1 tsp. salt (taste to see if you need more post-potatoes at end)
1/2-1 tsp. ground black pepper

1. Add everything except the potatoes to a crock pot. Cook on high 5-6 hours, stirring occasionally, switch to low if soup boils or if you need more time before eating.

2. Add potatoes ~ 1 hour before serving with temp on high.

- Bison Meatballs and Marinara Sauce: LOVED this. Loved the kale and almond flour in the meatballs (and the bison; I loved cooking with a meat so lean there was no fat to drain after browning, which is my most hated step of cooking because I can never figure out how to drain it without losing some of the meat into the sink and/or doing it by spoon full which takes FOREVER and annoys me.) Really really loved the shredded carrots in the marinara sauce - that will be our new basic recipe anytime I want a simple red sauce.

- Greek Bison Burgers: also very good, next time I'm adding even more feta. Enjoyed the novelty of the pita bun and served with Ina's Greek salad (when you've made it 100+ times and have it all memorized, can you just call it your Greek salad? Does adverse possession work for recipes?) and roasted potatoes. All the thumb's up.

I made many yummy things since then but I can't remember any of them. (One of them was this Red Beans & Rice recipe which we all love.)

This week, which involves a new after school nanny (meeting her tomorrow; fingers crossed!), a PTA Board meeting, basketball practice, two nights of swimming, including Cora's first swim lesson in a month, and my return to Thursday night barre teaching at TCU since the winter break, we are eating:

Monday: Chicken Prosciutto Roll-Ups, Parmesan Orzo with Peas (I just make this up: orzo pasta + chicken broth + grated parm + frozen peas), Roasted Carrots
Tuesday: Potato Leek Soup (already made; will hang out in the crock pot because I have a PTA Board Meeting and the big kids have swimming), Crackers and Cheeses and the other half of the prosciutto from Monday
Wednesday: Sloppy Joe's (Claire's request; leave out the sugar, it makes it way too sweet), roasted potatoes, carrots and cucumbers.
Thursday: Crockpot meal I'm making up from a sample at Trader Joe's: TJ's frozen Chimichurri Rice + a jar of TJ Verde Salsa + a can of Black Beans. Serving with the avocado, tomato, cheese ("ON THE SIDE" screams Landon from somewhere), tortillas, and chips. I can't vouch for this one yet, but it seems like it should all go together.
Friday: Pasta with Tomato Cream sauce, the ultimate "it's the end of the week and our fridge is bare and I don't want to think at all" meal. It's also delicious and another recipe I have adversely possessed.

Also I remembered how much I loved these Protein Quinoa Salad jars and made one today for lunch and two more for later this week. I do yoga during lunch 3x a week which I love because it's good for my health and my wallet (I have the unlimited yoga membership at CorePower, so the class is "free," and then I don't eat out for lunch), except lately I haven't felt like packing lunch so I've had to stop and buy something anyway and that annoys me every time. But this week, I'm set!