The Plate of Life

Thanksgiving is one of my all time favorite holidays.  I'll pile up my plate and eat everything...but usually one food at a time.  I'll always dive right into the cranberry sauce because that's my favorite.  Next I'll indulge in some mashed potatoes, followed by stuffing stuffed with bacon, and then I'll make my way over to the turkey.  There are some other miscellaneous foods that I'll feast upon - but it also depends on who is serving too.  My parents, Jason's mom, Jason's grandmother...they all have their own unique dishes.  After typing all this, it's starting to make my mouth water.  Like most people? - food is truly the key to my heart.  I'd rather have a bowl of macaroni and cheese than a bouquet of flowers.

Side tracked...

So back to my plate.  I was eating this weekend at a Memorial Day Weekend BBQ.  I piled up my plate and began devouring my way through, one food at a time.  It's rare for me to ever move on to the next food until I'm finished with the first.  One of the guests at the party noted my bizarre eating habits.  I pointed out that I know...and that other people notice too.  I sat in silence for a few moments thinking about how good my food was, how my eating habits are a bit strange, but also about ALL THE WORK I had to do later that evening.

I feel like my sister-in-law, Erin - she always makes these wonderful metaphors to her life.  It finally happened to me!  I realized in that moment that my life is very similar to my plate.  Weird...I know.  Let me explain.  I pile it up high - full of food.  Sometimes I take some to just be polite...sometimes I overload on the stuff I love.  Either way, I make my way through the meal one section at a time.  So basically this is my life...on a plate.

So that's been my deal lately.  I've been super busy and I've been working my way through each "item" one at a time.  Grad school, more grad school, projects, grading, lesson planning, maintaining a clean household, and spending time with my husband.  So blogging was not on the radar.  So my biggest accomplishment over the past few weeks was my grad school project.  It's funny because while I was not here blogging, I was still blogging somewhere else!  I had to create a blog on an emerging trend in technology.  I chose Virtual Assistants - aka Siri.  It was super awesome - I loved the research and how it turned out.

After I finished my project, spent time with our families, and actually got a chance to relax - my weekend was almost over.  I decided that I did not get enough time with my man so I planned a surprise date for him.  I do this on occasion...a few times a year.  I'll plan out this really cool thing for us to do.  He loves it.  And I love doing it for him...especially because he does everything for me :)

Our day date consisted of touring the Brandywine Zoo and having a picnic while we were there.  It was fantastic.  It's definitely a smaller zoo, which was great.  Much more affordable than city zoos.  I wasn't in the mood for a 4-hour adventure either.  The crowd was small, the animals were awesome, and the location was ideal.  I can't wait to take our kids there in the future...

Here are a few pictures from our day.  The capybara (top left) was our favorite!

A small wonder of Delaware - the Brandywine Zoo

I hope you had a wonderful 3 day weekend!