It’s a whole household effort to get me to yoga this weekend. Everyone appreciates when mummy goes to yoga, most of all me!

For Saturday I choose the 90 minute hot hatha yoga class. The one that humbled me last summer. Today it was a delight. The heat felt good. Especially after all the cold. It felt good to shed the layers. The big mirrors allowed me to really look at myself. See me. Say, 

Hello!

I wore my turquoise short shorts and matching lululemon yoga bra top. I looked myself in the eye. I looked at my torso, I looked at my toes. I looked forward. I looked backwards. I looked at myself from one foot, and then the other. 

Hello, body! It’s nice to see you! Thank you for carrying me around and all the wonderful work you do on my behalf every day. I love you! You make me laugh with happiness. 

These sentiments Lake models for me every day. 

Sunday I woke up sore. So I chose the 90 minute Vinyasa class to work out the kinks. No mirrors for this style of class. The gaze was internal. 

Hello ribs! Hello neck! Hello toes! Hello feet! Hello knees! 

This weekend of focused yoga work was like putting myself in the washing machine. I was able to clean things out. Clear things up. Coming out fresh and clean… limp but renewed. 

Last night I got crab snapped… by Lake! He was grinding his teeth pretty vigorously. Of all things in an almost nine month old… teeth grinding. We’ve always thought he was wiser than his years: an old soul. But teeth grinding is a bit much. It sounds like grinding glass. So I do what any caring but not thinking mother would do… I reflexively stuck my finger in his mouth to separate his chompers. 

Snap!

… and hold…

All told he has eight teeth and one strong jaw.

Owa! 

Being crab snapped by Lake harkens back to an earlier anecdote. To the time just before I was just pregnant with him. I went crabbing with Michael and some of my family’s friends from Quinault, Chuck and Gary. We went in Gary’s little boat out into Puget Sound just off of Bainbridge Island. It was thrilling and romantic. Gary offered to marry Michael and me using his captains’ privileges. The crab pots were set out overnight and we all had our licenses to harvest. Chuck gleefully heckled us as we pulled up the crab pots trying to beat the setting sun. 

Faster! Faster! You weak city folk!

When it came time to count the bounty from our crab pots, I stuck my bare hands into the buckets with the writhing mass of live (mad) crabs and counted. One snapped and wouldn’t let go. Chuck being nearby (and maybe feeling a bit bad about the heckling?!) jumped in to intervene. I thought I was going to die or at least be back at Harborview with an amputated digit. He was finally able to pry the crab off my finger, but not before I had nerve damage that lasted for weeks. I couldn’t have been any happier to be killingly the crabs after that incident! 

My dad referred to these as the “good ole days”. These days… of this here… three day weekend we just enjoyed. We cherished every moment of these past few rainy days together. Lake had a grand ole time. Inch wormin’ and scootin’ and rollickin’ … working on his crawl and his other basic survival skills: being charming. 

We did laundry and car maintenance and sorting/tidying and went walking and ate really well. Lake relished all his grandparents’ attention. I relished being off-duty for a bit and being able to read a novel. One day we will be looking back on these as the good ole days. Why not inhale them fully and enjoy them wholeheartedly in the present? These good current days. 

Carpe diem! Thank you Nana and Papa for the special Presidential weekend! We’re glad we spent it with you…

Friday was a beautiful day to introduce Jo to the Washington State Ferry system. Jo goes exploring! She walked down to the Seattle Terminal from Harborview in between Lake’s lunch and dinner. Jo traveled with the precious cargo (Lake) over to Bainbridge Island to visit Grandma Julie for the afternoon. 

They played in Winslow for a few hours. Thank you Julie and Jo for showing Lake around. A good time was had by all! Let’s do this again, eh? A perfect day, really and truly!

The common theme in our family lately seems that of having gained weight, being overweight or wanting to lose some weight. Mr. Cat recently had a near-brush with death whereby, among other lifesaving interventions, he incidentally got weighted (22 pounds!) and the takeaway message from the veterinarian was that he could stand to lose 1-2 kilograms. Doctor’s orders!

I’ve also been eating with impunity, thinking everything turns into milk these days. Which is true to a point. These past few weeks the scale has tipped noticibly towards the excesses of irresistibly delicious bread and scrumptious vegan butter consumed… Macrina, so good! Weigh-in today confirms the truth. A few weeks ago I was successfully maintaining at a pre-pregnancy baseline weight of less than 125. Today: 128.8. 

So, commences The Biggest Loser challenge. Lake is even throwing his hat into the ring. No one expects him to win though. He’s currently hovering around 18 pounds with his official nine months well child check coming up in a week. 

Our favorite tips for remedying our overweights are:

1. Halt the refined carbohydrates. 
2. Get moving! A walk around the block can easily become a walk around the city. 
3. Have a glass of water. Delicious and craving quenching… so satisfying!
4. Eat some fruits and vegetables!

Trading in this:

For this:

Want to join in the challenge? Let us know! …And we’re off to the races!

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…