Themes of Snow, Art, and More

Trip to Colorado

• Frank got sick a few days before we left, and between the flight, arriving late and going to bed immediately, and the altitude at almost 9000 feet, Frank woke up with terrible altitude sickness and spent the week on an oxygenator. He did get out for three snow tubes and one cross country ski day. 
• Waffles from the Waffle Hut
• Crepes
• The Pizza Pedl’r was yummy, though the service was not great
• A delicious blueberry muffin at the YMCA Snowranch
• Thanks for the good energy of the team at Back Bowl Soup Co.
• Great ski instructors for Zach
• Zach preferred downhill to cross country; he and I got out twice to ski cross country
• The Fraser library! Zach created art for their bookmark/t-shirt competition. They rent musical instruments and snow shoes! 
• Winter driving in a car that had bad tires. Had to learn/re-learn since Frank didn’t feel well enough to drive

Zach of Note

• Zach wrapped up indoor soccer, and his coach had such kind words. It was “an honor” to have Zach on the team. His last practice was a warm day, so we got ice cream!
• Zach’s right thumb got infected b/c he picks at his nails, so antibiotics galore and then his nail coming off
• Illness for Zach March 18-21; he missed two days of school, which did not seem strictly necessary
• Hot potato and other made up games
• Thomas came over and had a lot to say about the state of our house. I liked some of what he said, encouraging Zach to organize and take time every day to organize. Zach was not a fan. And Thomas talked non-stop!

School

Started the Spanish book club and signed up for the Lego club for his first forays into after school programs!

Emotions/Empathy Corner

• Partially because Zach opted out of Valentine’s Day; we started up Thoughtful Thursdays
• Anticipation of Ethan’s departure was harder than his absence; all seems to be going just fine

Zach's Words and Songs

• Soccer reading and World Cup and Mia Hamm book
• We’re Not from Here listening; the line: “We’ve flown all the way from Earth, and our arms are tired.”
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid (DWK) and tried the movie based on “The Long Haul.” Terrible! We loved the muddy hand from DWK: Dog Days
• Lots of stories
• Dance parties; he has some moves!
• From music class, Poor little bug on the wall, nobody loves him at all, No one to tickle his toes, No one to wash his clothes. Nobody loves him at all. 
• Zach really wanted the recorder at Kennedy Center gift shop

Sleep Update 

Time change was the toughest in quite a while!

Family Fun

• Just Add Magic
• Day trip down to Shenandoah National Park: muffins, snowy hike, and lunch at Death Ridge Brewery
• Lake Anne v. Forest Edge Basketball game; Zach loved dinner at Chipotle beforehand
• Dinner at Crust

Susan and Zach

• Trips down to the National Portrait Gallery and National Museum of American Art
• Tried Milk & Honey
• Trips to drop off compost
• Library and a reading by an author
• Trip to the Kennedy Center because of their RiverRun festival. We enjoyed the Kennedy exhibit and the REACH was amazing with free art activities. Zach created a fish print and made a reusable bag from an old t-shirt!

Frank and Zach

• Legos
• Kitchen soccer
• Sky Zone
• Fort building
• General silliness
• Bought the Indy Pass to go skiing in 2023-2024; maybe a winter trip to Idaho or Montana for March 23-April 2, 2024???

Good Food

• Siga’s Shrove Tuesday Lithuanian doughnuts. Yum! 
• Cranberries
• Tahini Caesar
• Banana and pear cake (with almond flour and no added sugar; really just a vehicle for peanut butter for me!)
• Sesame tahini cookies again
• Frank’s air fried roasted broccoli with Parmesan cheese
• The Corner Store’s blueberry, carrot, and banana chocolate chip muffins
• Pistachio cupcakes
• Salmon hash
• Berry cake - great recipe - almost more like cobbler with berries and almond flour and whole wheat flour. Yum!
• Zaytinya w/ Zach
• Lemon blueberry and dark mint chocolate ice cream sandwiches

Connection

• Emily and Mom and Dad
• Zach played Pokemon with Andrew and I took a walk with Emily
• Chatting with Mary
• Walks with Katie
• The Lake Anne and Forest Edge basketball game with Susan and Jonathan and Mary and Cora, and Theo and family! Lindy went out of her way to say goodbye to me
• A “hi” from Lindy one day when I was hanging art at the school
• Hanging art for Mr. Johnson
• The librarian’s email signature - what she’s reading. I love that
• Lunch at Ted’s Bulletin with Judie and coffee with Jess
• Video check-in with Kathleen and Mary Kay
• Continued highs and lows sharing
• Check-in with Sofia re: Baby James and Zach at age 2 

Frank & Susan

• Cross country ski at Devil's Thumb
• Sheng Weng comedy special
• Friday afternoon walks and nosh-type foods and a show
• Questions: what’s the strangest thing a house guest has done at your house and what do you like most about your family?

Fun and Not So Fun Stuff (Personal and Professional)

Health Corner

• Anniversary of my bi-lateral mastectomy was 3/21/23. (Thanks, Mom and Dad, for reaching out.) Tough. I did not and should have planned something to celebrate/acknowledge. In the end, Zach was sick, so it probably wouldn’t have happened. Need a do-over. We are planning a dinner out and an event where loved ones will share a sort-of toast acknowledging what/how they’ve seen me handle this past difficult year. Paige, Nicole, and Rae have already contributed! 
• Emily and I talked about flat resources and signed up for a cancer and careers conference in June
• As the weather has spiked up to be fairly warm, I've noticed my hot flashes more. Not a fan!

Personal 

• Focusing on showing and sharing with Zach a commitment to strong relationships
• Continued to focus on choosing connecting over just communicating, and Paige and I have been talking very regulary due to this effort!
• Empathy fatigue for so many reasons; a lot of pain for many who I am close to or who are close to those I’m close to. I know this pain isn't necessarily all consuming for any of them, AND it's hard to remember that. I don't have to solve the problems. I don't have to support them in just the way they need. All of Jim’s college buddies have died. All in their 60’s. Unbelievable
• Accountability partners with Nicole and Mary Kay - which has led to more connection! 
• A new Luke’s Diner hand towel!
• Tracking daily: gratitude, discomfort (lean into it), something new/scary/out of the ordinary, laugh (this is so much harder than it should be)

Watching

• Nothing Else Matters ice dance with Gage and Oona Brown
• Along for the Ride
• Finished Girlfriends; it was canceled w/o a series finale, so pretty anti-climactic
• Kim’s Convenience 
• Abbott Elementary
• Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit concert
• Real Women Have Curves
• Finished Season 2 of The White Lotus
• His Dark Materials
• True Spirit w/ Zach
• Love Actually deleted scenes
• Sheng Weng comedy

Reading

• So You Want to Talk about Race
• Genesis Begins Again
• 1619

Listening

• Big Feelings
• Accountability Leadership
• JOLT Method

Professional

• Chat GPT experimentation, pretty cool!
• Leadership accountability campaign
• We need 5:1 praise to every piece of negative feedback; we’re hardwired with a negativity bias
• Chatted with a recruiter for a National nonprofit about an open L&D position; always nice to be pursued, but he ghosted me, so…

Quote from Minor Feelings (shared by Mary Kay): Where does the silence that neglects her end and where does the silence that resprects her begin? The problem with silence is that i can’t speak up and say why it’s silent. An so the silence collects. Becomes amplified. Takes on a life outside of our intentions. And that can get misheard as indifference, or avoidance or even shame. And eventually the silence passes over into forgetting.