2020-2021

At Banshee Reeks, this cloud looks like a fish.

Winter Lights!

• We put out lights, a lighted wreath, and wrapped lights around a tree outdoors. Super fun!
• We also went to see the lights at Frying Pan Park and Bull Run

Christmas

• We read through and sang the 12 Days of Christmas on a regular basis. Zach was learning it and joining in too!
• Holiday crafts missed the mark. Did not enjoy the gingerbread house, play doh house, or brownie's with icing. Ah, well. Some work. Some don't.
• Though Zach does need to work on being grateful and saying, Thank you for thinking of me, when he gets a gift. Even those that challenged him are now beloved. They have all found their time in the sun! I'm probably forgetting some other hits, but wow!
  
• Mommy & Daddy: books, Legos, including Bear-y, and Marshall and his vehicle and Zach told me I was his second best Christmas present. :)
• Santa: Lego City Fire Safety World
• Gamma and Daddy Bob: Play Doh cement mixer
• Auntie Em: bird feeder, Wildcraft, and Kiwi subscription
• Uncle Jeff: Danny and the Dinosaur
• Charlotte: Husky and the Play Mobil Schoolbus
• Grandad: roller coaster creator
  

• Thanks to Auntie Em, we had AMAZING food for the holidays. She made trash and cookies (shortbread jam cookies) to share. We made cheese ball and spinach artichoke dip. She picked up Nordic Knot and Chickfila and dropped off at our door during torrential rain!
• We also enjoyed cookies from the Rogers-Kelly family. So lucky!

Zach of Note

• Hiking! Winter Bingo at Banshee Reeks and the Appalachian Trail. We always have hot chocloate! Zach says, "Mommy, you make the best hot chocolate." Zach said of the Bear's Den hike, "it was more spectacular than I expected!”
• Continued soccer and investigations in the dark; for a while we were going to fight Klaw daily
• Sledding with Zach, and Frank took Zach out sledding 2-3 times at Franklin Art Park in Purcellville area. They had a blast!
• Working on intrinsic motivation. So proud of him!
• He gets an allowance and needs to do chores as part of his familial obligation. I am starting to ask him daily what he wants to learn. 
• I have had a number of meetings until 5pm on 1-3 days/week, so Zach sometimes gets his own snack. 
• I love it when he gets any/all of his meals, sets the table, puts away the silverware, etc.

Zach's Words and Songs

A Haiku from Ralph S. Mouse

A small brown mouse

Smells cheese and then he steps into a trap

Snap! he is dead

Snow hakiu: 

Snow hard as a rock. 

Where is my snowball fun?

I want a battle! Sad. 

Our Appalachian Trail hike haiku: 

King of the Rocks

On the Appalachian Trail

He hops from rock to rock

• Cards: Briscola, Go Fish, and Mille Bornes. We tried Speed as well, but a little too challenging. Some of Zach's card/game comments: Zach says, "Thank you, I'll take that lead, thank you." 
• Because of Wildcraft, he has learned the words: affliction, calamity
• We tried Quiddler, and that was good, but a work in progress. I made the word "cult."
• During the week, it is now PBS Kids only, and he really likes Let's Go Luna
• He is really enjoying a Toy Story video game :(
• Still Loving: Muddy Waters, Malcom X, Ribsy, Purple People, Awesomely Emma, and Emmanuel's Dream. Pulled out Auntie Claus and some other old favorites!
  
• When we sing, “Don’t Stop Believin’,” there’s a line about “the blues,” and he now says, “like Muddy Waters.” 
• Podcasts and audio stories are a huge hit! We loved The List of Things That Will Not Change. I also love Wow in the World!
• We enjoyed Amazon's animation adaptation of The Snowy Day
• Quotes:
• “Where are my legs...I left them on the trailer,” said by Zach while playing with his Legos. 
• “Sometimes we get a call from these chairs and they’re on fire, so we put them out.” 
• Zach mentioned that he didn’t know what he wanted to do - be a fire fighter, drive an excavator, or be a chef. I said, “Why a chef?,” and he said, “So I can make delicious meals” (or something like that.)

