It’s 7 Days time again! That quarterly time of year when a group of some of the funnest, nicest, most creative people on Flickr spend a week taking self-portraits and then commenting on each other’s photos. I was on my way to bed when I realized it was technically Saturday and I could take my Day 1 photo. Here it is: me, being a big ol’ nerd with Photo Booth in the dark dining room at 2am.

I took this shot first, but decided it was too creepy for Day 1, even though it made me laugh.

On a side note, it’s come to my attention that I have not been keeping very good track of the various dottery mugs and crocheted whatsits that I’ve promised people. If you’ve discussed a custom order of some kind with me but have not heard a peep from me about it since, could you check my crafting queue and see if you’re on it? If you’re not, please shoot me an email or leave me a comment, letting me know. Thanks.

My good friend Jen turned 40 a couple of months ago. I wanted to give her something special, but what? Jen knits and crochets beautiful things for money and for fun, so I didn’t feel the need to crochet her something. She and her husband already own several dottery mugs and things I’ve painted for them over the years. They live across the country from me, and they’re moving next summer so Jen has been in the process of paring down her family’s belongings for a while. I wanted to send something that she would really enjoy, something that wouldn’t be just one more thing she’d be annoyed to pack next summer.

I was pondering my options when I remembered the photo messages I used to send to far-away friends when I was a kid. My mom would take photos of me holding up a series of signs, each sign with a word or phrase on it. Put together, all the photos would make a complete message. I used to really have fun with it, dressing in different crazy outfits and posing in silly places. I’d send the photos one at a time over the course of a couple of weeks.

And then I had my brilliant idea. I would send Jen 40 pieces of mail for her birthday! Who doesn’t love getting mail? Who doesn’t feel that little thrill when they see an envelope in the mailbox that’s not a bill or a mailer advertising the new carpet-cleaning company? I could send postcards, letters, even the occasional small care package. It wouldn’t break the bank since stamps are relatively cheap, and I already own tons of rarely-used stationery. I would be extending the birthday joy for more than a month—almost two months, as it turned out. And Jen wouldn’t have a fragile or unwieldy new thing to pack (or to feel guilty about getting rid of). Win-win-win!

I didn’t tell Jen what I was doing. I just started sending her numbered mail. It only took her about three days to figure it out. She sent me an email (subject: “Stinker!”) that read:

You’ve been up to something, haven’t you?…It all started to make sense today as my mail started piling up. It was like the ending of an M. Night Shyamalan movie.

I think she meant one of the good M. Night Shyamalan movies. At least, I hope she did.

I sent homemade cookies.

Annalie helped out with a couple of drawings and a bookmark.

I sent a few postcards.

Well, lots of postcards, actually.

Lots and lots of postcards.

I helped Jen face her fear of glitter, because I’m a good friend like that.

I sent her a copy of the soundtrack to Scrubs: My Musical, so that the next time she’s stuck in traffic on the 805 with me and Sonja for four hours and we insist on singing “Everything Comes Down to Poo,” she’ll be able to sing along.

A dime bag of Canadian Smarties. (Inside joke. I told Jen I would send her a box of the Smarties that Jen Wilson had sent me, and Jen said she didn’t need a whole box, that I should just send her a little bag. I said I’d send her a dime bag. It…isn’t really that funny, I guess. But it was hilarious to us.)

A Nebraska care package, when I was visiting Omaha.

A little bag of jelly beans. This is one of those 13-ounces-or-less things, where I just stuck an address label and postage right on the package and dropped it in the mail.

We mailed a little bit of autumn.

I slowed down a lot towards the end. Several days went by between each of the last three or four pieces of mail I sent. I was a little sad it was coming to an end. I had a lot of fun with this project, even more fun than I expected. I think I’ll have to do something like this again sometime.

Finally, six weeks after Jen’s actual birthday, I was sending #40. And what else could possibly be good enough for the final piece of birthday mail except some really, really ridiculously good apricot cookies?

Happy birthday, Jen!

