Technology Advancements

My senior year homecoming, I drove myself part way because my date wasn't able to stay the whole evening. After dinner, he drove me from the restaurant back to my car and I drove myself for the rest of the night. I knew my gas tank was low that night. I hadn't been able to get gas before and it was nearing empty, but the gas light didn't turn on....

...until I started driving after dinner. 

I had no idea how many miles I had until I'd literally run out of gas. I knew my car wouldn't stop running immediately, but I was cutting it close. I drove that whole night living on the edge. I made it to all the places I was going and home without running out of gas. 

I still have the car which I drove to my senior homecoming, but it's not my main vehicle anymore. We recently upgraded my car to a hybrid. Jumping 20 years in car technology was really like traveling through a time warp. I got a sunroof, heated seats, a digital screen, CarPlay, keyless start, power trunk, a built-in dash cam, rear camera, kick open sliding doors, touch unlock, front and back sensors, rear windshield wiper, and tinted windows(!). I'm sure you might be reading this and thinking you had these features 5 years ago, 10 years ago, or even 15 years ago on your car. That's great! All of these are new to me as of 2026.

These features are nice, but by far my favorite feature is the ability for my car to tell me how many miles I have left to drive until empty. Yup, yet another feature I've never had until now. Coupled with the hybrid technology, I only get gas about once a month now and I do a solid 180-200 miles a week on average.  

The last time I got gas, I was able to wait until the middle of the week after I dropped off my children at school in the morning. There's less crowds of people getting gas and gas is generally less expensive compared to getting gas on the weekends. When I made it to the gas station, my car told me I had 73 miles left in the tank. My gas light hadn't turned on yet, and I'd already driven over 573 miles.  

 

 

 

I've never been a "car person" or thought of myself as one, but being spoiled by all of these features has really changed my mind on what I value in my vehicle. I will always view my vehicle as a functional tool to get me from place to place, but when I can do that with some extra "luxuries," it's nice.

I'll never have to panic now if my gas light turns on. I just have to be able to do math. 😜

More Chicken

Continuing from last week's blog, I made another dish with my remaining shredded chicken. I was poking around online for some eggroll recipes and I actually came across this recipe. They call it "eggroll in a bowl" because it was like an eggroll filling without having to wrap it up and fry.

When I went to the grocery store, I was hoping to find some bags of coleslaw on sale to use in the recipe and just throw it all in. Fortunately, they had some on sale. Unfortunately, the cost of buying it pre-cut was too much for me to stomach even on a whim. Instead, I ended up buying green cabbage from the grocery store and using my own carrots and onions from home. There was no purple cabbage in my final colors, but it actually turned out okay.

When you add garlic, soy sauce, and sesame oil to anything, it's hard to go wrong from there. 

 

The actual recipe called for ground meat to be used. I used my shredded chicken because my goal was to use up the rest of what I already had. I think because my protein was pre-cooked, the whole dish ended up being slightly drier than perhaps the recipe intended. Also, there wasn't any added fat from needing to cook my protein. My chicken had also been kept in the refrigerator for many days since it's initial cooking date. From a texture and mouth-feel perspective, it wasn't my favorite. However, the flavor was very good. 

In the future, if I were to actually use ground pork (my favorite) in addition to following this recipe, it could be quite delicious. It's a great recipe to have on hand to use up leftovers and make a balanced dish. Personally, I think any of the following vegetables could be added to this recipe and it would still turn out very well:

- mushrooms
- cabbage
- carrots
- onions
- celery
- spinach
- bell peppers

I would just make sure to cut all my vegetables to about the same size - julienned or shredded.   

I don't think this is a recipe I would purposely add to my rotation as there are many other dishes I enjoy more. However, I think this is a great recipe to make on a whim with some leftover ingredients you may already have at home in your refrigerator.  

Samosas

I made samosas this past week! The idea was birthed out of having an excess of shredded chicken and wanting something different that wasn't a creamy sauce-based dish. I'd done clam chowder and chicken pot pie in the same week. I wanted something different with the rest of my chicken.

I had potatoes and onions at home so I decided to make samosas on a whim. I cooked the filling the night before and made the wrapper the day after. I actually made two batches of wrappers with two different recipes, but this recipe is the one I enjoyed more. Yes, I deep fried them. 

They turned out quite well! I think I could have added more salt to season the filling more. I had slow cooked the chicken by itself and already added salt so I didn't want to add more salt for fear of being overly salty. I tasted the filling to make sure the potatoes were done but didn't think to taste the chicken. Also, I overlooked the fact that the dough wasn't overly salty so the filling needed some extra flavor to compensate.

I guess this is what happens when I cook on a whim. I wouldn't do anything differently because it's the short-notice which results in creativity. It just also comes with a side of imperfection. 

The filling recipe I followed (which I can't find anymore...oops) had said to add water if the mixture got too dry in the pan. I think I took this direction too seriously and added too much water because when I went to fill my samosas, the filling kept leaking and popping the seams on my dough wrapper. I had to get creative on how to stretch portions of the dough over each other to fix the holes.  This is not the batch pictured above. 😄 Halfway through I did drain some of the extra liquid out of the filling mixture so that is why the second batch closed much nicer. 

The deep frying wasn't too bad since I knew the inside filling was already cooked. I just had to watch the color on the outside and remove when done. My dough skills are not great so my wrappers were on the thicker side and resulted in a more doughy outside rather than the traditional flaky. Personally, I don't really care because I knew it was my first time and I'm not going to risk the samosa falling apart during cooking just to roll the dough thinner.  

I still have some extra chicken leftover so I'm trying to find a creative way to use it up. I'll probably be heading to the grocery store after this just to see what ingredients I can find on sale and try something new. I might blog about it next week. Stay tuned!

The Things that Matter

I picked up my son from school the other day and started asking him about his day. At one point, I heard the sentence, "I brought home my crayon box that had popcorn in it."

Um. What?

Turns out he had a snack at school (popcorn) as part of their lesson and it was passed out in little treat boxes which looked like crayon boxes. Phew. He told me he had saved his box and wanted to keep it. Okay...

A few days later, I found this crayon box tucked into a drawer handle in our kitchen. My first thought was: I have got to throw this away. I use this drawer and it can't have a snack box wedged in the handle. But there was also a more rational side of me which was thinking how endearing it was that he loved this treat box so much to bring it home after finishing his treat and strategically placing it in a "special" place. 

