…as summer draws to an end. Beautiful early evening sunlight warming our walk around the lake.

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Quick post because I really need to get to work. I want to get these designs emailed over sometime tomorrow or Wednesday the latest.

But I came across this on instagram and I think I might have to have it! Oh, and random thought – I’m posting all of my instagram photos here now (as well as flickr). I’ve had that tumblog for a while but I rarely use it. Now it will actually get some use.

It’s from clickinmoms.com and I absolutely dig it.

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Five Things I’m Grateful For

1. The three week vacation we just got back from. You can see lots of pictures here! We were lucky enough to only have to stay in a hotel twice (I believe) AND one of those times we got a kickass discount from my brother-in-law, Erich, and it was in a nice hotel. Other than that, free board. Yeah!
2. Having a hubs who is a professor and who works on his art (from home) during the summer.
3. Not being a part of the 9-5 monotony (yes, I do have my own monotony but at least it doesn’t involve being late for work).
4. Having a healthy and (usually) happy kid (weird, she’s so not a baby anymore. she’s all kid now)

Four Things I Can’t Stop Thinking About

1. How to make more money
2. Cool places to live
3. The several designs that are marinating in my mind
4. Having another baby (the ups, the downs, the money, the labor, the lack of sleep, the magic, the smiles, Indira being a sister – no, I’m not pregnant)

Three Things I Want To Accomplish This Week

1. Get one site design to a pretty solid spot by the end of the weekend and not just design elements and ideas swirling around in my brain
2. Get in some good reading time (reading a good book but I keep losing momentum)
3. Unpack and put away ALL of my clothes from vacation. I overpack so this is a big deal.

Two Things I Am Working To Be Positive About

1. People.
2. The tuck (otherwise known as Pennsyltucky)

One Random Thing

• Our dog, Darwin, has some severe anxiety issues. One of the things that causes him anxiety is thunderstorms. Unfortunately, our daughter may be another source. She’s, um, intense. Anyway, my sister has been telling us about this thunder shirt thing for months (actually probably for over a year now) and we kept ignoring her urges for us to try it. Well, she bought us one and we tried it out on him while we were all down in NC and WOW! By the next day he was chilling through a thunderstorm. Normally he is a mess – shaking, pacing, hiding. So, yeah, my sister was right. I guess it was bound to happen one of these days (uh, years?). Her being right, I mean. Note: He didn’t just chill through the thunderstorms this morning and on and off all day today – they were a little intense for him but we put the thunder shirt on and it did seem to help again!

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Look at my new red shoes! I am so loving them!

Yes, they are awesome! And yes, I’m posting on my blog about my new shoes. It sort of sounds ridiculous, but for the past few years, specifically the past year, we have been living very frugally. We had a baby, I gave up working as an art director, we moved and pay higher rent to live in an amazing house (we love our house), so we have been close to broke (American close-to-broke – I realize there’s a big difference between American broke and rest-of-the-world broke) off and on. So, buying a nice pair of shoes… well, it’s sort of a big deal. But this post isn’t just about shoes. It’s about freedom and choices and luckiness.

Dave, Indira, Darwin, and I are on vacation right now. (Molly is staying at a “spa” in Nutley, NJ with her extended family!). We left a day early. Because we felt like it. We’ll be back around the 16th. ONLY because Dave is running a Mud Run in Philly on the 17th. It’s summer and we have FREEDOM! We don’t have to squeeze things that we want to do into a three week or four week (or, gasp, two week) time period. You see, Dave is a professor. And I build websites and design things from the comfort of our home. This means that I get to stay home with our daughter, which is, at times, incredibly difficult and exhausting, but pretty much one of the most rewarding things I could ever imagine. AND I get to work from home. Yes, it’s difficult squeezing it in but I’m not dealing with anything resembling a 9-5 schedule. I work during naps (when they happen; Indira has never been a great sleeper) and at night and on weekends. And in the summer, Dave gets to work on his art and I get to work on whatever it is I’m working on every day. During the week we tend to swap hour by hour during the day and have evenings and weekends for us and for fun. It’s great. We’re lucky. We chose it and I’m thrilled with our choice.

Now, if only we could get our asses out of Pennsyltucky… but that’s for another post and you’re probably tired of hearing about that anyway.

Okay, back to vacation! And my new red shoes.

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Things have grown.

We found a new playground. It rocks!

Lots and lots of berries have been eaten

Dave had an amazing piece in a show at Aljira Center for Contemporary Art in Newark (check it)

We chased Indi a lot.

Indi got her first black eye. Yes, she was with me, not daddy. Not fair.

We went to a music festival.

We didn’t hear much music, but Dave got a 10 minute massage. This is Indi waiting.

We’ve made a lot of lists (we love our chalkboard door). *Random – Saran Wrap is the last of those wrapping items left in our house – we’ve given up foil and ziplocs and all that other stuff. I think it’s time to give up Saran Wrap too. Oh, and it’s just plastic wrap, huh?

There’s been other things going on… like reading….

…and napping…

…and hiking…

…and rabbit holes…

…and fire men coming to our house at 1:30 am for our hardwired cobwebbed smoke detectors than went off.

Other than that, loving each other. And, me? I’m just waiting for the dog days of summer to kick in.

So are they?

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