All the mail I sent is in the Flickr photoset 40 pieces of mail.

Annalie drew these teeny portraits of our family on something, and I knew immediately I would use them for return-address labels on our Christmas cards. She draws stuff like this all the time that surprises and delights me. It’s fairly awesome.

You know what else is fairly awesome? You guys are. Thank you for sticking with me and continuing to read through the past year of baby-induced blog neglect; supporting me and saying kind things when I am frustrated or troubled; cheering me up with your funny stories when I need to laugh; and just generally being some of the nicest people on the internets. I wish each and every one of you a happy, healthy new year full of good things. May 2012 be the year you learn to tango, go on your dream vacation, see your kids succeed wildly, eat more vegetables, own your beauty, read life-changing books, find a new favorite drink, or whatever it is you think about when you wish upon a star.

View large.

p.s. New-old banner, by Brenda as always.

I realized, after I did that last post about the newly-listed items in my Etsy shop (several of which have already been purchased, thank you very much!), that I have not blogged about pottery I’ve painted for a long time. The last post I could find that had more than a fleeting mention of dottery in it was way back in April! So let me catch you up, if you’re interested.

The little blue ‘be happy’ bowl up there is one that I painted for no particular reason or recipient. I ended up sending it to Leah as an apology for taking so long to send her my half of our flip-flop swap.

I painted this bowl for my friend Laura, with a slightly inaccurate Big Bang Theory quote on it. I don’t have a picture of it fired because Laura picked it up from the pottery shop when it was done.

The things I do for my friends. Kassie was inspired to ask me to paint this for her after reading about the “first: kindness; then: F*** AUTHORITY” mug I painted for Elaine. And because I love her, I did it. I’ll even admit it was kinda fun. But I don’t plan on painting another one. This was a limited edition mug. I don’t have a picture of this one fired either. (You can read Kassie’s hilarious account of watching me paint it here.)

She looks so innocent, doesn’t she? Not like a person who would ever ask a friend to paint a lovely dottery mug with her five favorite curse words on it.

I painted this geek dottery mug as a gift for the lovely Bex. It has two Firefly/Serenity quotes on it: “a little whimsical in the brainpan,” said by Mal in reference to the mentally-unstable River Tam; and, “Also, I can kill you with my brain,” a line said by a very calm River to a very spooked Jayne. The moral here is, never assume that just because someone’s whimsical that she is not also deadly when the situation calls for it.

I had a lot of fun painting this mug, particularly the little whimsical bits.

These annoying smudges are not fun, however. I took photos of this mug with my phone before it was fired, so I know these smudges weren’t there when I finished painting it. That means someone at the pottery studio wasn’t handling my pieces carefully. I’ve had this happen to at least three or four pieces I’ve painted at that studio. Rather disappointing because it’s only 10 minutes from my house.

Brenda had asked me to paint her a round dottery mug a while back, when her cool blue coral mug broke and she missed having a round mug. When I was in California and Brenda had the summer fiesta in our honor, she said that she needed to remember how much fun it is for her when she throws parties. So I painted her this mug as a reminder to be festive.

A little ‘be happy’ dottery vase I painted for Madge, at her request.

This cunning mug was a custom order for my Etsy shop, a dotty mug with Jayne Cobb’s hat on the front and a Firefly quote on the back. I was a bit nervous about painting the hat, but I think it turned out pretty well.

“Dear Diary, Today I was pompous and my sister was crazy…it was the best day ever.”

Shiny.

Annalie painted this Azurill plate the same day that I painted Katie’s NO WHINING sign. She pored over her Pokemon book, and picked the cutest one she thought she could paint. This was almost a disaster because she accidentally spilled a big blotch of black paint on the right ear and was very upset. I convinced her to leave the plate overnight and let it dry, and we’d come back the next day to fix it. We scraped the mistake off, and fixed the blue and pink, and now you can’t even tell the black blotch was there.

Remember those ‘internet friends FTW!’ mugs that Rainbow and I painted while I was in Omaha? Bad news.