Some of you might be thinking how ridiculous it sounds since I thought a piece of trash was endearing. Part of me feels it too.  But, I also know I was once the girl who kept a toothpick from a sandwich from the Princeton University cafeteria because it was a toothpick from Princeton University, and I'd probably never go back again in my life. (Still true. I haven't been back.)

As much as I wanted to throw his treat box in the trash, and alas, it will someday end up in the trash, I decided to keep it a little bit longer. I just had to move it from the frequently used drawer handle to an infrequently used cabinet handle.

New location secured.

He saw it this morning while eating his breakfast. I didn't have to explain why it had moved to a different handle. He just smiled knowing I had still kept it. 

These are the things I think about when raising my kids. Am I taking the time to value the things which are important to them? Even the ones which aren't important to me? We remember various memories in our life. Some of these memories can shape the way we view people. Some of these memories will affect our impressions of locations. Some of these memories will affect the choices we make later in life. I know a treat box from popcorn at school in 1st grade doesn't seem like a life-changing memory to a grown adult. And it's possible years from now, this paper box will be long forgotten in the memories which don't make it. But in this moment, keeping it a little longer than I otherwise would have, made him smile. 

We were driving to church last Friday evening, and because we were running late due to unforeseen schedule interruptions, we ended up driving west during the sunset hour. My kids told me to take a picture of the sunset and to save it. 

 

 

I'm horrible when it comes to saving photos of non-people on my phone because they don't get printed, I don't have enough memory to save them all on my phone, and realistically, I'm not scrolling my phone to go down memory lane and look at all the photos I've ever taken. So this one will be saved here on my blog and added to the list of things that matter to my children. 

Natural Highlights

It's been almost four years since I last dyed my hair. I still have days when I look in the mirror and see all the greys screaming at me amidst the sea of black. I also still have days when I look in the mirror and I can tell myself I am aging well and still look young for my age. In the years since I've stopped dyeing my hair, I still get comments about my grey hair. I've learned to ignore most of them. They don't really bother me anymore. I say "really" because part of me will always react to these types of comments differently than if I didn't have to hear these comments as part of my life. But I have learned to cope and the reaction is less negative and more neutral. 

 Last week, I had a first. I was having lunch with a friend and it was my first time eating at this restaurant. As I was leaving the register with my food, the lady behind the counter asked me a rendition of the question which I've never heard.

"Is the white in your hair highlighted or is it white hair?" You may be relieved to know she didn't ask it in English because seeing it written out in its translation makes it that much more....awkward. 

I told her, "It's natural."

"But you're so young! How come you have so much white hair?"  I'm glad I look young. I do still feel youthful at heart. 

"I've had a hard life," was my response. 

After that, I continued bringing my food back to my table and proceeded to have a wonderful lunch with a wonderful friend.  

 ***

When I responded with "it's natural," it actually was for two reasons. The first was my brain was working on comprehending what she had just said and trying to formulate a proper response without too much lag time. The second was emphasizing that my grey hair is natural. I don't dye my hair. This is the color it grows out. And I've learned to be okay with that. Honestly, the fact she could have thought my hair was highlighted grey means it's growing out in such a pattern which makes it well dispersed. I've contemplated getting a grey blend, but I've never felt strongly enough to go pay for one. 

I've been asked too many times in my life to find reason in their question anymore as to why my hair is grey. Who can pinpoint the reason as to why his or her hair has grown grey? Our hair only grows about a half inch per month. If we knew the reasons why our hair was growing grey, I'm pretty sure someone would have come up with a reversal/cure by now and would be rich. There's quite a few products out there which advertise grey reversal or slowing the process of greys, but none are truly able to guarantee results. 

Half my lifetime ago, I didn't know how to respond properly to this question. Most of the time, it took me by surprise. I wrote about this a few years ago in my two decades series. I was caught off-guard at a CVS and the cashier literally spoke the words for me which I did not have in myself. I'm proud to say in my mid-30s, I can finally feel more of the confidence I was desperately wanting as a young adult and could never quite find. 

This is who I see in my head - they are my natural highlights.

Size Does Matter!

Back in January, I wrote a post about the XL Tide pods and how I didn't feel I could use it for our washing machine because it didn't wash enough clothes to merit such a large pod. Last month, we said goodbye to our first set of machines.

Goodbye, washer and dryer. We had a good 12 years.

Sometime in the last seven months, our washing machine began thumping and banging the sides during every single load. I had anxiety doing laundry because I wasn't sure what was going to happen during the load or if our clothes were going to get damaged. Could we have looked into it and had it repaired/fixed? Absolutely. So why didn't we choose to repair it?

Because the logic wasn't working. If my memory is correct, we paid roughly $600 total for our washer and dryer in 2014. This included a rebate we got from Whirlpool for buying the laundry pair.  If you divide this up, it means each machine cost us roughly $300. From my research, the part needed to repair this washing machine was around $80. In order to do the repair however, you had to open up the machine and tilt it a certain way in order to get the piece out/in properly. For a skilled technician with experience, we're looking at 1-2 hours of labor. For the average homeowner with little or no repair experience with washing machines, we're looking at 2-4 hours of labor. From experience, anything that was meant to be "easy" can turn into something much longer. If you didn't read my last post, that's exactly an example of a quick-fix gone wrong. 

If we chose to call in a repair person to come fix our washing machine, we would have gotten charged $150-$200 for the repair including parts and labor. From this perspective, the math doesn't math. Why would I spend 66% of my initial cost just to fix a 12-year-old machine?

The second part of this logic was I actually wanted a larger machine.  When it comes to laundry, size actually does matter. With our old washing machine sized at 3.6 cu ft, I was washing three loads of laundry a week. Although I could do it and I had the time, it was a lot of individual loads of laundry. With our new machine sized at 5.5 cu ft, it feels like a bottomless pit compared to our old machine. Believe it or not, I have to force myself not to wash laundry too soon because it simply doesn't fill up enough to be efficient. 

Hello, washer and dryer. Hope you stay and work a long time. 

What's even more crazy is the Energy Star label for the new washing machine says it estimates a yearly operating cost of $10 with a gas water heater and 120 kWh. This is less electricity than our old machine for the same number of loads - 6 loads per week. Does this mean if I do one load of laundry per week for a year, my operating costs are only $1.66 and 20 kWh? According to the math....that would be the assumption. (believe it or not the cost of electricity estimate on the energy label is actually higher than what we pay....so theoretically, our cost should be even lower?)

I'm in slight disbelief at how such a large washer can use less energy than our old smaller washer, but this is the benefit of technology and innovation. The hope is these machines will last us another 12 years at the least. I would like to believe it will happen with little to no bumps along the way, but I'm a cynic. Despite technology and innovation having many benefits such as modern day efficiency and lower operating costs, longevity is not a benefit. 

