Mary S-N

It’s a common reminder in clergy groups this week every year 😅

I don’t think it’s considered a sacrament (not even for Roman Catholics) and if it is meaningful for you to impose ashes on yourself, you do what you need to. And if you make ashes at home, make sure you mix them with oil (not water) so you don’t do chemical burns.

Ughhh, our kid wanted the AI app too. We eventually were able to explain to her that AI isn’t safe enough technology for kids yet, but it took some convincing. The podcast was okay, as far as I could hear, but I’m not trusting those “guardrails”

I’m fairly confident that two of mine are just fancy names for sociology major graduation requirements. I think it was actually “social movements and social change” an that “class status and power” was a fancy name for what is elsewhere called “sociological stratification”

Never mind jobs you had, tell me five classes you took at university.
1. Queer Religiosities
2. Ancient and Medieval European Political Theory
3. The German Discovery of Sex
4. The Sociology of Movements
5. Class, Status and Power

My favorite organizational method before this move included putting my favorite things to recommend to clients right behind me so I could reach them easiest. That wasn’t exactly “best to worst” but it felt really functional.

I’m so uncomfortable every time a thread gets “just go to my denomination, we’re great!” because everything depends on which congregation’s doors you end up walking through. (And I hear my denomination, the UMC, touted as affirming, progressive when we only just got to neutral polity officially)

Photo of Lego daisy lying on top of Lego instructions

One down, many to go. And shhh, the girls are playing with their dolls and bedtime starts in 10.

Just home from visiting family for Christmas and the greatest struggle as parent to two small children is that all I want to do right now is hyper focus on building all the gorgeous Lego flower sets I just got, but we have to, like, unpack and get groceries and stuff 😫

I’ve been a slightly-chaotic (and left-handed) knitter for like 20 years and it wasn’t until this week and seeing a titkok about it that I realized my stitches are twisted. (because I wrap my yarn the wrong direction) 🤦🏻‍♀️

Finishing this project the old way so it matches and then retraining my hands.

Photo of cat carrier in the back seat of a car between two car seats, with a tuxedo cat partially visible inside

When my cat came on the drive from shoreline to Canada, he cried for a bit and then was pretty silent the whole rest of the way. I read up about it before and was so worried he’d be hungry or want to walk around, but he was cozy in there, and really did well

I think cats kind of dissociate for long drives and maybe having another cat in there makes it harder to zone all the way out.

(And then I found the one with the vibes-based theology that may violate the Discipline)

I just went to look at what might have inspired this and the latest two posts were my dad and my godfather, respectively. 🤦🏻‍♀️ (Then a few of the randomly reposted blog and “inspirational” posts that typically don’t get much purchase)

A couple dads at school pickup (in BC) today were talking about trying to go to see the blue jays play in Seattle if we won tonight. As an extremely fair weather Mariners fan (and honestly, all sports) does this mean I have to (get to?) talk about sports with the other parents? How does one…do that?

In the BC version, the goose and picker run opposite ways around the circle, *racing* each other to the open spot, but there’s no tagging.

Okay, so: in the version that both kiddo and I learned in western WA, 30+ years apart, when the goose is picked the goose chases the picker around the circle and tries to catch them before the picker gets back to the open spot.

There were a lot of things miss 6 and I discussed about how Girl Guides would be different than Girl Scouts, but I cannot stress enough how little either of us anticipated that the biggest surprise would be how Duck, Duck, Goose is different here.

It seems like there’s a cohort of older kids who take pride in propelling the thing, and sometimes a lot of allowance for littler ones who want on or off. I expect there are also cohorts of leaders with less grace for the littles, but it’s nice to see these ones work.

It’s also, like, eerily gorgeous here in the mornings, with fog lifting and wildfires making the sun pink.

Four days into grade one and my six year old is “not scared anymore” and knows at least one other kid’s name. Meanwhile, Mama is observing the elementary social rules around the merry-go-round. (How do the kids decide who gets out to push? How much do you have to push before you can sit down again?)

Update: and our first day up here, we secured a full time spot starting in September at a daycare center for the toddler!

Actually, I didn’t even think to expect it, but I got my work laptop replaced today, too, all of a sudden!

Next up: that package that’s supposed to come Thursday 😅

Like, my usually-takes-a-week Rx refill came through in like 4 hours yesterday, the 4-6wks to get copies of our updated car titles was 3 weeks, and the “probably still waiting a month or so” PR application next step came this morning. So…we’re doing okay.

I’m not one for magical thinking usually, but the way some parts of the international move process have been coming together right under the wire these last couple days is making me feel like it’s kinda a good sign for the biggest part.

Every time someone uses the lacrymosa as background sounds on TikTok I just keep singing it for like five minutes.

I keep learning things like this and then realizing that, despite being a lefty for writing and eating, I’m pretty ambidextrous with tasks that seem to need left-handed tools.

Last in-person day at the office before my international move means that I have a passenger this morning! Hopefully my beloved (home) office plant will be well-loved in the shared group practice office 🥹

No advice, only solidarity. It feels immoral to not do the “right thing” with books I’m letting go of, too.