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Fox Year in Review

Dec 23rd, 2011 by

Change is the word for the Fox family this year. Since so many things have happened, I decided to write just short glimpses of how our life has changed this year.

We gained a new addition to the family this year – Daniel. He’s definitely added quite a bit of change to our family, but we love him. He’s generally a good baby, but very aware and determined to grow. He was born 09/13, 9 lbs 12 oz and has continued to be a big baby. This week we’re hoping he rolls over (he’s so very close!). He’s also been working on playing with his toys more and grabbing. It’s been a delight to watch him study the world around him.

A couple weeks after Daniel was born, Brian started the FEMBA (Fully Employed Graduate MBA) program at UCLA and loves it. He has classes all day Saturday (which means he did miss much of the college football season). His evenings are split between playing with Daniel and doing homework. It’s been a great challenge, but worth it every bit.

I have been busy with adjusting to being a Mom. It’s been exhausting at times but wonderful. I have never learned or grown so much in my life. I also finally found something that has slowed down the amount of reading I was able to do before. Someday I’ll finish 1q84.  Though with my kindle, I have been able to get back into the habit of reading. I have to admit that I will not, however, finish my goal of reading 52 books (last year was seventy something I think). I only hope that my time for writing will also increase.

We finish this year with a move (just a local one) and participating in a wedding of two very good friends. Daniel was happy and quiet (which is rare as he loves to talk) throughout the ceremony, which gave me a chance to reflect on our own family. A little over two years, and we’re still very blessed and loved. We’re busy and stressed at times, but as we pause we see that life is amazingly good. Some of my favorite moments this year has been our walks through “our park” across the street. They’ve been good times where we’ve been able to pause and remember how sweet our life is now. We are incredibly blessed with each other, Daniel, our church, friends, and family. We can’t wait for the next year and the new challenges and changes it will bring.

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Notes from a Literary Apprenticeship

Jun 7th, 2011 by

“And yet writing stories is one of the most assertive things a person can do. Fiction is an act of willfulness, a deliberate effort to reconceive, to rearrange, to reconstitute nothing short of reality itself. Even among the most reluctant and doubtful of writers, this willfulness must emerge. Being a writer means taking the leap from listening to saying, “Listen to me.””

Read more at the New Yorker.

Another great piece by Lahiri. How often I struggle between just listening and reading, to the point of writing.  It is a bold and assertive step.

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Up-Hill

May 20th, 2011 by

by Christina Rossetti

 

Does the road wind up-hill all the way?

Yes, to the very end.

Will the day’s journey take the whole long day?

From morn to night, my friend.

 

But is there for the night a resting-place?

A roof for when the slow dark hours begin.

May not the darkness hide it from my face?

You cannot miss that inn.

 

Shall I meet other wayfarers at night?

Those who have gone before.

Then must I knock, or call when just in sight?

They will not keep you standing at that door.

 

Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?

Of labour you shall find the sum.

Will there be beds for me and all who seek?

Yea, beds for all who come.

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These Happy Golden Years…

May 12th, 2011 by

“Once in the dear dead days beyond recall
When on the world the mists began to fall,
Out of the dreams that rose in happy throng,
Low to our hearts love sang an old sweet song.
And in the dusk where fell the firelight gleam
Softly it wove itself into our dream.

Just a song at twilight, when the lights are low
And the flickering shadows come and go,
Thought the heart be weary, sad the day and long,
Still to us at twilight comes love’s old song,
Comes love’s old sweet song.

Even today we hear of love’s song of yore,
Deep in our hearts it swells forever more.
Footsteps may falter and weary grow the way,
Still we can hear it at the close of day,
So to the end when life’s dim shadows fall,
Love will be found the sweetest song of all.”

These Happy Golden Years, Laura Ingalls Wilder

I was reading through old blogs of mine today, and I had quoted this in one entry.  It was a good stopping point, especially as reflecting on Brian’s and my early dating relationship, and looking at how I will reflect on this time now.  Waiting and planning for our first child.  It will no longer be just the two of us, and just as the spring sun is fading from our windows; it feels a little bittersweet.

And yet, I am excited.  We just finished registering for the new things we’ll need for this child earlier this week.  Besides seeing the ultrasound photos, its the making of lists that make this even more of reality.  Well, that and finally feeling him move around more inside me.  The kicks and the hiccups.  I find myself thinking –  yes, there is someone there.  I can’t wait to meet him.

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Let Evening Come

Apr 1st, 2011 by

By Jane Kenyon

 

Let the light of late afternoon
shine through chinks in the barn, moving
up the bales as the sun moves down.

Let the cricket take up chafing
as a woman takes up her needles
and her yarn. Let evening come.

