84. Host a swap party

I love books. I love wine. What better thing to swap than books and wine? I had a few friends over and we ate, drank, talked books, and had lots of fun. It was a great opportunity to try out some of the fun recipes I've pinned, but haven't had the occasion to make. Mini cannoli, strawberry shots, avocado egg rolls, and more. And it was a great opportunity to find some fun new books to read.
Thanks sweet friends of mine for making this a great night and another check off my list! (And thanks to Matt for helping me prepare all the food!)

25. Golfing with Matt

Well, yet another one will need to be altered. When I put this on my list, it was to do something fun with Matt that we did when we were in college. We played golf. It was a fun memory that I thought would be fun to recreate.

Once again, life has changed this list. Here's the number one thing I've learned from doing this 101 things in 1001 days. Life happens. People change. What you think you'll want to do two years from now may not be something you will actually want to do two years from now.

Matt and I have no interested in playing golf. Or watching golf - not even on tv. So, I'm exercising my right to change this to...

Going to the symphony. The only experience I've had with a symphony orchestra is Pops in the Park. Fun to be sure, but completely difference from the Charlotte Symphony at Belk Theater.

This was amazing. It was a performance of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis. He wrote it when he was completely deaf. He was brilliant with the things he composed when he could hear. Pure genius when he couldn't. There was a huge choir and four soloists (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) and the whole thing was beautiful. The Nicene Creed sung in Latin was absolutely remarkable. I have nothing but good things to say about the Charlotte Symphony. 

The conductor was like a mad scientist. He looked the part. Imagine the conductor in the picture above, but with grey hair. And just a little bit crazier.

My take away: I love the Symphony. I know the difference between a symphony and an orchestra. And I love tapas restaurants (we went to Dandelion Market in Uptown).

And yes, I know this isn't even in the same vein as golf. But, it was something I did with Matt (and a dear friend, CV) so it counts. 

56. Read from 8 - 10, then go to bed

OK, so this one's dumb. I think my reason behind it was to not get sucked into a good book and read until 3am. However, I have 4 young children. I don't have the luxury of sipping tea and reading a good book during the day. Reading into the night is how I get my books read and I will have to embrace that for now.

The question remains...what to do to #56. I'm not keeping it as is. I'm pretty sure I don't even have 1 whole week of nothing to do in the evenings.

It must be changed to something in the same vein or that makes sense. So, I'm changing it to...drumroll please....going to bed at 10 for 7 days straight. This will be difficult. I clean the house in the evenings. I meet with my 2 dear friends to pray for one another in the evenings. I go to book club in the evenings. I do a million things in the evenings that I can't do during the day. I frequently go to bed past 10...way past 10.

Not sure when I'll start...can't be this week. I have bridge on Friday night. We stay up late. Very late. Next week is Ingrid Michaelson concert. So, it can't happen then. The following week I'll need the evenings to get ready for our vacation and get our house ready for the renovation that will happen while we're away. The week after that, we'll be on vacation. The week we get back from vacation, I'll be putting my house back together from the renovations.

Life. Is. Too. Busy.

43. Spend all morning yard saling by myself

I love a good yard sale. I get things dirt cheap that I would otherwise probably never buy. And I love being by myself since I'm an introvert.

So, my sweet and loving husband gave me the morning off of life today to go to breakfast by myself. Zada Jane's + a good book + no one I know = a great morning. Afterwards, I decided to go yard saling. I got some great finds - cross stitch frames for the Pinterest idea I saw that I love (but am totally not paying full price on). I got a bed for my kid's American Girl dolls. I got a Vera Bradley sleep overnight bag for my girls. And a Van Gogh art book. All for $10. Amazing. I might make this a monthly routine - thanks Matt!!

18. Attend a major sporting event with Matt

Background: I dislike sports. Forget the fact that I played Varsity soccer in high school. I dislike sports. Unless it's horse related or the Olympics. Matt loves sports. So, I put this on my list so we could do something together that he enjoys. Because he's done his fair share of wine festivals, rom com movies, and shopping with me. 

Bobcats V Celtics. Celtics won, which is great since Matt's from Massachusetts. And now I can check this off. And while we had a great time together, I think Matt would probably rather do to a sporting event with a dude who can carry on a conversation about the event.

69. Do my Christmas shopping at Flea Markets

I put this on my list so I'd get more creative in gift giving. And to get out of the gift card mindset for a year. I love gift cards. And I'm fine with giving them if that's really what would make that person feel loved. I just want to make sure that's the reason I give gift cards...not out of being lazy.

And I love flea markets. Such fun. So, I went to The Potato Sack Flea Market a few months ago with a sweet friend. I bought for a couple of my family members, but not every one.

The Potato Sack is coming again to Charlotte this weekend (well, Thurs-Sat) so I've made plans to go again. This time, without my baby and on Thursday. My friend and I brought our little ones (super fun, but not easy!) and we went on the last day of the sale. There was still a ton of great things, but I'm guessing a lot of the better things were sold on the 1st day of the sale.

In any case. I'm checking this off now because I've already bought some things and will be buying the rest in 2 days. I won't be able to post pictures since my family may be reading this.

81. Make cookies from childhood

I love family recipes. I love the history behind them and the fuzzy feeling of fond memories you get when you make the recipes.

Like so many families in America, my family is broken. I have a mother, a father, a step-mother, and an ex-step father. I consider all of them my parents. That's 4 different legacies of food.

What I remember from my dad growing up was bags of frozen mixed veggies that we doused with butter in order to eat. It seemed like we ate that, tv dinners in front of Nick-at-Night (one of my all time favorite memories), or Pizza Hut.

My step-dad was a good cook, very gourmet. Of course, being a teenager filled with angst, I didn't appreciate it. I even resented it. I wanted cream of something soup casseroles and take out.

My step-mom is a cook. She is creative in the kitchen. I have memories of her chicken casserole, green beans boiled to death, and her chocolate log roll. I'm thankful she came along and married my dad...for so many reasons. But, the fact that he didn't have to eat tv dinners is on that list of reasons.

My mom cooked ok. Before she met her 2nd husband, she was a single working mom...very busy. So, I don't remember much of the meals from that time. I was also very young. I do have pretty sweet memories of her making me breakfast. Sausage and pancakes (pre-vegetarian days of course). After my mom got remarried, my step-dad did most of the cooking and mom did all the fun cooking. I have fond memories of this strawberry pecan jello. She was the one who introduced me to Granny Smith apples with Munster cheese together. In fact, she has been the most instrumental in exposing me to different foods throughout the years...even today.

When I was a little girl, she made these cookie things. I think they were actually a kind of candy, not really a cookie. All I remember is peanut butter rolled up in some kind of a powdered sugar mixture. I LOVED them. My mom made them and when I was reorganizing her recipes years ago, I came across the recipe, so I copied it.

Fast forward too many years to actually say out loud, and I have 4 little people in my house. I'd love for them to have the same fuzzy feeling over some family recipes. Which is why I put this on my list.

I wanted to make them again to see if I still like them and something I want to pass on to my kids.

No. It's not. I either made them horribly wrong or I liked some pretty horrible things as a kid. Either way, I'll be asking my mom to make them again next time she's in town.

Because like so many family recipes, I can just never make it as good as my mom, step-mom, dad, ex-step-dad.