Well, an entire year has passed since my last recap (looking at you, January 2022). Let’s just say A LOT of life happened in the past 12 months (hi, Tommy!). But here we are – I’m hoping to be more present and consistent here. This blog is such a fun creative outlet and in the never-ending whirlwind, it’s nice to pause and take a moment to write, reflect, and share.
Highlights
- Celebrated Tommy’s 2nd birthday!
- My parents visited for a long weekend and we continued Tommy’s birthday celebration. They brought beautiful weather for mid-January and we were even able to go to the zoo!
- Celebrated Seollal (Korean Lunar New Year) with homemade tteokguk (rice cake soup), a trip to a Korean bakery, and this sweet children’s book: Tomorrow is New Year’s Day. We were able to finagle wiggly Tommy into his hanbok but put it on completely wrong – we missed the arm holes!
Life
January was a LONG month. I usually love winter, but with a toddler at home, have a newfound appreciation for warmer temperatures and the ability to play outside. We are all ready for sunny days and fresh air! Tommy continues to thrive at home and at school – learning new words and phrases daily, it seems. We spend much of our time together reading, playing with cars/trucks, and watching for dogs out our front window. These really are the days and what a gift it is to spend them together.
Travel
I took my first solo trip since Tommy came home! I spent a couple days in Nashville and it was so refreshing. I certainly missed my guys but they had so much fun without mom around 🙂
Recipes
Favorites this month:
- Baked Oatmeal (loosely followed this recipe – doubled it and: pulsed the oats, used coconut oil instead of butter, flax eggs instead of eggs, less almond milk so it turns into oatmeal “bars,” and added dried cherries and chocolate chips)
- Quinoa Vegetable Soup
- Hearty Vegetable Soup
- No Knead Seeded Oat Bread – on loaf #3!
- Made a recipe for tteokguk (rice cake soup) from The Korean Vegan cookbook to add to our Lunar New Year celebration. Not only is Joanne’s cookbook beautiful, but I’ve learned so much with each recipe we try.
- Cornbread – a recipe I’ve made so many adaptations to I don’t even have a recipe to really follow anymore!
Books/Shows/Movies
- I haven’t had much time to read lately (I wonder why?!) but did finish A Season for Second Chances. Super cute but definitely 100 pages too long! I’m currently reading Lunar Love (a recent Book of the Month pick).
- Tommy continues to love Trash Truck on Netflix.
- Grant and I started watching Scrubs from the beginning (I’ve never seen a single episode!).
Playlist Favorites
- This Is Going to Be the Year (Brett Dennan)
- Thought You Should Know (Morgan Wallen)
- Times Like This (Mat Kearney)
Good Happy Things
Tried and true items helping us live a good, happy life. January favorites in our home:
- Winter Water Factory trash truck sweatshirt
- A toddler-size Stanley cup (Tommy loves mine and lovingly refers to it as “bear cup” so we thought if would be fun if he had his own to match)
- Snack spinner – great for travel and park picnics (a couple weeks ago we had an almost 50 degree day, so I packed Tommy’s lunch in this spinner and we went to the park after school)
