Where my heart goes to find calm...

Peace. It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.

In the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.

You may have noticed a new theme. Optimism. Joy juice. Love. Hope. Calm. Call it what you will, I have it. I have started taking steps back and taken a critical look at who I am now and who I was then. 

Then, when I was alone. 

Then, when I was me but darker.

Or tougher.
Or something.

I saw it first looking through my old chemistry notes, of all places. I saw my hand writing, how it looked like my dads. How it sprawled in a focused, angular way.

Now it is softer.

And loopier.

Like me!

I have learned many things this quarter so far. And not just how to project an aerial image into WGS 1984 projection. Or how to calculate the ionic strength and activity of magnesium (I still don't really know how to do that- but don't tell the guy in the white lab coat).

I have learned that when

you approach the day with a positive attitude..

it goes by faster.

you get more done.

you make people laugh, and they make you and there is generally more smiles in your life.

When your kitchen is clean and your house is vacuumed...

your home is homier.

your husband is happier.

you don't have a "I should get this done" black, heavy cloud hanging over your couch-sitting time.

When you don't worry about what will happen..

you are pleasantly surprised when something works out exactly like you wanted,

and have faith that something else will happen to help you decide what to do.

Yummies.

Drench my world with joy.

Without you, today's frittata would be the scurf of last week's.

I-hate-lettuce-salad.

He looks good in green.

A Critical Look at Fidelity

Him: I never worry about you being unfaithful.

Me: Well you should! I have a line of guys waiting for me to become available! Well, a line of at least two guys.

Him: The old married guy and the fat guy with a green mohawk?

Me: I didn't say they were top-shelf guys...

Early Morning Rain

I couldn't tell you if you asked me how this song got to be my "I want to go home" song. I have a vague memory of my mom playing it throughout my life when it was cold and dreary outside, with dewy drops clinging to the oak leaves. And I was perched on the couch doing homework near the fireplace. A calm and lazy Sunday with my mom in the kitchen, doing her thing. And this song playing in the background. Now, when I crave my happy place, Gordon Lightfoot takes me back to the cabin by the creek.

You can't take us seriously.

Him: *while tripping over our dirty laundry pile that has taken over our room* So I put an ad on craigslist.
Me: For what?
Him: It said something like, "I want a wife exactly like mine except less busy so she can do my laundry."
Me: Good. Let me know if anyone calls. I want a wife like that too.

If my heart were a house, you'd be home.

Right now reminds me of home. My husband is in the garage using power tools and tracking sawdust into the house. I can hear him faintly in the background hammering and sawing away. I have some Dean Martin playing softly and chicken noodle soup wafting through the air. It's actually chicken dumpling soup but whatever (recipe post maybe?). And here I sit preoccupied by my homework- editing a Word file. Punching numbers absent-mindedly into a calculator. It's almost like I was back in high school and the man in the garage is my dad and my mom is the one making the soup. Funny how things come full circle.