It got broken during shipping. I was fairly bummed about this. I really liked those colors, and now Rainbow’s mug will be lonely.

I couldn’t even superglue it together and use it to hold pens, because there was a big ol’ U-shaped crack all across one side. Of all the mugs and bowls and things I’ve shipped, this is the first one I’m aware of that has broken. So it’s possible there was some flaw in the bisque that made it more prone to breaking.

At least I still have the memories. And an excuse to drag Rainbow to paint pottery with me again next time I’m in Omaha.

I actually got to paint pottery twice when we were in Omaha. The second time, I went with my mom, my girls, and Aurora. We did a handprint plate for my my mom with all three of her granddaughters’ handprints on it.

My mom wasn’t planning for Aurora to paint anything, but when she saw Annalie gathering paint and brushes, she said, “I paint? I paint too?” I helped her pick a plate and paint colors, and she painted the heck out of that plate.

Elliora didn’t paint. She hung out in the stroller, played with my mom’s keys.

She had her first lollipop, which she kept rubbing on her hair, then putting back in her mouth with an “Mmmmm!” Crazy baby.

Annalie fingerpainted this butter dish for my parents. I wrote the word ‘Butter’ on it just in case they couldn’t remember what they were supposed to use it for. (This is a photo of it unfired; my mom didn’t get to pick it up till after we left.)

Annalie also painted this plate for me, using my favorite colors. Isn’t she sweet?

Elliora did paint this plate, sort of. I helped her put handprints all over it one day when we were at our favorite pottery studio in Maryland. I think it turned out kinda cute, no?

I think it’s pretty clear that I do what I love, or this post wouldn’t have been nearly this long.

You might remember that a few months ago, I did a giveaway of my good friend Brenda‘s first published book, Secret Agent Josephine’s ABC’s.

Spy eyes.

This book is baby-approved! (Photos by Brenda Ponnay)

I mentioned back then that Brenda had two more books she was working on, one about colors and one about numbers. Well, guess what. The spotted cuckoo is flying backwards.

They’re here! ABC’s, Colors, and Numbers! All three books are available on Amazon in paperback or ebook. All three books are full of the whimsical, clever illustrations that are Brenda’s trademark style.

Funny story about the letter U in the ABC’s book. Way back when Brenda was designing the alphabet cards that the ABC’s book is based on, she was trying to decide between unicorn and umbrella for the ‘U’ card, so she asked the nearest 3-year-old which one she liked better. The nearest 3-year-old happened to be Annalie, and she said, “Neither. You should do underwear!”)

3-year-olds: finding underwear hilarious since the dawn of time.

To celebrate the release of the third book, Brenda is doing a virtual book tour, with one stop for each letter of the alphabet. This here blog is the B stop (or one of them, anyway—thanks to a slight mix-up there are two B stops!) in case you hadn’t figured that out already. And as a special treat for you, the super-stealthy followers of the book tour, Brenda is offering you the chance to win a print of the letter B from the ABC’s book! To enter the print giveaway, leave a comment on this post…oh. let’s say, your favorite place that starts with the letter B. Comment before midnight PST on November 30th from anywhere in the world for a chance to win, and keep following the book tour for the rest of the alphabet over the coming weeks for more chances to win. (Stay tuned to my blog for the chance to win a copy of each of the books, too!)

B, I’m so proud of you for all the hard work you did getting these books illustrated and following your dream of being published! You said once on your blog a long time ago that you should do what you love, and you constantly remind me of that in the way you live your life. You complain about your job sometimes just like anyone else, but you do love what you do, and you inspire me and others to follow our passions too. Thank you for that, and for brightening our lives with your artistic talent. Good luck on the rest of your book tour!

The crocheting around here, it never ends! This batch of balls was a custom order. I was only asked to make nine, but I made a bonus black-and-white one, so there are ten. They’re listed in my Etsy shop whenever you’re ready, Karen.

These balls were a custom order for someone who was going to use them to make a baby mobile.