Sleep Update

• “It’s time for my nap. It’s time for the Mighty Tower to go to sleep now.” 
• He puts his fire station to bed too.
• We talk about the need for rest and quiet time. One day Zach asked if his brain had had a good night of sleep! :) 
• A bit of a pattern of 1-hour naps :(

Good Food

• Auntie Em’s sour cherry and lemon curd bread
• Eggnog lattes!
• Nordic Knot's chocolate croissants
• For Christmas, we ordered from Thompson Italian and had a wonderful burrata salad, homemade pasta and bolognese sauce, and more. Once again, a big thanks to Auntie Em! 
• Auntie Em also made chocolate chip cookie dough for making fresh delicious cookies
• Chocolate chess pie and country ham from Dad!
• Zach loves Bear Chase's mac and cheese bites
• Pupatella pizza and meatball sub. Yum!
• On the Border Mexican (This is the best I can do for my bean and cheese nachos fix)
• Peanut sauce
• Raw kale and then raw kale, mushroom, carrot, ginger, and garlic salad. Yum!
• Chocolate chip cake again. Zach helped to make it again! He's getting good!
  

Connection

• Almost daily breakfast calls
• Auntie Em!
• Just before Christmas, we found out Sam had COVID and then Julia, so I checked in with Julia daily throughout.
• Family Zoom calls: Terri and the Edwards clan
• Talks with Katie, Kathleen, Greer, and the Uber Ladies
• Emily Rogers and I got together by phone for her to share stories about her grandpa!
• Thanks to Dad for coming and taking away our crib and matching changing table/chest of drawers; Picked up a chest of drawers from Emily that was Bonnie's
• Holiday cards! Connect emotionally, be clear, ask for what you want, and take responsibility! A nice response from Pam to my holiday email
  
• Bri and Susan shared hot chocolate in a reusable glass bottle for Christmas for Zach, and when I thanked them, they said I could drop it off at their door for a refill! (They have a ton leftover from the socially distanced Halloween party!)
• Shared Zach's clothes with neighbors 
• Visits to drop offer the family calendar and dinner to Charlotte!
• Heard back from Dave!

Family Fun

• Dirt Farm 
• Sunny drives out west
• Cold, cold Bear Chase, but so good to see everyone!
• Refinanced our mortgage. Big savings!
• Dad got the vaccine and Mom is scheduled for Monday!
• Emily celebrated 1 year anniversary of end of chemo on 1/17/21

Fun and Not So Fun Stuff (Personal and Professional)

• Reading: Becoming and More Myself; started Stay Woke, How to Be an Adult, and The Stars and the Blackness Between Them
• Listened to Drive by Daniel Pink and it's the foundation for so much!
• Ten Percent Happier's 21 Day Challenge
• Podcasts are great, though it was tough that Brene Brown and Layla Saad were on hiatus for 3 or more weeks; I caught up on Dare to Lead episodes and really enjoyed Jon Meachum's interview; listening to "The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander
• FSP 2020 episodes on Trust and Attachment were helpful and turned me on to the book, How to Be an Adult
• Offspring is still awesome!
• Watched: The Hunt for the Wilderpeople, most of Love Actually, a French dance movie, Break.
• Frosty 5K for Christmas and I love the hat!
• Watched this ice dancing performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqIH9ez7d9A; I miss this kind of thing: music/concerts, plays, art, museums

Good work stuff

• ARC and listening to Daniel Pink's Drive. So much good stuff!
• Pecha Kucha
• Product Training Level 2. Almost all J names - cracks me up (Jared, Jess, Jess, Jordan, Joy, Justin, Julia, Tyler, Michael) Teehee!
• Unlocking Us had a good spot on Brené with Tim Ferriss and Dax Shepard, and they talked about the Halo effect and other biases and tips and tricks for me to share with leaders!
• "Continue training with Susan..." -- from Start, Stop, Change, Continue of two people on Client Care team! Woohoo
• Talked to a recruiter, which felt good and exciting about the possibility of leading a team of six in a company of 1200 employees. Crazy, but nice to articulate what I've done and think about how to update my Linked In to reflect what I've accomplished at GoCanvas and still want to do!

Goals 2021

• Listening, curiosity, questions
• Read Anti-racism daily
• Complete Me and White Supremacy and This book is anti racist
• Tracking progress
• Remember: 
• Permission to feel. Feelings come and go. How we’re feeling now will change. 
• Take care of yourself. 
• Deactivate: breath, pause, make sure heart and brain aren’t racing, manage self-talk
• Choose: sleep, good nutrition, exercise, social connection
• Consider giving if you can.

