#Life Begins @ ♡40♡!

 

Today is the day! From this one-year old toddler happily sitting  for her first birthday picture, I'm now a blogger happily writing about turning ♡40♡! 

Mini-me smiling on my first birthday!

I don't feel 40, and I don't really know how 40 should feel like. :) If it is suppose to feel great like this, how come some dread the big 4-0?!

Originally, I wanted to make a 9-month count down to my 40th birthday, and thus I created Being Beautifully 40 blog for this purpose. But daily life got in the way of what I thought was a genial and fun idea! 

Today, I changed the blog name (tentatively) to Being Beautifully (in your) 40's because I would like to continue having that blog, and plan to write on thoughts about being in one's 40's, about positive thinking, about how I make an effort to take care of my skin, maintain healthy lifestyle through different physical activities,good nutrition and reasonable diet.

Speaking of good nutrition and reasonable diet, I'm off to get a small cake for teatime :D.  Today is only a simple celebration because mijn liefste P is out of town for his job and won't be back until tomorrow evening.

an image from my birthday cake last year; on my way to get a small one for teatime, since my huge cake will have to wait when mijn liefste P can be there to celebrate with us perhaps on Sunday after my race on the 25th of March @ Zandvoort Circuit Run

We plan to have a proper celebration, with a weekend get away next month! I'll share about it here of course. :)

I do plan to try once again (never give up!:D) to blog regularly if not daily.  Something in me can't give up the attempt at a whole year of blogging.  But this time, I am quiet relaxed about the whole process.  A recent a-ha experience, and a private message from a Pisces soulsistah, reminded me why I write, why I truly enjoy blogging.  

Yes, I aspire to have a big audience for what I  am passionate about. It's a goal to have huge readership.  Perhaps even a validation of sorts from a well established company supporting me with what I write through advertisement and sponsorship.  

What fulfills me deeply though, I have to openly admit, are those random private messages from anonymous random readers, who tells me that I've inspired them with my words, with what I do, and that I've given them something to feel hopeful and positive about in their day. It's a soulful luxury of blogging for self-expression.

What's next, if life begins at 40?!

Onward, forward! I love, and am inspired by this quote that I recently stumbled upon:

Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve the next time. ~ Og Mandino

My campaign for a simple - simplified - life with my family continues.  A simple, healthy lifestyle with lots of quality family time, and shared simple pleasures together and with our friends.

I would love to run faster, but as it is, I am quiet grateful that I am physically healthy enough to enjoy the passion for running.  Training for my first Berlin Marathon 2012 would start next week, and you could follow all about that @ Happy Feet in the Netherlands.

Running and biking are two of many things I could count as personal achievements, since we moved here in the Netherlands, three years ago.

 

My second run on the sand, @ Almere beach, Netherlands

a moment captured by mijn liefste P, as I finished my run and Littlest welcomed me with a big warm smile and warm embrace

an image mijn liefste P caught during our biking tour to Naarden Vesting, Netherlands, which I edited as a cheerful image for when we go for family short trips to Germany

Recently, I revived, The Lightness of Being on the Bike, a blog, which documents personal bike adventures on my own and with my family. I look forward to doing that regularly, too this year.

Finally, I created a FaceBook page, which I called  Paper In Europe, to be the headquarters of all the blogs I write, and a place where I could share writing endevours & projects, and many more.  Please, do visit and like the page, if you share the goal to inspire & be inspired.

Well, I say, bring on the new pages of  life in my 40's! :) I can't wait to ink it with stories of adventures, inspirations, life's lessons and fun!

Whew, Wednesday!

It's been a whirlwind of activities from Wednesday of the past week to today's Wednesday. Time as always was a precious commodity.

Last night, in the wee hours, as my family lay quiet in their beds, my hand flew over the keys of my laptop, and once again I was thankful to have been able to publish a blog at Happy Feet in the Netherlands.  My baby step to recording my great adventure in running my first full marathon : Happy Feet Warms-Up for Berlin Summer 2012.

Still unsure if I would be doing a daily update or a weekly update. I am tending to do a daily one.  Looking around how other runners I admire have done it, and how the runners I've just gotten to know, who are also currently in training are doing it.

Speaking of daily blogs, I still have all the posts from last week's daily photos on draft mode.  My goal of simplifying life simply took priority: sleeping early (not in the wee hours of the morning!); quality time with my family, and simply the need to (semi-) unplug from life online (I still have not completely unplugged for an entire day but I aim to!)

This week is not much different from last week. It will only get busier.

I am currently working up what I hope would be an effective online/home-office schedule for myself to maximize the quality of time I spend online, and writing worthwhile blogs.  More unplugging, and more structured blogging are the goals for this year.  It's something I would love to do a blog series on: unplugging as a trending lifestyle.

Ironic that the more I write and expand my horizon, widen my online network, the more the need arise to unplug regularly.

How do you balance life online and offline?  Could you imagine being totally unplug from all source of technology and information for a day, for a week, a month or even an entire year?

Blue Heart

This month is a busy blogging month!   

I am participating in  March Photo A Day Challenge, brought to life by Fat Mum Slim. Also, March's NaBloPoMo hosted by BlogHer.  And preparing for Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2012 by pre-writing the blogs for next month.

 

Today's photo of the day is something you wore.

I was not planning to share an old (very old! almost 13 years!) shirt from when I was pregnant with eldest; if I am not mistaken, I bought it from Hennes & Mauritz. Yes, it was my maternal shirt.  A favourite. No, I am not pregnant again!  It's simply a nice loose shirt for sweating in when I bike, and  when I run.

The heart-shaped sweat print was cute, so I thought as I removed it to dry myself, and get a new top, I might as well use it for the photo of the day.

