NEW NAME, NEW YOUTUBE CHANNEL

on the brooklyn bridge from a trip visiting my sister in summer of 2021

After many, many years as 'The Belletrist', we have entered a new era with a new name.  I can see from the blog archive that I started this blog back in 2008, apparently to transition from xanga (remember xanga!), and it all makes sense because I am a tried and true documentarian. I still have my heavy-handed journals from high school and college, which then turned into xanga entries (long-lost), and then here now on blogpost.  I see I wrote that first post on my birthday, which is also very much true to form: I get especially reflective and hopeful on my birthday. I must have been in England on my study abroad at Cambridge that summer, because I posted this entry a few days later. 

apple picking with 2 month old sloane

The Belletrist ended up being the place where I mostly documented the journey of becoming a mom. The bulk of my entries are from 2012-2017 during those early years of getting to know both my girls, and also myself as a mom. I was so grateful for this space.  Coincidentally, or maybe not, 2017 is when Ken and I started our podcast, Living With the Moons, which was very fun.  I think that's when we got hooked on working on creative projects together. We wrapped the podcast up in 2020, which is also when I stopped blogging almost completely.  

            

me in Niger February 2020

I had a lot of plans for 2020 - big plans - and I kicked it off with a work trip to Las Vegas and a trip to Niger, Africa. I came back from both trips pumped to put so many ideas into action. But as soon as I got back, the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down, which required a lot of shifting of gears.  I continued to document on instagram (which is still fun, if not also somewhat insidious) about our year of homeschooling, skateboarding and tennis endeavors, and the books I've been reading (#booksatbeechwood). In 2021, we started hiking everywhere we could get on a weekend so we could be outside and explore, and we also added fishing and camping to the list of things we were all got excited about as a family. 

us in the Shenandoah Mountains fall of 2021

At the beginning of 2022, Ken and I toyed with the idea of starting our podcast up again, which didn't go anywhere. At the same time, I had been learning more about video as content (for work) and pitched Ken the idea of starting a Youtube channel to document all of our trips to state parks.  I do not watch Youtube videos, but I knew Ken did, and the more we brainstormed about it, the more feasible and fun the idea seemed to be - it was another way to document, but in video form! I have a goal for our family to visit as many Virginia state parks as possible (and hopefully some National parks too!) and while there is plenty of information on state parks out there, we think it could be even better.  We named our channel "Living With the Lus" - to echo "Living With the Moons", but instead of interviewing our friends, we would document our family's travels. I remembered I had this blog, updated the name, and here we are. 

Here's the screenshot of the Youtube channel: 

             

We filmed some of the parks we visited at the beginning of the year, but before posting any of those, we started our channel with our big trip of this year - our 3-week trip to South Korea.  If you go to Youtube, you can subscribe to the channel, and you can also go to @livingwiththelus on Instagram where we post every time we upload a new video. We started filming, editing and posting while we were in Korea and have continued since we've been back.  We have one more video to share about that trip, and once we're done, we'll start posting about some of our local state parks that we've visited recently. 

Here is the first of our Korea travel video here below; you can watch the rest of our videos on the channel!

MOM'S KIMCHI RECIPE

 

Over the years, my mom would make us kimchi whenever she visited, and at some point I started paying attention to try to learn how to do it myself. It always seemed like an overwhelming and daunting process (I have memories of my grandmother making such large batches of it that she brined the cabbage in the bathtub...!). Even when I did started watching and asking questions, it wasn't until after several sessions, writing down notes, and asking more questions, that I felt ready to try it on my own.  The recipe that I translated is below. 

A few notes: 

1. Ideally, you get the best ingredients.  My mom is a stickler for this.  Best ingredients make the best kimchi.  Obviously, the best and ideal ingredients are sourced in Korea, but without that option, just do the best you can. 
2. When it says "tablespoons" below, it is actually referring to a Korean rice spoon, which is similar to a tablespoon, but a is a little bit less than a tablespoon. So when measuring it out, pour a little shy of a full tablespoon. 
3. This whole process usually takes almost all day because after you prep the cabbage, you have to let it soak for hours (I think my mom usually does 5-6 hours) before you add the spicy mixture in. 