My mom was telling me a while back how my 20-month-old niece loves this metal butterfly ornament of my mom’s, but she doesn’t really like to let Aurora play with it because she’s afraid she might cut herself on it. So I offered to crochet her a butterfly toy. It was fun to figure out how to do it!

Of course when Annalie saw Aurora’s, she asked if I could make her one too. I was expecting the request so I just told her to pick out the colors she wanted and I’d get right on it. Aurora’s is the dark purple one; Annalie’s is the light purple.

I crocheted this green-and-gold baby blanket at my mom’s request, for her godson’s baby boy. They’re big Packers fans.

Would you say I’ve crocheted a PLETHORA of coffee-cup sleeves?

I crocheted this potholder a while back just for fun. Then when my friend Deborah came to visit rather unexpectedly, I knew it would be the perfect gift for her. Then I completely forgot to give it to her while she was here. I mailed it to her with the mug she painted while she was here.

Her first dottery! Didn’t it turn out nice? I love how every time I teach someone how to paint dottery, they run with it and make it entirely their own.

While we were in Oregon, Erin picked out the yarn I’m using to crochet Indira’s blanket. I used it to make a little sampler to give to her at the baby shower, which happened while we were there. And then I forgot to take a better photo of it. That’s okay, because I’ll take a better photo of the real blanket when I’m done with it.

Annalie is going to be a peacock for Halloween this year, and she was musing that none of her trick-or-treat bags will match her costume. She was delighted when I offered to crochet her a new bag (because it’s not like I have enough to crochet, what with the half-dozen baby blankets I’ll be working on in the coming months). We found this lovely peacock-colored wool on KnitPicks which should felt up nicely, but when it arrived I realized I don’t own a winder and swift, and it’s kind of a long trip to Jen‘s just to get her kids to wind my yarn into skeins for me. So I found another way to do it, using a paper-towel roll. I was pretty proud of my finished skein.

Now that it’s autumn and temperatures are falling, I expect I’ll find myself crocheting even more. Crocheting and knitting always seem like such fallish crafts to me. What about you? What are you working on these days? If you don’t craft, are you writing a novel? Perfecting your apple pie recipe? Training for a marathon?

A few days ago I did the mean parent thing of offering a lemon slice to Elliora, expecting her to pucker up and make hilarious faces.

When will I learn my kids don’t ever seem to do the thing I expect them to do? She loved the lemon of course, and got mad when I took it away from her.

Troy likes to eat the lemon slices from his drinks, actually. And Annalie doesn’t care for them now, but when she was a baby she used to suck on lemons with gusto.

I think mostly Elliora is still in that fun phase where every kind of food is something new and wonderful to her. Today we went to lunch at a place with a salad bar, and Elliora ate an amazing variety and amount—applesauce, bits of hamburger, fries, beets, black olives, cheese, cucumber, edamame, peas, and bacon—and seemed genuinely pleased with every bite.

Earlier this week we spent the night in Southern Maryland, hanging out with old friends. I love this photo of Annalie and Christa each holding her little sister, and how Ashland is looking over at Elliora.

We got the chance to hang out with Angela and her girls for a little while, which was so lovely. I enjoyed getting to know Miss Katie (who is seven months older than Elliora) a bit better.

I hadn’t seen our friends’ dog Daisy in almost two years, but she remembered me immediately, wagging her tail and shoving her head under my hand.

A bunch of balls I crocheted for my godson and his sister. I actually crocheted the red, white and blue one and the rainbow-striped one first as birthday gifts for the two of them, but their dad liked them so much he asked if I could make a few more for them to have around.

The night we stayed at Rebekah and Jason’s, neither Ashland nor Elliora could not be convinced to go to sleep at a reasonable hour. Bekah and I wanted to visit with each other, so we gave in and let the babies play on the floor, figuring they’d soon be tired enough that we could get them to sleep. They played contentedly for the better part of an hour. Woohoo, late-night baby playtime party!

