angry chicken

Iceland 2017

I got back from Iceland 2 nights ago. It was amazing trip although it was ill-timed—during the first week of all our activities, which require both parents and grammie for driving. When I am gone, it's pretty impossible. But it all got done and I am so happy I just crossed my fingers and left. 

I try to travel alone without my family every year, but it's hard to do. I took a little 2-day trip 2 years ago to Breitenbush. The last time I took a big trip was when I went to Santa Fe 3 years ago. On that trip I didn't know a soul and did the whole trip alone, but I usually know someone where I am visiting. This time, I was meeting a dear online friend for the first time in person and it was just so mind-blowing. I feel like the trip had 3 themes :

• Seeing Iceland for the first time and experiencing all it is—beautiful, powerful, barren, harsh, and welcoming. 
• Planning and taking a trip for myself with no thought of what my family might want to do and see, which is such a big part of family vacations. I could go to 3 museums in a day and not worry about the kids being bored.
• Connecting with a friend in person, after being online friends, in the most meaningful way. And connecting with her family and country. I find it hard to write about. I'm also a bit tired still. So imagine a lot more profound and descriptive words in this part here.

The trip was the perfect mix of everything— incredible nature sites, conversation, coffee, baked goods, yarn, and just hanging out. I am more afraid at this point in my life of NOT planning trips alone. They feed my soul and make me feel alive. I really want to go back to Iceland and am so excited for my friend and her family to visit us in Portland. 

Thank you so much for all your audio book info. I got some great ones—both from audible and the app hoopla, which is a library app. 

albums and that whole thing

I have a decent to-do list going right now and I'm trying to hack away at it before adding new distracting crafts and projects. I finally finished the Japan photo album from our trip in October. It's shipping right now. I am so happy. This came together pretty easily. I had most of the photos on my phone so uploading wasn't too bad.

The key for me is to edit ruthlessly before I upload, so that I can use almost all the photos when I start to layout and don't have to stop and make decisions. This makes a huge difference. I have used Shutterfly for years now for our family albums, I make one a year. This is more of an ordeal because I collect photos from all our phones and cameras. I haven't started this year's yet. I usually finish them by now, but the Japan one took the lead.

Over the years I have made about 12 of these books, for trips, ballet performances, and yearly albums. For the trips, I add text. A whole lot, usually. I dictate on my trips (voice to text in Evernote) and then clean it up and drop it in the album later. I dictated during this trip every night, and told stories and little details I knew would be forgotten or couldn't be described and remembered with a photo. The text is such a great addition to these books. I don't do this for this yearly books because that's crazy.

The rain! It's raining here again. I know there is a lot of snow and power outages for people elsewhere, I'll take the rain. But I do wish for some sun. Just a little.