Balance is sometimes a step with the left then a step with the right again and again but sometimes balance is sitting down on a bench instead of passing it because you've passed so many on your way.

I love making life fun and beautiful. One of the happiest choices I made recently was to color block my Instagram feed so that each month/sun sign is a sequential color of the rainbow. Another was to start eating lunch at a local food truck stop - not just on the days when my favorite truck is there, but just going every day they're open and eating whatever is there. I've tried lots of new things and liked them all (currently topping the favorites list is curry noodles from the Thai truck). Because the only problem with making life fun and beautiful is that it takes a lot of thought and effort, or at minimum noticing what's around. And by the time I've created a school schedule/curriculum plan for the Bigs that has them talking about how much they love school and added in fun extras like celebrating Butterfly Day or going to the state fair, there's not a lot of brainpower left for anything else. Someone on Twitter mentioned the other day that she'd like to hav...

  Big gay sweater, complete! I am actually incredibly proud of this one. I worked off the original pattern and a favorite store bought sweater provided by the client and created a garment that both looks good and fits well. I figured out how to taper the shoulders, and how to shape the sleeves gently, and despite my initial misgivings over making what could have been a very clunky and unflattering garment, I produced something I don't mind pointing at and saying "yeah, I'm the one who made that!" (I also made it in eight days, finishing a month before the requested deadline, because there was a concern about needing more supplies and I wanted there to be time to order more... I ended up having plenty of yarn, and then had a forced week off afterward because my shoulder went on strike). A fun side project I got to do (after my shoulder came back online) was testing some friendship bracelet patterns for ShelliCan . I really liked making friendship bracelets as a kid -...

I tend to think about things... a lot. I  would not call myself an "over thinker," as it is my opinion that I think precisely the correct amount for any given situation - but an objective observer might disagree. Part of the reason I do that is because I enjoy thinking, because I don't like the consequences of under thinking something, and also because I am conditioned to place a certain degree of moral value on Thinking Thoughtfully. By nature, I am also aware of my capacity to not  think, and I try not to overindulge that aspect of myself. But in the interest of seeking balance, I've done a few exercises in releasing control recently. The first was going in a local bookstore and announcing my intention to choose a book by its cover (this prompt was externally driven, and was not my original idea). I don't think I've ever seen booksellers so excited as those two ladies were. They promptly had a semi-whispered discussion on the ethics of deliberately facing so...

Ah, balance. At this point you would think that I would have learned, from experience, that I cannot choose the way in which I will learn something new... and yet. Here we are. At the end of a week which I spent with a repetitive stress injury (from completing a project in a self imposed but still unreasonable amount of time), unable to hold a pen, a needle, a hook, a book, my phone... and unable to sit or sleep comfortably. I've walked slowly around the house, selecting items to donate or throw away, with my left hand - because that is all I could do. My sleep data looks like Morse code, sent by a newbie who left long pauses while looking up how to do each letter in between transmissions. So I still plan to write about choosing books by their covers, my new favorite lunch spot, and other aspects of controlled balance - but I'm doing so more humbly than I did in my journaled monthly outline, with more openness to whatever lessons the Universe might choose to hand me (please, th...