friday present: from sunshine intentions to kicking + moaning.

This Saturday, which should be a Friday, I'm thankful and loving...

some sun! 

It's still crisp outside, of course, but the temperatures have crept up. Or I'm getting used to the chill coming off the antarctic. Or hormones are keeping me warm. One good thing about posting late, is that the rain of the last three days has subsided, and I'm lucky to write with sunshine warming my left cheek, in through the window. 

krusteaz pancake mix + real maple syrup.

{waffles by philosopher queen}

Some of the special things from Wisconsin that my dad sent included pure maple syrup + pancake mix. Every so often I make waffle batter from scratch, but it's never as light or fluffy as Krusteaz. And the last time I had maple syrup was the last time I visited the States. The morning after my springtime Christmas, I made some American-style blueberry pancakes. This morning I wanted to see how the fluffiness held up as waffles. Oh yes, it was like eating clouds with a crispy golden brown lining.

intention trees. 

{intention trees photo by mindy}

Today I came across this post from Mindy's Wish Studio blog about making fall intention trees: "a wonderful way to begin each season… to outline your goals and intentions for the months ahead." I've been a glue stick marauder of late, collaging cards into the wee hours. I'm hoping to get some girls together to create a little intention love for spring.

a bed for savasana. 

Part of being back and catching up is returning to a good yoga routine. When my yoga instructor returned (sunned and refreshed after taking a course on Tibetan singing bowls in Greece), I restarted yoga classes in the morning. I had always gone in the evenings, but nights here in the winter are too cold and dark. During savasana (the final relaxation), she's been making me a special bed, since I'm not supposed to lie on my back for more than three minutes at a time. Though somehow I end up on my back again every night, despite my better efforts. 

On Wednesdays and Fridays, this makeshift bed of a couple cushions and a couple blankets blesses me with 10 of the most comfortable minutes of my day. People often fall asleep and even snore during savasana. I've certainly fallen asleep before, but I never wanted to be one of the snorers! Yesterday morning, though, I woke myself up with a pretty prolonged moan. Yeah, Nice.

elbows to the gut.

{a rainy day, circa 21 weeks}

This week even the hubby was able to feel baby throwing some punches. I thought I might even be able to see the bugger thumpin' up a storm, but still no cigar. I know they say this is going to keep me awake at night later on, but for now it's nice to know all's well in his swimmy land.

What are you thankful for?

{unattributed photos : unknown : please let me know if they're yours}

could it be spring?

Most of y'all are heading into fall, so I've been reading much ado about fall. So much so, that I've been a little confused about what month or what season it is. (I hail from the northern hem, so living in opposite seasons takes some getting used to.)

i like this kind of autumn

Winters here are icy, cold, dark and dry enough to prohibit easy breathing. Snow doesn't seem to stick for too long these days (global warming?). So it snows and immediately turns into a huge + dangerous mess of ice. There's really nothing pretty about it after the initial quiet fall. Winters are also mostly windless, which is a welcome reprieve for Patagonia. I can't imagine if the wind blew all that cold around like it does in the summer. 

{photo by eros turannos}

Our welcome home weather was that of a typical Patagonian summer: ceaseless wind from all directions, rain, sunshine, snow, sun, downpour, snow, sun. Then the sunshine graced us with its presence for a whole decently windless (for here) day. And we rode bikes. 

{photo by flabnbone}

We're diving into spring; our current truth is more light! Instead of dusk falling at 4, its curtain swishes in around 6.30 p.m. By Christmas, the sun will shine until 11 or so. I'll dearly miss the 18+ hours of daylight when we head back to the States. But, because most of our summer days still require a puffy jacket, or at least a scarf and reasonably heavy jacket, I do look forward to the spring and summer days of yore. Sundresses, shorts, skin, skin not entirely transparent, wearing flowers in my hair windlessly, reading outside--in a flowered field.

{photo by ashley the dinosaur}

But for now I'm loving more light; tiny pops of green, of life; new penpals and letter writing projects; the return of friends who wintered (well, summered) elsewhere; me not freezing; lambs; tangelos; finally having lettuce to make the most delicious salad we've eaten in months.

{unattributed photos : unknown : please let me know if they're yours}

the sound of a whirlwind / gettin' back.

{photo by arthur machado}

Come to think of it. I don't know what I've been so busy with since we arrived home six days ago, but sometimes life gets real busy like that. But I do have one big update. Aside from all of the gorgeous bits of love waiting for me in my inbox and post box when we got home, there was a skinny letter from the U.S. embassy in Santiago. Dated about five days after I filed the stacks of paperwork to prove that we "entered into a bonafide marriage." Romantic, right? Love letters, financial documents, travel photos, congrats from family and friends all graced this massive packet. 

 

The crazy fast news is *the* interview is already set! October 13 in Santiago. We bought our tickets back to the capital yesterday. Remember how I said no more horribly timed 1 or 5 a.m. flights? Well, just one or two more times (ida y vuelta). Sometimes you just can't argue with the price. Thank goodness humans are so capable of forgetting past discomforts + grueling experiences! Sometimes it's good to be able to do it again...

