Snail mail - illustration inspiration

More mail art has been going out to say thank you to people for subscribing to this blog. People have been asking me how I decide what to draw and paint on the mail. Here's an idea of my thinking behind this batch.

∧∧ Clare wrote in her blog about finding a figurine of Krishna in the creek near her house

∧∧ This had something to do with Liesl's email address

∧∧ Adrienne has a blog called Tough City Writer

∧∧ Louise wrote in her comments to me, "I like rabbits"

∧∧ I had an aunt and uncle who used to live in Willoughby and they always gave me books, so I drew some for Bridie

∧∧ Relates to something Laura shared in her message to me

∧∧ Relates to something Sandra shared in her message to me

∧∧ Emily has a blog called Thimble Cat

∧∧ I wanted to make something a bit fairy-story-ish for Kwan-Yu

The end. More soon!

Snail mail: the back-story

Lately a lot of people have been asking me about the snail mail I send. I figured it's been a while since I shared this story, and never in the one place, so I thought I'd give it a go today. Forgive me if you already know this story: please enjoy the pretty pictures and I'll be back with something new tomorrow.

So back a few years ago, I wrote a little novella called Airmail. It was about snail mail between strangers. A girl chose a phone number out of the phone book, at random, and started writing letters to the stranger. As her letters became increasingly surreal and urgent the recipient, an old man by the name of G.L. Solomon, was moved to shake off the shackles of his curmudgeonly, routine-driven life and experienced something of a "life renaissance."

When the book came out, I thought it would be a fun thing to write letters to readers. So I promised to write a personal letter of thanks to anyone who read Airmail (and I did). Some of them wrote back to me, which was wonderful.

As time went by, other readers found me online, and wrote to me from all over the world. Some of them drew pictures on their mail, sent ephemera, snippets of their lives. They wrote amazing things about how my book had reached them at the right moment in their lives. Letters like this:

I am staying at a youth hostel in East Berlin and stumbled across a copy of your book. I am a forty year-old woman traveling with my 14 year old son, and readily identified with Mr Solomon's bemusement  when he first enters the hostel (it was my first time staying at a hostel!).  Being forty this year was hard for me and I too am traveling and gathering more marbles. It's not so much that I haven't lived an adventuresome life, it's just that suddenly your life seems so much shorter while the list of things you want to do grows bigger, and you realize that you have spent the last 10 years of your life raising kids and working. (could this be what a mid-life crisis is all about......duh) It's amazing how at certain critical points in your life the right book or the right experience occurs.  Your book is part of that for me.  Today I walked past some graffitti on the side of a cafe  -' Life is not over yet ' it read.

You cannot imagine how that letter made my day! (Well probably you can.)

Since I started doing this - writing Airmail, writing to book readers, writing to blog readers - I discovered a whole new community of people who love snail mail. And they are the BEST people. There's something about people who take the time to write and send letters, and read what others send them. Nine times out of ten (probably more), they are kind, considerate, lovely people. Often funny and clever. Always generous and creative. This community is the best thing to have come out of writing my book.

Meanwhile... we had originally planned a bit of a book launch when Airmail came out. A bookstore in Sydney was going to host it, and a local online magazine was going to host a bit of an 'after party' on a rooftop, with a snail mail theme. We ordered a box of books ready for this event (books were included in the ticket price), but then we moved from Sydney to Queensland. We figured I could still fly back to Sydney for the event, but planning it got a lot trickier. Then we moved from Queensland to Adelaide, and the planning got even more difficult. And a move back to Sydney seemed less and less likely. We started putting out feelers in Adelaide for bookstores that might host a book launch instead but to be honest by then my heart wasn't really in it. Then I went overseas for a month. Then I fell pregnant. Then we moved yet again, this time to Melbourne. And by then it felt like the book had been out forever (it was less than a year but the gloss had come off), and I admit I felt kind of deflated and a bit of a failure.

People were still buying my book and reading it and writing me lovely letters, but that box of books from the launch-that-didn't-happen sat sadly at the bottom of a cupboard, mocking me. Until you. I can't tell you how honoured I feel that you come here to this little space of mine. That you read my blog, that you take the time to comment, and that you share your stories with me. Every time I hear from you, I am blown away. Every time! It is so amazing. YOU are so amazing.

