Tag: goal-setting

30 Things to do in 2016- Final Review

Hey, It feels nice to be back! We’ve been gone, like, forever! Hopefully, we’ll be more consistent in 2017!

I decided to try 30 new things to do in my 30th year and by the end of the year, I finished only 22. Here’s what I accomplished-

1. Buy a sewing machine 
2. Learn basic stitches
3. Sew a summer dress/ skirt for Medha 
4. Paint a wall hanging for our hall

5. Scrapbook with Medha of her cousin’s visit. 

6. Make a photobook with Medha’s pictures.

7. Make a photobook with Madhav’ s pictures
8. Turn the spare room into craft/reading room
9. Post before/after pictures of craft/reading room project.
10. Bake a cake and decorate it with Medha

11. Throw a handmade birthday party at home for Medha and Madhav- 
13. Read a kannada book
14. Read the photography book Prasad gifted me
15. Complete Spark ecourse
16. Complete Onward and Upward ecourse
17. Have pictures taken with my sister for the blog
18. Write thank-you letters to the most important people in my life ( I know who they are)
19. Volunteer at Madhav’s playschool 
20. Write to a magazine/ newspaper.
21. Visit a National park
22. Learn to drape a saree beautifully
24. Add 10 new followers to the blog ( to make the count 90)
25. Change the blog’s “about” page
26. A weaving project with Medha 

27. A plush doll with Medha

28. A garland with Medha- 

29. Visit a historical monument/palace with the kids
30. 365 days of journaling

I failed to achieve all the things I set out to do. Yet again. Procrastination, as usual, is the biggest culprit; setting unrealistic goals, like journaling 365 days, is yet another; other reasons too contributed to my less than successful endeavor- inefficient time-management, horrible mind-management etc. Ugh! I failed.

Or… Did I? 22 isn’t so bad after all, is it? It is more than half the number of goals I set for myself! If I never set 30 tiny goals or pushed myself to accomplish them, I wouldn’t have tried a single novel thing- I wouldn’t have gained the courage to invest in a sewing machine nor would I have learnt to hammer nails onto a wooden board from my dad, to make my weaving loom.

I’ve learned so much about myself (I love weaving so much! Reading Kannada books- not so much!) and creativity because of this exercise. I would never have learnt that creativity comes with practice, had I not read the book, “Big Magic”, or tried my hand at sewing, even though I had never even fixed a button or stitched a tear myself.

When I announced my intention to the world, my near and dear ones came forward to help me reach it. My sister created a Pinterest board of craft room organization ideas for me. In fact she was the one who suggested I set 30 goals in the first place. She kept motivating me through the whole thing. My sister-in-law designed and bought the photobooks of my kids. My grandma taught me how to sew and weave.

Despite my higher rate of failure, I won’t stop goal-setting anytime soon. So watch out for more for the brand new year!

Love,

Manasa.

30 Things to do in 2016- May & June update

The beginning of school year has been crazy. We are still getting used to longer days at school, packing 2 boxes, Weekly tests and lots of other novel stuff. It feels like my life is totally revolving around the kids and their schools and classes and I am running around in circles all day long, without being able to lift my head up and look at the big picture. And by the end of the day (or even during the day), I have no time or energy or enthusiasm to do just the things that perk me up like crafting or reading or simply enjoying a cup of Tea. Hmmm…

I keep telling myself, like everything else in life, nothing lasts forever; these crazy, busy, fleeting days will pass too. So “hang in there Manasa. You’re doing Great! Just Don’t drive yourself and everyone else up the wall, Please!” 

Hey, here are the things we still got accomplished, despite the craziness called LIFE-

1. Buy a sewing machine 
2. Learn basic stitches
3. Sew a summer dress/ skirt for Medha 
4. Paint a wall hanging for our hall

5. Scrapbook with Medha of her cousin’s visit. 

6. Make a photobook with Medha’s pictures.

7. Make a photobook with Madhav’ s pictures
8. Turn the spare room into craft/reading room
9. Post before/after pictures of craft/reading room project.
10. Bake a cake and decorate it with Medha – We baked a cake for Medha’s Birthday. To make the process easy, I bought a Cake mix from Pillsbury. I made costumes out of newspapers for the kids and we got baking! All 3 of us took turns mixing and folding the ingredients. The kids had fun decorating the cake with frosting and gems. And guess what, the cake tasted great too! 

Handmade costume
to get into the mood
Taking turns…
Want some?

