The birds are sure it is time for spring

but the weather is not cooperating. Even though it may feel like it's zero degrees out there, my yard sounds like an aviary. That's got to be a good sign, right?

We got a surprise earlier this week when Charlie's school sent a note home that it was time to register Grace for kindergarten. Only problem is that we're not sure Grace is ready for kindergarten. Her teacher told me today that she's more than ready academically but her maturity is still an issue. It's a very tough decision and I change my mind every five minutes. My gut tells me that she's not quite ready but school is still 6 months away so a lot could change before then. This is one of those times I wish kids were born with a manual.

Scattered

I am in that "chicken with its head cut off" kind of mindset. Running around pecking at one thing and then another and then another. It's time to remember that my word for the year is focus. Ha!

I thought it might be good to check in with some of the new year's resolutions. Except that might make me grumpy. Maybe next week. I am sad (okay, not really) to report that we are abandoning the Cook through Nigella challenge. The liver and onions was the last straw for Justin. We'll be picking a new book next week. But now I have organic calf's liver in the freezer and I'm not sure what to do with it.

Today is the day we do it.

Today we are switching to 100% organic. I've talked about it before, we've flirted with the idea, bought organic sporadically but this is day that we are committing to the lifestyle. The biggest hindrance has always been convenience and cost but Justin and I are finally in agreement that we'll adjust the budget in other areas to be able to make this change. If the last year has taught me anything, it's that we can't continue the cycles of ignorant consumption while we say we care about human rights and animal welfare and protecting the environment.

So I guess that also means I need to start planning our garden. I had originally intended to take this year off. We've always gotten our seeds from this company: http://www.heirloomseeds.com. If you have another suggestion, please let me know! And I have a recommendation for a fantastic set of books if you're interested in gardening and have kids... Sunflower Houses and Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots by Sharon Lovejoy. These are the kinds of books that make you overflow with creative ideas and want to surround yourself with beauty. Give yourself a treat and order one today!

My Saturday to-do list!

Feel free to skip this entry, I just need some accountability today :)

1. Organize the pictures still in envelopes. Organize the pictures still in envelopes. Hey. Organize the pictures still in envelopes.
2. Finish sorting the junk drawer stuff. Figure out where it all goes.
3. Clean off the bookshelf in the bedroom. Move it somewhere else.
4. Pack up the piles of old clothes for Goodwill.
5. Scrabook. (Fellow challengees... please feel free to nag me about this as well.)

Wow, volunteering for Barack has been a surprise. Do you know I volunteered for the Kerry campaign 3 times and no one ever contacted me? In three days I've been contacted at least 5 times. And apparently there's going to be a martini party soon. Bonus!

I did it.

I am officially a volunteer for Barack Obama's presidential campaign. I have my script and first twenty telephone numbers. (I HATE using the telephone.) I also volunteered for the Pennsylvania ground campaign but I don't think they are actually doing anything yet. I've worked the polls for the party many times but I've never done anything like this. Here's to hope!

Snow day!

But brrr.... it's cold out there. Charlie lasted 6 minutes. Grace braved it for a little bit longer but after 20 minutes she was back inside. I didn't deem either of those times enough to have earned hot chocolate but they weren't willing to bundle up and try again. When my brother and sister and I were growing up, my mom always wrapped bread bags around our feet before we put snow boots on. We never got wet feet! Do people still do this?

Unfortunately, this snow day caught me unprepared and the pantry quite bare. Even barer than normal because I went through a cleaning frenzy yesterday and threw away several thousand boxes of stale carbohydrates and all items of questionable origin and/or expiration. So I'm thinking it might be nutella and Ritz crackers for lunch. Mmmmmm.... doesn't that sound delicious? I could probably throw a fried egg on top. On second thought, it might be better to save the fried egg idea for dinner.

Sleeping like a baby

Austin is a lovely city. And warm. Which seemed like a distant memory when I stepped off the plane into the balmy 7 degree Pittsburgh night.

It's nice to go away. And it's really nice to come back home.

The man knows me well

The scene unfolds something like this... I am sitting on the couch at 12:30 at night for the third night in a row, watching some horrible something on television. And I say to myself "self, why do you think you've had insomnia for three nights in a row?" And self replied back "duh, you are flying on a plane on Friday. Duh." (These are the kinds of existential conversations that occur when you haven't slept in several days.)

At 5:30 I was still sitting on the couch wondering when everyone else would wake up. When my husband finally arose, he asked "why didn't you come to bed again last night?" and then quickly said something like... oh yeah, you're flying tomorrow. I asked if he thought if I left right now, could I drive to Texas by Friday evening. He considered for a moment and then pointed out that I haven't slept in three days so that I would probably only make it to Ohio before I crashed. He didn't think the case of Diet Mt. Dew I keep hidden in my car would help.

Did I ever mention that I don't really like to fly?

Okay, say it with me...

Awww.... how cute!

Life has been a little bit, ummm... hectic lately. Last week Charlie was sick which means I had to miss work and then make-up work and in those scenarios, our lives always delve quickly into complete chaos. Socks strewn every which way, dishes piled up into the yard, toilet paper unrolled through every room in the house, you get the idea.

My normal response when things get crazy is to drive up the mountain, head off into the woods and take a few hours to just be. Be quiet, be reflective, be centered. Re-gain control of my head and then re-gain control of our lives. But this week I don't have even a couple hours to do that... in fact, I had exactly one hour today, between all the had-to-finish errands and picking Grace up from pre-school. So I did what is quickly becoming my new favorite hobby - take a couple dollars, visit a store with old stuff and see what treasures I can find. These are what I found today. All of these valentines were sent to a young girl named Eleanor Simpson in 1920. I wonder if she's still out there somewhere.

Yesterday we had a torrential downpour in the morning as I was taking Grace to school. I decided to carry her inside, which seemed like the best idea to get us both into the building as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, I slipped on the stairs, we both fell, and she smacked the back of her head off a stair. I'm not the best person in those situations. I'm pretty sure I went into shock, I loaded her back into the car and started driving back to my office, the only thought in my head that I needed to get her to my dad so he could check her out to make sure she was okay (he's got all of those crazy emergency certifications that everyone should have). She was sure she was not okay and she told me so several times. Halfway there I started shaking uncontrollably and when my dad finally returned my page, I think I was talking at about 1000 words per minute. I did manage to call her doctor's office who said unless she was unconscious, she was likely fine. Which she was. But she hung out with me at work all day yesterday just in case.

In the meantime, I've not regained control of anything around our house (oh, okay, the dishes are not in the yard anymore) but I did get those cute Valentines. And I am flying to Austin on Friday and going to have a totally relaxing girls weekend with some wonderful women. When I get back there will surely be even more socks strewn every which way. But by then, hopefully I'll be in a better place to deal with it.

Hey, I used to scrapbook!

And apparently I haven't posted layouts for a very long time because most of these are from the last few months of last year.

Can you tell I was cleaning up my scrap space today?