In another life, I must have been a rock and the boys in my family must have been rivers, or waterfalls or oceans. I know this because as much as they all love to move and adventure, I like to sit still and be at peace. While my husband and seven-year-olds wouldn’t be able to breathe if they couldn’t ski, hike, throw rocks, bike and race down sledding hills, I could happily curl up for days with endless cups of coffee, a stack of books and lose myself in a world of words especially on a weary Monday.
I”m not really an adventurer, but I love my adventurers and I don’t want to be left behind.
So in this 2nd week of 2016, I’m finding a lot of joy in figuring out HOW to hang out with my daring family. The cabin project has been a huge part of it. Through this attempt at making the outdoors a bigger part of our lives, I wanted to make a safe place for me to join in my guys’ exploration; a place where they can navigate the woods and get out all their energy, but a place where I can find comfort and solace and warmth.
And thought we all love different things about this place, I love how we’ve worked together so far.
Seven-year-olds are far more helpful with furniture shopping than I expected.
And we found out that the new candy aisle at Ikea has pretty amazing candies.
(Except this octopus-shaped one reminded us of some salty licorice we tried in Iceland. We prefer our candy a little more sweet than salty so I dare you to try this octopus-shaped candy if you go there!)
I love the Ikea bamboo drawer inserts. (They inspire so much JOY even though I’m not sure storage is a philosophy encouraged by the book I’m reading about cleaning. I bought this book last year and piled it away in a bunch of stuff and only salvaged it to give to a friend when my husband spotted it and said “YOU BETTER READ THIS” so I had to get her another copy…..it’s not a horrible book if you need to life-change your way to a cleaner place in 2016) I was thankful that Carmex sent me a whole bunch of lip balms because lips get all dry in the outdoors and so I put some extras in our utility drawer at the cabin just in case guests come and need some too.
The hubby and I have also had so many adventures looking for household goods that we need. One of our favorite ways we’ve found decorating ideas is from restaurants and date-nights. We found a sink we wanted for one of the bathrooms from an event we went to at a space called Axis in Pioneer Square and we found this fox tail hook I couldn’t live without when I made him duck into Anthropologie on the way to a restaurant.
I’m finding our family is having so much fun in the outdoors-even though some of the things they do terrify me and my outdoor doses need to be a little shorter than theirs.
And I’m trying to incorporate a little more fitness into my 2016 so I can keep up with all the guys. I have been doing Classpass for the past year and I love that they sent a breakdown of all the minutes I spent in the gym last year. I love Core Power Yoga and that was my top class. I would really like to try Fly Wheel this year too. (If you’re in Seattle, do you do Classpass and have you tried Flywheel? I’d love to hear if you have a favorite class!)
We’re also buying way more winter and outdoor clothing than we’ve ever bought before. One surprising find were these base-layer tights from Old Navy. They are better quality than some we’ve bought from actual outdoor stores and I was pretty impressed at the price.
So this Monday, I need to finish my cleaning book, sift my way through a pile of laundry and decide whether or not I’m going to be a Powerball winner in the next couple days. I hope whatever you’re doing you’re having a lovely Monday too! (And if you did anything fabulous this past weekend or if you are taking a great Seattle exercise class I’d love to hear too!)
(PS. Carmex sent me a package of lip balms and beauty goods buy I was not required to post and these ideas above are my own.)
(PPS. I usually post about the things I’ve been shopping or trying out on Mondays.)
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)
That snow looks like so much fun! Great memories! 🙂