Hi! It really has been a while. Imagine, we’re already halfway through 2024!
We are in the stage where I couldn’t really be on my phone for a long time because our not-so-baby girl—she already turned one *sniff*—has started to explore every nook of the house. My list of k-dramas to watch is now piling LOL I started Queen of Tears last month and until now I’m still in episode 4—all because I couldn’t watch and read the subtitles and make sure that babe is cruising safely.
Anyhow, not the end of the world.
I did mention from my 2024 NY Resolution post that I am going to be more productive this year. Let’s see how much progress I made since—or if I had any progress at all LOL
Reading
Reading replaced my daily binge watching of k-dramas. However, I can only read at night. Again, if I attempted to read while the not-so-little babe is cruising around, I’ll lose focus at both: reading and watching her. Besides, anything I’m holding, she has to hold too. I honestly don’t want her to get a hold of my books because they are my treasures but, if she does destroy one I could just buy a new copy. No big deal.
The luxury of reading is done when babe is sleeping at night. It is a blessing that her bedtime is at 8pm. Because by 9pm, I can start reading until about 11:30 at night. There are times when I have to really force myself to stop scrolling my phone and pick up the book—it is honestly hard to do that especially scrolling through instagram and gossip forums. I also set a goal for my reading journey, and that is to read an hour every night.
Of course, I also take a break. If I don’t feel good at the moment (especially if I’m mentally tired), and in need of sleep badly, I don’t castigate myself for not following through with my goal.
And because I’ve fallen in love with reading again, I made an instagram account dedicated solely for books I’ve read (@_readatdusk). Through this account, I was able to discover new books and series that I put on my TBR pile. And since then, I am accumulating more books than I have ever had before. Which will then, lead me in the future to buy a bookshelf and turn one of our spare bedroom into a reading room (temporarily until we get our basement finished/furnished—which won’t happen anytime soon lol).
I’ve been actually sending feelers to my husband when the KOBO LIBRA COLOUR came out. So on our anniversary back in May, he surprised me with it. At the moment, I’ve also been growing my TBR library on my KOBO.
As of today, I’ve already read 22 books since January. My goal this year is to read 20 books. I was planning to increase my reading goal but I decided to just leave it as is and just increase my reading goal next year. This way I am not pressuring myself to read certain amount of books in a month just so I could reach said goal.
JOURNALLING
I switched writing on my journal in the morning—either after getting babe ready for the day or in the afternoon after her naps. The journalling at night is not effective anymore since I have to lay down with her until she finally falls asleep. By then, I’m too tired to get up and write.
So I decided to switch things around and so far, I’ve been doing great with my daily journalling. Well, except for the day or two when I don’t really feel ok mentally (and physically) and would rather stay in bed all day. Though my weekly faith journal that I’d swore I’d write every Sunday is being neglected at the moment.
As of today, I just got back into journalling after days of being inconsistent. Well, I don’t think inconsistent per se, more like, my toddler does not want me to sit and write. She has been a little bit more clingy than usual and wanted be carried all the time. I’ve been really cherishing the time I am able to sit and write when she’s distracted/playing.
WALKING
I used to workout in our basement using the elliptical and/or treadmill three times a week. But when the weather got warmer last April, I switched this hobby to walking. This is shameful to admit, but it only lasted for a total of two weeks because the weather got absolutely terrible again. It got cold and snowed—classic Manitoba weather. We (babe and I) haven’t been out and walking since April.
However, now that the weather is starting to get better and warmer—the challenge I am encountering at the moment is our waking time at either 0900H or 1000H By the time I am fully awake and ready to tackle the day, the sun is already up and blazing hot.
I know, at this point, I’m just making excuses so that I won’t have to go for a walk LOL But every time I plan to walk in the morning, it always gets cancelled because of the weather. We’ll see.
To summarize, I have been fairly consistent with the hobbies I’ve started last January. I am actually proud of myself for sticking to them. Definitely need more working on the “walking” hobby but that will be an easy fix.
I am thinking of starting a new hobby. However, with the time and energy I have, I think I’ll stick with these three for now. I might revamp my journalling style sometime soon, since I’m about to fill the notebook I’m using for my daily journal.
This is all for now. Talk to you later!
Ciao 💋