Jan 5-6

• Flipping the Senate with the Georgia wins for Democrats! I contributed!
• This was a rough day and I felt challenged for days afterwards. I had a hand in an important message from JQ, and I thanked him for it. Good advice from Marc Brackett. See above re: permission to feel
  

Celebrations

Zach's 5th Birthday

• The Zoo and Snaker
  
• Making his chocolate cake with raspberry jam as icing
• Great Country and Dirt Farm with the family and the Tom Thomas helicotper. Awesome!
• Cupcakes delivery to neighbors and the Mighty Tower!
• Sigga gave Zach a stomp rocket. Frank had bought a dual stomp rocket, so now we have three, and they're a huge hit!
  
• Lite Brite from Ralph and Chuckie
• Books from Charlotte K. 
• Zach’s Bindi Allen microscope. So loud! 
• Gifts from Emily R. and Amanda
• Logan and Cora sang happy birthday with a cha, cha, cha! 
• Well wishes from Sam and Emmy

Zach of Note

Catching leaves

• Chasing garbage trucks and watch the dumpster truck empty dumpsters on trash day
• Trips to Great Country, the National zoo, Banshee Reeks, and biking at Sugarland Run
  
• We played hall tree (Grandad's hall tree from Jim) basketball one morning, and I gave Zach major kudos for being my coach. He really appreciated that I thanked Coach ZFD. 
  
• Investigating mysteries in the dark with flashlights. 
• Scooter rides at dark with safety vests and flashlights
• Lots of good soccer games; one day we were both rough! Zach ran into my hip bone - oww for him! And then he laid me out by accidentally tripping me me! 
• Zach brought me his stuffed animal, jelly cat, to sleep with me, and in the morning he said something that made me realize he thought the stuffed animal would be a good prop for my Kindle!
• Monkey bars!
• Zach is learning how to put on gloves. 
• Advent calendar turned out world upside down!
• Loving his "go fish"-type card game
• Learning to apologize, lots of frustration, and the challenge of regulating anticipation
• We gave Zach the option of drinking part of his sparkling apple and cranberry seltzer today or all of it tomorrow, and he chose all of it tomorrow. Delayed gratification is good!
• Zach does a great job setting the table sometimes and then complains that he has to do this kind of thing every day. 
• He can be trusted (mostly) to watch three show and turn them off if I am going out for a run and will be gone longer than 30 mins

Zach's Words & Songs

• Reading: Chee and Dae books may have been causing bad dreams. (The ribbon seals were scariest.) So, we moved on to the Mouse on a Motorcycle series. Very fun. He also enjoyed the book on Malcom Little (the boy who would become Malcom X, though I worried because Malcom's house was set on fire when he was 4. This did not seem to bother Zach. Whew!). We also enjoyed the book on Muddy Waters, illustrated by Evan Turk, who also wrote and illustrated, You Are Home. My fave book on the national parks. Beautiful.
• I introduced him to 101 Dalmatians, and he obsessed for a while with books, shows, versions of the movie
• Hanukkah books
• Zach learned to use the box wine-type opener, and he said, “that’s amazing. I can pour Mommy’s wine now!”
• We've been having dance parties at Auntie Em's and we have great repertoire: Don't Stop Believin', the Proclaimers, wake me up by wham, song from grease! Girls just wanted to have fun, like a prayer. We belt it out singing into kitchen utensils. 
• We talk a lot about quiet time and "we all need quiet time." I checked on Zach one night as he was falling asleep and he said, "Don't interrupt my quiet time." 
• He calls himself Mr. Teaser
• He has resurrected a song book and put it on the landing of the stairs so that he can "announce his presence."
• We are enjoying Story Pirates, esp with the Creepy Weepy Dollhouse story and kefir pronunciation 
• Zach named two leaves: Jim and Jam 
• Listening to "The List of Things that Will Not Change" and lots of stories with Frank too!
• We talked about decorating the tree outside with lights (which we did and we love it!), and I suggested Xmas colors and then white, and he said, “Mommy, made a good point.”
  
