Karen Jacot / the blog

I do not have a film post for you today. Back next Friday with more film, for sure.

Lyle likes to take pictures. He looooves to be in pictures. “Mommy, take a picture of me doing this!” “Take MORE pictures of me!” “Let me go get something to hold to make me even cuter!” He points out spots he thinks would be good for photos. But my very favorite thing is when he asks me, “Is this good light?”

And if he does not want me to take his picture, he has ways of making that known. Making silly faces is his usual trick. Or turning his head away so I can’t see his face. Today, though…today. We were in the checkout line of the garden center at Lowe’s, and I had the camera slung over my shoulder. I thought it might make a cute image–him sitting there in the cart–so I lifted the camera to my eye, he saw what was about to happen, and he yelled, “BUTT!” This image is the split second before BUTT.

I had a breakfast date last Friday at a cafe called Tiny Boxwood’s. I thought the name was really strange & random. It is set inside a nursery in an upscale neighborhood. After we ate we walked around the nursery grounds looking at what they had. One of the first tables we came to had a bunch of miniature boxwood plants. “Tiny boxwoods!” my friend said. And we looked at each other as suddenly it clicked and we went, “Oh yeah! Tiny Boxwood’s.” Duh.

The cafe was super cute. Love that they have a cheese plate for breakfast. I had black bean & cheese breakfast tacos that tasted amazing. And I liked the nursery so much I went back over the weekend and bought a bunch of little succulents to put in my windowsills.

I’m slacking on posts! I know. I actually have an excuse but I won’t bother with it…I missed my goal to post at least once a week. Oops.

Lyle and I were visiting my mom in Dallas last week. Friday morning, we found a bag on her front lawn full of ten dozen eggs. Just sitting there. So we brought them inside, boiled them for a long time, and then colored every single one of them. Lyle wrote HAPPY and EASTER on two eggs that he colored yellow, although you can’t really tell it in this picture.

One thing I really want to get out of my photos is a way to remember things. A way for me to look back on this day and remember what happened, how we interacted, how we lived. I like to think of Lyle looking at my photos when he’s an adult, maybe with a family of his own, and remembering how we are now. Because I know we will be different then.

When I was in Dallas last weekend, I looked through some old photos. My uncle has done a lot of genealogy research and collected dozens of old family photos. He gave my mom copies of some of them, which I photographed last weekend because I don’t have a scanner and that’s my workaround.

These are all relatives on my dad’s side of the family, starting with his mom’s parents, who came to the U.S. from Sweden.

My great-grandparents, Fred & Arminta Grant, 1898

My great-grandmother, Arminta, and her twin daughters, Zella & Zelda (my grandmother), 1911

My grandparents--Zelda & Edwin--with their kids--my dad and his brother, 1937

My grandparents--Zelda & Edwin Johnson--at the World's Fair, 1939

Zella & Zelda at World's End Resort, Hayward, WI, 1948

Zelda Johnson, 1969

Zelda & Edwin Johnson, 50th wedding anniversary, 1978

This weekend I was in Dallas, where I spent 7 hours on Saturday at the Korean spa. Bliss. The fire sudatorium–which looks sort of like a giant kiln–is heated to 170 degrees. They recommend spending no longer than 10 to 20 minutes inside. I can manage 20 minutes sometimes, especially if I start out not hot (like if I haven’t just come from one of the other sauna rooms). But 20 minutes is a looong time in there. And then I come out and head straight for the ice room, which is kept around freezing, and stay there until it starts to feel a little chilly. Does this sound crazy? I don’t know. I visited the fire sudatorium twice on Saturday. SO GOOD.

Today my friend and I took our kids strawberry picking. Lyle had never seen strawberry plants, so I was excited for him to see how they grow. It was his first u-pick experience. He loved it. I loved how excited he was.

Getting their buckets and listening to instructions before we head out into the fields…they held hands until they got to the edge of the fields and realized it was easier to run if they let go of each other.