Scenes from a hibernation...

Hibernating is wonderful. I have photos to prove it. I have spent the last six glorious days in my house with nothing but my boys, Lola, warm socks, and lots of good food.

Our courtyard looks magical...

My baking partner who dressed himself and is my biggest helper in the kitchen. I can't believe how much baking we did...brownies, cookies, chocolate cake, granola, banana bread, and other stuff too.

We stayed very busy gathering snow for our homemade snow ice cream. Yes, just add sugar, milk, vanilla and of course snow.

We discovered that while the seagulls can walk around and sort of huddle on the icy lake all day long...the ducks, not so much. They were a little disoriented.

Little one loves to throw snow balls. He also apologizes after each one.

This sweet bird visited us at our breakfast table. I think he lives with his family in the bird house around the corner. Could he be any fatter or cuter?

Add one iced in front door, and a dance party with my two super heroes...you get me...a deliriously happy girl.

Iced all the way in...what to do? Build a fort, put on my monkey suit, and put on a talent show for my proud parents.

Yes, hibernating is simply wonderful.

So is Silly Cow hot cocoa by the way....

Here we are....six days later...the snow and ice is gone, but....this six days will never be forgotten. xoxoxo

The ABC's

Cuddled up on this cold snowy morning, watching Winnie the Pooh, I was seriously not prepared for the ending. It's time for Christopher Robin to go off to school to learn his abc's and about places like Brazil. He tells Pooh that all he really wants to do is stay in the hundred acre woods and do nothing. (His favorite thing to do) I looked over at my sweet, sweet four year old boy, who's favorite thing to do is the same...(as is mine) and began to cry. He hugged me really tight, and I of course could not give a good explanation as to why I was crying....I just said I am so happy and sometimes people cry when they are really happy. I was reminded at that moment that he will go off and need to learn all of those things soon too. But....and this is the really important part....he is here with me now and just four years old. So there we were, me crying, him comforting me and drying my eyes with his precious blankie, and what else was there to do but jump up to make pancakes? Life...all at once so incredibly beautiful and yet tender, sometimes sad, and so very dear.

My boys

Here is the deepest secret nobody knows

here is the root of the root, and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;

which grows higher than the soul can hope or the mind can hide and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart...

I carry your heart - I carry it in my heart.

-ee.cummings

Sisters...

This photo was taken about 25 years ago. This is my sister and me. She is coming tonight on a big jet plane to see me and I am so excited to see her sweet face.

These are some things we may do this weekend:

Ride bikes with little c. in the trailer...maybe to the Barnes and Noble for a coffee.

Go to the Arboretum...yes, a definite must.

Make Valentine cake balls.

Have a SNO (sister night out) on the town.

Take a long winter's walk with little c. to wind chime park.

Do a super cool, very hip photo shoot with my super cool, very hip photog husband.

Or maybe just sit at the kitchen table drinking tea, eat tons of pancakes, stay in our pajamas all day, watch little c. dance around the kitchen, and tell each other all of our secrets...xo.

'Tis a gift...

"'Tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be free...'tis a gift to come down where we ought to be, and when we find ourselves in the place just right, we will be in the valley of love and delight."

I don't know if this will translate, but it's worth trying. I had the honor (and I do mean honor), this week of taking one of my students who really wants to be in choir to his first practice. It's late in the year, but the choir teacher agreed to let him join, and off we went. We got there, sat down on the cold gymnasium floor, and this song began. It was one of those moments for me where time just kind of stopped, and I was totally present. It just hit me....truly. I haven't been able to get it out of my mind since...I even hear little one singing it. Think about the message, because we are always on exactly the path that is our own...we are always finding ourselves in "the place just right". There are no mistakes and everything has it's purpose. How comforting and beautiful is that? Meanwhile, I continue to strive for the gifts of simplicity and freedom...and of course love. I wish the same for you. xo

What endures?

On this fabulous New Years Day, with a big, beautiful new desk in my life, I find myself sorting and sifting through photos, clips, quotes, sticky notes, and other memorabilia trying to make my writing space more functional. I am a person who keeps everything, and I mean everything. I have finally asked the much needed question...what endures? What do I need to keep? What to throw away? Will I remember the moments and days of my life? After looking through boxes and boxes of things saved, you know what I think truly endures? Love. To quote the Beatles, "...and in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make." Beginning today, I will be simplifying, and reaching for love...in every corner, in every moment. I will box up all that is undone, forgive myself for not having done it, and create a simple plan for one sweet scrapbook for each brilliant year of this amazing life I have been trusted with.

This will endure....happy new year! xo

Happy New Year!

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The possibilities for the new year are absolutely endless...isn't the new year divine? The slate is clear, the page is blank...what will I write?