Tuesday, April 29, 2014

The Happiness Project :: My Bench


So, this bench was an integral part of my childhood.
It sat in the entryway of the home I grew up in.
I had so much fun playing on it.
One day it might have transformed into a school bus.
The next day, I might have pretended that it was a pirate ship.

I loved playing on the bench.

My parents passed it down to me
a few years ago 
and I hate to admit this but
it sat in the corner of my bedroom
catching piles of unfolded laundry.

Until I recently put the clothes away,
polished the old wood,
purchased some pillows,
and sat it in the entryway of my own home.

The kids love it just as much as I did.
It's become a comfy spot for Griffin to read
and I often find Koen pretending like it's a race car.

It makes me so happy to see
my beloved bench 
still providing joy for me
and my family after all these years.

PS Sorry I posted late today,
my Internet went down for a bit
but were back in business now.




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Thursday, April 24, 2014

A silly daydream...



 I recently went to the reading 
and book signing for Frances Mayes.
She is the author of the book 
Under the Tuscan Sun.

I have to admit that I had
only seen the movie but
my mom and I decided
 to go check it out anyway.

I'm so glad that we went.
 While I was sitting in the audience
listening to her read from her latest book
I found myself daydreaming.

I want this.
I want to stand in front of a 
room full of my readers 
and crack open my novel.
I want to smell the newness of the printed pages,
take in a nervous breath,
feel my heart beating in my ears
as I read aloud the words I've written.

I want to wear a red dress 
with fishnet pantyhose
and inappropriately tall platform heels.

I want to have people ask me questions
during a Q & A
like "What's your creative process?"
and I can tell everyone about how
I wrote my novel 
while my boys wrestled on the floor behind me.
That I wrote it sentence by sentence
between fetching snacks 
and running the water
for bath time.

I want all of this.


I want to sit at a table with my favorite pen
and sign my name and offer hugs
to everyone who will give me one.
I want to stop and take photos
with every single person 
who might be excited to stand next me.

I want to tell some young girl
with stars in her eyes to keep writing
because that's what I did and look at me
I'm sitting here signing my books with my favorite pen.

I want this.
I want this so bad I can almost taste it.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

The Happiness Project :: Easter Hats


I just love having dapper little boys.
We somehow talked the kiddos 
into wearing these hats on Easter.

I'm not sure how much longer Griffin
will be willing to go along with me on this kind of stuff.

I treasure every moment
that he humours me.




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Tuesday, April 15, 2014

The Happiness Project :: Koen Turns 5


I can't believe my big boy is 5!
Happy Birthday, Koen!




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Tuesday, April 8, 2014

The Happiness Project :: A weekend getaway


We escaped to a cabin in the Blue Ridge mountains
with a group of old friends over the weekend.
All children were dropped off with grandparents
and it was a grown ups only weekend.
 

We made awesome meals...


and enjoyed relaxing by the fire out on the deck-so dreamy.


We played games in the downstairs game room.


It was a much needed mini-vacation.
The view wasn't bad, either.




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Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Beauty all Around Me

The other evening I walked into my bedroom 
to put away clean laundry 
 and the light was so beautiful on my curtains 
that I had to stop everything and capture it with my camera. 

I haven't taken photos for fun
in a while cause life has been so busy.

It felt good to use my creative eye.
So I started looking around my home
for more beauty to capture.

I found it hiding all around me.






Tuesday, April 1, 2014

The Happiness Project :: Chaperoning Camp

I chaperoned Griffin's class 
on a 3 day camping trip last week.
It was beautiful and just so
fun to watch them explore nature.

Here are some pics 
from the trip!
 



It makes me so happy to be able
to enjoy these moments with Griffin
and his school buddies.




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