Dated

Ben was looking for a family photo to put on his teacher website yesterday. This is the most recent picture of the three of us that I could find. Evelyn is three months old here. Perhaps it's time to take a new picture of us!

One

One year ago today our lives suddenly got a lot more complicated, sleep-deprived, and absolutely delightful.

Different

I'm not saying that having a baby has changed absolutely every aspect of our lives, but I will say that Ben and I never felt the need to keep a duck and a pail in our bathtub before...

Tiny

One of my favorite pictures of Evelyn, taken when she was only a week and a half old. She still really likes napping with her arms over her head.

Change

Our laundry is looking a little different these days...

A study in breakfast

I love having a usable patio now that the weather is changing!

Then and Now

 My desk is definitely more covered in papers all the time now that I'm an administrator, even though I try to clear it off each day before I leave for the day.

Desk in my classroom last year - enjoy the bright green wall!

Desk in my office this fall - looking only mildly disastrous and depersonalized.

Real

I spent most of yesterday moving my office to the front of the school, so that I can be more accessible to students. I also finally managed to organize the many stacks of paper that were starting to become ridiculous. My transition from teacher to college counselor is finally starting to feel more real.

Calm

Today is the first day of school for my campus. This is my first year as an administrator, and there is still a lot that needs to be accomplished. I am hoping that everything goes smoothly and calmly, like this untroubled cloud.

Untroubled cloud (Not pictured, the brewing thunderstorm underneath.)

Mundane

Er, why, hello there, internet world! What have I been doing for the last just-over-a-month? Not much, actually. I've been going to work and coming home from work and doing the dishes and laundry and generally being a fairly boring person who only takes pictures very rarely. Quite frankly, I've been having trouble seeing the beauty in metropolitan Texas-land, but I've decided to challenge myself to take at least one picture a day for a while to see if I can start really seeing the world again. Stay tuned.

Look up

Sometimes, when you're stuck in a rut of just dealing with the next task, a change of perspective, like looking up, is the best thing to do.

Keep on

(Trail up Mount Pisgah, Eugene, Oregon)

Today is my first day without work since last Tuesday, so I'm pretty excited to have some time to get organized again. Right now Benjamin and I are definitely in just-keep-going mode, but it is good to have work to do while looking for long term jobs.

Pink

The roses are blooming!

Blue and green

I went for a walk with Benjamin today, and it was glorious! The leaves are coming out, the sun was shining, and there was a slight breeze. What a perfect April day!

Scenes from the hunt

A scene on the job-hunting trail. This is my newly-staked"office" in Starbucks. Benjamin and I are both much more productive when we're not both home together all the time.

Oasis

(Al Khamis, Bahrain)

Isaiah 43:19

See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.

Wisteria III: Return of the Foliage

The wisteria blossoms are fading, but the leaves are starting to come out to replace them, so I think it's probably a fair trade.

Hardy

We received this orchid as a gift several years ago right after we moved to Oregon. It was beautifully in bloom at the time, but after flowering once, it went on a blossoming strike. Perhaps it was disappointed with the once-a-month or so watering diet I put it on. Apparently plants like to be watered more frequently than that.. who knew?

When we moved, we felt badly about just throwing it out, so we plopped it on the floor of our car's backseat and told it that if it survived the trip (with suitcases occasionally falling on it), we would keep it. Being the hardy little buddy that it is, the orchid indeed survived and has been taken into my aunt Diana's protective custody to see if it will recover and perhaps bloom again.

Organdization

"Is Piglet organdized too?" [asked Pooh.]
"We all are," said Rabbit, and off he went.
~The House at Pooh Corner

After I spent most of the weekend obsessively re-reading The Count of Monte Cristo, it was necessary that yesterday be an Organdizing Sort of Day. So as to recover from the disastrous heaps of the weekend, I scampered around the apartment sorting things into piles and moving files around and so-forth. Benjamin watched me with moderate despair, since I've been known to organize things so thoroughly that we couldn't find them again... I think we avoided that fate today, though.

Wisteria II: Explosion

Since I took Monday's pictures of wisteria, the blooms have exploded into giant fluffy drifts of flowers. The bees are thrilled!