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December and January books

Posted on February 2, 2018 by Naomi

By my own standards, I haven’t been reading much lately, but what I have managed to read, I’ve really enjoyed.

Benedict wrote The Other Einstein (which I thoroughly enjoyed – my review here) and I must have clicked that little “Follow” button on Amazon because I got an email when this latest novel came out. Just like the strong female character in that book, here we find a young Irish immigrant who becomes a lady’s maid for Andrew Carnegie’s mother. Through the fictionalized story, we learn that perhaps she was the one who caused such a large transformation in the well-known businessman and caused him to become a philanthropist. It is full of true-to-life detail about the immigrant experience of struggle while supporting family at home and the class distinctions of the 1860’s. I found it entertaining. Recommend.

Whenever Mr. Carnegie was at Fairfield for the day—instead of his offices downtown or traveling—we met in the park on that same bench during my mistress’s afternoon rest. There, in thirty-minute increments, he offered me hope, for myself and my family. I knew my route would not match his precisely. But if a poor Scottish immigrant could carve out a fresh, successful path for himself, maybe there was some way I could too. I began to believe this, even though I was a woman and the climb from one societal echelon to another had only been accomplished by men. And only very recently at that. I listened. And I learned. By working harder than anyone else, always at the behest of Mr. Scott, Mr. Carnegie had scaled the hierarchy of the Pennsylvania Railroad to reach his current position of division superintendent, which made him the man in charge of safely moving all rail traffic in western Pennsylvania. A heady height indeed for a small lad from Scotland, as he liked to tell me. But his true success came not from advancing rung by rung up that corporate ladder—a rare enough feat—but by investing in companies, a notion that had been novel to him. And to me.

Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum

Trudy, a professor of German history, wants to know more about her mother’s life. We learn about her mother, Anna, and what she had did and who she lost in the war. In writing about the German perspective of the Holocaust, Blum tells a slightly different story than what most novels are about. I cared about the characters and got caught up in the story. Recommend.

But as Trudy sits trying to calm her breathing, she also remembers what Rainer has said: Let the punishment fit the crime. Anna has taken the burden of silence upon herself. It is her decision not to speak of the things she has done, valiant or otherwise. It is in fact her prerogative as a hero. And in another way, whether she is a hero or not is immaterial. Each person has this choice to make about how to live with the past, this dignity, this inviolable right.

The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan

Imagine a story around each object to give it meaning. This is Hogan’s first novel and it’s quiet but joyful and touching. It’s about “losing and finding ourselves, the objects that hold magic and meaning for our lives, and the surprising connections that bind us.” There are two plot lines and I found both to be very engaging. The characters are really great – some of them are quirky, but very real. Highly recommend!

She was able to feel the pain and joy of others and give them value… she wasn’t a mere spectator of other people’s lives; she had to engage. Her capacity to care was instinctive. It was her greatest asset and her greatest vulnerability; she had been burned and he knew it had left a mark… However long it took a broken person to be strong enough to face the world again. And he hoped that by his choosing her to finish his task, it might set [her] free.

The Leavers: A Novel by Lisa Ko

One morning, a young Chinese boy’s mother goes to her job at the nail salon in New York and never comes home. The rest is a coming-of-age story that follows his journey as he gets adopted, struggles with his identity and memories. It’s heartbreaking that he doesn’t feel he belongs anywhere. Ko also tells the story from the mother’s point of view as she tries to make up for her past mistakes. These two characters struggle between doing what is expected of them by those around them and following their heart and doing what they want to do. It’s a story of those who leave and those who are left.

The songs he was writing weren’t anything like the ones he and Roland played. They lacked structure, didn’t cohere in a predictable way. They were too bare, too vulnerable, they cared too much to be cool. He no longer wanted to make music that forced itself on you, or tried to be something it wasn’t. The challenge was not to overstate, but to be honest, unguarded… it felt like he was defrosting a windshield, that the fog would eventually reveal clear glass.

