Breakfast Chats: Busy Weeks And Friends Coming Over
Plus some work I'm so proud of
“Breakfast Chats” is a lighter series, where I share short musings and conversational tidbits about life things. It’s a regular, monthly feature that I’ve made open for access, through the year of 2024, to all subscribers, both free and paid.
I started my morning today a little differently; I watered all of my plants. Usually, I make breakfast with Nabeel, but today he took care of it, while I spent some time giving a much-needed drink to my plant babies. Gave a nice, rich soak to most of them, dusted off some leaves, pruned off a few. They look so fresh now. After you give them a little bit of attention, they all look so lush and green.
Anyway, right after I got done, we had breakfast. Nabeel had made smoked eggs and toast, one of my favorite breakfasts these days, and it ended up being a really lovely start to the morning. Anyway, that was my little morning update and now let’s get started on our breakfast chats.
1. A November Of Friends
I’m taking quite a bit of time off this month because I have some friends coming to stay with me through November. In a couple of weeks, Mehwesh and Ahsan fly in from Adelaide to spend a week with us and then one of my oldest best friends, Sumika will be here from Singapore sometime after their visit. These are some of my favorite people and I’m really looking forward to spending quality, face-to-face time with them.
So, these days, in between work stuff, we’re busy making a list of all the things we want to do to prepare our home for them. Like freshening up the house, setting up the guest room, adding those small touches like toiletries and stocking their favorite breakfast items. I’m thinking that I’ll also bring in some fresh flowers a day before.
You know the best part about these friendships is that what all of us want to do the most, is cook and chill together, so they feel like the nicest kind of meetups where your heart feels light and there’s no pressure to do all the things. Just people you love & trust, cosy on your couch, spread out on your living room floor, eating together, catching up. And after a few very busy weeks, this is a reset I’m feeling very grateful for.
2. A Slow Life on Hard Days
Speaking of busy weeks, I’ve been completely off my usual routine for a while now. I somehow ended up having too many work deadlines come together and haven’t had much time to do the things that keep my heart happy. And even though I’ve tried to slip them back in a few times, it’s still a work in progress. Every night I go to bed hoping tomorrow will be different but am back to square one the next morning.
I was talking to a friend of mine about this, that this is one of the biggest things about intentional living. I think when we talk about a conscious and slow lifestyle, a lot of people can confuse it with actually, physically moving slow on a daily basis. But slow is a mindset, not a body movement. A conscious life is not without phases of intense work or chaotic days or moments of frustration and feeling completely off your game. Sometimes it’s work, sometimes it’s family, sometimes it’s just you and how you feel.
But an intentional mindset is about approaching those phases in a way that you can work towards grounding yourself eventually and protect yourself from burnout. Things happen, life is busy and not so busy all the time. But having an awareness for living consciously helps us understand that with everything going on, we also need to take care of ourselves, as a necessity, not as an option. And for our long-term health and joy, it's not sustainable to live a mechanical life constantly.
All these things that we know are good for us, like spending quality time with loved ones, personal hobbies, investing in fitness – all of these do take time, but they also calm our nervous system making us better equipped for life. I know I’m pushed beyond my capacity right now, but I’m also aware that I need to bring myself back to a point, where I have space for all those softer things that promise lasting health and joy.
3. Mango Season
It’s mango season here in Australia. Honestly, Pakistani ones are an elite category of mangoes, the taste is out of this world. But a couple of Australian ones are also pretty great and when you let them ripen up enough, they do satisfy that mango craving when you can’t get your hands on the desi ones here. We picked up some on our last grocery trip and they were so fresh and sweet. Usually, Nabeel cuts them up for us and keeps them in the fridge and once they’re all chilled, we sit together and have some. To be able to indulge in a sweet piece of fruit, I think this will always remain for me one of life’s best simple pleasures.
4. Made with Love
Can I do a shameless plug here? I recently launched a collection of eye pencils with a Pakistani brand that also ships internationally by the way. It’s a set of five colors, and naturally I am biased towards them, but they’re the most beautiful tones and with the most perfect formulation.
I started talking with the brand back in 2021 if you can believe it, and we spent all that time in choosing the best colors, developing the right formulation – one that would last the whole day but also come off super easy when you wash your face. They turned out fantastic and I feel so grateful because they’ve been selling really well.
If you’d like to take a look, I’m linking for you here. If you get one (or all five), I really hope you love them.
5. A Working Weekend
I have a working weekend so not a very exciting or restful one for me this time. But I am hoping I can slip in an hour and do a small DIY for a friend. There’s something special I want to make for her and fingers crossed I can make the time. And while I’m gifting that to her, at this point I think being able to sit down and quietly create something with my hands in the middle of all this busy time, I think it’s going to be pretty much a gift for me first, before anything else.
I think that’s it. I hope you have a good weekend. I will see you back here in two weeks :)
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Music Credit: The music in my voiceover background is ‘Milky’ by Ninn Tendo.