GRATITUDE: Taking stock and relishing in all the growth and potential the backyard garden is starting to show! Indian food tasted so good today at lunch with Eric. I really need to learn how to make the gobi Manchurian. Juniper and I practically ran to Backhaus before school to secure yummy pretzels for the whole family. I’m so glad for these small bits of time we can do something out of the ordinary together. It seems like the next few years where these moments can exist will go by so fast.

Tired. Thursday. Tomorrow. 😴

GRATITUDE: First time doing a 45 min yoga workout yesterday. First purposeful, real ruck yesterday (1 hour, 10 lbs, 5k). So slow to wake up 5:30am the last two days and my first yoga workout has consisted only of 11 minutes of slow stretching…still showing up, and still my body is grateful for the restorative, slowness to ease into the day. My sleep hasn’t been great the last week, in fact it’s been pretty downright awful. I’m attributing this correlation to being in the luteal phase (still trying to get a hold of Mindy Pelz’s book “Fast Like a Girl). Tempted to try and start wearing my Oura ring again to track body temp. Thankful I got around to some light house cleaning today, it’s been lacking since I’ve focused energy on Japanese. On the otherhand, I’ve completely neglected Japanese the last couple of days…

Jasper has been listening to Philip Glass’ Etude 6 a lot lately. There once was a time he really connected to music and maybe he can find a little bit of that again. I need to remember to encourage him back into painting or some creative sensory outputs. I need to do the same for myself actually.

Listened to a lot of podcasts today/yesterday about gut health, inflammation, vitamins, exercise. Peter Attia interviewed the founder of GoRuck which was pretty inspirational. I’m going to try to incorporate it into my daily walks maybe 3x/week if possible.

GRATITUDE: Not on Facebook a whole these days but grateful for reminders of what we were doing productively 7 years ago – still enthusiastic about making stuff.

GRATITUDE: Got in a one mile walk in the rain this morning in the rain before getting the kids bagel breakfast sandwiches and having them meet us at Starbucks. Afterwards they went home and Eric and I went for a longer walk to get most of our 10000 steps in for the day. Got home and was able to sneak in 150 jumping jacks and done squats despite me saying it was a rest day…I guess this exercise stuff is starting to feel good enough to do just because. Went to watch the next installment of Pied Piper, Honk! And finally salvaged some family time with the start of a Doomlings game despite the kids spending exorbitant amounts of time on YouTube watching Minecraft or magic videos this weekend. Overall it was a nice weekend, but I sure could use one more catch up and tidy the house day! Bedtime before 9:30 today to start the week right!

Better than anyplace on Burlingame Avenue brunch at home…

GRATITUDE: Last Friday of late night swim class for Jasper. Happy to have our relaxed Fridays back but have also enjoyed the late night walks around campus while he was swimming. The cool air, the empty campus, the night lights looking over the peninsula and Bay. Thunder and lightning and crazy wind this evening. Happy I snuck in a pre dinner nap as I was so incredibly tired after mostly working out my oral presentation for Japanese class. Was able to buy tickets to Juniper’s hip hop recital and register for Spring quarter of next Japanese 3 class. Still undecided whether to juggle that these next few months or find the ability to continue studies on my own…felt pretty strong in this morning’s strength workout. I told Eric I actually found myself enjoying the renegade row in plank to frogged and back. That’s a good sign right?

GRATITUDE: Parked at the upper floor of the Hillsdale mall today and was totally reminded of how that’s where mom used to park when we would go when I was a kid. Driving down El Camino in our 1980 something rust colored Toyota Corolla, probably listening to K101 on the radio. There used to be a McDonald’s at the mall back then, and she would get me a cheeseburger happy meal, and I would sit in the back on the colored stools where there was a life sized model of Ronald McDonald himself & maybe the Hamburgler? I could never imagine going to the mall now with the kids as being one of the things we did/do together regularly…but I suppose going to grab boba, or meeting at Backhaus on early dismissal Tuesdays, biking to Suruki market for onigiri and picnic lunch are the same kinds of memories just in a different way. I realized a few weeks ago that soon I won’t be walking either kid to school anymore. Juniper will likely follow suit and be riding the bus in no time to BIS. It’s a strange feeling knowing they are gaining their independence while simultaneously losing my purpose in their lives…maybe not losing but transforming again to something different as it has been continuously doing for the last 12 years. Jasper’s birthday is just 20 days away now.

FOCUS: Japanese assignment #7 done, oral presentation next, and lesson 7 quiz…still trying to decide what to do about spring quarter…I don’t think I can fully commit to another class right now. I want to be out in the garden and planning our Japan trip. I also do t want to lost this learning and keep progressing but could I stay accountable to learning on my own at my own pace? Must look into alternatives and/or come up with an actual schedule…what is doable? The days are getting nice out and it’s time to get seeds in the ground/weeding…need to run again too now that I’m feeling like I can actually do it.

INSPIRATION: Learning more about Japanese words and the weight and subtleties behind their meanings is pretty fascinating-

Natsukashii is a Japanese word used when something evokes a fond memory from your past. It’s a word you exclaim as a smile creeps across your face. Japanese word that means happy nostalgia, it is the moment in which memory transports you to a beautiful memory that fills you with sweetness.

Setsunai is a Japanese word that doesn’t have an exact English translation, but it roughly translates to “the pain of things” or even “sweet sorrow”. It’s derived from the kanji 切 (setsu), which means “to cut”. It’s a mix of happiness and vague sadness, nostalgia or longing for someone or something.

Furusato covers a mix of emotions. In one sense, it captures that melancholy feeling of bygone times and innocence lost. Yet at the same time it carries a feeling of warmth, and fond memories of good times with family and friends.