five snapshots + things i love from our weekend:

hooded sweaters, old wooden tables, family time when we drop everything else and just enjoy each other’s company and some good food.

my husband’s hands, my daughter’s eyes, revisiting Community Food & Juice (one of my favorite brunchspots, which was closed for a time last year after a fire. i’m so glad they’re back; the blueberry pancakes have gotten even better and the wild mushroom + goat cheese omelet was perfection.)

sharing the table with one of her favorite new stuffies. this little striped guy is named “blobby” (because he doesn’t have bones, so he’s a blob. obviously.) and was a handmade gift from tita carol. i love that she’s at an age where her stuffies and dolls (and sometimes even cards and blankets) have names and voices and stories.

orange cable knit, fur-lined earmuffs from a street vendor! i didn’t buy them (even though she begged. she didn’t realize she was just the model; i wanted to buy them for myself) but i wish i had. maybe a mother-daughter set.

red doors that match new red sweaters and old red gloves.

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thank you for your patience and support as i went offline and a little off the rails last week; the gentle words of a friend, knowing that someone’s there if you need them (even if you don’t need anything more than silent support), feeling like it’s ok to be frayed and frazzled sometimes…these things mean the world to me, and i’m very grateful. i got more work done, finished more projects in the last week, than i did in the entire month prior.

i’m learning from this and taking notes. i’m noting that i simply cannot take on deadline-driven project work past the second week of december. i’m noting that i can’t leave for a trip with a load of unfinished work; it will exhaust and weigh me down. i’m noting that after a long week of hunkering down and working into the wee hours and letting myself wallow in a tightly stressful place, i’m feeling tired and worn and even a little flu-ish, but so much lighter in my soul. i’m noting that i’m just about ready to move forward.

if there’s one word i’d like to embody 2010 for me, it’s abundance. i hope to see abundance not just in our finances (which would, of course be very welcome), but also an abundance of time, an abundance of love, an abundance of laughter, an abundance of joy, an abundance of newness, an abundance of gratefulness, and abundance of growth, an abundance of pictures, an abundance of really good, really vivid memories….. abundance. that’s my word.

what’s your word?

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