#10 and #17 With less than a month left to go, I'm bearing down on my Big 33 List. I'm doing a 5k tonight (walking! I can't run to save my life) and getting my first haircut in three years this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed...

Illustration Friday: Tranquility After the storm comes peace, but you have to make it through the storm first. This song has had a profound effect on me this week. I've been through my storm, and earned my peace.

So busy, I can't sit still. Well, here's another Friday without an illustration to my name. In addition to the usual work/family stuff, I'm now working on having a poster and journal for sale on the site, I'm redsigning a large website, and am in the process of designing 4 CDs. Not to mention doing the Artist's Way and all that involves. So new illos are out until I can finish up all this other stuff. I do have to say that God/the Universe is sending LOADS of opportunities my way, one of which is so exciting I can't talk about it, and I have been welcoming them all with open arms. Bring on the blessings!

Revelations and Blessings Had a fun weekend - on Saturday, we turned in our form for the HP Scavenger Hunt and picked up our copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at the local bookstore. By Sunday morning at 6am, I'd finished it - I was really going to try to stretch this one out and make it last... and somehow, I couldn't do it! On Sunday Snowflake and Lucky came over for lunch, pretty much the first time we've entertained since the twins were born. Petey showed off his newfound abilities by saying Snowflake's name - a truly wonderful thing as mostly his sounds have been limited to "AAAAGH!" and "uh-oh!" And yes, it was absolutely wonderful as well to see them and spend time talking about things that had nothing to do with the kids. In doing The Artist's Way again (on my Big 33 List), I've been surprised this time by having a revelation almost every week, something that never happened to me before. It's dawned on me recently just how truly and deeply blessed I am. Years ago, I gave a talk called "So Blessed" as its theme, but it seems in recent years - with the babies all so little at the same time, the twins' prematurity, the doctors, the recovery, the day to day struggle; the crushing post-partum depression - I didn't feel very blessed at all. I felt burdened. People would pass me struggling to push this mammoth triple stroller on our walks and call out, "God bless you!" and I would shout back, "Thank you! I need it!" But in the past couple of days, I have truly felt again how deeply and strongly God has blessed my life. And then I've also just realized that when people say, "I have no idea how you get so much done, you must be on special vitamins, etc." that God's blessed me in that way too by giving me extra energy and an ability to work hard and get things done quickly. I never gave it much thought before, I just always thought that was just me. But maybe I've been blessed with extra energy because God knew I'd need it to keep up with the kids and be able to do the work that makes me happy and keep everything in balance. In my studio used to be a framed note from a high-school religious education class. It said, "What you are is God's gift to you. What you become is your gift to God." Maybe it's time for me to really start thinking what to do with my gifts.

My boy Petey-Pop...you make my heart go giddy-up Peter's surgery went just great - the actual procedure itself took about 15 minutes. Before surgery, despite getting up at 5:30 in the morning and having nothing to eat since 7 the night before, he was sweet and quiet and charmed the pants off everyone he came in contact with. They let him have his precious duckie at all times and even gave him a puppet to keep, made by volunteers. He was so entranced by the bag it came in that he didn't really care for the puppet, but whatever works.... When the operating room team all said, "Hi, Peter!" he just giggled right back at them. I was able to be with him and hold him as he had anesthesia, and he gave everyone his wonderful sweet Petey smile. Waking up was tough, but not as rough as it seemed to be for Sophie. (We also knew what to expect!) An hour after the procedure, he was back to his cute self. And no, we didn't bring earplugs for the whole recovery room - he never once did the tortured-kitten scream! Could it be that he's giving it up? As soon as we got home, he started playing and had breakfast. Angela and Sophie missed him - Angela especially seemed to be upset by him not being there! So the followup is this - a little Tylenol when he wakes up from his nap, eardrops tonight and tomorrow, and that's it! What a difference from Sophie's experience... and then he'll have a visit with the dr. next week just to check that everything's in place, and then every three months after that. The plan is for the tubes to stay in for about a year, and then fall out on their own. (Anything else can mean more surgery.) Here's hoping that they stay in, do what they're supposed to, and help the boy to HEAR. Thanks for all your prayers. Keep 'em coming! ps ~ I have to add that the nurses said I was the best (meaning calmest) Mom they'd ever seen in the recovery room. I've been there before.... this was nothing! ;)