It’s both surreal and awesome that a friend in Maryland (Rebekah) was able to check Attachments out from the local library and read this book that a friend of mine from high school wrote.

Vintage Muppets glass from 1981 (haaa, I accidentally typed “1891″ at first) is a total WIN. I loved the Great Muppet Caper as a kid, and I still love it as an adult. You all have heard about the new Muppets movie coming out this November, right? I’m super-excited about it. The trailers look incredibly promising, and I can’t think of a better person than Jason “Vampire Puppet Rock Opera” Segel to write and star in it.

Playgroup friends! Several of our old playgroup‘s families have recently moved back to the town where we used to live, so anytime we go back down to visit now it’s like a mini-reunion. Not everyone is there—Sarah and her family still live in Texas—but it’s still good to get together with old friends, and their new siblings.

Whoooaaaa, trippy.

As we were leaving lunch with to-go cups of soda, I offered one of the million coffee-cup sleeves I carry around in my purse to Bekah for her cup. She’s not a coffee drinker, and she said it had never occurred to her to use a sleeve for her cold drinks. I happened to have a few finished coffee-cup sleeves with me in a bag of crocheting, and I told her she could pick one out. She liked a pink-and-white striped one, but it was a little small for a typical soda cup. I added the blue at Bek’s request and I really love how it turned out. You’ll probably be seeing this pattern again.

One afternoon this week we had thunderstorms with crazy heavy rain. Jennifer commented on Flickr that this photo of Annalie looks like she’s peering into an aquarium, and it kind of does.

“See, Ellie V? This is how you make the picture TWIRLY.”

I wasn’t able to make it to the Ladies’ Night at my usual pottery studio tonight as planned. With me and Elliora both getting over colds, I wasn’t sure we were up for the 90-minute round trip, especially so late in the evening, so I reluctantly decided to stay here. Troy suggested I just go to the local pottery studio for some painting therapy by myself, so I did. When I picked up my fired pieces from the last time I painted there, the girl working said, “Oh, you’re Bethany Actually? I love your stuff!” Then when I got home, Elliora was asleep! She only stayed asleep for a half-hour or so, but hey, it was an extra half-hour. Extra half-hours are in short supply around here these days.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go cough another thousand times or so. Have a good rest-of-the-weekend!

Note: I interviewed Annalie for this post back in February or March, wrote it up and added photos and everything, and then…got stalled. What stalled me? I needed to take one photo of a self-portrait drawing Annalie did that was hanging in my kitchen. That is my life right now: I’m going in a million directions all the time and couldn’t even manage to take a photo—of something I see every day—for months. Sheesh.

What is your name?

Annalie.

How old are you?

Six.

Where do you live?

Washington, D.C. Well, actually we live in [Town], [State].

Do you have any pets?

Yes.

Wanna tell me about them?

Yes. I have two pet cats. Their names are Katy and Lily, and they’re very sweet. They’re both girls, and Katy really likes to spend time with me; Lily, not so much. But Lily really likes it when I scratch her belly!

Who do you like to play with?

I like to play with Bug, and Suki and Amber, and I like to play with Gabby and Annie. Sometimes I like to play with Mackenzie. She isn’t as rough as some kids. Also Christa and Cassie and Jack and Morgan and Dylan. And Daddy! I like to play with Daddy, and Elliora.

What’s your favorite cereal?

Hmmm…Lucky Charms!

What’s your favorite vegetable?

I like carrots because they’re good plain and with ranch, and also good cooked. I also like peas; they taste good plain and cooked. This is an odd thing to tell people, but I also like peas sometimes in ranch dressing. It’s good, you should try it!

What’s your favorite drink?

I like…lemonade, and I like root beer, and sometimes chocolate milk. Oh, and I like Kool-Aid! Ah, the sweet taste of Kool-Aid.

What’s your favorite flavor of Kool-Aid?

Fruit punch. For the record, I really like the kind you drop in the little tablet and you see it fizz up and evolve into the whole drink!

