This is the look Troy usually gives me when I tell him how late I stayed up the night before, crocheting and watching movies or TV. I’ve been doing that a lot recently. I can’t give you details or show you pictures of the finished projects because they are gifts for people who might be reading this. Right now I’m working my way through Bones from the beginning (the first four seasons are conveniently available on Netflix Instant) and have been pleasantly surprised by how much I’ve enjoyed it. Also, I’ve decided once and for all that the best way to watch a TV series is in large chunks—say, one whole season in a week. Since I have a show to watch, I’ve been crocheting more than usual.

All this crocheting and TV-watching has been happening at the expense of the time I might normally spend editing photos and writing blog posts. But there hasn’t been much to write about lately anyway.

What exactly have we been up to? Well, I think I mentioned that I’ve been crocheting a lot. I’ve also been working on our container garden, and three months after moving I’ve finally gotten back into the swing of cooking most meals at home instead of eating out every other night. Troy’s been working hard; it’s a busy time of year for his job, and when he’s at home he’s been catching up on yard work and projects around the house. Annalie has been getting a huge kick out of observing the recently-emerged-from-their-chrysalides butterflies in the butterfly garden that Unky Ben and Angie got her for her birthday. And almost every day this week there has been an restaurant set up in the living room including a little table & chairs, dishes, silverware, and “walls” built from footstools and pillows, where Annalie grandly serves us apples and water and goldfish crackers.

Okay, I guess I could have been writing about all those things I mentioned. But I haven’t been. I’ve just been living them. I go through stages sometimes where I get annoyed at how I always have a camera in front of my face, attempting to capture all the moments instead of just enjoying the moments. I suppose I’ve been in one of those stages lately. It’ll pass eventually and I’ll be back to capturing every little thing for posterity.

Meanwhile, life’s just chugging along. Summer is coming. We’re all good.

Isn’t this skirt great? I bought from Rebecca Brayton’s Etsy shop as a birthday present for Annalie, hoping it would take the place of the tulle underskirt that goes with the Cinderella dress CC made for her three years ago, the one she wears all the time, despite the fact that it’s got a waist-high slit and is not a skirt but a petticoat. Anyway, this seems to have done the trick. I have not seen her wearing the increasingly ratty petticoat since it arrived. And it’s fun to twirl in!

I just looked at the date on my previous post. How have I not written anything new for four days!? The time, she gets away from me. It’s partly because we had a birthday party to attend this weekend out of town, which meant an overnight stay in a really nice hotel with a great swimming pool, which I would have enjoyed a lot more if Annalie had not woken up at 5:50am (after not falling asleep till 10pm the night before) asking if it was time to go swimming yet. Oy. But then my mom and I got to go paint pottery tonight with my friend Rebekah, which was awesome. I forget how painting makes me feel all calm and energized at the same time till I’m doing it again. And tonight I even painted something non-dotty, which I don’t do very often so whenever I do I’m all pleased with myself for breaking out of my rut.

Also, that cold that Troy had for four days a couple of weeks back, the one that required him to blow his nose a dozen times or so? I caught that cold, which means I went through more Puffs Plus on my first day of being sick than he did in the whole duration of his cold. If I’m lucky I’ll be all better by June. So instead of staying up late to blog about Annalie’s birthday party which was last weekend, I’m going to bed. If I don’t post anything new for a few days, just assume I’m busy blowing my nose and drinking mug after mug of hot peppermint tea with honey. And let’s all hope that before I know it, I’m back to feeling like Annalie looks in this photo.

Today we took a break from organizing and zipped all over downtown DC this morning and early afternoon for some sightseeing! It was kind of crazy but fun.

I can’t believe it’s been almost a WEEK since I blogged. We’ve been unpacking and playing and cooking and meeting the internet one person at a time. I’ve been taking tons of photos and then not doing more than uploading them to Flickr because we’re watching Glee on my laptop in the evenings to catch Troy up before it resumes in April. And today’s the first day of 7 Days, which means you should see at least a photo and a short post from me every day this week.

Provided we keep drinking plenty of coffee.

Note to anyone in the DC area: Tomorrow afternoon Brenda is having a meet-up for local readers and friends, and Annalie, Troy and I will be there too. Email me if you want details.