Sunday, January 24, 2010

Simple, Fresh Salad and Some Awards

Yesterday’s dinner was a simple red leaf salad with sliced radishes and a maple mustard dressing that was inspired by Averie’s Maple Ginger Dijon Vinaigrette. I had seen the dressing several times over the past week on Averie’s blog and thought it sounded great. Unfortunately, I was in a real hurry when I was making the salad, and I didn’t have time to look it up. I used pretty much the same ingredients, but I think my proportions were quite different. It still tasted good, but I’ll follow Averie’s recipe next time...
 
   

Over the past few weeks, I have received several awards, and I have been really slow to post about them. But here we finally go.

Kelly from Fitting Back In, Meg from Be Fit Be Full, and Kasey from Fit for Wellness each awarded me the Beautiful Blogger Award.

beautifulbloggeraward (fittingbackin; be fit be full meg; Kasey )

Nicole from Prevention RD passed on the Happy 101 Award to me.
 happy_101 (preventionrd_Nicole)

I am supposed to share 10 things that make me happy:
  1. My family;
  2. My friends;
  3. Playing in rain puddles;
  4. Seeing the toddler in his rain coat and rain boots;
  5. The toddler telling me that he loves me;
  6. The teenager telling me that he loves me;
  7. Hubby telling me that he loves me (there is no particular reason for this order!)
  8. Family dinners with good fresh food, laughter, and sharing of what happened during our day;
  9. Running into former students and them telling me that they still remember what I taught them years ago; and
  10. Nature hikes.
Finally, Kristi from Mother Rimmy’s Cooking Light Done Right awarded me with the Honest Scrap Award.

honestscrap (mother rimmy_Kristi)

In honor of all these awards, I’m going to share ten things with you that you may not know about me.
  1. I was attacked by a dog when I was a toddler and am still working on getting over my fear of dogs. Once I get to know a dog, I’m okay. But I’m still often afraid of dogs I don’t know, although I’m getting better. Over the years, my fear has stopped me from going into stores, made me cross the street a ridiculous amount of times, etc.
  2. I used to love to swim far out into the ocean. However, after several shark attacks in the area, I realized that may not be the smartest thing to do…
  3. I can make myself fall asleep during scary movies. I even made myself fall asleep in the movie theater before!
  4. We canceled cable T.V. in June and moved the T.V. into a space where really only the toddler can watch his PBS shows.
  5. Living without a T.V. has been easier than I thought it would be, but I do miss watching my favorite shows at home: Mad Men, Food Network, and trashy shows on Bravo that served as guilty pleasures).
  6. I watch Food Network shows or trashy Bravo shows at the gym while doing my cardio; it’s a great motivator!
  7. I would love to live in San Diego.
  8. There have been times when blogging became too overwhelming for me, and I wanted to quit. But I realized that my blog truly enriches my life, and it’s all about finding balance…
  9. For many years, I used to be “over-punctual.” I would get everywhere at least 15 minutes early.
  10. When I was younger, I seriously disliked chocolate. Only in recent years have I started to enjoy chocolate.
Thank you Kelly, Meg, Kasey, Nicole, and Kristi for the awards. I truly appreciate receiving them, and I truly enjoy all of your blogs!

Whenever I get an award, I reflect upon how blogging has enriched my life because it makes me focus on some of the good things in my life. I truly enjoy everyone’s comments and e-mails. And I love reading your blogs and am learning so much. At the same time, as I mentioned above, blogging can get overwhelming if you let it take over your life. It’s good to remember that it’s all about balance… Okay, it’s time for all of you to share a bit about yourselves.

Questions: What makes YOU happy? What is one random fact we don’t know about YOU? And how do you achieve a life/blog balance?
 
Be well,
Andrea