So I decided to use that sad little box and turn it into something really happy: a way to say thank-you to you for taking the time to read this blog. And because I want you to know I care, I do my best to make the mail I send you as pretty as possible. Thank you!

ps. If you subscribe to this blog (or you want to) and you'd like me to send you mail like the parcels you see on this page, just leave me your details using the form on this page.

UPDATE 5 July 2014: as of today I have run out of copies of Airmail to send you. However I would still love to send you something nice by snail-mail to say thank you for reading this blog, and I will still do my best to make it look pretty. If you have subscribed to this blog (or you want to), simply fill in your postal details on this page. And if you're still keen to read Airmail, there's a list of stockists here.

Why do you write?

The following four questions about writing are part of a "blog-hop" that's doing the rounds at the moment. If you've never heard of this term, a blog-hop is like a never-ending relay (if the baton could be divided an infinite number of times). I received the baton from straight-talking fellow Melbournian Annette of I Give You the Verbs. Annette is one of the friendliest, most encouraging, most connected bloggers I've met, and you can read about her own writing process here. Leave Annette a comment because she always responds, and she's wonderfully chatty and supportive across social media.

1. What are you working on right now?

This blog! I'm always trying to improve it because I want it to be more useful, more interesting, and more reliable for you*. Straight after this I'm going to write you a post on an amazing Australian artist, who was kind enough to answer some questions for us about where she finds inspiration (and time) to create. That'll go live tomorrow so stay tuned!

And also...

* An e-book - possibly a series of e-books - about Melbourne and parenting and parenting in Melbourne, and stuff like that

* Letters - lots and lots of snail mail letters to you guys. And on the back of that, I'm thinking perhaps I'll form a mail-art pen-pal network, and/or a stationery swap. Would anyone be interested if I did that?

* A novel - it's about a sommelier who does dastardly things to get hold of the ultimate wine. I have been working on this novel FOREVER (or so it seems), because it's hard to get and keep your head inside a novel with little distractions running around the house

* My job! - part time, I write feature articles for magazines, and write copy and communications strategies for companies and charities

Phew that's a lot of writing. No wonder the carpal tunnel has been acting up.

2. How does your writing differ from others in your genre?

One of the great things about personal blogs is that they are free from the constraints of house styles, or any formulaic kinds of writing. So really this question is moot. What you read here differs from others because it is my voice, writing about my life and my ideas and the things that I love and the things that I think (I hope) will bring you joy.

3. Why do you write what you do?

Being born into a literate culture brings with it many advantages. But one of the disadvantages is that many of us have lost the ability to retain things - facts, stories, ideas - without writing them down. I definitely fall into this category. In fact the way I'm not sleeping these days, I'd be in danger of forgetting my own name if it wasn't in my blog title! So I write this blog to document the things that are important. Precious moments, shared with those I love. Places I've visited that I really want to visit again. The process of building a home. At the same time, I keep discovering wonderful things that I want to share with you. Creative projects that I admire (and sometimes try). Food stories. Food trucks! Snail mail! Documenting and discovering. That's why I write this blog.

4. How does your writing process work?

My top tip - as an author, a journalist, a blogger, a copywriter and an all-round storyteller - is to break everything down into manageable portions. If you don't know where to start, just write one paragraph. Then another, and another. When I was at university I'd break a standard 3000 word essay down into portions: 200-300 word introduction, 200 word conclusion. Three key arguments, of 800 words each. Four core elements / points to each argument, of 200 words each. That's not much. Just start writing! Before I knew it I'd have my 3000-word essay written, and all I needed then was to give it a "big picture" finesse. That is still my writing process today, in everything I do. Just break it down and anything - even a novel - becomes achievable.

Another trick that my first editor taught me was this: you don't have to be the expert, you just have to find the expert and ask them the right questions. Whether I'm sharing craft or recipes on this blog, writing a feature story about business, writing a novel about wine or anything else, that advice has come in handy almost every day of my writing life.

Now, what about the other writers?

Passing the baton, I want you to first meet Belgium-based Turkish blogger Gulin Senol-Dreesen. Her blog Hyper Real Details is a beautiful reflection of the fleeting moments that make life so precious. Gulin reached out to me when I had just given birth to Madeleine, and she was pregnant with her own beautiful daughter. She is such a lovely, artistic soul. Sometimes she lets her images tell the story, in others, her words shine (despite English not being her first language - can you imagine how hard that must be?). I can't wait to read what she has to share about why she writes.

