Valentine's Day 2012

There was a list I made when I was younger, "things I will never do as an adult". (I really wish I could find this scrap of paper)
At the top of this list was 'have children', followed very closely by 'get married' and somewhere in there was 'never will there be animals living in my house'. I honestly wanted nothing to do with any of the above. What my father used to describe as my 'wanderlust' had no room for a quaint little family in the suburbs.
I was going to continue traveling. I was going to study art in all the most exotic places. I was going to play my cello until my fingers bled. I was going to  read and collect all the classic books I could get my hands on.
All this was how my life was going to be.


Needless to say life has a way of giving us what we need even though we think it's something we don't want.


Here I am now somewhere in my forties - married to a man who is my best friend, raising the coolest kid ever, living life in our little house and there's a four legged creature regularly begging for anything.


How did I get to this moment?


I don't know.


I'm sitting in front of the computer now and this home is still, quiet , peaceful.
I have finished everything I needed to do.
There are twenty five gift tags stamped, glittered and labeled.
Eight trays of cookies baked, wrapped, tagged and adorable.
Two trays of heart shaped rice krispy sheets completed.
Another three trays of cookies dipped in chocolate and decorated with anything the kids could find in the kitchen.
Ada and her friends frosted and shook sprinkles over every surface possible. There are more little snips of colored paper than my vacuum can handle.
The entire kitchen is covered in flour and chocolate ganache.


This is what my life has come to. It is nowhere near perfect and even farther from what I pictured it would be like. Never did I imagine I would be a mom. But here I am finishing the last treat bag for my daughter's class and tying the last length of ribbon.


My life is exactly as it should be.


And it is enough.


Happy Valentine's Day to the husband I never wanted and the child I never imagined. 


I love you.

Those little girls did a pretty fantastic job on the cookies above!

The rice krispy treats are the reason I am STILL wiping threads of chocolate off my cabinets!

I would say these girls are pretty focused!

Ada hard at work. Why is she wearing that weird little mask?
No idea...

Would you eat that cookie above? me neither...
Also, imagine that same amount of sprinkles and craziness on the carpet!

Some of the fruits of their labor. WOW.

I actually think I should shellac this and make it into an art piece.
What do you think?
Maybe Kevin can use it as a paper weight on his desk at work.
:-)