French Friday ~ Designing My Life

I’ve long been a member (and moderator) of the Yahoo Group, French Chic. Participation has slowed in recent years, probably because of Facebook and other social media options. But several of us are hoping to revive the group because it has, in the past, served an important role in our lives. 

I’ve been doing some thinking about our group motto:

A French woman consciously designs her life, and makes daily choices to carry out that design. 

I need to give some thought to consciously designing my life and I definitely need to be more intentional about those daily choices. You’ll no doubt be hearing more about all this but for today I’m going to be “consciously” cleaning my house. 😉

I’m one of those who functions best and is happiest in a clean and tidy environment. Not obsessively so – I’ve learned to live with less than perfection. And I’m in no way a minimalist. I like to see evidence of life being lived in a house. But this week has involved way more than my usual amount of time away from home and it shows. This was also a poor time for me to take on the project of washing and ironing my kitchen curtains. I’ve only got one of the three windows done. 

So I’m going to put on some music – probably my French music Spotify playlist, La Musique, to start. Then I’ll go about bringing order to my home. I’ve also planned a nice dinner:

Aperitif

First course: tossed mixed green salad with homemade vinaigrette 

Main course: baked chicken breasts with herbs de provence, garlic mashed potatoes, whiskey-glazed carrots 

Dessert: something made with apples (perhaps an apple tarte?) and French press coffee

David has had a crazy week and we are both looking forward to a peaceful evening together. We are going to watch “The Great Gatsby” and then perhaps do a little stargazing before retiring for the night. We’ve had a lot of fun trips, activities, parties, etc. recently but both of us are (more than) ready for a quiet evening alone! 

*Picture at top of post used to be on the French Chic home page before Yahoo changed the page layout requiring a horizontal photo. I don’t know who to credit for the photo but I’ll try to find out.