This one is well-written, interesting, and socially relevant. Recommend.

Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie

The description of this book is what caused me to grab it and start reading right away: “This Pulitzer Prize–winning novel follows two American academics in London—a young man and a middle-aged woman—as they each fall into unexpected romances.” That sounds just like one of my favorite books, Possession! I’m afraid it ended up being nothing like it, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

In alternating chapters, this Pulitzer-prize winner (1985) tells of two professors visiting London for research and their romantic pasts and current entanglements. Both are strong, likable characters and the writing is so charming and humorous. I will definitely read more of Lurie. Recommend.

This time, however, she had rather hoped for an adventure; and she had, as always on these trips, recast her fantasies to feature British intellectuals rather than American ones. Not of course that she really expected a romantic interlude with any of these well-known dons, critics, folklorists, or writers. But she certainly hadn’t come all the way to London to make it with a sunbelt polyester American left behind by a two-week guided tour, an unemployed sanitary engineer who wears a transparent plastic raincoat and cowboy boots and had never heard of Harold Pinter, Henry Purcell, or William Blake until he was fifty-seven years old and she told him about them.

Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue

An African couple trying to live the American Dream, juxtaposed against an executive from Lehmann brothers in 2007 and his family. The book touches on relationships, immigration, class, race, and the wavering definition of success.

I read this one very quickly because I couldn’t put it down. It’s very timely with the class divisions in this country. Definitely recommend.

I don’t like what my life has become in this country. I don’t know how long I can continue living like this, Neni. The suffering in Limbe was bad, but this one here, right now.. it’s more than I can take… It’s everything. Have you not seen how unhappy I’ve been? … How much suffering can a man take in this world, eh?

Posted in Books, Books - Monthly Reports | Tagged Alison Lurie, Imbolo Mbue, immigration, Jenna Blum, Lisa Ko, Marie Benedict, Ruth Hogan | Leave a comment

So long my sweet boy

Posted on January 31, 2018 by Naomi

This morning we said goodbye to our 15 1/2 year old cat, Mo. The past few weeks have not been good for him and I’ve been trying everything I can think of to help him feel better. I’d been taking him to the vet once a week for hydration shots and blood work. He was on transdermal medicines for arthritis and pancreatitis and eating special food. Still, he kept losing weight.

Selfishly, I kept trying because I couldn’t see how I could go through so much change in such a short period of time. Our home is going to begin being torn down tomorrow, and that will end whatever thoughts I have in the back of my head that we’re going back there and everything will be as it once was. So much of our belongings are still out of place. In fact, I don’t have any photos of Mo because they got wet so I gave them to a friend to try to salvage. The ones in this post are from a scrapbook.

It’s hard to let go of inanimate objects, but it’s especially hard to let go of a beloved pet. I personified Mo so much that I feel like I lost a close friend. Losing favorite objects, sentimental cards and photos, even a whole house, I can hardly get my mind around but I understand. Having to continue our routines without Mo feels like too much loss. I know we’ll be fine, but it still hurts like heck.

A main reason that we moved out of the apartment last month was that Mo needed some space to chill without being terrorized by the new kitten. We set him up in our closet with a bed, litter box, food, water fountain, and toys and we’d visit him often. I was even hoping he’d resume sleeping near my head every night now that he felt he could have his own space.

One day recently, I tried luring him out of his little cave with new wet food. Watching him walk was just awful. He looked like he was in major pain. So he has lived in his little closet for the month that we’ve been here. Sometimes he’d come out to lick the shower floor a little or sit on a chair in our bedroom, and that’d make me so happy!

Today, he couldn’t even raise his head to give me his usual hello. His kidneys had shut down and he seemed to stop trying to push through. I had a vet appointment anyway that I made yesterday out of concern, so we went and she took his temperature and said, yes, he’s leaving us. He hadn’t been grooming himself in several days so he smelled pretty awful. He didn’t even do his usual vet routine where he curls into a ball or tries to hide in my sleeve. He just lay there feeling miserable.