What’s your favorite snack?

Strawberry cream cheese roll-up, and crackers and cheese. I like simple kinds of crackers, like Club Crackers or Ritz, and cheddar cheese.

What’s your favorite toy?

I like a lot of toys, that’s hard!

Well, I just remembered I need to put the cookie dough in the fridge. Hang on a sec.

That’s good, I can think about it for a minute then.

Okay, did you think of a favorite toy?

I did think of a type of toy I really like, but it’s not really a specific toy. I like toys you can play with in pools like goggles and flippers. I especially like goggles because you can put them on and see underwater!

What’s your favorite TV Show?

Wild Kratts. And I like Johnny Test, Pokemon, Spongebob, Fairly Oddparents, Chuck, and Dragonball Z-Kai. Did you write all those down?

What’s your favorite movie?

I like Tangled, and I also like Space Chimps.

What’s your favorite game?

Angry Birds. And I also like, um…the game I almost always play with Daddy, the car-racing game. It’s one where you can drive anywhere, like off-road and up the mountains, and you can do leaps. Sometimes you can feel it in the game controller when you jump off things! It’s kind of funny.

What’s your favorite book?

The Boxcar Children. It starts out a bit sad, but then it ends really happy. And one of the girls’ names is Violet, which is my sister Elliora’s middle name!

What’s your favorite restaurant?

Ooh, I like a lot of restaurants. That one in Omaha we go to a lot, what’s it called?

Wheatfields, the one with the fountains?

No, the one we go to with Uncle Ben a lot, where sometimes we can get balloon animals?

Oh, Spaghetti Works?

Yeah, Spaghetti Works! And I like Wheatfields too. They have fondue, and the big paintings, and the fountain! I love that place. Maybe we could go there for my actual birthday dinner, since we’ll be in Omaha?

Sure, we can do that.

(We did!)

Can we get cheese fondue?

Yes we can.

I love that! I cannot get enough of that.

What’s your favorite holiday?

My favorite holiday iiiiiizzz…Easter, Valentine’s Day, and Christmas. Because on Christmas you sometimes get to go sledding, and you get Advent calendars, and you get to open presents right away in the morning, even in your pajamas! And on Valentine’s Day, sometimes you get Valentines and gifts, and you can make cookies. And on Easter you get to go Easter-egg hunting. Sometimes on Easter my mommy gets me and Dad special baskets, and she’ll probably get a little basket for Elliora this year too.

What’s your favorite animal?

Horses. I like horses.

If you could change your name, what name would you choose?

I would choose…[thinking]…Crystal! It’s a pretty name, isn’t it?

What do you love about each person in our family?

I love that Elliora is a cute baby, and I’m glad that Katy and Lily are nice and gentle and they love me. And I’m glad that Daddy is a funny guy and he almost always tickles me, it’s so fun. And I’m glad that Mommy’s cooking is delicious, and she is really good at making me birthday cakes. They taste the best when they’re made by my mom—not just any old mom, MY mom.

Aw, thanks. I’m happy you like my cakes.

And remember that one time you made those mini pumpkin cheesecakes? Those were soooo good.

Thanks!

And I’m glad that Aurora is one year old and she’s cute and adorable and can walk now! I’m glad she’s my cousin. I can’t wait till the next time I get to see her!

What do you love most about yourself?

Well, that’s hard.

Why, because you like so many things about yourself?

No, because if I say things I like about myself, it’s sort of like I’m saying, “I’m pretty and you’re not!”

You mean like bragging?

Yeah. I just don’t think it would be very polite, would it?

Well, there’s a difference between bragging and just saying things you’re good at.

I guess so.

So is there anything you think you’re good at or that you like about yourself that you can say without bragging?

I think I’m good at making pancakes. I’m a good cook, when I have help from you. And I’m good at coloring, and I’m also good at playing Angry Birds.

Where would you like to go on vacation this year?

Hawaii.

Well, we’re not gonna make it to Hawaii this year. But I think we are going to visit Erin and Rocco in Oregon, how does that sound?

