Eye to Wonder

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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...

Friday Favorites

Some favorites this Friday: 1. Music class with my youngest. We ended up going twice this week because we had a makeup class, and she was so cute dancing and singing and imitating the teacher. She also had a checkup and entertained herself while waiting by singing all of the songs from class. I tried and failed to get a good video of this. 2. The bands Plains and Snocaps. They both have Katie Crutchfield in them and a folk sound, and something about her voice feels good for my soul. If you want to check them out, my favorite songs from Plains are No Record of Wrong, Line of Sight, and Abilene. I’ve just started listening to Snocaps (the album only came out last week), but so far I’m really liking Heathcliff. 3. We recently stopped doing TV on weeknights. I’m not against the kids watching TV, but I noticed that they were having a hard time getting immersed in playing when my oldest got home from school because it wouldn’t be that long before they watched their show while I cooked dinne...

Thursday Supper Club

As I’ve already written about this month, I’m obsessed with Samin Nosrat’s new cookbook. I love the recipes, but I also love the sections on “small good things,” which are very small things you can make to add extra deliciousness to a meal like whipped ricotta. As someone who is currently in a season where I have to make food for my family a lot, this feels doable and accessible. I like all the sauces recipes--they are easy to make in bulk and then add on to dishes to add more flavor to dishes than my children prefer. However, my favorite section of the book is where she writes about her routine of having a Monday dinner night with friends. Every week she and her friends gather for dinner at the same house. People swap cooking responsibilities and chip in, but it happens almost every week. Joel and I were immediately drawn to the idea. We already enjoy having people over for dinner, and we both like cooking and food. A few days later we had our friend over for dinner. I told her about ...