love, friday

• Love that Dan took today off work so our Memorial Day weekend is really a 4-day weekend. Love that tonight feels like a Saturday night to me, but we still get three whole days together as a family.

• Love the new books on Autism that I'm reading: Not Even Wrong: A Father's Journey Into the Lost History of Autism (2004) by Paul Collins and Appreciating Asperger Syndrome (2009) by Brenda Boyd. So much to learn, so many light bulbs still lighting up in our family...

• Love that having Dad along on errands today (after we went out for a family lunch) meant that I could go to The Container Store, an art supply store, REI, a grocery store, and stop for coffee. Some of these stops didn't even require unbuckling two kids and lugging them along with me since they were snoozing and Dad stayed in the car reading his book. I felt almost naked without my kids and I had to go fast, but what a feeling!

• Love that I went to the art store to buy big portfolio pocket thingeys for keeping my kids' artwork and came out with a new sketchbook and some nice pencils just for me (and the portfolio thingeys too, though I did almost forget them after getting so excited to be in an art store again). I haven't drawn in years and I don't know why. Now I'm looking at my world differently (things to draw everywhere) and really need to get off the computer and go pick up a pencil.

• Love summer days in the backyard with the family. Kiddie pool out, sprinklers on, gardens growing, beers poured...it's all good.

love, friday