Blogging at Midnight

So, it's 11:42 p.m., and I thought it seemed like a good time to write. Some ridiculous things are happening with the tenants in our South Haven house, things that make me question the decency of people and raise my blood pressure to unhealthy levels. I have tried to lull myself to sleep by: watching Food Network, reading, having a large glass of red wine, doing downward dog, breathing deeply, pacing, and, now, writing about all the good things that happened today. We'll see how that works. In the meantime, a lesson: Never, ever rent your house. Just let it sit, empty, draining money straight out of your bank account.

Being agitated and up this late does give me a chance to recount a few of the magical moments of our day today. It was finally SUNNY (!) after what feels like a week of monsoons and tornadoes, so the girls and I hit the farmer's market, where we bought the most luscious, perfect Michigan strawberries - the first pick of the summer. Ate some for dinner; will be buying more to make jam with my mom on Friday. We also spent some fun time at the library (checked out all the Maisy books, which is a new obsession for Annie) and had a little Father's-Day-present-making adventure with Heidi and Jonathan. Then tonight, we hauled the whole family down to see Quadraphonic playing at the lake. Annie flailed with a few friends, Jemma begged for Rose's caramel corn from perfect strangers, and Jason and I enjoyed the music.

But my proudest achievement of the day was the completion of a random art project I become determined to make yesterday. I read about it on another blog I love, Secret Agent Josephine, and, instead of letting her crafty ways make me feel all guilt-ridden about not doing more artsy stuff with my kids, I decided to just do it with Annie. We were supposed to use watercolors, which I couldn't find, but it turned out cute, anyway. Annie loved the painting and the glueing; I loved feeling all Andy Warholish pasting random strips down on notecards. And we've already used two of the cards. One is a thank-you for Annie's new, slightly PLG bike that is sooooo going to get us through the summer until her birthday; one is for Miss Colette, who Annie continues to worship and stalk from afar. (Case in point: I let her throw a penny into the Breton Village fish pond today to make a wish. The wish? "I wish Miss Colette could come to my house and show me baby Maya." Yeah, that's probably not going to happen.)

And here, at 11:57, I really am feeling a tiny bit better. Two nights in a row, up until midnight (saw Sex and the City last night) - who needs sleep, anyway? Bring on the 7:00 a.m. run!