Salmon and Souvlaki

Please Don’t Pray For Peace (A Lament)

Posted on July 14, 2016 by Laura

Over the past year, since the unrest in Baltimore last April, I’ve been thinking that “pray for peace” is actually not what we want. It’s possible to have a surface peace, as in “It’s really peaceful tonight, look at the beautiful sunset” without actually having any true wholeness in our relationships or world.

sunset over the water in Canton (Baltimore, spring 2015), peaceful right?

Rather, I want us all to pray for shalom. As you may know, shalom is a Hebrew word that does mean peace, but also wellness, health, SAFETY, prosperity, and absence of discord (among other things). These are things that are easily available in abundance to some in our society and in short supply, or not at all, to others.

The past couple weeks, it has yet again been made very clear that although it may be easy for some (like me, as a middle class well-educated white woman) to feel safe and well in my every-day life, this is absolutely not the case for far too many others, particularly African-American men (regardless of education level or class). Until each person in our country can say that they are living in shalom, then we cannot say that [hashtag] all lives matter. Until then, we need to say [hashtag] black lives matter.

So please, don’t pray for a surface peace. Pray for shalom, even as we grieve with those who are grieving.

Laura and Marko at our church, April 2015

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“Why Doesn’t This Happen More Often?”
more about shalom
Shalom in the City, a podcast I’ve been listening to recently that is helpful to me in thinking about ways that I can work towards wholeness in my everyday life for myself, my family, and others.

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It’s Been A Great Nine Years!

Posted on June 23, 2016 by Laura

Nine years ago today, I wore this dress.

(after wearing this dress, of course)

and today (with no prompting from me, I promise), Ellie asked to try on this dress:

And then Marko wanted part of the silly action:

And I am so grateful that nine years ago, we said, “I do”, grateful for his love, these kids, and our life together.

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Posted in Ellie, family, love, Mark, marriage | Leave a comment

Classics Club, Book #25: The Great Gatsby (March 2016)

Posted on June 13, 2016 by Laura

This is my 3rd post about 2016’s books for The Classics Club. I’ll be reading one classic book a month through 2018. Track what I’m reading for the Classics Club here. I’ll try not to include too many spoilers in my review but I may need to discuss some in order to fully review the book. I’ll warn you if I’m going to mention one.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

earphones as visual reminder that I both listened to and read (with my eyes) this one

Year Published: 1925
Reread? Or new to me?: new to me
Number of Pages: 154 pages (but mostly I listened to it via the Overdrive app)
Date Finished: 3/26/16
Number of Days to read it: 5
Page/Day ratio: 30.8
Will I reread this?: Definitely not unless someone can give me a good reason to spend any more time on it

Review:

I must admit to coming to the reading of The Great Gatsby with great expectations. Along with its inclusion on just about every “greatest novels ever” lists, a couple of my good friends had told me they LOVED it and we’re excited for me to read it. I started reading it in its paper form but soon realized that I had so much Easter sewing to do, I’d never get the book read too. So, luckily Overdrive had an unabridged version available for immediate checkout and Gatsby became my Easter sewing soundtrack.

First, my review of the audio version: It was fun. The voice actor had so many different American accents to use and I really enjoyed hearing them all, particularly even the subtleties in the different New York accents. Probably this made the book more palatable to me than it would have been had I just been reading it in paper form.

The book itself? I really didn’t like it at all. I found the writing pretty slow and tedious at times, the characters almost all uniformly repulsive in one way or another, the plot line bizarre, and the ending abrupt and dissatisfying. The casual acceptance of (even condoning of) intimate partner violence and adultery were really offensive to me. In short, I honestly don’t have any idea why anyone would put this on a “greatest” list of any kind. Perhaps the writing is better than I am allowing myself to acknowledge because I was so repulsed by the subject matter/plot line?

So, other readers of Gatsby: How about you? I’m sure I’m offended a bunch of you who love this novel with all your heart. I don’t know if I can be convinced that it’s worth a reread but want to try? Why is this on all the “greatest novel” lists? I really am genuinely curious to understand why people like it so much. Clearly I’ve never studied this as literature so I’m curious to hear your take on why this should be considered something better than what I read it as.

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In June, I’m reading The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis. Want to join me?

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A few outtakes: Marko styled these so I couldn’t only include one. He’s getting some very specific ideas about how he wants to take these pictures! 🙂

This post contains affiliate links, meaning any purchases you make through them support our blog. See the full disclosure here.

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Posted in books | Tagged Classics Club, F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby | 3 Comments

My Life, Under New Management

Posted on June 6, 2016 by Laura

Two weeks ago, I went to a workshop led by one of the founders of Agile Learning Centers (ALC). The workshop was focused on learning how to use agile management tools in support of self-directed learning. I’m in the process of starting an unschooling co-op, along with a group of other interested families. So I went to the workshop with “how can this help our co-op?” frame of mind. I’m not sure how (or if) we’ll use these tools at the co-op but I’ve already put one of them to work on our own house!

