A Breakthrough and So Much More

Zach of Note

• Kitchen soccer on his own and with Frank
• Zach had his 7-year well appointment; all was well. We talked about how the great soccer players eat lots of veggies!
• Camps during Winter Break; he was “walking sunshine” at Reston Camps
• Entering the world of Pokemon; we got a book from the library, but I was still confused. Santa brought him Pokemon cards and he got books. Wahoo!
• Legos - Poppy Star’s airplane and a box of fun Legos, so lots of creations
• Stories, so much story listening
• PBS kids games
• Renewed commitment to chores (developed a list together) and he was so proud of himself cleaning the sinks and making his bed! :) 
• Allowance in 2023 ($2/week)
• Started indoor soccer

School

• Out for two weeks and one day, so not too much school, but he didn’t really miss a beat going back. He didn't want to go to camp every day....
• Lost his soccer ball, but Auntie Em had given him a second ball. Whew!

Emotions/Empathy Corner

When Poppy Star’s airplane crashed, it was very sad. Frank and I did a good job of staying in the pain with Zach. Frank rebuilt it for him.

Zach's Words and Songs

• Stuck in the Stone Age - so good!!!! “This guy”
• Boxcar Children, Jigsaw Jones, and Magic Treehouse books
• Pokemon Books
• Reading, but he doesn’t love it. He does love stories and listens to so many audio books + I love reading to him. I think he feels like he doesn’t need to read, but he can…
• Stories: The Perfect Score, My Own Lightning, Stories podcast stories, Story Pirates, lots of Who, When, Wow on his own
• He asked me to buy him “lip stick”; he meant lip balm. Teehee
• Lots of music and dance parties abound; he loves “We Own Tonight” and “Remix, I Like the” as well as many more songs. Such a range!
• Mom and Zach and “rutabaga” and his “attitude” or “‘tude”

Sleep Update 

He’s sleeping a lot with me, as much as possible. It’s supposed to be 1 week night and 1 week day. It’s generally a little more than that. 

Zach slipped this under my door
when I was isolating b/c of COVID

Health Corner

• I tested positive for COVID for 14 days. I really did not feel bad for more than 4-5 days. Frank and Zach never got sick. 
• I had my annual physical, and my A1c was at 5.7. So frustrating that it just keeps going up. However, as Emily said, my body has been through so much this year, I should take it with a grain of salt. Still hard to do! In a year where I have greatly reduced my alcohol intake, which feels like a really healthy change and choice, I still need to make food changes. I have a tendency to want to be very compliant, but I need to keep my overall health in mind. So, I’m trying not to go nuts and am starting with reducing breakfast sweets and making changes to the breads and crackers I eat. Having a lot more peanut and almond butter and nuts and seeds. I really love peanut butter! My health has really seemed to go downhill fast as of 45! Menopause is no joke. I have allowed myself to get all the sleep and rest I need in 2022.
• I got a massage for Christmas. So nice. 
• I caught a cold from Zach. Sigh. I started to feel bad on Christmas Day and the cough and congestion stuck around for quite a while. 

Family Fun

• A hike (me and Zach) at Banshee (tried out their new scavenger hunt letter find) and then lunch at Quattro Goombas with Frank
• The World Cup was fun for us all. We enjoyed the final match of Argentina v. France! 
• After my bout with COVID was up, we went out on a driving tour of Christmas lights
• New Year’s Eve we got pizza and played Forbidden Island
• We took a family trip down to Sperryville and hiked the Hazel River Trail. Zach was so excited and we had a BLAST. We tried out the Copper Fox Distillery and had lunch by the Thornton River
• Night hike at Banshee Reeks and s’mores

Susan and Zach

• We took some nights to drive around and see Christmas lights and listen to Christmas music in the car.
• The Metro: we went down to Georgetown Glow - so fun and we went down to the Mall.
• We watched Arthur Christmas on Christmas morning
• Trip down on The Mall; we went to the National Gallery (there are naked sculptures there) and the transportation exhibit at the American History museum. The biggest hit was lunch by the waterfall at the National Gallery of Art
• Zach and I went out to breakfast at Ted’s Bulletin for my ½ birthday. So tasty!

