And we're off...

On Tuesday, we leave for two weeks in Italy.
Kate will be partying with friends and family while we are gone.
Ciao!
See you when we get back.

A New Look

I told you.
I am on a quest to update.
Feeling better already.
Wardrobe is coming together for Italy.
Hair appointment tomorrow *who knows what will happen**
and a new look for this blog...my sister told me my background was "a little much".
Thanks sis.
I simplified.

ps...if you haven't seen it yet, check out what Kate has been doing while I've been working here

Laugh

I had to post this photo. It is just classic. that's what you get for taking your children to museums :)

Ever feel...

like you WISH you could do something, see something, be something, cook something or look more than just something?

All those things have evaded me recently.

Realized most of my clothes have past the five year old mark and the sweater I wore to work yesterday has reached decade status.
All my purses are just old, abused and unused.
My staple shoes are battered Rainbows and Dansko clogs.

Two weeks of work have made my menu plan look like this:
Spaghetti
Pizza
Steak
Pad Thai
Frozen lasagna

I am on a quest to update. Update my hair (appointment next week!) update my wardrobe, buy a fabulous Italian purse, buy some impractical shoes and come back from Italy and bake some fabulous time waster cookies like these.

Once I return, I shall update this blog and return to the world more than just in something mood.

Gigi, we miss you...we wish we could be playing with you this week too!
Don't be too sad about Emily-- remember I am going to be MUCH closer than she is...you can always visit me :)

A Mental Photo

She stood there. Naked. Delighted.
Her shoulders were slightly raised; arms up in the air with open palms.
She had a quizzical smirk on her face.
The drops poured down on over her pigtails.
She must have just realized what it was-- it wasn't just about being wet.
It was a shower of drops.
They must have tickled because she kind of giggled.

The golden evening light in the pool shower made the moment even more magical.

It was an image I thought to myself, "This is one of those moment you will try and remember for your lifetime. When it was just her and nobody else. "

I will try to remember when you were just one, and it was just the three of us at the pool on a Sunday afternoon. I will try and remember that you were only two tiles high. I will try and remember when it was the mere magic of a shower that delighted you.

As Emily's time to leave for Africa approaches and I spend these days here at work away from Kate, I think very much about mothering and "sending off" children. I am sad only because I know my turn as a mother will come one day to say goodbye too. I am sad only because as mother, a little more space widens between us and our children every single day--they crawl, then they walk, then they ride away... It is like we stand as mothers with a magnifier focused intently on their joy and pain and then they naturally move away a little bit at a time farther from us. The space is a sweeter, more sorrowful, and fuller experience than I have ever known. It is an irreplaceable joy.

My favorite things...

I appreciate the small things about living in my own house.
Like putting fresh flowers on my own kitchen table.
These we did from neighborhood flowers for Janis' brunch.