Next, I want to introduce you to Katherine Mackenzie-Smith of The Beauty of Life. Katherine is one of those people who acts on her dreams. You know how when the rest of us are sitting around thinking "I wish I had that" or "I wish I did that for a job" or "I wish that was my life"...? When Katherine thinks those things, she makes them happen. Recently Katherine switched careers from TV production to life coaching, and I can't think of anyone more qualified to help people make their own dreams come true. I met her through her personal blog, and have followed her progress with pleasure.

Take it away ladies!

And in the meantime, tell me in the comments. Why do YOU write?

* (On that, is there anything you'd like to see more of on here? Anything you're not so keen on? Anything you'd like to hear from me that I haven't covered?)

What does your workspace look like?

What does your workspace look like? Do you like it clean and organised, or do you thrive on creative chaos?

I love those pictures of great writers sitting at their antique desks, all slumped and drowning under mountains of paper, with pictures in scraps pinned all over the walls, and old coffee cups, stacks of yellowed airmail correspondence bound in old string, desiccated red wine in dirty glasses, dusty armchairs, and dying, drying flowers… and they are invariably writing one or another of the world's literary masterpieces, you know? That would drive me CRAZY. Which is perhaps one reason why I haven't written any of the world's literary masterpieces lately. I can't even start to work until my desk is clear and my office tidy.

I'm the same in the rest of my living and working space. I can't stand it when the house gets too messy: suddenly everything feels like it's crowding in on top of me, I feel out of control and claustrophobic. Which seems a rather melodramatic sentence when I write it out like that, but it's true. That's just me.  First world problems, I know!

Anyway, all this is a lead-up to explain why things might be looking a little different on this website lately, if you've happened to have popped in to take a look. I've been having an autumn clean. I felt like my blog was starting to get a bit cluttered, a bit old and tired. I was uninspired. Like a dingy, messy old office, my blog needed a fresh coat of paint and some creative storage solutions. Some white space to make it feel clean and fresh. And some nice pictures on the walls to inspire me when the fog of creative block descends.

What do you think? Do you like it? I renamed the blog "Naomi Loves," because this space is all about the things I love. I painted a new header in bright patterns and colours, because they make me happy. My enormously talented friend Brandi Bernoskie tweaked these things to make it all work. I've made it much easier for you to subscribe to receive updates via email, if that's your thing, with a simple box on the sidebar. And there is some exciting content in the works, not the least of which that book I was telling you about!

Now, tell me about your workspace (online or offline). How do you make it somewhere you want to be?

ps. Photos are old Instagram ones (remember when we all went beserk with the filters and the frames after it first came out?) of my home office in Adelaide. That was the most amazing workspace. I wish there was a way to replicate it everywhere I go!

Surround yourself with creative people

"Surround yourself with Creative People." That's good advice. It's also no.11 in this video, which you should definitely watch if you need encouragement or galvanising (or both) in the creativity department.

Sometimes, surrounding yourself with creative people is easier said than done. For example if you stay at home and look after a baby every day. I'm willing to admit it, I don't get out much, not socially anyway. Once a week I do head off to mothers' group and these ladies are very nice, but to be honest I don't know them well enough yet to find out if they are "Creative People" or not. We generally spend our time talking about the frequency of poo in nappies, and how fast our babies' fingernails grow (REALLY fast).

So, for the time being, I will surround myself with Creative People via the Internet. And hopefully via some old-fashioned mail. How will I do it?

1. Earlier this week I posted this inspiring video and it made me feel a little better about my own inability to express or create things the way I want to.

2. I joined in Pip Lincoln's (free) blog school to try and refresh myself and my ideas. There are some AMAZING bloggers in this group. Slowly, I'm feeling more lively. Let me know if you're part of this too.

3. And then I saw the My Creative Space project (also from Pip), and it just seemed to complete the trio. Using the list at the top of this page, I am going to take one photo a day on Instagram (I'm @naomibulger if you want to follow me). The photo on this post is my first, for "a creative space." It's the inspiration board I keep behind my desk. I'll use the hashtags #amonthof and #mycreativespace to be part of the project community.

Do you want to join in? You don't have to use Instagram. You can tweet your daily inspiration. Or blog about it. And there is a Facebook group too. Just use the hashtags so everyone can see what you're doing.

Everything seems to get tired towards the end of the year, don't you think? Well, not this year! May November be the month of NEW CREATIVE ENERGY. Hooray!

