Walking the walk

This morning, son #2 was having a hard time.  He was hit with the quick bug I had and is feeling occasionally overwhelmed in its aftermath.  (Son #1 is feeling under the weather today.)

Fortunately, I had resumed meditating and practicing Qigong (the routine was thrown by my getting sick), and my calmer and clearer mind was able to feel compassion and assist in problem solving.

We did some talk processing, but the clincher was making a list.

Once he was squared away, I tripped over some of my own feelings of overwhelm.  Then, I made a list.

Things to be completed by Sag's family birthday party/Christmas gathering on Sunday:

• knit a hat, weave in ends of two hats, wrap two hats

• make candied pecans

• put a dent in the holiday cards (at the very least, the three for family members gathering)

• deep clean kitchen (it. is. so. nasty.)

• deep clean the bathroom

• dust all rooms

• vacuum all rooms

• pick up and wrap nephew dog's gift

• clean and organize my "desk" (still so much loose paper!)

• bake Christmas cookies: these and these

• put up tree and decorations

• prep party food: appies (hopefully the farmer's market will persevere pre-snowstorm), deviled eggs, steamed carrots, onigiri, cream cheese frosting.  (Cap is baking the cake, my mom is bringing meatballs, and we're bringing in a couple of pizzas.)

Breathe in, breathe out.  And smile.  And feel grateful.  My mantras.

train crossing at night.

found tucked in library book.

candied pecans o'clock.

curly Su?

I hope it's a happy Friday for you.

Peace and love.

Air travel shots

I splurged on some big boy backpacks for the kids and got one for myself, too.  They turned out to be way more spacious than necessary.  Next trip, we're thinking the kids will have their own suitcases, as well.

I love this method of packing for kids (it could work for adults, too).  Bag outfits to keep operations and organization during the trip running very smoothly.

I cannot shake the romantic notion that air travel will afford me hours of uninterrupted reading bliss.  The reality: my travel-themed issue of Granta remained unread by me for the duration of our trip.

Gem whiling away the time at our gate in Newark Airport.

We both caught Iron Man 3 on our non-stop flight to SFO.

Minecraft at cruising altitude.

Lounging on the monorail to the rental car center where Cap waited on the line from hell for over an hour.  The rental car center and the monorail system are super convenient.  I blame Dollar Rental Car for the outrageous bottleneck at their counter.

Another shot from the monorail.  Beautiful Bay Area twilight.

On our return trip, the Bay Bridge was closed so we had to take the long way around the bay to the airport...alongside a multitude of morning commuters.  We left Barbra and Audrey's at 6:30am to ensure plenty of time for our 10:55 flight.  It took us about two hours to get to the airport.  (I took this shot because I liked the old school lettering on the United Airlines hangar.)

Their backpacks actually looked smaller to me on our way home.  These boys are growing at an astonishing rate.

Gem enjoying his first breakfast on the monorail.

Once we checked in and were through security (we were sent through a much shorter "family" line, thank you SFO!), the kids had their second breakfast: bacon for Gem, pizza for Sag.

I was thrilled to spot this rainbow of kombucha in our terminal.

Gem is afraid of heights.  He decided to conquer some of his fear and chose to sit in the window seat during the SFO - ORD leg of our trip home.  I love this photo and what it represents.  LOVE.

I tried to get a straight on shot of them in the Oakland t-shirts I got for them, but no dice.  Here they are reading the comics from the newspaper Cap picked up at the airport.

In Chicago, I was happy to pick up a torta from Rick Bayless' shop.  It had a lot of flavor and the bread was impressive because it retained essential bread-ness despite being served in an airport and consumed on a plane over an hour later (while containing a glob of wettish meat and cheese).

ORDino!

I was one of those crazy people darting around looking for an outlet to charge my phone in the airport.  I found the experience dehumanizing...but refused to get a hold of myself and be okay with the possibility of my phone running out of juice before I got home.  Boy, do I have mixed feelings about my relationship to my personal technology.

Poor bubbie.  By this point we'd been traveling for about eleven hours with three more to go.  The kids have always been good travelers (Sag was on his first plane at four months and Gem at one year) and this trip was no different.  They keep up with agendas other than their own and go with whatever the flow is with an air of confident contentment and no complaint.

Back at EWR, waiting (briefly) for our ride home.  We were lucky to have Max chauffeur us to and from the airport for this trip.  He was duly rewarded with much chocolate.

Peace and love.

