At the end of each month, I take stock of the previous month. What went well? What did I learn? What brought me a simple joy? These monthly reports are a way to encourage myself to take delight in the littlest of things. I find that Ten Things I Loved allows me to always see the silver lining, even when there are hard moments in a month. And taking joy in the simple things is paramount to how I want to live, making 10 things an invaluable tool for me. Here’s this month’s simple pleasures.
1. ACUPUNCTURE. After a ragging sinus infection in early December, another one hit me in mid-January, requiring two rounds of antibiotics to wipe it out. Sinus infections are my thing (well, my thing used to be sinus infections, tonsillitis, and bronchitis all at once but I had my tonsils taken out about six years ago, and so now just sinus infections are my things. Note to self: when the ENT suggests concurrent sinus surgery while he’s taking out your tonsils, perhaps you should give it consideration). Anyway, I am crazy determined to not have sinus infections be my thing any more so I’ve been on this big wellness kick all February that has many factors (thanks to all of you who offered incredible suggestions and support– from smoothie-ing to oil pulling, I’m giving everything a try!) including acupuncture. One thing I really like about acupuncture is just the quite hour in a dark room, resting, listening to peaceful music. I’ll like it even more if I go a period of time without a sinus infection.
Katie stops and smells the roses during Run Big Dream Big IV.
2. Run Big Dream Big Kick Off. Every spring, Circle de Luz supporters, our participants, and some of their family members all run a 5k together. This year, we are celebrating Run Big Dream Big V. While the run isn’t until the end of April, we kick-off our training season with a day at Run for Your Life where all of our girls are fitted for running shoes. Then, we do a little run/walk workout and finish up with lunch. It’s always so fun to see the girls pick out their shoes and feel excited about again training for the run. From year to year, they often remember their times and often try to finish ahead of the past year’s time. We also use Run Big Dream Big as a fundraiser for Circle de Luz and typically raise about 10% of our yearly operating budget with this fundraiser. I’ll definitely share more about our work and Run Big Dream Big later this month!
3. Preschool Mom’s Night Out. One of the preschool moms arranged a little dinner out for the moms of the kids in our preschool class and it was just great fun. I had to miss the first one because of a big ole’ stack of grading so I was happy to go to this one and get to know these great women. They are really special and absurdly funny.
4. Snow! I am over winter. Like totally, totally so done that I curse under my breath when I walk outside and I am assaulted by the continuing cold temperatures (I know I am preaching to the choir for most everyone in the US), but I do feel like if we have to put up with unseasonably cold temperatures, we should at least get a little snow so the mid-February 8 inch snow dump was awesome. BF had to work extra during that time but Happy, Lola, and I had a ball. And two of us ate snow cream for breakfast.
5. Childcare Trade Off. We started trading off Friday night dinner time play dates with another preschool family (one night at each family’s house a month) which affords each set of parents an on the early side, childless dinner once a month. The boys are thrilled to play and have dinner together at each other’s houses, and the adults are thrilled to have an uninterrupted, non-babysitter rate dinner together. Win-win.
6. Kettleworx. I haven’t been great about strength training of late (and I really like strength training) and so I pulled out a DVD set of Kettlebell workouts and have been doing them several very early mornings a few times a week before my cardio.
7. Passion. Purpose. Plunge retreats. I love these retreats/sessions, and I am so glad that I introduced a 90 minute option this year. One client and I are working together 90 minutes every month as she transitions into a new professional life for herself. I love seeing people very deliberately create the life they most want to be living and it is my great honor to have the chance to support those efforts!
8. Family movie night. We decided to try and make the last Friday of every month family movie night (barring no other activities going on) and started this month with a family viewing of Mary Poppins. I had never seen it before and did really love it (except it was crazy long- just under 2.5 hours!). Now, Happy and I are singing along to the soundtrack as we drive around town.
9. Three Tales of My Father’s Dragon. Oh my goodness- what a great trilogy to read to your little one. Happy and I love these tales of Elmer and Boris the Baby Dragon.
10. The Husband’s Secret. I really loved What Alice Forgot and The Hypnotist’s Love Story by Liane Moriarty so I was excited to pick this one and while it is much heavier than the other two books, it is pretty riveting. I just had to know how this story was going to turn out.
So, what did you love in February?