Regardless, my laundry anxiety had to be relieved and a new washer was the way to go. The dryer was just an added bonus to reset the clock on its age so we wouldn't be replacing them at staggered intervals. Instead of dreading doing laundry, I'm looking forward to each next load (alas, infrequently...) I get to wash. That's a win in my book. 

Adapting

With the rise in technology and innovation, I think we're losing our ability to adapt. When we run out of something, we get in our cars and drive to the store. When we need something fast, we order it from Amazon. When something breaks, we immediately go buy a new one to replace it. While none of these are bad reactions in any way, we've forgotten how to "deal with it." We don't text a neighbor if they have any sugar because we don't really know our neighbors anymore. We don't think of ways how to go without something we don't have for a time. We don't think how to fix something before buying a new one. 

I had this thought because our kitchen sink has been causing us problems for nearly two weeks now. We discovered the water hose up the faucet was leaking. Our kitchen faucet has a lifetime warranty so we filed a claim. They were going to ship us a new part. Great! We just had to wait for it. This wasn't so bad. The worst part was anytime we pulled down the sprayer in our kitchen sink, another stream of water from the hose would shoot out. It would spray out and splash onto other nearby items. What was the worst thing that happened? I got an unexpected wet spot on the front of my shirt one day while rinsing dishes. Oops. 

Once the new part came, it was supposed to be a quick fix. There was a quick release to disconnect the broken hose and we'd attach the new hose. Simple, right? Well, it was supposed to be....

Turns out, when we released the broken house, the quick release collar also broke and wouldn't hold the new hose in place. We tried. Water sprayed everywhere. We had a soaking cabinet. 

We tried looking online for a replacement part. It wasn't easy to find. Any places which had it would need to be shipped to us and would take at least a couple days. Home Depot and Lowe's don't carry this part because it's too specific.  It's literally a less than $5 piece of plastic that we need to hold our hose together. 

Without any quick solutions, I contacted customer service again and they found the part to ship us. Again, it was covered under warranty so we didn't have to pay anything. We would just have to wait.....another week for it to arrive.

I've still reached for it or walked to the sink intending on using the faucet multiple times.

 

Thankfully, we could keep the water to the house on while we waited for this repair. We just couldn't turn on the kitchen faucet or we'd have a water feature underneath the sink. How did we cope?

We save water from our bathtub in laundry detergent jugs. I really thought I had written about it before on my blog and had hoped to link it, but I couldn't find it. In short, we save water and it came in handy to use as dish-rinsing water during this time of inconvenience. 

This water helped to rinse anything that could go into the dishwasher. For anything needing to be hand-washed, we carried it outside in a basin and used the hose to wash dishes. Honestly, it's not so bad. Our grass gets some extra water in very localized areas it wouldn't ordinarily receive, food bits are kept out of our bathroom sinks and bathtub drains, and everything gets clean as it usually would, just from a different water source and location. 

All in all, I wouldn't call this that inconvenient. All I have to do is take the dishes outside to wash. I still have running water. We still have dish soap. I have a sponge to scrub everything. And most of all, we have a working dishwasher to do 50-80% of the daily dishes. 

I received the shipping confirmation from the company for the broken part. I'm hoping to receive the piece by this weekend so we can have it replaced and use our kitchen sink again by next week.  As much as I hate to say it, doing the dishes this way probably saves me water compared to washing it all in the kitchen sink. I've learned to rinse dishes for the dishwasher with one gallon of water per meal. I definitely use more than a gallon of water rinsing dishes after a meal when it comes out of my kitchen faucet. Maybe I need to permanently keep a basin in the kitchen sink to hold water to rinse dishes so I'm not running the faucet as long. 

This week feels a little inconvenient, it can be laborious, and it can seem very frustrating. We've had to change our routine and habits. I've had to stop myself from accidentally turning on the kitchen faucet. But if I didn't write all this down, I think the events of this week would be forgotten in a few weeks or months, and definitely years. Our broken hose connector and the week we washed dishes outside would just file into the long lost memories of our family. 

Never stop forgetting how to adapt. It makes everything smoother, even when it's really not.  

Wisdom

I was having a conversation with my daughter yesterday. She was telling me she wanted to live with us at our house forever. I told her I was fine with that, but she'd have to contribute significantly.

Me: You know the water you use while washing your hands or brushing your teeth? You know how you like to leave it on for a long time and run the water? Who do you think is going to pay for it later?

S: Me?

Me: Yup! And you know all the yummy food you get to eat right now? Who do you think is going to cook it later?

S: Me?

Me: Exactly! And you know all the clean bowls and plates and cups you get to eat and drink out of right now? Who do you think is going to wash them?

S: Me!

Me: Yup!

S: Does this mean later I can yell at you and you have to listen to me?

Now this question made me stop and think for a second. There are a lot of things I reprimand my children for right now and rightly so as they are learning how to be competent people in society. Perhaps I don't always do it in the best execution possible, but it's coming from the desire for them to be intelligent, independent, and capable. 

But I stopped and prepared my answer carefully.

Me: Yes, but can you yell at me nicely? 

S: How do I do it nicely?

Me: It means you can talk to me normally and use a louder voice. 

😂

I've actually thought about this before I had this conversation with my daughter. One day, my children will be smarter than I am. I actually want that. Whether or not I will appreciate it is a different story, but I want them to be smarter than I am. I want them to be more capable than I ever was. I want them to be successful in all the ways I was and more. And if all this comes to fruition, it would mean I have succeeded at parenting. And if all of this comes to fruition, it would mean they will see my flaws and reprimand me.

My forever babies.

I actually already see this in practice in small ways. My children are only grade-school age but they're already showing budding signs of wisdom. The most common occurs when I ask them a question along the lines of, "What do you want?". They respond to me with what they want, and every now and then, I respond and tell them they can't have it.

This is when they respond to me with the most true and annoying response: then why'd you ask me in the first place?

They are absolutely right. If I had something in mind, I should have just told them, not asked them for their choice. As annoying as it is to hear this response, it reminds me that I didn't think about my words before I spoke them. 

I am someone who upholds others to high standards. I also uphold myself to these same high standards. So when this happens, I either apologize and say I shouldn't have asked, you don't get your choice, or, I give them what they picked instead.  

I've been watching this play out with my dad for years. I don't agree with many of his choices for various reasons, and I also cannot change his decisions. But it's hard to sit back and not say anything, especially when I think there are better options that he's not choosing. Making decisions out of fear or desperation usually doesn't yield the most wise choices. 

