We started the weekend off at home with the intention of visiting Nana and Papa in Aberdeen. It’s a heroic effort packing up alone. Michael went in to work early and Jo was asleep. We were actually up since 5:30, but we didn’t get on the road until 10:30. Lake is very good about remembering to eat breakfast. 

Stepwise, we did ultimately accomplish all our departing tasks. We got all the dishes washed, we packed up, showered and changed with everything and everyone loaded into the car, and the house locked. A few tears of protest were shed every time I’d set Lake down to forge ahead with the next step that required two free hands. It was quite a theater production. 

When we got successfully settled in the car, Lake cheered immediately. He began talking to himself. He kept his self entertainment going for much of first leg of the journey south down I-5. then he thankfully fell asleep for the trafficky bits. Out near Satsop we had to call Michael at work. Lake had gotten himself into a corner and we needed an interruptor, a game changer. When Lake heard Michael on the phone he instantly calmed. I think cell phone driving law needs to take into consideration the alternative. Holding the phone up in the air behind me On speaker was still safer on my concentration than the full-on screaming mode. 

After the short phone call Lake’s reset button had been set and we thankfully arrived uneventfully at the Aberdeen Murphy home. It was a joyful reunion. I’ve never seen my dad with a smile so big in my life as when he greeted Lake. 

We happily played at home. Lake sharing his discoveries since their last visit. Sitting up. Table top. Downward dog. Plank. Self-directed ambulation. We began the beginning of instruction for Lake on the concept of the hot fire. A bucolic Saturday scene. 

In the evening we took Lake to the theater. The local theater troupe, the Driftwood Players, put on the production Outside Mulligar. It was delightful! …and… Lake managed his first theater! He was rather the youngest audience member there. He partipated in mostly all the right places (timing is everything), and he scored a lot of extra dinner out of the deal. 

We ran into some old friends from Quinault. Shirley meet Lake! Lake, meet Shirley! …and Lake, as always, made some new friends, too. Charming the pants off everyone seated near us. A good strategy because then when he exclaims his appreciation during a piece of critical dialogue, no one minds as much. Maybe the important thing to hear was the joy felt by Lake just then in response to the play and the people and the milkies and the entire experience. Community Theater in action. A perfect day. 

This has become my morning. “A fast mile in lady shoes,” as Michael calls it. And I’m getting faster. We’re referring to my morning commute. Specifically the mile I run to the shuttle stop in my work clothes carrying my purse with my lunch in it. I’m also getting sick of it. Always running behind. Always catching up. Literally running late. It’s challenging to manage my morning in a timely fashion. Especially when this is my world view:

This morning, however, was an improvement. This morning I had the time and space to make a hot shower and a cup of coffee in peace before my lovebug woke up. Never mind that I still ran that mile to the shuttle stop and while I was running my rice for lunch spilled all over into my purse. I did it with a smile though, and a joyful bounce. This springy attitude is what I’ve been missing lately. I’ve been consciously working to regain it, but working was the operative word here as mood and attitude can be funny elusive beasts, especially for being simply our choice. As my friend Lena likes to say, gratitude is like a muscle that can be strengthened with use. Even happiness is a discipline. So I ran my fast mile in lady shoes with bountiful joy today!

We went out bootin’ about this evening. Enjoying the relatively comfortable weather to go out for a post dinner stroll. It was a pleasant change after rain and freezing conditions and always walking south into the heart of the University District to walk north on under a reddish grey sky into the heart of the Ravenna neighborhood. Very cozy neighborhood. 

In the process of admiring his house we met one of our new neighbors Lee (Leigh?) on the north side of the ravine, just across the footbridge. He was just back from Hawaii and on his way in the morning to their home in the south of France. Spoke of the “live and let live joie de vivre” vibe he’s been happily exposed to in the French countryside. 

We did a little of that joie de vivre tonight as we booted about together. Bringing a little more levity and lightness and laughter back into the winter night. Spring may be just around the corner, but when its the present moment and it’s still winter, it’s a perfect day to go bootin with you sweetheart(s)!



Ab lab with Lake! He’s having such a great time after dinner. Doing what he can without complaint and with plenty of enthusiasm and persistence. You’re invited to join in the wiggle worm fun!

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Go Lake Go!

Happy Saint Valentine’s Day loves! Lake is our Valentine! Pure love…

Lake really likes giraffes. They are among his favorite toys. Ever since he was a few weeks old. Well, as Michael points out he only has the choice of what we offer him. He doesn’t know how much he might enjoy the aardvark. He might prefer the anteater if he’d met one. 

As it stands though, giraffes are his friends. Yesterday we had a scare that we had lost one, the Sofie. We were having a lovely Thai dinner at Krua Thai Family Kitchen just north of the University Village after opting not to wait 75 minutes for a table at the Taiwanese sensation Din Tai Fung and walking the half mile on. Lake was eating the whole walk then part of while we settled in. He even fell asleep. When he woke up though, he hD some impish energy afoot. He got ahold of the paper napkin and began consuming wads of it. After a brace and successful finger sweeep, we went to dig out Sofie. Only the prince was discovered in the backpack. We were all set to retrace our route to recover her when we looked down to pick up the recently dropped prince plushy. 

He had carried it with him all the way from the changing tables at the U Village until he had fallen asleep at the restaurant! Strong little gripper! He likes his jungle of giraffes and takes good care of his friends. 



I finally managed to attend a yoga class this weekend. The stars aligned. I needed it all week. My whole body had begun to ache from lack of care. Yoga is like full body support, hugs, kisses and caresses from head to toe. I did a long inversion: my ears popped and my feet started to tingle. My view started to clear and shift. Then I met the boys at the indoor track and watched the athletes for a bit before ducking out to the IMA for a sauna. It was a well appreciated budget spa day.



Then we snuck in a nature bath by the Union Bay Natural Area. A perfect day!

​​ Lake likes his baby Carrot!

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It was one of those rarest of nights. I went to sleep at midnight. Lake woke up at 0100. He went to sleep at 0545, my alarm was set for 0730. Basically there was no sleep. I wasn’t even one to pull an all nighter in college. I simply refused to let anything interfere with my sleep like that. Now I don’t have the choice. But I’d choose him anytime, anyways. Any day. Any night. 

He woke abruptly with a pained cry. I don’t know what it was that had him with his pants in a bunch. I don’t even have any applesauce to blame it on. But that was what it reminded us of. He was screaming unless he was nursing, so nursing is what we did, for close to five hours. An all nighter. 

I was very mellow at work today. But just one look at a picture from Jo and Lake-they were having their own mellow afternoon-and it’s all worth it… no question. Pure Lake Love. 

Michael charmingly called it a Shne Dag, his attempt at the German literal translation which would be Schnee Tag, but there is actually no such phrase on German. So it was pretty funny!

My whole family kindly trooped in to work with me on the shuttle this morning. We were having such a fun Shne Dag morning that all of a sudden I had one of those crunch time realization moments where there isn’t enough time left to fit everything in, like crucial meals for the growing little one. So my family kindly accompanied me while Lake managed to fit in some more emergency rations… MMU (mobile milkies unit) style. Then when we arrived at Harborview they were able to take him back home with them on the shuttle again. Well, they short-stopped by Agua Verde for some adults’ edibles. Jo’s first taste of Mexican food, well, cuisine from the Baja Peninsula. Funny juxtaposition: Mexican food for a snowy day… but they reported it was such a beautiful view of Portage Bay in the snow though!



Here we are walking to the shuttle stop with Jo and Michael this morning. I’m carrying a dinners drinking Lake!

A perfect “Schnee Tag“really… I’m glad I spent it with you!