Let dew collect on the hoe abandoned
in long grass. Let the stars appear
and the moon disclose her silver horn.

Let the fox go back to its sandy den.
Let the wind die down. Let the shed
go black inside. Let evening come.

To the bottle in the ditch, to the scoop
in the oats, to air in the lung
let evening come.

Let it come, as it will, and don’t
be afraid. God does not leave us
comfortless, so let evening come.

 

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Things to do this Spring: A List

Mar 30th, 2011 by

A blog I regularly read listed things they’d like to do this Spring, and it inspired me to do the same.  So here’s my list:

 

* Go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium

 

* Start my first baby crochet afghan

 

* Finish Suzuki’s Nietzsche reading list

 

* Take more walks during the week/get outside!

 

* Make/finish a list of things we need for the baby

 

* Bake these cupcakes – Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

 

* Color Eggs, since we didn’t last year

 

* Go on a day trip to Lompoc to see wildflowers

 

* Host a game night

 

from Lindsay Crandall

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I am in need of music

Mar 25th, 2011 by

by Elizabeth Bishop


I am in need of music that would flow

Over my fretful, feeling fingertips,

Over my bitter-tainted, trembling lips,

With melody, deep, clear, and liquid-slow.

Oh, for the healing swaying, old and low,

Of some song sung to rest the tired dead,

A song to fall like water on my head,

And over quivering limbs, dream flushed to glow!

 

There is a magic made by melody:

A spell of rest, and quiet breath, and cool

Heart, that sinks through fading colors deep

To the subaqueous stillness of the sea,

And floats forever in a moon-green pool,

Held in the arms of rhythm and of sleep.

 

 

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Information is Beautiful

Mar 24th, 2011 by

I like this much more than your typical list of books that everyone should read.  And does anyone else think it’s interesting that To Kill a Mockingbird, 100 Years of Solitude, and Crime and Punishment are some of the largest sized font?

The image and link is from the Guardian.  There’s also a link in the article that provides a Google Spreadsheet of the many sources that McCandless and Information is Beautiful used.

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Home

Mar 18th, 2011 by

by Anne Bronte

 

How brightly glistening in the sun

The woodland ivy plays!

While yonder beeches from their barks

Reflect his silver rays.

 

That sun surveys a lovely scene

From softly smiling skies;

And wildly through unnumbered trees

The wind of winter sighs:

 

Now loud, it thunders o’er my head,

And now in distance dies.

But give me back my barren hills

Where colder breezes rise;

 

Where scarce the scattered, stunted trees

Can yield an answering swell,

But where a wilderness of heath

Returns the sound as well.

 

For yonder garden, fair and wide,

With groves of evergreen,

Long winding walks, and borders trim,

And velvet lawns between;

 

Restore to me that little spot,

With gray walls compassed round,

Where knotted grass neglected lies,

And weeds usurp the ground.

 

Though all around this mansion high

Invites the foot to roam,

And though it halls are fair within –

Oh, give me back my HOME!

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Our Earliest Tradition

Mar 16th, 2011 by

One of Brian’s and my longest traditions is having a St. Patrick’s Day feast — Corned Beef and Cabbage with potatoes. We started this tradition back when we were dating. My family celebrated St. Patrick’s Day every year with the roast and cabbage for as long as I can remember. And one year when I was visiting extended family, my grandmother made us the St. Patrick’s Day feast. I remember sitting and watching her boil the cabbage in a large pot, talking about the many times she herself made this dinner.  This was probably one of my favorite holiday meals (besides the Sauerbraten for Easter).

There are many recipes out there, and ours is no great family secret, except to make sure to have it. Since I am typically working I put everything in the crock-pot to cook while I’m gone (the blog Near to Nothing has a good crock-pot recipe with pictures this year and is very similar to my recipe). Last year I tried making Irish Soda Bread and wasn’t impressed, so this year I am going to try America’s Test Kitchen’s dinner rolls since my mom just bought me this great cookbook. I usually buy two roasts and freeze one since Brian loves it so much and it’s so cheap (can’t beat $0.99/lb, especially with food prices these days). We love having this cheap dinner again in a few weeks. In fact, last year we may have made it for Brian’s birthday (it’s this or lasagna, another one of his favorites).

Since AWANA is tomorrow night, we are having our St. Patrick’s Day feast tonight. I’m happy that so far I have been loving meat during my pregnancy so I can still enjoy the delicious dinner. And that I have more energy this week so I can go home from work and still be up to making dinner rolls.  I’m looking forward to next year too, when we’ll be able to celebrate this tradition with our child (even if they can’t quite eat it yet).  It’s these simple joys that makes life good.

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