Delicious Cake
11. Throw a handmade birthday party at home for Medha and Madhav- It wasn’t all handmade, to be frank. I didn’t cook all the food or make the return gifts myself, like I wanted to. I bought Poster colors, Paint Brushes, Coloring books and Stickers as party favors so the kids could “Make their own MAGIC”. But still, I enrolled Medha and Madhav in making the decorative banners and wraps for candies. And our friends all had a great time. It was one of the best parties we’ve ever thrown. 

Paper banner
With Scrapbook paper, satin ribbon and markers
Cards with other party favors
Candies wrapped in tissue paper and tied with Ribbon

12. Read “Big magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert
13. Read a kannada book
14. Read the photography book Prasad gifted me
15. Complete Spark ecourse
16. Complete Onward and Upward ecourse
17. Have pictures taken with my sister for the blog
18. Write thank-you letters to the most important people in my life ( I know who they are)
19. Volunteer at Madhav’s playschool 
20. Write to a magazine/ newspaper.
21. Visit a National park
22. Learn to drape a saree beautifully
24. Add 10 new followers to the blog ( to make the count 90)
25. Change the blog’s “about” page
26. A weaving project with Medha 

27. A plush doll with Medha

28. A garland with Medha- Medha, Madhav and I together made a few garlands as part of the decorations for the kids’ birthday party. I wanted to sew a fabric garland, but couldn’t. I will try to make one soon.

Paper Garland
Designed by the kids

29. Visit a historical monument/palace with the kids
30. 365 days of journaling

So guys…. do the best you can with the time and resources you have. And please…. remember to have fun along the way!

Love,

Manasa.

 

30 Things to do in 2016- April update

Accomplished a lot of goals; had a nice, relaxing vacation and turned 30 on an upbeat note! What more can a gal ask for?! I thank each and every one of you!

1. Buy a sewing machine 
2. Learn basic stitches
3. Sew a summer dress/ skirt for Medha – What an amazing thing it is to be able to make your own dress! I sewed a couple of skirts for Medha. They aren’t perfect, with clean edges or proper fit, but they are almost perfect to me! Medha liked them too…. But the girlie girl that she is, she wanted more design in them! Her next ones surely will. I bought a lot of beautiful fabric from Dubai and can’t wait to use them! 
4. Paint a wall hanging for our hall – I thought of making a wall hanging for our hall, but decided not to. Instead, I made a couple for my mom to decorate her new home. The kids helped me make them…


5. Scrapbook with Medha of her cousin’s visit 
6. Make a photobook with Medha’s pictures.
7. Make a photobook with Madhav’ s pictures
8. Turn the spare room into craft/reading room
9. Post before/after pictures of craft/reading room project.
10. Bake a cake and decorate it with Medha
11. Throw a handmade birthday party at home for Medha and Madhav
12. Read “Big magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert
13. Read a kannada book
14. Read the photography book Prasad gifted me
15. Complete Spark ecourse
16. Complete Onward and Upward ecourse
17. Have pictures taken with my sister for the blog
18. Write thank-you letters to the most important people in my life ( I know who they are)
19. Volunteer at Madhav’s playschool – I’ve asked so many times to be allowed to help the teachers at Madhav’s school, but I’ve not been given a chance yet. So I approached an NGO called the Reach Beyond and they let me help under-privileged kids with Reading and Math 2 or 3 times a week.
20. Write to a magazine/ newspaper.
21. Visit a National park
22. Learn to drape a saree beautifully – “With practice you’ve gotten better and better at wearing Saree, Mama”- my daughter has noticed my improvement too! 🙂
23. Watch a play
24. Add 10 new followers to the blog ( to make the count 90)
25. Change the blog’s “about” page
26. A weaving project with Medha  – I got a piece of wood, learnt to hammer nails into it from my dad, prepared a loom, tried to involve my daughter in the actual weaving, but by the end of a couple (maybe more) of hours, we had a pretty mat for my parents’ home phone, a sore back from all that sitting in one place and a Thank you speech by the daughter that went like this- “Weaving is a very difficult thing to do! Thank You!”

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27. A plush doll with Medha – One for the kids and one for my beautiful sister to remind her to “KEEP MAKING”, even though it may not turn not as well as planned.

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28. A garland with Medha
29. Visit a historical monument/palace with the kids
30. 365 days of journaling

Here’s to more DOING and less procrastinating!

