One of my favorite 13th-century poems

You were born with potential.
You were born with goodness and trust.
You were born with ideals and dreams.
You were born with greatness.
You were born with wings.
You are not meant for crawling, so don't.
You have wings.
Learn to use them and fly.
- Rumi

T is for Thanksgiving

That is so predictable isn't it? This will be a different Thanksgiving than recent years past. We have decided to stay in Pittsburgh and won't have any family visiting us. That is not because we don't wish to see our family as they are always welcome, but we have been very fortunate to see much of them over the past few months. It is nice, actually, to spend time with good friends that we haven't seen since summer. The expectations are different. Not better, but different. This Thanksgiving, the friends that are making the long drive to see us from St. Louis are the Snows.

The Snows are really the only couple (family) that Chad and I both feel really connected to. Greg is a friend from college that Chad admires and has kept in contact with and Jessica, his wife, is someone that I have come to love and connect with over the years. She and I are definitely kindred spirits, which I have found is very rare. I adore this entire family and am honored that they have chosen to spend their holiday with us.

So, without being trite, I am grateful this Thanksgiving for a healthy family, really good friends, and the absolute pleasure that I feel to be loved and to love right back.

S is for Shoes

Ahhhhh . . . I love to buy new shoes. It doesn't matter if they are flip flops, slides, black boots, winter boots, sneakers, running shoes, sandals, crocs, you name it. They always fit and they brighten my usually mundane wardrobe. Chad does not share my love of shoes but then I don't share his love of tools. To each his own.

Little boys clothes are boring to start with. To my further disappointment, Sam had an extra wide foot for the first 6 years of his life which thus limited our choices to just a couple of styles. No cute shoes for him. My days brightened a little when sweet Henry did not have a wide foot. I had so much more to choose from! Red Chuck Taylor's were among my first favorites. And then the heavens opened up and gave me a girl with a petite foot. Not only was I set free from stripes, rugbys, dinosaurs and sports appliques but I could buy shoes to match! It gets even better. At nearly 20 months, she already seems to share my attraction to those pretty things we put on our feet. We can be shopping for groceries and if there happens to be a random display of shoes she starts taking hers off to try them on, without any prompting from me. Just today, I brought her home a new pair of brown boots with little pink flowers and her eyes lit up while she instinctively plopped down to try them on. Do I dare count how many shoes she's had so far in her short little life? Not to mention she's only been walking for 2.5 months. Let's see . . . I can count about 13 off the top of my head. Is that bad? They're just so tiny and cute that I can't resist. Plus, I rationalize that I can pass them down to cousin Ava.

The weather is finally turning cold here. You know what that means. I pretty much wear the same old clothes but I get to switch shoes! I'm still waiting for the perfect day to break out my new Merrells.