thoughts for thursday: salmon, novels, and august goals

owwwww. i can't believe i managed to get out of bed this morning after taking my first barre class last night. um. holy workout. i used muscles that i didn't even know existed! it was kind of amazing, and a really fun change of pace from yoga and running. i've already found a barre place close to our sublet in la and i can see myself totally getting into it. anyways, it's thursday!! so i have some thoughts! it's thoughts on thursday, yahoo! check out the link-up over with nat and annie.

pistachio-crusted salmon
so blake's parents best friend went on a fishing trip up in british columbia and came home with 50lbs of fresh salmon and halibut. luckily, we got to share in that bounty, and cooked up a huge fresh seafood feast last night, including my first go at this recipe from nomnompaleo. and wow, it was incredible. for the halibut, i just baked it with some homemade pesto, and that wasn't half-bad. but this salmon totally stole the show - i'd highly recommend making it in the near future!

tell the wolves i'm home
i stayed up way past my bedtime the other night to finish this book in less than two days because i absolutely loved it. it's the story of a girl who is really close with her uncle, and it explores their relationship while he's dying of AIDS. what i really loved about it is the portrayal of the main character and her older sister - it's pretty much a spot on story about teenage girls (the good, the bad, the ugly). if you're looking for a new read, then this should be at the top of your list. but now i'm searching for a new novel, so let me know if you have any recommendations!

august goals
fine, i know, we're like a week into august already and i haven't done a post on setting goals like i did back in july. but this month, a big goal that my sister, mom, and i made is to email each other at least once a day, every day. we are all really busy and in different time zones, and sometimes end up going way too long without connecting or keeping each other up to date on what's happening in each other's lives. so far, we've made it through to the 7th! excited to see how the rest of the month goes.

tomorrow is our last day in seattle!! and tomorrow night we're heading to see arcade fire out at the gorge before driving down to sacramento on saturday. we're almost to california!!

a new month, new goals

holy crap. how is it july today? how has it been a whole month since we left nyc? so insane. to start things off right, i'm setting some goals and writing them down here so that i HAVE to achieve them because that's how goals work. here's what i'm committing to this month:

being present: this is the most challenging of the list. there are so many big life changes for us in the next few months, that it's really hard to focus on today and enjoy each day for what it is. i'm going to make a concerted effort to not spend all day googling restaurants and yoga studios in la, or apartment-hunting, or google earth stalking different neighborhoods (yes this is a thing). instead, i'm savoring this time we have to ourselves, in france, before the craziness starts. this one will be hard but is the most important to me. 

running: i have two running-related goals this month. it's been about 30 days since i last laced up, my longest break since i started running two or three years ago. yes, we were on vacation, and bopping around europe, and getting settled here in semur, but i don't really have any excuse to not be running any more. a great motivator? i'm going to sign myself up for a race later this fall in la! once i put that money down and have a date to train for, it's much easier to find that motivation in the morning. and i know i feel a million times better when i take that time to get the blood flowing.

sugar dragon: oh man, oh man. to borrow a whole30 phrase, i am really battling my sugar dragon here. after doing two whole30s in the past 10 months, my eating habits had really changed. i already knew dairy and gluten were my nemeses, but since last august, we'd also cut out all grains, all sugar, all soy, and cut way back on alcohol. lo and behold, here we are in july and i'm sneaking dessert with every meal and having a glass or two of wine every night. it's obviously not crazy, but i just know i feel better when i eat less junk. part of me says, hey, we're in france, it's ok to indulge! but then the other part is seriously craving the magical tiger-blood phase of a whole30. compromise? cutting back on sugar. maybe just one macaron a day instead of five. or ten. and a whole30 in october.

saving cash money: to be totally honest, spending six weeks in europe was the best financial decision we've ever made. do you know how much more money is in your bank account when you're not paying manhattan rents? it's crazy! having some extra cash floating around is tempting me to take advantage of summer j.crew sales, but instead, we're trying to sock away as much as possible for all the fun expenses that await us in la in august. things like a car (?!?!), an apartment deposit, new furniture, etc. so here's to living frugally in a place where to be honest, we couldn't really even spend money if we tried. except on wine and macarons (see goal above).

so that's what i'm tackling in the next... (thirty days have september, april, june, and november, all the rest have 31 ...) 31 days!

what's on your list to accomplish this month?