Eye to Wonder

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Unexpected Good Things

I love planning ahead and having fun things to look forward to. However there is something special about things that happen spontaneously. For me it’s easier to remember or pay attention to unexpected annoyances or hardships that come without warning, but it’s also true that sometimes there is a lot of good that comes into life unexpectedly. The enjoyment you get from these moments is special because it surprises you! For me this feeling holds whether the surprising event or item is big or small. A few recent unplanned good things: * Going to the beach on Veteran’s Day. We had to scrap our camping trip because my daughter was sick, but fortunately she bounced back quickly. We ended up having a day off with no plans and got to enjoy a morning at the beach. It was a little cold, but I love going to the beach in the fall. It’s way less crowded than in the summer months, and it’s an immense privilege to get to live so close to the beach that you can visit all year long. The kids are ...

What Our 2.5 Year Old is Like

My youngest daughter turned 2.5 on Monday, and I thought I’d mark the occasion by jotting down a few notes to capture her at this age. Toddlers feel like they are constantly in the process of transformation, so I want to remember: *How much she loves to climb at this age. She suddenly seems so brave and capable when we visit the park. *Her love of baby dolls. She is constantly pushing a stroller, finding a bottle, wrapping a baby in a dish towel, singing to the baby, or telling me the baby is sad/hungry/wants to play. *That she loves snuggling up and being read to. She’s old enough to attend to books more often and have distinct preferences. At this age she really loves Julia Donaldson books, the Story Orchestra books that play music, Jill McDonald’s Hello World series with books about camping, the body, etc. She also loves some of the Lovevery books that have real photos of kids like You Can Do It Sullivan and The Sleepover . *How snuggly and sweet she is at this age. She li...

Exercise Over Time

I always enjoy getting glimpses into other people’s routines whether that’s what they’re eating, how they start their day, or move. Today I thought I’d share a bit about how my thoughts on exercising have changed over time, and what exercising looks like for me right now. I would say that I like being active but haven’t always loved exercising for its own sake. I played soccer for many years growing up, and loved playing defense. Sprinting for the sake of clearing the ball was exhilarating; running just to run? Not so much for me. When I stopped playing soccer in college, I didn’t really exercise much. I occasionally went to the gym with friends. More successful for me were the occasional yoga, dance or HIIT classes I signed up for. After college, my roommate and I went through periods of working out, especially when we lived two blocks away from the best gym ever , and it was easy to pop in for fun workout classes. I occasionally tried running and signed up for 5ks or 5 mile race...

What's Saving My Life: Sick Kid Edition

As I wrote yesterday, one of my daughters got sick, and so we didn’t make it to our camping trip! I had a really good attitude about it for most of the day and mostly felt grateful that she got sick at home and not 2 hours away, in the desert, where we would have to completely takedown a campsite before leaving. But by the afternoon, I was feeling a little grumpy and bummed to miss an adventure we’d been looking forward to and also cooped up from being inside all day with a kid who wasn’t feeling well. Inspired by San’s recent “Five Things That are Saving My Life Right Now” post, I decided to make my own list that was specific to sick days at home. In no particular order: *Emkfit videos on youtube. It’s awesome to have such a fun, silly, sweaty workout to do. I always feel happier having done the dance videos, and it really helps my mood on days when I’m at home a lot and restless *Good books. I posted earlier this week that October was not the best reading month for me, and so I spen...

Photo of the Week, November 9th

To help keep up with posts during NaBloPoMo, I decided to have a couple of template days. So far the two I have are Friday Favorites and Photo of the Week. The photo I chose this week is not a good photo from an artistic sense, but I chose it because I want to remember the moment. I took this photo on Wednesday morning right before we took my six-year-old to school. We were ready a few minutes early, so the girls decided to play outside and make a fairy house. It was a nice peaceful moment of sisterly connection, which wasn’t always easy to come by this week, so I wanted to capture it here. And it was peaceful for me to sit in the backyard for a few minutes listening to birdsong. P.S. My older daughter woke up at 4:30 this morning sick, so camping is off for this weekend.

An Unexpected Pick-Me-Up

We recently had a bad afternoon. Big picture, nothing is really wrong. But sometimes small things pile up, and we were all dysregulated when we got home from an unexpectedly long appointment. My two-year-old loves to sit in our bedroom next to the big bookshelves, so she found a spot and was pulling books off the shelves. My older daughter and I were hanging out when she spotted my five year journal and asked me to read her some of the entries. We probably spent the next 15 or 20 minutes reading (slightly edited) entries of different days. She’s a beginning reader and wasn’t interested in trying to decode the text, so it was easy to just read the parts I felt comfortable sharing with her. It was incredibly soothing to remember good days, bad days, and all the moments in between from the past year and a half, and it really brought perspective in a moment when we all needed it. My daughter and I loved reminiscing about all of the different things we had done, and it really helped to tur...