Cup of Kindness

For weeks those words, "we'll take a cup of kindness yet" from Auld Lang Syne have been stopping by in my thoughts here and there.

I write this blog as a place we can go when we have a moment to unwind and I hope that in it, you also find kindness to put in your cup. I certainly feel blessed by your kindness for reading.



I fear that in 2008, I was spread very thin and only gave espresso shot-sized cups of kindness. I almost forgot to be kind to myself entirely. My hope is that 2009 will be open bar for cups of kindness. Kindness for you and for me, too.



The latest Oprah magazine may be the best issue I've read in years. It has great recommendations for so many things. But what I love most of all about the issue is this candid quote where she writes:

"I have a self-care problem...When I stop and ask myself, What am I really hungry for? the answer is always I'm hungry for balance, I'm hungry to do something other than work. If you look at your overscheduled routine and realize, like I did, that you're just going and going and that your work and obligations have become a substitute for life, then you have no one else to blame. Only you can take the reigns back.

That's what I'm doing. These days I've put myself back on my own priority list...In 2009 dare I, dare all of us give ourselves all the love and care we need to be healthy, to be well, and to be whole?"

Amen.
Ahh, but it is so very hard to execute. I found a quote in my journal written down almost this time last year from Dr. Wayne Dyer:

"By giving yourself free time to read, meditate, exercise and walk with nature, you're inviting the guidance that's waiting patiently to come calling with inspirational messages."

And not to mention the health benefits, both mental and physical.

So, I'm going to try to do a little better in the self-care department and I'm starting by breaking open a bottle of bubbly...

from philosophy, that is.

Whatever our dreams are for our lives this year, let's remind ourselves that anything is possible, particularly when there are bubbles.

happy new you.

In The Details

One of my favorite Christmas gifts I received this year is this little book, A Year of Mornings, taken from the amazing blog 3191.


I've written about them here several times, but if you haven't already, bookmark their new site for a year of evenings in the making.

The book is so lovely and I adore the dotted swiss part of the cover. It's a textual experience. In the forward, one of the authors, Stephanie Congdon Barnes, writes that the work helped her to perfect the art of noticing beauty and finding simplicity in her daily life.

"All that was loud—be it the cries of a child undone by his inability to tie his shoes, the storm beating at the window, the sight of the day's heavy workload, the weight of an emotional loss—was quieted by that click of the shutter.

It is my hope that our photos engender a culture of noticing, that they don't represent something lovely and out of reach to the viewer, but instead illuminate what is beautiful at her own breakfast table. People have described the connections between the photos as magic and cosmic. This, I feel, is not Maria's or my doing. The magic belongs to the viewer."

The magic in their work is the celebration of those domestic details that are there in most of our lives, in different manifestations, that go un-noticed. As Barnes writes, "the way the light was falling on the breakfast dishes, the rings of water on the counter, a drawing or toy left behind..."

Only now, I realize the enchantment of my grandparent's home was the attention to the details of the garden, the sewing, preparing food, striking piano keys, helping neighbors and taking time for private prayer. Someone was always up before the sun. Chocolate milk was heated on the stove for me in the morning. Butter was brought home for lunch that my grandfather made that morning. Grapes were grown on vines. Tomatoes were canned. Pillow cases were stitched with love. There was a romance to me about putting love into daily chores.

It makes sense to me that all places where people devote their existence to worship and meditation (Ashrams, Convents, Monasteries) suggest chores—scrubbing floors, chopping wood, carrying water. There is something spiritual about carrying out the tasks that the day requires. My mom always says that pulling weeds is great mediation time. I am actually enjoying working in my house with this in mind.

The past few months, I've felt the weight of emotional losses at the same time that I've been on the road, away from what Barnes describes as "the inexplicable calm of domestic life." I realize now that photography has been grace for me during this time, stepping stones in choppy water. It has helped me to stop, to notice and to hold on to glimmering sandcastles for a moment before they are washed away. Looking at photos from this time is bittersweet, like finding grains of sand in my shoes after a vacation I don't remember taking.


