you endearing man!

in the last 2 weeks, people around me have been given some very bad health news:

1. my mentor's twin brother just found out he has stage 4 cancer.
2. my man's best friend, who is 35 suffered a heart attack.
3. my man's best friend's wife's cousin (same best friend) died. he was only 17.

so all to say it's gotten me thinking about death, losing a loved one. and it made me think about the little things a little differently. so while i don't believe in throwing your man under the bus, i thought i'd write down 10 things that i find annoying endearing that one day i think i'll miss.

1. leaving closet doors open.
2. throwing clothes on the bed/ bench, etc. anywhere but hanging them in the closet.
3. not putting the dishes in the sink.
4. not throwing out the trash
5. refusing to switch to natural deodorant (actually, i just find this amusing that he refuses to try to go organic on this, but understandable ...)
6. me telling him some paper is really important and that he needs to take care of it only to be asked a week later where that said paper went.

hum... that's all i got.. all i keep thinking about is the good stuff he does around here. so i'm switching my list.

1. doing the dishes to serve me.
2. offering to make dinner when he gets home from work cause he sees i'm so tired, even though i know he's tired too.
3. letting me pick the restaurant when we eat out.
4. taking bed time duty w/ our jewel cause "i'm so done!"
5. letting me shower first, even though he knows i'll probably use all the hot water.
6. rubbing my back every night, even in the middle of the night when i wake him up.
7. not getting mad at me when i'm really really trying to start a fight.
8. sometimes eating something that he really doesn't want to eat, but doing it b/c i made it.
9. entertaining my crazy health food 'experiments'.
10. supporting my running even if that means an inconvenience for him.

ok i can keep going. 
it's the little things that i want to remember. because they reflect the bigger thing -  which is that i'm grateful for a servant man God 'loaned' me so that He may be glorified in our covenant promise.

mid-week recap

this week it's been a whole lot of driving and a whole lot more of fatigue.
i realized that i drive about 2 1/2 to 3 hours a day. it's probably not that much for those who commute into the city but for someone who really does not care for driving, it's wearing me out :(

in other news, we took advantage of national pretzel day and got free pretzels.
we also took advantage of baskin robbin's 31 cent scoop day and got ice cream.
it's the little things, i guess. my man said that while it's kind of silly to be going around town looking for the bargains, one day we'll look back on it with fond memories.
so cheers to cheap deals!

sweet potato fries my way

wash, peel sweet potatoes and slice. size of steak fries (you can leave the skin on but just scrub really well). i usually do one sweet potato per person... depending on the size of the potatoes.

throw potatoes into gallon ziplock bag.
add into the bag, melted coconut oil (about 2 TBL - enough to coat the potatoes).
dash of sea salt, black pepper, and if you're in the mood, dash of cayenne.

put into oven at 450 for 30 minutes. rotate every 15. adjust rack if need be, turn oven to broil and set timer for 5 minutes.
nice, crispy fries straight from your oven to your table :)

no running makes you crazy

ultras have been on my mind lately.
i recently read an article about a mom who ran a 100 mile ultra race, while still stopping to breastfeed her child at every rest stop... and she still placed 3rd??!! i wish i could remember where i read that and who it was, but well, you know how our memory can go...

i'm trying to remember how long it took her to run this one - maybe 23 hours?? but let me tell you, it was a whole lot of nursing going on. 

there's a part of me that really wants to sign up for an ultra but i think it's just the crazy talking. i think that i'm so deprived of my running that all i want to do is run, but once i actually start running, i'll remember how long those training runs lasted and how much energy it required of me. but for now, my brain only remembers the good stuff. funny, how your brain plays tricks on you, heh?

happy easter

Christ has risen!


On this easter, we're thankful for the forgiveness of sins and the grace that is extended to us through the blood of the Lamb. 