• Story/dream about Bennie and Sisi: Zach was playing soccer with his cousins, and because of his new shoes, he was on fire and winning. So, Sisi devised a plan, and she created a giant pile of leaves and enchanted it so that he would lose his new light up shoes, but Zach was “more brilliant” or “brillianter,” according to Zach, and he switched his new shoes back into the pile of leaves!

Sleep Update

All good or good enough! :)

Good Food

• Pears
• Nordic Knot
• Enjoying burgers and fries from Reds Table!
• Apple cider cake and frosting only for Zach!
• Emily’s lasagna
• Egg sandwiches w/ Sigga’s NYC bagels = amazing
• Lots of roasted cauliflower
• Emily’s udon noodle soup
• I made roasted garlic, mushrooms (including foraged ones from Bri and Susan), potatoes w/ parm cheese, and bacon! 
• Chocolate chip muffins - became cake
• Shaheepsky cookies. Yum!

Connection

• Daily breakfast calls with Gamma and Daddy Bob and Auntie Em
• Lots of visits to Auntie Em's 
• Sofia and Baby Bahena arriving in February!
• Reached out to Dave and Laura re: Guilford woes
• Kathleen, Julia, and Katie by phone
• Mary Kay, Kathleen, and Kate happy hour on Zoom
• Thanksgiving Zoom calls with the Edwards clan and Terri
  
• Reached out with a cute photo of Zach and "grateful for you" texts
• Texts with Adrienne and Greer (Greer launched her restaurant, Supper Club Hoboken)
• The Shaheepskys twice!

Family Fun

• A hike, more trips to Quattro Goombas; one with Auntie Em
• Zach birthday lunch at Dirt Farm and two more visits: one with Frank and Zach and one for me
  
• Christmas tree and lights excursions
• Lights and races

Fun and Not So Fun Stuff (Personal and Professional)

• Always, walks :)
• Alan Doyle concert online!
  
• Still working on and using my "stress cycle completion" and somewhat regular loving kindness meditation 
• Books: The Body is Not an Apology, Broken Open, Marrow, A Most Beautiful Thing and just starting More Myself
• Podcasts galore: Good Ancestor and Unlocking Us (esp the one with Dolly Parton!) and the Dare to Lead parcast, Code Switch on Kamala Harris, Hope through History on polio and the rap/hip hop crossover podcast, Louder than a Riot, 3 in 30 had some great reading suggestions (thus the purchase of Mouse on a Motorcycle and As Brave As You)
• Shows: So much Offspring, loving it! Love, love, loved season 2, episode 2; watching the Legos show with Zach!
• Giving: pledged to Guilford with conditions! 
• Book club with Auntie Em and the author joined!!!!!!!
• A Potions Master coffee delivered to me from Amanda
• Goodies to Emily Rogers (Halloween candy, Asian pears, scones, and The Body is Not an Apology.) Weird Bros gift cert. to honor her grandfather's love of strong coffee.
• Revisit: Me and White Supremacy, Gratitude letters, and an intentional gathering; see Priya Parker on The Art of Gathering on Unlocking Us 

The Election

• That was tough. It was inspiring when Biden finally was called as the winner! Yay! We bought shirts for the whole family to wear on Inauguration Day! I loved seeing people coming out to celebrate! The momentous occasion of Kamala Harris' election as VP! 
• Champagne from Rachel

Good work stuff 

• AMP graduation! and continued K1 L&D mentor/coach-type calls
• ARC curriculum with CS and Support
• Google’s g2g program
• Cornerstone and kudos from Rae!
• Product training levels 1 & 2!!!!!
• Leadership 2.0! Listening to Dare to Lead with Guy Raz, Eric Mosley, Barack Obama - all great! Want to use Abby Wombach's book for a Leadership 2021 content club!
• Re-listened to Brené with Priya Parker on The Art of Gathering. Really good and great stuff to consider re: leadership institute. 

Growth, Healing, and Connection

• Therapy is books, podcasts, and a good therapist!
• Uneventful doctor's appointments. Dermatologist told me I was "pretty boring," and the gyn said, "I've hardly seen such normal-looking cells." Yay!
• Wrote Countering Betrayal, Loss, and Mortality with Healing, Growth, and Connection
• Sonya Renee Taylor: "Love is limitless. Do the work to make sure your cup is overflowing so that you can give to others. Work to tell people how much you care about them so that you can also feel their care."
• Joe Biden’s dad’s words: Joey, you’re better than everyone and you’re no better than anyone. 
• Empathy is listening and pity is assuming. I need to work on my assumptions!

