Enjoying…

Evening Writing Sessions.
I have my beloved $10 Craigslist desk out in the open where I can work during the day and still be with the girls. Where a bookshelf stacked with puzzles and paper dolls replaces cubicle walls and I can, at any given moment, slide off my red chair to lie on the floor for a game of Memory. I love that space. But, I am finding that sometimes I need to be alone. I need a cubicle maybe just once a week. So, Brett rigged up this jankety card table with some crappy polyester table cloth in our bedroom. And though I sit on a rusted folding chair and am surrounded by a pile of bills and sippy cups that have managed to accumulate on the home’s newest catch-all, it’s perfect for me. It’s quiet. And right about 6:00, the sun gives a recital every night…just dances there in that vast space of glass door stretched before me and curtsies behind that mess of trees.

Bravo.

Halloween Candy.
I’m going to quit eating it pretty soon, I am.

We hid it in Austyn’s room, in the third drawer down in his dresser, to keep Lainey from seing it. But, then I find myself sneaking into his room in the dark while he’s sleeping and pulling out the drawer to stuff a stash of mini Twizzlers and jolly ranchers into my nightgown. Our neighbor came over last night and, ten minutes into conversation, he goes, “You okay? You seem really hyper.”

It’s called trial-sized Almond Joys, Dude.

Playing Pretend.
Three-and-a-half is magic with Imagination peaking at this blessed Peter-Pan-ish place where everything is just so…childhood. Little voices and tiny plays performed with bath toys and trinkets and lots of asking for “let’s play pretend.” We run for cover in the afternoon, under blankets and pillows, hiding from pretend storms that shake the house and we tightrope across cracks in the sidewalk lest we fall in the shark-infested waters of the deep cement.

I used to want to be a child forever. Now, in loving this place, I want to have a child forever. And, believe me, it is in moments like this that I find comfort in the fact that the magic of the extra chromosome just might let Peter stay in Neverland a little longer for our family. And that’s perfectly alright.

Gingham Things.
Happy little checks, they are.

Fallish Things.
Like wheat-colored stars in the back yard.

Or pretty little embellishments that take all the color of crisp, fallen leaves and up the ante on a plain tank.

Flower Clip, Lilian Eve.

Sock Feet.

Mary Jane Feet.

And Bare Feet in October.

Having a lot on my plate, but dropping it all for moments like these…

Free Things.
So, I’ve already expressed my love for the lillebaby EveryWear Organic carrier which I use with Nella all the time and without, could not have trekked across four states and three layovers with two kids last month. So, when Scandinavian Child offered to send me a diaper bag by the same brand, I was thrilled. I’m constantly swapping bags between the few cheap pocket-less ones I’ve managed to collect, but they all end up lying somewhere with a wad of gum, a few tubes of capless lipstick and a mess of crumpled receipts.

No longer, my friends.

Totally loving my lillebaby Oslo bag which is chocked full of cool pockets and zippers making life so much easier. It attaches perfectly to my stroller with these great snap straps. And, hello…it comes in red.

You too can rock out an organized diaper bag! One random commenter on this post will win a lillebaby Oslo diaper bag courtesy of Scandinavian Child.

So, yay.

Winner will be announced Friday evening.

Happy Mid-week!

I walked the beach alone last night. Had no plans to until, knee-deep into a writing project, I caught the sun gliding out of my window view, realized I could still make it for sunset, yelled a “Hey, you got the babies! I’ll be back!” to Brett without any other explanation and drove like a bat out of hell to make it to the closest beach.

…and it was indisputably worth it.

It’s not like me to not take the kids, especially considering the sinews in my soul that connect me to my littles’ souls seem to tighten and strengthen every time we share a sunset. But, last night…it was mine. Because, sometimes it is good and needful to be selfish.

And returning to little souls after a quiet moment of solitude under pink skies has its own way of strengthening soul sinews.

Nella says, “Live long and prosper.”

With that said, much to be enjoyed.

Can I get an ‘Amen’ for Fall?
The funny thing about south Florida is that if Mother Nature throws us even the slightest bone–and we’re talking, what? Maybe a nice morning breeze of 68–I take it and run. To the moon. Doesn’t even matter if 68 slides into a sweltering reverse of those numbers by afternoon. Just that little taste of crisp air and the opportunity to push the sliders wide open and watch the curtain sheers waltz with the breeze…it’s enough. Enough to set my blasted fall flair on fie-yah.

Today was blessed with pumpkin bread.

The oven timer did its little ding and my ass did a Pavlovian response. I bolted. Skipped the oven mitt for a wet dish rag next to the stove, slid that brown beauty off the rack, flipped it out of the pan, cut a thick slice (or four), buttered it generously and ate it in the most embarrassing fashion. Hunched over the counter, crumbs falling, licking my lips…it was insane–in that heavenly-nectar-of-the-gods kind of way.

