Reflections on Sanity

I haven't known what to write here because my much of my energy seems to be dedicated to sanity. And I'm proud and don't like the idea of you coming here and finding a discussion (with myself) of how to stay sane; you probably have sanity covered pretty well, and if you don't there are better places to find refuge.

I also didn't want to talk about sleep deprivation because it seems a bit obvious when one has a 4-week old (can you believe he is four weeks already!). In fact, we have a newborn who wakes up a bunch of times every night to eat, and a 2 year old who wakes up a bunch of times just 'cos.

So, other than those two topics, what is there? Noah celebrated his second birthday and I made the chocolate beet cake and some raspberry vanilla ice-cream. Photos to come. Gladys is visiting from Nairobi this week, because she's helping run a conference at the ICC entitled "Money, Sex and Power" (what a title- you should see the speaker list)-and I am super excited, as you can tell.

And there's additional grace. We've received grace in our finances, in eating well, and in our first purchase of real, new, furniture. I have been struggling not to have somewhere to sit with Noah and Eli so we went and ordered a couch, which should arrive around the same time Eug finishes painting the living room (as with much of our house, the project grew). We'd initially hoped to make the sofa, but we realized that our sanity was more valuable: It was less my most frugal moment and more a moment of feeling of great abundance that we could afford to do something to stay sane. It was also a moment where I saw where money can buy happiness.

I hope to post photos in the next few months, but take a short break from posting other kinds of things until my dissertation proposal (attempt #2) is in good shape. It may be that I have to post, because I'm too excited about this or that attempt at growing stuff and so on. But at least in theory, I'll focus on Eug, Noah, Eli, our house, cooking, and the dissertation for the next month or so. See how focused I am!?