Agile management comes out of Toyota’s management style in its factories in Japan. (At least that’s my understanding. I’m no expert on the topic.) In the ALCs, they use these tools in the service of helping kids manage their own learning. I’ve started using one of those tools, the Kanban board, to help me manage my house!

my first Kanban board from Monday before last, midway through the day

Basically, you just write your tasks on sticky notes and then use four columns, “Possible, Soon, Now, Done,” as a way to organize what to do and when. It’s pretty much just a to-do list but the visual/kinesthetic aspect of it has been really invigorating for me.

At the end of that same Monday – look at everything I did! Helps explain why I’m exhausted at the end of every Monday (the day I do the most around the house in terms of cleaning).

After my first day, I added a bit of color coding. Now I use blue for digital tasks and yellow for what I need to do around the house/yard.

This is the next day – Tuesday the same week.

The guy who trained us told us that ideally you should only have one task in the now column at any one time because multi-tasking is inherently inefficient. I can see how that might be true in some situations but I have many days when I legitimately have to be juggling many things at once (particularly on days when I’m cooking/baking, doing laundry, and cleaning.) Having the visual of seeing what’s in my “Now” column at any given time has helped me to feel less like I’m juggling too many balls in my head and more like I’m smoothly working through my day.

What mine looked like a few days ago (note “Blog Kanban boards” in blue in the now column. Ha! Also, note that I’m saving/reusing lots of my Post-its now [off to the left], which makes the process easier.) I pretty much move “sew” from “soon” to “now” and back to “soon” every day! Even if I don’t actually get to sewing on any given day, it makes me happy to think about the possibility of doing so. 🙂

We all have Kanban boards. Ellie and Marko use theirs sporadically, more just for fun and to be like Mama and Baba than anything else. Nik is using his to manage the things that he wants to do at home (but not when thinking about work related stuff).

Mark wants us to draw his pictures for him but Ellie has had fun drawing her own. Can you guess what this one is? (I’ll put the answer at the end of the post.**)

I’m on week three of using the Kanban board and am already thinking about how to make a more permanent, more environmentally friendly board for myself. I need to refine the system for sure to help it serve me better but I’m so pleased with what I can do with it already!

**That’s Ellie’s about to get dressed, next to her dresser. Love it!!

Posted in cleaning, cooking, house/neighborhood, reflecting | 2 Comments

April/May Sewing: Little Bit of This, Little Bit of That

Posted on June 1, 2016 by Laura

I’ve been sewing a lot over the past few months but haven’t managed to blog much about it all (or even put it on Instagram for that matter). So, in no particular order, here’s what was keeping me busy in the sewing room in April and May!

My friends just keep having babies! Hooray! So I made five blankets in two months. (Luckily I can make these on auto-pilot now!)

Our dear friends in Cambodia are having a little girl this summer and they said they thought it would be fun to have a pink elephant blanket for her to sleep on – because it doesn’t get cold in the tropics! 🙂

A friend of mine from church is having a baby this summer. I couldn’t make it to her baby “sprinkle” but wanted to contribute something to it. So along with one of the boy blankets above (in the pile of three), I made a quilted card for all her friends to sign at the party. I couldn’t decide on either of the two sets of fabric I’d chosen so I put on on the front and one on the back! I’ve made cards like this before (for two other friends). This time I glued on all the pieces of fabric with a permanent glue stick and then just did an all-over quilting pattern. It was SO much easier and accurate. I loved making them this way!

front (using up my precious Amy Butler Mid Century Modern scraps!)

remnants from my sister-in-law’s diaper bag

love the “quilting” pattern that shows up!

paper sewn in for signing

Yiayia asked me to make an apron for Marko to wear at her house when they dyed the red eggs for Orthodox Easter. She had found an Easter apron for Ellie so I just replicated hers for Marko.

I also managed to finish one more tote bag for B-More Bags before I had to pack up my sewing room and move it back upstairs.

Nik’s cousin got married last weekend in Greece. Nik’s dad went over for the wedding so we were able to send a small gift with him for her – an infinity scarf made from some gorgeous silk that was given to me. I have just enough left to make one for myself. Infinity scarves are SO easy. I’m sure I’ll be making more!

I made two more silk flowers from the bridesmaid’s dress for my mother and mother-in-law, along with a Greek flower for my MIL to match the ones I made for myself and my sister-in-law. Yiayia got hers on Mother’s Day. My mother’s was a bit later than that!