I am enjoying being with the details of my life that make me the most happy right now: my husband, my daughter, and little creative projects.

My hope is that when the holiday is over, I can continue notice more, be more present, be better.

Unplugged

We have officially billed the last hour, delivered the last client proofs, turned in the last grade, attended the last holiday party, mailed the holiday cards, picked up the last Christmas gift of 2008. Now, we are finally just enjoying the season. It was a marathon push, but I'm taking 2 weeks off for the first time in five years.



Tonight, we enjoyed dinner with family and getting out old knitting projects started long ago. My mother-in-law took these sweet photos of me and my daughter tonight: a rare photo of the two of us. (Usually, I am behind the camera.)





I hope all of you have some time with the people you love right now and that you have a peaceful holiday.






What is it that Mary says at the Martini's house in, It's A Wonderful Life?
"Bread that your house may never go hungry, salt that your house will always have flavor and wine that joy and prosperity may reign forever."

I'm unplugging for a few days, but I will post updates on our December Daily Album soon.

Pop-Up Time

The shelving system collapsed in my daughter's closet last week, thankfully without anyone under it. After doing an inventory, it appears that it was the holiday book collection that put us over the weight limit. Even still, you can't have enough holiday books. Right? We are really enjoying working our way though our collection of holiday books, movies and music.


This week, we're turning the pages of:
Christmas At The Zoo.
You Are My Miracle
The Sweet Smell of Christmas
The Grinch
The holiday pop-up books from Robert Sabuda
The Berenstain Bears Trim The Tree
If You Take A Mouse To The Movies {aka The Popcorn Book in our house}
A Snowy Day
The Little Drummer Boy
Snow
Olive The Other Reindeer
Little Tree inspired by the sweetest poem by ee cummings

"The little tree had found his own special place that was waiting for him all his life." Chris Raschka

Here's a lovely list of holiday reading recommendations from SouleMama and another even better one here.

What are your favorite holiday books?

Cinematherapy

Speaking of commercials, I was changing out the laundry when this commercial came on and had to sit down. It is comic perfection. My favorite is when the family wears their snuggies to the ball park. My husband piped up at the point and said, "Ah, oh. Here come the Snuggies."

I Need A Claus Makeover

This commercial could not be any better.


Palm Centro Commercial - Anthem - The most amazing home videos are here

Healing Things

1. The Hotel Cafe Presents: Winter Songs



2. Cipriani Parapadelli Pasta

3. Photographs like these of the joy of being a momma.

4. Visits to places like this.

5. Inspired shopping guides for children like this one.

6. Simple suppers like ratatouille from the Moosewood Cookbook.

7. The promise of books unread. A list of the year's 10 best from the NYTimes is here.

10. Bolla Valpolicella - it's cheap, perfect red table wine for any occasion. Like a field trip to Roma.

11. Good friends like these who are taking time to live full time. Love their post here about making a holiday wreath.

12. Pink Christmas Trees.


13. Being home.


14. Songs of Joy & Peace from Yo Yo Ma and also this one from Sixpence None The Richer. Though, I have to say, if looking for a Joni Mitchell remake of River, look no further than Corrine Bailey Rae's version on the Herbie Hancock record River: The Joni Letters.

As I drove to court this morning in another county, snow was falling and I listened to Corrine singing,
"It's coming on Christmas. They're cutting down trees. Their putting up reindeers and singing songs of joy and peace. I wish I had a river I could skate away on." I know it's crazy, because I don't know her, but I say prayers for her from time to time knowing this will be the first Christmas since she has lost her husband: a loss I cannot imagine.

15. Old Ornaments


16. New Ornaments



Here's to peaceful winter evenings.

Letting Her Go: A Eulogy

A new post for Skirt!


