Good morning!  Happy Easter and happy Monday! I hope you had a lovely weekend.  The weather was just perfect.  This time last year, I was saying goodbye to John as he deployed overseas.  Glad to have him here this year for Easter.

The other day after a three-hour baby session in Denver, proceeded by refrigerator shopping, a quick lunch at Tokyo Joes, an hour drive home, and 30 minutes to prep for a consultation across town, I was having a conversation with the Man upstairs.  Feeling a little “run-ragged,” I just confessed and surrendered that I cannot do it all.  Sometimes life really does get crazy.  Everything piles up on you.  Clients can only meet this day.  Movers are already scheduled.  Unexpected bookings happen.  Old friends want to catch up.  Stuff hits the fan.    Traffic jams.  Emails pour in.  Things break.

The list goes on and on.  And sometimes when things do get crazy, I use the phrase, “my life’s been turned inside out.”  And I realize you don’t always know what that means exactly.  So I got this idea from my good friends Justin + Mary Marantz: Life in Pictures.  Rather than writing a lot about my personal life, which is at times, difficult to find the words, I thought I’d show you in pictures…

So over the last couple of weeks I’ve..

– tried toilet training my cat.  Tried.
– assisted my dad in building a scaffolding to paint the high places in my new home, Bob Vila style
– made more visits to the Lowes paint departing that I’m pretty sure paint-guy Scott was beginning to think I was painting the Grand Canyon
– had six shoots over the course of move-in week
– organized two trailers worth of furniture and boxes of stuff
– had pho with friends after church
– refrigerated my half-in-half and eggs on the back porch since I haven’t found the right fridge to fit my space
– experienced a close encounter with a bear, and an even closer encounter with a deer who tried to eat out of my hand.  Both in my backyard.
– lined my cabinets with contact paper. Yipee.
– celebrated Easter with my sweetheart.  Enjoyed burgers and corn on the cob on the back porch.  Spilt red wine all over my 100% silk dress.
-and my latest project: clearing a nasty flower bed to freshen it up with zinnia and marigolds.

So that’s that.  A few pictures to prove it all are below.  And don’t worry.  I promise to get better at this Instagram collage, thingy.

Have a productive week, but not too productive.  Make time for yourself.  Go for a walk.  Bake cookies for your spouse.  Enjoy dinner on the deck.  Make it a good week.  And do check back for some fun Europe photos.

xoxo,
René

And today’s goals are….