I recently joined the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild (so fun!!) and participated in the crayon color challenge in May. We pulled three crayons out of a box at the April meeting and then had to make a mini-quilt using those colors (and those colors only). I got orange, blue, and pink (bleh). I ended up using the orange of the paper for the binding, the orange of the colored wax for the quilt, the blue of the paper, and the pink of the paper. (Check out a crayon more closely – one crayon usually has three colors!) I didn’t buy any fabric for this. I was able to just use fabric from my stash.

blue of the paper and the blue of the wax actually!

Here’s the mini-quilt itself. It’s around 12″x12″.

I accidentally made 8 teeny-tiny half-square triangles in my quest to make four for the front. So the back got some HST love too! 🙂

Finally, although I had begun sewing these blocks (with different fabric) back in February, I decided to start again with the Modern HST Sampler quilt-along. This time, I’m using quilting flannel in a really limited palette (only 3 fabrics plus the background). This one is destined to be the special “you’re sick, at least you should get to cuddle under a really soft quilt” quilt. Here’s the first six. I’m working on cutting out the next four and then I’ll be caught up!

I think that’s it (at least everything that’s finished enough to show you)! It’s been a fun couple months filled with lots of quilting and flannel.

Posted in sewing | Tagged Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild | 4 Comments

To Comb or To Chop? That Is the Question.

Posted on May 26, 2016 by Laura

Over the past few months, combing Ellie’s hair had become more and more of a contentious issue between the two of us. She strongly dislikes combing her hair and even more despises me doing anything to her hair such as putting a ponytail or clips in it.

Finally having had enough of using “creative” ways of convincing her to let me comb her hair and remembering my mother doing something like this with me and long fingernails, I told her that she could either:

have long hair, be in charge of combing it herself, and comb it twice a day, or
let me cut it off short.

I was sure she would choose combing because she’s always be so hesitant to let us cut her hair. Remember her first hair cut at almost five-years old? Rather, she instantly said, “short hair!” to my shock. I put it off for a couple weeks, just to make sure that she was sure about wanting short hair. She kept pestering me to cut it off so last Monday (over a week ago), we sat her down in front of the Nutcracker Ballet on YouTube and I set to work.

First we had to watch a short Lego train video to appease the little brother!

halfway through the initial chop to get off most of the length

so much hair!

I went to a fabulous hair stylist for 10 years. She viewed cutting hair as architecture and really was an incredible artist. For a variety of reasons, she hasn’t cut my hair for the past three years (since just before Mark was born) and I still am annoyed every time I get my hair cut (which to be honest, has only been twice since he was born). I miss Valerie a TON. Anyway, I just tried to channel everything I saw Valerie do over 10 years of hair cuts and in the end, I think it came out looking pretty great, especially for my first try at ever cutting anyone’s hair!

049 (800x533)

I’m actually looking forward to getting to cut it again! 🙂 Best of all, however, is the lack of tension now between Ellie and me when it comes to her hair. Because it’s short and because the ends aren’t so brittle anymore, her hair basically just doesn’t get tangled. She doesn’t have to comb it and I don’t have to be annoyed by my daughter’s crazy messy hair. Win win for everyone!

Posted in Ellie | Leave a comment

A whole bunch of family pictures for all the picture-starved family members out there

Posted on May 20, 2016 by Laura

Yes, I know I’ve been gone for over a month. Life is charging ahead and I’m having a hard time keeping up (or at least blogging about it). That’s a story for another day. In the meantime…

We’ve taken pictures with Nik’s brother and his family for the past four years as our collective Mother’s Day present for Nik’s mom (and other grandparents too). I think this is the first year I’ve managed to post them on the blog because they always have to stay secret for a few weeks and then I forgot about them. Anyway, family and friends: enjoy!

The cousins:

We’re calling this pictures, “kids in a hobbit tree”. It was the coolest tree ever.

The dads with the kids:

The moms with the kids:

The families:

The outtakes:

Pictures taken and edited by Nik with assistance from Andreas and me,
at Fort C.F. Smith Park, in Arlington, VA

Posted in Ellie, family, Mark | Tagged Fort C.F.Smith Park | Leave a comment

Our First Parade!

Posted on April 19, 2016 by Laura

The first weekend in April, we had the fun of marching in the Maryland Greek Independence Day Parade. Nik’s dad, Panayiotis, was the Grand Marshal!

After he took care of his Grand Marshal duties at the beginning of the parade, he came back to march with us, the Macedonian Association of Maryland.

that’s me, using my “Miss Teen of Alaska 1994” perfect pageant wave!

The day was gorgeous but windy and chilly. So we got to sport our warm coats and glamorous shades!

Ellie said Mark was the “bluest boy in the parade” because he had on blue shoes and socks, blue pants and shirt, a blue coat, and blue sunglasses!