Good!

What are some of your wishes for this year?

This year I wanna have a Zoobles treehouse. And I wish I could see Niagara Falls! That would be the funnest thing in the entire world. And I want to lose more teeth! Another one is loose, I think.

Thanks for the interview, Annalie!

You’re welcome, Mama.

Annalie’s self-portrait, age 6y8m

Inspiration for this interview originally came from New Year’s Interview for Kids at Blissfully Domestic (via The Crafty Crow).

I did this interview in 2009 and 2010 too, though I published them in a much more timely manner both those times.

My friend Bonnie decided on her birthday this year that she would take a picture every day of something that made her happy, to remind herself in the midst of a difficult time to Find the Happy. She decided to create a Flickr group so her friends could share the happy too.

Finding a bit of Happy each day.

The rules:

1. Find some Happy and photograph it each day. You could choose to do it less often if that works better for your life but my theory is that the more often you look for the Happy, the more the Happy helps.
2. Do it for a year. Or less. Or more. Or as needed.
3. No Unhappy allowed. That also includes self-abuse if you miss a day or lots of days. Hippie voice: Go with the flow, man. Everything is as it should be.
4. Rules are for breaking. Except Number 3, it’s best not to upset Hippie Voice.

My heart has been heavy lately, thinking about Samantha. So I’m reminding myself of some happy things.

I don’t know about you, but homemade black-and-white cookies make me very happy.

So does the cool way the sun was reflecting off this dotty coffee mug. Like little bubbles of sunlight!

I happened to glance at Annalie’s calendar a day or two before Troy’s birthday and was tickled to realize that she had drawn a miniature portrait of our family on that date, complete with him in a party hat.

I love it when I get a teeny painting of a harried-looking coffee-drinking cat in the mail. Thanks, Brenda!

French toast with powdered sugar on a sunshiny dottery plate.

Keeping a baby alive and homeschooling a 7-year-old are both time-consuming pursuits (duh), but while I barely have time to shower and I don’t seem to have time for housework, I manage to cook dinner almost every night and write emails and blog posts (sort of) and I’ve been crocheting a lot. So I guess it’s true that you do make time for what you love. And crocheting makes me happy.

I’m sure that in a year or so I’ll be hearing many cries of “Mo-ooom, make her stop touching my stuff!” So I try extra hard to enjoy the sweet moments like this, when it’s clear how much Annalie loves her little sister.

On one of Troy’s Navy deployments years ago, he happened to go to a wine festival in Cyprus, and he brought back two of these little glasses. They’re the perfect size for a shot of juice or taking a packet of Emergen-C, and it makes me smile each time I use one. It’s such a random thing to have in my cupboard, small wineglasses from a Cypriot wine festival, yet there they are.

I went to high school and college with Rainbow Rowell. (I know, awesome name!) She wasn’t someone I hung out with, but we knew each other. We had mutual friends, and when we went to the same university we occasionally ate lunch together. I’ve been reading Rainbow’s writing for two decades now, mostly in newspaper-column or blog-post form, but now I’ve read something way more exciting: Rainbow’s very first novel, a romantic comedy called Attachments. The night I started reading it, I actually got out of bed at 3:30am, feeling compelled to send Rainbow a message to let her know I was loving her book and was genuninely happy for and proud of her. (I’ll be interviewing Rainbow soon and doing a giveaway of her book in a blog post, so stay tuned for that!)

The sun was shining into Annalie’s room just right one afternoon so that her bright fuchsia sheets were reflecting a pink glow onto everything else in the room. A few days later, Annalie picked this bouquet of wildflowers, leaves of grass, and a wild strawberry from our yard for me and arranged them in an old vanilla bottle.

The first Saturday that Sonja was here, Karyl & her girls came up to spend the day with us, which was super fun. We started with brunch—aebleskiver and home-fried potatoes and bacon and fruit—which made me very happy because I love brunch. Also, I made the aebleskiver with almond milk and coconut oil and maple syrup (in place of cow’s milk and butter and granulated sugar) so Sonja could eat them, and they were totally as delicious as usual. It was a Very Happy Thing indeed: brunch everyone could eat!

