One Little Word, April 2020

I don't know about you, but I'm in a bit of denial about it being the last month of April. For all that March seemed to last eleven-billionty years, April has flown by. I'm not sure if I'm happy about that or not, but I suppose at this point every day that passes is one day closer to whatever needs to happen to get us back to something resembling normal life.

Today I'm joining up with Honoré and friends to look back at how my one little word for the year, savor, has been playing a role in my life over the past month.

Last month I mentioned that I thought I'd been pretty smart in my choice of word for the year, even though at the time I picked it, I couldn't have known how drastically life would change. I couldn't have foreseen just how much I'd be focusing on small things in life and getting so much joy out of them. Since we started staying at home, I've joined many of you in keeping a "pandemic journal," reflecting nearly every day with a brief entry (and sometimes with a longer one). Following Mary's lead, I've been listing, at a bare minimum, three things I've gotten done that day and five things that have brought me joy that day. Those five moments of daily joy are where I'm finding what I'm really savoring in my day-to-day life now that I'm spending so much of it at home. These have been things like sunshine, working on sewing masks with Rainbow, watching TV with the Mister in the evenings, or joining Zoom calls with other knitters. They seem like such mundane things under normal circumstances, but in the context of my much smaller world, they are true delights.

One thing I know I wouldn't be savoring if we weren't under stay at home orders is running. I've gotten to the point where I truly look forward to being able to get outside every day that I can (provided the weather cooperates). At the beginning of the month, I challenged myself to run the number of miles in a marathon by the time the Pittsburgh marathon (now canceled) would be held on May 3. I don't really consider myself much of a runner, but the Mister and I generally sign up for two local 5K races in the early fall, so when the weather starts to get a bit better at this time of year, I usually start training. Because my weekday schedule is usually packed, I typically only get to run on the weekends, but working from home has actually saved me time because I'm no longer commuting and I can work through lunch and shift my lunch break to the end of the day (4 p.m.), allowing me to get out for a run or walk at that time. I've been tracking my runs the old-fashioned way and here's where things stand as of this morning:

You may need to embiggen the photo to see it, but I didn't just hit a marathon in running miles this month -- I've actually run the equivalent of more than two marathons. If I can squeeze in one more run before the end of the month, I'll hit 60 miles. I also hit a new PR for my 5K time yesterday with a time of 25 minutes flat, which is crazy fast for me. I almost can't believe that it's me who's done all this -- and that I've done it willingly -- but in truth I am feeling really proud of myself, and I know that all this time moving my body has been playing a huge role in keeping me relatively calm.

I have also really been enjoying the time I spend each day working on Rainbow's crochet blanket as part of the 100 Day Project. I spend 15 minutes on it minimum each day, and today I am ready to join in the second colorway of Felici.

Because we are doing okay financially (meaning we're both still working full time), I've been trying to support some small businesses with purchases where I can. Over the weekend I decided to order yarn from Fiber Optic Yarns for the Casapinka LYS Day pattern, and in some small miracle of the USPS, it arrived yesterday.

Did I really need this beautiful MCN yarn? No. Will I savor it as I work with it? You betcha.

Finally, I've really been savoring my reading, especially the past couple of weeks. After reading a few books that were just so-so, the last two have been really excellent. After The Ten Thousand Doors of January, my library hold came up on the next Inspector Gamache book, A Trick of the Light. I finished it yesterday and so enjoyed it. I put it on my SAH Bingo card under "a comfort read" because that's what Louise Penny's books have become for me. I love getting back to those familiar characters and inhabiting the world of Three Pines again. I've already got the next book on my holds list, though it'll be some time until I get it, and I started reading Apeirogon last night. I also borrowed the audiobook of Ask Again, Yes yesterday to listen to while I run, though I had a technical snafu when I tried to start it and only got a few minutes in. I'm excited to get into both of these books in the coming days.

I'm off now to see how the rest of you have made room for your one little word this month. Stay safe, friends!