a date with myself

i have wanted to have a little solo date for a few weekends now but could never find the right time to do it. i'm not one to miss out on a gathering with friends or family and at the same time i stink at setting aside time for myself. my time is split in so many directions that i typically feel bad if i am not devoting it to mila or jay or our two attention deprived cats, so my time for me is never really a priority. recently jay asked me when the last time i had gotten out was, just me, and i think, i think, it was to the grocery store run last week. sad right? i have been feeling a bit boxed in lately too. not by the weather but by the routines i try to stick to with mila, or the goals i have set to get outside every day now that the weather is a bit warmer. the "now we eat...now we play...now we sleep..." on repeat all day every day is starting to drive me a bit nuts. and then i feel bad for feeling bad. that's what mom's do right? feel crazy, then feel bad, then feel like we are going to be better and repeat. please tell me i'm not alone in thinking this.

yesterday i made sure my solo date would happen. it wasn't the most convenient time i'll admit. we had jay's brother and girlfriend over for brunch to watch the canadian olympic hockey game and right after eating i jetted out, not watching the rest of the game and leaving everyone at home. i didn't feel too bad because they would be coming over later in the day so at least i knew i could properly hang out then.

i started by getting a mani/pedi and to my surprise i wasn't walking down the street thinking "i wonder {insert just about anything} about mila..." {which i felt bad about later, ugh this mom guilt!} but i tried to focus on being in the moment, freezing, and not checking my phone once while i was out. lucky for me, my battery died so the phone checking part wasn't that hard. i ended my date with a spontaneous trip to the the wedding cake shoppe on college street which has the most amazing cupcakes! and because i have decided to give up chocolate for a year {more on that later} i grabbed a dulce cupcake to go and ate it at home while jay was tending to mila.

thanks again handsome for letting me finish my solo date barefoot, cozy and somewhat in a quiet space. 

in the kitchen

it is a 2014 goal of mine to cook more at home in hopes of learning quick, easy, go to meals that can be fun for kiddos later on. between jay and myself, jay has always been the master chef. he comes from a family of amazing cooks who turn out a five star family dinner like it was nothing. my version of an incredible dinner usually consisted of peeling a potato, that meant effort. after years of feeling inspired by jay's family, and then relinquishing any hope of getting to their level of expertise, and then feeling inspired again, and then copying their recipes one by one, burning some and succeeding at others, i decided it was time to figure out this home cooking for myself. intro, homemade pizza!

i decided to start with pizza because when jay and i first started dating we (more he) would make pizza on special date nights which always seemed like a treat. he made the dough and i would usually grate cheese and sous chef whatever else we were putting on it. i also worked in a pizza shop as a teenager and hoped some long lost experience there would help me out. so far, it's going pretty great! we have had pizza about once a week at this point because i am so proud of my new found ability. eventually we will need to curve this healthier options, but for now pizza once a week is pretty great in my books. especially because i can confidently make dough rise on the first try. this was no small feat in itself, let me tell you.

you can find the dough recipe i used here on epicurious. i like to add some basil and garlic to the dry mixture for a little something extra. if you like pizza (and who doesn't really?) then for sure give it a go! it's easy, it's fun and oddly therapeutic when you get to it.