Ah, February! The month of love.  There’s Valentine’s Day on the 14^th and my husband and I celebrated our 12^th year wedding anniversary this week.  But oh, February, the month of cold and wet and rain.

So, what’s keeping me sane this month?

• We have had a week of some very warm weather and sundrenched days – close to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. This makes me nervous for what spring and summer are going to be but I have so enjoyed the warmer weather.
• The dogwood trees have started to bloom and their lacy white fingers peeking through the sea of brown and teeny bits of light green are gorgeous. Once again, afraid that they are a bit early but enjoying them anyway.
• I have recently started writing again. In fact, I am taking a Creative Writing course at my alma mater and it really has been a life-changing experience for me.
• Speaking of writing creatively, the next thing that is keeping me sane this month is poetry. I didn’t think I liked poetry but due to my Creative Writing class, I am realizing that I really do like it and more even more interesting is that fact that I enjoy writing it.  It is fun to try to express emotions and feelings into this art form and I have found it to be a very healing and restorative process.
• Sims 4 – I LOVE this game. I have loved this game since its first iteration, The Sims” came out almost 18 years ago.  It is only until just recently that I have allowed myself the pleasure of playing it again and it has been wonderful.
• And of course, it couldn’t be the month of love without my mentioning my Hubby. He’s my rock.  He’s my anchor.  I couldn’t do this life anywhere close to well without him.

As usual, I am linking up with Leigh Kramer’s What I’m Into.  There are a lot of people enjoying life over there.  Worth checking out.

It’s that time again! Time to tell you What I’m Into – That’s Keeping Me Sane and as usual I am linking up with Leigh Kramer and her fantastic What I’m Into Link-Up. I love this link-up because it’s great to read other people’s posts and get new ideas to stay sane. Check everyone out here.

• I love my Hubby. His strength and patience keep me sane every day. This weekend, my Hubby and I are celebrating our 10 Year Wedding Anniversary. I cannot believe that it has been 10 years all ready! Wow! I know I am much saner for having him in my life.
• Running keeps me sane and my training has really picked up for the Half Marathon on April 10^th. So far, I have run more miles than I have ever run in my life – including my longest run ever of eight miles. And as I stated here, running on the treadmill has really helped my outside runs. I believe that I am getting faster, as well!
• Writing keeps me sane and I am particularly excited because I have done another Enjoy Life Interview that will post on March 14. I really like doing these interviews and sharing them with you. You can read my first ever here.
• And so far, I have met one of my intentions for 2016 to post one blog post per week. I also posted to my blog 50 times since I started it. I am very grateful to every one of you for reading and commenting. You guys keep me going.
• Reading continues to keep me sane and this month, I read a lot of books (Check out my Quick Lit post for a list). I am 4 books ahead of my target intention to read 36 books this year.
• Reading Laura Vanderkam’s 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think has caused me to reassess what I can do as a new mom. And so I have started working again, part-time, in my chosen field of project management and event planning. This has really help to keep me sane. It’s been three weeks and so far it’s been successful. We have had a couple of challenges as I knew we would, Buddy Man got an ear infection for one, but we’ve worked around them. One upside is that I have to “give a durn”, another intention.
• I have managed to stay out of multiple rabbit holes, The Good Wife, etc. per my intentions but I have discovered another show on Netflix that I have added to my list: The Mysteries of Laura, about a mom who’s a detective and has kids. I enjoyed Season One, and am waiting for Season Two .And I was so mad when NBC cancelled Crossing Lines, a crime drama about a multinational task force unit, in 2013. I was unaware that it was renewed for two more seasons and able to be viewed on Netflix. I have enjoyed catching up.

So what have you been into this February? Do tell.

enjoy life…

After the busyness of my December, and a wonderful vacation with my family the first week of January, my body succumbed to a flu-like virus and had me down and out for the second week of January. I spent the third week of January getting my bearings back. Happily, I still managed to do a few things this month that helped keep me sane.

• I have read four books this month and I am on target for my Goodreads Reading Challenge this year. I reviewed one on January’s edition of Quick Lit. The other three, I will review during next month’s edition. I also completed one category of the Modern Mrs. Darcy’s Reading Challenge. One down, 11 more to go. I am really enjoying my lighter reading fare that I have continued this month. Staying sane.
• I have started listening to Modern Mrs. Darcy’s new podcast: What Should I Read Next.  There have been four episodes all ready and I have enjoyed each one. My To Be Read list of books has grown considerably. I wonder if I may ever be a guest because I would love to hear her personalized recommendations for what I should read next. One can dream (sigh).
• I have made some progress on another one of my intentions for 2016: removing things that are not useful, beautiful, or loved. I used the Martin Luther King holiday to clean out my closet and am moving on to my books in the next week. I am excitedly working on my posts to share with you soon.
• I began training for my half marathon in April. It’s kind of cold for me to be running outside so I have been training on a treadmill. The bad news is that it is harder to run on a treadmill than outside. The good news is that it is harder to run on a treadmill than outside. I will be thrilled when I can take my training outside permanently. Although one time, I got so tired of running on the treadmill, I did take it outside in spite of the cold. But I did complete the miles for the day; very proud! Running again makes me realize that I MUST run regularly in order to stay sane.
• I participated in the Love Notes Postcard Project {14} this month, the first of four rounds this year. I LOVE this project and had the pleasure of interviewing its creator, Jennifer Belthoff. If you missed it, you can read it here. My partner, Susan, was awesome! I loved her postcards.
• My birthday was this week. Received the gorgeous flowers, pictured above, from the Hubby created by Ron and Mark of InBloom Floral Design Studios. They are amazing!

Once again, I will be linking up with Leigh Kramer and her What I’m Into Link-Up. You can check out what other folks are into here.

Let me know what you’ve been up to this New Year in the comments. I LOVE comments!

enjoy life…