WHAT I'M READING V. 43

1. Becoming by Michelle Obama

I saw this book popping up everywhere, and while I am usually not one to read autobiographies by political or politically related figures, I am very interested in the Obamas stories and particularly curious about Michelle Obama's point of view on what she went through.  It's a big book, and the first half of the book felt like a very standard growing up in the suburbs story, but it started to get really interesting midway when she started talking about the balance of working while being a mom, couples counseling, and what it mean to take care of herself and determine for herself what would make her happy.  Also, it gave a backstage look at what it was like to be a part of the campaigns and living in the White House during those 8 years and what it was like afterwards.  It was so interesting, and I even cried at some parts that described the campaign - all that hope.

2.  The Hidden Life of Trees

My cousin Lois lent me this book and by the first couple of chapters, my mind was blown. Wohlleben is a German forester who is passionate and knowledgeable about trees and makes the very convincing case that trees are like human families, caring for one another in a social network, and how much letting trees do their thing is beneficial to all of life on this earth. I read this one slowly, one small chapter at a time, and grew into a deeper appreciation for trees. I will never be able to see trees quite the same way again!

3. Creativity, Inc. 

I can't remember where I heard about this one, but the person recommending said that while it was about Ed Catmull, the president of Pixar, and how he got the company to where it was, it also held principals that would be helpful for all creative endeavors.  He states at the very beginning that he is primarily concerned with creating a culture of sustainable creativity and problem-solving, and he demonstrates how Pixar accomplished that by going through its history and its practices. I took away a lot from this one!

4. Evicted by Matthew Desmond

This book was utterly heartbreaking, and I think that every American should read. MacArthur follows eight families in Milwaukee as they struggle to keep housing. With these various stories, you get to see the very clear and unifying theme that when you are poor, you can only focus on one day at a time, and even the tiniest road bump could completely derail your life.  Planning is a luxury reserved for those that live above the poverty line.  It was well-written and spotlights a very pervasive and significant problem in this country. I especially liked the chapter at the end where he talks about the effect that doing this research had on him personally. 

MOM AND DAD'S VISIT

my parent's bi-annual visit wrapped up a couple of weeks ago, and looking through these photos make me appreciative all over again about how they get to come stay with us for a little while and weave themselves into the rhythms of our daily life. 

both my parents are so good at just plopping down on the floor and playing and reading with the kids. 

after church one sunday. 

ken took them to have his favorite latte at alchemy. 

random run to target, just us!

we had a bounty of fruit and vegetables sitting in the middle of the dining table while they were here.



i made this blood orange upside down cake while my parents were here and they liked it so much i ended up making it 3-4 more times (with regular orange and also with pear).

matching pajamas that my mom brought the girls from korea! korean pajamas are the best.

my dad safeguarding sloane's tiger for her. 

the girls often ended up in my parents' room at the beginning and end of each day; talking, playing and being read to. i love coming upon scenes like this.

a cozy scene from one of the weekends. 

on friday evening, we set aside time for an art session where we each worked on a piece of art (the girls made several pieces each, of course) and it was so much fun! especially because it was my dad's first time really drawing or painting like this, so it was special for all of us to do it together.

we visited the new Institute of Contemporary Art that opened up a few months ago, and got to listen to a wonderful performance by the First African Baptist Choir in this beautiful space at the top of the museum. 

this was the elevator! 

my very cute parents. 

my dad took this one of me. 

and then back to the train station to see them off to nyc so that they could visit my sister up there. sad to see them go and so happy to have time together! 

