Birthday

Today is my birthday. For some reason I expected the universe to recognize that and make my day smooth and seamless. As I sit here trying to obtain some sense of calm, I am listening to my three boys, wild from our day of no structure and frantic racing around town, crash toys and scream from tiredness in the other room.

We are supposed to be leaving in 15 minutes to meet friends and family at a chinese restaurant for a celebratory dinner. Something tells me this dinner may be very chaotic...chiming right in with the rest of my day.

Since little (there have been a few very sweet moments) has brought me pleasure today, I attempted to gain some peace and I saw this blog via another friend's lovely blog that so frequently brings me solace. Seeing the travel journal of a newly wed couple only made my life feel so much more hectic...I was jealous. Jealous of seemingly unending and uninterrupted time with a spouse; a photographic career of epic proportions and talent and jealous of the quiet. I don't like feeling jealous.

I have decided that despite the fact that today is the day I arrived in to this world 33 years ago; I will attempt to find my joy in the future of the year ahead tomorrow and the next day....
...because it doesn't really matter what day you were born. Life can be celebrated everyday.

CRAZY!!!

Let's just say that this summer has been CRAZY!!!!! I can not believe that Sam starts school in one week, Arlo in two weeks and I feel like my head is about to spin off!

Just to give you some idea of what has been going on.....in the last month we have (in no specific order):

:: Traveled to Pentwater on Lake Michigan.
:: Hosted visitors from Korea.
:: Hosted family from 2 parts of the country.
:: Moved my sister into her new house!
:: Traveled back from Pentwater and attended a talk that Matt gave at a composting farm. We saw a large scale vermaculture compost with worms (very cool).
:: Matt and I had a weekend away to celebrate our 10th anniversary.
:: Saw family off and had one quiet evening....before we...

...spent the last two days butchering and processing 12 chickens from the broiler hens we raised this summer!! That is a lot of chicken to process in a short period of time! We ate vegetarian last night.
Oh, and Pat and I canned 12 quarts of tomatoes, too.
We also harvested black beans and I am making ketchup as I write!

Anyway, I have loads of photos to share and now that we are actually home and will be on a regular basis...I may get to posting them....stay with me folks...