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26th of January – 1 st of February
For this week I’m trying out a different format for these weekly journal posts. I love having a record of the little details that make up my normal life. I’m not sure it’s all that interesting to other people but these posts are so precious for me to look back on.
Most often what I record are the facts – I simply jot down what we did and when. This week I wanted to add some of what is going on beneath and beyond that. This is less intuitive for me but let’s try!
And suddenly, my baby is two years old
We celebrated our little Ls second birthday this week. Time is a weird thing. Remembering her birth feels both long ago, yet so recent. Thinking about the fact that she is now two years old is strangely emotional. Now, the baby phase is 100% over. She is getting really good at communicating and grows more strong-willed by the day. L is an extremely independent little girl – she wants to do everything on her own, whether it is putting on her own socks, choosing her outfits, cutting up her dinner or putting her seatbelt on. She is curious and full of joy, hilarious and compassionate.
I am so proud of who she is and who she is becoming. I love watching her grow yet already miss all the versions of her that she has outgrown. Parenting is wild like that. Somehow you become so eager for them to learn to walk and talk and tie their shoes yet you wish you could stop time. I just hope I will alway remember these precious days of wild, loveable, curious, funny L at two years old.
January is over!
January was a really good month for me. I managed to make time for a lot of the things that are important to me: I wrote 12 blog posts, went on 7 runs, knitted a pair of socks and a headband and finally finished sewing my top and started another one. During the first week of January our church had a week of prayer and fasting and I managed to get up early for a zoom prayer meeting each morning which was so good. We had some great playdates with both old and new friends. I got back into making Kefir and Kombucha. However, I am way behind on laundry and housework but I guess you can’t do it all!
What I’d like to stress is that me doing all those things has little to do with self-discipline and a lot with being lucky. It was quite an uneventful month. We didn’t do any traveling and other than L being sick for a couple of days were all relativley healthy. Edd was away less than he usually is and he even had some time off earlier this month. I have childcare and work only a few hours every week. I have a lot of freedom in this season of my life for which I am very grateful.
Dreaming up my next 100 Day Project
A lot of this week I spent dreaming up and planning another 100 Day Project. I have many ideas and they are slowly taking shape.
One thing I learned from previous projects is that finishing something each day makes this project the most fun for me. When I blogged 100 days, it was so great to have a collection of 100 written posts by the end. And each day, I had to decide – okay, this is done now. It is good enough. The project also worked because there was a lot of freedom in it – I could write a very short post and be done in 20 minutes. Or I could go super deep and work on it for several hours. I was free to pick topics and experiment with different formats, which prevented boredom.
Right now, I am extremely interested in patchwork. I want to learn more of this craft and just experiment with it. It would probably be doable to create a piece of patchwork each day. However, there are two big problems: 1) My sewing machine is broken. 2) We are doing a lot of travel during the period of the project – we will be in the UK for the first 9 days of it and then again a bit later. So, I need to get creative – hand sewing is a lot slower but maybe I can make it work somehow? I could include embroidery, appliqué and punch needle. Maybe even knitting? We shall see! I want to make some decisions soon so I can be prepped and take the materials I need traveling with me.
Other snippets
- I finished another book since my latest book report! “Broken Country” by Clare Leslie Hall. It was a ride, man. Very emotional, sad and yet hopeful. Such great writing and great characters. I can highly recommend this one but maybe check trigger warnings before you do, it might not be for everyone.
- This last month I unraveled two of my knitting projects to start over. They didn’t fit right so it was the right choice. In the past I would have just said: too bad, I’ll carry on as it is. And then never worn them. Which is completely misaligned with my goal of living a sustainable lifestyle. So, I am quite proud of myself for taking the time to start over. It’s not a fun thing to do but hopefully will be worth it in the end!
- I am trying to listen to the news more. Honestly, I find it easier to disengage. As a woman and a mother of two girls I feel scared that an openly misogynistic man holds so much power and receives so much support and so little backlash. But I don’t want to be a person who disengageg. I want to be someone who speaks up on the behalf of women, for people of colour and for minorities.
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