Fortunate Fridays {Family + baking + running + working, Edition}

Good morning! 

Happy Friday. 

Breakfast this morning: Organic oatmeal w/ sliced almonds, raisins, ground cinnamon, & almond butter toppings

Hope everyone had a great week but even if you didn't, guess what-- you made it to Friday! Today's post is going to be quick as I have a long day ahead of me but as always, feeling grateful for everything that happens. And here we go.

1. First park outing with the family- Family and I celebrated mother's day at the park this part weekend and had a great time.

2. The joys of baking- Was looking for something sweet to eat after dinner on Monday but there was nothing in my apartment as I usually keep junk food out of the house. Decided to go search one of my favorite blogs for a recipe and it did not disappoint (cookies lasted about 3.5 days). Baking is one of those activities that calms me and brings me 'zen'. Does anyone else feel that way?

Chocolate Chip PB banana Cookies

3. The inspiration to cook dinner- I meal prepped on Monday so this entire week I had a combination of brown rice and beans with either chicken or shrimp. And of course, my veggie on the side. Pretty satisfying.

4. First outside run of the year- All of my workouts since the beginning of this year have taken place inside a gym. I am so excited for the nice weather (finally) and was able to complete my first outside run in about 6+ months! Looking forward to more runs on nice days.

5. More billable hours at work- More hours, more clients, very excited and simply humbled and thankful for all the opportunities.

And that's all folks. Thank you so much for reading and wishing you a great weekend.

Tell me, What was the best thing that happened to you this week?

Love,
Mabelle

Fortunate Fridays {enjoying the present, edition}

Hello ladies and gents,

Welcome to another edition of Fortunate Fridays. Today is a special day as it is Good Friday, something I do observe. I take it as a time to reflect, and to thank my higher power for always protecting me and guiding me even in times when I feel I may not deserve it. True definition of unconditional love. If you don't observe good Friday, hope you enjoy a fun and exciting Easter weekend nonetheless.

I have a few things to do today (including some work) but wanted to pass by and share a recap of some of this week's fortunate "moments". And here we go:

1. New clients: If you are a business owner, you know building a business is not easy feat, however, you may also be familiar with the exhilarating feeling of signing on new clients. This week was a good week. I am so incredibly thankful.

2. Dinner and a movie: Last weekend Felix and I went out and watched "Get Hard" (with Kevin Hart), we also enjoyed a Japanese dinner. He opted for a chicken dish and I had my usual sushi. Everything was also delicious. As crazy as he can be, outings with this man are always mostly so fun.\ :)

3. Barnes and Noble + Starbucks: I have been taking some time to work outside of home some days during this past week and is something I plan to continue doing going forward (it just feels a whole lot better to be out of the house!). I absolutely love the Barnes & nobles Starbucks combination. Whomever came up with the idea for said partnership should be declared a genius. I get so much work done there!

4. My friend organized a fitness challenge: So, a couple of years ago, a group of friends and I had a virtual running team going. We'd wake each other up each morning prior to beginning the workday and we'd each go complete our perspective workouts. We'd then report back via group chat to confirm our workout was done (and we'd send photos of the app tracking our walks/runs as proof). The peer motivation was such a huge success and I am very happy that we started this again. It just started this past Tuesday and I must admit I've been slacking but I cant wait to start full on this coming week.

5. Promising opportunities, learning to enjoy my present: As the saying goes- "I may not yet be where I want to be, but I am nowhere near where I used to be" and I am so excited for the progress in my life and career. Every little thing about entrepreneurship makes me excited. As someone used to working 9-5s for nearly a decade, sometimes I find myself in a "weird" place and a little disoriented with life in general. However, I remind myself that I am living my dream and as I continue making progress it will only get better. Need to remember that.

6. Bonus: Impromptu outings with my best friend and meeting new people: So, last night I met my friend in downtown Manhattan for some drinks. I had a blast and also got to meet some of her co-workers. I also ate a grilled chicken sandwich with a salad on the side that was pretty dang amazing (not pictured). We drank wine, cosmos, chatted, and danced a bit. I came back home feeling good about the random outing (not so much about drinking the cosmos but filling up on water today). Sometimes you just need to loosen up and remember that we only live once!

And thats all folks! Hope you all have a phenomenal weekend ahead of you. Is a little cloudy here in New York City but that's okay. Looking forward to the weekend.

Tell me, What excites you the most about your life as it is right now?

