Meg Reads

Continuing my 2020 focus to read books, I felt early on in the year that all the books I read should be for fun. I’m already bored with that. 

So February’s book was super “fun” but I don’t feel like reading it served enough purpose for me. I don’t feel more relaxed, more fulfilled, more educated, or more anything, really. I am satisfied that I finally read a Jane Austen book, though!  Feels like such a grown up thing to do. How adulty of me. 

What’s not adulty? Spending so much time reading a book.  I’ve got to switch over to audio books or back to paper. The kindle format on my phone just has me staring at my phone screen even more than I was when I decided to “put the phone down more often and read a book.”  Which wouldn’t matter except that my preschoolers cannot tell the difference, and at least if my nose was perched on paper instead of a device, I’d be physically and more intentionally setting a good example for my young children to read and read and read.  I wondered this about my teens and scriptures. If they didn’t see me with paper scriptures, would they know I read and study and ponder every day every day every day? Will they follow my lead and learn to love the word of God? Or do they think I idle away every spare minute on social media? Or do they care or notice a difference at all? I feel this way about kindle books. Fun to read on a different, very convenient format. But this book was a long read and kind of a time suck to devote to “just for fun”. I don’t know. The vocabulary/old English dialect was a nice interesting change, and fun to decipher, but I’ll be reading something with more brain power for March.  

I feel like I need to watch the old Masterpiece Theatre A&E movie mini series version again. Lydia, Mary, Kitty, Mr and Mrs Bennet are well cast. I enjoyed reading Mrs Bennet and Lydias obnoxiousness...what a train wreck. I liked Elizabeth much more in the movie than in the book. And I loved her sister Jane’s always well-assuming and forgiving character so much more in the book, I wanted a back story of her good natured selflessness and wish she were the main character. I also secretly wanted Miss Bingley to get some comeuppance for being so nasty to Jane. Or at least a legit change of heart and not just I just can’t stand mean girls who exclude and out down the introverted kind girl, even in books. 

A thoughtful gesture

A total stranger was doing some work at a neighbor’s home while we were out front doing yard work.  Before he left, he came by to introduce himself, and hands us cookies out of the truck because “I saw your van, and the only people I know who drive a van like that are Foster Families, so these are for you.” I then recognized him as half of the couple who won Arkansas Foster Parents of the Year, last year.  These wonderful people have welcomed 60+ children into their home and family over the years, they have a house full of teenagers, and here they are giving US cookies, inviting us to join their circle of support, and showing us by example that sometimes it takes very little to give encouragement and say “I see you.”

Quincy Suzuki Celebration

Q participated in  district wide Suzuki Celebration for 7th graders, this week. She came home with a medal and a trophy for being among the students who mastered all of the songs in Suzuki Book 1, and performing them tonight. She is making great progress and working on the last piece in Book 2, at home.   Keep it up, Quincy Bee! 


Here is a pic that I took while volunteering at their rehearsal on Monday night. 

Willy You My Valentine?

Love is in the Willy House! ❤️ shaped calzones for this crazy bunch of people I love to love! It is so fun to scroll IG and see the many ways people celebrate loving each other.  Here are some of ours: today, I folded all of the boys’ laundry for them and did the older girls’ daily chore/contributions for them, just because. Tomorrow, I’m teaching a friend how to make artisan bread and the triplets will help me make chocolate covered strawberries for Aaron and then I might even iron because a freshly pressed shirt is totally his love language. I patiently listened to a 25 minute detailed dissertation on dodgeball this afternoon because Valentine’s Day reminded me to be intentional and love better by listening better. My parents served me today by entertaining Sloane while Aaron and I met with the restoration company about getting the work on our house finally completed, and then they babysat again to rescue from 2 hours in the car during piano and cello lessons. Huge blessing and I felt the love! This year is a unique one because it only required making ONE valentine box 🥳! Soren loaded up his millennium falcon with all sorts of special cards and thoughtful, adorable treasures. I 🥰 this fun holiday and all its little ways to love well.

The love fest continued all weekend and into the following weekend. I made a chocolate fondue and cheese fondue. Eunice came over for a Sunday afternoon visit and brought her homemade chips that we love so much with bean dip and salsa, and I added some guac. the primary president gave heart balloons to all the primary children. Aaron brought home a pot of tulip bulbs that we enjoyed watching grow and bloom on our table. Corbin and Aaron made face pancakes and brought me breakfast in bed, and Aaron and I finally made it over to the new Torchys Tacos....which did not live up to the Texas torchys experience. But a date and a taco are always a win.  

A Sonnet, by Reese

Reese is writing a Sonnet about our family road trip for an English assignment and sent me this photo of her work in progress, tonight. 

Willy Family Road Trip 2019 for the win! 

Haha best memories, indeed. What a trip that was. 

Meg Reads

I read a book in January! 

An actual book. For fun! 

I know. I almost cannot believe it, either. 

I liked 75% of this one. The whimsical, the draw for book lovers, the imagery, the stories within stories within stories that are actually metaphors about people who love stories. There were gaps and loopholes in the timeline, but that was the point and the book was a bit of a rabbit hole. I liked most of it. But reading it also felt a bit like being trapped in a labyrinth because I’m not sure the author knew the way out either. The characters became the metaphors and things got a little weird. Like being lost in the maze. Maybe it’s supposed to be that way. Maybe the writing and editing grew weary of walking in circles. But by the time I was ready to lose interest, the end was in sight so I kept reading with a hope of redemption for the last few misplaced abstract chapters and story pulled itself back together enough that it’s still a winner. Definitely not the Night Circus, but a captivating read.  

I read a book, and made it back up to the surface after a whirlwind trip on the starless sea.  

Meg Runs Bentonville Race Series: Valentine Sweetheart 8k

Ok, o I was supposed to run 8 miles today, but Jennifer Van Slooten, Leslie Chapman, and Mary Saumweber got me out to run 8 on Thursday with them. It was 18 degrees and those ladies are crazy fast! I kept up but it was rough! We ran a 9:30 average pace for 8.5 miles! And miles 7 and 8 were the fastest over all. This got me wondering what I could do in the race this weekend. So I took off guns blazing. That’s always a mistake. I’m still sore from Thursday, and an 8k is still 5 miles! Ahhh! I was getting tired. 

Then Mary, who had started at the back of the crowd, caught up to me around mile 2 and started chatting—-because she wasn’t tired like at all. I ditched a layer of clothing because I was “warm” and kept up, thinking she would take off any minute, but she thoughtfully stayed with me the rest of the race and helped push my pace. We ran 9:15 splits until a big burst in last mile that kicked out overall pace to around 9:05. I can’t believe it, and definitely could not have done so well without her! 

Pretty exciting stuff.

I placed 91st out of 353 female runners 

I ran my fastest 5K ever at 27:34

I took about 2.5 minutes off last years time and 30-40 seconds off my overall pace. 

I look like a shrimp next to caprice and Naomi! This is Caprice’s first half to train for, and Naomi took 4 minutes off last years race time because she’s an animal. Also I think she never gets sweaty...or maybe she just sweats glitter.  

So if I can figure out a way to maintain this new pace, I’m shooting for a 2:05 finish time for the Bentonville Half.  That’s a tall goal. 

I need to start doing hill repeats and start breaking in a new pair of running shoes.