Sonja-safe brownies, made with coconut oil instead of butter and honey instead of sugar. And they tasted good! Yay! I had fun meeting the challenge of cooking without ingredients I usually rely on while Sonja was here.

I love it when naps end like this, with Elliora waking up in the Ergo and smiling when she sees me.

If I have to put up with hot and humid summer weather, at least I get to eat perfectly summery meals like this: grilled mini burgers, strawberries, and marinated cucumber salad. Yum.

After seeing Lauren’s Doctor Who necklace on Flickr, I stalked this Etsy shop until she listed more so I could buy one for myself. I like how the high-top sneaker is a reference to the Chucks habitually worn by both the Tenth Doctor and Chuck Bartowski.

We often make popcorn with the very air-popper that I used when I was a kid, and eat it out of the exact stainless-steel bowl I used to eat popcorn from. (My mom was getting rid of the air popper and asked if I wanted it; I basically swiped the bowl because I loved it so much. Both these things are 30+ years old.)

Trader Joe’s dark chocolate bar with caramel bar and black sea salt. Enough said.

We live near a good bakery and stop there on a regular basis for treats. Every time, Annalie carefully surveys the variety of lovely, fancy cookies and pastries…and then requests a plain butter cookie. I love that.

I believe we’ve mentioned before that our neighbors across the street actually own a bounce house? They put it up for birthdays and parties and random weekends just for fun. And they are happy to share it with the neighborhood kids.

Rain always makes me happy.

Neon aquamarine polish, and bare feet outside, and green grass, and bits of sidewalk chalk. Basically, summer’s here!

Today it’s raining and chilly here. But up till today, this week had been fairly warm with summer-like temps and sunshine. To Annalie, that means one thing: swimming.

She was pretty upset with me when I told her that we weren’t going to get the kiddie pool out just yet. I tried explaining that since it’s only April, there’s no guarantee the weather will stay warm. And besides, we’re going to Omaha in a few days and no one will be here to use the pool. It makes more sense to wait till we get back to clean it out and set it up.

Annalie got all that, but she didn’t care. She wanted to swim. I placated her with running through the sprinkler after a particularly sweaty walk home from the park on Wednesday and told her, No matter how much you beg, we are not taking the pool out till after we get home from Omaha.

That didn’t stop her from pleading with me yesterday to set up the pool, however. She WANTED TO SWIM. I told her that wasn’t happening, and asked what else she wanted to do.

“I only want to swim! That’s what I most want to do.”

“Well, what’s the second thing you want to do most of all? Maybe we can do that.”

Annalie crossed her arms and lowered her eyebrows. “Fly a kite.”

I’m pretty sure she said that to be difficult, because this has come up before, and she knows there are too many trees and power lines in our neighborhood to fly a kite. But instead of reminding her of that fact, I said, “We could probably make a little kite, it just wouldn’t be able to go up high. You’d have to run to make your own wind. Wanna do that?”

Her eyes lit up. “Yeah! Let’s do that!”

I did a quick online search and found exactly the kind of kite I wanted to make. Annalie chose a piece of paper (the directions call for printer/copier paper; we used IKEA craft paper which worked perfectly) and decorated it with her markers while I found clear packing tape, a straw, yarn, scissors, and a plastic bag.

In five minutes we’d followed the instructions on how to fold and tape the paper into a kite shape and tape a straw across the top for stability. I cut an eight-foot long spiral out of a plastic grocery bag and Annalie taped it to the bottom for a tail. I punched a hole in the fin and tied the yarn on. Annalie wound the other end of the yarn around a piece of cardboard she’d cut off a box in the basement, and voila! She had a kite.

And she was happy.

Want to make a kite? Video and step-by-step illustrated instructions:
20 kids * 20 kites * 20 minutes.