Foolproof Life Lately July 2021

Oh hi, friend! How’s your summer going? I hope you are sipping on a drink with an umbrella and enjoying the sunshine.

Back here in the FPL HQ, I am finding it really hard to sit in front of the computer and work. We are a month away from fall, aka the beginning of the busiest season for a food blogger, and I am trying to take it easy and rest.

Sadly, resting is not my forte. My mind is going 100 miles a minute with everything I should be doing instead. Of course, when one’s idea of rest is scrolling through Instagram (and feeling less of yourself) it doesn’t help.

Please tell me I am not alone.

Backyard/Raised Beds Update

A few weeks ago, one morning we realized that half of our tomatoes were eaten by some animal. It took us a few days to figure out that it was a bird.

The annoying part of it is that he wasn’t eating the whole thing. Instead, he was taking a few bites from each tomato and leaving the rest to move on to the others. As a result, we found ourselves with a bunch of half-eaten tomatoes in our raised beds.

Super annoyed, I asked Google what to do and found out that the best way to deter birds from eating plants is to get a scarecrow or a bunch of flywheels and place them around the tomato plant.

We immediately bought a few flywheels from the Dollar store, placed them around the tomatoes, and voila! No more birds or half-eaten tomatoes.

Don’t you love it when you solve a problem so easily?

What is Working?

• My dad and I are now a team in the kitchen: Have you seen my post on Whole Roasted Eggplants and wondered about those manly hands? Well, they are my dads. He realized how much work it is to take those step by step photos and offered to help. To my surprise, we were able to accomplish so much together. So, now I have a new full time employee in the kitchen. #dadsarethebest
• Updating the old recipes with new photos and helpful tips: Having been blogging for over 8 years, there are so many recipes on this site. I am 100% behind every single recipe, but how we share content has changed so much since 2013. So, I have been doing a lot of updating behind the scenes and it feels resurface some of that old content.
• Thrilled to be a part of  Beko Healthy Kitchen Council: If you do not know, Beko, an applience company, is one of the largest companies in Turkey. They are coming to the US and I am excited to be a part of their healthy kitchen council with 20 other professionals with expertise in design, nutrition, and other areas of wellness. It is exciting to be a part of a group of people who believe that a healthy kitchen is the heart of a healthy home. More to come on this in the next few months.
• Checking off items on my travel bucket list: I won’t be able to share too much about this one yet but at the end of this month I will be visiting the place that has been on the top of my bucket list since the day I moved to the US. If all goes well, you will see a milion photos of it in next month’s life update. So, stay tuned. *** Update: Wondering what this was?**** Check my trip to Alaska!

What Is Not Working?

• Turkey is burning: It has been heart breaking to watch the wild fires in Turkey. The places that I grew up visiting every summer burned one by one. People lost lives, homes, and memories. So many animals died. The lack of government support and resources make it even harder to watch from afar. I can talk about this for hours but I’ll spare you of all the drama. It is just so sad.
• I am not on TikTok: I have been ignoring TikTok for the longest time but it is coming to a point where I probably shouldn’t, because it feels like it is here to stay. I understand that it is entertaining to some but to me, it is a time suck. I just don’t want to spend my time on it watching people trying to come up with the-next-big-thing. Sadly, my job requires me to be one of them and I feel so guilty for not jumping on board.

Shows I am Loving Lately:

In this section, I usually talk about the books I am reading too but lately, I have been in a funk and don’t feel like reading anything. It is bad, but that is the honest truth. I just downloaded Laura Dave’s book, The Last Thing He Told Me, and plan on reading it this month. I hear it is amazing. I’ll be sure to let you know how I feel about it.

• Mozart in the Jungle: I just finished watching this show on Amazon Prime. I have always loved Gael Garcia Bernal since I watched his performance in Motorcycle Diaries. He did not dissapoint in this one either. If you like classical music and New York City, I think you could find it entertaining.
• Virgin River: I watched this show because I wanted something easy and light hearted. It is a modern day love story in a gorgeous backdrop. If you have nothing else to watch go for it, but it is nothing earthshattering.
• Modern Love – Season 2: If you haven’t seen Season 1, stop what you are doing and watch it on Prime because Season 2 is coming on August 12th. Each eposide of this show is a different love story based on the popular New York Times podcast, Modern Love.

That is it from me folks. Enjoy the rest of your summer. I’ll see you next month!

Cheers!

Want To Travel in Time?

If you like reading these life updates, here are a few more you might like:

• July 2020 Life Update
• April 2020 Life Update
• Our Trip To Vieques, Puerto Rico in May 2014
• Vermont In The Fall – December 2018
• Thanksgiving 2021