Share 4 Somethings: March 2023

This has been such a fun and wild month that I was taking today to try to rest and recharge and almost completely forgot about Share 4 Somethings!

Something I’m Loving

This was such a great month. Busy but great! I celebrated my 40th birthday and my husband really went out of his way to make it special. One of the best bits was having dinner out with a few other couples. There was something lovely about all of us together without our kids, just enjoying being together. Another memorable part was that my sister took my kids for the day and my husband and I had a leisurely brunch on a weekday. It felt so luxurious to have the time to spend just the two of us on a regular Wednesday. It made me feel young again and have a hopeful outlook toward the future. I love my kids but sometimes I like to think that there will be more wonderful times like this when they are grown. Because I could definitely get used to living more like this.

Something I’m Reading

I’ve been reading almost exclusively fiction lately and it’s been delightful. I’m continuing to go through the three mystery series (Lady Darby Mysteries, Duncan Kincaid/Gemma Jones mysteries, and Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne books) I’ve been reading and it’s been absolutely wonderful. Not that every book has been fantastic but that I’ve been filled full with the joy of reading. Our local library is under renovation so the adult collection is inaccessible for a few months but I’ve been making do with borrowed e-books, reserves from the local library network, interlibrary loans, and even a few purchases from Better World Books. I’ve been reading as often as I get the chance and while it has been eating into my writing time a bit, it feels amazing.

Something I’m Learning
My boss had to listen to a couple of episodes of the podcast At the Table with Patrick Lencioni and I’ve found it helpful on several levels. Especially when it comes to rest and decision-making. Lencioni posits that most decisions (aside from building bridges and doing surgery) aren’t as dire as we make them out to be. Sometimes we just have to be close enough and be willing to make adjustments from there. He also talked in a recent episode about rest, what it is, what it isn’t, and how to make sure we get more of it. (This sent me back to relisten to Kendra Adachi’s episode of the Lazy Genius podcast about the 7 types of rest).

Something I’m Eating

Given the celebratory nature of this month, I’ve been eating all the lovely things I enjoy but that probably isn’t as good for me. We went to an amazing Indian restaurant for my birthday and I could have eaten samosas and pakoras forever. My husband and daughter made my birthday cake (one layer yellow, one layer chocolate with chocolate frosting) which was very tasty. My son and nephew’s birthday was only a week or so after mine so there have been lots of yummy party foods like cheese curls and pizza so I probably need to recenter things a bit going into April but I loved every bit of it.

March was as wonderful as I could have hoped and as I’ve been praying I’ve been embracing the celebratory nature of this year. Not that I’ll be eating cake every day or not doing the laundry, but that I’m approaching this entire year with excitement to celebrate all that God has done and what he continues to do.