Playful Rooted

A couple weeks ago, at Luca’s soccer game, a kid got hit right in the face with the ball. Luca’s teammate Owen was sitting near me on the sidelines, and I said to him, “Oh man, that happened to me once when I was a kid.” Owen, genuine concern in his eyes, said, “Wow, that must have HURT. Did your face break? What were soccer balls made of back then? Metal? Wood?!”

Oof.

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One of Ben’s best friends just had a library installed in his house for his incredibly lucky wife, who has officially become Belle from Beauty and the Beast. A rolling ladder! Floor to ceiling shelves! There’s something there that wasn’t there before!

Of course, our kids think the ladder’s express purpose is for them to push each other back and forth and see if they can balance on one foot.

I don’t know who’s more jealous, them or me!

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And now, for my next trick, some random photos in an effort to clear them from my phone.

A less novel (hahahaha, sorry) but still wonderful library where we’ve spent lots of time lately:

Props as ever to our beloved Mid-Continent Public Library for being one of the (many!) reasons Kansas City is such a wonderful place to raise a family. Love seeing my kiddos get lost in books.

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We went to a wassailing event recently that was SO FUN and which will definitely become a yearly tradition. We sang and danced and whacked trees with sticks and drank mulled wine and hot chocolate. Big ups to the bonfire smoke for naturally blurring my son’s face so I can post this photo:

Despite loving all our kids equally, Ben and I agree that Sawyer is just especially endearing right now. He recently started speech therapy to work on some sounds he’s struggling with, and I LOVE that he gets some one-on-one, focused time with his wonderful speech teacher twice a week. He loves it, too, and he’s made a TON of progress already. Sawyer is my hard working kid who actively does his exercises and genuinely wants to do well and earn approval. I see my own personality reflected so much in this kid, much more than in the other two. But he’s also way smarter than me… and he’s four.

And this little handful is as cute, sassy, and demanding as ever!

Current obsessions

Podcast – Valley Heat. Have you guys listened to this?? It is HILARIOUS in a deadpan, absurdist way. I am absolutely obsessed with it and there have been several times I have laughed so hard I had tears running down my face and couldn’t breathe.

It’s not for everyone, but it is for lots of people. Ben thinks it’s “kind of funny.” I couldn’t recommend it harder.

TV Show – Fisk. Also hilarious! There are twelve episodes of this show on Netflix, and I’ve watched all of them at least four times. It’s one of those shows that gets funnier with every viewing. The humor here is also not for everyone. I absolutely love it.

Food – Japanese Barbecue Sauce. I got this at Costco on a whim, and it RULES. I picked it up because it has decent ingredients, including things I use all the time to make our own sauce for Asian dishes (wish those soybeans were organic, but at least they’re non-GMO). It ended up being delicious, and it saves me at least five minutes every time we do stir-fry or anything stir-fry adjacent.

Do those five minutes seem trivial? In this phase of life… they are not.

Skin Care Line – Eight Saints. I’m always on the search for effective skin care with great ingredients at a decent price. The trifecta! It’s hard to find. Eight Saints is not the cheapest, but it’s far more reasonable than some other companies whose products I love but whose prices I don’t. Eight Saints has a Discovery Kit which you can get for FREE to try out their popular products. My favorite items are the Up the Anti Anti-Aging Night Cream and the Pep Rally Face Serum; the All In Eye Cream is also BOMB, but a bit too pricey for my budget at the moment.

Activity – Gardening! Spring has sprung and with it my big dreams and schemes for my garden this year. I am trying Square Foot Gardening for the first time, and I am super jazzed about it. I have spent way too much time poring over garden plans, researching the best companion plants, purchasing seeds and plantlings, and spreading 12,000 pounds of gravel (usually I’m exaggerating when I use such a big number – this time, it’s true. I ordered six tons of gravel in the fall and have almost finished spreading it around the garden beds).

Luca helped me a lot with spreading the gravel, and afterward, I tried to impress upon him how hard work is its own reward, how good it feels to be sore after a difficult task, what a joy it is to do something yourself that you could have hired someone to do, etc.

He was definitely not listening, but I tried.

Book – The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. One of the most unique books I’ve read in a long time. From Goodreads:

Evelyn Hardcastle will die. Every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others . . .

The most inventive debut of the year twists together a mystery of such unexpected creativity it will leave readers guessing until the very last second.

I am not very far into this book, so I can’t comment too much on it, but so far it is WHACK (in a good way), and I am completely hooked.

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Please share with me what you’re loving lately and whether a child has ever innocently made you feel extremely old.

xo!