Glimpse

Well, I've spent a chunk of time going through photos on my computer.  I uploaded over 900 from my camera, as well.  And that did not include all the CA pics.  Now, I must to the kitchen to prepare lunch for the children.

Jet lag persists, though it is being overtaken by the energies of Fall.  Fall is my favorite season in all its beautiful and melancholic last gasps.

This photograph of buds and bloom brings some serenity to my system.  Renewal amongst the pulls of entropy.  (Gratitude to Kate who brought this lovely into my home and Shannon whose birthday we were celebrating.)

I wanted to read today, but organizing my photos niggles on my brain.  I also have CSA pick up and processing of veg/fruit, as well as, a visit with Vinny.

Peace and love.

Excellent exhale

I have been overtaken by another big push in the decluttery reorg...

I've culled the linens and have a bag of soft old cotton cloth to donate to a local animal shelter.  Those colorful plastic trays were purchased for homeschooling organization a few years ago.  They never quite hit the mark in that regard, but I was reluctant to pass them up because they were not cheap.  Thanks to the label maker, they have been relocated to the linen closet where they hold things of different category in a compact space.

I used to shop at Target a lot, but now only go about once a season.  I was stoked to find this lid organizer on my recent Target trip.  These lids have been the rattling bane of my kitchen existence for months since I shoved the glass lids in the cabinet with the metal ones (which also housed most of our pots and pans).

While we were at Ikea earlier in the week, I came across curtain wires and was intrigued.  Cap liked them, so we picked them up.  The curtain area of Ikea was overwhelming and complicated and we left the store with curtain wires and no curtains.

I found these curtains at Target and brought them home not really knowing what was what...other than that we could make these work with the curtain wires.  Cap and I have never bought and put up curtains in our twenty-plus years together.  Never.  He likes blue and I liked the springy-summery look of these.  They are 100% cotton.  They are machine washable.  They require no sewing.  Project Curtain Hanging will happen in the next few days.  Pics to follow.

I went off-list quite a bit at Target, but these "over-the-door" brushed metal hooks were on my list.  We've had one in the bathroom for years, but while making the final push in the kids' room, I realized we could throw a couple of these up in there to hold odds and ends like their bathrobes, the bow that Sag bought at the craft sale last week, and their backpacks.  I quickly extrapolated that I could also use one in this corner behind the door of the big bed room.

One of the challenges of living in not only a small space, but one that is unconventional in shape, is that we don't have a foyer or coat closet.  We use the closet in the big bed room as a coat closet, but it's in the room, not right by the apartment door.  So, early on, I asked Cap to put up this set of hooks closer to the apartment door to facilitate the kids independently and easily hanging their jackets.

But, then there were the bags.  We have a lot of bags.  I am kind of a bag freak.  I like bags.  So for years, these coat hooks were stressed with not only our fleeces and hoodies, but with bags upon bags.  Not pretty.  Or user-friendly.

I have no idea why it took me so long to figure out this space-expanding measure.  But, I don't care, I am going to spend my energy just loving it.  The corner now breathes.  It exudes peace.  Yay.

The Target shopping and linen closet work triangulated to reorganizing the medicine cabinet.  I wish I had taken a "before" shot, but, well, most of you can probably imagine what an overflowing medicine cabinet of expired/no longer used junk would look like.  While I was at it, I decluttered the cabinet under the sink, as well.  Ahhhhh.

When we put the new dresser in the kids' room, it freed up my very old childhood dresser which had been acting as overflow catcher of kids' clothes.  We have had this dresser...probably since my parents' moved out of the old homestead at the turn of the millenium.  It's kind of clunky and unattractive, but I have hung onto it kind of irrationally.  Today it found yet another new life, this time, as my bedside/crafting dresser.  Yay.

The little red dresser that could.  (Can you see it's missing an eye?)  In repose on my side of the bed.  Sigh.

My sweet little space is coming together.  Those are my cookbooks on the bottom shelf.  Eventually, I would like to dedicate the top shelf to spiritual/personal work books and "stuff".  Right now I have the materials for photography projects stuffed in there.

I'm glad I got to keep my dresser.  There had been some talk of Sag taking it and my getting the new dresser.  Originally I had hoped to pare down my clothes enough to buy a smaller dresser.  But, I wasn't up for the task of going total ascetic...and luckily, Ikea had affordable options in the bigger size.

This is the pile of stuff that still needs tending to...

...not bad considering what the pile looked like for a couple of weeks there.

There is a Japanese turn of phrase that comes to mind: kotsu kotsu to (little by little)...

