Sunday Lately: Completing, Visiting, Repeating, Writing, Scheduling

After a little hiatus, I'm back with Sunday Lately, linking up with some amazing bloggers!

COMPLETING...
I'm completing things on my task list!  I use the checklist stickers and stamps a lot for my planner... I'm a list girl for sure.  Maybe once I get the hang of the Happy Planner, I'll share some pics.

VISITING...
I've been making more of an effort to get out and see friends.  I had two weeks where I had lady dates with girls I don't see that often, even though they're local, and they gave me a renewed energy.

Plus, we ate good food.  Exhibit A, tacos!  And fresh margaritas, which I've learned don't give me the heartburn that ones made from mix do.

REPEATING...
There's something peaceful for me about putting some flowers together in a vase.  I'm repeating a similar arrangement I made, but with a different colorway.  I don't like this one as much as the pink one I did, but I like the white cremons a lot.  I don't know what the heck I'm doing with flowers; I just cut them to the same length and insert into a vase a color at a time.

WRITING...
Blog posts!  I'm way behind, catching up on some travels and eats.  We visited Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge over the 4th of July weekend, which I am working to recap!  We hiked to Grotto Falls in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which was a beautiful sight.

SCHEDULING...
I'm finalizing plans for our week-long trip to Quebec coming this fall.  I've booked flights, lodging, and even a few tours.  From everything I've heard, read, and seen, it's like a bit of Europe in North America!  I used to travel quite a bit for work (less so now in a new role) so we were able to get free flights up there.  I wanted to go South, but this whole Zika virus thing has me a bit concerned.

Quebec City, via Wikipedia

What are you up to this Sunday?

Sunday Lately is a weekly linkup hosted by the Blogger Tribe. We e-hang out every Sunday, sharing a small glimpse into the last week of life in our own worlds. 

Freedom, Equality, Justice, and Humanity

I've been working on some blog posts, the usual Always Aubrey fare, about food, travel, and other things I have been enjoying lately.  But the news, the events happening in the U.S. this week, it's got me down.  It just doesn't seem appropriate to post the happy-go-lucky stuff this week.  I'm just sad.

I'm not a political person.  I'm a humanity person.  I'm a realistic optimist.  I'm a social liberal who owns a gun.  I'm a fiscal conservative.  I'm a military Veteran.  An immigrant's daughter.  I'm a crazy mix, basically.  My opinions are all my own.

On Monday, the 4th of July, I posted the following on Facebook:

"I believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for the people, whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a Republic; a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect Union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes. I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it; to support its Constitution; to obey its laws; to respect its flag; and to defend it against all enemies."
-William Tyler Page

We recite this at every official DAR function, and today it felt especially poignant to share! Proud to be descended from a Scottish-born immigrant, who fought for our country's independence, and proud to be the daughter of a first-generation immigrant, naturalized soon after my birth. Both of my lineages remind me of what it means to be American, with equal importance.

Today, I posted more, in light of recent events...

I posted on Monday, Independence Day, a quote that I recite often: "I believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for the people, whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed... established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity..."

FREEDOM to legally speak our minds and to bear arms without fear of being killed.

EQUALITY to be respected for our differences and receive equal protection under the law, not feared or profiled for being of a different race, religion, gender, orientation.

JUSTICE to have faith in a fair system of law enforcement, trial, and punishment, without prejudice, and to have trust in those who have sworn to protect us and keep peace.

HUMANITY, where we are all guilty of faltering right now. When life is stolen from a person unjustly, it is a crime. But it is also a tragedy. We need to remember to love one another, and accept that differences are what make us richer, not what should divide us.

We have abandoned our principles. As someone who once carried an assault rifle or handgun every day for a year in Iraq, a scary place with scary people, I learned that sometimes fear can push us towards prejudice; in those moments, we have to remember our principles, our rules of engagement, and understand the proper reaction or escalation of force. I also learned that we have to have trust in our fellow Americans, even when we sometimes want to doubt, because divided we fall.

If we claim to be colorblind or gender blind, we are just BLIND, because as humans we DO see our differences. Our minds naturally identify the differences. And an eye for eye makes us more blind. We have to accept one another, remember humanity.

We all bleed the same color, trust me. We all cry the same color tears.

What are your principles? Where are they right now?

Josephine

Nashville's restaurant scene is so hot, our little suburbanite family can't keep up... with our stomachs or our wallets!  But when we hear from other folks about a restaurant that is consistently good, we'll get around to it, sooner or later.  That's what happened when we were looking for a date night out and saw that Josephine in 12South had an open reservation.

We started with the pretzel bread, served with mustard, and crispy pork belly, served with tomato sauce, mozzarella, and basil.  Both were delicious!  I think the pretzel bread was my favorite; I wanted to take a loaf home!  And I kind of think (don't hate me) that I'm over my craze of ordering all the pork belly all the time.  I think I've been overdoing it, so I may reserve it for special occasions like a meal at Kayne Prime.  

For my main dish, I was a little more adventurous, choosing the beef cheeks dish.  It was like a tender, rich pot roast.  I'd never had beef cheeks before, so it was a great first intro to a different cut of meat.  I'm not sure it's something I'll crave, but I wouldn't hesitate to try another dish with them.  After all, I ate beef heart in Peru and sweetbreads at Union Common.

We were a little torn on dessert; after all, Jeni's is next door and we don't get to have that very often!  But when we saw that they had a special peach cobbler on the menu, which you had to order 30 minutes in advance, I was like "yes, please" and we made the call.  It was the right one too, as we saw out the window that the Jeni's line was absolutely insane.

Not to mention, you can't go wrong when you order what's in season!

The cobbler was more like a mini pie, served with vanilla ice cream to make it a la mode. It was perfect for two people, and the perfect way to enjoy a summer date night.