Blue is my favourite colour, it makes me happy, free, and liberated.  Not only because it's the colour of the sky or the ocean.  When I was little I felt that colours have their own individual personalities, and blue was I felt a friend.

Before I totally sound insane, let me bid you a good day! :D Here is hoping the rest of your week will be brightened with techni-colour happenings.

What's your favourite colour?  And how does it make you feel?

Snapshot of our 5PM

This month is a busy blogging month!   

I am participating in  March Photo A Day Challenge, brought to life by Fat Mum Slim. Also, March's NaBloPoMo hosted by BlogHer.  And preparing for Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2012 by pre-writing the blogs for next month.

 

Today's photo of the day is  5PM.

It's a short and sweet post for today, folks. :) 

This is a day in the life picture or perhaps more accurate a 5PM in our lives.

I asked Middle Daughter to make sure the Littlest does not fall off with the bike, while I open the shed to store our bikes.  As I was doing so, my sport's wrist watch signalled that it was 5PM. I took the camera out of my jacket's side pocket, and snap this moment for posterity.

Details, details, details.  Littlest almost always fall asleep shortly before we reach home after school.  Middle Daughter almost always has that far away dreamy-eyed look. :D  And the yellow balloon is for P, he needs it for his Super Decathlon.  I forgot why, and how. 

What happened to you at 5PM today?

Start of School's Special Smiles

This month is a busy blogging month!   

I am participating in  March Photo A Day Challenge, brought to life by Fat Mum Slim. Also, March's NaBloPoMo hosted by BlogHer.  And preparing for Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2012 by pre-writing the blogs for next month.

Today's photo of the day is a smile care of the Littlest!

She loves school, and was very excited the night before to finally go back and see her friends.

Here are her different smiles, from left to right:

- Smile at mommy smile, so she will finally stop taking pictures, that I could resume my crafts and focus!

- It's great to be back home smile after a half day at school.

- I just saw two horse-riders on their magnificent horses smile!

- We watched the beautiful white dog at the farmer's yard smile.

What made you smile today? :)

Same Time, Next Year

This month is a busy blogging month!    

I am participating in  March Photo A Day Challenge, brought to life by Fat Mum Slim. Also, March's NaBloPoMo hosted by BlogHer.  And preparing for Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2012 by pre-writing the blogs for next month.

Today's photo of the day should be bedside, I will be recycling a photo again from last year (simplify!), which was from my project 365 self-portraits.  It's fun to revisit blogs because it gives me this sense of rhythmic seasonal cycle, that you would like to have in the country you are creating as your second home.

This image brings me back to a wonderful Sunday we had last year: simple, productive and homey.  I finished with Spring cleaning our bedroom, while P finished preparing and cooking Sunday's dinner, and the girls were pleasantly distracted, busy playing (or grooming as in the case of our oldest this year!).

All quiet chores, all familiar rituals , and something we also are doing a lot this year around this time.

Have you started with your own Spring cleaning? What are the familiar rituals you visit at this time of the year?

P.S. During the girl's Spring school break, we bought a lot of stuff we have been meaning to buy for our home since last year Spring.  The best of those stuff were sleeping pillows! Each and every member of the family is a proud owner of a new fluffy feel good pillow! :D

Three in One Blog

  This month is a busy blogging month!   

  

I am participating in  March Photo A Day Challenge, brought to life by Fat Mum Slim. Also, March's NaBloPoMo hosted by BlogHer.  And preparing for Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2012 by pre-writing the blogs for next month.

Speaking of A to Z Challenge.  Last year, I began my first participation in this blogging event by introducing the village we are living in, A for Ankeveen.

Since today's photo of the day should be your neighbourhood, I will be recycling both photo and post from the 1st of April, 2011, my first entry for the A to Z Challenge, for today's blog.

The entrance to our village, our neighbourhood

Living in the village, for someone like me who was born in a city and almost lived her entire life in metropolises, is like walking in many scenes of various books I have read throughout my life.  It is like being transported in idyllic surroundings of Brother Grimms,  Astrid Lindgren's writings, to name a couple of my favourites.

I am very happy that our girls are growing up not only  with nature surrounding us but learning how to have appreciation of  simplicity in village life.

The badge/insignia of Ankeveen

We are born city mice, now basking in the life of country mice! Living a dream. ☺

Are you living in the place that resembles the one you dreamt of in your head while reading the books in your youth?

2. Photo A Day: Fruit

I am participating in  March Photo A Day Challenge, brought to life by Fat Mum Slim.

Today's promt from NaBloPomo: Would you rather make your own choices or have someone make them for you?

As a rule I like making my own decisions specially if it will affect my life in unalterable way.

But for those small decisions, like what to do with an old banana, when it is one single old banana, I'd rather leave another person to make the decision for me. :P

1. Photo a Day: Up

I am participating in March Photo A Day Challenge, brought to life by Fat Mum Slim.

March 1 ~ Up

P's Super Decathlon finally UP in the sky!

He bought it last year in November , practiced after that a lot on the simulator.

Today he finally, blissfully flew his yellow bird.

I wrote a haiku to celebrate P's joy:

Way up in the sky
a yellow happiness flew
Look up Spring is near

11 minutes of the 1st of March

Yes, I am back at it - daily blogging!

My brain is toast (it's 11 minutes to midnight!). I wonder if I can even write more than a handful of sentences tonight.

But the point of this daily blogging exercise - at least for me - has been to mark a day, to capture the essence of it, whether with a long prose, a single image or only a single word. It's owning the 24 hours, and not feeling that they slipped by unacknowledged...

To describe today, as a single word: rewarding. :)

I have no image yet to share since P has the memory card. But I'll haiku the image I would have shared on this post :D

Way up in the sky
a yellow happiness flew
Look up Spring is near

How was your 1st of March? Got 11 (or less) minutes to share it?