Good reading, Good God, Good Life

This weekend I made my first fried oysters.  It brought me to tears.  So much so that I got them out of their shells and had to wait 6 hours before actually making them.  But oh, they were so good.  It tasted like home and being a kid.

I'm reading "A Beautiful Mess" and while I can't summarize it all I will attempt a slice of the beauty.  The chapter I just read is about loving ourselves, loving our bodies.  I can't help but think that God really wants us to eat healthy, to enjoy our bodies and senses, and to rejoice that He has given us so much life to take in.  This weekend we have smelled the air at Point Reyes for the first time, heard internationally recognized live jazz, eaten peaches that are divine, and seen a wonderful Korean comedy.  And my personal favorite, to enjoy the sense of touch, I got a few new pieces of clothes for myself.  And surprisingly, after reading the excerpt on accepting and loving our bodies, shopping felt like a worship experience and not like a major anxiety drag like it usually does.

Today at church, which is in the evening, it seemed a perfect closure to the day of thoughts and experiences to talk about God providing manna to the people of God.  While some complained, others reveled in the miracle.  I couldn't help but wonder about my father's death and my own pain during a traumatic birthing experience.  I wondered about the songs we sang regarding healing about giving ourselves to Him.  I wondered if I could be in tune with my body (rather than hating it by eating rich things or exercising infrequently) and if I was if that would be honoring his creation.  I think at times we think of healing as a miracle, but I was seeing it all the more in the sense that we have to ask for God to live through us in each moment so that we are making wise choices with our food.  Instead of living in the fear that I could die in my 40s or 30s I can live in the power that I need to eat less lactose, exercise more, and love myself.  And in light of all this, I think eating the oysters was a good choice.  I'm not talking about calorie counting, I'm talking about making good lifelong decisions so that we can feel good.  So that we can live and not die young.  So that we can enjoy what God has given to us.

Is this working?

Testing testing.

I am so old at this blog thing.  It's been almost a year!

SILLY

Eva is old enough to know that this is funny and laugh with me about it. How fun! (Read: dreary day activity success!)

summer with clouds

Donovan is heading out to San Diego this week for DevCon, the yearly conference for developers (of the product Filemaker, it's not defcon the hacking conference!). I'm nervous and excited for my first week alone with Eva. Unfortunately she woke up with a runny nose but in comparison to the stomach flu that we had for a couple weeks in July this seems like cake. So wish us luck! We'll be doing bachelorette things all week like eating ice cream for breakfast, watching Sleepless in Seattle, and staying up late (probably none of those things actually, but it's nice to dream).

For our family and friends in the northwest and afar, I'm sure you would love to see how different Eva is now that she is 14 months! Just within the last two months she has learned so many new things about the world. She really loves ambulances and says "wheeew" when they go by. We visited San Francisco yesterday and she really enjoyed the hustle and bustle, especially going up and down the escalator, although we had to move along after 4 times because I started to worry the security guard might ask us to stop. She LOVES dogs and yesterday attempted to ride Hunter, the 8 year old chocolate labrador that lives next door. Also, Eva has shown a lot of interest in mimicking behavior, especially bathroom activities like pretending to curl her hair, tweeze her eyebrows, and put on a shirt (none of which she actually does successfully, of course).

I started a running club in Oakland and have enjoyed meeting new women, getting out regularly and just feeling healthy in general. The late evenings in Oakland are so beautiful, warm, and sunny, it's such a great way to end a day! I'm hoping by next summer I will be ready to run my first marathon. I've enjoyed getting a nice little tan too, which is a great side effect. Donovan has also started going to Toastmaster's regularly as a way to get some self care and recently spoke about himself to the group in his first talk.

Donovan and I celebrated five years together last week. We enjoyed an evening out alone to dinner, the beach, and a used bookstore/vintage place while we perused without Eva distracting us. It was so fun! I'm really glad we got married and I really love him more every day. I truly think I'm such a better human being than I would be without him.

August will be a month of "vacation time" for our family (although some of it is others vacationing here in Oakland). We are hosting my middle sis and her husband for a week and hosting my mom for another week of August. Also, we'll be making a week long trip in August, too. And after we have our month of fun in August, my aunts and cousins will be coming to Sacramento for a weekend in September. I'm looking forward to it all! Let's hope Eva's sleep schedule remains normal and traveling goes smoothly. In the past Eva has woken up at 5am every day of our vacation, which made for really tired parents and baby.

In other news, another stay at home mom and I have started a "swap" where we watch both kids one day a week. That means that twice a month I will get a half day without Eva! We started by me watching the girls last week and it was really sweet to see them together. They toddled around without any talking and reminded me of two little penguins, so cute! When I opened the fridge they both came running (which is really just a fast walk at this point) and were doe eyed, hopeful that they could get something! I just love how babies roll on top of each other, have such a different sense of space and no sense of ownership, and bump into each other when their walking ... it's like watching two comedians.

Well, it's nice to talk about new changes in our family and the joys of summer because right now it looks like winter outside. The weather outside is frightful but inside we feel so *summer-y.* What are you up to this summer? Is the weather looking like summer where you are?

sleeping

Eva sleeps a LOT. Most parents say, "what a wonderful problem!" But I'm starting to hope that her sleeping/napping hours lessen soon. I miss being out in the sunshine and having longer stretches in the afternoons to be doing... well... anything. This is especially different because now she gets cranky and needs a nap but can't nap in the stroller (although sometimes I take her out during a nap anyway).

There are only so many quiet activities I can do in my house. Let me give you a ballpark... about 13 hours of sleep a night and at times as much as 3.5 hours of sleeping during the day. Wow! Surprisingly, I can still find ways to procrastinate the hard stuff like learning about my sewing machine, sending important emails, and getting my intern paperwork done. :)

Guess who just woke up? Her ears must have been burning!

cheating

I would like to sheepishly admit that I expanded my six items to ten. Funny that dressing up for Eva's baptism didn't end up being the thing that made me cheat. It was just a normal day. I was longing to wear a racerback tank top. How weird is that? Also, it's been rainy and some of my choices didn't foresee this awful May weather, which is turning out to be much more like winter than spring or summer in these parts.

In other news, my mother celebrated her birthday, our friends just got married, my childhood friend is turning 27, Mother's Day was lovely, and my colleague from Fuller is earning his very distinguished Psy D within a few weeks. My heart is full of pride for his hard work and love for my family during this time of celebration.

In the downtime I'm trying to not go completely crazy since Eva has been sleeping between 15-17 hours a day lately. Yes, this is really high for kids her age. They are expected to sleep around 12-13 hours around age 1. I try to be grateful for it. But being a stay at home mom can be repetitious. I'm looking forward to working part time again. I'm also hoping to do more running, sewing, and have another weekly ritual to see friends (starting this summer when our community group is on hiatus). Anyone else having a hard time being motivated this week? What do you do to get inspired?

crazy

I'm going crazy. Too few clothes and combination. I window shopped last night and I think it made me even crazier. A part of the challenge is not buying anything for yourself during the challenge.

The good news is, I've only done laundry twice in a week and hope to keep at that pace. It's actually not as much laundry as usual if you can believe it. Laundry is one of those things that multiplies with people and it makes me think that only having one child sounds like a good idea :)