Wild Thing

This here is our Wild Thing, our Elsie. Her hair rivals what mine looked like as a kid. My mom called me “Lion Lady” when I was young. Elsie has now taken on the title. 

She’s often busy drawing and painting, even on herself. 

She loves a good playgroup activity, especially when it involves riding a unicorn. 

She’s often seen with another wild thing, an Ian one.

She eats chicken wings and all kinds of things. She loves to run around nakey and dance. 

She can be very civilized at times. 

But most of the time, she’s a wild thing. 

Good Communication

Growing up, I feel like I had good communication with my parents. I’d talk with my mom a lot and when chances arose, I’d talk with my dad too. Some subjects we never touched on because we had no reason too, others probably could have been talked about but we never got there. The truth is, my parents made an effort, and that’s what was important. 

Going out to eat and talking was a frequent activity I did with my mom and siblings during my teenage years. Sitting at the counter or on the porch having discussions with my siblings happened often. At current family dinners, 10 conversations are happening at once and it fills my soul with goodness. I don’t know what it is, but the power of a good talk really recharges me. 

My family likes to talk, Jess will attest to that (ha!), and I think it both stems from our desire and love for the art of conversation but also by the way our parents nourished that art. This I am trying to do with my own little family. 

One such night we started talking about a YouTuber whose channel contained sub-par food reviews. We talked about his delivery, the camera work, his hat choice, which led to us questioning how such a person could have so many subscribers. The conversation wasn’t about anything of huge importance, but everyone was involved (even Elsie was trying!) and we came together on something so we can come together on bigger things in the future. 

I read a quote recently by James E. Faust that read, “Parents spend a lifetime seeking to establish and maintain good communications with each of their children.” This stuck out to me for a couple of reasons, 1) good communication has to be worked on constantly and 2) each child is going to have a different style of communication that parents must come to discover and then nourish. Jess and I talk about these different styles often and sometimes we have to adjust based on behaviors, either those of our child(ren)’s or our’s. 

Hopefully, there is good communication within the family, it will spread to good communication within the community. This is my hope for my children as they grow up and work with others. 

Santa Catalina

To celebrate a big birthday for Jess’s dad, we set off to California. Riding in the shuttle + plane + Uber + boat to get to Catalina Island was half the fun. 

But first, we got to Long Beach a day early and enjoyed some activities. Unbeknownst to me, Long Beach is more of a port city and is not bursting with tourist stuff. 

Still, we found some things to do, like riding in Swan Boats (where we spotted a Great Blue Heron):

and visiting Queen Mary (a boat bigger and faster than the Titanic). 

We also found an old, abandoned shopping area across the street that gave off Disney vibes. Then we happened upon these trees made of styrofoam. Um, what? Apologies if these tree characters haunt your dreams tonight. And apologies if you were really looking forward to going to Long Beach sometime in the future and now you’re not so pumped. 

Back to Catalina, we got on the ferry and arrived. We made our way to the hotel. We had ice cream and seafood. We rented golf carts and enjoyed the sights and sounds of the island. The views were stunning. 

We spent time at the beach too. It was a brisk 65 degrees, but this did not stop the kiddos from enjoying the sand and the sea. 

It was a wonderful time! It was so nice to be with family in such a beautiful spot. One last thing, we like to call what Ian is wearing in the above photo “gym leisure” (he had gym shorts on with this sweater. With this clothing, you can go on a run to get to the nice restaurant where you have reservations.