In~tention

Tough day. Started at 5:30 trying to get some leftover work done from last week/yesterday that should have been done the week before when I realized the document I was reviewing was so poorly prepared I didn't even know where to start. Aaargh! Thought I'd wash the drippings of frustration off in the shower... Darling daughter still sleeping, and contrary to every other morning of her life (when she bounces into the room to get ME up at 6 am) she claimed to be 'too sleepy to go to school' and refused to come out from under the covers. I begged, pleaded and resorted to meltdown #2 to pry her loose. Hard-hearted child just looked at me like I'd lost my sanity (which was close to the truth) and continued the battle. When I finally collected myself and expained that if she really was too sleepy to go to school and the grade one teacher really was too cruel to cope with, then she definitely was too sleepy to have her friends over after school, she changed her tune. It hel

Rising for an eight hour drive for a two hour meeting... Bonus: great photo ops... Now: sleep

Sunshiny, windy day. Great coffee with a friend. Sushi lunch and an hour and a half adventure with my daughter at Scout Island (including a deer hiding in the bushes about 6 feet from us). A visit with my folks (dad's nursing a broken collarbone and can use all the encouragement he can get) and grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner. Spent the evening sticking name tags onto every single crayon, pencil, felt marker, pencil crayon, etc. in Amelia's bag of tricks for school tomorrow. I don't remember having to cart such a huge supply bag and I think we just wrote our name on a box of crayons... Amelia's been really great today, helping out, doing her 'chores' and mostly cooperating (for those of you who haven't met her, she's loving, loveable, and what most parenting experts would call 'challenging' - as in a minimum of 1000 hypothetical questions a day, and general interrogation when asked to do pretty much anything). Luckily she's also enthusia

A fitting day to make change. After a long hot summer we woke to pouring rain, cool air, and afternoon clouds blown about in the wind. Fall. I made rhubarb muffins, lentil soup and fresh bread in preparation for the week ahead. We ate half the soup and bread for lunch. I even found time to take out my camera and play a bit. A walk in the cool fall wind at Scout Island marsh before G left. Amelia and I kept busy, but she still had trouble falling asleep. She's anxious about this change too. Even the dog is pacing and barking wildly at the faintest sound. It's only the first night - we'll get better at this.

We had a lovely walk in Farwell Canyon this afternoon - one of my favourite spots. G leaves tomorrow. I'm ready.

I'm not very good at waiting. Despite feeling like I've got this new reality organized in my head, the rest of me is feeling completely overwhelmed. I keep thinking of things I should do... 'before'. Really I just want to get going and see if I really can cope, can take on all this and add new things to my life too, or whether I should give up now and pull the covers over my head. I bought a new DSLR camera this summer and am contemplating how I'm going to make time to actually use it. I was thinking about doing a 365 project - one photo a day for a year. It would push me to take pictures, plus it would be fun to document this phase of my life in a more visual way. I think fall is a time to take on new projects, new ventures and adventures. I have bouts of massive creative energy which I rarely make time to realize, that usually result in not much of anything. Or worse, project supplies purchased then piled somewhere because the muse left and I couldn't find tim