BEHOLD, THE FIRST

Hello friends, Romans, Adventians!  I suppose that Advent started officially for most religious folks on Sunday, but in our German-American household, we rang it in today.  My husband developed this nifty system for our refrigerator when we realized our old traditional Advent calendar is missing: 

 It was pretty sweet to see him get so engaged with something, so I'll go ahead and assume Advent must have been a big deal in his house.  In my house we were like, could you throw more colored lights and tencil on our fake tree?  And while you're at it, bend that pipe cleaner branch a little to the left.  I can't see Grandma's crocheted angel with the shiny beads sewn in from the this angle.  Now pass the funnel cake.

Seriously, though,  I'm trying to embrace this tradition for so many reasons.  One being that it's my last shot to cram all my resolutions into a short period of time before year's end.  So all I have to do this month is reconstruct my marriage, write a play, try to teach my speech delayed daughter how to communicate miraculously through a handheld device, potty train both my kids, and work out daily.  Oh!  And write, like, 20 blog posts.

Does anyone else feel like this at year's end?  And on top of all that, it's the middle of winter and that tiny window of time between our two American holidays when I want to do exactly zero. So right when I should be driving it all home (or cramming it all in or however you want to say it), all I really want to do is hang out with people, drink wine, watch telly, and go to bed early every other night.

TGIF

Does anyone else feel like this rolling into the weekend?

This little guy turned two the past week and the pace of these two years still leaves me totally flattened by Friday.  We are having two (one for each year) small friends over tomorrow to celebrate so other than praying for good weather, I'm hoping to get a bit of down time in somewhere.  Maybe I'll check out new episodes of Call the Midwife on Netflix, or try and take some time to hear the entirety of Ryan Adam's new remake of T. Swift's 1989.

Or, on second thought, maybe I'll just sleep.

WATCH THIS

There are many reasons I love my neighborhood: My neighbors (most of them), the old school ice cream trucks, and the fact that it's one of the only areas in central Austin that still feels like something real, not just something new and, like, MODERN.  And experiences like tonight when I had to run to Walgreen's at 9 pm and the check out clerk decided to whip out her cell phone and show me this You Tube video as I was trying to scoot through the check out as quickly as possible.  I was laughing out loud in, it's true, my active wear.

Enjoy!!

Then, as a post script, I popped in the grocery store right next door to Walgreen's and scored these bad boys on sale for $1.

I knew I'd made it to the big league with a tag that drove home the fact that that these "were not designer glasses."

Now get out there and enjoy that super Moon.  It's clearly exerting something in the universe! 

LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED

It matters not who you love, where you love, why you love, when you love or how you love, it matters only that you love. 
                                                                                   - John Lennon

 I definitely feel like 2015 is the Year of the Relationship and just wish I had some jazzy astrological data to back that up.  At least that's how it feels at our house and the universe seems to be colluding.  In light of the Supreme Court's decision last month, it seems like as good a time as any to 1) reflect on the nature of love 2) post strange yet also strangely cute photos of my children and 3) remember one of the strongest (albeit hetero) couplings of the 20th Century with a throwback to the love and activism of John and Yoko.  Cheers to all of you, men and women, gay and straight, British, Japanese and citizens of this wild and mighty land we call America.  May we all continue to celebrate and hope the love we take is equal to the love we make!

Here are our Terrific Two celebrating the Fab Four a few weeks ago at the LBJ Library, Abbey Road style:

I REALLY NEED TO KEEP A DIARY

My daughter woke up the other morning with the most epic case of bedhead.  Here it is for your viewing pleasure:

This morning I woke up and my soul felt kind of like her hair.  Crazy, frenetic, messy and on edge.  We're trying to adjust to a public school schedule that means we have early mornings with little to no time to feel as calm and present as I'd like with my kids.  As a working mom, I had no idea how precious that extra hour and a half was until I lost it. Now I feel like we barrel into most days, and I spend a lot more time missing the kids. Geez how excited I am for summer.

So after losing my temper with my children while they got dressed, crying in the car, and then eventually making it to work (please tell me this doesn't make me as crazy as I sound), I opened up my email and found this message from a total stranger from whom I'd requested information the day before:

Hi!

I am following up to make sure you received my fax. Please let me know.

Thank you and I hope you have a day that makes you say, “I really need to keep a diary! That was amazing!” 

M****

For some reason this totally made me laugh and also dig in to remember that every day really does have the potential to be amazing.  Even the ones that start out as cattywampus as my 5 year olds hairdo.  It was such a good way to get my frown turned upside down, and I'm hoping for even more coincidental mantras in the days ahead. 

How do you right a day that starts out all wrong?   I'd love to learn more about people's personal ways to re-set a day, a thought pattern, or an attitude.

BE MINE

Hello and a Happy Belated Valentine's Day!  I made these homemade Valentines for my daughter to hand out along with all the Frozen, Cars, and Spider Man Valentines in her 4 yr old preschool class.  And by homemade I mean I took these Hallmark cards with the ocean printed on them and cut them in half and then put a little heart on it.   I feel like, besides being the kid with the brain injury, she's also going to have to live this one down for a long time.  It's like no matter what they wear or how we trot our kids out, we're always going to be the family that kind of smells like garlic.  And that's what you remember them for:  a brief waft of garlic and their homemade sweaters.  Oh well.  There are worse fates.  Like handing these Valentines out with a Kahlil Gibran quote inside for four year olds.  Yes, I went there. 

Your friend is your needs answered.  (Kahlil Gibran)

WHAT MAKES THE JUKEBOX SPIN

Hello world! It's been far too long without a shout for joy so here goes: The New Year is off to a good albeit soul-searching start.  More on that in a longer post.  In the interim, rest assured I am becoming a New Age parody of myself (sipping a smoothie while practicing deep breathing as I walk back to my office after therapy).  You know, THAT sort of thing.  But it's awesome, it's working, and I think I'm putting myself back together after a strangely difficult six months of, well, STUCK.

Stuck sucks

So in the spirit of learning and re-learning the art of mastering self among the complicated web of relationships which we all have occasion to inhabit, I started doing some research on uncanny love and out-of-the box partnerships.  I came across this totally f****** gorgeous article about Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson after their relationship came up in conversation with a friend.  It will warm your heart and break it a tiny bit, all at the same time:

Laurie Anderson's Farewell to Lou Reed

Love.  Good love, bad love, all love.  According to Laurie, paraphrasing Willie, that's what makes the jukebox spin.