Ingredients:

- 2 medium sized Napa cabbage 

- 15 green onion stalks 

- about 2.5 cups high quality sea salt 

- 3/4 cup of cooked rice or sweet rice flour mixture (my mom always uses the sweet rice flour - it's about 1.5 cups of water with 5 Tablespoons of sweet rice flour over medium heat until it becomes a paste)

- 1/2 cup chopped onion 

- 10 cloves of garlic 

- 2 inches of ginger 

- 1/2 asian pear

- 1.75 cups Korean pepper flakes 

- 1 leek (or the white part of 1 giant green onion)

- 2 tablespoons of sugar 

- 1 radish

- 1/3 cup fish sauce

1.  Remove outer yellow leaves of the cabbage and quarter each of the cabbage (from the root, lengthwise). 

2. Pour about 11-12 cups of water into a large basin, add 1.25 cups of sea salt, and mix to dissolve the salt. 

3.  Add in the quartered cabbage pieces into the basin and soak for about 5 minutes, making sure each get a good wash. 

4. Take cabbage out of salt water, and take about 1.5 cups of the salt to spread it in between all the leaves (about every 2-3 leaves).  Pour the salt water over all the cabbage and leave it submerged for about 4 hours. (After 2 hours, flip the cabbage so they get equal time submerged in the liquid.) In the fall, that time should be about 5 hours, in the winter, the time is about 8 hours. 

5. In a blender, add the chopped onion, radish, pear, leek, garlic, ginger, and bowl of rice (or sweet rice flour mixture) together. Add the fish sauce and 1/3 cup of water and finish blending. 

6. Pour the blended mixture into a bowl and add the red pepper powder, sugar, about 2.5 Tablespoon of salt. Mix together. 

7. After the cabbage has been well-marinated, wash it three times in cold water and put in a colander to drain the water (about 30 minutes). 

8. Cut the green onions to 3 inch pieces. 

9. At this point, you could cut up the cabbage to smaller sizes (I do this) because it is much easier to manage that way. Traditionally, the cabbage is left as a large piece and then is cut every time it's taken it out to eat. 

10. Mix the cabbage, the green onions and the spicy paste mixture all together. Make sure it is thoroughly mixed. Using plastic kitchen gloves is recommended. 

11. Put it into a container (preferably glass or sturdy kimchi container) and store it at room temperature for about a day or two. Then put it in the fridge. 

Literary Party 2021 - Breaking Bread with Dead Poet's

 It has been so long since I have been here that I couldn't properly remember the URL or that it was 'blogspot' not 'blogpost'! When I did finally manage to find my way over here, I noticed that my last post was from March 2020.

2020 had started off with a bang, including some big trips - one to Las Vegas in January for work, and then to Niger, Africa, in February - also for work. 

Then we had the pandemic, the "shut down", which commenced a strange short of new life. Once the shock wore off, adjustments were made, we reveled in home life, and were also exhausted by decision-making and juggling. We made the decision to home school for the 2020-2021 school year, which felt overwhelming, and it was, but it also turned out to be growth inducing and lovely. We learned to be still, and while the ache of being apart from family and friends felt visceral at times, there was also healing that happened.  All the rushing about in the early years of my kids' life, and being away from them for the majority of the day when they were babies was apparently a sort of wound that needed time to heal and this time was that, very unexpectedly. I stopped posting here, but I shared plenty on Instagram.  I made a lot of videos, we heralded the coming of 2021, went on a lot of hikes, started playing more tennis, and I had increasingly more times of quiet reading with the kids, which was a dream come true. 

The year proceeded to fly by at lightening speed with summer heartedly enjoyed with those we hadn't seen in a while.  School commenced for the girls in their local public school in the fall, and I went back to work.  We survived September for all those necessary adjustments and then we come to October, which is what this post will have photos of - the 2021 literary party.  This year, instead of a particular book, author or theme, we decided to have everyone just dress up as their favorite literary character.  It was the first time in a while that we had gathered like this; it was the cherry on top that we got to see everyone together in costume. 

Laura took these lovely photos and I felt they had to be shared somewhere, and so here we are. 

 

And here we have each of the families: 

The Mysterious Benedict Society 

The Phantom Tollbooth

Harriet Vane!!! and Co. 

The Wingfeather Saga

Robert Louis Stevenson, Fanny Stevenson, Jim Hawkins and The Black Arrow

Medusa, Poseidon, and the Gray Sisters

Edgar Allan Poe, Jo March, Reepicheep and a Narnian dryad

 

I mean, how fantastic is he as Poe!

Peter Rabbit

Horton Hears a Who!

Here is the video I made for this years' if you want to see: 

https://vimeo.com/641228869 

And for my archvies, videos of past years' literary parties:

Neverland (2015): https://vimeo.com/144295107
Wonderland (2016):  https://vimeo.com/189538480 
Narnia (2017): https://vimeo.com/472042031 
All Dahled Up (2018): https://vimeo.com/305401760
Fairytalia (2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo4OruYC-20
Frances Hodgson Burnett - The Secret Garden & The Little Princess (2020) (no video because we didn't attend this one!) 

WALKING CONTEST

I love this video by Daniel Koren.  I read about it first in the book, "The Art of Noticing" by Rob Walker. The message is so perfectly delivered in its video form and it's a message that everyone can relate to.