She said, yes, it’s time.

Today it’s goodbye Mo and tomorrow it’s goodbye house. So many changes at one time! Deep breath.

I thought of Mo as my sweet boy, my little buddy. Something about his demeanor and his seriousness touched me. I thought I understood him and vice versa. We had our routines.

It was October of 2002 when Mr. B and I went to the humane center to get a dog and left with these two 3-mo-old brothers. They were so adorable! See how they fit in a tiny basket together? From the start, Sammy was the “cool cat” and Mo was the “fraidy cat.” We never knew what had happened to him before they were found behind a grocery store and brought to the shelter, but Mo had a broken tail and a very nervous constitution. He definitely didn’t like sudden movements. I was very gentle and loving with him and we bonded straight away.

While Sammy would investigate the townhouse we lived in at night and occasionally come jump on our heads and squeak at the ceiling fan, Mo would snuggle under the covers right between us. They were very playful… doing circles around our stairs so fast we could barely see them, jumping into our plants and knocking dirt all over the carpet, hiding in the bookshelves.

We got the boys at a time when I needed something to care for. I remember I’d been hospitalized in May or June of that year and I was recuperating at home while taking an outpatient distress tolerance/emotion regulation class. Probably, Mr. B thought these kittens would be good for me. I remember being thoroughly shocked when he said we could take them home. We had to stop at the pet store for every single thing because we hadn’t planned on adopting cats!

I can hardly believe these pictures of Mo as a kitten…

When we brought our daughter home from the hospital 6 years later, Sammy was so excited for some new adventures and new toys to investigate. Mo was not so sure. He’d come over to the chair where I’d be nursing SG and just stare at me. I wondered if he was jealous of my attention.

He tried all sorts of things!

My favorite memories of Mo are of our bed snuggles. For a cat who didn’t like to be held, this was my only way to be with him for long periods of time. He would lay with me every single night while I read my book. As soon as I turned off the light, he’d go in search of Mr. B and sit with him wherever he was. Then, they’d both come to bed together, Mo snuggling near my pillow in between us. This is the time he was most accepting of pets and cuddles.

As soon as we got out of the shower, Mo was right there to go in. It was his thing. His favorite place was a chair in our bedroom by the window. He would spend most of his day there sleeping. If I’d go outside to our sunporch, he’d get up and come sit in the sun nearby. Once he got to a time where he wasn’t very active, I began opening the door to the porch often so he would have some mental stimulation watching the birds.

The kitties were very much a part of what makes our life meaningful. We lost Sammy very suddenly almost 3 years ago now, and that was really hard on Sweet Girl. He was very important to her… actually I think “Sammy” was her first word. We’ve been preparing ourselves for saying goodbye for about a week or two now, but still, this morning, we didn’t have SG say goodbye. I was 80% sure I wouldn’t be coming home with Mo, but I wasn’t sure and didn’t want to create unnecessary emotional drama. So now I’ve got to figure out how to tell her. We have a very busy couple of days and I can’t afford meltdowns… not sure yet.

Attempting to get him in the New Year’s spirit… I always imagined him wearing a bowtie.

The last 6 months have just been too much for him. First we brought a kitten into the house. Just when we are about to slowly introduce them, we realized that CoCo had ringworm. SG and I spent a ton of time caring for her (and doing lots of laundry). Then the storm made it necessary to grab both cats and head upstairs above the garage, so they got a crash course in each other and Mo was not pleased. There was a lot of hissing.

They stayed there by themselves. Then with friends and without us for a few weeks, where I thought he did quite well. That’s when he started hiding in his little cubby all the time, poor guy. Then in the apartment. He managed ok except for CoCo wanting to play all the time, jumping on him and trying everything. Once I brought him to this rental house, he’d had it. He didn’t investigate much at all. He’s been living in the closet and slowly getting worse.