Does he see it as my wisdom? I don't know. I wish he would, but that's not my choice either. 

The Greatest Compliment

Over the years, many parents of students I have taught or still teach have paid me very nice compliments. It's reaffirming to know parents appreciate me for my knowledge and talents. One parent wrote me a note when her son was stopping lessons saying she wished she had found me earlier as a teacher for him. 

Despite these wonderful praises, I don't think I knew what the greatest compliment I could receive as a teacher could be until this summer. In late May this year, I received a text from a former student:

I was wondering if you are doing any summer lessons? I don’t have a summer class this year and have some extra free time 😊 

Believe it or not, this is not the first time I've had a former student restart lessons with me. I have had students in the past leave piano for various reasons and a few were able to resume them with me after a period of time. This was the first time a graduated student in college wanted to return for lessons during the summer. 

We found Hook Hand at Disney 1.5 years ago

 
I was so excited. We had eight weeks of lessons together over the summer and it was so good to be able to see this student again. I loved that we were able to pick up right back where we left off as student and teacher. I loved how we could adapt to both being adults and it was apparent what a few more years of maturity could add to the learning process. 

This student wasn't a stellar performer or prize winner by any means. This student wasn't even someone who excelled for their age. But what this student has is something I did not have when I was the same age. This student has a love of the instrument, a desire to continue learning, and an open mind. And it's the cherry on top that I get to be the teacher who helps make it possible.

I remember all the seniors I've graduated from lessons and still make an effort to send a birthday email every year just to wish him or her well. Most of them write back to me, and it makes me smile to read their short reply.  

This student, by taking lessons with me this summer, paid me the greatest compliment without even knowing it. It is an honor to be remembered. 

InKind

I don't promote anything unless I actually believe in it. Depending on the product, sometimes it takes years, and sometimes, I never promote it because I'm never convinced. Today, I'm promoting something.

My SIL introduced me to InKind a while back. I got the app but I didn't actually use it. In short, it's a restaurant rebate program that rewards you for eating out. I browsed the restaurants on the app but didn't end up using it for a long time. I didn't really understand how to use it, and I didn't feel like eating out just to find out how.

Fast forward about 6-8 months, maybe more. We were going to New York. I was going to be taking two kids around the city by myself for 1.5 days. I was pretty terrified. I am not your tour guide/planner when it comes to vacations. I like to be the one who goes along for the trip and has someone else telling me what to do, where to go, and what we're going to eat. Needless to say, I was stressed and put off planning this trip for a long time. 

The week before we left, I finally started to think about what to do with my kids. I knew if I didn't have a plan, we'd end up sitting on the bed in the hotel room watching HGTV or Food Network for hours and hours. That was no way to spend valuable time in New York! We were even staying overnight in Manhattan - this may never happen again in my life. Planning food is one of my childhood traumas. Growing up, if we went on vacation, we ate a lot of McDonald's and Burger King. Why? It was cheap. While I understand the mentality, that is not my approach to vacations anymore with my family. Taking that into account, I had to find restaurants where I could bring my children by myself and find them safe food they would eat. This ended up being some version of chicken nuggets and sushi.  

Premade or Homemade? Make your guess!

The perk of being in NYC and using InKind was tons of restaurants were on the app. I was able to save my favorites and mark their locations in the areas where we would be. This gave me options to give my children to pick from and allowed our mealtime choices to be stress-free and enjoyable rather than stressful and angry. 

So let me tell you about this app from someone who is very particular about anything and everything. 

1. You have to pay your bill through the app. Whether you pay directly when you order in the app or pay your bill using the app, it has to go through the app. At a sit-down restaurant, this means when your check comes out, you have to get the check number and type it through the app. Then, the app pays for you with a payment method saved in the app - this could be a credit card or money you've preloaded into the app. If you are ordering at a restaurant, this means you scan your QR code at the register at the end of your order. We encountered some difficulty with this at one restaurant because I saw ordering tablets off to the side upon entering. I went to the tablet, made my order, but then didn't see any way to use InKind to pay for the order. I went to the cashier to ask and he told me I had to place the order with him at the cash register. (I didn't even realize this was an option because I saw the tablets first upon entering). While I probably felt like a dumb customer who didn't know what to do, asking meant I figured it out instead of paying for the order myself at the tablet without going through the app. 

2. The way your rewards work has some caveats. You can only use one reward per transaction. This means you have to choose between getting a % cash back on your order or using your cashback rewards to pay for a part/all of your order. Now you really do get a % cash back on your order. If the restaurant offers you a 10% cash back and your pre-tax total is $50 worth of food, you will earn $5 cash back to use on a future order. The catch is if you are buying $50 worth of food and you want to use $7 in your account that you've earned previously, you will not be earning 10% ($5) cash back on top of the $7 discount you're using. I did not know this until I went to New York and started using the app and earning cash back. On the flip side, any cash back you earn on orders is available immediately. If you earned $5 from your lunch meal and you want to go get dessert somewhere nearby which is also on InKind, that $5 can be used toward your dessert order immediately. This is a really nice perk.

3. Cash back does expire. In short, they give you 2 months, but they're nice enough to give you the full month, so it ends up being between 60-90 days. For example, I have $8.65 sitting in my account as cash back. I earned my last reward on July 14, 2026. That $8.65 in cash back expires on September 30, 2026. It is the end of the second month from the date I earned the reward - 75 ish days. 

If you live in a more urban area, this app is very convenient and handy. I will definitely be using this app again if we travel to larger cities - Seattle, Chicago, LA, NYC for sure. It's a great "bonus" in additional to any normal credit card rewards you'd earn paying with your card when eating out. If this sounds like something which would benefit you, give it a try and sign up for $25 off a $50 meal! (Yes, the discount is instant.)

Storage: Eggs!

As my kids get older, the amount of food we consume has increased.  One grocery item specifically is eggs. We can go through a dozen eggs in about two days depending on what I'm cooking. Because of this, I've started buying eggs from a wholesaler near us. I can get 30 eggs for $2. These are not the kind of eggs I would be making homemade mayonnaise with or using raw, but for how I use eggs, they fit the budget and work for us. 

Because of our refrigerator is constantly holding over 15 eggs at a time, I needed a better way to store them. Back in April/May, we were at the store browsing and came across egg drawers. The idea was cool but I couldn't fork over the money. They were around $12 each to store 18 eggs. The plastic felt thin and cheap. Some of the ones on the shelf were already cracked. I looked online to see what else was out there and found ones sold at The Container Store. These were over $20 each. We didn't end up purchasing anything. 

