un jeudi au printemps

i think about blogging every single day. there are always things i want to write, but more often than not i either have too many things to do, or i don't feel like i'm saying anything that will really matter to anyone else. which most of the time, it probably doesn't...

but

i've decided to ignore that and use this blog, and writing in general as a cathartic exercise for me, myself, and i.

spring has arrived with a vengeance here. while today is spectacularly beautiful the past couple days bypassed spring, and headed full-on into summer. stubborn as i am though i refused every time peter mentioned turning on the a/c. my reasoning? it was april 6th. it made no difference that the high for two days straight was 90+ degrees. it's the beginning of april, hence, NO a/c.

we've enjoyed opening up the windows and turning on the fans, and letting the fresh air float through the house opening and closing doors as it sees fit. (bexley hates having the doors closed though, and if the breeze closes them he walks through and opens them back up - it's quite funny to watch.)

much has happened over the past few weeks. namely peter's birthday and a trip to pittsburgh. we celebrated peter's birthday on the saturday preceding it by inviting his family over to enjoy our backyard, grilling out, and catching up. sadly it was too chilly by dinnertime to eat on the deck, but we enjoyed it.

our trip to pittsburgh involved much of 3 things: driving, family time, and easter egg hunts with ally and zach. the latter two were lots of fun. the former, not-so-much. overall we had a fun weekend, just much too short, as usual.

since we've been back i've resolved anew to do many things that i tend to resolve to do every time we take a road trip, and i have lots of time to stop and think. i have resolved to do a better job of cleaning everything on a weekly basis -- the list i got from sarah should help tremendously with this one, to be purposeful with the non-work time that i have, to go through the junk we have and purge, to live life with a heightened sense of awareness. too often i let life happen to me, and wonder where it went.

so

i want to change that.

since we returned from this latest trip i've been having flashbacks to college. (part of this may have something to do with listening to a lot of dashboard confessional...) it seems to me like i juggled my time better in college. i don't know why either, which is the frustrating part. so, i'm trying to figure out how to get a good balance in life -- an ongoing challenge -- and still do the things i really want to do.

i have decided i am going to start training for the richmond marathon. my 30 week schedule starts in a week and a half. i'm excited to get back into running, and i'm planning it out a little better this time so my long day won't be on saturday or sunday. running and i have a funny relationship. some days i just feel like running. some days i really don't, but 90% of the time i feel better when i'm done.

sometimes starting is the hardest part.

anyway, i finally uploaded some pictures from the past few weeks - which i've been meaning to do since i took the first few.

from the top: our porch, one of the trees in our front yard, the front door, the shelf i bought from ikea and spray-painted canary yellow, the wall hanging i made (and finally hung up!) out of plates, the cupcakes i made for a march madness party (btw: YAY DUKE!!)

i'm off to be purposeful and productive.

enjoy your

springtime thursday!