Remnants of a Day

Usually I start a post with words, thoughts that I've thought, struggles I am facing. Today I start with photos. Lots and lots of photos.

The thought struck me while I was in the shower yesterday (or was it two days ago...ick for not knowing). I noticed the plethora of cleaning products in our cluttered tub and was randomly reminded of a freshman seminar that I took while attending IU for a semester. (stay with me here) It was all about cultures. Our job was to take one seemingly inane piece of information about a culture (i.e. how they punish criminals) and from that decipher other characteristics of the culture.

It seemed bizarre, still seems hard to explain, but I loved it. To me it boiled down to this: snippets of our lives tell so much about who we are. What shampoo we buy (whatever's on sale for Ian and I, whatever natural stuff is on sale for the girls) the way we keep our house (cluttered but "clean") our favorite things (so many) tell so much about who we are. So here is my life, today, in photos, pieces, and remnants.

Can you figure out who I am?

::one of my favorite spots, music splayed, chair open and ready::

::a treasured piece, a receptacle all mine, filled with soft yarn, unfinished projects, and crafty inspirations (thank again Ruth!)::

::a favorite quilt (I won the fight with Ian over which one to get), kindle on the bedstand (recently downloaded The Art of Racing in the Rain, sad but good), leftover rug from the nursery, sweater box under the bed exposed as Ainsley's stepstool up to "mommydaddybed", headboard passed down from my parents::

::typical state of our powder room after a full morning::

::playroom aka disaster area of fun::

::one of my favorite views in our house. Every time I look in our kitchen this is what I see. Hard work and love made it this way::

::our "entryway" (laughing as I type) figuring out how to arrange our living room so it was functional was quite the feat when we first moved in. We forwent the feng shui for the functionality. I'm ok with that::

::aftermath of the morning...I didn't mind it so much today (hard to when it's result was the girls allowing me to do a full workout tape while they played)::

::aftermath continued...(that's Selling New York on in the background, a guilty naptime pleasure of mine)::

::Ainsley brushing her teeth in our teeny tiny bathroom, feet clinging to the side of the toilet as a stepstool to the sink...she refuses to use the actual stepstool I got her::

::the inspirational image, what's in your shower? (p.s. that lavender oil from TJs is my fav for dry winter skin)::

::the view I get (well used to get) every night while nursing Louise back to sleep, I kind of miss it::

::color coded bookshelf, completely ridiculous, but I love it::

::Ainsley's haven::

::Ian's playful artwork above Ainsley's bed (really, if this whole neuroscience thing doesn't pan out, he totally has a career in illustration, don't you think?)::

::a fuzzy glance::

::singing to me while I took photos of her room::

::shelf in Ainsley's room, I got that print (the print says, a book in hand is like a garden in the pocket) from the publishing house I worked at my senior year of college and have been searching for a place for it since our first apartment, even though she can't read and probably doesn't notice it's there, I secrectly hope that it's rubbing off on her ::

So there we are. This is obviously not a full or exhaustive list by any means. It's what I could get my hands (or camera I guess) on today. I hope you enjoyed, and learned a little more about me, my family, and my life.