January 12, 2022

Happy New Year 2022.

 I know it's already mid of January buuuuut it's still January so it's not too late to wish Happy New Year 2022! 💃

To be honest, I'm not sure what to expect in 2022. I more or less know what I need to focus on this year (eat, pray, love is my theme for 2022) but other than that, it's going to be a brand new adventure for me. For instance, I no longer clock out of work on 31 December like the past few years, the only person who was willing to stay back at work while others enjoy their year end break. Nope. I'm on permanent break this time. See, life is already leading me to wherever life needs to be, not the other way around.

Like today, I didn't plan the day but just followed what my heart felt like. I woke up, prepared breakfast for Le Hubby, kissed him goodbye with a quick prayer for his safety, and then I felt like it's time to tend to the garden which is mostly dying, no thanks to our lack of knowledge on gardening.

So I gathered my girls for a morning in the sunshine - Khayla scrubbing the plant pots that I had emptied off, me digging the soil and putting them back in the soil gunny and Khadeeja attempting (then giving up) to sweep and dispose off dead leaves, twigs, branches and whatnots. 

My untidy garden which no longer sparks joy

Sitting outside in the sunshine while enjoying a little breeze, the sounds of birds twittering and the busy train passing by made me feel at peace with my life. 

Such a beautiful weather to tend to our balcony garden

Only back to feeling dismayed at the sight of my pitiful plants, most of them had been attacked by vicious white mealybugs that made the leaves unhealthy and ate away at the flowers. Already I had lost my lady's finger and long beans plants to these sadistic bugs. Even Le Hubby's precious asparagus plants are not spared.

My pathetic plants resembling more of squatters than a neat neighbourhood

Much like how I attacked and cleared out my wardrobe last month, I had plans to do the same to my garden. It's better to tend to a few healthy plants than a variety of sickly and withering ones. I admitted that we had gotten carried away with wanting to experiment planting all sorts of plants (Le Hubby even bought grape plants, oh how ambitious he was!), and with my mom staying with us for almost a year the garden had gotten out of hand (she loves adopting plants and was known for bringing home strange plants picked up during her morning/evening stroll). 

From now on, I thought to myself as I pulled the dead lady's finger plant out of its pot, I will only plant necessary plants - things that we can cook. And one plant per pot, not all you can plant in one pot, I added in my mental note.

My only thriving plant - the kaffir lime (also not spared from the mealybugs)

Maybe tomorrow, if the heart feels like it, I will scrub the floors and empty out more pots. Or maybe tomorrow I will just spend the time reading books after not having the luxury of time to do that for many years - years I spent as a single parent raising two kids in a long distance relationship.

Who knows what life will bring, but I shall nevertheless enjoy it InshaAllah. Alhamdulillah, thank You Allah for leading me to this decision.