A Mother's Daybook - February 19

Looking forward to - Getting back into a routine. I accidentally wrote January 19 a second ago for the title. That's how confused I am! The trip was great and we were just starting to get back into the swing of things but now a virus seems to be making its way around. Lucy has gotten it and is better and Jonah is down to just a bit of a runny nose but its hitting Norah pretty hard. Sick babies are so sad. She coughs and coughs and then looks at me with this little watery eyes like "why aren't you doing anything?" She just doesn't understand that I don't stand in a hot steamy bathroom every evening just for fun. Poor thing.

Drinking - Golden Milk. It's a turmeric flavored warm milk drink. There are about a million recipes on the internet but I used this recipe to make a turmeric paste to keep in the fridge. I like the paste kind because turmeric stains and the paste is easier for me to dose out without getting powder all over my clothes each time and supposedly turmeric needs to be heated for several minutes to activate it or something but I use raw milk for mine so I didn't want to heat the milk that long. But a once I made the paste I went rogue and have tried different versions. I think my favorite was 1 cup milk, 1/4 teaspoon tumeric paste, a sprinkle of cinnamon, a sprinkle of nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon coconut oil and a teaspoon of vanilla (approximately, I didn't really measure anything but the milk and paste). They have all been tasty - and not in a curry way either. I love curry and that's really the only time I use turmeric but it didn't sound like a warm drink kind of flavor so I was a bit skeptical of people saying it has a pleasant subtle flavor but it really does. I started drinking it mostly to see if the turmeric would help my joint pain but even if it doesn't, I still enjoy it. If you try it, let me know what you think.

Reading - I recently finished up Hamlet with a discussion group and was sad for it to end but luckily, Lucy and I will do our first Shakespeare work in a week or two which is really exciting. I'm slowly working me way through Bleak House and am actually enjoying it so far. Perhaps this will be the turning point for me and Dickens? I'm also working on Waverly and have just started Utopia and I really need a nice light read that I can plow through without worrying about going slowly and thinking too much about but the last few I've picked up have not been very good.

Watching - Cheese in the Trap. Strangly addicting. So much so that I actually went and found the manga and started reading it while I was waiting for episodes to be available. At least until I lost the version with the english translation which is kinda important for me. Craig also convinced me to watch The Martian with him which wasn't bad and I convinced him to start the BBC version of Bleak House which I thought wasn't bad but seemed to leave him a bit underwhelmed so far. He's got 15 episodes to fall in love so we'll see how long it takes :-)

Sitting - Well, not on the couch. Or at least not as much. I'm reading Katy Bowman's Move Your DNA and its...interesting. I'm not a Katy groupie yet but I can see how it could happen. But I am trying to sit on the floor move and I just may try out the monkey bars next time I take the kids to the playground. Baby steps.

Pondering - Creativity. Let me back up a minute though. I love when the books I'm reading overlap in ideas. Except its probably more that I notice the ideas in other books once God has brought it up in my mind with the first. But either way, I didn't set out to read about that idea but it keeps popping up. The Art of Life, a compilation of Edith Schaeffer's writings, which I've just begun and How Now Shall We Live, which I've been reading slowly for several months now, have both contained passages in this week's reading about creating and how it isn't something we are just allowed by God to do, but compelled by God to do. It's part of our legacy as people creating in His image. We are made to create and be creative and that is, in part, how we share God with the world. Crazy thoughts there!

I don't really think of myself as a creative or artistic person. But this got me thinking about the ways I do express my creativity. Home decorating is one of those ways. In the past I've maybe felt bad spending my energy on that when energy is at a premium. Shouldn't it be something that waits until the kids are all sleeping through the night and I'm able to mop the floor more than once a month?  But its something that fills a need in me for several reasons, creative expression being one.  So it's a godly desire. Of course, that doesn't give me license to go beyond my God-given resources of time and money. But that only adds a new dimension to being creative! On our trip we visited my brother and sister's house in which they have a gallery wall. Craig was quite smitten with it and asked if we could do something similar. He rarely has opinions about my home choices, at least if they involve work on his part, so I jumped on the idea. We are working together to see what we can come up with and I'm enjoying it. While I'm not the type who can create beautiful paintings, I can definitely appreciate the ones I'm finding (mostly free printables on pinterest combined with family photos and things we have stored).

The idea of creativity also has implications in our homeschooling choices. I'll save those thoughts for another time because this is getting long and nap time will be ending soon but now that it's on the brain, I'm seeing the idea pop up everywhere. I love pondering deep thoughts. Creativity. A gift from God. Think about it.