8.17.2010
Ten on Tuesday
1. Juliette helped me make a blueberry-peach pie from scratch the other day. In a fit of inspiration, I marked it with a *J*. Sadly, Juliette refused to even try the pie. When I gave her a piece, she asked for cake or cookies instead. As if! Oh well... more for us. It was reaaally good, and I now know that all-butter pie crusts are my favorite kind.
2. Juliette is also helping with dinner a lot these days; last night, she "painted" olive oil onto the to-be-grilled eggplant. She's helped here and there before, but I'm on a new kick to make sure she's included on a regular basis. Last week Mary Allison ran a great interview with our mutual friend Maria Bergius Krämer. In the interview, Maria mentioned "the Swedish controversial mothering guru" Anna Wahlgren. I followed that link (because really? I am incapable of resisting the siren call that is "Swedish controversial mothering guru"), and ended up reading an article she wrote about how crucial it is for children to feel helpful. She connects it with the importance of "social sharing" as well as a critique about how contemporary culture prohibits social sharing across generations. I'd quote directly from the article, but her English-language site is down. Maria must have sent her a lot of American traffic.
3. This is now on my to-read list.
4. I'm pretty sure I finally surpassed the three mile mark on my morning run today. I have a running partner for the first time in a long time, and it makes all the difference. Thanks to thrice-weekly neighborhood runs, I'm not using my gym membership as much as I should these days... but I'm sure that will change once the winter comes along.
5. Fine. I'll admit it. I miss the ocean. I glanced at this picture while scanning through iPhoto, and was surprised by how my heart leaped.
6. I do not miss the smog.
7. Check out our living room, now that we've mostly settled into it. We nabbed the green wool rug at the Crate and Barrel Outlet last weekend. I think I need to more artfully arrange the stuff on the hutch.
8. Speaking of the Crate and Barrel Outlet, it is adjacent to a Land of Nod Outlet. I will not be afraid to use that as a big juicy carrot to lure my sisters here for visits.
9. I need lessons on how to take good jumping photos so as to better capture Juliette's favorite game: launching herself from Ben's tummy.
Here, the flash helps. [Please note that the windows are only that filthy because the brick in our rental is being rehabbed.]
10. The Long Surrender, the new Over the Rhine album produced by Joe Henry, comes out 1/11/11. The countdown begins.
Happy Tuesday!
2. Juliette is also helping with dinner a lot these days; last night, she "painted" olive oil onto the to-be-grilled eggplant. She's helped here and there before, but I'm on a new kick to make sure she's included on a regular basis. Last week Mary Allison ran a great interview with our mutual friend Maria Bergius Krämer. In the interview, Maria mentioned "the Swedish controversial mothering guru" Anna Wahlgren. I followed that link (because really? I am incapable of resisting the siren call that is "Swedish controversial mothering guru"), and ended up reading an article she wrote about how crucial it is for children to feel helpful. She connects it with the importance of "social sharing" as well as a critique about how contemporary culture prohibits social sharing across generations. I'd quote directly from the article, but her English-language site is down. Maria must have sent her a lot of American traffic.
3. This is now on my to-read list.
4. I'm pretty sure I finally surpassed the three mile mark on my morning run today. I have a running partner for the first time in a long time, and it makes all the difference. Thanks to thrice-weekly neighborhood runs, I'm not using my gym membership as much as I should these days... but I'm sure that will change once the winter comes along.5. Fine. I'll admit it. I miss the ocean. I glanced at this picture while scanning through iPhoto, and was surprised by how my heart leaped.
6. I do not miss the smog.
7. Check out our living room, now that we've mostly settled into it. We nabbed the green wool rug at the Crate and Barrel Outlet last weekend. I think I need to more artfully arrange the stuff on the hutch.
8. Speaking of the Crate and Barrel Outlet, it is adjacent to a Land of Nod Outlet. I will not be afraid to use that as a big juicy carrot to lure my sisters here for visits.
9. I need lessons on how to take good jumping photos so as to better capture Juliette's favorite game: launching herself from Ben's tummy.
Here, the flash helps. [Please note that the windows are only that filthy because the brick in our rental is being rehabbed.]
10. The Long Surrender, the new Over the Rhine album produced by Joe Henry, comes out 1/11/11. The countdown begins.
Happy Tuesday!
8.10.2010
What Juliette is Like
Juliette is, in a word, friendly.
In a few more words, she is social, outgoing, extroverted, gregarious, convivial. Pretty much any synonym for "not shy" you can come up with.
When she sees another kid, she turns to us and exclaims, "My friend! That's my friend!" She is also likely to boisterously inform her new friend, "You're my friend!" Not every child is copacetic with such an in-your-face approach to social networking. Sometimes we have to usher her away from a completely overwhelmed toddler.
Tonight we were at the ice cream shop (to make up for the inexplicable lack of ice cream during our weekend getaway) and we ran into a church member. In the course of conversation, we mentioned why we'd left a church outing to a baseball game rather quickly: Juliette had wanted to sit next to a little girl, but the girl got a little freaked out and started to cry. Juliette had been on edge and thus descended into a massive temper tantrum when we dared separate her from HER FRIEND!!! It just seemed best to call it a night and not risk further terrorizing small children with our small child's large need for fraternization. As we were explaining, we overheard Juliette introducing herself to a baby.
