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Fickle ol' solidarity

At some point in March when this virus deemed that it had spread so far that it could be called a pandemic, I told the girls they should do video journals to remember the days of living in a pandemic. Here now in the middle of April, I realize that I need to write for myself and the girls can just have lots of regret when they're older because they didn't do what I said. When the whole world started moving to stay-at-home orders, I felt such a strong sense of solidarity.  I looked at all of us (literally all of us - okay, most of us) in our different areas of the world facing this beast together.  Jimmy Fallon's wife filmed him hosting from home.  John Krasinski started SGN in his home office.  Everyone was joking about toilet paper, sweatpants, and cutting your own bangs. Italians were singing from their balconies.  Wuhan folk were singing from their high-rises.  Hospitals in NYC were being surrounded by patrol cars each evening with lights flashing and sirens going to s
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All these posts

Somewhere in space are all these posts that people write.  I've had this blog for years now and I hardly ever use it but it's still always here.  Who is that person that finally says, "Okay, enough is enough. Your blog is gone."? I'm tired.  It's Saturday afternoon at 4pm.  I'd like to nap longer or watch a movie.  I don't want to play chu chu train and I don't want to take a slow toddler paced walk outside.  I don't want to start making pizza but I should, which means I need to go buy tomato paste, make the sauce and make the crust.  I'm feeling lazy and a hard thing with being a parent is that when you're lazy, others in your life have the potential to starve. We're looking at buying a house.  It's not an easy thing to do when the house is on one side of the globe while you're on the other.  When I want to get something done, I want it done now.  So, that's making this process hard.  We're at the mercy of east
It's simply  the break in the clouds the huff up the mountain the cover of yellow leaves the toast of the sun that brings the swell of the spirit.

facebook killed the blogger

Well, it's that time again.  The time when I remember that I have a blog and think about writing something. With coffee in hand, I've sat down in front of this screen and, I'm not joking, within seconds Abe is crying in his room.  Fortunately, for me, I can ignore him. We have a mountain behind our apartment.  It's literally behind our apartment.  I walk out the back gate, up a short road and BOOM, there's the mountain.  I like our apartment but I sometimes think about all the other apartment complexes that seem better.  Some are closer to the girl's school. Some have lots of other expat kids that the girls could be out playing with.  But none of them have their very own mountain.  And so, even with the things I'd like to change about this complex, I'm praying we can live here for a long time.  Phil tires to climb the mountain everyday.  I was inspired and I try to climb it every other day - I don't want to get too buff.  I never have a bad hike.

wedding day

It was still dark when I woke up this morning and thought, "I should get up."  I started sitting up and realized, it's Saturday!  My mornings, Monday thru Friday, start around 6:15am.  It's really not too big of a deal for me since I'm a morning person but when I stay up late with Phil watching Top Chef and Arrested Development, then it's a big deal.  Maddie pretty much has two choices for her lunches.  It's either going to be pb&j or a ham sandwich.  If we've had rice and pnut sauce that week then she'll often choose that.  So, I drink my coffee while I make her lunch and then wake her up around 6:50am.  Often she's already awake and for some horrible reason, Lily is too.  So then we're up.  Phil's up at some point as well but I'm definitely the one running the morning routine show. But for some magical reason, right now, I'm the only one up at 7:01am. Maddie's in a wedding today.  We've never met the bride or

thanksgiving morning

Really, how could this city get much better?  I walk out on Thanksgiving morning to take Maddie to the bus stop and it's snowing.  I was already dressed for a run but the sidewalks were too slippery.  So, I decided to hike up the mountain that sits behind our complex.  It was amazing.  I had in my ear buds, listening to Newsboys singing about everything that makes our God so awesome.  In Chariots of Fire, Eric Liddell says to his sister, "...when I run I feel His pleasure."  And on this morning I totally knew what he meant.  It was like I had stepped outside and God said, Julie, I love you so much.  Do you realize that?  Do you realize that the  mountains will crumble at my name, that one day every knee will bow before me and that I love you? Needless to say, it was a good time out. We had 8 local friends over for Thanksgiving supper.  It was good.  It's good to eat good food and be around good people.  I just have to say that I think the turkey is the most over emp

making them proud

Just finished my Monday class.  Two hours of hissing, gargling and sticking my tongue out.  Sounds more like an exorcism.  LZ, my teacher, gave me a 2 1/2 page review towards the end of class and when I got a word or sound just right, she'd have this happy smile that shone through her eyes.  I love that. Monday is Lily's full day of preschool.  She goes without a fuss which makes it so much easier on me.  I'm hoping she doesn't figure out what a push-over I am when it comes to her little sad eyes.  I do miss her on Monday afternoons. Maddie's been planning her 7th birthday for several weeks now.  Now it's less than 2 weeks away.  7 years old.  I have a 7 year old.  Wow. Matt Redman's newest album, 10,000 reasons, is amazing.   Sunshine, blue sky, falling leaves...praises