Life is Complicated and Complex

Zach of Note

• So many great Lego creations and some serious train track building. AMAZING!
  
• Cora told Zach, “I love you,” and he told me (while she was standing nearby), and I said, “That’s great,” or something, and she said, “I do, I love him.” 
• Make believe. Pillows are a river. We pretended to rescue each other by lowering a ribbon down the stairwell.
• Pillow fights. He. is. really. strong.
• Zach's desk. He loves doing homework at his desk.
  
• Catboy and Gekko kissed and are getting married. So great. 
• Australian treats. Thank you, Rae!
  
• Playing with Logan and Cora - a lot and lots of big emotions and group dynamics to navigate
• Halloween celebration - Am I a bad mother that I kept the fact that it was Halloween from Zach? I told him after his nap, and it felt like such a good move because he FLIPPED A LID in total excitement
  
• Zach sandwiches, weekend morning snuggles
• The excavation and loss of Impala
  
• Trips to Great Country and Great Falls playground and Great Falls NP and climbing on the rocks. Beautiful light. 
  
• Halloween decorations excursions

Zach's Words & Songs

• He used the word: culprit
• Reading: Mr and Miss books, Freddie Ramos, Chee and Dae book
• Zach likes to lay on my back when we read after lunch
• You're the Best; Whiskey, Whiskey (actually 1,2,3,4); Stephen Kellogg's Gift Horse album; Mrs. Potter. In fact, he said, “This is my second favorite song after Whiskey, Whiskey.”
• Little Bedtime Stories and Frank and Zach are listening to a lot of stories too!
• Zach sang along with ABC Mouse and it was adorable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Zach enjoyed a new game on ABC Mouse too!
• One day on the way home, we worked hard to avoid traffic, and I told him he was born to a family that hated traffic, and he said he was born into the goodest family! :) 

Sleep Update

• Good enough! :) :(
• Some nightmares about trucks and people going to fast and not having his seat belt on...

Good Food

• Lake Anne Brew House Oktoberfest dinner - Yum! 
• Ice cream!
• Smashed potatoes with greens and mushrooms.
• Left Foot Charley rose! 
• Cooking: greens, beets, roasted garlic and eggplant.
• Breakfast excursion: chicken biscuit and bagel sandwiches
  
• Pears
• Pumpkin and bat ravioli. Thanks, Auntie Em
• Salmon with beets, kale, pumpkin seeds, capers and olives
• Chili
• Pumpkin seeds
• Nordic Knot pretzels and chocolate pretzel croissant

Visits in all forms

• Gamma and Daddy Bob
• Auntie Em's birthday brunch in the garden. Awesome!
• Lots of visits to Auntie Em's (pineapple head game, chase, trampoline, dance parties, treadmill, bulbs)
• Kathleen; Mary Kay, Kathleen, and Kate happy hour on Zoom; Greer; Emily R.; Adrienne
• Kathleen and Brian and Paradise Springs
• Katie & Suji x 2
• Dad's birthday celebration at Bear Chase; we had a great fire pit spot 
• Goodbye Jordan :( coffee at Weird Bros.

Family Fun

• A wonderful morning/early lunch at Quattro Goombas; loved their peach Belgian Trippel. Beer cheese was legit and had green peppers of some kind it. They had a Reuben, which was quite tasty, and a straight up Brat. 
• With Auntie Em, we all watched Bao. Zach and I are watching Pixar Shorts sometimes now. Totally fun. 
• Ill fated trips to pick up/drop off Zach, but at least I got to bask in the leaf color. Sky Meadows and a drive to Berryville and south back along 50 to Aldie and home via 15 North
• Golf cart mysteries (spied several carts crashed off the paths)
• Shared FSP 2020 with Frank

Fun and Not So Fun Stuff (Personal and Professional)

• Always, walks :)
• An absolutely beautiful fall: great walks, wonderful drives, esp my drive to Quattro Goombas through Oatlands
• NKOTB concert online!
  
