personal style, musings and inspiration
I recently returned from vacation and since I’ve returned, my diet has veered a bit off course from my usual healthy options, so a spring reset is in order. I have my eye on a few cookbooks that are in line with a plant-based diet reset. I’m not a vegan and don’t have plans to become one, but I love veggie centric cooking and cookbooks that are less about deprivation and more about cooking with veggies with creative and innovative ways. Read on to see my cookbook wish list.
It’s the first of March (already) so that also means that my birthday is next week! #PiscesSeason. My birthday is on International Women’s Day (March 8). I figured it was appropriate for me to round up the items on my Birthday wish list…
My morning routine is pretty much set and overall, I’m happy with it. But my weekend routine (particularly Sundays) are a bit all over the place. On a good weekend, I set myself up for success and implement tasks that really help to set myself up for a productive week. On a not-so-good weekend, I do NOTHING and run around at the beginning of the week trying to get stuff done that I should have taken care of over the weekend. Everyone’s tasks for setting up for a successful week will be different. I’m a city dweller and am not currently a caregiver of kiddos or family members. So I can be selfish with my time. But others do not have that luxury, like some of my friends. I know people who spend their entire time caring for the needs of their completely sick parents or spouses. Seeing them spending so much time on it, sometimes I wish they would take a break and let their loved ones be cared for at a respite care center nearby. Similarly, then there are others who spend the majority of their time working on their jobs and spend the rest of their day doing household chores. They start the last day of the working week by saying Friday morning prayer to start the weekend activities, which is often the only break they get in a whole week. It’s a joyful thing to start the day with a prayer to thank God for all his kindness. But here are the tasks that generally set up my weekdays for success.
As a member of the older set of the millennial generation, I remember a time during my childhood/early teens (before the rise of social media) where letter writing was still a thing that people did. I had a love of stationery and thought that letter writing accessories were so fun to collect! On a related note, I LOVED getting cute stationary from Zany Brainy for anyone who remembers that store. I actually had pen pals that I corresponded with on a regular basis. Oh, what simpler times! The only remnant from letter writing that I do still keep up with is attempting to send postcards when I travel for longer lengths of time (with mixed results to be honest). I once had a pen pal in Argentina, it was a while ago now and I wish I had the use of Codigo-postal to get the correct zip code to write to as I’m pretty sure in the early days I sent it to someone else… whoops.
It may be considered a dated practice for many these days, but I still feel that letter writing is important. It’s still a joy to get mail that isn’t a credit card offer or some ad designed to entice you to purchase something you don’t need! It’s still important to be a voice of dissent and notifying your elected officials on how you feel about political outcomes that infringe on civil and human rights. It’s easy to make a positive/personal impact by writing to a politician or public figure you admire when they take an action that you appreciate or respect. It’s still gratifying to send a dear friend a handwritten note on their birthday rather than just creating a Facebook post (no shade to Facebook bday posts, they’re great too!).
Writing in all forms is still an important form of self-expression and I’d like to take the time to write letters again. This may not be a regular occurrence because we all get busy…but that makes letter writing all the more special as a practice. Care to join me?