Having to say goodbye this morning felt like a huge loss, though I am relieved that he won’t be struggling anymore. I told him to say hello to Sammy for us.

I appreciate my memories of him and all he brought to our family. He was a huge part of me growing up. 16 years is quite a long life for a cat, I realize, and he was a wonderful pet for all of them. I miss him already.

Posted in Writing | Tagged goodbyes, pets | 4 Comments

Playing ping pong with myself – the opposite of living deliberately

Posted on January 27, 2018 by Naomi

The other night, I fell asleep reading before I could eat my “usual” chocolate bar. It’s become a habit I am extremely ashamed of – this stack of Dove bars that sits in my night stand waiting for me. Then there are the bags of caramel corn “light” popcorn, which would be fine if I ate the recommended serving size, which is about 1/7 of the bag. But I eat the whole bag. Sigh.

Once the weight started coming on, I started having to physically slow down. My knees were the first to begin aching. Then I noticed that going up and down stairs was problematic. At the point I am now, I’m having trouble with everything. I feel such a sluggish heaviness that doing most anything feels like triple the effort. Even my hands are pudgy.

I hate it.

I hate it I hate it I hate it! And I’m hating myself for my weakness.

So I’ve had it. This is not how I want to feel. I am stopping right now. I just had a cup of coffee and dunked in about 10 pieced of mandelbread. What is wrong with me???

I have a feeling it’s stress and a sense of mental overwhelm. So I have just sat down with myself and made a list of priorities and things I need to change. The fact that I’ve been flying by the seat of my pants for a few months is part of it. It’s time to stop responding to whatever pops up and start living deliberately.

I know it’s understandable that this happened. I have so many things going on at once in my daily life, so much change, and I have not made time to connect with myself or with Mr. B. I go from one cluttered, messy room to the next in this new house, trying to put a few things away as I’m rushing to get ready for the plumber/furniture delivery/repair person or dash to school to volunteer or head to IKEA or turn in cookie permission slips. I am doing so much that I can’t even see myself in the rear view mirror. I feel like a ping pong ball that is just flying from one place to another, getting whiplash and then falling in to bed exhausted (but usually not too exhausted to stuff myself with empty calories). And every place I look in the house, in my calendar, in my email, on Facebook, there are reminders of other things still needing to be done.

So let’s start anew. Right now. No more yo yo dieting – lose 22 pounds, gain 15. I plan to give myself some reflection time each day, probably first thing in the morning after school drop off, and preferably in combination with taking a walk. I need to go back to doing a max of 3 tasks each day, not 30, interspersed with craft/book/fun time. I need to drink a lot more water. And mainly, I need to stop snacking.

I have a few main categories of things I want to get in order, and of course it just so happens that the next week has 2 major volunteer commitments, so I won’t be able to spend much time on it. Maybe that’s good. I always have such high expectations for myself. It is good to begin by easing into it, thought that’s not my usual M.O.

(Oh, that reminds me, my sweet boy Mo is slowly dying and I tear up just writing that! I have been to the vet about once a week now for a month.) Yes, it’s been quite an emotional load, right? Just where is the line between having compassion for oneself and feeling self-pity?

My papers are in unorganized piles, I have not yet unpacked/found my short-sleeved shirts, girl scout cookie tablecloth and money box, my file folders, the top to the blender, my broiler pan, and I now have no tupperware, dressy shoes, or winter gloves. My car is a dusty mess, the are crumbs on the floor despite vacuuming every day, and SG is watching too much YouTube. I seem to be always running out the door, late to wherever I’m supposed to be.

All our account passwords and usernames are in a jumble in my head, I need to finish the contents loss spreadsheet for our house so I can turn in our tax paperwork, our home is getting torn down next week and I don’t know how that will feel, and I can’t believe people expect I’m ready to sign up for summer camps yet.

Every new thing feels like a weight so heavy that I want to cry. I just can’t get ahead of it.

