Sacred Hearts Valentines Day
Zo: “I know why it rained so much on Valentine’s Day. Because God was so happy to see all the love.”
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Zo: “You get happiness by making other people happy. That’s what I learned at school.”
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Happy Saturday!
XO
Valentine's Day 2019
Luke: “I don’t give up in Jui Jitsu. Even if it’s hard, I keep going.”
Me: “That’s the best thing Jui Jitsu can possibly teach you. That’s how it is in life. It will get hard, and if you just don’t give up, you’re going to be OK.”
Luke: “But what if you get hurt and you cry?”
Me: “Sometimes you get hurt and it’s OK to sit it out and cry until it doesn’t hurt so bad. Then you get back in.”
Luke: “Yeah.”
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Zo: “The popular girls at my school are also the nice girls. In Steamboat the popular girls were the mean girls. And I’m kind of popular, because I’m friends with the popular girls. Mommy, is it important to be popular?”
Me: “No, it’s important to be kind and brave and true to yourself and to try your best, that’s what we care about, right?”
Zo: “Right!”
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Listening to a love song playlist on Alexa and it’s bringing back lots of non-romantic Valentine’s memories:
Of all my mom did each year to make the holiday special, especially the Valentines box we could add Valentines for each family member to
Of my smart and (to me) so worldly friend Brenda Lurz who died way too young
Of Seattle in the grunge era and my fabulous beautiful sweet kind blonde roommates and “Fly Me to the Moon” and “At Last” and “I Will Always Love You”
Of a rainy night and a warm cab in San Francisco, sky-blue sheets and a window fogged from the rain waiting at home
Of Santa Barbara after my brother died when my friend Clayton played Ms. Pac Man with me at the rainbow-colored Wildcat before going out on his romantic date
Of Charlie in the same era and Fugees Killing me Softly which he and I must of played on the use and guitar or why would I remember it?
Of making Valentines with my precious babes, new ones each year
And (on a romantic note), of my husband, who doesn’t like holidays and big shows of things but is there for me day in and day out, shows up in the way it counts, and who I am so lucky to be with…
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And this year, handwritten Valentines (hand-drawn on my part) and heart shaped sugar cookies baked with the kids frosted and stapled into waxed paper sleeves, it’s been super fun…
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You know the saying used to show off Boston accents: “I parked the car in Harvard yard.”
The kids’ version is “I parked the car in aardvark yard.” Cracks me up every time :)
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Hope everyone had a good Valentine’s Day!
XO
Heart-shaped rocks, heart-shaped cookies + taxes (nothing about which is heart-shaped. But if I'm paying taxes it means I'm making money right? So I can be grateful for that)
We’ve been collecting heart-shaped rocks we find on the beach since we moved here…it’s not a big collection but it’s really special…
Rain and cooler weather is a nice change…
Have I mentioned Luke is starting an invitation-only competition class in Jui Jitsu today? Proud of him and excited for him…he is loving Jui Jitsu so much…
Baking cookies for class later today…
I think I’ve got all my tax info to my accountant…always a good feeling to be done with that…
Happy Wednesday!
XO
Storm, Valentine's prep + experimenting with not getting up so early
Crazy storm here today, the ocean angry like it gets in Northern California in the winter (note the above photo is color, not black and white, everything’s silvers and grays)…so glad to be safe and snug in our house…
Got out our Valentine’s decoration and kids made their Valentines for school today…
Finished Jack Ryan last night…it was soooo good…
This weekend’s been so nice and mellow…with some serious sleeping in…experimenting with not getting up at 5 AM so I have a little time in the evenings and I think that’s going to work better for us…
I have to bribe Luke and Zo with a couple chocolates each but I got some super cute valentine’s photos of the two of them…
Happy Sunday!
XO
A picture and a story
Jui Jitsu has been such a positive experience for us…
And a funny story: Luke and I were talking about what the word “vice” meant and I explained it as something people like to do that’s not really good for them, like smoking or gambling. Yesterday driving to school he said, “So is the Vice President of the United States bad for you?”
Happy Wednesday!
XO
Newly painted house!
Love love love our new paint! Everyone says it looks very Hawaiian, which is exactly what we were going for. :)
Egg experiment, beautiful morning + treats for (and from) neighbors
We did this cool and easy experiment where you add an egg to a glass of vinegar and the shell dissolves, leaving the membrane surrounding a raw egg. Kids loved it. Luke especially is so into science…need to do more of this…
Our painting (outside of the house) is almost done! Pictures soon…
Zoey early this morning: “Mama, come see the sky in my room! It’s beautiful!” And it was but in a way I never would have noticed on my own, with different shades of white and gray and a very pale pink and a bright morning star peeking through the clouds on occasion…
Jeff’s over in Kahului getting materials to fix our fence, yay!
Going to bake chocolate chip cookies later for a neighbor who recently had surgery. And in related news, our next door neighbor borrowed eggs yesterday and stopped by a couple hours later with hot-from-the-oven French bread…yum…
Happy Saturday!
XO
Stormy days, thinking about things other than work + volunteering
Slow work day and thus getting to do/think about some other things…
A friend over for dinner last night…fun…
Still rainy/windy/stormy/cold…
Thinking a lot about real vs contrived, how to do something unique, how to share honestly especially in terms of social media…don’t know what the answers are but it’s interesting to be asking the questions…
Volunteering in the kids’ classroom shortly…then homework and Jui-Jitsu…and I’d love to snuggle up with the kids and read for a while…
Happy Wednesday!
XO
Swimming, cooler weather + a cozy place to work
Here’s Bubs having a good time swimming the other day…he and his Sissy sure love the water…
And some lovely things this morning:
Sweater weather is here…it’s a nice change…
Painting is coming along, slowly but surely…
Great yoga class this morning, I have’t been feeling like going but I am sure glad I did…
A nice steady flow of work…
A quiet house in which to get said work done…and the storm outside is making our house feel extra cozy…
Happy Tuesday!
XO
Jui Jitsu, healthy meals, house projects, taxes + sleep
Great Jui Jitsu class yesterday…I can leave now that they are with the older kids and sometimes it’s good to run errands or finish work but I really like watching the class too…yesterday this older more experienced girl really helped Zo with some moves…she (the girl) was so sweet…
I’ve got a weeks worth of healthy meals and snacks planned out of a new cookbook I got at the library…did a lot of prep today so the week should go smoother…
Jeff put the street numbers back on our house and set up the surfboard holder for me…excited about that…
Getting a handle on taxes…not done but getting there…
Took a nap yesterday and got a full night’s sleep…feeling very rested…
Happy Sunday!
XO