Yet, some plans foiled... About two years ago, I took a vow of silence for 10 days. No reading, writing, listening to music, knitting, nada. Only meditation. Sitting (oh, it's surprising how much marathon sitting can hurt!). The style of meditation is called Vipassana, and they hold 10-day sessions all over the world. I won't go on about what a purifying experience this was. Have you ever done anything like this?

I wanted to do it again. Just once before I return to the States, because having a job with only a couple weeks vacation (way to make real travel impossible...) pretty much precluded me from wanting to spend that dear vacay in silence, meditating. Really, I like a good party break too! Besides international lifestyle and families, we'll be back and forth to Turkey and likely Chile along with wanting to explore... I had been trying to get into Vipassana courses for several months (always attempting to register too late). Finally one day, I was in and registered! 

{meditation by c.mariani}

A couple of weeks later Serkan decided he'd like to do it together! Say, what? I was over the moon. I couldn't think of a more amazing experience for us to share--by that time all 2.5 of us! Men and women are strictly separated during the Vipassana retreats, but just knowing that we are there doing it together... Hello beauty (and support and synchronized calm)! Since there wasn't any more space in the Santiago course I got into, I relinquished my spot. We hunted for another. After a couple of tries we found one in Buenos Aires and planned a big roadtrip for it, scheduled for September 29. 

{photo by lenaah}

After looking at funds and timing, it's too much to do the visa interview, get all the medical exams that we need in Santiago, and meditate in silence for 10 days near Buenos Aires. Bluely, I let loose that little dream yesterday morning, as we purchased our flights to Santiago. Our afternoon bike ride in spring (for here) weather cheered me up. I hadn't ridden a bike since May! 

Wishing you all a still-warm entrance into autumn and a sunny welcoming of spring! 

{unattributed photos : unknown : please let me know if they're yours}

friday present: writing a map of love.

Today, I'm feeling thankful for so many things, I might just be all over the map. 

I love maps.

Though I don't love opening them up on street corners, which is how I end up finding myself lost / so often wandering. Which is how I ended up lost at the end of the world and eventually into the arms of my ever loving husband. Then with a baby already the size of a large banana somersaulting in my belly. (OK, This maps was a digression I truly didn't expect when I sat down to write this post.)

I love writing. 

{typewriter by squidart}

Because of where it leads the writer: surprising journeys. A lucky reader experiences reading as a journey, if the author has indeed traveled during the writing. I planned to write about family and friends and packages in some tied-together, perhaps meaningful, way. But here I am writing (rather self-consciously) about maps in the act / about maps and the act of writing. How writing is a map / the wanderings of a map in creation. In process.

I love synchronicity. 

{yarn by apryl lowe}

Even the smallest in-tune moments make my heart hop. For some reason, Serkan and I consistently sniffle at the same time. I don't know if it's the dry air, but I almost never breathe clearly here (yes, it's much worse during the pregnancy). So what used to be the happy sighs of a deep breath have turned into intermittent deep sniffle-like inhales. Ours coordinate several times per day (even more noticeably during an Uruguyan roadtrip). 

Sometimes synchronicity happens over greater expanses of space and time. Namely, a girl called Jen. The story can go way back to high school days. But she started reading my blog recently through another one of our high school friends: Elena. Let's just say, quickly, that most of high school was a traumatic dance through a landscape of mourning for me, so I remember shockingly little from those years. Memory is a fickle yet endlessly fascinating experience (and non-experience), no? I had few friends during high school, but I am pretty much still in touch with that small circle of people today, my beautiful amiga Elena, for example. One day through the surreal powers of Facebook, Jen contacted me. We've been writing ever since, and I look forward to each of our correspondences. We can feel how much we share in common, even without talking about it to each other. Sparkling kismet.

So, back to synchronicity. I just received an amazing little package of goodies from Jen: complete with dried cherries (yum!), a perfect coffeecake recipe, a congrats card addressed to Serkan and I, and our first baby onesies! I cannot stop looking at them. I haven't put them away yet, and every once in a while Serkan walks by them, smiles, unfolds the top one, embroidered with handsome, and we both muse over how small it is. 

{jen, thank you for the beautifulness, i'm so happy we re-found each other!}

Jen also sent me a lovely hand-crocheted scarf along with a beautiful letter about what crochet means to her. How her grandma taught her to crochet, and that after many starts and many years, she finished her first project (This part echoes my crochet story exactly, but I have yet to finish a project.) That creating pieces for others is her way of sharing her grandma's gift. Apparently, she started crocheting me a scarf the same day I posted about my most recent foray into crochet. How cool is that? I'm so thankful for our friendship, such moments of synchronicity and warmth.

I love friends. 

One might be tempted to say: I love my friends. But the truth is I love friendship. And I enjoy witnessing other people's beautiful bonds just as much as I cherish my own. It can be like watching a couple in love. You may be a satellite around one side of that love, but you don't have to be in the middle of it. I love reading about other people's friendships, even people I only know virtually in blogland. Faiza's big-hearted adventures with her beloveds comes to mind, as does the true love my dear friend Claire has found with beautiful Micaela. 

