• lunch from yesterday: roasted chicken with melted chedder and pesto on ciabatta bread. um, yum.
• there are two types of people in this world: those who complete puzzles by looking at the picture and those that complete a puzzle by looking at the shape of the pieces.
• i am overloaded with sessions i need to edit, but at some point you've just got to release the guilt and take pics of yourself with candles... and then edit pics for others.
• school is going really, really well for the kids... and for me.  i had no idea how much attention a certain someone was demanding from me until i was left with just two.  now i'm feeling like i have preschoolers for the first time in a long time.  there's a lot of stories read, masterpieces painted, snugg-ohs shared, and games played.  when the olders come home i feel refreshed, ready for the intensity of the homework-dinner-bedtime routine.  i'm feeling so blessed. and everyone is even getting what they need.
• still, i could really use a massage.
• i'm also feeling like every day i'm pulling a little further out of this foggy hole i've lived in for the past 5-ish years.  every day i'm just a little closer to organization, a little closer to sleeping at night and not during the day, a little more patient, a little more kind, a little happier.  my stride may be short and slow, but forward movement is forward movement.
• remember when you could actually win a real thing by opening a cereal box?
• i just shoveled the driveway and by the time i was finished it had snowed more than what i swept away. 
• having a "play date" with mom's that just don't speak my language leaves me one lonely mama.  i don't speak coupon-ese.  the kids had fun. maybe if all the mom's wore tutus and played pirates we'd find more commonalities.  or maybe we need a blanket fort to clip coupon's in.
• i'm looking forward to tonight, vinyasa yoga with my husband and then hopefully a 30 minute run.  my earphones miss me.
• tiger mom? superiority? i think that when families come together in love parents know exactly how to raise their own children and children know exactly how to love their parents.  no need for battle or wild animals. just love, that's all we ever need.
• the kids are super happy in their classes.  each day i get a run-down on what they eat for lunch and who they played with.  (french toast sticks, fruit, and milk; e played penguin catchers with boys and f raced the girls)
• i want to start volunteering at the school. got any ideas for a weather related art project for 7 year olds?
• watching my little girls play, their hair pointing like stars on their heads, their tiny bums incapable of holding pants up, H yelling, "what the hell-o kitty?", i'm literally falling head over heels in love with these girls.
• isn't imperfection beautiful?  isn't that what shows we've lived our lives, our scars and markings?
• my husband listens to self help mp3's.  which is cool, for him, but it always freaks me out when they pop up on itunes shuffle... "you can achieve greatness in business by simply..."
• now that the olders are gone for most of the day, F is all the more affectionate when he's home.  it's been a long time since he's volunteered kisses, now i'm blanketed in them.
• thinking of painting, thinking of napping, thinking of shoveling again, thinking that i haven't eaten anything yet today, thinking i wish i had studio space so it was just out and easy accessible to me.
• i just stepped in cream cheese.
• the little girls are building machines from the wooden toys i got from ikea.  i love ikea.  like, a lot.

her voice is powerful AND sweet.  i'm finding myself singing a lot more with such inspiring women paving the way for me to be comfortable with it again.