Leslie Mason 2023

2023 Yearly Digest.

I’m grateful to be welcoming in the new year by cataloging the important parts from the previous year. It helps me have the right mindset going forward. In preparing to write this 2023 recap, I enjoyed going over details of events that I had already forgotten about. I am so grateful that I hold myself to doing this annual digest, even though it’s more for me than the readers of this blog, because it brings out incredible reflections on the […]

2021 Yearly Digest

2021 Yearly Digest

Having kicked off the new year with a fresh health crisis (is there any other way to do it?), here I am with my better-late-than-never 2021 digest. Looking back over the past year can be bittersweet when you live with chronic illnesses. This year was even tougher as I struggled emotionally and physically with what my children went through medically. However, it helps me remember what I’ve overcome so far as I face a new year. I spent much of […]

2020 Yearly Digest. │ By Ava of My Meena Life.

2020 Yearly Digest.

This year was not one I have been eager to reflect on.  I had to force myself to start the process of reviewing 2020 for my annual digest.  But, once I got started I was rather surprised to remember how many positive things did happen this year.  Writing this digest is always a therapeutic process. There’s not a big trip to share, but we did find smaller ways to travel and enjoy time together.  So much time together.  It was […]

2019 Yearly Digest - Treehouse Vineyards.

2019 Yearly Digest.

This is my fifth yearly digest since my blog began in July 2015, and I really love writing them.  I enjoy going through my files, documents, statistics, and photos to relive the last year – it’s amazing how quickly I’ll forget what happened just six or seven months ago.  When I started writing the digests I figured they would mostly be for my benefit, but over 200 people read my 2018 digest.  That’s not a huge number, but I’m impressed […]

2018 Yearly Digest; Baby Meena underneath the tree.

2018 Yearly Digest.

At the end of 2017, I wrote in my yearly digest that I never expected that year to be so full of struggles and new beginnings. I had no idea what was coming. Pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum.  Being unable to travel, taking small trips, and then a dream vacation.  Lupus flares, pleurisy, immobility, pain.  A new bird, and almost losing my old one.  A newborn, a teething baby, a baby who’s starting to crawl…  it’s been hard and tough and wonderful […]

2017 Yearly Digest

2017 Yearly Digest.

At the beginning of 2017 Mr. Meena and I had been back in the USA, after living in Germany, for less than 100 days.  We were living in an apartment of our own choosing for the first time and generally feeling very conflicted about the direction of our lives.  I guess repatriation tends to do that to you. Now, 12 months later, we are settling into our first house, preparing to have a baby (!!), and feeling much more certain about […]

A Lovely Blog Award + More of My Favorite Bloggers. | Background by Mypik.

A Lovely Blog Award + More of My Favorite Bloggers.

I am delighted that Rhiann from My Brain Lesion and Me found my blog worthy of A Lovely Blog Award.  Rhiann is a fellow chronic illness blogger from the UK who lives with a neurological condition.  I’ve found her blog to be very relatable and also lovely.  One of my favorite posts by her is 2017: A Year for Grace, where she talks about showing kindness to yourself as a chronic illness warrior when it’s hard to follow through. A Lovely Blog […]

2016 Yearly Digest. | My Meena Life

2016 Yearly Digest.

We had a rough start to 2016.  Mr. Meena and I ushered in the New Year from our hotel in Schweinfurt, Germany while trying to understand why all the Germans were watching an obscure British skit. January 1st marked four months since we had arrived in Germany and I was still struggling to adjust to life there.  I hadn’t made any friends in our small German town (Mr. Meena had his friendly coworkers, fortunately) and I felt like moving abroad […]

Introducing One Year Without: A Blog Series. |My Meena Life. Photo by 1llustr4t0r.com via Flickr.

Introducing One Year Without: A Blog Series.

This is the first post in the blog series One Year Without.  See all of the posts here. Today marks one year since we arrived in Germany.  It’s an appropriate time to reflect on something that has meant a lot to us over the past year and had an impact on shaping our future together, which is our desire to embrace a life of minimalism. In order to prepare for our move to Germany we put approximately 90% of our belongings into […]

The Liebster Award 2016 and Some of My Favorite Bloggers.

The Liebster Award 2016 and Some of My Favorite Bloggers.

You could call the Liebster award the chain email award for bloggers, because each nominee passes it on to between five and 11 other bloggers.  It’s also a bit enigmatic; I wasn’t able to figure out exactly who started it (it seems that the original blogger deleted their site), only that it likely began in 2011.  But since the goal of the award is to share the love with fellow small bloggers, i.e. bloggers with 200 followers or less, I […]