Frank and Zach

• Sky Zone lots and a play date with Theo
• Indoor pool fun
• They play games with Zach’s animals and red card/yellow card and so much more. Frank is so good at these games!
• Frank and Zach went down to Charlottesville after Christmas and spent time with Ralph, Chuckie, and Jeff. They went to a UVA men’s basketball game and UVA women’s basketball game with Sam and Zahra, and they went snow tubing at Bryce. Whew! 

Good Food

• Sesame tahini cookies
• Almond butter, freeze-dried blueberry oat bites (They're actually really good.)
• Auntie Em’s chocolate tahini, molasses rye, and jam cookies
• Christmas Eve nosh and Christmas Day meal - Yum
• Chocolate tastings
• The River and Rail meal in Roanoke (whipped butter and pimento cheese w/ corn bread, chicken cassoulet w/ salt-seared butternut squash pieces, and chocolate cremeux)
• French toast casserole
• Peanut sauce
• The Grain Bowl from Ted’s Bulletin was delightful

Connection

• Weekly highs and lows sharing
• Support from Nicole, Rae, and Mary Kay
• Hanging out with Emily when we could post-COVID and video chats when we could not!
• Katie took Zach to play soccer while I had COVID
• Siga’s cookies and generosity
• Rachel and family’s sugar cookies
• Katie, Suji, and Vero’s generosity
• Cookie baking with Auntie Em
• A great Christmas Eve nosh at Auntie Em’s and Christmas Day
• We watched Les Miserables, and Zach really enjoyed “the play”
• Paige and I met in Roanoke and had THE BEST time
• Zach spent the night with Gamma and Daddy Bob; I got to stop by and have lunch with them
• I attended Emily’s Atlas of the Heart Book Club. So fun!
• Sunday coffee chat with Mom and Dad
• Calls to Paige (imperfect connection!)
• Video chat with Kate and Mary Kay

Frank & Susan

• Walks and best meals reminiscing
• We finished The White Lotus by watching simultaneously on separate devices
• Back to date evening on Fridays when Zach goes to the YMCA

Fun and Not So Fun Stuff (Personal and Professional)

Personal 

The trip to Roanoke was festive and awesome! I drove through Charlottesville and stopped at Cou Cou Rachou. Delicious pastries. I listened to a ton of Coaching for Leaders podcasts. I loved exploring, catching up w/ Paige, stopping by The Fresh Market, eating good food, and checking out the neighborhoods!

Watching

• Love and Basketball
• If Beale Street Could Talk
• Love Actually
• Firefly Lane
• Girlfriends
• To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
• Abbott Elementary
• Sodium Day
• Started White Lotus Season 2

Reading

• Braving the Wilderness 
• Gifts of Imperfection
• Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians but Were Afraid to Ask
• Shoutin’ in the Fire
• Surrender
• One Drop

Listening

• Michael Harriott on Black Belt voices
• Coaching for Leaders
• Final episodes of Unlocking Us
• Dare to Lead

Professional

• ARC session with Omar’s team; they really liked talking about different styles
• Leadership Institute: Leaders Build Trust (wrapped) and Leaders Listen to Understand (kicked off)
• DEIB
• Client Engagement Services training planning
• Then a 20% reduction in force, and lost some amazing colleagues (Rae and Ian)
• Energy-giving v. draining with the new form builders
• Offering ARC to Ian and a succulent + chocolate

My Breakthrough

• How to be an adult: ask for what you need and understand that you might not get what you need. 

• Connection over communication; have the imperfect conversation, it’s better than no conversation

• When I go into a negativity spiral, review the questions on Kristin Neff’s self-compassion test https://self-compassion.org/self-compassion-test/ . I wrote these out for a quick and immediate review when in need. 

• Work on tendency to judge others on if or where I think they are on their wholehearted journey

• A foundation of this kind of work is critical to success. Learning, re-visiting resources, keeping up a habit of working on relationships allow those relationships to weather hard times

• In order to be self-secure, I need to work to share and share how I was hurt. 