---------------
I've received many emails and calls about expressions of sympathy. I can't tell you how much that means to me and my family. We've asked in lieu of flowers for donations
in memory of Pauline Faith to go to:

Meals on Wheels
Daviess County Senior Services
Elizabeth Munday Center
1650 West Second Street
Owensboro, KY 42301

If you would prefer to donate online or to a different chapter, you can do so online here:
Meals on Wheels

**As an aside, Elizabeth Munday (for whom the center mentioned above is named) was a great lady too. I adored her and her stories about her travels and visiting with the Peabody ducks. I would be such a different person had I not been blessed by knowing so many wise women who approached 100 years in age ...Aunt Ivy, Elnora Schoppenhorst, Ms. Munday and now Grandmom. My other Grandmother who died in 1995, didn't make it to 90, but she was wise and amazing, too.

Feeling Grateful About The Details

1. Lit books courtesy of Ikea and my dad's handy work when he was here in September.
2. A turkey painting from my girl.
3. My husband writing his dissertation as the sun comes up.
4. Catching snow flakes on her tongue last night.
5. A turkey day card I picked up. I love the composition.
6. The happy holidays sign I picked up at Michael's.
7. My girl's hands.
8. The puppers with a pink sunset-pink-sky behind her.
9. A new lamp for our girl's room. I've been eying this one forever.

In A Time of Hope

I just love this cover of George Harrison's Here Comes the Sun performed by Yo-Yo Ma and James Taylor.

1 more reason to love Apple

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking.

Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice.

And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

-Steve Jobs

Tall order, huh? But worth pondering all the same.

Things I Wish I Had Written

Adding to my long list of Things I Wish I Had Written...

...this enchanting story in yesterday's New York Times about a boy in a restaurant. It is just lovely.

...and this beautiful dedication from Marion Rust's book Prodigal Daughters.

She writes,

"I hope someday you [her children] take this one off the shelf and have a look. Your faces are on every page.

My father, Ted Rust, listened to me as though I were a grown-up when I was five and played duets with me before I was eight. From him, I learned to converse, as well as the pleasure of working alone at something one loves.

My brother, Daniel, flew off the bicycle jump he'd built in front of our house, both wheels high in the sky, to show me that words weren't everything.

My mother, Rainy, introduced me to the following: how to make a six-inch blackberry pie, the fine sand of Rose Hill, Ontario, and the ocean-ground gravel of Cronkite, California; cassoulet and potatoes with cauliflower; mouse houses; Bob Marley after work; swimming slowly; dancing after dinner; reading all night; endurance. Gratitude that deepens with every day. This book is for my dream come true, my mom."

I just adore every thoughtful detail filled with the best memories.

Holidays about gratitude and thanks should all begin this way, thinking of everyone you love at their best on their most sunkissed day.

T-Tips

Here is a handy Thanksgiving Week Check List from the Organize blog.

The Lloyd Dobbler Career Plan

Here's a new post for Skirt!

Old Friends

Waiting in a noisy restaurant, we went to the bookshelf where they keep books for children. My daughter started jumping up and down because they had two of her favorites, The Cat In the Hat and You Are Special. I handed them to her and she hugged the books and looked at them, amazed that they exist somewhere other than her room.

These were tattered copies with stray crayon marks on the title pages, bent spines, and no dust jackets, but she greeted them like old, beloved friends with a smile much bigger than during our entire time at Disney World. They were a piece of familiar comfort in a loud place.



When our food came and I returned the books to the shelf, she didn't protest. She knew her copies were at home, exactly where she left them, though probably under our sleeping calico.

But she talked about it later, how they had the books that she has, too. They like the books I like, and how maybe the next time we eat there, we can read them again.

Looking Under Rocks

Ever work really hard for something
for a year
and end up
exactly
where you began?



me too.

