A Short Photo Update

Sadly our iPhoto library is still lost, and I am incapable of thinking through making a new one. When we were getting rid of all our stuff and scanning all our files, having that external hard drive gave me a huge sense of security and grounding. Even though we were saying goodbye to many physical reminders of our lives up to that point, there was evidence of those things in the forms of photos and so on.

It was actually not that hard to lose the hard drive. It was much harder for Eug from a technical standpoint: how could this happen, how could we not have a backup? Perhaps it was not hard for me because the present is so all-consuming. 

He's really cute and fat, I promise. 

But Eli is doing well, Noah is doing relatively well. I alternate between thinking Noah's the most wonderful thing since chocolate and having absolutely no idea how to understand and process his fiery emotions. I was reminded that when I was two, I thought my parents buried our dog alive and nothing could convince me otherwise. Even at fourteen, by which time I could rationally conclude my parents wouldn't bury our dog alive, the memory remained so powerful that I couldn't quite let it go. With that in mind, I try to take Noah's point of view seriously, however outlandish it seems.

Like Noah, Eli came out small-average and is quickly becoming huge from my resorting to breastfeeding pretty much any time I'm not sure what else to do. Breastfeeding covers over almost everything.

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!?

Week in Review

I haven't been blogging as much recently because I've been thinking about thinking about my dissertation, (sleepless nights, two little people, and overly ambitious expectations.). Today, my reward for doing a tiny bit on my dissertation is the pleasure of writing a post while Eli nurses (and Noah is with my mom- thank you mom!) I have twenty minutes before Noah gets back, so sorry for the stream of consciousness and lack of editing:

First, some fun links:
Beet Chocolate Cake I'd be suspicious but my friend Bridget is in love with the stuff (and likely could share a recipe without sugar.) Beets are coming into season at Fruit and Veg City, so I'm going to try it out.
Christian Unschooling, a great blog for those of us who feel like unschooling would be "despite" our faith rather than "because".
No More Harvard Debt, for those of us who have paid off tens of thousands for our degrees. He's at a different point in his life than us (see six figure salary), but what I saw was a surprisingly relatable view of finances.

A shout out to our favorite coffee shop, Expresso Lab in the Old Biscuit Mill for giving us free beans in celebration of Eli's birth, and for always giving Noah the best Babycino in Cape Town. We love this coffee shop, and we'd love for all their coffee to go fully fair trade. Along these lines, Luke, our friend with big coffee dreams is back from his trip to Ethiopia where he was discovering what might be possible linking fair trade coffee and small business entrepreneurs, starting in Ethiopia. I hope to feature more of his story here.

Our photo library is still lost. There's hope, but it's sort of sad so we're struggling to make a new photo library and start over. I know that you stop by to see pictures of Noah and Eli. Poor Eli has lived a thus far undocumented life.

I was thinking more about pregnancy and parenting preferences, but I've run out of time, so I'll rename this post "week in review" and talk more about parenting choices later.