Fresh F.I.G.s – Week 1

I hung up my template for the F.I.G. collective next to my work desk, because I figured that way I will not forget about it. F.I.G. stands for finding joy in gratitude. If you want to know more about how this works, head over to Elisabeth’s blog where she explains it all.

We are already half way through week 2 for this week 1 recap, but later late than never I say. So here we go.

February 1 – I re-potted most of my indoor plants and now they have space to grow again. Everything about the process made me happy: having sunny weather to do it outside, smelling the fresh dirt, choosing new pots where necessary, watering the plants after, finding them new spots in the living room.

February 2 – I got a surprise gift today. My colleague cam back from visiting her family in Egypt and she gave me this really awesome canvas bag with a palm applique on it. She has a similar bag I kept admiring so she got one for me. I do have the best colleagues.

February 3 – I was taking the bus home today and it arrived at the stop just as I arrived, too. This usually never happens. Either the bus is late, or it’s early and then I am too late, or it is already full and it does not take any new passengers. So this was really nice.

February 4 – My son fell asleep during German class. So you would think that is nothing to be grateful for, right? It’s not, but I am grateful that he told me even though he knew I would not be happy about it. German class starts at 6:30pm in the evening and he does not like it much anyway so I can kind of understand. But that he was so honest about it really made my day.

February 5 – The feeling of my body being all tired out after gym class.

February 6 – I took my bike to get to work today and the weather was lovely and the breeze on my face was the best. There were birds singing and it smelled like spring.

February 7 – I planted some new plants in my front yard. First I got to pick them out at the nursery and then I got to plant them. I am not a big planner when it comes to gardening. I often just go see what they have, research on the fly and see what works.

Member Night at the SF MOMA

Last Christmas we were gifted a SF MOMA membership so I thought it would be nice to take advantage of the member event they had tonight. It’s free for members and they have music and drinks and you can wander around and enjoy the art. We don’t go out just my husband and I that often so it was a nice treat.

They also opened up the Amy Sherald exhibition (she painted the Michelle Obama portrait which they also had on display). It officially opens tomorrow so we got a little preview.

It was a nice way to start the weekend. I could get used to it.

Do you have any fun plans for the upcoming weekend?

Just a quick fall check-in

Fall leaves

Today really felt like fall in these parts. It rained this morning – like real rain and not just some drops. This always feels huge in California! I love how the trees start changing color and that it gets dark earlier. It somehow seems cozy.

It was so nice to have an extra day off work today. I put it to good use and wrapped my daughter’s birthday presents, some X-mas gifts for family and the kids advent calendar (48 packages total + the other gifts). I still have my friends calendar but was done with wrapping for today. I read a bit, crafted some more, made lunch, did laundry, cut my son’s hair (just the split ends as he was horrified enough to let go of any hair) and had some other chores needing attendance.

All in all a very productive day.

Did you have the day off and did you do something fun?

Morning Coffee Musings

To go cup of Cafe au lait and laptop on a table on an outside coffee shop patio because I am starting work outside today
Morning coffee outside

I wrote something up before in the past couple of month and never hit post. Honestly, most days I am just tired. I feel like I am constantly trying to figure out how to balance it all. It’s a constant. Every new school year for the kids, it’s new schedules combined with my work and the general life stuff (like shopping, cleaning the house, laundry, garden, taking care of my health and my kids’, everything). Maybe it would be easier if I was a list person? Anyway, blogging has been something that fell of the wagon in these past couple of months.

This morning it’s a beautiful day in Berkeley, California. So on my way from the parking garage to work I decided to stop at a coffee shop and analyze some data (for work) and start writing, in the hope that it will be the start to do it on a more regular basis again (for me). I am sorry I have not been checking in much with the lovely people from NaBloPoMo that San got together. It’s definitely not you! Hopefully it’s not to late to reconnect…