I Run Like A Girl

Hello blogging friends! Summer is officially here in North Carolina. Coming out of a long Spring with comfortable temperatures every day, we’re now in the famous hot and humid summers of North Carolina. I was warned by locals about the heat of the summer, and it’s no joke! I’m adjusting to the climate, trying not to get too lazy by continuing to get my walks outside every day.

One thing I’ve noticed is that there is much more life around us. We’ve found so many more creatures inside and outside of our house. This cute little frog even snuck into our home the other day! While I don’t love every single critter we encounter, I remind myself that I’d much rather live in a wet climate that is full of life than a dry, lifeless area.

I have a weekend recap for you guys. We’ve been homebodies over the last few months, and last weekend we did get out to do some fun activities. 🙂

Saturday started off with an iced matcha and croissant for breakfast. I switched to matcha a few weeks ago because I was having trouble regulating my energy levels with coffee. I’ve been a daily coffee drinker since I was 15 years old, and I never thought I would ever break the habit. I’ve been loving the mild, lasting energy that matcha provides, and the instant benefit to my mood has made me hooked on matcha. I like to mix it with a cold glass of soy milk, which is my favorite non-dairy milk. I guess old habits can die!

After breakfast, I did an easy yoga class at home. I have Apple Fitness+ as I like the diversity of workouts and quality of the videos. For $10/month, it’s been a great addition to my workouts. I do think the workouts are on the beginner side and they lack longer, more advanced routines, but for days when I want a quick yoga or strength workout, Apple Fitness+ has been perfect.

Then onto some morning chores. It was plant-watering day, which typically is quite the event in our house (it can take me up to 2 hours to water all the plants!). When we bought these plants when we moved here, Joe warned me that we might be overdoing it given the commitment to take care of them. Of course, he was right. Now that it’s summer, these plants need a LOT of attention. I’m putting a pause on propagations and hoping some of them will die so we can lighten the load. 😛

Later in the morning, Joe and I set out for an activity: the Dasher Museum of Art. We wanted to get some movement out of the house, so Joe found this small art museum on Duke University’s campus. It was a modest museum, and we enjoyed walking around and viewing all the exhibits. There was hardly anyone there, and we had the whole museum to ourselves.

After that, we drove into downtown Durham for lunch. We stumbled upon a farmer’s market and decided to walk through it. There was a variety of local farmers and artisan crafters displaying their items. It felt like the whole town was at this market – it was such a nice surprise to our day.

We had lunch at Durham Food Hall, a laid-back food hall with a wide collection of eateries. Our first time coming here was last summer when we visited Raleigh-Durham (the trip that made us decide to move here). We loved the food hall at that time and knew we wanted to come back. This time, I tried some Indian food while Joe ate fried catfish – both hit the spot.

The best part of going out is coming back home and realizing you have nothing to do for the rest of the day. 🙂 The rest of our Saturday was so relaxing and just what I needed. We did a grocery order, and I prepped the watermelon for the week. Summer means watermelon season, which is my favorite fruit! There’s nothing better than having cold watermelon in our fridge all week.

Joe has done some wonderful work in our garden, and I wanted to share with you all my favorite spot: the pond. It’s come a long way from a few weeks ago when he brought home a plastic tub from Home Depot. 😛 We lined it up with rocks that we hand-picked from a local rock yard, and Joe planted some beautiful plants around it. He even installed a light in the pond, which is quite the sight in the evenings.

The pond area has completely transformed into an ecosystem with dragonflies, frogs, and more. This frog lives in the pond full time now.

In the evening, I watched The Brutalist, which was incredible. I’ve been making my way through the latest Oscar nominees now that they’re finally on streaming services.

Sunday was the perfect mix of relaxing and being productive at home. I started my day with the same breakfast as yesterday and a walk around my neighborhood. It’s so nice to have extra time on weekend mornings for a longer walk – I got in 2.5 miles.

I relaxed around the house and did some computer errands in the morning. For lunch, I meal-prepped my lunch for the week: a tomato, cabbage, and tofu stew. This is my own recipe that I’ve adjusted over time. It has similar flavors to the famous Chinese tomato and egg stir fry, but I swapped out some ingredients and made it into a stew. I find this so delicious, and I look forward to eating it each time.

This is the finished product. It’s been nice to meal prep on Sundays since I’m so busy during lunch on weekdays. This way, I can heat this up and have a nice hot lunch every day.

In the afternoon, Joe and I did some errands, including returning Amazon orders and buying fresh sourdough bread and fresh-cut flowers. Toasted sourdough bread and hummus have been my favorite snack lately…besides watermelon. 🙂

Later in the evening, we grilled burgers for dinner and relaxed until bedtime. Thank you for stopping by today, and I hope you’ll come by in the next post! 🙂