Love,

Manasa.

 

Love,

Manasa.

30 Things to do in 2016- March update

We are busy around here, but this is GOOD busy! We’ve been doing a ton of projects, attending Birthday parties, preparing for school activities and slowly but consistently finishing tasks off our to-do lists. I felt much more productive in March than in the month before. I guess It’s because I didn’t force myself to do things I simply didn’t feel like doing, and started my day with journaling. Both these exercises (one mental and the other, physical) helped me deal with the craziness called Life this past month.

Here are the things I’ve accomplished till now-

1. Buy a sewing machine  – This one should have been the easiest, right? But it wasn’t. Buying a sewing machine is a big investment; Maybe not too big for some, but I wasn’t sure I would put it to good use. Now that I bought this, I’ve been using it regularly! Love my new machine! 
2. Learn basic stitches– It’s so easy with the machine, even for a beginner like me. Just read the manual thoroughly. And practice, Every Single Day!
3. Sew a summer dress/ skirt for Medha
4. Paint a wall hanging for our hall
5. Scrapbook with Medha of her cousin’s visit – This one brought me such joy!
6. Make a photobook with Medha’s pictures.
7. Make a photobook with Madhav’ s pictures
8. Turn the spare room into craft/reading room
9. Post before/after pictures of craft/reading room project.
10. Bake a cake and decorate it with Medha
11. Throw a handmade birthday party at home for Medha and Madhav
12. Read “Big magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert– Had saved this one for the end, but HAD to dive into it. I was desperate for some Magic! And boy did I find it!
13. Read a kannada book – this one is taking me forever to finish!
14. Read the photography book Prasad gifted me
15. Complete Spark ecourse – Finished this one and mailed Kam, its author, too, to let her know my thoughts. She’s awesome and the course is awesome. It did help me rekindle my lost “Spark”.
16. Complete Onward and Upward ecourse– working on this one now.
17. Have pictures taken with my sister for the blog – did you see the new “about us” on the sidebar?
18. Write thank-you letters to the most important people in my life ( I know who they are) – this one gave me such joy. I am who I am because of these people and a few others too. I can’t possibly write to each one of you, right? But hey, Thank you!
19. Volunteer at Madhav’s playschool
20. Write to a magazine/ newspaper.
21. Visit a National park – read about it here and here.
22. Learn to drape a saree beautifully
23. Watch a play
24. Add 10 new followers to the blog ( to make the count 90) – Yay! We did it!
25. Change the blog’s “about” page
26. A weaving project with Medha
27. A plush doll with Medha
28. A garland with Medha
29. Visit a historical monument/palace with the kids
30. 365 days of journaling – March was awesome for journaling! Hope April goes the same way!

Love,

Manasa.

Around here (03/16)

  • I can’t believe Medha is in First Grade already! It only feels like I got her enrolled into Nursery a few months ago! She’s super-excited about her new class, new subjects and new friends. I hope this love remains when she starts having weekly tests and school until 3 in the afternoon! Poor kiddo!
My Favorite Animal is Lion
My Favorite Animal is Lion
  • I used to be paranoid about keeping her White (!!!?!?) uniforms spotless and bright, but not anymore! Who cares if there are a few squiggly pencil marks or a dull splotch of ketchup on them?! Not me! Why drive myself even crazier than I already am?! It only matters to me that she is happy and safe… nothing else! Or so I tell myself…
  • It’s raining Birthday Parties here and we are having a grand time attending each one! It just melts my heart when the kids come and thank me for taking me to parties! I swear they do! Even the littlest one has just one thing to ask as soon as he gets up- “Where are we going today? Party?”
  • Madhav is enjoying playing memory games and preschooler games on my tab. This guy is so patient. He’ll keep working on something until he has it nailed down- like drawing circles to make tires of a car, sorting toys or socks and arranging them in proper places, etc..
  • I’m journaling everyday (I hope I’m not jinxing this by proclaiming it to the world!) the first thing in the morning, and I love how clean my mind feels and how empty (in a good way) my head feels after I’ve dumped all that sh*t on paper.
  • It’s so so hot here, it’s crazy! We’re trying to beat the heat by staying indoors as much as possible, drinking lots of Lemon and Mint juice, sitting under the fan and slathering sunscreen when heading out.
  • I’m getting better and better at wearing Sarees, even Medha has noticed my progress! The other day, after I wore one for a function (Why have functions when it is this hot?!) she tells me “You’re getting better at this mama. If you keep practicing more and more, you’ll get it!” Talk about bouncing my own lines back to me!
  • I bought a sewing machine. Yay! And I’m practising on it everyday. Learned how to thread the bobbin and the machine, read the whole manual, learning the basic stitches, stitched a small bag (that everybody made fun of, but which I’ll keep as a reminder of my beginnings at sewing) and just trying to do SOMETHING at the machine every single day.
  • Watched 3 movies- Loved one (Zootopia), In awe of another (The Revenant) and still figuring out what the heck the latest one was about (Batman Vs. Superman)
Movie time, Snack time!
Movie time, Snack time!
  • Tried my hand at Scratch Art. It was fun! Will be doing more whenever I find time-