Deep breath. Let’s start anew…

Posted in Home, Mindfulness, Motherhood, Self-compassion | 6 Comments

Opposing perspectives – sometimes the glass is half empty

Posted on January 22, 2018 by Naomi

There’s definitely two ways to look at things and I usually choose the positive viewpoint. Yesterday, however, I was just not feelin’ it. I wasn’t feeling 100% physically and I desperately needed some me time. Being tired and irritated is the first sign that I need rest, so I tried to give that to myself. And yes, today I’m back to normal again. I know the world does not revolve around me and I’m able to feel gratitude for the many gifts I have in life.

Gemini are the twins, right? So here are my opposing faces.

The negative:

Everywhere I glance in this new house, there are lots of things out of place. I can’t find all my clothes. The living room’s perimeter is lined with books and bowls and pictures waiting for a shelf unit that’s been ordered. The windows are dirty, waiting for me to stop by our house garage and bring over the hose.

The office is a conglomeration of half-unpacked boxes and piles of projects… book fair posters and fliers and food truck menus, bank loan forms and disclosures and required documents, new house contracts and torn magazine pages and lists. The IKEA book case that I ordered never arrived and there are piles of stationary, computer cords, files, camera equipment, and office supplies piling up along the walls. There’s no system for bills or incoming mail just yet because I can’t see the surface of my desk. I hate that. I would use the dining room table but that’s full of SG’s school work, a box of electronic parts, pictures, placemats, dining room “stuff,” and family scrapbooks waiting to be looked through and put away.

Should I take that enormous cardboard box in front of the laundry room to the garage recycling pile or keep stepping over it 5 times a day? Usually my hands are full and it stays exactly where it is. Where did I put the scissors? And the measuring tape? Why am I the only one unpacking around here??? It’s a real wonder I haven’t fallen down the stairs yet.

The laundry is halfway done and that itself is a process. Gathering all our clothes from various parts of the house and getting them all the way to the laundry room is practically an agenda item. I don’t like these machines the house came with. The drier is possessed… when it’s on, we have to either close the door or run for our lives… it’s very loud and sounds like it’s walking toward us, coming for us whether we’re ready or not. I try to turn it on when I’m leaving the house so I don’t have to hear it. Also, as many times as I’ve told (and showed) SG how to please stop giving me every single item inside out, so far it continues. I guess I’m going to start giving them back to her that way.

This place was built by giants. The ceilings and doors in this place are 12 or 14′. The other day, a smoke alarm started beeping to ask for a new battery. I was so proud of myself that remembered on moving day to grab our ladder from our old house, so I got it from the garage, climbed up it, and still couldn’t reach the ceiling! And all the tops of the doors are far too high to hang any hooks or my usual items from them. If I put my over-the-door jewelry mirror thing up, I wouldn’t be able to reach anything but the very bottom items. Who can do this???

Just walking through the house, I see a box with our new kitchen table base in it (since ours came out of storage growing things from the storm water disgustingness!) and another box with new chairs for it. I see special-order cat food because Mo has pancreatitis and arthritis. There’s a piece of furniture to be built, another shelf unit to put together, boxes to put in the attic, lots of things to still unpack, and what are all these cords for?

I keep forgetting to take “before” pictures until I’m halfway done!

It was bothering me that my craft stuff was going to be the last to be unpacked, so I broke away from the norm and started opening those boxes. I got overwhelmed. I have no furniture to put it all and it’s a lot of stuff. Working on that, folks. But I feel proud of myself for starting to put that toward the top of the list.

I’m about to put in our Girl Scout troop cookie order and this year it has stumped me. Usually I don’t make it through the webinars they offer to explain how to enter what number and where because it’s all fairly obvious, but this year I watched the whole thing and I still don’t understand. There are a number of reports I can run and each one gives me different numbers. There isn’t one way to find a girl’s complete order since there’s a mobile app, the paper card, direct ship orders via e-card, and all 3 of those give the option to donate boxes of cookies, but some are paid for and some are not yet. Some of those are girl-delivered, meaning I need to order those boxes. Some of those are paid for and some are not yet. Each way of doing the full order comes out with different numbers. Come on Girl Scouts!

