HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Americans all come from somewhere! I loved this article about The American Thanksgiving that my friend sent me last week. It tells the food story of 15 different families from across the country and of how their family backgrounds influence the way they cook and celebrate at home. Reading through this article actually made me tear up. It is the differences that make this country wonderful and I really appreciated this piece of humanism in light of everything that has been happening recently. It felt timely. I highly recommend you check out the article, look through the beautiful photos (some of which I included below), and watch the short videos to hear people talking about their family traditions. It very much put me in the mood to celebrate Thanksgiving and practice gratitude around a table with friends and family.

SLOANE AND LOGAN THESE DAYS

This week was one thousand days long. How does that work?!? If you know me you know these cold days are tough on my soul; I feel as though I'm trudging through mud which makes even the small tasks difficult. Life, with work and house and little ones means that the work never stops, which has led to feeling burnt out at the end of the day, but here is the funny thing, these little people who require so much from me are also the thing that gives me the most joy and purpose right now. Funny! And perfect.

Thank God for Sloane and for older siblings in general. She is so helpful to me and I think it was right that she is the older one, because she loves to help and take care of her little sister. Recently, she has been trying to help me get Logan dressed, and she loves being able to look through books with her and tell her all about it.  "Logan is my best friend!" She will often say. 

Soane is four years and three months old, and these days she is really into reading and writing. She has this little notebook that she carries around with her, and it has a lot of pictures that she has drawn, but recently there have been more words that she jots down in there. As she has learned more words, she has taken great affinity for collecting them. The other day, she started reading out a list of words that she had written down. First she spelled out, "M...A...V...S..." and I questioned, "Mavs? Honey I don't think that's a word." Then she spell the next word, "H...E....A...T...", and I called out, "yes that's heat!"Then she spelled out the word magic, and I asked where she got these words from and she replied that these were the names of basketball teams, "the NBA basketball teams, mom!" (Mavs is short for Mavericks). I asked Ken about it and he said he didn't even know she was doing it. It tickles me to think about her jotting these down as Ken watches these games. The other day she learned what a crouton was, and immediately wanted to write it down in her notebook. Same with the name Rahab, which she learned about at church, and any other new names she encounters of people that we meet whatever I ask her to remind me of something, she tells me that she will write it down for me to remember, and then asks me to spell it out for her, which I gladly do. Recently, she read her class at daycare a little book, "all by myself!" It is hard to say who was more excited about it, her or me. I will often find her scribbling in her notebook, like this week when she declared that she wanted to copy down parts of the Bible and did her best. She has also tried to copy down Korean words from Korean books that we have, even though I know she can't read those books yet

I love hanging out with her and having conversations together to get to know who she is.  A couple of weeks ago we spent all afternoon running errands, just her and me, and it felt like hanging out with a friend. I feel so lucky to be her mom.

Logan is one year and four months old and she makes us all laugh uproariously. She has been generous with her hugs and kisses, so all of us spend all day trying to get them from her it is amazing watching her world expand and how she is now able to understand so much more than even one month ago. 

She still has the intensity and energy she's had since she was born, and I think I can already see a rebellious streak that is all-too-familiar.

Sloan has always been very affectionate to Logan, but recently Logan has been showing that affection back. She will give Sloane hugs, puts her head on her shoulder, and gives her pats. 

This is a little thing but it brings me a lot of joy: whenever I am giving them a snack or something that they both really want, and because one of them is I give the one closest to me both things and tell them that they can have one and the other one goes to their sister, they run to give the other one there treat. I think it's really sweet how they want to share the good things.

Also, happy 9th birthday to Rusty!!

They love doing things together and I love that they love that. You guys, just the process of me writing that down and reflecting on all this makes me feel even more grateful. Do you see how this is a kind of therapy? A kind of affirmation?

This is them on a Saturday morning, watching baby animals. The focus is intense.

We met some friends at the playground on a chilly weekend morning.

They, like any reasonable person, love the samples at Costco. I especially love shopping there because their carts are so large and have room for two kids to sit.

This is the girls in front of their daycare on a weekday. Sloane was especially happy about a bag that she got in the mail from her neinei (Ken's mom) and Logan tries to carry that stuffed dog wherever she goes.

More than ever I know what it means to be allotted exactly what I need for each day. That in itself feels like a gift. 

SING STREET

I watched a movie called, 'Sing Street', this past weekend, directed by John Carney. It is his third movie about music and songwriting, and when I saw the trailer earlier this year, I wanted to see it right away. I couldn't figure out how to watch it, so it was to my great delight that I discovered it on Netflix over the weekend.  I was not disappointed - I liked it so much that I watched it again the very next night with Ken.

The tone of this movie is much lighter than his two prior movies, and there is both a whimsy and grittiness to this movie that spoke straight into my whimsical and gritty heart. I also thought this movie was directed brilliantly. The specificity of the time and place was executed in such a way that you could tell the story was extremely meaningful to someone. It made me think of how stories that are specific in this way speak the clearest and loudest into another's soul, regardless of whether it is a similar story to yours. There is a fantasy element of this movie that really works, especially because it manifests in the midst of difficult family and school situations, and this was exemplified in my reaction to it afterwards. It made me extremely happy, and it also made me cry with sadness.  I fell for the charm of the young actors, the songwriting process, the supremely catchy songs, and most of all the relationship between him and his brother. I highly recommend it!

MARLA'S BABY SHOWER

The other weekend, some friends threw a beautiful baby shower for our friend Marla and I got to take photographs. It was a stunningly lovely affair that centered around a long table, gorgeous tablescape, and delicious food, all on a perfect fall afternoon.  Everyone agreed that we could have sat there eating and talking all night long - the food and the company was just that good. We are so excited for the new baby and this seemed like the most appropriate way to celebrate such a joyous occasion.