There's something beautiful and haunting to me about when Freddy Mercury sings,
"Why can't we give love that one more chance?"
He asks the question over and over, repeating the words, "give love" and it always makes my heart skip a beat and ask myself how am I giving love in my life or giving something of value to the world.

and David Bowie answers why it is so hard to do,

"Cause love's such an old fashioned word
And love dares you to care for
The people on the edge of the night
And love dares you to change our way of
Caring about ourselves."

Shouldn't more of my life entail caring for people? Not just my people.
Love dares me all of the time.
And I chicken out.
Opting to roll a boulder up a hill and be surprised when it rolls right over me.

I know this is probably uber cryptic and I don't mean it to be. I'm just feeling like I need to ask myself some impolite questions and find some answers that I can be proud of.

Motherhood and Make-Up Work

On Saturdays, I feel this intense urge to be the magical, fun, no-schedule mom that I wish I could be all of the time. I cram in everything I can. Yesterday, we gorged on books and hot chocolate, leaves jumping, pancakes, movies, cuddle time, and crafting.

I look around the house tonight and see all of the make-up work I will have to do as result of my make-up time with my family. There is much to clean and do before the morning and tomorrow brings another merciless week. I'm like the cricket who sang all Saturday.



For over a year, I have wanted to make a mini book. I never thought I would have the time or find affordable resources locally, and for some reason, that really depressed me. It was just one more thing that I would never have time to get to and that made me feel even more behind.

Over the past few months, here and there, the pieces have sort of fallen into my lap and now, my books are ready to record the holidays. This is no big deal for most people, but for me, it's a symbol that I don't have to give up on being creative...or on having the kind of life I always imagined for myself.









Each year since college, I have studied the pages of Martha Stewart's Homemade Holiday Gift Guide. Inspired by the peppermint striped pages, I once made peppermint bark as gifts. When I ended up spending more on the ingredients and packaging than when I bought it at Target in perfectly packaged tins, I gave up on the dream of a homemade Christmas.

This holiday, we've decided to keep things simple and when the new Martha holiday issue came out this month, I started dreaming of making something again.

But I have no time.

Damnit.

Then my Aunt Jan gave us some homemade lotion that was awesome and it gave me an idea. A few weeks later, I found the perfect containers for it for .67 cents that fit perfectly into holiday packaging I already had.

We made it today and I don't mind admitting that I made such a huge mess. We were Lucy and Ethel and there's a place in the floor we're all avoiding because it is so slippery. But it was worth it to discover that I can do it if I do things over a long period of time. Ingredients one day. Packaging the next week. Making it the next month. Delivering it the next...you get the idea.











Adorable, affordable teacher gifts made by 3-year-old, DONE!

And here's the thing: my house is a disaster today. A million imperfections fall outside the borders of every photograph: laundry and stress and family crisis and everything else. But for a moment, I can feel like I'm making a sweet memory for me and for her and that gets me through all of the rest of it.

I picked up some new chimes on Saturday. They are Tibetan Prayer Chimes that promise to, "convey the prayers and blessings of the listener every time the wind blows." Each time they sang today, I said a prayer: a nice, peaceful thing for a Sunday. I pray that I can appreciate every moment of my life. I pray that I will no longer separate the kind of life I want to live from the one I am living. I pray that I can slow down a bit.

I found the most delightful stationary from Positively Green that says, "Let us pause to warm our hands before the fire of life."

I just love that.


**This is the most busy time of year for litigators, so my posts may be a bit sporadic until Christmas. Thanks for your patience.

The Fall

I adore Fall.

It is my favorite season.


Even ugly highways look more beautiful.

But this Fall has been one of those seasons where I can feel the techtonic plates shifting thousands of miles down. Standing in the bathroom to comb my hair, the room tilts suddenly. I try to quickly get my sea legs and steady the objects on the counter. The room levels out eventually.

But I wake up the next morning and start to smell the salty air and earth. This time, the wave comes from a different direction. I am unprepared for it, and everything slides off of the surface revealing something else that I didn't know was there.