I made those matching flowers for Nikki (Nik’s sister-in-law) and me from fabric Nik’s mom brought for me from Greece. 🙂

Luckily, our slot was near the beginning of the parade so we got to watch most of it from the end. Here’s a few shots from the rest of the parade.

food truck!

Afterwards, we had a delicious dinner party, which included some singing from the grand marshal himself and lots of cousin Greek dancing, which was, of course, super fun.

I made Ellie a dress for the occasion from the same blue/white polka dots from Greece and a cute bird print. Lots of ruffles makes her heart happy!

It sure is great to be Greek!

Posted in Ellie, family, Greece, Mark, sewing | 1 Comment

March Sewing: A Metamorphosis in Celebration of Easter

Posted on April 2, 2016 by Laura

Back in December 2006, I announced via blog post that my sister-in-law, Meggan, had found a potentially awesome choice for a bridesmaid’s dress company. A month later, my old roommate, Kristen, and I went to DC to their showroom where I chose hot pink/orange as my raw silk color combination. The silk is woven with fuschia in one direction and bright orange in the other so that the resulting fabric looks different at different angles. It’s really gorgeous.

A few months later, we got married!!

Our family is WAY bigger now! 🙂 (There are 28 of us now – 13 more than this picture!)

Meggan had been searching for dress companies for me because she knew she’d be about 8 months pregnant at our wedding and wanted a comfortable, beautiful dress to wear. I was grateful for the help because the world of bridesmaid dresses is so huge.

See the raw silk under the decorations behind us? I ordered a yard of it along with the dresses but it got lost after the wedding – one small regret from my wedding day.

Last fall, when we were visiting the fam up in Alaska, Meggan gave me her dress, in the hopes that I’d be able to make something with it. Immediately, I knew I wanted the four of us to each have something to wear for Easter from the dress.

For Ellie, I made the Oliver+S Roller Skate dress.

I used the two sashes from the dress for Ellie’s sash plus made her a fabric flower using a tutorial from the book, Make It Sew Modern.

I added the V-neck option to get in a little more pinkish orange and even managed to use a bit of a spaghetti strap for the button loop. 🙂

I lined it with the original dress’s lining. This was mostly by necessity because I forgot to buy lining fabric but I do like how the hot pink lining gives the white dress fabric a faint blush of pink.

Mark took one look at the silk and refused to have anything to do with it. He only consented to wear a tie if it was blue and had construction vehicles on it. (He’s not obsessed or anything!) Nik had the brilliant idea of putting them on the back of the tie so at least it wasn’t completely ruined. I adapted the pattern from his last tie (which was both too wide and too long). This time, I managed to make it too short but thankfully, I was able to just barely get it tied on him. And he wore it the whole morning!

from his favorite flannel ever

I made another flower for myself and a tie for Nik (from the same tutorial as this tie).

I really loved the whole process of this project. Deconstructing the dress was really interesting from a dress making point of view. There was surprisingly little fabric in the dress, considering it was a maternity style. I especially love seeing my family in the fabric that I loved so many years ago. Thank you Meggan for keeping it for me for so long!

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P.S. That baby who was the root cause of the maternity dress need? Now he’s 8.5 and a super fun cousin! 🙂

Posted in Ellie, family, holidays, love, Mark, sewing | Tagged Aria Dress | 7 Comments

Glorious Now Behold Him Arise!

Posted on March 27, 2016 by Laura

Glorious now behold Him arise!
King and God and Sacrifice.
Alleluia, alleluia!
Earth to heaven replies.

Happy Easter!

Love,
Nik, Laura, Ellie, and Marko

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Watch them grow: Easter 2015, Easter 2014, Easter 2013

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The lyrics above are the final verse to the [traditionally thought of as a] Christmas hymn, “We Three Kings.” Since that past year’s Advent Concert, our family has learned all the verses and the entire gospel story is there, including:

Myrrh is mine: Its bitter perfume
Breaths a life of gathering gloom.
Sorrow, sighing, bleeding, dying,
Sealed in a stone-cold tomb.

Thank you Jesus that is not the last verse! He is risen!

Posted in Ellie, faith, holidays, Mark | Leave a comment

Salmon and Souvlaki

Please Don’t Pray For Peace (A Lament)

It’s Been A Great Nine Years!

Classics Club, Book #25: The Great Gatsby (March 2016)

This post contains affiliate links, meaning any purchases you make through them support our blog. See the full disclosure here.

My Life, Under New Management

April/May Sewing: Little Bit of This, Little Bit of That

To Comb or To Chop? That Is the Question.

A whole bunch of family pictures for all the picture-starved family members out there

Our First Parade!

It sure is great to be Greek!

March Sewing: A Metamorphosis in Celebration of Easter

Glorious Now Behold Him Arise!

Happy Easter!

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