Groovy

It’s been a while, I know, but after weeks of settling in, setting up, typhoons, life, and everything else I took a few days to just not.  Like NOT!  I settled into a groove, if you can dig on that.  With Kiddo and J in school, I could just do me.  Go to the grocery, have an afternoon coffee and sit on the sofa, play a video game, read a book, or just veg out on TV for a while.  I needed it.  

Speaking of coffee— we decided to ditch the auto drip in favor of a pour over pot.  It’s been great so far.  Delicious.  We’re both (J and I) getting used to it a bit, but we are really starting to dial it in and make a wonderful cup of coffee.  Besides that, J can get up and do her coffee thing and I can snag a half cup to get me going, but then, I can make my own and it takes about as long as using the electric kettle to boil water.  The drip part of it only takes a min or two, so it’s quick and easy.

To stay with the happy mood, we’ve also gotten to experience something we haven’t in over 3 years.  Open windows!  I know, it seems like a little thing, but what a difference it makes to not have the AC running 24/7.  In looking back and remembering, we had about 7 total days in BKK with weather that allowed us to have the house open, but even in that, the afternoon’s could get a bit warm.  We were used to it and got to the pool or had errands those days which made it ok to leave the house open because by the time we returned home it was once again cool enough (with the fans) to not turn on the AC, but nothing like this.  I opened the house on Friday and we’ve not shut it since.  It’s been a real treat to not just breath recycled air all day.

We also got our shabu (hot pot) set up back and although I still need to source some items to really dial that in, we are getting there.  We celebrated by having hot pot.  Not as good as BKK, but I’m working on it.  I’ll find the items needed so it’s back to what we are used to having, worry not.  It’s a family favorite, so it might become a weekly thing for us now that we have our set up back.

Kiddo is being Kiddo.  She learned from some friends, this weekend, to climb trees.  A new favorite hobby.  The kid in me that monkeyed up trees loves it and is super proud of her and wants to just climb with her.  The parent in me freaks out and worries (continuously) about falls, missteps, and otherwise.  Being a parent is weird.  She’s also been clamoring for watching some movies on the new sofa and with the new TV set up.  We had pizza on Saturday night and watched The Goonies with her.  She was ok with the movie, not loving it, but not hating it, and the pizza was a hit.  The next day, Sunday, the weather was rainy and J was working and I was figuring out some China life stuff, so we set her up to watch what she’s been asking for…. The Nightmare Before Christmas.  As you can see, she wasn’t engaged at all.  

Before I go, I want to mention that I’ll still be in and out of this for the next few weeks.  I’m finding a groove, but not totally into one yet.  I still have some exploring to do.  Maybe I’ll blog (mostly) from the little cafe near J and Kiddo’s school, but that place really didn’t feel right to me (if you write/blog, you know what I mean) and the sofa is nice, but feels like I’m locked in the house more.  In BKK, I had the cafe across the street and then Amazon down the way.  Who knows what little niche I’ll find here.  Also, I’ve not really blogged in a while.  The summer was busy and all over the place and since we’ve gotten to Shanghai it’s been a whirlwind, but I have no doubt that I’ll settle in.  Besides that, I’ve promised Doc Jenn (my therapist) that I would get back to journalling and I owe her a journal about an issue we will start to work on in the next few weeks.  So, there’s that part of it as well.  I hate journalling at home.  That really makes me feel locked into the house and makes it hard to separate the journaled issues from the house and having a good separation is (for me) needed.  It’s a neat trick.  Journalling elsewhere.  That way, the issue can live there and not in the house.  Yes, it may be about issues in the house, but the journalling, the venting, can live in a separate spot and not linger and live in the house.  It helped in BKK and I’m sure the same trick will work here.

Keep checking in… It’ll get to be more frequent, like it was in BKK.  For now, it will be what it is and I’ll keep updating.  Especially with major stuff.  For now….

Let’s go, Kiddo…. We are finding the groove of Shanghai and China and that groove will only deepen.  We’re glad that you are loving it and that mandarin is your favorite class.  We are super proud of you and how much you are doing, learning, exploring, and trying.  Keep it up and we’ll keep grooving with you and your world.