Since moving Minnesota, I've found time to recognize blissful moments every day. Waking up with Rob, the ritual of preparing my French press every morning, unpacking boxes to find framed treasures or a lost pair of shoes, going on a run. There's plenty of time to relax right now, and I'm taking advantage of it.

Recently neuro drinks conducted a study in which they found that 50 per cent of Americans spend at least half of their day stressed out. That's a lot of stress! In response, neuro is urging Americans to join a stress reduction movement with the launch of its BLISS and Tell campaign, which encourages consumers to take time to relax and share their blissful moments. (And when you enter the BLISS and Tell contest and weekly giveaway, you can win a $10K dream vacation!)

Neuro BLISS is light, fruity, not too sweet, and just barely carbonated. It's a pretty delightful little drink. They say it best themselves: "Specially formulated with ingredients like L-theanine, Phosphatidylserine and Chamomile, NeuroBliss can help you stay focused and feel good. And really, what's so wrong about feeling good?"

Use the coupon below to save $1 when you buy one for yourself.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

I tried to fancy up some little pork loin cutlets the other day. I think it worked.

  

Ingredients:

Pork Loin 

(You can cut it yourself or get a package of cutlets from the grocery store.)

One large sprig of fresh rosemary

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

Salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste

Olive oil and grass-fed butter for frying

1. Heat a large pan with olive oil and butter.

2. Season one side of the pork cutlets with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

3. Place the pork into the pan with the seasoned side down.

4. Season the other side, flip them when the meat starts cooking around the edges and the underside is browned (about 3-5 minutes depending on the thickness of the cutlets).

5. Pour applesauce over the pork. Add rosemary. Let other side cook through (another 3-5 minutes).

6. Garnish with rosemary and serve with extra applesauce.

  

It's that time of year when I wake up with a shiver, giddy over the chill in the air and that smell of autumn that may or may not exist outside of my own imagination. I put on a scarf or a sweater, make coffee, and proceed to ignore the afternoon as it warms up, because it's still summer, but I'm ready for it to be fall.

I was running this morning and it was a damp and comfortable 60 degrees, but the sun was shining on parts of the sidewalk and I thought about how amazing it is that I could be running in Virginia (in Farmville or Roanoke or Charlottesville), or I could be running in Minneapolis, and although I am not the same person I was seven years ago, I can feel almost exactly the same at this moment that I did at that moment.

I made a turn on a new loop and was surprised by the smell of coffee coming from a shop on the corner. The coffee shop is right by our apartment building, but looking at it from a different angle; coming at it from a different street, startled me. It looked different, and I felt disoriented. I'm still getting to know my new neighborhood.

It reminded me of the time my old roommate Caroline, our friend Maggie, and I sat on the steps of a building on Longwood's campus before classes started our freshman year. I remember the cold roughness of the cement steps and the sort of horizontal platforms that jutted out on either side, and how later, one afternoon, I walked past that building on my way to something like I always did and realized that it was the same place we had sat that late summers night, weeks before.

I have moved almost every year since starting college in 2006, and each time, it has been at the end of a summer. August awakens a nostalgia in me, and I want to start over in some way every time autumn nears.

The promise of unfamiliar corners becoming ordinary fixtures is something I like. Settling in feels good.