I’m busy with my book (eeep! first chapter submitted!), deep thoughts about religion and life, taking care of the dogs, playing Scramble on Facebook, and homeschooling the (active! excited! fun-loving!) girls. We’re studying ancient people – reading about nomads, first farmers, etc, and also the Old Testament stories from that time period. Our coop has started up again, too, with some great activities and friends. There are stumbling blocks and some of the balls drop when I’m juggling, but overall life is good.

2 of my friends have shirt designs up for voting at Threadless. If you click “Buy this as a T” and then click 5, it’ll register as a vote. Ok, you can also click for lower scores, but Sokowa and Patch are cool people with fun designs. As a bonus, with Threadless you can just create an account to vote – you don’t need to buy anything (unlike the Shirt.Woot Derby where you need to have bought something from one of the woot sites to vote). However, there is a nice 12 dollar shirt sale for women at Threadless, and they make great quality shirts!

A collage of pictures taken recently in my Nana M’s garden. The rose bush brings her extra joy because my brother and I gave it to her 6 years ago for her 80th birthday. The star jasmine brings a wonderful scent to the front walk. The cone flower serves double duty – first as a beautiful flower, then as “nature’s bird feeder” as the birds eat the seeds from the cone. The butterfly bush was pruned by my brother, and then we collected the flowers so Nana could enjoy the scent and beauty for a little while longer, before it flowers again in the Spring.

Take some time today to find joy in your journey. Stop and smell the roses. Stop and enjoy the flowers, the joy, the children, the pets, the world around us, and life. As I heard recently, “May we fill our lives with those things that matter most.”

(and now I have to get back to working on the book!)

Today I submitted a chapter and a revised table of contents to the editor for my book which includes many of my recipes.

I am freaked out, excited, and anxious. No matter what, though, I am lucky to have a supportive family. It warms my heart to look at these pictures, women who have helped me so much and have made so many wonderful foods for me.