Scratch Art
Scratch Art
  • Most of the time the kids fight like Tom and Jerry!
Sibling love
Sibling love

Such affectionate moments are few and far between…. And watching them makes me want to just hold them tight and smother’em with kisses!

  • There’s nothing like staying home, away from the harsh sun! So we aren’t traveling much. We went to Kothagudem on a Business trip and were too happy to be back home!
Badrachalam Temple vicinity
Badrachalam Temple vicinity
  •  Waiting for Madhurya to get back from a vacation and share her big news with you all… 🙂

I hope all is well with you guys…

Love,

Manasa.

30 Things to do in 2016- February update

February was crazy and not just because of Medha’s exams; I was feeling kinda crazy too. I lost my appetite, felt tired most of the time, lost interest in everything that normally excites me; In short, I wasn’t myself! And not being yourself is the worst thing you can be, I tell you. But I got through it, gradually, with help from family; And by giving  myself time and space to heal.

I found that for the duration of working on a hands-on project, like Scrapbooking, I felt sane, relaxed and, even, joyful. Giving my hands something to do and my mind something other than itself to focus on, is the best way to calm my anxieties and get me out of a funk, I realized.

I accomplished quite a few things, despite the dullness. Here’s an update of my “30 things to do in 2016”-

1. Buy a sewing machine
2. Learn basic stitches
3. Sew a summer dress/ skirt for Medha
4. Paint a wall hanging for our hall
5. Scrapbook with Medha of her cousin’s visit – This one brought me such joy!
6. Make a photobook with Medha’s pictures.
7. Make a photobook with Madhav’ s pictures
8. Turn the spare room into craft/reading room
9. Post before/after pictures of craft/reading room project.
10. Bake a cake and decorate it with Medha
11. Throw a handmade birthday party at home for Medha and Madhav
12. Read “Big magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert– Had saved this one for the end, but HAD to dive into it. I was desperate for some Magic! And boy did I find it!
13. Read a kannada book – this one is taking me forever to finish!
14. Read the photography book Prasad gifted me
15. Complete Spark ecourse – Finished this one and mailed Kam, its author, too, to let her know my thoughts. She’s awesome and the course is awesome. It did help me rekindle my lost “Spark”.
16. Complete Onward and Upward ecourse– working on this one now.
17. Have pictures taken with my sister for the blog – did you see the new “about us” on the sidebar?
18. Write thank-you letters to the most important people in my life ( I know who they are) – this one gave me such joy. I am who I am because of these people and a few others too. I can’t possibly write to each one of you, right? But hey, Thank you!
19. Volunteer at Madhav’s playschool
20. Write to a magazine/ newspaper.
21. Visit a National park – read about it here and here.
22. Learn to drape a saree beautifully
23. Watch a play
24. Add 10 new followers to the blog ( to make the count 90) – 3 more to go.
25. Change the blog’s “about” page
26. A weaving project with Medha
27. A plush doll with Medha
28. A garland with Medha
29. Visit a historical monument/palace with the kids
30. 365 days of journaling – Doing it On and Off. But I’ll still consider this Done, if I don’t give up on it completely.

More to go. Wish me luck!

Love,

Manasa.

My New Year’s Resolutions

I too have a few New Year’s Resolutions and I’m already working towards achieving them. Apart from waking up every morning with a positive attitude and pausing before I snap at someone and  discussing things through with Mike at the end of a day, I have some other things I wish to accomplish this year. Lets see how far I go.

