March 2015 Souvenirs

I made a list at the start of the year to focus on five goals that I knew would bring memories to tuck away as souvenirs when I think about this year.  March is here and I rocked it...ish!

A. Shop Local

I started off the  month purchasing an array of candy from the New Hampshire Old Country Store in Moultonborough, NH on my way back from Maine, so not really local to me, but locally owned there and some great candy!  As far as local restaurants, I hit up New Socials burger night once and Big Fatty's BBQ in White River Junction, VT twice.  Superb restaurants!

On one particular Saturday this month, I went local crazy though and spent like $25.  I first went to Violet's Book Store to see my friend, Tim, who was hosting a book signing there, so I picked up a signed copy of his book as well as a book from the store.  I then headed to the Spice and Dry Goods store and bought some spices.  Then I went to a store that was closing and picked up two heavy duty plastic display trays for a buck a piece.  Then to a coffee shop (frozen coffee) and a Greek restaurant for some baklava.  Super and delicious success!


B. Household hop--At least three stops per month in someone else's house.
7 households this month but most were only one stop this month, which isn't a bad thing but starkly different from last month.  It was fun to get around and visit with people in their households.  Thankful for the hospitality of friends!

C. Legit meal--Once a week
Er....the reason I put this goal was because it was something to shoot for.  I'd say I nailed this 2 out of the four weeks this month, so progress but imperfect progress.  On a slightly related topic, this week I bought pork thinking it was beef and was a tad horrified when I was cooking it like beef and went to flip it over and it was white and not a seared brown.  It wasn't a failed experiment though...just an unexpected one.

D. Trip to Texas
So in less than a month now, Lord willing, I will be in Texas!  I haven't been in the state since 2012 so it's been a long time coming!  I'm pretty stoked and getting excited about seeing family and friends.  Also kind of excited to go through more of my stuff and sort it out to bring some treasures back with me.  But pretty close to the top of things I'm most excited about is food.  I'm a little bummed that I won't have enough time for it actually.  If all goes to schedule, I am scheduled to arrive at the airport near home at 12:11pm on Tuesday, which puts me just in time for lunch (yippie!!!).  I am scheduled to depart at 8am on Saturday (slightly bummed because my original booking was for the afternoon but they recently emailed me letting me know they changed my itinerary).  So that puts me home only 3.75 days (wow, that was the first time I did the math for that, and it's sort of depressing now as my original plan had me not leaving til 4pm....8 hours home taken away so fast...sad day).

Well, in order to pump myself back up, let me list for you my wish list of restaurants that I want to go to in my 3.75 days there!
1) Texadelphia (number 1 for sure...my fave!!!)
2) A tacqueria to order "tres bistek tacos con maize".
3) Whataburger....if all else fails, this will be my Saturday morning pre-airport breakfast...gotta love 24 hours a day serving burgers all that time...."I'll take a whataburger with bacon and jalepenos on the side."  For those of you that don't know, I don't want them on the side because I'm chicken...they seriously give you more jalepenos in the cup on the side than on the burger if you order it with jalepenos on it.  I'll take 10 slices over the 4 they put on the burger anyday!
4)  Chick-fil-A, this is a fave but near the bottom because if it didn't work out while I was home, I can always trek over to Nashua here and eat there if I was desperate.

So to be honest, I grew up eating out a ton which I don't do as much these days but when I think of Texas food, I often think of my favorite restaurants so that's kind of where my heart is at there. That said, I have an aunt that I will see who makes some of my favorite dishes too, so if she happens to read this, which I believe she will, I hereby request "bok choy" or the Tahitian haystack meal.  :-D  No pressure though.

Excited to see and visit with those I get to see.  Man, it's going to be a whirlwind...what was I thinking....?  Well, just a good reminder to soak up every minute of fellowship and every ray of sun I get.

E. Read more
Reading has been a weak spot but once again, that's why it's on this list.  Motivation!  I finished re-reading "How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes" by Irwin and Peter Schiff.  I have also started but not gotten extremely far into "The Candy Bombers" by Andrei Cherny so that's next on my list to knock out hopefully.

Beyond this list, March was pretty monumental to me personally in almost pushing a reset button on my life and the track I was on.  I thank God for the people and events/situations He used to wake up the sleeping giant and get me on a better path.  It's been a good month of learning, growing, praying and stretching.  Thanks for those who have come along for the ride.  I hope your March has you marching triumphantly and looking forward to Spring!

See you next time!
Joy Lynn

**Speaking of next time, April's run down and probably a recap of Texas in general will have to wait until early May as I'll still be in Texas as the calendar month flips so just a heads up there.