• There is a give and take to everything. No experience is perfect We’ll all falter and should expect genuine human messiness. We all suffer and it’s not everything. It’s not all of who we are. 

What led to my breakthrough? 

• As I approached a situation that I knew would be hard, I asked friends to support me who had that capacity. (EMF, NJM, PB)

• I shared my experience with friends who helped me process it and provided resources (NJM, RS)

• When hurt, I overcame my tendency to want to isolate and shared my low with (MKP, KG, KS)

• My friends asked for more when I shared (MKP, KG, KS)

• Their questions led me to review past resources and insights (How to be an adult, Atlas of the Heart, and Kristin Neff’s self-compassion test) and a new one, the book, The Gifts of Imperfection - which led me to recall the Gifts of Imperfection work that Mary Kay and Kate and I did from the Brene Brown podcast and assessment.

• How did I have time to review those resources?

• I upheld my commitment to take the day off work for doctor’s appointments (because these appointments require a lot of work and energy and sometimes are emotionally taxing)

Chronicling Nov 5 - Dec 10

Zach’s 7th birthday

• A sour cherry cake
• A cool lamp
• Raspberry almond brioches
• Cupcakes
• Legos
• Walkie-Talkies
• Camera 
• Soccer goals and the Thanksgiving game
• National Parks scratch and sketch

Zach of Note

• Mostly video games and mostly FIFA
• Finished up soccer on team Honduras and played after one of final games with Fintan
• Fun at the YMCA (camps and after school)
• More dancing; awesome dancing by Z and a few dance offs!
• Time change threw us for a loop; Zach had his worst time with in in years
• Theo's birthday party

School

• The days off continued to be a real challenge
• Zach is a leader at school by bringing his soccer ball and pulling together a daily game

Zach's Words and Songs

• Podcasts - Stories, Story Pirates, Who When Wow, Cairo Carter
• Listening to A Star Full of Stars and best of Cold Play, Chris Stapleton’s Parachute
• Zach is reading. He read “play with your food,” and my GC hoodie, “Keep Going”
• Enjoying Boxcar Children, Jigsaw Jones, and the Story Pirates books, Stuck in the Stone Age and Digging Up Danger
• Listening to The Perfect Secret

Empathy Corner

• Inter-personal challenges with Ethan and with other classmates and bullying
• Z did his own problem-solving

Health Corner

• Bi-annual Saville Center visit
• I got COVID :( We eventually traced it to Emily. She and I had gotten together on Sunday morning and she thought she had a cold. She had tested on Sat and been negative. For me, it has only felt like a bad head cold. Nothing in my chest. really only felt like a bad cold. I have not lost my sense of taste or smell. I had swollen lymph nodes and maybe a little stuffy, then chills and achy. I developed a bit of a cough. My doctor prescribed cough medicine, and that helped as my cough worsened. Tu - developed symptoms | W - chilled and achy and tested positive | Th - still achy, cough worsened | F - on the upswing | Sa - feel pretty good, still a bit of a cough. I’ve been taking extra strength Tylenol. Doc prescribed Bromphen PSM DM (cough medicine) and extra Vitamin D, C and Zinc. Started isolating on Wednesday and Frank and Zach tested negative on Th (F&Z), F (Z), and Sat (F&Z). We’ll see how the saga continues.

Family Fun

• World Cup watching
• Frank and Zach: soccer, Sky Zone lots
• Me and Zach: Hey, Man, basketball, ice skating, soccer, hot drinks at Shenandoah Joe’s, visit to Ix Park’s Through the Looking Glass exhibit, Amazon classical Christmas and checking out Xmas decorations, Metro adventures - rode the newly opened section out to Ashburn and went down to Dupont Circle; we watched A Muppet’s Christmas Carol and baked cookies
• Christmas decorations: borrowed one of Bri’s inflatables!