I have spent this Fall falling.

When my daughter was an infant, I read books that explained the Moro reflex: how babies will, even in their sleep, suddenly reach with their hands outstretched when they feel the sensation of falling. They also call it the parachute reflex. I feel a bit like that too. There's no way to prevent falling from the tree. And, even if it is in my mind, it is my habit to try to reach, futility, into the air to grab the nothingness.

I'm not sure when I will land. I'm trying to focus on blessings as the sides of the rabbit hole speed past, but my challenge is learning acceptance when things happen that I cannot prevent or repair. I have quit wishing things could be different. But I cannot stop aching for what has been lost, what will be lost, and what I cannot hold in my hands.

Tricks or Treats

Candy for your weekend -

1. The Sartorialist -one of my alltime favorite blogs- has been even more stunning lately.

2. Pink cotton eye candy from Spagat (which means The Splits in Danish).

3. Creative Book list recommendations from Shutter Sisters.

4. Photos for swooning by Paul Johnson.

5. This nail polish (I am loving the one called Sample Sale).

Wordle

This image from Wordle.net represents a speech from Obama on schools. You can use the site to make word clouds from text that you provide. The site explains:

"The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends."

What a cool tool for a journal or to iron on a canvas bag.

Humor Me

I love this post from friend Grimsaburger.

Does that make me crazy?

Love Ray LaMontagne, as you know. Just discovered this cover he made of Gnarls Barkley's Crazy. Of course, the original bears repeating.

C is for Cookie

...that's good enough for me.

This holiday, my little girl and I are baking and selling cookies to benefit pediatric cancer research. A Band of Parents of children battling cancer put together this website on how to host a bake sale for the cause. I've blogged before about this family and the mom is a mom after my own heart. She asks, "okay, what can I do?" And does it.

There's work to be done.

This is my 200th post and I find myself asking how can I make a difference.

Holiday Card Resource

I have a weekend gig as a photographer. Lately, I've been taking photos of families for their holiday cards. Here, in no particular order, are links to this year's holiday photo card offerings. All of these options allow you to upload your jpeg into a fabulous card design. The links should take you directly to the holiday photo card browsing page for each site.

*Exposures

*Hallmark

*Shutterfly

*Zazzle

*Kodak

*Tiny Prints

This I Believe About Grief

This essay, The Give and Take of Grief, by Michael Newland featured this week on This I Believe is so powerful, I had to steady myself against a wall when I heard it.

With phrases like, "He looked at me, like a dolphin surfacing to look at a fisherman, and then re-submerged when the team took him away to stabilize him," you just have to sit down to listen.

If you can, click the speaker once you are on that page so that you can hear the author read it himself.

Dioramas

This post from 3191 is exactly what I've been thinking about doing as a holiday card for us. I love the outside looking in. I've been trying to photograph our family from the outside the cottage looking in for a while now. I'm waiting for perfect autumn light.


I think this appeals to me (and photos of a room taken from another room) because I have always had a big time fascination with dioramas. Remember making them for school? The smell of Elmers glue, construction paper, clay figures. Taking acorns, sticks and leaves to make 3 dimensional details.

There's a place near my parents house where you can see seemingly life-size ones as you float behind them on the waterway. They are giant doll's houses, all lit up in yellow on the inside against the blue evening light. People are at the dinner table or walking through the house. It is so peaceful to see them living their lives silently, walking up stairs and moving through their days. It reminds me of the scene in Steve Zissou where he takes you on a cross section tour of his boat. (I love that this version of the clip is in italian. I adore Wes Anderson movies and Mark Mothersbaugh who does the amazing music moves me so much). There's something about floating on the waterway that takes the eerie Rear Window voyeur feeling away. Their windows are open after all and we keep moving on.

There's an old Indigo Girls song that I love from Swamp Ophelia called Language or The Kiss, that says something like, "There was a table set for six and five were there. I stood outside and kept my eye upon that empty chair. There was steam on the window from the kitchen. Laughter like a language I once spoke with ease."

