2011 Retrospective

2011 was a year of endings and beginnings for us, as we wrapped up two years of living, working, learning, and playing in our nation's capital and moved to rural Pennsylvania. We've gone from a life of subways, crowded sidewalks, monuments and museums, shiny office buildings, apartment living, and daycare to a life of country roads, local milk and eggs, university lecture halls, a house with a yard, and public school.

Chris finished a masters degree in American Studies at George Washington University in DC. He graduated in May and wore a funny hat for the occasion. He was also a bookkeeper and grants administrator at Building Futures, a local non-profit providing low-cost housing and social services to individuals and families affected by HIV/AIDS.

Malia thoroughly enjoyed her second year at The Pew Charitable Trusts, where she worked with wonderful colleagues on grants to improve public health. She also continued her progress toward certification as a birth doula and had the privilege of attending two births in January and March.

Lili'u loved every second at her fantastic daycare located just two blocks from President Obama's house. In addition to growing two inches and losing her first two teeth, her big achievement of 2011 was learning to READ! Like her daddy, she got to wear a funny hat with a tassel when she graduated from kindergarten in June.

Chris had an opportunity to teach for three weeks at the Women's Studies May Term of the Oregon Extension, an academic program based in the mountains outside idyllic Ashland, Oregon. It was an encouraging confirmation that teaching is the right path for him. Malia and Lili'u joined Chris there for two weeks of restful retreat, during which they did little more than feed horses, count turtles and geese, make wildflower bouquets, and collect chicken eggs.

Chris accepted an offer to join the History department's PhD program at Penn State University in State College, PA. Leaving DC meant that Malia had to leave a job she loved, but it was also an opportunity for her to take the next step toward a nursing career; she applied and was accepted to Penn State as well. She's considering women's health, and possibly midwifery, as a specialty.

We enjoyed a lovely summer in State College, practically living at a newly constructed splash park in our neighborhood. When we weren't there, we were touring the many local farms and farmer's markets to make the most of the agricultural bounty of central Pennsylvania.

In the fall, Chris stared down 90 Penn State undergrads and survived his first teaching assignment in the History department. New friends and colleagues were great support and made for a positive work environment. He's pursuing a dual-title PhD in History and Women's Studies, and will happily bore you with his research ideas if you're interested!

Malia took Anatomy, Physiology, and Microbiology and came home with all kinds of fascinating facts about bones, blood, and bacteria to share with Chris and Lili'u over dinner. They humored her most of the time.

Lili'u was the youngest kid in first grade at Easterly Parkway Elementary School this fall (she turned six in November), but she didn't let that stop her. Her teacher tells us she's often the one telling the other kids what's going on. We think it must be an indication that her early education is off to a good start that her favorite game to play when she comes home is, in fact, "school."

All of us are thankful to have found a spiritual community of fellow skeptics and believers (University Baptist and Brethren Church) that we look forward to growing and learning with for the next few years. We value it for its progressive theology, its intergenerational congregation (including a critical mass of families with young kids), and its many, many potlucks!

We're also very grateful for each of you. If you find yourself anywhere near...nah, scratch that...we're not really near anything, but we are approximately three to four hours from lots of compelling destinations (New York City, DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Niagara Falls). And for the first time, we can actually say we've got a spare bedroom...so come visit!

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and blessings to you and your loved ones this season -

With love,

Malia, Chris, and Lili'uokalani

P.S. Send us a note if you can!
chknight@gmail.com
maliahk@gmail.com
liliuhk@gmail.com (she'll have some nice messages to read when she's older) :)

Thankfulness Tree

We had to chop down a shrub in our backyard recently because its roots were making cracks in the foundation and causing the basement apartment to flood. I had hardly given it a second glance before, but once it was laying on the curb waiting for bulk garbage pick-up, I noticed that it had very pretty, twisting branches. With Thanksgiving approaching, the idea came to mind to repurpose some of the branches as a tree for collecting little notes about what we're thankful for.

Lili'u and I gathered the supplies and set to work on it. We spray painted two branches and an old flower pot gold and filled the pot with rocks from our garden. We cut out little card-stock tags and tied red and orange embroidery thread to each. We've hung a few and will continue to add to it as moments of thankfulness happen. The blank tags and a couple pens are sitting in a jar next to the tree and our hope is that neighbors and friends will contribute to it as they come by.

For those of you far away, send us an email telling us the things you're thankful for and we'll happily add them!

Tait Farm near State College, PA...our new home as of July 2011. Lili'u befriended and fell in love with this gentle, stray kitten. I think the admiration was mutual.  

Recent Pictures

Writing on the Wall

It seems like the quintessential experience of families with toddlers: the kid takes crayons or markers to a clean, white wall and creates a masterpiece, much to Mom and Dad's horror. Well I thought we had sidestepped that one. Since Lili'u started doing art projects of any kind, I've reminded her frequently, "Only on paper that Mommy gives you, okay?" And she has always listened really well. The only exceptions to that have been a little scribbling on her plastic play table and her play kitchen - nothing drastic.