If that weren't enough, as we exited the shop, three big kids - maybe six- or seven-year olds - were seated outside on the bench.
She says to them, and I quote: "Hi guys!"
(Unrelated but cute photo. It was a little tricky to get a shot of Juliette in front of the Willis Tower on our recent trip downtown without standing in the middle of Wacker Dr... so it's the Willis Tow Head shot. Probably taken on the same day [in the same hour?] as the shot of my parents and Elizabeth in front of the Willis sign in Wyoming...)
In a few more words, she is social, outgoing, extroverted, gregarious, convivial. Pretty much any synonym for "not shy" you can come up with.
When she sees another kid, she turns to us and exclaims, "My friend! That's my friend!" She is also likely to boisterously inform her new friend, "You're my friend!" Not every child is copacetic with such an in-your-face approach to social networking. Sometimes we have to usher her away from a completely overwhelmed toddler.
Tonight we were at the ice cream shop (to make up for the inexplicable lack of ice cream during our weekend getaway) and we ran into a church member. In the course of conversation, we mentioned why we'd left a church outing to a baseball game rather quickly: Juliette had wanted to sit next to a little girl, but the girl got a little freaked out and started to cry. Juliette had been on edge and thus descended into a massive temper tantrum when we dared separate her from HER FRIEND!!! It just seemed best to call it a night and not risk further terrorizing small children with our small child's large need for fraternization. As we were explaining, we overheard Juliette introducing herself to a baby.
If that weren't enough, as we exited the shop, three big kids - maybe six- or seven-year olds - were seated outside on the bench.
She says to them, and I quote: "Hi guys!"
(Unrelated but cute photo. It was a little tricky to get a shot of Juliette in front of the Willis Tower on our recent trip downtown without standing in the middle of Wacker Dr... so it's the Willis Tow Head shot. Probably taken on the same day [in the same hour?] as the shot of my parents and Elizabeth in front of the Willis sign in Wyoming...)
8.09.2010
Vacation Weekend (!?)
I didn't really expect to take any vacation for several months yet; after all, my first pastoral contract stipulated no vacation until after a year, and from what I understand that's pretty standard in the working world. But my S.P. returned from sabbatical last week and encouraged me to take the weekend off. (That's kind of funny, eh? I keep thinking how much I like working with my senior pastor, but we haven't actually worked together much yet. I'm pretty confident that the actual working together is going to be even better than the already-but-not-yet working together).
Sometimes you don't realize how much you need a vacation until it's handed to you, unexpectedly. A gift of time. We spent last week anticipating and plotting, and now we get to spend the rest of our days remembering what we all agreed was one fantastic trip.
Given that our schedules didn't allow for a Friday departure, we decided we didn't have quite enough time to go all the way to Ohio. We wanted to spend as little time traveling as possible. So we poked around on The Internet and uncovered the Illinois State Beach Resort in Zion, which is scarcely over an hour away. We booked two nights. It wasn't exactly cheap - next time we'll try to find a weeklong cabin rental or something - but it was money very well spent.
The highlights:
Sometimes you don't realize how much you need a vacation until it's handed to you, unexpectedly. A gift of time. We spent last week anticipating and plotting, and now we get to spend the rest of our days remembering what we all agreed was one fantastic trip.
Given that our schedules didn't allow for a Friday departure, we decided we didn't have quite enough time to go all the way to Ohio. We wanted to spend as little time traveling as possible. So we poked around on The Internet and uncovered the Illinois State Beach Resort in Zion, which is scarcely over an hour away. We booked two nights. It wasn't exactly cheap - next time we'll try to find a weeklong cabin rental or something - but it was money very well spent.
The highlights:
- Unsurprisingly, the beach. The weather on Saturday was flawless. Oh, Lake Michigan: you'll do. You'll definitely do. I feel like we've pulled one over on the universe - leaving So Cal for the Midwest only to rediscover how completely lovely the Great Lakes can be.
- Despicable Me. We had no plans to see a movie, but when we were pulling out of our dinner spot, I noticed a) The Dunes Theater across the street, and b)that the next showing of Despicable Me was in exactly twelve minutes. Ben and I laughed so hard when one of those little alien dudes was used as a glow stick I thought Juliette was going to pretend she didn't know us. What a great movie.
- Sunday morning was markedly less sunny, but we had even more fun at the beach in the light drizzle than we'd had in Saturday's brilliance. We threw/skipped stones into the water, ran around willy-nilly (always a Juliette favorite), and stacked rocks.
- The Jelly Belly Tour just over the border in Wisconsin. The tour itself is a little rinky-dink, but they do give out free jelly beans at the end. If you ever find yourself halfway between Milwaukee and Chicago with time to kill, go for it. (The actual highlight of this tour is not rated "E" for everyone. It involved a impeccably-timed bodily function on the part of the only member of our family for whom it is still somewhat socially acceptable to engage in such bodily functions in public.)
- We returned to the beach on Sunday afternoon. Juliette was in a rotten mood, thanks to all the sugar in her system, but Ben and I each dunked ourselves three times in the exquisitely cold water, and we both agreed it was the best part of the day, and possibly the weekend.
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