The joke is on me

Wow, that is the fastest I've ever failed at NaBloPoMo - I didn't make it a week! Not to sound sour grapes, but I guess I just can't prioritize it. My real life has too much going on right now. Yay, me!

Baked

That is, I baked:

• 6 loaves of honey whole wheat sandwich bread
• 2 1/2 dozen white chocolate almond Stoll House cookies
• 1 dozen cranberry corn muffins

All my stores are now full of baked goods, and my kitchen is toasty warm and smells like a bakery.

I am almost done knitting my 10th pair of booties this year. This pair is for a friend from my daily gratitude email list who had a baby boy last week. He had a rough start, but I was relieved to hear he is doing better.

Everyone in my house is on their favorite electronic. Lindsay is on a laptop behind me playing a game with Dora who she professes to hate, because it is deeply uncool in Kindergarten to "still" like Dora. Lauren is watching Netflix on my iPad. Alec is playing Arkham Asylum on the XBox, and I'm here on my Mac Mini blogging over a cup of Yerba Mate cocoa tea and my nearly finished booties.

We're having take out Chinese, and hopefully logging an hour or so on the game Lauren, Alec and I have been playing - Iron Dragon.

Hooray for the weekend!

I love the weekend. I rarely get to sleep in these days - we are pretty busy all the time, but there's something different about the pace on the weekends that I just love. Lots of time to indulge in hobbies. No homework. No packing lunches. The only thing better than the weekend is a LONG weekend...and we have one coming up!

Clean, fueled car

I try to get to vacuuming the car out once a week. I hated the way my car looked when my kids were littler - every surface was either greasy or sticky and it always smelled. My car is still new-ish, and mostly vacuums up and comes clean with wipes (except for where crayon melted on my dashboard, but that is a different story).

Somehow, the car always feels better if I vacuum it right after I fuel up. I think it's funny that it's taken me this long to realize it since there's a car wash next door to the gas station, and they are both right near Lindsay's school. It's also the perfect length of errand between the times of Lauren's drop off and Lindsay's.

Today, I am grateful for a clean car that's all fueled up and ready to go.

Long walk

I took a long walk today in Donaldson Park with my friend Tammy. Generally, I prefer to exercise alone. It's hard to walk at a pace that's not mine, and both when it's too fast or too slow. I don't know how many more weeks we have until it's just too cold to walk in the park - it was about 35 degrees today, and we were both cold when we started, but once we finished the first mile, I was pretty warm. By mile 3, I was getting hot. I have that pleasant ache that muscles have after being warm and stretched.

Today I am grateful for a beautiful, cold fall morning, and a walk with a friend. The quiet of my house in the morning. And enjoying tea and breakfast with the Internets.

Lessons in powerlessness

Any situation I'm faced with has the potential for experiencing gratitude. I was reminded that being without power isn't what's happening to ME, it's just what's happening. I don't get what I deserve, thankfully. I get what I get.

Last night, I took a bath in the dark with my scented Yankee candle, reading my eBook with its book light. Not because I didn't have power, but something about the practice of being in the mostly darkness at night is actually very relaxing - and when I got into bed, I was ready to go to sleep instead of that state of waiting for my mind to wind down. Without being forcibly unplugged, I wouldn't have realized this.

I am grateful to know this today.

Halloween 2011

It's NaBloPoMo! And I'm in despite being powerless. Halloween was fun, see? We trick or treated for 2 hours. Awesomesauce.

Posing vampires?

My costume: I was lunch. Ouch.

My friend Kim called this her "Vampire Bunny" pose

Nom nom nom

High drama, like always.