The Novelty of Normal

Yesterday morning I lay in our bed listening to Ada slowly waking up. I love it that her crib is technically in a different room but she is still only about 10 feet away from me. I can hear her breathing, counting and telling quiet stories to herself as she wakes. Being with her like this is one of the most precious parts of my life. It's just what is normal for us.

We've had visitors, more visitors, dinners, special occasions and interviews to entertain over the last few weeks. It doesn't show any signs of slowing down either. I love that! The messy house and relative disorganization is just a reminder that our lives are full and we are blessed to have in our lives people who love us.

Everything passes eventually. People go home and the house seems a little too quiet for a while before we slip back to normal. As beautiful as it is to hang out with people you love to be with, it is also very beautiful to return to routine and a slower pace. That's where we are this weekend. Just enjoying the slower pace. When I slow down I recognize again all those tiny things that are such an important and amazing part of my daily life.

Something so normal like cooking dinner became an adventure last night. We had a great farm-share box last week and this week but frankly, I was struggling to know what to do with our bounty. I've been craving beans and grains lately so I did a quick search and found THIS RECIPE for butternut squash, kale, and quinoa. I added bacon and Parmesan cheese based on another recipe. I also swapped Delicata winter squash for the butternut and swapped green swiss chard for the kale. I will totally make this again and highly, highly recommend this nutritional powerhouse of a meal. Ada was a very diligent helper and sorted all the squash shavings into the compost bag.







Tim came home last night after an interview at NYU. Goodness. He is very excited about the opportunities there and I'm trying so hard to not rain on his parade but I truly can't see myself living in NYC. We looked at apartments and talked about cost. I wish I was one of those people who was overwhelmed with creative ideas and positive anticipation at such a prospect as moving to NYC. Me? I'm scared out of my wits. Who knows what might happen - anything could happen at this point - but it's going to take a lot of deep breaths to get to a calmer place about this if it should happen.




As usual, things looked much better after a night of sleep. We dropped Tim off at the VA hospital this morning and continued on another 1/8 mile to the beach. When we were there I couldn't help wondering why we don't come to the beach every morning? There were surfers on the water, the waves catching the sun on their crests and even a sea lion basking on the beach. It was heavenly.



Ada kept pointing toward the mighty Pacific ocean saying, "That way! That way! Thaaaaat Waaay!!" I couldn't let her run headlong into this ocean. The undertow will sweep you off your feet and out to the ocean never to be seen again. No, I kept her in my arms and a good couple of feet from the water.



See if you can do it too: as you go through your day find 2 or 3 things that are so normal to you but really are very spectacular!
Looking forward to a weekend of pumpkin carving, playgrounds and other very normal things.