• Emily’s StoryCorps recording! 
• Yellow jackets and ants make a comeback
• My hydroponic plant
  
• Spanish continues, but I'm thinking daily meditation is a better priority
• Agathe, Sacha, and Saul and speaking French. I learned the word for roller coaster, montagnes russes, and then it helped me in understanding a Spanish story on Duolingo that same night!
• Greer's restaurant!
• Serendipity: I got a 1/2 bottle of champagne, The Flash present for Zach, and a free choc pretzel croissant!
  
• Finished reading Walking to the end of the world. I need to walk on paths like these where I don't have to worry about bears! 
• Books: Blue by Amy Harmon, Katherine Center's How to Walk Away, and Such a Fun Age
• Podcasts galore: Good Ancestor and Unlocking Us. Crying, release, amazing. Sonya Renee Taylor, Nagoski sisters! Joe Biden and Justin Michael Williams! Throughline and history of health care: interesting and depressing
• Talked the Four Tendencies with Auntie Em and she's a rebel, not surprising. I'm an Upholder. How are we so different?!
• Shows: Finished The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel! I LOVED the episode, "Hands." It made me laugh so much. Still watching Blackish from time to time, The Good Place, Offspring, Ramy
• Movies: Dance Academy, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Pixar Shorts
• Giving: Guilford and the election
• Voted by mail and took Zach when I delivered my ballot. 
• Revisit: Me and White Supremacy, Gratitude letters

Good work stuff

• Autonomy, Competence, Relatedness curriculum = my legacy
• Grit, Growth Mindset, and GROW with Brady
• AMP and two interesting case studies on the right people in an organization and on NPS, final AMP session and graduation on 11/6/20
• Leveraging Strengths module + the power of Energy Giving v. Draining exercise
• Leadership 2.0!

Growth, Healing, and Connection

• Struggling, TOO MUCH, it's complicated
• Surgery and health
• Articles: https://jessicafurseth.com/2020/09/29/maybe-someday-living-with-a-disease-you-may-never-get/?fbclid=IwAR2Ah3mXMXD3p1sB1TSCN3AkDwvz6_DaTwNRJ3h7nd_uWNdkJ7RM-UogfpQ
• Bad news
• Flu shots for all! Upper endoscopy, colonoscopy, gyn and annual exam, grace for doctors, etc., etc. 
• A break from Instagram because election is TOO MUCH. Supreme Court reality is TOO MUCH. 
• BUT I have found a way to complete my stress cycle (after listening to Emily & Amelia Nagoski on Unlocking Us)
• Another new therapist, and she's really good!

What's working: 

• Loving kindness meditation and Good Ancestor and Unlocking Us podcasts
• Emotions: It's SO complicated. I'm feeling - blue: drained, depressed, disheartened, sad, disappointed and red: uneasy, worried, frightened, stressed, anxious; I also feel yellow: hopeful, joyful, excited, optimistic, content, loving, fulfilled, touched, grateful
• Work to be less transactional and more transformational (Episode #020 of Good Ancestor Podcast)
• Empathy Recommendations: Consider saying this to others, “That’s totally fair; you need to feel your feelings, but consider for the future, when you can hear this: “XXXX.” For example, “This is only 361 days out of a year when you have a colonoscopy every 6 months.” 
• Plans for the future: write a book, dragon racing, visiting beautiful places with comfortable spaces, views, nature, walking paths, rivers, roller blading, cross country skiing, and good food. Conferences and learning. Zumba. Contra dancing. and more.
  

Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall as COVID Continues

Family Staycation

• Watermelon Campground tubing on the Shenandoah. The ride on the modified school bus was a bigger hit than tubing on the river. It thunderstormed!
  
• Picnic at Adroit Theory
• A camel ride at the Reston Zoo and seeing a giraffe tongue close up! 
• Great Country Farms and Henway Cider
• Buford Biscuits picnic
• Bears on the Big Schloss Trail
• Lake visit for Frank and Zach with Michael, Leah, Bennie and SiSi. Zach water skied!
  
