Would you believe me if I said I'll be on schedule from next month? My intentions are always good but life just intervenes and takes me with its flow, you know? I have been appreciating every moment, though, with infinite gratitude.
February has been pretty busy! I spent most of my time offline or talking to friends. Strangely I also got work done. Of course, like everyone else, I am astonished that we are already in March, but I guess that is how it feels when there's a lot going on!
I am appreciating every moment I have been gifted
Anniversaries, Family, Friends
We celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary! Feels wonderful that we've been together almost half our lives. It has been a pleasant journey, learning so much together, making mistakes and being able to laugh over them.
This year's Feb also marked 11 years without my Mom. We spent the day reminiscing about her, sharing memories and cherishing the fact that we had her in our lives for as long as we did.
Just when we were talking about how lucky we are, we got news of the sudden death of a close family member. We are feeling devastated. Yet again, I realize how important it is to tell those close to you how much you love them and to keep in touch with them as often as you can.
I am grateful for long conversations with my close friends and obviously grateful to technology for making that happen. Imagine not being connected!
It was delightful to connect with an old neighbor via WhatsApp and see photos of her kids growing up. They moved just after her first daughter's first birthday. How wonderful when friends keep in touch! I am appreciating every moment!
I started a new routine a week ago, with intermittent fasting to bring down my blood sugar levels. Which basically means I have an eating window from 9 am to 7 pm including breakfast, lunch and dinner. No snacking in between. What if I am hungry? I have green tea, black coffee, or water. It is interesting how our bodies adjust after the initial few days. The goal is to manage blood sugar levels better and possibly gradually reduce the medication.
I did have a nasty scare in between, though. On Day 3 I had the runs and it just wouldn't stop. At the end of the day, I thought it was the end for me. Grateful that I recovered the next day and I am fine now.
Thanks to the new routine, I am also up earlier. I had gotten into the habit of staying up late, and that's never a good thing for anyone. Even though I didn't oversleep in the morning, the day wouldn't go as well as it should. Glad I am getting back to a healthy routine.
I am also supremely grateful for my fitness classes with Janaki thrice a week.
One thing I am dreading is the visit to the dentist as one of my dental caps came off. What timing! Ugh! I know I can't put it off for too long but I am staying put right now especially with news of a sudden surge in covid cases.
Finally, I finished editing a manuscript I kept delaying and I am about to start a new one with a well-known author I've worked before and I am looking forward to it. Grateful for work that enables me enjoy it from home and appreciating every moment of it.
My son's classmate invited photos of kisses on Instagram and I sent her one of my favorite photos. It was a random shot of my son and me. I am so excited to share it with you - I feel so emotional to see what a great job the amazingly talented Lakshmi has done. Please do visit her profile to see her art work.
Decluttering
This has been the theme for the last two months at our place. We tackled the mountain that was our garage. These days we hardly open it as we don't have a vehicle, not counting the bicycle we rarely use. When there was a drive to renovate all the garages, we decided this was the sign we needed to clean it up. So, ten years of accumulation got sorted, cleared, donated. We're still left with some stuff but those are things we can get into gradually. The important thing is the garage is now renovated and whitewashed.
We also converted our rolling shutter into a door to make it easier to open and close. When I went down to see yesterday, I was so tempted to use it as a study. It looks so nice. Grateful we accomplished something we put off for literally years - and were able to collect smiles from some NGOs by donating a lot of children's stuff - books, toys and other useful things.
I am trying to keep up the momentum by continuing the good work of disposing/donating at home as well. Still busy with the kitchen. I had set myself a deadline of 31 March, but I think it will extend beyond that. Still, I will have made progress and I am grateful for that. I am appreciating every moment of the process.
I have been experimenting with lots of recipes and have put together almost a full cookbook of healthy recipes ... now to post them on my blog. Sigh. I will delay this for sure because I did not always take appropriate photos. Sigh.
Entertainment
I am looking forward to reading a stack of books I will be reviewing in March-April. In the meantime, I've finished binge-watching " Blindspot" and am in the middle of " Fringe ", a sci-fi show on Amazon Prime. It is fascinating. Never thought I'd enjoy something like that! What can I say? I love FBI/police procedurals!
And oh! I finally sent my second newsletter. Do sign up if you'd like to receive a chatty friendly letter twice a month! This time I messed up the schedule but I am planning to be on schedule from now on. Which means around the 1st and 15th of every month.
Feeling rather sheepish about this Gratitude Circle post - I was so touched to see Parul's post " Gratitude List - Feb 2021 " on Facebook about the difference the practice of gratitude has made for her. Thank you Parul!
By the way, active vaccination has started. I am waiting for the initial rush to die down. Have you got yours yet? How was the experience? Did you feel any side-effects?
I look forward to hearing what you were up to in February.
Happy Women's Day to you!Welcome to the February 2021 Gratitude Circle blog hop!
To join the Gratitude Circle blog hop, you can write about anything that made you feel good. It is not mandatory to write about your personal life. Or list personal things you are grateful for.
You have the freedom to share anything that made you feel good. A happy event. Something you saw. An experience. A place. Something that brought you happiness. A lovely book you read that filled you with joy. Anything. I repeat - it need not be personal at all.
- Write your posts.
- Add the badge.
- Remember to link to my post to validate your entry to the linky.
- Add your post link to the linky below.
- Comment and say hello here.
- Smile please!
Thank you for your presence here today ♥