Shaina Day!

Sunday, June 12th was the second annual Shaina Day, observed by my husband and kids. Shaina Day is a day that is completely my own. It is not a set date; it comes in June when the time is right. In other words, even though the day itself is mine, I let Jeff choose when it happens because that's the way to secure his presence (physical and mental) on my day. A quick review, since this is still relatively new: I share my birthday with Amber, and I share Mother's Day with track season/all mothers everywhere. Apparently I am selfish enough to want a day that is entirely my own, so we created Shaina Day.

Shaina Day is a combination of a birthday and mother's day celebration. My family gives me gifts and writes me notes and I don't have to cook or clean. For my Shaina Day dinner, I couldn't think of anything and I hadn't been to the store in while, and the point was no stress, no work, so I chose to have pre-cooked frozen hamburgers. I keep a Costco box of these quick-heat-and-eat burgers in the freezer for emergency rations (especially handy on Friday nights when my family is indulging in cheesy killer pizza that I can't digest). The kids were overjoyed to be eating my secret stash of hamburgers on Shaina Day, and I love a good juicy burger, so everyone was happy. 

This year we even had a pinata on Shaina Day, per Amber's enthusiastic request. But since it was Shaina Day, Jeff filled it with "Shaina-friendly" treats: a variety of mostly chocolate-free granola bars, energy bars, and random packs of gum. The gum made me smile and recognize Jeff's effort. I actually don't like gum in general, but I do keep a pack of Trident in the car, which I chew to help me stay awake if I get drowsy. My car-gum is also handy to appease cranky or carsick children. It's more of a tool than an indulgence, but I am becoming more and more utilitarian with my food choices as I age and my stomach gets more sensitive. I was touched by Jeff's pinata-filling thoughtfulness.

After church and lunch on Sunday, Jeff and the kids sang "Happy Shaina Day to you" to the tune of "Happy Birthday" and presented me with gifts one by one. Jeff put the presents in gift bags and had each kid give me one gift. Jay and Rose didn't even know what was in the gift bags they handed me, haha. As has become Jeff's style in our recent years of relative prosperity, he gave me extravagant gifts: sweet new bone conducting headphones, a new cell phone, a card game, and the pinata. When I mentioned to Jeff my interest in bone conducting headphones and in replacing my old cell phone, I thought I was giving him options to choose from for Shaina day gift ideas. In my mind it was an either/or situation, not cell phone and headphones! 

I spent the entire afternoon setting up my new cell phone. One of my least favorite activities of all time is setting up new electronic devices. Jeff did as much of the initial setup as he could do for me, and then I had to arrange apps and enter passwords and toggle settings to my liking. It is a boring and frustrating process! At the end of the day, though, it was all done. The phone is a refurbished Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3, and it folds in half! A next-gen flip phone. When I opened the box, I passed the phone around and my kids were in awe, opening and closing the phone. It is such a disorienting mish mash of past and present phone styles! Definitely a novelty, fun enough to be a gift rather than a routine phone replacement.

Since I can't take a picture of my new phone with my phone, here's a Samsung stock picture of what it looks like.

Rewind to a Shaina-highlight photo reel of the week:

I have been practicing with chopsticks for the past month, and this week I finally managed to eat an entire bowl of fried rice with chopsticks! My reward was to throw away the nasty disposable wood chopsticks I had been using and order myself a fancy $5 set of fiberglass chopsticks from Amazon. Chopsticks are so satisfying and fun to use. It was fun to learn a new skill.

For anyone who dislikes soggy cereal: chopstick-dipping is perfect! Especially since unsweetened soy milk is not exactly delicious in the first place, haha.

Saturday morning long run:

Our next door neighbor Jory is an avid cycler and mid-ride photographer. You'd think we'd cross paths while exercising more frequently than we do, but it's actually kind of rare. On Saturday, Jory pedaled past me at the beginning of my ten mile run (I ran from our house in Sunnyside to Jeff's parents' house in Grandview, which is almost exactly ten miles). He took this selfie with me in the distance and sent it to me, all while continuing along his 50 mile bike ride.

We've had such a wet cool spring, our valley is far greener than usual for June. I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to these pretty yellow flowers, but the bike path is generally the dullest, ugliest stretch of road, so I appreciate the color and joy they add. (This was before Shaina Day so I still had my old headphones on.)

Seriously, it may not look like much, but usually everything around the bike path is scratchy brown. The bike path runs between a minor highway and a set of train tracks, with the interstate on the other side of the tracks. It is loud and brown and hot and ugly, except not right now!

Celebrating my arrival in Grandview. One more mile to my in-laws' house!

My father-in-law Dan is a gardener. He plants and grows beautiful flowers. These rich golden roses were popping with color in the front garden when I arrived at their house.

Shoe love pic! These Saucony Endorphin Speed shoes practically do all the work. Running ten miles was a breeze with these wings on my feet.

Shaina Day:

Pinata time! We discovered an old hook in the ceiling of our porch, and it was perfect for hanging the pinata.

It really was sad to beat a horse till it exploded. The legs were hacked off one by one before Jeff broke open the body. The experience left me wondering why kids always want a pinata in the shape of a favorite character, when the point of a pinata is beat it to a pulp! I joked that we should've gotten a snake pinata so I wouldn't feel bad whacking it repeatedly.

Clearly I was not in photo-taking mode. I snapped three quick pinata pics and then enjoyed myself instead. These pinata pictures were the last three pictures I took with my old Pixel 4 phone.

Messing around with my new phone camera: the flip phone has a tiny screen on the front that is visible when it's folded, and you can take pictures using that screen as a viewfinder. It's tricky to frame a picture with that tiny screen though. Hence the funny concentration faces on some of these pictures.

Shaina Day quick family picture.

Notes from my kids: (I am treasuring Jeff's letter in my heart and sharing it with nobody because it's my precious.) I told Jeff that the thing I wanted more than anything for Shaina Day was a letter from each of my family members. I felt kind of needy/demanding for asking for MORE, but my family delivered, and I wasn't just saying that: out of all my Shaina Day gifts, my cards and notes are totally my favorites.

I'll finish with a few pictures from my run this morning, when I wore my new bone conducting headphones for the first time. They are so cool! They rest just in front of the ear, and send vibrations to the inner ear. Running with unobstructed ears is always the safest option. The pictures:

The mint is usually the greenest thing in here in summertime, but right now after all the recent rain, it is practically glowing.

Not a great illustration of the bone conducting headphones, but my actual ear is not covered up at all.

I stuck to pavement today because it poured rain for several hours last night and the dust here turns into slick sticky muck so easily. Isn't this the sweetest country road vista?

This almost-too-darling candy striped barn is half a mile from our house, amidst rows of grapes.

Yay for Shaina Day! If I think about it too much, I feel guilty for making my family give me another day, but NO! Guilt is not a part of Shaina Day. Relaxing, feeling loved, and enjoying the satisfaction of calling a day my very own: that's what Shaina Day is all about.