Celebrating Freedom

Our January has been a nice mix of settling back into routines after the holidays, building friendships, and resuming slow progress on our house.

For Martin Luther King Day we invited some new friends over to enjoy a Southern menu that's becoming an annual tradition - barbecue pork, collard greens, cole slaw, hush puppies, homemade mac and cheese, and biscuits. That week we read stories about Dr. King from the library, looked at photos and read quotes (we liked Time.com's MLK photo essay), and remembered his famous speech "I Have a Dream." We are thankful for the energy and work he and so many others have invested to make freedom increasingly accessible to all Americans throughout our country's history.

Other happenings this month: Being in a new place has inspired me to take up my dream of at least somewhat coordinating furnishings and pictures on the walls. Among our projects this month have been building frames for the world and US maps now hanging in our living room, learning to cut mattes for art that has been in poster frames since college days, and tracking down the perfect throw pillows for the living room (at Target of all places!). It's great to be feeling a bit more settled in all the time.

This month we've ventured into the world of kid sleepovers. We enjoyed one of our few kid-free overnights ever as parents of two while Gavin and Arwen were across the street with friends Jessie and Dyllan, then had those two at our house the next weekend. Shortly after that we had Sam (4) and Owen (2) here while their parents were away. There's definitely a learning curve when it comes to getting all the kids to sleep at the same time, but we all had a great time and look forward to many more overnighters in our future.