Packed weeks

The recent weeks in the recent months (!!) have been packed with activity like nothing else.  Besides being on the run to figure it out better on behalf of son, it has been about trips and activities, physical work, exercise, tons of reading and even some fun stuff.

A Lal Bagh trip was planned and executed…came home with herbs to fill up pots that give way annually or have to be filled because of white fly ravage – thyme, rosemary, marjoram and real lavender (at long last – I have been cheated before and now am much smarter!); replacement plants that didn’t appreciate my focus elsewhere and unobligingly died after days/weeks of not being watered – chinese orange, allspice, the huge jasmine that flowers just enough to perfume entire balconies with a bloom; and dream plants – two huge orchids: dendrobiums that had blooms on them, my patience for growing orchids from scratch having exhausted itself in just keeping two plants alive for the past 2 – 3 years, and a creeper that has orange blooms in bunches.  This last plant looks so awesome when trained on fences/balcony rails/lamp posts.  I have been searching for this for a long time, it doesn’t grow from cuttings, even with root hormone help, et al.

This trip was soul satisfying.  And muscle building.  Came back with full enthu to revamp a garden that was doing well but hasn’t taken well to my lack lustre watering in recent times.  The fact that there’s no external source of water is a major deterrent, I have had to fill bucket after watering can inside and lug outside.  Time and enthu have both been in short supply.  With summer coming by, I either get my act together or forget the garden.  So gardener brought extra person after weeks of threat, pots were moved, mosquies had a field day that night but my pots are cleared and ready to go.

Another soul satisfying trip has been to Chitra Santhe.  Last year was tough – we saw lovely pictures but had gone over budget on home stuff with moving that we weren’t going to get any luxury stuff.  Self restraint sucks.  Being an accountant whose brain won’t quit on bad financial priorities sucks even more.  So we bided our time.  Till today.

See my Buddha header?  Part of a picture that came home today – an acrylic on canvas, with texture and a nice expression by an artist from Haveri called Sunil.  Another painting shall proudly hang in our house – this silhouette of a bullock cart against the evening sky.  Chitra Santhe is quintessential Bangalore to me – people with their hi-fi cameras merging with the regulars bringing their kids out for a Sunday outing, cotton candy with art and sculpture, regular artists and the chiffon clad ‘society’ artists, all on a tree covered, shady street lined with bungalows and apartment, posh hotels and politician residences.  This last Sunday of January, life does stop to incorporate beauty in an otherwise hurried life.  We slowed – the kids and I and took in as much as we could.  It becomes too much in a bit, like museum ennui after too much viewing of priceless stuff.  Stayed within budget, even got a good deal…without bargaining, felt bad to bargain with an artist.  My Buddha beckoned and now with lovely chimes, orchids and green walls, there’s just enough zen in the house.  May it transfer to the inhabitants!

Some awesome concerts, an inter-school sports meet where son won his race, a Republic Day evening spent alone with kids and husband out to dinner, this past week has a lot of activity.  And sleep.  Blessed sleep at long last.  When I am worried or trying to solve something, insomnia comes first.  Disturbed sleep comes next.  Then it is a battle to stay balanced and calm, just when this calm is most needed.

The week has also had lots of reading.  First I finished Devdutt Patnaik’s book and got the review off my conscience.  Then began reading two books on brain development in children, one specific to boys.  It links it all in for me – the problems with TV and junk food, the importance of nutrition, exercise and sleep, actual pictures of brains in action and at rest, studies that show differences between the brains of girls and boys…a full review is coming.  I am sure I will be making a ton of parenting tweaks on the basis of this.

The week has also had me questioning my future – my personal future.  Yeah, the child rights course.  But then what?  Considering I haven’t really cracked the books, I should just be studying versus questioning.  If children and education are key interests, should teaching be a natural choice?  And more importantly, with what I have going on, am I bloody nuts to even consider something more?  I seem to have consistently set academic goals and consistently failed these in the past 10 years.  Still, special education beckons.  Teaching and making a difference child after child gets more attractive.  Shall only take a call after finishing current course.  Still….

A more consistent regime of walking puppy has emerged.  As in husband driven walking of puppy and wife.  He initiates it, I grumble and join in….we are more or less consistent…it is nice to carve out some time for ourselves and get all of us some physical well being at the same time.  Rockstar puppy’s birthday draws near, as does other rockstar daughter’s.  One shall be 2 human years and the other 9.  How?

Yoga has been started for kids and moi.  We breathe and contort, marveling at one person’s efforts and the others’ results.  The kids are so flexible on one hand but can’t seem to touch their toes without bending their knees on the other!  I am consistently not flexible but can focus and try.  Yoga from a young age has helped me, even if I haven’t stuck to it as much as I should have.  Maybe my kids are smarter?

How does one finish a post that is just meandering thinking?  How about one picture that says a lot without words?

Happy Monday, folks!

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