five things, april 12 edition

1. I think I'm allergic to Virginia. Cal too. Neel a little but less than us. It's not all phlox and tulips around here. See all that yellow on my porch (You're all so polite, I'm sure you're ignoring the chipped paint, yes?)? Pine pollen. They say that it's not the pine that makes us sneeze or gives us headaches. It's the stuff we can't see. Still, it's nice to have something tangible to blame. Pretty soon we'll see clouds of it blowing through the air, I kid you not. Neel was driving home last night in what he thought was evening fog. It was pollen.

2. I think it's been an odd week. Filled with struggle and delight. Callum's had a rough go, lots of little annoying things adding up (Like his backpack left in the car that he carpools in. He called me from the parking lot at school, "I can see it in there, but their car is locked." Panic. Fortunately he's a good student, and his teachers gave him the benefit of the doubt and let him turn in Wednesday's homework on Thursday.) And reentry is hard. As much as we try to not "do chores" during our weekends, it's our time to catch up, and having company on back to back weekends takes a toll on the laundry and the house and the groceries. Add to that how hard it is to see everyone go. And yet, I got to have some fun too. Lunch with a girlfriend I hadn't seen in ages. We left with the sense that it had been too long and we needed to do it more often. A return to warm temperatures has been such a relief. Even if it has been a bit too warm. Let me just say, it was nice to watch a baseball game where I wasn't huddled in on myself.

3. I think I'm so grateful to Heather over at Heather B design for recommending The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. You can read a great review of it on her blog, along with suggestions for two other books I'm going to try, so I won't do that here. All I'll say is that I pretty much read it in one sitting and was fascinated from stem to stern. I have some habits that I'd dearly love to change and this book might be the key to figuring out how. What do Superbowl winning coach Tony Dungy, Febreeze and Starbucks have in common? Go read The Power of Habit to find out.

4. I thinkErin and Theresa have both written such thoughtful posts about giving back lately. I think about this a lot. I do some. I volunteer in our local and state politics, but, really, I think more than I do. And then I spend a lot of time daydreaming about all the wonderful volunteer experiences I'm going to have. So clearly it's time to do more than think. Or write a check. But I do agree with Theresa that sometimes the best I can do is tend to my family. And sometimes part of tending my family is showing them that I do more. I have some ideas about where I'd like to do some more, so now I just need to get past the dreaming and onto the doing. Seems simple enough, right?

5. I think that this is a weekend I've looked forward to for a long time. Like, uh, November, maybe. Sneaking away for a bit with some of my favorite girlfriends, for barely 24 hours and yet it's just what we all need right now. We have a food and drink email chain that's nearing 60 messages long, and we're literally, literally counting down the minutes until we scoot out of town Saturday morning. I'm sure you're all looking forward to your own weekends; I just know you are, but it can't be half as much as I am looking forward to mine.

five things, april 5 edition

1. I think I'm so excited to share that a photograph of mine has been included in an article on mid-century aarchitecture in a publication called Inform! The article highlights my friend Bill's work and uses one of his beautiful homes as an example, and I couldn't be more thrilled for him!

2. I think my friend Theresa wrote a wonderful and vulnerable post about blogging this week. Most of you have already seen it and I found the comments section just as thoughtful and moving as the post itself. We all go through these moments of self-doubt and self-reflection about why we're in these spaces, and Theresa captures those moments so beautifully. I'm glad she's here! I'm glad you all are! I'm committing to be a better steward of our relationships and my own space here. (Having trouble linking to Theresa's site right now, but as soon as I can get it up here, I will.)

3. I think I'll just have to say there's no shame in saying out loud that I adore diamonds. There. I said it. They are my birthstone, and I have always loved their clear bright fire. Neel and I just had some old diamonds of mine repurposed into some simple earrings and we finally picked them up this week. There's a lot of sentimental allure to these particular stones for me, and I'm so happy to have them.

4. I think I'm so happy my mom is here! She and her friend Mike arrived yesterday afternoon, just in time for Callum's game. We stood in the chilly 40º weather as our boys scored some runs and got out in front of this other team. Callum finally made it up to bat (he's one of the less experienced kids on the team, so while it happens every game, it doesn't happen often in every game) and got a walk-off hit to end the game! On the way home he told us he'd scored 100 on a pop quiz in math! What a day! That night at dinner he said that getting that 100 felt as good as getting that hit. I'm totally emailing his math teacher and telling him that today. And my mom was here for it all.

5. I think this is why I take pictures of food. Yesterday, after popping up a picture on facebook of the ham and bean soup I made using our leftover Easter ham, my friend Jan left me this note: Hambone soup. My sister in law Florence who passed away in December looked forward to a ham just for the leftover bone and she made the best soup with it!! Thanks for sharing this photo. It made me remember that the little things are the best way to remember someone. For me, food is all about connection and intimacy, and I try to capture that when I take pictures of food. This comment was honestly one of the nicest things anyone has ever said about one of my photographs. It says it all, doesn't it?

On our way to a great weekend! I'm the lucky loan-ee of a 40mm pancake lens thanks to a friend in my photography group, so you can bet I'll be trying that puppy out. Baseball game on Saturday on the exotic Eastern Shore (now hopefully arson free!), and lots of time with my mom and Mike. What are you up to my lovelies? Anything thing fun planned? Oh, and I still hate all my clothes. Given the fact that it was SLEETING by the end of Cal's game, I perhaps hate them even more now.