of recent weeks

i've been in a bit of a rut the last few weeks in this space. 

i had some super fun adventures over the last month or so, 

including an awesome karaoke party with a live backup band, 

a weekend getaway with my besties 

and a ten year anniversary adventure with husband,

all which i have been meaning to share on here. 

(oh and lest you get too jealous there's been plenty of plain old regular life too which isn't as picturesque - a massive leak into our bedroom and my studio that we thought we fixed earlier this year, the juggling of freelance deadlines, trying to catch up on the mounds of paperwork that i can never keep up with, way more 4 1/2 year old temper tantrums {oh my goodness, quite the spectacle} than i thought possible, playdates and the routines of laundry, cleaning, re-cleaning, washing, etc.)

mixed all up in the midst of the escapades and the mundane, i've had some friends wrestling with pretty heavy health stuff recently. it's the kind of stuff that breaks your heart, even if it isn't happening to you or your own family; things we've all been touched by somehow- cancer, newborns in the NICU, miscarriages, depression, emergency surgeries, chronic illness.

i've felt at a bit of a loss lately; how do i post "look at all of this fun stuff i'm doing?!" or "look at the 68th pile of laundry i'm folding!" when i've felt the weight and sadness that comes with friends and family facing struggling. it always takes me longer to write about the broken parts of life than it does to post a bunch of fun pictures about my weekend. 

don't get me wrong- life is made up of the glorious as well as the crushing. the reality that our bodies fail us and that life doesn't always look the way we want demands that we celebrate the beauty of human existence too. so thinking today of how much we have to be grateful for in our lives, and how it is easy for me to dwell on the deficiencies i perceive in each day rather than counting the gifts of goodness that surround me. i mean that is really why i first started this blog, to talk about the good as well as the hard and about how all of it hopefully changes us, softens us, makes us more human and more able to know each other. 

grateful too, for those of you who take time to read my thoughts, to respond, and to be another little community in my life whether you live a few blocks away or across the world, and whether we are old friends, close family, distant relatives, or blogging friends.  

xo