on my christmas list

on my christmas list, originally uploaded by ♥Rebecca♥.

finding comfort

The way I feel tonight, pretty much wrapped up in a song. It's gonna be a long week.

love your life

in Denise's garden, originally uploaded by ♥Rebecca♥.

Do you love your life? I mean really Love your life!!!???

I realized last night that I do. Sure there are problems and little things that I would change. But for the most part, I think it's a phenomenal life.

Yesterday was an odd mixture of work and family stuff. I had work to do but I had to help my son with a school project. In the process of running all over town, I met an elderly man who was so delightful that I wanted to spend the rest of my day with him. Seriously, I almost gave him my phone number. He was a retired physics professor with more ex wives than he would admit to and almost as many degrees as ex-wives. He was complaining that women his age don't like to dance! I almost offered to go dancing with him.

Then I met one of my closest neighbors. The back of our properties almost touch yet we have never met. She's a lot like me..... a bit unconventional, a 40-something year old half-hippy living in the woods, who quit her real job and is supporting herself with artistic endeavor. And as luck would have it, our businesses are complimentary so we are partnering on some upcoming projects. My favorite kind of networking!

And I got to talk to my BFF (which I typed just so I could feel so junior high). That always makes me happy.

Then I came home to the darlings. The princess had cooked chili and bathed the baby, who was full of giggles. So I sat in the floor eating chili and painting a background on a tri-fold board for my baby boy's next to last project of his college career. Then I quickly sewed a big ruffle onto a white men's shirt, turning a western style shirt into a poet's shirt for his Ben Franklin costume. He has to present a lesson to his class dressed as a historical figure. I twisted bifocals out of wire and whipped up a funky Ben Franklin hat out of felt and pinned it to a thrift shop wig and rolled up his khaki's to look like knickers and voila, Ben Franklin. All while eating and listening to Blind Melon and telling bad jokes and laughing till our sides hurt. Even the baby laughs with us, even though she doesn't understand the jokes. And their daddy showed up to help make a battery out of a potato and almost joined in like part of the family again.

I asked the boy..... "What do kids who go away and live in dorms and don't have a mama who can sew living with them do for costumes?"

He replied, "They choose a character that they can go buy at a costume already made?"

I looked up with a glare. "You could have bought a costume???"

"I guess." He hesitated. "But you know half my classmates will be some Indian because that's all they could come up with for a costume. I'm sure you want me to be more creative than that!" he said with a grin full of mischief.

I rolled my eyes. But he was right.

"Then aren't you glad I have mad milliner skills," I said with an exaggerated straight face while tossing his new tri-hat on his head at a wonky angle, wondering if he'd get it.

He paused.

Then he smiled again.

"Like the Mad Hatter?"

"My life in Wonderland," I replied with a broad sweeping gesture pointing out the stacks of felt and multi-colored paper and glue and toys and laundry needing to be put away and dishes that needed to be washed.

I went to bed exhausted but feeling like I had accomplished a lot. Smiling. Knowing that these are the good old days that I will remember and miss if I ever have that empty nest. These are the moments to hold in my mind and savor at the end of the day, memorizing every last giggle and hug and sigh, treasuring them for what they truly are while they are still fresh in my heart.

Because these *are* the good old days.

listening to: Carly Simon, Anticipation
working on: cleaning my desk and organizing files
craving: Cashew Chicken from the Thai restaurant
becoming: a real Mac person

freedom

freedom, originally uploaded by ♥Rebecca♥.

Be sure to take the time to thank a veteran for keeping us free!

going: where ever the wind blows me
enjoying: fall weather and good company
listening to: Jill Scott's Golden


I'm taking my freedom,
Pulling it off the shelf,
Putting it on my chain,
Wear it around my neck,
I'm taking my freedom,
Putting it in my car,
Wherever I choose to go,
It will take me far,

I'm livin' my life like it's golden

Happy Halloween!

Nothing too exciting. Just a slideshow of the little pumpkin's first Halloween.

Sunday night Supper, originally uploaded by ♥Rebecca♥.

It was a beef stew kind of night. Made with potatoes and sweet potatoes and lots of onions and a little turnip root and celery squash and mushrooms. Yummmmm Served with a fresh loaf of french bread.

It has been a very long week of out of town trips and cancer doctors and shopping with babies with a little work thrown in. Definitely a night for comfort food.