It was my first time dining in a Michelin star restaurant and La Tour has one. We were in Sancerre for a language school and I wanted to have one really nice dinner in France before we left. We booked a reservation for Thursday evening. We talked about whether we should take the kids and we had a list of babysitters. Mel thought we should take them so they could experience it too, and I am so glad we did. La Tour has 3 Prix Fixe Menus. One of them comes with wine. We opted for the middle one which was 58 Euros for 5 courses. We ordered wine a la carte. We spent some time before we went for dinner, preparing the boys for what to expect. We asked them if they would like to go to a really special dinner. They said yes. We told them they would need to eat with a knife and fork and would need really good manners. We told them there would be dessert. We told them the food would be really interesting and they would need to try everything but they didn’t have to eat what they didn’t like. They were interested to try it out. We had 5 courses plus an Amuse Bouche, a soup, and the tiny dessert at the end of the meal. The courses were: Amuse Bouche–a tiny square of water melon with goat cheese and mint and a homemade crisp with shrimp and sesame. Soup–Cuttlefish with soy broth Salad–simple greens with viniagrette Appetizer–Gambas croustillantes à la noix de coco, nouilles de sarrasin Fish Course–I don’t know what it was but it was gorgeous Main–Cochon de Mr Dougy, brocolis et piquillos (Mel and Emerson got this) Pigeon de Saint Quentin sur Nohain, fenouil et cuisses confites (Xander and I had this) Assiette de fromages, grand classique Dessert–Île flottante, verveine et cerise (Mel and I had this) Fraises melba (the kids had this) Petite Fours–tiny lemon tarts and tiny chocolate tarts We didn’t...
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We had an opportunity to add a stop in Iceland on our way to Paris. Travel tip: If you book on Iceland Air, you can make a stop in Iceland at no additional charge. Iceland can be both wildly expensive or strangely inexpensive depending on how you travel. Almost all of the amazing geological sites are free. Because the country is an island, most of the consumer goods are imports, so if you stay away from shopping you can avoid high costs. Renting a car was interesting given that much of the country is impassable in a passenger car. We kept worrying that we were going to drive into a forbidden area but it never happened. We did see some giant SUVs that take people into the interior of the island. Next time, I want to go in there! We found an amazing Bed and Breakfast called Minna-Mosfell. They are near the Golden Circle and about 45 minutes from Kevflavik airport. The hosts Gudrun and Valur are warm and inviting. Their reviews on Trip Advisor are the best I have ever seen. They have a place with 3 rooms with a shared bath. Their set up is a lovely shared space with a sitting area and a table as well as a small self-catering kitchen. They have fresh home-made bread each morning as well as homegrown eggs, cheese, and tasty treats. We were able to make some sandwiches to take out on our day-trips which made our visit in Iceland so amazingly kid friendly. They provided a picnic backpack and a thermos for each room. This allowed for considerable savings and we ended up eating out for one simple meal each day. Their hospitality was unbelievable. The landscape in Iceland is fantastic. It looks like a moonscape when you fly into to town with all the lava. There are very few trees and when we were there in the summer, it was green everywhere with purple Lupines blooming all over the place. Driving around Iceland...
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To my husband, You are the love of my life. You make my life richer, fuller, more interesting and so full of love. When we decided to join our lives together I had dreams of flowers and romance and making each other happy. And there have been days like that. But the reality of our marriage has been so much more complex. We challenge each other and take on big challenges and lifetime commitments together. We make life changing decisions together. Marriage involves an intimacy that takes my breath away when I allow myself to think about it. You have seen me at my worst and you love me anyway. You have been so incredibly mad at me and still you love me so much. The intimacy of that love year after year is astounding. At every juncture there is a choice to keep committing to our love or to get annoyed, give up and stop. Every time, you choose love. I know you love me because of how you care for our lives. The evidence of the love you have for our family is all around us. It is clear in the way you care for our children and make time for them. It is in the grass you cut, in the swimming pool you maintain, it is in the white picket fence that lines our 2-acre property that you repair and replace pickets for each year. A couple of years ago someone recommended we replace that fence with something that would require less maintenance. I couldn’t imagine trading it in–it is a symbol for me of the love in our lives. Your love shows when you give me the car with the gas tank full and make sure the oil gets changed. We haven’t chosen an easy life, but one full of love and care. You show me that love every day. When we got married, I thought marriage was about love and kisses but what I know now is that being...
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In the early days of our relationship, I used to think if we worked really hard at it, we could make our marriage better. I longed for a relationship where we told each other everything, met each others’ needs and kissed each other madly at the end of every separation. In short, I wanted more. I worked hard to get it and asked my spouse to work hard, too. In retrospect, all that longing wasn’t great for my relationship. Asking for my partner to give me more, didn’t make our relationship better. However, the desire to reduce all that conflict kept us in dialogue and helped us to change our marriage. Instead of asking for more of each other, the phrase that we laugh about repeatedly is, “If you aren’t happy in your marriage, lower your expectations!” After that, Mel always says, “If that doesn’t work, lower them some more.” In our early marriage, I had an unspoken expectation that it was Mel’s job to make me happy. Over the years, I have heard my clients suffer with these expectations. I was in agony and I hear my clients in agony because their expectations are unmet. I had to realize Mel signed up to do life with me, not in service to me. Understanding that changed everything. I watch Mel work extremely hard in our lives and I appreciate it. I realize if there is something around our house that needs doing, then I can do it, or request that he do it. And, as a kind and loving husband, he is usually happy to help with my request. I had to lower the expectations of what marriage should be (I often think of “should” as a dirty word!), and had to start appreciating what marriage is. Lowering expectations has worked wonders for our marriage–and laughing about it hasn’t hurt, either. Not having expectations of the way it is “supposed to be” has allowed us to appreciate the contributions from all of our family...
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