housekeeping

Several things, in an organized list form–as all things should be:

I. Life Updates
I have started week four of my push up routine. I should be on week five. I'm not. Leave me alone. I am not stressing, because I can now do 80 push ups, & my arms are starting to look the part. (Not muscular, but there are lines in them that look nice.)

I have postponed the sit up routine until I am able to by a yoga mat. This was something I intended to do when we first arrived in Nancy. We instead bought these odd foam bedrolls. They were less than half the price. They have since gotten charged with static & caught all of the hairs that fall off of my head. Gross. And they tear when you go into a standing pose; your foot just pops right through. Yum. Since I can't do sit ups on the hard floor without hurting my spine (it was a tough first week), I'm waiting like a responsible, soon-to-be-athletic-again person should.

We don't need to talk about how much I do yoga.

I am also toning down my eating. My stomach has been making really odd sounds, like I swallowed a live dragon. In her memoir, Julia Child talked about the "American stomach" she & her husband came down with: after months of too much rich food, they both got a bit green around the gills. They had to be put on a strict, bland diet for a while. To avoid that (& help keep my belly from expanding to accommodate all the cheese I want to eat), I'm cutting back a bit. Toning down the richness of the diet & hopefully the noises of my stomach.

II. Blog Updates
Joe is really enjoying his new blog. I hope that you guys have checked it out. He talks about lots of great poetry things & has been able to find new journals that he is now excited to submit to.

I also looked at my blog's statistics for the first time in, well, ages. I was excited to see that that yesterday, the blog had more than 50 views. I know I'm still in the humble beginnings phase of blogging, but I would love to show my appreciation to all of you that read faithfully. I would also like to tell more of your stories–invite you to submit posts, pictures or similar experiences; create recipe sharing or collections of our cooking failures & successes.

I can only do this when I start getting some followers. Thanks to those that have already committed to Francofile. It means so much.

If you haven't started following, please do so that we can start making this blog a more interactive experience. Some days, I'm just chronicling my day-to-day details, which is not the most stimulating reading. So help me & become part of Francofile.

Click the follow button & follow the directions. It's super simple, even if you never want to use your Google account for anything else. From there, you can comment (which I would love to see more of–good or bad) or just show your support.

It means so much to us that you're all sharing in our story. Thanks so much.