What? It’s Monday already, huh? Well shoot. Here goes another week….

But, before I plunge into whatever great things might be ahead, let’s chat about the weekend. It was a gorgeous one here in Southern CT. Friday, I had a hot date consisting of Whole Foods and grocery shopping. Side note: a big thanks to John for sending my husband home early and telling him a few times to “go spend time with your wife”. You are the best! Anyway, Mr. B had never been to Whole Foods (gasp) so I told him that he was allowed to sit and eat while I gathered up the groceries. He was like a kid in a candy store. Did he want pizza? How about a sandwich? He could get both. And they have beer! Heaven. He opted for pizza, by the way. I left him mid-bite to go off on my grocery shopping adventure.

I have lots of great recipes coming up this week that I am super pumped to tell you about!

Saturday was “the best, day, evvvvv, eerrr” (that was me singing). I got up bright and early, made my greenish smoothie that I posted about and headed off to yoga. This time, I decided to try slow flow, a practice I had never done before. It was such a different experience from Vinyasa yoga, which is quicker and a little more intense I thought. Some of you may be reading this and thinking “I didn’t understand that last sentence.” Fear not! I have a post in the queue to tell you all about yoga and my experiences with it since I am fairly new to the practice. So look forward to that soon. (Hurray!)

Back to my story, so after an awesome yoga session at Fresh Yoga, I headed off down the street to my new favorite little coffee and tea shop in the area, green well Organic Tea and Coffee. A recent addition to the area, it is so close to my yoga studio that it was fate. Amazing teas, great juices and awesome owners who I found out were not only from the Chicago area, but actually lived in the same town and fairly close to me! What are the odds? Fate right? Duh. Oh, and one of the owners had a Cubs hat on. How could I pass up a “Go Cubbies”!? I plan on doing a dedicated post on green well just so I can fully explain how much I am in love with this place. Anyway, I grabbed an apple, ginger and rhubarb juice. Having never experienced rhubarb in juice form, I was a little anxious to be honest. But as assumed, I fell in love.

I was still in the mood to enjoy the day so I walked down to the Wooster Square Farmers’ Market which is part of CitySeed. CitySeed is an organization whose mission is “to engage the community in growing an equitable, local food system that promotes economic development, community development and sustainable agriculture.” Rock on. Being a farmer’s daughter in all sense of the word (or words I guess?), I fully support farmers’ markets and always love to try to buy local. I have a passion and large respect for those that work the land to feed us. And, I love my dad so I am doing my part in supporting his occupation even though I am 900 miles away from the home land.

The cool thing about CitySeed, besides running markets all over the area, is that they are nice to those of us who rarely carry cash. So, I never have cash on me. It worries my husband sometimes. But if I have it, I spend it. I don’t know what it is. I walked down to the market unexpectedly so I didn’t even think about having some readily available. Luckily for me, they have “coins” you can purchase with a credit card. Since most, if not all, vendors at this market don’t accept credit cards, these coins acted as my cash, that the vendors then turn in to CitySeed for their share of sales. Pretty neat idea if you ask me.

I came home with delish whole wheat sourdough bread, rhubard (because I love it now), some homemade pasta sauces and some little vegan baked goods. Successful trip yeah? Um, yes.

Saturday night we spent at the casino with some amazing friends. We lost a total of $16. All my fault. Don’t gamble, Lauren. Just don’t.

Sunday was an amazing day consisting of a morning yoga class, church, outdoor conversations on our neighbors new patio and some yard work. It also involved an amazing grilled “cheese” sandwich made from the fresh sourdough bread I picked up at the market. It. Was. To. Die. For. I had been craving a grilled cheese of sorts for weeks now and I finally got my fix. Hallelujah. And to top it all off, my friend J convinced me to do some mini-hiking up East Rock, right by my house. Now, I use the term “mini” very loosely, because when you haven’t hiked for over a year, mini-hikes seem like climbing Mt. Everest. But it was accomplished and was followed by a nice downhill walk and some great conversation. Good for the soul, I tell ya.

I live for weekends like these. Weeks filled with love and just being content. No big plans, but lots of simple, little ones that together make up a life worth living.

Enjoy your amazing week!