Jesus, today, help me to live in your forgiveness.

it's in writing

i just want to be clear that i'm running a marathon next year. this no running business is driving me crazy.  so family, do what you got to do. body, you listen too. next year, it's ON!

taking a step of faith

lately, my man and i have been getting into jaime winship's sermons.  you can find some of them here.
he was a missionary to indonesia and jordan. he has a heart for muslims.  he's got a very engaging way of speaking but really, i like him because he gets you to look at Christ in a refreshing new way. 

my man and i have both been convicted about stepping out in faith more; realizing that we're really not living in faith but living within our means. for example, it's easy to pray that God would answer something that you're really capable of doing yourself - ie. buy a car. but it takes faith to ask God to provide a car in a way only He can. 

since my man's accident several weeks ago, we've been praying, and researching.  we thought that we knew what we were going to do.  we had figured out how much we were going to put down on the down payment. we had started applications for an auto loan to refinance the difference, blah, blah, blah... the usual route.  but in the mist of that, we heard God's quite voice. "test me. see if i don't answer." we thought of judges 6 where Gideon tested God and He met Gideon.  we thought about how we've been diligently following a budget and striving to be obedient in the area of stewardship of our resources and it just didn't seem right that God would want us to take out a loan now.  so we take our step of faith, eagerly anticipating God's response to our need for a car.  we believe He is our provider. and so in faith, i write this post, declaring that we choose to trust Him rather than our balance sheet.

it's exciting to watch and wait on Him.

family history tidbit

one of the things that i enjoy about going home is the time i get to spend w/ my parents w/o the interruptions of life... we sit around the dinner table and chat, catching up on life.

during sunday's evening chat, i discovered that my dad knows his grandfather's names going back 35 generations! he told me the general migration of these 35 generations of families and how his family ended in their current hometown. i find that utterly amazing that he knows his family history.  family pride is pretty big in our family (particularly my dad's side) and so apparently it was required that he memorize his family tree (the males of the family, of course) when he was a kid. 

there's even a published book that tells of their lineage. wow! now, if only i read "han mun" (formal korean), then i could read it. 

ps. the korean language has 2 systems - the korean alphabet (han guel) and then the korean alphabet w/ hanja (which are chinese characters). i never learned the later, and unfortunately, official writings are done in hanja.

letting the cat out of the bag

our jewel can't keep a secret.  she gets so excited, you see it bubbling up in her face and she just can't contain the news. even if it's something as simple as what we're having for dinner. last year, we baked my man a cake for his birthday but my man barely even make it in the door before our jewel spilled that we made him a surprise cake. she cracks me up! i love that she's got such joy written all over her face and her excitement to share news with others. 

so since she has already gone and told people, even people she doesn't know, i guess i'll go ahead and share that we're expecting our second.  our jewel's quite excited to be a big sister. 

weekend in the city

i am exhausted! any time i go into the city; i need time to recuperate but this time i was the one who drove into the city; that just took my fatigue to the next level!!! so two days later, i'm in bed at 11am really wishing i could just stay here all day!

saturday:
AM - went to a HUGE used book sale not too far from us. honestly, i've never seen one this big - esp one sponsored by a library. it was in an amory, spanning 2 buildings.  they even charged you $20/head if you wanted to come early! i was able to get a few books for our jewel.  but then we couldn't linger too long because we were off to the city to see an opera.

PM - once a year the new york city opera does a family opera. this year it was to the book "where the wild things are". by maurice sendak. honestly, it was weird. it was almost like a modern interpretation type of thing w/ opera in it. but regardless, our jewel liked it. we met up w/ 2 other families in the city to watch the show so afterwards, we got some cookies from levain bakery. the $4 cookies that everyone seems to love. as i recall it was part of our trip last year when we came in the city for the opera.  this year, i couldn't take more than a bite before i felt sick from the sweetness. it really is that sweet.  then afterwards, we let the kids run around central park and then off we went to have a casual dinner at whole foods. we picked that place b/c 1. it was close, 2. it wouldn't be a big deal to take 6 young kids there and eat in their cafe area, and 3. now this is the main reason we went - b/c one of the adults in our group had never been inside a whole foods. can you imagine?!!  all in all, the trip was fun, we enjoyed the company, and i was wiped out by the time we turned the door knob of our house to enter at 10pm. 