(ps. The beginning of that video. Does the music remind you of the movie Amelie? I really want to watch it now)

Always-Sometimes-Never

I always...

mime Madeleine sleeping for Mr B before waking her sniff the pages of old books wish I could bundle all my dear friends up and bring them to Melbourne crave summer fruit (oh! plums, nectarines, mangoes, cherries, more more more) love winter and long for snow to fall on my town

I sometimes...

make a cup of tea and read blogs in the morning do my hair and put on makeup just to feel awake wish I lived in my own house, instead of renting long to travel again cry when I look at Madeleine, just because I love her so much

I never...

let the pets into the bedroom (any more) get too excited about hot weather, even at the beach skip breakfast remember phone numbers eat offal

Always-Sometimes-Never was inspired by a little cutie pie called Janee from Yellow Bird Yellow Beard, and she was inspired by the equally cute Danni from Oh Hello Friend (I read both these blogs). Will you take a turn now?

*     *     *

And on another matter, Madeleine! (No surprises there). We plan to buy her a cot this weekend, as she has grown too big for her bassinette. Each night she wiggles around in her sleep, kicks off from the sides, and pushes herself up into the far right corner of the cradle in a bizarre angle. It never seems to bother her, though, and she always wakes up in the best of moods. My little angel.

Little thoughts

Yesterday on a long walk we happened past this telegraph pole and, lo and behold, the people of North Fitzroy are making wishes. This makes me so happy! Just three days after I put up my little poster, people had taken home "hope," "a fresh start," and "a belly laugh" in their pockets. I wonder what they'll wish for next. I'll try to get back after a week or so and report back to you. We had such a lovely, gentle weekend: long walks through the city; making fajitas at home with friends; baking cupcakes; cuddling a baby who snores like a tractor; and I finally managed to write some long overdue letters to friends in Belgium and Germany and America, drawing pictures on the envelopes.

As you may have noticed, on Friday I launched my new blog, to absolutely no fanfare. I've made the move from Weebly across to Wordpress, which was a torturous process because I had to cut and paste every one of my blog posts! Yeesh. This means I lost all the wonderful comments that were on the old site, something that gives me not a little sadness because the comments are what this blog is all about: community. You! I miss you! The silver lining is that Wordpress allows for a much better management of comments, so I'll actually be better able to interact with you in the future. The blog you see today is a kind of Stage 1, my content in a basic template. Shortly I'll start working with a very talented friend who will help me customise things to make it look and interact a lot better. Maybe then I'll permit myself a little fanfare (perhaps even a competition or two).

Also, I want to introduce you to an amazing cafe I discovered last week, the Grub Food Van. We headed up there with friends, including Madeleine's little boyfriend, who oddly enough showed a lot more love for his green balloon and his slice of hazelnut gateau than for my princess. Hmm. Thankfully she slept right through the insult. At Grub, there's an indoor cafe area as well as a kitchen inside a silver caravan to serve food to diners in the sunny courtyard. But my favourite space is something nestled in between: a kind of giant greenhouse with cafe tables and a vegetable garden and a ping pong table and a partial kitchen hidden behind a wall of sweet pea. I planned to go back and take some proper photographs for you, but our walk took us in the opposite direction on the weekend, so these iPhone snaps will have to do.

Speaking of greenhouses, did you ever see the movie Greencard? I've had this movie on the mind lately. Partly because I often sing the song from the closing credits to Madeleine when she cries, and partly because this movie is a kind of Utopian vision of inner city life. A glorious, crumbling rooftop greenhouse smack bang in the middle of Manhattan, crying out to be restored. A volunteer army of 'Green Guerillas' creating verdant spaces for play and food in the poorest of districts and the most barren of cityscapes. And a giant of a Frenchman (who a friend once described as "he looks like God held out a lump of clay and then just chucked it onto his face") who is so... elemental... that he is all kinds of attractive. I first saw this movie in my early twenties and oh boy I wanted everything in it!

But back to that closing credit song. I looked everywhere to see where it came from, and turns out it was composed just for this movie. The chorus is perfect to sing to a crying baby:

Keep your eyes On the prize Don't be dismayed Don't be dismayed Deep in your heart You must believe Everything is gonna be alright Everything is gonna be alright Everything is gonna be alright Some day.

Happy Monday.