I really love that.

Thumbs Up

I loved this story on NPR's Friday Morning Edition. Imagine loving what you do in your 80's. These movie critics call themselves Reel Geezers, post reviews on Youtube and have some suggestions in the story link above for movies to add to the netflix cue or movie rental wishlist.

In The Details

My house is sleeping. I have on my favorite headphones and Ray LaMontagne is singing about trouble and wild horses, being saved and asking how come.

I'm thinking back on the week and trying to figure out how to put it into categories and alphabetized files. There are so many things I can't write about on any given week, that it's difficult to process it all. Occupational hazard I guess, but it seems I am in a constant state of (to twist around Robert Frost) confidences to keep and miles to go before I sleep.

I love this time of year though. No matter how long it has been since I had a new class schedule, Fall still feels like it is a time to go back to learn something, start fresh, wait for color. It's small, quiet things that I look forward to all year: details like the ones shared here and here.

We're all conditioned to look for certain details as a sign of changing time, and in looking for those markers that the seasons are changing or that a holiday is coming, or that a child has met a milestone, do we miss other beautiful, not so obvious markers of time and lessons of what this is, being human?

These photo books of a week in the life have elevated seemingly mundane tasks to those worthy of a photograph, a journal entry and a printed page. In close up detail, the ordinary becomes extraordinary. Even though I only did the project for one day, thinking of how I would photograph an ordinary task helped me see it as something beautiful. The next time I did the same task without the camera, the sense of purpose and importance of the task had not gone away. If I could hold on to that sense that every thing I do, even monotonous tasks, has purpose and ramifications, that everything about how we all handle each other is a delicate moment, would life be more meaningful? Would I find answers or just more questions?

There's no way to know which details are the salient ones, the ones that will matter most. I can't take in all of them. Just like with writing, I guess it's about choosing the details that seem most closely related to the questions we're trying to answer at the time? I'm still trying to figure this out for myself. But somewhere in all of it is a feeling that I'm not paying close enough attention to my life to find God in every person, to be present enough for the people I love, to figure out why I'm here and what I'm supposed to be doing. I begin each day asking myself, "how may I serve," and the answer seems to change with every cup of coffee. Tomorrow, I think I'll just be and see what happens.




Don't let your mind get weary and confused
Your will be still, don't try
Don't let your heart get heavy child
Inside you there's a strength that lies

Don't let your soul get lonely child
It's only time, it will go by
Don't look for love in faces, places
It's in you, that's where you'll find kindness

Be here now, here now
Be here now, here now

Don't lose your faith in me
And I will try not to lose faith in you
Don't put your trust in walls
'Cause walls will only crush you when they fall

Be here now, here now
Be here now, here now
-Ray LaMontagne

Friday Inspiration

I saw this photo from [b]ecker today and it makes me want to go to Antigua where this sign lives...or at least print a poster for my office.

Get Through This

I'm looking under rocks. Taking books off of the shelf. Searching everywhere for inspiration - for anything uplfiting. Everyone seems so depressed. Is it the economy? Are we all just sick of political commercials?

Here's a lighthouse or two making me think about all of the things about life that are beautiful and worth celebrating.
-Everything on this page is like heaven.

-I'm reading Living Simply With Children, though I wonder if I am simply living. I have some work to do in this regard, but it's a nice place to start.




I'd like to make some mini books for holiday gifts. This book arrived today in the mail and it is lovely.


-My sewing machine is back from repairs. Not sure I remember how to use it, but it's fun to think of the possibilities.

Anything inspiring you these days? Know any good jokes?
Is this thing on?

On Scandal

When I was at The College 700 miles away, one of my professors, Dr. Simon Lewis (one of the greatest teachers of all time) assigned Susan Bordo's The Slender Body to help explain why a protagonist's anorexia was a reaction to oppression around her. (I think the book was Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditons). Even though it has been more than a decade, I still remember it being a completely fascinating discussion fueled by Bordo's essay.