THESE DAYS

I think it's been almost a solid year now that I've been saying, "this is such a good age" about the girls and how well they play together. These days they are 6.5 and 3.5 years old. I'm holding on to the hope that this stage will last for as long as possible; that is, the stage where they love playing together and will do so happily for hours.  Last week, after I got pushed out of their room where they were playing some elaborate pretend play with their horses, I marveled at how much they were content to play with each other without my oversight, and how different it was from even 1.5 years ago when Logan wouldn't let me leave her side, especially at the end of the day when we got home.  It used to be really difficult to transition into the evening after work, when we stumbled back home, with stories to tell each other but exhausted, eager for rest and cuddles, but also needing to clean up the kitchen, cook and get dinner on the table. It's not as if it's a breeze now, but the marked difference is that usually Sloane and Logan will take off running to their room and get zapped into their imaginary world, from which I have to pull them out of in order for them to eat dinner. Every other day there seems to be some conflict that comes up, usually within their play, i.e. some sort of disagreement about who will hold what or play which part, but they are at the point where I usually try to let them resolve it between themselves and they usually do, quickly. 

Logan used to wake me up very early and then insist that we don't do anymore sleeping or cuddling, but these past few months, she has been crawling into bed with me when she does wake up early to cuddle and go back to sleep until a more reasonable time, and I have been loving that so much.  The other morning, I was half-asleep when I pulled a warm body closer to me and thought, "Oh! I didn't realize Sloane came into bed this morning..." only to realize that it was actually Logan, but she had all of a sudden felt so much bigger to me as I noticed her long limbs.  She is growing so quickly.

I appreciate these two so very much these days.  They are thoughtful, imaginative, smart and so funny. They make life logistics more complicated but simplify everything else to its most important parts. I am so pleased to be able to get to know them a little more with each passing day; what a privilege.

WHAT I'M READING V. 42

1. The God Who is There by Francis Shaeffer

This one was a whopper! A work of Christian apologetic by a person who apparently had great influence on Christian thinkers the past few decades.  It took me a while to really dig in (it's philosophical aspects took a while to get used to; made me think I would like to read more philosophy to get in the habit of thinking this way), and I don't know if I agree with all his points, but ultimately he did a worthy job of emphasizing the need to maintain the existence of God in all of our dialogue and thinking, and to be able to explain the reality of this existence in tangible ways. I took it as an encouragement to really think and to continue to formulate words to communicate the reality of God to others, and I especially liked his appendices at the end which goes into how to apply some of these things to our communities and conversations.

2. On Reading Well by Karen Swallow Prior

I LOVED this book. This will definitely make it on my five-star shelf (which I'll be working on organizing this weekend! Very excited.) When I started it, I couldn't believe such a book existed; it's one of those books that I wished I had written myself. Prior goes through and describes the classical virtues, in a compelling way, and looks at them through the lens of great literature (some of them by favorites) - Fielding, Fitzgerald, Dickens, Twain, Endo, McCarthy, Tolstoy, Wharton, Bunyan, Austen, Saunders and O'Connor. I read it on Kindle, and as soon as I approached the final pages, I ordered the hard copy of the book because I know it's one I'll refer back to again and again.

3. Pilgrim's Regress by C.S. Lewis

I have had this book for a long time but had never cracked it open until a few weeks ago. It wasn't what I was expecting at all, and at some points, it felt a little bizarre, but I didn't dislike it overall. Apparently, it was his first published work of prose fiction, and it almost feels like an experiment of sorts. It's an allegory, which I'm not the biggest fan of, but he is playing with the form (also apparently in the homage he's paying to Bunyan's A Pilgrim's Progress) and there seems to be a sort of snark or something here that felt both familiar and unfamiliar. I was also a little perturbed by the use of "the brown girls" as a metaphor of lust and desires, as that is a loaded thing which Lewis may or may not have been aware of. Overall, what was interesting to me about it was the form and tone, which I am still mulling over now.

4. Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones

I read An American Marriage a few weeks ago and liked it so much I immediately went to go see what else Jones had written.  I found this one and liked it immensely, though not as much as An American Marriage.  This particular one is about two girls who share the same father, but only one of them knows about the other.  The book shares with us both perspectives of the girls, and I loved the way Jones wrote these girls' voices - it felt so real and intimate and vulnerable.