Shannon Yee

Summer is pretty much here. It is humid with thunderstorms in the afternoons and trips to the park in the mornings. I’m able to hang my laundry outside and it actually dries (and quickly too!) and Josiah points out bugs everywhere. These are the signs of summer.

I love summer and being hot, spending countless hours in the outdoors, eating picnics and I especially love vacations. Summer is the time for vacations in my mind. This summer we have several family trips planned. At the end of June, we will venture out into the tent camping world again with several of our friends who also have young ones. We would like to have celebrate another Christmas (minus presents and cold) sometime in July and spend a night at the waterpark and eat a good German chicken dinner – the Kralys may join us, which would be very fun. We’ll be joining Brian’s extended family for a few days in a condo near the lake at the end of July. In the middle of August, my extended family will be spending a week on a different lake. The crazy thing is that with all this fun and travel, we won’t even leave our beloved state. Maybe one day we will again travel to distant lands and places never before seen (by us).

The other thing I love about summer is the long days. It feels like I’m able to do so much more and be more productive. One of the things that I’ll be spending a lot of time on is MOPS. If you have any great ideas for the Adventure of Motherhood, which is our theme for next year, let me know…

Over Memorial Day weekend, Brian and I did a lot of random tasks around the house, but we also had a lot of family fun. The trips out to dim sum, cemetery, zoo, parade, and Grandma’s were actually really refreshing for me. We were able to talk about the whole point of the Memorial Day holiday and remember and thank God for all the freedoms and gifts we have as well as remember and talk about other family members and even spend time with some of them. We didn’t really have to cook all weekend and ate really well, which is very relaxing for me. And, the time at home was pretty nice too. The kids enjoyed playing in the water table (with the arrival of summer and hot, humid weather!) and I felt like things that had been hanging over me to do for a long while were finished – what a relief.

Day one of dairy-free is past and it wasn’t too bad. Josiah has some “normal” childhood eczema and I think it may be related to an allergy to milk or eggs so we are starting by eliminating milk from his diet and mine (since he nurses about 5 times a day and I’d guess that he gets at least half- if not more- of his calories from breastmilk). We had rice milk in our cereal and I probably wouldn’t have noticed that it was different at all if I hadn’t poured it myself. We made a chocolate banana bread, which tastes very yummy.

The hard part for me will be no cookies and no pizza or cheese, which I love. I think Josiah will have a really hard time with no ranch dip. Brian and Eila will continue to have some dairy, but for the most part they will have to eat it when the dairy-free members of the house are not around.

I am ready to start purging all of the toys in our house. With a three year-old girl and a one year-old boy, we have more kids’ stuff than I ever imagined possible. Our modest ranch can only hold so much and it has reached it’s limit. The playroom/office is no longer able to be walked in or through due to the large volume of toys strewn about. It cannot even be cleaned up because of the large mess. We’ll have to start somewhere and I’m thinking it will be with a large garbage bag and a few trips to the local donation drop off point. If we can get the amount of toys under control, we might be able to play with some of them!

Appetizer

What is the nearest big city to your home? Detroit

Soup

On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how well do you keep secrets? I can keep secrets except from my husband. So, I guess that would be an 8 or 9.

Salad

Describe your hair (color, texture, length). I have long (to the middle of my back) very fine and straight naturally blond hair, getting darker with age, but colored to have some reddish highlights.

Main Course

What kind of driver are you? Courteous? Aggressive? Slow? Lucky. My driving is very much influenced by my emotions and mood at the time as well as if I am running late, which I usually am.

Dessert

When was the last time you had a really bad week? last week – A few days in a row where my kids didn’t nap and a nasty headache don’t make for a good combination.

Appetizer
When someone smiles at you, do you smile back?
I sure do. Even the suggestion has me smiling right now.

Soup
Describe the flooring in your home. Do you have carpet, hardwood, vinyl, a mix?
Hardwood throughout the house, except in the kitchen (laminate, I think) and bathroom (a wonderful 1950s shade of green and black tile).

Salad
Write a sentence with only 5 words, but all of the words have to start with the first letter of your first name.
Surely, sometimes snakes slither slowly.

Main Course
Do you know anyone whose life has been touched by adoption?
I know lots of people who’ve experienced the great joys (and trials) of adoption, but the most exciting to me is my niece, Gracie, who was adopted at around 10 years old from Zambia to join my sister’s family with four other girls who love her like crazy!

Dessert
Name 2 blue things.
My son’s pants and Thomas the Tank Engine.

Every day we have the same routine with lunch followed by a two-hour quiet rest time, during which both children are supposed to be in their beds sleeping or reading books quietly. Every day we have the same routine where they play and talk and jump and throw things and fight and cry and then when I’m just about to give up on the naps, they fall asleep. It isn’t actually like this every day, but it feels like it happens a lot. I am hoping that all the noise that I hear through the wall will suddenly stop and they will get the sleep they so desperately need.

Update: They did not sleep on this day, but instead Eila made a huge mess and nearly killed herself. Josiah ended up getting sick the next day (probably from lack of sleep) and Eila had to miss her swim class because she was too tired…

Respect and Knowledge.

I enjoy learning and researching all sorts of things. I like to read how others do things and why and I really feel that it is important to know and understand this world and the reasons we do things the way we do. This is also something that I really like about my husband, too. He knows all sorts of things and shares his knowledge with me – astronomy and space, photography and online role-playing games are just a few of the things that I have learned about from knowing him. I am also learning about trucks and cars because of Josiah’s great interest. When we go to the zoo, we always learn something new. Eila is frequently explaining to me the ins and outs of make-believe worlds. We have so much getting to know each other more and learning about everything around us. I could never run out of things to learn about or study.

One of the things that I hear myself say over and over is: “We treat others with love and respect.” I am constantly teaching Eila what it looks like to respect others, self, the world and the belongings of others, as well as what respect does not look like. It seems like almost every action relates back to respect in some way – the way we talk, share, play, react, help, and even eat and sleep. Other people might phrase things differently, but I see issues of respect in so much of how we act. For me, I desire to be respected and admired by others, which effects so much my motivations, fears, and in turn my behaviors and words.

Appetizer

What was your favorite cartoon when you were a child? Strawberry Shortcake. I really just liked the way she smelled.

Soup

Pretend you are about to get a new pet. Which animal would you pick, and what would you name it? I’d get a frog because it is the year of the frog and I’d probably let my daughter name it, so it’d be called something like: Froggy or Hoppy.

Salad

On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how much do you enjoy getting all dressed up for a special occasion? 10. I really love to wear nice clothes, shoes, and jewelry and do my hair. I feel so glamorous, but it really is for special occasions only!

Main Course

What kind of music do you listen to while you drive? While I drive, I usually like to listen to NPR, but as for music, I guess I like 90s rock or something that I can sing along with and won’t put me to sleep.

Dessert

When was the last time you bought a clock? And in which room did you put it? The last clock I bought was a gift for my grandmother-in-law, and she put it in her bedroom.