doing, reading, listening, etc.

doing --
we cooked in on valentine's, just as we did last year. i hope this is a tradition we keep. we also tweaked my tried & true shortbread recipe with a bit of rose water for the occasion. i don't mean to boast, but...that was a good call. another recipe we're loving lately is sweet potato minestrone. we made a big pot on tuesday and it's seeing us through the week. there's something so lovely about cradling bowls of soup on these deep winter evenings, and i feel good about the fact that the bowls are packed with hearty vegetables.

i've found it challenging to find time to write in my journal lately. in the moment, almost anything else catches my attention first. it's only later when i start to feel frustrated and like i haven't found time for myself that i notice how truly important it is for me to make time -- to set my work and book and whatever else aside, and find a coffeeshop and just be. otherwise, the sound inside my head is a bit like the flapping wings of birds -- and it doesn't really make for the best version of me. thankfully, i've got a partner who wholeheartedly encourages this about me, so it's really up to me to rise up and meet this need of mine. i am working on it.

reading --
him: seven ages of paris.
me: a man without a country.
both: when breath becomes air. i devoured it in two days and he's blazing through now. i wake to find him reading and he looks forward to long train rides so he can dive back in. truly, it's stunning. a book to get lost in.

watching --
it was zero -- lit'rally zero -- degrees last weekend, so we started friday night lights. chris has never seen it and even though i have, it doesn't make it any less enthralling. we also still love last week tonight on sundays and are thrilled it's finally back.

listening --
we're wintering with johnny cash and billie holiday, ryan adams and nick drake.

housekeeping --
we ordered a new coffee table that doesn't offer the same storage as the trunk we currently use (this was very much a form-over-function decision), so during the aforementioned zero degree days, i took to sorting letters and cards and other ephemera i have collected. the thing that struck me was the sheer volume of handwritten correspondence i've been blessed to receive over the years. it's a humbling thing, to see evidence of how much time and thought has been given to me. i promptly sat down to write a few love notes of my own and marched them to the post office straight away.