Now my husband works and studies in the same department as Susan Bordo and she has written something new this week that I find equally fascinating.
Check it out here. She is equally tough on both parties, but raises some good points I think.

I am not a person who votes in elections with blind party loyalty. These are not sporting events where we have to root for the home team every time. I look at the candidates. I don't begrudge anyone for their party affiliation or try to change someone else's vote. But, it bothers me in this election that we have a candidate who calls his wife, calls anyone really, the "c" word. I hope we can expect more for our daughters than to choose a commander-in-chief, or an anything really, who views, speaks to, thinks of women (half of his constituents) in this way. Can't we do better? And I will leave it at that.

Travelocity Daddy

Like the Travelocity Gnome, the daddy from my daughter's Fisher Price doll house travels around a lot. We find him in every room of the house at different times of the day.


I wonder what he thinks about these little positions she leaves him in and where we will find him next. I'll keep you posted.

A Blog of One's Own

Click here for a new post at Skirt!

Wacky Wednesday: Elusive Photoshop

I have so much to learn about photoshop. I have been watching some helpful tutorials online. This one takes the cake. Enjoy. Some language may not be work appropriate.

Coming Up For Air

-I've started writing several posts for this blog in one sitting and scheduling the publish dates so that there should be new material even on days when I'm away for work. Plus, it is such a gift when I check bloglines and see that I have a new post that I've forgotten about. A little piece of sanity back.

-The 29 gifts in 29 days project is so much fun and so easy. Give it a shot if you have the slightest interest.

-I'm in love with Bento boxes and have had the most fun searching for the perfect one for each of us to use for our lunches.

-Why is it that some hotel rooms are so peaceful? The good ones have figured out how we live and also, how to have closed storage and clean surfaces. I am working on creating more of that in my home. It has become a bit of an obsession.

After doing some research and finding this great post: zen habits: a guide to creating a minimalist home, my new project it to ask myself in every room and every drawer, "what is essential?"

I love the suggestion in this article that, "the key is to remove the unnecessary stuff." It is a life philosophy.

I have trouble keeping my head above water in the small house. Putting things away and cleaning is a full time job for all of us. My husband is even more diligent about it than I am, and still, so much of our time is spent trying to find homes for things loose about the house. I think I have figured out the problem. We have no storage space and yet, I'm keeping things as though I do.
No more.

It is so so liberating.

What's more, I realized that I was "storing" every emotion that I associate with each object as well. Freeing up space is literally helping me feel there is room for more good things to come into our lives.

We Feel Fine

Saturday

I decided to try this challenge, at least for one day. In essence, the challenge is to capture the everyday routine, even the mundane and in the process discover the beauty of the present moment. It suggests to, "document the imperfect normalness of your existence."
Here goes...


Waking up in stages.


Leaving the bakery after the three of us shared a pumpkin spice muffin, an everything bagel and a chocolate donut. Coffee and books refills are free there.


This family reminded me of biking to Mooreland Park and the library as a family when I was a child.


The Farmer's Market, full of wonders as always.


One of our favorite farmers teaching about how to prepare and plant the bulbs he is selling.


She got bored with the lesson and laid down. I had to take these photos before scooping her up.






I loved this woman's hair.


Searching for the balloon man.


Reading her babies stories.

I worked on my closet.
He cooked broccoli Roman style with tomatoes and lemon zest that he bought at the market.


A swing together.

Then to a friend's house for dinner and playtime.


Somersaults.


Belly laughs.




Telling stories with friends.

It was a fun day and I enjoyed the challenge, but I think it looks remarkably like blog posts I would write for the family blog on any other Saturday. I don't know that I was still enough- observant enough this time around. I may have to stretch a bit next time.

Please leave links to your Week In The Life posts in the comments.