Good Food

• Fake bacon by accident and attempts to replicate
• Zach's birthday treats!
• Coucou Rachou pastries

Connection

• Visits with Emily
• Support from Mary Kay, Paige, Emily, and Nicole for T’giving and Rae afterwards
• Emily’s impactful movies were: Beaches, Steel Magnolias, and Crazy, Stupid Love
• Neighbors! Walking to the bus stop, talking while the kids play outside, some of my best moments
• Met Jess for coffee
• Catching up with Nicole
• Sharing Grief Companion with Sarah and Rae
• One final farmer’s market with Mary, Cora, and Logan
• Running into Kevin from work and his wife
• Time talking to Meaghan at Thanksgiving
• Time with Sam, Julia, and Zahra
• Meredith from Guilford texted!

Frank & Susan

• Trip down to Sperryville for Frank’s birthday
• Fun hike
• Talked about impactful movies; for me: Brokeback Mtn, the Boys of Baraka, Becoming Jane, Blue Valentine, and Places in the Heart and for Frank: The Martian, Inception, Free Solo
• Lots and lots of pain and work and progress and it’s exhausting

Fun and Not So Fun

Personal

• New glasses
• Happy/upbeat songs: Human, Little Lion Man, Miss Hollywood, When I am King
• Reading: Read most of Girls Burn Brighter, Rest is the Resistance

Listening

• VH and Jason Isbell’s Relatively easy
• Think Again on Audible
• Unlocking Us and Dare to Lead
• Kate Bowler

Watching

• Native Film Festival. Shorts and The Meaning of Empathy
• Finished High on the Hog and From Scratch
• Enjoyed Look Both Ways
• Watching White Lotus, Girlfriends

Not So Fun

• It's been a tough five weeks. Ups and downs and ins and outs
• The gnatty bugs won't die
• Dead car battery three times in 1 month, so we got a new one under warranty!
• Ongoing issue with the key not being removal :(

Professional

• Product Training (DM, GC Essentials and GC PT2 again and those connections)
• ARC work and conversations
• DEIB
• 80’s love ballads while rebuilding a form and then figuring out the issue with the form
• Leadership session and “Why wasn’t this helpful?”
• Looking forward to hearing more stories from the ZA team in 2023

Glorious & Weary (Oct 1-Nov 5)

Zach of Note

• Working on chores: putting away his soccer gear so he can find, not leaving clothes on the floor, but putting them in the laundry basket, etc.
• Drinking water
• Playing with the neighbors and neighborhood connections - so fun!
• Sleeping is hard. Zach struggles to sleep on his own. I did too. 
• Birthdays: Zach went to Gwen’s and Domingo’s parties
• Soccer obsession; Academy has been fun chatting with Russel and Coach Luiz 
• FIFA: We had to institute a week-long break at one point!
• Hey, Man
• Zach worked with me and Frank to create a unique handshake with each of us. Mine with Zach is fist bump, three pumps of a traditional handshake, then a high five, and mine explodes, and his turns into a thumbs up! 
• Lost a tooth!
• School
• 26-30 kids in his class - who knows? Def seems like too many!
• Teacher says, “It’s a lot, but it’s okay because they’re all good kids, no troublemakers.”
• The schedule has been nearly untenable with so many days off. For the fall, they’ve had 17 weeks, and only 8 of them have been a full five days in school. It’s been really, really, really hard on me.
• Zach’s coach at Academy spoke to him in Spanish and he nodded that he understood. Cool!

Zach's Words and Songs

• Singing in Spanish
• Story Pirates, Who, When, Wow, and Stories podcasts are the fave. Love Goats to Go! “I’m Larry.”
• Listened to Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson
• Listening to We Built This City (from GoCanvas Feel Good Friday playlist; Zach loved it), Video Killed the Radio Star, and YMCA + learning the dance
• Zach is reading. He reads with Frank most nights, and he and I read Pete’s Train Trip. Amazing!
• Zach used the word "persnickety" and asked what “scowl” meant
• Enjoying Boxcar Children, Jigsaw Jones, Pete the Cat

Empathy Corner

• Zach still loves SEL!
• Roses and thorns
• Zach is trying to figure out some challenges with his friend, Ethan, and it feels normal, but also important to get right
• Zach did say that “my cancer wasn’t that bad,” so we had to talk through that! OMG!

