13 Hours of Rain

Here is the update on my Embracing 40 Goals... 1.  Learn to play the piano.  My daughter's lessons are becoming more challenging, to the point that my husband has taken over monitoring her lessons. However, I am still doing my best to learn her key pieces. We are both learning about chord progressions. 2.  Learn to read and write either Hindi or Urdu.  Maybe I need to give up on this goal... I'd like to learn but motivation is lacking. So sad. I even speak less of the language with my children since they are in school most of the time. When they arrive home, I find it hard to speak complex Hindi/Urdu with them. 3.  Travel the world with you two kids and your Daddy.  I still dream of taking a trip in 2020. Though, I become more terrified as the date approaches, especially about travelling in the country of my ethnicity. India is such a difficult place to negotiate. It will stretch our families in ways unimaginable. I believe it will be one of thos...

I checked off one goal on my "Embracing 40" list: Accomplish a challenging physical feat. I ran a 10K on May 28, 2017! I hadn't planned on running any sort of marathon at the beginning of this year. However, a friend of mine desired to enter a 10K race in a neighboring city. She needed a running partner. I agreed. I began my training in March of this year. I utilized a running app entitled "10K Running" by Fitness22 . The app started me off incredibly slow and encouraged me to increase my stamina and endurance gradually. I ran/walked approximately three times a week. I mainly ran outside, but there were a few days in March when I had to resort to my friend's treadmill. My chiropractor, massage therapist and physiotherapist (yes, at my age I often need all three) provided me with various stretching and strengthening exercises to make sure I didn't seriously injure myself. Thankfully, I didn't hurt myself in my training, though race day I ran with ...

Oh boy... I am now well passed the middle of the first half of my 5th decade of life. It is that time of year again, where I look at the goals I set three years ago and assess my progress. 1. Learn to play the piano. My daughter and I continue to learn together. I frantically plunk out the piece and then provide her with pointers when she is stuck. Thankfully, your Daddy learned piano in his youth, thus can assist us when we are both befuddled. (Score: 1) 2. Learn to read and write either Hindi or Urdu. I do not want to even talk about this... Ha, ha... Sadly I have very little motivation to learn how to read the language, especially since we are surrounded by English in prairie southwest. I need to remind myself to even speak Hindi to you two children! Slightly depressing... (Score: 0) 3. Travel the world with you two kids and your Daddy. I have a dream date set: 2020. I originally envisioned taking off a semester to travel. But since our finances are not as promising for su...

Another year has come and gone. It is time to take stock, to ascertain the inventory, so to speak. How far have I come in achieving my decade goals? 1.  Learn to play the piano.  I am in Primer B, along with my daughter. :) We purchased a good quality used piano about a year ago. It cost more to move it than buy it!!!! Both mother and daughter are enjoying the learning experience of reading black notes on staff and translating them to music with fingers. Thankfully, my daughter's teacher allows me to sit in on her lessons. Two-for-one deal? 2.  Learn to read and write either Hindi or Urdu . Okay, okay, this is pathetic. I've moved from knowing 13 Hindi letters to 22 Hindi letters. I still have 14 more to go. I am lacking motivation, I must admit. Maybe I will know them all by next year??? 3.  Travel the world with you two kids and your Daddy.  This is still a "one day" goal. Sorry kids, there will be no trip to Disneyland in this family. Or some Mexican all-in...

I have almost completed my 41st year (which means I will be 41 soon). As I switched from my thirties to my forties, I promised myself that I would accomplish some dreams before I turn 50. Of course, I need God's empowering and equipping to accomplish these dreams. 2015 marks a year of urgency, as our youngest will start school in the Fall, after which I will endeavor to enter the work force again. While I do consider myself quite busy with my daily household duties, parenting and volunteer positions, I know my fairly flexible schedule will diminish as work takes a significant chunk out of my day. So this year, I hope and pray that I will get ahead on some of these goals instead of procrastinating the start. So here are the goals and my accomplishments thus far. 1. Learn to play the piano. No. Not yet. However, we have started a piano saving fund so we can actually purchase a piano for our house. We are searching for a good quality, decent looking, used piano. After the purchas...

