1. I think we're slowly figuring out a rhythm to these weeks. I still want to tweak our frenetic, hectic weekends a bit, and I've worked toward that end some this week. I'm hoping things won't feel quite so frantic in the short hours between Friday evening and Sunday afternoon. There's a lot to do, and if I can minimize what we actually do, all the better. One thing, I have a feeling we'll be having wings this week (I managed to get out of it last weekend!).

2. I think one of the highlights of my week was getting a text from a friend on Thursday to say that she was in the gallery of the VA Senate (she was visiting to lobby on some legislative issues that are important to her) looking down on Cal! How cool is that?! Even better was pulling up the feed of the session and seeing her and her group introduced.

3. I think I can't underestimate the importance, or value really, of good quality bath products. My skin is so unhappy this winter. I've been so grateful for my Santa Maria Novella hand cream, and I've been slathering it on like it's Nutella I'm saving for a snack for later. My mom got me some L'Occitane bath foam for Christmas, and that's been a life saver too. Especially on headache days. It is so nice and scented and just... lovely. I never, ever, ever treat myself to stuff like this, but the truth is the quality is leaps and bounds above drug store products, so maybe I should.

4. I think I can't believe that our desktop is positioned in the coldest corner of our house. My toes are frozen, all my muscles are tight from trying not to shiver and my mouse-moving hand is shaped like a perma-claw. Even Violet has abandoned her perch at my feet for the bed by the radiator. All that being said, I'm thinking about switching to a stand-up desk with a stool for when I get oh, so weary. But they're so ugly. Anyone have a bead on some pretty ones?

5. I think this lemon, pictured above, is our favorite harvest from last summer's garden. We birthed a lemon! In January! Our first year with the Meyer Lemon Tree (dwarf) wasn't meant to yield any fruit (maybe if I lower my expectations for my son, he'll get into Stanford NEXT YEAR), but after some lovely fragrant blossoms, we got the little lemon that could. It kept growing and growing, and when it got cold outside we brought it in, hoping it would ripen. Neel harvested it last weekend, and this weekend I want to make something lovely with it. Something lemony. I'm leaning toward something that takes just one lemon so we can showcase this sweetie. Any suggestions?

The dogs approached the snow in three different ways. Thea: trepidation. Violet: patience. Lucy: total and complete spazz out.

I should probably start this post with the pictures I took at the oceanfront Tuesday afternoon. No coat, milky sunshine, breeze picking up. But still. I was at the beach without a coat on on a Tuesday afternoon in late January taking pictures and completely doubting that this white stuff would ever show up.

It was 56º when I got in my car to drive home (we live about 18 miles from where I'd had a lunch meeting and had been snapping shots) and it was 39º when I pulled into my driveway. Once the temps dropped and the wind picked up, I started to actually believe.

I love snow. Apparently I don't need a kid at home to get excited to impending storms and arriving flakes and the hope for a snow day. (No snow day for Cal by the way. They got snow in RIchmond from this storm, but the General Assembly was still in session, so he had to work.)

It was an overnight storm for us with most of the snow coming while we slept. The best part of the night for me came right before bedtime, when Cal usually calls. His curfew is at 10:30, so he generally checks in each evening for a few minutes before heading to bed. We're usually really sleepy when he calls, and last night Neel was sound asleep!

I grabbed my phone and snuck over to Cal's room which looks out onto our street. As he and I chatted, the wind howled and the snow blew, all gently lit by the street lamp right outside his window. The only thing that would have made it more perfect would have been to have had Cal tucked in beside me, but he's so happy where he is. I was pretty okay just talking to him and watching the snow alone.

The medical school where Neel teaches and does his research was closed yesterday. He and I got up and took a quick, windy, chilly walk around the block (my fingers were fro-zen by the time we got home), and then we pretty much separated for the rest of the day, each to our own endeavors. Dinner, some wine, a movie, some dogs on the sofa. I joked in a comment on Erin's blog that if this is retirement, SIGN ME UP.

I only have one question. When's the next storm?

five things, january 24 edition

so, it actually snowed {life}