Easter

I know, this is pretty late.  But don't we look cute?  We spent the day with my Mom in Pacific Grove for a special Easter.

Late the night before, a mysterious creature visited our house.  He was big, furry, and smelled like carrots.  Miraculously, Nice Dad managed to snap this picture before he hopped away...

My mom makes the most beautiful and delicious butter cookies.   She has done this all my life.  Crystal sugar makes them sparkly... I bet some of these cookie cutters are 50 years old.

Mom sings in the choir now.  The Christian Church is a pretty forward thinking bunch, this choir had a jazzy slant that got the place rockin'.

Princess #2 was a model little church attendee.  Later she hunted eggs in the backyard.  It was a magical day full of sweet treats and love.  Happy Spring!

underwhelmed

Where did Spring Break go?  I am underwhelmed at my productivity this week.  I have always been a procrastinator, but this is ridiculous.  It's like my mind can't get past the immediate:  filthy floor, dirty dishes, piles of crap everywhere, the freezing grey drizzle on the deck (if I could only work outside!), the constant constant CONSTANT interruptions of my darling six year old.

The reality is this:  I have a 27 page thesis draft due in less than two weeks.  I have other assignments for my online class as well, including an 18 page literature review.  And I have writer's block.  Oh boy, do I ever.

It's not that I don't know my subject.  It's not that I'm not a good writer (at least I thought I was before this semester).  I need incentives.  I need a plan.  I need rituals.  I need a wife!

Does anyone out there have any good suggestions for getting started?  I just need to get started.  It doesn't have to be perfect.  It just needs to get done.  I feel frozen in time... I feel discouraged, lethargic, and a little resentful.  I want to blame everyone else for my own imagined incompetence.

I know my subject.  I know what I have to do.  And I just want to run away.....

I even bought my cap, gown and hood this week, just as a little teaser.  The end is near.  I can do this.  And when I am done, I am going party like there's no tomorrow.  Chin up, nose down, just sit down and start, let it flow.....pray for me.....

Pictures taken around the SJSU campus.

simple joys

I have always loved the library.  I just love love love books!  I am in trouble right now for spending too much money on them though.  I really don't need every raw food cookbook on the shelf.  But I WANT them.  Anyway, the library is a good alternative to Amazon.  Yesterday Little P. got her very own card!  A milestone.

How adorable is that signature.  Now I just need to convince her to check out books and not just movies!

A few other simple pleasures I'm enjoying:

***A sweet wild turkey hen visits our yard every day

***My daily morning green smoothies (I never miss a day!)

***Early morning chats with Nice Dad, snuggling and connecting

***Trying new raw recipes - some good, some great

***Goddess music on my iPod 

***Warm socks and cozy fires

***Home for Spring Break

***Reading endless articles and working on my thesis (first draft due in two weeks!!)

Just kidding about that last one.

eighteen

Princess #1 turned eighteen last month.  Swamped with work, school, death and transitions, I have been to busy and/or exhausted to post about it.  This morning I am grabbing a few quiet minutes to reflect.

She wanted her ear pierced, way up high, twice.

Santa Cruz is the place to come for piercings.  The range of options is dazzling.

Princess #1 is living at our house now.  She has changed schools and friends.  We are learning to live together again.  It has been four years.  There is a lot to learn.

After a lot of angst and generally freaking out, the deed was done, not quite painlessly, by a very cool dude with many tattoos but a self proclaimed fear of needles.  Go figure.

Part of the learning process is to find out who she is exactly.  This Princess is quiet and private.  She is not assertive and it is difficult for her to ask for help.

The house is crowded.  There is not much privacy in a dome.  We are learning not to step on toes, what buttons not to push, how to maneuver through life together while at the same time getting ready to part ways again.  She is big, but small.

Happy Birthday to my first girl.  Sorry you had to spend it with your boring mom and weird step dad.  Wishing you a future of happiness.