But other times, you can drive 20 miles, sit in a lawn chair by a blazing fire (one too hot for marshmallow roasting), and feel so removed from the life you know.

Stuff Girl and her husband (Stuff Boy? Man?) hosted a wonderful party under the stars on Saturday and despite the fact that some folks may be missing eyebrows and some dogs may be temporarily confused about their gender, it was probably one of the best starts that a summer could have. Try racing with your child downhill in near-pitch black darkness under a blanket of stars and try and tell me any differently. Or holding an adorable baby while the breeze tickles your toes for that matter.

To me, it was one of those "yardstick" moments that you measure other instances in your life against--definitely one for the books. Arriving home, I practically rolled His Honor into bed, did the same for myself, and then fast asleep, the sound of crickets still chirping in my brain.

Best of all, I got to see both of their smiling faces across the table from me.

The thing about no flash in low lighting is that it gives my child that all-black-eye-devil's-spawn look that all of the demons get on Supernatural. Except in this picture, he looks more like "bored evil" rather than "evil evil"--like he's thinking "You're already past the point of an eternity wallowing in a hot pit of bikini wax, there's not much more pain I can inflict on you, so why bother?"

Oh look, here is is trying to cast a spell on me across the hot pot:

"You must will half of your chocolate cookies-and-cream fondue share to me or suffer the wrath of incessant paper airplane flying in your nice living room."

Ok, ok, I give!

That little spellbinder drives a hard bargain.

It's because their long white beards are really guinea pigs, that's why.

Molly may be a daddy's girl. She loves to cuddle on his chest. It's a pretty comfy place, if you ask me.

Dinner on Thursday night. Mozzarella and Roma Tomato Tartlets and New York Strip with Cilantro and Lime Butter. This was even more delicious, as it was a collaboration between Conan and me. I did the tartlets and the butter, and he--being the "manly man"--grilled the steak.

Serving No. 2:

Even though it was blistering cold yesterday, I had the distinct pleasure of watching His Honor score 2 goals against a very good team in his rec soccer game. Friday, he said, "Soccer is VERY important to me," in the car on the way home from his practice. For some reason, it feels sort of like a breakthrough-he is thinking less about winning and losing and more about just trying his best.

Serving No. 3:

This is my card to my mom for the big "M Day" on Sunday. Yuzen Japanese silkscreen printed paper with flocked ribbon and floral cut-out with a perfectly green center. Yeah, that's right. I went to Paper Source today because I could. Pbbtt!

Serving No. 4:

Since I was already at it, I made myself a little journal. It's snack-size. I'm tempted to start writing in it already, but I need a central theme.

I planted the bulbs in the fall--mid-October, I believe. They are nestled between some ornamental grasses so I'm hoping that they break up the wheaty color with some pretty purple globes. If it's warm this weekend, I'm going to spend some time in the front yard thinning out my crazy ground cover.

I forced my husband to turn the TV off and have an honest-to-goodness conversation. I think my guinea pig is thankful for the silence-poor girl has been subject to hammering all day for the past couple of weeks since we started the basement finishing project.

I cater to her every whim. You would too if your guinea pig looked like this:

Anyway, yesterday's noontime hour found me freezing at the sidelines of a first grade boys' soccer game with no energy in reserves to warm myself. While it royally sucked, it was worthwhile to see His Honor bonding with some of this classmates for next year. We beat a hasty retreat home afterwards, and then I proceeded to stand in the shower for no less than twenty minutes, just letting the warm water warm my frozen-inside-out bones.

And this all hit me a couple of hours later. I found myself completely immobile on the couch watching the third-in-a-row episode of Spongebob (which I probably would have done, anyway). There were dishes to wash, laundry items to fold, and countertops in need of maple syrup removal. However, when you're semi-comatose those things just don't seem to get done, you know? I stumbled through the rest of the evening, and I'm not really sure how.

By the way, did I tell you that His Honor taught me to play chess a couple of weeks ago? I've only beaten him once.

Obviously, I am puffed-chest proud of him for wanting to do activities that involve thinking, but I think perhaps one of the things he likes about it is that he gets to spend time with us. We try and not be too pushy about things like that and let him take the lead. But while he does love the little boy things like cars and Pokemon, I think he also likes those little "windows" of activity that let him be even with us old folks on certain levels. We certainly enjoy it as well.

Is there a blogging rule that forgives the lack of a witty sentence at the end of any entry if you post a cute picture? If so, I'm invoking it.

And all I have to show for it are four cards.

Well, at least they are very cute cards. I should disclose that the prints were already on the cards. I merely added the ribbon and buttons.

It's been a crafty-type weekend. Besides these cards, there was that series of Easter cards I made on Friday night. My crowning achievement was actually the the sweater for my niece I finished this morning.

It's a bit long in the sleeves but I wanted something she could wear for the next couple of years. The best thing about the sweater in my opinion has very little to do with my handiwork. It's the buttons.

Until I added the buttons, I really didn't realize how much of a difference they made. I'm now a button believer--a convert, if you will.

Molly thinks Jabbawockeez will win. She says they are always precise, but she is a little freaked out by the masks.

-Buy cheap sunglasses
-Comfortably wear a racing helmet (this is for future reference)
-Wear long dangly earrings without having to worry about them distracting my face
-Wear a baseball cap comfortably
-Wake up in the morning and be able to see clearly without having to race around for the last place I put my glasses.

That's Molly, the newest member of our family, enjoying some floor time. I sewed the bag from some Marimekko print fabric I had from my stash, and some fleece I had handy.

There isn't a single member of our family that can resist her charms.

NSFW (what are you doing at work anyway?) or kids (put 'em to bed early under the pretense of "Santa coming early").

So far, we are getting through the holidays with a medium level of stress. This is a good thing. In our house, you simply can't go a day through this month without some drama about gifts purchased for this family or that family, or Christmas trees that were decorated in a delayed fashion. I guess it's just a bunch of small details here and there...but the catch is that I am a "small details" person.

Case in point: His Honor's classroom holiday party. Once again, I was one of three or four assigned "mom helpers" for the party. I'll confess to agonizing over the holiday activity--should it be a sedate sit-at-the-table-and-decorate affair? Or should there be some moving about involved? If we decorate foam trees with stickers, should I separate the stickers in individual piles for each child? Or should it be a free-for-all to spur interaction?

In the end, everything turned out just fine and the kids had a blast. It was a party, after all.

Hey, how did that pesky picture sneak its way into my post? That's the beauty of pictures--sometimes they say the things you simply can't put into words.