Nirupama P.R.V.'s Blog: Catty Opinions of a Book Loving Couch Potato, page 26

Monday Motivation

  

Reading Progress and Why We SHOULD celebrate

In this week’s post, I first thought to share updates on my reading goals for 2018- 25 books.

 

Hurrah! 

Seemed like a nice milestone to share. The year is almost half up, I’m striding ahead on my goals and everything is hunky Dory, right? 

Ha ha! Well, I almost did not share this post. 

Thoughts running in my head in no order of importance but enough velocity to make me NOT celebrate this win, not share this post were :

13 books in 6 months is nothing. Hardly inspiring or worthy to share.
With 25 books as a year’s goal, I’m actually just on track. Not ahead or anything.
Good reads just released interviews and reading tips from folks who complete more than 100 books a year.
I’m an author – I should be reading more.
I’m the female who has done 100 books in 100 days challenge. Successfully! This is so paltry in comparison.
Does this even make sense to share with my fellow bloggers and readers? 

Thanksfully, I squashed that inner critic and instead decided to voice those negative thoughts and make a post out of it. After all, a win in life is a win all right. Big or small, every little milestone is reason to celebrate, to feel happy and cheerful. 

And it occurred to me that I’ve just finished reading  books like’She Means Business’, ‘The Sweet Spot’, ‘Lucky Bitch’ and so on. Time to put the lessons from these books to good use.

And so I am sharing this personal accomplishment. 

A light bulb went off in my head. I realized that this is just like how parents (including me) celebrate the little milestones of babies in their first year, like rolling over, smiling, standing, teething, standing, recognizing. To outsiders they seem trivial or silly, but we know the hard work and struggles that it takes to reach there!

Monday Motivation

  

Chicago in Foot

This is another post about exploring Chicago on foot with pictures.

For Memorial Day weekend, we explored some gorgeous spots on the Lakeshore Drive Walk!

   

 Remembering Heroes: [image error] 

 Clear skies and gorgeous weather ensured that we had a fun time! And if you observe closely, this picture is right next to the Ghirardelli store, which is a regular stop on our every visit! The milkshakes and ice creams are truly rich and delicious! (And yes, the free chocolate samples are always yummilicious!)

  

We also tried a new Asian restaurant- always tricky given my strict vegetarian preferences. But the staff had plenty of dishes customizable for specific palates and constraints.

  

We even got a vegetarian, egg free dessert. 

  

As a mom, I have realized that an adventure does not need an exotic location, fancy toys or special tools. All we need is original thought, a curious mind and a sense of fun! 

What fun spot or activity have you discovered recently? How did you use your imagination to turn the ordinary into extraordinarily fun?

Share your experiences in the comments below! 

Local and Lovable: Park Adventures

Today’s post is a recount is our trip to the local park in suburban Chicago. With summer in swing (you can’t tell so by window right now) it’s time to hit the parks and have some fun! Hubs convinced us to step into the glorious outdoors despite the sun and heat, and were we glad we did. 

Our visit was to the local park but with sprawling greens and gorgeous weather, it was a weekend to remember. If you are awaiting Laura Vanderkam’s Off The Clock, then disciplining my experiencing self helped my anticipating self. 

One of the first welcoming sights was this:

 

 Perfect verdant landscape and the bluest of skies, with soothing water- ahh! This was the life! 

 While Hubs taught the kiddo to bike without training wheels or pedals, I hiked/ jogged. The heat did increase but the place is interspersed with board like these:  

  

There are also nice benches to rest tired feet or read- perfectly captured in this board:

    This sight is one that will inspire me throughout summer to not cave into my experiencing self- a great way to ensure that I savor the little moments. 

 

 This trail is a favorite of mine- as you walk along, you can hear the whoosh of cars zooming in the distant highway. It always reminds me of those lovely lines: 

“What is this life if full of care?

We have no time to stand and stare!”

 

 With this shot below, I encourage you to find your own slice of local heaven- places to enjoy on mundane weekends and make them memorable mini- vacations of sorts!

Enjoy the weekend ahead! Ciao!

Chicago on Foot- Memorial Day weekend trip

One of the things about travel is that it opens our eyes to our limitations.

One such limitatio

Book Review: The Content Planner

This post is a book review of a wonderful ebook I read on content management called “The Content Planner”by Angela Crocker. Its tagline is: ‘A Complete Guide to Organize and Share your Ideas Online’.

 

The book holds true to its tagline and is excellent with its detailed step by step approach to generating ideas and content, sifting ideas, polishing and publishing content. And if that were not useful enough, it even shows how to promote and measure content performance.

The best part of the book has to be it worksheets. Worksheets to create audience Persona, Purpose Statement, Metric Measurement, Brainstorming, Editoraicalendar and more. I found the step by step explanations and chapter wise breakdown of the different stages of content generation cycle easy to digest and follow.

Whether you are a newbie blogger or a seasoned hand, a solopreneur or a team, this book will be extremely useful for your planning and publishing efforts.

Prepping for Summer

What with the Summer vacations looming ahead, we found this splendid book at the Arlington Heights Memorial library’s Summer picks section. And voila, ideas already flowing for a happy, imagination filled summer ahead.

  

How are you preparing for the school holidays ahead? Share your tips in the comments below.

Gorgeous weather is here!

  

Big Little Wins

We all have little moments in life that make for big wins. Personal accomplishments that may be mere trivia to others but giant triumphs for us. 

I had one of those wonderful moments a while earlier when I opened WordPress and saw this notification!  

 Yayy!! 

As a blogger and writer, am sure you fellow reader can empathize. We practically live for such opportunities- where we compete with our own selves! 

With an eye on bettering this, i invite you, my blogosphere friends to comment below and share your such similar moments!