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The tunnel

Turns out I have carpal tunnel syndrome. It's a kind of repetitive strain injury in the hand and wrist, so people in jobs like mine that require a lot of typing are likely candidates. Add to that, pregnancy has been known to bring it on and, yep, I've had it since the start of my pregnancy. Carpal tunnel syndrome causes tingling and numbness in the wrist, hand and fingers. For me, it has gotten progressively worse and is now so bad that I wake up at night with excruciating pain that radiates from the tips of my fingers up to my elbow. Often I get this through the day, too.

It's so bad now that it is impairing my capacity to use my hands, especially my right hand. Simple things like holding a fork or toothbrush, opening a door, signing my name, using a phone, carrying a bag, navigating the Internet on my laptop, have all become difficult and sometimes impossible. Typing this post is also causing extreme pain, and I'm having to fix a lot more typos than usual as my fingers spasm on the keyboard.

So I'm going to take a little break from blogging. I'll still pop in and share things on this blog whenever I have a good day, and I'll keep reading your blog posts whenever my hands will let me use the mouse.

Baby B is due in four weeks and hopefully the condition will go away after that. If not, I'll have to undergo an operation as my job is to write and that's going to require the use of my hands. So either way, I'll be back. See you soon!

Yours truly, Naomi xo

(photo from here)

Have you ever met your hero?

Have you ever met your hero? The closest I ever came was sipping a Bloody Mary in Bar Hemingway at The Ritz, Paris, thinking, "Ernest Hemingway probably sat right here. He looked out of that window onto that almost-unchanged view." If only time could have compressed, turned back in on itself, or simply rolled backward Midnight in Paris-style, I would have been sharing the same space, breathing the same air, as my greatest literary hero. What would I have said to him? What would he have said to me? Anything at all? Would it have been a glorious moment to treasure forever, or a bitter disappointment?

On Friday I was privileged to be part of DPCON12, a massive blogger conference in Melbourne hosted by Digital Parents. But the program wasn't the least bit limited to parents: we covered topics from using blogs for social good (particularly by partnering with not-for-profit organisations) to the process of going from blog to book (with folks on the panel who had done just that), and workshops on how to use your blog to generate other paid writing work.

For me, this conference was also an amazing opportunity to meet new bloggers and, through them, to hear new voices. I haven't been part of the Digital Parents community, so it was all very new to me: they are a cohesive, self-supporting unit bonded through familiar experiences (and regular reading), with their own language and subtle morays and behavioural expectations.

It could have been intimidating and by the eve of the conference, I confess I was feeling the fear. However, the reality was that I was warmly accepted into this world, and my relatively different life experiences and blogging style did not stop this lovely group from making me feel part of their family. What really got me thinking was when a certain speaker would be called to the stage, or a certain blogger would stand up to ask a question, and the room would erupt with screams and cheers and applause.

Not having been part of this community, I rarely knew the one speaker or blogger from another. But almost everyone else seemed to, this close-knit family. And I realised that, for many people at this conference, they were meeting their heroes. Bloggers they had admired and sometimes even interacted with online were here in the flesh (or "IRL," an acronym that I learned stood for "in real life," but you probably knew that already).

And I thought, what if some of the big bloggers I'd known and admired in the past year had stood up there? People whose words I'd read and lives I'd watched through Internet windows, hearts that had opened to me, the anonymous stranger: how would I have felt if they then materialised, "IRL," as part of a panel? What if they had been there to chat with me later over cake and tea? I'm pretty sure I'd have been cheering like the room was on Friday, for people I didn't know. After all, it'd be a little bit like meeting my own heroes.

I guess that's the crossover that blogging, blogger conferences and meet-ups offer: we are no longer just reading words, as we would in a book. On a blog, we are reading words, glimpsing lives, being invited into hearts... yet all the while we remain strangers. But a blogging conference - something entirely new to me until Friday - means stepping over what remains of the "stranger" boundary and into "friend" or, in some cases, "family." It's pretty special.

On authenticity and blogging and fear

Often I debate with myself how much to reveal on this blog and how much to keep hidden behind that secret garden door in my heart. On the one hand, this is a place where I deliberately curate wonder and beauty. Little surprises, thoughtful creations. That's why I call this blog "messages in bottles." I am a writer and I blog to share with you what I do but also what I find. What inspires me in the world. And so very much inspires me. On the other hand, I want to be honest with you. And just because wonder and beauty continue in the world every day doesn't mean my life is 100 percent wonder and beauty all the time. Far from it! I don't edit the other parts of my life out of this blog to build a fake impression, it's just that I believe there's a time and a place. This is not my personal journal.