At Walk 4 Mtns

What I'm Working On

• October is breast cancer month. The Walk 4 Mountains was hard. Difficulty with doctors. It’s an ongoing challenge. Breast cancer isn’t my identity, but still. 
• Chatted with my eye doctor and that was very replenishing. She asked questions, and I shared my breast cancer story with no baggage. 

Health Corner

• Still massaging and got a massage! I had an uptick in doctors’ appointments, some harder than others, eating the rainbow!
• Zach and I both got our flu shots and COVID boosters on the same day. No problem!

Family Fun

• All of us at the Walk 4 Mtns, trip to Sperryville, dinner at Aslin
• Annedroids watching
• Helping Auntie Em and Uncle Jeff move 
• Z visited Gamma and Daddy Bob
• Toasting Auntie Em’s new house!
• Zach and a hike with Grandad
• Frank and Zach: soccer. Launch, and a membership at Sky Zone, Leesburg Animal Park Fall Festival, and soccer game, George Mason v. GW
• Me and Zach: basketball, and walk in the morning on a random Wednesday. He asked to come with me, so we geared up with reflective vests and flashlights, and checked out Halloween lights and the Little Art Gallery. Awesome!

• Also, a trip to Baltimore! We met up with Mary Kay and Hance to go to Morgan State’s Homecoming parade, played in Hampden, lunch from Golden West, some quiet time and tea, and a visit to AVAM. Zach loved it! 
• Halloween decorations: pumpkins, gourds, pumpkin lights, Elvira, and changing the color of our light (purple and orange)

Good Food

• Dinner at the Restaurant at Patowmack Farms with Auntie Em; a very belated birthday dinner for me!
• Balsamic fruit: plum and pear 
• Agathe’s cake
• Cookies! Frank and Zach got me Crumbl cookies and we tried Midnight cookies
• Frittata muffins
• Pumpkin tomato bisque with goat cheese
• Shoshito peppers and eggplant
• Middle Eastern goodies from Borek’s at the Falls Church farmer’s market
• Atwater’s rye crackers - so good!
• Zucchini and goat cheese fritters
• soy -glazed sweet potatoes
• Delightful yellow Bartlett pears
• Auntie Em’s waffles
• Sperryville muffins (blueberry, pumpkin, savory w/ ham and cheese)

Connection

• Neighbors and party for Belen + Halloween + serendipitous hanging out while the kids are playing
• Helping out with child care with Susan & Jonathan and Jenna and back - a giving loop
• Uber Ladies and Auntie Em and I sharing highs and lows on weekly basis
• Friends at Walk 4 Mtns
• Paige, Sofia, MKC
• Dinner with Katie and Suji
• Chats and support from Tracey C., NJM, and Rae
• Met Chad, Chris, Kevin, and Lana for dinner
• Sharing Grief Companion with Anthony, Kate, and Jess; listening to Believe and sharing with NJM
• Frank and I have started sharing what’s on our heart and mind and I’ve been working to notice and thank him for all the things he does!

Fun and Not So Fun
Personal

• Just a beautiful, glorious October. Every day, so lovely
• Auntie Em’s new house

• Bathroom project complete!
• Loving the concept of Red Threads from Love + Work. I’ve done some thinking and writing about what I notice that no one else does, etc. It’s driving my questions for Zach’s teachers at the parent-teacher conference
• Reading
• Rez Life (identified some language immersion schools for possible giving)
• Valentina Salazar is Not a Monster Hunter by Zoraida Córdova
• ARD
• Listening
• Layla Saad, Brene Brown Dare to Lead and Unlocking Us and Love + Work on Audible
• Think Again on Audible
• Watching: Girlfriends, High on the Hog, and From Scratch

Not So Fun

• YMCA. It was hard to communicate for weeks!
• Brene Brown’s interview with Beto O'Rourke should have had a trigger warning.

Professional

• ARC work on DISC and Values, Leadership Institute, some unexpected kudos for my product training
• DEIB
• Coffee talk with Viyas; he asked, listened, and heard me
• Not so fun…working on the content of our Sexual Harassment compliance module was intense!

Z and F have the same smile!

