This is my very first blog post on this website and my very first weeknotes post! A week note is basically a blog post summarizing a week’s goals, tasks, events, and any other week-specific content that I’d like to document, reflect on, and share on this site.

There are a multitude of reasons why I want to embark on this endeavour of recapping and reflecting on my life in a week’s timeframe, but I’ll share those in a separate post in the future. In the meantime, I’m going to give this weekly summary thing a shot and just have fun with it! Below as you’ll see, I’ve given myself some sections to write on for guidance and structure. I expect that as time goes on, I’ll experiment with what I want to write about, how much I’ll write on it, the format of the entire roundup, and so on.

Anyways, that’s enough housekeeping! Here’s a review on last week.

a week’s worth of shōkakkō

What is shōkakkō? 小確幸 (shōkakkō) translates to ‘a small but certain happiness’. This term, coined by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, first appeared in his 1986 essay Afternoon in the Islets of Langerhans.

Shōkakkō refers to the tiny, diminutive pleasures in life. Consisting of kanji characters 小 (small), 確 (certain), and 幸 (fortune/happiness), this philosophy is about the small, simple, ephemeral joys found in the ordinary and mundane that can bring delight and happiness.

Sunday: When the daily reading speaks to your situation

• This Sunday’s daily reading included portions of Hebrews 11 and 12. I was feeling rather despondent; despairing and wallowing in self-pity. Upon reading Hebrews 12:1-13, it was as if God gently reached in and touched my heart. The sheer force of Scripture cracked open my heart and the tears poured out of me. I cried out of pain, but also out of reprieve and hope. I felt encouraged knowing that I am surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses and that I shouldn’t grow weary any longer. I must lift up my drooping hands, strengthen my weak knees, and continue to run with endurance the race that is set before me.

Monday: The first bite of freshly baked chocolate banana bread

• The kids and I baked chocolate chip banana bread using our go-to recipe and that first slice is yum.

Tuesday: The satisfaction of rolling consistently tight, well-formed sushi rolls

• It’s Lent and lent-friendly sushi feels like an indulgent dinner! I love it when I notice my body building the muscle memory of what a firm sushi roll feels like under the bamboo mat (makisu).

Wednesday: Scoring free treasures

• The kids and I stopped by a free baby clothing giveaway to drop off some donations. I managed to find a couple of pieces of clothing that are not only cute and in mint condition, but items Elora was excited about wearing! I scored a red knit poncho and magenta corduroy pants. I take great pride in these finds.

Thursday: The kids chatting and laughing together

• My heart swelled with joy to watch Elora and Max sitting next to one another, talking and laughing.

Friday: The crunch of snow beneath my feet

• The streets sparkled with the layering of a blanket of fresh snow. It is serene to feel the crunch of soft, untouched snow beneath my feet. My nose tingled from the cold, crisp, winter air. I walked from the dentist’s office to where Nigel parked the car.

Saturday: Sunlight filtering through tree leaves; light and shadows dance on the dining table as I read

• Komorebi. Feeling the warmth of the sun through the window brings me hope that spring is near.

what we did

• Started tinkering on this website
• Went to the library
• Donated items to a baby clothes giveaway
• Had afternoon naps with the kids
• Had a dentist appointment; filling and part one of replacing my old crown
• Made an effort to compliment people; practicing a ‘tell them’ theory of sorts
• Baked chocolate chip banana bread, an artisan loaf, and focaccia
• Went to Pre-sanctified Liturgy

content consumption

Reading

• Currently reading The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevksy
• Finished The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
• Started reading A Thousand Feasts by Nigel Slater — one of my favourite pieces so far is Breakfast in Japan: 2 | A Country Breakfast

Watching

• I’ve been loving You and I are Polar Opposites — not a piece of dialogue is wasted and not to mention, it’s literally so sweet you could get a toothache
• JJK Tokyo Colony Part — wow. Some peak storytelling happening right now

words worth remembering

“To be happy at home is the end of all human endeavour. The sun looks down on nothing half so good as a household laughing together over a meal, or two friends talking over a pint of beer, or a person alone reading a book that interests them; and all economics, politics, laws, armies, and institutions, are only valuable in so far as they prolong and multiply such scenes.” – C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

“What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man. I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.” – Ecclesiastes 3:9-15

the good and the beautiful

Anything I found beautiful that’s worth mentioning

• The kids singing “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal” and “God Grant You Many Years” around the house (usually blending the two, Max likes to sing “many ears“)
• Sticky, chocolatey faces and hands from eating Pocky
• Farmhouse by Sophie Blackall — tender, lavish, and poetic. You can feel the love poured into the beautiful illustrations, artfully detailed hand-collaging, and poetry; it’s an enchanting and wholesome trip to imagine the family who lived in that old, beloved farmhouse, to experience the fragility of a house and power of a home.
• Little Witch Hazel: A Year in the Forest by Phoebe Wahl — the illustrations are a whimsical delight! I want to live in Hazel’s tree stump cottage.
• Plath’s words. She wrote with such precision, wit, and aching honesty.
• Slater’s descriptions of Japanese food in A Thousand Feasts