So finding authenticity on this blog is something I have been struggling with for a while. How much do I reveal? How much is appropriate? I know I'm not alone in wrestling with this question, and have had some wonderful email conversations on this issue recently with Brandi Bernoskie of Not Your Average Ordinary, who is a lot wiser than me and has taken more time to ponder this issue more closely.

A few nights ago we had a friend staying with us, so we took the dog on a lovely walk as the sun set, up to Lygon Street. Rain began to spatter as we got there, so we stopped for dumplings (I've always loved dumplings but they have become my #1 go-to food since I've been pregnant), eating at the tables outside under the big umbrellas. While we were there the rain came down in earnest, followed by a storm. At one point, one of the umbrellas tipped up in the wind, much to our consternation. But it made for a fun adventure. "Just like camping," Mr B said. He doesn't get out of the city much. We walked back home in the rain, and listened to it pour outside all night while we stayed cosy and warm in our beds.

Just as I was at the point of drifting off, I was woken up by heart palpitations in my throat. Severe, choking palpitations, as well as trembling, difficulty breathing, and a vertiginous feeling that I was going to pass out. Dramatically. My legs and feet felt strange and not-quite-numb. I felt for the baby, who would normally kick at this time of night, but Baby B was quiet. I made myself relax and try to sleep.

The heart palpitations and other symptoms happened several times more that night, and I can tell you it is very strange to be woken up by the very sense that you are going to pass out. Baby kicked once or twice in the wee hours of the morning but then went quiet. Things got easier when the sun came up, but as I took myself back out to Crafternoon for lunch that day, it happened again. The palpitations. The uncontrollable shaking. The waves of dizziness and nausea. I was so afraid I would pass out or have a fit or something right there in the cafe, that I abruptly paid my bill and almost ran out the door. They must have thought I was very strange.

Back home, I looked up my What to Expect book. I looked up Dr Internet. Again and again, a thyroid condition came up. One to which you are particularly prone when you are pregnant. One that if left unchecked can cause disabilities in your child, or even miscarriage or premature birth. I called my obstetrician. She didn't hit the panic button, which was a relief, but she didn't dismiss my symptoms either. She told me to get my blood pressure checked. She asked when baby had last kicked. She added a few extra tests to the standard blood test I was booked in for next Wednesday. She told me I could call or come and see her on the weekend if I needed to, or come by on Monday if I was still worried.

Things compounded yesterday. The dog had damaged his back legs and couldn't jump up, and I worried he had a tick. (We took him to the vet who did a procedure I won't put down here because it was gross, but fingers crossed the dog seems better today. No tick.) I had my blood pressure taken and it wasn't high, but in fact a bit on the low side. Still I was very worried. All day I managed without the heart palpitations, but had more than one wave of severe dizziness, followed by the sense that I was about to pass out. I poked and prodded at my belly. "Wake up baby, are you ok in there?" No response all day. That was the hardest part.

I had a deadline but I had to stop work early because I kept getting dizzy. The dog was subdued. By night time, Mr B started to get all agitated and angry out of the blue. I didn't understand what was going on, and in my overwrought state I ended up in tears. I realised later on that the stresses of the past few days had weighed on Mr B, too, and rather than react to those (he had been wonderful and was trying to be calm for me), he was over-reacting to tiny irritations instead.

It is such a fearful time when you are responsible for a tiny life, and you do everything you can but some factors are out of your understanding or control. I remember very early in my pregnancy, a friend of ours said "I looked for blood every day of my pregnancies, and now I worry about my children crossing the road or eating something bad or meeting someone evil." Strangely enough, that comforted me at the time. I guess worry is as much a part of the entire parenthood journey as is love.

I barely slept last night, but that was because Baby B kicked me like a champion from about 2am until I got up. I guess that, whatever is going on with my body, things are A-OK in that little life. I'm still going to see my OB on Monday and take the extra tests, but I feel a little more like myself again today. Those precious, precious kicks.

My life is full of beauty and wonder, and I am incredibly lucky. But, probably just like yours, my life is also full of stress and sickness and trips to the vet and bickering with people you love and the great, gory fear of the unknown. I guess you can call this post a confession. Or perhaps I am using you as my journal, after all. Either way, I feel better for sharing. So thank you. Our regular programming will resume shortly.