Why 6? Cause it’d be disingenuous to give more than 10% the top spot. This year I tried to read in 4 categories: fiction light, fiction heavy, non-fiction light, non-fiction heavy. What made each category was a bit subjective, and sometimes I’d move an item to a different category mid-book as I found it to… Continue reading Ben’s top 6 books of 2017
Squeezing in time for fun and friends
We were blessed to have some wonderful neighbors during our time in Dallas (that we knew already from our previous time at school) and Mira and their girls played together almost everyday, while the mommas did their best to keep each other sane. 😉 Before we left we wanted to be sure they had a… Continue reading Squeezing in time for fun and friends
Thanksgiving with Family
Loved the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving with family again this year. It was great—full of food and laughter and lots of lounging around chatting—but definitely too short! Already looking forward to the next time we have the opportunity.
Art and Worship and the world of Iconography
I spent 8 weeks this fall taking a graduate course in World Arts. It was intense, and somewhat poorly timed (yay first trimester…), but I thoroughly enjoyed the chance to do some first hand research on Eastern Orthodox iconography. It was fascinating to dig into a topic I’ve been surrounded by for the past three… Continue reading Art and Worship and the world of Iconography
Joys of parenting
Went to a restaurant with friends on a day Mira got up two hours early and only took half her nap (one hour total). She fell asleep on the way home so we tried to just get her in an overnight diaper & put her down. A few minutes later she’s crying and calling, asking… Continue reading Joys of parenting
Showering
I was showering the other day and noticed on the shampoo bottle the encouragement to turn off the water while soaping. I got to thinking about how ridiculous this was. Even in America, your hot water heater may not always get you the water exactly as you want it, and many showers have a separate… Continue reading Showering
All shoe sizes huh?
I wear size 14.
The Silk Roads
The Silk Roads is an entirely fascinating book. It’s extremely readable and covers a huge amount of time (a few hundred B.C. to today) from the perspective of the region of the world between the Mediterranean and the Pacific (mostly focused in Iran and the -stans). Fun and eye-opening, it makes me far more interested… Continue reading The Silk Roads
Go West!
Our work mostly takes us to the east side of the country (and beyond) so we haven’t spent much time exploring to the west (though we have been to one spot in the mountains out that direction.) We took a quick vacation a few weeks ago to relax and explore a place we’ve wanted to… Continue reading Go West!
Kisses
Today I ran out to take out the trash and, after getting my shoes out for me, Mira stopped me before I could leave & patted her check. Apparently I had to give her a kiss… and then I tried to leave again & she said “ut-oh” and pointed to Shanna. ?
Life Lately (or Exploring with Mira)
Happy new year!
And Mira slept right through the war zone we call new year’s here again. Huzzah for year round firework sleep training. 🙂 Also watching from the top floor of our building was lots of fun, only had to run inside ten mins after midnight to avoid explosions. 😀
Snow is ok when you’re just visiting…
Since Ahma was here to visit, we decided to head off to the mountains for a few days between Christmas and New Year’s. (Partly so us parents could get in some skiing while we had a willing babysitter!) It was a wonderful trip… in which we all got terribly sick in the hotel room, and… Continue reading Snow is ok when you’re just visiting…
White Thanksgiving
Actually no snow stuck but it’s not getting above freezing today and we got some flakes. Oh yeah, we’re celebrating today, I guess it’s not really a white Thanksgiving.
Night sky
The Caucasus are darkish.