It didn’t even matter that we failed to mix it properly and there were buried bits of dried flour hidden in all sorts of nooks and crannies. Actually, it’s just a good excuse to keep the second loaf we were going to gift to neighbors.

I’m jumping the gun on every brown/orange/burgundy thing in my closet…and loving it. Even when I’m mocked for wearing tights…every day.

…which brings me to…

Tights.
What can I say? Shamelessly in love with ’em.

This Necklace


Lisa Leonard Designs. So simple, so pretty…I completely love it.

Ballet, Cont.
She’s totally rock-starring her way through class and yet still hesitant and shy-smiling. We have a recital date. How cool is that? A Christmas ballet recital.

The funny thing about ballet is that I sit outside the classroom with all the other parents during the half-hour class and, unlike sports where parents set up chairs or huddle in bleachers, calling fouls, woo-hoo’ing their kid, small-talking with other moms, it’s quiet. Like second-hand-on-the-clock kind of quiet. I think we need a rip roaring game of If Book.

And, in between all this fall-loving, I finally had the chance to dabble in the land of the pretend mother I am in my head. The one who makes her own baby food. It helps that I didn’t do any of the work, thanks to the Beaba Babycook, courtesy of Scandinavian Child

Honestly, it was so easy, and I have several jars in the refrigerator now for the bunny!

Check out the easy recipes HERE.

And, what’s that? You don’t have a Beaba Babycook? Well, here’s your chance to get one. A random commenter will be winning a Beaba Babycook! It also makes a fantastic gift for baby showers…I’m just sayin’. Giveaway winner announced Thursday.

I’m thinking Fall and one-wild-and-precious-life go together quite cosily, eh?

Oh, and for the record…those header pictures? All our back yard, thank you. Who says there’s no fall in Florida? Not I. Not I. Pumpkin bread calls…

It’s been a strange month.
Good, but strange.
Travel isn’t a big part of our lives. Not that we haven’t mapped out hypothetical vacations in our heads to the point it feels like we’ve been there. I think that’s a marriage rite of passage, one of those things you talk about when you’re out to breakfast or have managed to get some quiet time to yourselves after putting the kids to bed. We sit and dream about spending Christmas at a cabin in the Smoky Mountains or snorkeling in the clear waters of the Caribbean knowing in the present state of our lives and this economy, it’s not likely it will happen anytime soon. But dreaming is good.

Somehow the circumstances and planets aligned this month for some adventure and we are grateful for the opportunity. But, even on the grandest adventures, toward the end I am craving the simplicity of home and the comfort of routine. I dropped off my mom at the airport this morning, sad to say goodbye but ready to return home to reorganize. I need to comb through clutter, cross off to-do’s, sift through laundry and begin the rituals of October.

And because the part of my being that forms words and attempts to string them together in some sensable fashion is a bit exhausted, I will offer a simple Enjoying the Small Things post.

Florida Skies. I want to swim in them.

Summer/Fall Overlap. We’re climbing in the attic for the big bins markered with “Harvest Decorations” and beginning to plan Halloween costumes and yet we still set out, flip-flopped, in the evening light for night swims and hit up Third Street for the last Farmer’s Market of the season.

…and enjoy a nice early Saturday morning cup of coffee with my mama by the fountain downtown…joined by little birds who hopped from chair to chair, searching for pastry crumbs.

And nestled next to the little piece of me that starts to crave chilly winds and leaves whose tips turn scarlet this time of year dwells a bit of gratitude for the fact that the bare feet of my littles will continue to kiss the chalk-covered cement of our driveway all year long.

And, in craving crispy leaves and nubby sweaters, we make up for it with new cozy knits, treats of Angee’s Originals. Fall calls for her gorgeous hats!

And speaking of nubby knits, it is tradition when my mom comes to head to the other side of town just for a trip to the yarn store.

There’s something about being surrounded by a palette of colorful yarn and knits that makes me happy. Like a candy store. Except instead of Twizzlers, there’s red merino wool in a heavy worsted weight.

It brings back memories of being a kid and trailing behind my mom in the fabric store while she thumbed through patterns and bolts of soft colorful cottons dreaming of what she’d make next. This time, my siblings and I are not getting in trouble for playing hide-and-go-seek between pattern racks and knocking over material bolts.

My mom is good and kind, creative and funny. More than anything, she has passed down the blessed quality of finding contentment no matter where she is in life. It’s her greatest quality. She is always, forever…content.

A few sips left of September. Drinking it in. And grateful that this month, we filled every last nook of our cup with family.

Leaving you with a powerful quote that makes me smile. And feel powerful.

“When it’s over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.”
~Mary Oliver

Dude, I hear chapel bells and I’m a’walkin down the aisle.