Love,
Mabel

Chocolate and Cofee at Leonidas {and the power of TRUE friendships}

I had quite the intense Monday yesterday.

I attended an all-day conference in downtown Manhattan by the Wall Street area. I live about 1 hour 20 mins away from there by subway so that meant I had to wake up at the crack of dawn to make it there on time. Thankfully, the subway system was in its best behavior, at least on my way there (thank goodness!) and everything worked out perfectly.

Being downtown was the perfect opportunity to reach out to a very good friend of mine. A former co-worker who still works in the area. I let her know I was around and we met up for coffee after the work day was over.

We arrived at this awesome place:

Sorry I don't have a better picture. Had to 'borrow' this one from Google since I forgot to take one yesterday.

{ Fun fact: I visited one of their original stores during my trip to Brussels back in 2011. I always get such a nice fuzzy feeling when I run in to places in the U.S that I've visited in other countries. }

I got myself the cappuccino and my friend grabbed the hot chocolate and coffee cake. I'm on my "healthy foods only" mindset and so I skipped dessert although everything looked absolutely delicious.

Complementary piece of chocolate with all beverages. I went with the piece of Dark & Caramel:

So anyways, I met Anam back in 2012 when she was a new employee at the company where I used to work. I didn't know what to think of her at first but I think we hit it off from our very first real conversation. Although my prior jobs haven't been the "most fun ever" or "my passion", I still value the experiences I had and I am incredibly thankful for them. One of the things I am the most greateful for are the friendships I was able to develop. Most of my very close friends (the ones I consider true friends) I have met through prior employers. These are people I keep in touch with, hang out with, and would go visit them hours away or go to their destination weddings if I had to, and vice-versa.

We all have acquaintances or one thousand Facebook friends. people we only say hello to at random get togethers with mutual friends or only talk to once in a blue moon. However, we also have those people we consider our true friends. Yesterday was a good day because I was able to spend quality time with one of them.

We stood at the spot for nearly two hours (pretty much until they kicked us out because the place was closing). We talked about work, careers, vacations, our love life, future trips, future plans, problems, solutions, and everything in between. It was awesome catching up.

I got some great advise from her (as usual) in regards to certain thing(s) in my life and I did the same for her. I left that conversation and downtown Manhattan feeling refreshed and excited. That's how I knew it was time well spent. There's a lot of awesome things going on in her life as well and I was so happy to hear them and see her glowing with optimism. What a great way to end a hectic day!

Tell me, have you ever visited a Leonidas?

On friendships-- what are your thoughts on acquaintances V. real friendships?

Thanks for reading!

Love,

Mabelle

This is NOT a sponsored post. I simply enjoyed my time at Leonidas and felt like sharing.

Dried Meat and Card To a Friend

Happy Humpday everyone! Im super excited today because my office is putting up xmass decorations. My favorite holiday is the Christmas season (Beginning with Thanksgiving Day—which I consider part of the season) and my favorite day of every year is December 31^st! I am pretty sure I’ve mentioned this more than once since I started the blog but just in case anyone forgot!

Also, we get to dress down at the office until the end of November so this is what I am wearing today:

Yesterday was busy as usual. I had work and then class until 8:45 which meant I got home close to 10 ish. I wanted a quick dinner so I reached for my favorite item: sweet potato. I had some left over from the other day. I quickly sliced it and placed it in the oven while I put my pre-made tilapia and a piece of left over turkey in my little oven. In the meantime I went to take a quick shower and began doing something on the computer that by the time I removed my fish and turkey from the over it was super dry!!! Have you ever over-heated meat to point of it borderline getting burnt? Well, that’s what happened. Thankfully my sweet potatoes were okay. Dinner overall was good and satisfying. No complaints.

Yesterdays Elf4Health challenge was to send a handwritten card to someone. I choose my friend Ana whom ive known since high school. She has two kids, is a part time grad student AND works full time. I have no clue how she does it but whenever I feel like school is too much and I want to give up, I think of her. Despite the lack of communication at times; whenever we reunite is like time never passed. She is one of those friends that falls in to the “lifetime” category. Love ya Anita.

This was placed in the mail this morning:

…Oh yeah, and this is what happens when you try to multi-task while painting your nails:

Lesson Learned. Thankfully I was able to save my floor!!!

Enjoy the rest of you day!

Question: Whats your favorite holiday? Im still searching for boots by the way!