📺 Watching in December: The Wheel of Time, The Expanse
Finished recently: Foundation, Inside Job, The Handmaids Tale (S04), Lost in Space (S03)

Updating my 2021 Reads page and reflecting on some excellent books I have read this year, both fiction non-fiction. I am grateful that I was able to make space for myself to keep reading while on parental leave for the past seven months. 📚

A jaunt down to Morongo Valley for a midmorning sundae from Coyote Cone and a short nature walk in Big Morongo Canyon preserve. Self care for me is slowing down and savoring the day.

Hello! My Micro.blog receipt reminded me how much I miss this space. Here’s a night sky picture from last night while I took a back road home📍Joshua Tree, CA 📷 iPhone SE (2020)

I’m concerned that my dog isn’t comfortable enough 🐕

This scraggly tree in front of our house suddenly burst into a million pink blooms

Happy 15th birthday to my best bud, Marjory 💕🐈

Misty and muddy

📷 February Photo Challenge

Hope in the eyes of my sweet optimistic Peppy.

📷 February Photo Challenge

My sweet pets 💞

📷 February Photo Challenge

Layers of mountains and haze

📷 February Photo Challenge

Daydreaming of sitting in cafe with my favorite morning beverage and some breakfast pie (objectively, the best kind of pie). I miss going places!

📷 Day 2 of the Feb 2021 Photo Challenge

Close up of Cherry’s Famous Rugelah from the farmer’s market. They’re even tastier than they look!

📷 Day one of the Feb 2021 Photo Challenge

Our first snow day here in the high desert, and my first time getting snow at home since I left Washington State 9 years ago. Peppy loved it.

Peppy being a good boy, Marjory snoozing on her heated bed 💕🐕🐈

Another day, another desert landscape. Nice and quiet out there since the campgrounds are closed. Got 3.9 miles in 🥾📍 Joshua Tree NP 📷 iPhone SE

📚 Finished reading The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin, the first book in the Inheritance Trilogy

I am declaring these three months “THE MOVE” since we moved out of the old place in September and into the new house at the end of October. Even a well-orchestrated move is stressful and disruptive. Spending weeks driving back and forth house hunting then weeks in a hotel was exhausting. I took two days off of work on either end and otherwise worked full time throughout. In hindsight, this was a mistake and I should have taken more time. Live and learn.

I tried to stick with my healthy habits and partially succeeded, at least with reading and spending time outdoors. Here are the slightly condensed results:

💰 Financial Wellbeing

Save, Save, Save When the dust settled, this turned out okay.
Spend Less I’m not even going to try to untangle this..

🧠📚 Personal Development

Read Every Day & Finish 44 Books in 2020 & Read More Diverse Voices I completed ten books during this three month period, bringing my total to 42.

• The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu
• The Stand by Stephen King
• Normal People by Sally Rooney
• Small Favor by Jim Butcher
• Ancillary Justice by Anne Leckie
• Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert
• Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson
• Wizard and Glass by Stephen King
• Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie
• The Telling by Ursula K. Le Guin

Complete Predictive Analytics Certificate Program by EOY ‘20 I did it! I finished the Predictive Analytics program in November.

🧘🌲 Fitness & Outdoor Activity

Yoga & Excercise I got completely derailed from any sort of yoga or exercise during my move, but in December this starts again.
Time in Nature This is one area that has actually improved with the move. My new area has super easy access to National Park and BLM land, and I’ve been getting out for some hiking each weekend.
5,000 Steps/Day Despite moving in the right direction with weekend hikes and weekday walks around the neighborhood, these step counts still reflect a sedentary lifestyle. It definitely highlights how not going out for errands or to visit friends really impacts daily movements.

💻🤳 Digital Life

Reduce Social Media Use I averaged around 35 minutes per day on Instagram which feels okay with the trimmed following list and muted story strategy. I would love to get it closer to 20, but I will also go easy on myself as I have been using the chat function more to keep in touch with friends. An hour spent chatting is very different than an hour spent scrolling.

📚 Finished reading The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Ken Liu. I enjoyed his other collection, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, a bit more. But this collection had a handful of super interesting stories that explore the idea of uploading human conciousness.

More desert exploration this weekend. Loving the extra ground clearance on our new 4Runner. 📍 Mojave National Preserve 📷 iPhone SE

Great Conjunction - December 21, 2020 📍 Mojave Desert 📷 Olympus E-M10 Mark II

Desert stuff. 📍 Joshua Tree NP 📷 Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II

I took a day off of work to do some local gift shopping around my town. It was exhausting, but it felt good to put some money into the local economy instead of just shopping on Amazon. There are a lot of cool places around here, and I hope they survive and thrive. My gift boxes are partially assembled!

Also, I got to shower affection on a chonky store cat named Butch. Can’t get that on the Internet 🥰

Did yoga 🧘🏼‍♀️ today after a 3 month hiatus and boy did it feel good!

🌱🌹 doing okay keeping the rose bushes alive, considering I have no idea what I’m doing. The soil has pretty poor drainage, but I don’t think I should try to change anything until the spring….