Tracking down February

At the end of January, I was a bit disappointed that my foodie side of the blog was under-represented, but February, although the shortest month of the year, was full in tasty experiences. Practically, if you browse my blog entries for this month, you will mostly find a lot of recipe tasting and first and foremost, my first entries as part of the Brand Ambassador for Spice Kitchen UK, a lovely Birmingham-based company I previously worked with, many years back. 

Another foodie achievement was to explore the flavors of turmeric, in the already classical golden milk. 

But the blog also shared my thoughts on (local) dating or advice about how to practice yoga without leaving your office, strongly recommended to all busy business women out there, in search of some short muscle exercices. 

February was for me also a month when I had to keep thinking about how to further develop my business, especially from the technical-bureaucratic level, but also when some unexpected personal events made me think more about life, friendship and family ties. As a dear friend was took to the hospital with a mild stroke, I've spend a huge amount of time visiting, while trying to bring her a bit of sunshine and encouragement when things were starting to look way too gloomy. Fortunately, she is out of any danger right now, with a slow recovery process in the front of her, but all the events that unfolded in the last two weeks were eyes opening and made me reconsider a lot of thoughts and attitudes regarding friendship ties and how we can grow up our family ties and go beyond old misunderstandings and conflicts to nurture warm and heart-to-heart talk.

As the weather went completely crazy out here, in Berlin, Germany, with two-digit below 0 temperatures, I had to be an unpleasant amount of time indoors, cooking, but therefore without a way to explore other possibilities in terms of pitching and topics for my articles. Hopefully, this time is over now and I can go out more often and create more interesting content. For a long time, both me and the baby we fought with the strange flu that seemed to never end, so my original energy aimed at blogging, parenting and working was significantly diminished. But I did a lot of sleep which helped me at a great extent to keep somehow the battery fully charged. 

For the last three weeks, I tried also an experiment of limiting seriously my spendings, as trying to buy only what I really need, while combining wisely the available ingredients I already had at home. I am usually a minimalist, and I hate clutter but this time I tried to think at least twice before purchasing a specific food item, and focus my mind on what I can really do with that specific product. If not, what about not buying it at all? Thank G-d, I do not suffer of any shopping addiction, so it was easy to follow a simple line, but for me also meant that I can rather keep and save money for really valuable investments, such as a great bed for my son. Post detailing my experience coming up soon on the blog.

Last but not least, February meant to me a lot of freelance work, as the frozen and slow paced January was finally behind and people started to get interested in moving on with their business plans. My works involved a diverse range of activities, from proof-reading, the usual translations from and into 3+ languages, a bit of guest blogging, but also some business consulting. Overall, not bad at all, and I hope that this intense pace will continue. 

What March has in sight as for now? As Pesach holidays are just around the corner...there is a countdown I prefer to ignore sometimes, as there is a lot of stress associated with this part of the year usually, I will probably try to set up some recipes and stress-free suggestions. Unfortunatelly, I wanted so much to give some tips for both Purim and Tu B'Shvat, but my everyday life was overwhelming enough to challenge my plans. I would also have some fashion and style posts, probably a feature of a jewelery maker I've had the chance to meet in Berlin a couple of months ago, plus some interior design inspiration too. My posts about beauty tips will also continue, with some reviews of products I've tested and loved. I do have some parenting tips I am ready to share soon and maby some parenting books reviews too!

There's all for now! Let's hope in a meaningful and filled with good news month of March. Cheers to that!

Time to Switch to the Autumn Routine

Spring and summer are my favorite seasons of the year. Starting with the beginnig of March, I feel an air of change and optimism into my life that keeps me company until late September. It is that time of the year when I sleep with the window open, and I love to wake up a little bit late as I spent the evening outdoors, under the carpet of shining stars.

Unfortunately, since moving to Germany, I had to get used with rather cold summer days, coping with unexpected and undesirable rains. I am more than happy with my life here and I easily accomodated with the bureaucracy and even the language, but ten years into my journey and I am still experiencing heartache when I see how a beautiful summer day is ruined by heavy winds and cold rains. However, I realized that little by little I am getting used with the temperatures and there are the ones I used to love - hot 40C summer days - aren't pleasant any more. The last winter I was even able to survive without complaining every singly day that the temperatures don't allow me to leave the house. Sometimes, we need to realize that we are in fact more adaptable then we might think we are. 

In time, I've learned the lessons of different season and short days, which start in September for a long amount of months. I wanted to learn how to better manage my long winters time, because my aim is to make the best of my short life, and following a strict schedule is part of my daily life plan. In the last days, with lower temperatures welcoming me in the morning, and an always earlier hour to start the dark hours, I realize that I should also change something in my daily routine.

Therefore, here are my plans for the next 3 months or so:

- Waking up early, preferably around 6.45 to be able to finish my writing assignments, preferably before the baby wakes up. I realized that I always feel better energized when I have written and published my posts in the morning so, it is a good incentive to have a positive outlook of the day.

- More focus on home cooking, also because I feel that in the summer the temptation is rather to eat out and I still have a lot of cooking and backing skills to improve.

- Keep up with my minimum 60 minutes of walking every day, preferably in the first half of the day or shortly after 14.00.

- Spending at least one hour the day social networking. As a stay-at-home, single freelancing mother, such activities are very important to balance the weight of home-bonding. 

- Spending the evening reading and updating social media channels.

- Never forget that I have to learn each day something new, either improving and learning a new language, or new skills, or writing a challenging book review, or cooking something new, or tasting a new food or ingredient. The list is infinite and it is one of my favorite challenge so far.

I also set up a list of very interesting posts coming up on the blog, so stay tunned for a lot of autumn and winter awesomeness coming up!

Until then,

Happy holidays!