Life Lately

Years ago I used to do regular "life lately" blog posts.  Just little posts sharing some little things I'm currently thinking/doing/into/etc.  I've been taking more random photos lately, so instead of sharing them with no words, I thought I'd start doing "life lately" posts again.

Watching: This Is Us. After finishing Parenthood, I was on the lookout for a feel-good family tv show, and This Is Us delivered.  Also, it's great if you need the occasional cry.  Jack, the father in the show, reminds me a lot of Dan, so it gets extra emotional at times.  It's wonderful to see Mandy Moore again, too.  I won't lie, I loved A Walk to Remember.  I'm a little envious of her gorgeous hair in the show, too.  If you want a show with happy feels, I recommend.

Reading: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd + Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.  I just finished the former and it was a wonderful book.  It was recommended my many and definitely lived up to the praise it received.  
I got three Jonathan Safran Foer books, Eating Animals being one of them.  Since I finished my last novel, I'll probably pick up one of the novels I have of his and read it at the same time.  I watched the Everything is Illuminated movie many years ago in college so perhaps I'll read that one first.  But anyway, back to Eating Animals.  I've wanted to, for some time, change my lifestyle to a non-animal-eating diet.  It's always difficult, despite believing 100% that it's ethically and morally right, healthy for my body, and ecologically sustainable.  And since there are practically no places up here in Anchorage to access more sustainably produced animal protein, as opposed to in Washington state, eating animals has been even more problematic.  Jonathan Safran Foer's impetus for writing his book, Eating Animals, was the birth of his son and the responsibility that comes with parenthood, which is a place that Dan and I are in as well.  Dan came home from the grocery store the other day and announced that he'd like to eat a vegetarian diet, and I immediately grabbed Eating Animals off the shelf and started delving in.  
While my book reading resolution was focused on fiction, I'm looking forward to getting further into Eating Animals, and reading some of his fiction work simultaneously.

Thinking About: Getting back in shape.  While I'm certainly the flabbiest, and heaviest, I've ever been (not counting that time I had another person inside me), I mostly just miss feeling strong.  I feel very weak and out of shape.  My body feels like my muscles are atrophied and I really want to get back to some semblance of fitness.  My dream would be to join a Crossfit gym as I've wanted to do Crossfit for years, but $175/month for a membership to the local gym is just out of our budget right now.  I love going to a gym so I might join the Planet Fitness gym that is literally across the street from us, which would make it easy to get out of the house for an hour while Jack is watched by Dan or my parents.  I still have my Kayla Itsines workout PDF so I might try to work through that for now.  

Wanting to: Take more candid life photos.  Now that Jack is a part of our family, documenting little daily moments feels more important.  I've been trying to keep my big DSLR around to capture little moments with Jack.  I've been posting them here, but ultimately I'd like to cull them down to create an annual photo album.  I always adored flipping through my old family albums, seeing my parents when they were young, and remembering fun times from my childhood.  I've been very bad at printing photos, mostly because I was pouring so many images into my blog.  But I feel like it's important to capture the little moments, especially right now when Jack's development is blazing so fast and he's growing bigger every single day.

Missing: My family.  Mom and Dad, who live next door to us, have been gone since, basically, mid-January.  First, they were down in Portland getting my brother settled back into his home after he went to the hospital and was dealing with some medical problems. Then they came back, but we almost immediately left for Tacoma for a week.  Then they left for Hawaii the day before we came back from Tacoma.  They'll be gone for another week at least, though my brother is back in the hospital in Portland again, so they could cut their Hawaii trip short and head back to Portland to be with my brother.  It's hard being far away from family, especially when there are medical problems happening.  I'm used to being able to go to the hospital and us all being together to support each other.  Thankfully my other brother lives in Portland, and we have lifelong family friends who are basically family who are also in Portland, so he's not alone.  In the meantime, it's awfully lonely up here with no family around.

Two Months

This weekend has been so wonderful.  I always like the weekends because, even though I'm at home all day, erryday, having Dan home all day with us feels like such a treat.  Mister Jack turned 2 months old this weekend and it's so crazy to see how much bigger he is, and how expressive he is compared with just a few weeks ago.

I've had a renewed interest in capturing candid life with my "big" camera.  I think since I got a 35mm lens, capturing lifestyle stuff has been more enjoyable.  It's definitely a lifestyle/candid-friendly lens and I love taking pictures with it.  I feel like I'm out of the survival-mode period of new-mom-ness, so feeling like I have time and energy to be creative is really nice.

The boys are back in town

Well, the boys and me.  This past week we flew down to Tacoma, where I was shooting a good friend's wedding.  Jack went on his first plane trip (and the nice Alaska Airlines flight attendant gave him his wings!), met his great grandma, and was introduced to all our friends in Tacoma.  It was so wonderful to be back in a city where we feel so loved.  

We are at a crossroads thinking about where we will find ourselves, geographically, this time next year.  We don't really want to stay in Anchorage, even though it's affordable for us, and Jack + I get great healthcare, and my parents are here.  I guess when I put it that way it sounds pretty stupid to leave.  Anchorage just doesn't feel like the right spot for us.  So we're at a crossroads, trying to figure out where to plant our little family.

In the meantime we are back home in our little Alaskan apartment, staying cozy while the snow falls outside our windows.  I snapped these shots of Dan and Jack at our Airbnb in Tacoma last week.  These two dudes are my fav.