Tough and Joyous (Aug 27-Sept 30)

Zach of Note

• One trip to the farmer's market with Logan, Cora, and Mary
• Commitment to learning to whistle
• Playing with some old toys
• Doing a great job with chores and taking care of himself
• Playing with the neighborhood kids (rising lava game); new neighbors: Gwen and Jackie

• Dinoland and Spots
• Soccer is back; the team (Team Honduras) hugs after goals. Awww
• FIFA is the video game of choice
• Zach has continued to have "episodes," aka sleep walking tht seem to be tied to not drinking enough water/dehydration. Sigh...even as it's gotten cooler, he's had to drink a lot of water
• Back to School and ...
• Gwen and family
• Loves to walk to the bus on his own
• A cold on the first two weekends
• Family Science Night
• Back to School Night: pretty unimpressive; there are 26 kids in his class!
• Movie Night: we found Ethan and family and Z and E had a blast

Zach's Words and Songs

• Apparently he said the Pledge of Allegiance at school all last year
• Who, When, Wow, esp Bass Reeves and Jim Thorpe
• Story Pirates and stories in the morning. He still loves "I Bit My Knee."
• Zach is reading to and with Daddy
• Jokes: 
• What do you call a sea gull that flies over the bay? A baygull
• Why do you take an extra pair of socks when you play golf? In case you get a hole in one. 
• Watching Despicable Me 2 when he was sick
• Singing passionately along with Rob Thomas, enjoying some Great Big Sea/Alan Doyle

Empathy Corner

• "I hate my teammates," after a goal was blocked in soccer video game. Let's try for: "I'm frustrated; why did you do that?"
• My frustration with Monopoly and Frank rubbing my back and saying over and over, "game, game, game." Eventually, we all laughed
• Zach still love to do art things with me even though art isn't exactly his thing because he knows I like it. 
• Enveloped Zach in a 30+ second hug. Thanks Emily and Amelia Nagoski!
• Zach loves SEL (Social Emotional Learning), mostly because there are bean bags and fidget spinners and he gets 5 mins of free play, but still!

What I'm Working On

• How to handle a friend who's a bad influence
• Gratitude
• Loving kindness meditation
• Massage (6-ish minutes twice/day)
• Trying to ask: if you had more time, what would you spend it working on? 
• Thinking about the excellent suggestion of asking friends to engage with: "What was your high and low for the week?"

Health Corner

• Final appointment with Dr. Hammer and importance of massage
• Enough stress that I had to pull out my pillow potion; 
• Seltzer is bad for your teeth
• Two fillings. OWWW!!!

Family Fun

• Last trips to the pool and the Water Mine for Frank and Zach
• Basketball and tennis for Susan and Zach
• Zach and I went to Cirque de Soleil's Kurios, and there was true awe!
• The Lewes Beach weekend for Zach's 2-month early birthday (the Bay Bridge and views are AWESOME, the farmer's market, bike/roller blade, Monopoly, made up beach games, beach art, a light ship, a pirate's cruise, and ice cream from DQ!)
• Planning for Halloweeen: Zach to a be a Ghostbuser, and Daddy and I will be ghosts (costume out of cheese cloth, perhaps)

Good Food

• Zach is learning how to tell if peaches are ripe! Yay!
• Basil pesto
• Auntie Em's blueberry muffins, blueberry lemon cake, ratatouille, and tomato sauce
• Lots of veggie roasting
• Fig bread salad
• Lebanese Taverna's watermelon salad, cauliflower salad, and baba ganoush. So good!
• Baked balsamic fruit (plums, figs, pears), zucchini hummus, yogurt and dill dips, gnocci
• Old World Bread's lavash crackers and brown butter cookie
• Fig cake from Siga's recipe
• Auntie Em's "Good Job Not Dying" cake
• Garam Masala chickpea chili 
• Peanut butter banana muffins