It is year in review time. And since my current stage of life doesn't lend itself to staying up until midnight to clink the champagne glasses, I feel the need to mark the moment through words instead. I did a quick perusal of my previous blog posts and read a few of my private journal entries over the year. A few thematic elements jumped out at me. I list them below in no particular order: Perseverance. There were a few incidences over the past couple of years that strongly tempted my husband and I to attend a new church. This is a hard thing to admit in this space, as I know some of my readers frequent our place of worship. So why admit it? Because, let's be honest, as Christians, we do struggle with some element of our church experience, whether it is the preaching, leadership, worship style, certain individuals or groups, theology, vision, etc. And there are times when you wonder why in the world you decided to attend your church in the first place, especially in the fac...

For my 40th birthday, I asked family to contribute funds toward a new DSLR camera instead of gifting me something else. After receiving generous donations to my camera fund (thank you!) and saving for a few extra months, I purchased a brand new Canon EOS Rebel T5 with an additional zoom lens packaged with the price. Yay! I am definitely not a brilliant photographer. But I am above average, I think. At one point in my life, I aspired to be a professional photographer, where I would capture wedding bliss. But then I realized the steps to be really awesome would require much time and investment (and a lot of summer weekends). That's a commitment and goal I am just not ready for yet. Maybe one day. Or not. In the meanwhile, I want discover my new camera, and determine what it can and cannot do. I'd like to refine the art and science my skill and build an informal portfolio. Maybe I'll take a class or two to learn something new. For now, I aim to just play and click and prac...

Well, I made it. I managed to post for forty consecutive days as a sacrifice of praise over the course of Lent. And I must say it has been an enlightening and empowering journey. I've been blessed with several gifts during this season of preparation. I was once again reminded that there is always something to be thankful for, no matter how good or bad my day is unravelling. I had a few rough moments over the course of the forty days. Some days, I felt quite misunderstood. Other days, I felt awful gut-wise. At other moments, I felt the lost of dreams and aspirations and goals. Yet, there were many, many moments in which I smiled at the beauty of the everyday. A preschooler's giggle. A school girl's observations on life. A husband's comical teaching anecdote. The sunshine. Red grape tomatoes. Now we are entering "Passion Week" or "Holy Week" in the Christian faith, a time in history that was incredibly dark and hopeless. This morning during our...

I was inspired today. We found out today that one of the couples that attends our care group is in their mid to late eighties. I would have never thought! I would have placed them in their seventies! This couple is enthusiastic, thoughtful and very dedicated to serving God in their church and their community. They are in good health. They are parents to two children and have grandchildren as well. They actively witness to their neighbors and strangers. They are encouraging and welcoming. I want to be like them when I'm eighty! Yesterday, I had a conversation with my Mother-in-law on a similar topic: how not to look (or act) your age. Recently my Mother-in-law as asked why her and her husband are in relatively good health. Here is some of her thoughts, combined with wisdom I gleaned from the couple in our care group: 1. Be Active. Don't just sit on your rocker and waste away the latter part of your life. Get up. Do something. Go for a walk. 2. Get Involved. Don't thr...

I wouldn't call it an epic fail. Rather a challenging attempt with little compromises here and there. To what do I refer? The diet. The CDEFG-Free Diet. I'm on day nine. And it's difficult. Very difficult. Going Gluten-Free is a breeze in comparison. Even Dairy-Free is manageable. But no grains, no eggs? How does one do our family's traditional once-a-week pancake meal? Or what is supposed to sop up the yummy curry when we consume Indian cuisine? That being said, I haven't given up entirely. I have made several significant changes in the last week. I stopped baking for myself to reduce my grain temptation. I'm in the process of reconceptualizing breakfast and eating things like soup or nuts & fruit. I eat more oven-roasted meals instead of meals that are drenched in sauces. I am caffeine-free. I have completely stopped all my prescription drugs in attempt to truly assess my symptoms and treat the acid reflux more naturally. And I take more naps to let my b...

This year will mark the beginning of a new decade in my life. Admittedly, I approach this milestone with some trepidation. Why is that? Because now I am really an adult. For the longest time, I didn’t feel my age. I was travelling the world when most of my friends were getting married and having kids. I spend many years furthering my education, so much so that at my 10 year high school reunion a former classmate exclaimed incredulously, “You are still in school!?” (mind you, I had returned back to complete my Masters after teaching for five years). And when I did finally married your Daddy, people mistook me for much younger since I was raising infants and preschoolers. Now I am starting to feel old. And weak. Over the past three years, my health has fallen short of the ideal. My body doesn’t function at peak performance. My mind is more susceptible to panic attacks. As a result, my spirit longs for eternal things (which is actually a good thing). I also look at your grandp...