Happy Veterans Day! Jose and I are off work and the daycare is closed, so we’re getting started on our three-day weekend. Life has felt pretty hectic lately with Halloween followed by the election, so I think some family fun and relaxation is in order. We’re taking the girls to the zoo today, and also planning to enjoy the Farm Festival at Armand Bayou on Saturday or Sunday. The forecast looks lovely after a rather cloudy week.
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Last weekend on a whim, we took the girls to Space Center Houston. We’d been once before and Emma remembered that — she was really excited about seeing the rockets and the “spaceship on top of the airplane.”
Although both Jose and I work for NASA, I wouldn’t say we’ve gone overboard with any space-related indoctrination. The girls have some space-themed books and toys, and we talk about the moon and stars and planets, but overall I feel like their exposure to space is pretty typical of the average kid. I mean, space is a common theme across all kid stuff.
Still, it made me really happy to see Emma get such a kick out of being there. And it made me feel re-inspired about work, where I’ve been feeling a bit off lately. I think we should visit more often.
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After Tuesday, I am overwhelmed with the desire to be a better person. To connect more with my friends and neighbors. I had lunch yesterday with two mom friends who also have kids in Emma’s class. I hadn’t ever done that, but one of them texted several of us for an impromptu lunch date and fortunately I was available. We talked about the daycare and work and the election and it was just really, really nice. I want to spend more time with nice people in general.
I feel like the events of election day and its aftermath have given me renewed clarity about what’s truly important and in the last few days, I have been more able to let little stuff remain little stuff. I find myself looking for silver linings, and perhaps this will be it. As the days pass and the emotion of this week begins to dull, I hope I can hang on to this.
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I spent Tuesday and Wednesday night turning the Everglade block that I made last week in Carolyn Friedlander’s class into a mini quilt. I decide to go all in with the hand-stitched theme and did some big stitch quilting for the first time ever. I love the result! The technique was easy to grasp and the visual impact is really nice. (I used a variegated yellow perle cotton.)
Making this block and mini was a great exercise in trying new things. I feel like it’s jump-started my creativity as well, and my brain has been overflowing with other things I want to try. Carolyn gave out mini charm packs of her new fabric line at the class, and on Monday night I turned those into 1-inch hexies for a modern hexies mini quilt.
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Emma’s artistic ability has really taken off lately, and it is one of my very favorite things. She brought this one home from school yesterday — a picture of trick-or-treating. She’s the red one, in her Owlette costume, with her pink trick-or-treat bucket full of candy and the houses on her right. To her left in blue is Jose “in his prince costume,” and me “in your purple princess costume,” and Charlotte is the yellow figure in Jose’s hand.
LOVE.
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Charlotte finally seems to have turned a corner when it comes to drinking from a sippy cup. I’m cautiously optimistic that I may be able to ditch bottles entirely by the end of this weekend. Fingers crossed!