Jam Session

Snow-day fun

Pantry Re-Visted

Every few days Miss Belalu decides she is not pleased with my pantry arrangement and steps in to help.

Score 1 for Miss B; 0 for the pantry

Happy December!!

Here's to a new month! It's been a really difficult fall in terms of work and lack of sleep, but December has started off well. We've got a week of classes left before finals and Belalu has only woken up once the past two nights after a two-month jag of waking-every-hour. We've got some travel coming up and vacation is always a welcome respite, so I've got a good feeling about the end of 2012. In spite of all the challenges, I've been feeling so grateful lately. My kids are amazing. They are just pure joy and love. Here are some pics from the past week or so as we play around the house. Many are blurry or use indoor flash, which I don't like the look of, so I need to work on capturing these moving targets better, but hopefully you get the gist.

Yes, indeed. I'm one lucky mama. Here's to a merry and joyful December for your family as well!!!

Home Sweet home

We're home. We're home. We're home. I love traveling, but boy-oh-boy, do I LOVE being home. And even though it's still mid-August, my thoughts are turning to fall because a new year of classes is just around the corner. (This photo is from last fall- no pumpkins in these parts just yet :) Fall is our time of renewal around here. In additional to celebrating a new school year, it's the time of house-projects. Yesterday I realized that contrary to what I've assumed, our frantic domestic sprucing-up this time of year has nothing to do with a primal urge to tidy the space before winter "hibernation," but rather stems from coming home after a long absence.

After being gone for a month and a half, I see it all with a new, critical eye. All the things that need changing or repair disappear into the background of our daily lives after a while, but during the first few weeks home, they seem to be the only things I can see . Before we left, I had cleaned and organized the house. However, the first thing I did when I woke up was clean the fridge before it was filled with food again. Then came some other things that I hadn't gotten to before we left. Then I started de-cluttering the counters of knick-knacks that have been there since we moved in 3 years ago. Suddenly, I had no idea why I would want them there (JC asked me what took me so long- apparently they've been bugging him the whole time). Then I took out a pad and pen to start making notes of all the things that needed to be done- big and small. It's a pretty long list, but there's no deadline, other than doing as much as I can before they fade back into the background of complacency.

It's not perfect, that's for sure, but it's our home and I'm happy to be back in it.