Peace and love.

Comma

The kids worked hard today.  We finished the big decluttering/reorganizing push in their room.  Now everything has a place...which will facilitate independence in keeping the room tidy and clean!

My goal is to move on to the next room and accomplish the same.  Declutter/reorganize to the point that clean up becomes more manageable...efficient and pleasant.  The big front room which acts as living room/den/homeschool room/dining room/half foyer, the "big bed" room which acts as bedroom/Cap's office/my Qigong space/half foyer, the eat-in kitchen/pantry, and the bathroom/linen closet.

It's gonna take some time.  But, I tell you, it feels so good to get it done.

(The kids' room is not completely finished.  We are starting to shop around for a second dresser.  As they have grown, their storage needs have, too.)

Peaceful weekend to you.

Books unread

Feeling the chaos today. Receiving that frequency most clear.

So tired. Despite sleeping.

Focusing on bits and moving forward.

Post office, dry cleaning, book store return, latte break with a friend, baby registry gift, cleaning out the fridge, lunch for the kids, ordering a label maker, revising the "to do" list, and organizing a shelf of books.

The books, as happy-making and appealing as they are, are a grim reminder of desires unfulfilled. Books unread.

Peace.

And a week begins

Had a rejuvenating outing with Cap yesterday.  We lunched at Terra (Niçoise Salad, hold the cheese, and a double espresso, yum) and then saw a production about the life and art of Clementine Hunter up at the university.  The performance moved me to tears a number of times...I felt resuscitated.  (That's Toshi Reagon.  Her and her mom worked on the music side of the show.)  We were in the front row and I got to shake her hand and thank her afterward...yay!

My Super Bowl nosh.  Pastured eggs sunny side up and the last of the roasted plum tomatoes.  The game was engaging enough that I opted to keep watching rather than switch over to Downton Abbey.

I kept it slow and simple this morning and caramelized an onion and a bunch of mushrooms in ghee...with a dash of spilled thyme.

I meant to take a purtier picture...after all the pot roast making for sick friends last week, I thought I'd make one for ourselves this week.  Gem put together the spice rub this morning (where spilled thyme was involved) and it looked really nice in the tiny bowl.  Here's the roast post-massage seasoning in the fridge.  Will toss it in the cast iron Dutch oven in the morning.

 

I've been meaning to take a pic of the fridge for awhile.  It has been looking so nice!  With the organized meal planning and food shopping happening weekly (not perfect, but definitely an improvement), the fridge is staying more organized and light.  It used to be so jammed with stuff that you could never see the light.  Also, things would get "lost" from getting shoved in the back and/or simply forgotten about.  We are still not eating everything we make in time, but food loss has become impressively minimal in a short amount of time.  I am getting a clearer idea on how to plan/cook to shrink waste even more.

By the time I was ready to fix my own breakfast, the kids were ready for a snack.  Smoothies, coming right up!  (Almond milk, banana, frozen strawberries, frozen blueberries, maple syrup, almond butter, and hemp protein powder .)  I nursed my caffè Americano and munched on a banana coconut cookie.

Then, breakfast.  Pastured eggs scrambled with caramelized onions and mushrooms.  With a sprinkle of truffle salt.  Which, frankly, got lost in the meaty mushroom flavor.  I am learning, joyfully, what truffle salt matches well with.  So far, I like it best on my fingertips.

Gem and I drove over to the park and took a morning walk.  It was cold and lovely.  We saw crows, a lone jogger, and chatted with two dogs and their mom.  And we talked about Pokemon.

Lunch was, as is so often the case, something different for each of us.  As much as I'd love to conserve time and energy and nudge more communality via commonality by all of us partaking of one dish, it's what works right now.  I defrosted the leftover half of a butternut squash stuffed with ground turkey and enjoyed 1/3 of it.  The orange color made me especially happy.

Checking math work, washing items piled in the sink, monitoring tooth brushing (someone's teeth have been looking a bit sad lately), working out the logistics of a playdate with friends who have a packed schedule, doing calendars with Cap, getting up-to-date with itemizing spending from the last few days, figuring out how to upload a video from my phone to YouTube...oh my, it all takes time.

I want to read my book, it's so good, but there is laundry to be folded, Qigong to be practiced, and decluttering/organizing to be done.  And it's 4:30!  (At least I finally got my blogging in.)

Peace and love.

P.S.  The video is for a really cool blog Lana started.  Check it out and post bits of your day...or check out my submission, Creaky Branch.