Task #2: Go see the Hunger Games

I'm not usually one to follow teen sensations and fads, but I was drawn to this bandwagon. I had heard of these books well before the movie came out, but I had never thought to read them because so many people said they were fraught with violence in a post-apocalyptic world...a far cry from my usual reading material! However, once I heard the movie was announced and the hype surrounding it, I knew I would want to read the books before seeing the film. Of course, I was not the only person with this idea, so when I went to the library there were literally 500 holds on the first book of Suzanne Collins' trilogy. Needless to say I was disappointed. Thankfully, one of my co-workers had the entire series and I read that book in under a week, it was so good! When I finally saw the movie, I was really happy with the way they portrayed the characters and the overall feel of the novel. I'm looking forward to watching the next 2 movies in this series!

~Leah

Sweet Potato Fries

Task #1: Visit a new restaurant!

Honestly, there's really no other side dish I prefer than something made with sweet potatoes. If I have a choice between a side salad and sweet potato fries, I'm bound to choose the fries. I don't know when this love affair started but I'm fairly consistent when I go out to eat. On my list of 31 things to "not put off"I have "visit a new restaurant." So, today I went to Isabella's, a lovely restaurant on the Upper West Side, with the education director at the museum I work at. Usually we don't go out to lunch, but this was a treat for us after a grueling week of folding, labeling and mailing the museum's quarterly newsletter, and what a treat it was! When I saw sweet potato fries on the menu I knew I had to order them. I think I saw the fries before I saw that the entree was a turkey burger, which is another "go to" meal for me anyway so it worked out wonderfully. No matter how much I tried to convince myself to "be good" and get a salad, the sweet, starchy side was calling my name. Needless to say, I ate every bit of that burger and those sweet potatoes (which came with a lovely maple honey mustard dressing) and I don't feel bad about it! Besides there's plenty of Vitamin A in sweet potatoes, so that should balance out the calories. All in all, it was a great lunch out of the office and I can't wait for my next sweet potato adventure!

~Leah

A Task Long Overdue

"Jane Austen", Evert A. Duyckinick, 1873. Via Shmoop.com

Okay, friends, it's confession time. I realize that Leah and I are only a few days into this challenge, but I have to get something off my chest. I'm a self-confessed Jane Austen fan... but I have only finished one of her books (I read Emma in middle school, and I barely made it through to the end). That's right folks, I have seen at least one film adaptation of each of her novels, I quote her words, hold men up to the standards of her characters, but I've never really read Jane's works. Can I even speak of her on a first name basis when I've barely taken the time to get to know her? It's kind of shameful that I haven't even finished Pride and Prejudice since I had something like 80 pages left to go the last time I put it down. So, of course, one of my bigger goals this month is to read the rest of Miss Austen's novels. Unfortunately, I've already hit a brick wall. I started Mansfield Park two days ago and I haven't even met the heroine, Fanny Price, yet. The introduction to the story, which takes all of about five minutes to show on film, has caused me to slip into a stupor each time I try to get through it. I'm tempted to just skip ahead and get to the "interesting" parts. But do they exist? Let's just say that I'm not exactly looking forward to the next 487 pages...

31 Days of Not Putting It Off

Procrastination is a word I both fear and embrace. It's something that prevents me from doing the things I should be doing, but allows me to mentally check out when I simply can't continue being useful. Unfortunately procrastination is like eating a pint of ice cream: tastes great while you're eating, but afterwards you feel terrible and vow never to buy Ben & Jerry's again! This brings me to the point of this 31 day challenge. I first heard of this challenge from a lovely website called Chatting at the Sky where Emily Freeman, the author of this blog, encouraged her readers to embrace a 31 day challenge of some sort, from making a new meal every night to simply enjoying the little things. Thus, after a conversation with my dear friend Amy, I decided that we both should participate in this challenge and make it our own. We have decided that over the next 31 days, we will try to complete the tasks that we have been putting off due to that fair weather friend: procrastination. During these 31 days we will post about big and small things that we do from cleaning our rooms to updating our resume's. Also, since we've both jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon we will also attempt to actually do some of the things we pin instead of just marveling at people we think are more creative than we are. Whether we succeed or fail in our various little tasks, I know that we will grow during these 31 days and we hope, dear reader, that you will be encouraged by what we are doing and may even try a 31 day challenge yourself!

Enjoy!

~Leah and Amy