I do love my friends, too, of course. Each friendship has a different history, a different length, a different way of discovering one another, and all ways are wonderful. I've received a few care packaged from my loving and beautiful friend Nicole over the years. Way back in the day, when I first stepped foot outside of the U.S. to study in England, she used to send me handmade post cards and letters. The most recent care package is this lighthearted approach to pregnancy.

{thank you so much, sweet nicole!}

We giggled our way through Knocked Up last night. And I'm going to get started in on this book today. So far, the only pregnancy book I've actually finished is Ina May's Guide to Childbirth. I've dabbled in a couple of others, but feel ready to (and like I should) start reading books with more of a focus on baby nursing and sleeping.

I love family.

{tulips by ronaldo f cabuhat}

That is my family and the idea of family. I love how my friends and family always send their love and wishes to the both of us (and now to the two and a half of us). They have never met Serkan, yet they include him in all correspondence. For someone who has surreptitiously sought approval all her life (and often climbed all the wrong mountains to find it), I must say I get the family warm fuzzies to feel so accepted. Unconditionally accepted, which I now (experientially) understand. 

The huge package in yesterday's mail love picture was an anniversary gift from my dad and Carol in Wisconsin. The box weighed 21 pounds, so I was ordered to let hubby do the lifting. And oh my goodness, there was just a little bit of about everything in the realm of made in the USA food in that box...

{thank you!!!}

Coffee to last us till we return to the States; dried mangos, blueberries and mixed berries; real maple syrup; Krusteaz buttermilk pancake mix, instant pudding mixes and loads of other staples. Let's just say we're now prepared should a natural disaster head our way. This morning we ate fluffy American-style pancakes with real maple syrup for breakfast. And since I waited way too long to eat lunch, I whipped up some quick chocolate pudding afterward, because I needed something sweet to stop the shakes. (Don't worry, I don't normally let that type of hunger happen, especially not in this preggo state.)

I love you. 

Need I say more? Still quite a few emails and blogs to catch up on, but happily catching up this weekend, I am. 

And sometimes I love sevens.

{7 by jack vade}

These Friday thankfulness posts are typically 5-item lists, but I'm brimming this week! 

What are you thankful for this September?

{unattributed photos : unknown : please let me know if they are yours}

20 weeks + so much love.

I'm not sure how we even made it through yesterday. so. so. so. tired. I decided no more 1 a.m. flights between the capital and our nearest (real) airport here. Basically getting to and from Santiago entails a three-hour bus ride to the Punta Arenas airport and then another 3.5 hour flight to Santiago. This isn't that bad, but when the flights leave and arrive in the wee hours, we have several hours to sit in the airport. Yesterday we arrived at 5 a.m., waited for the sun to rise and headed into Punta Arenas around 8 a.m. Normally we would have been awaiting our bus to take us home to Puerto Natales, but yesterday I'd scheduled baby check-up, because we would be in the area. Problem is, I couldn't see him till 4 p.m., and we essentially only slept 45 minutes the night before. Whew. I write this only to show one of the strangenesses of living in this faraway place. But, really, there is so much goodness I want to share! 

Today, baby is 20 weeks! 

{in all the madness, we forgot to take a belly pic today! 
so here is one from last week, it's already grown so much since then!}

Belly is blooming, as spring sprouts its first green buds under the sun and sudden rain shower blasts. Yesterday's check up went well. The doctor has been so good at making me feel more tranquila. Baby's heartbeat rushes at twice the speed of mine, and what a trip it is to listen in. This morning, hubby and I marveled at how I'm fueling blood enough for two hearts. Two hearts inside me drummin' to their own rhythms; wow.

Lots of errands, bill paying, phone calls, food shopping, unpacking and laundry washing later, it was time to open all the packages we picked up from the post office!  

{yes, that's a sasquatch postcard from my big foot friend ian}

I can't even tell you how much it felt like Christmas or a big birthday today! I don't remember the last time I opened so many presents at one go! Or begin to tell you how thankful I feel! These first two are from blog giveaways that I totally lucked out in winning. 

{mink pink tank from pretty pleased}

This is the Mink Pink Not So Useless Tank from a giveaway at Pretty Pleased. If you don't already follow the beautiful fashionista sisters from North Carolina, you need to pay them a visit! They have so much fun, I have been living vicariously through their warm-weather fashion photo shoots. Incidentally, they are hosting another awesome giveaway now. Check it out. Thank you, Mary Chris and Catherine!

{amazing handmade goodies from angie may handmade}

Next is Angie's beautiful clutch from Angie May Handmade. She filled this cute little clutch (which she says can be used for anything, from pictures to pencils) with more handmade awesomeness and other goodies! Two adorable hairpins, which I wore to the store today, a pretty sequined headband (something that I've been wanting since I no longer have to wear a wool hat out every single day) and a lovely bracelet--all handmade! She also added a perfectly sized mini journal and some buttons and ribbon so I can make my own creations. Angie's blog always calms me and makes me smile. She's positive, driven (learning Korean, just because!), and she puts her heart into each of her beautiful creations. (Visit her Etsy, and see for yourself!) Thank you, Angie!

Stay tuned for part two :)