• Wineries: Paradise Springs & Bull Run

Zach of Note

• The pool, the diving board!
• Memberships to Great Country Farms and Great Falls
  
• Zach’s super power is transporting himself through phones
• Zach's always asking about Rae and what time it is in Australia
• Zach had a couple real melt downs. One, he wanted to go back with Gamma and Daddy Bob when I picked him up. He cried and cried. There was a lot of discomfort. I say lean in to emotions. Be in the discomfort. He also got stung by a yellow jacket. :(
• Dino monster truck from visit to Dinosaur Land
• A night of playing with the neighborhood kids! Good to have that back if only for one night!
• Moved up to K level on ABC Mouse
• Biking and a new bike (blue)
  

Zach's Words & Songs

• Still You're the Best
• New books from diverse voices. Zach especially likes Chee and Dae
• He's listening to chapter books now (Freddie Ramos), and I credit that to a new nightly ritual of listening to Little Bedtime Stories 
• Conversations about hurting others' feelings 
• He's playing instruments
• Still fun - Chicken on a Motorcycle

Sleep Update

All good or good enough! :) (Actually the same 9-ish hours overnight, and 1.5 hour nap, so 10-10.5 hours in general.)

Good Food

• Peaches, pears, grapes!
• 2 brunches boxes from 1789 Bakery and brown butter chocolate chip cookies. Yum!
• Peanut sauce
• Eggs with foraged mushrooms (Thanks Bri and Susan)
• Apple cider donuts
• Pesto
• Baba Ganoush
• Great Falls Creamery apple pie and salted caramel ice cream

Visits and visits by phone or Zoom

• Daily breakfast calls with Gamma and Daddy Bob 
• Lots of visits to Auntie Em's (tennis, kitty cousins, the playground, and spray bottle water fun outside)
• Kathleen; Mary Kay, Kathleen, and Kate happy hour on Zoom; Greer; and Emily R.
• walk with Jenifer
• Marked the milestone of Auntie Em's one year diagnosis of breast cancer (Mexican - comfort food)
• Met Mom and Dad at Bear Chase on a nice summer evening.
  
• Birthday coffee and walk with Amanda for her birthday
• Updates from Sigga

Kathleen & Brian's Wedding

• Video breakfast on the wedding day
• Video celebration the day after. I gave a toast! It was nice to see Mary Kay and Stephen, Kate, and Anthony
• Beautiful day and beautiful photos!!!!!!!!

Fun and Not So Fun Stuff (Personal and Professional)

• Always, walks :) | I've finished my "hike" of the Camino de Santiago is Spain. 
  
  
  
• Some beautiful mornings out west: driving and rollerblading
• Susan G. Komen breast cancer walk with Auntie Em
  
  
  
• Zumba and running (Food for Others 5K on 9/26/20) for the first time since June
• Agathe, Sacha, and Saul moved in, and I get to speak French
• Started Dutch braiding my hair :)
• Podcasts galore: Code Switch, Throughline, FSP 2020 and new ones of Shine Brighter Together, Good Ancestor, and Unlocking Us is back!
• Listened to Galen interview Gretchen Rubin on the four tendencies
• Shows: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel! Blackish
• Movies: To the Bone, F*** It List 
• Reading: Amy Harmon's books: Where the Lost Wander and What the Wind Knows
• Continuing to focus my Instagram feed on more diverse voices and started the Me and White Supremacy workbook
• Spanish
• Gratitude letters :)
• Loving kindness meditation
• Some good insights in my most recent therapy sessions
• The weather turned suddenly beautiful and cool/cold -- a low of 39 in summer! We took advantage of two gorgeous weekends with visits to Vanish, Paradise Springs, and 50 West Winery
• Giving: bought food for kids to deliver since no school and thinking about giving on Patreon
• On Unlocking Us, and learned about the need for play (no goal, just time for things where we get lost and lose track of time) and the duality and the importance of “mind resting.” Not multi-tasking and not numbing. It’s interesting to recast the importance of downtime/meditative thinking time to help solve bigger problems. Makes total sense! This really resonates. 
• According to Auntie Em, the latest update from her ancestry saliva swab says we're heavily Scottish, then English and Northwestern European,  Irish, Welsh, Germanic Europe. Learn Gaelic! I've already got some Welsh under my belt. :/

Good work stuff 

• I sent in a lot of rock star nominations! Felt good, and Drew won for empathy b/c of my nomination!!!!
• I really enjoy the Product Training onboarding sessions with Lauren and Chris :) What a team!
• The brag sessions with AMs and CS were also fantastic and insightful!
• Toothache exercise. It's so good! :)

From Layla Saad: To be human is to feel. To talk about pain without expressing pain is to expect a human to recall information like a robot.