Amen.

If you could pick one day out of the year to represent it in your memory, which would it be?

Today was so relaxed and cozy, I would like to put it in a bottle. I think today might be the capsule day. It's not that a million wonderful things happened, though several did, it's just that I was able to really enjoy nearly every minute of it.

J spent the best portion of the day watching Toby so I could get out and do a few fun things on my own. Our church had a free clothing shop, where you bring some things you don't want anymore and see if somebody else has brought some you'd like to take home. I got rid of a huge box of obsolete but nice stuff and found a super cool skirt and shirt to call my own. So that felt nice. Honestly, I was worried that all the clothes would be five sizes too small for me, but both my finds said "M" on the tags, so maybe I just need a little therapy and to ease up a bit on the beer.

Then I stopped by my artist friend's place and she let me use her silk screening stuff. We used her Gocco printmaker and I did some notecards and a few onesies with designs she had already burned into screens. It was sweet to hang out with a likeminded person- her husband said, "Oh, it makes sense that you're buddies. You both know what deckling is." (It's that torn-edged look you get in hand made papers.)

We also had a great conversation and discovered that she and I have a lot in common in terms of our approach to and life before church. You'd like her.

Driving home from her house I was for some reason trying to imagine what I would feel like right now if I hadn't had a kid this year. I'm so glad we have Tobias. Trite? Maybe. But really, truly, he is the kind of important where you look at all other input from the world and it's colored by his existance and his need for protection.

Every day he becomes himself more- laughs more, reacts more, goofs off. He's started to dig making us laugh, which I love. I know it will get us into trouble later, but who cares. For now, when he starts cackling out of nowhere in the backseat, or babbles and then laughs while babbling like some businessman trying to get through his own joke, it absolutely makes my day. I can't believe we get him.

When I walked in the door- I'd been gone over five hours- he was laughing with his dad over a toy they were spinning on the low windowsill in our living room. Wierd stuff like that always gets him going- like parent, like kid, no?

At dinner at the nearby brewery, J and I talked about all sorts of things then took each other to Starbucks and Barnes and Holy Cow Have you Seen What they want for Books these Days? But we did have fun picking on the art photography magazines and letting Toby flirt with all the women. He really does- completely shameless. Must've learned it from his faaather.

Some days, for no good reason, I just can't believe I get all this. Thank you.