my thoughts really aren't together, but felt it due time to say something. anything really.

i'm thinking of some type of cd swap. make a mix send it to each person participating. haven't figured out any details, but would any of you be interested? i was thinking a bit more geared toward working on it with children, not children's music necessarily, but perhaps some of their favorites to groove to? create the album cover, add fun details if so desired.....what do you think? but i gotta warn you. my girls like the song 'that time' by regina spektor, they ask to listen to it almost each time we get in the car and start music of any sort....i think of it as a great conversation starter for us. i'm not saying i would actually put that on the mix, i wouldn't, but i'm just letting you know you probably won't get kumbaya from us.

i'm in denver helping my mom pack, sort, organize, get rid of all her belongings. she is moving from a house into a much smaller apartment. doing this i am having the opportunity to look through all sorts of fun childhood things. there is so much to go through, my motivation to get things done is this: photos. all the old family photos will be the last thing to go through, so i better get stuff done i really want to look. i did just go through one of my boxes from high school. i did save some photos from that box and i saved an old journal. last week when i was out here passing through between going to my grandmothers funeral i found my jr. high journal. i read it out loud to eric and the girls....oh.my.goodness. embarrassing. but my high school journal totally redeems me. phew. i was real. i said what i felt. i shared fears. i wrote creatively, so it felt a bit redeeming compared to that wonky jr. high journal. but, jr. high is a time like none other, so i am thankful to have that too.

i can't wait to share photos of some of the treasures i have acquired from my time in minnesota and my time here. going through my grandmothers i found so many old, special things. things that will be fun to add into the everydayness of our lives. her thimble collection, an old hand crank coffee grinder, picnic set of orange, yellow, white and black. here, i have found fun things like my babies book by gyo fujikawa....that was always a favorite. muppets puppets from 1984 or close to that and old german puppets that remind me of something mr. rogers would have had in the neighborhood of make believe, they remind me of queen sara saturday and king friday XIII. i also found an old doily framed handmade by my paternal great great grandmother in the early 1800's. i can't wait to bring that home and hang it up. i really don't know how i will ever be able to show all the special treasures we have acquired....it will take time as they work themselves into our daily lives, then they will pop up here and now in photos over on flickr and you will ask...."what's that unusual thing behind the girls in that photo, i don't think i've seen that before?" and i will share with you the stories of snooping around my grandma's house and tucking things into my purse or times of sitting in the basement going through box after box after box reminiscing of growing up in a tiny town in the middle of the prairie.