Sick Day

Maybe you’re like me.

Maybe you woke up on a deliciously cool Saturday morning after a pretty-stressful-but-God-is-good couple of weeks, and maybe you couldn’t swallow and your throat felt like Grim Death. No warning, no symptom build-up. Just blamo. Grim Death.

Not the other kinds of Death. GRIM Death.

The thing is, if you are like me…then maybe you sent your husband off on a day of Bible studies and grocery shopping alone so that you could guzzle apple cider vinegar and lemon honey water and these beauties (which you love so much that they were actually part of your birthday present this year) while browsing Korean television stations (nothing is on).

And maybe you got a little hungry and remembered the rolled oats you just got in your iHerb order.  And decided to make some oatmeal.

But let’s say just hypothetically that you had some other things in your postage stamp kitchen: things like half a can of coconut milk, a bag of chia seeds, a giant container of cinnamon, a crustily particulated bag of dark brown sugar. Things like that.

So maybe you whip all these things together. Boiling the oats in half-water-half-coconut milk. Scooping out a heaping tablespoon of chia seeds…and one of brown sugar. Stirring violently. Dusting with cinnamon. Drizzling with the LEAST little bit of honey because it was there, and you can’t leave well enough alone.

But then…this is where you are not like me. Because you beautiful sensible people would have stopped right there, or several steps before. But maybe you didn’t.

Because maybe you remembered the ice cube tray of Dutch cold brewed coffee concentrate in your freezer.

And maybe you added a cube of it to your sticky sweet grainy oatmeal.

AND MAYBE IT WAS AMAZING.

I am not a well woman.

Or maybe you’re not like me. At all. And maybe I should get more lemon water and watch some Korean TV.

Amen.

The Nanny Diaries

This week I spent two days playing Mary Poppins to the wee ManChild, 3-month wonder belonging to Christi and Trae.  We went to the same university in the States, and they came to Korea a year ago to work at the English Village where I used to work, and we go to church together in Daegu! Christi’s just finished up her maternity leave (yeah, that’s right, in South Korea moms get THREE MONTHS, get with it, America) and her scheduled baby care ran into some probs. As I’m still on my oh-so-luxurious university teaching schedule, I am filling in while they go to work.

(I am not even a little being sarcastic about that luxurious schedule. I get a full summer vacation. I am well aware that this is the best/easiest job I will ever have. I wish I could take this job with me to San Francisco next year.)

Wee Judah and I spent Wednesday hanging in the dormitories at the English Village. Oh, the English Village. Working there, like so many overseas jobs, was an exercise in adjusting to constant drastic changes. Not an aspect of the job I miss.  A bit weird to be back, but having the Lil Man there (and not having to work!) made it way better. We stayed in the air-conditioned dorms on our eat, play, sleep schedule.

Eat, Play, Sleep: the book I would a thousand times rather read than Eat, Pray, Love.

Bonus: the sweet cafeteria lady remembered me! And that just about made my day. Although she did think that I was there with MY baby, which, nope.

Baby Judah has a pretty reliable routine and he’s very observant. Here’s what I learned about him over our 2 days:

Likes:

• Eating
• Scrunching his knees in so his butt’s in the air when he sleeps
• Facing outward
• Being outside
• Doing bicycle legs
• Weird noises made with the tongue in a range of pitches
• Drooling on stuff
• His parents

Dislikes:

• Getting off Schedule
• Going to sleep
• Waking up from sleep
• Accidentally waking up mid-nap and thinking he’s done sleeping
• Finishing a meal
• Facing in (looking over my shoulder whilst being carried)
• When things he tries to drink from aren’t boobs or bottles
• Not his parents

Oh man. This kid. My favorite is when he screws up his little Winston-Churchill doppelganger face and busts out his gummy grin. Laid back, only fusses when he means it, full of energy, loves to be walked outside. If there were ever a perfect match between parents and kids, this lil guy is it. He’s going to have such great adventures with his folks.

Over the past two days we had giggles, sobs, snuggles, tiny hilarious sneezes, no major poop incidents, and twice he farted himself angrily awake. We’re marking this a big win.

LOOK AT THAT BABAY. Hashtag thigh rolls.

Judah, thanks for an awesome two days!

Posts from the past

Just a lil note to mention that over the next few months (maybe! no promises! I have commitment problems!) you’ll see posts written this past summer, mostly in July, whilst we were Thinking and Planning about the Blog rather than actually, you know, Blogging.

That was a beast of a sentence and it could have been worse.

SO if/when you see something posted with a weird old timey date on it, fear not. No time traveling was involved. Just delayed posts that were pressing or important enough for me to write, but not ready to post on the Interwebz for all to see.

And a quick Life Update: I’m about to head out the door to spend the next two days nannying for our sweet friends and their Lil Manchild. I’ll be posting on those adventures in the days to come!

Let’s do this

Here we are blogging! In a shiny new space.

Greetings, internet strangers and non-strangers alike. First posts are always weird so we’ll keep this short. Check out the About page to get to know us (Colleen and Nate). Just a few points to note:

• Colleen is the one writing. Hi. Daily life update-y communiques are my forte.
• Nate and I are working on another site, which isn’t quite ready yet but which I’ll post about as soon as it’s up and running! We’re very excited about this for so many reasons which I’ll detail in another post, but, essentially, the devotional material Nate has been developing for the past few years will be up and online soon!
• We are just entering our final year living in South Korea. A year from now we’ll be living in or near San Francisco, California! So I will be trying to capture the fun stuff from our final year in Korea and why we’ve loved it so much here for the past few years. Then, you’ll get to come along with the madness that is trusting God with a total uprooting move next year!
• My goal for this blog is to be vulnerable, faithful, and open. This means that I’m going to talk about more than just sarcastic or snarky things, and more than just impassioned rant things. (hello, old blog.) This avenue of communication, like every other aspect of my life, belongs to Christ. And like every other part of life, it’s a work in progress, as I grow and trip and fail and keep going. This point is for me…because I know I’m going to need this reminder. I’m going to need to look back to this point, where I’m very sure that openness is necessary, and showing my faults and errors is part of growing in grace. Because no matter how badly I fail, Jesus is more than a match for my mess.
• Amen. I lied about keeping it short. Amen.