double digits

Tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of meeting my husband (well, within 2 days of) and our 4th year of marriage.

Seriously.

I can't think of many things I have done for 10 years in a row, especially cheerfully and willingly.

(I have mastered waaaaaaaaay more than 10 years of eating too many cheese sandwiches and ditto on many years of not balancing my checkbook)

But 10 years of loving the same man really feels pretty easy after it is all said and done. I think, in fact, it is weirdly getting easier.  

I pay homage to how a midwestern girl and a english boy have melded their lives together and created a new one. And also created a new person too.

I remember saying that I had never met anyone like M before and it still holds true.

He is an original. A mensch. A hard worker. An energy ball. A warm heart. A cool temper. A generous soul. And now proving to be a supreme dad.

I still feel like the cat who got the cream.

begin again

I know it is hugely cliche and completely overstated... but spring is feeling like a miracle this year.  Maybe because the last 12 months have been a whirl of wake ups and walks and feeding and naps and soft voices and all very very inward gazing. The rest of the world ceased to really exist.  

Spending the last 3 days out in the air and sun and sky feels like a new experience.  And watching baby take in the leaves and grass and the view from a picnic blanket, well, IS a new experience. Seeing him reminds me of what's new to discover. What's crazily beautiful as a stick or a toe or a spoon.  We are both emerging -- him for the first time and me again.

And it is perfect that this week I start back not only running the workshops again for Life Clubs, but also coaching.  I do feel oddly, and inexplicably ready.  Which also feels like a miracle.  Maybe because the last 12 months have been so baby and getting ready for the new world order and new scary and very very other.  I doubted my sense of self, my brain, and my attention span would be able to coach.  Or coach effectively.

I am happy that the early reports are that it feels GOOD to work a little.  It does complete the fuller picture of who I am.  Feels right to begin again -- but now with a deeper, richer and really centered launch pad.

Who I am as a mom and who I am becoming is adding to me as a person and as a coach.  I think my heart has grown a new chamber that Lewis lives in and yet, I still have room for more.

This is good news.

I feel so grateful that I get to participate in serving others to get happy. And so I begin again with fresh eyes, delighted by the miracles of my life.

purty

pink PETUNIAS (thanks grandma Andy) a plenty in our flowerboxes in front of the flat.

flip flops

Could it be that after all my whinging about turtlenecks in May that summer has landed on our stoop? As I type on my no office Monday, I am wearing flip flops to showcase my pink toes and a skirt to highlight my pasty pins. It is actually partly cloudy/partly sunny and warm (ish). Maybe even 68.

I do feel a turn in the air. Cats fighting in the back garden. Must mean something hormonal and lunar is upon us. I may risk it all and even do the switcheroo in the closet and move the big sweaters out and the flippy dresses in.

What I do know is that I feel a cloud lifting. Maybe it is weather related. Maybe it is just me coming out of my long winter's hibernation where quiet felt right and inside was better then outside.

Or maybe it is just today that I feel more aligned than I have in a long time. And I have hijacked the office as Mark has taken over the conservatory with flip charts and cups of tea and books and papers. I too need a surface to be thoughtful and to work. Get my head in the game and off the TV.

Maybe it is time I switch back on.

Oh so fyne

Dinner at the original and first Loch Fyne Oyster restaurant. While I did not partake, Mark slid 2 babies down.

bring out the Dom

Time to open the LOVELY wedding present from Nancy F.G -- the 1998 Dom. A delicious post hiking/pre dinner treat. Well worth the wait. Yum.

Anniversary #1!

Our first weekend away in 10 months! All the beauty of the Western Lochs only 2 hours from our house. Stunning, unspoiled and raw beauty. And the Lochs are nice too.

Here we stop for lunch on our way to our B&B on Loch Fyne. The blue skies were dreamy.

another charming one

at last, Mary J's wares are for sale! All my favourite t-shirts are now available to y'all. Plus, is nice to read where 'Maeve' comes from!

http://www.charmingmaeve.com/

one of the best

And most unsung delicious sensations is that subtle irritation in your eyes, but not enough to really even be a conscious thought in your head. And then discovering an errant eyelash stuck in your eye.

Suddenly it all makes sense. And once it is gone, it is a miracle. You were uncomfortable without really knowing why. And then suddenly, all feels nice again.

This
Feels
Like
Life

hate and love

Things I hate
1. starting to feel my age
2. the awkward time between finishing a good book and starting the next one
3. re-runs you have seen so many times you can glimpse one scene and call the episode
4. not knowing if I am too old to reproduce
5. after I ask “what, pardon me” 3 times and I still can’t understand a Glaswegian accent
6. not knowing where we will be living/what we will be doing in 6 months
7. my round reflection in store windows
8. having a temporary job
9. not knowing where I belong
10. my never ending black-bruised fingernail
11. not taking advantage of free time

Things I love
1. my new MacBook
2. having to figure out my taxes. Again.
3. feeling lifted when spending time with people I really like
4. good pens
5. remembering I like music; the new Patty Griffin CD
6. not knowing where we will be living/what we will be doing in 6 months
7. the first purple crocus heads popping up
8. having a temporary job
9. belonging wherever I go
10. my Amaretto shade of nail varnish
11. King of Queens
12. a whiff of possibility
13. blended soup
14. having more things I love than hate