  1. Learn German everyday for a half hour.
  2. Run/walk every evening for 30 minutes.
  3. Write letters to Medha and Madhav once every 2 months
  4. Read 20 books.
  5. Read books to my niece, Zoe, when we babysit her.
  6. Read a book in German
  7. Prepare a book of my favorite blogposts of 2015.
  8. Crochet a sweater/ jacket for my sister.
  9. Crochet a dress for my niece, Medha.
  10. Make this granny-square jacket for myself.
  11.  Make a tablecloth or a curtain-top for my mom.
  12. Start looking for a home to buy.
  13. Use the staircase instead of a lift to climb the 7 floors to my office.
  14. Talk to my grandma, uncles and aunts once a week.
  15. Sell one of my crochet handiwork.
  16. Teach Mike a bit of my mothertongue, Kannada,  everyday for about 15 minutes.

Anybody began working on their own resolutions? Do you have tips to share with us? We would love to hear.

Cheers,

Madhurya.

July Goals Revisited

 What was I thinking when I came up with goals like “Identify all the letters” and “Read a book by herself” for Medha and expected her to achieve them in a month?! I have no idea! 2 months later, we have still not accomplished all the goals. But I’m happy to have scored off a few from our list.

Here are the goals and our progress-

IMG_2164July Goals for Medha-

(Goals accomplished (fully/sort of) are in Bold)

1. Identify all the letters– Medha (now 5 years and 3 months) can identify all the letters in her best moods, but when she’s tired, “I” starts looking like “J” and “M” is written as “N” and so on…

2. Learn Phonics– Sounds the Consonants (letters that are not vowels) make? yes. Of vowels? Still, a bit confused!

3. Learn addition of single digit numbers- Something’s seriously wrong with me! Why did I pick this goal when the school hasn’t started “addition” yet!?!? There’s so much Medha has to learn just to catch up with what’s going on at school; I don’t want to go near stuff that’s not yet been taught!

4. Learn Student Council Speech– Learnt it and went to the Finals but didn’t get selected to the Council.

5. Learn a Prayer– She did- Saraswathi Namasthubhyam- an ode to Saraswathi, the Goddess of Knowledge.

6. Read a book by herself- We have just began working on it. I make Medha read a book from this set with my help every night. She sounds out the smaller words while I read the 4-letter words. We’re limping along, but we’re better than before (when she absolutely didn’t want to read a book at all!).

July Goals for Madhav-

(Goals accomplished (fully/sort of) are in Bold)

1. Learn ABC song– Madhav knows this and many other songs. He doesn’t hesitate when asked to sing rhymes like “Baa Baa Black Sheep” or “Five little Monkeys” or “Johnny Johnny”. This guy LOVES to sing and expects you to applaud after he does!

2. Potty-training– Done!

3. Learn Shapes– He knows a lot of shapes like Square, Circle, Triangle, Heart, Star and Oval (which he calls “egg” shape) but a triangle is his absolute favorite! Not sure why.

4. Learn Parts of a face in English- Nose and mouth are fine but ears? eyes? Confused!

5. Count from 1 to 10– Madhav can count from 1 to 10. And not just up to 10, 20. And beyond 20 too, with help. This one’s big on counting!

6. Learn 5 colors- He knows Pink and Purple, thanks to his sister! He sometimes recognizes “blue” which he calls “boo”!

Medha loved ticking off a goal after accomplishing it. She always compared her list with Madhav’s to see who had more “ticks”. Even though we weren’t able to reach all of our goals, I’m proud of the progress we’ve made so far. I think I will come up with a few more in a few days…

Happy Goal-setting y’all!!!

Love,

Manasa.

July Goals

If you have been following this blog for a while, you may be familiar with my love for to-do lists and goal-setting- New Year’s Resolutions, Birthday goals, To-do list for the day and the whole week, you name it… I do it all. But keeping those resolutions? That’s a different matter. I might not get everything done, well, I never get everything done, but I’m way more productive on days when I have a clear idea of what needs to be accomplished than on those unplanned ones.

Setting concrete goals (goals that can be measured) helps me keep in mind where I’m supposed to head, what I should be doing right now to get there. Having those goals written or printed on a piece of paper keeps me from forgetting them.

This time I set a few goals for my kids for the month of July. There’s so much going on in Medha’s school, so much to keep up with: Her teachers have started teaching words while Medha is still struggling with letters; They are asked to match objects with their beginning sounds in assessments, while Medha is yet to grasp the concept of phonics. We have so much ground to cover, so much to learn before we are ready to get into the mad race. I was beginning to feel overwhelmed. That’s when I came up with a list of things to teach. And a time-frame within which to try and accomplish it. It was time to teach a few things to little Madhav too. I drew up 2 sets of goals for the 2.

