Blue Day

On our dede (grandfather)’s 83rd birthday we all went to his happy place, Ikea. When we got to the kitchen section, it was @korayerimez who was like a kid in a toy store. Koray’s the cook in our family and his eyes lit up every time he picked up a new must-have kitchen tool. Here he is smiling ear to ear next to copper pans.🤩

On Blue Day, we’re invited to do what nourishes us, mind, body and soul. Having a happy place that brings so much joy is a blessing. Imagine what life would be like if this happy place was home? 💙

Rainy, sunny, windy, cold, warm.

Autumn lasted less than a month. We’ve been back in Izmir for less than 3 weeks and we were still wearing summer pajamas last week! Now winter is here and it’s definitely not the most wonderful time of the year for tropical girl me.🥶🥶🥶

To my friends who love winter, how do you keep warm and fuzzy when all around is frigid?🧣🧥🔥

Never a dull bus ride with this one! We get a live show complete with hands in the air and hips swinging to her own songs as free in-ride entertainment everyday.🎤

We’re raising our daughter to feel at home with who she is, and it starts with feeling at home in her body.💪 No over-the-top praises, just matter-of-fact affirmations to listen to her body, sing her heart out, and dance to the beat of her own drum 🥁.

💙 On Blue Day, let’s listen to our inner beat and turn up the volume. Let’s feel our body and enjoy it, honor it, be thankful for it.🙏

I learned how to commute when I studied in Madrid after university. I was in my 20s and on my own for the first time, and I loved it.🌏 I loved looking at maps and getting lost because it meant discovering a new place. I’d ride the bus to nowhere in particular, just people watching and taking in the sights of the city.

Twenty years later, I’m living in one of Turkey’s most well-connected cities. My daughter gets to ride the bus everyday.🚎 She stands next to bus stops, observes neighborhood landmarks and streetlife, and picks fruits from sidewalk trees. She’s growing up with a more intimate knowledge of the streets than I did, and thinks of train rides as fun and exciting.

This sense of the streets–knowing how to find her way around, making friends with bus drivers and neighborhood people, asking for directions–I hope it lets her grow up with an awareness of and familiarity with life outside, that she exists in the context of a neighborhood and city.🏡 She has a place in all of it. She belongs, she enjoys it, and in turn, she has responsibilities to care for it.🌿

💙 On Blue Day, let’s reconnect with our streets, our neighborhood and our city. This is the bigger body outside of us, and in the same way we explore, enjoy and nurture our own bodies, let’s explore, enjoy and nurture our streets.🛣

Our 5yo learned to climb trees yesterday.🌴 İt’s now the first thing she wants to do when she wakes up, and such a welcome change from wanting to watch tv!

In two days, she’s gone from scared to fearless to scratched all over.🩹 She’s finding her balance and is more surefooted, wanting to climb higher and higher with each step.🏃‍♀️ It’s a good thing the fruit trees in the garden are not that tall, or else I’ll be a pinned to the garden too, watching her like a hawk.👀

It’s amazing to see her having fun and learning to trust her body at the same time. Hats off to her babanne and visiting abla (older sister or friend) who showed and encouraged her to do it.🏋‍♀️

From scared to fearless in under 10 minutes–we have so much to learn from children 💪

Some other things I learned:
✅ ️Plum trees are small but terrible: they’re super strong and are good for climbing.
✅️ Apricot trees are strong too and easier to climb because they fan out in a more regular way.
✅️ I should’ve climbed trees as a child! So glad Su got to climb her first tree today.
✅️ Grandmothers are really konsintidor 😂

💙On Blue Day, why not try something that will let you get to know your body in a new way: a new HIIT routine, dance move, go through hoops or ninja class or maybe, even climb a tree!🌳