Saturday we had green pancakes at home before I went off to work. I thought about making a nice rainbow fruit plate with gold coins for the kids but...didn't. I'm just not up to the pinterest idealizations of life yet.
Here is a picture of what I didn't make. :)
We brought leftover corned beef and cabbage home from North Hiway instead. (I hear my Grandma Kelly made this dish on St. Patrick's Day.)
I still remember Nat taking me to North Hiway Cafe on a date (before we were married) when they had the tableside jukebox selectors. We chose "Creep" by Radiohead and it ended up being the unedited version. So surreal in that place!
We went there while I was pregnant with Elizabeth and I asked the waitress if they had a non-smoking section. She said "Honey, we don't have a non-smoking anything."
Then the laws changed.
The music is gone.
But the neon and disinterested waitresses are still there.
Sunday we watched a beautifully drawn animated movie that happened to be Irish.
In the dream house in my head I have lots of art on the walls. I'll include some from this movie now. Check it out some time, you'll see.
Also, in my dream library (the children's section) I'm adding the books "One" and "Zero" by Kathryn Otoshi.
We've read them every day, sometimes more than once since I picked them up at the library.
Now that I don't get paid to sit and wait for a massage appointment I can do anything I want with those hours.
It gives me a similar feeling to those first calm spring days after the heart of winter has passed.
A feeling like the first day you realize you aren't sick anymore and neither are your kids and no one is stuck inside anymore.
Today was all those things.
And if it wasn't a leap year--today would have been my birthday.
On Mondays I help in my seven year old's class preparing the snack for the day and hurry to yoga. The idea for today was homemade french fries. Fun, but I wasn't going to make it to yoga.
It was fun watching the kids oooh and ahhh when I'd lift the lid to stir the fries. They were easily distracted by the sizzling and steam.
I didn't have to go to work when I finished so I had a peaceful grocery shopping trip sans kids. I washed the car and realized it was a good day to run.
An exactly perfect day to run.
Even in my yoga clothes.
The river is this town's saving grace. It heals me every time I go there.
41 degrees with calm air when I'm running feels like 65 degrees when I'm holding still.
See, perfect.
I still had time for lunch at the pier south of the Pancheri bridge. I ate my grape tomatoes and hummus like they were chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven. They tasted amazing. I think the exercise helped.
The water looked like a harbor and I could imagine I was near the ocean.
When the wind picked up and the sparkles like so many mitsubishi emblems dancing on the water started blinding me, karma police came on my ipod and I thought
"if this is what I get, then I must have done something good."
Yep, like Maria in the Sound of Music, I was having a connected-to-the-universe sort of day and it was barely past noon.
I still had an appointment at work (I love my job), my favorite homemade cake, dinner with the in-laws (Margaret made Paula Deen's lasagna) and then Elizabeth came with me to a Ron Paul rally.
Winning Cookies from the Valentine cookie party at home. I really liked using the edible pearls this year:
Elizabeth came up with the cookie tower idea:
More from the Steinbeck letter from my last post:
There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you—of kindness and consideration and respect—not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable. The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn’t know you had.
Enough about love... ;)
This weekend we have a semi-permanent fort in the living room. After church, reading time turned into a photo session with many crazy faces and static-y hair. We need more forts and games and parties for no apparent reason in our lives. I'll try not to wait for four day weekends.
More February news: Nat no longer wears glasses thanks to a great recommendation from an old mission companion turned eye doctor. Elijah will probably be wearing them next whenever I get around to getting him an eye exam.
I taught my first lengthy massage class for couples at the gym where I work. I knew I liked teaching but getting paid for it is even better! I hope to teach many more classes in massage and maybe try being a yoga instructor someday.
I went back to zumba yesterday after about six months. My knee was wrapped and I didn't twist quite as much as I like to but I'm glad I went. My zumba friends missed me. :)
I decided I only like running about once every week and a half which doesn't prepare my body for any lengthy run when I do feel like it or the weather is nice. Why do I always have to do things regularly to be any good at them? This accounts for my lack of any spectacular abilities. I enjoy too many things to do any of them regularly (except eating and reading).
Just a lovely song I stumbled onto (you can listen while you read):
I rarely find books randomly but I grabbed a bookoff the new release shelf at the librarycalled "Eleven"that I enjoyed. It was about the interconnectedness of peoples lives and living intentionally. That made it sound new-agey and it was anything but.
I have been new-agey in my daily reading choices though. Here are two favorites:
From The wisdom of Yoga by Stephen Cope (found at the IFPL used book sale for $.50):
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having neweyes.”-Proust
In the yoga tradition, it’s the seeking that matters, because it is the seeking itself thattransforms our vision of things. Secondhand answers have no power in them.
Yoga, at its truest, insists upon giving us not answers, but a way to find our own answers.
---
I bought the book "Journey to the Heart" by Melody Beattie for myself this Christmas (that is a big deal because I don't often buy books, just borrow). It's a calendar of supportive thoughts and I read at least three days at once, sometimes more, so I'm all the way to December now and ready to start over.
December 29
Experience the Thrill of the Climb
Don’t stop now. You’re almost there.
You’ve worked so hard to climb this mountain. In the beginning, you were excited.Exhilarated at the prospect of the mountain you were about to climb. Now, you are almost tothe top. You’ve struggled, gotten weary, and kept going. Now, your goal is in sight.
Keep going. Guidance is still there to help you. The life force, the one that keepsyou going, keeps you moving forward, is still there too, burning brightly within you, charging allthat you do with its energy. It is more difficult for you to feel it, but that is only because you’retired.
See the mountain climber as he climbs the mountain. There are dangers andprecipices and challenges along the way. But the higher he climbs, the steeper it gets. Themore tired he is, the more energy he has to put into the climb. Don’t tell yourself that the wayyou feel is an indication you should stop. The way you feel now is the way anyone would feelwho was so deeply committed to life. It’s the way anyone would feel who had committed toclimbing that mountain.
Don’t stop now. Relax as much as you can.
Know that the rhythm of life is still there
moving you forward. Don’t look back. Focus
intently on each step. Soon you will reach
the top. Soon you will reach your goal. Soon
you will experience the victory. Keep your
eyes focused on the path; look straight ahead.
Embrace the thrill of the climb.
Makes me think I can make it. It makes me want to climb mountains this summer. Something I always thought I'd do living in Idaho but never made it happen.
My favorite part from "I Said Yes But I Meant No" by Dean Young:
One should like oneself between 60 and 80%. Under 45%, one becomes an undertaking, prone to eating disorders, public weeping, useless for gift wrapping and relay races. Over 85% means you are a self-involved bore, I don’t care about your Nobel prize in positrons or your dog sled victories. Of course there is great variance throughout the day. You may feel 0% upon first waking but that is because you don’t yet know you exist which is why baby-studies have been a bust. Then as you venture forth to boil water, you may feel a sudden surge to 90%, Hey, I’m GOOD at boiling water! which can be promptly counteracted by turning on your email.
Along those lines, here is the January message from President Monson:
