Best Sick Day Ever

Cal and I are sick. 

As in, I've had a fever for 60 hours now. We're over the worst of it--feeling better, but not better. My coughing fits sound like an old engine trying to turn over, and I can safely ascribe about 99% of my "recovery" so far to Tylenol, Unisom, and diet coke.

I've felt emotionally sick the past day or so, too. Discouraged, I think. Regardless, in the midst of our sick week, I decided that even though we could not be around people for fear of spreading our own personal plague, we could have a better kind of sick day.

Thirty minutes later, we were a mile or so up Hwy 1 from Davenport.

There's a reason this is one of my favorite beaches. It was 75 degrees there today. Not a soul in sight.

"Cow deeg!" (Cal dig!)

 I love big bubble wands. After a few minutes of letting the wind blow the bubbles while I sat there, I noticed that the bubbles were floating all the way over that far hill. Wouldn't it be fun to be on the other side, seeing a bunch of jumbo bubbles float randomly over the top? :)

 Cal had his rash guard on, but we weren't planning on swimming today. He just stared at the waves for minutes at a time, totally hypnotized.

 And what's not hypnotizing about this? (Cal took this photo on our camera. He loves to take "peekchas".)

 We found a little eddy a ways down the beach and decided to explore a bit.

 The only footprints on the beach today.

Splashing around in a tiny current flowing out to the ocean.

A few things we thought were interesting:

We had a quick picnic lunch while Cal warmed up from so much splashing. On California's coast, the Pacific Ocean is cold!

 Look at Cal's little red nose.

After that, we packed up our sand toys and drove just down the road to another of my favorite places:

 Swanton Organic U-Pick Berry Farm! 

 (And yes, they really are that red. No color adjustments here! Just Mother Nature.)

 With his green outfit and bright red pail, Cal fit right in with the berries.

 Don't you just want to sink your teeth into those beauties?

Cal was very proud of his harvest. He found the pick surprisingly hard, yelling out "Mama, tuck!" (stuck) every time he tried to pluck a berry off its stem. I'm not sure he got the concept that our produce originally comes attached to a plant...

 Back at the store, we weighed Cal's cache: .35 pounds, not including the bucket. 

 That'll be $1.23, please.

We rounded out our purchase (in a store that is run on a hippie-ish honor code system) with baked goods, and headed to our warm, sandy car to start the drive home.

The coastline makes for good medicine.

Jr. Preschool!

Guess who's going to preschool this fall!

Anyone who has spent 5 minutes in our presence has learned what Reed and I have known for some time now: Cal is a busy toddler. Not hyperactive, and not obnoxious, just super, super busy. My mom has been urging me to get Cal into a preschool (in response to a string of exhausted phone calls from me), and last month, life slowed down enough for me to finally start researching facilities in the area. I narrowed it down to a place that also does a summer program called Jr. Preschool.

This morning, I left Cal at home with Reed (we're all still feeling sick), and I went to tour the facilities. It did not take long for me to determine that Cal will LOVE the place: it has tubs of beans to scoop and sort, a book nook, a playground, art tables, tons of toys, and a bunch of fun little toddlers to make friends with! As the head teacher took me around to each area, I could totally picture Cal doing the activity. I can't wait to get his curious mind and busy little fingers and wiggly little legs into this environment. I just hope that, once he experiences preschool, he won't be mad at us for having held him prisoner for so long in such a boring apartment! 

Adventures at the Asian Market

One interesting thing about where we live is that there are a lot of Asian markets. We have one just down the street from us, but I had never been before today. What piqued my interest was its reputation for inexpensive, high-quality produce. I was not disappointed!

 Cal and I bought 2 shells of strawberries, oranges, fuji apples, asparagus, broccoli, sugar snap peas, bananas, bell peppers, cilantro, kiwis, kale, and spinach for $17!  Just look at all this healthy spread:

I'm excited to try adding a little kale to our green smoothies. Hopefully it turns me into a superhuman.

Oh, and one other fun thing about the Market: the tanks of live sea creatures! Cal was mesmerized!

I'm glad I took the time to check the place out -- we'll definitely be frequenting the produce section.

Dying Eggs

Stabat Mater

Another month, another concert! I was asked to sing the soprano solo in a presentation of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater. We performed in St. Leo the Great, a parish church in San Jose.

I was unfamiliar with the piece before this concert, and had hardly heard of the composer, Pergolesi. He died when he was 26 (my current age), and wrote the piece only a few months before he succumbed to TB.

Pergolesi

The piece is about the suffering of Mary as she watched her son being crucified. The structure of the piece is just genius, and it makes me sad to think of what other glorious works Pergolesi would have produced had his life not been cut short by disease. There are 12 songs altogether, and 7 marks a change in the piece's focus. While songs 1 through 6 focus on Christ's suffering, songs 7 through 12 exhibit a commitment on the part of the viewer to share that suffering. Because of the natural break, the father at St. Leo's took the opportunity to give a brief sermon on the subject before we finished the last half. The whole effect was wonderful, and as I've mentioned before, gave me a much-needed moment to focus on the true meaning of Christ's final week.

Below are a few of the excerpts various viewers (including my wonderful husband) were kind enough to capture for me. Sorry it's so dark, but hopefully the sound is okay.

Cujus animam gementem, contristatam et dolentem pertransivit gladius.

"Whose soul moaning, sorrowing and pained, was pierced by a sword."

More to come...

Spring Pies

Photo-braggage! :) Look what I made! (with support from my Grandma L.)

Quick Thoughts on Easter

I have had a very contemplative Easter week. I'm grateful I've been given so many opportunities to sit still and ponder. It may have begun with my Stabat Mater concert on Wednesday; I had to write on my music the translation of Latin text about Christ and Mary's suffering at the crucifixion. Performing those words meant truly connecting with the text. The performance also included sitting through a sermon, which was wonderful, but something I probably would not have sought out on my own.

Every day this week, Mormon.org has issued Easter cards, designed for sharing on facebook and other social sites. I absolutely loved them, and shared several on my page. Take a look:

On Sunday, I sang with a trio of girls at an Easter music program for the community. We sang "Beautiful Savior." It was another situation where I was obliged to listen to a sermon (something I would have skipped because of how busy I've been feeling lately). It was on Grace, and it was exactly what I needed to hear.

The speaker told of a student who had asked a teacher, "I know I need to do my best, and Christ will make up the difference, but I can't even handle doing my best." The speaker held up a sheet of paper and said, "the top of the paper is God, and the bottom is you. Draw a line to represent where your efforts end and Christ's grace begins." The student drew a line across the middle of the page. When the teacher said "Wrong," the student replied, "I knew it needed to be higher." The teacher said, "No, there is no line. Christ is the entire paper."

We are completely saved by Grace. So why must we obey the commandments? Because Christ has asked us to. Because it shows him that His sacrifice has earned our love and devotion. Because it is an offering unto him when we spend our lives as He would wish. It is not a repayment -- we cannot repay our debt. It is an offering of gratitude and devotion.

It was a wonderful Easter week for me, and I'm glad my mind and heart were "checked in" these past several days. What a meaningful, overwhelming message of love--for those who stop to recognize it.