LAST WEEK WITH MY PARENTS

This has been an odd sort of week for several reasons I won't share here, but as a result I feel both full of loss and full of gratitude.  

I have had an almost cold all this week. I feel groggy with a scratchy throat and congested face in the mornings and evenings, but during the day I am fine and make it through. I am going to attribute the survival to this tea by Traditional Medicinals called Gypsy Cold Care. It has yarrow root  and elderflower in it and it works wonders; to either stave off of the oncoming cold entirely, or by mitigating symptoms so that you can get through the day. I have employed this tea several times since I learned about it from my coworker, and now I press it into the hands of anyone that needs it. 

My parents are here, but not here. They are here in the States and have been keeping themselves very busy, going up the East Coast to visit my sisters and currently they are at a conference in Michigan, and then after New York they are going to come back to Richmond for a few days before they have to fly back to Korea. These photos are from a couple of weeks back when they first came to stay with us. We were all thrilled to pieces about it. Just one day after they left, Sloane said, "Are they coming back yet? They have been gone for soooooo long."

My mom always brings the girls such wonderful books over from Korea. My mom is a children's book aficionado and is an avid appreciator of art and beautiful things, so we all get to be influenced by that. Sloane so looks forward to this time of discovering new Korean books and reading with my mom. 

My dad loves getting silly with the girls, and the girls love it right back. In regards to raising kids, my dad (part jokingly, but mostly seriously) has given me the advice that it is good to surprise them with silliness, enthusiasm, and humor once in a while to catch them off guard. He says it keeps them on their toes and keeps them excited about life. 

This is my dad and Sloane making faces and being silly together.  

It is so sweet to have them pitter pattering around the house, and having my girls throw up their arms for a hug every time they spot their grandparents. 

On Saturday, we drove up to visit my sister and brother-in-law, and I got to see their new place for the first time. We all have moved around so much throughout the years and so it always feels like a necessary milestone to visit each new place.

Here are a few more photos of our afternoon together.

A DAY IN THE LIFE

One of my favorite kind of blog posts are "a day in the life" captures of a regular day. I've always thought I would do more of those, but it only works on a certain kind of day. It has to be a day when I am mostly at home all day, which is rare, where the pace is slow and measured and I remember to pick up my camera.  Looking back, the last and possibly only one I've done here is almost four years ago, when Sloane was about 8 months old. I love it because it allows me to document the rhythm of a normal day and it is great fun to look back on!

This particular day was a couple of weeks ago in January, a day at home when I had to get some work done so after breakfast I set the girls up in the family room with toys, books, and an audio book. They played like that for a couple of hours, with me popping in to say hi (and snap these photos). 

Spotify has many stories and books (!!) and I found fairy tales that Sloane became engrossed in. There were some other ones that weren't so great, but we liked "Magically Told Fairy Tales" produced by Artie Becker & Johnny Holiday.

Logan loves playing with these stacking cups! They also double as cups and bowls when they are pretending to cook each other meals, and vessels for water when they are playing in the tub. 

For lunch, they got an assortment of vegetables - mushrooms, zucchini, carrots) along with baked tofu bites and turkey. 

I can't remember what Sloane was dressed up as here, but it is very normal these days for her to dress herself in a dress, stockings and hat. 

My lunch was a sweet potato and chickpea buddah bowl, which I love eating. Any variation of roasted vegetables + protein + some sort of dressing in a bowl is one of my favorite quick meals. (I usually also add quinoa but not always because Ken can't stand the stuff.)

Logan goes down for a long afternoon nap after lunch, and once she did, Sloane and I made curry hot chocolate  That's right, curry! It works. 

In the afternoon, Sloane and I worked on reading - her reading to me (Ted and Friends) and me reading the other books pictured below, including Charlotte's Web (which we are rereading), Peter Pan (always Peter Pan) and Poems to Learn by Heart (which has a collection of really wonderful poems and illustrations).

In the Ted and Friends story that we read that day, there was a part about a store that had an open and closed sign, and for some reason she was fascinated by this concept and wanted to make our own to see what it was like. So we did!

Then we did some observational drawing. I love watching how she interprets things that she sees onto paper. 

Then she wanted to copy down notes from a piano book, and she worked really hard on this, which she declared was a song that she was writing. 

This is her singing me the song that she is composing. It was a song about everything going to sleep at night. She said she would sing it for Logan later.

We played with Logan when she woke up, and then when Ken came home, we packed dinner for the girls and all headed over to our crossfit gym. Ken and I usually take turns going to the gym, but now that Logan's bed time is a little later, we might be able to pull this off more during those rare time we both are able to get off work a little earlier.

Our friends, the Clinches, were there with their boys, which meant Sloane had friends to play with... 

...and Logan had friends to sit (stand) next to. 

We love the coaches at our gym! 

I can't remember what the workout was now but it involves thrusters and burpees and while I was doing them I noticed out of the corner of my eye that I had a little fan club following along....

