Spring Cleaning (My Life) | Melanie's Musings
Melanie's Corner
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Mar 30, 2019
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4 MIN READ
You know that time of year - the snow is starting to melt, the air smells different and the beautiful sound of birds wake you up in the morning - spring is coming. With spring comes a natural urge toward change and reinvention, whether it's picking up a new hobby, a vacation to change up the scenery or something as simple as a new shade of lipstick. And of course - there is spring cleaning. Spring cleaning is all encompassing for me - of course I love to clean out my closet (I LIVE for this) and do a nice sweep of the things cluttering my drawers and closets. But, I also use this time to check-in on some of the goals I set for myself at the top of the year.
If you recall, my new years resolution was all about balance and giving other parts of my life outside of work the attention they deserve. Specifically, this includes my health, my family, my own self-care and my relationship with God. So, in an effort to hold myself accountable, how am I doing? I have to say, I'm doing better than expected! Work has taken up SO much of my time and life for the better part of the last two years that this almost seemed like a daunting task. But you know me, I'm up for a challenge ;)
View this post on InstagramSo... something I’ve never really talked about before is having kids and starting a family. A lot of you have asked me, “When are you guys going to have kids?” In truth, Ahmed and I have been “trying” since we got back from Hajj, which was in 2014 - but to be totally honest, every month when you-know-what comes around, I secretly let out a little sigh of relief. How can I get pregnant? I don’t even have time to take care of myself let alone another human. What’s going to happen to my business? How will I juggle it all? Well, I clearly don’t have any answers, and before you freak out, yes, I know I need to seriously see a doctor lol but I’d love to hear from all you mamas out there, do you ever feel as if you’re ready? Are my fears unfounded? #Help #RealTalk #SilentlyFreakingOut #NotGettingAnyYounger #BabyTalkA post shared by Haute Hijab (@hautehijab) on Feb 28, 2019 at 9:23am PST
Let's start with my health - I recently put a post up on Instagram (above) about my fears when it comes to starting a family and while I know this doesn't seem like a lot, it was a *huge* step for me. Thinking about kids is straight up scary and something I've never really talked about publicly. I don't know what gave me the urge, but I'm sure it had to do with putting things out in the universe in order to manifest them to life.
Since that post, I've actually put forth more of an effort to get pregnant, as well as taking the steps to find a fertility specialist (working on finding someone within our insurance network, but it'll probably have to come out of pocket, womp womp) AND, I signed up (well, Gizelle and I both did) for something called Modern Fertility where you prick your finger on a certain day in your cycle and send the sample back to find out the health of your eggs. I wish you could see my face right now. This is so overwhelming lol. Many of you may not realize that I'm well into my thirties! At 34, you hear everything under the sun about having "at-risk" pregnancies so it's all just a lot. BUT - I'm taking it one day at a time.
As for my own self-care, I've done a few things for myself that I always try to get in but never seem to find the time - one of which was getting a facial! I read up on a ton of facialists, estheticians and dermatologists in NYC, and I'm going to try all the ones that piqued my interest one-by-one, starting with Joanna Vargas (I got the Triple Crown Facial). Regardless of the results, it was just nice to get pampered, you feel me? I ALSO went on vacation!!! AHHH!!! I feel like I've been talking about this (or at least the lack of a vacation) forever. Ahmed and I went to Japan!!! (Watch the vlogs here, here and here). It's been on our bucket-list for the longest, and it was everything I could've hoped for and more. (Full blog-post coming soon!)
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Haute Hijab (@hautehijab) on Mar 16, 2019 at 3:45pm PDT
In terms of my spiritual health, I've been attending Suhaib Webb's halaqa at the NYU Islamic Center on Tuesday nights - not every week, but as much as I can, and it's been great. Beyond the spiritual benefit of Imam Suhaib's talks, it's just so nice to be in a masjid-like environment (I say masjid-like because it's not an actual masjid, but more of a community center operated out of the Catholic Center on NYU's campus) and be around other Muslims, all striving to be better people and come closer to God (and one another). I'm also in the final phases of editing my Dad's book on shariah so that work has also been incredibly fulfilling from a spiritual perspective.
I've got *a lot* more work to do, including finally starting to get in that gym in our building for pilates classes and finding time for my 2019 project I hinted about here. BUT - I think I'm off to a good start! How do you spring clean your life? Does this time of year get you thinking about your life goals? Going on any fun vacations this spring? As always, let's kick-it in the comments and let me know if there's a topic you want me to write about in my next post!
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