it's been awhile...

Adam is out with a friend tonight and I am enjoying a night to myself at home. Rather than rushing to check things off my list (do a load of laundry, go to the gym, iron) I'm sitting on the couch with my laptop, listening to the latest John Mayer CD and catching up with my life. Sometimes I feel like I have to give myself permission to not be productive. In reality I'm still getting things done. I'm catching up on friend's blogs, I'm writing e-mails, reading a magazine, writing a letter.

Some of you have commented that I haven't posted lately and there are lots of reasons. But I think the main one is that as much as I love to read other people's blogs, look at their pictures, get a look at what's going on in their lives, I am an editor at heart and I edit the things I post here (I'm doing it right now, re-reading the words I've typed and making small changes). I tell myself I have to have something worthwhile to say and even worry what people might think about things I post. In a way I get writer's block for blogging. The funny thing is that part of my job is now blogging about new building and remodeling products on the Better Homes and Gardens website (but this is so much more fun than writing about the newest faucet or countertop material)

anyway, here are the random things that are on my mind and going on in Des Moines:
Spring is less than 2 weeks away (along with my birthday) and I can't wait to wear skirts, sandals, and eat lunch outside
My parents and sister came to visit last weekend (and stayed with us for the first time) and my dad made the comment that it's been almost 2 years since I graduated. I haven't been able to stop thinking about that, and thinking that 2 years feels like a long time, but also realizing that I am used to not being a student anymore and I don't count the months that I've been in my job wondering when it's been an appropriate amount of time so I can look for a new job (that's a big milestone)
Adam got me a cute little white macbook computer for Valentine's Day, which was almost a month ago, yet I'm sitting here typing on my old trusty powerbook. He keeps asking me when he can transfer everything over, but I keep putting it off. Even as I get frustrated about how long it takes to load up a website or how it periodically freezes up when i'm in the middle of something. How many hours have i spent with this on my lap mapping out my life? I know I have to get rid of it (let him sell it on ebay) but this was my first mac, the one that Laura helped me search for and wouldn't let me take out of the box 'til i got my homework done, the one i dropped a hot iron on and it survived (with only a small dent on the lid)
I have to put in a plug for the website Sam (my coworker) and I have been working so hard on for Remodel magazine. It is launching tomorrow (fingers crossed) and if you check it out we get points (or something like that) If you aren't remodeling it may not have much for you (no embarrassing pictures of me yet) but take a look at what I do every day: www.remodelingcenter.com.
And finally I am reading the new Philip Yancy book on Prayer, and have to share this idea: When we pray we get the direction wrong. usually we start with our concerns, bringing them to God, telling him as if he didn't already know them. But if we turn this around and realize that God already cares about our concerns even more than i do "Grace like water descends to teh lowest part. Streams of mercy flow. I begin with God, who bears primary responsibility for what happen on earth and ask what part i can play in God's work on earth."