also, one thing that i love about the city is the street performers everywhere! there was a college student that was trying to get into cirque du soleil so she just set up two poles and did a lot of hand balancing acts.  she was kind enough to let our jewel pop up on it and get her snazzy picture taken.

sunday: 

we had church and then afterwards we had small group. we didn't get home until almost 10pm - AGAIN.

so here i am on monday morning, really really exhausted! but it's such a nice day  (and it is 11am) i'm going to get up and take our jewel to dunkin donuts for a monday morning/ afternoon  treat!

poetry books

our jewel really enjoys poetry. she loves the rhythm of the words, the shortness of the "story", and just the sing songy ways you can say them. 

i wanted to keep track of the ones we've enjoyed so far:


Emily Dickinson Poetry for Young People Edited by Frances Schoonmaker Bolin

 

Winter Poems by Barbara Rogasky

An Illustrated Treasury of Read-Aloud Poems for Young People

 

The Bill Martin Jr Big Book of Poetry

quotable quotes by our jewel

our jewel: ticks do not make good pets. 

conversations w/ our jewel

on the car ride home, i was talking to our jewel about how we can solve the problem of too many clothes in her room.

our jewel: yeah! let's give away some of my clothes to people who don't have any.
like in asian, or alaska!!

also on the car ride home, her classmate attempted to give her a nickname.. it did not go well.
classmate:.... kath.
our jewel: that's not my name!
classmate: i was giving you a nickname.
our jewel: no! that's not my name. i don't have a nickname!

random thoughts

1. i really really really miss running. i get jealous every time i see someone run outside!  i think about it constantly and often randomly ask my man how my irritability level is from not running.  he's been rather gracious b/c i think i'm being a bigger pain then he's letting on. 

2. i'm very grateful for my man's servanthood and his willingness to make dinner tonight. chicken and peas risotto w/ left over lentil soup. it actually went pretty well together but oh so filling!  note: heavy cream in the risotto is fabulous. it was farm cream, which was incredibly thick this time. my friend said it was more like clotted cream.  (this is probably what messed up my ice cream).

3. we seem to do craft in spurts around here. honestly, i'm not really into kids' crafts. i do enjoy adult crafts (home decor stuff mainly), so you'd think that i'd enjoy doing crafts w/ our jewel too... but nope.   today was craft day - my man and our jewel made a jacob's latter.  then she and i started an easter egg wreath.   i wish i was more systematic w/ this as i know she enjoys doing them but b/c it's not something i enjoy, it doesn't come naturally, nor does it even cross my mind unless i happen to see something that inspires me to put together a craft project for her.  

4. i spent the afternoon volunteering at a consignment sale. i also consigned stuff this year (first time ever). i'm not sure if i'll do it again. i went through 6 years worth of clothes which was a task in itself. then to have to tag each thing (which i did wrong the first time b/c i missed that it had to be printed on cardstock) and go through every item to make sure there were no stains, rips, etc.  i thought about ironing b/c it was recommended... but that idea quickly died after i saw how long this entire process was taking.   honestly, i don't know if it's going to be worth it for me to do this again.   i doubt i made that much $ off of the sale.  

april fools means snow...

in the north.
it's currently snowing buckets outside! does God have a sense of humor or what?!

so on this white april 1st, we'll be having lentil chili for lunch/ dinner as soon as i brave the snow to go and pick up our jewel from school.

here's the recipe that i got from allrecipes.com with my small modifications.

lentil chili

threw into a pot - 1 lb of ground turkey
added chopped red onions, green peppers, and celery.  let the meat cook through and the veggies sweat.  then added in 1 28 ou can of diced tomatoes, approx 2 cups of chicken stock, 1 10 ou can of tomato sauce, salt, pepper, 1 heaping TBL chili powder, 1 tsp cumin, 1 dash of dried thyme, and 1 tsp of garlic.  let simmer until flavors blend together. done.