Petey's surgery is tomorrow morning. Hopefully, these tubes will be the answer we've been looking for, and Peter will be able to hear (and learn to speak) properly. Oh,and if having fluid drain from his ears means he will be more comfortable and give up that kitten-getting-run-over-by-a-steamroller shriek, that would only be the sweetest of icings on the cake. Please send a little prayer our way whenever you can.

for all you commuters... I’ve been starting off every morning painting now. I spent my ”commute time” one rainy morning sitting on the porch with my watercolours, Spackle, the neighbor’s fluffy cat, a big mug of coffee, and a bowl of my homemade granola with peaches, blueberries, kiwi, and raspberries I picked with Angela from our garden. p.s. ~ Anyone want to commute to my house and hang out with me on the porch? Bring your laptop! category | Art

Mindowaskin Park, 8am Last week I posted a question: now that I am not commuting, what will I do with this free time? (I had many great responses, thanks!) So here's what I started... So the first morning - Tuesday - I took a walk in the park and did all the things I can’t do when I have the kids with me – sitting down on a bench, going down paths that DON’T lead to the playground. It was like a mini-vacation all in 30 minutes, I swear! I started out walking fast with my hands jammed in my pockets and ended up just strolling along and touching everything – the moss on the trees, the stones embedded in the bridge over the stream, the funny fluffy flowers that look like something out of Dr. Seuss. My favorite thing I saw was a mama bunny and her baby – I could have held the baby in my hands and his teeny little ears together were no bigger than my thumb. I breathed differently, I walked differently. There was a voice inside my head telling me, "Go ahead. Sit there. Touch that. Now go walk there - slowly - and look around." So I did. And I felt like someone whose glasses were smudged and had gotten so used to not seeing properly, getting those glasses wiped crystal clear and being told, look, look. My heart was so joyful! Since then, I took a brand-new sketchbook and watercolors on my morning jaunts and did some sketches like I did in Italy - although these have a 20-30 minute time limit to them! I will be posting them online as I get them scanned in. (Not bad for 30 minutes, eh?) category | Art

Illustration Friday: Sport We are huge Harry Potter fans at my house. (I know I'm not alone; if I'm the only one who chose to illustrate Quidditch this week, I'll be shocked.) I also found out online there's a movement starting to play Quidditch on bicycles and even one version on unicycles. I'm in! My little town is sponsoring a town-wide Harry Potter Scavenger Hunt, which I've just picked up the forms for today. Stores downtown that are participating have full-colored banners from Hogwarts in their windows, and the aptly named Town Book Store has come up with appropriate questions for each, such as.... "Harry's glasses always seem to break. How many extra pairs does he keep at B. Kubrick Opticians, 100 Central Avenue?" How fun is that?! I have a feeling I will be a common sight downtown, pushing that enormous stroller around the sidewalk and trying to get in all the 27 stores to find out each of the clues. I always did love figuring things out! I could care less about winning anything (although one of the prizes is burgundy and gold yarn and knitting needles from our knitting store, I guess to make a scarf); it's the participation that'll be fun. Hopefully on July 16th I'll be turning in my forms at the book store and picking up our copy of "The Half-Blood Prince." Oh, and house rules: Mama reads the fastest, therefore I get it first. ;) category | Illustration Friday

Seeking creative ideas about time. So tomorrow I start my first day of non-commuting. We've decided that the time I would spend driving to work (about 30 min.) is now my free time to spend any way I please. So the question is: what the heck am I going to do with myself every morning? I need to do something that's away from the kids and is nurturing in some respect. The point is not to spend that half-hour still feeding the kids or folding laundry. Ideas thus far: - yoga - walk in the park (perhaps a chalk in the park!) - walk downtown for coffee/tea and back - ??? And what about those Technorati tags? Does anyone know why in the name of all that's holy the #^%*@&^%$!! tags won't work on my blog? I've scoured Technorati's Help and FAQs and written them three times, and have heard diddley. Very frustrating as I have countless i-Fri entries just begging to all gather in one place and have a party. If you figure it out and I can get them to work, I'll send you a print of your choice! Any takers?

The End of an Era. The palatial yet not overly ostentatious offices of PRI are moving about 1.5 hours away as of today, and I will not be moving with them. After 11 years of working in the same town, I'll now be working from home, with the occasional jaunt southward to the new offices. I didn't cry (much). I'll now be working from the branch office known as The Purple Room (sort of a Pantone 2716 C, to be specific.) You can see pics of the family visit a couple of weeks ago to the office in beautiful downtown Metuchen here.