Earlier this month, we were facing an egg surplus in our refrigerator. I always like to have eggs on hand because they're an easy meal-maker if I don't feel like doing any serious cooking. This time though, I overdid it a bit. We still had eggs at home and I added to our collection by buying another 2.5 dozen from the store. What resulted was 43 eggs in our refrigerator at one time. 

I saved egg cartons from the stores that hold two dozen, but I didn't have enough to hold all 43 eggs. What resulted was a weird mishmash of three containers in our refrigerator to hold them all.  

Chaos.

Storing these eggs precariously in our refrigerator like this drastically reduced our storage space. I couldn't put anything on top of the eggs in this level anymore. It is true this setup doesn't stay forever as we eat the eggs, but it does make for an inconvenient use of our refrigerator for at least a few days. As we ate the eggs, I rearranged them in the fridge to be more organized, but even so, it wasn't ideal. 

I was able to consolidate the eggs to one side of the shelf, but still 
couldn't stack anything on top. The ones in the bowl are raw.

After enduring these days of precariously storing eggs in our refrigerator, I decided again to look online to see what was out there. I remember seeing The Container Store advertise their big clearance event. I had even browsed a few pages of their clearance online for fun but didn't see anything worth purchasing. This time, I searched their egg storage again. Did I get lucky?

I did! They were 70% off regular retail so I was able to get two for the price of one. I've purchased their brand of organizational bins before so I knew their plastic quality was much better than the ones I'd seen at the other store a few months prior. I ordered two of them and waited patiently for my in-store pickup confirmation. The eggs in my refrigerator are now organized nice and neatly in two stacks of 18 (when maxed out).

Open.

Closed. I should probably remove the front stickers...

 

I am super happy with how this turned out! I have room for 3 dozen eggs in my refrigerator now, and if somehow I happen to have overflow, they're going to live on top for a little bit in my half dozen carton. It is true my refrigerator will have two egg drawers taking up space on this shelf even if I have zero eggs in my refrigerator. The likelihood of that is pretty slim though. Regardless, this organization works for us because I know exactly how much space I have in my refrigerator to use and it will not be affected by how many eggs I need to store. 

If you want your own egg storage drawers at a good price, they still have some left (in my area)! Not sponsored by The Container Store. 

Eternal Company

 

I went to visit my aunt this summer. I've met her three times in my life. The first was when I went to Taiwan as a toddler. The second was when she came to visit us in Texas at our old house before we moved. I remember it being after my mom had just been diagnosed with cancer. My aunt had been diagnosed with an illness herself about a decade before. I remember loving the week my aunt came to visit us. She could speak English so we felt very comfortable talking to her. We moved the following summer and then my aunt came again to visit, this time, with my grandparents. That was the third and last time I saw her in person. 

My aunt always made it a point to show she cared about us. She sent us Christmas cards from overseas. She gave us small gifts and trinkets. I still have a key chain she made for me. She had drawn a design and written my name on the other side. 

 

My aunt died four years after my mother died. My dad didn't fly back when she passed. To give him the benefit of the doubt, I think he was torn. He was still working, and he had two children he was taking care of. On the contrary, he could have flown back if he really wanted to. I was a junior in high school who had a car and was driving myself. My brother was in college. He was already living on his own and I could have made it myself for a week or two if I had to - my dad could have left me some money for food and I would have been fine. But that's not what he chose to do.

(My dad has not been to visit his sister since she died. This, I can no longer give him the benefit of the doubt because it's been 18 years and he has been back overseas numerous times. I'm sure he has a set of "logic" which he makes his decisions by, but this is "logic" I will never agree with. )

When I told my dad I was pregnant with my daughter, I had told him my due date. The first thing he told me was, "That's your aunt's birthday." Mentally, I made a note how cool it was if she could be born on the same day as my aunt. (She didn't end up being born on her due date, but later, I'd find out for myself that my dad was wrong.) 

When we went back to Taiwan this year, we spent most of the time with my family. It wasn't a tourism visit. I knew we were going to be spending a lot of time with my family and doing "simple" adventures together. We visited a lot of parks. We walked various neighborhoods in the area and joked about buying houses to live as expats and raising our children overseas. We ate a lot of home-cooked food and shopped downstairs at the closest grocery store. 

One thing I almost forgot to do was to visit my aunt. My grandparents were more on the forefront of my mind because my grandma had just passed this year. But then, I remembered my aunt. Her resting place is in the same city as where my family lives. My uncle was able to drive us to go see my aunt. 

My aunt's birthday is February 20th.

 

When I saw her marker, the first thing I noticed was the Bible verse. It's written in Chinese, and it may be the only verse I can recognize and read in Chinese. It is the same verse that we picked for my mother. 

 

If you can read the characters, you'll see they match the ones on her marker. It's the last verse of Psalm 23.  I really couldn't believe two different people in my family, laid to rest in two different countries, unbeknownst to each other, share the same verse for their legacy. 

Happy Birthday, Mommy. I hope you're enjoying each other's company. 

Deja Vu

My kids are responsible for their own water bottles. They don't carry purses or wallets, no money or credit cards, but the one thing I've expected them to keep track of by themselves is their water bottle. About two and a half years ago, I met a friend at a Dunkin' Donuts and my son came with me. He did some homework and sat on the side eating donuts while I chatted with my friend. We left Dunkin' when I had to go pick up my daughter from school. I don't remember how much time had elapsed until I realized, but my son didn't have his water bottle anymore. That afternoon, I called the store to ask to see if they saw it. They told me they did not see a water bottle. 

His teal water bottle...that we almost lost. 

The day went by and I was completely baffled by where his water bottle could be. That evening, I told my husband I was convinced it was at Dunkin' Donuts still. He drove back to the store, and 'lo and behold, the water bottle was in the store on the chair at the table where we had sat that morning. The employees probably didn't see it when we called because the water bottle wasn't on top of the table and they didn't walk out to the area to inspect closer. I was impressed it was still there nearly 12 hours later. I guess not a lot of people sit at the tables and eat in.

*** 

My son has now had two more years to mature since this incident. But once again, I found myself asking him where his water bottle was. We had just gone to Braum's for ice cream and driven back home. I had opened the back door to put my purse and water in the back since I was driving my dad. It didn't even occur to me I didn't see his water bottle anywhere.