That’s all I care to bore you with. On to the positive angle:

Broken by the movers, but the message remains.

I have made so much happen in such a short amount of time, I really need to think about that more often. I’ve been given challenges and been knocked about a little, but I’m still moving forward positively and happily. I’m taking care of my family and still volunteering for the school.

How fortunate are we that we can live in this nice house for a year? We have ample room and there’s nobody keeping track of my unpacking progress with a timeline. We have heat and a/c, water, a new vacuum cleaner, and I’ve been cooking dinner every night. There’s lots of room to spread out and we don’t hear each other’s every breath and get on each other’s nerves. It’s very nice to be in a house again. I feel like all 3 of us plus the kitties have exhaled finally.

It has been fun to dream up a house and to shop for what we want to be inside. It’s not often you get to decide where the walls go and how you envision living there. Mr. B sent me the photo above the other day… does he know me or what??? Anyway, the demo is taking a little longer than we thought to begin because of the “snowmageddon” or whatever they decided to call it. Basically, all the plumbers are busy with broken pipes and have not disconnected the water line yet. Today I heard the best idea: when they finally do tear it down, we are going to celebrate with champagne.

CoCo helping me request cookie booths

Selling cookies this year was difficult for my daughter. She was excited to walk the neighborhood and nobody is living there anymore! We found a few people here and there, but most of our requests were via video or phone. Family bought some and the new e-cards took care of the rest. Ultimately, given the strangeness of the year, our troop did a fantastic job on this initial order and sold more than I thought we would. And I figured out the order system eventually. 🙂

So the book fair is in about 10 days and it’ll be awesome. 13 hours of standing and dealing with people is definitely a little much, but I can do it for one day! Looking through my files from last year, I have no idea how I did so much… author visits, story hours, a coin contest the week prior, special book talks on the morning announcements, evening hours. It was a lot! This year is simple in comparison.

I am going to try to catch up with myself and take things a tad slower. I have been reading a great book and I’m excited to tell you about it. I will do a book report very soon! Thank you for reading.

Posted in Home, Photography | Tagged exhaustion, moving, unpacking | 1 Comment

Here’s the scoop

Posted on January 19, 2018 by Naomi

Oh my goodness, friends. Daily life has been plenty busy lately. It’s been awhile… I think I was last here before the holidays, so here is an update on what’s been filling up my days and my head. I am in need of a big-time break. I wish I could whisk myself off to a hotel for a few days. In the meantime, I’ll keep putting my feet up and massaging my hand muscles.

We are just days away from tearing down our home. Actually, it was supposed to have happened by now, but there have been some crazy weather days here and everything is a little behind. They are disconnecting electric panels and water pipes today and demo day is Monday. More to come about that soon, I’m sure!

Side note: Aside from the 4 extra weeks of summer we had after the storm, we’ve now had these 2 “snow” days and the Astros victory parade day off of school too. It was a little absurd to cancel school just because the temperature dropped into the 20s, but Houston is just not prepared for that. Essentially the entire city shut down since the roads were icy: city buses not running, trash collection cancelled, people working from home. Plus this happened (see photo above).

We all know that I appreciate family time, but I really look forward to weekdays when my own projects can get done on my schedule in peace and quiet. A 3-day weekend was expected, but not a 5-day weekend!

We are finalizing the plans to begin building our new home. I am super excited about it too! I’m going to have a craft room and a small office space off the kitchen. And wait till you see our front porch! Right now what’s happening: we are beginning selections of things like bathtubs and appliances. Also soil-testing, a property assessment for the construction loan, and the plans are in the hands of a structural engineer, who will also deal with floodplain and drainage issues.

We have moved from the apartment and into a rental home. It was a hectic December as I packed up the apartment while scheduling all of the house utility disconnections, arranging for movers, and doing what I could in advance for the new house. We had some rugs and furniture deliveries that went to the old house’s garage temporarily.

