Currently: April 2025

Wow – April has been quite a month. In some ways, it feels like it’s been insanely quick. In other ways, it feels like it’s been so much. I feel like I say that every months. This April has been pretty social for me. We hosted a series of team-building events each week, and I was able to attend 2 of the 4. We celebrated Easter at my mom’s new house with my cousin, which was a nice change of pace (and gave me leftovers for a week!). We’ve hosted a lot of events on our campuses. And, as I write this, I’m in Houston for a whole week of events. This isn’t the most exciting monthly update, but it’s real.

Disclosure:  This post contains affiliate links for tours and products I love at no additional cost to you.  You can read my full disclosure policy here.

Health & Wellness:

I am really proud that I made it through the 100 day Peloton challenge. While I had hoped to diversify my workouts, I focused entirely on mediation. I’ve been keeping it up, and I’m going to try and add in stretching for May. I don’t know what I did to my body in April, but I can definitely tell that I’m still and losing flexibility. If anyone has any tips for staying motivated with stretching, I’m all ears. I’m also very proud of the fact that my average daily step count is up over 1,000/day compared to 2024. Obviously, this will get a little more difficult as the temperatures in Dallas increase, but I’m going to try and keep it up.

I’m also happy to share that I’ve been able to keep my weigh managed despite all the stress of the last few months. I’ve plateaued, which is a little bit frustrating, but it’s better than the alternative. It’s been fun to wear some of my old clothes again, and I’ve enjoyed shopping my closet. However, I also have a handful of things that need to be altered for the summer, so that’s going to be my priority in May. You’ll notice that my pink dress is from our 2016 shoot with Facibeni Fotographia in Florence. That’s right – it’s 9 years old! And, I bought this Emilia Wickstead sundress on clearance last winter, but it didn’t fit well… but now it fits perfectly!

And, I finally was able to sneak in a massage and my first haircut of the year. If only I could get my hair to do this on my own!

Eating & Drinking:

One of the things I’m most proud of this month is that I made a strawberry fraisier!! This is one of the pastries I’ve taken classes on at the Ritz Paris Escoffier for the last two summers. It felt really daunting to do it at home, but I did it!! I made it for my cousin’s birthday and Easter, and I’m hoping to make it again for 1st Saturday wine dinner this coming weekend!

All of the wines that we ordered in March came in before the tariffs took effect (thank goodness), and I finally finished organizing our wine storage this weekend. To celebrate, we went to dinner and took a 2007 Castiglion del Bosco Brunello with us. It was outstanding with rich tertiary flavors and a smoothness that can only come with being 18 years old. I really need to do more research on Dallas restaurants that are BYOB because it’s such a game changes to be able to take our own wines! We have truly curated a fantastic wine cellar, and it’s fun to open and try things with food!

In that same vein, I planned team-building events for my staff at Central Market cooking school! There were 4 total events, and I was able to attend two of them – the French Steakhouse and the Texas Steakhouse. If you live local to a Central Market, be sure to check them out. We had a great time! (This salad might have been the best thing ever. All the food was good, but this was extra good.) All of our classes included a salad, two vegetables, a steak, and a dessert. They even let me flambee the au poivre sauce once they realized I knew my way around the kitchen.

Travel Planning:

I think we’re going to go to London over Memorial Day weekend again this year. We found a great deal on flights using miles and we have some free Hyatt nights to burn. I’m excited to stay at the Park Hyatt London, and we’ve already confirmed that we can use our suite night upgrades! Additionally, we found some wine in London that we can’t find the US, so we will bring that back, too. The weather was so lovely last year, so here’s hoping we’ll get just as lucky this year.

I’ve also been working on finalizing our summer France trip. While most of the trip has been planned for awhile, I’m a little sad that we don’t have more new destinations planned for this year. I need to spend some time researching some additional options and see if I really want to change anything. I have decided to go back to the Ritz Escoffier for another weeklong class this year. I’m emboldened by the things I’ve made at home, and I really want to work on my French.

Lastly, we have been trying to figure out our anniversary trip. I know I want it to be special, but sometimes I really want to do something new. I wish I knew how to find truly special hotels with fantastic staff. We’ve cultivated some really great relationships through our travels, but I know there are more great experiences to be had. I just need to figure out how to find them!

Photo Editing:

It’s probably pretty obvious that I haven’t had much time to spend on the blog lately. (Honestly, I can’t believe the last post I did was at the end of March. I’ve had so many posts percolating in my mind!) I did participate in an A to Z Challenge of sharing a Facebook post with a post for each letter of the alphabet this month. In all honesty, I’m not sure it had much of an impact, but it was fun to go back and see how many things I’ve written. I’d like to do more of that, I think.

Last week, I did edit a few photos from our trip to Trieste, which is a city in northern Italy very close to Slovenia and Croatia. Parts of Trieste were really lovely, but I had a really hard time finding a “sense of place” in Trieste. However, people were kind and we enjoyed wine bar hopping while we were there. I have a small draft of a post about visiting Trieste, and I think I should finish it anyway. It might be helpful if you’re looking for a stopover between Italy and the Balkan peninsula!

I’ve been thinking a lot about the amazing people we’ve met on our travels, so I’ve updated my post on the Meneghetti wine resort and included some of the restaurants in Istria that were so good to us. I wrote about Secret Wine Door’s wine club – Erwan has been transformative in our appreciation of French wines. We always look forward to receiving our shipments. I’m also overdue on a few updates on my post about Castiglion del Bosco.

I just need to settle down and do it. (Same story, different month.)