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.