anatomy of a perfect valentine's day

we had a fabulous valentine's day for two important reasons.

one. valentine's day marked the end of our most recent sugar fast. which sounded too depressing so we called it a sugar-free adventure. but it was actually still sort of depressing either way. the end was welcome. we marked it with a whole batch of great-grandma's ginger snaps.

two. AWD has become a master of surprise, and whisked me away for a valentine's day weekend getaway. we ensconced ourselves at the black horse inn, a charming civil war-era building turned into a bed and breakfast in the heart of virginia farm and horse country. we had breakfast made for us every morning, and our room had a jacuzzi and a fireplace.

i'll leave it at that.

we explored the little town of warrenton (old houses and the old jail museum, plus loads of delicious food), and spent a day at the dulles extension of the air and space museum learning all about the discovery space shuttle and other wonders.

the only bad thing was that it ended.

anatomy of a perfect weekend

start with chinese takeout on a rainy friday night. crab meat wontons are a must.

watch we are marshall, which you thought would be lame, but which is actually pretty good. warning: it will make you miss coach taylor and the dillon panthers really bad.

on a rainy saturday morning, sleep in. eat breakfast in bed. take a nap. listen to car talk. eat lunch in bed. take another nap.

clean the house (way more fun with two of you!), hit the grocery store (way more fun with two of you!) and then head to the movies. sadly, not even bruce willis can save a good day to die hard.

on a sunny sunday, have lunch with friends, bake a big cake and watch the oscars.

the only bad thing about this weekend was that it ended.

from the heart of my bottom

one thing i loved about japan was that any western thing japanese people tried to do was always a little bit, well, off. like signs on people's doors that said "sweet home sweet" and signs in shop windows that said things like, "thank you our customers, from the heart of our bottom."

so this valentine's day equivalent ritual of men screaming things they love about their wives from a stage in a parking lot is, well, perfect.

read the article here.

and watch the whole spectacle below. even if you can't understand what they're saying, it's pretty awesome.




the universal favorite seems to be: i'm sorry i've gained so much weight over the last seven years, but that's because the meals you cook are so delicious.

i can see that line being shouted in my not-so-distant future, too.

we can cry about it, or we can dance about it

there have been a lot of gray and rainy days around here lately. my routine on gray and rainy days is to get up, go to work, come home, get in bed with all my clothes on and wait for AWD to come home. and when he gets home i say, i hope you want to make your own dinner or go out, 'cause i got nothin'. or some variation on that general theme.

but today, the sun was shining and it was warm and pretty much nothing could shake the good mood i was in. aren't those days so wonderful? and they probably wouldn't be as wonderful without the gray and rainy, so i guess i'll say i am grateful for those days, too.

which is good news because the pernicious "wintery mix" is in the forecast for tomorrow.

also, if you are looking for something besides sunshine to put you in an intractably good mood, i also recommend this pep talk from kid president. it was all over facebook a week or so ago so you've probably already seen it. but, if not, enjoy! (and if so, enjoy!)

welcome back

let's just say january was nothing to write home about.

it was cold. we were sick. we watched the inauguration on tv. we watched downton abbey online. we gave up sugar (again). and we spent every saturday house hunting with our realtor, until what can only be described as a psychotic break(down) (mine) led us to conclude that a break from that particular project might be in order. i tell you what, nothing will make you feel more broke and hopeless than searching for a house in northern virginia. but now we sleep in on saturdays, so i am much happier camper.

and february has been off to a pretty good start. i won $500 in a drawing at work. we are still watching downton abbey. the end of our sugar-free adventure is in sight. and so is valentine's day, which AWD always does up in romantic style. plus, the days are already getting longer and sometimes it's light when i leave the office. what joy!

so, i think it's safe to say i'm back. and glad about it.

year in preview

i used to think of goals as a finite thing. you make one or maybe two. you work on them. you accomplish them once and for all. you move on to a few more. an open and shut case, if you will.

i now see goals as a much more fluid thing. i feel like i am making, and remaking, them all the time. as long as you (i) don't get overwhelmed, i like this sense of perpetual motion and improvement. and i like making goals that address the things that are most on my mind at that moment.

so, i've made some new years resolutions of sorts, but they're really more like the goals i want to focus on for now. i might stick with them for a while, or they might fill their purpose quickly and then i'll move on. we'll see.

one longer-term thing i did for the year was pick a theme. i've never really done that before, but i decided to give it a try. so, my personal theme for 2013 is "more holiness give me." my really major goals all deal with taking my spiritual life to the next level: regular prayer and scripture study (not just reading), fasting with a purpose, service and temple attendance. i know i could get more out of my relationship with deity, that i can commune more deeply. and i know that will make the rest of my life better, too. (not that it's bad, naturally, but better is always a good thing, right?)

and that's where i'd like to focus most of my energy. but, i have some other goals, too. more exercise and less sugar. more family dinners. more letter-writing. more sewing. more patience and thoughtfulness.

i don't want to say 2013 is going to be the best year yet, because that seems like an impossible thing to know and i don't want to hurt all the other years' feelings. every year should be the best yet, don't you think? so instead i'll say, 2013 is going to be an imperfect and wonderful year. and i'm pretty pleased with the start i've made.

a year in review

as i have reflected on 2012 over the past few days and weeks, i've been trying hard not to let the couple of completely terrible things that happened define the whole year. because, though some of the worst things that have ever happened to me happened to me this year, on the whole it was actually pretty great.

the highlight was, of course, my first wedding anniversary. if you hate mushy love stuff, i recommend you skip ahead, as i'd like to take a moment to say how incredibly thankful i am to be married to AWD. when i think about the people i thought i might like to marry, before AWD came along that is, i am astounded by my own naivete and short-sightedness. this is not to say that every day is a rosy cakewalk-- this is life we are talking about after all-- but being married to AWD has made me feel safe and empowered in a way i never imagined. i just didn't know there was a person who could make me feel so comfortable and unashamed to be no one but myself, and now i can't even imagine what my life would have been like if i'd ended up with anyone else. i am so grateful that a loving heavenly father blesses us with what we want, paired with what we need.

other highlights from the year include:

a trip south with d

a little movie magic 
some (work-related) love from the white house
good friends. old friends. ice cream.

warrior games!
good eats and good cousins in austin

new york with the mama bear

family reunion (and cotton candy)

china! china! china! china! china!
four more years
playoff baseball (even for losers)

some (christmas-related) love from the white house

the killers (even AWD liked it!)  

and, maybe the biggest highlight of all: perspective. to have learned this lesson, that good things and rich blessings are just as inevitable as bad things and hard trials, and to know that even the worst things i can imagine are things i can endure, and then endure well, just that alone would have made 2012 a pretty great year.