After parking at my dad's, I was in the back seat grabbing my things when I realized his water bottle was nowhere to be seen. He wouldn't respond to any of my questions when asked so I looked up the phone number for Braum's and called to see if they had it just to be sure before I drove back. 

I asked them about a gray water bottle with a blue band around it. They looked and told me they didn't see it. In my head, I was thinking you've got to be kidding me. I'd literally experienced this exact situation just years before. I went back to the car and searched the backseat again, not that it was very big to begin with. I craned my head and peered under the two front seats to see if it had rolled. I couldn't find it. 

I ended up telling my dad and the kids I'd drive back to Braum's and just go look myself to see if it was there. Thankfully, it's not too far from my dad's. I parked the car in the same vicinity as we originally did just to make sure his water bottle wasn't rolling around the parking lot somewhere. Then I got out of the car and started walking toward the entrance. I saw the bottle on the table even before the sliding doors opened for me since they built out a glass window. 

Different water bottle. Same name band. Different year. Same situation. 

I walked in, grabbed the water bottle, and left, wanting to shake my head at how similar once again this situation was.

And then I remembered something. I called the wrong location.

If you don't live here, I have to give you some backstory. These two Braum's are less than 3 miles away from each other in the same city. They are located on the same street. It would be less than 10 minutes drive to get from one to the other. But there's one catch. The street name changes after you cross the highway. When I did my quick Google search to find their phone number, I only looked up Braum's and the city name. I failed to remember to check the street name because in my head it was the same street. 

So when they told me over the phone they didn't see a gray water bottle with a blue band around, they really didn't, and the water bottle in fact was not at their location at all. 

This was extra drama I really didn't need added to my day, but we had a happy ending.  

Sticky Rice Dumplings（粽子）

I have a vague memory of watching an old family video of my grandparents at their third to last house. We're in their kitchen and they're wrapping sticky rice dumplings. I'm probably no more than 2-3 years old. I've always loved these, but they're not an everyday food because of how labor-intensive they are to make. When I moved to China for a year, I remember wanting to find some. I flipped back through my scrapbook of photos from that year and I didn't find any photos of sticky rice dumplings. Honestly, I don't remember eating any that year. If I did, there's a high chance it was a sweet one filled with a date. 

Although by definition, it is still a sticky rice dumpling, it wasn't the kind I grew up with as a child. I wanted the savory salty ones filled with pork, peanuts, and mushrooms. A few years ago, I told myself I'd try making them. After reading some recipes and realizing it wasn't a spur-of-the-moment type cooking endeavor, I gave up on it. 

Last year when we went to Taiwan, we bought some sticky rice dumplings from a food market. We bought a few different flavors to try, and one of them was the kind I grew up with. For the duration of that sticky rice dumpling, I was teleported back to my childhood when I was able to eat this flavor because my grandparents made them. 

This year, I planned ahead and purchased ingredients to make my own sticky rice dumplings. 

• bamboo leaves
• cotton twine
• sticky rice
• split mung beans
• pork belly
• shiitake mushrooms

mise en place

 

To make these, I consulted various recipes including the ones from Woks of Life, Made with Lau, and a video to teach me how to fold them. Between these three recipes, I came up with a blended version of my own. Primarily from Woks of Life, I used their rice seasoning as well as meat marinade. I consulted Made with Lau on cooking time as well as other marinade variations. Then, it was time to get messy and get folding. 

 

I don't have great advice on how to fold these. It's pretty tricky at first. Once you get the hang of how to hold them and fold the leaves, it goes much better. I ended up using a mixture of two leaves and three leaves to fold depending on the size and quality of the leaves. The smaller leaves I used three just to be sure I could get a good seal on it. If the leaves ever cracked, I would just add another leaf on the outside as a "bandaid" to keep everything together before tying. 

 

We ended up making over 60 of these with the ingredients we had. For a first-try, I'd say it was quite successful overall. The first batch I cooked according to the recipe and boiled for 4 hours. This was way too long. We had already soaked the rice overnight so I think 4 hours yielded way too sticky of a texture for my liking. Even cutting off 1 hour would have made a big difference. The later batches we boiled, we cut down the cooking time to 2 hours and even without soaking rice overnight, I think they turned out fine. 

For loving sticky rice dumplings so much, I didn't actually know the story behind why these are eaten. My kids and I watched a short video summarizing the history of this holiday. In short, there was a Chinese poet named Qu Yuan. Due to corruption, he was banished. After this, he walked into the river holding a giant rock and was never seen again. Balls of rice were dropped into the river to prevent fish from eating his body. These balls of rice have evolved into the sticky rice dumplings eaten to celebrate this holiday. 

I personally don't think about the cultural reference of these very much. I just enjoy eating them. 

Yum!

 

Along with my own nostalgia after eating these, I got great feedback from sharing these with family and friends I view as family. The highest compliment came from an auntie friend of mine whom I view as a motherly figure. The closest translation of her response would be, "It was very similar to the ones I ate in Taiwan - very sticky and fragrant."

My dad on the other hand had a very different response. I had brought these over to eat with him for lunch and didn't say anything regarding where they came from. While we were eating, he asked me, "Did you buy these or did a friend give them to you?" I told him I made them. His eyes flashed wide for a split of a second and that was it. He didn't even tell me if they tasted good or not. 😂 Sigh. 

I'm not going to do the cost breakdown on these like I did last year during my Takeout series, but realistically, these are being sold at the store for approximately $4-5 each. Maybe one day if I get desperate, you may find me selling these somewhere...🤣

The Costs of Growth

In March of 2024, I blogged about two plants I had. One was an aglaonema I purchased in the fall of 2023. The other was a calathea I purchased in March of 2024. Here's what they looked like in the spring of 2024.

They're quite pretty. Or...they used to be.

My aglaonema is on the left. The calathea is on the right. Both looked great, had healthy leaves, and seemed to be on their way to a healthy life. I've never considered myself a plant guru, but I figured some water and light would sustain these plants.

In the last 2-3 years, these plants have tested me a lot. My calathea struggled constantly with spider mites. Leaves would grow and then die. My aglaonema had its own set of issues. I realized the big box store had planted them with plastic cages around the roots. Upon realizing this, I had to un-cage each root and then repot it. Both plants came with self-watering pots which I learned work for neither plant. They had severe root rot and their death was impending. 

You want to see what they look like now? You scared? Yeah, I was scared too. 

They're still alive!