BRUNCH WITH MY PARENTS

I'm going to shift the purpose of this blog from primarily documenting life happenings, to a place where I can share ideas and inspiration. I've gotten back-logged with life event posts that I have meant to write about from the last few months of 2019, but those will be captured in the Chatbooks I've been making and printing for each season.  I've been more interested these days in posting creative prompts that I am mulling over.  I will still post life things but won't feel pressured to do so if I have something else I'd rather share instead. This is me giving myself the permission!

These photos here are from a brunch that I had with my parents a few months ago on a Saturday morning. It is always a pleasure and privilege to converse with them. They are traveling now, and I've been inspired by my mom's photos and my dad's drawings as they explore new places.

I've also been inspired by a lot of good writing lately. In particular, two very different styles: Lionel Shriver and Jacqueline Woodson.  What Mark Twain said about how a good writer treats a long sentence rang particularly true for Shriver's writing:  "At times [she] may indulge [herself] with a long one, but [she] will make sure there are no folds in it, no vagueness, no parenthetical interruptions of its view as a whole; when [she] has done with it, it won't be a sea-serpent with half of its arches under the water; it will be a torch-light procession." 

A BIRTHDAY CAMPING TRIP

Scenes from a backpacking camping trip last September of women and some of their children: the sturdiest and dreamiest bunch I ever did see.

PUFFED SLEEVES

source

I've been reading Anne of Green Gables with the girls at bedtime and we are all enjoying it thoroughly.  I came across this dress today and look at those puffed sleeves! 

"Well, how do you like them?" said Marilla.

Anne was standing in the gable room, looking solemnly at three new dresses spread out on the bed. One was of snuffy colored gingham which Marilla had been tempted to buy from a peddler the preceding summer because it looked so serviceable; one was of black-and-white checkered sateen which she had picked up at a bargain counter in the winter; and one was a stiff print of an ugly blue shade which she had purchased that week at a Carmody store.

She had made them up herself, and they were all made alike--plain skirts fulled tightly to plain waists, with sleeves as plain as waist and skirt and tight as sleeves could be.

"I'll imagine that I like them," said Anne soberly.

"I don't want you to imagine it," said Marilla, offended. "Oh, I can see you don't like the dresses! What is the matter with them? Aren't they neat and clean and new?"

"Yes."

"Then why don't you like them?"

"They're--they're not--pretty," said Anne reluctantly.

"Pretty!" Marilla sniffed. "I didn't trouble my head about getting pretty dresses for you. I don't believe in pampering vanity, Anne, I'll tell you that right off. Those dresses are good, sensible, serviceable dresses, without any frills or furbelows about them, and they're all you'll get this summer. The brown gingham and the blue print will do you for school when you begin to go. The sateen is for church and Sunday school. I'll expect you to keep them neat and clean and not to tear them. I should think you'd be grateful to get most anything after those skimpy wincey things you've been wearing."

"Oh, I am grateful," protested Anne. "But I'd be ever so much gratefuller if--if you'd made just one of them with puffed sleeves. Puffed sleeves are so fashionable now. It would give me such a thrill, Marilla, just to wear a dress with puffed sleeves."

"Well, you'll have to do without your thrill. I hadn't any material to waste on puffed sleeves. I think they are ridiculous-looking things anyhow. I prefer the plain, sensible ones."

"But I'd rather look ridiculous when everybody else does than plain and sensible all by myself," persisted Anne mournfully.

"Trust you for that! Well, hang those dresses carefully up in your closet, and then sit down and learn the Sunday school lesson. I got a quarterly from Mr. Bell for you and you'll go to Sunday school tomorrow," said Marilla, disappearing downstairs in high dudgeon.

Anne clasped her hands and looked at the dresses.

"I did hope there would be a white one with puffed sleeves," she whispered disconsolately. "I prayed for one, but I didn't much expect it on that account. I didn't suppose God would have time to bother about a little orphan girl's dress. I knew I'd just have to depend on Marilla for it. Well, fortunately I can imagine that one of them is of snow-white muslin with lovely lace frills and three-puffed sleeves."

A WEEKEND AWAY IN DC

A few months ago, Ken and I left town to head north and meet my sisters, their husbands, my cousin, and my nieces at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly.  It was an appropriate place as any to send off my sister and her family, as they were preparing to move to Romania. We spent the afternoon talking around, joining part of a tour, and talking over snacks at the McDonald's before we said our final goodbyes. It's been three months since then, but it feels like it's been much longer and I miss them dearly.

That night, Ken and I spent the night in the area. We checked into the Hilton in Arlington and took a car into DC to attend a concert at The Anthem, which we thought was an impressive venue. We immediately started scheming of ways to come back. I'm recording it here so I don't forget about those plans. The concert was really fun, but more thrilling was being out and about with my best friend and having space and time to dream, adventure and hold hands.