Connection

• To the pool with Auntie Em
• Time with Kathleen at Union Market
• Zach visted Gamma and Daddy Bob
• Getting to know new neighbors, Jenna, Danny, Gwen, and Jackie (Gwen said to her mom, "do you think zach will like my dress?" Mom: "I wouldn't count on it." and Gwen: "Zach's my boyfriend." Jenna: "Yes, he's a boy and he's your friend." Jackie screams out his name in excitement. (Jackie will be 3 in April.)
• Congrats not dying party of Bolognese pizza and amazing strawberry cake
• Lots of playing with the neighborhood kids and general neighborhood camraderie
• Claire responded to my LinkedIn message from five years ago!
• Trying to pen pal it with NJM from GoCanvas
• Uber Ladies weekend in Lewes, which was fun and hard
• Dinner to Katie and Suji because of Suji's accident

Fun and Not So Fun Stuff 

Personal

• Researching Northern Michigan with fortswupnorth!
• I made it to the pool a few times with Auntie Em - very fun! And one day I took a shower at her house post-swim, and it was like a spa day
• Auntie Em fostered another cat, Eva
• It stayed HOT, HOT, HOT, HOT for so long. So many mosquitoes. I killed two in my curtains. Yuck!
• Dance class at Union Market and a Sunday Zumba dance party
• Listening to the local LGBTQIA+ Radio 99.5
• Cleaned out my room and a donation extravaganza (just scratching the surface, but still!)
• A haircut
• Hung up the lights that Paige gave us, and they're so fun
• Flower arranging
• I remind Mary Kay of the importance of being intentional. Yay!
• Adding balance to my values along with growth, caring/kindness, and authenticity
• Exploring voice lessons for more singing in my life
• A house for Auntie Em in Herndon
• Continuing to chip away at the bathroom project!
• Fights and arguments in the neighborhood and at soccer practice. Soccer practice!

Reading/Listening/Watching: 

• Podcasts: 
• Layla Saad
• Brene Brown came back! 
• Listened to "Inside the Adolescent Mental Health Crisis" and found out about Matt Richtel and bought Dad some of his fiction
• HBR with Ami Jah on Peak Mind and STOP (Stop, Take a breath, Observe, and Proceed)
• Books: Frderick Joseph's The Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person; Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones, and Love from A to Z by S.K. Ali
• Regular ARD reading
• Shows: Virgin River, Girlfriends, Mo 

Professional

• Breakfast with Judie at Lake Anne Coffee House
• Connections continued with Tracey C. 
• Red Threads and Nicole
• Chad the Tennesotan, artist. 
• Reading Out of Office and Love + Work
• HBR article on positive with and negative with your team as opposed to positive against and negative against. 
• DEIB and what is on your mind, IT strengths, Leaders Build Trust
• Coffee chat with Nina Everflow, who is the instructional designer working with Layla Saad

Quotes

• It's not about being alone; it's about feeling as if no one cares. (Muriel to Hope in Virgin River)
• The craft of writing as the art of thinking (from Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates)
• The classroom is a prison of others thoughts and the library is a world open to you and your interests (from Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates)
• When we fight, you go straight to breaking up. Where's the middle ground? Where we work on behavior change. (Yvonne to William on Girlfriends)

Michigan 2022

Travel Fun

Frank left at 6:30am in the car, and Zach and I left home at 10am. Mary and Cora drove us to the Wiehle Reston East Metro. We got the Flyer to Dulles airport and took the train at the airport to our gate. After a slight delay, we flew from Dulles to Detroit. Upon arrival in Detroit, we made our way to their Michigan Flyer to travel to Ann Arbor. Frank picked us up just before 4pm, and we headed north, arriving at our cabin at about 9pm. 

Overall, we really enjoyed and finished I Dream of Space (started on trip to Brevard) and listened to all of You Go First both by Erin Entrada Kelly. We listened to most of Mr. Chickee's Funny Money by Christopher Paul Curtis, but our interest definitely fizzled. 

Weather

We had the best weather we'd had in years for the two weeks. It rained some on four days, but otherwise it was sunny and not too hot!

Week 1, Curtis, Michigan, on South Manistique Lake: 

Frank and Zach took advantage of the paddle boats and played a lot in the water. Frank took out a kayak. Zach and I enjoyed the Erickson Center for the Arts. I enjoyed some walks off of Wolfe Road and out to Long Point. The internet was not really usable, so my attempts to work were pretty unsuccessful. As a family, we took two fun day trips: one to Pictured Rocks on Lake Superior and the other to Mackinac Island. On the Pictured Rocks day, Zach and Frank also took the National Park Service boat tour. (I got sea sick when Frank and I took the boat trip on our last visit.) We enjoyed the Seney Wildlife Refuge despite the bugs, made fires and s'mores on three evenings, and rocked out to local radio. 

