Personal Space: I'm learning it's not worth much in Krav Maga

As the instructor was going over our next move tonight at Krav Maga, I realized I just had to let go and welcome the strangers around me into my personal space.

Newfound Respect for Buffy: My first classes in Krav Maga for self-defense

I have newfound respect for Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

If you’re not familiar, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a TV show in the late 90s and early 2000s centered around Buffy, a high school girl who finds out she is the chosen one – The Slayer. She has super strength and other non-visible but highly effective super powers that allow her to defeat vampires and other assorted demons with the kick of a foot and the punch of a hand. On top of that, she has stopped the end of the world several times. Pretty good credentials.

Crazy premise (and based off a successful movie off the same name) but they must have done something right because it lasted seven seasons, all of which I just finished watching. Yes, I’m a bit of a nerd.

Why do I bring up Buffy?

A relaxing night of cupcake baking: Banana cupcakes + vanilla cupcakes with chocolate chips

For our annual Christmas party with my husband’s side of the family, we were tasked with bringing a dessert. Instead of picking something up at the grocery store, I was inspired to bake. It was one of those days where I wanted to escape, for lack of a better word, into the kitchen. Cooking and even baking have really become stress relievers for me, which is good because being in the kitchen used to be much more stressful!

I decided to spend the night making banana cupcakes and vanilla cupcakes. The former because I had some ripe bananas that were asking to be baked, and the latter because I figured they would be fun, easy and a better dessert option for a party.

On the Road: Top 5 favorite places to eat on Maui

Pineapple tree

I've been meaning to write this post on our favorite places to eat in Maui for weeks now, and while we returned from Maui at the start of November, it's suddenly January! How did that happen?

So without further ado, some recommendations for great places to eat on Maui, in no particular order. Many of these were also recommended by our favorite guidebook - Maui Revealed: The Ultimate Guidebook.

40 by 40: No. 26 – Run a 5K in under 30 minutes

I’ve known I’ve wanted to run a 5K (that's 3.1 miles) in under 30 minutes for a long time now. I’ve been reluctant to add it to the list because I’m not sure I’m motivated enough to do it. Which oddly enough motivates me even more to focus. It makes me mad that in my adult life, I’ve not accomplished this relatively simple goal.

Sausage, potato and kale soup: Olive Garden-style

Venison-pork Italian sausage

As part of our venison haul from my husband’s successful hunt, we got several pounds of sausage. Venison is a lean meat, and so the game processing company mixed our meat with pork and seasoned it Italian-style.

My first question when I saw all that sausage: What am I going to cook with it? I’m not a big fan of sausage myself, and it was not seasoned to be breakfast sausage. I asked my co-worker, who recommended I make the home version of Zuppa Toscana, the potato, kale and sausage soup from the Olive Garden.