 

My plants are a shadow of what they used to be. However, they are still alive. Yup, that's right. They are still alive. That's not to say they didn't go through near-death experiences to grow again. My calathea has "died" twice. After the spider mites and root rot, I realized I had to basically start over if I wanted any chance of the plant surviving. I moved her to a terra cotta pot to better control water absorption and ended up cutting all of the leaves off and letting the plant re-grow completely. Was this risky? Absolutely. I knew there was a chance she wouldn't make it. And yet, if I sat back and did nothing differently, it was guaranteed death for this plant. After she started re-growing, I got excited to see new leaves bud. Little did I know, due to watering errors, she was going to cycle through death again and re-grow new leaves a third time. This is the plant you now see. There are a total of four leaves and another one emerging. 

My aglaonema had a near death experience in April of this year. After dropping nearly all of her leaves, I decided it was time to do some major surgery. I had done some research and found that this plant propogates pretty easily from nodes. However, my plant didn't have any nodes on the stems. I ended up cutting the plants about 2 inches beneath the leaves on the stem, dipping the stems in rooting hormone, and planting them in soil. I kept them this way for about a month. When I was getting ready to leave for a two-week trip, I decided to re-pot all the stems in one terra cotta pot in order to make it easier to water. My dad was helping me care for my plants when I was gone and I had told him there was a chance this one may not make it. 

After I came back from my trip, I saw new growth coming out of every stem. I wasn't expecting this because when I had re-potted the stems together, I examined them for roots. I had only seen roots on one stem so I was expecting at least 1-2 to die. 

Seeing new leaf buds brings me a lot of joy.

Taking care of my plants has taught me a lot about life. Especially these two. They have needs, but their needs can be particular. They need light, but too much, and the leaves will burn. They need water, but too much, and the roots will rot. Not all issues are visible from the outside. Root rot can only be found if you dig up the plant and look at the roots. Changes need to be made in order to foster new growth and better health. Research needs to be done so you can understand the signs your plant is communicating with you. Sometimes, change is drastic and risks the whole plant.  Sometimes, change is what it takes to help the plant grow healthier. All of this is work. It takes time and energy. 

It's a far away dream for me my plants will ever look the way they did in the first photograph. It's not impossible. If growth continues, they will eventually fill out again with leaves. Realistically though, it may take several years of continual healthy growth in order to return back to their original beauty.  For now, I'm focusing on keeping the growth going so they continue to grow new leaves. 

A Hairbrush

Who (women and ladies) just goes to the store and picks out a replacement hairbrush when it's time? If this is you, I commend your ability to do so because I cannot. I am far too particular to be able to just pick one. There are too many styles and types of hairbrushes out there.

When I say hairbrush, I just want a basic hairbrush to brush my hair with in the morning after I wake up. I'm not looking for anything to do fancy styling with or even a blowout brush. I really just want a basic hair brush that can be used for generally anything involving brushing my hair. 

About 10-11 years ago, I bought a hair brush to replace the one I had in college and have kept using it since. It met my needs. Since then, it has begun to die and break down. All the color which used to be on the tip of the bristles has disappeared.  The cushioning to which the bristles are attached to has cracked. Many of my bristles are missing in the corner with the crack. It started becoming common where I'd brush my hair and then see a bristle land in my sink. Or I'd hear something lightly ping on the floor, only to realize it was another bristle coming out of my hairbrush. 

A few years back I bought a replacement.  After buying this replacement, I learned a lot about hair brush materials and manufacturing technique. For my first hairbrush, the bristles were plastic. Each bristle however had a rounded tip. This tip was painted a different color, and the color wore off after years of use. But the tip stayed rounded. On my replacement hair brush, I saw a rounded tip which was also colored. After using it for a few weeks, I discovered that the rounded tip was not actually the tip of the bristle. It was a small drop of something added to the tip of each bristle which would fall off with use. This left an extremely pointed plastic bristle. Over time, brushing my hair with this hair brush felt like an intense scalp massage. Although I can see how some people may enjoy this, this was not the hair brushing experience I wanted every day. 

Because of the quick degeneration of this hair brush, I ended up simply going back to my original hair brush and the newer brush was left unused in my drawer. This went on for a while until my husband decided it was time to get me a proper hair brush which wasn't cracked and missing bristles and didn't feel like I was getting an intense scalp massage every time I brushed my hair.  

Oldest to Newest

The hairbrush he bought me was a one piece design. It is completely plastic. The bristles are integrated into the brush head which is connected to the handle. It's unlikely bristles will fall out of this brush, but I haven't used it long enough to see any true wear and tear yet. A few of the bristles have bent, but I think that is bound to happen given the materials and the nature of the function. This hairbrush is specifically not meant to be used with any heating tools or hair dryers because it is completely made of plastic. 

As I get older, I'm more conscientious about quality and materials. I've noticed changes in my hair texture and "personality." I've wondered if the type of hairbrush I use affects the quality of my hair care. I'm sure it does. I just haven't taken the time to really look into it.

My personality doesn't like to throw things away unless they are broken, dirty, or nonfunctional. I don't think my old hairbrush qualifies completely in either of these three categories which is why I've struggled to get rid of it. I did purposely save it long enough so I could capture an image for this blog and write about my hairbrush wisdom. There's a high chance when you are reading about these hairbrushes, I will have successfully trashed the oldest one.

If you have a hairbrush you absolutely love, please tell me which one it is! It just might be my next replacement 😉 

The Crippling Side of "Knowledge"

I'm going to write this blog as an entire hypothetical math/science problem because that's the simplest way I can explain it. All numbers are hypothetical and not meant to be informative or correct. 

**** 

We have ABC Soap. You saw this cool video online showing you how make DIY foaming soap. You were told to use 30% soap and 70% water.  We mix 30% of ABC Soap with 70% water. We put it in a foaming dispenser and dispense it. It works. Yay! That was so easy! You can make your own DIY foaming soap and you don't have to pay a premium to buy the foaming one from the store.

Fast forward 2 years. You ended up having to move to a different state because your job relocated you. The store doesn't carry the brand ABC Soap. You find XYZ Soap which is a similar product. You go home, make your 30/70 mixture of soap to water, fill it in your foaming dispenser, and you have your foaming soap again!

Foreshadowing: XYZ Soap is less viscous than ABC Soap.  

Now, you invite some new friends over to your house as a housewarming party since your move. You're having a great time, but suddenly, one of them approaches you and says, "Hey, your foaming soap isn't really working. I can't get the chicken wing grease off my hands. What's going on with it?"

I asked AI to generate me an image and I got a kitchen sink basin in a bathroom setting.

