can i just take a minute to be thankful for this wine? for this delicious, relaxing wine that covered all the ills of commuting 2.5 hours tonight, including getting stuck in traffic on the way to ballet class and missing ballet and screaming at every car that honked at me because "yes i dont care i am taking up 3 lanes" and pulling many illegal moves in my car while just trying, at the least, to get home, to just forget it. then this wine. this wine that relaxed my shaking hands, and calmed my nerves, there is nothing i am more thankful for at this moment, than this wine.

and with that i am going to bed because i am waking up tomorrow morning to go running alongst the lake with a friend. first of many runs, we hope. the slow transformation of morning running habits begins tomorrow!!

TTD

Thanks day 6- Nephew. Thankful for this boy!



Thanks day 5- reading outside in the lawn, always.



Day 4- the crack that you don't see in this windshield anymore, that insurance completely covered the repair of. Many thanks.

I think I'm losing track of days. I take pictures but then run out of time to post them, or upload them to flickr.  For now, this is the best I can do.

"For now, this is the best I can do" - grace in so many ways that i hardly allow myself in my head...

NEON

Excuse me. This, my newest shade of nail polish, is the exact same color as this postit note. It also is the same color as the orange-yellow line painted on the pavement. It's neon bold, outrageously orange, ridiculously bright. In context of my achingly dull gray and beige studio at work, it doesn't belong.

You and me, nail polish, you and me.

I'm quite thankful for this nail polish.

thankful overload

1. package from my sister:
    family photos, guinea pig treats, guinea pig book, and card with a hot guy on the front (!!!)

2. package from the plume:
   summer cd, postcards, lip balm, lotion, tea, delicious smelling chocolate (it's nice to win!)

3. library books:
    Let's pretend this never happened by Jenny Lawson, and the girl with the dragon tattoo audiobook (for those commutessssss)

Despite all these unexpected gifts, it was really hard to refrain from perusing Madewell's super sale right now... I need red flats like nothing else. Restraint, restraint!

thirty thankful days

she over at the amazing blog speaking for herself is starting a thirty thankful days challenge. I am going to post one picture a day of something I am thankful for, and for the next 30 days, refrain from buying anything that isn't   food or gas, unless it's a gift. for someone else.

I am notoriously bad at challenges, but here it goes.

Day one, I am going to use a photo from over the weekend, because I am still so thankful for that camping trip! I am also thankful for the sound of wind in the trees, it is worth all my cds.

wind in leaves

i can't begin to explain to you how much of my heart belongs to the wild, to the untamed, the outdoors. I am most comfortable hiking through deep woods, looking out over a field, or the lake, or up at a sky full of stars. I never feel more loved by God than when I look at the stars, placed with such care, with such love, with such attention to detail. They whisper to me, I love you, look at My glory, love Me. so this weekend camping in Door County has left me full of the sun, empty of the city, full of green, and full of birdsong, empty of the haggardness of city living.

 

I want to try camping alone. I wish I had a dog to camp with. I wish I had a front lawn, all my own. I wish I could lean up on trees with no one to see, and clamber over rocks to get to point B. I wish I could refresh myself in lakes and ponds. I wish this were all part of my daily life.

I don't really know what to do with all these wishes.

All I know is the weekend spent in nature reaffirmed something that has been nagging at me, recently. It took the bad and sad and angry parts of me, and replaced it with smooth rocks and cool water. I feel purged. Empty. and whole.

It also reminded me of what i love about the city, the opportunities and possibilities for improvement.

I am torn.

the least of these

unknown

Focus.

I am taking up a 30 day self-portrait challenge to kick myself in the butt, and get my art under way. I've also done a lot of thinking lately of where I was 5 years, 3 years, 1 year ago, and where I might be in 1 year, 3 years, and 5. And, in 30 days. Life changes. Change is the theme of 2012, for me. So let's document it. Analyze it. Use it for inspiration.

In other news, I made the best fried egg of my life today. And some excellent rhubarb crisp. My cooking skillz have come a long way in 5 years!