I love February. I love the first few days of the month as we celebrate Brainy Bird’s birthday. I love the Super Bowl, and I like the lull in sports between the end of the NFL season and the start of March Madness. I just poured my second, or is it my third, cup of coffee, and I decided to take a trip down memory lane via my blog posts over the years in the month of February.
2014 – The first time that I ever wrote a blog post in the month of February was 2014. I had just started my blog. The URLs for each post are assigned by a post number, and this was the nineteenth post in my blog. I am now on post 2662. I was in the thick of learning to ride a bike, so that I could complete the MS150. MS150 – Post 4 – First Training Ride – Run with me (runwithme35.com). What was I thinking? I am lucky that I did not die in my MS150 ordeal.
2015 – Of the posts from February 2015, my favorite is about Little Chirp’s obsession with soccer. I had forgotten about this. For many years now, his passion has been basketball. I think this is one of my best blog posts of all time, and anyone that knows Little Chirp can relate. Soccer – Brought to Us by Little Chirp – Run with me (runwithme35.com)
2016 – The most noteworthy of posts from February 2016 is entitled, Brainy Bird is Officially a Teenager. This post just brought tears to my eyes. I could hardly believe that he was thirteen. Now, Little Chirp is thirteen. I reflected on the idea of Brainy Bird learning to drive and heading off to college in five years. Since then, I have lived these big life events with Brainy Bird, and it will not be long before I am living these life milestones with Little Chirp.
2017 – I turned forty in 2017, and I wrote about my amazing birthday that my friends brought to me. I also wrote about Little Chirp’s cooking and passion for eating in a post entitled, Chef Little Chirp Still in the Kitchen. Fast forward five years, and the kid is a gourmet chef. Looking back on this post has me thinking that I need to get that cookbook back out, and I need to get back to my 10 Day Detox Diet. Let’s not talk about the number that I saw on the scale this morning.
2018 – It is in February of 2018 that my third child entered my life. At the time, my four-legged best friend was at an animal shelter healing both physically and emotionally from the life he lived before his rescue. Re-reading this post, my hearts bursts with happiness. Potatoe – Run with me (runwithme35.com). Brainy Bird was right, “Potatoe” is the perfect, weird name for a dog.
2019 – The only post that I wrote in February of 2019 was a letter to my mom talking about Brainy Bird turning sixteen. This was our last pandemic free year. This was such an exciting day, and it feels like such a long time ago. This post is filled with so many great memories. I love the closing sentences to my mother in this post, “Always know that you left an important and lasting impression on Brainy Bird in the short time that you had with him. In the end, the only thing that we leave behind that matters is our impression on the next generations.”
2020 – In February 2020, we were living our last days before the shutdown and the pandemic reshaped our lives forever. I was traveling back and forth to Calgary for work, and I would write during my flights back and forth. My posts in February 2020 are largely of a back-and-forth disagreement that I was having with an emotionally stunted individual that I was dating. I decided to stop dating shortly after this. One post does a look back on the last week of February 2020. This post does a great job of recapping life before the pandemic and the shut down – Leap Day – Run with me (runwithme35.com) that loomed just weeks ahead.
2021 – Looking back on February 2021, I feel like this month was a turning point in the pandemic for my family. This month set the tone for what would turn out to be one of the best weeks of my life. Thanks to Brainy Bird, we began taking back our lives as they were before the pandemic. This began with a trip to South Carolina to visit colleges. There are a lot of great posts from this chapter of our lives. I think of all of them, Visiting the University of South Carolina, is my favorite. I still remember what a mess I was, I had gone from a seasoned traveler to a fish out of water in just a year of not traveling. I remember how confident and determined Brainy Bird was to get our visit to the university back on track. His words after our university tour, “I like it here.” still ring in my heart.
2022 – Here we are eight years since the first February posts in this blog. It is a cold, beautiful sunny day. I started my day with a snuggle with Potatoe, my grateful rescue doggie with a perfect, weird name. Our family has so much to be grateful for. I am the happiest that I have ever been in life, and I am truly grateful for the life that I am living.
Onward February!
Thank you for taking this trip down memory lane with me.