On the big day, we went from the apartment (completely forgetting to empty our storage closet there) to the old house to collect a few boxes and those rugs, and finally to the rental house. Our storage unit was delivered to the new house too so we were able to see what we had hurriedly packed up in August. I paid for 4 people to come the following day just to empty most of the boxes, collapse them, and put them in our attic storage. Wise investment! Now we have been living in the rental house for about 2 weeks. There is still plenty of stuff to arrange and put away, but at least I’m looking at only a few boxes. And I am slowly making it our home. We’ll be here for at least a year.

We went on a fun Eastern Caribbean cruise. Not the best timing really, as we moved the day after we returned from the cruise, but we’d made reservations long ago and it was too late to cancel. We went to St. Kitts/Nevis, St. Maartin, San Juan, and Labadee, Haiti. We brought home stunning shells we collected, mostly in St. Maartin.

We are in Girl Scout cookie season. Please let me know if you want to order any! Going door-to-door has been difficult this year since our neighborhood is fairly empty. Even our rental house neighborhood is under construction.

This is more of a “before” photo because I’m working on unpacking the office right now, but it does have my book fair planning stuff on it! The school book fair is coming up. This year it’s a one-day event because of lack of space. We are in a temporary location this year and it’s a tight squeeze. I’ve had no trouble asking for help with xeroxing and other small jobs and I know the event going to be great. It’s really a good feeling to be able to do something for our school community. The students really look forward to this every year so I’m glad they get a little piece of it… that’s something normal for us!

I have been assembling furniture more than before! Some instructions are simple and some make no sense. Mr. B and I put together an IKEA sectional and that was a little much. I don’t really know what will fit in our new house, so we haven’t spent a lot of money on things for the rental house. That’s probably part of the assembly frustrations. These are not quality goods!

I guess it seems frivolous to even say this, but we really have a lot of clutter! This morning I gave myself 20 minutes to collect as many items to donate as I could. I ended up with 3 giant boxes of 3-year-old games, books, toys, notebooks, closet hanging organizers, clothes, stuffed animals, etc. and 2 giant bags of trash. I got those outside just as the trash truck came down the street and felt pretty fantastic about myself! I will be going through it all in the coming days. It really makes moving harder being weighed down with so much. The kitchen was fairly simple to unpack and put away this time because we’d lost so much. Rather than a whole cabinet of tupperware, it was 2 items. The closets and SG’s playroom… not so much.

I’ve been taking “before” photos so I can show you what I’ve been up to here. Here’s one corner I tackled already:

More transformations to come, along with book reviews, cruise photos, and house updates. I hope everyone is well out there!

Posted in Home | 2 Comments

Wide Open: a photography exploration

Posted on December 27, 2017 by Naomi

I just found this post in my “drafts” folder. It’s from 2.5 years ago, but I figured it doesn’t hurt to post it now. I actually just pulled out my new camera and the handbook I bought about it so I can start using it. This post really gets to the root of why I love taking photos.

* * * * *

So I rejoined Instagram. (Let’s be friends!)

I heard of Henry Lohmeyer first as the Camera Men half (with Shutter Sisters) of Our Collective. Then someone on Instagram mentioned that he was about to lead a short photography exploration.

He was offering a 10-day class called Wide Open: photography and vulnerability, and I signed up right there.

From Henry: “Each photo that I take is about what I’m processing, what I’m feeling, what I’m being. If you can concede to this notion and completely believe that each photo you take is about your own personal journey, what’s in you, then anything you see becomes a photo worth taking, a feeling worth expressing.”

Through photography and the photos I take—that quiet place that allows me needed pause in connection – I’ve had time to heal and to know that there’s not a moment in my life when embracing my frailties and all the thoughts that linger in those deep recesses do not bring me closer to whole. Through the vulnerability I’ve learned the ability to love the imperfections in all I see and most of all, in my own self.