Drastic happened a few days ago in our new apartment. While I was busy unpacking in the kitchen, Lili'u found a fluorescent pink highlighter pen and disappeared into the back of the apartment. I should have clued into the sudden sense of calm and lack of background chatter. But no, after several minutes she reappeared in the livingroom and announced in a happy, yet somewhat quizzical voice, "I wrote my name on the wall!" ..."WHAT!!!?" I responded in a less-than-gentle tone. I ran into her room and spun around scanning for the damage. Nothing. By then, she had her face buried in the her hands. "Where, Lili'u!?" I pleaded, and she pointed (face still buried in one hand) into Chris and my bedroom. There it was. "U'LiLi" written in large, bright pink highlighter script across a blank white wall in front of our bed. "NOOOO!" I gasped. And Lili'u ran to her bedroom crying.

I took a breath, went into her room, and knealt down beside her. "Lili'u why did you do that? You know you are only to color on paper Mommy and Daddy give you, right?" She replied through teary sobs, "I TRIED and TRIED not to write on the wall! I tried not to! I couldn't find paper! I just couldn't find any paper!"

That's when my heart melted. I realized that to her the desire to write her name, at that very moment, was more like an urgent, involuntary, visceral requirement. She just couldn't stop herself! And here was this pristine, white wall just beckoning to her.

Anyway, she became desperately motivated to remove the lettering from the wall so we tried several kinds of pencil erasers, which acheived nothing. Finally we called Chris, who was out running errands, and asked him to pick up a "Magic Eraser." Now I know that this product should be on some kind of top-10 list of items to have in a home with toddlers. It worked like magic!

I doubt we'll be having anymore incidents of writing on the walls. Hopefully I haven't spoiled any future prospects of Lili'u becoming an accomplished mural artist.

Moving to DC!

We haven't posted anything in 3 months. That's the timeframe in which we have finalized that we are moving to DC, given notice at our jobs, started an apartment search, a preschool search, and job searches...found an apartment, found a preschool, found one job...bought our first brand new set of living room furniture, said good-bye to friends and a church, and packed about 65% of our apartment. That's about where we are now with 4 full days remaining until our big move back to the place where we started 9 years ago. More about all of this another time. Just felt I needed to mark the significance of this week with at least this short entry.

Lily's Thoughts on War

Lili'u has a large world map above her bed, and at different points we've talked about where we are, where our families are, places we want to go, and where important things are happening. One thing we've talked about is the war in Iraq.

At first Lily seemed to think the name of the place was "Wariniraq", but then she came to understand the difference between the name and the ongoing event. Lili'u has shown a lot of interest lately in sorting out "how we feel" about different things, and what's "good," "not good," "OK," and "not nice." It's an interesting conversation to be in with a 3 1/2 year old - for me it means sorting out competing ideas about teaching my daughter about the world without limiting her free thought and efforts to sort things out for herself, while at the same time acknowledging that she just doesn't know what these things are yet, so needs some basic categories and definitions.

This morning at breakfast she said, out of the blue, "we don't like war in Iraq, but we like Iraq." (That's a distinction we've made with her - the difference between policies and people, on any side of an issue.) "But soldiers can stop war. They can say 'Stop!'" - and she puts out her hand like a crossing guard - "and they can fight and make it stop!"

Interesting. I think I mentioned the word soldier to her recently. I said soldiers are the people who fight wars, intending to distinguish between the actual people who literally carry guns in the streets of another country, and the American leaders (and electorate) who sent them there. I know we won't sort all of this out at breakfast...

"Well," I said, "the soldiers' job is to fight. And fighting can't make the war stop. When you and your friend Lela both want a toy, and you both grab it and you're fighting over it, does grabbing it and yelling and fighting more make the argument stop?"

"No."

"That's right. The only way to stop fighting is for one of the people fighting to stop and use their words. They can just let go and let the other person have the toy, or they can say 'Let's talk about how to share the toy.' But fighting doesn't make fighting stop."

That sounds right. Maybe not real practical in a geopolitical sense, but who said idealism is always practical?

Then Malia told her that our leaders, our "government" in Washington DC, are the ones who can stop the war.

"They can say 'Stop!'" - another crossing guard hand.

Then I said "And it's our job to tell our leaders what to do - that's something that everybody can do to stop war. Little girls and boys and grownups and old people can all tell our leaders that we want war to stop."

She seemed to like that. She's all about empowerment.

Maybe at dinner tonight I'll tell her about "laying yourself on the gears of the machine" to make it stop, true democracy vs. corporate plutocracy, and the entrenched military-industrial-consumer complex.

Or we might just talk about the cat.