A Week's Worth of Odds & Ends

Getting acquainted with a new toy

A little surprise for mama from papa bear (I don't need fancy chocolates, just get me a Whitman's Sampler & I'm happy)

Bringing some wood in for a cozy fire

Fresh eggs from the farm (the yokes are so incredibly yellow!)

Birdie's new favorite toy from her uncle & auntie in California (look at that face!!)

...

The other day I was driving back home with V in the back. I watched the way she took in the scenery through her panda mirror. We had gone to the post office and then the grocery store to pick up things for dinner. Her "wind down" cd was playing and it was quiet and overcast outside. I smiled to myself. I smiled because I was driving my daughter, because I felt old. But old in the best way possible. I've always been one of those nerdy kids waiting to grow up. I remember being 8 and writing in my journal to the sounds of my mum's "Woman2Woman" tape (which was brilliant by the way - Cyndi Lauper, Carly Simon, Pat Benetar...) and wishing I was a "woman." In my mind being a woman meant you were important, gorgeous and very busy because at the time I equated being busy with being glamorous. It seems my wish finally came true, I'm a "woman" and busy for sure only it isn't quite as glamorous as I imagined. What I didn't know was that growing up and becoming a woman meant that I would one day share my heart with two of the most incredible human beings. Growing up meant that someone else's tears would cut me even deeper than my own and their smiles would take my breath away. Growing up meant loving more than you ever thought possible and feeling more loved than you ever thought you deserved. It isn't always glamorous (just ask the laundry pile consisting almost entirely of leggings and sweats) but growing up has brought me so much more joy than I imagined - it's often messy, busy, stressful, exhausting and scary but those moments when I look at the two people I share this home with it makes my heart feel as if it will explode.