To involve the kids in this project I decided to turn the goal-setting visual instead of just words on a piece of paper. I brought out a pile of newspapers and asked them to look for big bold letters and interesting pictures. This was fun and educative in itself as it gave me an opportunity to observe what kind of pictures captured their attention and to talk about some of the news, old though they might have been. Then I cut out relevant pictures and stuck them with glue on their separate goal sheets. I wrote the goals down with the help of a marker and used colored pencils to draw where I couldn’t find the right images. I pinned the sheets on our brand new notice-board. They didn’t turn out as fancy as I wanted them to, but the kids loved them. And that’s important, right?

Here are the goals and where we stand right now-

IMG_2164July Goals for Medha-

1. Identify all the letters– Still working on it.

2. Learn Phonics- Still working on it.

3. Learn addition of single digit numbers- Haven’t started yet.

4. Learn Student Council Speech- Learnt it and went to the Finals but didn’t get selected to the Council.

5. Learn a Prayer- Haven’t started yet.

6. Read a book by herself- She is resisting the idea and I’m not forcing her either. Maybe she isn’t ready yet.

July Goals for Madhav-

1. Learn ABC song- Almost done.

2. Potty-training- Done!

3. Learn Shapes- Haven’t started yet.

4. Learn Parts of a face in English- Still working on it.

5. Count from 1 to 10- Almost done.

6. Learn 5 colors- Still working on it.

IMG_2162

We still have a few more days. Let’s see how far we go…

Making a clay Ganesha idol

On the birthday of Lord Ganesha, called Ganesha Chathurthi, Indians all over the world worship idols of Ganesha with great pomp and devotion, offering him sweet delicacies. With greater pomp and devotion, the idols are later submerged in water as a way of bidding  farewell. It is the law of nature that that which emerges from soil has to become one with the soil.

This Ganesha Chathurthi, Medha and I decided to make our own clay Ganesha idol. I’d been wanting to make one for a long time but never seriously contemplated it. Medha is old enough for projects now and so I decided the time was ripe to give clay-sculpting a try; I didn’t want to wait until Ganesha’s next birthday.

I browsed Google for ideas. A lot came up. I picked a video that didn’t look too complicated to follow. Even the end result didn’t look fancy-schmancy! In short, it looked doable. Just a half kilogram of Shadu (Shadu is a kind of clay found in the river bank, mostly in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Konkan region, I found out) clay and some poster colors were all I needed. Easy Peasy!

Prasad bought some for me after work. I am not sure whether it was shadu or something else. It just looked like a filthy mass of grey mud. It even looked and felt unmoldable. In seconds our hands became un-recognizably dirty.

wpid-20140828_141137.jpg

Playing, replaying and pausing the video on my tablet, Medha and I set to work. I pulled a big chunk and caressed it with my fingertips to form a smooth abdomen. That took a long, long time. I asked Medha to make a leg. She rolled a bit of clay and handed it to me. I asked her to add more mass to it. Lord Ganesha wasn’t a supermodel after all. Far from it. “We need  chunky thighs!”,  I told her.

Smoothening the blob of clay took a while but Medha didn’t lose patience. She kept at making a leg, then another,later a hand and so on. Prasad suggested we add water to the clay. I added some and kneaded the clay-dough. I also kept a cup of water at hand to dab a little, every time it felt coarse. Adding water also added a shine to the emerging idol.

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It wasn’t easy after all. It took us about 4 hours to make our project resemble (only slightly) Ganesha. But it did. Then we left it to dry before applying poster colors.

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There were mistakes. Big ones. I interchanged the blessing hand. The trunk ended up being too big for the face and the shoulders were uneven. Mistakes galore! But, for first-timers we did a pretty good job, I think.

More important than the end result itself, I was beaming with pleasure at having accomplished what we set out to do. It’s not everyday that I set a goal and see it through. I let myself soak in the warmth of success. It had been a fun way of spending time with my girl, without the little one around making a big mess. She showed off her Ganesha and corrected me whenever I said “My Ganesha”. It was”Our Ganesha” and it was difficult parting with him before we submerged him in water.

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Before I attempted it, I didn’t know I was capable of making a clay Ganesha idol. I know now that I can accomplish any goal with a plan and dogged pursuit.