Half Birthday - Full Chocolate

Friday was Sophia's half birthday. We don't normally celebrate those kinds of things, but pretty sure everyone could use an excuse to make cake right now.

We made my grandma's chocolate cake recipe. It was delicious. Since it was a half birthday, we layered the two round pans into four half layers. It was momentarily beautiful. As soon as we cut into it, the cake fell apart. But that did not affect its texture or taste or ability to lift us up. Really good cake is what I'm saying.

No half birthday letter, but let's just say that we are looking for the next reason to celebrate!

A poem I wrote

Hi there! This is Sophia. I haven't posted in so long!! Sorry about that. I am writing this now because I wrote a poem yesterday about my feelings towards everything that is happening in our world right now. I am not going to say anything else about my interpretation, because I don't want it to influence its effect on you as you read it. My poem doesn't have a title yet, but here it is.

My emotions
Fragile as a house of cards
One mistake
One deep breath
There it goes

My emotions
Hard as steel
Unchanging
Callous

My fragile
Callous emotions
Pulling slowly
On loose threads
Unravel my world
Unwelcome change
Unwanted destruction

My emotions
Ever-changing
Ever remaining the same

A Tree Finding Light

Proud of this girl

In case anyone missed the memo, middle school is not an easy place to spend all of one's time. There are challenges from start to finish each day. Being thirteen is not the simplest age to be either. Sometimes I say that these middle schoolers are trying to start discovering who they are. The truth is probably closer to - they just started realizing that they have no clue who they are. That's a lot harder than the other one, I think.

Anyway, I'm just really proud of Sophia. She works hard in school. She pays attention to her friends. She puts up with Erick and me and actually likes us most of the time. She loves adventure, though she loves predictability, too. She is not just one thing. She's many things, and I like them all.

It just felt like a day that I should mark the time. Things change so quickly. Young people are facing a lot of obstacles from outside and pressure from inside. At least, Sophia usually has that inner pressure going on. And she hangs on with maturity and grace more often than expected. I know this may not always be the case, and I won't be any less proud of her then.

Today, I'm feeling proud and amazed by this person in our house. So grateful to get to watch and occasionally participate in the development of one remarkable human person.
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2020

It is almost impossible to believe that we are only a week into 2020. It has gotten off to a running start for us.

I wanted to slow down just a minute and share how we brought in this shiny new decade.

Sophia had a full two weeks off for winter break, so it felt right that we should go somewhere, at least for a few days. Since we didn't feel like the full drive to New Orleans, we compromised on Memphis. Erick and I have been there a couple of times in the year or two leading up to parenthood, but we haven't been back since.

We were so pleasantly surprised by all the fun things for us to do. We knew there would be lots of great food.

Since it was New Year's Eve, we weren't sure how much time we would get to spend on Beale Street, but we had a great time visiting BB King's Blues Joint for lunch. The food was delicious! And the music was very enjoyable.

Since the weather was tolerable, we spent quite a bit of time wandering around as well. This was further down Beale Street. That whole area was a little smaller than we remembered, but the rest of Memphis had a lot more to offer than we realized.

New Year's Eve itself was pretty low key for us. The Hotel Indigo had their pool open. Shockingly, even Sophia agreed that it was too cold for a dip. We did play corn hole on the pool deck in the time just after the ball dropped in NYC.

Sophia and Leo both enjoyed the city. They just like being together, really.

One thing that we were all excited to find was the dog park on Mud Island. Open to visitors. Leo was, as you can see, quite thrilled with that development.

It was a great finish to one year, and a wonderful start for a new decade. Like I said, we've all been running a little like Leo there since we got home, but hopefully things will calm down in the near future. I look forward to seeing what this year holds. 

Holiday Spirit

We had a lot of fun last weekend with some animals on the patio of Rockwell Brewing. There is no better way to get into the spirit of everything holiday than hanging out with animals who are all dressed up for the season.

This little alpaca was super soft and a little wacky. Sophia had so much fun with the other kids walking them around. It was very fun to watch.

The sunshine was just lovely and felt amazing. I'm so happy that I get to have adventures - big and little - with these two lovely people.

Celebrating and Picture Taking!

Yesterday, the three of us (and Leo) drove to Columbia to celebrate Mary's retirement from Tolton and education in general. It was a special day, mostly spent just relaxing and enjoying each other's company. We didn't do a whole lot because Sophia was not feeling her best.

Once we headed out to Rocheport, though, to celebrate in earnest, Sophia popped back. We had fun looking in the little shops and antique stores. Sophia got started on a button collection, and Erick and I got some lovely holiday glassware. We just need to find the right holiday concoction to put in them because eggnog is not our thing.

Finally, we ate at Abigail's. Somehow, in all our years living in Columbia, we never managed to eat there, and I am so disappointed about that now. My goodness, but that was delicious. And special. Just very, very cool.

 It was a perfect way to celebrate and to enjoy the evening together.

Sophia is covering her ear because I kissed her loudly in it - not because my laugh is too loud. I'm pretty sure, anyway.

I just love this restaurant. I want all my pictures to be taken here with the lights and the room in the background. I love it.

And Sophia is beautiful while she's telling me how weird I am. But she loves it. I'm pretty sure.