Author: Vijaya Yalamanchili

I spent most of my early years at my maternal grand parents home. Love those days spent with Ammamma, Mavayya & Tatagaru. I can never forget the love and affection they showered on us(Me & Siri). Ammamma is one of the very smart, intelligent, beautiful and very less spoken lady that I have ever seen. Mavayya used to tease her as Sister of Chandra babu Naidu. She is very innovative in ideas(made cement cups at home to protest drying stuff from crows), fast in everything she does. She got married when in teens, but the way she brought up Amma and Mavayya is incredible. She is very strong with her thoughts and doesn’t tumble a bit in any situation(Amma and Mavayya doesn’t have these qualities 🙁 ).

Remembering those summer holidays – Breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner served and fed by her, all the tricks she did for me to eat more(I apply some of them for Rishi 🙂 ), those extra pounds I gained. Love the Godavari affection, I can never do the way she entertains guests.  I can easily write a book on her abilities…

Miss her badly, Being thousands of miles away, I want to go and spend a week with her just like how I did when I was a kid.. Is that possible at all. I think its an ‘Yes’. Love you Ammamma!

I said so many times and heard form others “I am very busy now, can I get back to you?” That is true, you may be working on something that is urgent for that moment. What I learned is, most of us spend lot of time on what is urgent, but not what is important. One should act on what is important first, but not urgent.

Life gives you all kinds of challenges every single day and very unbalanced. Its one’s conscious decision to choose the priorities and right things for you that suits the needs of the day.

Make a plan and list of all items you need to do for the day, for the week, for the month and long term list. Keep in mind your day schedule may change, you thought one thing as high priority to do this month, but that can change tomorrow. Everything can change depending on the situation you are in. Let’s take the happy path, you have a list to accomplish, rank them. What’s more important takes first row, rest all you should have courage to say with a smile and pleasant face ‘NO’.

The life you have left is a gift. Cherish it and do what matters to you “NOW”. Enough of Vedanta for the day.. keep smiling and move on 🙂

 

Same time last year I ran a Turkey Trot at chesterfield Amphitheater. My first fast 5K- did it in 32 mins. This race introduced me into running and got addicted to cheering and the kick running in crowd.

Did 2 half marathons(13.1 miles) in this year….I never realized I can run that far, big thanks to my training and support from friends. When I was a kid, I always fell off by hitting my legs against each other. I am so proud of myself. The best part of running is stress busting. Heard so many times about runners high, but you got to experience it in person. That feeling of completely down at some point while running and you still push your self to cross your limits. Love the days that I run. That completely resets the brain and introduces new positive thoughts.

All I see is pro’s from running – not a single negative. All you have to do is train in a proper way and dedicate time. Your body will thank you for all you do, to keep it active and healthy. Humans are born to run, but we train it in opposite direction.  Signed up for Frost Bite Series – lets see how the winter will treat my runs 🙁

My main mantra these days is – Run Baby Run & You can do it!

So, you have “Trick or Treating” coming up, need to practice for Veena music class, cleaning home, Laundry, family coming over for dinner…how do you tackle all these things in few hours??

I always get this anxious  feeling of bubbles in my tummy when I think I cant handle all at once. Realty is, right you cant do all. How do you manage then?

List all the things you need to do, and pick Most Important Things(MIT) that takes lead. Trick or treat comes fist in list- can’t let kids down on this.

Then comes the family dinner- very thankful for the weekend cooking, just put rice in the cooker and warm the dishes vola…, dinner ready. 

Cleaning and Laundry will wait – Happy family and crystal clear home doesn’t go well together. Thanks to my husband, that helps with laundry! Cleaning- I did after kids went to bed. The only thing that’s left for the day is Veena Practice, well it took back bench..I signed off for another happy day with a plan to tackle for next day…