Boys

There were four cabins rented, representing three families, and six boys. Three of the six boys were six years old, so they had a blast playing together. Zach especially loved playing with Nathan who was on vacation with his two older teenage brothers. One day, Frank took Zach to the local zoo with Nathan's family. (It wasn't too awkward.)

Week 1 to Week 2: 

We enjoyed the cloudy and slightly rainy drive from Curtis to Crystal Mountain. We stopped in Charlevoix for crepes from That French Place. We enjoyed a nice walk around town while we waited for our food and saw the Emerald Isle come in from Beaver Island. Everyone agreed that That French Place provided the most delicious food from savory and sweet crepes to amazing pastries that we sampled over several days. We stopped at Royal Farms, Inc. and loaded up on cherries (still yummy), blueberries, peaches, and slices of cherry pie. 

Week 2, Crystal Mountain, near Thompsonville, Michigan: 

In Crystal Mountain, we enjoyed the Legacy Art Park. I went many times on my own as did Frank, and I took Zach twice. Our house had a fussball table and checkers. Both were a huge hit for Zach. Frank and Zach went mountain biking twice and squeezed in three visits to the Alpine Slide. We had lunch out at the Crystal Mountain quad one afternoon. As a family, we visited Arcadia Dunes, Crystal Lake, the Betsie River and Leelanau Trails, and Esch Beach on Lake Michigan. We had fun with rock art. We took a day trip to Traverse City and tried Salt 2 Sugar, and Zach and I rode into Traverse City on their free community bus. It was hard to explain to the drivers that we had no destination in mind! We tubed on the Platte River, and bold and adventurous Zach swung into the river off of a rope swing multiple times!

Zach asked if I was eating grass.

Food

To start, we packed two coolers full of food since our first destination was in the Upper Peninsula. This worked out really well as the food options in the UP were not as numerous. We found a farm stand with peaches, blueberries, and zucchini. Otherwise, we made our own wonderful meals with incredients from home. 

In week two, we stopped in Traverse City at Oryana for staples and tried out Peace Love and Donuts and Bay Bread Co. We tried Salt 2 Sugar, but missed Spanglish (sad). We went back to Farm Club and had delightful tempura fried in season veggies, visited St. Ambrose twice, and spent our last night at Iron Fish. 

Walking

The walking in close proximity to Lilly's on the Lake was right on some major roads, but I did enjoy walking on country roads, especially Wolfe and Long Point Roads. In Crystal Mountain, I enjoyed the Michigan Legacy Art Park every day! 

Superlatives

Unexpected: 

• We got cold. At our first place, they ask guests to bring their own pillows and linens, blankets too. For whatever reason, blankets were not packed. I think it was hard to imagine needing them, so we got cold a few nights!
• Michigan has a thriving small business community in cannabis sales, and I had several moments of thinking I smelled skunk, but in fact, it was marijuana. 
• We had no access to laundry. I swore our second house in Crystal Lake had it, but alas no. 

Grateful: The sound machine was a savior when staying in homes that are very close to other people!

Best Meals Out: That French Place, Charlevoix

Best Cupcakes: We got a variety pack of six cupcakes from Zingerman's. Very yummy. 

Best Pastries: That French Place, Charlevoix

Best Outdoor Eating Experience

• Z: St. Ambrose
• S: Crystal Mountain Quad
• F: Shipwreck, Curtis, MI (after Frank and Zach used the paddle boat to get there)

Best Drink

• Z: lemon cherry slushie at Iron Fish
• S: ginger beer at Iron Fish
• F: smoked pineapple mixed drink at Iron Fish

Best Ice Cream

• Z: Dirt Sundae
• S: strawberry ice cream at Scoops 22 in Sutton's Bay
• F: Mudslide sundae and lemon blueberry

Check out our photos here.