You immediately get angry with this friend because it's your trusty DIY foaming soap method. You followed the instructions and immediately cancel this friend in your head because she doesn't like your soap. She's not getting invited back to your house ever again. Little do you know, the rest of the guests at your party are also not fans of your foaming soap, but they didn't bring it up to you. 

**** 

If you're reading this and your brain is cranking, that's great! There's so many things to think about with regard to this story. First off, let's start with the soap. Did the video use ABC Soap when teaching you how to make foaming soap? Regardless if they did or didn't, there's a margin of error. What if you used a 35/65 ratio? What if you used a 25/75 ratio? Would they still have worked? Did it have to be that perfect 30/70? 

The biggest shortcoming in this story is that the main character ended up buying a different brand of soap after the move. Even though they followed the original ratio, if someone says she can't get the chicken wing grease off after washing her hands with soap...I think the logical conclusion is that there is something wrong with the soap. Of course, we are under the assumption that she isn't lying, used soap, and washed her hands correctly. If all of those factors are true, then all signs lead to the soap.

The main character refused to acknowledge the soap as the problem because the same ratio was used in making the foaming soap. But did this person think about the viscosity and feel of the soap before and after making it foam? Making your own foaming soap is not as easy as it seems because it depends on what your starting point is. The internet can only give you generic information because it is trying to appeal to a wide audience. If your liquid soap is more watery to begin with, you will need to add less water to make it foam. If your liquid soap is more thick to begin with, you will need to add more water to make it foam. The most important factor here isn't the percentage of soap to water at all. It's actually the dilution factor. Nobody labels dilution factors on packaging because if they did, we'd all feel scammed by how much water is in liquid soap.  Even though this character followed the instructions given, it wasn't enough knowledge to successfully accomplish the goal at hand. 

****

I've used foaming soap as an example here to represent how someone can follow instructions and believe everything is "right" while still ending up in the wrong.  Our intelligence, however strong, still has to be coupled with experience and the ability to analyze. For this situation, I would ask this main question: did you use your own soap and experience its washing capabilities? 

Playing Cards

My kids have gotten into playing cards now. They love playing Go Fish, Crazy 8s, 3 Up 3 Down, and War. It's actually a lot of fun to play with them but I wish I had more energy. For some reason, sitting on the couch with them playing cards induces a sleepiness I never knew I possessed. I think the most logical explanation is that I'm constantly "on alert" as an adult, so for me to sit down and relax allows my body to feel tired, hence the sleepiness. Reading books to them used to do the same thing to me, but now that both my children know how to read on their own, I haven't read a book to them...in a while. 

Having my children playing cards resurfaced an old memory I had from a card game my grandfather taught me. He would deal out the cards in a Solitaire style with seven wells. The first well only had one card face up. The second well had one card face down and one card face up. The third well would have two cards face down and one card face up. Once 7 wells were dealt out in this same pattern, the remaining cards in the deck were all dealt face up evenly distributed between wells 2-7.  

Game Set Up. 

The cards are then linked by number and suit in order. Whatever cards are underneath the card to be moved must follow the card as you move cards between the columns. Face down cards can only be flipped if the whole column of face up cards are moved to connect into a different column. For the photo above, some viable moves would be moving the 8 of spades from column 2 underneath the 9 of spades in column 3. You can also move the Jack of diamonds from column 6 underneath the Queen of diamonds in column 4. Both these moves would result in being able to flip a card from the wells in column 2 and 6. Once a column was empty, you could move Kings into their place, but the maximum number of columns was 7.

I never learned the name of this game. It might be a Chinese name. But I loved playing as a child. The winning percentage of this game is extremely low. By a completely random shuffle, the odds of winning were less than 10%.  

Because this game was so difficult, I would sometimes continue the game by moving Kings into extra columns just to see if I could win the game that way. If I won with extra columns, it was nice, but it didn't feel as special. For the games I was able to win playing according to the actual rules, I made a wish.  

No more moves.

 

The closest game to this one I've found is a card game called Scorpion. The initial deal and playing rules are the most similar I've seen to the one my grandfather taught me. 

I can play Scorpion online if I wanted

 

I taught this game to my daughter one day when she said she was bored. It's a little too much for her to handle right now, but I hope one day she can enjoy this card game by herself and have fond memories of playing cards. 

Our House is Special

We've been in our house for 11 years! The journey of our house was a long five months, we lost a lot of houses I really wanted, but I believe we got the perfect house for us in the end. 

My daughter and I went on a walk after lunch recently on a Tuesday afternoon on one of her home school days. I wrote about why I love the school we go to, and being able to take walks with her in our neighborhood during the week is an example of the extra time she and I have gotten to spend together. On this particular day, we ran into a neighbor one street over.

This neighbor is an artist and she showed us her latest charcoal drawing. She talked to us about the birds in their yard, the flowers she planted, and we had a nice chat together. After saying goodbye, we kept walking. I waved to a neighbor mowing his lawn outside. I don't personally know him, but we frequently see him outside working in his yard.

As we came back around to our street, we walked about halfway home and ran into a neighbor, J, who has shared so many plants with us.  

She dropped this off for us this past Christmas.

As we got to her house, the neighbor across the street had just parked their car.  J called them over to our side of the street and introduced us to each other. After our brief meeting, J explained to me how they got into the neighborhood. Their parents and siblings were down a few streets over in another part. This house was the closest they could find for their other son whom I had just met. 

J and I talked and shared some life moments. I gave her the 5-minute synopsis of my latest and ongoing family stress. She shared with me her mother had just passed. We bonded over an eternal joy and hope which helps us to keep our eyes on the prize.  

As our conversation wrapped up, the neighbor who lives next to us was walking his dog by. I noticed only one dog. I asked if they had to say goodbye to Allie. They did. She was 15. After a brief conversation about plants, we both said goodbye to J and walked down the street to our houses. This neighbor is 79 and turning 80 in June. 

By the time my daughter and I returned home, it was nearly 2:30. Being that I start work in the afternoon and work through evening hours, I have to watch the time on my "fun" to make sure I can get to work on time. Although I wasn't late by any means, it was much later than I had anticipated on making it back home. Our walk lasted nearly an hour and it was getting hot outside. 

Although I returned home physically tired and a bit stressed at having to teach 4 hours of lessons that afternoon and evening, it was joyous. I love getting to walk through my neighborhood and smile at neighbors I know and have conversations with them and share life. I love feeling the comfort my neighbors bring when I see them and being able to enjoy their company. I don't take this for granted because I know not everyone has this or feels this way. I know I didn't grow up with it in either of the houses we lived in when I was a child. 

Our house is very special.