We went home afterwards to put the girls to bed and then Ken and I did CBR together. It was a good day! 

WOMENS MARCH

I'm deviating from my scheduled posts for this week to bring you a few photos that my family sent me this past weekend from the women's march! since I wasn't able to be there. Also I want to document it here in this place for us to look back on as an awesome memory of our family; how my parents happened to be visiting the States during this time and wanted to be a part of this historical event. 

My dad sent me that photo above of my sisters, mom, dad, and brother-in-law on their way to the march that morning. I felt so proud for being a part of a family of both women and men who gets excited about this sort of thing. I know that there was disagreements even among the planners of this march in determining its mission statement, but I heard it was an extremely peaceful march, that everyone had their own reasons for marching, and it provided hope for a lot of people. 

Here are a few more photos that my family sent me from that day:

Lastly, this is a shirt that my sister made and wore to the march.  It has words by James Baldwin and it also has a drawing of our beloved aunt, who passed away a few years ago. In case you can't read it, it says: "we made the world we're living in and we have to make it over. A country is only as good...only as strong as the people who make it up...I don't believe any longer that we can afford to say that it is entirely out of our hands."

I LOVE LISTS

1. How beautiful is this vintage-filled home? There are so many creative elements and visually fun surprises here.

2. The Year in Pictures 2016 from the NY Times and the best of 2016 from Pete Souza, White House photographer

3. I should maybe spend the rest of winter cooking all these casseroles.

4. This is not a link but a public service announcement  - did you know Spotify has audiobooks?! Under "Browse" go to "Genres & Moods" and find the "Word" section. I was positively filled with glee when I discovered this.

5. And this is more of a warning: don't make these Cacio e Pepe Chips , you won't be able to stop.

6. What makes you grow according to Mari Andrew

7.  I am definitely doing this whole roasted cauliflower.

8.  Oh geez, am I going to end up getting one of these? Nooooooooo...but yes?

9. I have been a huge fan of Brittany Jepson of The House That Lars Built for a while. I love paper, I love making things with paper, and she does the most amazing things with the medium. I'm always inspired when I see her projects. Here is her roundup of the 10 most popular posts of 2016 - all paper related! I can't wait to try making this DIY paper leaf garland.

10. Iris, the documentary about Iris Apfel is on Netflix right now. I found it very inspiring.

HANDMADE KNIT HATS

I just want to take a moment to brag about my friend Laura's knitting prowess. She made these perfect little winter wool hats for Sloane and Logan and they are exactly what we needed to get through the rest of winter. Logan's has a button to clasp around her chin and Sloane's has two strings to tie or dangle free, whatever she chooses. Sloane put hers on for our trip to Silver Spring this past weekend and didn't want to take it off during the whole car ride up.  They are adorable and they keep these two precious heads warm. Thank you Laura! 

VISITING SILVER SPRING (VIDEO!)

We went up to visit my sister this past weekend and I made a little video of our time together. We got to see my sister and brother-in-law's new place! We went duckpin bowling! And most importantly, my parents are here! 

LOVE IS PATIENT V. 2

I'm thinking about Martin Luther King, Jr. today. 

I'm also thinking about patience. And how these days (like those days three years ago) love is patient. 

Most days, I get to patient by first walking down the lane of perspective (this is all too temporary!) and then stopping to marvel at the view that is gratitude (the view is stunning!). I am wealthy beyond what I deserve. Wealthy in love, but also wealthy in terms of running water and heat and access to good food. It takes me less than a few seconds to access water for all of my water-related desires. The time I save from not having to walk to a river or well for my water - I can use it towards patience. 

These days, patience means a daily surrender of my own agenda.  On a bad day, when there are more tasks than I have arms or mind for, I feel a sort of resentment bubbling up in me. When I investigate, I discover it's a voice saying, "I want to be selfish!" It catches me by surprise.  Ohhh. The reason why I feel cranky right now is because I didn't sleep well, it has been a long and hard day at work, there was traffic coming home, Lola won't let me pee in the bathroom by myself, both girls are hungry, I'm hungry but I'm probably not going to be able to eat until later,  I'm running around trying to placate, instruct, feed, clean, and in 30 minutes it's going to be bed time. When am I going to be able to sit down? Where is Ken? I want to be selfish!"  With that realization, I come face to face with my limitations. And even as that is disheartening, I immediately feel relieved.  The closer I am to my limits, the closer I am to God. 

Somedays, patience is one more chance. It's tempering a sharp tone. It is one thing at a time. It is not stamping my feet. I don't just love my kids and my husband by gushing at them with hugs and loving words. I love them by holding back the harsh words, and by giving them space when I want to micromanage or scold out of a need to control. 

When I practice patience out of love, I find that it sprouts seedlings of other things. Like wisdom. And being able to put down an ego-based want and voicing a vulnerable need. 

So on the days we are fortunate, love is patiently sitting together at the end of a long day to look at each other's faces, listening, checking inside ears for ear wax, and practicing wearing each other's hearts.