TGIF!

Happy Friday everyone! I hope everyone has had a great week and is gearing up for an even better holiday weekend! What do you have planned? Ryan and I are keeping things chill with a lot of college football on Saturday and our fourth and final Cubs game on Sunday.

I wanted to get in some yoga time this morning, but I had a volunteer orientation coming up in the afternoon. One of them had to give, and unfortunately it was yoga. Between balancing commute time and other in-between duties, I wanted to make sure I had enough time to get ready and downtown in a timely fashion. Breakfast included some of Bethenny Frankel's Love Your Man Steel-Cut Oatmeal with blueberries, a side of watermelon, and an iced coffee. Love this oatmeal, man!

Lunchtime would come later because of my orientation at noon. It's time to get involved again and with my current situation, I definitely have the time. When living in New York City, I volunteered with a non-profit organization called iVolunteer, which places individuals with Holocaust survivors for weekly visits (I have one of their widgets on the lower right side of this blog). That was one of the most rewarding experiences in my life and I still keep in touch with Ruth.

But now that I'm in Chicago, it's high time I find my volunteer place once more. A friend recommended Open Books, a non-profit group that not only has the city's *coolest* used bookstore, but also provides community programs to promote literacy in and around Chicago. Volunteers basically keep this organization running and it's very, very cool stuff. In two weeks, I'll be reading with two students at a nearby elementary school, and also have plans to get involved with helping around the bookstore. I'm a book geek in general -- earned my Master's in English Literature in 2005 -- so this will be a lot of fun, I think.

Anyways, once I got home, I reached for my leftovers from Rios D'Sudamerica. Not bad a day later, either.

It actually felt a lot like fall today with the wind and lower temperatures. Many people were wearing long sweaters and jackets. This weekend is supposed to be just as lovely. How's the weather where you are? You ready to give up your flip-flops and shorts yet?

The hubs and I had more leftovers for dinner, too, as we indulged in the last servings of Chef Meg's Healthy Chicken Vegetable Casserole. We also did a quick grocery run at Whole Foods and caught some Criminal Minds re-runs. Quite an eventful evening, eh? I suppose twenty-something MacKenzie would be laughing at thirty-something MacKenzie for not taking on the town every single weekend. Oh well, getting older feels good.

Slacker in the exercise department today. BOO! But on the flipside, I had quite an exciting moment. I tried on a pair of size 10 pants that I haven't been able to wear since before my wedding in June 2009. They fit! I am really excited because I'm finally seeing results. I feel much healthier and energetic with exercise and my new approach to cooking and eating, of course. But fitting into an old pair of pants again is sweet, sweet victory.

Again, Happy Friday and Happy Weekend everyone! Thanks for reading! xx